Motor Movers...worth the money...any recommendations?

[zennavigator]

I am toying with the idea of getting a motor mover for the caravan.
As a newbie caravanner, I little phased with the reversing and hitching up, as I know the missus is going to be of little help :roll:
Wondering if people think its money well spent and how much it costs.
Anyone got any recommendations for the unit and fitting in the Manchester area.
Dave

 

[PaulT]

Best accessory I've ever bought! I've got a Powertouch which I bought 3 years ago for about £700. Fitted it myself (easy) and have had no trouble since but plenty of easy manoeuvring.

 

[Mike_S]

Have been a caravanner for over 55 years and had a mover for the last 11. I can reverse well enough but there are often occasions when there isn't enough room for the car and caravan to remain hitched - in my case, at home.
Hitching up is a doodle - take the caravan to the car not vice versa. Fitting the Alko wheel lock -easy, etc, etc!
As Paul says - best accessory ever, especially for those of us of advancing years!
Re make - mine is an 11yr old carver(Truma ) - no soft start, rollers replaced twice but still working fine. The only time I touch the grab handles on my caravan is when they get washed!
Mike

 

[FrintonMike]

It's a no brainer. get a mover
We live in a narrow cul de sac and bring the van home from storage to load and unload. Even when we had a single axel van it was at least a five point turn with the mover, now we have a twin axel it is more like a 10 point turn but without the mover we would not be able to turn the van. The same applies to the storage site as there is not enought room for the car and van.
Another plus point is no bad backs

 

[RayS]

Can't quite match Mike S - I've only been at it for 46 years - but totally agree with what he says. Suggest you ensure you get one with 'soft start' or the jerky movement might push the hitch into the back of your car. Get one above the requirement of your caravan all-up weight to cope with bad surfaces and slopes - too much muscle is never a bad thing. Fit (or have it fitted ) in front of the axle if at all possible as otherwise it will get pressure wahed with road water every time you tow in the rain. DIY is pretty easier if you are at all handy with low voltage wiring and a spanner or two and very satisfying to do.
Me I'm a fan of Powrwheel/Powrtouch but depending on the weight of the caravan I'm sure other makes might do well. When movers first came out I wanted one but we could have used the money elsewhere but my OH wisely said - cheaper than a hernia correction and more fun.
Go for it.

 

[johnandrew70]

Get a mover you will never regret it, i wouldnt be without ours.

 

[Barmoor]

We have just had a new one fitted. Our old one was twelve years old and we could not have managed without it. Our new one is brilliant. You can spin the caravan on a sixpence. We bought direct from Powrtouch and they arranged for their fitted to install at our storage place. He removed the old one and fitted the new. Fitting the new took about two and a half hours. I can recommend Powrtouch without hesitation. OK they might be a bit pricey but they are excellent.

Go for it, you will not regret.

 

[TD42]

powrtouch used to have a price match policy, so I suggest you check out the price of several makes then ask powrtouch for a price match.Alternativly Powrtouch also did what they called a reconditioned unit which was considerably cheaper,I bought one & i swear it was brand new.I have had the mover 7 years & on 2 vans.cant beat Powrtouch

 

[BernardinTring]

Yes, agree with all the sentiments, best 'big boy's toy' in my collection. Mine is a Truma and is just great, hitching up and aligning the AlKo lock just brilliant.
Bernard.

 

[NickinFrance]

That's rather a pointless question on here, I doubt if many would be prepared to admit wasting £500+ on a useless gadget

 

[ProfJohnL]

.....I have had the mover 7 years & on 2 vans.cant beat Powrtouch

I'm not sure how you can make that statement? if you have only ever experienced one mover, you have nothing to compare it to. However Powertouch do seem to very popular, but others may be just as good.

 

[Raywood]

We fitted one because the caravan was stored in the drive which has a narrow entrance and slopes down from the road. The road is also quite steep with a lamp post opposite just where the car might mount the pavement when reversing in. In those circumstances a mover is good value. On site it depends on your reversing and even if you are competent there are some difficult to reach pitches on some sites where it is a godsend.
Like most people I do not have sufficient experiance of the different makes to say which is best.

