Survived first journey!!!

[soldlisa04]

Hi there, at long, long last we were able to hitch up our caravan and I am pleased, well actually delighted to tell you that my husband was very calm on the journey whilst towing and he quite enjoyed the experience. We covered side roads, normal A roads, motorway and then he practiced reversing on a quiet industrial estate. I, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck as I was sat in the back of the Sorento being bounced around nervously watching to ensure the van was still hitched to the car!! It was a fairly painless experience until we came to get the van back on our drive. Oh dear, in the end it took five of us as the jockey wheel kept gounging into the gravel and it took an age to get the momentum up to actually get it over the little kerb stone and slight camber of the pavement. We've had to order a mover and are going to replace the jockey wheel for a pneumatic tyre to try to make the journey over the gravel a bit easier!!! More expense we weren't expecting but I think this will outweight the stress of me worrying about whether there would be anyone around to help us push the van back onto the drive! Roll on this Fri when we are off on our first weekend - I think we can safely assume it will be freezing cold and wet, then anything else will be a bonus! Just a little bit excited ...

Lisa

 

[otherclive]

Really good news, glad the first run out went well. You will find the mover a real boon as not only will it be easier to get onto your drive, but on some sites manoeuvring the van onto a pitch can be quite difficult especially if there are vans and cars opposite your selected pitch which prevent your car swinging across. Good luck for the weekend.

 

[soldlisa04]

Yes Clive, this is what our neighbour said who used to have a van with a mover (now got motorhome). I think any nice weekends away getting rid of stress would have been cancelled out by stress of the worry of whether we could get it back on the drive without inducing injury! In the long run I think it will be money well spent. Will keep you posted about our maiden weekend!

 

[Parksy]

Hi Lisa, well done on completing your first journey with the caravan hitched. When you hitch the caravan to the car it's easy to make sure that the hitch is properly engaged by lowering the jockey wheel down again so that the hitch lifts the back end of the car slightly.
After you've done this raise and stow the jockey wheel, make sure that you have attached the breakaway cable correctly and check the road lights, brake lights and indicators. I do this every time that I hitch up. With the hitch correctly engaged there is absolutely no chance of the caravan becoming separated from the towing vehicle. On your first weekend away take care not to overload the caravan, place heavier items such as the awning and groundsheet over the caravan axle and put heavy items such as tins of food (or beer!) on the floor in a storage box. Try to get as close to the permitted nose weight for your vehicle as possible without exceeding it and the ride won't be quite so bumpy. More on safe loading Here.
The motor mover is a good idea and you will be glad that you bought it. Have a great weekend!

 

[woodsieboy]

Well done Lisa

Glad to hear everything went well,one of the best things we find with our mover is that you can bring the caravan to the car when hitching up.It has saved us loads of time which was usually spent arguing about hand signals and directions.Not sure whether the pneumatic tyre is the best idea with a mover,I have known the tyre to roll off the wheel when turning,we have a larger and wider solid rubber tyre on the jockey wheel and that has worked well on wet grass and loose gravel. Hope you are lucky with the weather at the week end.

 

[weejock]

I would agree with Woodsie about the jockey wheel. A few years back I treated my caravan to a pneumatic jockey wheel only to go back down the road of the larger solid runner wheel. The turning the wheel off it's rim was not through a mover but just by me pushing it in gravel at a tight angle.

 

[soldlisa04]

Hi there, have passed on info. re jockey wheel with mover to my husband and we will stick with what we have then. Mover being fitted ten days before our first week out at Easter so hopefully no more stress! Luckily we will have our expert neighbours coming with us so they will be on hand to get the caravan hitched up safely and on site safely and back home safely!!!

As predicted look at the change in the weather! Freezing cold again ...

 

[sheila_374397204]

Whilst a mover is a valuable aid to manoeuvring gravel is still a bit of a problem with the jockey wheel. It does take the stress, and arguments, out of pitching and/or putting a van in a driveway but it's not problem free.

 

[JTQ]

On gravel [and grass lawn] I simply lay down a trackway for the jockey wheel to travel easily over. My trackway is plywood boards about 3/8" thick 1 foot wide, I have one 5 foot long another 4 foot long which just happened to be off cuts from a retailer. I place one in front of the other as we progress over the gravel; they work well.

