We keep our Troll in our garden which is accessed via a double door gate that is perpendicular to the road; the gate is wider than the van by a decent margin but not by loads. When I hitch up I open the gates and manually roll the caravan forward taking care to make sure that it does not hit the gate posts on either side and that it is "square". When the jockey wheel has gone over the sidepath and gets into the road gutter I cannot easily then manually pull the caravan further by myself as the change in camber makes it too hard. At this point I go get my car and reverse it and hitch up. After hitching I have to turn right as that is the direction I need to go in and I can easily see down the drivers side along the car and that the caravan is clear of the gate post but I cannot see don the passenger side how close the caravan is to the near-side gatepost as the angle of the car means the caravan is in the way! I cannot just drive forward as the road is not that wide and there are parked cars so I have to turn quite sharp.

My question is simply whether I need to worry about clipping the back of the caravan on the gatepost? How far does the back of a Troll swing out when you go around a corner? As I am normally by myself there is no one else to ask!

Not cheap solution but motor mover could solve your problems. Probably cheaper than damaging your Eriba.

Stewart

Thanks Randa - I guess that if the offside wheel moves a little then it is fair to consider that it should come out ok. Had not thought of looking at that bt it actually makes sense! Last time I came back from getting the van serviced I was also by myself and I actually unhitched the caravan and by hand guided it through the gates a little way but then had to rehitch to use the car to get it fully back into my drive. It was dark and I was blocking the road with an ever increasing crowd watching (GULP) but it was all ok!!

Sorry Stewart - no cash for a motor mover plus I suspect that it would ground out getting in and out of my drive due to various angles of road surfaces. I can do it easily by myself anyway except the last few meters when coming home and the last few meters when leaving so no real need for a MM.

How about a whinch

Not sure I could use a Winch to get the caravan out of my gate onto a public road as would require the winch to be anchored outside my property on a busy road etc!?

We had the same sort of issue at our previous address the road was too narrow to permit towing the van out of the drive. We compromised by first moving the towcar onto the road then manually getting the van out to the car before hitching up and driving away. We also had a Mr Shifta (cheaper than a fixed motor mover) which meant we were able to do the reverse procedure on the return home as the Mr Shifta enabled us to get the van up the sloping drive back to its parking spot.

It's an idea that might help

Denise & Phil

Would it help if you had something like a thick piece of plywood to take the jockey wheel from the footpath over the gutter and get over the problem of the camber? Just a thought.

Depending upon the actual clearance you have (say 4" (100mm), then, to be sure of clearing the gatepost with the nearside rear of the van, the offside rear (which you can see) should be just about to get through the gateway before you turn. If you have "no" clearance, then the offside must be through the gateway before you turn right.

This clearly subjective. To be sure of clearing the gate the offside rear must be already through the gate.

hth

Sounds like a job for a sunday evening at the local supermarket car park. make up a couple of small posts to simulate your gateway and see how far forward you need to be so you don't knock one over.
I sympathise with you though. We have a similar problem where my car would be in the house opposite's garden to be able to tow the caravan out of the drive. Even the the sides would brush the hedges. When we bought our Triton, I pre-empted this by having a mover. Only problem now is that every time I move it onto the road, there is an immediate queue of cars suddenly wanting to go past. Fortunately this is just an estate road.

Perfect - lots of great ideas here and will try them out, thanks for all the help. Its a great help to ask dumb questions as I have never had a caravan so I am sure in a few years I will giggle at the stuff I was worried about! Rich

I would like to know as well as we will have the same problem when we get ours Fran