Ive just been on training course which involved slow speed rollovers, this was with a FH12 and a fully laden tanker , the tanker had outriggers on it.
I turned it over at 20mph or there abouts, the scary thing is that i didnt even feel it no signs at all, the turn i made didnt feel sharp in any way, the trainer told us that its been done at as little as 12 mph.
He also drove the tanker at some cones at low speed then swered to avoid them ( nothing to sharp) , he went right over no problem at all.
Some facts that he gave us were, out of 7100 rollovers only 35 involved tankers, a good number of the rest were containers and most of them were down to loading i bet ( high COG).
I think some people are only to quick to blame speed or bad driving for rollovers.
Godbless that man and his family, yet another Driver not going home to his family
manny:
Some facts that he gave us were, out of 7100 rollovers only 35 involved tankers, a good number of the rest were containers and most of them were down to loading i bet ( high COG).
I find this interesting as many years ago when travelling to Felixstowe with a fully, but lightly (Raleigh bikes), laden 40’ box I entered a roundabout at a reasonable speed turned left then right and just before the second left to leave saw in my offside mirror both wheels on the trailer lift off the road. Before I had time to react my exit left turn dropped it down again. Certainly shook me up and gave me pause for thought though.
Now I didn’t have much weight, about 4 tons, and was evenly loaded from floor to ceiling, so what caused that? Not speed, not sudden swerves, maybe camber? But if it is camber why are there not many more over on French roundabouts where the road falls away atrociously to the outside?
Once it was explained to me that in a series of quite gentle opposite turns the return of inclination from one adds itself to the forces already building in the second, and in the case of roundabouts with three such, the final force can be irresistable.
Fine, so why aren’t the roads littered with sleeping trucks? If you calculate the roundabout manoeuvres of all the trucks in the country in a year, 7100 over doesn’t seem a lot. Just too many.
A bit like the lost wheel syndrome. Never totally explained. Why do most wheels which fall of trucks come from the rear near side of tractor units? It happened to me and my mate within weeks of each other. Neither of us was prosecuted even though both were nearly fatal to others.