Towing with a Hijet

Hello all

I'm looking out for a towbar for Betty, so I can pull a medium sized trailer.

I know that the trailer shouldn't be any wider than the van, but, ahem, does length matter?

Many thanks in advance
Tara

so long as its balanced, i use a small/medium weight trailer for bikes. its quite low and the tail can ground if you drive over a steep bump.

you can be wider but the trailer has to be marked/lit correctly also if you haven't towed much get some flags so you can see where it is when you are reversing.

Hi Rich

Flags? I've no idea what they are like to be honest.

you know flappy bits of cloth or plastic on a stick stuck to the corner/s of the trailer so you can see where its going when you go backwards.

Ha ha, I thought they were a speciality thing for trailers

I would recommend once you get a trailer, to go to a quite car park one evening, and spend an hour just getting a feel for reversing....

Just remember, you need to turn the wheel (and thus, point the van) the opposite way to where you want the trailer to go...
then straighten the steering when its all inline and just feather the steering if you need to...

That might not make any sense to you at the moment, but once you start reversing it, you will understand...

That definitely makes sense.
I forgot that about 18 years ago I towed a huge old six berth caravan from Worcestershire to Bristol (my then hubby dealt with the tow bar hooking up etc) and yes, going around traffic islands etc was interesting! I can't remember if I reversed the caravan or not, but yes, I will need some practise with a trailer

It shouldnt be too hard :p

Good luck with it, I wont need the hijet for towing, as I have a S3 Land Rover

you do need to remember the smaller the trailer the closer the axle is to the van and the faster it will turn I borrowed a little trailer ten years ago and could not reverse it as soon as it moved it swung right round it was that small my mate used to pick it up and carry it round as I reversed the car.

thats what i do with the empty bike trailer, get out, pick the back end up and shift it round!