Would towing courses help reduce accident numbers?
With the great grey nomad migration north now in full swing, the debate surrounding the need – or otherwise – for compulsory towing courses is once again heating up,
Sadly, this time of the year is when reports of caravan rollovers or other types of grey nomad accidents become more frequent, and demands for solutions become more intense.
The Sunshine Coast Daily newspaper reports that once again driver education experts are calling for those towing caravans be required to undertake compulsory training to make the roads safer for both them and other drivers.
Mike Clayton from Clayton’s Towing said some urban myths can have dire results for caravanners in dangerous situations.
“There’s a bit of a saying that if you get the wobbles up that you should go faster to get out of them,” he said. “That’s one we’ve heard so often and it doesn’t work … if you’re towing a caravan … training doesn’t hurt at all.”
Roadcraft Driver Education instructor Bruce Woodstock told 7 Sunshine Coast that he finds it frightening that a caravan can be towed without any additional training or licence.
“If you want to drive a truck that weights as much as that car or caravan, then you have to have a truck licence,” he said. “You can drive that car and caravan on a standard car licence with no extra training at the moment, and that’s the scary thing.”
Licence to tow caravans should be compulsory. These are not 6×4 weekend trailers! A lot of caravaners cannot even back their rigs into sites in caravan parks!
I agree with Anne’s comment however prior experience should be accepted. I am the holder of a heavy vehicle combination licence and have driven heavy combination vehicles as part of my previous work. As such I am aware of the risks associated with driving combination vehicles
Yes i do. But what’s just as important is that the trainer’s are probably regulated as well. I can just see all the back yard Cowboys lining up to charge like wounded bull’s just to do a short course.
To drive a truck of similar weight requires so much training. And so should a person wanting to tow a caravan be properly trained as well.
That trainer must be a government certified trainer.
You can get a truck Licence in one day of training don’t even have to go to RMS
I think they should slow down a bit when some of them fly past at over a 100k, on outback roads and if they hit the rough edge of the road they are fighting to control. they need to remember if they want to get there yesterday they should have left the day before
I agree it takes experience to tow a large van. We learnt the had way – a with a 6 cylinder car and a heavy fold down van – caught in slip stream passing a truck. Did not have enough power to pull out of it, lucky large grass strips either side of road. Truck driver saw what was happening and gunned it to pull away from us – we were going from one side of the road to the other until the front right side of the van hit a white post – flipped the van up a few feet – then slammed back down – burst the van tyre and dragged us to stop on left side of road in the grass.
We had 5 young children in the car. Very lucky it – bent the chassis on the van and all got out safely. Moral of this was when we did decide finally to pull a van again – got the largest car with a powerful motor and smallest van! Have upgraded the van since but now always use level riders that stabilize our rig if needed – and that has only been one time. And never overtake if in doubt – better to pull over as soon as possible to allow traffic to pass. Stop and have a cuppa!!
Yes I agree entirely , you can’t drive a manual for four years if you get your licence in an automatic ,but you can drag an enormous trailer or caravan without ever having towed anything before , and driving a manual is a Peice of cake compared to safely towing 3.5 tonne .
What does work if going faster doesn’t?
@Karen Clarke Tunbridge. Wobbles are avoided by good weight distribution of the trailer/van. 10% of total trailer mass should be on the towing car tow ball as a vertical load. Thus gives good inhehrent stability up to an adequate crusing speed. Wobbles can still.happen but at a higher road speed. If you do get the wobbles DO NOT increase speed as the phenomenon is linked to yaw natural frequency of the rig and tyre response time. As you go faster the tyre response time is reduced. If tyre response time approaches the yaw resonant frequency then wobbles will follow. Wobbles are very exciting and you need nerves of steel to stay calm. I know of 2 techniques to recover and have used both. The first is to start turning the steering wheel back and forth at a high frequncy but a fairly small amplitude, enough to get a response from the front tyres but not from the rear. This will saturate the natural yaw frequncy with your steering induced frequncy and decay the resonant response. The other is to look in your side mirror and watch the trailer coming into view and going out of view again. Time a moderate steering input to go with the trailer as it comes into view. As the car moves accross in the same directioj as the swing then the wobble decays. After you recover from a wobble slow down to a max speed that will not excite the yaw response and re evaluate weight distribution. Sorry for the technical answer…..it’s a complex phenomenon.
