TOP TOURING TOOLS

Our resident tool geek, Peter Rosenthal, reveals his top-choice toolkits to keep your touring on the right track

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Waiting for a breakdown firm can be frustrating — it’s always worth packing tools

WE KNOW, we know. Who on earth would want to pick up a spanner on their holidays? The reality is, though, that with so many complicated systems on board, at some point, your caravan or tow car will likely have a problem that needs fixing.

Just like humans, leisure vehicles and tow cars have components that get tired and worn. Any seasoned caravanner who claims never to have suffered a habitation or technical issue is probably fibbing!

When presented with a caravan or tow car fault, you basically have three options. Visit a workshop (spend money and have to wait), call a breakdown firm (have to wait) or — if it’s safe and possible to do so – do it yourself. Many caravanning-related tasks can be tackled easily and cheaply yourself with a little bit of homework and, crucially, the correct tools.

Remember, when it comes to tourers, these are low-volume vehicles and much of the habitation area is still built by hand.

Basic items

Before we get into the more exciting and glamorous world of the socket set, you need to pack the bare minimum items that can temporarily fix most things.

At home, I can tackle any vehicle task, up to an engine swap (told you I was a tool geek!), but on the road you can’t pack for every eventuality — you simply won’t have the storage space or the payload.

That means everything you pack has to count. But what are the essentials?

There is an old engineering flowchart doing the rounds that basically reckons you can fix everything with gaffer tape or WD-40. There’s a grain of truth in this and these are both useful items to pack, especially the gaffer tape.