 

[xtrailman]

Yes i agree with the other posts, I've had a pneumatic jockey wheel, i found it did nothing to help us push our caravan.
The latest solid wheels are just as wide.

 

[soldlisa04]

We have pods laid on our gravel drive for our car to drive over and the wheels of the caravan to be pushed over, so OH will now be laying these pods (had some spare luckily) in a straight line about where the jockey wheel goes and hopefully this will alleviate any gravel related problems! I hate the gravel as local cats in the area use it as a communal dumping ground (ours included!) despite an audible cat alarm (oh how they laugh in the face of that). I would love to have it all tarmac or block paved but finances don't allow unless we win the lottery!

 

[soldlisa04]

Well, the big day has finally arrived. Loaded up the van last night and packed all the bedding, food etc. Sure we have enough for 2 weeks not 2 days, but there you go. Got a very poorly son (typical) who is currently in bed with raging temperature so not sure if he'll be joining us on our maiden voyage. He's insistent - but I will make the final decision later on as to whether he's well enough to come with us (good old Grandparents to the rescue if not!). Bit annoyed, just noticed that the door must have blown right open at some point with the keys in lock and now we have a nice little dink in the outside wall of the caravan and it hasn't even clocked up any miles yet! Any ideas on how to get this out - if it's a major job involving lots of money then we'll live with it as no funds left at the moment! Note to ourselves, do not leave keys in the door from now on

grrrr. Lisa. (I'm sure it would have been the OH and not me who did that ....)

 

[Parksy]

It's not easy to remove dinks from aluminium side panels Lisa

If you can't live with it you could buy a self adhesive reflector like one of these to cover it up. I hope that your son feels better soon

 

[soldlisa04]

Thanks Parksy, I think it will look a bit silly as it's obvious what has happened and if I put one of those on there - it will draw even more attention to it! I think we'll leave it. OH not convinced it wasn't already there but I'm a bit of a hawk eye and I'm convinced it wasn't there when van delivered ... either way it's there to stay now and I'm sure in the grand scheme of things that we'll 'forget' about it. Son's temp has come down and he is adamant he wants to join us on our maiden voyage so at 15 and a half I suppose I have to trust him when he says he's feeling up to it. I did however draw the line at him bringing his X-Box with him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[otherclive]

Sorry to hear of the dink to the van. I know how you must feel as with our first van I walked into the clothes airer that hung from the nearside window ( used to hang). Depending on whether you can live with a ding or some method of disguise gets easier the longer you have the van. Caravan-Medic to a mobile repair service and there is one set of posts on this forum where someone showed the before and after pictures and were very pleased. If you look on C-M's website you will get details of their local franchisee and see other pictures of work undertaken.

 

[TonyG]

Well, the big day has finally arrived. Loaded up the van last night and packed all the bedding, food etc. Sure we have enough for 2 weeks not 2 days, but there you go. Got a very poorly son (typical) who is currently in bed with raging temperature so not sure if he'll be joining us on our maiden voyage. He's insistent - but I will make the final decision later on as to whether he's well enough to come with us (good old Grandparents to the rescue if not!). Bit annoyed, just noticed that the door must have blown right open at some point with the keys in lock and now we have a nice little dink in the outside wall of the caravan and it hasn't even clocked up any miles yet! Any ideas on how to get this out - if it's a major job involving lots of money then we'll live with it as no funds left at the moment! Note to ourselves, do not leave keys in the door from now on

grrrr. Lisa. (I'm sure it would have been the OH and not me who did that ....)

Lisa
regarding leaving keys in lock and causing the dint in the van. Swift have brought out an extention for the door holder that keeps the door further away from the side of the van which means the keys cannot hit the van, speak to your dealer he may fit you one under waranty,

 

[JTQ]

As the keys will always inpact the same spot why not stick a self adhestive foam rubber foot, the 1" odd diameter things sold in DIY shops [or made yourself] on the ding? Then it covers it up, saves it happening again and looks if it is there to do a job rather than hide a problem.