Is this bad behavior from lorry drivers?

[Deleted User]

@vertex  
What are your thoughts on these points of view ?

Nebulous2

Towing a caravan on a motorway or dual carriageway I'm limited to 60. I often find myself tucked in behind a lorry for miles. Other lorries still overtake us, but I can't recall a lorry driver beeping or flashing at me. 

In fact they're generally quite courteous, pulling out to let me on from a slip road and flashing to let me know it is safe to pull back in if I have overtaken them. 

MarvinDay

dil1976 said:

Everyone saying driving at 55 is dangerous, do you realise most hgvs are limited to a speed just over that? Does that make them dangerous too?

But as already mentioned by others, if the OP is driving at an indicated 55 mph then in reality their true speed will probably be slightly under 50 mph and yes, driving at a speed which is lower than most of the HGV's on the motorway and which will probably be at least 30% slower than the majority of cars on that road could well be dangerous.



 

Nebulous2 said:
Towing a caravan on a motorway or dual carriageway I'm limited to 60. I often find myself tucked in behind a lorry for miles. Other lorries still overtake us, but I can't recall a lorry driver beeping or flashing at me. 

There's 2 good reasons for them not getting annoyed at you.

1/ They can see that you are towing a caravan and are thus limited to 60 mph and 
2/ If you are driving at 60 mph then unlike the OP, you won't be holding up lorries whose drivers want to proceed at their maximum regulated speed.

Grey_Critic

When driving at a Speedometer Indicated speed of 60mph my Sat Nav shows 57 mph. I still rely on the Speedometer indicated speed and the bonus is I am less inclined to fet my picture taken by a speed camera.

I was under the impression (wrongly it seems) that everyone knew that HGVs are (a) Restricted to 56mph and (b) are banned from some roads due to weight. Seems not

Ibrahim5

Iceweasel said:

Ibrahim5 said:

In Germany when you are towing a caravan you are limited to 80km/h (50mph). During certain hours lorries are not allowed to overtake. So I often have a 10 mile tailback of lorries. Never seen any bad behaviour from them.

There are exceptions / exemptions depending on the weight of the towing vehicle and the trailer / caravan.
Unless you have a very small car and a very big trailer /caravan the speed limit is quite likely to be 100km/h

https://fr.humbaur.com/en/useful-information/100-kmh-regulation/#:~:text=The maximum speed for a,up to 100 km/h.

To go at 100km/h you have to take a TUV test which costs 70 euros and takes 2 hours. Not worth it for a few weeks. It's the Germans that make the rules so they can't complain.

Iceweasel

Ibrahim5 said:

Iceweasel said:

Ibrahim5 said:

In Germany when you are towing a caravan you are limited to 80km/h (50mph). During certain hours lorries are not allowed to overtake. So I often have a 10 mile tailback of lorries. Never seen any bad behaviour from them.

There are exceptions / exemptions depending on the weight of the towing vehicle and the trailer / caravan.
Unless you have a very small car and a very big trailer /caravan the speed limit is quite likely to be 100km/h

https://fr.humbaur.com/en/useful-information/100-kmh-regulation/#:~:text=The maximum speed for a,up to 100 km/h.

To go at 100km/h you have to take a TUV test which costs 70 euros and takes 2 hours. Not worth it for a few weeks. It's the Germans that make the rules so they can't complain.

I think you have been mis-informed there. No test required. Just get a 100kph sticker in addition to having met the vehicle specifications.

400ixl

The speed limit for HGV's over 7.5 tonne vehicle changed in 2015 so maybe worthwhile keeping up with the highway code changes for a few.

• 50mph to 60mph on dual carriageways

Doing under a true 60mph on a dual carriageway or motorway will be really frustrating for lorry drivers and all of the traffic that gets stuck behind them whilst they try to overtake you.

[Deleted User]

While speedos can read over by as much as 10% + 6.25mph the modern ones are much more accurate if you keep your tyres in good nick (inflated correctly for example). Whenever I got past those devices that warn you if you are speeding I find mine is 1-2mph under (normally 28mph shown when the car shows 30mph or 30mph if I am at 32mph). I have also compared it with GPS on google maps when using it for directions and doing 73mph will read 70mph, same with 62mph/60mph just have to ignore the car telling me of speed cameras coming up

forgotmyname

Tyre pressures and load will affect the speedo a small amount but different tyre brands can affect the speedo more than that.

Company had a Toyota that kept throwing up an ABS wheel speed mismatch code. Turned out when they replaced the tyres they
had 3 Michelins and one Uniroyal. A good 12-15mm difference in the overall height of the tyre, enough of an error to throw
the fault code.  (it was a long time ago now so brands maybe incorrect, but the tyres were the same stated size).

strawb_shortcake

My husband actually got a minor on his motorbike test for going to slow on a dual carriageway, think that was 10mph under the speed limit? 

I also remember arguing with a teacher back in the 90's that lorries had speed limiters and they quite vehemently said that was not true.