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Phone/4G coverage in a caravan

7 replies

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 02/09/2019 21:34

This one might be quite niche, but I'm hoping that others have experienced issues and found some kind of solution!

We've just returned from two short (touring) caravan breaks in different parts of the country and found, as we have before, that it's virtually impossible to grab any signal whatsoever in the caravan. Occasionally, you can get something if you put the phone right next to an open window (usually takes several page refreshes before anything happens, though).

If there is any signal to be had, it often works slightly better to put the phone in the car and use it as a hotspot for a laptop inside the caravan, but I'd really like the choice to be able to use the phone itself; not expecting a great signal, but just anything functional would do.

Reasons I've heard are that it's because a caravan is a metal box, but so is a car (usually a lot thicker metal), and they don't generally have the same issue.

Using the online signal checkers is pointless as they always just claim that there's a good signal virtually everywhere you try (even when I know for a fact from personal experience that there isn't) - often with the get-out clause that 'indoor coverage may vary', which makes their claims rather meaningless anyway. Do they ever actually acknowledge that certain areas might only have a fair signal or even no usable signal unless you're very lucky?

Has anybody found a solution for this? Massive great big aerial and/or some device? Or do I just have to accept that I can have phone or caravan but not both at the same time?!

OP posts:
BarbaraofSeville · 03/09/2019 05:30

Your caravan is acting as a huge Faraday cage, so blocks the signal. It's probably better in the car as the window to metal ratio is much higher.

There's a thread on the practical caravan website where someone suggests putting a mi-fi unit near a window or skylight as solution.

www.practicalcaravan.com/forum/technical/56769-mobile-external-aerial-for-caravans#456676

SleepyKat · 03/09/2019 06:21

I don’t think caravans are metal. Fairly sure they’re plywood and fibreglass. I don’t have this issue in mine at all. I’ve also found the online coverage checker (for EE anyway) very accurate, even to the extent of knowing to pitch one side of a caravan site and not the other.

SleepyKat · 03/09/2019 06:25

I just googled to see what caravans are made from and mine being a Lunar is wood and fibreglass but others such as Bailey are aluminium. So maybe some might block the signal more?

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 03/09/2019 07:21

Thanks a lot for your input and suggestions, folks - will check that link out. I had a good search online before, but didn't find anything definitive.

I'm not certain what material ours is actually made of as it's 22 years old - probably bits of everything in there!

OP posts:
SleepyKat · 03/09/2019 07:29

A caravan of that age is pretty certain to be thin wood with fibreglass type coating.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 03/09/2019 10:03

Ah, thanks, SleepyKat - I guessed it was probably not hi-tech space-age aluminium!!

....which makes the metal box/Faraday cage suggestion even weirder?!

OP posts:
BammBamm · 03/09/2019 10:32

We have only just got a tourer and have a Bailey alutech caravan and our signal has been fine so far.

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