On Monday Carmel and I did our towing course. Towing a caravan requires to to forget almost everything you ever knew about driving a car. When you turn, you wait until the rear wheel of the 4WD is level with the curb (or witch’s hat if your are lucky, or petrol bowser if unlucky) before you begin to turn. Your brain is screaming that you are out to far but when you look back, the van only just makes it.

After a brief how to connect and disconnect your van, the first tricky exercise was to do a doughnut (a tight circle ending up where you started) with the van attached. Except for the fact I was fully focused on mastering the skill, I should have taken a video of the car park with 5 vans all reversing in circles. Anyway, once you get a feel for it, it is quite straightforward. Now I know what to do when the Apaches attack and ride around us in a anti-clockwise direction (or is the clockwise in the southern hemisphere). But the purpose is to know how to hold the van in a smooth motion and it is used when reversing into a van spot.

Note to self.

1. To move the rear of the van to the right, turn the wheel to the right.
2. To reverse into a lot, mark up a pivot point of two steps out and three steps in the car direction of the corner of the caravan
   1. Drive the car straight so the first “a” of Expanda is level and arm distance from this pivot point
   2. Full lock minus a half in the wrong direction.
   3. Reverse until you see the second penguin
   4. Stop and go full lock minus a half in the right direction
   5. Reverse keeping the second penguin aligned with the edge of the car.