HGV speed limit

The limit for HGV's is 60MPH on motorways, 50 on dual carriageways and 40 on single carriageways.

The truck you followed must have had its limiter disabled.

That said, most are geared for no more than 65 - 70 MPH....,
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
The limit for HGV's is 60MPH on motorways, 50 on dual carriageways and 40 on single carriageways.

The truck you followed must have had its limiter disabled.

That said, most are geared for no more than 65 - 70 MPH....,
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I thought it was out of the ordinary, thanks for clearing that up.
 
Maybe he was flat out and your speedo over read means it looks like that speed?

When I'm cruising just over 2500rpm is 65ish indicated but is the point when no trucks can overtake or gain on me so must be around 56mph.
 
They will overspend going down hill, this is why limiters are set no higher (but often lower) than 56MPH.

Thinking about it, many are geared to do maybe 70-75 tops, but are way past peak torque at this point, not to mention very hard to stop from such a speed, fully freighted, in an emergency scenario...

I often overtake Cars with large digital speedo's and notice they can be reading upto 10mph faster than my calibrated tachograph that's sat firmly at 55mph.....
 
R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
I often overtake Cars with large digital speedo's and notice they can be reading upto 10mph faster than my calibrated tachograph that's sat firmly at 55mph.....
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This was my first thought, and is probably the answer to the OPs question, maybe combined with a little overspeeding. It's why you can overtake a police car at 80 MPH and not be immeditely relegated to Belmarsh.
 
I don't think so, I followed the lorry for a good few miles and it was clearly much faster than all the other HGVs on the road. Enough for me to notice it being out of the ordinary.
 
I once saw a lorry with trailer in the outside lane going about 80... With a police/military escort.

Pretty sure it was batman.
 
Speed limiters break or can be disabled.

One of the local magistrates works in our office as his day job. He had a case last week for a lorry with trailer being caught by camera doing 93mph. Driver pleaded guilty...

No idea what happened as he wont discuss the case specifics but he had to tell us the speed. New record for one of his sittings apparently.
 
Speed limiters can be disabled, via tampering with the wiring or confusing the gearbox speed sensor by placing a strong magnet on a specific part of the gearbox casing - both are illegal - back in the day, you used to see many Irish plated trucks going way over 60mph, but tbh it's a rare sight these days.
To my knowledge, all European trucks are speed limited.

OP, are you sure what type of truck it was? - if it was an old 7.5 ton type, chances are it could have had no limiter and be easily capable of 70mph, I used to drive a G plate Mercedes 814 that would do 75mph all day long, from the rear especially with a large box style body, they can be mistaken for a larger HGV.

These days all commercials over 3.5t are speed limited.
 
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