Now in the very short time we've owned our Camper we've noticed that most drivers are, for the most part, tolerant, if not, acceptant of the fact that we're going to be slow. That is, slow at junctions, slow away from the lights, slow on the motorways, etc, etc. Old people smile (knowingly), young people look on admiringly (probably unknowingly) and children wave, sometimes pointing (knowingly?). But lorry drivers seem to have a different attitude. They flash their lights, they sound their deafening horns, give glaring looks and see if they can hook bumpers! We've had the finger. We've had two fingers. We've had a (closed-hand) wave that's not the normal VW one we've come to expect. So are there any lorry drivers out there that can explain this phenomenon? Do we irritate by looking content? Do we slow you down that much? Or are we just "in the way"? Or is it just us or has anyone else noticed?
i love the irate motorists making a prat of themselves, i tend to just go a little slower and wave them on to overtake. they cant of course, but thats half of the fun. the amount of hours i get stuck behind trucks/tractors/cyclists its nice to get some payback
you may have to look at your driving , most lorry drivers i know love vw campers and seem to regard them as sacred vehicles . Sorry if this is'nt the response you wanted but a professional driver would usually only flash lights and sound the horn in irritation if you had blatantly obstructed them or caused them to brake harshly , that said i have noticed a few truckers seem quite irritable lately . Take a few minutes to chat to some the next time you pull onto the services or layby cafe , i can assure you they will welcome a vw camper warmly and want a look around it , most of us are quite nostalgic and enjoy a vintage truck scene as well .
Back in the day I used to hitch all over the UK - I got some great lifts off lorry drivers but, dear god, they do love to talk about lorrys
Try living in the Outback of Australia. Some tow 3 or more trailers over 50 metres long. And most of the guys are self employed and have got to get where they're going as fast as they can. The more they do they more they get paid. And it's those boys you really don't want to get in the way of or upset. They'll come past you and smother you in dirt and stones. Best to pull over. UK trucking really is quite tame by comparison. If you get the finger, just give it them back. Or drive a little faster. Or get a Subaru conversion and wave bye bye to 58mph in the slow lane.
I've never had a problem with lorry drivers it's always car drivers who have cut me up and generally drive like idiots when they see the camper in front of them
I just take a slurp of coffee, turn up the stereo and smile at the pleasure of just cruisin along in my bus. Seems to be a lot easier to do that than in some hatchback. If I want to go tear arsing around I get the bike out >
Yes I agree . My father-in-law drives a 35,000 litre petrol tanker. The stories in the press are not telling the full story. But he actually does think they are getting greedy. And he is one of them. He loves to see Bays out and about. always texts us when he sees one.
Cuppies I see your in NE Kent (Best county in England) just wondering if its them foreign types sitting on the wrong side of the cab. I cant say I had any trouble from lorry drivers in the 10+ yrs of owning Ruby but as said above plenty from car drivers who seem to think pulling out in front of you from a side road and then not speeding up is fine, so I just cruise up to their bumper flash and honk at them. When I was a white van man out on the roads 12 hrs a day it was again the car drivers who were by far the worst on the roads.
Yes, lots of "Euro" drivers in this area. Although they don'y usually use that "wave"! I am also a white van man (who also does 12 hour shifts) and know I'm not always whiter that white but I just want to know what happened to the "knights of the road" lorry drivers my Dad told me about!
I have to say I've never had any problems with lorry drivers. I think it's important to understand that they can't just speed up and slow down on a whim, and to give them room, and if you do that then there's no problem. I always make a point of flashing them back in after they've overtaken me, like lorry drivers do to each other, but then I picked that up from my dad who always seemed to think that 56mph was a sensible speed to drive a car on the motorway.
