Towing a caravan regulations & general queries

locky76

I'm after buying a single axle 4 berth bailey.

• What are the regulations as regards towing it?
• I have a toyota avensis 2.0lt diesel, is this big enough for it?
• Any other advice for a caravan newbie?

stapeler

Have a look at http://www.caravanclub.co.uk/practical-advice/general-advice/technical-information which has some excellent information on the subject.
In there there's some good information on caravan weight ratios etc etc.

Betsy Og

Your car should be grand, I tow with a 1.9 TDI passat.

A few points re towing:

Dont overtake on any sort of upward slope (immense drag).

Dont pull in to close to anything when parking, depending on the angle you exit the back of the caravan might swing a little towards where you had parked, so if you parked within inches of a wall on the left and pull out sharply your gonna scrape something.

While trucks are a hassle on motorways, its better to be the overtaker and not the overtakee. The blast of wind as you overtake/get overtaken by a truck is enough to loosen the bowels, but you get used to it. Ideally just tuck into the slipstream of one and keep pace with it.

Dont carry much/any water in the caravan - the sloshing is destablising.

Make your car as heavy as possible and keep weight in the caravan over the axel and a nice bit on the front - think noseweights should be c70kg, but basically make sure it want to hit the ground not pop up in the air when you are unhitching. So very little weight to the rear of the axel. Keep weight everywhere as low to the ground as possible.

Theres a thread on here re Insurance and towing, mainly contributed to by myself, it all worked out fine in the end but read your policy very carefully.

I think the licencing side says if the combined weight of car and trailer (caravan) is under 3,500 kg then you're ok on a B licence, otherwise you need an EB (towing). Hard to be exact with weights unless you get to a weighbridge but I'm hoping to do the EB test soon to put it beyond doubt as the conventinal wisdom on here is that there'll never be a problem until the day you have a tip, and then the guards will develop a sudden interest and your insurance company could try to Run to the Hills.

As regards "snaking" (caravan rocking from side to side and affecting the car), it shouldnt be a huge issue but tends to be caused by bad distribution of weight, excessive speed or a gust of wind (truck, high bridge etc). Theres a line of thought that says accelerate out of it, but on the maxim of "The faster the speed the bigger the mess", I just ease off the throttle and it restores itself fairly quickly - whatever you do dont brake.


Come to think of it I type out a 1 pager of general caravan tips, I'll try to attach it, some are specific to my auld yokie but most should apply anyway.

Lastly enjoy it, its brilliant fun, while some of the above is a bit "cautionary tale", I 100% recommend the experience.

Betsy Og

Locky,

I see you're in Limerick, I'm also but more West than South.

Check out www.iccc.ie I'm with the Shannonside branch, well worth joining up. The list of meets will be on the site soon.