Living in a caravan for a weekend: power, gas, water and weather

The short version

The lights, the water pump and a 12 V fridge run off the battery. The kettle and the heater need the park's 220 V, and they are the two things that trip the box. Gas cooks and heats, but it never runs in a closed caravan. Tank water is for washing unless the owner says otherwise. And the awning comes down before the wind arrives, not while it is blowing.

Getting the caravan onto the stand is covered in arriving and setting up, and getting it off again in packing up and returning. This page is the days in between.

Power: 12 V versus 220 V

A caravan has two electrical systems, and it helps to keep them apart in your head. The 12 V side is the battery. It runs the LED lights, the water pump and, on many caravans, a compressor fridge. The 220 V side is the park's power point, through a lead, into the inlet on the caravan wall. That feeds the plug sockets and charges the battery.

Hooking up is on the arriving and setting up page: the blue 16 A socket, the adaptor, the lead fully unrolled, plug in at the caravan first and switch on at the box last. Every time you reconnect during the stay, it is the same drill, and the earth leakage test button gets pressed again.

Why the kettle trips the box

The usual park set-up is one distribution box feeding up to four sites through a single earth leakage unit. So your kettle is sharing that unit with the neighbours' kettles, and when everyone brews coffee at once the whole thing trips. A coiled lead or a wiring fault in the caravan will do it too. Boil water on the gas stove. If the box trips with only your caravan on it, unplug and phone the owner, because that one is not the neighbours.

The battery

The number on the side of the battery is not what you get. An AGM battery gives you about half its rated capacity, so a 105 Ah AGM has roughly 52 Ah to spend. Lithium gives 80 to 90 percent. Run an AGM below half and you shorten its life, and remember it is not your battery.

The fridge eats most of that. A 60 litre 12 V fridge set to +4 degrees takes about 14 to 18 Ah a day at 21 degrees ambient, 20 to 25 Ah at 32 degrees and up to 35 Ah at 43 degrees. Turn it down to -6 and it uses over three times what it does at +4. Set the fridge for the job, not for the coldest number on the dial. Cold beer does not need a freezer.

A three-way fridge (gas, 220 V and 12 V) is a different animal. Its 12 V setting only holds the temperature while you drive. At camp, put it on 220 V or gas, and get the caravan within a couple of degrees of level or it simply will not cool.

If there is a solar panel, a 100 W one gives roughly 32 to 38 Ah a day in Gauteng sun and 22 to 28 in overcast KwaZulu-Natal. Lying flat it loses 30 to 40 percent, so prop a portable panel up and point it at the sun.

To read the battery properly, let it rest for at least six hours with nothing charging it and nothing drawing from it. A voltage taken while the fridge is running tells you nothing. At rest, about 12.7 V is full and 12.1 V is half.

Gas

Gas needs air. Cook with a window or roof vent open, and never fall asleep with the stove or a gas heater burning. Leave the vents in the wall and the gas locker alone. Do not pack anything against them. Get into the habit of closing the cylinder valve last thing at night. Every time you reconnect a cylinder, check that the regulator's washer is there and has not perished, then put soapy water on the joints and watch for bubbles. The cylinder stays upright, strapped down and away from the braai, and Arrive Alive's advice is to use SABS-marked cylinders only.

Water and grey water

You will use more water than you think. The WHO puts drinking alone at about 5 litres per person per day, and about 20 litres once you cook, wash hands and do dishes. Kampi's own checklist says 5 litres a head minimum, 8 to 10 in summer, plus a 20 litre reserve you do not touch.

Tank water is not drinking water just because it came out of a tap. No South African standard covers caravan tank hygiene. Use it for washing and cooking, and carry bottled water or boil for drinking.

Everything that goes down the sink or shower is grey water. No national rule names it, so the site's rule applies. That means the dump point, not the grass under the caravan.

The cassette toilet

Dose the cassette with the cup on the chemical bottle plus 2 to 3 litres of water. One dose lasts roughly four to five days. Blue additive is for cassettes emptied into a sewer, green is for septic dump points, and you never mix the two. Empty and rinse the cassette at the dump station.

Wind, storms and lightning

Storms over the interior build in the late afternoon and stay local. A clear morning promises nothing. When one arrives, the awning goes first. Heavy-duty pegs and storm straps at a wide angle will hold it in a breeze, and the commonest failure is simply too few pegs. Once it is properly blowing, the awning comes down. Do it before the wind arrives. Never try it mid-gust.

Canvas does nothing against lightning. A tent or awning is no shelter at all. Get into the hard-topped bakkie or a building, and stay away from lone tall trees and ridges.

Heat and sun

Heat costs you battery and water. At 43 degrees the fridge draws about double what it draws at 21, and the water budget climbs to 8 to 10 litres a head. Pick a stand with afternoon shade if you have any say in it.

Heading for the Kruger, the lowveld or Kosi Bay between September and May? Those are malaria risk areas on the Department of Health's map. See a pharmacist or travel clinic before you go, and take the mosquitoes seriously there all year round.

Security, dogs, quiet hours and fires

Pick managed, fenced sites, and keep valuables out of sight or on you. Lock the lockers and the vehicle before you sleep. Know where the nearest town, hospital and police station are, and keep a power bank charged, because signal in the bush comes and goes. From any cellphone, 112 gets you emergency services.

Park rules differ from park to park, and they do get enforced: quiet hours, music, pets, vehicles per stand and firewood are the usual ones, with examples on the arriving and setting up page. If the dogs are coming along, confirm they are welcome when you book, not when you pull up at the gate.

Monkeys and baboons will open any food box that is not locked, so lock food away. Leave snakes and spiders alone. If someone is bitten, move them away from the snake, keep them calm, take off rings and tight clothing, and phone the nearest hospital with an emergency room. Do not cut, suck, put ice on it or tie a tourniquet. Antivenom is a hospital job.