Spring into Adventure: Essential Checks to Get Your Caravan or Motorhome Ready for the Touring Season
Posted on 31 Jan 2025 in Caravans

With the Spring upon us, it is time to start thinking about getting your motorhomes, caravans and camper vans ready for the new touring season. After spending a long winter in storage your caravan or motorhome will need a bit of freshening up before it’s ready for a new season. Winter has been long and your leisure vehicle may have been sitting unused for long periods of time in freezing temperatures. Even if you took careful steps to winterise your vehicle, your caravan or motorhome will still require a few simple tasks to get it ready for another summer of adventures.
When to Begin Your Spring Checks
We recommend that you start preparing your caravan or motorhome at least a month before your first trip of the season, just in case you uncover any big problems during your spring checks.
Rolling Smoothly: Essential Tyre Checks
Before you go anywhere, you will need to check the tyres. This is especially important if you haven’t been able to move your vehicle at all over the winter and the weight of the caravan or motorhome has been sitting on one section of the tyre for a long time.
Damp Dilemma: Spotting and Preventing Moisture Damage
Water damage and damp are a real risk over the winter months. If you followed the correct steps to winterise your caravan or motorhome, you’ll reduce this risk but it’s still worth checking for any signs of damage in the spring. Pay particular attention to the areas around windows, doors and rooflights for any signs of leaks. Check any upholstery that has been left in the vehicle over the winter months. You’ll usually be able to smell if it is damp when you first step inside your caravan or motorhome.
Leave the windows and doors open for a few hours to get some good air circulation going, or even put a dehumidifier on while you do your spring cleaning. Even if there aren’t any leaks or damp, it’s quite common for there to be a bit of a musty smell.
Power Up: Checking Your Electrical Systems and Battery
It’s important to check all of your lights are in working order before you make that first trip. A number of things could have happened over the course of winter to affect your caravan or motorhome’s road lights. If moisture has found its way into the plug and socket system over the winter, you may find some issues here.
Check that your leisure battery has some charge and is in good condition. If you removed your leisure battery before storing your caravan or motorhome for the winter, make sure that the clamps are clean and rust-free when reconnecting it. Test the battery by trying the interior lights and the water pump.
If your battery isn’t holding charge, try leaving it to charge for several days using a battery charger rather than the vehicle’s charging system. This can happen sometimes if you haven’t charged it regularly over the winter. If the battery is completely flat and won’t hold charge at all it will need replacing.
Crystal Clear: Refreshing Your Water System
Before storing your caravan or motorhome for the winter, you will have drained down the water system to prevent any liquid freezing and causing damage to your water systems. If you have a water filter fitted to your freshwater supply system, now is a good time to replace it. When it’s time to start using your water system again and re-couple a water supply, make sure you close any valves on drain-down points. Once they’re closed, test your water pump and make sure that all taps are working. Run water through the whole system and check for any signs of leaking.
After you’ve tested the system, it’s a good idea to sterilise it before using it. You can fill this with a cleaning solution, such as Puriclean, which will need to be in the system for around 12 hours before being flushed through.
Gas Up Safely: Inspecting Your Gas System
You may have removed your gas cylinders as a safety precaution when winterising their vehicle. When re-installing your cylinders, make sure you check the rubber hose for any signs of cracks or damage. If you’ve had the current hose for a number of years, consider replacing it even if it looks to be in good condition as the rubber does degrade over time. When you’ve re-installed your cylinders, check that any appliances that use gas, such as heating or your cooking equipment, are working correctly.
Make sure that devices such as smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors still have battery life and are working properly. If you have security alarms, check that these are all working too.
Stay Covered: Insurance & Breakdown Protection
Before you hit the road, check that you have your motorhome or caravan insurance up to date, make sure that your car insurance and breakdown cover is all sorted too if relevant.
Caravan Storage Made Easy
Take the hassle out of storing your caravan with our secure caravan storage in York. Enjoy total peace of mind knowing your caravan is protected with secure barrier entry, CCTV, and monitored access to the site. Daily storage from just £5/day, winter storage from £250.
Blow The Cobwebs Off at York Meadows
If you are taking your caravan or motorhome out of storage, why not spend a night or two at York Meadows before the start of the main season, just to make sure everything is up and running properly. Book one or two nights during March for the low season prices.