Your first 30 days with a new caravan
Get every fault written down at handover.
Inspect the van at handover and get every fault written on the handover sheet before you sign.
Insurance live from delivery day, rego and warranty registration inside a fortnight, a practice tow close to home, then the first service.
Updated . 11 min read • Lifestyle
Work through the pre-delivery inspection before you leave the yard and get every fault written on the handover sheet.
Handover day is the last point where a fault is easy to get fixed.
- Re-tighten wheel nuts - at about 100km, then 300km, then 1,000km (the commonly published interval)
- First fortnight - rego, insurance, warranties, first service (insurance live from delivery day, and keep the first trip short and close to home)
Your first 30 days with a new caravan
Handover first
Handover day is the last time a fault is easy to get fixed. Inspect the van properly and get everything written down before you sign.
Insurance has to be live before you tow it off the lot, and rego and warranty registration want doing in the same fortnight.
Tow it empty around home before the maiden trip. Then re-tighten the wheel nuts, check the bearings and book the first service once the kilometres are on it.
The month after you collect the van is when small faults get fixed easily, or get left.
None of this is difficult and none of it takes long. It is mostly a matter of doing things in an order that keeps other people responsible for the parts that are theirs.
Handover day
Handover is a job in its own right, and it is the most valuable hour of the whole month. Every fault you find while you are standing in the yard is the dealer's to fix now. The same fault found on the way home is a warranty conversation and a booking three weeks out. Meanwhile you cannot use the van.
Allow two to three hours, book it early in the day, and take someone with you. Run every appliance, test every light, fill and drain the water, and do not let anyone hurry you. If you are being rushed, slow down.
Take the inspection checklist in with you
We keep a full pre-delivery inspection list covering the exterior, coupling and brakes, interior, 12V and 240V, gas, plumbing, appliances and documentation. Print it or open it on your phone, and tick it in front of the dealer.
Open the pre-delivery inspection checklistWhat you should be leaving with
- • The signed handover sheet, with every fault written on it and a date against each fix
- • The weighbridge ticket showing tare weight (what the van weighs empty)
- • The gas compliance certificate and the electrical compliance certificate
- • The caravan warranty document, with the start date filled in
- • Manuals and warranty cards for every appliance in the van
- • A clear photo of the compliance plate, taken by you
- • Registration papers, or written confirmation of what the dealer is lodging and when
Your rights do not come from the warranty
Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to caravans and sit over the top of whatever the manufacturer's warranty says. They are not something you sign up for and not something a contract term can shorten. The ACCC sets out the position on its own new caravans page, including that repairs must be done within a reasonable time.
In practice that means you can decline to take delivery. Write the fault on the handover sheet, keep a copy, and leave the van there until it is fixed or the fix is scheduled in writing. Nothing about that is unreasonable, and a good dealer will not treat it as such.
The paperwork fortnight
Three things want sorting around pickup, and one of them has to be done before it.
Insurance, before you tow it away
A comprehensive car policy covers the car. It does not cover damage to the van hitched behind it. Without cover starting that day, the van is an uninsured asset on a public road from the moment you leave the yard. This is the one thing on this page that cannot wait until the following week.
Have the VIN, the purchase price and a list of anything you have added ready when you call. Decide up front between agreed value and market value, because that choice changes what a claim pays.
Caravan insurance explained covers agreed versus market value, annex and contents sub-limits, and the six questions that sort quotes quickly.
Registration
A new van from a dealer is usually handed over registered, with the dealer lodging the paperwork. Confirm that rather than assume it, and confirm the name and address on the registration are yours and current. Ask for the expiry date while you are there, because a van delivered with a few months left on it will catch you out otherwise.
Buying privately, or bringing a van in from another state, and the transfer is yours to do inside your state's window. Each state and territory sets its own rules and its own timeframe, so check with your own transport department rather than going on what someone told you at a caravan park.
