Who lets the Missus drive? That is - The Better Half

Haha, I have the opposite problem... how do I get my man to drive more often? :)

hi
get over it tony your wife is equally as capable as you
it's just that problem in your head and attitude that needs training
ive met a lot of very capable women 4wdrivers who also tow large caravans as well and there more gentle on the machinery
i taught my 17yr old daughter to 4wd in mud rocks wet and dry hills and sand and i'm proud of her and happy to sit in the passenger seat
there's a 50/50 chance that one day you may not be able to drive and it might be after she gives ya a decent back -hander for mouthing off at her lol
you had to learn or were you just a natural
lol
cheers

In our case it's a no-brainer......... my better half wouldn't know a clutch from a indicator stalk. She's never been behind the wheel of anything and has no interest in doing so.

So, I get to do all the wheeling...... just hope I never break a leg out in the never never.....

Roachie

Tony!! i envy you..lol; If i was to say just one of those statements while she was driving it would be all over. " Stick your 4by up your......" and off she would go on foot in the opposite direction. Bloody hot head it is, but yep she drives, all i gotta do is hang on and shut up..lol.


Cheers Axle.

I do the driving 99.9% of the time in our Cruiser. Even when we are outback or severe off road, it is still me behind the wheel. It is just natural Geoff gets in the passenger seat and I automatically get in the drivers seat. I suppose with Geoff doing 5000 or so km's a week in our Kenworth, he doesn't feel like driving when we are in the Cruiser. Go you girls, show your hubby's how you can drive just as good as him!!!!!!

:-)

Karen

Hi Tony.

I also enjoy driving and the wife is also very happy to be a passenger, but I make her drive from time to time to keep her skills up. After she gets back behind the wheel for awhile l have to fight her for the driving seat but it is all good.

I have all confidence in my wife's driving skills and would recommend that all other half's should know how to drive the 4wd in most situations.

Who knows one day she might have to do it all by herself to get us out of trouble.

David Will

Hi Tony,
I hang on to the steering wheel, and I am directed which way to point the cruiser.
Fysh is the navigator, which I have come to understand is a very important position to hold. Without her map reading skills :/ we would never arrive at our destinations. ;) Fysh is also very alert to how close I may get to the vehicle in front and at what speed we should be traveling at, If I am to break these tolerances , I am told through a high shrilling scream that I am to close or going to fast.
Who needs a GPS? ;)

I like to drive and my husband doesnt have a problem with sharing the drivetime.
The other issue is if the other half cant drive for whatever reason- it only makes sense that both of you can drive.
It goes soooo boring being a passeneger all the time.
Although the ulitimate test would have to be if he still lets you drive after you nearly roll a 4wd with family tucked inside. The answer was yes.

This sort of a post makes me quite angry. I hope it is a tongue in cheek post. I drive frequently and expect to. I love testing my skills, but I am also more than happy for Bruce to test his. We have always taken it in turns.

Bruce can't read maps and so I do that. I read all of the 4x4 magazines and condense the info we need, or point Bruce in the direction to read the info.

We look at it that we compliment each other.

However, I think there is one more really important reason for both feeling competent and comfortable. What if the worst happens and one of us is left to drive the rig home? I don't want to be doing it for the first time.

I remember backing our rig into a space at a Caravan park on one occasion and having so many women come up and congratulate me. They weren't 'allowed' to do it which really saddened me.

Di

Well its an individual thing Tony , generally they are not so much into it , but like any group , some go for it and others just not interested.

My wife is happy to say she isn't into the tricky bits , but never the less she drove the entire Simpson last year , every kilometer, to support our trail bikes and it was a really great experience for her and made her more enthusiastic about the whole scene.

I did wonder why she didn't get bogged more often , someone had told her about lockers and she punched them up and left them in.

Probably was time I had the diffs re-tightened anyway, and the clutch was already nearly worn out.

P.S. I still do 90% of the driving of highway and 100% of the parking , but its good to know I have backup with experience now !

I have taught my better half to drive in off road situations just in case it was required, the first time i took her out she enjoyed it so much and did so well i had trouble getting her out of the seat!! she is very confident and capable of handling the beast in most circumstances. i do most of the driving usually but she always asks if i would like her to do some driving. i have no problems or hesitations in letting her do the hard driving.

goodday all
we share the driving although i probabaly do the lions share denny reckons being the passenger is boring and seems to take forever to get anywhere
the only thing i have done before we left this year is add a winch after a minor incident last year as i am getting to old for the hand winch
BUT she must do more offroad not just highway

steve

When I'm behind the wheel the missus is my co-driver with all the duties that position entails:

Lock the hubs in.
Walk the bog.
Pull the overhanging branches aside.
Roll the boulder out of the way.
Shovel at the ready.
Hook the snatch straps up.
Reach behind and grab another beer.

When she's behind the wheel.........I grab my own beer.......hahaha.



Cheers......Lionel.

My wife and I first met in the NT many years ago at a time when I was doing a lot of recreational driving all through the top end. The roads were pretty crook by today’s standards and we were driving old Holdens as we couldn’t afford 4WDs back then (1960s). Right from the start she made it clear that if we were going to get along OK she would have to be doing at least half of the driving. Firstly because she wanted to “catch up” to me and secondly because she found it such great fun. She didn’t take long to catch up and having quite a daredevil nature she also took us places that I was hesitant to consider. Sometimes we didn’t make it back to work in Darwin until the Tuesday but we only ever abandoned one vehicle out in the bush.

I think it’s proved to be great insurance as no matter where we are, if one of us got the vehicle in then the other can get it out again if there is an injury or illness. This is a serious consideration as one reaches a certain age but thinks you can still do all those same things you’ve been doing for 40 years.

