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Hello.

      This week could be the week I buy my 1st caravan ! I've had my towbar fitted, raided the piggy bank, and am ready to buy. I'm excited, but nervous!  Anyone who has read my threads will know that my aim is to purchase a compact 2 berth, for under £1000. My last thread was asking what ,on the road, as opposed to on paper, would it be like to tow a 'van of around 1000kg laden with my focus estate,TDDI, 90hp, which has a recommended towing limit of 1200kg. The question I hadn't asked was, how easy is it to manually manouver a laden 'van of 1000kg?  I'm 50, and not a big strong bloke! With my budget i'm not looking at a motor mover. I've located a windrush 112 , 700kg unladen,max 1000kg. I really like the Cotswold and thought that i'd made my mind up ! But i've now seen an Elddis Wisp 300/2, which is quite a bit lighter, and i'm thinking would I be happier with the Elddis? Or is it just that , as I haven't towed/set up before, i'm a bit nervous of the bigger one, but if I went for the Cotswold, after time it wouldn't seem so daunting, and I would enjoy having the extra space. Can YOU help me decide? ! ! Mark.

no bother you will 90 percent of time be offered help anyway dont ask me why but blokes love to push a carava!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

do not bother to back in you'll stress we pulled 2 years and still cant do it under pressure just get out unhitch and push once you start some 1 will help.

alsothats what wardens are there for fess up you're new and theyll site for you well they shud if not let us no in a review because we all started somewhere. im a 36 yr old lady and i help hubby manoevre no worries(5 foot 2 wimp)

i found elddis wishy wasy afger my solid abbey they are light but i feel delicate withit. dont know cotswold

after 3 set ups you'll be away see my new thread new caravvanenr old van. just strting it.

My Van, see gallery, is 704Kg with a 296Kg payload. Full up, 1000Kg.

This is easy to manouver on the flat concrete floor of my garage. It is an all together different story on a wet morning on a campsite when it has been raining all night and we are sitting on grass.

For this reason are ever so gratefull that the van came fitted with a Motor Mover System.

Those who are amused by such a small van being manouvered by such a system have never had to manhandle that weight in bad weather over rough ground.

Last year at Bruce's Meet out motor mover set up broke down and we, and half the rest of the Meet had to manhandle the van to the car over very wet ground.
This is not an experience I would care to repeat.

If you are going down the road of not using a mover of some sort, then you will have to depend on your car for manouvering on the campsites.

"Manhandling" is strictly for flat concrete floors or for those who want a bad back!!!

Another option could be a front mounted towball.  I have never used one, but I would imagine they might be easier than reversing because of the improved visibility.

Brian

I used to have trouble man handling my box trailer. It was 1300kg gross but was only 700kg full of camping gear, but even that was difficult up a slight grassy slope to a pitch!

Thank goodness our caravan has a motor mover!

Chaz

My caravan is a small light 2 berth - Bailey Oakmere (dealer special based on a Beachcomber 350/2). MTPLM 816 Kgs.

15 year old son and I can push it around on the drive between us (slight slope) no problem, he can almost do it on his own but I can't.

Wet muddy field is more difficult, I always hitch the car up before moving it.

Reversing takes a lot of practise but it's worth doing the manouvering course to get the basic idea and then keep at it.

Once it's hitched up, it's no easier to tow and manouvre than the 5 berth we used to have (except it can be turned in a smaller space and I have a more frugal car to tow it now).

Mark -

Both the main clubs offer manouvering courses.

http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/

http://www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/

There is more than one solution. With a bit of practice, you really don't need to manhandle the caravan.  My caravan is 1638kg, and I have never moved it a single inch by hand.  Nor will I.  Life's full enough of pain without straining yourself.

Only an opinion, but I've never had a motor mover in over 40 years of towing caravans - and other things.  I prefer to use the weight allowance for other things.  Never found anywhere I couldn't reverse into.  It's fair to say I have been at it a very long time, but reversing just isn't as hard as some people make it.  If you can approach it without being so afraid that you can't give it a proper try, you'll be surprised how everything sudenly falls into place.

Of course, you'll make mistakes, but if you can practise round some cones or old cardboard boxes, just stick at it and make it work for you.  Much easier than manhandling!

Jim

Hi Jim, We too have been towing for many years and never thought about a motor mover, however when our new van came with one already fittted as standard, well I wasn't going to not use it just as a matter of principle!!!!!

Now that we have used it for 2 seasons, we will never have another van that doesn't have one fitted.

As we are both retired, our health and the looking after of such has a high priority and the mere fact that the missus can hitch, unhitch and park the van at home or on site is just magical.

Out of muddy fields, up hills and spin it around on its own axis with all the "strain" of the push of a button, well 'nuff said.

As the good book says, ye'll never miss what yiv never 'ad.

There are lots of dealer vans with movers already fitted and not everyone transfers them. I was looking around the dealers the other day and there must have been half a dozen with movers fitted. - worth a try.

If not just take your time when on site and you will get the hang of it. Most people are glad to help on site all you have to do is ask.

Hope this helps

Andy

Hi Lobey

I absolutely agree with you.  If I had one I would use it - anything for convenience.  Like you, my principles are not so deeply ingrained that I would look a gift horse in the mouth.  What I wouldn't do is spend my hard earned cash on one. At least, I would try not to.  I'm 61 now, and have a really bad back, so if I couldn't reverse I would definitely need something like that. 

I'm just glad I stuck at it all those years ago.  It gives me another option, and that's why I would always suggest that people give it a real go instead of "chickening out".  You hear stories of problems - and I do accept that a small number of people will have a real problem reversing - but you never hear of those thousands of people who just hitch up and go without any drama.

We're not special people because we can do it - it's only practice and experience, and you only get that in one way - go out and do it.

My wife won't even think of towing the caravan, much less reversing. Probably my fault.  I took her to some spare land nearly 40 years ago to show her the basics of reversing a trailer. Unfortunately, it was the school holidays, and we soon got an audience of laughing children.  She soon got out, slammed the door and walked home - not very far.  I was officially blamed.  Since then, no chance of getting her in the driving seat at all.

So I know how daunting it can be.  I'd just like to see more people giving it a fair go before they throw the towel in.  Motor movers do have cost and weight penalties, and I just think of how many bargain bickets of KFC I could buy with the money.

As I said, I can see how easy they are, and of course, if I bought a caravan with one fitted, I would use it.  What a great remote controlled toy! I would drive it around just for the pleasure.

Jim

We have a problem in that our drive is so steep that the van has to be taken in nose down or it will tip over.  I suppose I could reverse it in and wind down the back legs, but it is far easier to use a mover and it makes it a bit more secure.  The horse trailer has to be reversed in though.

Before we had the land rover or mover, we had a rover 45 and you could smell the clutch burning every time we moved the van from the drive.

Brian

I was recently washing the caravan outside the garage and a crowd of young kids were playing on their bikes close by. They had not seen me bring the van out, on its motor mover!

When I finished cleaning the van I said to it, in a loud enough voice to be heard by the kids, "Right you, get back into that garage".
Nothing.
"Right, I won't tell you again. Get into that garage at once".

The van gave a shake and then trundled back into the garage all by itself.

2 seconds later all the kids had vanished, no doubt to tell their Mums of the strange guy that orders caravans about <G>.