Total Caravan Care - Maintenance and Servicing in Sussex and Hampshire » caravan

How often should the tyres on your caravan be changed?

NickYoung — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 22:27:45 +0000

Preferably replace any tyre more than five years old, but never exceed seven.
They will have significantly deteriorated by then, whatever the tread depth or amount of use. Remember that generally a caravan will travel far fewer miles than an average car and therefore the car tyres are normally wear to their limits within a five year period.

Some essential caravan terminology

NickYoung — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 22:21:58 +0000

MiRO (Mass in Running Order)

– This is the caravan’s weight with all factory fitted equipment, when it leaves the factory. MiRO replaces the old terms ‘ex works weight’ and ‘unladen weight’.

MTPLM (Maximum Technically Permissible Laden Mass)

– The maximum weight that the caravan chassis can take, as stated by the manufacturer of the chassis. It replaces Gross Vehicle Weight.

Payload

– The weight of items you could load into your caravan. It is derived by subtracting the caravan’s MiRO from its MTPLM.

Nosewight

– This is the weight applied to the towball by a caravan. It is important that the maximum noseweight is not exceeded. Both the car and tha caravan have maximum noseweight limits. The lower of the two is the legal maximum.

GTW (Gross Train Weight)

– The maximum combined weight of a car and trailer combination.

Towing limit

– The maximum weight of a trailer that a car may legally tow. It is often higher than the kerbweight.

Kerbweight

– As defined by EU Directive 95/48/EC. The vehicle’s weight with its fuel tank 90% full, all necessary fluids, driver and luggage of 75KG.

Batteries

NickYoung — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:34:00 +0000

Customers are always asking me if they can connect two batteries into their caravan or motorhome. One of the reasons is that they want to visit places which may not have mains electricity (hook-up) available or the site only has non electric pitches available. They are, therefore reliant upon battery power for their power needs.

The answer is that you can connect two batteries together in parallel (that is negative to negative and positive to positive). This in effect will give you more ampere hours (Ah) and extend your time before the batteries need recharging. Remember though, the capacity will depend on the rate of discharge. The more 12v appliances and lighting you use the quicker the batteries will drain.

Something else to remember is that you should where possible stick to the same Ah batteries if you are connecting two in parallel, ie two 85 Ah batteries or two 110 Ah batteries together. Not 1 x 85Ah and 1 x 110Ah battery connected as this will limit the capacity of the larger batter to that of the smaller rated battery.
Also, ensure you use batteries of the same type, ie don’t connect a gel battery and a wet led acid battery together.

you can also create 230V AC power from 12V DC batteries with the aid of an inverter. A word of warning though, you need to identify what wattage you want to gain from the inverter, ie what appliances do you want to run on 230V. Typically a 350watt inverter will need at least a 70Ah battery to give you any benefit. Also you may get interference from an inverter on a TV if it doesn’t have the correct wave form. It’s starting to get technical now!

Feel free to give Total Caravan Care a call if you need more advice.