How to avoid a breakdown

Steps you can take to avoid being stranded on holiday

It’s a nasty sight to behold: mid-summer, blistering heat, on the side of the freeway, a couple looking forlornly at their broken-down vehicle and van, as if doing so might shame the rig into going again.

Vehicles are much more reliable these days and even caravan running gear has benefited from the advances in technology that has allowed finer, more precise manufacturing tolerances.

A breakdown is far more unlikely now than it has ever been, but that doesn’t mean there’s room for complacency. Components can fail and cause your rig to come to a grinding halt – but there are things you can do to reduce the chances of that happening to you.

While a vehicle breakdown is annoying, at least most tow trucks can easily tow your vehicle back to a workshop. Add a caravan into the mix and even if you have breakdown cover for it, it’s likely that you’ll have more of a wait to get the van towed away as well.

Towing takes its toll

Towing a caravan or camper can be hard on vehicles, adding stress to engine, running gear, suspension and brakes. Servicing your tow vehicle before a big trip is a good idea, with fresh engine oil and a new oil filter at the very least.

Make sure that coolant and brake fluids are changed to schedule and if you’re away on tour for a while and the fluids are due a change while you’re away, you may as well get them changed before you go as well.

Bad brakes might not keep your vehicle from going but you won’t be game to tow if they’re shot. Brake rotors and pads should be inspected before a big trip, if they haven’t already been recently, and pads and/or discs replaced if they’re getting towards the end of their service or damaged.

One vehicle fluid that most manufacturers would lead you to believe never needs changing is automatic transmission fluid. They usually claim that the transmission is ‘sealed for life’ and its fluid does not need changing.

If you do much towing, then you can be certain that your transmission will have a short life if you follow that advice – a lot more heat is generated in the transmission when towing a load. If your vehicle manufacturer doesn’t state a fluid change interval in the service schedule, then make sure that both the transmission fluid and filter are changed every two or three years or 60,000km if you want to reduce your chances of the transmission conking out on your next caravan holiday.

Another transmission-saver is to fit an auxiliary oil-to-air transmission cooler. While some manufacturers fit such a cooler to their vehicles, they’re usually not up to the job of keeping transmission temperatures down when towing.

Regular checks important

When out on a trip, you should make fluid level checks part of your pre-departure routine. Don’t fall for the trap of checking engine oil on an incline – the reading will be out.

All engines burn some oil, so you may need to carry some spare engine oil for a top-up. If you notice a drop in any of the other of the vehicle’s vital fluids – coolant, brake fluid, transmission fluid or power steering fluid – then it’s time to investigate further.

It’s a lot easier to get a vehicle fixed when you’re already in town than having to get it and your van towed back from the highway.

Watch your bearings and brakes

As for your caravan, the main breakdown-saver is to keep up maintenance to bearings and brakes. The bearings should be cleaned and checked for damage every 12 months or 10,000km and the brake shoes checked for excessive wear or cracks in the surface. The drum contact surface should also be checked for scoring or excess wear.

If in doubt, throw them out. New parts are cheap insurance. Making sure the bearings are well greased after a clean-up or with new replacements is vital and so is proper adjustment to both bearings and brakes.

Flat tyres are no fun to replace when you’re out on tour, especially if you get a few go down – or worse, blow out. If you don’t already do this, you really need to check tyre pressures before you head off every time on a transport stage.

Follow recommended tyre pressures you’ll find on a tyre placard in your vehicle (usually on a door jamb or on the glovebox lid) or on the van’s compliance plate. Check the pressures before heading off and again after you’ve been on the highway for an hour or so.

You should see a 4psi increase from cold to hot for passenger-rated tyres and 5-6psi for LT-rated tyres. If you see less than those amounts, you have inflated your tyres too much. If the increase is higher, your cold pressures are too low.

While you’re checking pressures, also check the tyres for damage. If you see splits in the tyre, you’ll need to get a replacement, sooner rather than later.

Tyre tread depth is important too – especially if heading onto outback dirt roads. If you’re planning on doing big distances on your next trip, replace tyres when there’s 3-4mm tread remaining.

Keep your speeds down

Lastly, don’t drive the rig the way it isn’t meant to be driven. For example, Kia says that you shouldn’t exceed 70km/h when climbing steep hills when towing, and Subaru puts a cap of 80km/h on their vehicles when towing.

For any tow vehicle, driving it flat-out when climbing hills, especially in hot weather, isn’t exactly the mechanical sympathy you need to avoid a breakdown.

You can’t avoid the human error factor in a breakdown – which could be introduced when a vehicle or van’s component was badly designed or fitted at the factory to a distracted mechanic doing the last service.

Yet if you have covered off the basic steps we’ve outlined, you’ll have a far better chance of avoiding being stranded with a broken-down vehicle or van on your next trip.

How to avoid a breakdown

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