The Pro-tec Easy Fit® System

It seems the world and its dog are producing caravan and motorhome covers these days. You can pick up a full cover for less than a hundred quid in some places and you’ll get what you paid for. They’re all the same, aren’t they? A cover is a cover is a cover. Well no, they’re not all the same. There are a couple of features you’ll only find on a Pro-tec cover and today we’re going to talk you through our Easy-Fit® System.

Our company is owned by avid caravanners and camper van fans. That’s one of our biggest strengths as a manufacturer of caravan and motorhome covers, we are our own customers! Not only do we use our own products on a regular basis, our passion for leisure vehicles and the community surrounding them, ensures that we have always attended as many shows and events as we are able to. We do this primarily to meet our customers and fellow ‘vanners.

Whenever we attend shows, we love to talk to you, find out what’s important to you and best of all, listen to suggestions you may have. About 9 years ago, it became obvious that although our covers are very well thought of, so many people were telling us that the biggest drawback was fitting them. You can imagine, a 20ft long caravan or a 40ft long motorhome is going to need quite a lot of fabric to cover it. Getting all that fabric up in the air and over your vehicle can be incredibly tiresome and in the worst cases, potentially unsafe.

The traditional method of fitting a cover is to get the whole thing up on the roof, then unfold it. This is when the fun begins. All that material on the roof now has to be wrestled down over all four sides, like a giant tight jumper! Bespoke covers are supposed to achieve a snug fit and getting the sides down over the corners can be a challenge. Step ladders and strong swears will be required to do this correctly.

Not the safest way to fit a cover!

Obviously, being up a stepladder while handling 20ft of fabric, that can turn itself into a parachute in a breeze, is not the most desirable thing to be doing. We love our caravans but we wouldn’t die to protect them. Rather than certain death, our customers wanted us to come up with a solution. At this stage, we were already making a product called the Duo Cover. It was a full winter storage caravan cover with a detachable front, which could be used to protect the front of a caravan on tow. When the front part was removed, you were left with a full storage cover without a front. Quite by accident, we discovered that this open fronted cover was so much easier to put on than a complete cover. The open front meant that a person standing either side of the cover could simply walk all the fabric over the ‘van. Easily, safely, and most importantly, from the ground.

Much easier & safer

It wasn’t perfect though. Pulling a cover over the caravan from back to the front, it gets snagged on the top edge, not quite a right-angle but close enough to make the job more difficult than it needs to be. We’d had the idea now though and we were running with it. We made a new full cover but this time with an open back. This meant that instead of having to pull the cover from the rear, we could now use the natural sloping front of the caravan to help ease the process. This method was much more successful and plans were finalised.

As easy as that.

We added a roll-up panel to the rear of the cover and some heavy-duty velcro to hold it all in place and to hold up the rolled panel for fitting. We added a couple of D-rings to the top of the cover at the rear for poles to fit into. These poles just make the job a bit easier and give you a little extra height, again without having to leave the ground. And then we sat back, admired our work and registered the design to make sure nobody could pinch our clever idea.

When we first launched the Easy-Fit® System, it was an optional extra at £40. Then we decided it’s just too good a feature to not put it on every cover, and for the last couple of years, that’s exactly what we’ve done. Every single Pro-tec full caravan or motorhome cover comes with the Easy-Fit as standard, no extra charge. You can’t buy a full cover that’s easier to fit than ours.

Here's what our happy customers have to say.

“The whole system of using the poles to install the cover was a breeze – really quick, simple and effective. The cover fits perfectly and is of superb quality, both in the design and manufacture. I would like to thank you for developing such an excellent product – we are very happy customers!”

“Anyone reading this looking for a cover, put your trust in Pro-tec Covers. I did and I’m over the moon with the quality, correspondence and professionalism. My wife and I are nearly 70 and had no trouble whatsoever fitting the cover with the easy fit system”

“I have just fitted the new cover to the caravan. Wonderful! It is so light for such a large twin axle caravan. It took my wife and me about 15 minutes (not bad for two septuagenarians). We unpacked it from the back of the 4x4 and simply walked it over the van. Thanks for your service.”

“Big improvement over old one, Much better fit, stronger velcro. The Easy Fit option does exactly that. Thanks very much for the good service"