This afternoon I braved the Arctic blast to start preparing our van for its annual pilgrimage to York to visit my brothers and their families who live not far from there.

Last year I protected the van under its Protec cover leaving all windows fully closed, cupboard and fridge doors open and upholstery upended to allow circulation of air in the underbed areas. However when we were away on our first trip of the year, I discovered copious amounts of mould on the cupboard door edges and roof lining.

This winter I decided to experiment by leaving the cover off and installing a 800W oil-filled electric heater on a low thermostatic setting to see which approach was better.

While the interior of the van has remained dry and mould free, the exterior (while looking quite smart and shiny at first glance) was decidedly dirty with dreaded black and grey streaks which took a bit of effort with Fenwick's spray to remove.

The worst thing though was the copious green algae that had grown like pond weed in the rubber seal that clips around the base of the poptop; in the Herzim strip edges on the North-facing side and particularly in the joint between the rear light housing and the bodywork on the same side. In the end I had to remove the roof seal and scrub it free of algae with an old toothbrush which I also used to remove all the other green deposits from the bodywork before hosing it all off.

The wax polish (Collinite) has stood up well to the elements over the past five months and still beads water off the aluminum surfaces but the roof is looking a bit dull and really needs a good polishing and waxing to restore it to its former glory.

So, next winter I shall put the cover back on and also leave the electric heater inside to keep the interior dry.

I think it was Pete who said recently that he thought that the main purpose of a cover was to keep the caravan clean. From my own experiences, I think he's right.

Zitat

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Quote Aaron Calder:- However when we were away on our first trip of the year, I discovered copious amounts of mould on the cupboard door edges and roof lining.

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I remember that incident well. At the same time we did, and still do, winter our van under a Protec cover with no deliberately induced air circulation and no heating. While you experienced mould, ours was fine.
However, what was strange is that a friend's Bailey caravan, parked alongside ours and wintered in exactly the same way, had a lot of mould.
Randa

This afternoon, another sunny but very cold day, I've been running up and down the ladder, opening and closing the pop-top and first polishing and then sealing the whole roof. By the way, yes, the gutters and awning rail were very dirty so I toothbrushed them clean, hosed them out and then finished off with a cloth squeezed into the channels.

This time I used Autoglym Super Resin polish which removed all the dirt and streaks from the gel coat without any real effort leaving a grey deposit on my rag. To finish off, I used some Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection that I found in the garage in order to see how it compares with wax over the next few months.

The latter product is a thin liquid which is simply wiped over the polished surface using the minimum possible and without rubbing and then left for 30 to 60 minutes to dry before buffing lightly to a fantastic shine.

The result is the best finish that I have so far achieved on the glass fibre top. It really does look a treat - but how well will it stand up to the elements, I wonder?