Caravan Parks; the Theatre
The Sydney Opera House, caravan parks and boat ramps all have one important thing in common; they are all awesome theatres where we can spend hours of quality time in the audience watching the show. The quality of the production varies somewhat dependant on the venue. What we all want to see in the caravan park is the arrival of Mr and Mrs Grump and their complete lack of idea and tolerance of each other. A good argument and dummy spit makes the ticket price worth every cent.
Im no reversing expert and Im not about to impart my shallow wisdom but we have a system that works very well for us (mostly). A hands-on short course is a much better way to acquire that knowledge and confidence, and there are quiet a few systems around that work really well. Almost every caravan park will have the obligatory on-hand “expert on everything” including manoeuvring your caravan. Listen politely, thank him, and then go back to your way in your time.
The key to success and robbing the crowd of a show is to simply slow down, and take all the time in the world that you need to get the job done. You do actually have all the time in the world, so my advice is to used every minute of it. If Im not happy with the directions Im getting I will get out of the car and have look for myself.
With out a word of exaggeration at one particularly challenging site we arrived at the well entrenched neighbours literally pulled up chairs to watch us manoeuvre our 20ft caravan between a 15ft drop off and a 15ft bank with 10ft of turning room past a large tree. On that occasion the local experts stayed put in his camp and no-one offered a single word of advice. This was a show no-one wanted us to get right, and no-one wanted to miss.
A simple and incredibly helpful reversing pal and marriage saver is a pair of kid’s $50 handheld UHF radios available from Jaycar, JB HiFi, Officeworks, Autobarn and many other places. The key when reversing the caravan is communication; clear, concices and unambiguous directions. The most important piece of advice I cant emphasise enough is to describe in full minute and painful detail which bit of what, where you want to put it and how that impacts everything else, ie. “move the rear drivers side of the van toward the drivers side. You have one metre of clearance to each side and the rear“. Every communication needs a response before you move an inch.
One course learnt Pull/Push system which good friends of ours use to great success utilises UHF radios. The guiding person stands directly to the side at the rear of the van in clear view of the driver. The guiding person simply calls pull, push or straight. The pull and push relating to the position of the rear of the van and describes the guiding person hypothetically pulling the van sideways toward their position, or pushing it away.