Thanks to all who advised me on the selection and fitting of our Powrtouch motor mover.
As I posted previously I got the HD fitted to our 5 Series Bailey Senator Arizona a couple of weeks back. With price matching I was able to get it fitted for £930 including the electric actuator. After a few hiccoughs when I found that the 'van battery was dead and Powrtouch sending out a second fitter to move the electronic box from behind the heater to a front bed box I was able to use the mover for the first time to get the 'van up our 1:10 drive and onto our sloping, narrow road for our Easter break. (This took a LOT of maneouvring when we had to tow it up.)
We stayed at Cae Mawr CC site on Anglesey for 10 days. I didn't bother with the mover for getting onto the pitch as it was an easy reverse but it was VERY useful for lining up the wheel with the receiver for the Alko Secure wheel lock. The mover really came into its own on our return home yesterday. We just stopped outside our gate unhitched the 'van and then used the mover to propel the 'van across the road and then down the drive FORWARDS. (Previously we had to spend a LONG TIME maneouvring back and forth to get the 'van into the correct position to reverse it down the drive using the car.) We then spent a lot of time maneouvring the 'van around to see if we could get both of our cars onto the drive behind the 'van. (We have to keep on car on the road.) We unfortunately were not able to fit both cars onto the drive but the mover made maneouvring the 'van, to see if the cars would both fit,SO EASY.
When we had finished positioning the 'van I was, again, able to use the mover to "tweak" the 'van to fit the Alko lock - again often a lot of pushing and temper-loosing had been involved in that procedure on pre-mover occasions. The 'van is now more securely parked, too, as it could not be towed out and it would take a lot of people to push it out UP our drive.
As others said we wonder how we managed without it. We are looking forward to using the mover on tight Continental pitches next summer and, also, being able to easily site the 'van for the best views.
Just one question do you other motor mover owners have pneumatic jockey wheels as ours solid wheel tended to "crab" a bit when turning it out of our drive on the tar/gravel road?
Early last year I managed to smash our plastic jockey wheel on a fairly innocuous humped back bridge. (and yes the wheel was as high as it would go!)
Knowing that we were going to need a mover fitted to enable us to park up at our new storage site, which is gravelled, I bought a pneumatic jockey wheel.
I'm sure lots of people will tell you it is not necessary but we needed a new one anyway and wasn't that much more expensive.
(Managed to get a second hand Powrtouch fitted with 6 months warranty for £200......... bargain!!)
------------- Don
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We switched to pneumatic alko wheel, because we have a gravel drive and it makes a big difference. The other wheel would dig into the gravel, where as the pneumatic glides over the gravel. Good on mud as well.
well done another success story for powrtouch,enjoy.you will find that any service required is just as good and first class.longest i have waited was two days.even delivered a new remote to keswick in less than 24 hours.beat that.
pneumatic alko wheel
bought a new one with £10 off at discover but can not use it,the reason is when i get the van out and fix it to the car i can not get the wheel out to lift it up to the resting position.because it is so fat it gets stuck on the underside.it is easier to use in operation as it does not dig in.the tyre does not seam to hold pressure too good.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
We've got a motor mover and before we got i wondered whether the jockey wheel would cope over the rough pitted ground but it is fine. We had a such a hard job getting our old 'van in its place but with the motor mover its just so easy :)
My wife used to hate directing me when reversing or hitching up. Now I can collect and return the van from storage on my own and reverse it up the drive. In fact, first time she reversed it. We paid £800 for main dealer to supply & fit, powertouch with cross actuator bar. As you say, I don't know how I would fit the Alko lock without it.
I just have the standard Bailey Ranger GT60 jockey wheel, which seems quite big and fat. It's best to have the front of the van as low as possible and seems to dig in less in reverse. I must admit, I don't have any problems with the jockey wheel and haven't even considered replacing it.
What I want now though, is for someone to bring out a motor awning erector!