The Cheapest Caravan Upgrade: Carpet Your Tunnel Boot

If your tunnel boot’s gear keeps sliding around every time you tow, there’s a cheap, easy fix: line it with a marine grade carpet.

Tim walks through exactly how, from choosing the right carpet to getting a genuinely square cut.

Why Line the Tunnel Boot

The tunnel boot’s factory floor is hard and sealed, but it lets whatever you pack in there slide from side to side and bang against the walls in transit. A carpet lining gives it grip so gear stays put, and if something wet spills, you can just pull the carpet out, wash it, dry it and put it back in.

Choosing the Right Carpet

Go for a genuine marine grade carpet, it’s built to handle damp and knocks. Tim picked a neutral grey with a solid backing, in a size that matched the tunnel boot’s width exactly, so there was barely any waste.

Getting a Square Cut

The factory edge is never perfectly square, so the first job is squaring up one edge with a set square and a chalk line before cutting with a sharp knife. Measure the width you need, and measure it twice before you cut, once you’ve cut it there’s no going back.

No set square? Measure both diagonals of the piece instead. If they’re the same length, it’s square.

👉 Sorting other interior mods while you’re at it? Shop VicOffroad for caravan and 4WD gear!

Fitting It and Using the Leftovers

Once it’s cut, it should fit like a glove. Don’t throw away the offcuts, Tim used the leftover carpet to cut a small mat for the doorway and the step too, so nothing went to waste.

Our Thoughts

It’s a real easy mod, no special tools, just a sharp knife, a set square and about half an hour. If your tunnel boot gear has ever ended up in a pile after a drive, this is worth doing before your next trip. It pairs well with a proper walk-around of the rest of the van too, see our basic caravan maintenance you can do at home post for the full list.

Quick wins like this are worth logging too. We keep ours on our Caravan Maintenance Schedule alongside the bigger jobs.