When you're choosing a used caravan over a new one, you will find that the monies you saved are usually spent on parts bought for repair at your local caravan breakers. Most of the newer parts can be found through repair shops or in parts stores, and sometimes online, but if you have an older motor home that needs parts, you may need to walk some lots on your own.
If you have your caravan fixed at a local repair shop, they will probably be able to find the parts your vehicle needs, but if they can't, you may want to have a caravan breaker or auto junk yard scoped out, and you can check there for parts. Alternately, your repair shop can phone the yard and ask if they have the part or parts that your motor home needs.
One of the most frequent repairs to a caravan is done on the blinds. Blinds often fail because drivers may leave them down when they are pulling, and this stresses the clips on the blinds, as well as the springs that provide tension.
Additional stress on the blind clips may eventually result in them snapping off, or the continuous movement of clips while you're driving will adversely affect the clip holder, so that the clip will no longer fit correctly. If the blinds actually spring loose, you can tighten them only for a finite length of time. After time without being changed out, there will come a time when you cannot tighten them anymore, and you will have to look at replacing them.
Getting parts like clips for an older motor home may result in a trip to the local caravan breakers, for second-hand parts. If you have a newer model, this shouldn't be an issue, since repair garages and supply stores will have the newer types of clips in stock. You can also find caravan spares on eBay, including caravan roof lights, older blinds and combined flyscreens and blinds. Since caravan junk yards are sparse these days, eBay or other online sources may be the best way to get caravan spares. In addition, you can email or call a caravan breaker, and he can post smaller parts to you, usually after you pay for the part plus shipping fees.
The main reason that finding parts at the breakers, rather than on eBay, might be best is that they are more likely to have a larger selection of older caravan parts. Plus, if you are looking for second-hand blinds, the breaker owner can check for the correct size for you.
There used to be smaller caravan parts yards sprinkled here and there, where you could find bulkier items that are too expensive to have posted to you from a far away seller. Safety and health in recent years has sadly required many of the smaller yards to close down. This means you'll have to do a little more searching, either in person or online. Caravan breakers are few and far between now, but you can still find them, sometimes through local classified ads, or contact with caravan repair shops.
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