Tom's Mobile Caravan Services

Tom's Mobile Caravan Services Gas and electrics qualified with the NCC; manufacturer trained with AL-KO, Thetford, Truma and Sargent. Insured and completely mobile for your ease.

Covering the Rossendale Valley and beyond. Message me on Facebook or call/WhatsApp on 07482 308020

Everyone kept telling me there was going to be a storm today, but I'm relieved that for the most part it was acceptable!...
23/09/2026

Everyone kept telling me there was going to be a storm today, but I'm relieved that for the most part it was acceptable!

I started the morning in Bolton to look at a motorhome two which randomly blew the hose connection off whilst it was on its last holiday. I assumed it would be the retaining pin that had broken, but surprisingly it was intact (until I tried to remove it...). After a bit of fiddling the whole tap was actually leaking rather than just the hose so I'll be returning with a new tap :)

After that it was over to an Ifor Williams 511 horse trailer which has sat for an extended period of time completely unused. Fortunately the owner had left the handbrake disengaged which meant that everything had surprised in fantastic condition, it just needed a good clean up 😁

I removed one of the wheel hub caps and a decent amount of forbidden sweet potato soup poured out which made me fear for the bearings, but fortunately as they were so new at the time of parking they survived without issue 😊

It's day 2 of not being on holiday and the fact is not at all resting hard against my brain 😂I started out giving this (...
22/09/2026

It's day 2 of not being on holiday and the fact is not at all resting hard against my brain 😂

I started out giving this (unpictured) Sprite caravan a full service. The owners have had it from new and had it serviced annually with another workshop which closed in the year, so it's my job to take over :)

When going over the brakes I spotted a large groove in the nearside drum, it was at this moment the owner popped out to hand me a brew, absolutely delightful, so asked if he'd ever been told about it - turns out it was put in intentionally by the previous workshop to prevent brake squeak... 🫠

Moving on from that, I did a habitation check on a Burstner motorhome of which I took absolutely zero pictures, but it was immaculate inside and out so nothing to report.

Finally I went to a caravan to fit a new pair of motor mover engaging rods, or whatever they're officially called 😂 the old ones have got really mangled so definitely time to replace. They were a bit stubborn coming out but I got there in the end.

Guess what, I'm back! The tears are happy tears, I promise; I definitely don't want to be on holiday still... 😂Anyway, b...
21/09/2026

Guess what, I'm back! The tears are happy tears, I promise; I definitely don't want to be on holiday still... 😂

Anyway, back to business. I started the morning by sealing up the roof seam on a motorhome over at Burrs Country Park. It had started leaking in and after some investigation the old sealant has dried up and allowed a gap for the water to get in. Obviously being the first day back I took no photos of this so you'll just have to take my word for it 🫠

After that was a full service on this Eriba Puck. The owner has unfortunately had some bad luck in the past with a previous purchase of a van so there was absolutely no pressure on this one to be right 🤣 fortunately, it was pretty immaculate!

It was genuinely one of the cleanest and best maintained Eribas I've had the pleasure of working on. Everywhere I looked I could see bits that had been replaced/maintained which is fantastic to see.

Finally was over to a van I've been to a few times before to replace the brake damper, jockey wheel and jockey wheel adjusting bar, as well as investigate a blowing fuse issue on the side lights. All went well except for the fuse issue being a right head scratcher so I'll return to that in due course!

Among the pictures from today I thought I'd include one from my holiday of a selfie with a turtle 😄

04/09/2026

🚨🌴Holiday Announcement 🌴 🚨

I'm now off and away and won't be back to work until 21/09. In this time I won't be responding to calls or messages so I can only apologise for the inconvenience caused.

For urgent enquiries I'm afraid I won't be able to help, but for anything that can wait please be patient and I'll get back to you when I'm back in work 😁

Just a short 18 hour flight separates us from relaxation 🫠

Seconds from disaster... Literally!The phrase gets thrown around a lot for dramatic effect, but today I really do mean i...
03/09/2026

Seconds from disaster... Literally!

The phrase gets thrown around a lot for dramatic effect, but today I really do mean it. I went back to the horse trailer I replaced the sides on last week to give it a service and go over the brakes as the customer mentioned one wheel consistently jamming up and getting so hot water needed dumping on it to cool it down 🫠

So I pulled the drums off the side in question and was greeted with a disaster waiting to happen; to start the brakes completely fell apart as a spring had snapped and let the shoes go which made them jam against the drum itself, but even worse than that the heat was so intense it melted the grease out of the bearings and the circlip holding the bearings in had failed, meaning the hubs were literally coming away. So one minute you'd be trundling down the road, the next you'd be overtaken by both passenger side wheels with the brake drums and bearings still attached 😂 I'm so glad I told the customer not to tow it until I'd been back.

So, new brakes and bearings if you hadn't guessed already. The key with these situations is not fixing it, but establishing why it happened in the first place; after some inspecting I found the brakes to have been assembled incorrectly, which meant the springs just let go. Now correctly installed with new bearings it's ready for the road again 😁

And to top off the trident of death was the breakaway cable held on with nothing but bailing twine 😅

After some swearing under my breath to whomever worked on this last it's now shipshape and ready for work again.

