WORDS ALISON HUTH, EDITOR AT LARGE

Protect your van with these easy hacks spotted at the Retreat Owners Group meet

 

Looking after sullage

If you want to make sure that your sullage will flow freely from the van to the waste water drain, you can add a breather into the external hoses.

 

Under the Van

Want to protect all the pipes, stuff and things under the van? One idea is to fix some chicken wire there, it’s a good size to stop rocks causing damage under the van.

 

Sail Tape

Charles and Caz came up with this idea to put a strip of self-adhesive Sail Tape along the whole length and very top of the awning. It stays there permanently and can help to prevent UV rays affecting the awning when it is rolled up.

 

Reversing Markers

Not every van has markers like these that Charles and Caz have, but when they were doing a towing course they had to learn how to tow the van virtually in a circle so they ended up where they started. What their instructor did once they had worked it out was put temporary markers on the front of the van so they knew if they saw those markers just how tight their tow was.

When they got home, Charles and Caz made their own markers.

 

 

Strut Support

It seems that the gas struts on some windows don’t like hot weather. In some cases they simply give up and the window closes. A very neat suggestion is to get some strong but small hole plastic tubing. Cut the tubing the same size as the strut, and slice it from top to bottom so you can put the tubing around the part of the strut that goes into the other one. This should effectively keep your window open.

Retreat Caravan Owners Group