22 tips to prolong your caravanning lifestyle

Think smarter. Tour longer. Make caravan touring easier.

Could you extend your travelling by a few years, as mean old age takes its toll, limiting mobility and physical strength? There are plenty of accessories, and a few useful ideas, to help you do just that. Here are our favourites.

Motor movers

Forget manually manoeuvring your caravan into the perfect position on your pitch, or into the ideal parking place at home. Get a motor mover fitted instead, and save a ton of unwanted exertion.

You'll find the cheapest single-axle movers start from around £500 – we can't recommend buying anything much less expensive. You can fit them yourself, though a pro will charge £100-£200 to do it for you. Use an Approved Workshop Scheme (AWS) Technician.

Once fitted, you can move you tourer almost anywhere at the touch of a button on a remote control. It's simple, effortless and cool. You won't put your back out pressing a button, and it can minimise the stress of tight manoeuvring with your towcar. Find all the asnwers to your essential motor mover questions here.

Auto-Levelling

If there’s one thing to challenge motor movers for the ‘coolness crown’, it has to be auto-levelling.

A company called E&P Hydraulics produces the best-known systems, which will precisely level a caravan, end-to-end and side-to-side, fully automatically, in about two minutes. Click here.

There are two system options, and both are cleverly designed not to stress or twist your caravan chassis.

Levelsystem is the full monty, with two axle-mounted hydraulic jacks and fully-automated corner steadies. Pressing the button is easy; not looking too smug, as your tourer whirrs its way level, is the tough bit!

Meanwhile, E&P’s Compact Levelsystem features two jacks to level laterally, but the jockey wheel and steadies are wound down usually to level longitudinally and to stabilise. This system costs less and also weighs less if the payload is an issue.

You have the systems fitted at E&P UK Head Office or at one of its Premier Sales and Service Centres, where staff are fully trained and equipped to install and maintain Levelsystems.

Levelsystem costs £2957, while Compact Levelsystem costs at £1808.

Of course, you don’t need to have auto-levelling retro-fitted, you could just buy a Buccaneer or Alaria caravan, and you’ll get auto-levelling brilliance as standard.

W ep-hydraulicsnews.co.uk

Cordless drill

Many caravanners use a cordless drill for winding down steadies, as it saves a lot of time and effort. They are easy to store and relatively lightweight, plus, a full charge before you leave should easily last for a two-week break with regular pitching. Any longer, and take the charger. You can also use them for ‘screwing in' threaded awning and tent pegs, taking the work out of pitching on hard ground.

Seasonal pitching

If you have a favourite destination or campsite that you visit very regularly, why bother dragging the van there several times a year, and paying storage fees at home? You have two easier options.

Seasonal pitching involves renting a permanent pitch for your caravan on site. You pitch it once, at the start of the season, then you can visit as often as you like without the need for hitching and pitching.

Prices vary widely, depending on location and facilities, but typically you might pay between £1500 and £3000 for a full season. Shorter terms are available.

Alternatively, you could ‘Store & Stay.

Tranquil Waterrow Park in Somerset offers a Store & Stay service, with excellent CaSSOA gold-rated security. waterrowpark.co.uk

Store & Stay

Store & stay can be more cost effective than seasonal pitching, as you only pay when your caravan is on the pitch. You only call up the site where you store your tourer (an annual storage fee applies), book your favourite pitch, then, when you arrive, your tourer will be waiting for you. You may need to pay a small fee for your caravan to be levelled and connected, but this varies from site to site. Contact the campsite owner to discuss.

Full-service pitches

Book yourself a full-service pitch, and you don't have to worry about hauling the Aquaroll back from the tap, or heaving the grey waste tank to the drain. Full-service pitches typically cost 10-20% more than a standard pitch, but they take much of the legwork out of caravanning, with an on-pitch tap and grey water drain.

You’ll just need an extended grey-waster water pipe (an 8-metre one costs £16.99 on ebay.co.uk) and a Truma Ultraflow (£69.99) for your mains water. Cheaper non-brand versions are available. If we could only sort out the cassette loo.

Level pitches

Only picking a level pitch to start with, will eliminate much of the hard work of pitching and levelling. Use the caravan parks’ websites and Google Earth to check out campsites before you book.

Ensuite facilities

Some sites offer ensuite facilities – essentially a hut on the pitch with your shower, loo and basin. While you’ll pay a few pounds extra for the privilege, this will reduce the amount of toing and froing with Aquarolls and grey-waster containers.

Fixed beds

Making up the front double bed in the lounge, or bunks from a side-diner isn't the hardest job you'll ever encounter. Making up a bed each night can be awkward. And, it is likely to cause bad backs or pulled muscles, as you get older. Choosing a van with a fixed bed(s), be it twin-singles, French double or island bed, removes the need for all this stretching and effort. Twin beds may well deliver the best night’s sleep, while island beds eliminate the need for ‘climbing over’ in the night for loo visits.

