Twin axle mover advice
I am about to buy a twin axle caravan which will be plated to 1900Kg MTPLM and need to buy a motor mover. Does anyone have experience of using a two motor unit driving a single axle as opposed to the four motor unit which seems popular?
I don't have a challenging driveway to negotiate and would consider it as more as an aid to getting on and off a pitch. I have seen one video of a guy having to manually push the side of the caravan to get it to turn. I am assuming this is an incorrect set up, otherwise the mover cannot be fit for purpose. Your experience would be much appreciated.
Dave
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That's a heavy van to be just driving one pair of wheels. I have an 1800kg Lunar and have all four wheels driven.
If you only drive two wheels there might be a circumstance where the driven wheels are not on the surface, such as going up a kerb with the non driven wheels leading, leaving the van stranded.
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Thanks Simon. I was hoping to save of my payload allowance as another set of motors adds 30Kg. Caravanning is always a compromise either in layout or weight. Having had a twin axle before, I am painfully aware how difficult they can be to turn. Perhaps I need a re-think.
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Hi Dave, we tried to use a one axle twin mover on our Lunar caravan weighing 1750kg, as we had a slight gradient and turn it cooked the battery every time we used it and killed it. Bit the bullet and got a quad mover and the difference was amazing. Some will say it’s fine, it depends on what you need it to do. I would always go for a quad on a twin after my experience
hope this helps
Kevin
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The need to shove sideways when turning is not so much a function of having two or four motors, as of the tyre resistance to being forced sideways on particular surfaces.
There is bound to be a lot of "scuff" on the tyres of a twin-axle caravan using a mover of any type, but as caravan tyres usually need replaceing due to age not wear it probably isn't a big problem.
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We have a 2 wheel mover on our Delta, a Powertouch Evolution Twin. We do not need to use on gradients or uneven ground and it has been fine for 5 years on our previous twin axle and now the Delta, which is plated at 1800kg. We wanted to keep the jacking point available and to reduce the weight/payload. It has rarely been a problem with manoeuvring onto pitches or into our storage spot. It is not as quick as a 4 wheel mover, and it can occasionally lose traction on wet grass, but we aren’t too worried about that. Powertouch have been great too, even sending a whole new main board to us in France when it failed on one motor a few years ago.
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We have a twin axle Sterling, 1900kg, and also wanted to keep the weight of the mover down to preserve payload.
We have a 2 wheel Truma TE, about 5 years old now, the current equivalent model can handle up to 2500kg I believe. Ours is fitted in front of the front wheels.
We have a 10% gradient on the drive, the van has to make a 90 degree turn off the street and go hitch first onto the drive right over at one side. We have plenty of width (10m) on the driveway, but it is only 5cm longer than the van.
The Truma has no problem doing this, but it does take 3 or 4 forward and back shuffles to get it into the correct position.
Otherwise we use it for pitching and hitching up and find it does everything we need it to do.
It is actually very surprising the tight spaces it can get the van into and out of once you figure out how to manoeuvre to best advantage.
It does not turn as well as a 4 wheel one, but well enough for our purpose. Should we sometimes need it to turn a little faster, we can lean on a corner of the van to help it out!
If you do go for a 2 wheel model, ensure it is designed for a twin, the twin ones have a operating mode the helps release the strain on the tyres. When turning, ours does this by first turning the outer wheel a bit and then very briefly going straight.
I think Truma have some videos on their website to illustrate hiw it works and the difference in the turning circle of a 2 wheel and a 4 wheel model.
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From what you say, you'd probably get away with a single axle mover. We have a Barcelona which goes onto the drive nose first (for security) and has to go through a tight right-angled turn off the road, then over a kerb, across some gravel before getting onto tarmac. The AWD Powrtouch copes easily but there is a price to pay in terms of payload as I found out when I took the van to the weigh-bridge recently and I've had to take a very serious look at what is actually carried in the van. I doubt that a single axle mover would cope with what I require it to do but you don't seem to be in that situation.
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I had a single axle mover (Royal) on a t/a Bailey Unicorn Barcelona which was about 1800kg. I never had any problem even on inclines and a 1 inch high kerb. The problem with a t/a is the strain placed on the tyre walls when making turns on firm surfaces. You will find that you need to make a series of shunts straight back or forwards during turns to ease the strain on the tyres. Its not a problem it just slows any tighter turns. When on gravel or grass turning sharply was no problem. Whilst a double mover would be stronger the additional weight penalty for me outweighed any advantage in performance.
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The single wheel option is adequate on most terrains.I have a Coachman TA weighing in at 1760. The only place where I do struggle is traversing into my drive where the drive wheels can get rise above the ground due to gradient and thus start to spin.
Luckily I got from work a couple of road plates which reduce the risk of spinning.
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Although I agree about the weight penalty - that's another advantage of an AWD mover in that it automatically straightens out a little bit during tight turns to take the pressure off the tyres - at least my Powrtouch does.
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That is what I meant when I said you need to get a mover that is designed for a twin axle. Our Truma TE 2 wheel mover automatically does what you describe when turning.
I would not consider fitting a regular mover designed for a single axle to a twin axle, no matter how powerful it might be.
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