This is a question I’ve always wanted to ask.
I usually do motorways at night, purely because I prefer it. You guys and just the odd other car on there, wish they were so deserted in the daytime 
. However, when I’m breezing along doing 80/85, you’re stuck in the nearside lane on or near your limiters. Now your trucks are far heavier and thus carry far more inertia than my car, but still vehicles driving past at almost double your speed must cause air vortices / buffeting etc.
So which do you generally prefer - faster vehicles passing in the middle lane or vehicles changing into the offside lane? Which has a greater effect on your vehicle as it goes past and off into the distance? (I thought I knew the answer but the more I think about it the less sure I become)
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If you was driving a car at ‘double’ the limiter setting of a truck you’d be driving at around 110 mph.Even at that speed there would’nt be any effect on a truck as it went by in the middle lane I know that because I was overtaken on night trunks plenty of times by police cars travelling a lot faster than 110 mph.But if it was a truck travelling at 110 mph overtaking a car doing 55 mph,especially if it was towing a caravan 
:lol lol.
the rocking motion well me sleep whilst listening out for the rubble strip!
Hello Christopher, welcome to Trucknet. Its a fair question & makes a very refreshing change for a car driver to be considering us instead of slagging us off.
As Carryfast has said the relatively small amount of turbulence created by a car doesn’t really have any effect at all on a truck.
However you might wish to consider the following:
If you travel in L2 you should keep a constant look out well ahead for a truck in L1 catching a slightly slower truck & so wishing to pull out. As your speed differential is quite large, this won’t be easy to spot, especially in the dark. If you stay in L3 you’re already out of the way.
If the road is wet & there is spray (In which case hopefully you wouldn’t be travelling as fast) it is much safer for you to be in L3 as you are further away from the spray created by the truck, therefor mantaining better vision.
I’m going to stick my neck out here, no doubt there will be those who will disagree, and say that the optimum place to run when its quiet & little, if anything is passing you would be straddling lanes 2 & 3. This gives a margin for error on both sides in the event of a front blow out or a lapse in steering concentration.
Driveroneuk:
Hello Christopher, welcome to Trucknet.
ta 
The reason I half thought of asking this in the first place is because my poor little motor (1.25 Fiesta) can barely do 80, never mind a ton - maybe downhill with a tailwind! 
- but you sometimes see the Audi / BMW / Merc driver hoofing it down Lane 2 past HGVs and think bloody hell, I wouldn’t like to be that driver when his car gets sucked into the side of the trailer.
Glad that what I’m doing is actually half sensible and won’t just make nighttime drivers think “wtf is he doing?” - I usually move into Lane 3 when I see more than one lorry on an uphill stretch, hopefully they notice and know they can pull out if needs be. Very hilly around Brum.
A while back I started to go Lane 3 when passing any lorries if the road was clear, I’ll keep on doing it if you think it’s worthwhile. You always get some nob who’s doing a ton or more down Lane 2 irrespective of road conditions though and that annoys me, at night I usually go Lane 2 (for the reasons like blowouts etc you mentioned) - yet I still get highbeamed every so often by one of those jokers doing 120 in Lane 2 when I’ve been doing 80!
I have an appreciation for all (good 
) lorry drivers, our country’s economy and retail system essentially depends on them - and the more I learn about the ins and outs of a day in the life, the more I see they have just as much ■■■■■■■■ to deal with as the rest of us (the least of which being bloody H&S rules!)
Are there any other things you wish car drivers would do (aside from the usual things like not moving into lane 1 right in front of the cab or thinking that the braking distance between lorries is an invitation for them to move in) that would make your lives a bit easier? Personally I know I’d lose an argument with an artic so I keep my distance but some people who I see on my commute every day seem to think that even rigids can stop on a 5p piece just like they can, it worries me a bit!
Christopher:
Are there any other things you wish car drivers would do…
You are probably going to wish you had never asked that!
