Caravan towing service
Hello.
I'm new to caravanning and have very little experience of towing. I have seasonal pitch booked for this year which is about 4 hours drive away from where the caravan is stored. I'm not confident of doing such a long journey with so little experience. I'd rather build up confidence gradually over shorter distance and over a longer period of time with shorter journeys when the opportunity or need arises. I'd appreciate any thoughts or advice anyone can give me about having a caravan towed by someone else.
Thanks in advance!
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Two choices as far as I can see.
Either take professional towing lessons now before your seasonal pitch becomes available and move the caravan yourself in short stages over more than one day- provided you have a suitable car.
Or employ a professional, fully insured towing company to move the caravan for you. There are such firms in most areas and they will quote a price for the job.
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Both clubs run courses but may not be local to you.
There used to be trailer instructors, but they've taken away the need for newer drivers, old licences included towing automatically, to pass a test before towing. But I'm sure a search in your area would assist.
I know nothing of seasonal pitches but would you be required to tow your caravan off if there was an emergency?
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How long and what sort of distance would you be happy towing? Depending on where you are and where your seasonal site is, would it be feasible to tow for a couple of hours, stop off overnight at a CL and then continue the next day? It might also have the benefit of being able to ask advice from others at the CL about pitching and other things new to a first timer. CL users are usually very willing to help out.
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https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/advice-and-training/training-courses/b-e-training-courses/
Voluntary but useful.
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You need to test yourself in that your confidence needs building. You have made the best choice already-seeking help👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻. Have you no family members to help you out?, even distant ones who could do it, neighbours too?. Look for local rally organisers or look for a LV owner in your area to approach. Print your rough area on this(your) thread to see if anyone is local or even near local. You have already proved yourself resourceful by posting & garnering support😊
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Check the ads at the back of the club magazine as there used to be the occasional ad there for towing services.
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I always look at things from the point of view that, if many thousands of others can do it, it can't be that difficult! Why don't you practice towing around the area where you live a few times to give you some confidence and if you do decide to take it yourself, try setting off very early on a Sunday morning as the traffic would not be too heavy then and there would be far fewer HGVs around.
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Thanks to all of you for your very helpful suggestions. From reading all of your advice, I think I will go for an experienced tower. My caravan is 200 miles from me at the moment (for various reasons) so I'm not able to practice small distances. Later this year, I will take a towing course that includes towing on public roads and then do some short distance towing with my caravan to build experience and confidence. I have done the club manoeuvring course which, although helpful, it didn't include that.
Thanks again. It is good to know there are a lot of people out there offering good advice :-)
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You started the ball rolling by reaching out. Everyone starts from your point in LV life. Well done you, smart plan👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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Hands up all those over about 43 yr old that didn't require a further test to tow over 3500kg gross train weight that actually took one! Very few I would think. I'd guess that most of us here with grand father rights to a b+e just did as I did .. ie hitched up their 1st caravan & caravaned off into the sunset. 😉
The price of the voluntary course isn't very forthcoming on their webpage 🤔
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Bought our first caravan from Dyce caravans on the outskirts of Aberdeen, did a 1 hour get to know your caravan course provided by the dealer, and then off we went home, we lived between Fyvie and Turriff, once off the main road it was almost single track with passing places, to get to our bungalow you had to navigate a half mile long farm track with a 4ft drop into a drainage ditch one side and a 6ft bank the other, never towed anything other than a small trailer before but we made it.
We used to negotiate the same track in the depths of winter when it was almost frozen solid, thats when the Discovery came into its own, select hill decent and off we went, only once had to leave the caravan in the farm yard at bottom of track when the lane was 6 inches deep in snow when we returned from Breamar
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The prices are there Emilysdad, quite expensive but not everyone has the confidence to just get up and go, especially if the van isn't sitting on the drive way etc. Hope the OP enjoys the new lifestyle and gains confidence in the process. I would also add that there are nervous drivers out there who baulk at the sight of country lanes even without a tow vehicle behind....so every little bit helps.
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They are very obvious ED, just scroll down and there they are in quite large writing. Plenty of web pages where you have to scroll down and people are used to that, so they are not hidden in any way at all at all.
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If it helps to get them on the road it’s a good thing. I would’ve thought there are more accidents caused by arrogant over confident drivers than those who lack confidence. The former thinks rules/laws don’t apply to them but the latter just drive safely keeping super vigilant, give me the latter every time👍🏻
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Do you know a friend who tows a caravan who could sit beside you for a confidence boost?
My first tow was in the region of 45 years ago with my grandfather who was an experienced caravanner. I towed from Midlothian to Fort William for a first outing quite a long drive but the only thing that I remember happening was an earth tremor where my grandfather bounce out of bed!
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