Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "How to park a caravan | Towing with a Caravan | Drive in | 1974" video.

  1. For someone in the US, this was a real hoot to watch. The amount of bureaucracy just to tow a trailer (caravan) was mind boggling. Here you just got a hitch installed, hooked up the trailer, and away you went. I don't know if speed was still in MPH then or KPH. I'm assuming MPH since, even in in Britain, I can't imagine towing being restricted to 31 mph. In the US, except for a few states like California (the closest we have to British bureaucracy) that restricted towing vehicles to 55 mph, you were allowed to tow at the legal limit. You didn't need some special plate on the back of the trailer. I suppose those triangle tail lights were to warn other drivers they were about to crash into a slow moving caravan. That wouldn't have been an issue if the caravans were traveling at the same speed as the rest of traffic. Trailers here just had normal tail lights like the rest of traffic. Is that still required there? A 22 foot trailer is nearly as small as you can get here. I did have a 14 foot Cardinal in the same time period as the show but it was barely adequate for a weekend with just a stove, icebox, a manual water pump and a sink, a couple of interior lights, and a table that converted to a very cramped bed. I towed it with a 1970 Toyota Corona and it was barely able to handle it. I moved up to an International Scout SUV and 26 foot trailer in 1976 and things were much better. Even had a shower and a loo. The first thing you do when backing a trailer is take off your dang seatbelt! I suppose there was some regulation about that too. The program didn't include any actual tips about how to back. Once you got used to only using the bottom of the wheel and turning in the direction you wanted to go it wasn't all that hard. I've backed 35 foot trailers without much difficulty. And that periscope thing! I can't imagine what use it was in backing a trailer, and it doesn't seem like anything that could be used on the road. In almost 50 years of towing trailers I have never seen a periscope. Seems like another wacky British invention. :-)
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  2.  @theaccidentalcaravanner5404  The sound at 0:50 sounded more like an ignition being switched off. I stepped through the video up to 1:43 and that's the first time I can see the whole gas cover. The dent is there, but i can't tell if it was there before the segment started or not.
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  3. He couldn't have dented the caravan. The worst he could do was put a ding in the fiberglass cover over the propane tank, and I didn't even see evidence of that.
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