Five tips to ensure your next caravanning trip is a success

When travelling with a caravan or boat in tow, you want to be able to see the sights or get on the water, and not worry about how well your rig is performing on the road. Here are our five tips to getting the best out of your towing combination.

Even though most heavy-duty tow vehicles are pretty good at lugging a heavy trailer these days, you want to make sure your tow vehicle is up to the job of towing your van reliably, with good fuel touring range and strong hill-climbing ability. Having a turbo-diesel rather than a petrol is ideal for long-distance touring, with the optimum fuel efficiency and torque needed to pull a heavy van.

Isuzu makes among the best diesel engines for longevity and heavy-duty work, such as the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel in the Isuzu MU-X. This engine has 450Nm of torque for solid towing response and is one of the most efficient in the business, exactly what you want out on the road. It’s an efficient engine purpose built to handle thousands of kilometres of heavy duty towing.

Without a doubt the biggest advance in tow vehicle technology in recent years has been in both passive and active safety systems. These systems allow you to tow with confidence, knowing that the vehicle has a safety net ready to deploy if your tow vehicle and van are at risk of being in an accident.

You need to allow even more braking distance than usual when towing through a town or city. Even if you are being as careful as possible to leave a gap, traffic can stop suddenly and unexpectedly. Here the Autonomous Emergency Braking offers added peace of mind, automatically initiating emergency braking when the system senses a nose to tail accident is imminent.

The main risk when towing is of course swaying, which can lead to loss of control. Beyond the basics of towing to road conditions and of course ensuring your load is well balanced, active safety systems can also really help. For example, trailer sway control, standard in the Isuzu MU-X, applies brakes to individual vehicle wheels to help bring the trailer safely back under control.

Even the simple reversing camera is a great feature for not only hitching up by yourself, but in some situations when backing up a large trailer. The ideal way to safely back a large trailer in tight spots though, is with a helper who is watching and and can guide you.

Setting up a vehicle for towing can need some planning to ensure your rig is safe and has the right equipment for your towing needs. For example, is the towbar a hitch-receiver type, to allow different tow tongues to be used as needed (adjustable height, or for a load levelling system)? Can you fit shackles easily enough, and is the 12v plug easy to access?

Another item often forgotten by towing newcomers is the electric brake controller (EBC). This is part of a braking system legally required for trailers weighing more than 2000kg, and often even lighter trailers have electric brakes. An EBC is fitted in the vehicle and activates the trailer’s brakes when you brake the tow vehicle. With the Isuzu MU-X, you can have an integrated factory-approved fitted that works perfectly with the vehicle’s electrics and van’s brakes.

It’s a legal requirement to have side mirrors that allow the driver to see past the caravan, so you’ll likely need towing mirrors on your tow vehicle. Many of the temporary towing mirrors are hard to attach, get blown around or even fall off when towing. There are permanent extendable fitment mirrors like the Clear View type, that make life a lot easier when towing. For Isuzu MU-X buyers, you can order and have Clear View Towing Mirrors fitted at an Isuzu dealer. The bonus with the Clear Vue mirrors is that they have blind spot monitoring, side marker indicators and even mirror heating integrated on the mirrors.

When setting up for towing, you should turn off some of the active safety that is either unnecessary or could distract you when towing. Depending on the vehicle you’re towing with, you should consider turning off features such as Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Emergency Lane Keeping, Blind Spot Monitoring and Lane Departure Prevention. Adaptive Cruise Control also shouldn’t be used as a rule. With the Isuzu genuine trailer harness fitted on the new Isuzu MU-X, you have the Blind Sport Monitor and Rear Cross Traffic Alert automatically turned off when the trailer connector is plugged in.

It can’t be underestimated how important regular safety and maintenance checks are to helping avoid problems when you’re out on the road.

A caravan’s hatches, windows and doors should be secured, the coupling checked to see it’s locked in properly, so that the drawbar’s chains and shackles are secured well to the towbar and the trailer plug is connecting properly.

Checking fluid levels in the vehicle and that the tyres are at the correct inflation pressures is important. Some vehicles like the Isuzu MU-X have tyre pressure monitoring, which gives extra peace of mind, but you should also do a visual check for any tyre cuts or other damage.