I've been looking at caravans with and without electric power movers, and wondered how good they are, are they fitted to both sides of the caravan or just one side? Are they strong enough to move a caravan up a slightly sloped driveway, where I plan to store it when not in use? I have a flat bit of driveway at the top of the slope that measures 9 foot wide and 27 foot length so ill be able to park it there easily. Just wondering what's the easiest way to get it up the short slight slope?
caravan manouvering
- Thread starter Lonesome-Whizkid
- Start date
Lonesome-Whizkid said:
hi, the simplist way to answer your question is :- "quote" all those who have one would not be without one, they are undoubtedly the best bit of kit you can put on a van. all those who say they are unnecessary don't have one."quote".
yes, they have a motor on each side.
yes, they will move a van up a 25% slope.
yes, you can manouver the van into any position with ease.
and yes I am a fan, and so are most of the oldies :lol: without one most of us would have given up years ago.
Hello Whizz, I agree with everything thatColin has said about a mover. We would not be able to get our caravan in and out of our drive without one. I got one of the very early Powrtouch models around 2001 and found it such a good company to deal with, I still use that brand today.They can also be useful when siting the van, and to some extent can be useful in slippery conditions.. When we come home the mover takes our van easily up our 1 in 4 (25% ) drive. Highly recommend one!
Absolutely agree with other posters. I too had an early Powrtouch and now have their new Evolution model. Moves 1600kg of van up slope with large gravel covering without problems.
If you are handy at DIY it's a straightforward job to fit yourself. If not get it fitted professionally and have them fit it in front of the caravan axle if at all possible (If not, it will get very wet from water spray from the wheels on wet roads and like most things electric doesn't like water inside it).
As a piece of essential kit it ranks well up with fridges, chemical toilets, heating systems etc. some of which you can actually manage without and many did so in our early caravanning days.
If you are handy at DIY it's a straightforward job to fit yourself. If not get it fitted professionally and have them fit it in front of the caravan axle if at all possible (If not, it will get very wet from water spray from the wheels on wet roads and like most things electric doesn't like water inside it).
As a piece of essential kit it ranks well up with fridges, chemical toilets, heating systems etc. some of which you can actually manage without and many did so in our early caravanning days.
Mel
Moderator
Totally agree. Wouldn't be without one. What you have to ask yourself is, "Can I reverse the van into the space using the car". If the answer is no then you will have to push it. The next question is "are you strong enough to push a 1500kg van up a slope while gravity and wheels are trying to roll it in the opposite direction........"
Thought not. Hence get a mover.
It will also be the biggest remote control toy you have ever owned. :cheer:
mel
Thought not. Hence get a mover.
It will also be the biggest remote control toy you have ever owned. :cheer:
mel
I don't think you will find any caravanner who has got an main wheel based mover would disagree with any of the above posts. I personally knew and spoke quite often to the designer of the first main wheel based mover, (John Carver) and he would have been delighted with the comments posted so far. His aim was to extend the caravanning life of people with mobility issues.
I have to draw your attention to what might appear an alternative, and that is the type of mover that connects to the tow hitch or replaces the jockey wheel. I call then A frame movers. Mel has pointed out one of the issues with trying to manhandle a caravan on a slope. Its not the power to move the caravan but more importantly its teh grip to stop it moving.
The grip any device (Human or mover) can generate on the ground is fundamentally determined by how much weight pushes us to the ground. In my case thats 85kg, in the case of an A frame mover it might be 100Kg (weight of mover inc. battery plus the nose weight) but in the case of the main wheels you get roughly half the weight of the caravan so usual about 500Kg or more per wheel.
So you will always be much safer with a main wheel mover.
To be fair, the A frame movers are a super way of moving caravans and trailers on hard flat ground, but you cant always guarantee your caravan sites will be hard and flat, and also you have to find space to carry and store the A frame movers when your not actually using them. The main wheel movers are always available and store on the caravan..
What ever did we do without them?
I have to draw your attention to what might appear an alternative, and that is the type of mover that connects to the tow hitch or replaces the jockey wheel. I call then A frame movers. Mel has pointed out one of the issues with trying to manhandle a caravan on a slope. Its not the power to move the caravan but more importantly its teh grip to stop it moving.
The grip any device (Human or mover) can generate on the ground is fundamentally determined by how much weight pushes us to the ground. In my case thats 85kg, in the case of an A frame mover it might be 100Kg (weight of mover inc. battery plus the nose weight) but in the case of the main wheels you get roughly half the weight of the caravan so usual about 500Kg or more per wheel.
