What is it with 4bys and camper trailers

Gone the same way as 'common sense'?!

Josh,
Thanks for you response....you beat me to it.

It is indeed dangerous to generalise about a group of people. I hate seeing (for example) people saying truckies are a bunch of yobbos who don't have any consideration for other road users.

I'm not denying that the original poster had some hairy moments with a convoy/s of camper trailer-toting yobs.... just like we've all had our share of idiots coming towards us (or overtaking us) on motor bikes, doof doof cars, panel vans, pantechs, etc etc.......

I tow a camper trailer and I like to think I drive in a careful and considerate manner.....

Roachie

Yes, Josh, please accept that we're not doing the "all CT owners are ..." thing. I for one would like to know if the groups who cause the max problems are (a) clubs or (b) tag-along groups with a leader. Either way, it is the group leaders who have something to answer for. There have been times when the bloke behind the bloke in front of me has something to answer for too!!
So the big complaint isn't about CTs, but about the herd mentality which can sometimes lead sensible people to act like idiots.

What's is it with Troop carriers and V8 motors, Ha Ha

Yes, I would have to reinforce the fact that us camper trailer owners are not any different to other travellers.

Actually, I find the vehicles towing nothing tend to travel faster and don't back off as they approach.

My "convoy" is usually a couple of friends who don't tow anything but have packracks loaded with the porta dunny, fuel contasiners, etc. and tend to keep the speed normal.
In fact I usually tend to "lead the pack" and they just "eat my dust".

Bill.

Hey wicket, Imagine if we were allowed to attach a blue flashing light ,I bet they would slow down if they saw that in the distance LOL!!

I'll just add?
The club even went as far as to remove that outing from their web site.
They regularly visit that area and this time they never posted their trip pictures or details.
Makes you wonder. Hmm

Jon,

the Missus and I had a great trip with very little hassle at all, saw some top country and the only problem I had was on the binns track south of Old police station waterhole, the horn decided to blow all by it's little old self scareing a mob of wild donkeys in the process. You just gotta love corrigations.

Have a good one

AHAHAH lol
I can picture it, :)

Cheers

This is one the main reasons I wont go in covoys more than 4 cars and have also resigned from a well known club some years ago.

For some reason people seem to grow horns and hairy palms when in a convoy - I prefer to be on my own or in the company of one or two other cars, not more. Two's company, three's a crowd.

But then I have been overtaken at high speed by a local on the Cobar-Louth road in road conditions where it should have been impossible to overtake and in dust conditions that were scary. When quizzed as to why (he joined us at the campfire later that night) - "been driving these roads all my life mate."

Not much more I could say to that...

viz

Gotta agree viz,
"For some reason people seem to grow horns and hairy palms when in a convoy'
Yep, their in their bullet proof shields.

Slow is cool :)

got a photo we can see???? Sounds like a good idea to me... (:

Fred

Did you see the photo? I finally got a link to work.

Phil
Toyota on Ghan - Rock guard is on bullbar

grumble mutter mutter grumble

"This content is currently unavailable
The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page."

Link broke.

viz

Hi Viz

It just worked for me. No worries drop me an email and I will send it to you.

Thats all I can do as I am not a member.

Email: vk1dx@bigpond.net.au

Phil

I have made it my profile photo for a while in facebook.

Have a look at my wall photo in facebook at "philip rayner".

Lets try this.

Not getting very far am I. Lets try inserting a link to it.

Link:Toyota on Ghan - Top deck - Shows stone guard.

Mate,
it wasn't a generalisation at all, The one's that were the offenders weren't single camper trailers but one's in convoy.

I do use the radio but my darling wife yells at me when I use certain words on it.

Have a good one.

Hi png62,
In Mark G and my encounter with a group (mentioned in post above), We were the ones towing campers, They run us off the road and then they gave us an ear full of abuse over the uhf when they were thanked for the stone chips and Marks crack windscreen. Not just from the blokes, but the women as well. To this day I believe they didn't recognize their own member voices over the uhf ads where abusing each other, which proves to me what uneducated fools they are.
As I mentioned in my above post, I did contact the club involved, with no reply or acknowledgment of them being there. I did how ever did get a letter from a club member who said he was replying to my letter, not as a member of the club that he has been a member of for so many years, but as someone traveling with them.
As you mention about contacting the local copper, we did that for what ever good it would of done.
If we come across them again I sure will be giving them a wide birth.
Anyway Happy travels guys, :)

G'day Hairs,

Mate, if you know the name of the 4wd club involved (which you obviously do), I would suggest writing to the state 4wd governing association. Send them a copy of the letter you sent the club and point out you have not had the courtesy of a reply but that the fact that you have had a reply from an individual member indicates they DID get your letter.

