In this ultimate guide to towing series, Robert Pepper discusses towing long distance, including overtaking (both yourself and others), speed, sway, fatigue and other things you’ll need to consider.
The whole point of a caravan is to travel, so you’re going to need to learn how to tow for long distances.
In many ways, towing for a long distance is similar to driving long distances. Fatigue management techniques apply such as stopping about every two hours, not driving when you’d normally sleep, exercising when stopped, avoiding foods that are hard to digest, avoiding alcohol and keeping hydrated. So here’s the towing-specific techniques and differences to a non-tow journey:
Speed
You’ll be travelling slower—maybe not a lot slower, but still slower. You’ll accelerate more slowly, possibly lose speed up hills, and need to slow down more for corners. Everything will, and should be, a little slower, so plan that into your journey time when towing long distance.
You overtaking
Your ability to accelerate to overtake is dramatically decreased not just because of the extra weight of the caravan, but also the aerodynamic drag. As a result, you cannot accelerate anywhere near as quickly as you did before, not even with a V8, you Y62 owners. And then there’s the significant extra length of your rig compared to your unhitched car, so you need to get further ahead before pulling on.
Overtaking isn’t impossible, but places where you’d previously overtake no longer present opportunities. There’s a risk, too – sway is largely speed-dependent. So accelerating to overtake, particularly downhill, may well lead to sway where previously you had none.
It is, of course, illegal to exceed the speed limit, but word is that many people hit 120km/h+ during an overtake. The difference in sway risk between 100 and 120km/h is a lot, and more than one tower has come to grief during a passing manoeuvre.
Others overtaking
You may well be driving more slowly. This means that others will want to get by, so you’ll need to be aware that it’s harder to overtake a caravan and car than just a car. First, significant extra length, and second, the caravan blocks visibility being both wide and tall. Be aware of those following and help them get by when towing long distance.
This might be by pulling into those laybys for slow vehicles, or keeping left on overtaking lanes, or even just not accelerating downhill which, by the way, is also good risk management for sway.
You can also keep an ear out on Channel 40, the UHF road channel, and your mirrors to see if you’re holding up a queue. If there’s a decent overtaking chance and there is a queue, try slowly slowing down, indicating left and moving as far left as you can. But only do that on a decent overtaking stretch, not a blind corner!
If you’re in a convoy when towing long distance, allow maybe a decent 10-15 car lengths between you and the next van. That’s good for safety and visibility but also allows overtakers to slot into the gap.
Sway
We’ll cover sway in the next article, so please read it for the sake of your own safety and that of others. In short, though – recognise the risk factors for sway, and adjust speed accordingly. That isn’t the same as nervously crawling everywhere.
Fuel
Towing uses more fuel, not so much because of the weight, as that’s only a factor when climbing a hill and/or accelerating, but aerodynamic drag. The fuel consumption penalty will vary a great deal depending on the type of van, type of car and especially your cruise speed. However, you’ll definitely notice you use more fuel and so you need to plan for more frequent stops when towing long distance.
It’s also polite if there are people waiting, to pull away from the pumps and then stop, as your rig probably blocks two sets of pumps. For that reason, consider using the first pump as that way others can go around you and get to the other pump, whereas in a car you would always use the second pump and let others in behind.
Finding somewhere to stop
Part of distance driving is stopping, and as you know by now, is harder when towing. Why so? Say you’re pulling into a rural town for a stop. You need a space a lot longer than a car would. And you wouldn’t want to be unsociable and block everyone, would you? So often you end up parking further away than you’d perhaps like, but be happy, exercise is a great way to help manage fatigue.
The same goes for shopping centre carparks, which aren’t designed for trailer towing, let alone large caravans. It’s all part of thinking ahead, pre-planning, and accepting that you cannot drive your rig like you do your unhitched car.
Driver aids
You hear theories all the time. Lock out 6th gear. Lock out 5th gear. Drive it in Sport mode. Chant an incantation before you put it in Drive and so on.
Are these well-meaning advisors wrong? Possibly not if their advice is specific to an older vehicle. If it’s general, then it’s almost certainly not right – and if it’s relating to a modern car, again, almost certainly not. Your modern towcar, which means anything later than about 2005, has a clever gearbox which is simply best left in Drive and the computers will figure it all out.
The one time you’d want to override the computer’s selection is when you’re on a long downhill when selecting a lower gear would help with keeping brake heat under control, even if modern autos will often preference lower gears. The old three-speed autos plus overdrive are a world away from the modern 8-10 speeds with sophisticated computer control, and they don’t need any help with torque convertor lockout either, and probably not extra cooling.
Modern cars have a plethora of other driving and safety aids, such as blind spot monitoring, lane keep assist, reversing aids and more. Don’t expect all of these to work when towing, or if they do, not as well.
For example, the lane keep system won’t handle the extra width of your caravan. The car’s reversing camera won’t help you, and so on. It’s almost like you’ll need to learn to drive without the aids. Do experiment with what aids work and do not work when towing. Your owner’s manual is a good place to start too.
Driving to the conditions
Ah, that sage advice again. But what does it mean? It means looking at various factors such as how wet the road is, wind, uphill or downhill, capabilities of the towcar and much more…then varying your speed to suit. Crawling around everywhere like a snail when you’re towing long distances is definitely not what it means. It also means adapting how you drive to the road, weather, rig capability and even your mood.
