How come my motorhome doesn't rattle in France?

[VXman]

Returned from France yesterday and after 3 weeks of a silent MH suddenly all hell breaks loose once on UK soil. What on earths going on?

 

[Mike Rivers]

Years upon years of underinvestment in our road infrastructure in the UK although it’s getting better. Our problem is our roads are very cluttered by comparison. I remember having a conversation with my father (when he was in his nineties) who had this notion that French roads were ‘rough’. They used to be in the early sixties!! Since then they’ve built a network of roads especially for us motorhomers!! How kind of them! Seriously, France is a motorhoming playground for easily accessible holidays and a toll road network that will whisk you wherever you want without making a meal of it. I have to say, it’s more than possible to avoid the toll roads, since the non-toll roads are also good. And yes, I know there’s the rest of Europe, but thank god for France to start us off.

 

[Ian Bosman]

Never use any pay for roads. Sat nav is set to avoid tolls. The only toll I have paid in 11000 miles of travelling is Dartford crossing!!!

And even that is avoidable by either using the Blackwall or Rotherhithe tunnels or even going the other way round the M25 but that eats up miles and negates the Dartford Tunnel toll

 

[210bhp]

And all this because the French and the Swiss discovered and invented the first use of tarmacadam and have had almost two centuries to perfect the ultimate ingredients and laying techniques………

oh no, wait a minute……………..

Regards
Mike

 

[IRHP]

Returned from France yesterday and after 3 weeks of a silent MH suddenly all hell breaks loose once on UK soil. What on earths going on?

The worst comparison I ever noticed was getting off the ferry at Newcastle and that was in a car.

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[Collywally]

Well if you willing pay tolls of 150 euros from top to bottom 300 return then maybe that would be expected !

 

[Molly A]

There are some very bad roads in France.

You must be loaded using all the autoroutes

Actually, we never use the motorways in France , using the Route Departmentals mostly, as well as some pretty wild roads off the beaten track and the road surfaces are generally excellent.

 

[dunnah01]

And even that is avoidable by either using the Blackwall or Rotherhithe tunnels or even going the other way round the M25 but that eats up miles and negates the Dartford Tunnel toll

£2.50 DART or £100 LEZ to use the Blackwell or Rotherhite - let me do the math(s).

27mpg avoiding French tolls or 33mpg using motorways - the gap is getting smaller for avoiding tolls now that diesel is getting as expensive as gold (but I'll still avoid French tolls just for the views anyway)

 

[Stuart]

They've just resurfaced one of our 'expressways' and re-done the yellow count down lines on the approach to a roundabout. They're the full width of the road, a few feet apart and there are hundreds of them, each one like a mini speed hump. By the time you reach the roundabout your fillings are shaken out of your teeth. I'm sure it is damaging to the car so I now take a 2 mile detour to avoid it.

 

[Ian Bosman]

£2.50 DART or £100 LEZ to use the Blackwell or Rotherhite - let me do the math(s).

27mpg avoiding French tolls or 33mpg using motorways - the gap is getting smaller for avoiding tolls now that diesel is getting as expensive as gold (but I'll still avoid French tolls just for the views anyway)

The Rotherhithe and Blackwall are free if your vehicle is ULEZ compliant. But yes the Dartford at £2.50 is fair does if going round that side. As we use the M40 I tend the go round the other way to Dover

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[dunnah01]

The Rotherhithe and Blackwall are free if your vehicle is ULEZ compliant. But yes the Dartford at £2.50 is fair does if going round that side. As we use the M40 I tend the go round the other way to Dover

4.25t Euro IV won't ever be compliant to LEZ but no way am I replacing it for a compliant moho.

 

[Ian Bosman]

4.25t Euro IV won't ever be compliant to LEZ but no way am I replacing it for a compliant moho.

Mine is also Euro IV so avoid the ULEZ at all costs.

 

[dunnah01]

Mine is also Euro IV so avoid the ULEZ at all costs.

