When A Caravan Becomes Unhitched!

[Riggers]

What all of us dread as the caravan becomes unhitched!!


https://twitter.com/snappyvanners/status...30561?s=21

[Tigerfish]

Clearly didn’t check the indicator window properly, or check lift!

TF

[DianneT]

Saw it happen on a camp site in Austria. Caravan didn’t hit anything though.

When my cousin was moving he put some bits into his trailer for us to take from Dorset to Kettering for him.

He being a long time Caravanner and Trailer tower hitched trailer up. We got in the car and pulled off the drive turning right headed something looked round to see trailer heading back into the drive. OH was furious he didn’t check it. Actually we all had a good laugh and still do to this day.

[huskydog]

I always had a separate chain from car to caravan as well as the brakeaway cable ,so no way could it “run away”

[Admiral]

I wonder if it did hit something that made the van stop suddenly

[Navigator]

Using an additional chain/cable defeats the function of the breakaway cable action and could well be more dangerous than needed. The breakaway cable is connected on the caravan to the brake mechanism and should the caravan detach the cable will pull tight, apply the caravan brakes, and then break away.

A loose caravan with the brakes applied should stop in a reasonably tidy manner and not keep rolling (forwards or backwards) as in the video. An additional chain/cable will be slightly off-centre and will cause the detached caravan to flail about while the A-frame is draging on the ground. Braking of the tow vehicle will not be transmitted to the caravan and it is likely to jack-knife and/or overturn.

[emmerson]

What all of us dread as the caravan becomes unhitched!!


https://twitter.com/snappyvanners/status...30561?s=21

I had it happen once on site in Germany.
I can assure you that if it happens to you, it only happens ONCE.
After that, you check, check, then check again!

[Jaydug]

I also have to put up my hand and plead guilty. I'd left a site close to Cordoba one morning five or six years ago. As I travelled along the quite village street, I crossed the first road hump, heard an unusual noise, looked in the r.v.mirror, only to see the van perched on the hump fifty yards behind me. Much to the amusement of the old guys standing watching, I reversed and reconnected the hitch, and 7 pin plugs which had only pulled out of the sockets. Breakaway cable was snapped and the jockeywheel hub was twisted. So - very little damage but lots of embarrassment. And a lot of thanks that-it-happened-when-it-did, because five minutes later I joined the motorway to Seville.................. It won't happen again.

[David from Suffolk]

It has happened twice this year with my visitors, First one was a new to caravanning, and had read the book, new it all ,and told us all about it. as they were leaving down our bumpy road van parted company, Brakeway wrapped around caravan hitch , 13 pin plug plus car wiring on the ground. It took recovery some 4 hours to arrive. Second one was an elderly couple who had everything correct bar the hitch, van dropped down as soon as they moved , no damage and others soon got them on their way.

[Admiral]

In 49 years, it has not happened to us and I hope it never will, just goes to show that you have to check and re-check.

The nearest we have come to it was whilst we were pitching on a site in the Alsace many years ago, the pitch was very steep, the jockey fell out, fortunately the font legs were part way down so the van only "fell" a couple of feet. My expletives must have been heard as a team of Dutch, German and French hefty guys appeared and lifted the van so I could replace the jockey and my new found friends lowered the front of the van without any damage. Did we have a few bottles of Red that evening with my Team, of course we did