The caravan collection process, from our crew's side
Ask any of our crew what happens first on site, and none of them will say "hitch it up and go." The caravan collection process starts with a walk-round, not a tow rope, and it happens before anyone touches a wheel. Check what's actually here, check the way out, then move it — same order, every job.
Why we walk round before anything is touched
We don't take a description on trust, even a good one. The hitch, the tyres, the chassis, the floor, what's still inside — all of it gets checked with eyes and hands before anyone decides how the job goes. Once a caravan's moving, changing course is a lot harder than it looks from the drive, so every decision gets made while it's still standing still.
What the walk-round actually checks
The same six things, in the same order, every time.
- Hitch and tow gear — sound enough to take the strain of being towed, or seized and corroded past use.
- Tyres and wheels — inflated and turning freely, not perished flat from years standing on the same patch of grass.
- Chassis and outriggers — any rust-through, any give underfoot when weight's put on it, anything that wouldn't survive a motorway.
- Floor — soft or spongy patches are the single biggest reason a "towable" job turns into something else.
- Contents — what's still inside, and whether it changes the weight or the job.
- Gas and electrics — whether the bottle's connected and the leisure battery's live, so nothing moves while either still is.
None of these take long to check. Between them they decide which of the three price tiers below the caravan actually falls into, so the crew works through all six before anyone talks price.
Checking the way out before we commit to moving it
Before anything's hitched up, the crew looks at how it's actually getting off the pitch: gate width, turning circle, soft ground after rain, a low branch that wasn't a problem for a car. Access gets checked on foot first, walking the exact line the caravan will take, not judged by eye from where it's currently parked. Finding out a caravan doesn't fit down a lane halfway along it is a far worse afternoon than spending two minutes checking first.
Matching what's in front of us to what you told us
We quote from your photos, so the walk-round is where that quote gets tested against the real thing. The crew checks that what's actually on the pitch matches what the photos showed — towable or not towable, touring or static, the condition you described. Most of the time it lines up exactly, because why caravan removal quotes vary usually comes down to what wasn't visible in a phone photo, not a change of mind.
If it doesn't match, this is a conversation, not an ambush
Sometimes it doesn't line up — a floor that's worse in person than it looked in a photo, or a chassis that's rusted through since the picture was taken. When that happens, the crew doesn't just start the job at a different price and explain afterwards. They stop, show you what's changed, and talk through what it means: a towable collection becoming a non-towable one broken up where it stands, say, or a touring caravan turning out to need the static treatment after all. You hear the number before anything moves, never after.
Gas, electrics and anything made safe first
Before a single wheel turns, the gas bottle gets isolated and disconnected, and the leisure battery gets disconnected too, so nothing is live or under pressure while it's being handled. It's a five-minute job, done the same way whether the caravan's going on the road or being broken up on site. Nothing gets lifted or towed until that's done.
Why we'd rather find a problem in the first ten minutes
A floor giving way on the drive at walking pace is inconvenient. The same floor failing at 50mph on an A-road is dangerous. That's the entire reason the walk-round isn't a formality that gets skipped when a crew's running late — it's what tells us whether a caravan can safely make the journey at all, or whether it's not roadworthy enough to try.
What it costs, once the walk-round confirms the job
- Towable touring caravan — sound, wheels on, chassis and floor intact: £350–£450.
- Non-towable touring caravan — we either break it up on site or move it on a tow bed; either way it's the same breaking job, and the skip for the waste is yours to arrange, not ours: £500–£850.
- Static caravan — broken up on site and the waste cleared away: £1,800–£3,980. If we're able to burn the wood on site, that takes a few hundred pounds off the static price.
Every price above is confirmed at quote stage, once your photos and the walk-round agree with each other. Neither one overrides the other — they're both checking the same thing from different angles.
Send clear photos first, then book quickly
The walk-round is there to confirm what your photos already told us, not to replace them. Send clear photos of the caravan, including anything damaged, before you book — it's what keeps the number on quote day the same as the number on collection day. Once you've got a quote, book within 24 hours if you can. We're often booked up weeks out, and a slot that's open today may not still be there next week.