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Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 5:55 pm
by Triquet
Over the Easter Weekend we hired a nice big Transit to take a shed-load of stuff up to Peterbuggah for the Antiques Fair. It makes a change from Saabing about but a couple of little thoughts:

a) Even with the big fat wing mirrors you get on a Tranny nowadays there is always some daft Herbert who wants to try and drive so close you can't see him. If I had stoped with any degree of urgency I would have had to nip round the back and disengage Herbert from our stock of Interesting Collectables.

b) Unaccustomed as I am to six-speed boxes and spending a few miles playing thumb up / thumb down / middle I finally settled for doing quite a lot of block changes which made me think "Hey why do I need all these gears? It's diesel, it's got torque?" :gear:

c) It's nice to be able to see over the hedges and admire the scenery.

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 6:18 pm
by vanman
Welcome to van driving. :D Was it governed to 70? Re. Herbert I am afraid I ignore them having a sturdy tow bar on the back. Also because of the large blind spots I indicate even (tut tut) if no one will benefit, I can't be 100% sure I have seen everything so.... Only got 5 gears so gearing fine, agree use the torque, Ford have given me a nice little green arrow to remind me to change up in anycase. Not so useful when assending long hills where 3rd would definitely be better still Ford know best. :twisted:

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 6:22 pm
by Triquet
Not governed, praise be ....

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 9:14 pm
by angus
The Transit''s come a long way. 30 years ago we hired one. It couldn't keep up with the lorries going uphill on the motorway but the one we had last year was almost like driving a car - lecky windows & mirrors, air con - I think it even had a heated windscreen

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Thu May 02, 2019 5:31 pm
by sussex2
A Renault Kangoo we hired had an electronic handbrake as well!!! It drove really well and handled neatly....

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 8:07 am
by Carbon Based
We hired one a few weeks ago. Generally very nice (for a van) but when empty the brake pedal seemed to instigate an emergency stop if you so much as looked* at it!

*figure of speech, I obviously don't look at the brake pedal when driving. :shock:

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 1:48 pm
by jont-
Carbon Based wrote:We hired one a few weeks ago. Generally very nice (for a van) but when empty the brake pedal seemed to instigate an emergency stop if you so much as looked* at it!

They've obviously been copying VAG braking systems then...

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Fri May 03, 2019 4:06 pm
by Jonquirk
People unaccustomed to driving vans may find that the near vertical position of the lower leg induces a “gravity servo” effect when applying the brakes. Given that the brakes have to be capable of stopping a fully laden van they may appear rather severe when the van is empty, remember that there is a far larger difference between laden and unladen than there is with a passenger car.

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 8:48 pm
by skodatezzer
Jonquirk wrote:People unaccustomed to driving vans may find that the near vertical position of the lower leg induces a “gravity servo” effect when applying the brakes. Given that the brakes have to be capable of stopping a fully laden van they may appear rather severe when the van is empty, remember that there is a far larger difference between laden and unladen than there is with a passenger car.


That rather depends on the passenger! :D :D