There will probably be more replies at the w/end when the lads & lasses who are away out in the truck all week get home.
Can I have a £ for every time the words fog lights are mentioned please?
Meanwhile you might find your answer here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=64283
First thing I would say is that you should not allow yourself to be irritated by other drivers who choose to break the law. Concentrate on your own driving and stay out of their way (if you can).
For the most part, when I am trundling down a quiet motorway I am hardly even aware of the traffic in the other lanes. So long as my lane is clear I am singing along with the radio or writing letters in my head that I will never send.
As said before please watch out for the times when we are going to change lanes - either to pass a slower vehicle, or because of some obstruction that you may not be able to see. If the indicators come on then move over. And FFS turn those ■■■■ foglights off. If you aren’t thinking “I wish the cars in front had theirs on”, then you don’t need yours on.
Sorry to go a bot off topic but didn’t really seem worth a thread of it’s own;
Why, at night, do car drivers flash their headlights as they pull out to overtake a hgv? Or worse still, put their high beams on?
Although cars have little or no effect on a truck as you over take I would ask you to move over when passing trucks parked in laybys mind you other truck drivers could try this too.
Err excuse me chaps, but where are all the holier than thou brigade? Christopher is admitting speeding, if it was one of us truckers, there’d have been four pages of pontification from the speed kills clowns by now 
And Currywurst, a car towing a caravan? Are you trying to say that a wagon and drag type configuration is unstable? 
newmercman:
Err excuse me chaps, but where are all the holier than thou brigade? Christopher is admitting speeding, if it was one of us truckers, there’d have been four pages of pontification from the speed kills clowns by now
And Currywurst, a car towing a caravan? Are you trying to say that a wagon and drag type configuration is unstable?
Sure, I’m admitting going over the national speed limit on motorways. Like the rest of the UK’s motorway drivers.
ACPO sentencing guidelines advise rozzers to not prosecute unless people are going over 99mph (hence the 100mph = banhammer), and most traffic cops won’t mind these days unless you’re obviously going over 85, from informal chat with traffic officer. I think they’ve given up and accepted that people go 80 on the mway, most six gear cars seem happiest at 80 in 6th too which I suspect is down to European market influence.
However, the difference is I know when to dial it back and I drive to the road conditions and my own ability. If it’s wet, I slow down - unlike C Series or M5 man! Even when I’ve driven my Dad’s monster of a company car I’ve felt no need to hoof it along at over a ton (!), I value my life (and his no claims bonus) a little more than that.
My poor little car’s blown around by crosswinds enough, it must be sketchy driving artics through those conditions.
Also FOG LIGHTS ON WITH DIPPED MAINS ENRAGES ME! so it’s not just you lot And I’ve not seen people highbeaming or flashing when pulling out, that sounds stupid though. I blip the hazards to say thanks if I’m let into a queue, that’s about it.
It’s bad enough for us car drivers with you lorry drivers and your higher up light clusters blinding us at night, even on dipped beam
Christopher:
newmercman:
Err excuse me chaps, but where are all the holier than thou brigade? Christopher is admitting speeding, if it was one of us truckers, there’d have been four pages of pontification from the speed kills clowns by now
And Currywurst, a car towing a caravan? Are you trying to say that a wagon and drag type configuration is unstable?
Sure, I’m admitting going over the national speed limit on motorways. Like the rest of the UK’s motorway drivers.
ACPO sentencing guidelines advise rozzers to not prosecute unless people are going over 99mph (hence the 100mph = banhammer), and most traffic cops won’t mind these days unless you’re obviously going over 85, from informal chat with traffic officer. I think they’ve given up and accepted that people go 80 on the mway, most six gear cars seem happiest at 80 in 6th too which I suspect is down to European market influence.
However, the difference is I know when to dial it back and I drive to the road conditions and my own ability. If it’s wet, I slow down - unlike C Series or M5 man! Even when I’ve driven my Dad’s monster of a company car I’ve felt no need to hoof it along at over a ton (!), I value my life (and his no claims bonus) a little more than that.
