Britz camper danger!

[Akzle]

the Newmarket Viaduct, that was interesting

fuke norklanders.

[MVnut]

fuke norklanders.

at the time those were my thoughts exactly, I was in my car behind the truck that was playing skittles

[R650R]

There come with trailers on the back, loaded to the hilt and lean precariously at me whenever I see them. Hope they don't fucking tip over on the winding bits of road I so like to ride.

You really want to be scared, they are now the safer sector of the transport industry ( well compared to what they used to be anyway).
If you saw what was hiding inside a curtainsider trailer some nights you might not even want to leave home...

[MisterD]

could have cut a leg off/killed someone pretty easily.....

Except that it's a flimsy bit of moulded plastic on dinky little hinges attached with self-tapping screws, it might hurt, and it might knock you off, but it isn't going to slice anything.

[caspernz]

You really want to be scared, they are now the safer sector of the transport industry ( well compared to what they used to be anyway).
If you saw what was hiding inside a curtainsider trailer some nights you might not even want to leave home...

Very true, most loggers are sweet nowadays. But yeah, open the curtain and scratch your head on a few occasions...

All down to perception though ain't it? Some years back there was a story going around of a CAT engine loaded on a mezz floor, driver cranks truck around Bulli Pt and this engine slides thru the curtains into the lake.

Overall it doesn't matter what group of road users you look at I reckon, minority gives the majority a bad name, same as always.

[Mike.Gayner]

Back to this topic - logging trucks are what scare the shit out of me. There is a bunch of them working out of Waitetuna Valley Rd at present (joins SH23.) There come with trailers on the back, loaded to the hilt and lean precariously at me whenever I see them. Hope they don't fucking tip over on the winding bits of road I so like to ride.

I see loose chains swinging side to side on these logging trucks and want to stay well out of their zone of danger. The truth is that I don't know anything about transport or the industry, but seeing some of the knuckleheads behind the wheel of these trucks doesn't inspire confidence.

[R650R]

Very true, most loggers are sweet nowadays. But yeah, open the curtain and scratch your head on a few occasions...

All down to perception though ain't it? Some years back there was a story going around of a CAT engine loaded on a mezz floor, driver cranks truck around Bulli Pt and this engine slides thru the curtains into the lake.

Overall it doesn't matter what group of road users you look at I reckon, minority gives the majority a bad name, same as always.

Yes, and then the drama is never benchmarked against anything properly common to each group.
I'd quite believe the CAT story, heard of Roadfrightners chucking one of the early wind turbine motors out the same on Dillons hill. Helped restack someone elses vege crate that must have been SO close to a rollover it went from 2.5m wide to about 4m before he got to Cambridge...

I see loose chains swinging side to side on these logging trucks and want to stay well out of their zone of danger. The truth is that I don't know anything about transport or the industry, but seeing some of the knuckleheads behind the wheel of these trucks doesn't inspire confidence.

The biggest problem I know of is the bigger companies using temp supplied forkies and the driver not being involved in loading. People whose own personal safety is not involved in the outcome of your journey have no hesitation in doing crazy stuff like double stacking loose 200L flammable drums as if they were empty... I'd swear some of them are Al keda sleeper cells trying to block our road network with crashes...
Actually just after 911 we had one 'new' employer get off a forklift left in reverse and just stand there as it rocketed towards a brand new kenworth. Lucky one of the lads got all Keanu reeves style and lept aboard it. Really the roads are the safer place to be I swear sometimes...
What gets me about peoples fear of trucks though is the implied thought that a head on crash with nearly two ton of car at 100k is somehow softer or magnitudes more survivable.

[Kiwi Graham:Me]

Look at this Britz Camper with the panel door open.....could have killed someone. Yes I am going to try and clean up the image and forward to Police and Britz Campers............be careful out there

That wouldn't be a few weeks back coming out of Queenstown!?
Saw the exact same thing (not sure it was a Britz) of my SI tour.

[MVnut]

Except that it's a flimsy bit of moulded plastic on dinky little hinges attached with self-tapping screws, it might hurt, and it might knock you off, but it isn't going to slice anything.

..........at 200k it could take your leg off

[MVnut]

That wouldn't be a few weeks back coming out of Queenstown!?
Saw the exact same thing (not sure it was a Britz) of my SI tour.

No this was between Tai Tapu and Little River

[R650R]

..........at 200k it could take your leg off

If you that close to a campervan at 200k your numbers about to be called anyway...

[Mike.Gayner]

If you that close to a campervan at 200k your numbers about to be called anyway...

Your speed = 100km/h. Camper speed = 100km/h. Combined relative speed = 200km/h.

[rustyrobot]

Your speed = 100km/h. Camper speed = 100km/h. Combined relative speed = 200km/h.

I'm pretty sure there was a mythbusters episode about this. Well, not about a motorcyclist hitting the open hatch of a campervan, but about the 'combined relative speed' idea. They crashed a car into a wall at 50 mph (I think, from memory), then a car into a wall at 100 mph. The 100 mph crash damage was pretty much twice as bad as the 50 mph damage. They then crashed two cars into each other, both going 50 mph, and they showed the same damage as the 50 mph vs. wall crash, not the 100 mph vs. wall.

Either way, fuck riding into that panel at 100 or 200 kph.

Ahhh - here 'tis...

[Mike.Gayner]

I'm pretty sure there was a mythbusters episode about this. Well, not about a motorcyclist hitting the open hatch of a campervan, but about the 'combined relative speed' idea. They crashed a car into a wall at 50 mph (I think, from memory), then a car into a wall at 100 mph. The 100 mph crash damage was pretty much twice as bad as the 50 mph damage. They then crashed two cars into each other, both going 50 mph, and they showed the same damage as the 50 mph vs. wall crash, not the 100 mph vs. wall.

Either way, fuck riding into that panel at 100 or 200 kph.

I don't know, I don't watch junk television. But it's pretty simple physics. The problem with their experiment is that wall =/= car, and walls tend to be unyielding while cars are not. Two cars colliding head-on at 50km/h each will dissipate a lot of energy by swinging/rolling/moving/etc, while a wall will not. But that doesn't change the fact that 100km/h + 100km/h = 200km/h.

[rustyrobot]

I don't know, I don't watch junk television. But it's pretty simple physics. The problem with their experiment is that wall =/= car, and walls tend to be unyielding while cars are not. Two cars colliding head-on at 50km/h each will dissipate a lot of energy by swinging/rolling/moving/etc, while a wall will not. But that doesn't change the fact that 100km/h + 100km/h = 200km/h.

Yes, 100 kmh + 100 kmh = 200 kmh.

BUT... you don't get that 200 kmh each.

I bring 12 beers to the party, you bring 12 beers to the party. There are 24 beers, but we can't both drink 24 beers.

I'm not a physicist, I'm happy to be proved wrong. I just thought it was interesting when I first learned about it and thought it was relevant to the conversation.