Caravan VIN number explained

CRiS lists these places:

• on the main door to the living area
• in the bottom right-hand corner of each window, though on some models not the front windows
• stamped on the chassis, often on the A-frame
• sometimes on extra markers elsewhere, for example in the door frame or the gas locker

The Caravan and Motorhome Club's identification guide places the chassis number on the nearside A-frame or chassis member.

CRiS advises checking that the number on the chassis matches the number on the windows, and that every window carries the same number. A replaced window can carry a different one. If the chassis and the windows disagree, CRiS asks you to contact it.

CRiS is the Central Registration and Identification Scheme. It describes itself as the national register of UK touring caravan keepers, and it links each caravan's 17-character VIN to a keeper record. The Club's guide dates the scheme to 1992.

CRiS says any caravan made in the UK since 1992 was registered with it when it was built and first sold. The Camping and Caravanning Club points out that registration is not compulsory, so a later owner may not have put the caravan in their own name.

Caravans made before 1992, and caravans imported from overseas, are not registered automatically. CRiS can register either kind, and gives the caravan a 17-character VIN when it does.

CRiS says the number is made up of the World Manufacturer Identifier, an axle description, the maker's model codes, a date letter and a serial number.

The World Manufacturer Identifier is the first three characters. It is the maker's code: SGB is Bailey's, for example.

The Camping and Caravanning Club says the tenth character, counting from the left, gives the model year. We have confirmed that, against caravans whose year was stated separately, on VINs that start SGB, SGD, SGL or SGE. For those How old is my caravan? reads the year from the VIN. These makes carry one of those codes, and each has a page of its own:

A VIN never contains the letters I, O or Q. An I or an O in what you have read is usually a 1 or a 0. CRiS adds that a 5 can be misread as an S, and suggests checking the windows against the paperwork.

The Camping and Caravanning Club says a model year runs from the September before: the 2010 model year ran from 1 September 2009 to 31 August 2010. A caravan built in the autumn can carry the next year's code.

CRiS gives two reasons. The caravan may have been made before 1992 or outside the UK, in which case it may carry the maker's own serial number, which varies in length. Or the number may have been tampered with.

The Caravan and Motorhome Club's guide says some makers used a National Caravan Council mark from 1987 to 1991: two digits for the year, a two-letter maker code, then a serial number, as in 87 AB 007878. Before 1987, it says, makers each used their own system or none.

The same guide says a caravan whose numbers show signs of removal should be treated as stolen, though not necessarily by its current owner.

The VIN alone does not show whether a caravan has been reported stolen, has finance owing or has been written off. CRiS says its CRiS Check reports those, along with the number of previous registered keepers. The Caravan and Motorhome Club advises being very sceptical of any UK caravan built after 1992 with no obvious CRiS number. We don't run that check.

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