It highlights the importance of getting your trailer serviced frequently and also the importance of making sure any trailer you buy has been looked after. The current owners have had this for less than a year and took it in good faith it had been looked after. The cost of a service could be the cheapest insurance you'll ever get!

Ffrrrrreeeeeeeeedommmmmmm!Yeah so if you hadn't guessed today's job was on a Freedom Sunseeker 😂As well as a full servic...
02/09/2026

Ffrrrrreeeeeeeeedommmmmmm!

Yeah so if you hadn't guessed today's job was on a Freedom Sunseeker 😂

As well as a full service it was in for a couple of niggly bits as the owner had had an unfortunate meeting with a tree and just clipped the marker light and front vent on one side. Fortunately that was the extent of the damage so now with a new matching pair of marker lights and a lovely clean set of vents the mistake has been hidden forever! 😁

The service went very well. The tyres were due replacement and a bearing was just starting to make a bit of noise but otherwise it was a cracking little van.

Just as a reminder to everyone, though I'll do a proper post on Friday, after tomorrow I'm off until 21/09. My wife and I are going on an incredibly well needed holiday so from Saturday I won't be taking calls and messages will be left until my return.

Last week was a hectic one hence fewer posts, so I'll try to get back on track this week 😂Starting the morning out I wen...
01/09/2026

Last week was a hectic one hence fewer posts, so I'll try to get back on track this week 😂

Starting the morning out I went to Oldham to fit a new gas locker strut and fix the jockey wheel clamp handle. Like many the strut had failed so it wouldn't hold the door up so that got replaced. The jockey wheel bar had damaged threads so you couldn't unwind it enough to get the wheel in and if you forced it there was no clamping force.

The old one needed cutting off to get the bar out properly, then I sent a tap through to chase the threads and install the new bar :)

After that I did a couple of niggly jobs of which no pictures were taken, then finally on to a motorhome I did a habitation check for a couple of weeks ago to install a new external BBQ port. The owner is replacing the fridge with a 12v compressor fridge so the gas supply was disconnected and diverted to the external gas port 😁 nice and neat, as it should be!

With my body still not quite recovered from the hard graft that was replacing the wall panels on the horse trailer, toda...
26/08/2026

With my body still not quite recovered from the hard graft that was replacing the wall panels on the horse trailer, today was a little more familiar and easier territory 😂

The morning started with this Bailey; I'd serviced it a few weeks ago and found there to be absolutely no road lights, so I pulled the plug apart and found a lot of bad and non existent connections so I trimmed everything back and installed a new plug so now everything is working as it should be. As well as that the owner asked me to fit a USB socket so that's also done and dusted 😁

After that I went to look at a caravan with a fridge not playing ball on either setting and an issue with the water pump not working. The fridge was lighting but wouldn't stay lit so the thermocouple was at fault, and the water pump socket was damaged so we'll return to get those sorted :)

And finally was over to a van I've been to a few times before, but this time it was being treated to a solar panel and a new brake damper. Fortunately the rain had stopped which was a huge relief so I got the solar panel itself fitted first to take advantage of the sun, then moved inside to get all the wiring boxed off. Annoyingly the brake damper was the wrong part so I'll have to return to that 🙃

Day 2 of 2 completed on the Ifor Williams horse trailer 😁Both side boards replaced, as well as the smaller board by the ...
25/08/2026

Day 2 of 2 completed on the Ifor Williams horse trailer 😁

Both side boards replaced, as well as the smaller board by the personnel door on the passenger side. It was a battle from the get go today as nothing wanted to behave so everything needed a good fiddle to get right (and many, many naughty words) 😂

All the edges sealed in to prevent water ingress from the outside. All hardware replaced as the old stuff was rotten and new structural rivets up the back end as was originally made; my arms are destroyed from using the rivet gun above my head as structural rivets require a huge amount of force to 'pop'.

Next on the list for the trailer will be brakes and bearings as the passenger side has seized up; a quick inspection showed the bearings have collapsed and the brakes are in pieces 🙃

It'll be like new in no time!

Big horse trailer job, day 1 of 2... 😁The owner of this Ifor Williams horse trailer got in touch as both wall panels of ...
24/08/2026

Big horse trailer job, day 1 of 2... 😁

The owner of this Ifor Williams horse trailer got in touch as both wall panels of the trailer required replacing, but as I'm unable to pickup or carry such large panels she was kind enough to collect for me which meant I was able to take on the job.

I don't think either of us quite realised how rotten it was 😂 the only thing with any strength to it was the thin aluminium sheet bonded to what was left of the wood; it wouldn't have taken much to put a hole through the side.

One side played ball to a degree as I managed to get most of the bolts off properly, the other side fought me every step of the way and needed most of them completely cutting off. But we got there in the end!

So after one day both sides were removed and cleaned up, and one side is 95% done. Just needs the bottom edge sealing and a few slightly longer bolts that I didn't have with me. The other side is prepped and ready for the new panel on my return tomorrow :)

Address

Broadway
Helmshore
BB4

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+447482308020

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