u/twowholebeefpatties

First off... I’m a 44-year-old Melbournian. Been here my whole life.

This isn’t anti-truck. I get it. We need them. Good on the drivers doing hard kilometres to keep the country moving.

BUT...

I’ve recently had to tow a large caravan-sized trailer from Melbourne to Sydney (and back) and Melbourne to Adelaide (and back) and been using the regional roads a bit.

Sydney run? Easy. Once you’re north of Melbourne and even Craigieburn, it’s basically dual carriageway the whole way. If you’re slower, affected by crosswinds, whatever... you just keep left. No drama.

But the Melbourne to Adelaide run?

Fuck me. It’s dangerous as hell.

For anyone who hasn’t done it:

Melbourne to Ballarat, almost to Ararat... sweet. Dual lanes. Similar to Sydney. Plenty of room, keep left, drama.

Then from Ararat to Horsham... single lanes, narrow shoulders, barely anywhere to pull over... if you're towing or not too comfortable (and I'm a confident driver) - you start white-knuckling and holding on to the steering wheel.

But from Horsham onwards... holy shit.

Now you’re dealing with Road Trains. And if you’ve never seen one up close, imagine the biggest truck you see on the Monash or Western Ring Road... then fucking double it. Maybe double-and-a-half it. Then imagine it flying past you at 110km/h while you’re towing.

They are two stories high... 100 tonnes if not more... they are BIG machines!!!

And the road itself is shit... topic for another day. But FYI, they are narrow lanes. Tiny shoulders. No margin for error.

If you drift over the centre line for even a second at the wrong moment, you’re dead. Not injured. Dead. You’d turn into fucking pulp if one of those things hit you head-on.

But honestly? My biggest issue isn’t even the trucks themselves... or the roads... which both suck on their own merit! It’s the attitude of a lot of the drivers.

Yes I know - tale as old as time... but something seriously needs to stop here.

I was towing at around 90–95km/h. Yes, slower than the limit. I get that. Zero issue on any other road... even going to Sydney with the dual carriageways.... so to work around this, every few kilometres there are designated overtaking lanes specifically for slower vehicles like caravans, trailers, etc.

Apparently that’s still not enough for these truckies on the Adelaide - Melb route.

These blokes will sit literally a metre off your rear bumper, tailgating like maniacs, even when there’s an overtaking lane 3–4km ahead. They just cannot fucking wait.

Then the second they get a chance, they swing out, blast past, and cut back in with metres to spare... forcing you further left onto the shoulder or making you back off even more.

And the funniest (pathetic) part?

You see the exact same fuckers 15 minutes later parked at a servo in Bordertown, Tailem Bend, Stawell or wherever.

Meaning they risked your life, their life (barely), and everyone else’s... to get about 14 seconds ahead.

No exaggeration either. I have just finished this route and felt compelled to type this.

It was literally tortoise and hare stuff. I drove steady, stopped when needed, fuelled up, cruised along with caravans, buses, normal traffic... zero issues.

But truck after truck after truck drove like they were in some life-or-death sprint to the end.

Tailgating. Aggressive overtakes. Pushing slower vehicles around on roads that barely have room for error... fuck, I am so grateful I wasn't doing the trip with my wife and kids.

And again... you see these same assholes, five minutes later when you catch them at the next 50km/h town anyway.... and they repeat the same process, every 150kms between regional towns, being an absolute menace and NOT making any extra time.

I use the Monash regularly, and yeah, it’s shit at times. But honestly?

The Western Highway between Melbourne and Adelaide mis utterly fucked and just a non-stop waiting disaster.

EDIT: Ok wow… for a small few, apparently this is 100% a me problem. I’m an asshole, an idiot, an incompetent driver… the list goes on. One bloke even said, “Let me know when you’re towing so I can watch the news about someone dying.” Classic Reddit... because of this post, dude would gleefully know I've died terribly in a car crash!

But the entire point of my post was safety. Or more specifically: impatience vs safety.

if you're not familair, this road does actually have designated overtaking lanes every 5–10km. That’s literally an acknowledgement by the road designers/Gov that slower vehicles will exist and people will need safe opportunities to pass. So I actually did the maths (Thanks Chat GPT, not me, I'm shit at maths)

But for those chiming in... FYI... If I’m towing at 90km/h and a truck wants to do 100km/h, and they simply wait the 5km until the next overtaking lane instead of forcing dangerous overtakes into oncoming traffic or pushing vehicles onto the shoulder… the total time they “lose” is about 20 seconds.

Twenty seconds. That’s what some of these insane overtakes are saving.

Lives at risk... recklessness, tailgating, driving 100kms potentially on to incoming traffic... 20 seconds.

So let’s say they get stuck behind an "asshole" like me... 15 times over their 8 hour drive from Adelaide to Melbourne. That’s roughly 300 seconds total lost.... or, 5 minutes.

Five minutes.... 15 overtakes, 15 families or occupants of cars pushed on to shoulders, accidents completly unneccesarily.

So yeah - LONG post but meh, accorsding to some redditors apparently risking lives, forcing people off the road and overtaking dangerously on narrow single-lane highways is worth saving five minutes.

Ok - so aside from all the spam/shill posts here we're all sick of... this is a "checking in" post to see how you're all travelling.

For me, I'm a small business in a B2B marketing type service... and fuck me, just did April invoicing and we are DOWN.

With all this crap going on... well, we're not really a service that anyone needs right now... and it appears people are pucking up (I'm in advertising/marketing)

So yeah... sucks.

I'm 45-day End of Month Terms... so work I do now in MAY... i don't get paid until after 15th of July... so 2026 I can see is just going to be a year of copping shit and waiting to make ends meet.

Sorry if I'm doom and gloom - some of you will be doing well... and good on you, I just want those not doing great in this current climate to know , well, your not alone

Post how you're travelling at the moment... and without doxxing yourself or oversharing... try and be as transparent/open as you can