Truma UltraFlow

We’re big fans of Truma’s UltraFlow system. The system is a long hose pipe with a tap connector at one end, and a Truma pump connection at the other. Just attach it to the pitch tap and the van, and you have mains water, removing the need for any of that darned Aquaroll action. Brilliant! (See full-service pitches)

Mobility/Accessibility

Should you need extra space in your caravan, or extra-wide access to it, for, say, a wheelchair, some companies can help.

A company called Coachbuilt modifies caravans with ramps and extra-wide doorways etc., to suit a client's needs and budget. It also sells pre-modified caravans.

The new breed of eight-foot-wide tourers also lends itself to a wheelchair and walking frame users, as they tend to have wider aisles where you can manoeuvre a wheelchair. Individual caravan designs, like some Adrias, also lend themselves to disabled use, as they have wide-open aisles and increased space around the door.

Wetrooms, intended to help those with limited mobility to shower, can also be specified, as can, wheelchair-accessible dining areas, wheelchair hoists and ceiling tracking.

Truma iNet

Truma’s innovative iNet system allows you to prepare your caravan for your arrival from any destination with internet access (3/4G or WiFi).

You can download a simple-to-use phone app which lets you turn on the lights and A/C, or fire-up the heating before your arrival. Using iNet, you can also control the heating and lighting from the couch, without getting up. Options include Alde Smart Control.

Double steps

Stepping up into the van or out of it can be quite tricky, and potentially dangerous. Those with limited mobility could consider a double step. There are various models on the market from companies including Milenco and Towsure.

Support handle

A company called Fiamma makes an aftermarket auxiliary handle which is fitted next to the caravan door to aid access to the van. When towing, the handle folds in, and some designs even act as extra security as they lock in position and prevent you opening the door.

W fiammastore.com

Wheeled loo cassette/grey water

Wheeled loo cassettes and grey waste containers take much of the lifting and carrying out of your daily van-maintenance routines.

Kitchens

Chose a ‘low-level’ kitchen, where oven, hob, fridge and microwave are all within reach, such as in Lunar’s two-berth Ariva or Stellar, or the well-spec’d Casita 554.

Automatic towcar

Towcars with automatic transmissions take the leg-work out of towing and can be a boon for those with dodgy knees or hips. Autos are very easy to drive, so shouldn't be feared. In fact, they are in many ways better for towing than manual transmissions.

Reversing cameras

Reversing cameras – either built into the back of the towcar for easy solo hitching or available as aftermarket additions (in either wired or wireless formats) to fit your caravan, can make tight manoeuvring and reversing much easier. We like the Hyndsight system (rowperfect.co.uk), while maplin.co.uk does a cheaper version for £85.

Insurers, CaravanGuard reckon 29% of claims are from people who have reversed into static objects. You know it makes sense.

Caravan-specific sat navs

Don’t end up down a narrow lane with all the stress and van-shunting shenanigans that that entails. Get yourself a sat-nav system designed especially for caravanners, instead.

Caravan’s 2017 award-winning accessory is the Snooper SC5800 DVR, a cunningly smart caravan-specific sat nav with integral dash cam and optional Tyre Pilot tyre pressure monitoring system.

Input your rig's dimensions, and the nav will make sure you avoid low bridges, narrow streets, tricky one-way systems and the like. It’s also loaded with Euro mapping and has info on 24,000 campsites across the continent! Cheaper units are available, but this is the daddy!

W gb.snooper.eu/caravan/satellite-navigation

Trailer Towing Assistant

Westfalia TTA (Trailer Towing assistant) is an ingenious bit of kit which, when fitted to a tow car, automatically steers and manoeuvres a caravan and caravan when reversing. The driver only has to control the accelerator and brake, while the system takes care of the steering.

The towball cleverly communicates with an onboard computer to calculate steering angles etc.

Currently only available on Audis.

W westfalia-automotive.com

Air awnings

Using an air awning, especially with an electric air pump, takes much of the toil out of awning building. You still have to feed it into the awning rail, but there are no big poles to arrange and build, you just plug the pump in, and press go. You can inflate the awning in minutes and then just needs some pegging down (Tip – Use a cordless drill and threaded tent pegs). Easy does it, folks.

Check out Vango, Ventura, and Bradcot for a broad range of air awnings.

Lightweight furniture

Dragging a heavy table out from under the fixed bed can be quite a chore, so it makes sense to choose lightweight furniture for your caravanning adventures. Coachman has created super-lightweight tables in its caravans for some time now (see pic), and, for lightweight outdoor furniture have a look online or check out some of these products: