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Just thinking of buying our first Caravan and as there are up to 5 of us we were thinking of buying a twin axle Caravan.

As we intend to tour round Europe during the holidays we have been told by several people that Twin axles not accepted in most sites, due to the traveller influence. What is the current situation?? 

I this really the case in most sites, and are we better buying a single axle van??

Also combined towing weights. My wife past her test in 1998 and we have a Nissan Pathfinder. Will she need to pass another test, and if so we can we get some training. If not does any one know of any centres for training were we can get sometraining for towing skills etc in the Hertfordshire area?

Phillifish.

Quote: Originally posted by Phillifish1 on 24/6/2007

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Also combined towing weights. My wife past her test in 1998 and we have a Nissan Pathfinder. Will she need to pass another test, and if so we can we get some training. If not does any one know of any centres for training were we can get sometraining for towing skills etc in the Hertfordshire area?

Phillifish.

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as your wife passed her test after the 1st jan 1997 she will need to take a test to tow a caravan but it depends what size the van is, see below

Drivers who passed a car test on or after 1 January 1997 are limited to vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes maximum authorised mass towing a trailer up to 750 kgs, or a vehicle and trailer combination up to 3.5 tonnes MAM providing the MAM of the trailer does not exceed the unladen mass of the towing vehicle.  You will need to pass an additional driving test in B+E if you wish to tow a caravan or trailer combination which exceeds these weight limits.

the websiteCar and trailer practical driving test : Directgov - Motoring

We have never had any problems getting on a site in the UK, I have said before on previous posts, sites generally ask about twin axles because they may have some smaller pitches and it makes it easier to plan their sites accordingly.

If you turn up to a site with a twin towed by a Transit then you may be classed as traveller, I know there are a few out there that use vans to tow with so I would advise that site owners are aware of this.

Our next van will be a twin axle.  Other than in France I have not heard of any problems with twins, but I could see there could be a problem with the size on some sites.  Even some singles are quite long and on the continent the pitches can often be small.  In Italy in particular we had problems, and our van is not huge.

Otherwise, I have seen signs at a few sites here saying "No Hobby vans".