The Kampi Care pre-trip inspection checklist for South African caravans and off-road trailers, plus the Gauteng workshops we trust with our own fleet.
Kampi Care is how we help Kampi hosts keep their caravans, off-road trailers and campers in safe, rentable condition. This page is the Kampi Care pre-trip inspection checklist plus a directory of the workshops we actually use ourselves when something needs doing properly.
Use it as an owner. Print it, hand it to the workshop, tick through each section. Use it as a workshop, the items below line up with what a careful rental owner wants inspected before the vehicle goes back on the road. We are starting with Gauteng partners and will add Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Free State workshops over the coming weeks.
A quick honesty note up front. One of the four workshops we list is Noord Karavane, run by the brother of one of our founders. We are not hiding that. We use them because they do good work on our own fleet, and we list three other independent Pretoria workshops alongside them so you can pick the one that suits you.
Most of the caravans and campers on Kampi are older than the owners realise. A three-year-old caravan that has done two Botswana trips and a Kgalagadi loop is not the same vehicle as a new one sitting in the showroom. Wheel bearings, tyres, suspension bushes and UV-cooked seals do not care how clean the kitchen looks.
Rental use stacks the odds further. Your caravan is being towed by different vehicles, reversed by people who have never done it before, and pitched on everything from manicured Drakensberg lawns to Kalahari gravel. Things that would stay dormant on a once-a-year family trip get exposed fast.
The Kampi Care checklist is our answer. It is not a guarantee, it is a routine. Run it twice a year, before the June and July cross-border season and before the December holidays, and most problems get caught while they are cheap to fix.
Do this two days before a trip, not two hours before. You want time to fix what you find.
That short list is the minimum. The rest of this page is the deeper inspection you or your workshop should run at least once a year, and always before cross-border travel.
This is the single item that will leave you stuck on the N1 if you ignore it. Tapered wheel bearings on a caravan or trailer need to be cleaned, inspected and re-greased once a year or every 10,000 to 12,000 km, whichever comes first. If you are doing rough gravel or genuine off-road work, inspect them every 2,500 km. A full set of four bearings and two seals costs under R500, so replacement rather than just re-packing is usually the safer call when you are already in the hub.
Wheel nuts are not a feel-it-by-hand job. Use a torque wrench.
Caravan and trailer tyres almost never wear out from tread. They die of age. The rubber compound degrades from UV, heat and the fact that the vehicle spends 350 days a year parked. Continental's own guidance for the South African market is that caravan and trailer tyres should be replaced at six years old regardless of tread depth, and eight years is the absolute maximum.
The coupler is the one component that will ruin a trip and a third-party vehicle at the same time. Check the ball socket wear, the locking mechanism, the safety pin and any shock-absorbing element for play or leaks. Replace rubber bushes if they have crumbled or gone oval. If you have an override hydraulic hitch, bleed it annually.
Leaf springs are tough but not invincible. Cracks almost always form at two predictable spots.
Inspect both eyes of every spring, tap with a small hammer, listen for a dull or cracked tone. Check hangers, shackles and U-bolts for corrosion, elongation or missing nyloc nuts. A cracked spring can flip an axle out of alignment in a single pothole. Replace in pairs, never one side only.
Independent suspension rides better but gives you more parts to watch. Pay attention to bush wear, trailing arm bolts and, above all, the condition of the shock absorbers. A caravan shock typically lasts 50,000 to 100,000 km, less on genuine off-road use. Symptoms of a tired shock include oil weeping down the body, excessive bounce after a bump, and uneven tyre wear. If you tow regularly into Botswana, Namibia or Mozambique, treat shocks as a consumable and budget to replace them every second or third season. Carry a spare shock if your caravan has them, and a basic spring spanner.
Most South African caravans and trailers run mechanical drum brakes with an override coupler, not the electric drum brakes common in Australia and the US. Electric brakes exist on some imported and heavier off-road units, but standard override drums are what you will find on the majority of the fleet. Both types need more attention than most owners give them.
Water ingress is the silent killer of older South African caravans. A failed seal does not flood the interior. It weeps behind the cladding and rots the timber frame over two or three seasons. By the time you see a stain on the ceiling the damage is often tens of thousands of rands deep.
Inspect every seal twice a year.
Look for chalky sealant, hairline cracks, lifted edges or any pinhole. Press along the seam with a fingernail. If it flakes, it needs replacing.
The South African sun destroys generic silicone in 18 to 24 months. Insist on a proper UV-stable polyurethane sealant when the caravan is re-sealed. Sikaflex 521 UV is the industry reference product for caravan and motorhome seams. Budget silicone from the hardware store is false economy.
