How Do I Reduce Weight in my Caravan?
So your caravan is overweight… welcome to the club. I would suggest there are many more overweight caravans on the road than there are legal and compliant vans.
When advising people the obvious place to begin with weight reduction is the water tanks. If they are 80L tanks then each one is 80kg of weight. Of course if you like to travel off grid then this won’t be an attractive option.
Another smart method for decreasing weight is to switch your batteries from AGM to Lithium. Not only do you get a superior battery but you also reduce your weight by a significant amount.
A typical AGM battery weights 29kg and most vans have 2 so there is 58 kg in weight. By contrast a typical Lithium battery is around 9.5 kg therefore the saving would be almost 40 kg.
Yes – the lithium product is more expensive but the batteries themselves perform better than AGM so it may be best just to bite the bullet and get a couple.
We installed one lithium battery in the van we used last year for our trip around Oz and we were definitely underpowered. I use a cpap machine to stop me snoring and it is quite ‘amp hour hungry’, so in some conditions the battery has shut off around 5 in the morning as we have fully drained its capacity. We then use the car to jump-start things and get rolling again but we do need one more to be ‘safe’.
So as I write this post my second 120AH Lithium battery from itechworld is due to arrive today and make life a lot easier.