The ULEZ charge is now included in the LEZ charge so only need to fork out an extra £17 for the congestion charge of in top of the £100 LEZ fine

 

[Tio64]

It's also alarming how much more traffic there is on the UK roads compared to the mainland. We may be twice as densely populated but it seems more like ten times.
And don't get me started on the amount of litter on UK roads

Agreed. The litter should be a national embarrassment, but I suspect it's not on even on the national consciousness. Tbf, I do think things have improved in Blighty, (or perhaps I just don't get about as much anymore), but Europe has really tackled the problem of litter. Even on a visit to Lviv, Ukraine in 2019 we noticed there was *no* litter. You do see babooshkas sweeping the streets, I dare say it gets them out and about and earns a bit more money, a pity we can't do something similar?

The roads of France are vastly superior to ours, always have been ime, but has anyone else noticed the proliferation of roundabouts? They seem to have gone mad with the things, so when travelling toll free as we usually do, we find the roundabouts can really slow the average speeds down. Around some towns or cities it can just be one after another after another after another...

 

[63720]

They've just resurfaced one of our 'expressways' and re-done the yellow count down lines on the approach to a roundabout. They're the full width of the road, a few feet apart and there are hundreds of them, each one like a mini speed hump. By the time you reach the roundabout your fillings are shaken out of your teeth. I'm sure it is damaging to the car so I now take a 2 mile detour to avoid it.

Same in my area. I rang the council concerned and asked why they were painted on the side leaving a speed restricted zone on a single carriageway road and they couldn't answer me.

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[cyberyacht]

The Rotherhithe and Blackwall are free if your vehicle is ULEZ compliant. But yes the Dartford at £2.50 is fair does if going round that side. As we use the M40 I tend the go round the other way to Dover

The M25/26 isn't the smoothest road in the world either.

 

[Nuno Gomes]

UK is smooth as silk compared to Italy.
Agree France is generally a joy. Lots of good road but also the population is much less mobile and not many venture outside the commune much

Totally agree. Amongst other ghastly experiences we drove the Pisa to Rome road (SS1?) and we christened it the road to hell. A dual carriageway that you couldn’t do more than 45mph for fear of the damage it would do to the MoHo and your fillings.

 

[InvictaMoto]

And don't get me started on the amount of litter on UK roads

Aren't French roadside verges full of litter and bottles of P155 like ours in Kent? Well I'll be blowed....

 

[Bart]

Aren't French roadside verges full of litter and bottles of P155 like ours in Kent? Well I'll be blowed....

Not that I've seen in the last 10 days I've been travelling.
Also on the note of things be worse in the UK than France , I feel I need to praise the quality / cleanliness of public toilets in France ( and I'm not referring to the ones that you need to pay for , I'm referring to the public ones in public areas like Lidl , Aldi , a few public areas we have stopped at etc etc , all pretty decent from a cleanliness point of view )

 

[Folkranger]

Returned from France yesterday and after 3 weeks of a silent MH suddenly all hell breaks loose once on UK soil. What on earths going on?

All the bottles you picked up at Calais

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[Dorwyn]

A propo the comparison of UK roads versus continental, being very old, I remember needing to get from north Belgium to a channel port very quickly, back in the early 60s. I spotted a road on the map that seemed to almost dead straight. It turned out to mostly stoned paving, with huge gaps between the stones. My poor old Healey Sprite survived the experience, so did my teeth. That was before my many fillings! So, yes, continental roads have improved enormously. UK, not so.

 

[Jim]

Also on the note of things be worse in the UK than France , I feel I need to praise the quality / cleanliness of public toilets in France

The toilets are clean because the French pee in the street

 

[Folkranger]

UK roads are rubbish,even the Belgian roads are better now,well some of them

Really. Hull roads are worse than Belgian but not most.

 

[cyberyacht]

All the bottles you picked up at Calais

Put them in the garage. Then they are at the other end of the van and you can't hear them.