Advice please, storing van for the winter

We are always optimistic that we'll get another trip in, but invariably farm life prevents it. So the caravan sits in the paddock behind the house exactly as we left it after the last trip.

At some point (November/December?) we'll realise that the season is over for us and we drain the water etc and bring the bottles of booze inside.

That's it.

Feckless? But it works for us.

I bought some axle stands (and a trolley jack) many years ago and always lift the caravan onto those over the winter so no weight is on the tyres. 

We do use a cover and do feel it keeps the van clean and dry but others will dispute that. 

Was thinking about axles, but the Volvo alternator went so that might have to wait till next year. Just the periodic moving of the caravan to spready out the wheel load.

Thanks for your replies.

You can get axle stands for £15 in Halfords. Possibly cheaper elsewhere.

Couple of breeze blocks/bricks and a plank of wood - even cheaper.

Charge the battery once a month, preferably off-line with a decent multi-stage charger.

Put Talcum powder along the window rubber seals to stop sticking.

Lightly grease the toilet cassette seals with silicone grease (not Vaseline).

Dont leave the tiniest bit of water in the system, it could be expensive (I speak from experience). It’s good to go for a run with all taps and drains open to get rid of any water or use the proprietary systems for forcing the water out.

...and don’t even think of going away in a caravan when it’s cold and wet! Sorry folks, just my sensitive disposition.

Agree with all of that!  And can confirm that 'the tiniest bit of water in the system' can cause problems, as our shower fixture 'blew' due to ice inside the fitting, and would have cost so much to replace that it just wasn't worth it - particularly as we haven't used it once in eighteen years!  We had drained down the system completely, bur forgotten that odd 'pockets' of water were held within the system and if they froze and expanded would blow the flimsy plastic that most caravan plumbing is made from.  We capped off the system and forgot about it!

I mentioned in my previous post about the shower head - this is the one part most people miss. 

In fact I detach my shower head from it's hose and with every thing open I blow down the hose to hopefully extracate every little drop thay may be lurking in the "bends" and then leave the hose dangling down in the shower tray.

Leave fridge door slightly open

I would add keeping your freezer compartment door ajar too. We use a small, lunch pack size, rigid ice pack, this in turn keeps the fridge door wide open. Once after the freezer has dried we did close it but there was a definite stale whiff! So we prefer to ventilated 😉