How Much Does a Caravan Service Cost in Australia?

What a Standard Caravan Service Includes

A standard annual service starts at around $450 for a single-axle van and up to $750 for a dual/tandem axle, and takes a typical workshop about three hours on the hoist. On a properly equipped bench, that price includes:

The service price covers the inspection and routine adjustment of these systems — not replacement parts. Anything worn or failed is reported with photos and quoted separately before we proceed.

• Brakes, bearings, springs, bushes and suspension components (including u-bolts and fish plates) — checked and adjusted as required; worn or failed parts are quoted separately.
• Chassis inspection — a systematic look for cracks, rust and loose nuts.
• Clearance and tail lights checked (LEDs must meet regulation).
• Suspension and coupling greased; grease nipples checked.
• Break-away system check and brake adjustment.
• Tyres checked and rotated; bearings flushed and repacked.
• Hot water system anode check where applicable.

Why There's No Such Thing as a Fixed Price

The $450–$750 figure is the price to look. The real cost is whatever the van shows you once the wheels are off — and the single most expensive thing we find is suspension wear that started small and was ignored.

Suspension bushes aren't a minor wear item — they protect the suspension pin and spring while letting the suspension do its job. When the grease packs with dust and dirt, a small flat spot develops on the bush and it wears quickly from that point, exposing the pin and spring to damage. What starts as 'replace the bushes' can become new pins, rocker arms and springs — and when metal-fatigued components don't look damaged but are no longer safe, we replace them anyway, out of safety. That's when a service bill runs into the thousands.

Here's the part owners really need to hear: insurance almost never covers suspension damage. It's classified as wear and tear, so it's almost always an out-of-pocket cost. Catching a worn bush at a few hundred dollars beats discovering the damage a year later at a bill several thousand dollars higher.

That's why a responsible workshop quotes the service first, then reports what it finds with photos and a price before doing a cent of extra work.

The 10 Most Common Faults We Find

These are the faults we find most often during annual services, roughly in order of how frequently we see them:

• Brake magnets not working properly.
• Worn suspension bushes — usually from dust and dirt packed into the grease creating a flat spot, then rapid wear from that point; left too long, the pin and spring start wearing too, and the bill can climb into the thousands.
• Worn brake shoes.
• Collapsed springs.
• Stuck or sticky brake arms — brakes not releasing properly.
• Handbrake adjustment needed.
• Clearance and tail lights not working, or below regulation for LEDs.
• Blocked grease nipples.
• Break-away system not working.
• Tyres aged or perished (over five years old, or cracked in the tread and sidewall).

The Faults Most Workshops Miss

There's a handful of faults that rarely make it onto a standard checklist — and they're the ones with the worst safety outcomes. A good caravan tech looks for these specifically:

• Rocker/roller bushes in the suspension — rarely checked; dust and dirt in the grease creates a flat spot that then wears quickly, and it's a major safety issue when it's gone too far.
• Blocked or seized grease nipples on bushes — everyone checks for play, almost no one services the nipples that prevent the play.
• Magnet arm wear on brake drums, or scoring on the brake drum face from a worn magnet.
• Coupling bushes and grease — missed almost every time.

The Hidden Cost of Slow Quoting (a Workshop Owner's View)

Here's the part of the caravan pricing story no one tells owners. When a van comes in with a list of issues, the quote is where workshops lose money — not on the service, but on the hours spent pricing the work. An insurance repair quote used to take us two hours, more when we had to chase updated parts pricing and availability. With a proper quoting system it's about 30 minutes.

A new solar install used to take an hour to quote — and we'd inevitably forget the small items like the inline fuse or the manual breaker. Now those are built into a reusable quote bundle; we discard what we don't need for that particular job and the quote is done.

That's the difference between a workshop that's profitable and one that's just busy. If you're quoting by hand, you're not saving your customers money — you're giving away your own.

How to Quote a Caravan Job in Minutes

Caravan jobs are big and zone-based — awning, roof, gas, chassis. Quote them the same way: split the job into zones, price each zone from a library of common work, and don't re-key anything twice.

• Zones for big jobs — split a full service or repair into awning side, roof, gas system and chassis, so nothing is missed and nothing is double-charged.
• Reusable quote bundles — solar installs, bearing services, brake overhauls: build once, reuse, discard the lines you don't need.
• One click from quote to jobsheet — an accepted quote becomes the job, then the invoice, without re-keying.
• An online booking portal — customers book their own service slot, which keeps your calendar full and your quoting time uninterrupted.
• Automated SMS reminders — bring past customers back at the 11-month mark so you're servicing vans you already know.