Grrr... Gritters... Any comeback??

[Bennah]

I was on my bike once coming back from my Girlfriends about 20 mins away from my house. A gritter when past me bout 30 mph, boy did it pelt me one. The grit was thrown all over the place, right at me. Heard it hitting my bike frame, my coat and a few parked cars. It sounded like it could have made marks on my bike, but the day after, it seemed that I was lucky.

Im avoiding gritters on the roads from now on. When Im on my bike and I see a gritter coming, Im getting the hell of the way of the thing

 

[Scania]

There was a long stretch where there wasn't so much as a frost and yet they kept on gritting and gritting and gritting

Gritting before the frost & ice is essential, gritting onto already formed ice has little effect, thats why the gritters go out prior to any apparent bad weather, well, there supposed to anyway!

 

[lordrobs]

Gritting before the frost & ice is essential, gritting onto already formed ice has little effect, thats why the gritters go out prior to any apparent bad weather, well, there supposed to anyway!

I agree but I would have thought that they would have had information from the met office as to when it was likely to be icy but it just seemed that they were constantly gritting. It seemed a bit like using a sledge hammer to crack an egg. I guess they could have been given duff info though.

 

[Vertigo]

drive on an untreated A-Road and crash, you'll get the point then pal.

Cut the patronising crap please. I've driven down plenty of icy A and B roads in my time and have yet to lose control of a car in such conditions. As someone else pointed out in this thread, you should be able to control a car in slippery conditions or you shouldn't be on the roads.

I still maintain that gritting does very little as the only roads on which it's done tend to have sufficient traffic to sweep away most of the salt before the overnight freeze. Of course if said roads are then free of ice the following day it's easy to say it was because of the gritting but who's to say they wouldn't have been clear anyway? This is all just my opinion of course and I'm willing to be convinced if anyone can point me at some research.

Ever considered that by sitting in the middle lane, he covers the whole carriageway with his crappy useless salt? Also, had he been doing 50+ mph, the gritting would have been far less effective?

And where exactly did I say that he shouldn't have been driving at 40mph in the middle lane? I was merely commenting, in the context of my opening comment, that it was bloody annoying, not that he should have been doing anything else.

As someone else mentioned, gritters are very badly designed, with the spray head mounted far too high. They should be much closer to the road surface so that the grit is thrown out at wheel level only and doesn't smack into the paintwork as much. Even if I'm wrong and they are indeed of major safety value, they're still bloody annoying

 

[<(Multi)>]

WOW! Just sometimes and very rarely at that, I'm stunned by how thick some people can be on these forums.

I'll see a gritter ahead and the first thing that comes to mind is errrrr grit. It therefore comes as no surprise to find the gritter dropping grit as I drive by/near/past. Now that I know this - the fact that gritters drop grit, I've come to the conculsion that it's best I drive a little bit slower when either passing or following them.

As for questioning how effective gritters are? Seriously, your joking right? I live near a big hill, over christmas when the lazy fat gritter men are all dressing up as Santa's and drinking cherry, this big hill has a tendency of getting very icy. So icy infact that one person has to stand at the bottom of the hill to stop the crossing traffic at the bottom of the road, whilst I slide uncontrollably to the bottom (onto the gritted A34) and stop.
HOWEVER, when the gritters have gritted the hill, I can drive down without anyone stopping traffic at the bottom. Go figure?!?!?!

Thank god R124/LA420 has the right idea!

LMAO at the idea of claiming against a gritter for dropping grit, stunner.

 

[Vertigo]

WOW! Just sometimes and very rarely at that, I'm stunned by how thick some people can be on these forums.

I've come to the conculsion that it's best I drive a little bit slower when either passing or following them.

Given that a gritter is chucking out grit at a standard rate of knots, logic would dictate that the slower you pass one the more grit will impact your car, so you'd be best advised to drive faster. Does that make you thick then?

LMAO at the idea of claiming against a gritter for dropping grit, stunner.

He was asking about claiming for damage to his vehicle, not for dropping grit. Try reading the OP next time.

 

[<(Multi)>]

Given that a gritter is chucking out grit at a standard rate of knots, logic would dictate that the slower you pass one the more grit will impact your car, so you'd be best advised to drive faster. Does that make you thick then?

Nope, sorry.

If a gritter is travelling at a speed 30mph toward me, and I'm travelling at 50mph toward him, the stone has the energy of sub 80mph. The faster it hits, the harder the impact, the more likely to damage paint.

If however I drive at 30mph, and he drives at 30mph, the stone only has 60mph of kinetic energy, the less likely paint is to be damaged.

If you're following a gritter, and its travelling at 30mph the stones aren't going 0mph, but more like 25mph. If you overtake the Gritter at 50mph the stones have an impact speed of 25mph, ouchy paint again

If I overtake the gritter at 35/40 (lets say 37.5mph) the stones only have an impact value of 12.5mph. Yes it'll take you longer, but I'd rather hit 4 times the number of stones at 12.5mph, than 4 times less at 25mph (summit to do with velocity squared?!?!)

