Public Service Announcement for RV Drivers

[41magsnub]

If, either due to limitations of your rig or your driving ability, cannot go faster than 40MPH on a 2 lane highway in the middle of a bright sunny dry day in July, please take pity on the rest of us and pull over from time to time to let the cars that have been stuck behind you for the last 45 minutes get past.

Thank you, the rest of the drivers who had places to be driving on Hwy 200 from Lincoln all the way to Bonner.

As an addendum, if you are towards the front of this pack and have no intention of passing..  please hang back a bit so that the folks who will pass can climb the pack.

[Gowen]

Oh, he was probably in back making a sandwich.

[230RN]

You mean nobody started beeping?  Incredibobble!

[charby]

Let me guess the RV had plates from some Midwest State?

[roo_ster]

Work trucks loaded heavy and moving stuff from A to B to make a living, I can understand that.  Especially if the driver is not the owner, but just some hourly employee.

But RVs are recreational.  There is (usually) no great need to move the danged thing and its contents anywhere.  I'd hope the owners would be sports and buy enough RV for their purposes, engine/tranny/chassis-wise so they can move like a regular vehicle, not some ox cart.

[DonTron]

I know exactly how you feel.

I've always wanted to have billboards on Hwy 101 here on the Oregon Coast that say

IF YOU CANNOT MAINTAIN 50mph, PLEASE TRANSPORT YOUR RV ONLY AT NIGHT!

[RocketMan]

I know exactly how you feel.

I've always wanted to have billboards on Hwy 101 here on the Oregon Coast that say

IF YOU CANNOT MAINTAIN 50mph, PLEASE TRANSPORT YOUR RV ONLY AT NIGHT!

Yep, especially anywhere near Lincoln City.

[S. Williamson]

How about

"See the sights and unspoiled nature!

TAKE THE BACK ROADS!"

 

[Grandpa Shooter]

How about

"See the sights and unspoiled nature!

TAKE THE BACK ROADS!"

 

Actually, Lady Shooter and I do take the back roads whenever possible so that we don't get young impatient people making dangerous maneuvers just to get there 5 minutes faster.

[41magsnub]

But I bet you are also the kind of guy that if you looked in the mirror and there were cars stacked up behind you as far as you could see with nobody in front of you, that you would let folks by!

[taurusowner]

I think truckers do this on purpose sometimes.  I was stuck behind 2 semi trucks for about 20 minutes who were both going about 60 in a 70 zone, one in each lane.  They showed no intention of passing or letting people pass them for almost half an hour.

[French G.]

Where else can a blue hair on 7 different meds drive a 45ft long vehicle while towing a blind trailer without a CDL?

I pledge that if I am ever old(big if) I will drive like I might die at any minute. Which is to say squeeze out every ounce of fun and speed that the tires will keep on the road. 

[Tallpine]

Work trucks loaded heavy and moving stuff from A to B to make a living, I can understand that.  Especially if the driver is not the owner, but just some hourly employee.

The other day we got right behind a 1-ton flatbed pulling a trailer full of dirt (or manure?) coming up the hill out of Billings.

Now I'm pretty patient - heck, I used to be the one driving stuff like that.

Then we get out on the hiway, and about the time he finally hits 45mph, the trailer starts swinging like a pendulum 

No way I'm going to pass that, and cars were stacking up behind, so I just pulled off on the shoulder and let them all go by.  Better that they all pile up together than us.

I almost call 911 and reported the truck ... 

Sometime later, we finally got up behind the suicide rig again, and came to a long straight stretch with nothing in sight for a mile.  I actually got over in the oncoming shoulder to pass, so as not to get whipped by the trailer as we went by.

[roo_ster]

The other day we got right behind a 1-ton flatbed pulling a trailer full of dirt (or manure?) coming up the hill out of Billings.

Now I'm pretty patient - heck, I used to be the one driving stuff like that.

Then we get out on the hiway, and about the time he finally hits 45mph, the trailer starts swinging like a pendulum 

No way I'm going to pass that, and cars were stacking up behind, so I just pulled off on the shoulder and let them all go by.  Better that they all pile up together than us.

I almost call 911 and reported the truck ... 

Sometime later, we finally got up behind the suicide rig again, and came to a long straight stretch with nothing in sight for a mile.  I actually got over in the oncoming shoulder to pass, so as not to get whipped by the trailer as we went by.

I used to be that guy, too.

I may have sympathy for the driver if he's going slow, but I have zero tolerance for an unsafe load (bed or trailer).  It is too easy, too cheap, and only takes a few minutes to make sure the load is secure.  ROpe, 550 cord, tarps, whatever.  Secure that effing load so some lady doesn't get a log or hunk of steel in her windshield as you go by. 

I will call 911 on an unsafe load or a trailer that is an obvious hazard, RFN.

[MillCreek]

^^^ We have a law in Washington now about this.  A few years back, there was a horrible accident on north-bound 405 on the Eastside in which a piece of paneling came off the back of a pickup, went through the windshield of the car following and struck a young woman in the head, leaving her with significant craniofacial trauma and permanent bilateral blindness.

[Tallpine]

I used to be that guy, too.

I may have sympathy for the driver if he's going slow, but I have zero tolerance for an unsafe load (bed or trailer).  It is too easy, too cheap, and only takes a few minutes to make sure the load is secure.  ROpe, 550 cord, tarps, whatever.  Secure that effing load so some lady doesn't get a log or hunk of steel in her windshield as you go by. 

I will call 911 on an unsafe load or a trailer that is an obvious hazard, RFN.

The problem was that the trailer was apparently loaded tail heavy - not enough hitch weight. 

I kept thinking that he would turn off on one of the side roads.  It was fine as long as he stayed under 40 mph.

I'm just mostly a mind my own business don't get the cops involved sort of guy.  And then if I called 911 I would have felt compelled to stay with the rig until MHP or somebody caught up with it.  I even had a portable 2-way radio with us, but I don't have the Yellowstone County frequencies programmed in - they are probably all digital now anyway.  I could have gotten our home dispatch through the repeater, but it was out of their jurisdiction.