To drive or not to drive - That is the question?

Effy wrote:
My wife does all the driving, I just sit behind the wheel. ;)

X2

:)

My wife has publicly stated that the motorhome is mine and mine alone. She travels in it, but refuses to take the wheel.

becker wrote:
In all the years we have owned campers, my wife never has and will not drive. It bothers me because as we get older emergencies will arise.

Exactly that's when she hops in your toad and go for assistance or call for medical help. If I tried to force my wife to drive that would be the end of our camping together.

In all the years we have owned campers, my wife never has and will not drive. It bothers me because as we get older emergencies will arise.

I am the wife. I drive the coach, 40' + towing a small truck. I have been the exclusive driver since DH's last serious heart event. He has driven it about 500 miles in the last 5 years. He may drive it on short hops. He always parks it, says I give him better directions for backiing. It's no big deal. Prior to that, I always did the "high stress" driving, i.e., road construction, mountains, cities.

If I didn't drive, we'd be sitting somewhere. As it is, we full time and we go when we want. DH does a great job of navigating from his netbook/Street Atlas.

I'm a firm believer that everyone in the coach should know how to drive it.

Dale

I AM the wife. I researched, put the funds together, shopped for and purchased our 32 ft bus myself and so far I'm the only one who has driven it. We've had horrible luck with weather in Wisconsin since I bought it and now my mother is dying so we probably won't do much at all this summer but I'm sure after that I'll be doing the majority of the driving on our trips to California and back and elsewhere.

Unfortunately, somwone's significant other not being able to drive isn't limited to the really big rigs. We have a 32' Georgetown, Ford F53 chassis. We found out after we'd bought it that the ergonomics of the driver's position make it impossible for DW to drive the damned thing. We are kicking ourselves for not checking the ergonomics more carefully.

Thank-you Ford for not offering a telescopic steering column or enough adjustments on the driver's seat for a driver less than about 5'4" to drive the thing! DW is less than 5' tall and there's no way she can adjust things to be able to drive it.

She has no trouble with our Kia Sedona - in fact she can get too close to the controls! I think the RV industry and its chassis suppliers needs to look more closely at ergonomics and make sure shorter people can operate these rigs. People 5'and shorter aren't routinely driving commercial box trucks, so it hasn't been an issue. A telescopic steering column would be a big help, as would seat adjustments that got the driver closer to the pedals, or an adjustable pedal cluster that Ford offered on the Taurus.

When I started a post-Boeing-retirement job as a transit bus driver, I was amazed how Gillig and other coach builders made the driver's position so infinitely adjustable. The steering column had two angle adjustments (one down near the floor and another about 2 feet below the steering wheel. Add a telescopic top section about 2' long and it could accommodate anyone.

The transit agency had drivers of similar build to DW and they could get things adjusted to suit them with no problems. Maybe we should have gone looking for a Gillg-based motor-home.

What bothers me the most is that, if I were incapacitated on a trip, we'd have to get one of our sons-in-law to come rescue us.

Mrs. G.. I think it is a combination of things that women of our parents generation did not drive... My own mother never had a driver's license as well as many other women of her era.. Pressure from society that men were the ones behind the wheel were one reason.. Another was the vehicles of that era.. Most vehicles were stick shift on the column and were not very fun to drive.. A few car companies tried to cater to women drivers back then to increase sales.. A friend of mine in high school had a '48 Dodge with a Dynaflow trans that you could shift like a stick or put in 3rd and drive like an automatic.. So yes it was a cultural and generational thing...

Hmmm, I think we're going off the rails here a bit. My initial post that started this thread was one of pure curiosity from my wife. She wondered how many ladies drive the coaches 42 to 45' DP's.

Certainly a man or woman who choses to drive a DP can, there is nothing there for discussion. It was a question of How Many Choose too?

Just wanted to make sure we're still talking about the same thing... :)

Harry

The only mistake made is when one equates value based on roles. Roles are different because men and women are different. dah. Just don't equate the different roles with value.

And BTY science trumps PC.