Been for a cruise round today with the little woman including a trip up Sutton Bank.I thought it was going to be interesting following a caravan from Thirsk whose driver ignored two "caravans prohibited"signs.Looked like his car had around 15 tons on the back axle but he was stopped by a motor biker for advice,I assume,so I never got to see the fun.Approaching the hill was another sign indicating that so far this year there have been 74 HGV victims of the hill.Surely no one on this illustrious forum could be included?
Something else that always amazes me east of Leeds where the A1M, M1, and A64 meet near Bramham(today being last day of Leeds Festival).Why,when there is a sign which extends over 4 lanes,a hard shoulder and a bit of central reservation and numerous 6ft(?)arrows painted on the road indicating which road needs what lane,why is it that at the point where roads merge or diverge the driver in the left lane always wants to go right and the guy in the right lane usually doing 100 mph wants to take the left.Always interesting even though I’ve seen the situation 1000s of times.
I live not far from the top of Sutton Bank and have gone up and down it many times with artics. I’ve also turned an artic round on it twice. Once in the turning bay and once on the hairpin.
You can get up it as long as its dry. Trouble is it can be dry at the bottom and wet at the top…
As for that sign about 74 blockages, its been there for years lol 
Are caravans actually prohibited or is it just a blue advisory sign like the unsuitable for HGV ones?
I’ve seen a couple of hgv incidents on Sutton bank and and have been the same. There’s a tight ish left hander on the way up and they’ve nearly cut the corner, realised their mistake and stopped and then been unable to start again.
I’ve never had an issue, up or down.
As for caravans, I thought it was mandatory but it’s a few year since I’ve been up that way.
sent using smoke signals
Never taken an article up there myself. Took a heavily loaded rigid up a few times. Once crawling up with the drive wheels intermittently spinning. Not sure I’d rush to take an article up in anything but completely dry conditions.
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There are two mandatory circular prohibition signs for caravans,one in Thirsk the second at thelast junction before you hit the hill.
As said above it’s the wet surface at the hairpin that would screw an artic up.Yesterday it was bone dry and seemed to have a new surface.The difference is most artic drivers,though red faced,would have the skill level to manoevre themselves out of trouble whereas the average caravan driver wouldn’t.Personally I think an artic would not have struggled yesterday.There were plenty coming the other way.
DickyNick:
Are caravans actually prohibited or is it just a blue advisory sign like the unsuitable for HGV ones?
Caravans are actually prohibited with a round white sign with red border.
If anyones heading up that way worth remembering its shut for a week from the 10th September
I used to use it fairly regularly a few years ago when I did lightweight loads on an artic. As said, in the dry no problem but in the wet on the hairpin…[emoji57]
I never had to turn round or call for assistance but had a couple of times when I had to back up and have another go at it. I’d be less inclined to try it with these hopeless autos though. Even locking it in ‘manual’ wouldn’t help if you need to make a gear change given how slow the changes are [emoji57]
(Apart from ishift probably) [emoji3]