September TK Adventures

September TK Adventures

dbuggers_devSeptember 1, 20200 comments

TK’s Travel Tips

My family have been caravanning for many years. In fact, my Mum and Dad spent their honeymoon in a caravan. It was a hired caravan only 8ft long, homemade from plywood. Their suitcase was their wardrobe and it also doubled as a dining table!

Since then they have owned 15 caravans and can confidently say, they would have towed them around 1 million kilometres.

Some of my fondness memories were back in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s on ‘on tour’ with Mum and Dad and my brothers Lee and Greg and sister Fiona. Sometimes, even my Nana Roberts would join us. Together we travelled the length and breadth of Australia taking and experiencing some of this country’s most remote regions. Our caravan was nothing flash, not like nowadays with all the modern convenience they have, but to us, it was home and we loved it!

Recently I was chatting with my Dad about caravanning and some of the things he has learned along the way.

Here are 10 handy caravanning tips Dad has shared with me and I thought they might just be handy for you too!

1. Getting to know your new caravan – before you even hit the road, spend at least an hour so in and around your caravan understanding how things work. For example how do you turn the gas hot water system on or the electric hot water system on? Do you have all of the right connections such electric leads, grey water sullage drainage hose and spare fittings? These days there are some many features which need to be taken into consideration. It’s better to be familiar with your rig before you leave home rather than waiting until you are on the road.

2. If you are new to caravanning I would suggest if you live near a shopping centre with a large car park, it’s a great idea to take your car and caravan there at 6am on a Sunday morning with a couple of traffic cones. Try driving in and out of them and then try reversing in and out of them. For an extra challenge, imagine if the car parking space is the slab or site where you would be parking your caravan. Place the two traffic cones on one of the unbroken lines, about 4 – 5 metres apart (depending on the size of your caravan) Now try reversing your caravan parallel to the unbroken line / cones. This will prepare you well for mastering the art of ‘parking’ your rig. For some, parking can be the most stressful time of your whole journey!

3. Following on from Point 2, have your partner positioned at the rear side of the caravan to relay instructions to the driver to assist in reversing. Remember, if the person at the rear of the caravan can not see the driver in their rear side mirror, then the driver can not see the person relaying the instructions.

NB avoid yelling! Try to keep calm…lol

4. Handy Tools to have in your kit. Wheel Nut Tensioner Tool – These are readily available and will help you to not over tighten your wheel nuts. If a wheel change is required and the nuts are too tight, by having this tool on board, changing the wheel will be easy. Another handy tool to assist you in setting up your annex/ awning is a Spax 10 x 200mm single galvanised screw and a Spax T50 Bit. It attaches to a battery or electric operated hand drill. This elevates trying to drive tent pegs into sometimes, very hard ground. It also saves heaps of time in setting up and pulling down!

5. Tyre Pressures. Check to make sure that you are running on the manufacturer’s recommended loaded tyre pressures. I believe that having them run on the correct pressure definitely helps me with fuel economy. I always check my tyre pressures when they are cold.

6. Just because the speed limit says 100km/ph or 110 km/ph does not mean you have to drive at this speed! I have always been a firm believer in driving to the conditions. I’ve never been an advocate of using cruise control whilst towing.

7. Upon arrival at a caravan park, I think it’s a great idea to remove your Load Distribution Bars and Sway Bars (if fitted). In some caravan parks there can be many obstacles to contend with. For example taps, light poles, trees, gutters, kids on skateboards etc and sometimes your allocated site is much smaller than you had hoped for! By removing all of your bars, this will elevate the strain placed on them during tight manoeuvring.

8. Our caravan door is positioned at the front of the van. When I have parked on my allocated site, I make certain that the front of the caravan is raised ever so slightly. In the event of heavy rain, this will allow water to drain off the roof and away from the front door. It will also help any unwanted pooling on the roof. If you have a rear door, I would recommend you do this in reverse.

9. When leaving your allocated site, driving out will be much easier than driving in. I usually fit all of my bars on and do all of the appropriate checks i.e all lights are working, antennas are down, leads and hoses rolled up. As soon as I have cleared the park and have found a suitable safe place to pull over, I double check everything is ok before continuing our journey. This is also a good time, if you are on straight level ground, to adjust your side mirrors if necessary. Have a walk around the caravan, looking and checking if everything is secure.

10.Remember to take your time, as getting ‘there’ is often half the fun. There is so much to see in this great country of ours, Australia. Enjoy it.