10 easy tips to gain confidence driving your motorhome or camper

New motorhome owner, going on your first trip, feeling a little bit intimidated about driving this enormous vehicle? I know exactly how you feel. Here are some tips to help. Hey I'm Kat and welcome to Wandering Bird where we share tips and tricks for motorhomers and campervanners to help you make the most of your time on the road. And today we are tackling driving the big white beast. For most of us driving a motorhome is going to be the biggest vehicle that we have ever driven. If you are an HGV driver or you're used to driving enormous vehicles you probably don't need this video because this is for those of us who are brand new, very intimidated and just want to make sure we don't scratch our new pride and joy. And I know exactly how you feel because we've had a van for years but I'll be honest my husband has done most of the driving. Now we've had three vans, the first one was under three and a half tons, I could have driven it but I was really intimidated so I just kind of let him drive it. The second van was over three and a half tons and I can't drive that on my license because I took my test after 1997, so I would have to do a C1 edition and I'll be honest I didn't do that. But then we downsized again and we went back to a van that was under three and a half tons and I was determined that I was going to drive this thing. The problem was I was still really intimidated by it but I have made myself go out and go for longer and slightly longer journeys and just build up my confidence because I didn't like the fact that I was intimidated by it. And the other thing that I discovered was that if I am on the insurance as a name driver, which I am, and something happens to my husband I would be expected to drive the motorhome back or do whatever. The insurance company wouldn't send out a recovery vehicle for that because I'm a name driver. So that's something to bear in mind if you are a name driver on your policy you will be expected to drive it and you should be able to do so. So I am not a driving instructor by any means but I thought I would share a few things that I have done to just make me feel a little bit more comfortable when I'm driving the van because I know some people get in the van they're like yeah this is fine, not a problem at all. And now does the bus need a little hand holding. So if you are feeling nervous don't worry you can do this and here's what helped me. Before I dive in if you're new to the channel hi welcome we share tips for motorhoming and campervanning and if you'd like to see more by all means hit subscribe. Okay let's dive in. So the first thing I want to say is your confidence isn't going to grow unless you get out there and actually do it. Now depending on how supportive your partner, your friend, your family are, you might want to do this on your own or you might want to do this with somebody there to help you. So let me get this right dad you're you're not driving. I can't go to sleep now. This is the normals. We're going to die. We're not we're doing 20 miles an hour and it goes really fast. I found the first couple of times I drove it was really helpful to have my husband there a for moral support but also as the passenger he was like no you're miles away from that you can get a bit closer to the kerb. Because the van and most motorhomes are well they're definitely wider than a car they're normally about half a meter wider than a standard car depending on your standard car it can feel really weird and you naturally kind of drift out and I often find myself sort of lining up with the middle of the road which is obviously far too far over and you have to kind of force yourself to come back to the edge of the road. Now you can practice this in a car and if you practice going closer to the kerb than you would naturally drive in a car you'll get over that kind of this is too close this is weird feeling. So that's something you can definitely do even if you're just driving around your normal car is practice just driving obviously not on the kerb but just driving closer than you might normally would because in a motorhome you will be closer to the kerb just because of the width of the vehicle in the lane. The other thing you can do that really helps is find out a point on the dashboard that lines you up in the middle of the lane now obviously that will depend a lot on the width of the lane you're in but on a standard lane find a reference point on the dashboard so that you can make sure you're in the middle of that lane that really helps obviously you don't want your wing mirror over one side or the other side because that's going to be dangerous to other road users. So make sure you're in the middle of the road and that's why it can be helpful to have somebody with you so they can check your road position whilst you're checking everything else that's going on as you're driving along. Having said that now I've got that fairly sussed I actually prefer being able to go out and drive around on my own because I find that I can concentrate more on what I'm doing rather than having to worry about anybody else that's in the vehicle with me so make sure you find a balance that's right for you. The biggest thing to remember apart from your width is your height and your length. Now height you can't do a whole lot about make sure you have a proper sat-nav I can't stress this enough so that you are not faced with a very low bridge and going oh my goodness I can't remember exactly how high I am. Make sure you know your height both in meters and in feet. A lot of people on the drop down over the steering wheel on the drop down um sunscreen what's it called sunblind the bit that drops down sunblind anyway that bit that drops sun visor that was hard work wasn't it um on the back of that you can actually just put a little bit of paper or a sticky note or something that's got your height and your width and your length in both meters and in feet so that if you do see a sign saying low bridge of whatever in front of you you can flick it down can I flick through that yes I can and of course if you are going to a low bridge pull out into the middle like a big bus or lorry would because you are a big bus slash lorry and so you will take up the middle