View Full Version : ABS saved my fr end this morning
craig green
09-05-08, 02:42 PM
Couldve put lif there instead of car but that might be an exageration.
I was heading out on a few calls this morning for work. I was taking a B road accross the moors in mid Somerset, I usually enjoy a spirited drive on these roads if I must say so. Anyway, was hooning it along minding my own business when I rounded a bend in the road only to have a stationary tractor & trailer just around the bend stopped whilst the driver was tightening the ratchet straps on his load or something. I shat myself & braked as hard as I dared. The Fiesta's nosed pitched to the floor, the back end got REAALY light & waggled about as the contents of my back seats & stuff on the drivers seat all headed towards the front. I really thought I was going to slam into the back of the trailer, there was an oncoming car heading aswell so going around the tractor was not an option.
Luckily I stopped about 2 feet away from it, the drtiver of the tractor none the wiser of what I'd just been through. I gave hime a mouthfull of abuse through the passenger window & headed off at a sedate speed.
My appointment was about 2 miles away & I was quite shook up when I arrived. Adrenaline still pumping.
Cheers ABS. First time I've ever really needed it. :eek:
This sort of thing makes you think. You can be the safest driver in the world but you really need to watch out for other people on the road.
Glad your OK dude
lol id not had my astra 2 week when a kid just ran out from some parked cars , same story so thought id have a big dent in my bonnet , but just stopped ,
the kids parrents gave them a proppa bo telling off lol , wouldnt have stopped in a nova though
tom_beverley
09-05-08, 03:06 PM
There are lots of farms near me and on a spirited drive all it takes is for a tractor to pull out onto the road after a blind bend...
Your situation has almost happened to me a couple of times but luckily theres been a way for me to read the road ahead and know its there and have an extra couple of seconds!
Easily done though.
Craig, did the ABS actually kick in? As I've not managed to make it happen on the pool cars here and they have some proper abusive braking done to them lol.
And the astra just stops when you tell it, only ever had the ABS on once and that was in the snow.
the VX on the other hand....... if the abs comes on you are dead as it lets go of the brakes for you. Mmmmm handy going straight for ice mode
craig green
09-05-08, 04:50 PM
ABs has been quite lively of late, must be the Bridgestones getting down near wer limit perhaps. I get that in the any road conditions.
We have a fleet of Festers here, some as old as 53 plate & mine which has just turned 1 year old this week. They all trigger the ABS when provoked I've found, annoyingly so when rolling over pot holes & stuff. Its quite a good system IMO, not like some I've encountered. HONDAs have a very vibey pedal.
craig green
09-05-08, 04:54 PM
There are lots of farms near me and on a spirited drive all it takes is for a tractor to pull out onto the road after a blind bend...
Your situation has almost happened to me a couple of times but luckily theres been a way for me to read the road ahead and know its there and have an extra couple of seconds!
Easily done though.
I've heard many people say (& I agree) that its morelikely you'll come a cropper driving on familiar roads.. I can see the truth in that.
I actually had a similar one a few months ago less than a 1/4 of a mile down the same road, heading the other way. I came round a bend & a Land Rover was exiting a field. That time I took to the other side of the road & IIRC could have been a lot nastier.
A friend of mine T-boned a Land Rover exiting a field on his motorbike years ago. Screwed his knee & leg quite badly.
If RJ reads this he might know the road. Its between Aller (village) & the road known as seven bends (nice & windy) :roll:
bridgestones tend to go really really crap at 2mm remaining tread... far worse than anyother tyre I've worn beyond the 1.7mm etc.
the ABS on my citroen has saved me more than once too, where a nova would just lock up lol.
My old van didnt have ABS, hence why i went into the back of a prius (sp) nice big dent that took a good feet or two off the van.
Lucky, by the sound of it, it could have been much much worse.
Stanley
09-05-08, 08:20 PM
My mate has a habit of hooning round bends without anticipating that there could be anything around the other side. - Horses, tractors, deer, anything.
Approach corners as if you may have to stop :thumb:
Otherwise, yer a lucky barsteward lol.
as above - lucky escape matey!
I'm surrounded by b roads but always treat them with mega respect after coming face to face with a sheep on a blind summit. Only doing about 50 topped the hill saw the other side and there was this feckin sheep in the middle of the road. Tyres smoked a bit which seemed to scare it so it bolted!
