Wow, that sounds impressive! I remember my dad towing a 2 berth Royale caravan with his TR7 a few times, good job that didn’t have software stability control it would’ve been working overtime.
Reminds me of our new caravan we picked up from a dealer near Hornsea. Very similar layout to what you show, all mod cons and we added the motor mover as no way could we man handle that size of van.
Enjoy Barrie, don’t get holding us MX-5 drivers up down those twisty lanes.
Actually that’s a myth, I can honestly say I’ve never been held up once by one.
Very nice Barrie, we loved our caravan in the 80/90’s whilst in the services. Man how they have changed since then.
Now we have a VW campervan and get away when we can.
ENJOY
I hope you have some great times in it Barrie👍
Thanks everyone! seems strange talking about caravans on a sports car forum but I’m sure I’ll throw myself into it just as I have with 5’s
Times (and circumstances) change for us all as we move along. I’ve had some fantastic times and met some smashing people with mx5 ownership, richer for the experience
Barrie
Barrie the anti sway built into the hitch works by gripping the tow ball. So be sure NOT to put a smear of grease on that tow ball……
We sold our large caravan last December… We went to our usual hunting grounds around Cornwall but the problem with staycation and everyone doing it meant even in September everywhere was rammed… It’s not how we like to holiday with queues everywhere and hardly space to even walk.
We may come back to caravan’s but it’s not looking that way.
Morning Charlie, yes, I’d read about the ALKO hitch that ‘grips’ the tow ball the new van Also has ALKO’s ATC system that senses sway and automatically brakes the van to keep it stable? I just want as stress free towing experience as I can get
Barrie
You may already know this Barrie…
If you’re having a new tow ball fitted remove any paint from the 50mm ball, if you don’t it’ll contaminate the friction pads of the anti snake device.
I remember having one of those leaf spring type devices at first, they worked fine. Later vans I owned had that built in to the tow hitch head.
Thanks Mick, all good advice from you guys!
Barrie
Barrie our old van had ATC also. It’s a simplified kind of the stability programme fitted to cars. It does indeed monitor wheel rotation along with a few other parameters…
When you hook the electrics up you will hear a couple of motors spin very briefly. It’s the ATC engaging. The LED will glow green which is telling you the system is live and all is well…
So does it work ? Well our van was 1600Kg and it never got out of control. You will still occasionally get mild snaking at which point I always gently lifted off the gas…. But nothing more so I would say it helps greatly….
If you haven’t already make sure your motor mover has automatic engagement. In other words works off the remote. The self engage ones are rubbish if you need to engage quickly. Remote engagement sooooo much better.
Morning Charlie, good to know about the ATC the mover I’ve bought is a REICH system but is manual version. It is linked across the van though, so one side operation to engage. It also winds on like an auto engage rather than sliding with a lever so I’m thinking I’ll use the cordless drill for the steadies to wind it in and out
it’s the same size nut
Barrie
Barrie our one was linked across. I thought they all were ? I used a cordless drill for the steadies. I thought it was lazy at first but it’s not it’s just quick and easy.
As above we do hope to return to caravans in the future. Top of our list this year was a Coachman VIP with a transverse bed…. But prices got silly and places to busy for us. Hopefully things will get back to what we called normality.
Anyway all the best with your adventures. I’m sure many like me will miss your enthusiastic endeavours with your fabulous MX5s….
This forum has got extremely quiet these days ….
One last thing. There is a caravan forum called Caravan talk. Pretty good with most members being helpful and sensible. I don’t go on much now but take a look. Il look out for you there .
Link
Hi Charlie, thanks some of the manuals are independent so you have to engage/ disengage each wheel, they tend to be ON or OFF using a lever, rather than gear driven linked like ours
we looked at Coachman, exactly same layout VIP, but quite a price difference! When you add in the stuff you need to actually set up ( the same cost regardless) it really starts to add up! The main difference for me was ALDE heating on the Coachman, other than that, not too much? Both use ALKO/Dometic/ Thetford gear, are grade 111 thermal insulation etc, they do look nice but not £8-9k nicer!
Barrie
Hi Barrie. We had the Alde heating on our last van which was a Lunar Clubman. We really rated it as it’s so quiet and super efficient. Our next van will be a Coachman… We’ve had caravans and motor homes and consider the Coachman vans to be pretty much the best. Adria are another really quality brand and the only other make we will look at when the time is ready.
Your right the kit we buy is endless. I’m absolutely sure we don’t need most of it but we end up with it anyway. Get yourself a Cadac Safari Chef …. Wee BBQ cooker thing that plugs into your outside BBQ/Gas point. It’s amazing what you can cook on those things.
We’ve retained all of our kit and equipment. To sell it it’s worth almost nothing but it’s a fortune to buy. So we’ve hung onto it ready for another caravan sometime later maybe