Safety Tips for New Caravanners

Do you believe in co-incidence?  Try this. Early last week,  I was asked to prepare a guest blog for moneysupermarket.com which you can read here suggesting ways of getting started without breaking the bank.  Out of the blue, last Saturday, my son asked me to go with him to look at a caravan as his first buy.  Result - information exactly as required for the blog based on helping my lad and his lady to buy and equip their first caravan - an elderly Elddis.

My son was once Chairman of the Centre's Teenage Committee so I did not have to give him my usual safety lecture - he was well aware of potential dangers, but here are the points we both agreed that everyone should think about:

1. Make sure your car is able to tow the caravan of your dreams - and revise your ideas if it is not gutsy enough for the job.  The simple rule is the caravan, when loaded, should not exceed 85% of the kerb weight of the car.
2. Check your licence - if you passed your driving test after 1997 you are limited in what you are allowed to tow.  There are training centres (usually the people who teach lorry and coach driving) and test centres around if your licence does not cover you.
3. Fit a stabiliser, and use it every trip.  No matter how well you think you have loaded your caravan, gusty conditions or the 'envelope' from an HGV can and will cause the caravan to 'wobble' and a 'wobble' can soon become a full blown 'snake' if not damped by the stabiliser.  There are plenty for sale secondhand, just check out the on-line auction sites.
4. Never, never, never ever carry a gas bottle inside the caravan, and never travel with the gas bottle on its site - no matter if you think you have got it safely in some sort of frame.  See information from Calor Gas on using and transporting gas.  Essentially the valve is designed for gas, not liquid.  Laying on its side the liquid gas can leak from the cylinder and lay on the floor.  You work out what happens next.  It is not pretty.
5. Don't overload the caravan when travelling.  The manufacturer's payload is there for a reason.  You do not need to weigh every item, just be sensible.  If there are four of you, you need four plates, not forty four.  
6. Pack the caravan carefully.  You will need some noseweight, but once you have put your gas cylinders in the gas locker that is it - don't be tempted to create a mobile garden shed in the locker.  Put heavy objects low down near the axle(s) and lighter ones in the overhead lockers.  Take care when you open the lockers - the contents may move during the journey.

OK moan over, but please, stay safe and enjoy your caravan.  It will give you the freedom to take off at the weekend as well as providing a base for longer summer holidays.