First-time caravanners have a lot to learn about the outdoor touring world. Although it is an exciting world of fun and freedom, spending time on the road requires some specialized knowledge and skills. Before you set out on your first caravaning adventure, here are some basic tips to help you get started.
Make A Checklist
The outdoor life is mostly a life of self-sustenance. You need to have all your basic requirements with you in your caravan. To ensure you don’t miss anything out, create a comprehensive checklist of all your basic needs while planning for your trip. This includes your everyday essentials such as food and clothing, items for your caravan and vehicle, safety items and so on.
Learn How To Load Your Caravan
Fitting all your everyday essentials into your caravan can be a daunting task, especially as a newbie. Before you get on the road, you must learn how to load your caravan correctly. This is crucial to ensure a safe and comfortable caravaning experience. Proper loading is also crucial for your safety, so you should pay attention to it as well.
Learn How To Hitch Up Your Caravan
Unless you’re travelling with an experienced caravaner, learning how to hitch and unhitch your caravan must be top of your to-do list. Hitching up your caravan is a simple process that involves raising the hitch handle, lowering the hitch onto the vehicle’s tow ball and finally clicking down the handle.
Photo: Cub Campers
When this is done, wind the jockey wheel back up so the caravan hitch lifts the back of the car. You can get someone more experienced to teach you or follow the instructions in the manual for hitching up and decoupling the caravan.
Practise your Towing
Towing a caravan is completely different from merely driving a car. Before you set out on an actual trip, you should practise your towing. This way you can get familiar with the feel, manoeuvres and how to handle the tow vehicle. Consider practising on a suitable driving course until you master the basics of driving and parking a caravan correctly.
Inspect your vehicle
Before you hit the road, you should do a final check of your caravan and tow vehicle. The last thing you want on your first trip is to have them break down in the middle of nowhere.
You may have an expert assist you with the inspection or follow a standard inspection checklist to ensure all is in order before your trip begins.
Choose The Right Touring Park
For a beginner, we always recommend keeping your trip as local as possible. This way, you don’t overexert yourself until you have mastered the most important touring skills. Pick a location within one to two hours of the city. This way, you don’t drive too far on your first trip. It also helps if your caravaning location has the basic amenities you need such as water and power supply, to make your trip as convenient as possible. With time, you can start exploring farther locations and roughing it out in uncharted territories.
