How did you learn to tow & where is my Avatar?
Second question - Having bought the caravan, it's now parked up at home. I did drive it home with help. However the more I look at it the more scared I get at the thought of towing it (a necessary skill if I want to go anywhere!).
How did everyone learn to tow? Friend/course/have a go on your own/instructor (our local instructors' charges are way over my budget btw).
Is there a problem with avatars? Mine appears on my profile but not on my posts.
Thanks
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Learnt to tow by reading up on how to do it and then got behind the wheel and just took it easy until confidence grew (however my sister-in-law who was following us reckoned I was driving far too fast for a newbie😂).
No idea about the avatar☹️
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Hi Rosie and welcome to Club Together.
I first towed my parents' caravan many years ago and found it was something I enjoyed. I had some tuition from a competent source but I'd recommend that you consider a Caravan and Motorhome Club Towing Course to give you confidence and knowledgeable advice.
Regarding your avatar, it's best to ask about issues relating to the actual forum in the 'How to Use Club Together' Section. Have you tried refreshing your page? I've looked at your profile but it's not showing there for me.
Somebody from our IT department would be the best person to look at that for you.
Hope you get lots of pleasure out of your new van.
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RR, I was given concise instruction-'the most important thing is the hook up, get that right & the rest will follow(trailer/C/van etc)' it has proved accurate so far.
re Avatar-all the good looking ones are blanked out-so I heard, it's unfair on the rest of em. I agree with it too
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I took the CC course. One and a half days of practical work. Towing, hitching, unhitching and most important of all - reversing. Well worth the cost in my opinion and I'm glad I took it.
When I got into a tight spot and needed to reverse I just reminded myself that I had done it before on the course, took a deep breath or two and got on with it.
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I guess like posting photos on CT it is probably best to resize to 500. From what I've picked up reading on CT Laptops using Windows seem to work easier for photos as they apparently have 'flash player'. I understand it is possible from phones/tablets etc. Perhaps try changing your photo when the site is quieter & HO IT Dept are unlikely to be working on the site eg 1st thing in the morning or later in the evening. Good luck
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Just stuck the caravan on the back & towed it.
It was only little though ..... a 10' 6" Robin. I had towed & reversed with tractors though as a kid.Just take your time & look that bit further up the road, take corners a bit wider to allow for the caravan cutting the corner off ...... you'll be fine.
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I bought a brand new Spite Arial in 1978 and towed it back from the dealers and took it from there, but that was fairly easy in 1978. Learning now must be a bit more frightening with all the faster traffic. Good luck. As suggested book into one of the towing course offered by the club, they should remove some of the fears.
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Round about the late 1940s I was given a Bedford truck and trailer by Dinky and set about negotiating the dining room furniture. Corners, reversing, tight turns - got all the theory done while I was in short trousers.
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I was thrown in the deep end by my now ex husband who commissioned me to load our wedding presents into a horse trailer (also a wedding present) and drive it with his battered LWB Landy to Germany! I had never driven om the wrong side of the road before! Never mind trailed! I was sure the lorises flashing at me meant I should NOT pull in after over taking but I learnt! Driving his polo ponies back to England came a few months later but I was lent a soldier for company such a pity the sailing was postponed for 12 hours and I didn't understand a word of his Belfast accent!
I would try for some wide open spaces like supermarket car parks or old aerodromes for good areas to practise in. It isn't hard honestly just go gentle on the steering and remember what is behind you! Good luck.
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I read a book on how to do it and taught myself from there. Have a look on you tube there are some informative short films on there. However if that does not inspire you with confidence then good professional tuition is the best route.
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I just got in the car, with the caravan already hitched up, and drove it home from a site in the Lake District along the A65 (a busy and somewhat winding road) so I was thrown in at the deep-end. My OH was in the passenger seat and not able to drive.. However, my next trip was to take the caravan and our two children, without my OH, down to a campsite in Abersoch.
I don't remember worrying particularly about it - he'd done it without having lessons, or being shown, or reading about it, and so, therefore, could I.
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Changed avatar using Chrome on laptop but it did not stay put. It had changed when I looked using Firefox - as below so yet another odd thing.
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"How did everyone learn to tow? Friend/course/have a go on your own/instructor"
My dad owned his own haulage company so by the age of 14 I was shunting lorries around in his yard in Peckham
In my early 20's I also drove a recovery truck as a second job and in later years had to occasionally drive 18m long Bendy Buses at work.Seriously though, just go for it, take it easy, make sure your mirrors are properly set so you can see both behind the caravan and it's wheels and go out when its nice quite on the roads to practice. You'll be fine
One last top tip, if the club site directory says don't use your Sat Nav for directions, Heed the advice. I had an interesting thing happen to me a couple of months ago in a road that became very narrow. Luckily we found a gate to a field set back from the road and was able to reverse in enough to turn around
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I learned how to tow by owning a large ish trailer. I used that to get confidence in towing something behind my car.
