Top used van buying tips and more on The Caravan Channel

Our latest TV show is packed with top tips and professional advice to help get you on the road this touring season, and to ensure your caravan holidays are happy and safe.

But first, to ensure you don’t miss this excellent, expert advice, you need to know that The Caravan Channel is moving from Sky 212 to Sky 192, and from Freesat 401 to Freesat 402. The programmes will be streamed across both channels for two weeks, but make sure you’ve noted the change and updated any series link settings by bank holiday Monday (26 May 2014), after which the shows will only be available on the new channels. Be one of the first to make the change so you don’t miss a thing! Our TV shows will also still be broadcast live online on The Caravan Channel’s website.

Once tuned in, what can you expect in our newest TV show? Well, our caravan expert has lots of helpful hints to dispense. Are you browsing the caravans for sale pages, looking for a second hand tourer, for your route into more affordable caravanning? Then we’re here to lend a hand. In this episode, John Wickersham shares more advice for those shopping for a pre-loved van. Taking a six-year old Swift, he considers what you don’t get in an older, used caravan that you do get in the very latest models and comes away very impressed with the 2008 Swift.

But that’s not all. Also in this edition of our TV show on The Caravan Channel, John looks at the merits of two different types of battery chargers, those built into your caravan and also portable ones, explaining how and why they are different.

And John has yet more words of wisdom for us in this episode. He’s here to remind us of the importance of checking the tyre pressures on our caravans and our tow cars – and he also explains how best to do this. Make sure you heed his advice for safe touring in 2014.

Finally, from John at least, he dives under the skin of the Smart HT construction method launched by the Swift Group last October for its new flagship tourers, the Swift Elegance and the Sterling Contintental. John talks us through what this technology brings to the manufacturer’s newest models and demystifies the acronyms.

Of course, there’s lots more in our TV show. Our tow car expert David Motton has been on the road, putting the Mazda CX-5 crossover through its paces pulling the Sterling Eccles Sport 524 in his definitive, comprehensive tow car test. You’ll have to tune in to see how it fares.

And no TV show would be complete without a brand new caravan review. Practical Caravan’s very own Group Editor Rob Ganley delivered his first impressions of the Swift 570 at its October NEC show launch. Now, our Andy Jenkinson casts his experienced eye over the new Swift Elegance 570. He has pitched it at the gorgeous Woodhall Spa Camping and Caravanning Club Site in Lincolnshire and, as you will see, he’s very impressed by this well specced caravan.

The Practical Caravan magazine team works with Information TV to co-produce shows on The Caravan Channel. All our TV shows are broadcast several times across a fortnightly period (please see the times below) on Sky 192 and Freesat 402. Alternatively, you can watch our shows live online on The Caravan Channel website.

This episode of our TV show will be broadcast on The Caravan Channel between Monday 12 May 2014 and Sunday 25 May 2014 on the following days and at the following times: