Kathryn Bird walks through five winter storage tasks for vans: check for damp and leaks inside, inspect window and door seals, take a 50-60 minute drive to warm it up, keep the battery charged with a trickle charger, and rotate where you park to prevent flat-spotted tires.
If your van is in storage or on the driveway over winter and you're not using it for several months, here are 5 things that you need to check to make sure that you don't have any problems when you next come to use it. First, go inside your van and check for damp spots or any leaks that might have developed. You might get a bit of a musty smell, but any more than that, you want to make sure that you fix the problem before it becomes more serious. Next, check the seals around your windows and your doors. Make sure there's no corrosion, make sure there are no leaks, and make sure that all the locks and everything are still working and everything is still intact. You want to open them all up and air the van out if you possibly can. Although, when— third, when you come to take it for a drive, and ideally take it for about 50 minutes or so, maybe an hour, really get it all warmed, but then make sure you shut everything up properly again afterwards. Check your battery, make sure there's some sort of trickle charge on it or that it's just been topped up. You don't want it to go completely flat. And then lastly, make sure that you park on a different patch of tyre so that all the weight's not in the same place. Hope that helps. Take care.
