Click here to go straight to 'How To change the rollers' :-How To:- Maintain a motor mover on a PUCK (by Sulphurman)


Esther, our Puck, has a Reich Move Control. I think a Comfort II. It was fitted by a previous owner in 2005, possibly DIY. I have to say, until reading this thread I never thought there was an issue with it. We store Esther on some decking at the side/rear of our house, and the driveway to it is fairly steep and a bit uneven. The mover has meant that we can get her up and down easily and I'm not sure how we'd cope without it, although the day we bought her we did manhandle it down the slope without battery assistance.

I know it adds about 33kg to the weight, so that limits what we can put inside the van, but there are only 2 of us so the back of the car is usually full of stuff. However I read with some trepidation the comments on ground clearance and headed straight outside with my tape measure! I can report that clearance is 140mm. Not sure if I should be worried by that but I can say that there have been no issues with speed humps or uneven ground while towing.

I've actually just bought a pair of new aluminium rollers, to replace the gritted ones. One is fine but the other is losing some grit and can slide. Seeing as I will have to remove each side to fit these I was thinking it an ideal opportunity to overhaul the entire system, as I shouldn't think it's had much in the way of service in recent years. This has lead me to consider how and where it's fitted on the chassis (aft of the wheels) and wonder if it would be possible to change to forward of the wheels, so I came on here to search and see what the best thing was and here we are. TBH I was thinking that the brake rod would prohibit this, but wanted to find out if there was any advice.

So yes, Puck can have a mover. There are obviously issues with weight and possibly clearance with some models but if these can be taken into account then there should be hope to carry on using Pandora. If I can help in any way (photos etc) I'll certainly try.

So I started the job today and I think I can shed some light on why some people will not want to entertain fitting a mover to a Puck! The 'clearance' issue, rather than being solely to do with the ground, could pertain to the Puck having a rather 'shallow' chassis! Removing a drive unit on its own proved impossible due to the fact that the retaining bolt used to secure the motor unit was obviously installed with the entire unit on the bench, and therefore was too long to be withdrawn upwards as it hits the floor! I had to cut the excess off, ensuring enough thread to secure the nylock nut back on (must get some new ones of course) but even then it would only just pull up enough allow the unit to slide out! The only alternative would be to uninstall the entire unit, which I'm still considering doing if I can...

In a similar vein the extra long 'U' bolts securing the crossmember to the chassis itself almost touch the underneath of the wooden floor. One of the nylock nuts wasn't even done up, presumably the fitter got bored with turning it by a quarter at a time and wandered off... So out came a bottle jack to hold the crossmember in place and off they came as well to be slightly shortened. To be fair it's the only way I'll be able to get a ratchet ring spanner on it and I'll be happier knowing it's got all four nuts done up!

It's all good fun and part of the learning curve lol.

To give enough space for the motors there is and extra box section above the cross member as a spacer. If it wasn't for this there would be an extra 40mm of ground clearance, but the gearbox on each motor would possibly be inside the van!

I've seen some far more modern units than this old Reich thing out there, and there must be some more elegant solutions. But this is what Esther has, and the new shafts are enough of a spend for now. Might post some pics when it's all done if anyone is interested.

So today my new shafts have not arrived yet, but I thought I'd share a few pictures to explain the rather clever way the motor mover is fitted to Esther. I Was looking at an installation video on YouTube and suddenly realised how it's been done.

So this is basically the same model of mover, still available today for a fairly budget price:



Note where the actual motor sits on the assembly, above the crossmember (obviously this is only one side shown, there is another assembly fitted symmetrically on the other wheel of the caravan and the crossmember links them).

Well if you look at the photo below you'll see that the motor on our mover is inverted so that is looks downwards:



Also, even though the motor is now the lowest part of the whole assembly, it's sitting in the cross-section between the road wheels, meaning that it's quite unlikely to bottom out unless you're driving down a very rutted track - something you'd probably be aware of if you've fitted this yourself, or should be made aware of by a fitter.

This has been achieved by merely swapping the shaft carriers and the motors and symetrically opposing them. I believe this is part of the design but it could of course be a happy accident! However it works a treat and is not compromising the unit one bit. Fixings are all in the same place.

I've tried to demonstrate what's been done by just turning the unit over and holding the shaft carrier in place on the opposite side of the gearbox in the following photos:




Finally, a picture of the box section (presumably offcuts from the crossmember supplied to fit wider vans) used as a spacer. No U-bolts visible in this pic, as they are removed to shorten the threads and make fitting easier. I'll admit this is a tight fit against the crossmember of the actual van itself, but it does go:



All in all a neat solution I reckon if you really must have a mover on a Puck. But I'm not sure where the longer U-bolts came from...maybe Reich themselves. I'd be happy to explain in more detail if anyone needs more help or even dare I say help with fitting....but don't tell Verity I said that!

