Do you use a Motor Mover?
Is a motor mover a "must-have" for stress-free touring, or is there still a place for the traditional art of reversing?
We’d Love Your Expert Opinion...
Experience is the best teacher. Whether you're a "mover convert" or a reversing purist, let us know:
- 🔧 The "Save the Clutch" Factor: Have you found that a mover has extended the life of your tow car, especially on steep hills?
- 📐 The Tight Squeeze: Has there ever been a time where it would have been impossible without a remote control?
- ⚖️ The Weight Trade-off: With modern caravans, do you find the payload cost of a motor mover is worth the loss of other gear?
- 🎓 The Learning Curve: For those who still reverse by hand, what is your #1 tip for the "newcomers" trying to master the art?
Cast your vote and also let us know in the comments why you do or don't use a motor mover.
Do you use a Motor Mover? 26 votes
19 votes
6 votes
1 vote
Comments
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Essential
There's only an Essential above Sometimes there and perhaps there's a missing category ?
It's not 100% essential for me, I can and have reversed - though I can't remember the last time I did as we've had a mover for 22 out of our almost 27 years of caravaning, but certainly it is always used and I wouldn't be without one.
I use it for none of those reasons given but just for convenience. We unhitch on the site road and let the mover do all the work from then on and when leaving it's used to turn the caravan round slightly then we bring the car as close as possible and again the mover does all the work from then. I do especially like the almost pinpoint accuracy.
Actually thinking about it we do use it for 'tight spaces' when putting our caravan in and out of its storage space.
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Essential
Totally agree with everything you have said @Cornersteady - plus - it's the only way I can get the van on my drive - nose first - for extra security. The estate road outside our house is quite narrow - certainly less than two cars wide and to reverse onto the drive would mean me driving over the front lawn of the house opposite. I don't think they'd be very happy! Of course, it would then be the wrong way round. I dread being in the situation that @KjellNN has been in recently when his mover packed up because at 2 tonnes, it's going to take a lot of beefy neighbours to get it back on the drive😮.
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Essential
I can reverse fairly well and often get the van exactly where I want it on site. The "sometime" issues are jiggling the van into a tight spot, getting it on a levelling ramp or hitching up or damp or uneven ground. It is at home where I always need the mover as access is tight and sloping.
The weight issue is not a problem with my high payload but I can see it is with a lot of vans. A pet gripe of mine is the vans sold with a theoretical payload of 150kg. They really are an accident waiting to happen.
Colin
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Never had a mover and never felt it necessary with a small Eriba which we could push like a pram .
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Many sites where we didn’t need a mover. Tow in, stop anywhere, stay a few days, tow out again.
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It depends on how heavy the caravan is. A light caravan, say up to 1300kg, can usually be manhandled if necessary unless the ground is very rough and uneven. Over that it gets a bit difficult to reverse with the towcar if it's to be located in a tight space. Try parking a heavy caravan between two obstructions with only couple of feet clearance at either end without a motor mover, for instance.
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Essential
Although I'm not brilliant at reversing with the caravan on the back, the main problem I find is actually seeing where I'm going... too many blind spot... especially the rear of the caravan. My wife refuses to 'be the eyes' at the back of the van.... she's scared of making a mistake....
David
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Sometimes
I have put Sometimes as generally on site, unless space was tight, I would reverse onto a oitch. Where it came in handy was when getting the van into the back garden. The smaller van I could reverse in but when we got a longer van the mover was needed. Off topic a bit but once we had a motorhome it was much easier than a towed caravan getting it into tight spaces under its own power.
David
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Essential
There was no way I could reverse the van up a slope and across the grass and round a corner at the last house, and this one has a tight corner and a slope. When we got the new van without a mover fitted, it took 6 of us to manoeuvre down the slope etc. Getting out would have taken twice as may probably. Thank goodness there are such people as mobile fitters. I often reverse onto pitches, but then use the motor mover for fine adjustment and particularly for levelling up
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Essential
The final straw in making me get a mover was this. Yes it was only 1300kg, but up a slight slope on gravel with 15mm clearance each side was not easy, and that was after I'd lifted the garage doors off weighing over 45kg each.
