I’ve been watching Brainiac all day on G4. In almost every show, they blow up a caravan. Why the hatred for caravans?
Because caravans are full of pikeys.
Richard Hammond, the presenter of Brainiac, is also one of the hosts of another show; Top Gear , on which the blowing up (and smashing up, crunching, etc) originated.
Top Gear being about car drivers, they have a good many stereotypical hates; among them being motorcyclists (because they can go between traffic, even in a jam) and caravans, because caravans drivers take up a lot of the road, and are supposedly all very dull, as well as being incredibly poor drivers.
One of the best caravan destruction methods was using a pneumatic car launcher (as used in films to show a car jumping through the air) to fire a car in order to hit a giant “dartboard”, with the caravan in the centre giving extra points.
Top Gear certainly isn’t the origin of caravan-hatred.
Reasons we all hate them:
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They clog up the roads, particularly on some of the busiest days of the year in the summer, and some of the busiest roads.
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When on a two-lane road, they hold up traffic because they’re so slow and unweildly. And for no good reason, unlike slow farm vehicles, lorries etc. (a) mostly pull over periodically to let cars past, and (b) have a purpose.
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Too many caravan owners don’t know how to drive properly while towing them. Changing lanes too fast so the thing swerves about, either unnecessary caution or not taking the load into consideration when braking, etc.
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Last but certainly not least: the type of people who enjoy caravan holidays are indescribably boring. (Well, that’s the stereotype
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Too many caravanners drive on roads that are not appropriate, as a result they have to go relatively slowly, holding everybody else up, and to drive at 30mph for half an hour or more, through some of our most glorious countryside,with nothing to look at in front except for a very rare overtaking opportunity and the arse end of a large plywood box on wheels, its pretty frustrating.
They don’t tend to clog up the main roads and motorways, which can handle them and its where they should stay for the main part, rather than twatting around the lanes, getting stuck on tight corners blocking useful progress.
I wish you had put this thread in the pit.
I can assure you that hatred of caravans is not confined to the UK. They are hated in my neck of the woods too, and for the same reasons, and the same stereotypes apply.
I have to say though, that you don’t see them nearly as often now as you did twenty or thirty years ago.
Moving thread from IMHO to The BBQ Pit.
If (and I’m fairly certain this is true) caravans are the same as RV’s-I will join UK’ers in their hatred.
They’re ugly, unwieldy, slow and get ridiculous gas mileage. Who wants to live in such a place? (unless they cannot afford something else). Over here, though-RV’s are not cheap, so I don’t get the whole “we can’t afford a stationary home” bit.
Also, having followed an RV up to the top of Mt Whatever in Rocky Mountain National Park (Forest?)–they are scarey as hell on mountain roads. Having one behind us on the way down was no picnic, either.
Rereading my post-ok, hatred is a strong word. but I come down to “what’s an RV for?” You can’t stay in a hotel? Meet people? Mingle with the natives a bit? You want to sleep in a kitchen and shower in a mutated sink? Join the Navy and request submarine duty.
Caravans are usually towed behind a car or van. What you are describing sounds more like what we would call a mobile home. They’re nearly identical, apart from mobile homes move under their own steam, whereas caravans need another vehicle to move them.
Gah. Mobile homes over here do not move.
Seriously. They are pre-built in a factory and shipped on very large flat bed trucks to wherever you want to live. The water and gas are hooked up (I believe they are in tanks) and there you are. Until you want to move again, whereby you call a flat bed trucking company and literally pick up stakes and move on.
Most folks never move them, though.
I would call what you describe as a caravan a trailer or a camper.
I hate those too-so it’s all good.
Caravan = Travel trailer or mobile home
Mobile home = Motor home (RV)
Motor home (RV) = A self-propelled vehicle equipped with sleeping areas, food preparation areas, and often a toilet and shower. It may be as small as a camper (a living structure attached to a pick-up truck bed) or as large as a bus (coach). Large RVs can cost over a quarter-millions dollars.
Travel trailer = Like a motor home, but towed behind a vehicle.
Mobile home = A trailer-based structure intended for semi-permanent habitation. A ‘single-wide’ is ten feet (3m) wide and is the easiest to uproot and move. A 'double-wide is 20 feet (6m) wide, usually with a longitudinal peak in the roof. There are also ‘triple-wides’. A mobile home differs from a travel trailer in that they are usually larger and intended to be parked and lived in (often/usually with the wheels removed) for long periods, while a travel trailer is intended to be towed to a holiday destination.
Heh, heh. If ya’ll get frustrated at “caravans”, you’ll probably go postal at mine.
PeterWiggen, I know it’s the Pit, but that’s still a racist term of abuse, especially in the way you used it.
Caravans=Travellers=Scum.
Nice.
If I came into a thread about “pimped out” cars and said I the reason people diss them is because of all the N*****S who own them I’d get smacked down. You did exactly the same thing.
That’s what I’m talking about. The ones on the show were of the two-person persuasion.
The ones I’ve seen in the US are usually towed by people who seem to know what they’re doing.
I didn’t think this thread was Pit-worthy, but what do I know?
No-the people who drive them in the USA don’t know what they are doing. They attempt to parallel park them in San Francisco, for example. They usually have stickers all over them from Yellowstone (and Jellystone-how quaint), Mt Rushmore and Red Ruby Falls(wherever that may be) etc.
If you pass one of them, Ma is riding shotgun, knitting. She has a beehive hairdo. Pa is driving, but is really too busy pontificating to Ma about the state of the world today to pay much attention to the road. And afterall, why should he? He is big and bulky enough for just about anything to get out of his way, not the other way around. Sometimes, there just insn’t enough room IN the camper to fit all of Ma’s tchochtkes --so there is crap strapped on top as well. This is usually flapping in the wind and may work loose–thereby explaining the odd bits one finds on the side of highways in America.
I personally love the pick up truck hauling a camper which is hauling a trailer full of ATVs or similiar. Sorta like mutated human turtles–carrying their house (and then some) on their backs…
Judging by what I see up here in Vancouver Island, there is a whole subculture of people in Canada and the United States that are essentially retired and wealthy and spend a great deal of time travelling and living in their $100,000 plus motor homes with all the amenities available to the those who are fixed in their houses. That includes TV, heating, air conditioning, computer station, 110 voltage, fridge, stove, etc.
I see many people mostly Americans who come up here for the summer in their RVs to enjoy our wonderful environment, and I know quite a few Canadian snowbirds who drive their RVs south to Arizona in the fall.
Around here there is a status associated with RV ownership. Keeping up with the Jones you know ?
Canada was FULL of RVs this summer. Some of them were quite beautiful classic Airstreams, mostly from the Northeastern US and Ontario, with some New Brunswick in there, too. People from the Maritimes don’t seem to be into them, and we were all over the Maritimes.
The drivers are usually pretty savvy in North America but where they suck is on long hills. The poor things just don’t have the juice and end up sloooooowing down, and if you’re stuck behind them you’re screwed. And if you get a lousy driver of one in front of you, you’re really really screwed.
But I get the feeling the UK people are talking about something else.
That’s why I asked. If possible can we keep the conversation limited to the UK, please?
Sorry-but bad drivers are universal.
As I have no experience with bad UK caravan drivers or their sub-culture, I’ll shut up now.
Jeesh.
You could fill an entire forum with tales of bad drivers. It’s just that I don’t recall a lot of US TV shows where they rejoice in blowing up trailers. On the two UK shows (Brainiac and Top Gear), it seems to be quite the crown pleaser. I’m just looking for some insight into another culture.