Michael.
You use your caravan brakes to pull the caravan straight and slow down this usually happens because you are travelling too fast for the road conditions.
Spot on Rosalie and I have had the need to do this and have told others about doing so and they have no idea that you can do this
with your braking system. They also think that the ESC will save them, they are unaware that this will only help in a critical sway situation, so people need to ask questions about what they are buying and learn about it before loading it up and hitting the road.
I hope the trainers will have done a certificate iv. In training and assessment before calling themselves trainers . Its is one thing to be able to tow, and another to be able to train correctly in towing.
I agree with the concept, but I hope the trainers will have achieved a certificate iv in Training and Assessment before the call themselves trainers, it is one thing to be able to tow but completely another to be able to train
Are these so called instructers going to take you out on the open road and put the rig into a sway then show us how to control it? I don’t think so. I have never seen anyone crash a car badly by not being able to back up.
I agree fully with your comment. Backing is learnt through experience and always at very low speeds! Overtaking is the common cause of accidents as higher speed is involved and can cause the rig to sway.
Not fully. We all do training to get our car licence and still, accidents happen. I have a heavy licence and done advanced driver training and feel that is enough. The cost of these training causes are way from the average traveller to afford so keep the cost, if there has to be one, affordable. What to do then? All people towing/over three tonne to have a 90kmh speed limit MAX and UHF FITTED radio’s. Slow down is the way to go IMO.
With respect Doug, 90kph is one of the problems slowing the regular flow of hwy traffic by 10kph just means more people must overtake slower caravans.
Truck driver trainers are government regulated and certified accordingly,perhaps emphasis should also be on weighing the rigs, I see many many vehicles towing vans that .are well over their allowable towing specifications that is a big problem .
maybe if it was compulsory to fit an altec system to all vans so the swaying thing don’t happen, and if it does the van will correct this issue I have a baileys van and this is a factory fitted item about time other can builders took note
It seems a good idea, but there are trainers and there are trainers. I have had a semi lic for just over 40yrs but still make mistakes. Back in 1971 when i got my semi lic you could go strait from a car lic to semi so the graded system of today is much better. As for training it depends on the learners attitude and the trainers attitude. After look what happens when people go for their “Ps”, the instructors just take them around the route the examiners go so they can learn the area to make an easier test.
A lot of research is needed before that path is taken. Just taken a course and having a bit of paper will not make some any better at towing, but attitude will improve your towing skills. Slow down and concentrate harder.
We learn something new every day but it is work in progress.
It would be interesting to see the results of the investigations into the causes of road accidents involving RVs before leaping to conclusions one way or the other regarding the need for training.
Calm down everyone…let’s first know what the causes of the accidents are before we jump to compliance solutions.
Any type of towing should be licensed
Lets look at what is making all these caravans sway etc first.Yes the same regulations should apply in getting a licence for an caravan as an articulated vehicle because in essence that is what it is.But I think the problem lies with the weight people tow.Been on the road 10 years now and pulled up and spoke to people with my first question being you tow that with that and they just look at you and say she;ll be right.First up you know its an accident just waiting to happen. Now I dont profess to being a expert but my old trucking days always told me that my truck not only had to pull the trailer but it had to be able to stop it. So maybe we need the scaleys and more regulation on what some sales people tell you your tow rig is capable of doing safely.Because as the bloke said she’ll be right yes maybe ok for him ,but I certainly dont want you hurterling towards me with something that is over weight and out of control. Cheers Stevo.
doing a course does’nt stop road trains from slowing down or being road hogs