Those were the days!
My first caravan, a two-berth, was easy to manhandle. My second and third had motor movers. I had no trouble with the second, but with my current van, I’ve had endless issues.
The caravan – a 2019 four-berth – is quite heavy, at almost 1700kg when ready to hit the road. The mover sometimes stuttered, and sometimes didn’t work. I took it to a dealer, who found nothing wrong. But they did have a smooth concrete pad on which to test it. The dealer suggested a number of reasons for the malfunction. First, not having a powerful enough leisure battery. I needed 110A minimum and my old one was 90A. I bought a new one.
They also suggested that, as I have a gravel drive, I should get a pneumatic jockey tyre, instead of the hard one. I bought a new one, but it was wider, so would not retract behind the hitch lock. I put the hard tyre back on. It still only worked erratically, so I tested the noseweight and found it to be well over 100kg.
Even when taking most of the stuff out of the front locker and putting it in the back of the van, it was still heavy. Nevertheless, it helped.
A fully charged battery, lighter front-loading, a hard jockey wheel and keeping the nose up all seemed to make it work – finally.
Has anyone else had similar issues?
Jeff Topp
The contributor of our Star letter wins a pair of Milenco Grand Aero towing mirrors. They’re designed to fit all wing mirrors and offer an outstanding view. For further details and a list of retailers of Milenco products, visit www.milenco.com
X-TRAIL CONNECTIONS
I was interested to read your review of the Nissan X-Trail e-4orce Tekna (issue 466).
I recently purchased one and cannot recommend it highly enough as a tow vehicle.
However, I experienced the same issue with the vehicle’s dealer-fit towing electrics not operating the ATC.
On reporting this problem to the dealer, they contacted Nissan and were told that the Nissan towing loom did not support this function.
My previous model X-Trail had worked well.
I contacted Nissan customer services and explained that this was a major omission, which would render the car not up to spec for a modern caravan.
They were very attentive and after several weeks, worked out a solution with the dealer to fit a modified loom from a Qashqai, which provided the necessary feed to the ATC.
I cannot fault the service provided by Nissan and the dealership. All is now well on my car, but I’m not sure whether Nissan has updated its wiring accordingly. I would strongly advise any readers contemplating purchasing a new X-Trail to check this.
