August 9, 2018

Essential Items for the New RV Owner

I’d like to talk to you about some items you might want to have for your new camper. First we’ll go over items that are must-haves then some stuff that would be kind of nice to have and then some stuff that you might want to just put on the wish list.

Let’s go over a few things that are going to be essentials that you’ll definitely need to have when you get a new camper. So one of the first things that you’ll have to have with with any trailer out there is what’s called a brake controller. This allows you to set the tension on the brakes of the trailer from the tow vehicle and it could be adjusted on the fly while you’re going down the road. There are a few different levels of it. what I’ve got is the P3, this is one of the higher end ones can be set up for several different trailers and you can just adjust or hit buttons to adjust the stuff or you can have some width dials or there’s a variety of different kinds of brake controllers out there but it’s definitely something that you’re going to need when towing a trailer.

Some other items that I definitely would recommend having: A pressure reducing valve for your water inlet because whether you’re at a park with a hookup or if you’re filling up your tank at home you don’t know what the regulated pressure is coming from the connection that you have and you got PEX lines for the piping and the plumbing in the RV and so in order to not blow that out you want to put on a pressure reducing valve or a pressure regulator, water regulator. Another thing and this is something to include in your starter kit is a 30 amp service – a 110v adapter so you can plug your 30 amp service coach into a regular 110v outlet. Another item a lot of folks will get is an adapter to go down from a 50 amp service coach to a 30 amp service because not all parks offer 30 amp service. This will also allow you to adapt down from the 50 amp to a 30 amp and then you can go from the 30 amp to the 110v so definitely something that you’ll you’ll want to have and I always recommend getting a surge protector. You’ll spend a thousand dollars on a computer and you’ll go spend 150 bucks on a surge protector for that thousand dollar computer. I think you’d want to protect your RV investment as well so a surge protector again. there’s a lot of different varieties out there. I’ve got one of the more basic models here but Amazon carry them from the the basic ones all up to the real high-end ones.

Another thing a lot of people don’t realize that you’ll need special RV toilet papers. So this is made to dissolve really well in your black tank so it doesn’t muck up your sensors and stuff. You don’t want to use just a regular toilet paper because it doesn’t have the design that the RV toilet paper does have and of course probably one of the the worst parts of the camping experience is the dumping of your tanks so you definitely want to get a nice hose, and of any place in the camping experience dumping the tanks is not the place you want to skimp. A couple other essentials that I think to have would be a a few different types of chemicals for your toilet or your black tank. Stores carry a variety these as well. there’s also ways to freshen up and clean your freshwater tank so that the water tastes good coming out of it, and things to clean your gray water tank or your waste water tan.

Again there are a variety of different products in parts stores to help you take care of that and then some other things that are I think essential to have are going to be some wheel chocks. You can go with a basic plastic style wheel chock that you just pull the tire right up to and you stuff it under or you can go with a little bit more high-end this is what’s called an ex chock. It actually will go between the tires on a dual axle unit and and keep it from rolling and then also links Levellers. What these are are basically like giant Legos that you\’ll use to kind of build up the area so you pull your tires on and it’s going to be nice and level to help you level out your RV because the jacks on your RV are usually just for stabilization not really full up leveling. One final thing I wanted to mention that’s a must-have in your new RV is a fresh water hose you don\’t want to use a regular garden-variety hose because then you’ll get that weird hose rubbery taste in your water so they do make special hoses for fresh water and filling that tank.

Now let’s go over a few things that are kind of wanna haves. Not necessarily something that you have to have but definitely going to be a nice thing to have along on the camping trip. we sell a lot of RV outdoor mats. Our one is 8 foot by 11 foot. Again another thing you can get them in a variety of sizes but this is just gives you a nice clean area right in front of your camper entryway so you can traverse in and out of the camper without bringing dirt in and speaking of traversing in and out of the camper they also make special covers for your RV stairs These are great to obviously wipe your feet off and they are also really good for pets because RV stairs aren’t really pet friendly when it comes to the the dogs or the animals feet going up and down, so these will definitely make it more of a pet friendly experience. Some other things that you might want to consider having especially if you’re going to be doing some early season late season camping. A heated hose, so this is going to be for your fresh water. It is a special hose made for fresh water but it’s also got to be able to be plugged in and keep you from freezing, actually rated to keep from freezing down to negative 42 degrees.

