New member to Forum, Hello.
Just bought an Eriba Triton 2001 and feel need for mover. Wheel movers are expensive to fit because of axle shape so looking at a jockey wheel mover.
Has anyone experience of using one for hitching up and and short level use?
Cheers
General opinion of them seems to be lack of traction! That can come from the jockey being on loose gravel, wet grass etc., or inclines shifting too much weight off the driven wheel. Anything that causes the main axle wheels to bog down, soft ground, obstacles etc. will render it near useless as simply not got the traction to overcome the increased rolling resistance.
They sort of work in ideal conditions, but are VERY poor relations to 'proper' motor movers!
Interesting and perhaps indicative of their worth that one of the biggest names in motor movers, Powrtouch, started out making only jockey wheel movers, but dropped them completely from their range many, many years ago when 'proper' axle mounted units become their core business.
Another aspect of jockey wheel movers is nose weight! They are relatively heavy if a permanent fixture, and may make achieving correct nose weight (imperative to correct and safe towing) difficult. Some I believe are detachable, but then you have all the faff of swapping jockey wheels!
They do get inquired about from time to time, but yet to see much enthusiasm for them.
Considering that axle-mounted movers seem to be fitted to 2 out of 3 caravans these days, even ancient ones like mine, I have yet to see anyone with a jockey-wheel one. I do seem to remember them being advertised years ago but I've never seen one in use.
I would imagine they might work ok on flat, level, hard surfaces like a roadway, but I doubt they would work very well on a loose surface or grass. As Monty says, not much traction.
Hi, I have one, bought it 2nd hand years ago. Was not very successful for our first caravan a fairly light weight Marauder. Due to driveway having slight incline and tarmac, light nose weight on caravan caused wheel to skid and not move caravan. The unit it's self was heavy and ok left at home but would not want to cart it around also had to swop it into place to use. So left it in garage for some years. 10yrs on we now have Bailey Ranger with motormover and block paved driveway and just for interest tried the old jockey wheel mover and to my surprise worked well with heavier load on jockey wheel and more grip on paving. Due to length of the handle you wouldn't be able to position caravan over the tow ball. Search on YouTube and someone has put a video on of themselves using one.
Thanks Colin21, please see my reply to Albee.
I agree the axle mover is much better but because of the Eriba Triton, and maybe other models have non circular axles they need a special bracket,£132 and with fitting total cost is over £1200.
I can do a lot of pushing for that.
Quote: Originally posted by eribT5 on 28/7/2025
New member to Forum, Hello.
Just bought an Eriba Triton 2001 and feel need for mover. Wheel movers are expensive to fit because of axle shape so looking at a jockey wheel mover.
Has anyone experience of using one for hitching up and and short level use?
Cheers
Hi eribT5, if it's only for hitching up and short level use you don't need a mover.
I went 3 years with our Bailey Pursuit without a mover and only bought one later because we moved to a bungalow where the drive sloped down at 1 in 6 and I needed to go in forwards.
In our previous house it was easy to reverse in then unhitch and put wheel lock on.
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Topic: Jockey wheel mover
