How are there so many fast HGV's in the UK?
Discussion
I have been noticing more and more fast HGVs on the road, doing just over 60 steady and 65 down the hills, according to my GPS. Overtaking at a "real" 70 feels very slow.
UK plates, not downhill, usually trailer units pulling curtain sides trailer, not a large company, some kind of shipping/delivery firm or building trade.
I thought they were all on a tacho and regulated to 56 ?
UK plates, not downhill, usually trailer units pulling curtain sides trailer, not a large company, some kind of shipping/delivery firm or building trade.
I thought they were all on a tacho and regulated to 56 ?
ExPat2B said:
I have been noticing more and more fast HGVs on the road, doing just over 60 steady and 65 down the hills, according to my GPS. Overtaking at a "real" 70 feels very slow.
UK plates, not downhill, usually trailer units pulling curtain sides trailer, not a large company, some kind of shipping/delivery firm or building trade.
I thought they were all on a tacho and regulated to 56 ?
Your GPS is wrong. Unless you are travelling on the A55 or A75 when the boat is getting ready to leave, 99% of UK registered trucks are limited to 90kmh/56mph. A slight decline will see them go to 60 if they have weight on.UK plates, not downhill, usually trailer units pulling curtain sides trailer, not a large company, some kind of shipping/delivery firm or building trade.
I thought they were all on a tacho and regulated to 56 ?
There used to be a trick of getting it calibrated with smaller tyres on than normal. Thus running higher revs at 56mph.
Then, refitting the standard larger tyres to up the gearing. This would give an indicated 56mph while doing 59/60.
I'm not sure if this still goes on.
Twenty years ago I had a switchable earth rigged to a second fog-light switch on the dash. This was on a 1995 18t Iveco. We could knock the limiter off when we wanted. This was on old analogue tachos.
Made a big difference to our Spain/Portugal runs. It meant we could get back for the overnight boat from St Malo or Caen instead of the morning boat.
We were back literally a day earlier to do more work. We'd be back at base @10:30am instead of early evening.
Sitting at 62-64 mph instead of 56 over 14-18 hours each way makes a massive difference.
This was also the era where the second driver taking his breaks sleeping in the cab while driver1 was driving was a sufficiently grey area to just do it and plead ignorance.
We were doing '6-7 day' runs in 4.5. we were paid for the 'correct' timescale, as was the company. So we could earn 3 weeks pay in two. And, because we weren't F*+king about with hotels and as much food we got to keep the hotel and subsistence on top.
Lot of fun, fond memories
Then, refitting the standard larger tyres to up the gearing. This would give an indicated 56mph while doing 59/60.
I'm not sure if this still goes on.
Twenty years ago I had a switchable earth rigged to a second fog-light switch on the dash. This was on a 1995 18t Iveco. We could knock the limiter off when we wanted. This was on old analogue tachos.
Made a big difference to our Spain/Portugal runs. It meant we could get back for the overnight boat from St Malo or Caen instead of the morning boat.
We were back literally a day earlier to do more work. We'd be back at base @10:30am instead of early evening.
Sitting at 62-64 mph instead of 56 over 14-18 hours each way makes a massive difference.
This was also the era where the second driver taking his breaks sleeping in the cab while driver1 was driving was a sufficiently grey area to just do it and plead ignorance.
We were doing '6-7 day' runs in 4.5. we were paid for the 'correct' timescale, as was the company. So we could earn 3 weeks pay in two. And, because we weren't F*+king about with hotels and as much food we got to keep the hotel and subsistence on top.
Lot of fun, fond memories
Edited by LuckyThirteen on Thursday 1st February 19:24
Limits been 60 for ages. Most still have limited set to 56 though, except Tesco lorries which are about 18mph.
As mentioned above, if your tacho is calibrated on worn down tyres then you slap a fresh set on gain a good bit of speed there.
I see so many cars who’s speedos are waayy out though, are trucks are set to 56 and do 56 on my gps and pass cars which I can see their Speedo reading 60 or even more.
As mentioned above, if your tacho is calibrated on worn down tyres then you slap a fresh set on gain a good bit of speed there.
