youv just gotta look at this

I disagree entirely with all those advocating another license just to drive a 4 x 4.
It'll just be another revenue raising exercise by the bureaucrats and pollies with no discernable difference in accident or death rates!
What is required is a certain amount of commonsense, a commodity sadly lacking on our roads.
Commonsense should tell a driver that if the vehicle he's driving, whether it be a truck, tradesmans van or 4 x 4, is high and possibly top heavy, the centre of gravity is different to a normal vehicle and should be driven accordingly.
Slow round corners and roundabouts to start with.
What should not be done is to drive as the drivers in TV adverts do, but then if you based your purchase on those adverts, there's probably no telling you that your vehicle can't do what they say it will!
A dose of good manners on the roads by all drivers might help as well, instead of the "my vehicle,truck or whatever is better than yours" pig ignorant way a good percentage of 4bys are driven.

Alan...I agree with you wholeheartedly.

Commonsense seems to be missing from the modern Australian psyche!

Willem

Googs Lake camp

Alan,
Quite simply, IMHO you are 100% correct.
Another licence would work wonders for lining the pockets of the bureaucrats but would not change the behaviour of the irresponsible few.
For example, I'd be surprised indeed if anybody who has driven a 4WD just once around the block, doesn't know that it accelerates slower, brakes slower and handles worse with a higher centre of gravity. Yet a small minority of idiots will drive them like sports cars. Make those people do an extra licence and nothing would change- it's human nature.
We need less red tape, not more.
We do need more common sense on the road, but common sense is not taught- you are born with it.
And when was the last time you saw a cop pull someone over for tailgating or some of the other dangerous practices of so many drivers. If they can't point a speed gun at you and nab you for 10 kays over 100 on a good piece of road they are not interested... Ever notice how the speed traps are virtually never near "black spots" but rather where they'll generate the most revenue.

Good onya Eric,

Where do people think all those juicy steaks of beef and barra come from! We are a carnivorous species! Just cause you gaot it at Woolies does not make you less of a predator!

On 4bys, if some people want to go camping then they will drive large load carrying vehicles to cart around all the camping stuff that makes bush camping so comfy these days. If it happens to be engineered to be a bit tougher with all wheel drive so you can get camping to more remote regions and back again, safely, then that is good too. Other people will drive shopping trolley passenger cars because that is all they need. While ever there are freight carrying trucks and people carrying buses on the road there will always be disparities in vehicle sizes.

Morons will still speed and small vehicles will probably still hit and get hit by larger ones. The critics will pick on the 4by owners as they are a growth industry. They want us all to drive equally sized mid size passenger cars. Reality says it will never happen! I can't afford to have a fleet of cars so I can have one to go shopping in, one, a bigger one to go highway cruising in, and a bigger one to go bush in.

As long as we ALL drive sensibly we will all be fine regardless of whether we are in a 700kg shopping trolley, a 1500kg sedan, a 2000kg wagon or a 30000kg+ truck. Just look out for the idiot drivers, not the idiot vehicles.
Playdoe GXL TD Manual
It's on order, Delivery in April '04.
This pic will have to do till then. Can't wait!!!

Nobody talks of now tranning fir the bush here , We al get traning one way or another . When first got a 4by , the first thing I did was ask a experienced freind to take me out , as now I get asked by nebies . You actually think the goverment will put a proper tranning in place , Maby like the boat licence , sit a test and your a expert. I have been boating for years and sat the licence and past straight away , but I fear the sea because of my experience , as I fear the bush , all these new boat owners get a licence and thing there king ding aling Venus Bay

Allan, I guess if we were to start down the track of driver training there will be some that can prove they can handle the situation. The article suggests that there is a skid situation/correction missunderstanding, which i would suggest is more common than just in the 4by community.

One often watches drivers that don't understand gravel verges in my part of the state and how they should react when driving on them. It should be a requirement to drive on them and on gravel, sand, and clay roads for all motorists, not just 4by drivers.

Legislation that may deal with driver training should give points to experience and assessment procedures well thought through if we are to go this way.

I am sure we have seen the agressive drivers, often female, in small sedans who actually need to be curbed too or at least educated.Regards

JohnR - Not enough of the right travelling, some here..... some over there.......