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Old 27-05-2015, 10:21 AM
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AstralTraveller (David)
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Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Wollongong
Posts: 3,820
The other standard warning for outback travel is 'watch out for road trains'. I believe you have multiple-trailer trucks in Texas so they won't be a complete surprise but Australia has the biggest and longest trucks in the world. They can be an impressive sight but also require (nay, demand!) consideration from other motorists. Obviously they don't stop or turn quickly and they fill up the road. The more modern designs that use 'B' couplings track very well, and B-doubles are used on a lot of roads throughout Australia, but the old dog-trailer type can wander about a fair bit. The standard triple train used to move cattle has 5 pivot points and is 50m long. I've followed one and the rear trailer was moving a full trailer width to the left and to the right so that the truck was occupying three truck widths. This was on a road (the Sturt Hwy before it was upgraded) that had one lane of tar so the rear trailer was wandering into the dirt and throwing up stones. The shoulders were narrow and steep so I sat 100m behind the road train for an hour doing 80kmh before it pulled into a rest area. On the tar give them plenty of room. If you meet one coming the other way on dirt pull over and stop; you won't be able to see for a minute ot two anyway.

http://www.outback-australia-travel-...ad-trains.html
http://www.shangralafamilyfun.com/roadtrain.html
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...in_-_Tambo.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Australia.jpg

Quote:
Originally Posted by barx1963 View Post
.... Rules are different various states ...
Wonderful isn't it?
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