Question for Class 5 truck drivers

[quickbuck]

worse now there's so many longer 'H' class rigs out there, .......

Wow, I must have been living under a Rock..... Slightly embarrassed to say i have only just worked out what the H means on really big Rigs!!!
This might be because I have never been told, and there is nil requirement for drivers to know everything...... (I do have only class 1 + 6 after all).
After a quick search: http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/fa...-vehicles.html

That said Always treat trucks with respect and give them room.
You never know how much attention the driver is paying to the task, you never know at what point in his driving hours duty cycle he is.
From motorcycle it is really hard to appreciate how difficult it is to maneuver such a big vehicle.....
The list goes on.

Reminds me of a little incident that I avoided on the Forgotten World Highway very near Taumaranui on Saturday afternoon:
I was in the car heading away fro Taumaranui when I noticed a big cruiser type of motorcycle coming down the hill. For me it was a Left Hander, so a right hander for him...
I had to slow up the car something wicked as I could see very early what he was about to do. He might not have noticed I had to slow up the car, but I could tell he was going to put his entire body over the line into my path...... The only part of his bike on the Left side of the road was his tyres.
If I was not paying attention, or indeed a very big rig, this gentleman would have had a very long delay getting to Taumaranui.....

The lesson here is this:
When turning right USE THE LEFT HAND WHEEL TRACK.
Also: TURN IN LATER AND USE A BIGGER INPUT TO THE BARS (ie turn the bars faster).

NEVER PUT YOUR BODY OVER THE CENTER LINE.

Follow these rules all the time and you will do it all the time. Not just when other traffic is around as kevie said.

[caspernz]

I've resently bought a traffic cam from super cheap for $100.

It came in handy a couple of days after buying it when a 4x4 pulled out of a gas station in front of me,then in response to my sounding the horn he stopped just after the next uncontrolled intersection and stopped me while I was still blocking the oncoming lane.

After that he pulled a couple of brake checks on a straight section while travelling at around 85-90 kph one hand on the wheel the other giving me the finger .

I got back to the yard to find this prick had then rung in and complained about my tailgating and abusing him.

The boss called him back later to explain we had the footage and it would getting passed on to the local cops.

Funny he didn't have much to say after that.


Love my little camera.

Haha, funnily enough I have a standing agreement with a member of the local traffic constabulary. I send him video clips of drivers who break the law, he sends them a ticket. All along the lines of a picture is worth a thousand words...or one ticket it seems haha!! Not sure if this will help me if I ever get busted on my Busa at warpspeed in the backblocks though...

[cynna]

Truck's on the motorway have difficulty staying in their lane going in a straight line so it only stands to reason they would have the same problem with corners.

But cars seem to have the same problem as well.

and bikes......

[SPman]

Our local road into Perth (Toodyay) road has a couple of quarries on it, and there is a steady stream of Artic and trailer gravel trucks using the road. The seal is 7m wide, it's a moderately windy, hilly road...sort of South Waikato'ish . There've been 2 serious smacks involving these f*cking things in the last 6 months - the last when the trailer "stepped out" on a downhill left hand 90 degree bend, and annihilated a Landcruiser coming the other way - killing the Mom and her 2 kids inside - the thing looked like it had a 100 kg bomb go off underneath.
Officially, it was nobody's fault - the road's maybe, because it was wet and greasy, but, trucks are known to really boot it when empty and we've seen numerous occasions when the trailers are all over the road, moving 2-3 feet off line, side to side - and that's on the straight bits, when you're trying to get past! On the downhill, off camber, tightening radius, left hander, with bush obscuring the oncoming traffic through 70% of it corner...............