Every option on an off-road caravan has to be fitted somewhere, and the right place is rarely a preference. Anything bonded into the shell, wired into the power system or printed on the data plate belongs on the factory build sheet; anything that needs a trade licence in your market, or that a retail buyer picks in person, belongs in your own workshop. Getting the split wrong is paid for twice — once to ship and clear the option, and again to redo it.

Order at the factory: anything built into the shell or the power system

Structural options cannot be added later without opening a sealed envelope. Roof and wall cut-outs, hatches, windows and awning mounts are set while panels are assembled, and retrofitting them means dismantling interior linings and re-sealing — a common source of new leaks. Gas hardware follows: cylinder holders and appliance connections are factory items, as is anything that alters mass, because tare, ATM and payload have to follow the data plate.

Electrical options are only as good as the system behind them. On the 16ft island-bed off-road caravan specification, the refrigerator, air conditioning and diesel heater sit on the optional equipment list rather than the standard build, while the documented power system is 2×100Ah AGM with 300W of solar and a 1000W inverter. Specify the appliances without revisiting that budget and you have ordered a load the system was never sized for. Settle that with the factory, not after delivery.

Fit in your market: licence-bound work, tow-side equipment and stock items

Three groups are usually better handled after arrival. The first is work your market restricts to licensed trades: gas connections and mains electrical terminations are often limited to locally licensed technicians, so confirm what your workshop may legally perform. The second is tow-vehicle-side equipment — an in-cab brake controller, a weight-distribution set, the adapter for the plug standard your market uses. Those belong to the customer's vehicle, not the caravan. The third is the fast-moving list you would stock anyway: spare lamp and lens sets, filters and service items, where freight and duty rarely justify factory supply.

What the split costs, and what it protects

Three lines decide where each option belongs. Ordered at the factory, an option travels as part of the unit's declared value and freight; fitted locally, it carries your labour rate instead. Mass is the second: factory options eat payload, and a heavier unit cannot be loaded as intended. Warranty ownership is the third, and the most expensive to get wrong: a factory-fitted part is claimed through the factory, while anything your workshop installs is your warranty, at your labour rate.

Write the split into the order

An option list only becomes useful when every line is marked:

• Mark each line factory or destination, and treat that as part of the specification, not an internal note.
• Ask for fitted options to be quoted separately from the standard build, so each shows what it adds.
• Request documentation for anything you fit yourself — wiring diagram, plug pin-out, mounting points — with the first container.
• Name the supplier and the warranty holder for every destination-fitted item before the units ship.
• Put the split on the dealer sheet, so no customer is told an option is included when it is not.

The option list is a sourcing decision, not a catalogue. Agree the split before the deposit, whether you order one evaluation unit or a repeat programme of custom off-road caravans.

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