Unobtainable, not unfixable.

Why can nobody supply a caravan part?

Vans are built in small numbers from fittings bought in from specialist suppliers. When a converter changes supplier or a supplier closes, that catch stops existing and no catalogue replaces it.

British caravan owners have a word for this and it is “unobtainable”. It comes up constantly on the owners’ forums, always in the same shape: a trivial piece of plastic, a van that is otherwise sound, and a dealer who shrugs.

The frustration is sharpened by the price when something is available. A simple moulded push latch, one of the cheapest items in the whole van to manufacture, routinely costs more than it has any right to — when it can be bought at all.

What van parts print well?

Catches, push latches, locker hinges, trim and edge pieces, blind and curtain fittings, table mounts and leg brackets, light surrounds, LED strip end caps, vent louvres.

The common jobs:

• Push latches and locker catches — far and away the most frequent, because they are cycled constantly and go brittle
• Table mounts and leg fittings — the bracket that holds a removable table, often converter-specific
• Blind and curtain parts — end caps, runners, retaining clips, pelmet fixings
• Trim and edge pieces — corner caps, cover plates, screw covers
• Light surrounds and LED strip end caps
• Vent and louvre parts, where not in a flue or heater path

What will you not print for a van?

Anything in a gas or heating system, anything on the chassis or towing gear, water fittings under pressure, and anything that forms part of the habitation door lock security.

The gas and heating exclusion is firm. Nothing printed goes anywhere near a flue, a heater or a gas appliance. Towing and chassis parts are a safety matter and we will not quote on them whatever the material.

Will it survive a summer in the van?

Damp, cold and winter storage are no problem for PETG. Sustained direct sunlight through a window over several years gradually reduces toughness, so sun-exposed parts get printed thicker.

The inside of a parked van in August is hot but mostly below the roughly 80°C where PETG starts to soften. A part sitting in the sun on a windowsill shelf is the one to flag, and we will add thickness if you tell us.

There is more on where PETG works and where it does not in the heat and sun guide.

Should I do all the lockers at once?

Almost certainly. Once a latch is drawn, each further copy costs a fraction of the first, and every catch in the van is the same age as the one that just failed.

This is the single biggest saving available on van work. The drawing is the expensive part and it is a one-off. A set of eight latches is nothing like eight times the price of one.

We keep your file, so if one goes in three years a repeat is one message and prints identically.

I am away in the van. Can this still work?

Yes. Post the broken part to us from wherever you are, tell us where you will be and when, and we send the replacement on to meet you there.

Give us a date if you have one and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable rather than promise and miss. A simple latch copied from an intact example is usually a few days from the part reaching us.

What if I only have one half of it?

Send what you have plus a photo of where it fits. The mating part, the screw spacing and the shape of the recess normally pin down the missing section closely enough.

Better still, if the van has another locker with the same catch intact, send that one instead. We measure it, print a copy, and give you your original back untouched.

Published 5 October 2026.