A full roof and window re-seal every three to four years is realistic for a rental caravan. Between re-seals, touch up any compromised section immediately. Ask your workshop which sealant they use and check the product name on the cartridge before work starts.
If the caravan has timber structure behind the cladding, small rot patches found early are cheap to cut out and replace. Left for a season they undermine the whole wall panel. The test is simple.
Gauteng caravans are lucky, dry climate slows rust. Coastal and cross-border trips undo that quickly. After every coastal trip, rinse the chassis underside with fresh water. Touch up any stone chips with chassis paint or rust converter. A proper chassis rust treatment and coating every three years adds decade of service life.
On pop-top caravans and some off-road campers, gas struts do the lifting. A failing strut is not just annoying, a collapsing roof causes real injury. Replace when you see any of the following.
Replace in pairs. Keep the old set as a reference for length and Newton rating when ordering new ones. The job is usually under an hour with basic tools.
South African canvas gets brutalised by UV and sudden Highveld thunderstorms. Two things keep it serviceable.
Use a proper UV-waterproofing treatment like Grangers Fabsil or an equivalent silicone waterproofer every 12 to 18 months. Spray evenly with a garden pressure sprayer on a clean, dry tent in shade. Cheap water-repellent sprays wash off in one good storm.
Stitch holes are where canvas actually leaks. Two options.
New canvas tents benefit from a full soak before first use. The cotton thread swells, closes the stitch holes and creates a natural seal that wax or Fabsil then preserves.
Never pack a wet tent. Mildew appears in 48 hours, eats the waterproofing, and the smell is terminal.
Your battery keeps the fridge cold, the lights on and the water pump running. Wrong size or end-of-life battery is the single most common complaint we see from renters on Kampi.
The enemy of 12V systems is resistance, and the enemy of resistance is corrosion at connection points.
Road lights are non-negotiable. Have a second person cycle through running, indicators, brake, reverse and number-plate lights while you stand behind. Cracked lenses let moisture in and corrode the contacts, replace the whole unit when you see condensation inside. Interior LED strips dying one at a time usually points to a flaky earth or a failing switch, not the strip itself.
Gas in South Africa needs an annual leak test and a valid Certificate of Conformity (CoC) when the system changes or the caravan sells. Inspect hoses for cracking, check regulator age, replace flexible gas hose every five years as a rule of thumb. Cylinders must be re-tested on their stamped schedule.
Flush the fresh-water tank annually with a tank-cleaning tablet. Run a bucket of fresh water through the pump and hot-water system to shift sediment. Inspect the water pump for pulsing behaviour (a sign of a tired diaphragm) and the geyser anode if fitted. On long storage, drain the system completely, frost and stagnant water both damage fittings.
If the caravan has a roof aircon, performance drops long before it fails. Clean the filter every season, check condensate drainage, and have a technician service the unit every two years. Poor aircon performance is one of the most common deposit-dispute triggers we see in summer rentals, so get ahead of it.
The difference between a two-hour delay and a ruined holiday is usually a R500 parts kit in the hatch. Stock this and any workshop between Polokwane and Noordoewer can get you moving.
These are the four Pretoria-area workshops Kampi Care currently works with. We have worked with each of them directly, or alongside owners whose caravans are listed on the Kampi platform. Phone ahead, they all book up in May and October.
Noord Karavane is run by the brother of one of Kampi's founders. We list them alongside three independent workshops so you can choose freely.
Kampi Care is starting in Gauteng because that is where we have direct experience with the workshops. Over the coming weeks we will add trusted partners in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Free State. If you run a caravan workshop that services rental caravans to a high standard and you would like to be considered, please reach out through the Kampi contact page.
A documented service history does two things. It protects you on resale, a buyer will pay more for a caravan with a complete book than for one with none. And it protects the trust signal on your Kampi listing. Renters who see a real service record book their stay faster.
We built a proper Kampi-branded booklet for exactly this purpose. R55, printed on decent paper, pockets for receipts, sections for every system covered in this checklist. Buy one, keep it in the glove box of the caravan, get it stamped at every service.
Get the Kampi Service Booklet here, R55
Twice a year is the rhythm. Mid-May before the June and July cross-border season. Mid-October before the December holidays. Run this checklist, book a workshop from the list above, stamp the booklet, list with confidence.
Camping and caravanning in South Africa is still one of the best-value family adventures anywhere in the world. Kampi Care is our small contribution to keeping it that way, one well-serviced caravan at a time.
Questions about the Kampi Care programme, or a workshop you think we should include? Get in touch. We read every message.