Caravan Towing Courses

[Kerri]

Hi All,

Am new to this forum so hope I am doing this right....

Just wondering if anyone has done a caravan towing course in Brisbane area. We have recently bought an expanda outback 20.63-1 and I have never towed anything so was thinking it would be best to do one of these courses just in case I have to tow it at some stage.

Can you recommend what company you did the towing course with and if you found it beneficial.

Thanks.

 

[crackacoldie]

Firstly welcome to a great forum and a great lifestyle @Kerri, you'll really enjoy the relaxation you get from the expanda. Where are you located, as that will effect which companies are available for courses.

Cheers

Cracka

 

[hamish22]

Hi @Kerri

That's one fair size van to deal with first up and it's great to see that you are looking at taking a safety first approach!

cheers to you!

 

[17triton]

Welcome @Kerri sorry i cant help but good on you for taking that approach, great idea with such a big van first up.

 

[chartrock]

Welcome @Kerri to the friendly forum. RACQ run courses in towing although I think they farm them out to another company. Might be a place to start looking.

 

[Bushman]

Hi Kerri Welcome aboard,
Try this one Tow-Ed

 

[straydingo]

Hi Kerri
Welcome to the forum.

I appreciate the focus on safety and don't wish to detract from that.

I have not done one of these courses myself so this is only hearsay, but a couple of friends did a Tow-ed course down here and were bitterly disappointed. I don't recall their specific gripes, just that it was still very vague and didn't cover much of what they were hoping for - in once instance they spent 5 minutes on reversing the van, and the instructor said not to be too concerned if they couldn't do it after a couple of minutes trying, they'll work it out later. (????)

As a simple alternative, do you have any friends or family familiar with towing? Maybe they can take you and the van to a quiet industrial suburb on a Sunday and give you opportunity to practice there? The roads are generally wide for maneuvering practice - corners, reversing, hitching etc; and little traffic on Sunday to get in peoples' way, and just take your time. Then head out on the freeway to appreciate the different dynamics at speed (which the towing courses don't do with you)

While this approach still missed things that the course might cover - pre trip checks, legal aspects, types of vans and components etc, there will always be knowledgeable people here and on other forums who can help with such things.

 

[Brad]

I am probably the opposite with the towing course run by METEC in Kilsyth.
My parents bought the course for my wife mainly as she wanted to tow also. I went along as well.
For my wife, she learned heaps of basics in an environment she could not do elsewhere.

But the things that I like were:
- knowing what happens to a van when you slam on the brakes so hard that the ABS kicks in.
- knowing how tight you can actually go when doing a u turn.
- knowing the extreme position of your van when backing and getting yourself into a jackknife position.

So for me I learned a lot of limits which gave me confidence in certain scenarios.
For my wife though I would have thought she would have found a good chunk of the day invaluable.