Motor Mover
My wife and I always said we would never have a motor mover as we considered them a waste of money. Why not reverse your caravan onto a pitch? I will never forget being boxed in by caravans and tents on a site on the edge of Florence in 1991. My wife could not work out how we could get out. I hitched our little Volvo 480 to the Swift which, I seem to remember, was about 18ft long including towing hitch. Then with my head out of the window I reversed through the maze of tents and caravans which had boxed us in - simple! Fast forward to 2013 in France and it is a different story. Back in the 90's the French had not thought of marking out pitches, let alone planting hedges. Now, wherever we go there are hedges, narrow access roads and those dreaded street type lights causing light pollution and preventing us from star gazing. All of this means that when you come to reverse into a pitch you run the risk of hitting a tree, a hedge or a light standard with the front of your car as there is insufficient room to swing round. Back in the autumn we ordered a new caravan which is slightly bigger than our previous 4 metre Bailey Orion 400-2. I wonder, do the French assume that everyone has a motor mover fitted? With plans for France this year and a 70th birthday for me we decided to opt for a motor mover as well. A changing world, as far as campsites go, has forced us to change our minds.
We have yet to choose the make of mover but we know we want one which will run from our 88 ah battery. A bigger battery is just too heavy for me to lift in and out of the battery box. Any suggestions?
Comments
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Hi there, We have had 2 motor movers over the past 10 years. One was a truma and this one is a power touch soft start. Both as good as each other the power touch has a 5 year warranty don't know about the truma. I think the 88amp hour battery will do the
job but won't last as long as a bigger battery. I think you would have to run it a lot to flatten it. The mover is also very handy for leveling the van up and down leveling ramps saving the clutch. It is also handy for hitchung up car to van again saving the
clutch. I have worked with motor vehicles all my working life small one's and HGV's so I am not too bad at reverseing but I would not be without the motor mover. By the way I am 70 this April. Good luck and happy Caravaning with the mover of course.0 -
Hi and thanks for that which is most helpful. I note your comments about the clutch. In fact we switched to automatic 11 years ago and would not consider manual again, especially for towing. I think we will go for the powrtouch because of the guarantee.
The daffodils are out so not long before we venture out with the van. Enjoy your summer!0 -
Re batteries. I once managed to source a 100amp hour Marine battery from Towsure. It had the advantage of being about the same size and weight of an 85 amp hour leisure battery.Having said that if your battery is in good condition it should be fine for the
mover.David
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