Winter campervanning in a VW Transporter offers unique advantages like crowd-free destinations, reduced campsite rates, and stunning winter scenery, provided owners take proper precautions for cold-weather travel. Denby Campervans ensures year-round comfort through professional-grade insulation and Planar Diesel Heaters in their conversions, while additional warmth can be achieved through pop-up roof tent thermal blinds, cab insulation, and practical solutions like hot water bottles and rugs. For those storing their campervan during winter, essential maintenance includes draining water tanks to prevent freezing damage, regular battery charging every 10-14 days, turning off gas supplies, removing perishables and soft furnishings, thorough cleaning before storage, using protective covers, and periodically repositioning wheels to prevent flat spots, ensuring your van remains in perfect condition for the next adventure.
Winter Campervanning can easily divide the Campervanning community. With the obvious cold weather, it’s not for the fair weather campers, but there are some great advantages, so we recommend you at least give it a try! Some advantages include: no crowds – there are far less people, so it’s a great way to enjoy the tranquillity and calm that escaping into nature brings! Its far cheaper- if you decide to stay on a campsite, you’ll find winter rates are negligible! Winter scenery can be absolutely breath taking- and you can leave the insect repellent at home!
Whether you store your VW Campervan over winter or use it throughout the year we have some useful tips for you.
Keeping Warm
The first, and probably most obvious way to keep warm is heating! Here at Denby we install Planar Diesel Heaters to our Transporter Campervan conversions. A diesel heater will mean you are able to maintain a comfortable temperature in your campervan with high levels of safety and very minimal maintenance, whilst only using a minimal amount of fuel.
We at Denby Campervans are one of the few professional campervan conversion companies that include insulation as part of all our conversions. This crucial step offers you an all important extra layer of protection between you and a wintery climate.
A fully insulated Denby VW conversion with a diesel heater leads to a toasty, comfortable campervanning experience, all year round. Your Denby conversion will come with an insulated blind for your cab section, for even more warmth you can consider purchasing a pop up roof tent thermal blind which can be made to measure and fit your Denby M1 tested roof perfectly. A few other suggestions are to take a hot water bottle to bed to keep your bed cosy, throw down a rug to combat cold floors, and of course, make sure your diesel tank is at least a 3rd full to ensure your diesel heater will keep going throughout your trip.
Not going to be using your campervan at all over winter? See our helpful guide on how to store your campervan over winter below. If you still use your van as an everyday vehicle throughout winter, you may still find some of the below points helpful.
Winter Storage Of Your Campervan
1 Drain your water tank
It’s vital to drain your water tank in winter months to prevent the water freezing. This would expand your tank and could cause cracking and damage to the pipework and tank itself.
2 Charge the battery
Both the leisure battery and the vehicle battery will need charging whilst not in regular use to prevent any lasting damage. Therefore, if you’re storing your campervan for more than 2-3 weeks, we advise you to Charge the leisure battery, this will also help to pass through a trickle charge to the vehicle battery, keeping both in good order. If left for long periods, minor draw on the vehicle and leisure batteries as well as the ambient conditions can lead to battery sulphation, which in a lot of cases cannot be reversed. It is good practice to start your vehicle every 10-14 days for 10 minutes or so.
3 Turn off your gas taps
Turn off your gas supply at the regulator in your gas box. You can run the remaining gas through your hob, just make sure to leave your door(s)/ window(s) open for 10 minutes afterwards to air this out.
4 Clear out Cupboards and Fridge
Don’t forget to clear out any food and drink, so you’re not coming back to a smelly mess! This will also prevent attracting any insects or rodents! We also recommend removing any bedding, clothing and soft furnishings to prevent any damp.
5 Wash your Campervan
If your van is going to be tucked away for the winter, we recommend giving it a good clean first. Make sure it is fully dry before covering.
6 Cover the van
If possible, cover your van up whilst in storage as this saves any dirt and debris build up. If this is not possible, ensure all blinds/curtains are shut and cover cab area with your screens.
7 Look after your wheels
Change your van position every now and again. If you leave your tyres in one position for too long, they could develop flat spots.
