How come my motorhome doesn't rattle in France?

[VXman]

Returned from France yesterday and after 3 weeks of a silent MH suddenly all hell breaks loose once on UK soil. What on earths going on?

 

[rb62]

UK roads are rubbish,even the Belgian roads are better now,well some of them

 

[SM0129]

We were driving to Le Mans the other week and noted the exact same thing!!

 

[Andy MacD]

Yeh, crossed on Tuesday and after 2 months on French roads the M6 through Birmingham was torture. Did you also notice in France the lack of miles of coned off stretches of road with no one working on it?

 

[Clivefog]

Illegals got off and lets the moho bounce a little more?

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[Aly1]

French motorway a 100km in cruise control. UK motorway a 100 metres if you’re lucky!

 

[63720]

We were driving to Le Mans the other week and noted the exact same thing!!

Yeah, on the Mulsanne straight I could hear the clock ticking.....and it's digital .

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

Not many potholes in France ,we are not allowed to export them anymore since Br**1t.

 

[Engineer999]

Yes, noted that back in 2019, before MH, took 16 year old 3.0 BMW Z4 down to loire, the sun shone, the top was down, the miles eaten up and all was serene. Got off the tunnel and hit the first stretch of concrete motorway, jeeez……

 

[tacr2man]

Its probably all the bottles of wine you bought leaving France ?

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[EuroTrotters]

There are some very bad roads in France.

You must be loaded using all the autoroutes

 

[Ridgeway]

After a week or so’s riding my bike in the UK i dis over rattles i never knew i had….. road surfaces in the UK are very poor.

 

[dunnah01]

It's also alarming how much more traffic there is on the UK roads compared to the mainland. We may be twice as densely populated but it seems more like ten times.
And don't get me started on the amount of litter on UK roads

 

[Shrimp]

Yes, French roads are, mostly, far better than ours and our Hymer returns better mpg in France than UK.

 

[activecampers]

UK is smooth as silk compared to Italy.
Agree France is generally a joy. Lots of good road but also the population is much less mobile and not many venture outside the commune much

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[Ridgeway]

The reference across Europe is Swiss roads. Watching them lay a road recently I understood why with the road laying machine they use (basically a sort of train on tracks that lays tarmac perfectly flat)

 

[Miggs]

It's also alarming how much more traffic there is on the UK roads compared to the mainland. We may be twice as densely populated but it seems more like ten times.
And don't get me started on the amount of litter on UK roads

We actually have nearly 4 times the number of people per square mile.
And growing every day!

 

[TDub49]

Returned from France yesterday and after 3 weeks of a silent MH suddenly all hell breaks loose once on UK soil. What on earths going on?

Welcome back to the third world . . . .

 

[tacr2man]

Welcome back to the third world . . . .

What third world is really like to travel

 

[Guigsy]

the M6 through Birmingham was torture

It's getting so bad across the miles of viaducts that traverse Birmingham. The joints are opening right up, the continuous repairs and patching they seem to do overnight lasts only days. It's like driving down a flight of stairs.

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[TDub49]

What third world is really like to travel

Not long for us then . . . .

 

[jongood]

It's getting so bad across the miles of viaducts that traverse Birmingham. The joints are opening right up, the continuous repairs and patching they seem to do overnight lasts only days. It's like driving down a flight of stairs.

The joints on the elevated section are really bad but tbf nothing out jarrs the joints on Italian bridges.

 

[Guigsy]

The joints on the elevated section are really bad but tbf nothing out jarrs the joints on Italian bridges.

Yes, you need a running jump to clear the Italian ones, but at least they are only one at each end. The viaducts through Brum have a joint every 20 metres. Need a visit to the dentist afterwards.

 

[IRHP]

Purely down to road surface. It's not just the potholes, the roads aren't worn out. Loads of our (uk) roads have all the tar missing and just stones left. I noticed this driving in France a few years ago. I'm also convinced it had a big effect on fuel consumption too.

 

[PaulOH]

Does that mean that if I bring my 30 year old van to the UK it will stop rattling??

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[VXman]

There are some very bad roads in France.

You must be loaded using all the autoroutes

Never use any pay for roads. Sat nav is set to avoid tolls. The only toll I have paid in 11000 miles of travelling is Dartford crossing!!!

 

[Ridgeway]

Purely down to road surface. It's not just the potholes, the roads aren't worn out. Loads of our (uk) roads have all the tar missing and just stones left. I noticed this driving in France a few years ago. I'm also convinced it had a big effect on fuel consumption too.

It will certainly have an impact: tiny bumps = resistance = more fuel required.

 

[dunnah01]

We actually have nearly 4 times the number of people per square mile.
And growing every day!

? Uk 244.000sq km France 544000 sq km - population is about the same at 68m so UK is about 2.25 x as populated as France. The decrease in rate of population growth over the past 50 years has been pretty much the same for France and the UK so I pity the next generation's pensions income.

 

[Don Campbell]

The reference across Europe is Swiss roads. Watching them lay a road recently I understood why with the road laying machine they use (basically a sort of train on tracks that lays tarmac perfectly flat)

Yes and the SF40 they charge you to use their brilliant roads and tunnel systems for the whoile year is a bargain compared with some of the mororway charges in France. No wonder the French motorways are fairly quiet, You have to be in a real hurry to get somewhere fast to factor the cost in.

 

[Fdhadi]

No money left to repair our roads, we spent it all on perfecting the roads in Spain.

I read somewhere that Garmin are bringing a Sat Nav out that tells you where the worst potholes are, it needs updating every day to keep up.