Wash and rinse
Depending on the holiday you’ve been on, if you have an off-road trailer and have been camping close to the sea, or been towing through a lot of water, you’ll want to wash that dirt off the tubing, angle irons and u-bars that make up your chassis. The sand holds moisture and that can cause rust – especially with older steel. The newer galvanised chassis’ are probably less at risk.
“I’ve seen caravans come in here after a trip to Namibia, where the owner didn’t clean properly underneath, and sometimes the old dust that settles on the chassis becomes a sort of cement that we basically have to scrape off, because of how it’s almost bonded to that galvanised steel” says Bryan Lawrence of Loftus Caravan City.
…you can keep a window open slightly just to allow a little fresh air to flow to avoid moisture being trapped inside
Power play
Plug your caravan into your domestic circuit, just as you would at a campsite or caravan park. Not just so that you keep the battery charged from time to time, but also so that you can check that all ancillaries, like the water pump, fridge and lights are in good working condition. But be careful not to overcharge the battery, sending full voltage once it’s already reached maximum capacity.
“This all depends on your own setup. Any of the Jurgens products shouldn’t be permanently plugged in. The Samsung, Apollo and
Hercules chargers used by some manufacturer aren’t smart chargers,” says Bryan.
He does go on to mention that intelligent chargers, such as the Victron chargers used in Bush Lapa and Okto caravans charge at a slower rate once the battery has reached capacity. Essentially, these become more of a maintenance system, that keeps your battery anywhere between 40 and 80 percent charged.
Another option, which might be altogether safer and more cost effective, is that in the case of long-term storage to rather leave everything unplugged and to take the battery out. You can power up the battery with a trickle charger, without having fridges and other appliances unnecessarily drawing power while you’re not actually using the caravan.