Message Forums

The only thing we've left in ours is a few plates and cups and cutlery.

Does anyone remove the battery?

Thanks

Quote: Originally posted by adandemsmom on 23/10/2011

---

 

The only thing we've left in ours is a few plates and cups and cutlery.

Does anyone remove the battery?

Thanks

---

Thanks Jeff, no alarm fitted so in it comes.

we leave our battery in the caravan all through the winter, but we are lucky enough to also be able to leave the van connected to a EHU point so that the battery can recharge as required. we also leave a 12v light on so that theres some constant usage from the battery, plus we leave cat litter trays of common cooking salt down to act as a dessicant and remove any moisture from the air.

Now for the controversal bit, throughout last years bad winter, we also left a cheap fan heater plugged in set to 'frost gaurd' but although it worked well, and kept the main part of the caravan dry, it also caused some condensation to form in a corner at the rear of the caravan where the water and ice sheets were thickest on the outside and took the longest to drain, due to the fact that the cambre of the pitch it was standing on made that the easiest means of escape for all water coming off the caravans roof. The result was a watermark about an inch in diameter and about 12ins long down the join where the rear of the caravan meets the along the side. This would have been the point where the water ran most on the outside of the caravan and where the fan heater would have had the tempreture up quite well at that point as it was left standing on an old tea tray on the rear dinette table.

When we first spotted this we though oh no! not the dreaded damp that has hit us, but after a trip to our dealer, and a test around the entire van with his damp meter, he confirmed that this was indeed due to the severity of the extremely cold temps outside (upto -18c some nights and with thick sheets of icicles stuck to that corner of the caravan for about a month during the big freeze) hitting the warmth of the wallboard within the caravan, and at a point where there were probably some small gaps within the insultaion due to the corner join which allowed the condensation to form.

No further action was taken or needed, other than to switch off the fan heater, and we have kept an eye on the moisture readings for that corner throughout summer, and we now have a normal reading of around 12%, the annoying water mark still remains, but it has taught us to level up the caravan better to avoid a deluge of drainage off that one corner, when putting it to bed for winter, and we have now invested in a dehumidifyer to give it an extra boost during severe cold weather, and will leave the fan heater firmly switched off during this winters storage to avoid risking this problem from occuring again.

Julia

Our van sits on the drive as an empty shell, all the carpets were put in the attic when we had it new & they remain there unused. The soft furnishings are brought into the house, everything is drained down including the toilet flush which is drained into a couple of 5 litre milk container so it can go back in again next easter (yes, ok I'm tight) I also remove the battery to the garage so I can charge it now & then & I remove the cassette toilet & put it up in frost free storage with the aquarol & wastemaster.

We put three casserole dishes of salt in the van to absorb moisture & bring these in when they need changing so we can replace the salt.

I remove the jockey wheel & replace it with a short length of steel tube. I do this as ours is hitched to an RSJ concreted in the round & having lost one off the drive this one's going to be hard work for Mr Thieving scum bag should he visit here again.

As the van is kept on the drive here, on a nice day we open it right up to air through, this has worked well for us with all our vans in the past so we hope it'll keep this one dry inside too.

Friends of ours don't do anything with theirs except draining down the water & they don't seem to have any problems or haven't told us of any so, whether we need to put so much effort into ours is a debatable point.

BB

Quote: We put three casserole dishes of salt in the van to absorb moisture & bring these in when they need changing so we can replace the salt.

---

---