Hi All, can anyone recommend a mobile service engineer who could give my ancient caravan a chassis service a.s.a.p.? It hasn't been done for a couple of years and I'd like the peace of mind of having it looked at before we go away in September. We never go anywhere in August so that would be the ideal time to get it done. Also, if you know anyone to avoid.......
I've used a couple, but the first one (Tow-Fix) stopped doing mobile and became workshop based, but I liked him and he did a very thorough job indeed, very impressed by the detail - can't really comment on him since he became workshop based! Probably workshop too far from you Colin.
Second one (AIVA Habitation) came highly recommended by many on my storage yard in WGC, and I used him to do my last mobile service, he seemed OK, did the essentials, but he undermined my confidence in him when he started talking utter bo**ocks about damp checking my van!
He maintained Lunar vans couldn't be damp checked on the walls, because of construction techniques! Previous engineer was happy to do so, and I've taken my own readings, and I've NEVER heard that said about Lunar vans elsewhere, but he was adamant! - think he'd got his manufacturers mixed up, as I believe it's true for another brand!
He found a higher damp reading on the floor under the cooker and declared probably need to replace floor, but made NO mention of curing the water ingress source! - I found it, the fridge vent frame sealant had failed - I sealed that and the floor dried out without any obvious long term damage! That struck me (as a professional engineer myself) as a fundamental lack of understanding! Not inclined to use him again! - most people would take him at his word as they likely wouldn't know better, but I have a WIDE engineering knowledge base and can challenge him with some certainty!
If you were only concerned with chassis and gas/electrical safety, probably competent enough. He gets good reviews and was certainly pleasant enough, with a reasonable fee.
The Approved Workshops scheme has reviews by customers so you can get some idea of satisfaction of each engineer.
Thanks Monty. No I don't really want to have to take my caravan to a workshop, especially in London as my car isn't ULEZ compliant. WGC is about 10-15 minutes drive from me, and I didn't even know there was caravan storage there. I bought my caravan from a dealer that used to be near Hatfield (GT Towing) but they no longer deal with caravans, only trailers, so they couldn't do it.
I'm not really bothered about the internals, I can look after that myself and I'd be extremely surprised given that my caravan is 34 years old, if they didn't find some damp somewhere. There's nothing obvious that I'm bothered about so that's no problem. I'd scrap the thing rather than spend a lot of money on it anyway, as it doesn't owe me anything. I've had around 9 years use out of it all for a purchase price of £1,100 so I don't think I've done bad.
My main concern is the running gear as it's had nothing done to it for a while. The brakes probably need checking, although it seems to stop ok, and the hitch and its associated equipment could do with a look over as its been a while. At one time I would have done all that myself but I'm no longer fit or flexible enough to do it. I used to renovate and modify cars when I was young so I'm fairly handy in that way and caravan running gear is very simple and basic. It's become a case of knowing what I'm doing but no longer physically able to do it. The caravan is outside my house so it would be much easier for me to get someone to come and do it as I did last time. He doesn't do it anymore though.
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Topic: Chassis service
via mobile 25/7/2026 at 1:05pm
