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Safe Driving and Tail Lighting
One of the things that I will be thinking about when I do purchase a Coach is the safe operation while in motion.
Modern day driving is like going to Daytona, speed, speed and more speed. Drivers seem to feel the faster they drive the better they feel about themselves. While I, like some of you, detest speed limits that are unreasonable and low, they do have a purpose for the safe operation of traffic, especially when you have 4k pound little cars and 80K big rigs all traveling on the same roads in the same direction. I have seen so many multi vehicle crashes on TV due to weather conditions, snow, fog, ice or dark of night, and so many multi-vehicle accidents have tragic results in loss of life but the carnage of expensive metal.
That all being said besides driving defensively, has anyone thought about tail lighting on their Coachs beside what is provided by the MFG, and what might be allowed by DOT from the States. Are there brighter tail lights, brake lights. Brighter emergency flashers or even some sort of strob lights like the DOT use on their road trucks or snow plows that might be installed as an after market item that are legal. How do owners protect themselves as they slow down for traffic, accidents or road conditions and give those behind enough warning that things have changed so they have a chance to slow down and not plow into the back of the Coach.
I would be interested in your thoughts on helping those inattentive drivers behind Coaches.
Thanks and Happy New Year to all. Cheers Michael
And Go Pack!
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14 Replies
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Michael,
The rear lights on the newer Prevosts that I see look quite bright. If you are looking at the stacked light coaches, I see where several here on the PC site have posted about getting the LED replacements.
Our rear lights are very bright and are LED.
When traffic starts to slow down quickly, I will hit the ‘four-way’ flasher button to alert drivers behind us. It seems to work fine. We have the amber turn signal lights in the back along with the 3 high-mounted red lights. The signals in our side mirrors (red) are also bright and visible.
Safe travels,
Mark
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I think you can put as many lights as the rear of the bus will hold, and it won’t do anything about what is unfolding in front of you, such as cars that pull in too close and then hit the brakes.
More lights might catch the attention of the tailgater that is sending a text, but I doubt it. They are in their own little world.
The one thing I think that keeps us safest is anticipation. We sit high enough so that we can watch things as they happen further ahead than the average car and can respond before everything turns to tapioca. That presumes we aren’t playing with the phone. I am the slow driver. I rarely leave the slow lane, and I set the cruise at 62. That means others are passing me. By keeping a long distance between me and the vehicle ahead I am not doing very many hard stops. All my braking is generally easy while others in front of me are in full panic mode because they were going to fast and traveling too close for their speed.
Part of anticipation is always knowing your options. My first choice is to brake, but if circumstances prevent safe braking or if braking is not going to avoid a collision I am hitting the shoulder or the lane next to me. That means I am constantly surveying adjacent lanes so if I have to take evasive action I know I can snap the bus hard to the left or right.
So here are my accident avoidance rules.
Stay off the phone.
Allow plenty of stopping distance.
Anticipate what is unfolding in front of you, including the driver you know is going to enter your lane from a side street or without looking.
Always be aware that braking is not your only option and in a lot of instances changing lanes instantly is your best choice, so be constantly aware of who is along side of you or who will be.
If you never have to do a full blown traffic stop you are giving the guy behind you plenty of chance to respond and while a lot of rear brake lights might help, never having to panic stop is the best thing you can do.
BYW, I have heard all of the arguments about slow drivers are dangerous, but more and more I am finding my speeds are very similar if not the same or faster than truckers are driving. The independents still are pushing cars up the highway, but larger fleets have slowed down.
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No amount of lights are going to save you , good driving saves you , 4 way flashers are good to put on when things are slowing down
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Much of coach tail lights really depends on what you are towing behind the coach….Yes LED lights are brighter however pulling a small car vs a suv changes the amount of visability of your tail lights….One good thing on the XLII over the XL is the tail lights added high and above the engine doors….
Otherwise one must use the added height when driving as a advantage to see further ahead as to what is going on ahead of you. Remember that you are a large vehicle and give yourself more room for stopping or maneuvering….
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Just ruminating here….you and I get up about the same time each day…and you get so much more done. Geo.
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After reading all the great posts, I am wondering has anyone added any after market light bars or additional lights up high so those behind have a better chance to see your break lights and hazard flasher. I agree, and I do this in my Conversion Van. Give yourself lots of distance to slowdown or brake, watch the traffic well ahead of you and anticipate brake lights well ahead of you and begin to let off the peddle, and engage the flashers; all go and responsible actions for any driver especially for a Big Rig. But, how do you warn those behind you so they can respond to your actions. A Prevost is big and if you are behind your trailing drivers view are blocked by your rig. I keep going back to Wisconsin and the snow plows that work in bad weather with limited visablility and they have yellow flashing lights that are on all the time and the school buses that have white strobes on the top of the busses that cut through the dark of night and the fog and snow year round. Any thought about flashing lighting and strobe that engage when the hazard switch is engaged. Michael
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Your biggest problems are going to be in front of you.
People are going to cut in and steal your stopping distance. People do not know how to merge so you are going to find a car going from the ON ramp to your lane of traffic at a speed much less than yours. Traffic jams and slowdowns happen without warning and you not only have to deal with occasional hard stops, you can almost bet where traffic has to merge from 3 lanes to 2 for example you are going to get a vehicle jump in front of you and then hit the brakes. The bulk of your attention has to be on what is ahead of you because you can control your driving, but there is nothing you can do about what is happening behind you, especially if your driving causes you to make hard stops.
Put all the lights you feel comfortable with on the rear of the bus or toad. It cannot hurt, but if you are going to go overboard with strobes and excessive brightness (which is horrible for those behind you at night) at the very least make sure you disconnect the relay that operates the rear lights when the Jake or retarder is engaged. Excessive brake lights not only piss off the folks behind you, but after a while they get ignored.
In my opnion the best thing we can all do is jam the operation of cell phones for a 1/4 mile all around the coach. Maybe, just maybe it might encourage drivers to actually drive instead of surfing the web, texting, or whatever else people do with a phone.
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Thanks Jon, very interesting appraisal of what I will be facing. Much Appreciated. Michael
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Here is a very interesting system from Axios, viewing the video is very interesting. Michael
https://www.eccowarninglights.com/product/ecco-axios-14-00006e-48-modular-led-lightbar
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I have charged the address…just prompt address to see video
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I added some LED strips above the lights and tied two on each side to the turn signals and tied one on each side and the center to my brake lights. Photo not showing as bright as they actually are. When the 4 way is on, they flash with the turn signals. Available at motor cycle web sites.
Jon, as far as I agree with you on the cell phones (can’t believe I agree with Jon on anything) I believe that if some of these cell phone geniuses lost their phone, they would be trying to re-connect instead of driving, making them even more of a hazard to us rotary dial folks.
Just my eight cents (2 cents plus inflation)
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That’s why I want a 1/4 mile circle FFF. By the time they get to me they should be able to realize they lost service and should have stopped looking at how many bars they have.
But then again they are cell phone users who are driving so logic may not apply.
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picture of LED upgrade done on my 2000 Marathon H3-45….
All LED
Before
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For added safety while putting on tire chains on the side of the highway during ski trips, I installed some amber emergency vehicle strobes near the roofline of a previous motorhome I owned. These were controlled by a dedicated switch at the dash. I was told that emergency vehicle strobes like those are not legal for private vehicles in California, but the only thing I ever heard from CHP was compliments. Wiring my present bus with similar strobes would be much more difficult, so being a lazy guy, I just got two large magnetic LED flashers that run on batteries. I stick them high on the back of the bus for chaining up and remove them when travelling.
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