Calling all touring caravaners

[kimmy3001]

We're recently the proud owners of our very own touring caravan. It's a fairly old van but doesn't need that much work. Has anybody got any good advice, tips and tricks? Things that you wish you'd have known for storage, comfort etc. Maybe things that you wish you would have known before you went on your first jolly...

All advice welcome!

Keep as much as you can in the caravan so that when you go away, you only really need to pack some clothes.
If you are going away Friday after work - bung something in the slow cooker Friday morning / make a dish Thursday evening to take with you on Friday so that when you get to your campsite, you only have to set up and then you can eat and have a nice drink in the (hopefully) sunshine!
I love staying in my parents caravan. They have a tourer but site it in the same place with lots of their friends. It's literally a second home, they have most things you would need there.

Love the slow cooker idea! Will def do that. We moved to Cornwall a year ago from Yorkshire so have lots of friends and family coming to visit various times of the year so will be handy for them. Got 3 DC 3, 6 & 9 and they are so excited. We all love Caravanning and live in an ideal place for it. Fingers crossed the Easter sunshine is a sign of things to come!

I second filling the caravan with stuff that stays in it, toothbrushes, shower stuff, kitchen cupboard essentials, tins beans etc.
We also have caravan bedding, towels, tea towels etc.
Antibacterial wipes are a god send, bin bags too.
We have a motormover which was expensive but worth every penny.
Enjoy!

Please please make sure you get your caravan properly serviced every year - not just the brakes and cables but the gas connections too. Not sure if its actually a legal requirement now or if it was just being talked about. And practise towing and reversing up roads and around corners with it hitched!

We had a campervan (currently thats been sold to buy a different size one) ...however, and we have a camperpack, as others say. Ours is designed to make camping in a small vehicle more straightforward - with a caravan you may not need quite as much organisation.

Dedicated bedding and camper towels
Toiletries and separate bathroom bags (if you expect to use the toilet blocks).
A large bag for putting dirty clothing in (makes the washing easier to start as soon as you get home).
Tupperware type boxes that actually fit and make the most of your fridge space.

Yes to the bag for dirty clothes. My parents have a laundry bag for the caravan so when they get home they can stick a wash straight on. Ah you're making me miss it. I'm going bank holiday so just over a week to go!

Some great ideas! I'd not even thought of half of these.

Picking it up tonight so off out in the morning to buy the essentials. Tempted to book a couple of nights this weekend as a trial run. If the sun comes back that is!

Yes wait for the sun for your first time, I will camp in most weathers (tent/ caravan) but it's best to start off on a high so you get your bearings..enjoy!!!
Home bargains have loads of cheap camping gear if you're near one.

Pack some outdoor toys for the kiddos, maybe even a small paddling pool that's easy to blow up.

Agree to a set of everything that lives in the caravan. We've just bought a coffee machine off eBay for it.

It's very addictive and some of the best sites book up early.

We've just had a week in Norfolk and a week in Brighton over Christmas- no issue with being cold.

Practice towing and getting it balanced - Snaking is not fun!

Does your licence cover towing ?

DGRossetti mine doesn't but my husbands does. Don't think I'd be confident enough towing a caravan

Noonooyou think I'm going to have a browse round b&m. Also ALDI special buys at the min are all around Caravanning and camping so might pick up some good stuff there

All I could think of was some plastic plates and a cheese grater so these posts are really helpful!

Good quality mattress toppers as when the beds are made up I found them quite hard. Also like others have said keep cleaning materials and wash stuff stored in there. Tv and freeview box, we've never bothered with hard plastic plates and glasses and have Ikea normal ones. I put cardboard between the plates for when travelling and we have wine glasses and flutes clipped in upside down in the cupboard. We have a small toy cupboard for the younger children and have a BBQ with removable legs that packs away in a bag. Have lots of cooking utensils and I keep lots of tinnned food and simple things like packet noodles etc. We keep spare phone chargers and sockets in there, dvds , board games and cards. I love our wobble box oh we also have windbreaks and a good awning for longer breaks.

Also if your sink doesnt have one, you might find a plastic sink bowl that's the right fit useful. It takes time sometimes to find one the right size. In our camper, if we stopped for just a night, we didnt bother rigging up the water, so used the bowl to wash stuff in the campsite sinks.

