Hi all,
As I’ve got an assessment tomorrow and being a newbie and not driven an artic for some time I’m just after some advice on splitting the lanes.
If I’m approaching a roundabout and unsure if I need to split them or not should I just do it? Or could I be marked down for this?
Surely it’s better to split them and hold some cars up rather than take one of them out with the trailer!
Cheers.
If in doubt i would split it you may get a comment for taken too much road but explain you dont know the road end of the day to go onto the round about or hit something is worse if your lucky you may have trucks ahead of you if so follow there lead.
Good luck hope it works out for you
not sure how relevant this is but i was told by my instructor you wont fail for taking too much road unless you force someone to take evasive action. seemed like good advice to me
‘If it doesn’t fit, straddle it’ That goes for what comes after as well, so I’d say that even if there are two marked lanes leading to roundabout, but there isn’t enough space on the roundabout itself, straddle the lanes to block drivers behind so you’ve enough space during the entire manoeuvre.
Biscuits:
‘If it doesn’t fit, straddle it’.
I bet you say that to all the girls. 
I would have thought it would be better to hold up a few cars for a minute or so rather than take the trailer up onto the curb.
That’s just my logic I don’t hold a C+E licence yet (not through lack of trying 
)
I’m sure someone will b along soon to give you a proper answer not just a “guess” 
EDIT: Posted in the duplicate thread so not very relevant now 
Like most things in life how something is supposed to work is not the way it works in reality. Most of the time it will be obvious little narrow approach lanes that hardly fit cars, or if there is a “speed brake” put in on approach i.e tight bending approach lanes put in on purpose to slow drivers down on approach to junctions usually R/bouts. You will have to straddle these because of the length of your truck cuts these bends.
Some road designs don’t help anyone and even an experienced driver would get caught out and only local knowledge will stop you looking like a ■■■. Example, when I was doing my “lessons” which were quite a novelty for me a trained driving instructor, my LGV instructor Paul asked me to turn right at the R/bout ahead he was giving his instruction well ahead of the large R/bout as it was national speed limit on approach (50).
The road was dual C/way with very wide road lanes on approach and a good bit wider than the cab, the approach was as straight as an airport runway. Ok mirrors, signal, right hand clear, change lane, good distance to go and starts to slow up. Instructor Paul coughs up after seeing how I would approach the situation (normal driving instructor technique) “you’ll need to straddle this on approach”.
Eh! “there’s bags of room around me” I say, “trust me” says he, I did so I checked the left mirror, other traffic well back and I move to the left and straddle the lanes. As we got nearer to the approach not many yards from the r/bout can’t say how many, I was too busy weighing up the traffic situation on “it” .
The final approach had been choked right down and both lanes were narrowed, after I had finished the turn I asked Paul “how the hell would you know to straddle that”. Paul gave me an answer I’ve been hearing and using in driving instructing for many years “local knowledge, you wouldn’t know”.
Paul went on to explain that this was “one of them new roundabouts” they had put three in the area and they narrowed down for no good reason known to him, except to make life difficult for HGV drivers!
So what I learned from this is that I will get caught out on roads I don’t know and all that you can do is wait till it’s safe to take the space if you get the approach wrong. The only problem with this is the good old DSA expect you to know it thats why your instructor shows you all the local pit falls.
The problem with supermarket assessors is they know this too and really should keep you right, if they know a junction requires “local knowledge” but I suppose this is were it comes down to “if your face fits”.
To be honest with roundabouts it depends on several things. The overall size of the roundabout, the width of the lanes, the length of your vehicle and the direction you intend taking at the island.
As a general rule it is better to take a bit more width than you really need rather than mount the kerb although this can lead to marks on the sheet for normal positioning etc.
This is one of the reasons most trainers stick to teaching the test routes. A few days going round the tight roundabouts in a strange town and you will be fairly familiar with the worst cases.
Normally taking up a position to the far right hand side of the approach lane is sufficient but on small islands you may need a bit more room. If you are going to take some of the next lane do so early on the approach. This will stop cars from overtaking you and allow you to take the desired position.
Regards
John
Flair Training