Motor mover or not.....

Absolutely agree with the comments ,get a motor mover it’s a must have addition ,especially if like me you have a bad back 😊

Brian & Jo

The weight of your caravan doesn't sound right at "just over 1000kgs. A Swift Challenger 480 is shown as 1262 MIRO on Swift's website. Are you sure the weight quoted is correct?

Makes a Motor Mover essential.

I couldn't do without my motor mover, these days, I'm afraid!  It enables me to get the van in exactly the right position.  Being able to reverse a caravan is one thing....  having eyes in the back of your head is another.  For me  reversing the van isn't a problem..... seeing where I'm reversing it is something else!!!

Go for it....

David

Motor mover every time. Best bit of kit I’ve bought. Now had 2 vans fitted with a mover and wouldn’t be without it. 

I live on a narrow road with narrow footways. 17 years ago with the cars that I used I could drive the caravan in, unhitch and pull the caravan past the car and put on a parking spot alongside the garage. I could also pull it from the parking spot and spin it around to hitch. 15 years ago with a car with a bigger turning circle, despite s 3 foot wider gateway with a 1.1 metre longer caravan that was not possible.

In 2015 as Left Dornaifeld one of my old motors fell off the offside of the caravan and was run over and destroyed by the caravan. It would have been impossible to get onto the driveway at home. I had two options. Get it replaced when staying at one of the remaining 5 sites over the next 3 weeks or book a CL near home until it could be fixed. The next site was Looe. Called at a small dealership nearby who could do it in 10 days time. I said that I would have to look at dealer or mobile  companies at the next 5 sites to to find one that could fit me in s I could not return home without. 

He phoned a regular customer booked in for a service a few days later (obviously regular as on first name terms) Told him of my predicament and asked if he could delay his service for a week. 

He agreed and I was sorted

OK, thanks everybody, totally unequivocal in your support for the motor mover then!

The weight of the van I quoted was just a figure I remembered from reading the manual - probably a dry weight or something like that? Not up to speed with stuff like that yet but will need to get there quickly!

I'm not unhitching on the slope - I have to haul up our drive, then there is a flat area where I can unhitch and spin the van round, but then I have to lower it 8-9 metres down the 1 in 15 gradient to its parking spot beside the garage.

I shall follow your advice, thanks again.

We've recently returned to caravanning after a long break, where we didn't previously have the experience of a motor mover.  Our new caravan came with a motor mover fitted and where I wasn't bothered either way, having now had a few journeys out and having to also negotiate the caravan into and out of its space within the storage facility, I wouldn't be without it - an absolute must in my eyes 

Believe me after a long journey home the last you want to be doing at the end of it is pushing a loaded caravan up a slope 

As I said in reply to your post on another thread, definitely go for a motor mover, especially if you have to get into a difficult space.  Getting onto a pitch can be enough of a challenge if you’re a novice, let alone a tight space on a slope.

Get the mover, don't even think about that manoeuvre without one unless you are very experienced at reversing trailers of some sort