towing and launching a rib with a motorhome

[Hugh Jardon]

we are thinking of chopping in the caravan and the hardboat for a motorhome and wondered if any of you have had experience in towing a rib with a motorhome and launching it with a motorhome!! it is going to be quite a long beast as we are going for quite a large 6 berth motorhome with a garage etc and i think it would be better with rear wheel drive for the slipways. anyone done this or got any experience? before we make the leap.....

[tcwozere]

Install a winch at the back.. Can then just park at the top of the slip, and press a button..

[UKPOWERBOAT]

Originally Posted by Hugh Jardon

anyone done this or got any experience? before we make the leap.....

Don't leave the handbrake off!!

[ADS]

Shouldn't be an issue although on slips a winch is the answer. Go for the biggest diesel you can afford, im sure some of the Mercedes chassis have some good common rail diesels in with a 6spd gear box.

[Hugh Jardon]

yes looking at the merc with a 2.7 turbo diesel as that seems to have quite a bit of punch for hauling the crap around we usually travel with...

Originally Posted by ADS

Shouldn't be an issue although on slips a winch is the answer. Go for the biggest diesel you can afford, im sure some of the Mercedes chassis have some good common rail diesels in with a 6spd gear box.

[Alice]

Make sure what ever you do, that it's a rear wheel drive. My Old Man is a hardcore Motorhome nut. At the mo. he has a VW T5 2.5TDI camper and tows a caravan with it (he snores and this combo gives 2 bedrooms ). His biggest problem is traction offroad. I reckon the VW would be totally useless on a slip with a Rib behind it.
Some of these campers are scarey money. A newish merc is gonna be in the £50k+ bracket.

[Hugh Jardon]

Originally Posted by Alice

Make sure what ever you do, that it's a rear wheel drive. My Old Man is a hardcore Motorhome nut. At the mo. he has a VW T5 2.5TDI camper and tows a caravan with it (he snores and this combo gives 2 bedrooms ). His biggest problem is traction offroad. I reckon the VW would be totally useless on a slip with a Rib behind it.
Some of these campers are scarey money. A newish merc is gonna be in the £50k+ bracket.

the first six wheeler we looked at was 50k second hand, prefer to spend around 30-40k really if we can get a nice one, will sell the landy, the caravan and the hard boat to raise the cash

[Scrumdown]

I seem to remember a mate of my dads telling me that his motorhome has ?? diff lock?? or somthing to help him when he is on slippy fields I am sure its not 4x4 but really helps him and he claims that his motorhome which is a monster hasn't been stuck yet.

Will try to find out the model - its only 18 months old -he also tows a car behind and a moped on the back rack as well - oh he's 78 as well!!!

[Hugh Jardon]

cool the fords and mercs are rear wheel drive but the rest seem to be mostly front wheel drive like the renaults, fiats etc etc. have been told the front wheel drives can get stuck easily cos of not much weight over the front so if towing or launching or in a field then would be tricky i suspect

favorite is the merc unit but would go ford if i had to

would be good to know what he has that has a dif lock

Originally Posted by Scrumdown

I seem to remember a mate of my dads telling me that his motorhome has ?? diff lock?? or somthing to help him when he is on slippy fields I am sure its not 4x4 but really helps him and he claims that his motorhome which is a monster hasn't been stuck yet.

Will try to find out the model - its only 18 months old -he also tows a car behind and a moped on the back rack as well - oh he's 78 as well!!!

[Nos4r2]

A tip-Don't buy one with an aluminium body if you can help it-they dent awful easily and are an absolute shit to repair due to the insulation behind it.
My mum and her husband have a rather nice fibreglass bodied merc based Hymermobil for that reason-small branches and stuff in narrow lanes knocked the shit out of their ally bodied Fiat.

Don't forget that a long motorhome will make reversing a trailer a bit difficult anyway-specially if it's got a big rear overhang.

Probably easier to decouple and launch/recover with an electric winch rather than trying to use the motorhome to pull the boat up the slipway.