Tailgating 101

[Cyberprog]

I spend a lot of time on the motorways these days, and it seems there are far too many amateurs tailgating, so here's a quick guide for those of you out there who indulge in this practice.

a) Don't tailgate anyone crazier than yourself. This includes vehicles like trucks and land rovers with "Your Skid Ends Here" or similar on the bumper.
b) When tailgating someone, remember that flashing your brights at them will only irritate them.
c) When fed up, don't just put your main beams on to try and [throw it] them off. Odds are when they pull over and you go past you'll see their vehicle covered in extra driving lights, and you'll get a nice tan for the rest of your journey with them on *your* bumper.
d) When they slam on their brakes and try to make you crash into them, don't just start tailgating again. See rule 1 - they're clearly crazier than you.
e) When you do crash into them, don't expect any sympathy. Hell, don't expect them to stick around either, you just ate a foot of steel in your front end, you're not going anywhere without your radiator!

Mr Mondeo went through rules a through d, and nearly e this evening. Why people are so insistent on getting past me I don't know, I'm normally doing 70ish in the outside lane keeping up with traffic in front and keeping a decent braking distance from them and I get prats trying to get past me!
So, tell your stories and impart your lessons, I'd love to hear them :)

Defensive Driving? Hell yeah.

[thermidorthelobster]

A lot of people don't like being stuck behind something they can't see past easily.  On the other hand, I find I'm much more frequently tailgated when driving Abby's Rover than when I'm in the Discovery, because it's a small car so people reason that it's not going to be any danger to them.

I got into trouble the other day though - I'd inadvertently moved into the BMW lane in order to overtake somebody, which earned me a flash of the lights from some supercilious bitch of a BMW driver who was highly indignant I'd had the cheek to momentarily impede her progress.  I hope she drives the car right where the sun doesn't shine.

[laser_jock99]

Two words...

kenneth noye

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/692329.stm

If another driver winds you up just recall this story- you never know who you might be dealing with. Calms me down!

Agressive lot these Discovery drivers......

[Cyberprog]

I hope she drives the car right where the sun doesn't shine.

That'll be the 5-tonne rated pin & ball on the back of my disco then :) Sun don't shine there :)

If another driver winds you up just recall this story- you never know who you might be dealing with. Calms me down!
Agressive lot these Discovery drivers......

Yeah, they might be dealing with me :) I strongly suspect I'm crazier than most of the nutters I encounter :)

[jjsaul]

....i keep meaning to fit a NATO hitch for a reason  :lol: ...

[sulley]

Or do what I do and just slow down!!

Some muppet in his Jag came belting up behind me in the town where my parents live, which has a 30 limit through it and he started with the flashing headlights, sitting on the bumper.

Me, I changed down to first and sat at 5mph. :twisted:

[gtomo2]

I get them when i am in my truck i just stick to the speed limit and sit on the white line normally they are that close behind me all i can see is the edge of the wingmirror and with me on the white lines it means they have to go over the white lines to see passed me which is great fun when there is another truck coming the other way :shock:

[muddyjames]

There is however the opposite side to this story too.

On my way into work yesterday it is a 15minute commute. a 30mph speed limit for the village area, 60mph for 10mins along a not very windey a road that can easily be done at 70mph if your not careful and then a 30mph for the last few minutes. Yesterday I was stuck behind some tit doing 45mph in the 60 zone and 20mph in the 30zone. If this was at 8:30 am I would have said fair enough there are lots of cars around but it wasnt. It was at 6:30am. I saw about 6 other cars the whole journey and they were on the straight bits where I could have overtaken. Grrr.

As much as I hate people sitting on my bumper but if people go stupidly slow when there is no need I sometimes sit on thier bumper. I was told by my driving instructor 7 years ago to cruise at the speed limit where safe to do so.

Also I am noticing that more and more people like to overtake when they can see 20cars are infront of me and to overtake me it will gain them 1 car breaking distance. WHY?????

I had a transit van do this to me on Monday morning and he obviously didnt see the car about to come round the corner so I floored it so he could get in behind again, as soon as that car had passed he had another go before a tight corner. This time he passed me and just pulled infront of me nearly clipping my car and then he had to go on the other side of the road to get round the next corner due to his speed he had just used to overtake me!!!!

There seems to be more and more muppets out on the roads these days.

[Range Rover Blues]

Like I tell my pupils, "see why I drive a Range Rover".

If you think the useless ********* ****** ****** are bad now, try driving along with some L plates on.

Compulsory retesting, it's the only answer.  there aren't enough coppers about to catch the b****s so they need to be taken off the road until they can prove they are fit to retain their licence.

