We've never had a mover before, but then my husband had never been diagnosed with MS before !!! I on my own couldn't physically drag the van up our drive and there's not enough room for us to use the car to push it back, so having a mover is essential for some of us or we would have to give up caravanning ,.Plus caravan were lighter many years ago so didn't really require movers .
You can't say never until you've walked in someone else's shoes
What does the wyoming nose weight start at before you load it, im thinking with the double axel to spread the load everything mid to aft position no problem . How do you keep an eye on the car weight, not having done this before am i thinking to much about this, i can see myself weight everything as if i was going on a flight.
Quote: Originally posted by kevtore999 on 17/5/2011
Quote: Originally posted by neil and lena on 17/5/2011
Quote: Originally posted by kevtore999 on 17/5/2011 I've not got a mover fitted to my Caravan, and to be honest i wouldn't have one given to me for free (serious)..... I can get my Caravan out of Storage without having to move it by hand and i'm confident when reversing. If your new to towing you might find a Mover useful if your not great at reversing your unit.....
Yeah I used to think I never needed a mover until I started going to Portugal and Spain where often the pitches are nigh impossible to reverse on to and not because of there size but the access roads are often very narrow (width of the van) and with pitches ajacent which are often already in use which makes it impossible to swing I been beaten a few times
And as a Retired Class 1 driver with 29 years experience if it can be reversed on a pitch I can do it .
Well please tell me what people did before motor movers came along? After all us british have been caravaning on the continent since the 1950's! I can understand people owning them if they can't physically move there caravan without one but like i said I don't require one....
Yes and the caravans in the 50s 60s and 70s were small compared to nowadays and you obviously have not been to some of small pitches I been on in Portugal where its physically impossible to reverse on because of other motorhomes and caravans
Quote: Originally posted by flyingbarbera on 17/5/2011
What does the wyoming nose weight start at before you load it, im thinking with the double axel to spread the load everything mid to aft position no problem . How do you keep an eye on the car weight, not having done this before am i thinking to much about this, i can see myself weight everything as if i was going on a flight.
Thats what we did first time around and we aren't nerds either - we set up a spreadsheet and weighed everything going in - its the easiest way without going to a weighbridge of working out how close to your payload you are.
I think the Wyoming is a lovely van, only thing I remember reading in Caravan magazine about the Indiana (also a lovely van) is to be a bit cautious as they were apparently very popular warden vans so some have had a lot more use than an average van - it didn't however say how you would be able to tell.
Quote: Originally posted by Greendemon315 on 17/5/2011
I wouldn't have a motor mover given either. Just a lot of extra weight to haul about. We never move the caravan by hand, it can all be done with the car. Jim
It really does depend on your situation with movers. We have to use a mover to get our van off our drive as there is not enough room to do it with the car. If movers didn't exist then we would have to put our van into storage.
I still reverse the van onto a pitch if it can be done.
Same here. I saved the cost of the mover in a year with the caravan on my drive rather than in storage. It's a tight squeeze up a lane and round a corner through my gates at an angle. Trying to reverse it on the car or push it (it's uphill too) is out of the question.
It's also usefull for getting onto levelling ramps. I always find that towing up them I either drop off the top or by the time I get the brakes on and un hitch I have crept back to the bottom again.
The downside of movers is that one of the best bits of caravanning has been lost... watching someone reverse onto their pitch. I've spent many an afternoon as a child with my dad watching new arrivals make a right mess of reversing onto their pitch. I've seen my dad reverse it on for them a few times too.
I've often thought about getting a mover ,just to make things a bit easier etc ,but how much are they now ? last time I looked they were about 600 pounds upwards and at that price I think I would rather struggle a bit longer until it becomes a problem for us .