Quick Caravan Fixes!

LET THERE BE NO LIGHT

Getting the kids to sleep in can be difficult when sleeping in a caravan – morning light has a way of getting, especially if your van doesn’t have ‘blockout’ blinds. Caravan skylights will also flood the interior with natural light in the morning. But solving this issue problem doesn’t have to be difficult…

1. Put up blockout curtains. You can make a curtain track and curtains to measure and hang them as needed. If you have difficulty screwing into the thin material – usually ply – used for the internal walls, try ‘anchor’ fixings of the kind you’d use for plasterboard at home.

2. Try covering the skylights with a piece of blockout cloth, with press studs attached.

3. Still too much light? If your van has a frosted bathroom/shower door, try covering with car window tint. You’d be surprised how much light you can prevent by applying a tinting film to the shower and/or bathroom door.

DISH RACK HANGER

That movable dish rack in your kitchen takes up a lot of cupboard space, correct? A very quick, easy solution is to place two hooks and a piece of felt on a wall, and hang the rack. It’s out of the way, and it should travel well, without bounce around or mark the wall, thanks to the felt. Headache averted.

AWNING CLOTHESLINE

Using a caravan’s awning arm as posts for an awning is a popular modification – they work a treat. They involve some plastic-coated thin wire rope, a turn buckle so it can be tightened, a buckle with an eyelet, two carabiners and two fixing points. Make up the line to your awning, and pop rivet the fixing to the awning arms. Attach the line, tighten and hang out your clothes.

Be sure to fix it high enough so it doesn’t get in the way of the door opening and closing. The best thing is it’s semi permanent, durable and can still be used when the awning is closed.

FAN-CY IDEA

Do you have an issue with your caravan’s microwave overheating and it’s thermo cut-off switch turning it off because the space for the microwave provides inadequate airflow?

If your microwave is adjacent to a cupboard, one solution is to wire a 100mm 12V fan to a cigarette lighter-style plug, cut out a hole for the fan in the wall separating the cupboard from the microwave nook, and then plugging in the fan to a nearby 12V point (double adaptor units are available).

You might like to wire in a small inline switch to the fan so that you can turn it on and off without having to remove the power lead.

RUBBER STOPPER

Wasp mud nests, rocks, dust and dirt can get into outdoor taps, water tank drain taps and even the exhaust of diesel heaters.

Solve this problem by fitting a rubber chair leg end over the tap or exhaust. Push a piece of fishing line through the rubber stopper, tie it off or glue it, and tie off the stopper to the tap or van.

The stopper won’t come off while you’re driving, you won’t loose it when you take it off, and it’s easy to put back on when it’s needed to bung that tap. And it’s cheap!

MEET THE AUTHOR

Max Taylor

Max Taylor has been caravanning since he was a kid and was the editor of some of Australia’s most well-known RV publications for almost 10 years.