Then another thing especially if you’re going to be staying somewhere periods of time and you have a dump right there on site. This is what’s called a slung key. Basically what it does is it allows you to hook up your black hose and then set these in a way that it just slowly angles down just like when you’d be running pipes in a house. You always kind of want to head towards the drain and that would allow you to do that with your grey hose. A few other things that are just nice to have. So when you go to fill your freshwater tank it’s just a gravity fill so this is a great tool to have to help you with that you can have the on and off switch right here this slides right into your fill spot on the side of the camper so it just makes it a lot easier to fill your freshwater tank. This is a pretty neat item too. So after you dump your your waste tank and then you dump your grey tank to kind of rinse your hose out you can also hook this up to a regular garden hose and then it hooks up to your waste tank hose and you can rinse it out again so another nice feature to have. Another great item to have is an RV water filter. There are some campers, some coaches that have built-in water filtration systems on them but if you get a coach that doesn’t have that built-in water filtration system the inline filter is a great option. It’s something you just attach to the spicket and then the hose would hook onto this and go to the camper and that’s just going to make sure that all the water is filtered down to a residential grade. when you’re at a campsite you don’t know what their water is like when you’re hooking up or if you’re filling up at your house and you’re going to be putting it in the tank it’s always good to just go through that filter.

Another thing I think would be a nice one to have if you don’t have a black tank flush already built into your camper, this gadget here is going to help you to rinse out your grey tank or your black tank. I should say you simply hook a hose onto this the other end will drop down into your black tank and if you look here there’s actually a little guy that will spin around and kind of spray off the sensors and help rinse out that black tank. Another thing that is definitely nice to have to help you level your coach out you could install some levels on the coach one usually up on the tongue to give you side-to-side leveling and then one usually somewhere on the side of the coach to get you front to back leveling and there these are pretty simple just peel off and stick on applications. There’s tons of different kinds of RV levels and again they offer a lot of them here in the store and will help you find the one that is right for you. Another convenient nice thing to have this is a lock for a tongue a tongue pull or a travel trailer coach so that you don’t have to worry about someone hooking up and heading out with your stuff. They also make one for a fifth wheel. This just goes right on to the end of the kingpin, locks it up and just secures that as well. A couple of other nice things to have. Mirror extensions, just a kind of basic more generic mirror extension which can be customized for your specific tow vehicle, the the mirror extensions that you want and there are tons of different options again with these items to get you exactly what you want that’s going to make towing more comfortable for you .

Some things that I definitely recommend getting for your camper, a cover for your AC shroud this is going to help it from getting beaten up by the weather and there’s things on the side of your AC that are called fins and those if those get damaged the AC is not as efficient as it can be. Here in Colorado that plastic can oxidize and get real brittle so I definitely would recommend getting an AC cover for when you\’re storing and then also would recommend a tire cover when it’s time for storage because the dry rot on the tires is something you need to be concerned about. It’s not so much tread life because you’re not driving this like you would your regular vehicle but you do want to worry about dry rot and stuff so another thing to get for when you’re in storage is a tire cover. You probably want to get five of them if you’re in a dual axle one for the spare tire and then one for each of the tires on the vehicle and there is a nice upgrade if you don’t already have it in your coach – all LED lighting. They make LED bulbs for a variety of different coach light styles and it’s just gonna help you save that battery life and it’s gonna be a lot more efficient.

