Caravans.

I do see Diminuendo's point though that HGVs are very often guilty of the same offence; however as was the point of starting this thread, IMO it is not a necessity to have caravans on the roads as they serve merely for that one person's [or one family's] pleasure whereas if their were no HGVs on the roads we would have no food, drink, materials or anything much at all in fact! Goods need to be transported.
 
the best use of a caravan .... caravan racing

watching the banger racing a few years ago put me off for life seeing how easily they disintigrate! I'm not saying i'd never stay in a caravan as i've had some fab holidays at holiday parks, one particualrly memorable one with my friends for my 18th but in a static one. I couldn't stay in a towing one ever again, i did for a week when i worked in a yard in the wild and the 2 of us got on each others nerves after 2 days we were so cramped i can't imagine how anyone can enjoy themselves in such a small space! but each to their own, it would be a boring world if everyone liked doing the same thing.
 
Shadow, we're now not on a motorway but on a circuit: as was pointed out quite reasonably, there's no NEED for any horse trailers or boxes on roads, either, since all horse-related events are purely for leisure and pleasure, and usually for the well-heeled, too. You'll be moaning about ambulances next, because they've usually got people on board who've been stupid enough to have an accident or are too old to be of much use, anyway.

Caravans are taking people, many of whom will be workers, on much-needed breaks, so that they can return to their work refreshed and happy. Who knows - they might even be in jobs which have some social purpose, too, rather than just propping up another way of relieving people of their cash? And yes, that was a dig!

If you're going to start trying to base transportation on its moral worth, then look at who drives cars and for what purpose? A big 4x4 with black windows, rushing the latest imported cocaine to a bunch of overpaid stock exchange yuppies? A Lamborghini, of no community worth whatsoever, simply there to play to the vanity of its rich driver? A Picasso which is driven by a wife-beating alcoholic? Hmm... nope, don't quite see your argument for 'worthy' vehicles standing up. I'd give up now, before we're reduced to bicycles, but only if we can prove they're an absolute necessity to the good of mankind.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@May 30 2007, 05:30 PM
IMO it is not a necessity to have caravans on the roads as they serve merely for that one person's [or one family's] pleasure whereas if their were no HGVs on the roads we would have no food, drink, materials or anything much at all in fact! Goods need to be transported.
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So why have cars in the first place, siimply move to within 5 minutes walk from work (like I have for my last 4 cities I have lived in) or get a job closer to home, that way you can get your car off the road and not be annoyed by caravans. Also, if you drive on holiday that journey is for your pleasure so by your rationale listed above you should not be on the road.

Admit you made a mistake with the thread and lets just all move on
 
Originally posted by Muttley@May 30 2007, 05:58 PM
There are loads of vehicles that slow other vehicles down, up hills, down hills and on the flat. Why single out caravans? There are some twits who drive caravans badly, there are some twits who drive lorries badly, there are some twits who drive horseboxes badly - there are loads and loads of twits who drive cars badly ...
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:eek: ALL TOGETHER....MUTT....... :eek:

And so say ALL of us...........

There's good and bad in ALL forms of daily driving activities I'm sorry to say...

BUT IF A FEW WERE AWARE OF THE CARNAGE AND DEATH THEY CAUSE I AM CERTAIN THERE WOULD BE FAR FEWER ON THE ROADS OUT OF CHOICE NOT DEATH...

Slowness causes havoc on motorways and somebody driving @ 30-40 MPH should be banned that's speaking from my experiences and generalising not pointing my finger @ caravans either...

And middle lane huggers are the worse I can assure you..........

I’ve heard from my son in law that all these continental HGV'S LGV' drivers leave a lot to be desired and daily nearly cause accidents... read what you like into this I am only quoting him..........

