Learning to tow

[RayS]

For various reasons my OH is learning to tow our outfit. Without giving away any secrets she is not far off free TV licence age and has done most of her driving in America without roundabouts etc.

Coming back from France recently she towed quite a lot on the French toll autoroutes which were reasonably empty and obviously did not have roundabouts, parked cars and other common hazards.

I have arranged a training session with a local professional driving schello which specialises in trailer towing, and asked them to concentrate on her particular fear which is positioning on roundabouts. She is particularly nervous of this as we have had some instances of the impatient morons overtaking or trying to on either or both sides as we have been negotiating roundabouts both in UK and France. As you will know, in many cases it is just not possible to stay in the lanes in these situations unless you want to clip the kerbs on the exits, particularly with a long (12m) outfit.

Had anyone else met this situation and if so are there any hints or tips that may be useful. We may go for the CC course later on but that is mainly about manouevering rather than road driving.

Thanks.

 

[RogerL]

Watch, when solo, the way big artic HGVs negotiate roundabouts - they know they're going to use two lanes so wait until the appropriate opportunity occurs - tuggers need to drive the same.
Many solo car drivers try to straight-line roundabouts which is wrong on all counts.

 

[Surfer]

For various reasons my OH is learning to tow our outfit. Without giving away any secrets she is not far off free TV licence age and has done most of her driving in America without roundabouts etc.

Coming back from France recently she towed quite a lot on the French toll autoroutes which were reasonably empty and obviously did not have roundabouts, parked cars and other common hazards.

I have arranged a training session with a local professional driving schello which specialises in trailer towing, and asked them to concentrate on her particular fear which is positioning on roundabouts. She is particularly nervous of this as we have had some instances of the impatient morons overtaking or trying to on either or both sides as we have been negotiating roundabouts both in UK and France. As you will know, in many cases it is just not possible to stay in the lanes in these situations unless you want to clip the kerbs on the exits, particularly with a long (12m) outfit.

Had anyone else met this situation and if so are there any hints or tips that may be useful. We may go for the CC course later on but that is mainly about manouevering rather than road driving.

Thanks.

Did you consider doing a CC or C & CC towing course? Cost is about £125 for a day and you get a discount on the caravan insurance if insurance is with either club.

 

[Parksy]

Hi Ray
When towing and negotiating roundabouts it helps to enter in the correct lane for the direction of the exit road, right lane for any exit past '12 o clock' and using the mirrors to check for undertakers, be assertive but not aggressive when positioning the outfit for the exit.
Unless the carriageway is a wide one I wouldn't use the middle lane if there is one when towing to avoid becoming the meat in a traffic sandwich.
Use clear (left) breakaway signals as soon as the exit road before the one that you want is passed and begin to ease over if your exit lane is clear.
As Roger mentioned, you may have to borrow some road space, and good positioning, clear signals coupled with a confident driving style will help other road users to tell by your vehicles 'body language' what your intentions are.
Remember that although you may have to swing wider than usual to avoid clipping the kerbs the rear of the caravan will folow a more normal line so only the towing vehicle and the front of the caravan are slightly out of position.
It might help to practice negotiating different types of traffic island solo to work out what line to take on different road layouts when towing.

 

[ProfJohnL]

I agree with Parksy,
That is the advise we should all follw except where lane guidance is given by road signage. However all too often the signage can be confusing unless you are familiar with local town names and road numbers you need. Couple this with the fact many of the painted roadmakings are now wearing out, and are unreadable in the wet or at night. And local planners seem to be intent on making ring roads which they want traffic to follow, but change the road numbers.
""Undertaking is a major issue at traffic islands in our area. Because of the construction of the M6 toll road, we suffered years of disruption, and inparticular a series of new traffic islands at Cannock.
Traveling East from the jct A5/A34 you approach a second island with access to the M6Toll. Technically the the Toll jct is 12 Oclock and the A5 east bound is 3 Oclock, yet the majority of A5 traffic takes up left hand lane and proceeds around the island 270 degrees.

 

[Surfer]

Is there a reason why the UK has so many round abouts as they seem to be more of a hinderance to traffic flow than a help?

 

[RayS]

Thanks for all the advice - now all I have to do is get OH to read it !
I also agree with the comment about too many roundabouts, particularly of the 'mini' variety when there is often no alternative than to run across the centre when towing.

Unfortunately too, the French seem to have caught the disease and each town seems to be trying to outdo the other in having the largest number. The worst time of day is around 12.00 when they are all dashing off for lunch and around 14.00 when they are all going back to work. Regretably the only safe way is to sit right in the centre of the approach raod so there isn't sufficient room for another vehicle on either side.
One thing we always do is to adjust the car mirrors downwards a little after fitting the towing mirrors shch that they show the road level and you can get a quick glance of where the caravan wheel is relative to the kerb.( I expect most other towers do the same, but just in case it is new to someone)

This situtation of trying to teach someone else how to tow makes one sympathise with the driving instructors who do it all day. I, and I guess many other on the Forum, have been at it so long that we really don't know what we do - it's become instinctive and very difficult to describe. When I started it was with much smaller outfit and much less dense traffic (and no mini roundabouts), and it is fact, too, that men and women generally have diferent spatial co-ordination abilities.

Thanks again

 

[Parksy]

A mini roundabout is a blob of paint in the road, and when towing I stick to my correct line but I don't worry too much about clipping it

 

[RayS]

Well the teaching session went exceptionally well particularly without my presence. The instructor had an ipad loaded with diagrams of road junctions and roundabouts on which he could 'draw' the correct approach routes and then go out and practiice them.
The only snag was that the TA box trailer used was only wired for road lights although 13 pin connector which meant that the rear sensors were not disabled when reverse was selected making the reversing practice a bit noisy.

If I'm allowed to put in a good word, Approach Driving School in Martock near Yeovil.

I,m sure I will learn a lot in our next excursion, since I've been told my role will be navigator,/ heating control operator.

 

[RayS]

Thought I would just update from the comfort of our van in sunny south east Spain, We split the towing on the way down, leaving UK 27th December in attrociours wheather which persisted all the way down through France. Made blife as easy as possible by using autoroutes and getting a tag for the tollgates.
Happy to say OH did very well and even disputed who's turn it was to tow. Needless to say I gave way graciously. Down here some of the 'rights or way' on complex roundabouts are not clear until you are right at them and in some cases are far from logical.

If I can add a suggestion to those in similar circumstances, let the less experienced tower get as much experience with the tow car solo as possible, even short runs to the shop every other day or so build up the familiarity with the towing vehicle such that when towing they can concentrate on just that and not have to worry about where the controls are.

I appreciate this is obvious, but OH's own car has wiper and indicator control on opposite sides to the tow car, so under stress the wrong one sometimes gets used. Current tow car is automatic for the same sort of reasons, and this makes a lot of difference.
I've also fitted a second internal driving mirror so I too can get some idea of what's happening behind when not towing.

Hope this may be of some interest to others.

 

[Parksy]

Hi Ray
I'm glad that your better half has taken to towing, you can sit back and enjoy the scenery now.
No doubt you'll have heard all about the flooding on the Somerset Levels and I know that you live not far from there so I hope that you're unaffected at home and free to enjoy the Spanish sun.
It's a bright morning in the Midlands today, the crocus plants are in bloom and there may even be the first hint of spring after the recent horrendous rain and hail storms.