We share the driving no matter what the conditions are. Change drivers every 2 hours. And (Di) does the bigger percentage when reversing the caravan.

I think it's a good idea that our partners know how to drive the fourby in certain situations. When we go on a trip we change drivers every two hours. If my wife falls asleep whilst I am at the wheel I pull over & go for a walk myself to have a break because "Yawning is a warning" I think one of the worst things is mum & kids all asleep and Dad drives onward.....Why? What's the rush? If I am awake they should be too. If we are tired we pull over & have asleep it's amazing what a 15min siesta can do for you. I was away recently with a mate & his wife. They live on a farm & drive a ute & a Patrol S/W. We settled in at our camp site and proceeded to finalise our setting up when all the wives decided to go for a drive and look at a rather large dam wall & swimming area. About an hour later my mates wife returns on foot very hot & thirsty and we all thought...What the F.....? Something dreadful has happened. No. She had just bogged the patrol. My mate flew off the handle, yelling out "useless bitch" etc etc... I had not had a beer & had just finished chain sawing some wood so I got her a cold soft drink & into the pajero, following her directions to where the POOTROL was. All the other girls were sitting in the shade relaxing. Now ALL these ladies, well their hubbys All own 4 X 4's Not one lady told her to lock the front hubs in, let down the tyres, drag the sand away fron the wheels & select low range & drive out, whuch is what I did, I asked why they hadn't helped. Most didn't have a clue what to do, certainly the lady who bogged it didn't (Had been living on a farm for 4 years) My wife told me later when they were all discussing what happened basically said, that the husbands couldn't be bothered to teach them,were impatient, rude & it was NOT worth the domestic. I asked my wife "well you knew what to do why didn't you help her?" My wife replied that the driver needed to understand the importance of getting to know her vehicle & maybe the walk back might help some positive thinking. When my mates wife drove the vehicle back to camp she was greeted by a bucket load of abuse from her husband. I wonder why she never asked if he could teach her how to drive the vehicle?. A month or two later we heard a story that she was on her way back to the farmhouse across a paddock in the wet. Lost traction, went for a gear change & luckily she froze & just kept the vehicle straight because it went backwards, off course a little and straight into the chook shed,fair bit of damage to the POOTROL but luckily for her the flooded creek was 30 metres behind her. Had she not hit the Hen house it could have been disastrous. Cause, lack of knowledge & near bald tyres. Topped off by hubby's ignorance. Hubby's reaction...you guess?

Hubby does all of our driving, I enjoy being the passenger and the navigator however, in saying that if for some reason Hubby couldn't get us out of where we were I know that I could, I have been driving since I was 6 years old, tractors trucks and cars without brakes, anything that was drivable on a farm, Hubby has always liked to drive, I've always been happy as a passenger. My Dad always drove my Mum, back in those times the man always drove the woman however with our kids the girls do most of the driving, times they are achanging!!!!

Cheers

Deanna

We share 50/50 with everything. Wife tows and hitches the van, she wanted to learn just in case something happened. She has also done 4x4 courses as she loves getting out there as well. She has even suggested some of the accessories that we got for our Cruiser.

I do all of the driving these days. Even have to drive 'her' car as SWMBO says I pick on her for silly driving errors...lol

It is funny how times change. My dearest won the interclub Offroad Mud Racing event on the outskirts of Darwin in the late 1980's. At one stage she held a bus drivers licence as we had small coaches for our business. Lifestyle changes saw to us acquiring an older 4by later on and when we settled in the Boro madam flatly refused to drive the old truck feigning a sore ankle and we had to go an buy her an automatic car. Now she has progressed to a softroader with pushbutton 4x4. She has flatly refused to drive my updated manual 4by as well :-)

But I have bush trained my dearest in all aspects of 4x4-ing including changing wheels, winching, radio comms, GPS mapping and satphone use and I am confident that should something happen to me whilst 'out there' that she is quite capable of getting us out of trouble :-)

Cheers

Tony,

It's all good fun, and we all get as good as we give.

My better half always drives when we are in a hurry, and fuel consumption doesn't count. She was a second faster than me around lakeside race course in our younger days.

I haven't driven the Birdsville track yet, she normally likes that one. As long as we stop for a drink at Birdsville or Maree, my shout.

As Willem says above, I am sure she can get us out of trouble if I can't drive.

We share the driving for all of our travels. she usually drive for most of the morning and I sleep while she drives, and then I drive the afternoon. She can not sleep in the car. I don't think it is my driving?

And she still doesn't mind cooking a meal after a long day on the road when we pull up in camp, and good for a cuddle.

Reckon I have one of the best travelling companions you can get.

Will have to work out wine consumption though, l/100k. :o)
I know it is not as bad as the fuel consumption of the car, so it can't be too bad. More like litres/week.

I solved this problem...............got rid of the husband, and took the 4WD with me!!! LMAO


However after driving to Cape York and back on my own, I am happy now to let my new 'husband to be' drive most of the time now. I think I got it out of my system!!

Go girl power!!

Jo

We did the CSR last year. My partner and I took it in 2 hour shifts. She was the only woman we met driving and was shocked at the attitude 'it's mens business'. She only got stuck once on a long difficult sandhill whilst the others in the convboy had several attempts at it. We constantly asked ourselves, 'what would happen if you were unable to drive?' in this amazing landscape.

We share it about 60/40. I would be happy to drive even less but we both enjoy either reading a book or having a snooze while the other drives, so the above ratio works ok for us.

KenD
bris

I laughed when I read your post Tony. I have just returned from Central Australia and drove almost 7000 kms in 2 weeks .............all on my own! There were three lots of us who went and they offered to do some of the driving for me but it became a challenge for me to do it myself. I also got to do my first real 4x4 driving and loved it. I can't wait for my next trip away.

Regards
Di