Warranty registration, and the warranties inside the warranty
Two separate things live in that folder of manuals. The caravan itself has the builder's warranty, and some builders ask you to register the van with them to start it. The appliances inside it usually sit outside that warranty. The fridge, air conditioner, hot water system and washing machine each carry their own cover from the company that made them. Many have their own registration and their own period.
Ten minutes at the kitchen table with the folder, the serial numbers and a cup of tea is the whole job.
Start the folder on day one
One folder, physical or scanned, holding every certificate, receipt, service record and photo from here on. It settles warranty arguments, and a complete history is worth real money when you eventually sell the van.
The first tow, empty and close to home
Do not let the maiden trip be the first time you tow it. Take the van out empty, on roads you already know. The only purpose is learning how it behaves behind your car.
Empty is deliberate. A lighter van is more forgiving of a wide turn taken badly. The drive is for learning the van's length, how it swings and how long it takes to stop.
What to practise
- • Hitching and unhitching until you can do it without thinking about the order.
- • Setting the brake controller, then testing it with the manual override at low speed.
- • Braking distance, on a quiet road, deliberately, so you know the number rather than guess it.
- • Wide turns, kerbs, roundabouts and where the van tracks compared with the car.
- • Reversing in an empty car park, then into your own driveway, before there is an audience.
- • A fuel stop, so you find out now whether you fit and where the pumps are awkward.
The hitching order, loading and driving basics are in how to tow a caravan for the first time.
Then take it to a weighbridge
Load the van the way you will travel and take it to a public weighbridge. The ticket shows what the van and the car weigh, and what is left of your margins. Nothing else tells you that. Everything before it is arithmetic on numbers someone else published.
The three-weigh method is written out step by step in our printable checklists. The payload calculator works out what you have to play with. Caravan weights explained covers what each number on the plate is telling you.
One night, an hour from home
Before the trip you bought the van for, spend a night in it somewhere close. Set up in daylight, cook a real meal, run the hot water and sleep in the bed. Pack up in the morning the way you would on the road.
Everything that is going to annoy you turns up on that night. An hour from home, each one is a note on a list.
The first pack
Payload is what you can add to the van. It is the ATM stamped on the compliance plate (the maximum loaded weight) minus the tare (what it weighed empty). It is often smaller than people expect. Water is a kilogram a litre. Gas bottles, batteries, an awning, tools, the annex and a full pantry all come out of the same number.
Pack heavy things low and close to the axles. Weight out past the ends of the van, in the front boot or on the rear bumper bar, has the biggest effect on how it tows.
Use the ownership checklist rather than a mental list
Our interactive checklist runs the whole ownership arc, from research to ongoing servicing. It remembers what you have ticked. The pre-departure list on the printable checklists is the one to keep in the van itself.
Water, before you drink it
A new van's tanks and lines have been sitting since the factory. Fill them, run every tap through until the water runs clear and stops tasting of plastic, drain them, then fill again for the trip.
While the system is pressurised, get under the sink with a torch and look at every joint. This is the easiest leak check you will ever do and the cheapest one to act on.
After the first 500 to 1,000km
A caravan beds in. Fasteners settle, bearings take up their working clearance, and every fitting in the van gets shaken by a road surface no factory can simulate.
The intervals below are the ones suspension and axle makers commonly publish in their own maintenance sheets. A couple of them start earlier than the heading suggests. Builders and component suppliers differ, so treat the handbook that came with your van as the authority and these as the shape of the job.
Wheel nuts
A wheel that has just been fitted settles, and the nuts lose a little tension while it does. Published suspension schedules handle that with a sequence: re-tighten at roughly the first 100km, again at 300km and 1,000km, then at each service. Use a torque wrench in a criss-cross pattern, at the figure in your handbook. The right number depends on the wheel and stud type your van was built with.
