Caravan Cleaning with Mellerud
Cleaning the caravan. You either love it or hate it. For me it’s a great time to unwind, care for the caravan and get it ready for the next adventure. In general, I find it quite cathartic. One thing I do not enjoy however is those pesky black streaks. They are every caravanners worst nightmare. The black streaks are formed from the rubber seals around windows, roof lights and other seals around the exterior of the caravan. As sunlight degrades the very top layer of rubber (exactly what its supposed to do, otherwise it will crack and perish) it creates a loose layer of material that can be...
Read MoreCaravan Servicing
A caravan should be serviced at least once a year. But what actually happens in a caravan service ? With a car its fairly obvious. Fluids are changed, the filters are replaced and that annoying service indicator is reset. But in a caravan it is not so obvious. Recently we took our caravan in for its annual service. We visited Swindon Caravan group who have always serviced our caravan. This time however, I was able to film the whole process, ask questions and follow the caravan from the moment of booking in to the caravan being ready. Whilst there I was also able to spend some time with John...
Read MoreWinter preperations
This time of year sees many caravanners pack their ‘van up and not use it until the spring and the warmer weather returns. We generally don’t winterise the caravan, but there are a few steps that should be followed when laying the caravan up for an extended period of time. We recently recorded a checklist video to show some of the things you should consider when you don’t use the van for some time. We cover the exterior, interior, the water system, gas and electrics – plus some other areas too. Here is our winterisation video...
Read MoreChanging ALKO Stabiliser pads
It has been a job that I’ve been putting off for a number of months. My fear was this would be a complex, dirty job with the possibility of something going very wrong. Nothing could have been further from the truth, however, Changing the Friction pads on the ALKO hitch is a breeze. It took me 30 seconds to exchange the pads for new ones. It also gave me the opportunity to look at the condition of the pads that had been on the caravan since 2010. They were extremely “glazed” and using brake disc cleaner with some 240 grit Wet & dry – the pads came up nice and clean, with a roughed up...
Read MoreThe Spring clean
I mentioned in a previous post that we have 2 cleaning regimes , one for when we arrive and the front of the van / windows are dirty from road spray. And another “deep clean” when the van is held back in storage. When I first researched the whole concept of cleaning the outside – lots of owners offered many different opinions on how to get the best results and which products to use. Our van is located on a storage facility, so there is no option for hoses, jet washes or mains hook up. So all the equipment we use we bring along to the storage facility. What do we use Hardware 2 x 10 Litre...
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