If it's similar to SA (I'm not even sure what state the "bad" club was from), then they have to abide by a strick code of conduct . They also pay annual subs for a blanket insurance policy which covers them for inadvertant damage the club may cause when they are on a trip. I've always wondered what sort of damage this could be. I have always imagined it would be for, say, the cost incurred if a club camp-fire got out of control and caused pastoral damage etc. I don't imagine it would cover situations like what you found yourself in. However, the state association "may" be able to force the club involved into responding to your original letter and may be able to provide you with the vehicle rego numbers of those in the convoy. At least this way, you might be able to pass their details on to your insurance company and get the cost of repairs argued-out between the insurers (assuming the repairs required were expensive enough to require a claim to be lodged).

The basic plank that 4WD Clubs are built upon is one of respect for both other road users and the environment. Nobody who is a member of a 4x4 club who reads this, should be happy with what has happened...... ESPECIALLY the aftermath where they hurled abuse over the radio!!! Okay, so most of us (me included) have probably done something silly or inconsiderate when on the road. That's one thing, but to then not accept that you have erred is a bigger error of judgement and it is THAT which is really pizzzing me off about your story.

Cheers

Roachie

Hi Roachie,
I've followed up your advice and sent copies of correspondence(or lack of) to the relevant governing bodies about this club and their club members.
In my orginal letter to the club involved, I mentioned that this kind pf behavior it the reason why Land owners and the general motoring public have a presumption about Four wheel drivers.
The actions of a few tarnishes all of us.
That weekend we had an absolute fantastic weekend, we meet some great people, traveled some great trails, but you know? the actions of a hand full of idiots wont spoil it for us.
Many years ago I was a member of a Street Machine Club. You know the kind, hotted up cars, Blowers, Lowered and the likes. Well, we still had that element that didn't want to play by the rules, nothing you could do to stop it. So a group of us left and did our own thing.
I guess it's the same with the 4WD and camping scene. And after talking to a few park operators and some tour operators that have had bad dealings with this mentality form certain groups and individuals, we bring it to the attention of fellow travelers/campers, parks.
Word of mouth is still a powerful tool.
Cheers again Roachie.

So that's an excuse to fling rocks at others?! I'd suggest their itinerary might be too tight - the reasons you've given are the reasons I would never go with a tag-along tour.

And don't leave out those towing boats either. We've just completed a run from Karratha in WA, up the NW coast via Gibb River Road, across the top to Cairns via the Savannah Way. Whilst we had our fair share of morons towing CT's passing at break-neck speed, it was a fool towing a boat that was the worst example.

We we a couple of 100 K's west of Cairns on one of those 12' wide bitumen roads that require you to get 2 wheels off the bitumen when a vehicle approaches. The clown towing the boat clearly saw us slow down and move well over a long time before he got to us, but do you think he did the same? No Way! He ploughed past us at a ridiculous speed, boat trailer swaying all over the place and promptly showered us with rocks.

I got on the two-way and thanked him (sarcastically) for showing us the same courtesy that we had showed him and his response was "Get stuffed. If you have a problem with the roads, complain to Anna (Bligh)."

Clearly he had no understanding that the roads aren't the problem, his right foot was. Absolute plonker!

I agree about the CT's but only in the respect that there are just so many of them out there, making the odds of coming across one or more idiots far greater. We had similar episodes with vehicles not towing anything.

The convoy mentallity is real. They will go to extraordinarilly dangerous lengths to pass you if you are unfortunate enough to get between them and the others in their convoy that are ahead of you. Why? It's got me buggered. It's not as though they are going to lose track of each other on roads that go to just one destination....Morons!!!

Cheers

Russ

Russ, for that reason, you might consider not diving for the shoulder at the first sight of oncoming traffic. Slow down of course, but leave the pulling over until you need to - pulling over straight away signals to the other driver that the road is theirs and they often won't slow down to thank you (as you've seen). If you slow down but don't pull over immediately, the other driver is usually forced to consider the possibility that THEY might have to pull over a little.

