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Hi, welcome back to the channel. Today is all about towing. My name is Fiss, aka The Trailer Lady, and I'm going to share with you my top tips and hints to keep you and your caravan safe when towing on the road.
When towing on the road, the big things that you need to know about is how to position, how to turn left, how to turn right, and how to go round a roundabout safely. So, they're the big topics that we are going to cover today.
So, before we get started, I just wanted to go over a few things to think about when you're towing on the road. Now, the biggest thing is that you are now twice the length of just a solo car. So, all your actions need to be doubled up. The stopping distances are going to increase, they're going to double. The time you need to move out onto a roundabout or move out from a junction because you are now double the length and double the weight, you need double the time to emerge. Think how long a lorry needs to get out of a junction, and you're not going to be far off that.
The other thing to think about is that we need to use a little bit more tarmac. We need to move slightly to the left or the right with the car to allow for the caravan to follow where we want it to go and not impede other road users.
Before we even start towing on the road, we need to make sure that our car and our caravan are a good match for each other. Now, you will have heard the phrase or the term, the 85% rule. It's not a rule, it's not hard and fast, but it is a recommendation. And it's a recommendation by the National Caravan Council and the major camping and caravanning clubs. But what does it mean? The 85% rule means that the fully laden caravan, so that is up to the MTPLM of the caravan, never exceeds 85% of the car with nothing in it apart from yourself as a driver, so the kerb weight of the car. Now, if you're a more experienced tower or you have a very capable tow car, you can go up a little bit higher than that 85%, but you never ever want to exceed 100%. You never want this to be heavier than that because that's when things can get a little bit out of control.
So, before we can talk about towing, let's talk about actually getting the car and the caravan coupled up. The first thing we want to do is make sure we've loaded the caravan properly. All your heavy weight should be down low over the axle and secured. That then, in turn, should be able to give you a suitable nose weight. Now, nose weight is the downward force that the hitch is putting onto the tow bar. You need nose weight for a stable tow. Too much nose weight and your steering's very light on the car, and not enough nose weight, actually, the wind could actually get under the front of the caravan and just make it dance around a bit too much.
So, how much nose weight do you need? The recommendation is that you have between 5 and 7% of the actual weight of the caravan. But if that figure is unavailable to you, then use the MTPLM. As I've said, you want to be able to feel that caravan, but it shouldn't make you sick whilst you're driving along. If it does, you need to stop, readjust the load, and try again.
The next thing to talk about is hitching. Now, there is a raft of videos on our channel covering all topics like hitching, mirrors, and light checks. So, do go and check them out to get an in-depth video and instruction on how to do it. But I just want to emphasize here now that the main thing you do when you couple up is a stress test. A rewind, we're rewinding the jockey wheel to raise the back of the car to ensure that that is coupled up and will not come detached whilst in motion. It is a safety check, it is a lifesaver, and it will reduce detachments out on the road.
Towing mirrors are essential when you are towing a trailer or caravan that is wider than the tow vehicle. The law is a little bit, um, gray, shall we say, because it says that you should have an adequate view. The major caravan clubs do suggest that you should be able to see 20 meters back and 4 meters out. And if that view is obscured by a wider caravan, then towing mirrors are required. So, the best way to fit your towing mirrors is to make sure that you have got a visual of a slither of caravan in your mirror. Less than a third should be caravan. You want to see the front light reflector that's on the caravan, and then you want to see as much of the surrounding area as possible. Don't worry about seeing the roof. You can write your dimensions on a bit of paper and put them on the visor. The main thing you need to be sure of is that you can see down the side of your caravan. You need to be able to see vehicles trying to overtake you, but essentially, you need it for being able to go backwards properly.
Once you've coupled up, remember you need to do a light check. You want to check your lights simultaneously, i.e., turn everything on to make sure that it's going to work for you in bad weather or poor light. There's a detailed video of how to check your lights on our channel. It even has hints and tips if you're a solo caravana, so go and check that out after this video.
One last thing we need to do before we hit the road is a walk-around, just to make sure that we've done everything before we set off. And that's going to include checking our lockers are closed and secure, any external covers for your water, your electric, a gas point, all shut down. Windows, making sure they're not on vent, easy mistake to make is making sure they're closed down, that the habitation door has been shut and locked. Coming around to the back of the caravan, we want to check that our roof vents are all down and secure. I'm as guilty as the next person for leaving a bathroom roof vent open. Um, what else on the back? A bike rack, if any of you have got a rear-mounted bike rack, make sure those bikes are secured and you're not overloading the weight limit of the bike rack or the rear wall of the caravan. Number plate, goes without saying, but make sure it matches the car. And then we carry on round, still checking our windows, checking our locker doors. TV aerial, another one that's easy to forget, or a satellite dish, make sure that's stowed for traveling. And if you've been using the motor mover to get the caravan attached to the car, make sure you've removed the rollers from the wheels and turned off at the isolation switch. We've got one more locker here and a couple of vents to cover, vent covers, just to check there. The last thing you check is a towing cover, if you're using one. Now, our dear old caravan doesn't need one, but I do recommend them. You need to make sure, though, that you've got it fitted into the awning rails and that it is zipped and clipped and secured. Okay, you don't want that moving around or flapping whilst you are on the road. So, that's our round checks done, and we're now ready to hit the road. Andy's kindly offered to drive for me today, so let's go.
