Planning a motorhome journey? Earlier than you allow, ensure your car is protected with these important motorhome checks.
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Important Motorhome Checks earlier than a Highway journey
In case you’re a new motorhome proprietor, it may be formidable to know what you could do earlier than every highway journey.
A lot as I’d like to, I can’t give a particular checklist of pre-trip and departure checks for each single attainable car you is likely to be doing a highway journey in- not least as a result of I don’t know that a lot about automobiles!! 🙂
So this put up is a common guidelines of issues I have a look at earlier than huge Motorhome highway journeys. Whether or not you’re travelling by Motorhome, Campervan, caravan or automobile, the guidelines can be roughly comparable.
After all, if you’re hiring your motorhome, you received’t have to fret about it at this stage. HOWEVER, the knowledge is price a fast learn by, in order that you recognize what to search for whenever you choose the rent car up. For everybody else, let’s dive in.
Here’s a checklist of important issues we examine on our Motorhome earlier than our Highway journeys:
- If the car hasn’t been began for some time, begin the engine and provides it a run, simply to make certain!
- BRAKES. Test your brakes and brake fluid. Please. Halfords do a free brake examine and after our horrible expertise of driving down a mountain in Switzerland with none brakes, we examine ours often!
- Tyre tread. Our tyres are presently okay on our Motorhome- however we’re about to do a HUGE journey over 6 weeks (Helllllooooo, Norway) and so we’ve chosen to interchange them earlier than we go. In case your tread may be very low and also you’re about to set off round Europe, take into account doing the identical. In case you’re going for a few weeks and your tread is okay, you need to be positive till you get again. In case you’re unsure, ask your native storage.
- IMPORTANT- motorhome permitted tyres are NOT the identical as regular automobile tyres, even when the sizes are the identical. On our first motorhome, we had three tyres cut up on the seams as a result of customary automobile tyres had been placed on earlier than we purchased it… and we didn’t know sufficient to examine. If doubtful, ask your storage to verify you’ve the suitable tyres fitted.
- Tyre Strain
- Windscreen. Test for chips, cracks or different imperfections. Chances are you’ll be coated by insurance coverage in Europe, but when it cracks utterly, it’s going to eat into your vacation time. Higher to get it sorted now and never have to fret about it.
- Lights. Ensure that all of your lights, indicators and many others are working. It’s scary what number of motorhomes and caravans we’ve seen with indicators or brake lights which aren’t working accurately. Don’t give the European police a simple cause to positive you. (And people fines are on the spot!)
- Washer fluid
- Oil
- Water ranges in radiator when you have an older motorhome/ campervan.
- Adblue
- Battery- if you’re in any doubt concerning the starter battery or home battery (or some other battery you could have), get it checked and exchange if mandatory
- Test awning
- Test hydraulic legs when you have them
- Ensure that all inside lights work- exchange bulbs as mandatory and take into account carrying a pair for spares
- Test batteries in smoke alarms and CO2 detectors- after our motorhome caught hearth we’re insistent on this stuff
- Swap on inside electronics and guarantee every little thing is working
- GB Sticker- be sure to have a sticker fastened to the rear of your car.
- Headlamp adjustments- as a result of the English drive on the opposite facet of the highway to the remainder of Europe, our headlights level the improper means. It’s essential connect headlight stickers with a purpose to adjust to EU regulation.
Do your Important Motorhome upkeep BEFORE your vacation
One in every of my greatest motorhome suggestions for newcomers is: when you have jobs which you KNOW want doing, like a defective bathe/ rest room/ faucet, you will see that it a lot simpler to repair it within the UK than looking for elements in Europe. The hose sizes we use right here within the UK will not be the identical as the remainder of Europe, and it’s rather a lot simpler to seek out your native motorhome/ caravan store and ask for what you want than it’s attempting to do it in signal language in a foreign country!
Having mentioned that, the Europeans love motorhomes/ caravans and there are retailers and suppliers all over. Ought to the worst occur and you could repair one thing urgently (like, say… you rip the faucet off your freshwater tank and lose all of your water!), then you may often discover one thing to assist repair the issue till you come back to the UK, even when it’s not the right answer. So don’t fear an excessive amount of about damaging your car while abroad. (We’ll cowl insurance coverage on a day very quickly!)
Different issues to examine on a motorhome: Trailer or bike rack
When you have a trailer/ bike rack, be sure to give that some consideration too.
- Test to make sure bolts haven’t labored unfastened on bike rack
- Test towbar and all electrics
- Test straps for fraying
- Test tread on trailer tyres
- Grease wheel bearings in trailer
- Test brakes if it’s a braked trailer
- Look over covers (we use covers on our motorbikes) to examine for rips/ holes/ injury
- MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PROPER NUMBER PLATE and a GB sticker for trailer.
- Test fixings on roof containers/ exterior baggage carriers to make sure they’re nonetheless correctly fitted.
ESSENTIAL MOTORHOME CHECKS- TASK LIST:
- Full your checklist of car checks
- Guide in any MOTs, tyre checks, battery checks and many others.
- Test any trailers/ bike racks/ exterior baggage holders
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