Planning a motorhome journey? Earlier than you allow, ensure that your automobile is protected with these important motorhome checks.
*We work arduous to make this the most effective motorhome journey weblog and street journey web site attainable, stuffed with useful content material for you. The web site is supported by our readers, so in the event you purchase by way of hyperlinks on this web site we might earn a commission- at no additional value to you. All opinions stay our personal.
For those who discover this submit helpful, you may additionally deal with us to a espresso – we promise to get pleasure from it whereas creating extra helpful content material like this- we’d even take pleasure in a biscuit (or two!)
Important Motorhome Checks earlier than a Street journey
For those who’re a new motorhome proprietor, it may be formidable to know what you’ll want to do earlier than every street journey.
A lot as I might like to, I can’t give a particular record of pre-trip and departure checks for each single attainable automobile you is likely to be doing a street journey in- not least as a result of I don’t know that a lot about automobiles!! 🙂
So this submit is a basic guidelines of issues I have a look at earlier than large Motorhome street journeys. Whether or not you’re travelling by Motorhome, Campervan, caravan or automotive, the guidelines will probably be roughly related.
After all, if you’re hiring your motorhome, you gained’t have to fret about it at this stage. HOWEVER, the data is price a fast learn by way of, in order that what to search for once you decide the rent automobile up. For everybody else, let’s dive in.
Here’s a record of important issues we verify on our Motorhome earlier than our Street journeys:
- If the automobile hasn’t been began for some time, begin the engine and provides it a run, simply to make certain!
- BRAKES. Verify your brakes and brake fluid. Please. Halfords do a free brake verify and after our horrible expertise of driving down a mountain in Switzerland with none brakes, we verify ours recurrently!
- Tyre tread. Our tyres are at the moment okay on our Motorhome- however we’re about to do a HUGE journey over 6 weeks (Helllllooooo, Norway) and so we’ve chosen to switch them earlier than we go. In case your tread may be very low and also you’re about to set off round Europe, think about doing the identical. For those who’re going for a few weeks and your tread is okay, you ought to be fantastic till you get again. For those who’re unsure, ask your native storage.
- IMPORTANT- motorhome authorised tyres are NOT the identical as regular automotive 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 commonplace automotive tyres had been placed on earlier than we purchased it… and we didn’t know sufficient to verify. If doubtful, ask your storage to verify you could have the appropriate tyres fitted.
- Tyre Strain
- Windscreen. Verify for chips, cracks or different imperfections. You might be lined by insurance coverage in Europe, but when it cracks fully, it’s going to eat into your vacation time. Higher to get it sorted now and never have to fret about it.
- Lights. Make certain all of your lights, indicators and so forth are working. It’s scary what number of motorhomes and caravans we’ve seen with indicators or brake lights which aren’t working appropriately. Don’t give the European police a simple purpose to fantastic you. (And people fines are on the spot!)
- Washer fluid
- Oil
- Water ranges in radiator when you’ve got an older motorhome/ campervan.
- Adblue
- Battery- if you’re in any doubt concerning the starter battery or home battery (or every other battery you will have), get it checked and change if needed
- Verify awning
- Verify hydraulic legs when you’ve got them
- Make certain all inside lights work- change bulbs as needed and think about carrying a pair for spares
- Verify batteries in smoke alarms and CO2 detectors- after our motorhome caught fireplace we’re insistent on these items
- Change on inside electronics and guarantee every part is working
- GB Sticker- be sure you have a sticker fastened to the rear of your automobile.
- Headlamp adjustments- as a result of the English drive on the opposite facet of the street to the remainder of Europe, our headlights level the improper means. You want to connect headlight stickers in an effort to adjust to EU regulation.
Do your Important Motorhome upkeep BEFORE your vacation
Certainly one of my largest motorhome suggestions for freshmen is: when you’ve got jobs which you KNOW want doing, like a defective bathe/ rest room/ faucet, you can see it a lot simpler to repair it within the UK than looking for components in Europe. The hose sizes we use right here within the UK usually are not the identical as the remainder of Europe, and it’s loads simpler to search out your native motorhome/ caravan store and ask for what you want than it’s attempting to do it in signal language overseas!
Having stated that, the Europeans love motorhomes/ caravans and there are outlets and suppliers all over. Ought to the worst occur and you’ll want to repair one thing urgently (like, say… you rip the faucet off your freshwater tank and lose all of your water!), then you may normally discover one thing to assist repair the issue till you come back to the UK, even when it’s not the right resolution. So don’t fear an excessive amount of about damaging your automobile while abroad. (We’ll cowl insurance coverage on a day very quickly!)
Different issues to verify on a motorhome: Trailer or bike rack
You probably have a trailer/ bike rack, be sure you give that some consideration too.
- Verify to make sure bolts haven’t labored free on bike rack
- Verify towbar and all electrics
- Verify straps for fraying
- Verify tread on trailer tyres
- Grease wheel bearings in trailer
- Verify brakes if it’s a braked trailer
- Look over covers (we use covers on our motorbikes) to verify for rips/ holes/ injury
- MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PROPER NUMBER PLATE and a GB sticker for trailer.
- Verify fixings on roof containers/ exterior baggage carriers to make sure they’re nonetheless correctly fitted.
ESSENTIAL MOTORHOME CHECKS- TASK LIST:
- Full your record of car checks
- E book in any MOTs, tyre checks, battery checks and so forth.
- Verify any trailers/ bike racks/ exterior baggage holders
We hope you discovered this handy. For those who did, be happy to share it on social media so others can discover it too.
Final replace on 2025-02-28 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photographs from Amazon Product Promoting API