of the low bridge remember your height same thing applies with low hanging trees you will become much more aware of low hanging branches and you'll instinctively duck as you go past any yeah you'll be amazed how many of them are around and can be hazardous to your vehicle so be careful with them and of course if you can pull out wait till the road coming the other way is clear and then you can pull out and go round them and the last thing is your length you will take much bigger turning circles than you are used to in a car if you imagine coming to a junction you can't just do that because if you turn then you're going to hit the curb or the pavement on that side so you have to pull yourself out and then round which sometimes fairly regularly means you're going to be pulling out onto the opposite side or opposite lane of traffic so you need to make sure that both ways are properly clear before you do keep an extra special eye out for cyclists and motorcyclists who get a bit impatient especially motorcyclists being one of them I'm allowed to say this they can get very impatient and try to overtake you or try to whiz past you as you're pulling at junctions just let people go let people do their thing if it takes an extra five seconds for you to let them go you will get them much calmer much less stressed and ideally without killing anybody that's a really good way to arrive so those are all the things to think about whilst you are driving the vehicle the other thing to think about especially if it's your first time and you're going to go to a dealership and you have never driven a motorhome before because most of us buy a motorhome without any form of road test at all you can actually end up buying your brand new motorhome and it'll be the first time you've ever driven it so make sure that you take your time I highly recommend you don't go to the dealer last thing in the day because they are going to be pushing you to get out so they can lock up and clean up and go home so try and do it either in the morning or in the middle of the day if you've got plenty of time make sure you've done your handover take over notes so that you can remember everything that they said because that's all about to go out your head as you are about to drive this thing now take your time to set up your mirrors and set up the back if you've got reversing camera even better I would highly recommend you don't bring the entire family with you on your very first trip perhaps your partner or somebody to help you but don't bring the kids and everyone else because the noise and the questions and everything is going to make it really difficult for you to concentrate whilst you are driving this beast for the first time so just give yourself that first trip just to get in there remember if it's a manual vehicle and you drive an automatic car which I do the number of times I have got in our motorhome and gone to drive and like oh yeah gears yeah need to remember that and the other thing as well as the handbrake the handbrake on the motorhome the travel on it is like twice what it is in the car so most of the time I think I put the handbrake down you set off and there's this enormous beep and it turns out that I hadn't put the handbrake down at all okay why is it beeping at me I don't know what's flashing and of course before you set off make sure you know where your indicators are make sure you know how to get into reverse and make sure you know the speed limits that apply to you as a motorhome if you're under three and a half tons it's generally the same as a car but if you're towing or if you're over three and a half tons depending on where you are what country you're in the speed limits can be different so make sure you pay attention to that a couple of quick tips that have really really helped me remember that you are a much bigger vehicle than you are probably used to in your car so your braking distances are going to be massive so make sure that you leave yourself way more time to brake and to slow down than you would otherwise be used to and of course when you are driving in adverse weather especially something like heavy rain make sure that you are driving at appropriate speeds much slower than you might normally in a car just because you are such a bigger vehicle and the same in high winds it will affect you more than you're used to so that can be a bit weird the first time you do it the other thing do is your mirrors way more than you would now most motorhomes have a double mirror so you've got your first one which like a normal mirror and then you've got smaller one at the bottom which shows your blind spots use them use them and then use them again the number of times you see things now it can take a little while to judge cars that are coming flying past but you will get used to that just keep using them and it'll make it much easier when you're pulling in and out the last tip that i would give is when you're parking try and park in the direction that you want to pull out of it's so much easier to pull out of the space than it is to try and reverse out of a space and there's things coming you can't always see what's around you so if you can try and reverse into a space that you can just drive out of it again it does take a skill and it's so much easier with the reversing camera so i'd highly recommend getting one of those but overall you can definitely do this there's nothing about driving a motorhome providing you are legally allowed to drive it of course that you can't do it just takes practice and takes a little bit of confidence and then it takes more practice but you can do it go on go out right now right now go and drive your motorhome if you're if you're not normally the driver go and drive your van go take it on the block go i know take it to a pub don't drink and drive um just take it somewhere go and have a little adventure and be the driver you'll feel so much better and then come back and drop a comment here and tell me all about it i want to hear all about your adventures i hope you found that video useful if you did a thumbs up is always very much appreciated and if you are new to the channel and you'd like more helpful videos like this by all means hit subscribe thank you as always for your time and i'll see you on the next video