Carlisle Castle, Cumbria

Caravan maintenance tips

Who are Caravanskids?

@Caravanskids is the Twitter account set up by Michael and his Dad, Laurence. The intent of the account is to show that kids can have fun in what is perceived to be a hobby enjoyed by older generations. In fact, at most Camping and Caravanning Club DA meets, Michael is the only child on the field, and this is his attempt at promoting the hobby to other young people. While the posts are generally Michael's thoughts and comments, they are moderated by Laurence before being posted as Michael is too young to have his own Twitter account.

Thank you to Laurence and Michael @ Caravanskids for this article!

We are fortunate to be able to store our caravan on our driveway. In fact, at both houses I have lived in, this has been the case. Admittedly it was easier to put our first caravan, an Eriba Troll, on the drive. A few things changed when we bought our Elddis Avante 586 as we had to put it where one of the cars went. We still had the 586 up until November last year when Dad treated us to a Buccaneer Barracuda – go big or go home! This just fits on the drive, which is good because Dad has said if he cannot put it on the drive, we would not have a caravan as we would not get enough use out of it. He keeps saying “It’s not a driveway ornament!”. As with all things mechanical, caravans like to be used. Failure to do so causes items like pumps to seize, tyres to crack and batteries to fail. My Granddad had a caravan, but he only used it once a year. He had no end of problems. Dad had to change the toilet flush pump, the charger, and it had two new batteries because it was left on charge. The second battery failure was so dramatic that it caused an explosion in the battery box and blew the battery box door off the side of the caravan!

So, here are some tips about how we maintain our caravan. Not all caravans are the same, and not all owners do things the same way. I appreciate that, so if we have missed something – apologies. This is the first time we’ve done something like this.

Tyres

We have been jacking up the caravan with the E&P Hydraulics Level System and spinning the tyres round periodically. A top tip here is to put a chalk mark on the tyre where it touches the ground, and then you'll know how far round you have spun it – you can't always go exactly quarter of a turn as sometimes the Alko locks don’t allow you to.

Battery

Our new caravan has a solar panel on the roof that is permanently connected to the battery. We do not need to have the caravan plugged in unless we are having a staycation. This keeps the battery topped up, but again, a top tip – make sure the solar regulator is programmed to the correct battery type to keep the battery healthy. Ours was not. We have an AGM battery, and the regulator was set for a flooded battery. This would have meant different charge voltages and may have damaged the battery. If you do not have a solar panel, you can wire in an independent, smart charger like one from the fantastic CTEK range. This will look after your battery far better than any built-in charger.

Pumps

When we have a staycation, we put water on the caravan. This allows us to pump it around to check the Aquaroll pump and fill the on-board tank. We can then pump out of the on-board tank to check its pump and the use the toilet flush (ours is pumped straight from the Aquaroll). We are hoping this will stop us having any issues in the future with the pump. Of course, we drain the system down once we have finished, so the water doesn't get stagnant in the pipes.

Gas System

Most weekends, when we are away, we off-grid. It is therefore important to check that the gas system for the heating and the fridge is working. Periodically run the fridge on gas and check the heating and hot water. It doesn’t take long, and it doesn’t use a lot of gas, but it does clear out the exhausts and vents from creepy crawlies that made have made their home there over lockdown.

General maintenance

Once we have finished our staycation, we vent the caravan to get rid of any condensation, give the worktop sides a good clean down and, vacuum the carpet. We clean the waste cassette and Wastemaster so everything will be clean and ready as soon as we are allowed back out. I help Dad clean the caravan with either Fenwick's cleaner or Autoglym products. We find the Fenwicks to be a better cleaner for the caravan than the Autoglym shampoo, but usually, finish it off with Autoglym Rapid Aquawax.

Conclusion

We hope you have enjoyed this article and that it has given you a useful insight into some of our simple maintenance tasks.