How to reverse a caravan (without an audience)

The one rule

Put one hand at the bottom of the steering wheel. Now move that hand the way you want the back of the caravan to go. Hand to the left, the back of the caravan swings left. Hand to the right, it swings right.

That is the whole trick. The car's nose goes the opposite way, which is why it feels wrong for the first few minutes and then suddenly does not. Watch the caravan in the mirrors, not the bonnet, keep your hand at the bottom of the wheel, and the "which way do I turn" problem goes away.

Two more things and you have the method. The caravan reacts a moment after you steer and keeps swinging after you stop. So steer a little, then wait and look. Once it is turning the way you want, take the lock off and follow it with the car. Hold the lock on and the angle keeps growing until it jackknifes.

Before you put it in reverse

Small, slow, early

Rushing is the commonest mistake, and most of the others grow out of it. A big input now is a big problem three seconds from now.

Idle speed is enough. In a manual, slip the clutch and let it creep. In an automatic, ease off the brake. Move the wheel as little as you can get away with. Not sure? Stop, adjust the wheel while standing still, then creep again. It looks painfully slow and it is still the fastest way onto a stand.

Your mirrors are your reference. Scan mirror to mirror. If the caravan starts to fill one mirror, its back end is swinging out on that side. Move your hand away from that mirror and it comes back into line. Cannot see what you need to? Get out and look. Nobody thinks less of a driver for walking round the back.

The pivot point and straightening up

The caravan swings around its own axle, the point marked on the diagram. Steering pushes the front of the caravan sideways and the back pivots the other way. Steer to start the swing, straighten the car to stop it.

Straightening up is the part people forget. As the caravan comes round to the angle you want, take the lock off gradually so the car follows it into line. All at once and you overshoot. Get car and caravan straight before the last metre so you finish square.

When to stop and pull forward

There is no prize for finishing in one go. Angle wrong, or you cannot see, or the caravan is heading somewhere you did not ask it to go? Stop. Drive forward until car and caravan are in line and start again. Pulling forward is part of the method. Two short reverses beat one long one that ends against a tree.

Pick a jackknife marker before you start. Look in your mirror at the front corner of the caravan and choose something that comes into view just before the angle gets too sharp, say the gas locker lid or the edge of the front window. See it, stop, pull forward. Never steer out of a jackknife with more lock. That is how the coupling meets the bumper.

A spotter with agreed signals

Ask someone to guide you. Experienced towers do. The spotter stands to the side, where you can see them in a mirror, and walks with the caravan. Never behind it. Lose sight of them and you stop until you find them again.

Agree the signals before the car moves, because shouting through glass over a diesel does not work:

• Point where the back of the caravan should go
• Pat both legs: straighten the wheels
• Hand up: stop
• Beckon: pull forward

Four signals, nothing else. A running commentary helps nobody.

Set up so you can reverse from the road

Reverse onto the stand as you arrive, from the access road, while you are fresh and before anything comes out of the car. Once the awning is up and the power cable is out, the caravan is stuck where it is. Aim the manoeuvre at open road or an empty stand rather than the neighbours' tent, so a mistake costs a pull-forward and not an apology. The arriving and setting up guide takes over once the caravan is on the stand.

Automatics, cameras and movers

Many towers find an automatic easier for reversing because it creeps at idle and both hands stay on the wheel. That is club and enthusiast consensus, not test data. A manual needs a little clutch slip and a bit more patience.

Reversing camera kits for caravans are sold in South Africa. A camera on the back shows the one thing the mirrors cannot: what is directly behind you. Use it for that. You still steer by the mirrors.

Regulation 204 of the National Road Traffic Regulations, quoted on the collecting your caravan page, requires mirrors that give you a clear view of the traffic behind. It says mirrors, not cameras, so a camera is an extra view and the mirrors stay.

Unhitching and pushing the last few metres is a perfectly good option on flat, firm ground over a short distance. A motor mover, if the caravan has one, does the same job by remote. Neither gets you out of reversing on a road or onto uneven ground, so learn the method and keep the pushing for the last metre. If you do unhitch:

Practise before you need it

An empty car park on a Sunday morning is the best towing school in the country. Two bags of charcoal mark a stand. Reverse into it from the left, then from the right, then straight back for a good distance. Get out and look after every attempt. Half an hour of this before the trip and the campsite reverse stops being the thing you lie awake over.

If you hold a Code EB licence you have already reversed a combination into a marked bay for a K53 examiner, and Kampi's licence guide notes that the straight-line reverse is the part most candidates fail. You passed it. Nobody at a caravan park holds a clipboard.

Common mistakes

• Steering from the top of the wheel and turning the wrong way, then correcting the wrong way again
• Too much lock, held too long, then trying to fix it with more lock
• Walking pace instead of creeping pace
• Watching the car instead of the caravan, or only one mirror
• A spotter behind the caravan, or one you cannot see
• Forgetting the reverse lock and wondering why the caravan will not move
• Setting up camp first and reversing later, with the awning out and an audience