Home is where you park it.
Perhaps your neighbour has a caravan and is always off exploring Australia, or a friend constantly posts their caravanning adventures on social media. Or maybe travelling with a caravan is something you’ve always wanted to do and you’re finally ready to pursue your dream. Investing in a caravan tpms system is the first thing we recommend before heading off on your journey of a lifetime.
Caravans are understandably popular,more than 500,000 are registered in Australia. They allow you to bring comfortable, often self-contained accommodation to countless destinations, and, once you arrive and unhitch your van, you can easily explore the area with your towing vehicle.
Here are some things to ponder before you borrow, buy or rent a caravan and embark on your first trip – unfortunately they’re not quite as relaxing as sipping sun downers from a beachside site. However, once you master the technical side of caravanning.
Knowing your weights.
Some terms include tare weight, which is the weight of an empty caravan,including factory fitted options but excluding liquids such as water and gas, and payload, the caravan’s maximum carry capacity. Aggregate trailer mass (ATM) is the maximum your caravan is allowed to weigh on its own so its tare weight plus its payload. While gross trailer mass (GTM) is the maximum weight the caravan’s wheels can support when coupled to a tow vehicle.
Caravans built after August 1989 should have the ATM – and, in some cases, the GTM and tare weight – on the plates. Tow ball load (or mass) is the portion of the caravan weight that your towing vehicle takes when the caravan is properly hitched. Crucial for safety reasons, it’s affected by how you distribute your load in the caravan.
To determine tow ball load, and what your caravan weighs with all your gear and provisions, pack your van as you normally would and take it to a public weighbridge. Another way to ensure you don’t exceed the payload is to weigh everything you’re planning to put inside, including water at home. Payloads can be quite limited, so keep a close eye on what you’re carrying, and cull as much as possible to ensure the caravan’s weight doesn’t exceed the factory set specifications.
You also need to know your vehicle’s maximum towing capacity. This figure must not exceed the lesser of the towing capacity specified by the manufacturer, the caravan’s maximum carrying capacity, the rated capacity of the tow bar and couplings, and the maximum carrying capacity of the tyres.
And check the gross vehicle mass (GVM), the maximum weight of the fully laden towing vehicle, and gross combination mass (GCM), the maximum total weight of the fully laden vehicle and caravan. If your towing vehicle is loaded to its GVM, you might find its towing capacity is less than what is advertised.
These aren’t your only considerations. Before deciding on a caravan, it’s imperative to research your vehicle’s towing specifications, the caravan’s specifications, and towing regulations and guidance in your state or territory and in your destination.
Hitch and check.
Once you have an appropriate caravan/towing vehicle combination, you’ll need to hitch your caravan to your vehicle, which, according to RACQ’s website, ‘isn’t as hard as it looks’. Still, there are a number of steps you need to follow, caravan manufacturers such as Jayco provide a comprehensive checklist covering towing, storing, and using the van, and retailers should show you how to hitch it as well.
Every time the van is hitched, you’ll need to do a safety check before towing. This includes ensuring doors, hatches, windows, covers and load are secured, tyre pressures are correct, safety chains are properly connected … and more.
Adjust your driving.
When towing, your vehicle will handle differently, including steering, stability, stopping distance and braking performance. ‘Towing any large trailer, or caravan, requires a very different set of skills to driving a car. The tow vehicle plus caravan combination will be longer, higher and heavier. It will be slower to accelerate and much slower to stop. It will also be affected by cross winds and the draft from semi-trailers, and it can become unstable on poor road surfaces.” The Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads’ Safe Towing Guide includes driving tips. These include allowing for the caravan’s tendency to ‘cut-in’ on curves and corners, allowing longer distances for braking and overtaking, avoiding sudden lane changes, using the accelerator, brakes, and steering smoothly and gently at all times, and planning more rest stops and shorter travelling days as towing is more stressful and tiring.
Your fuel consumption will also increase. To minimise this, keep your speed down, just be aware of motorists behind you and use turnouts, when appropriate. Also, check the speed limits that apply when towing, as they vary between states and territories. Some vehicle manufacturers specify even lower maximum towing speeds, for example, 80km/h.
As for reversing, ‘it can be difficult to master and is a matter of practice’. At the caravan site, someone with more experience might offer to help you park, however, make sure they’re in a safe place that you can see them.
Get out there and explore!
Once you have your van and know how to safely use it, it’s time for some fun! Decide where you want to go, and get out there, keeping in mind the best time of year for exploring your chosen destinations. Discovery Parks and BIG4 have touring routes and journeys on their respective websites, and a Google search will return even more ideas. The only question now is, are you ever coming home? Don’t forget having a caravan tpms system is vitally important and could potentially be a life saver. Most caravan tpms systems will need a signal booster if the length between the rearmost wheels and the monitor exceeds the recommended length from the manuafacturer or if there is electronic interference. For more tips and recommendations feel free to browse our other blogs which explain in more detail the importance of a caravan tpms system, its advantages and benefits.