Welcome back to Flisty's Driver Training. I'm Flist, aka the trailer lady and today we're going to show you how you reverse a caravan onto a pitch. Let me just quickly run through it before we actually do it. In simplest of terms you want to steer a full lock away from the pitch and then once the straight line of the caravan and car have been broken you want to return your wheels to straight. That will then push the caravan round the corner onto the pitch because it will be the hitch pushing the caravan rounds. Once the caravan's pointing in the general direction we want it to go to we're then going to steer full lock towards the pitch or imagine you're reversing the car on its own which way would you steer. Or following on from my straight line tutorial my straight line video where is the problem and wherever the problem is i.e. wherever there's too much caravan that's the way you steer. Now it's what resonates with you so they're the three sayings that i use they all give the same answer okay so we're going to start we're going to do the right reverse for you and funnily enough left is exactly the same just everything is opposite but we're going to focus on the right reverse today. So let's start i've got Andy as my willing volunteer here so Andy when you're ready let's pop the vehicle into reverse hand break off and we will steer full lock away from the pitch the pitch is on this side so we're steering full lock away. You can see that the wheel is now turning the caravan and car are now broken the straight line is broken so could you return to your wheels to straight for me feels like two turns of the steering will folks just to give you a little tip there now that caravan is starting to turn around that corner now it's going really nicely and we're letting that come round now you never want it to be 100 percent you never want the caravan to be pointing onto the pitch perfectly because that's too late the caravan will have turned too much so this is a like trying to control a very active two-year-old you've got to be three four steps ahead of it okay so we're going to let the caravan go a little bit further before we put our corrective steering so Andy when you're ready let's push back a bit more okay hold it there now that to me is about the right kind of distance we want the caravan is pointing onto the pitch but it's not perfectly on it yet so now i'd like you Andy to steer full lock towards the pitch or imagine you as reversing the car on on its own okay now hold it there again for me now what you'll see here is the caravan is just starting to veer off course we want it parallel to this grass virgin it's just starting to veer off course a so to make the caravan turn again and he's going to return his wheels to straight and reverse back a tiny bit more and that's going to make that caravan start to turn again hold it there and again it's now pointing in the general direction but it's still not parallel with that grass now the reason we have to be two or three steps ahead of this is because you're asking these wheels to turn but it's actually the back of the caravan that is doing the turning so there is a time delay between putting the input in and getting the result at the end so that's why you've got to be a few steps ahead so Andy now when we move we're going to steer full lock towards the pitch or if I asked you where the problem was the problems in this mirror so we would steer this way and the bigger the problem the bigger the steer that's what's relating and requiring the full locks there and now what we're doing is we're hanging on to this wheel in that position until this car and caravan are straight again so Andy you tell me when it's straight good straight in those wheels back up and just push back hold it there for me now whenever you do any reversing with anything that's got a brake on it caravan or a trailer or anything like that the last manoeuvre must always be a pull forward and what that does is it re-engages the overrun brakes and it pulls out the drawbar so that rubbery concertine a bit that's on your hitch you need to expand that so that you can uncouple properly so Andy if you would kindly just bring it forward that little bit and hold it there okay there is a good chance that these things will go off course they won't go according to plan so we're now going to show you how you fix it so Andy just push back for me so this is what happens if you leave the caravan until it's 100% square on its pitch okay so now Andy we're going to steer full up to this mirror to bring that caravan round I think I've overcooked it now okay so stop there so you can see this caravan has come round on itself and we've turned it too tightly so we're going to take a shunt there's no shame in a shunt we are going to take a shunt and that's going to straighten all of this out for you so it is opposite lock opposite direction opposite lock opposite direction okay so you do it twice it takes you forward returns you backwards okay so Andy if you would opposite lock from the way you are what I'd like to do is just pull forwards never perfectly straight though you still want a kink in the unit so pull forward till it's not quite there keep going a little bit more a little bit more okay there so what we've done is we've pulled it out far enough forward that actually when we reverse we've got that little buffer of space we need because we're sending the message from here and we want the back of the caravan to react so now opposite lock again and just before you go back opposite direction I bet there's people watching this going oh you're dry steering you're dry steering wherever possible try and move before you steer however we're on a campsite with not a lot of space so I won't use my usual term because it's probably not broadcastable but what you do is when you are in a small space that is the time to dry steer and you'll get an instant reaction from the caravan and get you out of trouble and you won't upset the people that are pitched opposite you so Andy you've already done the full lock now take it back so it was opposite lock opposite direction and as that caravan starts to straighten up you start to straighten your wheels I sit and then using the straight line principles that we did earlier just straighten that up onto its pitch and stop there and then another reminder last maneuver when you've been going backwards with the caravan or trailer is always a pull forward it re-engages the overrun brakes and it pulls out the drawbar on the hitch so Andy if you could just pull forward for me wonderful and hold it there so thank you for watching I hope that was useful for you if you've got any questions or observations please pop them in the comments below don't forget to like and don't forget to subscribe see you later