I see so many cars who’s speedos are waayy out though, are trucks are set to 56 and do 56 on my gps and pass cars which I can see their Speedo reading 60 or even more.
Not many manual boxes about any more, but the autos almost (if not) all have the facility to automatically drop the gearbox into N and allow the vehicle to coast to take advantage of terrain...coasting (Aberdeen Overdrive) used to be a big no no back in the days of manual boxes but apparently its ok now because...some trucks the driver can stop N being auto selected, some trucks it can't be switched off and will often drop into N hundreds of yards before the brow of a hill allowing speed to drop by as much as 5mph to allow gravity to bring the truck back up to speed once over the brow.
Most trucks are now limited at 56 or 55, some operators set theirs at 52 to save fuel, all lorries can gain considerable speed downhill, some companies have disciplinary procedures for tacho overspeeds (those drivers keeping the speed to 57 or so to prevent overspeed triggering) some companies don't bother and those drivers will let it run to take max advantage of the downhills.
Most trucks are now limited at 56 or 55, some operators set theirs at 52 to save fuel, all lorries can gain considerable speed downhill, some companies have disciplinary procedures for tacho overspeeds (those drivers keeping the speed to 57 or so to prevent overspeed triggering) some companies don't bother and those drivers will let it run to take max advantage of the downhills.
Chuffedmonkey said:
Iv heard either its the weight speeding them up while going down hill, or they slip them into neutral and coast down hills. I have witnessed some good speed from lorry's going down hill.
Yeah, our Volvos have three settings on the engine brake / retarder control lever (like another indicator stalk), with another option to knock it into neutral which makes a big difference going downhill or coasting up to a red light in the distance.Unrestrained, it would easily roll away to 70mph+ if fully loaded.
Tacho registers an overspeed infringement after 60 seconds though, allegedly, with an overworked warning flashing up on the tacho display after 30 seconds of being overspeed.
I did my Cat C in an Iveco recently hitting the limiter on motorway, it had a GPS clock installed on dash and that would display 58.
Most are still limited to 56.
My dad used to complain like mad about trucks overtaking him when he was in 50 or 60 zones, I was in the car one day so opened Waze, on the speedo showing 70mph, Waze showing 61mph. Thats a 2014 Toyota Rav4 with the OEM wheels and correct size tyres.
Most are still limited to 56.
My dad used to complain like mad about trucks overtaking him when he was in 50 or 60 zones, I was in the car one day so opened Waze, on the speedo showing 70mph, Waze showing 61mph. Thats a 2014 Toyota Rav4 with the OEM wheels and correct size tyres.
My Mercedes will easily do 65mph+ on downhills (on the SatNav GPS), takes some monitoring on the downhills as the Cruise Control won't hold it to the set speed and we're usually only loaded at around 26 tonnes max and we're limited to 54mph! One of, or the only good thing with the Merc is that it gives a pre-warning of excess speed, so I have about 30 seconds to slow down before it actually registers an overspeed on the tacho.
Edited by towser44 on Sunday 4th February 20:44
I caught up with a fully loaded tipper a while back while it was crawling up over the pass between Achnasheen and Kinlochewe. As we crested the summit and headed down into Glen Docherty I was mentally preparing to overtake but it just kept piling on the speed all the way down. The road flows pretty well but there were still a few hairy looking moments as I followed with my speedo touching 80 at one point!
the-norseman said:
I did my Cat C in an Iveco recently hitting the limiter on motorway, it had a GPS clock installed on dash and that would display 58.
Most are still limited to 56.
My dad used to complain like mad about trucks overtaking him when he was in 50 or 60 zones, I was in the car one day so opened Waze, on the speedo showing 70mph, Waze showing 61mph. Thats a 2014 Toyota Rav4 with the OEM wheels and correct size tyres.
My mrs had a rav4 like that, speedo was all over the place - only way to know was running waze or googlemaps with the speed indicator onMost are still limited to 56.
My dad used to complain like mad about trucks overtaking him when he was in 50 or 60 zones, I was in the car one day so opened Waze, on the speedo showing 70mph, Waze showing 61mph. Thats a 2014 Toyota Rav4 with the OEM wheels and correct size tyres.
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