Overtaking

Just a quickie, when another truck is overtaking you on the motorway do you slow down slightly to let him pass? Is it courtious to do so? Also why are Scania rigids so hard to overtake they always seem to slow down and speed up like they are chugging?

one thing i have noticed with scania rigids is the speed limiter seems to keep coming in and out so you dont keep a constant speed it will let you get to 56 say then come in and drop you down to say 53 then it will let you build back up to 56 and then do it again. All the other Makes i have driven will let you get to the limiter and then “sit” at that.

I slow down if needs be, although I generally cruise at around 53mph on the motorway anyway rather than sitting on the limiter, simply because I find it gives me a lot less work to do.

Vince

Just cruise at 50, then everyone comes past no worries - it’s amazing how many flat caps you still creep up on when doin’ 50. Of course it’s courteous to back off and let the driver past…

Personally I think it shows good manners to slow down a fraction to allow them to overtake.

i always slow down a little and flash them in. its common courtesy

Yup when someones passing you ease off a bit and let them in

UNLESS of course

you drive an old scanny 93 like me and then its 60 all the way down the middle lane occasionally moving over for the irish road racing team

simon

I cruise at about 53 wait till they try and overtake then speed up to 60

I always knock off a couple of kliks, as said above it’s just been courteous, and what difference does losing a few seconds off a journey time make, life’s too short

depends on circumstances if i know i can get up a hill without slowing down and someone overtaking is going to struggle up the hill i might think stuff em let them sit there because i think this way they can see the hill just as well as i can and they know they cant get up it without slowing then they are stupid for trying to to overtake also ive got a job to do just as much as the next person and im not a charity but on the other hand if someone is more than a cab length ahead i will slow off the revs to let them pass even if striaght away i have to flick on the indicator to overtake them on the hill… like i say it just depends on the circumstances.

I don’t understand these blokes who overtake you downhill but are slower than you on the flat and uphill.

Here’s another one. If you’re doing an indicated 70 mph in your car and an artic HGV is tailgating you, and flashing because you’re in the way, would you pull over even if you’re busy overtaking slower vehicles?

daveb0789:
Here’s another one. If you’re doing an indicated 70 mph in your car and an artic HGV is tailgating you, and flashing because you’re in the way, would you pull over even if you’re busy overtaking slower vehicles?

no stuff him… but on the other it would be safer for you and your family to let the idiot go passed but i would get his details like reg and company and report him to the minstry and then tell his company id done it

I wait for 20-30 seconds to see what happens. If their cab is level with mine by that point, then I just carry on as I am as they’ve obviously got a reasonable speed advantage, and they’re not going to be out there much longer anyway. If they’re still behind my cab, I knock a few mph of the cruise control (assuming the truck’s got it) to let them get by quicker.

MrFlibble
It’s a shame that a few of the “MACHO” boys don’t take your advice, many a time i’m nearly past a truck and then he decides he wants to go for it, but if you look across and try to eyeball them they always stare straight ahead for some reason.

I think everyone does it, especially car / van drivers. In fact I think they are far more guilty than drivers of large vehicles. My girlfriend was driving along in her Micra overtaking someone doing 55 on the motorway. For no reason he sped up and undertook her accelerating rapidly.

i can understand that one. i wouldnt like to be overtaken by a micra either

to original question - it depends…

if they’re creeping past me, then yep. absolutely. lift right off, lose 5mph or so and that gets em past and in, and everyone’s happy.

unless…

there’s someone who was right up his chuff and is as a result now up my chuff. if I lift off too much too soon they’ll wing up behind me and fly out as well, and whoever’s behind him is suddenly faced with a truck slowing down in front of him and having to swing out as well, and the further back they are the more chance of cutting cars up as they jerk around - so it’d be making a situation potentially worse so I lift as little as possible to let the other creep back in a touch sooner than would have been the case. basically try and make things as safe for everyone as I can.

but in essence I try and lift off.

if the motorway is clear ahead and behind, just let em creep through, no harm done.

what does annoy me is the trucks who I’ve passed when I’m empty, on the flat at a normal gentle pace, left for dead on the up-hill, and then on the downhill my mass carries me through the limiter and so I’m holding it on 60 with the exhaust brake, dropping a split and occasional full brakes to knock extra mph’s off knowing it’ll be back at 60 in 20 seconds even using the above measures… and matey boy sails past me like I’m standing still, at 70ish in what’s clearly a loaded lorry, risking his own life and those around him, and usually ends up me stuck behind him as we hit the next hill and he’s crawling past a flat-cap or an even slower lorry than him.
if it’s me who’s loaded and getting passed uphill and my mass is carrying me even harder downhill, and someone else’s mass isn’t enough to take them over 56 then I’ll work even harder to keep the speed down and stay behind them if possible. why should I hold someone up for no reason, when I can stay behind and actually be safer?

maybe when I’ve been driving longer and I’m jaded I’ll change my attitude

zorba:
MrFlibble
It’s a shame that a few of the “MACHO” boys don’t take your advice, many a time i’m nearly past a truck and then he decides he wants to go for it, but if you look across and try to eyeball them they always stare straight ahead for some reason.

I don’t see any point in “duelling” it out - a couple of mph off the cruise for a minute or so is going to make me, what? 30 seconds later? What’s the point in arguing over it? Let them get by, then you don’t have to watch them like a hawk to make sure you don’t side-swipe each other. If these truckers who are spending ages overtaking each other just grew up and behaved responsibly, maybe some of the car drivers wouldn’t behave so aggressively either, and the roads would be a nicer place.

I had a couple of people speed up on me last Friday - I was on the A38 between Plymouth and Exeter with the cruise control set at 50. Caravan ahead, doing 40 mph uphill. I got level with him just as we reached the top of the hill, at which point he sped up to exactly 50 mph. I waited a bit to see what he was going to do down the other side of the hill, but he just stuck at 50. By this point, there was a load of stuff tailgating the caravan, so slowing down and pulling in would have been dangerous, so I had the choice of either staying in the outside lane and [zb]ing off all the following traffic, or speeding up over the limit so that I could pull in in front of him.

Then on the hill coming up to Portbury, I was on the limiter (I was unloaded), and there was an artic doing 45-50 in lane 1. I was almost completely in front of him at the top of the hill, then he sped up, and started undertaking me down the hill. Traffic was light, so we weren’t causing any significant holdups. Once we got to the bottom, I was faster again, but I needed the Avonmouth turnoff, and I didn’t want to risk having to cut him off, so I dropped back behind to go over the bridge, but having done that, I then had to follow him over the bridge at 45 mph.

if they do the old speedmatch once I’m alongside and they were much much slower in the first place to make me be where I am - like your caravan example, I’ll give them a blast of the horn. it’s there to say “Oi, I’m here you know!” and usually either results in them getting on with it and zipping off so I’m back in, or they lift off and let me get on with it. either way, I win (in a fashion).

unless I’ve got an embarrasing road-runner meep-meep tooty horn in which case I just sit swearing like royston vasey