So you will always be much safer with a main wheel mover.
To be fair, the A frame movers are a super way of moving caravans and trailers on hard flat ground, but you cant always guarantee your caravan sites will be hard and flat, and also you have to find space to carry and store the A frame movers when your not actually using them. The main wheel movers are always available and store on the caravan..
What ever did we do without them?
I also have a powrtouch that is over 10 years old. I find it a bit slow going up my sloping drive but it manages , wonder if that may be battery related as I think the current battery is an 85Ah one. The previous was a 110Ah (which I believe are recommended) but I can't remember if I thought the performance was better. Be interested to hear if other powrtouch owners can get over the dropped kerb onto their drives with one. Notice they have several spares (not cheap) listed on their website as well if anyone needs some bits.
Agree totally with everyone, once you have one you cannot do without it, I live on a hill and reversing onto my drive would be impossible easpecially as its a narrow road so I couldnt get the angle right anyway, and it would climb my hill easily and its a baily 6 berth pageant fully loaded, but a 110 battefy is a must,
Ok, thanks for your replies, Will it operate off of a separate battery or the same leisure battery for the caravan. Would think it might be a big drain of battery power moving a heavy van up a slope? Is that what someone advised me before, that its a good idea to get a standard car battery as there designed to give more power initially but don't last too long?
I think you you will find everyone uses the caravan battery which the fitter will connect it to anyway, as long as its fully charged and 110 volt you will be fine
hi, yes it can be run off a separate battery (if one can overcome the fitting technicalities) however using the van battery is fine in fact that what it is designed to do!! moving the van up a slope is no more difficult than moving it on say a grass field,
you have to understand though that while the initial drain on startup could be high say 20amps when it get the van moving this drain drops to about 5amps and increases to say 10amps up a 25% slope, remember the discussion we had before regarding power drain while off grid with a bit of maths it can be worked out what the maximum range could be on a fully charged battery but thats for the boffins, all I could say is mine copes with continued use for more than 20 mins as I have no direct access to my garage from the main road while attached to the car, I do however use a car type H/DUTY starter battery as the recovery timeafter use is better.
you have to understand though that while the initial drain on startup could be high say 20amps when it get the van moving this drain drops to about 5amps and increases to say 10amps up a 25% slope, remember the discussion we had before regarding power drain while off grid with a bit of maths it can be worked out what the maximum range could be on a fully charged battery but thats for the boffins, all I could say is mine copes with continued use for more than 20 mins as I have no direct access to my garage from the main road while attached to the car, I do however use a car type H/DUTY starter battery as the recovery timeafter use is better.
Thanks, 20 minutes of use is quite long, my driveway has a 25% slope on it, maybe 23% and I've got around 30 - 40 feet of slope before the flat part for parking up. I wouldn't be able to use a towing vehicle to get it up the drive as the street is too narrow and I've got a big fence in the way but that's to my advantage cause I wont be taking the neighbours right of light away. Also so I'm seriously considering having a mover fitted, they must be very strong with torque to do all that horse work? 
As Smurf says, the movers are usually connected to the caravans own battery.
In terms of power usage, we come back to that chestnut of
Amp Hours or Ah. In most cases movers are only operating for less than 5mins when you position a caravan. But even if we are generous and say its running for 6 minutes when you look at the actual power consumed its not as much as you might expect.
The starting currents are high because its a stalled dc motor, but as soon as the motor spins up the current drops back. So the peak current will normally last for far less than a second, and in terms of power usage we can essentially ignore the peak. When the motors are actually moving the caravan, the amount of current they use will depend on how steep any incline is but its likely to be no more than 50% of the motors rated current and in practice probably much less if you're moving over level ground.
so a quick calculation well say 6 mins (1/10 of an hour) at 40Amps current is only 4Ah! thats the equivalent of running one florescent light inside the caravan for 4 hours
Neither the peak currents or the total power used dictate the need for 110Ah battery simply because you have a mover, but obviously the larger battery will last longer for the rest of the holiday if you are off grid.
There is no point in having a separate battery for the mover, the one in the caravan will do provided its in good condition.
The suggestion of using a small car battery for a mover only works if you always have pitches with a mains hook up, and you only need the battery to power the mover. The battery would still be fitted in the caravan battery box, instead of having a bigger leisure battery.