Soon after I sold the van and the next one was 1200kg and 100mm narrower, and had a lovely Reich mover..
Colin
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Essential
The older we have got the more essential a move has become especially getting it onto our front garden as we live in a bus route and trying to reverse the caravan would mean me blocking the roadway. It also helps to align the wheel to fit the hub lock.
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I have owned a motorhome this past 25 years but prior to that I had two caravans over the previous 13 years, neither had movers of any description. Never had a problem reversing as long as there was enough room, but it was a bit of a pain to manually turn a caravan round on a gravel drive to point it in the right direction to go out. I eventually got the drive block paved which made it much easier.
peedee
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We did not have one with older caravans even 1 which was twin axle then we had a new twin axle which hummed and thought no we do not need one then I had a older Castleton caravan which came with one on so since then we have had a mover on each caravan and recently sold the Lunar which had one on but it came off before we sold it and now on our little Adria caravan and OH did removal and refit himself and said very easy to do and use it to move caravan from parking space pass the carport which is a bit narrower then onto the drive we do not need it for going through the gateway as OH has managed to drive out with the caravan but only turn right.
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Sometimes
I put sometimes as we only really use the mover when at home. We bought our current van at the NEC show 8 years ago and this was the first van we have had with a mover but we got it as part of the deal when buying the van. I’m very good at reversing the van so most of the time when we arrive at a site I reverse on to the pitch. We have used it on site but maybe only a handful of times over the past 8 years that we’ve had this van. Where it does get used is when putting the van on the drive. We live at the end of a cul de sac so normally when we get home I turn the van at the bottom (still attached to car) and reverse on to the drive but the van is stored at the rear corner of the drive right against a 4 foot wall between us and the neighbour so we need the mover to get the van in against the wall in it’s space then when going away we use it to move the van across to the middle of the drive to hook up so really we probably couldn’t do without it when getting the van in it’s space as it would be almost impossible to get it so close to the wall out of the way by hand . Also it’s good to know it’s there if we do need it when on site if getting on a difficult pitch.
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Other
There are just so many personal considerations on this one…… size/weight of van, mobility/strength of owners, storage implications, towing vehicle, etc…
Hence I am in the “other” category. We have never owned one, but we have only had smallish vans and big powerful tow cars such as LR’s and Jeeps. My OH has extensive experience of manoeuvring different vehicles as well, including Fire Engines, and he was always up for a challenge. We could, if seldom required, actually push our van onto a flat pitch. However, I think nowadays, had we opted for a van, we would have a mover fitted, as it’s the getting back into its parking spot that was always the challenge. They are definitely useful, but having a go at initially reversing onto a pitch will speed things up a bit. Depends on the car.
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Essential
Essential as our caravan weighs around 1700kg when touring. I can and have reversed onto pitches numerous times however site roads are often narrow and there is insufficient room to manoeuvre our 7.5 Coachman and Disco. Also you need the mover to position the caravan wheel for the Alko lock, otherwise the jack comes out which is much fun in the rain or on softground 😂!
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Essential
Essential
As our van sits next to the house it has to go up a slight slope, you couldn’t push it, however when reversing onto a pitch I find that it’s just as quick to use the mover for precise positioning as I then have to fit the wheel lock which I find very easy with a mover.
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We never bothered with a mover for the first 25 years or so as we always had small 2 berth caravans. If I'm allowed to say so myself I was very good at reversing with a caravan on the back, doing it every time we came home. If space on a site was very restricted (I'm thinking of a couple of sites in Spain and France) then we could always manhandle it.
We only became users when we bought a larger caravan that actually came with a mover on it and did use it then, mainly on gravel pitches. Still used to reverse it by car onto the drive.
I think that as health and age set in that if I was still towing I would consider one Essential now.
EDIT - for some strange reason the category of Other didn't appear with the post
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