As we get ready for the new season, we’ll all be dreaming of relaxing at our chosen caravan park and experiencing the many joys of touring. However, before we can set off, it’s essential to make sure our vans are ready for the new season. Cleaning your caravan is one thing many of us will do, but it’s also important to carry out some pre-tour checks to make sure your van is ready – that’s where this guide comes in.
Tourers are designed to move, but many of us will have kept our caravans in storage or on our drives during the low season. Idleness causes things to deteriorate, rather than wear out, but being aware of the potential problems and carrying out some preventive maintenance will help you avoid difficulties later on.
We are taking for granted that your tourer will have had a caravan service recently, and has also been laid up for an extended period.
- Looking to give your tourer a clean instead? Then take a look at our guide to the best caravan cleaners, where we share our top picks on the market.
You can also jump to a particular topic if you’re looking to find out about a specific aspect of getting your tourer ready for 2023’s touring season.
Pre-tour checks for your caravan:
Batteries
Tyres
Light units
Ventilation
Windows
Locks and hinges
Motor movers
Water systems
Towball
Essential tools and kit
The jobs in this guide won’t require loads of tools or specialised kit – instead, a few items can go a long way in ensuring that first tour is a smooth one.
Depending on what you are planning to do, you will need the following:
- Warm water
- Car shampoo
- WD-40 or equivalent
- Silicone spray
- White lithium grease
- Graphite grease
- Surgical spirit
- White vinegar
- Cotton buds
- Petroleum jelly
- An old toothbrush
- Microfibre cloths
- Cotton cloths
- A nailbrush
Check and charge the batteries
Failing to look after your caravan battery can swiftly transform into an expensive annual bill.
To avoid replacing batteries on a regular basis, some effort needs to be put into looking after them. If you mainly visit sites with hook-up, then as long as the battery has enough puff to power the control panel, the hook-up will take care of things.
If you have a motor mover, or you opt to stay away from the sanctuary of hook-up, battery health really matters. Before worrying about the charge level, it makes sense to look at their physical condition. All you can really do is visually inspect for bulges or physical damage, check and replenish the level of charge, and ensure that the terminals are clean.
There will also be some sort of battery restraining strap. Make sure it is in good shape and tight enough to do its job. You don’t want a loose battery trying to escape from the locker. There is enough weight to cause damage to the locker and cabling.
The thing you mainly need to worry about, however, will be a flat battery. Batteries lose charge while they are in storage, a phenomenon known as self-discharge. Compound that with any deterioration and permanently losing performance when stored in a poor state of charge, and it becomes apparent as to why it’s vital to keep them brimmed.
If your tourer is stored on hook-up at home, or you have a caravan solar panel, that’s the big headache, and most common problem, taken care of. If that’s not the case, you’ll need to keep on top of your battery care.
If you have one fitted, you can use the built-in meter on the caravan to check the state of battery charge. If not, hook up a multimeter between terminals to check the voltage.
A reading of 12.6 or higher is healthy enough, but anything much lower means you want to get the battery on charge.
If your caravan is stored at home, you might be able to get the hook-up connected to recharge things; otherwise, you are likely to need to remove the battery, which is no bad thing.
Some modern caravans are fitted with multistage chargers to condition and charge the battery, but many more are not. In the latter case, a good standalone charger will be able to do the job.
If the terminals are covered in white fluff, that is oxidation, which will need cleaning off to ensure a good connection. Disconnect the battery leads (negative first) and use an old toothbrush to dust off the powdery lead sulphate.
If it is a bit more persistent, a couple of squirts of dilute vinegar and water (a 50/50 mix is ideal) will dissolve the remnants. Then a bit more brushing will soon have everything sparkling.
A smear of petroleum jelly across the top of the terminal, once refitted, will help to prevent recurrence and ensure the battery is able to give of its best.
Examine the tyres
Nothing is as safety-critical or more likely to be ignored than caravan tyres. Unless a tyre is actually flat, the majority of owners wouldn’t know they might have a problem. As a result, regularly spending ten minutes checking them over is time well spent.
The easiest check is the tyre pressure. A small digital pressure gauge is a toolbox must-have and can give you change from a tenner. An analogue one is fine, too, and of course, will never need a battery change. Check your handbook and ensure your pressures are where they ought to be. If any are low, top them off and then check again a few days later to see whether they are staying in the correct place.
Soft tyres not only cause the tyres to get warmer in use: in severe cases, they can result in stability problems and limit the usefulness of motor movers if fitted.
Get an old sponge and a nailbrush, and some car shampoo in a bucket, and give the tyres a wash. Given the muck and grit that can be present, we’d advise keeping this mixture just for the tyres. This is less about actual cleanliness and more about giving your tyres a good inspection.
Take a look at the tyre walls for bulges caused by the tyre structure failing. Also keep a close eye on any signs of cracking. Walls can crack and this is easiest to spot at the bottom, where the tyre wall is flexed the most.
Radial cracking is harder to spot, but to look out for it, examine between the treads and search for cracks running around the radius (hence ‘radial’ cracking). The other thing to spot is cuts in the sidewall, which are caused by an impact of some sort or anything stuck in the tread. Any of these will require immediate investigation by a tyre workshop.
You can’t do this inspection properly with the caravan in one place, either. Roll it forward a few feet and clean the tread that was in contact with the ground.
