RVing experience/tips/anecdotes sharing-type thread

[Emissary2Ornj]

Here be a thread where anybody with RVing, vandwelling and/or camping experience can share their RV travel experience and tips; and anybody with related questions can poll the community. I couldn't find a pre-existing thread like this after a quick search; if one exists, somebody let me know, please.

 

First, my background: I've been living with my husband in a bumper pull camper since we were married in 2016. He had been traveling full time for at least a couple years before that. A lot of that time we were "dry camping" (no power, water, or sewer hookups). We've also "mooch-docked" (camping on a relative's property, using their utilities), and we have experience in state parks and other established campgrounds where full- or semi-utility hookups were available to us.

We started out in a 13' fiberglass Casita pulled by a Chevy Astro van. Both had quite a few modifications done by my husband (the van had a front-bumper winch, a battery bank, solar panels, and a TV). We've upsized and changed tow vehicles -  currently we're in a 24' Coleman 202RD bumper pull, using an older diesel Dodge dually to take our house with us. We've abandoned the solar charging system for now.

Anything I share is "how we do/did it", never "how it should be done". Like anything in life, it's trial and error, and you base future decisions on current needs and past experience.

Please feel welcome to share any RVing, camping, or traveling experiences you might have - whether you've gone tent camping once, or are a full-timer, or somewhere in between. One individual's experience will never cover everything there is to know about the lifestyle.

 

Also, please don't think this thread is limited to people with campers or motorhomes or caravans. If you have car-, van-, or tent-dwelling experience, that's valuable knowledge, too. Anybody with tiny or small living experience please chime in, too.

Hopefully there's some valuable info exchanged here!

[Emissary2Ornj]

There are a few things about camper living that make it different from living in a bricks-and-mortar home. I s'pose the 2 most obvious are 1) the wheels: a camper moves! and 2) the size: it's much smaller than most people's permanently-placed dwellings. A third distinction is the construction materials and quality between the two. I'll share my tips under those broad categories, in no particular order, then tack on odds and ends as I think of them.

 

You wanna take everything, but you can't. Or you've already downsized, so you're taking a lot less of everything than you started out with, but where's it going to go? Welcome to Camper Tetris! And refrigerator/freezer Tetris, and closet Tetris... Here are some things that helped me:

1. Unpack and store - Individually wrapped items may take up less space out of the box than leaving them in the box (think tea bags, K-cups, snack bars, popcorn packets, lots of things I'm forgetting here). This works with fridge stuff, too: a gallon of milk may not work in your camper fridge, but if you divide it into half gallons or smaller, several bottles will probably fit in the door.
2. I made cardboard shelves or divders for three of our cabinets - otherwise the vertical space was wasted in our upper pantry, the Tupperware cabinet, and my closet. I also built cardboard units for our tiny bathroom counter and my bedside "table" surface. Free cardboard from Dollar Tree's dumpster (w/permission), hot glue, and scrap fabric to cover.
3. Speaking of Dollar Tree- wire racks, various bins & baskets, magazine holders - we use all these to divide space or better utilize space.
4. Look for unused/"dead" space in/around the camper's fixtures.
   1. My husband built boxes in our under-storage area and cut rectangles out of the interior paneling by our beds. He added hinges and latches, and now we each have a built-in clothes hamper.
   2. The cabinet space over the dinette was one long undivided open space accessed by 2 doors. Hubs removed the facing panels on the non-door sections, divided each section, and now we have 2 "doored" cabinets and 2 open shelves. Magazine holders hold our cups, bowls, and plates in one; a folding fabric storage bin holds pantry-type extras in the other.
   3. It's just us 2, so we took out one dinette bench back (kept stubbing our toes on the end, anyway), shortened the seat portion length to half or less, replaced the bench storage access door, and made a counter top and storage cubby out of the back. Now we have enclosed storage on the bottom, a shelf for pots & pans, an under-counter wire basket for non-fridge condiments and popcorn, and 3-4 more feet of counter surface.
   4. The point is: get creative and don't be afraid to physically modify stuff.
5. Adhesive command-style hooks help utilize blank wall space.
6. Fabric folding bins of various sizes have really helped me out. We store most of our pots and pans in one (use something for padding between; wrap lids/pans in towels or sew up padded covers for them.
7. A hefty lidded folding ottoman/stool provides storage, seating, and a foot rest.
8. Large lidded plastic bins that aren't super tall fit under our couch and in the interior under-bed storage.
9. Get okay with storing things in weird places. I keep our towels over the fridge. ?‍♀️

This house was built to MOVE. Fine. But I don't want my STUFF moving or falling or breaking. (And other stuff having a portable house entails.)

