On Friday evening on the M6 North Bound our friends lost their caravan.
They were travelling in two seperate land rovers. The towing vechile was overtaking a lorry when it went out or control swaying. Lucky for our friend the Disco stayed up.... with the back wheels in the air and no one was hurt. The van was in bits.... it was an old van (about 30 Years old) they had only just bought it....first trip out.
The Lorry dirver pulled his lorry across the motorway lanes and helped our friend get the van over to the hard shoulder...another motoris stopped to help as his wife who was following in their freelander wonder was had happened...... The highways agency were great....
But I would just like to warn anyone who is buying an old van to please check that it is fit for use as our friends has previoulsy bought a van off ebay for £300 and it had no brakes..... plus an old van may have sat for ages making the tyres unusuable....the thing is they weren't insured so have ended up paying loads to have the van removed and scarped.
It really upset me as the first we heard of the accident was another friend coming over (were were on a Land Rover Rally) and saying that any chap coming to the event had seen a silver Disco with various club stickers with a smashed up van on the hard shoulder..... Then another member turned up (policeman) to say he had stopped and they were ok but the van was a wreck.
I wasn't keen on travelling home but our van is well serviced etc and newer but I could help looking back every so often to make sure it was towning nicely.
You should always get a new van checked out before you use it, well I did with ours(we brought it privately)I told OH I was not going anywhere until a professional checked it over and ours is only 4 yrs old!
Hes lucky only the old van got wrecked, could of killed somebody.
Yes I agree...... It really does worry me with more and more people buying older vans.... One of our members in the Land Rover Club is a Highway Agency employee and said it is only going to get worst.
We bought our van from a dealer and it was all checked before collection.... plus an annual service....I don't think caravanning is as cheap as some people think....
as long as your friends were ok the fact that the van was wrecked is immaterial, yes they've lost there van but it could have been there lives, they can always get another van. its still upsetting but they are still here to tell the tale. atb Bill
------------- Bill n Kay
............................
when the going gets tough... get someone else to do it.....
I smile besause I have'nt a clue whats going on... appreciate everything in life especially your friends...
Hi suzzie-off topic (sorry),but it wasn't Manby LR show you were at was it?Just wondering,we were there all weekend.
Thank goodness your friends are ok,
Jenny
Only ever seen one van actually go over (but seen plenty on their sides) and that was also towed by a Discovery (some of the older ones have acquired something of a reputation for instability).
Mind you, he did pass me in the outside lane (of three) on the M5 doing at least 80 with a twin-axle in tow.
The biggest pity was he hit two cars in having his accident, ruining two innocent families holidays (kids ended sat crying on the hard shoulder).
Utter pillock. Sometimes as caravanners we get the press we deserve.
We've just had our 1998 caravan serviced by an independent specialist. He said the brakes were spot-on but advised us to get 2 new tyres, which we're in the process of organising. We're towing it for the first time in August all the way to SW France so needed to make sure evrything was OK. Money well spent in my opinion.
The van that was next to ours on sat night was proudly described by its owners as a £100 bargain off ebay.To be honest it looked like they had bought it from a breakers yard.It was their first ever caravan trip apparently and they were totaly oblivious to some of the faults i could see wrong with the van from our awning.Their offside tyre had a gash in it,and i could actually see the innertube bulging out.I mentioned it to the couple that it was very dangerous and the bloke said that he would change it for the spare, but guess what?There wasnt even a spare! ''No matter'' the bloke said,''we're only local'' (30 miles away as it turned out) ''ill change it when we get back''.The next morning bright and early they hitched it up to an ageing shogun and with a belch of black smoke from the 4x4 and a loud creaking from the van they were gone.To be honest we were mortified that they were taking theirs,their young childrens and every other road user's life in their hands.It was an accident just waiting to happen and just hope they got home safe without injuring anyone.
------------- Those that danced were thought to be quite insane to those who could not hear the music. Angela Monet
Dreadnought I can understand your concerns....this is what I am afraid of..... people buying vans that aren't road worthy. An accident can still happen on short journeys.