 

[johnandrew70]

We have a Powrtouch on our new van but had a Purpleline Enduro on the old van, i fitted it myself and was very easy to fit as long as you have somewhere to do it and pretty good DIY skills..
The Enduro was very cheap compared to the Powrtouch but did a fantastic job also customer care was very good as i contacted them about the whinning noise of the motors and was told that it was normal.
The Powrtouch has different speed settings and does not have the whinning sound,
Both very good Movers and both well worth the money if i was to choose between the 2 it would be the Powrtouch even if its considerably more expensive.
John

 

[DeliDave_]

Have a Reich ,its been on 3 vans in 12 years and has been great.I wonder how much good dragging and pushing a ton and half of van by hand does,the brackets seem to go on to bits of ply and metal brackets causing panels to flex and maybe leak,perhaps a motormover could postpone damp ingress

 

[johnandrew70]

Or a slipped disc, and even worse a Hernia Deli Dave

 

[SteveW77]

I do not think that many people who have movers fitted would agree with your assessment.

Nick

 

[brian_c]

I fully agree with all the positive replies on your post. We wanted to store our van at home but our drive slopes down towards the house this means the van needs to be pushed across the front of the house, then a sharp right hand turn to go alongside the house. In my view not possible with the most expert of drivers, well certainly not me.
the nearest storage facility to where we live quoted me £300 per year and I believe the security is first class, however I feel the opening times especially at weekends are quite restrictive. So to me the fitted cost of around £875 was fully justified bearing in mind I have now had the mover 4 years and it is on it's second van. I console myself that the mover is now free because I would have already spent more than my initial outlay had we used local storage.
Also a further bonus, is that we have used the mover many times at various sites over the past four years getting the van on and off pitches and perfectly lined up. We tow with a relativly lightweight car and a few seconds setting the mover up saves perhaps excessive clutch wear not to mention my embarrasment at displaying my lack of reversing skill when arriving at site.
We have the Power touch mover but in all honesty other people I have spoken to on sites who have different makes all seem to like the ones they have.
We have had one issue with the mover when one of the drives failed as I was getting the van out, I rang Power touch and because I was able to get the car to the van they advised me to go to site and ring to let them know where I was. We did this and within a couple of hours their engineer rang and made arrangments to come to site at a time to suit us where he fitted a complete new motor and gearbox no problem at all, we gave him a pot of tea and a chunk of cake and he was away. So whilst power touch are expensive they do fail occasionally but my experience of their after sales is very positive. all the best with whaterer you decide.
best regards Brian

 

[Steve L]

I have an old jockey wheel type Motor Mover ET which serves me very well.
I'm very competent at reversing trailers being ex HGV1 and over 30 years with car trailers from a 6ft box trailer (the worst to reverse) to my caravan and a 18ft sailing yacht on it's bespoke trailer. My motor mover is fitted in a few mins to either trailer and as the heaviest part is just 17Kgs, it is light to handle. It probably doesn't have the grip of the modern direct wheel contact movers, but it suits my needs as there would be no way I could afford 2K on seperate movers.
Unless you are having to negotiate a steep narrow gap/driveway, my £250 model does the job. I have over the years moved trailers of single and twin axle design and upto 1436Kgs over gradients of 1 in 8 with no concerns. The biggest tip for using a jockey wheel mover is to reverse the trailer rather than go forward up slopes as the gravity grip transfer is better. Using short 3ft long scaffold boards over gravel keeps you moving.
Choice of which model and what type is very much an individual case by case problem to solve. My crteria was multiple trailers that need moving and a burning desire to save weight, thus fuel towing and the cost of a fixed unit was high. If you can justify the cost and accept the deminished payload capacity, then a fixed mover could be a usefull asset and does add value to your caravan in it's newer years, which is probably why dealers offer a mover free when shifting end of range or ex demo vans.