I am far from infallible and have made a mistake or two, but never penalised for it, just lucky to have escaped injury..I am human? At the last look!! Human error is abounding in most things that need to be controlled and weather adds another dimention and a lot of people are unaware that after a dry period its as dangerous as driving on ice with all the leaks of oil and diesel on the roads and then rain falling on top……… :(
 
I'm certainly not going to keep going around in circles - especially not when random and irrelevant digs are being made about my employment! You've actually insulted yourself there though as you are employed in the same industry....

One last point though [that no-one is grasping] is that ONE caravan alone holds up MANY other vehicles. The average person in their car isn't going to cause the same queuing and congestion that ONE caravan will unless it is one of those (was it Nissan Micras?) that Krizon was so happily bitching about earlier.
 
Are any of you anti towers aware that there is a speed restriction on towing a caravan. So whilst you are all zipping along at 70+, caravans are doing 60 because its the law and its safe, not because we have to go slow.

All HGV haulage as already stated in a previous post should be transported by rail and then by HGV to outlets.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@May 30 2007, 05:26 PM
What happens then is that on a three lane motorway you have the inside lane taken up by the caravan, the middle lane taken up by the overtaking vehicle (yes, very often that is another caravan, one that is barely going any faster than the vehicle it is overtaking so it takes an age to do so)
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Statistically wrong.

Caravans account for a tiny percentage of road users. HGVs account for a substantial minority therefore are far more likely to be the ones overtaking - usually unnecesarily - causing a bottleneck behind. Whichever vehicle is using the inside lane, it is almost certainly being driven according to the Highway Code. It is the drivers of the overtaking vehicles who have made decisions that ultimately affect other road users.

If Archipenko wins the Derby, I think I'll put the winnings towards a caravan.
 
:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: Will you be bringing it over to the UK DO??

This thread is real hoot! Who would've thought the humble caravan could arouse such passion in the forumite breast?

If you want to experience real road-rage, try getting stuck behind a lorry doing 63 overtaking one doing 60 on the endless 2-lane A14, which leads from the Midlands / Cambridge area to and from the container port of Harwich, AND the beaches of the East coast. It's the road I use to and from Newmarket, Huntingdon, and all points north..... My record so far is 35 minutes for one to overtake the other :angy: :angy: :angy:

A friend of mine, a former butcher who had a horse or two with the trainer who dies a few years overf by the Suffolk coast, got a caravan when he retired and went around with it to all the race meetings - evenup to Ayr to watch his horse run. Good on him!

I LOATHE caravans in spite of having once had a great childhood holiday in one - but I support totally the right of anyone to own one and drive about with it. Just don't park the hideous thing in your front drive, where it's an eyesore for most of the year...
 
If you want to experience real road-rage, try getting stuck behind a lorry doing 63 overtaking one doing 60 on the endless 2-lane A14, which leads from the Midlands / Cambridge area to and from the container port of Harwich, AND the beaches of the East coast. It's the road I use to and from Newmarket, Huntingdon, and all points north..... My record so far is 35 minutes for one to overtake the other
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Oh, lawdy - I know that feeling so well on that road! It's a total nightmare to drive - bumper to bumper lorries in both lanes on both sides - and not a caravan in sight ..

And your comment about your farmer friend in his caravan is so right, too. Loads of people go to all sorts of sporting events with their caravans. I know of sporting events that probably wouldn't take place if the competitors and organisers couldn't take caravans. For starters, many of the Marshals at the British Grand Prix stay in their caravans at the circuit - alongside some of the drivers and their families, as it happens. I knew someone who used to stay in their caravan in the BRDC campsite every year - parked next to Betty Hill (widow of Graham, mother of Damon).
 
Shadow, I'm not the one asserting that there's a moral reason why caravans should not enjoy the freedom of the road - stay on track, girl! You've taken a very high road with this, you've insulted some forumites' intelligence and taste and you don't seem to see - or are stubbornly refusing to see - that ALL traffic is valid at SOME point. It's no good trying to say that HGVs are all useful, because of course they're not. Some are transporting luxury goods with no direct benefit to the community, while much of what goes by lorry could go by rail or canal as there's no immediate rush to deliver lavatory paper, surely, in 24 hours to Dundee, when a day or two more would be quite adequate?

