caravans exploding

Hi
We did the big trip in "68" roads where pretty rough then, but we saw several remains of vans in same condition. we reckon that they had just shaken to bits.
The way some idiots drove with vans ,it was very likely to be the reason.

Hi Dune Crawler

Wind gusts from on coming trucks and road trains at high speed
happens a lot on the Nullarbor

Regards

Oldpop

Seen results dozens of times south of Perth. It happens when van pass a road train, usually with stock crates and there is a strong cross wind. The van on down wind side is the other criteria.
I only ever observed one make of van that had exploded over the years. I don't know if it was that most of vans sold in Australia were that make or it was a problem with the make.

Sure makes a mess.

Neil

On the fridge side? could the gas fridge have caused such and "explosion"? I have seen the result of the gas bottle on the front of the van go off and that is not something I wish upon any traveller.

Cheers, Trevor.

Maybe a road train can cause a low pressure system as it goes past,leaving the van with high pressure inside and thus causing it to explode;)

This story has surfaced before and I think it may have been the same perpetrator and the comment that it is only one van make...I presume it is the Jayco knocker in another guise..., the same guy that reckons Jaycos are made of fridge panels.

Interesting really because they have only used the fibreglass, vacuum bonded panels for the last 5-6 years. Before that, they were made pretty much the same way as other vans in Australia. I terms of panel strength, the vacuum bonded panels are stronger than timber framed aluminium but it depends I suppose, how well the panels are held together at the joins of the roof.

After all that raving..., can anybody tell me, or show me ANY evidence of this actually happening to a fibreglass Jayco Sterling or Heritage...??? Having not had any experience yet of travelling where road trains operate, I am getting concerned as I will be going around the block next year.

By the way, I have asked Jayco directly about this and, not surprisingly, they said they have not heard of any such accident/incident.

Thanks Dunco, pretty much as I suspect, but I do get tired...(and a little concerned it may be true) of all the negative comments.

The wind that does get me and give me a fright sometimes is that when a B Double comes up behind at pace. Nothing I can't deal with so far but as I said, I have not yet encountered a road train.

Cheers,

$h*t happens................

site link

Have read that several times and due to the police stuffing up on several counts and a very dodgily balanced van (see pic of it with no jockey wheel) it was a disaster waiting to happen.

Any way it didnt explode it was the Ëxploder" towing it that had all the trouble.

Seems to have been a case of poor driving coupled with what looked like a badly balanced van.

Mine wouldnt head for the trees it would drop straight on the road and start ploughing with 305kg ball weight..

Where exactly was it on the road as 2 of us have just been to Exmouth in the last 10 days and never saw any evidence on the roadside.

If as you say stuff was everywhere something would have been visible I would have thought.

In 30 years I've seen the results of it happening twice, once between Camooweal and the NT/QLD border and once between Fitzroy /crossing and Derby/Broome. Both times the side was sucked off the van as it passed a semi/roadtrain going the opposite direction. No idea of the brand of van or even if they were the same brand.
On both occasions fellow travellers stopped to help the owners pick up the contents from the road.

Hi All,
I’ve been up and down the West Coast since I was a boy and the Perth to Coral Bay route for the past 5 years and can’t say that I have seen this happen, although on our last trip to Coral Bay in October 08 we did see what I could only say was the burnt outline of a car or caravan on the road between Coral Bay and Exmouth, no evidence of what it was but a definite sign that something had burnt to the ground.
I have seen a campervan on the side of the road in flames, gas leak we thought and another campervan with its roof 100meters behind it after a Semi past it from the other direction so I can’t say it has not or will not happen.
I think later model caravans have strict testing done before the model goes into production to prevent this and it would be a freak thing if it did happened.

Can't say much about caravans, but last November on a particularly windy day in Victoria, a truck going the other way caused a windscreen moulding to tear clean off our car. It went with a hell of a bang and gave us a bit of a fright.

I could imagine that some of the older style caravan windows might part company with the van in similar conditions, and perhaps even side panels.

There was one memorable road fatality during the eighties when I lived at Karratha. A vehicle left the road and crashed. Witnesses stated that the car swerved violently as a roadtrain passed in the other direction and then left the road. The police recommended to the coroner that the death be recorded as accidental, caused by turbulence from the truck and the prevailing wind.

If anyone knows the area, just south of the Robe River on the North west Coastal Highway, the easterly winds during winter can be particularly nasty and I have no trouble believing that this, combined with a passing truck could be very dangerous. In this case the vehicle was a Mitsubishi L300 van.

Cheers

russ.

Saw a poptop that had lost its top the other day at eucla, made a mess of the van.

Saw a poptop that had lost its top the other day at eucla, made a mess of the van.