As an HGV driver I had to pass a stringent driving test before being allowed to drive articulated vehicles on the public highways.And am subject to reams of regulations. While any car driver - with a full driving licence & 2 years experience driving a 'Puddle Jumper' can stick a 'Wobbly Box' onto the towbar & tootle off down the road without any training & end up 'Jack-knifed' in a ditch or spread all over the motorway wondering why it all went pear-shaped. Also should they be taxed & subject to yearly M.O.T style tests - as are HGV trailers. By the way. if you are in any doubt, I am ANTI CARAVANS so have a very large axe to grind!! This should stir up a hornets nest with a bit of luck. I look forward to the good debate I am expecting from the comments off the 'Why tax our hobby' brigade!
2007-08-12 09:12:24 · 20 answers · asked by george d 6 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Other - Cars & Transportation
It has been very difficult to choose a best answer, they have, in the main been worthy of that accolade. A special mention to lone gunman,neogriff& graham h all good answers. Thanks everybody for your input, very enlightening to find like minded people.
2007-08-17 08:41:17 · update #1
Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!!
I find it incredible, that in an age of stepped licences for motorcycles, restrictions for new car drivers and staged licencing for HGV drivers, that any half-wit can go out and buy a caravan and cause utter mayhem with no training or instruction at all. The caravan will then spend six months of the year stuck in the driveway/garden until the spring, when it's hitched back up again and with no safety checks whatsoever, taken out on the road.
Total insanity!
2007-08-12 10:09:27 · answer #1 · answered by Nightworks 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I am the same as you a class 1driver and quite agree with you that anybody towing a trailered vehicle of any sort should be made to take an extra test as to their competence to tow a trailer. We have to take a stringent test and can quite easily lose our LGV licence for the slightest misdemeanour as they class it a privilege to be allowed a LGV licence. Yet some of these caravaners go out without the first clue in towing and cause all sorts of problems. Saying this though there are some very good caravaners who could put some LGV drivers to shame? I have towed a caravan for a family holiday in the past so can see both sides of the coin.
2007-08-12 09:37:09 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
Most caravans take the M.A.M of the towing vehicle and trailer over the 3.5 tonne weight limit now so any driver who passed their test after 1997 does have to take a seperate towing test.
I am totally in favour of the towing test and am with you all the way on the mot issue too. Tax is a tough one though as it is illegal to park them on the public highway and they cannot be used on it without a towing vehicle which is already taxed.
It would be like taxing a trailer as well as the tractor unit wouldn't it?
Worth a try though...
2007-08-12 09:23:53 · answer #3 · answered by neogriff 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I'm with you, I think it is amazing the idiotic things people do when toeing. They think that going FASTER will stop fishtailing, they think they are OK to do 80MPH if the car is powerful enough to do it, they think they can drive like normal and they have no idea at all how to manuver or reverse.
Quite definitely there should be a test before people are allowed to toe.
The best I ever saw was some jerk who came to buy a horse trailer from my wife, and he had actually bolted a toe ball to the plastic bumper on his car.
:-)
2007-08-12 09:23:09 · answer #4 · answered by The Lone Gunman 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I agree Mate. I have a class 2 LGV and some people with caravans are a menace to everyone else on the road
2007-08-14 05:35:26 · answer #5 · answered by mr_scotsguy 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, there should be a seperate test for any towing and also some form of MOT as a lot of these idiots do not even bother to check that their lights are working correctly (if at all).
I used to ride a motorcycle around London and surrounding countryside (no, not a dispatch rider) and it is bad enogh that a lot of drivers appear to have forgotten that there is an indicator stalk to be used by them but worse when they are towing and indicators are working the opposite to what they should be.
2007-08-12 09:40:33 · answer #6 · answered by Tom M 5 · 4⤊ 1⤋
after we had anti snake div ice fitted a horrid lorry driver decided to have some fun swerving in to my husband and yes a motorist offered to be a witness against the lorry driver being decent people we thought the lorry driver needed his job, so we did not take this any further, Ido personally believe caravans should have yearly safety certificates we found out our very expensive caravan had been in an accident before we lbought it and that is why it would not tow tidy, as for a lot of you lorry drivers you all think you own the road try being nicer to little old drivers
2007-08-12 09:41:14 · answer #7 · answered by susan will of the wisp 4 · 1⤊ 3⤋
i agree with you entirely as an ex HGV driver and now a driving instructor ,oh yes i can still drive them and coaches as well ,and the caravans should be insured and taxed as well as cyclists
2007-08-12 11:42:28 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's a good point as more than half of them can't reverse for Toffee. Saying this I've seen my share of HGV drivers who can't reverse into a bay 2ft wider than their Trailer.
2007-08-12 09:20:49 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Yes they should!!! I ride a small motorcycle round my home town of Buxton in the UK county of Derbyshire which is a magnet for these things in the tourist season and loads of times I have had to slam my brakes on behind them because of the stupid and dumb way they're driven by incompetent drivers so they SHOULD be tested beforehand!!!!!
mandyr
2007-08-12 09:23:48 · answer #10 · answered by mandy r 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