Nine pages of essential ‘how tos’ to complete right now!

Preparing to get back on the road, at long last? This could be the ideal moment for some basic maintenance work and improvements to your caravan! Part three of our series on brilliant DIY has four simple projects you can start straight away

1 Customise your crockery storage

2 Take care of personal security on holiday

3 Make a magnetic locker/door catch

4 Replace your lead-acid batteries with lithium

1 How to...

Customise your crockery storage

Caravan kitchens usually provide plenty of cupboard capacity, but simple DIY improvements can make better use of the space, says Tony Brown

CROCKERY IS OFTEN kept in a top cupboard in the caravan kitchen, where manufacturers provide plastic-covered wire racks for this purpose.

Unfortunately, plate racks are often fitted in cupboards facing in the direction of travel, and have doors that come with non-positive catches.

In the event of an emergency stop, all of your plates might land on the floor in a heap of fragments. Even if not placed in this direction, wire racks usually waste a great deal of the available space.

Wire cupholders

In our caravan, I did think the original wire cupholders looked promising, but when I reached my destination, I found the top cup had been jumping up and down on the one stored below, with quite disastrous results.

A much better system would be to remove the fitted shelves from the cupboard, preferably side-facing, and fit your own shelving, which can be made to suit the specific dimensions of your plates and cups.

A weight-saving solution would be to fit wooden shelf support strips to the side of the cupboard, but to carry out this project without drilling any holes into the caravan, and to ensure that it is totally reversible, I chose to make templates for the cupboard sides and cut plywood sides to a loose fit.

This has the advantage of allowing you to glue the shelf support strips on the bench, before putting the sides in place. The only thing that retains these pieces is the shelves themselves, which keep them pushed to the sides.

1-3 Proprietary racks can waste space and might not protect their contents in quick stops or bumps. First, remove shelves that are in the wrong place for your crockery, then use stiff paper to make templates of the cupboard sides. This will save a lot of sawing and filing.

4-6 An upholstered shelf pad can be made using carpet underfelt and double-sided sticky tape, with a vinyl cover. Clamp and screw hardwood or aluminium angle to the front and back edges, to allow for re-covering. Exposed screwheads are painted to match the oak finish

‘Remove the fitted shelves and fit your own shelving, which can be made to suit the dimensions of your plates and cups’

Make the templates

Stiff paper is ideal for the side templates, which can be cut to fit around any corner fittings or wiring, and marked with the shelf supports, which are better when they can be angled down towards the back.