Wheel bearings
The common published check is at the first 1,000km, looking for excessive play and adjusting it if it is there. After that the usual interval for pulling them down, inspecting and re-greasing is every six months or 10,000km. In between, put your hand on each hub at fuel stops. Warm is normal. Too hot to hold is a problem you want to find at a servo rather than at speed.
Gas connections
A first trip puts a few hundred kilometres of vibration through fittings that were assembled in a factory. Soapy water on the connections at the bottle and regulator will find a leak. Run every appliance once more after the van has been on the road. Anything you find is a job for a licensed gasfitter only.
Water connections
Vibration finds the fitting that was only nipped up. Fill the tanks and run every tap hot and cold. Then, with the system pressurised, look under the sink, behind the toilet and around the pump with a torch.
Screws, catches and sealant
Walk through and open everything. Cupboard catches, drawer runners, the entry step, the roof hatches. Outside, run your eye along the roof and window sealant for anything that has lifted. These are small jobs while the van is new and still the builder's problem.
Torque figures are not universal
The correct wheel nut torque depends on the stud size and grade and on the wheels fitted to your van. Published tables carry a warning to that effect. Get the figure from your own handbook or from the wheel supplier, use a calibrated torque wrench, and work in a criss-cross pattern. Guessing it by feel is how studs get stretched.
Booking the first service
Australian builders commonly put the first service at 1,000km or three months, whichever comes first, and then annually or every 10,000km after that. The figure in your own warranty booklet is the one that counts, so read it.
Manufacturer warranties are frequently conditional on those services being completed and recorded, sometimes at a dealer or an approved agent. Book it on the day you collect the van. Service departments fill up, and 1,000km arrives faster than three months for most people. A late service can turn into an argument at the wrong moment.
Worth doing at the same time
- • Hand over your written list of everything from the shakedown night, in one go, rather than in three phone calls.
- • Ask them to record the wheel nut torque figure for your van so you have it in writing.
- • Get the service stamped and the invoice into the folder before you leave the counter.
- • Put the next interval in your phone calendar while you are standing there.
Consumer guarantees under Australian law sit alongside the manufacturer's warranty rather than inside it, so a lapsed service does not delete your rights. A late service gives the other side an argument, so keep it on time.
Common questions
What should you do first after picking up a new caravan?
Work through the pre-delivery inspection with the dealer before you leave the yard, and get every fault written on the handover sheet. In the first fortnight, confirm the rego, start insurance, register the warranties and book the first service.
Do you need caravan insurance before you tow it home?
Arrange it to start on the day you take delivery. A comprehensive car policy covers the car, not damage to the caravan hitched behind it.
When is the first service due on a new caravan?
Commonly at 1,000km or three months, whichever comes first, then annually or every 10,000km. Your own warranty booklet sets the interval that counts, so book the first service on the day you collect the van.
How soon should you re-tighten the wheel nuts on a new caravan?
Early and more than once: published schedules re-tighten them at roughly 100km, 300km and 1,000km, then at each service. Use a torque wrench in a criss-cross pattern, at the figure your handbook gives.
Should your first caravan trip be a long one?
No. Tow it empty around local roads first, then spend one night within an hour of home with the van loaded as you would load it.
Do you have to register the warranty on a new caravan?
Check the paperwork. Some builders ask you to register the van to activate the manufacturer warranty, and the appliances carry their own warranties. Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply either way.
We do not stop at the purchase
Most of this site is about choosing: the weights, the payload, the specs, the side-by-sides. That part finishes on handover day and the owning does not, so this guide is the start of the other half.
The ownership checklist carries it from here, through the first year of servicing and out the other side to the day you sell it. Everything in the first 30 days above is already on it.
Where to go next, depending on where you are up to.
- •Not collected yet: the pre-delivery inspection checklist.
- •Tracking the whole journey: the interactive ownership checklist.
- •Kitting it out: essential caravan accessories.
- •Crossing a border on the first big trip: the interstate towing law checker.