We as manufacturers try to manufacture the lightest possible weight but you need to know how to tow it. We pride ourselves on the length of the tow vehicle too.
Consider these risks:
- Overtaking – or making sudden lane changes – can send you out of control when you’re pulling a caravan or camper trailer.
- Swerving (to miss an animal, for example) can cause oversteer, taking you out of your lane and into other traffic.
- The ‘bow wind’ of a passing truck can push the trailer sideways. Also (to a lesser degree), the vacuum created at the tail-end of a semi-trailer can pull a camper back toward it. Essentially, this is the same as wind, but the sudden intensity often catches the driver by surprise. And, since it hits the trailer before the tow vehicle, it magnifies the sway condition.
- Because your rig is heavier, your braking distance is now longer. So give yourself a little more distance between you and the vehicle in front. Try counting the seconds separating the two vehicles when you pass a guide post. If your trailer has independent electric braking then count to five. If not, count to seven or more. Then don’t get any closer.
- Don’t pull out in front of Trucks. Take good judgement not a chance better to be patient and survive than a chance to die or regret.
10 top tips for towing
- Ensure your tow vehicle and camper are correctly set up, balanced, level and appropriate for each other.
- Reverse slowly and take your time. Practice makes perfect. Practise in car parks and take short weekenders before setting off on your dream holiday.
- Check your towing speed, as some vehicles have a recommended or maximum towing speed in the owner’s manual.
- Clean and service your camper before and after each trip. Good quality grease. Better to pay the extra and get serviced by a pro than take short cuts and DIY we have seen the results.
- Don’t overload your trailer. Keep it within its own GVM and that of the tow vehicle towing limits.
- Fill up your water tank before leaving home – it will help keep a low centre of gravity.
- Check your wheel nuts and tyre pressure on all tyres (including the spare) before setting off.
- Check all latches are secure before setting off. Jockey wheel removed.
- Compile a comprehensive hitch-up checklist and use it every trip.
- Stop, Drive, Survive. Driving and towing is fatiguing. Keep a drink with you.
Reverse a camper trailer is best sticking to the mirrors you can lock yourself in the one mentality. If the trailer is going too far to your right mirror, then bring the right side of the steering wheel down and vice versa for the left. By using this method you don’t need to keep fighting the wheel, let the trailer naturally follow the path and catch it with small corrections when you need.
The easiest way to do this is to rely entirely on your mirror on the inside of the turn; it’ll always be able to see the trailer. Don’t try and put the trailer into the middle of a gap, look at the gap and realise if you’re 1m away from a post/van/ tree on the inside you’ll be in the middle, then just worry about that object. Keep calm don’t get flustered it doesn’t help.
Everybody who tows a camper needs to be able to go backwards, so practise is best! Some people are great at it some of us are not that good. Still, I use my mirrors on most occasions, gripping the steering wheel at the bottom and turning the wheel in the direction the trailer needs to go as indicated in the mirrors. It works for me. Other people have other ideas. There is no right way or wrong way, just practise and get proficient at it.