We bought our 1983 Windsor Windcheater caravan 13' this week.
DH parked it out the front overnight - no problems. The road does slope so don't want to park it there for too long.
Today DH tried to reverse it up our driveway to park under cover but we struck a problem.
The camber of the road at our driveway causes a deep dip but no problems driving our car up or down the driveway.
DH tried reversing the van up the driveway but the rear scraped (looked like it would bend the metal bar) at the gutter so was unable to continue. DH then tried to drive up - same problem but with the draw bar.
Van is now parked on the street again. What can we do?
Build a temporary bridge at driveway each time you need to put van in or out. Bricks or pavers could be used to "fill" the ditch (Temporarily). Perhaps even a few bags of sand would level out the ditch.
Elsewise you will need to purchase a remote controlled caravan mover and unhitch on the street. Last option (other than moving) is to store caravan off site.
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Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan
Sent from my imperial66 typewriter using carrier pigeon, message sticks and smoke signals.
Hi there one solution on a permanent basis would be to place a steel plate from edge of road to xover dyna bolt it down the water can still flow under and it won't move when driving over cheers good luck.
I use 100mm x 100mm x 2400mm x 2 pieces of permapine in the gutter along with 5 small pieces of 75mm x 75mm in front of the bigger pieces to get over the dip in the gutter. Also have 3 rubber wheels under the rear chassis of the van, just in case it scrapes.
Purchase the 2 pieces that are 2.4m long from Bunnings at $5 each since they were a bit warped. Now painted.
Your problem is the entry/exit angles that your combination can't handle. having a filled in gutter does not alter the angle from road to driveway.
The rear of the van will scrape well before the vans wheels are in the gutter and then even if you were to succeed the draw bar will scrape well before the cars rear wheels hit the gutter.
The solution to reducing an entry/exit angle problem is to approach from a 45degree angle not at 90 degrees.
Hi there one solution on a permanent basis would be to place a steel plate from edge of road to xover dyna bolt it down the water can still flow under and it won't move when driving over cheers good luck.
Check with your local council before doing this.
Here at Lake Macquarie NSW it is illegal unless you have permission to put any
approved gutter ramping from the roadway to your driveway
I have been following this thread with interest. Our driveway crossing had severe gradient changes, and the front or rear of our van used to scrape as we went in or out of the crossing. The crossing was only a thin bitumen capping over gravel, and large areas had broken up whenever it rained (very rarely here)! The broken areas always started where we dug holes with our caravan jacks or the towbar.
We had a slight gradient in our driveway (concrete) then a steep downgrade to the 'gutter', then a fairly steep up-gradient which was the camber of the roadway. After years of patching the holes with concrete, I finally sought permission from our council to get the crossing fully concreted. Oh boy! I opened a can of worms. Leglislation abounded. I tried to arrange for a contractor to do the work, but none of them wanted to do it because they would get into trouble from the Council. Eventually, I arranged for the Council to do it for me. It cost more than double what the contractors would have charged, but if it is wrong, they have to fix it.
Now, instead of having a steep downgrade to the gutter, then the roadway camber changing the gradient, I have a nearly flat section (the footpath), then a VERY STEEP downgrade to the gutter and then the roadway camber. As I traverse the crossing, both ends of the van now crunch heavily, but it is in 100 mm concrete and that ain't gonna break up in a hurry. I am considering buying a van now with air suspension so I can raise and lower it as required. All this because I didn't like holes in our driveway crossing.....