There is also no alternative to sliding underneath (with all wheels chocked) and having a look at the inward-facing tyre walls. Your mobile is a bonus – it works as a torch and you can poke the camera into places your eyes can’t reach, to look for damage.
Don’t forget to check the spare tyre, too. Yes, it’s a very unpleasant task to have to (safely) clamber underneath the caravan or wind down a carrier, only to discover that all is well, but if you need that spare at some point, you’ll be glad you checked.
While you’re there, ensure the carrier isn’t red-rusty and apply a little grease to the clasp and the telescopic tubes if it is all starting to get a bit scratchy.
Examine the light units
While a lack of use doesn’t usually cause vehicle bulbs to fail, it can cause connections to become dirty and subsequently result in lights no longer working.
If road lights are not responding, get out the handbook for instructions on how to dismantle the light unit, inspect the bulbs and if needed, clean the contacts.
If they are just a bit grubby, some WD-40 and a cotton bud will do the trick. If they are really crusty, a strip of sandpaper might be needed to ensure a good connection is achieved. None of this applies if you have LED lights. Typically, these are not serviceable, but check your handbook for more information.
Ventilation
Clean the crud from around vents, grilles and outlets, to ensure everything that breathes can do so. Over the winter, in particular, leaves and debris can build up around the fridge and heater vents, reducing performance and causing leaks or draughts.
If you can, hook up the van and turn everything on. Investigating any non-working sockets, a warm fridge or a lack of heating is a lot more comfortable on your driveway or a local site, rather than when you are waiting to board the ferry, or stuck at a remote site.
Now do the same with the gas appliances.
We’re assuming you have the gas safety checks as part of your regular servicing, but ensuring that everything works correctly between services and after any lay-up is good sense. Light each appliance to ensure it starts up easily, has an even blue flame and is functioning as expected. If anything seems odd, it’s workshop time.
Windows
Carefully open each window, one at a time. The rubber can sometimes stick, and if you force the windows, you can split the acrylic pane. Any sticky rubber can be countered with silicone spray – squirt this to a cloth and apply it around the rubber; if you don’t have that, try some talcum powder.
Keeping the rubbers supple minimises the chance of leaks. Do the same for the locker door rubbers, too.
You can find out more about looking after your tourer’s windows in our guide to caring for your caravan windows.
Locks and hinges
Caravan locks are not always of the most robust quality, so giving them a bit of care can help to keep everything working as expected.
A dab of graphite grease introduced to the lock barrels will keep the delicate innards moving freely, without leaving sticky muck behind to snare grit and grime. This is a dry lubricant that you squirt onto the key blade before working it in and out of the lock a few times. It will prevent seizing, sticking and bent keys, all of which are miserable.
External locker hinges and latches often don’t like being idle and when they seize, expensive door or body damage can be the result. These are not the easiest things to service, either, although there are things you can do. If they are already getting a bit stiff, a quick drizzle of silicone-based lubricant on the moving surfaces will free things up. If that isn’t working, tip hot (not boiling) water over them to ease the nylon/plastic bushings, and then reapply the lubricant.
Motor movers
Motor movers are all different, so it is difficult to give general advice. Suffice to say, the vast majority of problems are battery issues, and the mover merely a symptom.
Make sure the actuators work and shunt the caravan back and forth to ensure everything functions. Visual inspection of the mover units is worthwhile. Look for evidence of things appearing rusty or in danger of seizing up. Scabby-looking surfaces should be cleaned and protected with a coating of light oil. Motorcycle chain oil is good – it is designed to be used in harsh environments.
Water systems
Taking a look at your caravan’s water system is an easy DIY job. Dedicated leisure-vehicle tank cleaners, such as Puriclean or Pro-Kleen, will have instructions to detail the correct concentration. Fill the tank or container, depending on your configuration. Now jump in the van and turn on the water system. Go to the tap furthest from the tank and turn it on until the water runs through, then cut it off. Do the same for all of the taps.
Leave the system primed like this for a few hours (overnight is fine). Then run the system to drain the solution. Fill the supply tank or vessel with fresh water and run this through every tap until the solution can no longer be smelt to deodorise the pipes and the waste tank.
Towball
The majority of tourers will have a friction stabiliser, but these will only be effective on a clean, dry towball. Grime will still find a way in, even if you have a cover, meaning you end up with a noisy but less effective stabiliser.
If there is rust, you can restore the shine with some emery cloth, then use the brake cleaner spray. This is designed to clean brake components to ensure they operate effectively, and it will work just as well for the stabiliser too.
This is something we’d recommend you to do every time you tow. You can also put a squirt on the hitch head and then wipe around in there to give the stabiliser friction pads a clean too.
Take a look at our guide to preparing your tow car for the new season too, to find out what you can do to keep your vehicle in tip top condition.
Future Publishing Limited, the publisher of Practical Caravan, provides the information in this article in good faith and makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. Individuals carrying out the instructions do so at their own risk and must exercise their independent judgement in determining the appropriateness of the advice to their circumstances. Individuals should take appropriate safety precautions and be aware of the risk of electrocution when dealing with electrical products. To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither Future nor its employees or agents shall have any liability in connection with the use of this information. You should check that any van warranty will not be affected before proceeding with DIY projects.
If you’ve enjoyed reading this article, why not get the latest news, reviews and features delivered direct to your door or inbox every month. Take advantage of our brilliant Practical Caravan magazine SUBSCRIBERS’ OFFER and SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER for regular weekly updates on all things caravan related.
