Watch Your Weight On The Road
We bet you very rarely think about your vehicle’s weight on the road. You should though because there are a number of vehicles where the extra weight could make them dangerous. A key example of this would be when you’re towing a caravan. When you tow a caravan, you add a considerable amount of weight to your car, and it’s not completely linked to your vehicle. This means that you have to be very careful with the setup of your caravan. For instance, you can’t have heavy items loose because these could move from one side to the other while you’re driving, dragging the caravan with them. It could even push the trailer into the other lane on the road.
That’s not the only danger when you’re driving with a caravan. You have to watch your speed too because if your speed gets out of control, you can lose control of the weight behind you. This is the reason why some caravans and trailers overturn on high-speed roads, often taking the car with them. It’s a horrific scenario and once that you always have to be prepared for when towing your vehicle.
Of course, caravan pullers aren’t the only vehicles that need to watch their weights.
Heavier Trucks
One of the first things that truck drivers should remember is that their stopping speed is not the same. You might think that trucks can only go a maximum of about 60 on the highway and that’s why they always clog up the slow lanes. This isn’t true, but it is the speed where trucks are the safest. When someone is hurt in a truck accident, it’s usually because the truck was not able to stop in time to prevent the accident. Don’t forget, the more weight you have, the longer it will take you to stop. You must take this into account when you are driving a heavier vehicle. The same is true for the massive American RVs.
But truckers have another problem to contend with. It’s not just their weight but the sheer size of the vehicle. There are a lot of blind spots on a truck, and it’s so easy for one to pull out hitting another car because it didn’t realize it was there.
Loading Up Your Car
Even loading up your car could impact how your vehicle drives. For instance, you might be going on holiday, packing a lot of luggage in the trunk. Or, you could have heavier items on the back of your vehicle like mountain bikes. If you look at your car from the side, you’ll see that this weight is dragging the car down. Essentially, this makes it a lot more difficult to handle. So, if you are heading away on holiday this weekend, you should definitely take care on the bends. You might find the car swings out a little more than you are accustomed to. Don’t forget that the weight can also impact the amount of pressure on the tyres as well.
We hope this helps you watch the weight of your vehicle more carefully on the roads.