On the 17th Nov I catch the Plymouth - Santander ferry and will be driving a 4.3M high race truck (artic) to Estoril
I would appreciate any helpful advice about driving in Spain and Portugal. I’ve only ever driven hire cars on the south coast of both countries.
According to Google maps the route I am considering is Santander A67 then A62/E80 across Spain then IP5/A25/E80 , IP2/A23/E806 , IP6/A23/E806 , IP1/A1/E80 , A5/IC15
Any comments regarding low bridges/ tunnels? Anyone know a better route?
Well the truck has got to go and I’ll just have to find a way of getting it there! It was 4.1M high until the owner, in his infinite wisdom, decided to fit a Satellite TV aerial which when it’s retracted pushes the height up yo 4.3M.
I told him he had just fitted a £2000 bridge detector!
bogie153:
Well the truck has got to go and I’ll just have to find a way of getting it there!
Better make sure you take a lot of cash for the fines then. You’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb amongst all the 4.0 metre trucks so you may not even get out of the port.
I think the only way will be to look at the convoy exceptional option, which I guess is going to be expensive if it is possible.
I don’t like to tell Coffeeholic he might be wrong, but I know that the former Piquet team, now Minardi have been running a 4.2m trailer across Europe for the last 3 years. However if you could remove the Sat dish it would make life much more easy.
So your team running VdeV Then? What with trips to Magny Cours and now Estoril .
muckles:
I don’t like to tell Coffeeholic he might be wrong, but I know that the former Piquet team, now Minardi have been running a 4.2m trailer across Europe for the last 3 years.
There is a difference between getting away with running an over height trailer and what the stated height limits are in each country. Getting away with it doesn’t make it right and the simple fact is that most of Europe, including Spain and Portugal, have a 4.0 metre height limit.
muckles:
I don’t like to tell Coffeeholic he might be wrong, but I know that the former Piquet team, now Minardi have been running a 4.2m trailer across Europe for the last 3 years.
There is a difference between getting away with running an over height trailer and what the stated height limits are in each country. Simple fact is that most of Europe, including Spain and Portugal, have a 4.0 metre hight limit.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to say you were wrong about the height limit, more the fact that despite this and the fact the race transporters tend to attract loads of police attention in various countries, nobody seems too worried about the height of thier trailer. Maybe the only time it would cause big trouble is if you actually hit a bridge, then I’m sure there’d throw the book at you.
I would got A1, A9, then A5 to avoid the centre of Lisbon, I am not sure about where low bridges are on your route, but all bridge heights are well signed on Spanish motorways and are normally quite high. What race is going on? I am in Cascais that weekend until Wednesday with 3 other drivers, any free tickets
Sorry I can’t be of more assistance.
muckles:
However if you could remove the Sat dish it would make life much more easy.
So your team running VdeV Then? What with trips to Magny Cours and now Estoril .
Hi Muckles
I agree with removing Sat dish. I cannot understand why it wasn’t attached to the front of the trailer so it could be retracted below the overall height.
Yes they are running the last 2 races of this season in the V de V. They were running a Radical SR8 in one of the support races to the Le Mans series. I was with them at Nurburg, Spa and Silverstone.
Radical asked them to drive their works SR5 for the last 2 races of the season at Magny and Estoril. Radical are based in Peterborough.
Was going to include a pic of the race truck and car byt don’t know how to do it?
jimti:
I would got A1, A9, then A5 to avoid the centre of Lisbon, I am not sure about where low bridges are on your route, but all bridge heights are well signed on Spanish motorways and are normally quite high. What race is going on? I am in Cascais that weekend until Wednesday with 3 other drivers, any free tickets
Sorry I can’t be of more assistance.
Further research also leads me to believe that a section of the A67 , the N611 is not up to motorway standard and may present problems. I may play it safe and take the long way round via Bilbao. A8/E70 , AP68/E804 , AP1/E80
The race series is the V de V which is an endurance race series. It was a 12hr race in Magny and this one is a 6hr
Just to add the height limit in Spain is not 4.m,i generally run around all of Spain at 4.3 4.4 M depending on what cars i have loaded,but if you stick to main routes its not a problem.most autovia you can run 4.5 not a problem…
portacoches:
Just to add the height limit in Spain is not 4.m,i generally run around all of Spain at 4.3 4.4 M depending on what cars i have loaded,but if you stick to main routes its not a problem.most autovia you can run 4.5 not a problem…
EU member states can allow trucks to exceed the maximum allowed dimensions for certain national transport operations that do not significantly affect international competition. Could be that this is the case with car transporters in Spain because every piece of reference I have shows Spain as having a 4.0 metre height limit.
