Safety tips | Offroad driving with your camper trailer
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Time to read 6 min
Towing any trailer requires some driving skills, but when you hit the rough stuff in a 4WD with a camper trailer behind, it’s a whole new ball game. Hema Maps and Camper Australia Creative Director, Tim van Duyl, who has done more towing than most of us have had hot Sunday lunches, gives us his tips for safe offroad towing.
If you’re reading this article, we make the assumption that you are already a confident offroad driver. The following tips are provided for readers to learn from, but it’s not gospel. Like many of life’s lessons, real-world experience — and mistakes made along the way — will teach you the most. So don’t blame us if it goes wrong, learn from it.
What are the most important things to consider before heading offroad towing a trailer?
Prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Preparation is key. Make sure your vehicles are up for the job — both your trailer and your towing vehicle. Have them serviced. Consider their ground clearance for where you are planning to go. Make sure you are carrying at least one spare tyre for both vehicles and a tyre repair kit at minimum. Make sure you've got all the proper equipment, including a basic tool kit and some spare parts for emergencies — water and dust can play havoc with wheel bearings and trailer plugs. Carry spare fuel and water. It sounds basic but you’d be surprised at the number of folks who don’t.
Carry the right recovery equipment based on where you’re travelling, whether it’s winches, snatch straps, recovery boards or all three. It might also be wise to check the fine print on your insurance before you leave home to ensure both vehicles are covered in a worst-case scenario.
For more info about vehicle recovery, check out this article.
Carry a compressor
What driving skills are necessary when you are towing a trailer offroad?
Towing should always be done with more caution than regular driving and on reduced traction surfaces — such as sand and gravel — it’s even more important. With a deadweight on your towbar, you’ll find you often need to carry more speed and momentum when tackling obstacles such as climbs and beach exits.
Less traction on gravel
As with on-road towing, the trailer doesn’t follow exactly where the car turns — rather, it follows a tighter radius so keep an eye out for obstacles such as trees. Always disengage any electronic sway control (ESC) systems on your trailer when going properly offroad (whether that's on dirt roads or rough and uneven terrain) to reduce the chance of the trailer firing its brakes when you least want or need it to.
I suggest using a manual mode on your electric brake controller when offroad, reducing sensitivity on downhills to prevent the trailer’s wheels locking up and losing traction.
When descending, I prefer to use the trailer override to help the trailer drag the car as it descends — if it loses traction, then steer, reduce braking and try to get it back. Most modern 4WDs have traction control and stability systems that are better than 99 per cent of drivers, so lean on them.
The best-performing tow vehicles at Camper Trailer of the Year 2024 (CTOTY) were the two Land Rovers. While city cars to some, with their good tyres and settings in offroad mode, they were unstoppable.
What are your tips for towing on sand?
Reduce the air in your tyres to a third of highway tyre pressures — between about 15–19psi, but this will depend on factors such as your vehicle’s weight and the type of tyre on your vehicle.
Keep up the momentum on sand
When tackling a sand dune, make sure you know what’s on the other side and keep up the momentum — expect to need 50 per cent more when towing on sand. Driving in any existing wheel ruts or tracks can help reduce the amount of resistance against your vehicle’s tyres as the sand has already been squashed and compacted, providing a much firmer surface to drive on.
When going down a dune, let the engine and vehicle roll under its momentum and try to keep driving in a nice and straight line — don’t steer hard. This is especially important when you’re towing a camper trailer, as the extra weight of camper angles can drag you into all sorts of predicaments.
If you back off the throttle on sand (even momentarily) you’ll lose a heap of momentum straight away, which can make things a little tricky when you’re shifting gears. Make your gear changes a little snappier than usual and try to select the right gear before you tackle a dune or incline, so you don’t have to back-off the throttle halfway up a hill.
Your engine will labour more towing in sand so keep an eye on temperatures.
Check out this article for more tips on sand driving.
Follow existing wheel rut
What about towing on other types of terrain?
In muddy conditions, reduce your air down a third to two-thirds of highway pressures. When going downhill, try to avoid large braking inputs or sharp steering angle changes — you need your wheels and tyres to keep rolling to maintain steering.
When going uphill and you’re losing traction, wheel speed is important to clear mud from the tyre tread, so don’t be afraid of spinning your tyres to clear mud.
On the flats check depths of muddy puddles and tracks at least with a stick. If in a convoy, maintain a decent and safe distance in case you need to recover someone.
Rock is the one area where less speed is often better than more. Air pressure should be half to a third of highway pressures. Tyres will need strong sidewalls to withstand running lower tyre pressures and to avoid punctures from sharp rocks and the like. Use low gears to reduce loss of traction.
For more info, check out this article: 'Tips for driving on slopes, inclines and angles'
What types of recovery gear are essential for an offroad adventure?
Always carry recovery gear and know how to use it. Any recovery gear you use must also be rated sufficient to the task at hand. This includes winches, shackles, snatch straps, chains, snatch blocks and anything else that will be used to get you unstuck.
For more info: 'Essential safety gear for outback touring'
In any recovery take your time and play it safe
How should you approach an offroad recovery?
As with the driving itself, offroad recoveries are a practiced skill, and though it may seem daunting at first there’s no need to shy away from getting out there and getting your hands dirty. You just need to know where to start.
The most important thing to remember when getting out of any 4WD or trailer recovery situation is to play it safe. Stories of recoveries gone wrong can be the stuff of nightmares and can turn an inconvenient situation into a disaster. Ensure you’ve got sufficient safety gear and well-maintained recovery gear, stand clear of loaded straps and cables and don’t put yourself in a dangerous position just to save a minute or two.
With trailers, it is vital you know where to connect a shackle and what direction to pull if you need to do a recovery. Not all trailers have rated recovery points and although it might look like the right thing to do, using a bridle might squeeze chassis rails together. I’ve seen it happen. Often the safest way to recover a stuck trailer is off one chassis rail, straight back with a winch.
Before you put yourself in need of a trailer receiver, unhitch, go look at the area you want to drive through without the trailer and make the call — is it worth the risk? Can you go around?
Always walk a water crossing before driving it
There are plenty of thrills when towing offroad, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
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