When we received our brand new caravan, it came ready to hit the road. However, along the way, we have made some modifications to make us more comfortable, and help us stay away for longer. These are the mods we made to our van and why I believe you’ll benefit from them too…
SIROCCO FANS
Being on the road full time means we see a lot of different climates, but given the choice, we like to chase the sun, and that means warmer weather. To keep things cool and breezy, I installed a few Sirocco fans. It was an easy DIY project for me as I am a sparky; however, I believe it would be easy for anyone with a bit of DIY skills. The most difficult part of the job was running the wires. I managed to get away with replacing some lights and reusing the existing wiring to power the fans.
I put a fan in each of the bunks and two more above the main bed. The position of the fans above the main bed, added with the manoeuvrability of the Sirocco fans, means they can be adjusted to not only blow onto the bed but also into the dining/ seating area and even the kitchen area. Such is the beauty of caravan life.
EXTRA 12V OUTLETS
One of the disadvantages of buying a caravan pre-built off the lot like we did is that you don’t get to pick and choose any layout changes or additions. Because of this, we found our new caravan was lacking in 12V outlets.
The kids had USB outlets in their bunks; however, there were no other 12V outlets inside the van apart from the one for the TV. This meant when we were off-grid, we didn’t have anywhere to charge our phones or power the laptop. While this might be okay for some when on a holiday, for us living and working full time out of our caravan, it was a problem. Luckily, I found an easy solution to this by replacing the 12V reading lights at our bed-head with ones that have a built-in USB outlet. Another easy DIY job for the win!
Unfortunately, the USB outlet on the lights would not be enough to power a laptop, which I needed to work and edit videos for our YouTube channel. To solve that, I installed a twin 12V outlet next to the existing 240V outlet under the dining table. Though a bit more involved, having to run new wiring, it was still an easy enough DIY job for me. The twin outlet allows me to charge additional batteries for cameras and drones as well as run the Starlink and laptop.
LITHIUM BATTERIES
To allow for all the extra 12V equipment that we use, I upgraded the house battery from AGM to lithium and at the same time, added an additional battery. This took our battery capacity from 120Ah of AGM to 240Ah of lithium. This was another easy DIY for me and would be for most DIYers (though of course you should see a specialist if uncertain).
The advantage of lithium batteries in a caravan is that you get more available power for the weight. Not only is a lithium battery less than half the weight of an AGM battery of the same capacity, it can also be safely discharged to 5 per cent of its capacity (may vary with battery specification). Compare this with an AGM battery, which can only be safely discharged to 50 per cent of its capacity.
While upgrading to lithium batteries, I also added a shunt. This is a device that measures all the power going in and out of the battery and it can tell you the state of charge (percentage of energy left in the battery). It can also calculate how long the battery will last with its current draw. I have a version that sends all this info to an app via Bluetooth – very handy when off-grid.
CARAVAN CURTAINS
Privacy in a caravan can be difficult, especially in a small family caravan. We wanted to separate the kids’ bunks area from the rest of the caravan. Luckily for us, the set-up of our caravan made this an easy DIY job, which we achieved by simply installing a fabric curtain.
I installed a curtain rod holder while my wife adjusted an off-the-shelf curtain to suit the space. We can now put the kids to bed in one end, close the curtain and continue in the opposite end with less disturbance.
While at it, I removed the factory-fitted sliding door, which enclosed the toilet and shower area. I replaced this with another curtain on a curtain rod. The reasons for this was that we felt the original door was heavy and bulky. I also had doubts on how the sliding set-up would fair on rough roads. A curtain here saved us a bit of weight and actually allowed for a bit more space in this tight area of the caravan.
HOOKS AND HANGERS
As soon as we started using our caravan, we realised that we need more places to hang things. Shower towels, hand towels and even hats. Luckily, there is a well known solution to this, tried, tested and recommended by many caravaner.
It’s the Fusion Loc range of products. This was our first time using this gear and we loved it too. They are a range of suction-mounted accessories with a really good suction mount system. To this day, after nearly two years, with plenty of kilometres of harsh, rough and rugged roads such as the Gibb, Cape York and Ningaloo, just to name some of the more well known ones, we have never had a suction mount come off. We’ve had some of the accessories break, but never one come off the wall.
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– Elvin Pal
