Old touring caravans and small boats sit in yards, on driveways and behind hedges all across this area, and they tend to be dealt with in May when somebody finally accepts that another season is not going to happen. Caravan disposal has more restricted items in it than almost any other job we get asked about, and the order matters. Our Tarleton skip hire service covers the parts that can go in a container.
Try selling it for parts first
Before anything comes apart, it is worth an advert. Caravan and boat parts have a strong second hand market, and windows, doors, fittings, awnings, appliances and even chassis sections sell readily to people repairing another van.
A van that is beyond restoration is frequently worth more in pieces than the scrap value of the whole thing, and somebody else does the work of taking it apart. There are also breakers who will collect a complete van, which removes the entire job in one visit.
That is the best outcome by a distance, and it is worth two weeks of trying before reaching for the saw.
What has to come out before a skip is any use
This is the long list, and every item on it is excluded from a container.
Gas bottles come first. Every touring caravan has at least one and often two, and they cannot go in a skip whether they are full, part used or apparently empty. They go back to a supplier or to a household waste site that accepts them.
The fridge is next. Caravan fridges contain refrigerant and need it recovering properly before the shell becomes scrap.
Tyres cannot go in a skip. This is a firm exclusion and it applies to caravan tyres, boat trailer tyres and the spare that has been under the bed since nineteen ninety eight. They need a registered tyre disposal route.
The leisure battery is a lead acid battery and is hazardous waste. It has a scrap value and a merchant will take it.
Then the chemical toilet, which usually still has fluid in it. That fluid is not skip waste and the cassette needs emptying to a foul drain and rinsing before the unit itself goes anywhere. Any remaining toilet chemical goes with the household chemicals.
Our guide to hazardous waste and why it cannot go in a skip covers this category, and our guide to what you can put in a skip sets out the wider list.
The body is the difficult part
Once the restricted items are out, what remains is a large box made of materials that were chosen to be light rather than to be recyclable.
A caravan body is typically an aluminium or fibreglass outer skin bonded to a polystyrene or foam core with a thin ply or board inner lining. That sandwich construction is the problem, because the layers are bonded rather than fixed and they do not separate cleanly.
The aluminium skin has a scrap value if you can get it off reasonably clean, and it is worth the effort on a larger van. Underneath it, the foam and board is bulky, light and goes in the container.
Boats are worse. A glass reinforced plastic hull is one of the more difficult things to dispose of, because there is very little that can usefully be done with cured GRP. It has to be cut down small, which produces dust that needs a proper mask, goggles and long sleeves. Any antifouling paint on a hull bottom is a further consideration and is not something to be sanding in a garden.
The chassis is the good news
The chassis, axle, towing hitch and any steel framing are scrap metal with a real value. A merchant will take them and on a decent sized van that offsets a useful part of the disposal cost.
Separate the metal properly rather than letting it go in with the body. It is easily done as you strip the van and it is money rather than waste.
Very old vans need a check first
If the caravan dates from the nineteen seventies or earlier, it is worth establishing what is in the panels and around any heating appliance before cutting into it. Materials used in that period are not what would be used now, and cutting is exactly the wrong way to find out.
Sizing and access
Once stripped, the body is bulky and light, so size for volume. An 8 tonne builders skip handles most touring vans, and our guide to choosing the right skip size covers the general approach. Cut the panels flat rather than into curved sections, because curved pieces hold the load apart.
Most of these are being broken up in a yard or on a hardstanding, which makes placement simple. Out on the flat ground around here a yard is a far better drop point than a field gateway.
Everything we take comes back to our own recycling centre for sorting, which our environmental and recycling page explains.
Local coverage
We cover this stretch of the plain regularly, running Longton skip hire and Hesketh Bank skip hire jobs alongside Tarleton.
Ring us on 01772 364399 once the gas, tyres and battery are dealt with, and we will size the rest. Our contact page is there if you would rather send a photograph of what you are dealing with.
