Gauges: If like me you like to push it as fast as it can take the answer might be yes. If you pootle about at 50-55, no point. Having gauges has enabled me to work out how much of a thrashing my boggo 1600 can take, but this will be different for every van/poptop/wind direction/amount of hills/condition of engine. Having an oil pressure guage was good when it caught my eye plummeting one morning after it blew the oil cooler seal. Switched off before the light came on. Conversely my first (T4 engined) bus came with one that seemed to give worrying random readings. After I got rid and reconnected the oil light I had 30,000 miles of care free driving.
This is not a problem. Sort yourself a steady cruise between about 55-60 & within half an hour you'll find yourself a lorry doing about that speed. If you're struggling to keep up with it, wait for another. If it seems to be slowing & getting in your way, pass it & find another. When you do, tuck in a bit behind & follow him. You'll get plenty of warning when you need to move across a lane, you can just follow. Makes motorway cruising very, very relaxed. That'll be a pound.
Not keen on doing miles on miles staring at the rear end of a lorry, and if it's raining even less so. If your van will cope with the dangerously fast speeds, another 2-3 mph and you'll be slowly catching them up which I prefer myself.
So far I've cruised at 55 up the M6 on my 1600 standard engine. Enjoy your trip up to Lancashire - where are you getting your interior done? - Campershak is just round the corner from me run by a friend of mine .
I was driving a 1600 in the then Czechoslovakia on our way to Prague 20 years ago, we were going down hill on a dual carriageway flat out. It had actually gone past the numbers on the speedo and we were waiting for the needle to start coming round again. Anyway it didn't and we never did find the con rod
I always did 60 when I had my 1776. Now, I can go much faster with the scooby, but I still mostly stick to 60-65. You catch up and pass most lorries that way, and only occasionally get overtaken by psycho luton vans and National Express coaches.
Totally agree, choose your lorry get a safe distance behind it, more distance if its raining, settle back and chill out. As for the lack of scenic views from behind a lorry, well you're on a motorway so there's not much to look at anyway and anything interesting is off to the sides. On some long journeys me and my chosen lorry driver have become good mates working together for the common good. Sometimes I feel a bit sad when they turn off and I have to choose another best mate.
I don't know that one - will have to look them up - have a safe drive "oop North". If you have any problems we are 6 miles off junction 27 M6 - ah - just noticed you are travelling on the 22nd November - we will be heading up the M6 ourselves - to Ambleside on that day. Just looked them up - they look like they do a great job. They are on on the road out of Preston towards Lytham St.Annes near BAe Warton - I must have passed by loads of times without realising.
It used to be cruising at 118 degrees dipstick oil temp. That was 67 indicated mph with spurts to 75 indicated or 65-70 actual. Less with headwind or on hilly sections both because of not having the power also the temperature would rise quite quickly to 123 degrees at which point the oil light would flicker at tickover. I did check the temperature gauge and it was within 1 or 2 degrees of a digital type K thermocouple thermometer stuffed down the dipstick hole. Now with an additional full flow filter and oil cooler it has 4.5l oil in it and even if I drive at 70 for a few miles I do not see the oil temperature over 110 degrees. The oil thermostat makes the minimum temperature seen driving at 40-50 mph about 80 degrees warmed up.
First thing I fitted. Really glad as it showed me my driving style would lead to ruin, especially as I can hold items at 200 degrees C briefly, and found myself searching for exhaust leaks with my fingers near the exhaust pipe the other day ... (soldering) so using the 'can I hold the very hot dipstick' trick might be off calibration.
Travelling in Cornwall last year in that heatwave that we had , i remember trundling along at about 60 mph temp rising to 11o ,keeping my eye on it ( not worrying ) i noticed just travelling through a glade of trees for two miles or so i noticed the temp go down . On another note am i right in assuming that an air cooled engine cools down faster than a water cooled engine when turned off due to the fact it's holding it's heated water .....it's just when i stop then set off again over a very short spell i am quite surprised at how quickly it's cooled ....Well that's oil temp gauges for you .
Can't do that over here in The Land of the Free™, the big rigs aren't limited like in Europe, so I get passed by them doing anything up to around 80mph when I'm sat at 60-ish (according to sat nav, Harvee's speedo reads 2mph fast - not too bad). That can give a mini pucker moment sometimes, with the wind of their passing. Even happens with the pickups towing their fifth-wheel RVs, or the big Class A RVs towing their 'dinghy' car. On the flip side, the on-ramp for the freeway near us, heading south, is uphill approach and then flat for the merge lane - I've pulled away from some of the modern cars going up that slope, some had to even back off as they couldn't quite make it past me
It actually cools even quicker driving at 30 for a bit or sitting at fast tickover as the heat blows away rather than boiling the carb.
