The summer holidays are a perfect time to visit your caravan or take your camper somewhere nice, but caravan maintenance can become difficult and even potentially dangerous if you don’t have the right equipment or don’t know how to use it. This post will help you understand what equipment to use to get your van in tip top shape for your holidays!
What is The Best Caravan Ladder?
Choosing the right ladder for a task can be quite daunting, but luckily the Industrial Strength Caravan Maintenance Ladder by Chase Manufacturing is made specifically for this job. This caravan ladder is suitable for vehicle roof heights up to 2.5m and comes with; a 1m bearer bar fitted with a non-marking white plastic sleeve, large rubber swivel feet, suction pad and webbing strap for security. This caravan ladder is made even better by the fact that it is supplied in two halves with socketed joints for easy storage while travelling.
If you’re looking at avoiding the use of a traditional conservatory ladder there are other options that could do a similar job in helping you reach and maintain the hard-to-reach places on your vehicle. Wide Step Ladders such as the Lyte EN131 Wide Step Ladder are a great alternative for this job, with a variety of heights to match your vehicle, options for products with handrails for added safety and wide comfortable platform to stand on. Despite the robustness and strength of these products, many of them can be folded up for easy storage on the go.
Caravan Ladder Safety Tools and Tips:
Many ladders, especially caravan specific ladders, come with built in safety features but you can never be too safe so here are a couple ideas to help you stay safe while maintaining your vehicles this summer.
One big issue that can be encountered while visiting rural areas can be the uneven ground, which increases the risk of tipping and falling significantly. Luckily there are products specifically for these scenarios, such as the Laddermat Anti-Slip Ladder Stabiliser and Leveller which is made from heavy-duty rubber matting and is ideal for use on sloping or uneven ground.
If you are using a ladder for cleaning in any scenario, then the risk of the ladder getting wet and becoming slippery is high so ensure you wear footwear with great grip to help counteract the issue. In a situation where your ladder has become wet or slippery it is important to stop using the ladder until you dry and clean it to ensure a safe working environment. In any case you must ensure that you follow the general safety tips for ladder use, such as the tips found on our blog post “Health and Safety Week – 5 Ladder Safety Tips”. Some of the more important safety tips in these situations are; making sure you always have three points of contact on the ladder, for example two hands and a foot, avoid overreaching (move the ladder if you can’t reach without stretching), and ensure you do a quick check of your ladder before use to make sure all the parts (stiles, feet, rungs, etc) are fit for purpose.
Other Useful Equipment for Caravan Ladders:
There are a few pieces of equipment that can come in handy while travelling with your van, such as the Wide Step Ladders mentioned prior, which can be repurposed for plenty of other jobs. When it comes to other equipment, one great option is Roof Rack Clamps, especially when transporting your equipment by car to a remote holiday site or if you simply don’t wish to take up space in your caravan. Clamps such as Zarges Roof Rack Ladder Clamps are a great way to securely get your equipment from home to your holiday site, they’re easy to install and are suitable for any ladder up to 300mm deep.
When it comes to caravan maintenance, both caravan specific ladders and wide step ladders are great options that allow you to safely work on your vehicle this summer. Although, despite the safety of these ladders, it is still always important to use ladder safety practices such as the ones listed prior and the ones in the linked article. If you have any worries about ladder safety, please feel free to contact us or call our team at 01204 590 232.