Decent wine glasses.
Bottle opener, corkscrew.

Warm clothes and blankets.

Spirit level, if our van isn't 100%level, the fridge won't work.

Do you have an awning??

"Beer bucket"

Do you have a cooker? Ours is just a hob, so we have a separate toaster and a slow cooker.

Find a home for everything and put it away as soon as you are done with it.

If your shower is practical to use(Ours is not) have 2 water butts. And always check your water. It runs out quicker than you realise and the pumps burn out in no time, which is an expensive faff to fix!

Have plenty of dry and tinned food in, but try not to buy to.much fresh stuff. We start off with good intentions, but then think sod it and have a pub tea/lunch.

Balance your van contents to make towing easier, this will take a few attempts to get right.

Have a snack/water to hand when you arrive, your DH will need it after towing.....it takes it out of you, especially if he is new to it and you go over an hour away.

Nose weight gauge - £10

Milenco aero thing mirrors £60 - worth the price, we had cheap ones and they vibrated so couldn't see much.

Duvalay matress toppers with the sheet zipped on. Just get them out and unroll - ta da. Roll up and under benches ( unless you've a fixed bed). Get a cover for the waste water container to put in when storing travelling so it doesn't dirty place where you keep bedding.

Travel with blinds up.

Join the fb users page for your make of van.

Load carefully to balance the van. Weight over the wheels.

Make sure you've got enough weight in the car to balance out - your van should be max of 80% of your towing vehicle.

Blow up awning is good. Awnings cause martial strife...

Use on site showers

Try not to buy too much 'stuff' - it is easy to do.

Have fun!

Flip flops or easy slip on shoes and a big jumper/hoodie for any middle of the night loo dashes.

Actually just flip flops all the time - they’re my caravaning footwear ov choice

Thank god I didn't just get the cheese grater and think right let's go on holiday 😂

Lots to think about and plan! Tried googling these things but advice from people first hand is always best!

Thanks guys! 😊

A good kitchen knife to leave in the caravan. Nothing worse than not having a decent knife when preparing meals and sandwiches.

A small tool kit to leave in the caravan, just basics, pliers, screwdrivers etc. Plus some duct tape you can fix loads of things with a bit of duct tape.

I second wearing flip flops, much easier than putting on wellies just to nip to the shower block or loo.

Get 2x carbon monoxide alarms.

Couple of years ago my alarm went off in the middle of the night. Couldn't understand why as nothing was running on gas. So I stuck it outside until it shut up, brought it back in and it went off again. Repeated this several times. I was knackered as it was 2am.

I ended up turning everything off inc the electric heater and spent a very cold night. Turned the gas off at the bottle.

Got up the next day and went and bought a new alarm. Back to the caravan. Wasn't feeling great with awful stomach pains and very tired after such a bad nights sleep so had a snooze.

Got up and took the dog for a walk and came back to find both alarms going off. I'd got the water heater running on gas, not elec (was a new van to me and I'd misunderstood the controls).

I nearly just left the alarm outside at one point to go back to sleep. I'd have died if I had. I thought it was wrong.

After all these recommendations of things you need in your caravan i would check the maximum weight plate. It's normally found at the bottom next to the door. The fully ladened weight isn't that much more than the totally empty weight.

Essential things like gas, water containers, leisure battery and awnings etc all add to your total weight.

People suggesting proper crockery, tins of food, this will all add more weight than plastic plates and a supermarket shop on click and collect near your destination.

Make sure your tyres are not over 5 years old. This is the age at which they start to deteriorate and could blow out while towing. This can cause a lot of damage of it happens and your insurance will often be invalidated if the tyres are over 5 years old.

A pp suggested getting it serviced properly which i would agree with. The brakes, running gear and gas need to be a minimum.

The only thing i would consider an absolute essential, do not compromise on thing to get is a carbon monoxide alarm. This is possibly the one thing you can have which could save your life

And just to add, caravans are designed to be run on gas so don't be afraid of using it. It's much more effective when run on gas. It just needs to be serviced properly.

If you are going to get it serviced i would recommend using a mobile service engineer because you can then watch what they do and make sure you're happy with what they've done.

A bottle of wine for after you arrive. Setting up is always less stressful if there's drink to be had.