Well written Rod couldn't agree more, we just returned from a trip and 2 of our gang recieved cracked windscreens from tray top 4x4's going like hell and not moving over or slowing down.

Cheers Scoof. :-(

I agree Rod, add to that the mentality of many of the tour operaters (all the ones I've seen so far, but perhaps not ALL tag-along tour operators are the same) who want to give a tough macho image to their novice tag-alongs...

Hairy,
how the hell did you know that.

Word is, all that good country you have in your part of the world was relocated from Qld.

We had a good time in your neck of the woods and never got busted once for my supply "by Territory standards"of Bundy.

Keep the dirty side down and the shiny side up.

Hairy,
forgot to say how I know all your good country is from Qld.

Well I recognised our corrigations you lot stole and we want them back.

While your picking up your corugations, do you want to take back your bloody cane toads and Queenslanders too?

LOL

No they were a gift to you, and we wouldn't want to be known as Indian givers

You must be right cause I slow to less than 40kph and I must have been doing 41 kph.

Have done a windscreen while I was stationary, maybe I should have been backing up.

Yeh, that'd be right!!!! hahaha.

Next time i see a road train coming towards me at 80 klicks, I might stop, get out and stand beside the road to wave to the driver. Because I'm not moving I will be 100% safe from being hit by a rock AND DYING... hahahaha

Roachie!!!!! you have it sussed, when you wave that shows you are a friendly and the driver will stop his rocks from hitting you, you sneaky devil you. I am gunna take your approach from now on. Good on ya.

I will be canvassing the minister of main tracks tomorrow and see if I can get them to use soft rocks so I don't have to wave.

LOL

lol...stoping on the highway and waving to a road-train wont keep his rocks off you, more the opposite....lol...

Yes it will, you just gotta wave the right way

AND hold your tongue out the left side of ya gob at just the right angle.... Mind you, it might take a bit of practice before you work out the correct way to wave AND the correct tongue-outaging to perfect it....so maybe you should wear a motor bike skid lid the 1st few times.... LOL

Bugger you Roachie,
I did what you said and bit the end of my tongue off, you didn't allow for the Qld factor

"AND hold your tongue out the left side of ya gob at just the right angle"

OMG, you'd be rich...lol....

It really is no wonder this place has such a bad name these days.. haha

Did yus think maybe people speed up when they see the ExploreOz sticker on the windscreen ??

Good on ya for tripping round this wonderful country and sorry to hear you had a broken screen. We will never stop this but with a bit of consideration from others, it will be reduced. MAYBE.

Do it easy and look after yourselves

"obviously had his tyres too high" I'm intrigued Jinki how you could tell considering he was travelling so fast. Personally I have trouble picking if a tyre has 25 or 40 PSI in it when coming towards me at 80kph in a shower of dust ;-)
Cheers Craig........

Hi Craig

The higher the tyre pressure supposedly the higher the stones fly - however, Harry, the MOTH, is convinced the tyres were at least 40 plus.

My late father, died in the early '60's, and before present 4WD's appeared - spent his life around semi's and buses, always said tyre pressures too high, stones will fly! I do agree though speed is most likely the biggest contributor.

Cheers
Jinki

I volunteer to be the Grey Nomad towing the caravan. Your anti-tank missile will simply bouce off my Kedron.....evil laugh.....hahahahahaha.....

Cheers

Russ

To be fair on the Grey Nomads Eric they couldn't possibly know you were behind them as they are most likely both deaf & blind not to mention NEVER LOOK IN THEIR MIRRORS!
Cheers Craig :-)

Seriously, I've stopped being nice to vehicles stuck behind us on single-lane roads for the very reason that this thread was created....if you do move over, slow down and let cars pass, they reward you by showering your vehicle with rocks as they blurt past. I'd rather make them wait!

Cheers

Russ.

Sorry I should have been clearer. I meant Grey Nomads / Vehicles coming towards me. The rule is on these narrow strips of excuses for roads that each vehicle pulls over half on the road half on the dirt, but not all do. 4wds's in convoys tend not to slow down either.

When I first saw the standards of these roads I couldn't believe it. They are barely the width of a 4WD yet they allow roads trains from the mine to drive on them.

cheers Eric