Sic Transit Gloria

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Triquet
Posts: 526
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:32 pm
Location: Occupied North Berkshire

Sic Transit Gloria

Postby Triquet » Sat Apr 27, 2019 5:55 pm

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.

vanman
Posts: 402
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 4:16 pm
Location: Caterham Surrey

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby vanman » Sat Apr 27, 2019 6:18 pm

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:

Triquet
Posts: 526
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 7:32 pm
Location: Occupied North Berkshire

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby Triquet » Sat Apr 27, 2019 6:22 pm

Not governed, praise be ....

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angus
Posts: 395
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 1:28 pm
Location: Colchester - Oldest Town, oldest roads

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby angus » Sat Apr 27, 2019 9:14 pm

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

sussex2
Posts: 732
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 11:43 am

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby sussex2 » Thu May 02, 2019 5:31 pm

A Renault Kangoo we hired had an electronic handbrake as well!!! It drove really well and handled neatly....

Carbon Based
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 8:52 pm
Location: London

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby Carbon Based » Fri May 03, 2019 8:07 am

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:

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jont-
Posts: 1522
Joined: Mon Sep 28, 2015 7:12 am
Location: Herefordshire

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby jont- » Fri May 03, 2019 1:48 pm

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...

Jonquirk
Posts: 334
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2015 6:48 pm
Location: Guildford

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby Jonquirk » Fri May 03, 2019 4:06 pm

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.

skodatezzer
Posts: 74
Joined: Sun Sep 27, 2015 10:52 pm

Re: Sic Transit Gloria

Postby skodatezzer » Sat May 04, 2019 8:48 pm

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


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