10 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1 Will you need to change your car?

First and foremost – and especially if you are new to towing a caravan – you should follow the 85% guideline (see P133).

This states that when fully laden, the caravan should not weigh more than 85% of the car’s kerbweight – so you need to find out the latter figure before you can start to consider which caravan to buy.

If you find a caravan that fits this rule with your existing car, all you have to do is fit a towbar (if it doesn’t have one already).

2 What are you going to use the van for?

This is much more than just a question of deciding how many people are going to be sleeping in it, and going from