Hello Ray
I cannot agree with your position on this subject, and I feel you may applying emotion rather than logic.
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"It fulled the road, too wide in my opinion, and must be a killer to the fuel consumption." I assume you meant 'filled' not fulled
At 2.5m, its no wider than a lorry, so unless the road was designated not suitable for HGV then there should be no problem. as for fuel consumption, At low speeds the consumption is more related to weight, its only at higher speeds that wind resistance plays a bigger part, so Fuel consumption around small roads will probably no different to any other outfit of the same weight and length.
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"Our motorways were never designed for the continental lorries that have rutted our roads."
It is perhaps true that many of our road were not specifically designed to cater for continental lorries. But realistically what is different between UK and continental lorries? The vehicles are in many cases exactly the same. OK the driver is on the wrong side which may have issues regarding blind spots, but otherwise the size and weights are essentially the same. If you are thinking of load per tyre, the continentals sometimes have more axles and tyres on goods trailers than UK which may actually diminish the load per unit area to less than some UK vehicles - less potential damage in some cases
As the vehicles are basically the same consequently the rutting we see would happen with or without continental vehicles on our roads. The time-scale for the rutting to appear may may be different, but probably not as much as you may imagine, as the loads carried by continental vehicles would have been transferred to UK vehicles at the docks, so the same loads would still need to travel across the same roads. Even if the lorries were smaller, there would be more of them so basically the same end result.
The "rutting" on our roads is more an inditement of our road construction and maintenance policies than the nationality of the drivers that may use them.
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"Now we are being "treated" to caravans that are too wide?"
2.5m caravans are allowed on UK roads, it just the tow vehicle previously needed to be over 3500Kg. So the only thing that has now changed is there is the possibility we may see more 2.5m caravans behind cars. According to regulations they are not too wide.
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"Maybe they should carry wide load warnings!"
Why should they carry a wide load warnings? Are they of a size as defined by the Road Traffic Acts to require a wide load indications? - No
Would such a marking make the driver of the outfit behave any differently? - Unlikely
Would it prevent them from using the roads that you travel on? - No except for roads with width restriction which is no different to now anyway.
Are you seriously saying that the additional 200mm (8 inches)width over the previous regulation makes them so much more of a problem, or are you as a driver following or approaching a 2.5m caravan incapable of negotiating it because of the additional 200mm? - If not, then how do you cope with farm tractors and trailers, buses and lorries?
Which caravan or car you buy is of course down to your personal choices. and I guess you will be crossing 2.5m caravans of your wish lists.