In terms of power usage, we come back to that chestnut of
Amp Hours or Ah. In most cases movers are only operating for less than 5mins when you position a caravan. But even if we are generous and say its running for 6 minutes when you look at the actual power consumed its not as much as you might expect.
The starting currents are high because its a stalled dc motor, but as soon as the motor spins up the current drops back. So the peak current will normally last for far less than a second, and in terms of power usage we can essentially ignore the peak. When the motors are actually moving the caravan, the amount of current they use will depend on how steep any incline is but its likely to be no more than 50% of the motors rated current and in practice probably much less if you're moving over level ground.
so a quick calculation well say 6 mins (1/10 of an hour) at 40Amps current is only 4Ah! thats the equivalent of running one florescent light inside the caravan for 4 hours
Neither the peak currents or the total power used dictate the need for 110Ah battery simply because you have a mover, but obviously the larger battery will last longer for the rest of the holiday if you are off grid.
There is no point in having a separate battery for the mover, the one in the caravan will do provided its in good condition.
The suggestion of using a small car battery for a mover only works if you always have pitches with a mains hook up, and you only need the battery to power the mover. The battery would still be fitted in the caravan battery box, instead of having a bigger leisure battery.
they are!! however as with all things to do with this hobby, there are complications :woohoo: nothing to worry about but you must be aware of them, cost is one thing they are quite an expensive bit of kit but you probably know this already :S but still worth it,
2nd, is to do with the type of roller some are gritted and this can wear down replacements are not cheap either. others have grooved aluminium last longer but are even more expensive.
3rd, you can have problems with wet/muddy tyres causing roller slip as they use friction between the rollers and the tyres
4th, they can sometimes object to climbing a step (like a 2/3in drop kerb) face on!! one has to either go at it on a angle or use a ramp
5th, the hand sets have a limited range so it is possible to get too far away from the van loose signal and the van stops!! good news is walking closer and restarting works!!!
John has outlined the power consumption nothing to add except I use a car battery because the vans always on EHU but I did mention that in a earlier thread
but you must be aware of them, cost is one thing they are quite an expensive bit of kit but you probably know this already :S but still worth it,2nd, is to do with the type of roller some are gritted and this can wear down replacements are not cheap either. others have grooved aluminium last longer but are even more expensive.
3rd, you can have problems with wet/muddy tyres causing roller slip as they use friction between the rollers and the tyres
4th, they can sometimes object to climbing a step (like a 2/3in drop kerb) face on!! one has to either go at it on a angle or use a ramp
5th, the hand sets have a limited range so it is possible to get too far away from the van loose signal and the van stops!! good news is walking closer and restarting works!!!
John has outlined the power consumption nothing to add except I use a car battery because the vans always on EHU but I did mention that in a earlier thread
Our Adria seems easy to move but only when there's 2 of you
Waiting for OTH is a PITA when I could have moved it and got it connected ready for the off.
Decided to get one from here -
nationalvehiclesolutions.com
As they offer a discount for caravanclub members.
Any thoughts?
Waiting for OTH is a PITA when I could have moved it and got it connected ready for the off.
Decided to get one from here -
nationalvehiclesolutions.com
As they offer a discount for caravanclub members.
Any thoughts?
Len_Cuff said:Our Adria seems easy to move but only when there's 2 of you
.....................
Single axle caravans are easy enough to move by hand on the near flat, but even with two of you, :lol: I'm certain you would struggle on anything like a 25% slope. Given that slope if you had a 1400kg caravan you would be trying to lift 1/4 of the caravans weight up the slope thats 350kg!!
Let the mover take the strain :cheer:
IMO a mover is a mandatory piece of kit for a caravanner. It will be the best accessory you ever buy.
OK so ordered it on Monday night, get a phone call today to say the fitter will be here tomorrow to fit it at my address! Can't beat that for service
Hi Len, tried to go to your suggested website, did .com got me through to a bullet proof glass company in usa and did .co.uk and that was a car sales website, nothing about caravan movers at all or did i miss it?
Lonesome-Whizkid said:
Give this site a look, but double check the data before buying, the latest truma mover claims something like a 38AH battery is big enough.
http://www.caravanmoversonline.co.uk/pages/compare-movers.html
We have a fairly steep and narrow drive and found that getting the caravan out near flattened a 110 battery but this was not a problem as long as you had a hook up when you arrived on site.
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