Here we explain how you can best look after your motorhome/camper – and we even disclose some trade secrets that make us pay more for trade-ins!

Regular Maintenance

Maintenance of your motorhome is essential, not only to ensure your holiday isn’t spoilt by annoying faults – but also to help maintain the value of your motorhome or campervan should you come to sell it or trade it in later. 

Regular cleaning of the bodywork – especially the roof – will help to stop the build-up of debris and algae. Otherwise, over time this can get engrained into the bodywork and even damage it, making your pride and joy look dull and unloved. 

Like any vehicle, you should be performing regular checks of your tyres, windscreen, lights and fluids. Some of these are cosmetic – like keeping your windscreen clean and making sure your lights all work as they should do – but for example, if your oil level runs low, this can lead to severe damage to your engine and would definitely affect the resale value. 

Also, you should make sure your batteries are kept charged when your motorhome is being left unused for a time – as there are lots of different devices that can drain motorhome batteries over time, such as immobilisers and tracking devices. 

Keeping the batteries regularly charged can help extend your leisure and starter battery life by up to three times as much. 

Inside the vehicle, check for any signs of damp ingress from window seals, doors and skylights. The sooner these are found, the easier they can be rectified. 

Thoroughly flush water tanks twice a year, and for fresh water, use a sterilisation tablet. 

Aquatab tablets dissolve into your fresh water tank and guard against illnesses caused by contaminated stored water, such as Legionella, Cholera and Dysentery, among others.

Getting Ready for Winter/Storage

When it’s not in use, leave the fridge on the winter catch, as this will stop it from smelling. It’s harder to remove the smell once it’s appeared, than it is to stop it from happening in the first place.

At the start of Winter, or when you’ve finished using your motorhome for the season, ensure you correctly winterise it by: 

● Opening the outlets to your fresh and grey waste water tanks and water heater. 

● If your toilet system operates via a separate header tank, this will require draining also, along with the cassette-holding tank and the rest of the flushing system. 

● Once all your tanks are drained, open all the taps in your motorhome and turn the pump on for a few seconds to expel any water still in the system. 

● Leave the taps open 

● Leave the shower head and hose lying in the shower tray during the winter period when not in use. 

● Check there are no further drain valves located in your motorhome that may need opening. 

● Check the fridge and the freezer. Remove all foodstuffs as well as ice trays etc, and wipe away any moisture. Leaving the door(s) ajar will encourage air circulation and prevent the build-up of mould. 

Servicing & Habitation Tests

Having your motorhome regularly serviced, having all MOTs carried out in plenty of time (fixing any failures or advisories) and having a habitation test by a professional service centre, is the best way to ensure your motorhome is kept in tip-top condition and holds its value. 

If you have these done just before putting your motorhome to bed for the winter, you can request that your motorhome is winterised at the same time.

What Makes Us Pay the Best Price for Trade-ins!

When we purchase a motorhome, the key points we are looking for are how clean the interior and exterior are. 

We look for damage to external panels, interior worktops and walls – as these are all harder to repair. 

We also consider whether the motorhome appears well looked after, and is the upholstery clean? 

Is all the paperwork available? How about handbooks, manuals and a recent Habitation Test?

Are there any bits missing, such as cooker glass lids, interior trim and tables – amongst others? 

Have there been any modifications that a prospective purchaser would not necessarily find appealing – ie painting parts of the interior, cutting holes in cupboards or panels to add things adding tiles to splashbacks? 

We’ve given you all of the main points we look for when buying used motorhomes and campervans. So, by taking all of this on board and maintaining your vehicle to these guidelines means you can pressure us to give you the best price when you come to sell or trade-in your second home 😉

Next Steps…

If you’ve got a motorhome or campervan that you want to sell, fill in our short enquiry form here. We buy them in any condition, with any age and mileage.

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