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How manoeuvrable are twin axle caravans?

R

RogerL

I'm thinking of changing our caravan to something a little larger - I have no problem towing a large outfit, and neither will the Touareg but I'm concerned about manoeuvrability particularly at home.

We live at the end of a road, effectively a cul-de-sac, so on return from a caravan trip I have to unhitch, move the car out of the way and then spin the caravan on it's axis 180 degrees so that I can back it into place this allows me to drive straight out next time. The road is only about 6m wide but the jockey wheel can run out over the council grass next to the road as there's no kerb.

Now a single axle caravan is easy to spin on it's axis with the mover with one side going forward and the other backwards - but can a twin axle do that without shredding the tyres or the tarmac?

Almost all the sites we visit have plenty of space so I do't see an issue there - just at home - SWMBO won't entertain the idea of using a storage facility so that's not an option.

I know that plenty of other contributors use twin axles so maybe someone has experience a similar restriction.
 
A twin can be easier to manoeuvre on site when hitched compared to a single axle. But using a mover it’s best to go for a quad set up if you need tight turns at home.
 
We live at the end of a small cul-de-sac and had a twin axle for 4 years (2018 Sprite Quattro EB). I have to reverse turn into the cul-de-sac and then reverse down to the house. The reverse turn is 90 degrees and the amount of tyre-wall flex as the car pushed the caravan round was quite considerable. Both tyres had significant cracking on the tyre walls at 4 years old (one of the influencing factors to change), but I suspect this was just down to Swift's choice of "unheard of" brand choice rather than occasional stressing through turning. I occasionally moved the caravan out into the road then a 45 degree sharp turn down the other driveway (our drive splits down both sides of the house) with no real issues. I had an EMove single mover driving the front axle, as expected, the turning circle was "leisurely" but I helped it by leaning on the corner of the caravan to help encourage it to turn.

We loved ours but decided to down-size to give greater tow car options and also our daughter was at University and no longer came away with us. Also struggled with one or two smaller pitches but nothing too concerning.
 
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GaryB said:
We live at the end of a small cul-de-sac and had a twin axle for 4 years (2018 Sprite Quattro EB). I have to reverse turn into the cul-de-sac and then reverse down to the house. The reverse turn is 90 degrees and the amount of tyre-wall flex as the car pushed the caravan round was quite considerable. Both tyres had significant cracking on the tyre walls at 4 years old (one of the influencing factors to change), but I suspect this was just down to Swift's choice of "unheard of" brand choice rather than occasional stressing through turning. I occasionally moved the caravan out into the road then a 45 degree sharp turn down the other driveway (our drive splits down both sides of the house) with no real issues. I had an EMove single mover driving the front axle, as expected, the turning circle was "leisurely" but I helped it by leaning on the corner of the caravan to help encourage it to turn.

We loved ours but decided to down-size to give greater tow car options and also our daughter was at University and no longer came away with us. Also struggled with one or two smaller pitches but nothing too concerning.
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Sounds like you issue is similar to ours - did you ever try spinning it by running one side forwards and the other in reverse?
 
One should allow the question whether a twin axle is actually necessary. There are some mighty big single axle caravans around. Only when you go over 2000kg is a second axle necessary to cope with that weight.
 
RogerL said:
Sounds like you issue is similar to ours - did you ever try spinning it by running one side forwards and the other in reverse?
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No, it worked okay for us just using it as a standard 2WD, BUT it did have a twin-axle mode where (I think) it "pulsed" the motor (might be wrong there but the unit definitely had/has - still got it - a 2WD or 4WD setting). This is the view down the cul-de-sac, I occasionally pulled it out using the mover then turned and parked it where the white Fiat 500 can be seen if I needed to put the awning up to clean it as the drive is 2 1/2 cars wide there.

home-caravan2.jpg
 
Also, some folks fit a 2WD mover to the rear axle so the jockey wheel can raise the front axle slightly to help reduce scrub. I didn't have the foresight to do that!
 
We have quad movers on our twin axle and I try to only use the movers to move the van a small angle if possible. To turn through 180 takes ages as you have to keep going forwards and backwards turning the van small amoounts each time. Even using one side forwards and the opposite backwards it still struggles and tends to jerk a lot. It is not impossible to turn 180 but will take a long time and plenty of space in front and behind the van.
 
Wind the jockey wheel right down, that lifts the front tyres off the ground, manoeuvre your caravan then lower the jockey wheel. Simples
 
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