He shoots, he scorces

 

[Scania]

Cut the patronising crap please. I've driven down plenty of icy A and B roads in my time and have yet to lose control of a car in such conditions.

"yet" - Exactly !

Thank god R124/LA420 has the right idea!

Well, That makes a change from the norm....

 

[Che]

GRIT!

 

[Vertigo]

You're only taking into account the oncoming grit that will impact the front of your car, what about the side impacts? The slower you pass the gritter the more grit will impact the side of your car.

You make the assumption that more grit at a lower impact speed is preferable but is it really? It may be doing less damage to the paintwork but that could well be outweighed by the increased quantity.

We've had this question before on here, whether it's best to overtake a gritter slowly or blast past as fast as possible and I don't think anyone's managed to say decisively.

 

[<(Multi)>]

You're only taking into account the oncoming grit that will impact the front of your car, what about the side impacts? The slower you pass the gritter the more grit will impact the side of your car.

You make the assumption that more grit at a lower impact speed is preferable but is it really? It may be doing less damage to the paintwork but that could well be outweighed by the increased quantity.

We've had this question before on here, whether it's best to overtake a gritter slowly or blast past as fast as possible and I don't think anyone's managed to say decisively.

LOL, I'm going to go bed now, my head hurts due to thinking about grit physics.

But just before I do go, can I just say:
















I'm right and your wrong. Hush!

 

[lordrobs]

If I overtake the gritter at 35/40 (lets say 37.5mph) the stones only have an impact value of 12.5mph. Yes it'll take you longer, but I'd rather hit 4 times the number of stones at 12.5mph, than 4 times less at 25mph (summit to do with velocity squared?!?!)

He shoots, he scorces

Not sure I agree with your logic.

Your passing Mr Gritter and you come to the point where you are almost beside the gritting lorry. The grit that is pinging off your paintwork is coming out of the gritter pretty much sideways, the speed of which is determined by the grit chucking thingy on the back.

Therefore whether your doing 35mph or 100mph the grit is going to hit you at pretty much the same rate, because your speed is in effect working in ^ direction whilst the velocity of the grit is acting in > direction so the two are pretty much unrelated aren't they? Just by going slowly its going to hit you for longer.

 

[Demon]

As the OP, I think the original facts are being a little twisted...


The Gritter was not spraying grit as I approached, in fact I was carefully watching it constantly, as it is a gritter.. it's flashing lights had been on for as long as I could see it, and still no grit.. I passed it doing 80MPH (it was probably doing <50MPH as a guess), only as my bonnet was about 1-2M from the rear of his vehicle the grit thrower suddenly started up.. Instantly hitting the front bumper/wing.. with a closing speed of 30MPH there was little I could do, I just carried on, to brake would have only exposed me to grit for longer..

Oh, and it wasn't the usual small shower of grit, this thing on statup throw a fountain of grit.. and it was it's velocity side ways that did the damage, the majority is on the side of the front bumper/wing, not on the front face of the car..

I agree that in an pedants world, I should have hung 100M behind the truck even though it wasn't gritting, and that his flashing lights wheren't actually a warning of a slow moving vehicle, but a random indication that at some point in the next week or two he might turn the gritter on, and of course pre-empted that as I was alongside he would turn the gritter on, and somehow dodge the instant fountain of grit thrown at the car in my advanced driving qualifications sort of way..

But then since it is my fault and no responsibility lies with the gritter, I'll put a flashing orange light on my car, a sign in the back window saying brick thrower, then as people are just about to overtake, I'll randonly chuck a salt brick out of the window.. if anyone dares to stop me, I'll just claim that it's necessary to grit roads in this way, and any damage caused is their own fault, after all, I am a brick throwing vehicle after all, what did they expect..

The only upside is that after £600 of paintwork required I may as well get the subtle sports body kit fitted.. so at least It'll look a bit better afterwards..

All tongue in cheek of course

 

[6thElement]

So do you get wetter if you walk or run to your destination when it's raining??

 

[Demon]

It depends if you have an umbrella or not

 

[Phantom]

so... the flashing light was on... oh well, you had the warning there wont be anything you can do about it (except get that sports body kit you always wanted )

 

[Demon]

so... the flashing light was on... oh well, you had the warning there wont be anything you can do about it (except get that sports body kit you always wanted )

Can you explain this in more detail.. his flashing lights where on for over 2 mile before the grit.. I followed him over the M4 Severn Crossing for 1 mile, then down the sliproad, then onto the M49, this was when I got the chance to overtake the other 2 cars following him, probably a further mile.. yet no grit at all..... I can only summise that the orange lights are just used on a night to alert people to a slow moving vehicle, or is their a magic time limit??? where would I find this precise timing information???