[blackbob]

dont think Compulsory test is the ansewer but a refresher lesson every few years might work or advance driving course for all would help

[clbarclay]

There seems to be more and more muppets out on the roads these days.

There is a nominal % of the population that are idiots and by the law of averages, the more people on the roads these days the more idots there are too.


Driving a loader at 20 allong country lanes the quality of over taking is cronnic. They drive right behind you so they can't see whats beond you, and try to overtake on every blind corner but seem hesitant on the straights :?
[/quote]

[Range Rover Blues]

But without a test how would you make the worst offenders do anything?  ask you mates, "are you a good driver?" will any of them go, "no, I'm s*** and ought to be taken off the road".

Truth is there is no-one checking on the state of driving once the licence is handed out.  That's got to stop.

I'd have every new driver on probation for a year, the insurance would soon stop you driving anything too outrageous.

Anyone who can't pass a retest every 5 years would become a P driver too, give them 6 months to pass a retest or take the licence for good.

Those who can't pass the test would soon be getting training then wouldn't they?

It's all stick, no carrot but that's what it will take.

I suppose the carrot would be those of us who can pass the test in a 4x4 will be paying less to insure one than those who take their test in a Micra.

[Yoshi]

Muddyjames, so what do you consider good reason?  A new driver who maybe isnt confident enough driving at 60, or an elderly person who again isnt confident.  The time of day is unimportant, tailgating is wrong, full stop and there is never an excuse for it.

[Rich_P]

Range Rover Blues, are you involved in any driver training at the moment?

If you are not, and have passed your test years back, then you more than likely will fail the current standard of driving tests.  They have indeed changed since twenty years back.

Rely on the brakes entirely, no engine braking, shift straight from fourth to second upon approaching a junction you are turning on or a roundabout etc.

[Cate]

The last person who overtook me in a slightly hurried and erratic fashion was stopped just up the road by a very BIG heavy flatbed lorry, ripped his car's front wheel clean off, remoulded the front ended and scratched his lovely red paintjob........ I did chuckle as I drove past him. Hope he pood himself!

[TDi90]

rich, your right, the tests are very hard now a days, i did mine a year ago, and that was sooo hard, (passed first time!!!) but, still, that was because i have been driving on dads farm for years and years and years before that... it is a very hard test no a days, and you would be amazed thje amount of people that fail it too.

[blackbob]

Range Rover Blues, are you involved in any driver training at the moment?

If you are not, and have passed your test years back, then you more than likely will fail the current standard of driving tests.  They have indeed changed since twenty years back.

Rely on the brakes entirely, no engine braking, shift straight from fourth to second upon approaching a junction you are turning on or a roundabout etc.

tell me about it been teaching my daughter to drive then she took lesons and been told that she doing it wrong
SO i wonder if hgv are the same or do u still use gears to slow and if u dont how dangerous is that then

[blackbob]

The last person who overtook me in a slightly hurried and erratic fashion was stopped just up the road by a very BIG heavy flatbed lorry, ripped his car's front wheel clean off, remoulded the front ended and scratched his lovely red paintjob........ I did chuckle as I drove past him. Hope he pood himself!

did u wave i would have

[thermidorthelobster]

Yeah, I'd be interested to know the rationale behind no engine braking.  The brakes on the 101 are well up to the job (ie they passed the MOT without any problems) but you'd be daft to drive it without using engine braking.

Regarding the test though, I don't see why you couldn't learn the new stuff within an hour or so of instruction.  I had to do a Devon County Council minibus test a couple of years back, so had to stop doing all those naughty things like crossing hands on the wheel, and found it pretty easy when I put my mind to it.  I don't see why stopping missing out gears would be hard to learn.

[Skibum346]

Yeah, I'd be interested to know the rationale behind no engine braking.  The brakes on the 101 are well up to the job (ie they passed the MOT without any problems) but you'd be daft to drive it without using engine braking.

Regarding the test though, I don't see why you couldn't learn the new stuff within an hour or so of instruction.  I had to do a Devon County Council minibus test a couple of years back, so had to stop doing all those naughty things like crossing hands on the wheel, and found it pretty easy when I put my mind to it.  I don't see why stopping missing out gears would be hard to learn.

Even back in the 80's I remember my driving instructor telling me it's easier and cheaper to change brake pads than a clutch... unneccesary engine braking causes increased clutch wear doesn't it?

Skibum

[Sider]

Range Rover Blues, are you involved in any driver training at the moment?

If you are not, and have passed your test years back, then you more than likely will fail the current standard of driving tests.  They have indeed changed since twenty years back.

