My old 90's Swift was a lovely cozy beast - never particularly cold or breezy (although only used in.reasonable weather)
The replacement 2008 Swift seems very chilly and cools down in minutes with the heating off - bear in mind it was 0° most of this week but there's deffo some major draughts!
Is this due to newer units having more / better vents? Less rubbish in the cupboards (not filed it full of junk yet!).... Old van had less air gaps on bed boxes maybe?
The difference between my old caravan and my sisters newer one is quite amazing in this respect.
My sisters van has a hot water tank/heater underneath a locker, and all the lockers on that side (and also the other side, to match) have small gaps in them at floor level and also extra floor vents inside the lockers. It gets really cold at floor level, especially if there is a wind. We assume that this is because a water heater (using either gas or EHU) needs the extra vents. I really think it's overkill, but there you go.
My old van (dutch, 1982) meanwhile, has no such water heater (not even a 12v pump!) and there are no draught issues, no gaps at floor level, and its very cosy in the evening.
What we did in my Sis's caravan(as the dog was really suffering with the cold in her bed on the floor)was to cover the holes with the back cushions off the seats at night, literally pushing them against the sides of the beds at floor level. As the gas water heater is off at night, we reckoned this was safe enough. The air vents inside the lockers are still functioning, it just isn't pushing the air through to the floor level inside.
The sleeping bags/pillows were so cold that we had to take them out of the lockers an hour before we went to bed to get them warm! And the oil filled radiator stayed on all night, whereas in my van, it is rarely needed.
yes they do have more ventilation. Most cite safety as the reason, both to facilitate the dissipation of any escaped gas through drop vents in the floor and to reduce the chance of CO building up when cooking and the gas is not burning correctly. I guess it is your choice if you want to risk blocking the vents off but I can't think of anyone that would advise doing so.
IMHO the best bet is to heat any any coming into the caravan and to reduce cold spots as far as possible with additional insulation. I'm in the process of fitting kingspan board into the underbunk spaces and floor level cupboards in my 'van (keeping airvents clear!). I also have xps boards under my carpets during the winter and run a couple of under carpet heating mats on top of the boards. Undercarpet heating is not common in the UK market but a few of the continental manufactures offer it and Alde have a full installation kit for their heating systems.
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When relaxing in the evening I just cover the vent with a towel the heater is under the floor on the xplore vans and it was on 240v HU, so I cant see it being a problem, normally have the roof vent cracked open anyway cos it does get quite warm even though there is a draught.
The towels removed when we make up the bed on retiring ZZZZZZZZ
We get quite a draft in our van depending in the direction of the wind - biggest area is through the cupboards next to the fridge so presume it is blowing through the fridge vents. We don't have any problem getting the van warm enough but you can feel it coming in particularly this time of year.
Maybe it's because with the van being clean and newer it's not full of 'stuff' and it also seems to have air gaps (big purpose built ones) beneath all the bed boxes...... The old one had 2 layers of carpeting which probably helped too.
We only tend to use ehu so will look at some removable foam 'covers' I think.
And don't forget I've never camped in anything less than good weather before - let alone the snow last week and -5 over night lol!!!
There is a place near me that sells high density foam....... A few long inch wide strips for the bed boxes and maybe some nice round ones with Velcro for the extra vents..... All in all about a tenner and ready to remove / store without any added weight?
Van is going on a seasonal pitch at Easter - then the investigation can begin :-)
We bought our first brand new van in September, an Elddis Avante 574 and had two weeks away. We also found it very drafty and cold around the feet. We have two single beds and with the heating on all night we were fine. Didn't think the blow heating was that good in the bathroom. Our memory foam toppers are little bit too big for the beds so I have cut some off and made draft excluders with them and covered in matching coloured t-towels. It's for the air vent under the front chest of drawers and also at the side windows cos I feel cold there. Our old van an Abbey GTS Vogue was always lovely and warm. We have had to dig out our fan heater to take with us next time which we never had to use it in our old van.
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Topic: Newer vans..... Draughty?
