Explore europe in a campervan

I know we’re not campervan-based right now, but our van is still our transport on the snowy roads so I thought I’d share our experience of the essentials that you need when driving a motorhome in snow.  I guess many of you in the UK are having to think about this in the current Arctic conditions!  Of course those of us travelling in campervans have a distinct advantage - if we get stuck in bad conditions we can brew a cup of tea, blast the heating for a while, fill a hot water bottle and bed down for the night.  Luxury compared to shivering in the driver’s seat of a car wondering why the only food is a packet of mints!

Before you embark on a mountain road you MUST have snow chains.  This isn’t just good advice - it’s the law in most mountainous areas in Europe including France, Austria and Switzerland.  Having driven on snow with and without snow chains I can confirm they are very effective at giving some traction,  and you soon get used to the vibrations in favour of a little more driving confidence.

Points to remember
- get chains that fit your wheel size and are suitable for your vehicle.  If you are driving a 3.5 ton motorhome then snow chains designed for cars are not going to be sufficient.
- fit them properly - yes, advice will say practice fitting them in nice dry conditions before you embark on your trip, but let’s be realistic… I will just say don’t rush - make sure they’re done up correctly, drive a little, tighten, then repeat.  I certainly feel better knowing they’re securely fitted and flapping about as little as possible.
- do your homework - on rear wheel drive vans the chains should be fitted on the rear wheels.  We learned this after the first time we used them on the front wheels on our rear-wheel-drive Mercedes Sprinter.
- Finally, snow chains DO NOT make you or your van invincible.  They will help you to get some traction on snow and ice on ploughed roads, and will give you a good chance of moving off in an unploughed car park.  They will not allow you to drive your heavy vehicle up a steep unploughed track.  We learned this the hard way, but luckily survived to tell the tale, without the van ending up sideways in a field.

Thule XG-12 PRO Snow Chains £150.87             Husky Snow Chains £50

These Thule snow chains are the real deal for motorhomes or caravans.  Yes, I know they’re not cheap, but they are excellent quality chains with extra plates for grip, they’re (relatively) easy to fit and tighten and they even have rubber protectors to avoid scratching your alloy wheels!  The Husky snow chains on the right are more affordable but will not be so well-made and will defiitely take longer to fit.  There is a good range of snow chains on Amazon, starting at under £40.

Two other tools you really need to have in case you get stuck before putting the snow chains on -

A shovel for digging the worst of the snow from in front of the wheels, or digging away the bank of snow that the snow plough man has kindly built around your van as you slept!  The best kind for saving space in a motorhome is a folding shovel.

Folding shovel with carry bag for £15.25           Wheel Grip Tracks for £7.95

Another really useful accessory is invaluable if you get stuck where fresh snow has fallen on top of ice and you can’t get any wheel grip.  These wheel grip tracks are placed in front of the wheels and allow them to get enough traction to get out of a parking space - then you had better get your chains on!  We’ve used these successfully to get cars moving on ice and a 4 ton trailer on slippery grass.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 4:15 pm and is filed under Travel, Campervan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.