How well prepared are grey nomads?

Hi Val, Looks like some journo was having a slow day at the office. Like a lot of so-called news items these days - a beat-up over nothing. Now, if they could have linked factual info as to how many accidents were caused by 'grey-nomads' on rural roads compared to excessive speed or alcohol related causes in suburban areas or truckies going to sleep behind the wheel, we could have a worthwhile discussion :-))

KK

Hi,
We have travelled long and often, and far and wide, towing camper trailers and caravans, and have seen many ill prepared, and poorly rigged and driven rigs on the road.
Conversely, we have also met the many, many "grey nomads"who are very, very experienced, and courteous , and who are usually the best kind of people.
Next year , we intend to get a new FWD, and a newer, larger van, and go fulltime on the road. We are pretty confident that after all the years we will manage the conditions.
pete and doreen

G/Day All

Sometimes I wonder if these so called experts have had any Life Experiences or just get their info from data they read about, One can carry the best Equipment on their Vehicles and Caravans ect, gain experience from doing extensive trips on all types of roads and tracks, pick up info from other seasoned travellers, and still waiting around the next bend or over the next hill there is a vehicle comming towards you with a driver half asleep or under the influence, or a Kangaroo or other type of animal ready to slam into your vehicle, and make you one of those experts Statistics.

Cheers

John @ Val

Sounds like the Jorno doesn't there A-Hole to elbow need to be educated

Regards

Oldpop

Hi Val

The survey is probably reasonably accurate.

Many of my vintage (60's plus) have adhered to the old adage of ' she'll be right, mate ' and have set off on the journey under prepared. Today everyone wants to over-emphasize what you need to do to live whatever life you choose. Almost every minute a new study group is formed to look at the advantages and disadvantages of this and that and it all boils down to one thing....money...and mainly insurance money. Insurance companies want to extract maximum profits for minimum outlay, and if they can sway 'authorities' to come up with new rules and regulations to cover their greed, they will attempt to do so.

When we set off doing the ' Grey Nomad ' thing in the mid 1990's we had an overloaded van. Very early in the piece I discovered a problem with the cable brakes and disconnected them. So the rest of our travels was done with great caution as we criss crossed the country using the gears and engine braking of the old 4by we had at the time. We managed to clock up around 250,000km in 5 years and only had 2 mishaps. One where a wheel came off the van and another when a towball snapped. Over the 5 years I eventually shed over 1.5 ton of unneccesary weight from the van :-)

These days vehicles are very powerful and vans are towed at breakneck speeds and the majority of travellers set out from the coastal fringes of this country where the populace live, and they go into the wilds with little or no experience. Most of the time they will bluff their way through and eventually learn. Some will come unstuck. Its all a numbers game :-)

Cheers

You gotta do a course for everything these days , common sense is not that common anymore.

Cheers Scoot . :-)

It's all just a little airy-fairy for me.

Many years ago I backed my dad's car up to a box trailer hooked them together and set off down the road. Had Dr Patricia Obst asked me at the bottom of the street if I had experience towing a trailer I would have said no.

Since then I have done lots of towing. In between I have made a pile of mistakes, poorly loaded trailers, overloaded trailers, towing too fast and probably a whole bunch more I can't or don't want to name. I drove for years without a first aid kit in the car and I never had stabiliser bars or WDH. I can still remember the first time I drove on dirt and on narrow bitumen with no lines or reflectors to mark the road edge, it was scary. I put the wind up myself and added a couple of small dents but I never killed anyone. I gained heaps of experience.

When I was teaching my daughter to drive she did a bit of L plate driving under my supervision with a trailer hooked up and on dirt roads. Since then we have found out that L platers are not allowed to tow a trailer. So my newly licensed son has no experience towing, we did find him some dirt roads though.

As Willem implied, we all start somewhere. Maybe these nomads have a bunch of other experience that will put them in good stead to deal with the problems they might encounter on the roads.

I wonder how much experience the good doctor has outside the university?

Duncs

They are probably right in what they say.

So I will add. If you see your brother standing by the road with a heavy load, give him a sutttle hand.

People soon learn the basics if someone gives a suttle hint.

Now I am back to having a quiet Bundy

The vast majority of Grey Nomads I've encountered seem to be very well set up regardless of being caravanners, camper trailers' or the odd one or two who have organised their vehicle as their home. I suppose they have to be when you consider that they are traveling around for a considerable period of time each year and mistakes cost money.

I'd imagine that those who are new to it would make more mistakes than the veterans but isn't this how most of us learn anything? There are numerous websites like ours out there that GNs can access well before they begin their trip. More knowledge is garnered along the journey for experience and from talking to the experienced. The newbies become the vets and pass their experiences on to others.

In this respect the article is just another example of how low the Aussie media has sunk to just to generate a 'story'! Sad indeed. Must have been a slow news day.

G'day John & Val

The study was commented upon in www.thegreynomads.com.au back in September, so some of your respondents may be on the money about slow news days. I'm happy to have a shot at lazy journalists, but those who criticise academics often do so without any recourse to reading the study, or wanting to understand what is being said.

Dr Obst surveyed 631 people and comments on their preparedeness or otherwise - that's all. The grey nomads site says that Dr Obst says that grey nomads are not an identifiable group on the Centre's database, so she is most unlikely to draw further conclusions. When you look at the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety's website, you don't get the impression that they waste their time, or that their output is likely to be a waste of time.

At this time of year I routinely search for research that demonstrates that double demerit points and increased fines actually has any measurable effect on road safety. Not much joy I'm afraid.

Cheers
John

This article would seem to under rate the lack of preparedness in caravaners in general.
Just take a look around any caravan park at the caravans touring. If you have any idea of what you are actually looking at you will be shocked.
Not many vans are even legal & most of the owners would even know they weren't.
The vehicles are mainly overloaded & the owners wouldn't know that either.
AS far as you blokes talking about the good old days, you better go & do one of those driving courses. You have a lot to learn. Times have moved on. We all drank & drove & did things in the past that don't work in these modern times on our busy high speed roads.

I have a saying that I have learnt from raising my kids that applies to a lot of situations & it goes "YOU KNOW SO LITTLE THAT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU DON'T KNOW".
I think that applies to a few caravaners I have met.