How to fit a caravan mover

A caravan mover might seem like an indulgence to some, while for others it can make the difference between being able to store a caravan at home or not. If you live on a steep block or have a tight driveway, a powered caravan mover can make parking the van at home a lot easier.

Even when camping, a caravan or camper that can be moved without the aid of the tow vehicle can be of great assistance when trying to squeeze into that ideal but awkward camping spot.

There are basically two types of power-operated caravan mover on the market. One is the A-frame mount type that fits in place of the jockey wheel, operated by either a muscle-building manual ratchet or self-contained battery-powered electric system.

Then there’s the heaver, more expensive but more powerful wheel-drive type that's fixed to the chassis of the caravan or camper (although some of these have removable motors).

The fixed type either uses manual engagement of the motors onto the wheels or has more expensive automatic engagement. While lighter tandem-axle vans can get away with one pair of motors driving one axle, heavier vans will need two sets of motors driving all wheels.

Fitting time

Here we’re installing Purpleline's latest Quattro500 manual engagement caravan mover to a forward-fold camper trailer.

Although you’d think a hard-floor camper-trailer of any variety would be quite light, this particular camper was fully decked out and had an ATM of just under 2500kg. It would be a struggle to move a camper of this weight on anything but even ground. The Quattro500 has a safe working load of 2500kg (2400kg on a 15 per cent incline).

This installation job can be done by most people familiar with working on 12volt electrics and with some experience fitting and aligning hardware to a caravan. If you’re not handy on the spanners, it might be best left to a professional.

Also read: Do you need a caravan mover?

The Purpleline Quattro 5000 kit comes with two motor and roller assemblies, a cross-beam support, cross actuation bar, wind-on linkage, L-brackets and associated fitting hardware, enough wiring to connect the motors to the control unit and to the battery, a control box, an isolation switch and one remote control.

The only extra parts required is an inline fuse and in this case extension brackets due to the tall off-road suspension of this camper — you want to position the motors roughly at mid-point down the tyre to ensure adequate engagement. You also need a 12v house battery of sufficient output (110Ah is recommended) to power the caravan mover.

While fitting a caravan mover is not overly difficult there are some caravans and campers that these units can’t be fitted to simply because of physical limitations such as a drop down step or water tank that is in the way.

You can never say never, but it’s worth checking out what hardware is already fitted around the axle set(s) and whether it’s worth the cost and effort of modifications to make a caravan mover fit. In such a case, an A-frame portable mover might be your only other option.

A caravan mover install such as this involves two key things: fitting the motors and associated hardware, and wiring up the motors to the control unit, an inline fuse and isolation switch.

After double-checking the measurements, ensuring there are no water tanks, plumbing, wiring or other impediments to fitting the mover hardware, the first task is assembling the brackets on the motor mount bars.

At this point, the bolts are not torqued up fully, especially the plate securing bolts. These bolts when torqued up make indentations on the adjustment plate to set the distance between the motor rollers and tyres.

With the top framework now in place, each motor is then placed on a hydraulic jack and lifted into position. Tek screws are used on the two outer bolt holes to temporarily fix the brackets in position.

The centre mounting position can now be drilled to the correct diameter and the centre bolt, washer and nut fitted. Each of the outer Tek screws can then be removed and holes drilled and bolts, washers and nuts fitted. Then the bolts are torqued up and the hydraulic jack can be removed.

With the motors in position the main cross beam can be fitted. The cross beams are marked with a centreline for ease of alignment during installation.

The motors are now checked for spacing against the wheel using the supplied 20mm RHS piece of steel, which is placed between the tyre and motor roller in the disengaged position. The bolts on the adjustment plates can now be torqued up, including the plate securing bolts.

The lower cross beam is then installed and both it and the main cross beam bolts torqued up.

Now it’s time for the wiring. The motors are wired up with the supplied cables and terminals and the cables are routed underneath the camper leading to the control unit position. Cables are sheathed in trunking and secured with P-clips.

The control box needs to be installed in a dry location (so within the van) and should be somewhere between 30cm and 60cm from the battery.

Wiring the control box depends on where you locate it. It usually involves cutting a 25mm diameter hole in the floor of a storage compartment to lead the motor wires into the control unit, and a hole between the storage compartment and the battery compartment, and connecting the wires.

Although fitted with a nearside slide-out kitchen and offside battery within the rear tunnel boot, there was enough space in this camper to mount the control unit, inline fuse and isolator switch close to the battery.

The wiring at the battery and control unit is straight-forward. However, the motor wires must be cut to the same length to ensure equal resistance in the wire (so the motors run at the same speed when you want to go straight forwards or backwards). The excess wiring of the nearest motor shouldn’t be looped to avoid overheating the coiled wire.

With wiring installed it’s time to check the operation of the caravan mover. While some units need to be synced, the Quattro5000 remote comes already configured so all that’s left to do is switch the isolation key on, power up the remote, select the model being used and start moving the caravan.

Make sure there is plenty of clearance around the van as you test it, as it takes a few goes to get familiar with the remote controls.

Thanks to Premium Caravan and Motorhome Services, Unit 4/25-31 Airds Rd, Minto NSW 2566, ph 0404 121 925, for their assistance with this story.