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Articles > 7 Things To Remember Before You Take Your Van On A Camping Trip
Mon, 04 Jul 2022

7 things to remember before you take your van on a camping trip

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Summer is officially in full swing now and with it, many of us are planning our holidays to make the most of the time when kids are off school and the weather is warm.

With the campervan industry still so very busy, this summer is seeing many first-time conversion owners planning their trips away to experience campervan life for the first time.

If this is you, Taylored Campervans have put together our top 7 things to remember before you take your van on a trip away so that you don’t encounter any hidden surprises! This means you can focus on relaxing, making incredible memories and enjoying your campervan conversion to its fullest!

Let’s get into the list…

Familiarise yourself with where things are on your van

When we hand over a new campervan conversion to our customers, we go through and show them where everything is. However, when you take your new van out for its first camping trip, it’s quite easy to forget these things.

Before you go away, ensure you familiarise yourself with where everything in your campervan is again including, where your electrical hookup is, where gas bottles go, how they turn on and off and more. This will mean you’ll be set and ready to go when you arrive at your destination.

Check everything works on your van

There’s nothing worse than turning up at a campsite to find your hookup or heating system isn’t working so putting in some time before you leave to ensure everything in your campervan conversion is working is going to give you peace of mind whilst you’re travelling.

Before driving, check:

  • Your electrical hookup is working and is charging your leisure battery.
  • Your engine is charging your leisure battery.
  • If you have a solar panel, that’s charging the leisure battery.
  • Your gas system, whether underslung or not, check that it’s working as it should.
  • Heating
  • Fridge
  • Electrical outlet points like plugs and USB ports.
  • Awning
  • Pop-top

Before you leave, make sure your leisure battery is fully charged

It’s always a good habit before you leave, to ensure your leisure battery is fully charged for the road. This is especially true if you’re only travelling a short distance so the engine doesn’t have much of a chance to charge the battery, it’s a cloudy weekend so you can’t rely on solar energy or you simply won’t be able to hookup for a while.

For the technical, your battery should show a reading of 12.7 out of sunlight, indicating a battery that is full and charged. Anything below 11.5 is considered low so ensure it’s all ready for your trip!

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Check for general good vehicle maintenance

Not necessarily conversion related, however, still checking for good vehicle maintenance before you leave is important nonetheless, especially for longer-haul trips. Again, this will give you peace of mind whilst you’re away!

This includes:

  • Check your oil levels are okay.
  • Check your tyre pressures are where they need to be.
  • Check engine coolant is okay.
  • Check you have windscreen wiper fluid.
  • Check your fuel level.
  • More…

Check your pop-top is functioning as it should

During the offseason, many people don’t open their pop-tops at all and then arrive at their first camp of the year to find a tear in the canvas or the waterproofing is wearing away.

Before you leave, it’s always worth just raising the pop-top on your campervan to check that it’s functioning as it should, there are no tears and it’s in good order and ready for use. Things to check include:

  • The canvas
  • The mechanism for raising the roof.
  • The straps
  • The waterproofing (we recommend applying Fabsil waterproofing at least annually)

Make sure you pack your manuals for everything fitted in the campervan

Often there are a lot of extras fitted into your conversion and remembering how it all works can be hard. So, we would highly recommend packing all of the manuals for the gadgets you have on board to refer back to in case you need an answer whilst on your holiday. Stowing these manuals away in one of the many storage compartments your Taylored van should have can be a life-saver when you’re travelling.

If it’s your first camping trip in a new van, be conservative!

If indeed, this is your first camping trip in the van we would highly recommend a conservative first trip in the van before a bigger one. A simple one-nighter close by can do the trick to familiarise yourself with how the van works and where everything is before you go away for 3-weeks in France!

Summary

Those were Taylored Campervan's list of things to remember before you go camping in your new conversion. Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions about a conversion, extra or another enquiry. Although Taylored Campervans services customers all over the UK, we have our headquarters in Devon and one of our team are more than happy to help!

To get in touch with us head on over to our contact page for a form or our direct contact details!

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