RV FEATURE
SERVICING : IT ’ S UNAVOIDABLE
Even the best rig has the potential to let you down at the worst possible time . After a year or two of memorymaking adventures , you still might find yourself experiencing that relentless squeak or little water leak in one corner , or perhaps the van isn ’ t braking as well as it once used to do . Or , to your horror , one of your four van wheels overtook you while you drove along the highway at a good pace .
It ’ s a hard thing with which to come to grips . But there ’ s one thing you might have overlooked that would make it far less likely that your precious rig would leak or spring a fault that could see it end up on the roadside . Your rig needs a regular check-up and for most of us , it ’ s a job best done by an expert .
Every time you hit the open road , that rig is belted with dust and debris . That stuff will always find a way of smacking into the van cladding and , down below , infiltrating bearings and joints . As you rumble along some interesting yet unforgiving outback track , your caravan is taking an avalanche of vibrations capable of playing havoc with plumbing or interfering with electrical wiring or waterproofing .
Each vibration and dust storm that impacts your van might show the damage it causes any time , this trip or the next . To find out what a regular service is all about , GoRV dropped into RV & Caravan Centre in Ballina , NSW , to speak to managing director Corinna Pinnock .
Given Corinna and her team run three centres across New South Wales at Ballina , Port Macquarie and Foster-Tuncurry , they have plenty of experience servicing or repairing a wide range of rigs . They ’ ve been in the service-repair game for over 25 years .
SERVICING FREQUENCY
Corinna recommends that travellers book their caravan in for a service every 12 months or every 10,000km . She said that service includes servicing all the key underbody areas , including checking the suspension , repacking wheelbearings , checking and repairing brakes and looking at the chassis ’ structural integrity . Then on the body itself , they check for leaks within the van and other potential issues .
The workshops at RV & Caravan Centre , NSW .
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