Motor mover. Necessity or nice to have?

[Mark1962]

Hi,
I guess the answer is predicated on your own state of health. But if you are fit and healthy, and own a two berth single axle caravan, plus are OK at reversing said unit, is a mover of any real value?
Additionally, how much are they incl fitting please?
Mark

 

[Hutch]

On a smallish two berth, I would say, for me, it would be nice to have, but it depends on where you store your caravan and the sites you tend to go to.
For myself with a 1645 kg, max caravan its a necessity, at times. On some pitches you just cannot reverse into them, with the length of the caravan and the tow car.
The costs, you would have to look in the advertisements.

 

[Jcloughie]

We managed for many years without a mover. As you say, when fit and able. But if they were available/affordable then I would have loved one. My guess would be a basic mover would be about £6-700. Fitted. But a fit person could fit there own. It’s not too difficult with good instructions. Look at YouTube examples. Saves about £150.

There are some good second hand deals on EBay every so often. I once bought a 1 year old £1200 mover for £450.

John

 

[littlebasher]

The entrance to my drive and its gradient means it would be impossible to store my caravan there without a mover

 

[Beachball]

For many years i use my car to reverse our single axle caravan at storage and at home i have only owned a mover for three years it a Emove EM203 with fitting i think it cost us £550

 

[otherclive]

What’s all this fit and able. I’ve hardly ever had to push and pull the caravan, even the shorter two berths were put in place with the car. Our first mover we had in 2005 fir a new Bailey. It came in very useful as being a longer outfit there were some pitches that were difficult to access. But when I had a Skoda with DSG I tended to always oitch the caravan using the mover in order to protect the clutches. At home our drive isn’t easy to access nor was the storage so the mover was used and it made fitting the Alko wheel lock easier.

Movers are also good for extracting the van from a wet, or muddy CL/CS or where the kindly farmer has just mowed the grass., and the faithfull 4WD won’t do the job.

 

[Bluetonic]

for us, essential if we want to get it on the drive. I think that would be the same for any length of caravan for us.
And now we have a 1800kg Twin axle I wouldn't be without it and would like to add another pair as we only have them on one axle at the moment

 

[Paullus1959]

Another vote for having a motor mover for all the reasons above.
Caravans are very easy to manoeuvre by hand, when on a hard flat surface such as tarmac but, as soon as you get onto rougher hard surfaces and grass, manoeuvring becomes increasingly difficult. Add a slope to the equation and it can become almost impossible to downright dangerous if the caravan gets away from you before you can grab the handbrake.
I must admit to being very proud of my reversing skills. I always like to reverse onto a pitch if possible but there are occasions when I take a look and think no, I'm going to use the motor mover.
A motor mover enables you to manoeuvre your caravan to the inch perfect position on a pitch.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Motor mover. Necessity or nice to have?

Simple answer:- is they are not a necessity, as before 1990 they did not even exist, yet they still sold 30,000 new touring caravans!

I had the honour to know the inventor of the caravan mover, and I met him on several occasions whilst he was developing the first road wheel driven prototype at his home in Gloucestershire. He always stated there were reasons why he thought it was worth while:-

His primary reason was he wanted to produce a system that would enable almost anyone with any sort of mobility difficulties to be able to hitch or position a caravan. It would use a wired remote so the user could walk round the caravan to check its positioning.

The device had to be able to be installed without invalidating any caravan chassis warranties.

It had to be able to climb, stop and hold on a 1:4 incline (the equivalent of driving up a kerb). There had been jockey wheel movers, but they worked fine on a horizontal, hard standing, but they struggled when the surface was soft or slippery, and they were downright dangerous on slopes because the maximum grip was only proportional to the down force on the jockey wheel.
By using the road wheels it employed most of the weight of the caravan which could be utilised to improve the grip/control of the mover.

He also wanted it to be easy to manufacture and not rely on high precision engineering components, as he said he wanted the village blacksmith to be able to install or repair it" but that has not been a feature that carried through by the copycats who have gone for more exotic materials and close tolerances, and of course there are now the ubiquitous digital remote controls.

Still a great idea, and how many back injuries has it prevented?

There are some down sides, first is the cost, and of course the weight of the unit does reduce the available weight capacity for personal items etc.

 

[Woodentop]

I would always advise yes if you can afford it.

If you pitch up on grass and then it rains you may have considerable difficult getting the van onto ground where you can tow as the car drive wheels will be spinning and showering everything with mud. However the mover will get the caravan out quite easily IME, worst case being the necessity to put a piece of board under the jockey to top it digging its own hole.

 

[otherclive]

I would always advise yes if you can afford it.

If you pitch up on grass and then it rains you may have considerable difficult getting the van onto ground where you can tow as the car drive wheels will be spinning and showering everything with mud. However the mover will get the caravan out quite easily IME, worst case being the necessity to put a piece of board under the jockey to top it digging its own hole.

