Caravan Mover

Ted_Hutchinson

I am thinking of investing in an Enduro Caravan Motor Mover for my caravan.
Has anyone any experience of these or other movers?
Does anyone know of a cheaper source?

rosekitten

try this site everyones really friendly
and they will give you the best advice
for this

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/

Ted_Hutchinson

Having read the threads there doesn't seem to be any reason not to use the Enduro or fit it myself. :beer:
Just a question now of finding the cheapest source.

madmaxine47

Powre wheel seem to be the most recommended we had one fitted last year and so far cannot fault it. They give a 5 year full guarantee and everyone praises their customer service. They do price match find the cheapest price you can and they will match it. I also believe they price match against other makes too. I found a company fitting them on Ebay they were about £250 cheaper and they matched the price. I will have a look later to see if I can find who the company were. This is Power wheel website.

http://www.powrwheel.com/

Ted_Hutchinson

I ordered the Enduro from the original link today. I want to get it fitted before we go away later this month. I'll post back to say how easy it is to fit.

Just a weeny bit annoyed with the Hyperoutlet website as although they say there is a 48hr delivery charge on the first page, I thought that was the total delivery charge but when you got to the checkout they applied another. So it was actually another £4.95 more than I expected. (still as it was cheaper than elsewhere I'm not complaining too much)

Another reason why I decided to buy today was I'd got phone (price match) quotes from a couple more sources and neither would price match saying the new stock is more expensive than previous stock and prices were bound to rise.

Ted_Hutchinson

It was delivered about lunchtime today, 13.03 so I spent about 3 hrs this afternoon bolting it onto the chassis.
Someone more familiar with mechanics would have done it much quicker, I think I spend more time finding my tools and preparing the caravan than actually putting it together. I'll do the electrics tomorrow.
So far nothing to tax the brain or at all complicated.

If anyone wants to see what I'm doing the manual is here
Purpleline_Enduro_Mover_manual

Ted_Hutchinson

The electrics were dead easy and everything is now working well.

But unfortunately I made a mistake which I will correct tomorrow.

Not having a pit/wheel ramps/hoist I had jacked up the caravan as high as it will go, thus taking the wheels off the ground.

I'd carefully got the distance of the rollers to the tyres just right and everything bolted down.

Guess what happened when unwound the corner steadies and the full weight of the caravan was on the wheels?

I'm sure you've all worked it out. The wheels now, with the weight of the caravan on the suspension, have moved about 30mm too far from the rollers.

So tomorrow I will have to loosen the bolts on the chassis and tap the motor forward that little bit. I'll need to check all the nuts are tightened down again anyway. This time I've put blocks under the front legs and the back of the caravan is as low as it can go. It shouldn't take long to sort it.

Points for others who plan on the same moneysaving idea.

They tell you to mount the Power Isolator swich (which comes in a waterproof cover) on an external wall. BUT I didn't want to cut a hole in the caravan wall. so I mounted it in the battery box under the mains inlet point.
There is plenty of room there and I couldn't see any reason not to.

I had a choice to make a small hole and have most of the isolator switch inside the caravan or cut a larger hole and have it mounted mostly inside the battery box. I went for the small hole. Easier to make good if I move the mover onto a new caravan in the future.

The control box has a small aerial. I mounted this backing against the caravan wall rather than at right angles to the caravan side. I thought the arial would be less vulnerable to damage if it was against the caravan side rather than exposed away from the sidewall.

The cost of a Caravan mover from my local dealers would have been £1300 I paid £575 and have spent about 5 hrs messing around fitting it.
I would be much quicker doing another one.
On Ebay a guy will supply and fit one of these for £749.00 so I've only saved £174 but I've quite enjoyed doing it.

Another point I should mention. I was a bit worried about the amount of cable I had spare on the battery box side of the caravan. The instructions said to keep the cables the same length. I emailed Enduro to query whether this was entirely necessary and they wrote back promptly to say the cable may be cut, but keep the spare in cable in case there is a reduction in voltage and it does have to be used. But a very helpful reply, so well done ENDURO.

Ted_Hutchinson

All sorted now. It works.:j

It's quite fun really being able to swing the van round, or backwards/forwards just by pressing the buttons.
It means I'll be more confident about using the caravan. I was always a bit worried that I'd get in in a situation that I wasn't able to manage and be stuck looking for someone with a bit more strength to push. Now it can go by itself and I just have to watch where it goes.

Ted_Hutchinson

Just got back from a holiday in the caravan and thought I'd report back as to how valuable the mover is in practice.

When we got to the certified location (£5 a night) it was pouring with rain and the fact it was near Moreton in the Marsh should have given me a clue as to the the sites nature. Well the car got bogged down but fortunately I was able (with the caravan mover) to locate the caravan where I wanted and had to leave the car in the mud until the farmer could pull it out.
The site gradually dried out during the week but on Sunday night/monday morning we had about 15hrs continuous rain and it was back to marsh conditions. There was no way I was going to be able to drive the car to the caravan but I had some anti-skid mats in the boot and with these under the jockey wheel, using the caravan mover, I was able to go from one mat to the next quite easily and was across the field in just a few minutes to where the car was on hard standing.

So I have to say the Caravan mover really proved it's worth this week.

Ted_Hutchinson

I was maneuvering the caravan over the weekend and thinking how great it is just to be able to put it exactly where I want and how the time I spent fitting it myself was really worth the effort.

While it has gone up in price since I paid £579.90 for mine it's still very good value at £634

burnsguitarman

My OH fitted one of these which we purchased from the NEC caravan show for£599 from Bolsover Caravans.
We ordered it on Sunday, and it was delivered to our house on Tuesday morning. It was fitted the same night in the freezing cold and pitch black, All in all it took about 4 hours messing on wet grass and trying to hold a torch to get some light. Incidently we were told at the show to fit the isolation switch in the battery box, and not on the side of the van.
Was it worth it? YES, even if it had taken twice as long, because now we can move the van in any direction with out any effort!
If anyone has any doubts about purchasing these units, I would say don't hesitate!