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Hi Everyone!

We have just purchased a caravan which we have never pulled before, we have a Mitsubishi Pajero Shogun 2.5 petrol - just wondered if anyone has any experience of towing a caravan with this 4x4, if so any comments would be greatly appreciated!

We are nervous about towing and just making sure we do it right.

Many thanks and look forward to any comments,

Kind regards

Donna - New Caravanner

Hello Donna!

Welcome to the world of caravanning!

The best advice I can give you is to practice, practice and then a bit more practice! Depending on where you are in the world, get yourself on a caravan manouvering course. If you live in the Westcountry, I can put you through my own rigourous training regimé!!!!

Top tips are;

Don't rush! Take your time when reversing

Avoid using full lock on the steering. Smaller turns will achieve better results.

Watch your speed!

When you are towing you have to stick to a lower speed limit. The general rules are 50mph on a single carriageway, 60mph on a dual carriageway and the same for a motorway. You are also not allowed in lane 3 on a motorway when towing.

Good luck and enjoy yourself!

Donna

The Shogun/Pajero is well respected as a tow car, although I expect the majority are diesel powered rather than petrol. As other have said just take it easy until you get used to it. Try a campsite not far from home for your first outing. Two things which are really important that you should check before towing. Tyre pressures on both car and van. Secondly loading of the caravan. I expect the Shogun has a fairly good max tow hitch weight, although to be legal you should establish what this is. Weigh the nose weight of the caravan using the bathroom scales. Aim for 7% of the laden weight of the van. Hope it all goes well.

David

Hi everyone!

Thanks for your advise and all your replies, it has put our mind at rest.  We took the caravan for a trial run today and all seemed fine until we tried to reverse back into the driveway, it all went a bit pear shaped, but I guess thats the way it goes, lucky a nice chap pulled over and helped us - thank goodness to other caravanners!

We are off next week so wish us luck - lol!!!!!!!!

Thanks again

Donna

tary this site for  hints on reversing . I found it very useful.

http://www.ntta.co.uk/law/driving/reversing2.htm