RV FEATURE
Never tow your van along a track if you ' re unsure of how you ' ll get out again .
I shudder at the thought of being considered a caravanning ’ expert ’ for something that I simply have loved doing and lucked into a career where for the last 15 years or so I could also sometimes write about it .
You can ’ t help but have problems arise as you build up such towing experience , and hopefully you learn from it . Here are the highlights ( or low points !). I hope that you learn something from my experiences to save you making the same mistakes .
While some vehicles ' were never meant to tow ', we can happily say that the Grand Cherokee is not one of them !
1 . HAVE AN EXIT STRATEGY
Don ’ t tow your van into a situation you can ’ t get out of . Sounds obvious , doesn ’ t it ? An exit strategy is something you always have to think about when towing something big like a caravan .
Whether it be in the bush or in the city , there can be times when you suddenly find yourself in a situation when towing that is going to be hard to get out of . You soon learn to look for escape routes , and even better , use them . If in doubt , get out !
I learned this the hard way several years ago when towing a van down a Blue Mountains , NSW , track . We were on a deadline and we were trying to find a fresh photo location – not easy as every patch of grass we hadn ’ t already used 1000 times anywhere close to town seemed to be locked up behind some kind of barrier .
So on we forged down a narrow single-lane track , hopeful of discovering a caravanning Garden of Eden to shoot in . I was getting more and more nervous as I saw nothing but a very narrow , treelined track with nowhere to turn the rig around .
/ 07