Motor Mover
 

A topic that gets discussed a lot amongst caravaners I know, but my question is

Has anyone fitted a Towsure MoveMaster and if so how do you find it,

As our van is relatively lightweight I am looking for a light mover, also the movemaster has a wind on engage and in comparison is a lot cheaper than many other brands, whilst still maintaining the five year warranty.

Price £499 supplied only ( inc delivery)
Warranty 5 years parts and labour
Weight 37kg

Can't vouch for that particular piece of kit Keith - but I will say I have bought tons of gear over the years from Towsure, and NEVER had anything less than good quality at sensible prices. My mover is an elderly Carver with manual wind on - dead easy, especially of you use a ratchet handle on a socket to do so, rather than getting a long handle jamming either on the 'van or the ground.

Never had a mover as my van is lightweight too, but bought stuff from Towsure a few times, always been fine.

I have the same Carver model. Tip of the month is - put the remote on a lanyard, to it can hang around your neck ;) Why? because I habitually whilst manouvering it, place it temporarily on the A frame when I need both hands. Setting off almost two weeks ago, for a couple of weeks away, I drove off with it still on the A frame. I heard a clatter one mile from home, but though it was maybe a can or something I had run over - Only when I got to site did I realise the remote wasn't in the doorway of the 'van ready to use.


I had to then get help to push it into place - I will not use the clutch.


The remotes are obsolete - unobtainium. A few years ago I was given the complete Carver kit with remote, for spares, but passed the spare remote on to someone else who was stuck for one.


It took me a few days to find a company making a universal mover remote, which you program to suit - rather like a TV remote, which I had sent out to me on site. Old remote range was not great, just a few yards from the van and it stopped working. New compatible version runs on a PP3 and will work 100 yards from the caravan, 100 yards is as far as I can get from the van and still see the van ;).



I was dreading the task of having to winch the caravan up my drive, as I used to do with a much lighter caravan years ago. I have a scaffold pole sized hole in my concrete drive and a winch mounted on a pole - kept just for emergencies now.


Hand engaging the mover is no great problem, if you keep the mechanism well greased. I use the corner steady winder handle, but added an extra bit of leverage, in the form of a bit of bar welded onto the U, to double the leverage.



I did have problems with the glued on grit of the rollers, becoming smooth and slipping. I had plans to recoat the rollers myself and did a lot of research into methods, but someone offered me a set of all metal rollers, with a gripping surface milled into the rollers - so I bought them and they have been fine for grip ever since then.


The remote was the second problem of the trip. The first was the pnuematic jockey wheel. It deflated as I reached the bottom of my drive, I fitted a spare before setting off. The spare deflated in the first few days I was here, so I bought a complete wheel and jack locally - A SOLID TYRE THIS TIME. I have had nothing but trouble with jockey wheel tyres for the past few years.



Third problem was we had to get our 16 year old border collie Newfoundland Charlie, put down, by a local vet. He has had more and more issues getting around, needed a lot of help getting into car and into caravan. He has collapsed a few times before. A week ago last Monday, he just couldn't lift himself off the floor at all, so decision was made to have him put to sleep so made arrangements for locally living grandson to come a lift him into car,, to get him to the vets. He is was too heavy for me.



We also have his 8 year old teasing, troublesome step sister. She obviously missed him, kept looking for him at first, but has no settled to the idea of getting more attention and the extra space. We are expecting her to be looking for him, maybe expecting him to be back at home, once we get back.

Got around to fitting the mover to my van, biggest problem I had was Originally I was fitting it in the compound where the van is stored, so carpet on the ground and lay on the back with trolley jacks and axle stands at hand.

However it quickly became apparent that I had two major issues, one was the Components were very heavy when trying to work solo and align everything up, the biggest problem was when I got it all in position under the van and offered it up, I discovered the chassis is what is known as a ‘low profile chassis’ so it had insufficient depth in the framework to attach to and ensure the right ground clearance, Whilst maintaining the correct depth from the caravan floor.

After a few days of panicking dilemma I discovered special adapter plates were made to combat this problem, so they were ordered.

On arrival I chose to take the caravan to work and put it over the pit, where with the assistant of a hydraulic jack the job was so simple.

Result is mover fitted and operation exactly how it should.

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My old dad had a mover with a remote and used to get the ten year old from next door to park the van on the drive for him. He had several remote control cars and this was just a scaled up version for him. Dad said that the ten year old had far more confidence when manoeuvering! Considering that dad drove HGV artics for years, it always made me chuckle!:D

I find it fairly effortless, but I am not that confident when it comes to guessing where the corners are - I like to have an extra pair of eyes at the opposite end of the caravan as I manouver through my gates and especially as I progress past the tight corner of the house.

On the road towing, the extra size has never much bothered me - in fact I quite enjoy driving much less rushed and the knowing I can pull over almost anywhere for a cuppa on a long drive.