How to winterise a UK campervan (and still use it this autumn)
School summer is finished, the nights are drawing in, and a lot of campervans around Lancashire are about to spend six months under a cover. From our unit in Burnley, that always feels like a waste. A properly built van is meant to be used. Autumn in the Forest of Bowland, the Yorkshire Dales and the Lakes is quieter, the pitches are easier to get, and you are rarely more than a couple of hours from home if the weather turns.
Winterising is not mothballing. It is a short list of jobs that stop frozen pipes, mouldy canvas and a flat leisure battery, so the van is ready for a Friday-night run rather than a spring rescue.
We do this on Trafic, Vivaro and Transporter pop-tops every year. Same jobs apply if you have a Sprinter. None of it is glamorous. All of it is the difference between a good weekend in November and a call-out because something cracked.
Do this first: water, canvas, battery, heater, gas
Start with the water. Frozen water expands, and it will split a pipe or a tank as if it was nothing. Drain the fresh tank, open the taps and empty the waste. Most of our vans are small campers, so they do not go out with a shower or a cassette toilet. A few have, though, so if you have one: drain the shower, empty the cassette and leave it vented so it can dry. Kettle, filler hose, any leftover in the sink trap: dump it. If you are storing the van for weeks, this is the one job you should not skip.
If you are still touring, you do not have to live with empty tanks all winter. Drain it down between trips, especially if a hard frost is forecast and the van is sitting on the drive. Fill up again when you leave. It is ten minutes. It is cheaper than a new tank.
Pop-top next. Canvas that goes away damp is how you get mould, and mould in a scenic roof is a miserable thing to live with. After the last trip, pop the roof on a dry day and let it air until it is properly dry, not just "seems alright". Then close it. Once a month through winter, pop it again for half an hour if you can, so the mechanism keeps moving and the canvas gets a bit of air. If the van is going to sit for a long stretch, a silicone spray on the rubber seal (the sort that is safe for that job) stops the roof sticking when you next open it.
Leisure battery: switch everything off, then leave it charged. A battery that sits flat in the cold does not last. If you have hook-up on the drive, a night on charge every few weeks is enough. If you have not, take a drive, or bring the van to us and we will put it on. Victron chargers, which we fit as standard, are meant to be left to do this job properly. Do not assume a small solar panel will keep up in December. It will not. UK winter solar is a fraction of what you get in July. Skyenergi put typical winter yield at around 20 to 30 percent of summer output, which matches what we see on vans that come back in after a quiet few months.
If you have a diesel heater, keep enough fuel in the tank that it cannot run dry overnight. A heater that cuts out at 2am is how you wake up to condensation on every cold surface. Run it now and again even if you are not away, so it does not sit unused all winter. Engine-wise, check the usual fluids and make sure the antifreeze mix is actually winter-strength. Screenwash too. The conversion can be perfect and you will still be stuck if the base van is not.
Gas: if you are not using it, turn it off at the bottle. If the van is stored, we would rather the bottle was off than "probably fine".
You do not have to put it away
There is a habit in this country of treating a campervan like a caravan that only comes out in August. That is changing. ACSI, who inspect thousands of sites across Europe, counted 4,629 campsites open all year in 2025, up from 4,264 in 2021. Bailey of Bristol published those figures in March. More hardstanding, more heated facilities, more people taking short breaks when the school holidays are over.
From Burnley that is not a theory. Forest of Bowland is on the doorstep. The Dales are an easy run. The Lakes in September and October are a different place to the Lakes in half term. Forestry England has also been trialling overnight campervan stopovers this summer, including Gisburn Forest, with the current trial running to 14 September 2026. After that, club sites, CLs and proper campsites are still the straightforward option. We will write up the Lancashire weekend routes separately. The point here is simpler: the van is more use on a frost than it is under a tarp.
A few things make winter touring actually comfortable, rather than a dare.
Ventilation. Heat the van, but do not seal it. Condensation is the quiet wrecker. A cracked window or a roof vent on trickle, even when it is cold out, stops the bedding and the canvas taking on damp. Wipe the glass in the morning. It is boring and it works.
Hook-up vs off-grid. In summer you can get away with solar and a reasonably sized battery. In winter the backbone is the alternator while you drive, and hook-up when you are on site. We wrote about portable power stations in June, when we had the Bluetti Elite 300 on the bench. A box like that is handy. It is not a substitute for a charged leisure battery and a heater that does not care how much daylight you had. If you are choosing spec for a new build and you know you will go out from October to March, say so. We will bias the electrical side toward charging and heating, not toward a bigger summer solar array.
Pitch choice. Grass in January is how you spend Sunday morning with recovery boards. Hardstanding, and a site that is actually open, will spoil you. Book less far ahead than you would in summer. Last-minute weekends are the whole point of having the van on the drive.
What we already build in
A CVC conversion is insulated, sound-deadened and carpet-lined as standard. That is not a winter extra. It is how the van should be from day one, whether it is a Renault Trafic, a Vauxhall Vivaro or a Transporter. We also fit Victron split charging and a Victron 240V charger on the builds, so the leisure battery can take charge from the engine and from hook-up without you thinking about it.
Heating is the bit people under-spec because they buy the van in May. If you want to use it in winter, tell us. Diesel heating, a dry pop-top canvas, vinyl rather than a carpet you will regret, and a battery that is looked after will do more for a Lancashire weekend than another USB socket.
Use the van. That is what we built it for.
