Caravan

CHOOSING 22 BUYING YOUR FIRST CARAVAN outandaboutlive.co.uk Our tech expert, Lee Davey, offers his advice for those new to caravanning If you’re new to caravanning, you'll have lots of questions. Will my car tow a caravan? How much weight can my caravan carry? Will my driving licence allow me to tow a caravan at all? Rewind 15 years, and my first caravanning trip was less than harmonious. Deciding that a 200- mile round trip was the ideal recipe for a first outing, we hitched a poorly loaded caravan to our car and headed for Dartmoor… in winter. At the time, guides appeared to be the work of advanced mathematicians and my already overloaded brain couldn’t store any more algebraic formulas. Let's make it easier with our guide. CAN I TOW A CARAVAN WITH MY LICENCE? At the time of going to press, if you passed your Camping & Caravanning Club Simon Callaghan Photography Confused by caravanning? driving test after 1 January, 1997, your ‘B’ licence limits the combined weight of car and caravan to 3,500kg. This will be the gross, or maximum weight. Although 3,500kg will still allow you to tow a relatively lightweight family caravan with a mid-sized car, you will need to take an additional ‘B+E’ test to tow anything heavier. Passed before 1997? You’ll be able to tow a combined weight of up to 8,250kg. The Government has announced it is changing the rules, however; when the rules change, all drivers will be able to tow a trailer or caravan weighing up to 3,500kg without an additional test. CAN MY CAR TOW A CARAVAN? If your car is capable of towing (not all vehicles are), it will have a maximum weight that it’s able to tow. ABOVE It's time to start one of the greatest adventures!