CAMPING THE KIWI WAY

Let’s get started.

Firstly, make sure your caravan is ready to move. Doors, windows & vents are all closed, Satellite dish is down, Legs are up. Now hook up to the tow vehicle. Is the tow coupling (tow ball) the same size as the caravan hitch? There are two common sizes, 1 ⅞ inch and 50 mm. Some American caravans have a larger fitting. Connect your electrics, trailer plug and, if fitted, Anderson plugs and possibly rear camera plug. Don’t forget the chains and/or breakaway lead.

If you are new to towing it is not hard to master. Stay in the middle of your lane and DO NOT cut corners. There is a thing called ‘tracking’ that effects trailers going around corners. This means that the trailer can take a different path to the towing vehicle. If you go around a corner slowly with your wheels in the gutter the caravan could be on the verge or footpath. If fast, the caravan could be in the outside lane. Practice makes perfect. The more you tow your caravan the better you will get. 

Find an open space to practice backing. Here is a link to a great YouTube clip on backing a caravan: ckw.nz/reversing.

Backing tip

Common directions when backing a caravan are, left hand down or right hand down. This is your hands on the steering wheel. If you want your caravan to go to your right (going backwards) your car goes LEFT to start the turn, left hand down. If you want your caravan to go to your left (going backwards) your car goes RIGHT to start the turn, right hand down. Once the caravan starts pointing in the correct direction, start to straighten the steering wheel. It can take a little practice to get it right but well worth it. Remember it is better to have a couple of tries at reverse parking than do it once and crash into something. Two or three attempts to reverse into that spot will only cost you time. Getting it wrong will hurt your pocket.

Stability

You are almost ready to hit the road. Have you got all you need for your camping trip? Is it loaded correctly?

Heavy items in the caravan/trailer like water and waste tanks should be over the axle and secured in place, If you brake in a hurry they could move forward and change the load characteristics of the towed vehicle. If there is too much weight in the back or boot of the towing vehicle that can also cause problems. We will talk about weight a bit later. The two most common problems associated with bad weight distribution are swaying of the towed vehicle and or light steering in the towing vehicle. 

Swaying (snaking)

If the trailer starts to sway:

• do not apply your brakes

• instead, remove your foot from the accelerator and allow the vehicle to slow down.

Too much weight in the back of the tow vehicle or too high a tow ball weight can affect steering. As the back of the tow vehicle goes down (due to excess weight) the front comes up and the front wheels can lose traction which reduces your ability to steer. Tow ball and caravan hitch weights will be listed, either in the owner’s manual or online. Exceeding these weights can cause the above problems. 

Passengers

We have all joked about putting the passengers on the roof rack.

Unfortunately, we can’t do that, we also can’t put them in the caravan while moving.

Two trailers

And we can’t tow two trailers with a light (class 1) vehicle.

Let’s talk weight

This Youtube video shows it all, well worth watching: ckw.nz/weight-scenarios

Just because your car has a tow-ball does not mean it can pull your caravan. Picture a Mini towing a 10 m Jayco off-road caravan — NOT going to happen.

Weight terms

There are a number of terms used when referring to vehicle weights. Let us have a quick look at these now.

What is the difference between GVM and GCM?

• Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) refers to the maximum allowable total mass of a fully loaded motor vehicle as specified by the manufacturer. 

• Whereas Gross Combined Mass (GCM) refers to the weight of the tow vehicle and trailer hitched together while both are fully loaded (including passengers, equipment, fuel and tools).

• Tare weight The empty weight of the vehicle or trailer/caravan.

• A vehicle’s towing capacity can be found on the towbar, owner manual or online.

• Ball weight The weight of the trailer/caravan on the tow ball.

An example of a caravan VIN plate showing weights (above). Note the ATM is the same as our GVM.

The GCM Gross Combined Mass relates to how much you can load your tow vehicle and how much it will tow. 

Something to remember and is often overlooked, passengers are weight. Mum, Dad, the kids and the dog: ALL count as weight and are part of the payload.

I have an American 11 m caravan with a GVM of 3.1 Ton. So, I need a BIG vehicle that can pull over that weight. A Ranger or a Colorado will pull 3.5 Ton, a Rexton will pull 3.2 and is way cheaper, BUT the GCM is a lot smaller, so the Rexton has limited payload. A Dodge Ram has a higher GVM and GCM, a Ram can tow 6 Ton (wow!) and still load the back of the Ram with extras, but not cheap and the weight means you needs a ‘class 2’ licence. The bigger and heavier you get changes the class of driver licence needed. 

What I am saying is: your tow vehicle has to match your caravan. The bigger the tow vehicle the better, and the longer the tow vehicle is, the better stability when towing.

Last couple of points

• If you exceed the towing vehicles rated towing capacity, ie the caravan is too heavy, you will have trouble stopping. The towing capacity relates to the size and weight of the vehicle and the capacity of its brakes. 

• Tow ball weight. We talked earlier about too much weight in the boot of the towing vehicle. Exceeding the towball weight has the same see-saw affect, the back goes down and the front, including wheels go up causing a loss in steering— its hard to go around corners if the front wheels are in the air.

In summary

If your car is big enough to tow your caravan and stop it, and you load the caravan and car properly, you will have the makings of a great trip away. Happy Camping ◼️