Jeeps with Horse boxes N4 Mullingar, Longford up to Carrick On S,

the culture of deference

I have used this road 3 times over the last month. On the very wide sections (100kmh limit) of this road there seems to be endless jeeps towing horse boxes stuck in the middle of the road with 10+ cars stuck behind them.

Are the drivers AWARE of the tailbacks they cause or are they just assholes.

Mycroft H

Ohh good, I thought I had missed the monthly moan about slower drivers on the road thread....

bijapos

No they aren't assholes they are just people going around doing their ordinary business. It's not easy driving a Jeep with a trailer and a ton of horse inside, just try it. if they are going at 70-80 kmh that might be annoying but it's just being responsible on their part.

You might think that they should pull into the hard shoulder but the problem is getting back onto the road when an obstacle shows up in the hard shoulder, not every driver has the cop on to let you back onto the road.

Either way on a wide stretch of road it's often the driver directly behind the Jeep and trailer that's the problem, not the Jeep driver, you should be asking why they aren't overtaking and if not then why don't they leave a space between themselves and the jeep so that people behind aren't forced to overtake 2,3,4 or more cars in one go.

dgt

All mouth with no actions

dr.fuzzenstein

the culture of deference wrote: »

I have used this road 3 times over the last month. On the very wide sections (100kmh limit) of this road there seems to be endless jeeps towing horse boxes stuck in the middle of the road with 10+ cars stuck behind them.

Are the drivers AWARE of the tailbacks they cause or are they just assholes.

Yes they are. Fully.
But don't you know that they have a God Given Entitlement To Be On The Road?
I once overtook a horsebox where the driver floored it as he saw me overtaking.
I ended up having to do 140+ km/h to get past him, because it would not have been save falling back again and pulling back in behind him.
On two other occasions I have seen horseboxes with "escort vehicles", i.e. a mate of theirs following them in a car, who will block any overtaking, no matter if it's a long straight road, how dare you overtake us, pleb!
And I have never, ever in 20 years of driving seen a horsebox pull over to let other pass.
Farmers with cattleboxes will let you pass every now and then, ditto for tractors and all sorts of other slow moving traffic.
But give them a brand new 4x4, a fancy, expensive horsebox and some clapped out mare and they are The Most Important Thing On The Road!
Look at me in my shiny 4x4, I got a horse, doncherknow!
The newer and shinier, the worse they are.
If you see some auld farmer pull cattle in his 20 year old Fiesta, he will let you pass.
If you see a brand new, gleaming and expensive horsebox, you are done for.
Once was stuck behind one of those knob jockeys for A FULL HOUR and that wanker wouldn't move over once.
Yes, there are nice and responsible horse box drivers out there, but a lot of them are up their own hole.

Thank God for motorways, I can only say, the old horror of being stuck behind a horsebox is now mostly a fading memory (still wake up bathed in sweat at 3am sometimes), but not everyone in the country is so lucky.
To this day I have a hatred for them, because a lot of them that I encountered over the years, where just complete arseholes.

dhog4n

Don't forget either that the towing speed limit is 80kph. A friend of mine got fined for doing 90kph on a 100kph road about 6 months ago while towing an empty trailer.

snowman707

I do a fair bit of livestock (not horses) haulage with a jeep and a trailer

Just to elaborate on few very good points in the replies

I am legally limited to 80kph, on some roads 80 would be dangerous for the livestock and indeed for my self and other road users

I pull over when it is safe to do so, but am appalled and the number of other drivers than will follow the leader blindly and even though I'm flashing to move out to avoid pedestrians, cyclists etc, they will just hem me in. (BTW TN and LK are the worst offenders here, G and MO being the most courteous road users I meet)

I understand Op's annoyance and agree that yes indeed there are many assholes driving 4x4's with total disregard for other users but bear in mind that their reluctance to pull over may have sparked by the ignorance of other's in the past

the culture of deference

bijapos wrote: »

You might think that they should pull into the hard shoulder but the problem is getting back onto the road when an obstacle shows up in the hard shoulder, not every driver has the cop on to let you back onto the road.

The parts of the road I am talking about are 30 - 40 foot wide with the hard shoulder, with sometimes up to 2 miles of visibility. Ample time to get out of the way.

bijapos wrote: »

Either way on a wide stretch of road it's often the driver directly behind the Jeep and trailer that's the problem, not the Jeep driver, you should be asking why they aren't overtaking and if not then why don't they leave a space between themselves and the jeep so that people behind aren't forced to overtake 2,3,4 or more cars in one go.

They are not overtaking because the Jeep and horse box driver will not move out of the way.

They will drive at 100kmh on the straights which is illegal and slow down to 70 or 80km on all bends or uphill sections, forcing impatient car drivers behind to make even dumber overtakes.

bijapos

the culture of deference wrote: »

The parts of the road I am talking about are 30 - 40 foot wide with the hard shoulder, with sometimes up to 2 miles of visibility. Ample time to get out of the way.

I don't agree, there could be a small boreen, a house or a gate into a field where the driver has to stick their nose out into the hard shoulder to get a good view of whats on the road, if your in the hard shoulder with a bunch of muppets who won't let you out then your in trouble. This doesn't include the times when your in the hard shoulder and you spot a piece of crap in the shoulder, be it a plank, rock, sod of turf, a bag with feck knows what's inside it. Sorry, but it's usually safer to err on the side of caution and stay on the road, frustrating maybe but that's the way it is.

I drive a truck 2-3 days a week, I've pulled into hard shoulders and have had people pull up beside me and drive along just crawling past me when theres a bend coming up in the distance. As snowman 707 says people don't always let you back in.

They are not overtaking because the Jeep and horse box driver will not move out of the way.

If they are incapable or unsure of passing the Jeep then that's fair enough, their mistake is to dadle along directly behind them and not leave room between themselves and the Jeep so that another car can overtake one at a time safely, in this case we have two hinderances on the road directly behind each other.

the culture of deference

dhog4n wrote: »

Don't forget either that the towing speed limit is 80kph. A friend of mine got fined for doing 90kph on a 100kph road about 6 months ago while towing an empty trailer.

I was on the M11 last week Gorey side, cruise control on doing 120km, and a guy in an old car with a wide (8 foot empty) trailer went past me.