We are off down to Devon mid July down the M6 and M5 I bet we see some really old vans and some very unfit combinations too. When we bought our last van from our local dealer..... he saw that we were in our Range Rover and asked us ....'is that your towing car'... OH said no we tow with 110 Defender..... we already knew that the combination was ok but do some of these people who buy off ebay accually check whether the van is too heavy ect.,
hi,if it was thier first time out the driver might have been inexpieranced towing, when overtakeing large vehicles you will get caught in the sidewind as you pass,olso if overtakeing down hill you will have no chance,i am lgv driver and i see this type of accident often, i hope no one was injured.
------------- its easy enough to be pleasant when the world rolls along like a song.but a man is worth while if he can smile when every thing goes f------ wrong.
Quote: Originally posted by suzzie on 29/6/2009
The towing vechile was overtaking a lorry when it went out or control swaying.
But I would just like to warn anyone who is buying an old van to please check that it is fit for use as our friends had previoulsy bought a van off ebay for £300 and it had no brakes....
So they will have been going well over 55mph then? & the rest is stating the blindly obvious really. I guess if it didn't occur to your friends that they might need to service a 30yr old ebay bargain(I guess they had no concept of safe loading of said caravan either) I wouldn't want to speculate on the mechanical state of their Disco, I can guess what it looks like tho.
What is it about Landrover 'enthusiasts'? They put a/t tyres about 3ft high on & then drive down the motorway at 80mph. Theve obviously learnt nowt from their fellow 'enthusiast' who got jailed recently for killing half his kids after appearing to believe a jacked up Landy has the handling quailties of a Subaru Imprezna.
Sorry for the rant & all that, but the op appears to miss the point, the real problem is that we have no system of MOT tests for caravans(unlike most other European countries)if we did, then at least other road users would be protected from the stupidity of those who tow old caravans in poor or dangerous condition at motorway speeds.
I should add, that a caravan is a relatively simple device & even parts for 30yr old Alko chassis are available off the shelf. It is simple & cheap to bring an old 'van up to top mechanical standard, I have a 21 yr old Eriba caravan that I tow with confidence to southern France each yr at motorway speeds.
It just requires a bit of knowledge & understanding. No normal responsible person drives a car with no MOT that has not had a spanner laid on it for yrs, yet those same people will tow a caravan in poor mechanical shape, simply, I think because it does not occur to them not to.
Because there are no MOTs I think some people think caravans are maintainance free.
Quote: Originally posted by Kabbes on 30/6/2009
... then at least other road users would be protected from the stupidity of those who tow old caravans in poor or dangerous condition at motorway speeds.
I'm pleased no-one was injured on Friday; I passed this incident on my way to The Lakes and the van was a complete mess. I do agree with Kabbes though but the current legislation is pathetic with regards to caravan annual testing in the UK. No amount of testing though, would have any influence over how a rig is driven; I'm astounded by how many drivers there are who're oblivious to speed limits when towing (old and new drivers), plus add the large number of new-to-towing inexperienced drivers there are too. How many of us get over-taken by other caravans, clearly being towed well over 70mph on the motorway?
I don't wish to question the abilities of the driver in Friday evenings incident, but with the comment of the van going out of control, there is some indication that the problem wasn't due entirely to the condition of the van.
How dare you come on here having a go at Land Rover Enthusiasts.... me being one I might add.... my Range Rover and OH Defender are both serviced by a garage every six months.....a 4x4 garage with a big reputation in the North West and the said Disco had just been serviced and had normal road tyre on.... so how wrong you are.....the majority of our members have new expensive Range Rovers.... new Disco etc.,....there are a few who have Series Motors .... all competition type motors which so called off road large tyre are trailer to the sites we use as they aren't road legal.
Quote: Originally posted by suzzie on 30/6/2009
How dare you come on here having a go at Land Rover Enthusiasts....
Well obviously I did expect that sort of reaction from you but if you expect sympathy for your friend's plight, I doubt you will get much.
If you re-read my post I wasn't suggesting your vehicles were poorly serviced, or critisising your standard of driving, you said nowt about your vehicles, or your driving, your op was about your friends who obviously take no advice from your goodself regarding vehicle maintainance & pleeeease dont tell me while their caravan was an accident waiting to happen(& duly did)the towing vehicle was serviced & maintained to a high standard.
How dare I have a go at Landy enthusiasts? I dare alright, because if you are familiar with the Landrover 'scene' You will know my comments about some of your number are right on the button.
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Topic: Our Friends lost their van
