Talk to your tyre specialist about what pressures they should be at for carrying heavy loads.īig caravans put a lot of weight on the towball of the tow vehicle. Your tyres will be under extreme stress keeping all that load on the road, and chances are, they will be under-inflated for the task. Your rig will likely be as heavy as it can be when you’re all set up for a long journey. Once you’ve got your rig, it’s time to set it up to be as safe and stable as possible. Buying a good, sturdy tow vehicle and matching it to a well-designed trailer will form the basis of a stable rig that is controllable, even if the proverbial hits the fan. The old adage of the tail wagging the dog couldn’t be a more appropriate description of many rigs out there. Think about how many rigs you’ve seen on the road that simply look wrong. In fact, it starts before you’ve handed over your hard-earned cash in exchange for a caravan or tow vehicle. Safe towing starts before you’ve even hitched up. The sad fact is anyone with a car licence can walk into a caravan dealership and drive away with potentially 3500kg in tow, and there’s no prior requirement to demonstrate any capability to do so.

The number of caravan roll-overs that feature heavily on social media only seems to strengthen the argument. We all want to think we are safe when we’re towing our caravan to that next holiday destination, but the harsh reality is the vast majority of those on the road towing big loads are scarcely qualified to do so. Read this before you take off on your next RV adventure …

Weight distribution hitch calculator