Breaking from Tradition
The January 2014 Edition Technical Artical on when to attach the breakaway cable caused me to recount an episode I had nearly 20 years ago which brings me firmly on the side of the DVSA guidelines to attach the breakaway cable first before hitching and last when unhitching every single time.
I was staying on the Dordoigne in France with my girlfriend and her grumpy son who was not pleased to be caravanning with us whilst his dad got remarried. At the end of the stay we had to pack up and be away early to make best progress back home. We were staying on an awkward sloping pitch. It was great to stay for 3 weeks but a pig to manoeuvre back out. It was also on soft clay and the wheels had sunk in too deep for us to push out by hand. So, we connected the car to pull it out of the dips and get it to a better angle to manoeuvre by hand. It wasn't possible to pull out in one go by car so we had to detach, swing the caravan round by hand and then reconnect to go. When we first connected we didn't bother with the electrics or breakaway cable as it was only a short pull that was required. Being on a slope I pulled on the caravan handbrake and then unhitched. As soon as the caravan detached from the ball hitch it lurched backwards down the hill with a pace that surprised us all. Not far behind us was a French family of four asleep in a tent! I yanked at the handbrake again but it was ineffective as the caravan was speeding backwards faster than I could pull on the handbrake.
Fortunately, Stuart - the grumpy teenager, got behind the caravan and halted its progress with a Hurculean effort which allowed me to have another go at pulling on the handbrake more securely. Thank God he was with us or I am sure there would have been fatalities.
Since then I have learned my lesson and the breakaway cable is always connected before I unhitch the caravan in any circumstances. Better safe than sorry.
I have been caravanning for many years and beleived I knew what I was doing but whether it was the early start, dealing with a grumpy teeenager at 6am or being lulled into a sense of familiarity by several weeks of caravanning I don't know but I didn't expect the caravan to move as it did and it really caught us out with almost disasterous consequences. That's the point of the breakaway cable - to act when the unexpected happens which it will one day. Please learn from my mistake.
