Do you need a caravan cover?

The cost of land leading to smaller home storage space, and the trend to apartment living have all put the squeeze on the larger, costlier caravans Australians are now buying.

While the big rigs averaging 18ft 6in-22ft that we now travel in fit well into our lifestyle on the road, they don’t fit where we live these days compared with the average 16ft-long single axle caravan of yesteryear.

Back then, everyone had space in the driveway or backyard of their quarter-acre block and a simple tarpaulin held down at the corners with bricks, kept the weather off. No more.

Even if you have space for it next to your McMansion, your increasingly costly RV, be it a caravan, camper trailer or motorhome, is now more vulnerable to ‘weather events’ that ravage us with increasing frequency.

Insurance companies have reacted to this, with Australia’s largest RV underwriter CIL offering a 10 per cent premium discount on caravans with full thickness fibreglass composite panels (yet oddly, you don’t get the same preferential rate if your ribbed aluminium-clad van is stored securely in a shed!)

The elephants in the room here are the solar panels on the roof of most modern caravans. I worry more about damage to my caravan’s 3 x 150W glass solar panels from hail or tree branches than I do about the rest of it, although stains from bird, bat droppings and sap from overhanging trees does my all-fibreglass panels and windows no favours.

Allied to this is the growth in popularity of caravan storage yards, most outdoors on vacant land, and the question of whether and how to cover up your mobile holiday home is one many people agonise over.

Cheap weatherproof covers

The cheapest solution is a weatherproof cover, with prices for a popular-sized caravan ranging from as little as $300 up to around $1800.

So why the big price difference? It’s got to do with where they are made, the sort and quality of the material, its UV resistance, ventilation, fit and what you want the cover to withstand.

In parts of NSW and Queensland, hail damage is a real issue, so ideally, you’ll want to cover your prized possession with a cover featuring an inner-foam liner.

Storm Covers on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, produces tailor-made car and caravan covers made from high-quality imported UV laminated polyethylene fabric which has a slick finish, while the inner layer is made from extra-soft foam.

They say it will provide impact protection from debris and golf and even cricket ball-sized hail and fruit and branches falling from surrounding trees, but is soft enough to stay on your RV for extended periods without scratching the body of your caravan.

Tailor-fitting is important here, as most caravans have protrusions, such as awnings, radio and TV antennae, roof-mounted air conditioners and rear bumper-mounted jerry cans and spare wheels.

When wind gets underneath a cheap cover, as it will unless tailored around these items, it can scuff the caravan or motorhome bodywork in the process.

Acrylic/Perspex windows generate static, which attracts dirt and dust particles that are then agitated in turn, by a badly-fitting cover.

A well-fitted cover will also minimize the need to polish your fibreglass caravan every two years as most manufacturers recommend, to ensure it withstands UV light and doesn’t yellow with age.

Even cheaper solution

A cheaper solution if you don’t store your caravan in a hail-prone area, is to buy a tailor-made quality cover that offers UV protection, but does not include the thick under-cover foam. Then go to Bunnings or Clark Rubber and buy six to 10 $2 foam swimming pool ’noodles’ and lay them on the roof or solar panels first before fitting the cover.

Not as good as a proper hail cover, but they will keep the cover clear of surface contact and will absorb most of the shock of heavenly objects.

Generally, the cheaper the cover, the more generic the fit and the fewer the features it will have, such as air ventilation ports, zips or Velcro panels to give access to doors, boot, etc.

It’s also reasonable to assume that the better covers will last longer, with higher-quality stitching and corner reinforcement, better UV light resistance, with warranties of up to seven years. Some cheap covers will start to degrade in as little as 12 months of constant UV exposure.

Despite the economy of scale from mass production, you cannot reasonably expect all these benefits from a cheap cover, such as you can buy from Bunnings or Supercheap, although you could argue that you could replace them a number of times for the cost of a better-quality custom cover.

Keeping things charged up

Another thing to factor in when covering your caravan is how to keep your battery, or batteries, charged.

Most new caravans and pop-tops these days have one or more roof-mounted solar panels feeding one or two AGM batteries, which in turn keep things like satellite tracking devices running. When the panels are covered, they no longer deliver the trickle charge needed to keep your modern electrics functioning.

This poses a problem when your caravan is out in the middle of a storage paddock, or even if you're fortunate enough to have it safely under-cover.

The solution that many caravanners employ is a small solar panel chained to the A-frame. At least a 60W panel is recommended to allow for cloudy days.

Of course, you can ignore all this advice and go for the ‘budget’ solution – buy a simple rectangular vinyl tarpaulin from your local discount hardware, car parts or Army surplus store, chuck a few pool noodles beneath it to avoid scratching and simply tie it down tightly. Chances are you’ll get change from $100!

Caravan cover problems

So much for the benefits, but what are the intrinsic problems with caravan covers of any sort?

Fitting them is an obvious one.

Some like the Stormcovers come in three parts, with one section covering the caravan’s front, roof and rear and the other two being zip-on sides. But if you're talking about enclosing a largish off-road caravan standing about 2,8-3.0 metres tall, you'll need a ladder (not recommended for over-55s), a windless day and two patient people to fit.

Cheaper one-piece covers pose an even-greater challenge.

Then, after returning from your trip, with the rear and sides of your caravan covered in red dust or road grime, you’re going to have to clean it first and wait until it's thoroughly dry – including its roll-out awning, which can trap moisture as you travel – before you can re-fit the cover.

Of course, if you frequent an off-site storage facility, which typically costs about $900 per year in the open, they may offer a park, cover and re-commission service.

Another more permanent option

I weighed up all the options, and had my 15ft 6in caravan measured for a quality tailored cover costing about $1400, before deciding to get a caravan port built at the much greater cost of around $4500.

My reasoning was that a cover wouldn’t give me the same protection from overhead fallout and it would be a chore to put on and take off, reducing our incentive to take the van away for long weekends or week-long short holidays in between major trips.

But we had the room to do that at home. Most people these days don’t.