Wear and Tear of your Caravan

We've got advice from our Caravan Cover loss adjusters on how you can avoid wear and tear on your caravan's windows.

If your caravan is protected by the Club’s Caravan Cover financial product then any damage to the windows of your caravan that is a result of an accident, fire, or theft, is covered. However if the window damage has been caused by wear and tear then unfortunately it isn’t covered - unless it’s still under warranty.

How do you define "window wear and tear"?

A caravan’s window wear and tear is most often caused by temperature fluctuations of extreme heat and cold. This causes the acrylic plastic to expand and contract, or become brittle. At this point, cracks may start to appear or the seals around the window may weaken and perish.

How can you avoid window wear and tear?

There are a number of things that you can do which could help to reduce your caravan windows' wear and tear. With their years of experience in this field, our loss adjusters have collated their thoughts on the subject:

• A clean caravan is 'a must’. This will help to prevent the build up of dirt that gives wear and tear a foothold to start damaging your windows. Sand erosion has been seen to accelerate the negative effects of wear and tear so avoid sand as much as possible.
  
  
• Putting a plastic cover over your caravan helps prevent leaves or weather damage, especially in the colder months. Yet, please do make sure that they are anti UV covers, and that they are both waterproof and breathable. 

• Knowing that sun and adverse weather can hasten wear and tear means that storing your caravan undercover or indoors wherever possible, is highly preferable.
   
• We also advise against using reflective shields as they can magnify the heat onto your windows. 
  
  
• And even though we know that this is possibly standard procedure for most of our seasoned tourers, we thought it was worth reminding everyone to try and 'air' out your outfit by opening the windows and doors as much as possible.

However we know that your caravan is there for you to enjoy your leisure time and so enjoy taking it out and about as much as you can.

Your Club has developed a specialist product to cover Caravans so you can keep enjoying what you love without the worry of what might happen should you be involved in an accident or caught out by the weather (please be aware wear and tear is not something that we, or as far as we are aware other providers, are able to cover). If you've not already got Club cover, click here to join your fellow members - we'd love to provide cover for your caravan too

First published in May 2023.