A friend of mine wasnt so lucky and was injured after hitting a deer on a back road through Cannock Chase on a blind corner! It was just standing in the middle of the road. Maimed the deer and wrote his car off. Ranger had to come out and shoot the fecker (the deer that is not me mate).
A friend of mine T-boned a Land Rover exiting a field on his motorbike years ago. Screwed his knee & leg quite badly.
If RJ reads this he might know the road. Its between Aller (village) & the road known as seven bends (nice & windy) :roll:
I know the one, nice bends :D
The ABS in the Celica has been getting a bit touchy of late, a couple of times its come on when it hasn't really needed to. The ST205 has "Brakes from God" though and does usually stop on a dime.
Approach corners as if you may have to stop
Wise words, a few times I've been passenger and thought "if an animal ran out now.." or "if that guy in front slammed on the brakes.."
Uncle RJ says Drive safe kids :thumb:
Clean 2.0 nova
10-05-08, 09:16 AM
I once had a hire car (sorry can't remember make + model) where if you braked abruptly i.e. emergency stop, the hazard lights would come on by themselves for 5 seconds or so. This was a manufacturers safety feature incase cars were following.
Now my driving whilst using hire cars is, well lets say enthusiastic; so much so that if you couldn't get these hazard lights to flash on every corner you weren't going fast enough :eek: .
I've heard many people say (& I agree) that its morelikely you'll come a cropper driving on familiar roads.. I can see the truth in that.
Thats because you know the road(s) well and can give a bit more than normal - whereas on unfamiliar road i tend to stay in limits and watch scamera vans etc...
Jeff16v
10-05-08, 10:04 AM
chuffin farmers, my wifes sister had a tractor in front of her and the hay trailor wasn't hitched properly, it dis-joined the tractor as it entered a field and rolled down the hill towards her fully laden. She didn't have much left of her ford KA, she was bloody lucky. Fire brigade had to cut her out. she lost a few pounds during thatlol
on the road home last summer, it was getting dark. I rounded a lefthand bend at about 60 to find 5 kids wearing black, riding bmx's side by side . obviously without lights or reflectors...
A 2.5 ton mitsubishi l200 has incredible brakes when you think you are about to kill 5 idiots. the abs was doing all sorts of things & i was sideways on when i stopped.
I asked them if they were ok, and apparently i was supposed to 'go away' and I was sad and my parents were not married............
FUSION X16XE
10-05-08, 05:04 PM
I once had a hire car (sorry can't remember make + model) where if you braked abruptly i.e. emergency stop, the hazard lights would come on by themselves for 5 seconds or so. This was a manufacturers safety feature incase cars were following.
Now my driving whilst using hire cars is, well lets say enthusiastic; so much so that if you couldn't get these hazard lights to flash on every corner you weren't going fast enough :eek: .
:thumb:lol
A 2.5 ton mitsubishi l200 has incredible brakes when you think you are about to kill 5 idiots. the abs was doing all sorts of things & i was sideways on when i stopped.
L200 - good brakes... :confused: I regularly drive my boss' 57plate Diamond (top-spec) it has drums on the rear! TBH if I needed to stop sharpish I'd rather be in my '93 1.3 fiesta lol
CG - that is a great road :D had the back end of a works berlingo go very lose (read: sideway) though the end of the 7 bends, forgot how they tighten up lol:roll:
Ive had plenty of near misses like this, and since then i just dont hoon it on country roads much at all anymore, unless im on a straight bit :)
Keep it for the track ;)
L200 - good brakes... :confused: I regularly drive my boss' 57plate Diamond (top-spec) it has drums on the rear! TBH if I needed to stop sharpish I'd rather be in my '93 1.3 fiesta lol
mine is an old style l200 trojan on an 07 plate, not one of those hairdressers things.
the drum brakes on the back are fine. when you have 1/2 ton of gear in the back, the load sensing gives them some bite.
I regularly tow big triaxle trailers with diggers on & the brakes have never ever let me down. When, as I previously stated, you have to stick one on its nose to avoid killing someone, its brakes are amazing
by the way, your fiesta has drums does it not??????????
back in the early nineties I worked for budget rentacar, & their fiestas were crap & they were new
lol yea, but the fiesta isn't a heavy duty towing machine. I think it's just because I was expecting them to be good, like a transit, but yea I can understand the load sensing thing sorts it out....
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