How many people cannot reverse their caravan ?

My worst was encountering a council works wagon in Portsmouth.

His reverse would have been mutch shorter and easier but he was being deliberately awkward and simply refused to move.

I had one option which was to reverse into a lane which we had just passed, the car behind me obliged and moved past the lane end and held back the traffic so I could do a right hand reverse into the lane. 

I pulled it off slowly but perfectly, made easier because it was on the right and the twin axle caravan we had at the time was easier to reverse than our current single.

As the wagon passed we exchanged 'greetings' with associated 'hand signals'.

I always love a good reverse, sad I know, but I always get a real sense of "Boom!" when it goes right first time, especially as I have a 7.9m twin axle and especially when people are watching.

I remember on a commercial site a couple of years back, we were on a fully serviced pitch that had a 30' run in between 2 big boulders and planted areas, it was a blind side reverse and there was a couple of vehicles behind me waiting, so no pressure right!. I saw the bloke on the next pitch watching with a schadenfreude look on his face - boom straight in on the first attempt, lined up perfectly. I got out and he came across "f*** me!", he said "that was bloody brilliant!, it took me nearly 40 minutes to get in there, how many times have you done that before!?"   

I've also had a few funny comments about reversing up to the hitch single handed using the camera, when they have not realised I had one.  

I'm of the opinion that even a basic level of reversing skill is an essential part of a caravanners 'tool box'

Like others, I use a motor mover most of the time but have had to reverse the caravan on a number of occasions. Two that come to mind was when I took a wrong turn and had to reverse into a farmyard, and the time I got blocked in a motorway service station. I also had to reverse through narrow gates at home once when the motor mover packed up.

I'm lucky that time spent as a boy on my Uncles farm gave me the basics, but I also reverse the caravan whenever I can, and do so onto pitches even if I have to complete the move with the motor mover.

When we bought our first caravan, it was a Saturday and we spent an hour on a deserted business park on the way home reversing around corners, jack knifing, shouting at each other and falling around with laughter. I've often wondered what CCTV footage might have been passed around!

My advice is to do something similar, or get yourself booked on a course. 

We started to practise without a mover long ago in the land of sites with no pegs,  25 miles south of Dover.

First step was reversing into a hedged square 10 metres wide - and we could just about manage that. The beauty of sites like that in France is that you can end up alongside the hedge on one side, or the hedge on the other side, and pretend that’s what you intended. Diagonal angles aren’t frowned upon. Door on the wrong side? No problem either. Warden tut tutting? No warden.

First timers to France this summer can still hone their reversing skills on sites like that. Confidence is what counts . Good luck!

not to brag but i used to drive artics so it was an easy thing for me but now and again you have to use the motor move some site roads are very tight and do not give you the room to swing the front of car round

We witnessed the opposite on a site, reversing when really they should have used the mover. Grass fingers ripped up resulting in a muddy mess around and on the pitch. I’m on a site now and practically every pitch and those grass edges are damaged needing much repair work and looking a tad unsightly and it has relatively wide site roads. The wardens have been doing their best to discourage folk from driving over wet areas but some just do it. Is this a case of not having particularly good reversing skills but just doing it anyway? They must be pulling their hair out!

I saw the same on a grass pitch next to us a couple of years ago. It had been raining all week, and a bloke in a V8 Range Rover reversed onto the pitch next to us, making deep ruts as he went.

Once he'd stopped, he decided he preferred the pitch opposite and wheel spinned off to do the same there.

The warden had a real go at him, and rightly so. He only stayed one night, and two pitches had to be fenced off.