How to pass salt spreaders / gritters on mway?
Discussion
So driving back home from Yorkshire to Northampton tonight, despite the roads being dry and very low chance of ice forming I passed 4 gritters on the M1. Usual tactics from them, 50 or so in the middle lane, spreading their grit of corrosive doom as far and wide as possible. Still some nice overtime and cost booked before the end of the budget year eh.
How best to pass them?
a) bomb past as quickly as possible (getting through the s
tstorm as quickly as you can)
b) creep past at +5 mph or so to minimise the impact speed of the grit (but getting peppered for what feels like an eternity)
c) sit 1/4 mile back at 50 ( because being rear ended by someone not paying attention is far more preferable than even a grain of salt hitting your new 1 series).
d) like a, but on the hard shoulder to keep as far away as possible
Pretty much saw all of these employed, but which is likely to be safest / best for the car?
How best to pass them?
a) bomb past as quickly as possible (getting through the s
tstorm as quickly as you can)b) creep past at +5 mph or so to minimise the impact speed of the grit (but getting peppered for what feels like an eternity)
c) sit 1/4 mile back at 50 ( because being rear ended by someone not paying attention is far more preferable than even a grain of salt hitting your new 1 series).
d) like a, but on the hard shoulder to keep as far away as possible
Pretty much saw all of these employed, but which is likely to be safest / best for the car?
You'd have to be bloody lucky. Up slip road starting at 70 (assuming you _accelerate_ at its start, having been following the gritter at 50 for some miles), slowing to max of 30 at the top depending on visibility, roundabout, accelerating back down other side. Path is ~1.5x the length of that taken by the gritter, which just ploughs on (see what I did there) at 50mph in the middle lane. 50 / 1 is almost bound to be greater than 70 ... 30 / 1.5, and that's even if you don't have to stop at the top of the slip road for traffic from the right / lights.
Personally I'm with the previous poster. Creep up to just outside the grit curtain, wait for a suitable gap, squirt through it.
Personally I'm with the previous poster. Creep up to just outside the grit curtain, wait for a suitable gap, squirt through it.
Dr Z said:
My method: Hang back beyond the spreading radius. Wait till there is good space and clear of traffic infront of the spreader so you won't get held up next to the truck, then a). 
Me too. Not as I witnessed a few weeks ago - old lady in a Micra driving steadily at the same speed 20 yards behind getting the front of her car exfoliated....
mrmr96 said:
I think the official "pro" way to do it is to hang back until a junction, then go off the off ramp, over the roundabout and back onto the on ramp so fast that your re-join ahead of the gritter.
Yea shame about all the lights though.
You'd think they'd have the decency to do this in the small hours (yes some people are driving home at 7pm ffs!) or they could have the decency to come off at junctions so people can get past (grit will be carried over the gap by traffic) or they could just angle the bloody thing down a bit!
robbyd said:
Pass in lane 3 while shadowing the car in lane 2? - who takes the impact...
fantastic suggestion but the gritters often sit in lane 2.
Maybe wait for eine Deutschesuberwagen (povspec TDi company car) doing a million leptons in lane 3 and slip in behind, at least that way he takes the worst of it and hey, it's a company car so who cares if it's a pile of rust in a year's time?
If you want to avoid paintwork damage to your car.
Assuming gritter is in lane 2, of a 3 lane motorway. Stay in lane 1 and if eventually you are forced to pass, briefly use the hard shoulder. Obviously looking well ahead, just in case there is a stationary vehicle. With that technique, there is a better chance, that the grit throw might not reach your car.
Stand by now for, "it is illegal" (so is killing patients in Xxxxxx Hospital).
Are you lost? We keep that to General Gassing. This is a more serious area, where the most pedantic of the beards live. Back away slowly...On a motorway, wait for something to overtake the truck in lane 2 and zip past in lane 3 using the vehicle in lane 2 for cover. I've not yet seen a gritter in my Rallye, but when I had my A8 I would close in and see if it was going to stop gritting (and also, what, if anything, the queue of vehicles tailing the gritter at 50mph were planning). I'd settle into lane 2, hit the kickdown switch and pass as fast as I could!
Baryonyx said:
On a motorway, wait for something to overtake the truck in lane 2 and zip past in lane 3 using the vehicle in lane 2 for cover. I've not yet seen a gritter in my Rallye, but when I had my A8 I would close in and see if it was going to stop gritting (and also, what, if anything, the queue of vehicles tailing the gritter at 50mph were planning). I'd settle into lane 2, hit the kickdown switch and pass as fast as I could!
Gritters use lane 2 so how would that work ?Gassing Station | Advanced Driving | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff