Before You Leave for Holidays

Saving time and increasing family safety would have to be at the top of your list when deciding to getaway for a camper holiday.

Here’s a brief run down on how you can achieve this and eliminate stress at the same time.

If you’ve read the other articles on this great site, you will by now know that our research shows most people only get to use their camper 4 times in a year. (Stats taken from people who use this site only) I would say this is a good generalisation and reason enough to address one of the biggest time saving tasks you can perform. You see, if don’t use your camper regularly how do you know if everything still works, like I recently found out:

Ants or bugs could have taken over and made nests in your cupboards
Rubber seal in your manual water pump/tap might be perished
Bedding could be mouldy
The fridge doesn’t get down to a suitable temperature
Your gas bottle may be slowly leaking and become empty

And on goes the list!

I’m not trying to be pessimistic, but if your camper has been sitting around in storage for 3-4 months or more, you shouldn’t take for granted that everything will be OK or working as you expect. Imagine arriving at your destination to find the onboard pump that draws water from storage to the sink was buggered! You know the replacement rubber diaphram from one of these basic hand pumps is about $26.00. Amazing, since one would expect such a simple item should be closer to $5.00.

My point is this; you owe it to yourself and your family to do a “dry run” in the days or week prior to your leaving for holidays. A “Dry Run” is the practice of setting up the main part of your camper at home and checking to see if all onboard sytems are working and in good order as well as testing out things that you might be using when on your trip. If you were using the camper on a daily basis, you’d have a regular maintenance program, so why not at least perform some ‘preventative maintenance’ before your leave. By the way, here’s a similar article you might not have seen.

In fact this is the best time to carry out maintenance on the camper and if you find a problem, most likely you will have time to fix it without delaying your trip. The other part of the deal is you get the camper set up, tested out and packed up ready to leave. On the day of departure, all you have to do is put the food and drinks in the fridge, hitch her up to the vehicle and drive off. Best of all, there’s no stress and last minute issues that can get your trip off to a bumpy start, as long as everyone has performed their roles in getting ready. Click here for a checklist you can use as a preventative maintenance check when doing your ‘dry run’ a few days before you leave.

I trust this helps get you organised for your next adventure and adds a level of preparedness that gives you and your family confidence that there is less chance of a problem arising that might otherwise spoil a good holiday. As Steve likes to say, “happy trails”.