Alright let’s talk about some items now that you might want to add to the wish list for your future RV. Some things that a lot of folks will do is obviously vent covers .They do have unbreakable vent covers because those are the one of the things that probably get damaged the most with hail storms and stuff like that other your vent lid covers and that’s where your max air fan covers really come in handy because with these guys on top you can actually even leave your vents open while you’re heading down the road. They also make a thing called a max air fan that you can install on your vents so that you can have air pulled through the camper. Another nice thing with this if you have that vent lid open and you’re out at the lake or something and it starts to rain you don’t got to worry about that water getting into your coach.

Another item that might be nice to add to your wish list or even get from the beginning if you’re gonna be doing a lot of dry camping would be a generator I recommend the Briggs & Stratton as well as the Honda and Yamaha. All of these generators are super quiet. They actually are quieter than your average household vacuum cleaner. There’s about a half a decibel difference between the Briggs and Stratton and the Honda and Yamaha and what you’ve got here is a parallel kit so you don’t have to get one big generator you can actually get two of the smaller more portable generators hook them together to give you enough power to run all the amenities in your coach. Another item is something I definitely recommend getting for any travel trailer there’s what’s called an equalizer hitch. So it’s going to do a couple things for you, it’s going to equalize the weight off of the bumper of the tow vehicle and it’s also going to provide sway control. I carry two different styles of them I’ve got the eto fast way this is going to give you 400 pounds of sway control and it’s a two point sway control so back and forth wiggle above that we’ve got the 4-points way control this is called the E4 and that’s not only going to give you back and forth sway control it’s also going to give you a little bit against the pivoting of your trailer while you’re towing it down the road. Some other things that some folks like to get as they realize how much more they’re camping and they’re starting to do this no bird thing where they’re in it six months of the year down south. More generator info in our article ‘Best Generators for RVs’

A couple of items we’ve got. What’s called a Wi-Fi Ranger. So this is basically gonna pick up any wireless signal that’s around and rebroadcast it to your camper so that you have a stronger Wi-Fi signal for any of your devices, your laptops, your phone what have you. You’ve also got the ability to install now this one here is set up on its own little tripod but it can be installed permanently on the top of the coach. They make a few different styles of the satellites for you to pick up. TVDish Network, Direct TV those are a couple of the providers that you would work with after you have your satellite installed on top of your coach. So you have full HD channels no matter where you’re at in the country. A few more items that you might want to add to the wish list is solar panels. Most these days are coming pre-wired and set up for solar if they’re not any service department can get you set up for solar panels. There’s a couple ways to do it. This here is a portable solar panel that’ll actually set up on its own little tripod and it just plugs into the side of the coach to keep a trickle charge on the battery and then it folds up its own little neat briefcase carrying case as you see right here. Actually we’ve got one of them, a great way to just extend the camping trip by keeping the trickle charge on your battery with solar panels then right behind me something that a lot of folks would like to have on their coach is a backup camera so this will actually go on the rear of your RV so when you’re going down the road or you’re back in your trailer in two places you can see what’s going on behind you.

Final few things I want to talk to you about is protecting your investment after you buy in your coach. There’s a few different ways to do that. There are things like RV covers that a lot of people will go with but I actually recommend a product called First-Place Finish because I’ve seen covers actually do more damage than good so this is a product that actually, unlike a wax, will form a chemical bond with the fiberglass or the aluminum on your trailer and it’s going to help that from oxidizing and the badge is peeling off and all that though it has actually got a five-year warranty against any of that happening . Another thing recommended is protecting that investment a little bit more with an greatoutdoors.com extended service policy. The company is not some fly-by-night warranty company and they are accepted anywhere in the US and Canada They’ll reimburse you for techs who can even do mobile services for you. Comes with $100 deductible but to replace a $1500 AC a $100 dollar deductible is nothing to protect your investment. With an extended service policy on offer at the greatoutdoors there’s gonna be several items that are covered from slide outs to appliances. Refrigerators,the leveling system all of that is protected and your investment is protected as well. By the way, they are not paying me a commission!
Here is a link to more Amazon RV accessories