How can you jack knife coming off the roundabout onto a straight road. Did anyone else see the chimp on the a41 in Tipton this morning
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Cos the roads coming off those roundabouts on the A41 round Tipton are like glass when wet, i’ve had some serious wheelspins there, i use them regularly so know where are the worse spots.
They don’t look bad but even when you’re straightened out and up to approx 30 mph, if you’re empty and in say 11th you can suddenly find all the drive wheels in full spin up and before you know it you’re going sideways.
Before the days of TC or ASR we all expected this sort of thing and controlled our own vehicles via throttle and gearbox, the trouble now is that TC sorts most such things out but if both wheels spin up then TC/ASR doesn’t always cotton on what’s happened quickly enough and all of us in modern tackle are losing that seat of the pants feel for whats happening at the wheels, not helped by the vehicles being so quiet and comfortable that the driver is getting increasingly remote from the road.
The worse surface for this is in that section is when leaving the roundabout A41 West Brom bound where the A461 joins from Dudley, the most gentle use of throttle there or you can lose the thing easily, try it for yourself empty in the wet 
I have seen some of the most experienced drivers jackknife at roundabouts, there are so many things to take into account, road camber, wet surface, speed and load placement, if for instance most of the weight was at the rear of the trailer and the guy touched the breaks for some reason the trailer can act like a pendulum and swing around, seen that a few times. Also, when I learned to drive HGV’s many years ago part of the training was that the most common place to jackknife was at a roundabout.
Easy done hit a very slippy patch and it can go round no hassel.But we all know any driver can be caught out new or old.
Pat Hasler:
I have seen some of the most experienced drivers jackknife at roundabouts, there are so many things to take into account, road camber, wet surface, speed and load placement, if for instance most of the weight was at the rear of the trailer and the guy touched the breaks for some reason the trailer can act like a pendulum and swing around, seen that a few times. Also, when I learned to drive HGV’s many years ago part of the training was that the most common place to jackknife was at a roundabout.
In my experience; the other way around. Weight at the front, and once the drive wheels start to slide (usually as you exit the roundabout), all you can do is hang on and pray.
Roundabouts are a common place for rollovers too, because the load swings right on the entrance, then left as you go round, and right again on the exit. When you feel it tilting, you over-correct and if you are unlucky - opps, a flattened mirror.
Some of those roundabouts on the A41 in that area are lethal, especially the one that heads off to Wednesbury by Dreams, and the next one along by the fuel station… I’ve had the back end kick out there many a time, and I don’t boot it off the island… but we carry 28 tonnes loaded from the trailer legs backwards… nothing on the drive at all…
a lot of diesel fairy’s live round tipton and don’t care how they transport their ill gotten gains. i.e leaking drum’s, container’s in the back
of their ■■■■■■’s with rotten floor’s. 
Coming off the m1 n/b at j26…towards Langley mill,bit of power…touch of opposite lock…and she sticks her arse out like a good un.
Ahhhhh this explains alot then.
I once had fun around that area when it was raining. Approaching round abouts the unit and trailer where twitching all over when braking and spinning wheels when accelerating.
I thought a few times it was guna jack knife no matter how much slower i went etc.
Many a slippy exit on the roundabouts up there,as its a shortcut back to work off at j1 m5,see enough come flying past thinking they are clever the the other side of the island doing a whole 20mph lol.