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Towing. The first topic we're going to look at is road positioning. Okay, Andy, we're now coming into a village, so we're going to practice our positioning on the road with the caravan. So, as we approach this corner here, what we want to do is just move slightly to the left and take the left edge as we go around the corner. That keeps the caravan off the bollards and in a nice central position. Now, flip that, move slightly out towards the center white line, and that keeps the caravan off the curb. It's not a massive movement, we are only talking like a foot, if that. But what that's doing is keeping the caravan off the white line or off the curb. So, up ahead, we have got a nice big sweeping bend to the right. So, Andy is going to be able to practice just positioning slightly to the left. So, here comes the corner. So, Andy, that's it, just move out just slightly to the left and just check your mirror. You'll see that the caravan is staying well within our side of the road.
The next topic we're going to look at is turning right. Okay, then, Andy, we're going to do a right turn. We're going to practice straight and late. We are staying straight, turning late. So, what I want you to do is line your shoulder up with the white line of the new road and just pause here for a second. So, that's now your point of turn. By positioning here, it means that if there is a car waiting in the junction, we're not going to take the bonnet off with the caravan as we turn that corner. Andy, have we achieved that? We have. Excellent. So, that was how to turn right.
So, now let's look at how to turn left. Okay, Andy, we are going to be taking the next turning on the left, which is just past these parked vehicles. So, again, let's just slow it down, nice and early, with our signal on. We're checking around us. Now, we're staying straight and turning late again. So, stay straight, stay straight until you can have a good look in that road, then take it around that corner. And you'll see in your towing mirror that the caravan's gone around that corner with you. Perfect. Well done.
Okay, Andy, what we're going to do now is a left turn at the top of the road here. We are going to practice the straight and late principle that we talked about in the briefing. We're staying straight, we're turning late around the corner. Okay, so left signal goes on, and we're slowing it right the way down. We are going to stay straight in the junction. It's very tempting to turn around the corner. Just wait here for a second for me. It's very tempting to turn around that corner, but we are going to stay like this so we get a good view. And then when we turn, when you're ready, Andy, we can go. When you turn, steer out normally, and the caravan will then go around that corner and not mount the curb.
And the last topic is roundabouts. When you're out towing, one of the major junctions you're going to encounter is a roundabout. Now, there is a trick to using a roundabout, and it's all about lane positioning. We all drive around a roundabout with a car and assume that we are reasonably within our lanes, but when you put a caravan on the back, it's very easy to stray outside of that lane. So, when we're going ahead at a roundabout, we want to use the edge, the outer edge of the roundabout. The analogy I use is, imagine the roundabout is a pizza. I want you to drive on the crust. By driving on the crust, you're keeping the caravan tucked in behind the car, and it will follow it beautifully round the roundabout and will not be a problem to anybody who is maybe using the right-hand lane alongside you.
If you are turning right at a roundabout, what you want to do is just stay a little bit further out from the actual island than you normally would. We don't need to take the whole roundabout. We're just moving away from that center island to keep the caravan wheel off the island. And if you look in your driver's mirror, you will see the wheel of the caravan tracking around that roundabout. So, let's have a go, shall we?
Right, we're approaching our first roundabout. So, as you can see up ahead, we have got quite a lot of traffic. So, what we need to do is slow down nice and early in the hope that that traffic starts to clear away so I can start to see the front vehicles are moving. You're going down the gears, you're going to be in second gear, might even be in first if you're in an automatic, obviously it's doing it for you. Typical, this roundabout's busy at the moment, so we're just creeping up. We're keeping a nice distance from the vehicle in front. We're letting this traffic clear out the way. We're going to be going ahead at the roundabout, second exit. If we have to come to a stop, we just make sure we leave a nice distance between us and the vehicle in front. But as you can see, we're actually still moving, just very slowly, but we are still moving. We've identified a gap in the traffic. We've now moved on to the roundabout. We're now going to drive on the pizza crust. We're staying on the very outer edge of the roundabout, and that will allow for anyone in the right-hand lane to come alongside us if they need to pass us. Signal off the roundabout, as we've just done, and then proceed.
Now, let's look at turning right. So, when we're turning right, we want to do the same as we've done before, approaching slowly, clear signal on. But as you come onto the roundabout, you just want to stay a little bit further away from the island itself. Notice how Andy's keeping a nice distance back from that van. Perfect. If that van breaks down, we would be able to get round it, which is what we want. So, as Andy comes onto the roundabout, what you want to be doing is just staying that little bit further out from the island. So, you can see the car in front is quite close. You want to be further out, and you can look in your towing mirror to watch the wheel of the caravan tracking round the roundabout.
So, that's all there is to it. Let's have a quick recap of what we've done today. So, we've looked at road positioning, where we've moved a little bit to the left or the right to allow for the caravan. We've also covered straight and late, staying straight and turning late when turning left and turning right. And we've also talked about driving on that pizza crust going round a roundabout. I hope you found that useful. But if you're still looking for more, we offer courses on a one-to-one basis throughout the year. You can find details of the courses in the description below this video. Now, don't forget, make sure you like this video, click subscribe to see our next installment, and if you click the bell, you'll get a reminder when a new video is released. I'll see you soon.
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