Last year, I purchased my first caravan and have towed that behind the same car.
In the month whilst I was getting my caravan, I went online and became a sponge, looking up anything and everything that I could about towing. Everything from loading, to maneuvering technique to how to un/pitch.
I also booked myself onto the Caravan club weekend course, and did that too.
After that, it's a case of practice practice. Take your time, there's no hurry. And if there's a queue of traffic behind you, pull up for a bit to let 'em pass if you are nervous of it.
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You are all stars! Many thanks for taking the time to share how you did it! I am going to do everything!
I've just booked for a weekend course at the West Sussex venue on 15 July.
I will look at more Youtube videos as well. I remember when I got my new washing machine and didn't want to pay the exhorbitant installation charge, I went online and found a video. I bought myself a wrench, watched the video a few more times and plumbed it in - Success!!
L xxx
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Well done you
,when i started towing 1967 with a Trailer tent, you just hooked up and went, but it did help when two years later daughter was born and i stuck a tin box on the hook,, and to reverse it there was a metal clip that you had to flip over the coupling shaft to stop the brakes applying,, and remember to take it off when going forward or the brakes did not work,
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Now you're really cooking Girl
, you got class.0 -
When we couldn't afford a caravan and wanted to move away from a tent, well Mrs SF did, we bought a trailer tent. This, with two young children also in tow, served us for several years. And yes, all that time ago, we were members of what was then called, The Caravan Club!
I must admit towing came relatively easy to me. I just remembered what my dad told me when I was caraving with him and mum as a young boy, 'Always be aware of what the van is doing behind you, don't expect it to follow exactly the same line as the car when turning.'
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We just took the caravan from the dealers and towed it home. My father did have a caravan so I had some help in the theory from him. The caravan came from a dealer near the centre of Motherwell, so I had to deal with the traffic from the off, and managed with us taking some care, but the caravan was only 10 ft long, so easier than what most people start with.
Basically as long as you take it easy and are aware of the length and width, towing should not be that difficult. If you have doubts though go on the clubs course for beginners.
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30+ years in the RAF, towed things MUCH bigger and MUCH more expensive than any caravan.
On a more serious note both my wife and I did the Practical Towing course with Diamond Driver Training via the club. Worth every penny, my wife went from "I'm never towing" to doing over half the towing/reversing in a weekend.
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I learnt to tow as a 'gradual process'. Years ago, just aster we got married we got into holidays in a tent. Realistically, this was the only way we could see ourselves going to France etc. We gathered so much stuff around us that my father had a friend who let us borrow an on trailer, which we had on more or less permanent loan. We used this for a couple of years and then thought to ourselves, while we are towing a trailer, it would we just as easy to tow a trailer tent, so we upgraded. Then some 4/5 years down the line we upgraded to a small 4 birth caravan (we has the first 2 kids by this time). The rest, they say, is history. We just continued to upgrade. We just gained to towing experience as we got larger units to tow.
David
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........don't ask about avatars! It's a bit of a sore point. Mine works because I haven't changed it fo 5 years or so. There appears to be a problem with those who have tried to add an avatar more recently. Perhaps we might eventually get a fix.
David
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My avatar is starting to take on aspects of the picture of Dorian Gray.
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I was 27....there was no such thing as fear. Just hitched it up and towed it 200 miles home.
But avatars are something else!
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I just got behind the wheel and did it! Remember- take your time and give yourself time for every manoeuvre. Take turns WIDER-than you normally do ( if you don't you could clout the rear corners of the van) Don't let other vehicles bully you! We all had to learn. Once you get the hang of it you'll be fine.
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My husband did the club Practical Caravanning course before we picked up our first caravan (having had a motorhome) in 2011. I often felt that I wanted to learn to tow, so I booked myself on the course last July at the venue you have booked. It was brilliant, and great fun. The instructor was so patient and kind. I have since towed our caravan several times, and managed to get it onto a pitch without using the motor mover, which is more than my OH can do!
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I passed my test at 17, it was a Friday and on the Sunday hooked my race car and trailer on and off I went ,just gave every thing extra room and extra stopping distance, and that was it ,and driven all sorts of different things since
In answer to your 2nd question ,sorry I don't know where your avatar is
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I think you are all amazing! When we picked up my caravan I was literally shaking in my shoes and then driving it out of the dealership we had to go down a slip road to join the main road, drive a half a mile then off and under the road and back the other way with another slip road to contend with! I swore there and then if I ever saw any caravans joining from a slip road I would move lane straight away as I can feel their pain!
Got my booking confirmation for the course and I am actually looking forward to it, bolstered by some of your experiences with the course.xx
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