Or ask the “ co pilot” to step into the caravan and slow move aft of the axle thus taking weight of of the nose wheel. Note rear steadies need to be down if the caravan door is at the rear until copilot is atop the axle.

 

[Jaydug]

In the 1970s, 80s and 90s there was less need of movers because caravans were light-weights. The first Avondale I bought in 1994 weighed in at just 757Kgs with a maximum loaded weight of 950Kgs.. On solid ground, it was easy to pull and push. The hitch was easily lifted to mount it on the tow ball. It wasn't until 2004 when I got a Pageant Imperial at 1200Kgs did I feel the need for a mover.

 

[Bluerocket]

for us, essential if we want to get it on the drive. I think that would be the same for any length of caravan for us.
And now we have a 1800kg Twin axle I wouldn't be without it and would like to add another pair as we only have them on one axle at the moment

I agree with you totally regarding twin axles I had movers fitted on both axles on our crusader borealis last year, They have got me onto some tight pitches on CLs and for me, it makes things easier to line up precisely for the alko wheel lock.
Happy Caravaning

 

[Mark1962]

Thanks everyone. All advice most gratefully received.
Mark

 

[Tobes]

Definitely check the weight of the miver you intend to fit against the payload you have available. We use the mover maybe once in every 3 tips out. That’s a lot of cost and payload for a little used resource. If weight is critical paying more can half the weight of the unit.

 

[Buckman]

We have a twin axle and a mover is almost essential although I seldom use it as like a challenge with my reversing skills. Initially we had a single axle motor mover, but after visiting France and Spain decided that an AWD motor mover was essential due to narrow roadways on continental sites.

 

[Beachball]

I never had a motor mover until 2019 that my first one in thirty two years and now it gets use all the time i just back the car up to the van and then use the mover and on a hardstanding service pitch at sites it makes it a lot easier . .

 

[Sam Vimes]

Simple answer:- is they are not a necessity, as before 1990 they did not even exist, yet they still sold 30,000 new touring caravans!

Somewhat of a generalisation to say its not necessary.

We had our first caravan in the mid 90's and installation of a motor mover was a necessity as there was no way we could reverse into our driveway and get the van into position without one. Or at least not without help and considerable trouble.

Thirty years on and with a much smaller van we have a similar problem as someone mentioned previously - we cannot get our van up onto our driveway without one.

 

[Raywood]

If you find reversing a problem they are a great help or if like me you have a wife who chooses the most difficult pitch to reverse onto they are a necessity. We did get a pitch allocated once in France where the site road was extremely narrow and reversing into the pitch looked near impossible but the mover made it easy and getting into the narrower gap in the storage they are very useful in making sure you do not hit the caravan next to you. .
They are a great help at any time but in general not a necessity.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Reversing is not a problem. It's just that both driveways have been on an incline, the later being a 25% gradient, and both have had gravel surfaces.

The car will not pull or push the van up the driveway.

Sure I could buy a bigger 4x4 or use a winch but a motor mover is the best option and currently the only way. Hence necessary.

Besides which it makes life so much easier anywhere.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Somewhat of a generalisation to say its not necessary.

We had our first caravan in the mid 90's and installation of a motor mover was a necessity as there was no way we could reverse into our driveway and get the van into position without one. Or at least not without help and considerable trouble.

Thirty years on and with a much smaller van we have a similar problem as someone mentioned previously - we cannot get our van up onto our driveway without one.

In certain individual cases a caravan mover may be the only solution, but taking the hobby as a whole the number of pervious caravan purchases throughout time before movers were even available proves they are not a necessity for everyone.... even now

 

[Jaydug]

This is the pitch in Spain which I occupied for around three months every winter. Without the assistance of five or six brawny helpers, I defy anyone to get levelled on the pitch without the use of a mover. Look closely at the curbstones and the tree planted in three corners of the pitch.

 

[Buckman]

Or this one where we are parked between two trees. Unfortunately you cannot see the tree to the rear of the caravan. To get on we had to go in from the side where the car is parked and at the same time avoid the bough on one of the trees in case it caught the sat dome or air con. A very tight squeeze and no way could you reverse onto that pitch.

 

[Beachball]

This is the pitch in Spain which I occupied for around three months every winter. Without the assistance of five or six brawny helpers, I defy anyone to get levelled on the pitch without the use of a mover. Look closely at the curbstones and the tree planted in three corners of the pitch.

View attachment 2816

I would think a mover would make light work getting on that pitch it looks nice enjoy

 

[otherclive]

Drove straight in for our pitch at Cantobre in Aveyron. We visited there a few times and the owner, an English lady, always ensured we had great pitches.