Connections:

Now have a look at the couplings to connect your van up to your car. First of all your standard trailer coupling, in this case it’s a seth and pin round plug. It connects into your car and gives the van the necessary power to operate travelling lights, brakes, blinkers etc., as well as providing 12 volt power to the van to run your fridge.
Secondly there is an ‘Anderson plug’ and is for very heavy duty wiring designed for connection your car battery to the van battery and that’s its prime and only purpose is to provide power directly to the battery system of the van.

This is know as the brake safe unit. This is an over-ride braking system and what is done here is have a wire connected to this pull-away coupling, connect the wire to a part of the vehicle that’s not part of the towing system so you don’t want tow ball or the tow bar, connect to another part of the car. Should there be a break away of the towing system, this cable will stay with the car, separate from the brake safe unit here and apply the brakes to the van automatically.

Gas: One of the power options is, of course, gas. Just a word of caution, using the blue valves on the top of each gas canister, make sure they’re turned off when travelling.

Windows: One of the things that is recommended you do before heading off in your van is a safety check on your windows, just to make sure that they are locked properly. It is simply a case of placing your fingernails behind the edge of each window and making sure that they don’t come out at all. That just tells you that they’ve been locked securely in place.

Jacking Point: In the unfortunate event of a flat tyre, the Retreat caravans have a reinforced jacking point standard located just behind the tyres. This jacking point also incorporates the standard fitting for a trailer mate jack.