There are differing limits in the different areas Coffee
plus of course rule 401b/657a paragrph B applies here …
One rule for us one for them
But seriously the Spanish trailers I used to pull were all capable of lifting the roof to run at 4.3 and this I have done several times internally in Spain
I remember all the Portugese trailers had a sloping floor to keep within the height limits. Obviously before the introduction of low ride units and low low profile tyres.
GBE, well Transalliance GBE do run at 4.2 with the megas now.
I will lay money though that if you were stopped and measured by the red caps. you wouldnt be moving until you gave them a donation to ETTA or something
Wheel Nut:
I will lay money though that if you were stopped and measured by the red caps. you wouldnt be moving until you gave them a donation to ETTA or something
Hi ‘Wheel Nut’, if you’ve ever been pulled by the ‘red caps’ you’ll know how difficult it is to keep a straight face when they get out of their car and put that stupid big red hat on, I’m sure they only wear them to get us laughing and ‘nick’ us for disrespect!!
Hiya mate, which team are you with? Im with Martin Stretton,
Your leaving early arnt you? Im setting off on monday morning and im going dover calais!
The only decent truck stop in Spain which i came across last year was between Valladolid and Sallamanca on the E80. Has good showers and a bar/restaurant. Once into Portugal they are fairly frequent and seem to be pretty good! Its just that horrible run through Spain!
Looks like I ve got to take our old Nail of a 17 tonner now though, not happy about that!
will_c:
Hiya mate, which team are you with? Im with Martin Stretton,
Your leaving early arnt you? Im setting off on monday morning and im going dover calais!
The only decent truck stop in Spain which i came across last year was between Valladolid and Sallamanca on the E80. Has good showers and a bar/restaurant. Once into Portugal they are fairly frequent and seem to be pretty good! Its just that horrible run through Spain!
Looks like I ve got to take our old Nail of a 17 tonner now though, not happy about that!
Hi Will,
I’m Truckie for Balfe Motorsport. Look out for a white Renault Magnum behind the pits and come say hello when you get there. My name’s Mick.
Got a feeling I may have to dress up in a nomex suit this time and do the re fuelling too. I normally look after tyres and wheels and any other odd jobs.
I did offer to drive it the whole way but they want to keep the milage and wear and tear on the truck down so they decided to send me via the Plymouth - Santander Ferry.
I’m actually setting off very early this Friday! The car is last minute testing at Silverstone. Drive to Plymouth Saturday, then catch the 12 o’clock ferry to Santander on Sunday.
I was recently speaking to a mate who suggested Salamanca - Caceres - Badajoz - Lisbon. Slightly longer but apparently less up and down hill , so kinder on the truck. I have plenty time so will probably go this way.
I’ll probably get there at least a day early so will get set up and then go do a bit of sight seeing. The rest of the team are flying in sometime on Thursday.
I’ll also have plenty time on the return leg too. I’m not booked on the ferry back from Santander until 7pm Thursday 29th.
Thanks for the heads up about that truck stop. I’ll look out for it.
Thanks to all the other guys who have replied to this post. I’ll be keeping an eye open for men with silly red hats too!
will_c:
The only decent truck stop in Spain which i came across last year was between Valladolid and Sallamanca on the E80. Has good showers and a bar/restaurant.
one decent truckstop and several rather good baghouses
haha they wouldnt happen to be those weird looking places with big neon “Club” signs would they? i havnt ventured into one of those yet… not sure if its a good idea or not.
Mick, last year we contemplated going that way but in the end we went down the 802/806 and from what i remember its a lot more down hill than up on the way to Portugal, I havnt been the other way so cant comment.
Im aiming to get there wednesday night - thursday morning and get off for an explore so i would have thought we wont be far away from each other once you get down to salamanca area.
Should be interesting weekend, the one car we were ment to be running isnt going but now we re taking 2 sheds (one of which we ve just sold) that will never manage the whole 6 hours considering neither of them have any spare parts or wheels.
How many cars have you got going? what is it? historic?
Getting away with it doesn’t make it right and the simple fact is that most of Europe, including Spain and Portugal, have a 4.0 metre height limit.
I didn’t mean to say you were wrong about the height limit, more the fact that despite this and the fact the race transporters tend to attract loads of police attention in various countries, nobody seems too worried about the height of thier trailer. Maybe the only time it would cause big trouble is if you actually hit a bridge, then I’m sure there’d throw the book at you.
There are differing limits in the different areas Coffee 