Rely on the brakes entirely, no engine braking, shift straight from fourth to second upon approaching a junction you are turning on or a roundabout etc.

tell me about it been teaching my daughter to drive then she took lesons and been told that she doing it wrong
SO i wonder if hgv are the same or do u still use gears to slow and if u dont how dangerous is that then

#
While learning, you don't use your gears to slow down the vehicle. Once you have your licence, and you're driving a fully loaded rig, you'll abuse the gearbox like it's going out of fashion.

[dreadnought110]

I was going through a village a couple of years back 30mph limit about 6 cars in front of me all doing the limit,when some gimp in a sierra 4x4 passed the lot of us at 80mph+ .I had to laff when we got to the end of the road and he had blown the engine and he was standing there with his mates looking at the smoke coming out of his bonnet... 8)  8)

[Range Rover Blues]

Even back in the 80's I remember my driving instructor telling me it's easier and cheaper to change brake pads than a clutch... unneccesary engine braking causes increased clutch wear doesn't it?

Skibum

It also causes petrol engines to burn more fuel, incompete combustion at that, plus it draws oil up past the pistons which also increases the car's polution.  Gears for going, brakes for slowing.

Oh Rich, it's Range Rover Blues B.Eng DSA ADI (car)

[hairyasswelder]

Mine was going up the A50 (2 lane bypass) to Stoke.
Hardly a thing on the road, i was overtaking 2 artics, I was doing just over 80mph, a mondeo appeared in my mirror from nowhere, he must have been doing well over a ton  :shock: he started flashing his lights and beeping the horn   [-X  :twisted: well as a mild mannered man
 :^o I wound down the window and signalled to him my feelings (limo tinted rear). He replied by getting within 2" of my rear bumper  :twisted: so I slowed down to 56mph and sat level with the 2 artics for around 6 miles  :lol: The guy tried on several occasions to overtake me using the space between the outside lane and the centre armco  #-o so in the end I let him past before he killed himself  :roll:
The lorry drivers were pi55ing themselves, wish I had the CB fitted at the time  

[Rich_P]

Oh Rich, it's Range Rover Blues B.Eng DSA ADI (car)

Alright, I hold my hands up.  :oops: But what do you do about tractors then?  You need to use engine braking on those...

[mark.yellow.series.3]

Oh Rich, it's Range Rover Blues B.Eng DSA ADI (car)

Alright, I hold my hands up.  :oops: But what do you do about tractors then?  You need to use engine braking on those...

but the driving techniques for driving a tractor are different to that of a car, they are totally different vehicles, built for different purposes.

and your not taking your test in a tractor

[hobbit]

I was driving back up the m1, in my army lightweight, this is 30 odd years ago now, from Wiltshire to N.Yorks, coming off a recce, traffic slowed up rather fast in front of me, we slowed and all but stopped, then wallop a ford escort (mk1) up my rear, my first thought was, oh dear (edited) my portable tv is behind that tailgate

Car wrapped up in 2 bumperettes and a nato hitch, my boss suggested throwing a bucket of water over it  :lol:

Seperated the vehicles, looked inside the landy nothing damaged

When the police came and took some details, damage to car, bonnet in a V shape, headlights in wheels (bumperettes), rad wrapped around engine, body creased up in the roof

Land rover, scratched the paintwork on bumperettes and hook, had to repaint it when I got back

One sniggering copper, and a very cheesed off escort driver, claimed he never saw any brake lights, but when he was told we have to do a first parade check every day on the vehicle it didn't wash

It does make you wonder what goes through their heads really, 1.5 ton car vs, 2-2.5 ton landy, the older series/defender, solid bits of steel on the outsides, as for truck arguing with a car, suicide?

[Rich_P]

Oh Rich, it's Range Rover Blues B.Eng DSA ADI (car)

Alright, I hold my hands up.  :oops: But what do you do about tractors then?  You need to use engine braking on those...

but the driving techniques for driving a tractor are different to that of a car, they are totally different vehicles, built for different purposes.

Ah yes, but doesn't a Land Rover also somewhat classify as a tractor too? ;)  After all they are utility vehicles (and dual purpose!), and the Series vehicles most certainly could use tractor equipment.

[mark.yellow.series.3]

Oh Rich, it's Range Rover Blues B.Eng DSA ADI (car)

Alright, I hold my hands up.  :oops: But what do you do about tractors then?  You need to use engine braking on those...

but the driving techniques for driving a tractor are different to that of a car, they are totally different vehicles, built for different purposes.

Ah yes, but doesn't a Land Rover also somewhat classify as a tractor too? ;)  After all they are utility vehicles (and dual purpose!), and the Series vehicles most certainly could use tractor equipment.

but they aint no tractor :lol:

[Devon-Rover]

Look rich. admit your wrong and stop digging yourself a hole.  :lol: