- Jan 11, 2018
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- Chausson Welcome 85
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- Since 2018
It's our first year with a motorhome and it’s taken a little time to get a driving style established.
I’m no stranger to the Ducato having driven a minibus regularly for 10 years or so but there are differences you have to adjust to.
A Ducato minibus is only the same width as a PVC and of course only needs short arm wing mirrors but it is rarely anywhere near full laden. This means I have adapted to it easily and the fact that it’s limited to 100kph is not a problem.
A motorhome of course is fully laden all the time, is about a foot wider and has long arm mirrors. Also a big overhang and limited rear vision even with a camera.
All obvious enough.
But it’s the way I drive it now that has settled in over the last 6m or so.
It’s obvious I know but I now accelerate from rest at the rate it wants to go without trying always to keep up with car traffic because in many cases you can’t.
If I’m going at a reasonable speed I don’t worry too much about traffic behind.
On motorways I set my cruise at about an indicated 63 ish which the gps tells me is about 60.
This leaves me a bit faster than most trucks with a bit in reserve if I need it.
I will just about touch 70 but briefly and only to overtake.
This has brought about a stress free mode of travelling which is the discovery I wanted to point out.
You then are not part of any press on driving at all and can relax.
The only real disadvantages with travelling at this pace is that you have to watch merging traffic because they want to merge in front not behind and also you are always in lane 1 approaching a roundabout and then have to merge over later than a car would.
I’ve learnt also to take it very easy through a narrow street giving way even when it’s my right of way. This way your progress might be slower but again your stress level is lower.
You can use the Ducato’s masses of torque to trickle along.
I’m not trying to give the impression I’m a doddery old driver, hopefully far from it but just that I’m driving the motorhome at a speed that it and me are happy with without impeding the rest of the traffic unduly
I’m no stranger to the Ducato having driven a minibus regularly for 10 years or so but there are differences you have to adjust to.
A Ducato minibus is only the same width as a PVC and of course only needs short arm wing mirrors but it is rarely anywhere near full laden. This means I have adapted to it easily and the fact that it’s limited to 100kph is not a problem.
A motorhome of course is fully laden all the time, is about a foot wider and has long arm mirrors. Also a big overhang and limited rear vision even with a camera.
All obvious enough.
But it’s the way I drive it now that has settled in over the last 6m or so.
It’s obvious I know but I now accelerate from rest at the rate it wants to go without trying always to keep up with car traffic because in many cases you can’t.
If I’m going at a reasonable speed I don’t worry too much about traffic behind.
On motorways I set my cruise at about an indicated 63 ish which the gps tells me is about 60.
This leaves me a bit faster than most trucks with a bit in reserve if I need it.
I will just about touch 70 but briefly and only to overtake.
This has brought about a stress free mode of travelling which is the discovery I wanted to point out.
You then are not part of any press on driving at all and can relax.
The only real disadvantages with travelling at this pace is that you have to watch merging traffic because they want to merge in front not behind and also you are always in lane 1 approaching a roundabout and then have to merge over later than a car would.
I’ve learnt also to take it very easy through a narrow street giving way even when it’s my right of way. This way your progress might be slower but again your stress level is lower.
You can use the Ducato’s masses of torque to trickle along.
I’m not trying to give the impression I’m a doddery old driver, hopefully far from it but just that I’m driving the motorhome at a speed that it and me are happy with without impeding the rest of the traffic unduly
)