You never really know what you’ve got until you take a closer look. In the second part of our series, Nigel Donnelly takes a magnifying glass to his most recent caravan acquistion
THE INITIAL EXCITEMENT of getting our new project – a 1998 Bailey Delamere – on the drive ebbed away after a while, replaced by the need to get things done for her maiden voyage – to a music festival.
First up was a clear-up and clear-out. Second-hand ’vans come with ‘stuff’ squirrelled away by the previous owner. We found a TV/DVD player, some superhero DVDs, two toasters, a kettle, some cushions and all manner of other stuff which was sorted, binned or donated to the local charity shop depending on how useful it was.
For our first outing, we were keeping things simple. We weren’t going to use gas as we wouldn’t have time to get it tested, and the standard three-way fridge has been replaced by a domestic mains one; we’d be relying on a Cadac and a cool box for the weekend. We did need to ensure that the van (Penny) was safe to tow and could provide a bed, a toilet and some lighting so we weren’t sitting in the dark.
Rubber review
We checked over the safety items first. The initial place to start with any caravan is the tyres. I won’t go into too much detail about checking caravan tyres – there is excellent advice on the Practical Caravan website if you want to check yours – but by law, tyres are required to carry a date code. Once they are five years old, thorough inspection is vital and replacement should be factored in at the first sign of deterioration.
We’d been told the van had a recent tyre fitted, but the date codes told us that our rubber was ready to be retired – in every sense of the word. The ‘new’ tyre was 15 years old and had a slice in the sidewall, so that went straight in the bin. Once I’d looked up the other one, I had to do some research to check that I wasn’t reading the code wrongly…
It was a Goodyear tyre with a three-digit date code, indicating it was from 1994 – four years older than the caravan. On inspection, it was in much better shape than its newer compatriot across the axle but, after 29 years, we felt this was a penny not worth pinching and ran the wheels to our favoured tyre suppliers. They fitted a pair of new 14in commercial vehicle tyres for £130, including balancing. With a bit of luck they could be good for the next 29 years…
With the wheels off and the caravan securely supported on axle stands, we were able to get to the brake adjusters and check that things were working. Aside from a lot of cobwebs and a sti
