RV FEATURE
There’ s nothing better than packing and hitching up in readiness to hit the road on that next adventure. But it doesn’ t matter how much trip-planning you’ ve done, Mother Nature has her own ideas once you’ re out there travelling. While you can’ t prevent what she dishes up, you can certainly be prepared.
BEATING THE HEAT
Aussies love to get out during warm weather, but it’ s the sun’ s damaging UV that gets absorbed by most things. You’ ll find heat can affect your RV in all sorts of ways. It can warp and buckle plastics, cause metals to expand and mechanical equipment to work harder. Things like a sticking RV door and windows are just two examples of being affected by heat compared to their smooth operation when the weather is cooler.
Idyllic camp, but be wary of your surroundings.
Parking your RV in shade seems like the obvious way to help keep your RV cool, but sometimes that’ s not always possible. With many RVs having an awning on their door side, think about having an awning on the RV’ s offside as well. They’ re quite simple to install, using sail track that’ s attached to the RV, and some shade cloth or canvas for the verandah. With most RVs’ offside being the side where the fridge is located, having an extra awning here can help it run more efficiently.
Don’ t overlook the need to have more water on board when it’ s hot. Budget for at least 5L of water per person per day as a minimum, and more for showering if you’ re free-camping. These days there are several ways to add extra water to your setup, depending on your needs. A few jerry cans here and there, portable bladders, or a range of storage containers scattered throughout your RV, will all do the trick.
We added another water tank for a more permanent solution that we use with a transfer system. This allows us to choose which of our main tanks we put the additional water into only when it’ s needed, otherwise we’ d be carrying unnecessary extra weight if we always travelled with them filled.
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