Do you or don'nt you

[PowerMalc]

So there you are bimbling down the motorway at 60 or 70 and you see ahead the some yellow flashing lights.

What's that you wonder and as you get closer your heart sinks as you realise its a grit spreading lorry.

Its firing out thousands of paint chipping devices all with your name on them.

So do you,

1. Slow down to about 45mph and keep well behind and until your exit comes up

or

2. Pull leftwards and onto the hard shoulder (truck is normally in the middle lane) and get past as quickly as possible in the hope that none of the pesky devices attach themselves to your paintwork

[SNH]

it's an offence to drive on the hard shoulder so i'd hang back a bit

[marcusthehat]

No. (i)

Or (ii) overtake to the right

Or(iii) Stay at home if you are so worried about your car's paintwork

Simples,

Really.

PS

Actually one should open the windows and collect as much salt as possible inside the car, that stuff is VALUABLE.

jat

M

Edited 6 December, 2010 by dieseldogg

[darrenw]

not to mention the hard shoulder is usually covered in rubbish such as shredded lorry tyres, forgotten warning triangles and road kill...

I hang back and hope it comes off at the next junction.

[pixor]

The last time I overtook a grit spreader, loads of salt got in my engine bay and made a real mess, so never again!

[s80wkr_vts]

They spread grit??

Not round here they don't

Five have gone past our house and there isn't any grit outside and its an ambulance route

[soapywalrus]

Ambulances have routes?! What if you don't live on one? Are you expected to stagger to the nearest ambulance-stop whilst performing CPR on yourself? Why has nobody told me about this?!?

[FatblokeVRS]

A few years ago, it was just getting into the winter months.

It was cold and dry on my way home from a run on my motorbike. I had my jeans on so my legs were freezing and sore with the cold (it was ok when I headed out)

I saw a gritter ahead on the motorway and cruised past it.

Oh, how I screamed, it was like some one stabbing you repeatedly in the leg with many tiny needles - now I know how the car feels.

Lesson learned - I alway wear my leathers now and only pass the gritter in the car if there is a bit of room to give it a wide berth.

Cheers

Dave

[Staedtler]

Travelling on the M6 one Christmas and I came across not one but three spreaders during the journey. I went past all of them in the outside lane to the accompanying hail ilke noise. I looked at my car on reaching my destination, and whilst the paintwork appeared to have escaped unscathed, the grey plastic bumper infills looked shotblasted I'll never overtake one again!

[pist0nbr0ke]

Get a lorry between it & you when passing, or buy a car bra.

[martinch]

Don't think I'd be happy passing it unless I could give it a wide berth (not driving on the hard shoulder!) ... went past one of them coming the other way on a B-road when we had the last lot of snow - despite braking down to ~20mph and keeping hard to the left, the lacquer on the front wing looked like an orange peel afterwards with all the little dents in it (thankfully none of them broke through the lacquer, so no issues of salt contacting the metal underneath).

[M12MKD]

last time I came across a gritter in the Octavia, I held back for ages until I came up to an exit, went down and came back up, missed the gritter.

Generally I will hold back as much as possible

[Nick P]

last time I came across a gritter in the Octavia, I held back for ages until I came up to an exit, went down and came back up, missed the gritter.

Good tip. I took some right paintwork damage on my last Octavia, going past a gritter on the M11. It was spraying some ridiculously large pieces. Never again.

[silver1011]

Grit and small stones used to be added to the rock salt.

This is now much less common. During the bad weather earlier in the year it was decided that salt by itself was more effective.

Hence now a lot of local authorities spread just salt.

Whilst there is every chance this will still damage your car the lack of stones and grit should make it more unlikely.

[rob_e]

No. (i)

Or (ii) overtake to the right

Or(iii) Stay at home if you are so worried about your car's paintwork

Simples,

Yep, my approach too.

Its a car. it gets used. it gets some stone chips - so what?

In the classic car world this is called "patina"

02p etc.

[themacster]

Happened to me 5 days after receiving my new car coming back down the M5 from Birmingham - I overtook on the right but got a good shot blasting - I haven't been able to closely look at he paintwork etc yet due to the icy conditions. If it had been in my old car I wouldn't have minded so much, but when you've got less than 100 miles on the clock......

[Steve vRS]

I passed a few last year with no noticeable damage. As has been said, it's fairly soft the stuff that is spread about no a days.

I wash my car by hand so know the paintwork quite well, touching up any chips as I go along.

Steve