My poor little car’s blown around by crosswinds enough, it must be sketchy driving artics through those conditions.
Also FOG LIGHTS ON WITH DIPPED MAINS ENRAGES ME! so it’s not just you lot And I’ve not seen people highbeaming or flashing when pulling out, that sounds stupid though. I blip the hazards to say thanks if I’m let into a queue, that’s about it.
It’s bad enough for us car drivers with you lorry drivers and your higher up light clusters blinding us at night, even on dipped beam
I don’t mind how fast you go mate, as a newcomer to this site you’ve yet to meet some of our more ‘right on’ members, I was taking the ■■■■ out of them in my own little way
Your own little way, Mark? I have seen that so consider this latest to be somewhat tame…
Christopher, This is not pointed at you but aimed at those that do not care… If drivers in cars were to start driving as though they were on a motorcycle or in a truck, they would pay a little more attention over a little more distance. Most car drivers sit in a bubble of concentration which is 100’ long in front, 14’ wide and 3’ behind them. They tend to know nothing outside that area which is why they do not notice indicators until they are up behind the other vehicle, or the vehicle has pulled out, and it is why they never notice the vehicle coming up behind them until he is in their trunk.
As to the speeding, I used to do Avonmouth to home, 140 miles, in an 1 3/4 hours at night. I say get the thing rolling…
darkseeker:
Why, at night, do car drivers flash their headlights as they pull out to overtake a hgv?
They are correctl!
They are giving a warning signal, “I am here, have you seen me”?
I do it myself when in the car/van and overtaking car drivers who are wandering around all over the road on ordinary roads at night.
Or worse still, put their high beams on?
Because they want to see where they’re going and are too dumb to realise you’re gonna get all that beam light in your mirror.
newmercman:
I don’t mind how fast you go mate, as a newcomer to this site you’ve yet to meet some of our more ‘right on’ members, I was taking the ■■■■ out of them in my own little way
it’s nice to be accepted! I was expecting some royal ■■■■■■■■■■ (a fulltime CAR driver?! on here?! ready… aim…)
Something else I’ve wondered - guys with half of the Blackpool Illuminations on the back wall of their cab at night. Surely all they can see in their windscreen is the reflection from all those LEDs?
Christopher:
Something else I’ve wondered - guys with half of the Blackpool Illuminations on the back wall of their cab at night. Surely all they can see in their windscreen is the reflection from all those LEDs?
Would these by any chance be the same ones that have tassled curtains pulled 1/2 way accross the side windows, fog lights on & blue lights on the front?
Christopher:
Something else I’ve wondered - guys with half of the Blackpool Illuminations on the back wall of their cab at night. Surely all they can see in their windscreen is the reflection from all those LEDs?
its an AA recovery truck obsession i think as they were the first to do it…
Driveroneuk:
Christopher:
Something else I’ve wondered - guys with half of the Blackpool Illuminations on the back wall of their cab at night. Surely all they can see in their windscreen is the reflection from all those LEDs?
Would these by any chance be the same ones that have tassled curtains pulled 1/2 way accross the side windows, fog lights on & blue lights on the front?
I don’t doubt that there’s a congruence! Very occasionally they can look alright but more often than not it’s like someone’s put four Christmas trees in their cab. If anything they must go through an alternator a week…
What I will add that I feel that all drivers should be given the chance to experience what its like inside a lorry whilst its being driven it gives whole new perspective on the outlook it certainly did for me! I personally have only ever driven both LGV/HGV’s un-loaded so I would again be on a steep learning curve if I was given the task of a loaded truck or should I say more appropriatly a loaded Gun?. Most of all I feel whatever you are driving its about knowledge of your vehicle and its capabilities but that comes with experience and then we are back to that catch 22 how do you get experience when no-one will give you a chance in the lorry world?