Narrow lanes (1 Viewer)

butters

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Hi there, we are new to Motor-homing and encountered our first problem at the weekend. Our sat nav took us down a narrow lane and we met another vehicle. We both tried to squeeze past but unfortunately we met. The car was slightly damaged on the rear bumper abut our van was scraped all along the side. Who is at fault her, we could not have gone any further over ?
I think its should be 50/50. Has anyone else had this problem or is it just us.:Sad:
 
Jan 3, 2008
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First problem

Hi there, we are new to Motor-homing and encountered our first problem at the weekend. Our sat nav took us down a narrow lane and we met another vehicle. We both tried to squeeze past but unfortunately we met. The car was slightly damaged on the rear bumper abut our van was scraped all along the side. Who is at fault her, we could not have gone any further over ?
I think its should be 50/50. Has anyone else had this problem or is it just us.:Sad:

50/50 by the sound of it. It's not just you, following the sat nav can lead you onto unsuitable roads but that could happen whatever vehicle you were in unless you had a sat nav for larger vehicles.

Don't let it spoil you motor homing!
 

sdc77

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Depending which sat nav you have there may be a larger vehicle or motorhome setting which avoid most problems like that. There are some threads on here for chinese truck sat navs that seem to work well.. I use Co pilot. .
Easy for me to say but I'm sure you have learned from this experience..
Regarding blame.. I'm sure it will end up being 50/50..
But in reality if either of you stopped and the other kept going it may be their fault.
Another good reason for in vehicle cameras.. (not sure how good it would have been in this case tho)

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BreweryDave

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Golden rule - if in doubt, stop!
If the other vehicle then comes past it will be their fault if any damage occurs.
Better still though - allows a bit of thinking time to sort how to pass without ever touching.

( a bit like when you need to get up to pee from the wrong side of a transverse bed:ROFLMAO:)
 

Forestboy

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We've all done it and paid the price it's all part of the experience. Our first van after 20 years away was a 36ft RV :Eeek: oh boy did we get into some trouble with that stupid thing but still laugh about it.:ROFLMAO:
 

hilldweller

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Our sat nav took us down a narrow lane

No so.

YOU took it down a narrow lane.

Bit of tough luck though, you very nearly made it. Older and wiser now.

But if in doubt STOP and refuse to move until you are sure it is totally safe to do so, let them make the mistakes.

Never be afraid to throw your passenger out for a close look.

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DBK

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Living as I do in and surrounded by single track lanes with passing places I am reasonably proficient at negotiating them in a MH, as ours is normally parked at home.

If there is an accident then if one vehicle is stationary and the other tries to scrape past and does indeed hit the stationary vehicle then it has to be the moving vehicle at fault. No question there but how do you prove who was stationary and who was moving without independent witnesses? A dash-cam might help but there are all sorts of issues about accepting video evidence in court - cyclists have tried it using helmet-cams but a good defence lawyer can usually get the video evidence chucked out if the video after the recording is not handled strictly in accordance with the Police and Criminal Evidence rules IIRC. In other words, the video has to be handled a bit like a fingerprint.

There is only one way to avoid bumps and that is to be prepared to reverse. Pulling over and hoping there is room doesn't always work. You will always meet someone who won't risk pulling over far enough or are in an unfamiliar vehicle to them. This happened to me last year. Pulled over and stopped at a passing place in the car, there was plenty of room for the on coming vehicle which was a Western Power Land Rover but it didn't pull over far enough and slid by scraping the rear wing. It turned out the vehicle was being driven by some tree-surgeons who had been loaned the vehicle by Western Power to chop trees down near power lines. The damage was slight so I did not claim on the insurance as I feared their company would try the 50:50 argument if I did and the increase in premiums would have been about in line with what it cost to fix.

A satnav into which you can put the width of the vehicle in will help but they are not fool proof, especially outside the UK.
 
Jun 30, 2011
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Golden rule - if in doubt, stop!
If the other vehicle then comes past it will be their fault if any damage occurs.
Better still though - allows a bit of thinking time to sort how to pass without ever touching.

( a bit like when you need to get up to pee from the wrong side of a transverse bed:ROFLMAO:)

Best idea Dave, if in doubt STOP.

We did this in Scotland a few years ago, someone in a white van wanted to just try it when it was obvious we would have made contact. I got out and shouted at him to stop. We then reversed about 200 yards where we could pull in further. Obviously not his own van but a works one.

Stop, get out and have a think.

Paul.
 
Dec 28, 2011
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Hi there, we are new to Motor-homing and encountered our first problem at the weekend. Our sat nav took us down a narrow lane and we met another vehicle.:Sad:



Never trust solely in a sat nav, even the ones that are supposedly made to be used in trucks/MHs.
We have a Garmin, which you can enter the vehicle dimensions on, and it still wants to take you down unsuitable roads. It even has a disclaimer telling you that this might happen, and it has.