I'm with ovverbruv on this one - you alienated most of us from the start and you've just dug a considerably deeper hole further on. Time to start our engines, and rev off elsewhere...
 
This model, named without any trace of irony, used to be popular in Holland:

kl35ek.jpg
 
Don't knock it (yes, I love 'KIP'!) - it looks bigger than the one I was given to use when I was a kid! Circa 1953/4. I think mine was called a Bluebird. It was very round in shape, white, and tiny, but I adored it.
 
Originally posted by Headstrong@May 30 2007, 09:47 PM
If you want to experience real road-rage, try getting stuck behind a lorry doing 63 overtaking one doing 60 on the endless 2-lane A14,
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Thirded, that road is horrendous, possibly the most dangerous road in the UK, and, according to my traffic policeman friend, the majority of the accidents on the A14 are caused by poorly driven foreign lorries
 
Especially for Dom:

Every woman and every man
Should own a lovely caravan
To take to the trails
In Scotland or Wales
But leave them at home in Eng-er-land.
 
Merls.... That scene is not too dissimilar to the roads around here every summer when the Moroccan communities of France and Belgium pack their worldly belongings into whatever vehicle they get their hands on for their annual pilgrimage back home.

It's not so bad now every road is a dual carraigeway, with toll roads doubling up most of the 130 km from Gib to Malaga but back about 4 years ago, when the road from Sotogrande to Estepona was single carraigeway, every summer was carnage. My 30 km journey home could take over an hour.
 
If you were to break down most of our pleasures in life and subject them to an interrogation of the word 'necessity' few would survive. Caravans aren't necessary for out existance, in the same way that horse transportation for pleasure isn't.

Unfortunately Dom you're being too selective, and allowing your own personal prejudices to come to the fore thus. That's fine for ranting purposes, (indeed it's in the spirit of the ridicliously unreasonable) and it's not as if you're breaking new ground in doing so, Jeremy Clarkson's been there along time ago. I wish you'd give up this idea though. You might be oblivious to it, but you're really coming across badly on this thread.

Rant at caravans, fine!!! Telling people that they can only have holidays if they can afford them, and have your approval cry Not good, and not clever.

And for the record, police horses aren't animals, they're weapons!!! In the good old days the police did at least have those mobile interlocking crowd control barriers, which if pushed over and put in front of a charging horse turned into something of a pretty effective improvised cattle grid. Although they should have learned that lesson in 1985 it took Trafalgar Square circa 1990 before the penny dropped with them.
 
Kick on people - any more for any more lectures? Gowan, do your worst!! I can handle it!!

I'm just off to write out 100 lines

"I must not post any opinion on TH that isn't sugar-coated and/or might upset any of the sensitive little souls......"

...and now I'm off to flagellate myself also.
 
Dom, I think you should come down a level or two! Go back and read your first post . You insulted a few people on here, some that you know. Next time I meet you we will see if you can call me a moron or a bastid to my face..................ok? :angy:
 
After 2 run ins today of nearly being forced off the road, i can now confirm that white van men are the worst drivers on the road :angy: :angy:
 
One last point though [that no-one is grasping] is that ONE caravan alone holds up MANY other vehicles
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Hi Dom. As a matter of interest, what is your policy on pedestrian crossings?
 
Originally posted by Love Everlasting@Jun 1 2007, 09:29 PM
After 2 run ins today of nearly being forced off the road, i can now confirm that white van men are the worst drivers on the road :angy: :angy:
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It was a lorry driver that tried to kill me and my offspring on the A34 today :rant: He indicated right as I was alongside him and overtaking but he didn't bother checking his mirrors properly before starting to pull out thereby almost forcing me into the crash barrier :angy: Thankfully he finally noticed my huoooooge VW Sharan and ducked back in before I was squashed to smithereens :rant:
 
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