Do you need a caravan mover?

Caravan movers can get your van in and out of tight spots, but do you really need one?

In an ideal world, you’d have plenty of space to park your van at home but plenty of us urban dwellers have to deal with parking our vans in tight, domestic confines.

Often the driveway’s too narrow, or angled in such a way that makes it impossible to reverse a caravan when hitched up.

Alternatively, you might live on a busy road and have enough space to drive in forward off the road and up your driveway – but then no way of turning the van around while hitched up (and it’s too heavy to move on the jockey wheel).

Often an incline’s involved, and almost any caravan is difficult to push or pull up hill.

Park off-site

One solution is to keep your van offsite at a caravan storage facility, usually at the outskirts of the city.

However, a downside of storing your van is that you have to lug your gear in your vehicle to the storage facility, and if you want to work on the van – or even just clean it – your options are limited at most storage facilities.

Then there’s the cost – for open storage, it can be up between $50-$100 a month, but for a large van stored under cover you’ll pay more than double that.

Be realistic about space

If you do decide you do want to keep your van at home, be realistic about the space you have to fit it. Measure the space, and also consider swing angles required to get the van into the spot – the van might not be able to swing around tight corners even by itself.

If you’ve got to reverse the van hard up against a fence and can’t even open the van’s door... well, probably the best option is a caravan mover.

A-frame movers

The most basic caravan mover attaches to the A-frame – either in the jockey wheel holder or in their own bracket that bolts elsewhere on the A-frame or fits to the coupling.

The beauty of this type of mover is that they’re removable – bolt it up when needed, and put it away when finished.

They can also be quite cheap – for less than $200 you can buy a ratchet-type mover (which is secured by the jockey wheel bracket), but you won’t want to move your van far because it certainly won’t move fast.

They work best if you can tow your vehicle close to where you need to park it and the ground is fairly level. You’ll need to be pretty fit though, because working the ratchet handle is not easy going.

Powered version

Then there’s the motorised A-frame caravan mover, which can be had from around $250 although the best ones are a lot more than that.

This type takes out the hard work involved with a ratchet mover, but these units – especially the heavy-duty ones – weigh a lot. They’re even heavier if the battery is integrated in the mover, and if not you have to sort out wiring to the caravan battery – and make sure that the battery has a high enough capacity and enough charge in it.

Most A-frame caravan movers power one or two small wheels (around eight-inch or nine-inch diameter) and so don’t work well on soft or wet ground. Some can only work on a slight (five degree) incline too.

Roller-type movers

The premium set-up is the roller-type caravan mover. They’re expensive – around $1200 for a single-axle van and double that for a tandem (plus fitting – about three or four hours labour per axle).

Of course the roller type caravan mover has to be installed on the van, which can be done by anyone with a bit of mechanical/electrical aptitude.

Because the set-up is permanently mounted (although there are types where you can remove the motors) they’re much easier to use. As they are driving the caravan’s wheels, traction is rarely an issue (provided the rollers are wound in tight against the tyre – sometimes difficult with off-road tyres).

The roller-type movers can also tackle steep gradients (an incline of 20 per cent or more).

While the roller-type caravan mover is permanently fitted, that doesn’t mean you just pull out the remote control and get the van moving; you have to get the rollers wound in against the tyres, with a ratchet spanner or drill.

You can’t leave them on the tyres for too long after using the caravan mover either – it’ll put the tyre out of round, and obviously the rollers will have to be moved away from the tyres before towing next time.

Ground clearance issues

One problem with the roller movers is that the cross bar fitted just underneath the chassis for each wheel set, drastically reduces the van’s ground clearance.

For most road vans that’s not an issue, but for some it might cause the cross beam to make contact with things like narrow speed humps.

There are roller-type caravan movers with motors that mount to the axle rather than the chassis and can be easily removed when travelling.

Don’t forget a roller-type caravan mover set-up will add to the van’s weight – for some the weight penalty isn’t much (40kg or so) but on a large tandem van it can add around 70kg.

You also need to have a house battery in your caravan that’s up to the job – a minimum of 80A/h (depending on the units used), and a large diameter pneumatic tyre jockey wheel.

The original, hard-rubber tyre jockey wheel can end up twisting on some terrain when being dragged around with a caravan mover.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt a caravan mover is a life-saver for some owners. The roller-type movers appear to be a better system – but you have to be prepared to pay for it.

Do you need a caravan mover?

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