New shafts now arrived....weight difference very welcome!

Here's a few pictures and some helpful hints for replacing the worn 'gritted' rollers on a Reich Move Control.

Remember to disconnect your battery from the motor mover unit. To remove the motor and drive shaft assembly, safely jack the caravan and secure with an axle stand. Pull the spade connectors connecting the motor to the power cables. They will be protected by a rubber cover but will pull through, and you'll probably need to cut a cable tie off to free them too.

There are just two bolts holding the assembly to the rest of the mover:



One simple nyloc nut and bolt nearest the motor will be a 19mm spanner, the other needs a 13mm spanner and a 6mm Allen key. On this one note how the bolt, washers, nylon washers and sleeve are assembled, and remove all. The sleeve may need some drifting out with something like a bolt larger than the sleeve but smaller than the hole. If it's not too dirty and gummed up with old grease, you might simply push it through with your fingers.

The motor and shaft assembly is heavy at around 5kg so be careful when you're pulling it out. It should look something like this:



The shaft is held in place by a sleeve flange at the gritted end, that fits in a nylon bush inside the shaft. A new bush is provided ready fitted to the new shaft. Halfway down is a nylon steady block, this will need to be changed for the new one supplied with the shaft as the aluminium shafts are a smaller diameter. More on that later. At the motor end there are more nylon washers. New ones are supplied also but mine were in good condition so I left them (to change them you'd need to remove the sprung 'key').

To disassemble, simply remove the three bolts (10mm spanner) holding the shaft 'box' to the motors gearbox:



You can now 'persuade' the shaft box to come away, it shouldn't be too difficult:





This will probably leave the shaft still connected (via rust!) to the gearbox:



Free off, (maybe gently tapping with soft mallet but go easy as the gearbox is probably fragile) I just wiggled it about until it dropped off:





The motor unit itself was fairly rusty. I think they only put some 'plastikote' type stuff on back then. Newer models are powder coated.



So I've removed much of the rust and oxidation and treated it to a coat of Hammerite.







Will update further regarding reassembly when the second coat is dry

Now that the motor unit has its second coat of Hammerite, time to reassemble having cleaned the shafts 'box' of built up crud and old grease:



The spacer block that is supplied with the new shaft has a very slightly smaller diameter to hold the slightly thinner aluminium part, difficult to tell from the photo but important to change it:



However it cannot use the existing screw as it's too thin and so the hole in the box must be drilled out to accept the slightly thicker (hex head) one:


(Note: Please do not wear slippers in close proximity to partner while he's drilling, Verity does like to live dangerously whilst taking pictures lol)

Fit new spacer block but do not tighten fully at this stage:



Position of the nylon washers as mentioned before:



Good job the existing were in good condition as I didn't fancy removing the sprung 'key' from the gearbox stud shaft, but it can be done if necessary.

A bit of spray grease at the crucial points:



Shaft locates onto the gearbox and reassembly is quite straightforward, remembering of course to use new Nyloc nuts:



Lastly, tighten the fixing for the spacer block now all is aligned:



Pop the rubber boot back on and it's ready to refit:



The new 'machined' surface should prove more reliable and will certainly improve stability on our uneven driveway, where the old 'shiny' bit of the worn out shaft caused the odd moment of panic as Esther lurched toward the corner of the house!

So more info on the ins and outs of fitting a mover to a Puck...

There is obviously an issue with the size of the chassis and clearance getting bolts done up. This showed itself today when I bolted the mover back together and tried it out for the first time. Some adjustment in 'twist' from side to side was needed immediately as one side was closer to the wheel than the other. After this was done I realised that the scissor action pressing the mover shaft against the tyres was pretty much at full stretch to get enough purchase.

So the problem with access and clearance to bolt the unit to the chassis via the clamps is the major fly in the ointment, and it's no wonder that a lot of fitters don't want to know. There is still just enough traction to get Esther up our 1:5 (somewhat uneven) drive, but I'll be happier when the nuts for the clamps are tight against the chassis cross member that sits behind the wheel. At the moment they are sitting a bit back from the chassis:



And there were a couple of points on the really uneven bits where we had to help by pulling the handles. However, I feel our usage on our driveway is an extreme situation, and for lesser gradients/on the flat everything would be hunky dory.

All in all it's still a work in progress and some fettling is required, but we do need the mover and I have enjoyed getting to grips with the project.

Here's a very short clip of Esther moving up the very narrow, very uneven drive on her own: