Know How To Tow

25th May, 2022 by rvSafe Team

In Australia, provided you have a full driving licence (some states and territories place towing restrictions on Learner and Provisional Licence holders), and the caravan and tow vehicle don’t exceed the mass limits that involve an endorsed or heavy vehicle license, you are permitted to tow a trailer or caravan. With special licensing requirements mandatory for the operation of some vehicles and equipment, it may be surprising to learn that no such requirements exist when it comes to towing.

If you don’t need to undergo training or pass a test to hit the open road with a trailer or caravan in tow, you’re probably thinking the skills necessary to tow must come naturally. The truth is, towing a trailer or caravan can be tricky for those with no or little experience and requires a specific set of skills and techniques.

We continue to see an increase in on-road incidents involving caravans, and in most cases these incidents are due to driver error. Towing is more than just hitching the trailer or caravan and driving off; there are so many factors that need to be considered.

If you are new to towing and don’t know where to start or have little experience and want to become more confident in your towing skills, you should consider completing a towing course.

Getabout Training Services has been operating for over 25 years and delivered 4WD training courses to industry and individuals across Australia and the globe. After identifying another real need in the driving community, to educate people who tow, they established Tow-Ed.

Getabout is still an Australian family owned and operated Registered Training Organisation (RTO: 90547) and has become the premier government, corporate and recreational 4WD & Towing training company both locally and abroad.

An accredited towing course will guide you through the basics of manoeuvring your combination safely on the road and in a caravan park, but also impart essential knowledge regarding weights, legalities, roadcraft and vehicle setup to ensure you are as safe as possible while towing.

On top of safely manoeuvring and parking your caravan or trailer, an accredited towing course will also focus on topics including:

Understanding of vehicle weights and legal requirements
Different vehicle combinations and the impact they have on you as a driver
Prestart vehicle inspections and post trip checks
Hitching and unhitching safely
Roadcraft and negotiating other road users
Guiding and communication techniques
Negotiating tight turns and situations
Setup and operation of electric brake controllers
Setup of vehicle and caravan for reversing manoeuvres
Trailer sway and how to control it

Don’t let the large number of topics deter you, the information learnt from an accredited towing course is invaluable. There’s so much more to towing than most people expect.

By choosing an accredited training provider you guarantee a standard of delivery, knowing that provider must be a Registered Training Organisation (RTO). As an RTO, they have checks and balances in place to ensure your privacy and security as a learner, support structure in place to assist you with the course, are upfront and honest about the training process and content and that the course is validated against industry benchmarks.

It also means all trainers must be qualified and competent with rigorous industry experience and go through continuous improvement to maintain the high levels of service you should expect.

If you’re looking for an accredited course in towing from an accredited training provider, you really can’t go wrong with Tow-ed. With over 30 years of 4WD travel, caravan, and training experience, the 40 strong team of professional instructors and guides at Getabout have superb knowledge to share.