Caravan mover

[oldie]

Thinking of self fitting mover to my van. Do you have to drill the chassis? Anyone on here had a go at this ? Derek

[Ocsid]

Absolutely no drilling must be done; Al-Ko [and most likely BPW] rightly are very against any drilling of the chassis and it will certainly make any warranty related to arising problems void.

 

I have fitted a Reich Comfort aft of my axle.

It is held up in place by clamps pinching on the bottom horizontal "return" leg of the chassis channel. It is further restricted from moving back away from the tyre when under load by a separate slotted block clamped to this return by a big bolt impinging onto the return. That bolt does leave an impressed witness where it contacts the chassis. I would put a steel plate slipper in here to take that bolt end impingement if redoing it.

 

They are mechanically easy to install as long as nothing in the van build is in the way. [Pipes, drains, spare-wheel mount, jacking plates etc]

Electrically again its an easy DIY task methodically following the instructions particularly in terminating the right wires in the right connectors.

 

I installed mine behind the wheels on that van and have had another installed on my new van, again behind the wheels as the chassis depth in both cases was lower there resulting in improved ground clearance, as well as it doing less consequential damage if it ever hit anything.

 

To make life easy ensure you have blocks, jacks or similar to take the weight at each side during fitting as its rather too heavy to hold up as you make up the clamps.

 

Some makers have a shorter warranty for DIY installations, hence the only reason the dealer installed the one on my second van.

[Hawcara]

Whilst this is not totally relevant, I feel I must mention this.

When we had our caravan, we never had a motor mover and I was often shocked by the number of people who could not reverse it.

A bus driver friend told me of the time when a person who could not reverse, unhitched his van in Devon in a tight lane. He was facing the bus and hooked up the mover. He backed the van into a blokes drive and into an iron post. Holiday wrecked.

I often felt when on site, that a large number of people had to use it, to justify the expense.

I am not suggesting that they are not useful, certainly if one has a disability, but they can make a person over reliant on them and thus lack of confidence.

[Hawcara]

Whilst this is not totally relevant, I feel I must mention this.

When we had our caravan, we never had a motor mover and I was often shocked by the number of people who could not reverse it.

A bus driver friend told me of the time when a person who could not reverse, unhitched his van in Devon in a tight lane. He was facing the bus and hooked up the mover. He backed the van into a blokes drive and into an iron post. Holiday wrecked.

I often felt when on site, that a large number of people had to use it, to justify the expense.

I am not suggesting that they are not useful, certainly if one has a disability, but they can make a person over reliant on them and thus lack of confidence.

[samnjan]

I have a mover fitted to my caravan for several reasons.

 

1) It is impossible to reverse the van into my back garden due to lack of space

2) I have to lower the jockey wheel to it minimum height so that the back end does not ground

3) I have a duel mass flywheel & don't want to burn the clutch out (megabucks) when reversing up hill

 

I have a class 1 licence & can reverse my van onto a 6d (old coinage) no problem, but no way can I move my 1700kgs van on my own, so may be there is a need for movers ;-)

 

Sam