 

[ProfJohnL]

We hear a lot of people praising Powertouche's after sales service, and it is good to hear of a company that responds so quickly when customers have problems with their products.

But why do so many people need to use PT's aftersales?

You may need to ask yourselves about a company whose reputation centers around its ability repair its products.

Could it be that PT's products are less reliable than their competitors products? or is it that Powertouch have the biggest market share of the mover business. So simply there could be more of their products out there so even with the same percentage failure rate as other makes, Powertouch would have a higher number of failures.

As the information about unit sales from all the companies is commercially sensitive, we are unlikely to know the whole truth.

I actually believe based on some inside information that failure rates between all the main brands are probably quite similar, so your risk of needing to call a repair man is much the same for all makes. In which case the performance of a companies aftersales service may be a valid criteria on which to base you choice.

 

[Dustydog]

35 years ago we could shove our little 12 footer anywhere.
Today two of us couldn't move our TA an inch.

So a mover became mandatory, not because we can't reverse but there are times when you may want to face into the pitch eg a cliff top or Loch setting.
FIL had a Truma 10 years ago and we bought a Powrtouch.
Both were used a lot and had a few minor and one major fault. All repairs and replacement parts arrived swiftly. The gearbox on ours failed due to the bearings being wrongly made at an outside TP factory.
Otherwise both have been excellent.
I suspect there are other reasonable makes out there but why don't we hear much about them?? Maybe their aftersale service isn't so good?

 

[Gabsgrandad]

I/we up to about 10 years ago used to have to ‘man/woman’
handle the van into its storage position at home, (nose up to a fence) both in
and out. As our vans got heavier that task became increasingly hard work so
decided on a motor mover. (Not many makes about then) Bought a Carver, which
worked fine. Fitted to 3 different vans, only problem was the gritted rollers
wore smooth, I obtained new and easily replaced them. Only other failure during
about 10 years of extensive use was a shaft failure on one side. But as it was
individual motor activation we were able to use it one sided on one motor,
which worked fine but of course you had to manually “steer” it. Until shaft was
replaced at fitting dealer, (free – as dealer said these shafts shouldn’t
fail) When sold last van it was left on
the van , but still running fine. Only reason it wasn’t swapped over again was
we thought we would update on a new van, with soft start and cross actuation. So
got Truma, (had of course taken over Carver) being running this one now for 4+
years, and not one problem. Lubricate bits regularly, superb bit of kit. So
difficult really to comment on after sales service as not needed it –As yet.!

Just writing this and thought – hope I don’t have to try and
run this one one sided as it would mean getting underneath to disconnect the
cross actuation bar, and she might object to that!!

 

[ProfJohnL]

........ So
got Truma, (had of course taken over Carver) .....

Hello Gabsgrand.
I knew the originator of the Caravan Mover, John Carver and I also know that the first production prototype was still being regularly used , and is now on its third owner.
Carver were not taken over by Truma. Carver sold their interests in touring caravan heating, water systems and movers to Truma.

 

[Surfer]

And Powerwheel sold out to Truma. Our old Truma starting giving issues and we had a a Powerwheel Evolution self engaging fitted. On third use the mover would not engage and it took ages of faffing aroudn before it engaged. No issues again until this week when it did the same thing. Eventually got the mover to engage and started moving the caravan forward when after about 5 metres it just stopped and no matter what you did it would not move. We then connected up the umbilical cord to the remote and it was fine.
We got it to the dealer who then checked it and it worked perfect no mattwer what you tried. Luckily the caravan was there for another reason so not a wasted trip! Annoying and embarassing when the darn thing works okay. Worked okay when we got it back to the storage area.

 

[Dustydog]

Surfer
I had the same problem a few years ago. The short aerial wire on the master control box is situated under the bed on mine. A poorly stored chair had scrunched up and covered the aerial wire. I released it and then taped it to a safer place . No problem again in that regard.

 

[mealsonwheels]

No hesitation in recommending Powrtouch for anyone considering getting a mover. Wish we had got one years ago. Wouldn't be without one now.