I re ran the Vine show compliments of the BBC web site and emailed my scathing view of the Idiot Editor he had on spouting utter twadle.
A colleague and i were on the road today using the M4, A34 and M40 and we've seen about 40 Caravans and witnessed -
1. Very nose up TR7 Triumph Convertible towing very nose down van looking far far from safe.
2. Two unconnected Vauxhall Frontera's again noses looking fit for take off, vans nose down one swaying side to side.
3. Large twin axle on M4 twitching about behind the car in the wind. Large narrow roof box set to the drivers side of the roof instead of central position. As the rear right of the van kept swinging out I presume the roof box position was probably the cause.
4. Car and van and another car that were obviously together on the M4. The car and van set-up no more the 4 metres behind the car at about 70mph with car driver talking on mobile at the same time as the towing drivers partner ???
5. Four caravans that appeared to be in convoy forming a mobile chicane all far far to close to one another, a fifth van rig trying to get past a truck behind them. He braked very hard when they were turning onto the A34 slip road from the M4. He was obviously part of the group and lucky not to have got tail ended when he braked!
6. Laguna towing a Lunar with bikes on car roof, and more swinging side to side om what appeared to be and A frame mount. Front of van looked damaged and van and car looked over loaded.
7. Rear end down van towed by Zafira weaving along the M40 at 65mph. No stabiliser and breakaway cable neatly looped on the tow hitch handle according to my passenger.
8. Elderly looking couple slowly weaving from wrong lane on A34 slip road to slip road onto M4 and them forcing articulated lorry to smoke brakes and swerve violently to miss them.
9. Two or three various unlevel (in my mind) and bouncy ride single axle van set-ups that also looked far from safe as they pitched and sway'd about.
I would hope that none were forum members here but think that they should be. I think that caravan and car insurers should do a safety and legal awareness mail shot with every policy explaining about towing law, weights and loading advice and the consequences of not taking notice of the requirements.
We are not being helped as caravanners when these sort of things can be seen on an average afternoon drive.
We saw some nice stable looking rigs but in the main what we saw today was nothing to help the caravanners cause.
A colleague and i were on the road today using the M4, A34 and M40 and we've seen about 40 Caravans and witnessed -
1. Very nose up TR7 Triumph Convertible towing very nose down van looking far far from safe.
2. Two unconnected Vauxhall Frontera's again noses looking fit for take off, vans nose down one swaying side to side.
3. Large twin axle on M4 twitching about behind the car in the wind. Large narrow roof box set to the drivers side of the roof instead of central position. As the rear right of the van kept swinging out I presume the roof box position was probably the cause.
4. Car and van and another car that were obviously together on the M4. The car and van set-up no more the 4 metres behind the car at about 70mph with car driver talking on mobile at the same time as the towing drivers partner ???
5. Four caravans that appeared to be in convoy forming a mobile chicane all far far to close to one another, a fifth van rig trying to get past a truck behind them. He braked very hard when they were turning onto the A34 slip road from the M4. He was obviously part of the group and lucky not to have got tail ended when he braked!
6. Laguna towing a Lunar with bikes on car roof, and more swinging side to side om what appeared to be and A frame mount. Front of van looked damaged and van and car looked over loaded.
7. Rear end down van towed by Zafira weaving along the M40 at 65mph. No stabiliser and breakaway cable neatly looped on the tow hitch handle according to my passenger.
8. Elderly looking couple slowly weaving from wrong lane on A34 slip road to slip road onto M4 and them forcing articulated lorry to smoke brakes and swerve violently to miss them.
9. Two or three various unlevel (in my mind) and bouncy ride single axle van set-ups that also looked far from safe as they pitched and sway'd about.
I would hope that none were forum members here but think that they should be. I think that caravan and car insurers should do a safety and legal awareness mail shot with every policy explaining about towing law, weights and loading advice and the consequences of not taking notice of the requirements.
We are not being helped as caravanners when these sort of things can be seen on an average afternoon drive.
We saw some nice stable looking rigs but in the main what we saw today was nothing to help the caravanners cause.
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