Towing Nightmare

[BigRoy]

Prompted by Paul and Ruth's "spat" with a lorry on a hill got me thinking, we all must have our own towing nightmare story to tell I'll tell you one of mine.

August this year heading for a site in St Ives I took a wrong turn and ended up in St Ives town centre, anyone who has been there will tell you how narrow the streets are and the back streets are like a rabbit warren.

Trying to thread car and van through the busy very narrow streets was a real nightmare and the looks I was getting from pedestrians and drivers would sour milk, at one point I had to unhitch the van to get it around a tight turn causing gridlock in my wake.

The climax of my "detour" culminated in me taking another wrong turn and driving up the steepest narrowest street you've ever seen in your life and finding it was a dead end and having to reverse back down, who said caravanning was relaxing?

Any more for any more?

 

[Lutz]

The most difficult situation I ever got in was on the ferry to Iceland. Being designed for use in rough seas, it only had a ramp at the back and we were first on board with our outfit and therefore right at the front. With the stairs to our right and containers to our left we had to reverse all the way to disembark. That must have been about 80 to 100 yards with about 6 inches to spare on either side. Fortunately, everybody was very patient.

 

[Eddie1FromNottingham]

Well done roy,

It must be something about Cornwall, about 25 years ago ( it's taken me this long to get over it) Myself and then Girlfriend now ex Wife! decided to visit Pentewan Sands Holiday Site. I don't know if it was the 14 Hour Drive or the "excitement" of a Week in a newly aquired

 

[Tina3]

Big Roy

That has to be my BIGGEST fear,meeting a turn so tight as to have to unhitch, I dont do hills AT ALL ,my partner is ordered to NEVER stop on a hill even if it means ramming people out of the way at the top, ha ha !!!!! I'm sorry but I would be in the local GP's for a couple of bottles of valium !! Well done all of you though for keeping cool and sorting it out !!

I am now on my knees praying this never happens to me !!!!!

Tina.

 

[VIP2006]

In y early days of towing in France I was told that if you followed "toutes directions" when coming to a village/town etc. you would be directed to the road you were looking for. this particular day my friends and I outfit followed the directions for "centre ville" and going through the very narrow streets we were eventually faced with a massive combined harvester who was obviously a local. we stopped and being virtually non-speaking french awaited holding our breath while he inched passed us. when he had passed us unscathed the french locals were clapping and congratulating us even though we had not contributed to the event that we had gone the wrong way and stood still and did nothing.

 

[BigRoy]

Big Roy

That has to be my BIGGEST fear,meeting a turn so tight as to have to unhitch, I dont do hills AT ALL ,my partner is ordered to NEVER stop on a hill even if it means ramming people out of the way at the top, ha ha !!!!! I'm sorry but I would be in the local GP's for a couple of bottles of valium !! Well done all of you though for keeping cool and sorting it out !!

I am now on my knees praying this never happens to me !!!!!

Tina.

Hi Tina, thanks for the vote of confidence, I thought you where going away this half term the same place as Kanga?

 

[Tina3]

Big Roy

That has to be my BIGGEST fear,meeting a turn so tight as to have to unhitch, I dont do hills AT ALL ,my partner is ordered to NEVER stop on a hill even if it means ramming people out of the way at the top, ha ha !!!!! I'm sorry but I would be in the local GP's for a couple of bottles of valium !! Well done all of you though for keeping cool and sorting it out !!

I am now on my knees praying this never happens to me !!!!!

Tina.

Hi Big Roy

Yep going tommorrow(henley-on-thames cc site),looking forward to it,would like to take the kids to thorpe park and legoland but its depending on the weather at the mo !!As for Kanga hopefully he wont see us sneaking in !!! x

 

[littleangel]

Yes Yes,

Hubby in directed me to turn left as he could see why we should follow directions the long way round to the campsite on the other side St Emillion.

Anyone been there knows vehicle over 2m wide should not drive to the town up original road, half an hour later I completed the, what must have been a 20 point turn and exited the way we entered. Not one horn or angry person though, just an audience.

He does try this all the time, short cuts that is!!

 

[Mike_5041089]

On our very first outing with our then new Perle Olympus, in 1986 we went down to Dorset, staying in Swanage. I stupidly took a shortcut on the outskirts, to be greeted by a pitchfork wielding local yokel, who stopped us and asked if we were "one of them yippies!" (This was the time when there were many so called travellers invading open farmland) I reassured him that we most certainly were not, at which point he told me that the lane was blocked further up. When I asked him how I should return to the main road about a mile behind us, he suggested that I should simply "back up!" This I eventually did - a great and salutary lesson in reversing!!

 

[JohnI.Stephen]

I learnt some important lessons recently when we went to the Lake District for the first time with our new Bailey Senator. We had planned to arrive by 4pm latest (late September) so that there'd be plenty of light. In addition, I had entered the postcode of the caravan site into my sat nav. Firstly we were delayed and didn't enter Keswick until 8pm and secondly my sat nav input had been wrong.

We took some random roads and I ended up trying t do a 20 point turn in the dark. Eventually we continued down a small road just praying that it'd widen up; thank the Lord it DID ! But arrival on site was traumatic as whereas in daylight I'd have been hapy to reverse into our pitch; in the dark it was a nightmare..

Lessons :-

- Always plan the route carefully ensuring that you take the widest possible roads right up to the destination.

- Always arrive well before dark to allow time to plan your manoeuvres

- Never rely upon the sat nav completely; it'll sometimes take you right off the main road just to save a few miles by going down a narrow B road; OK when solo but disaster when towing

John

PS Never get angry with your other half during these painful manoeuvres !!!