As has been stated, use a navigator with a good map book to be certain of the roads (we use an AA Truckers large scale Atlas), and never be afraid to stop and check.

It looks like you will have to go the 50/50 route as you were both trying to squeeze past each other. :Sad:

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Oct 2, 2011
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We are all guilty to some extent of relying on Sat Nav's too much ( unless you don't use one ). I try to adopt the mindset that it is an electronic map and it only advises where to go. It is still my decisicion as the driver to go where I think it is safe. We have ended up in a couple of tight spots but never the sat navs fault, always been mine as I was driving. We do have one of the cheap truck sat navs and once time it was telling me that the road was unsuitable ahead but I thought it looked ok. Wrong. Bit of reversing required. SWMBO sits there with a map as well. She says it is to see where we are but I think she is keeping an eye on where the sat nav is taking us. No harm in that though.
Hope it's not too expensive to get your repair done.
Another thing I have done and it has certainly made a difference is I have put some hi vis markings on my wing mirrors so that they stand out a lot to oncoming vehicles. Definitely get a bit more room/respect from oncoming traffic on tighter roads.
 

bernardfeay

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We have been down lots of narrow lanes and we do sometimes come across a vehicle coming the other way. The obvious tactic is to reverse. I only have rear vision through my mirrors and my wife is happy to get out and do the "right hand down a bit" stuff.

If the person coming the other way is in a car I can usually persuade them to do the reversing seeing as how they are more manoeuvrable than I am.

If I find myself on a lane that I regret coming down I make mental notes as I go regarding how far it has been since a passing place. And, of course, sometimes I just know the lane will be trouble and I back up out of it within a few yards.
 
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Hi.
Bernardfeay /. Just the post i was willing to come up,PROPER.
Teabag

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Aug 27, 2009
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Could I add that I am not affiliated connected or even of the same sexual persuasion as Butters.....the name is where the similarity ends.:Wacko:
 
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If you are both agreed that it is a 50/50 situation then the worst thing you can do is involve your insures. Sort your own repairs out and put it down to experience. Now if the other party, "the car driver" is under any impression that he is not to blame then that is a different situation altogether. You will then have to leave it to the insures to sort it out.:cry:

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Feb 4, 2010
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If I find myself on a lane that I regret coming down I make mental notes as I go regarding how far it has been since a passing place.

I found myself doing that quite a lot last weekend in mid Wales :Eeek:

STA73205_600x800_.jpg
 
Apr 23, 2010
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grrrrr

Hi Butters
Sorry to hear about your mishap,I too had a scrape with a parked car as a result of blindly following my Sat/Nav.
This was in Spain and I was solo so unable to follow a map,I did review the route before leaving but ignored my instincts to stop and look again at the route,when said Sat/Nav decided to take me a different way to the original route.:Doh:
She decided (Sat/Nav female voice) that it would be nice to go and look round the Town of Benalup(serious one-way system) and streets you wouldn't want to take a mini down:cry::cry:
:Angry:We thats my Sa/Nav and me are now divorced:thumb: nay its worse than that,she has gone and joined the Sisterhood of DEAD Sat/navs in the twisty narrow lanes of Sat/Nav heaven.........I plead guilty to standing on her stupid head(screen):Eeek:
So if in doubt STOP:thumb:
 

hilldweller

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I plead guilty to standing on her stupid head(screen):Eeek:

Harsh but fair.

It's easy to die by SatNav.

We were is Switzerland during roadworks season, so satnav kept saying "turn right", we can't it's closed and we were destined to drive round Gstaat until we ran out of fuel or starved to death. Map saved us in the end.

Smart place to die though.

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maz

Jan 26, 2011
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Sat navs - pooh, pah and piffle! I only use mine for the reversing camera it's combined with and for hanging my hand-written route notes from with a bulldog clip. ::bigsmile: As someone else mentioned - Truckers' Atlases are trusty friends. :thumb:

A friend's sat nav tried to send her across a weir - a la Italian Job. Ok, so there was a Weir Lane to the north and a Weir Lane to the south - but in between them there was actually a weir. :RollEyes:

As a solo driver I have worked out a plan for encountering another vehicle in a narrow lane. If it looks like it's too narrow to pass without the sound of scraping paintwork, I do not pull over to the side. I put the hazard lights on, get out and suggest to the other driver that I am happy to reverse back to a passing place if they will see me back. They usually decide that it will be quicker and easier if they reverse back to a passing place instead. But at least it's all very amicable and we pass with a smile and a wave. ::bigsmile:
 

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