Keeping your stuff intact

1. Tension rods! (for the fridge/freezer, at least). Bungee cords! (One, for the 3 kitchen drawers in our camper) Towels! (One for wrapping the glass microwave turntable, which I then put back in the microwave with the plastic splatter guard tucked on top of it all.
2. Move from high to low for traveling. Loose things that are stored up high get moved to the floor, or into sinks, or to padded surfaces (bed or couch), and get covered up if needed. I remove the under-counter wire basket, plunk it on the couch, and place a pillow on top. The pots/pans bins get moved to the floor. The TV gets taken off its shelf and put facedown on the bed (ours isn't wall-mounted anymore). The bathroom countertop items travel in the sink, and the cardboard shelf gets propped in the bathtub. Coffeemaker, oil & soap bottles, coffee mugs, and a few eating utensils ride in the sink (easy to get to). The table gets completely cleared off.
3. Glass next to plastic, next to glass - We try not to store glass bottles right next to each other if they have room to rattle/slide around.
4. Open cabinet doors slowly the first time after traveling.
5. It's trial and error- you probably aren't going to think of everything the first time. Don't stress over it: just do the best you can, and wait and see what happens. Then you'll know what to tweak.

Other portable-house considerations

1. Black & graywater waste tanks:
   1. We don't follow it exactly, but The Geo Method is a helpful starting point for getting waste tanks fresh and keeping them that way.
   2. Tanks sensors may or may not be accurate. Use a light and look down the toilet (low-tech, I know).
   3. Even if hooked up to an on-site sewer connection, don't leave your tank valves open all the time. Keep 'em closed until the tanks are full, then open them and dump: black first, then gray.
2. Freshwater tank(s):
   1. Not necessary, but helpful: a flow meter for your fill up hose. Then you can know exactly how much you've put in.
   2. Traveling with a full tank adds a LOT of weight to the camper. It's not an absolute no-no, but if we're 98% positive we'll have water hookups at our destination, we prefer to travel with very little in the freshwater tank. Especially if pulling hills/mountains.
   3. Let the on-site water flush through a couple minutes at the spigot in campgrounds and parks before hooking to your camper or filling it up. This hopefully flushes any rust or solids out
   4. We get RV water filters at Walmart that filter the water going into the tank. We tried an at-the-faucet filter but it didn't work for us.
   5. If you're going to leave a water supply hooked up to your RV, get a water pressure regulator. This should reduce the water pressure coming in to a level your RV lines & fittings can handle. Campground water pressures vary. We actually currently prefer to fill our tank and run the pump than stay hooked up to the water.
   6. Keep your fill hose as clean as possible. Drain it as completely as possible. Keep the ends off the ground as much as possible.
3. Water conservation (if boondocking)
   1. When priming the pump and water lines (getting water in and air out) after traveling, grab a gallon jug or several bottles and catch the water you're pumping through rather than have it go straight to the gray tank. Drink it or use it for cooking later.
   2. Sometimes I heat water on the stove and wash dishes in a bowl set in the sink, instead of heating a whole water heater full (bigger propane use) and filling the sink (more water used & fill the tanks faster).
   3. Water isn't necessary for every toilet flush. Just sayin'.
   4. Bird baths are cool. Turning water off while soaping up in the shower is, too. Upgrading to a handheld shower head with a shut-off valve is thricely cool.
4. Stabilization: It's a house on wheels, not a poured foundation. It's gonna shake and rock a bit when you're set up. There are ways we minimize that, though.
   1. Get level; or as close as possible. This is not just for comfortable living; many RV fridges (especially older ones) need to be level to work right.
      1. Once we're in our site, before we've even turned the tow vehicle off, we check the side to side situation. Many campers have stick-on levels near the front somewhere. Sometimes we use a portable level. We check the bubble to see if one side needs raising or lowering. We use cut wooden 2x6 or 2x8 boards for this (make sure at least one of them is short enough to fit between the tires if your camper is double-axled). You can also use Lego-like leveling blocks (Walmart!) here. We place our boards and drive or back up on them. He drives & I spot, with previously agreed-upon hand signals. We recheck the level, going inside if we need to. Sometimes levels can be.... confusing? Deceiving?
      2. If the side-to-side is even Steven, hubby chocks the wheels. We use and like X-Chocks. They're for double-axle campers, but there are locking tire chocks for single-axle RVs out there.
      3. Once we're chocked, the truck can be unhooked from the camper. This means chains off and trailer lights cable unhooked. The tongue jack (electric battery-op lighted jacks are super nice!) can come down, onto wide solid boards if extra height is needed. A low, wide stable base, not a skinny one, is needed here. Once the trailer hitch is raised up off the ball of the truck, the truck can be pulled forward.
      4. Now the camper can be leveled front-to-back. Hubs uses the tongue jack for this, checking things inside periodically. (We mostly go by whether our doors stay open or swing forward or back, where water runs in a container. Sometimes I check the hanging twisty-handles on our mini-blinds as a plumb to verify what I'm seeing/feeling.) We like to be level or have the head of our bed ever-so-slightly raised.
      5. Final step: Stabilize! Those aforementioned Lego-like blocks from Walmart? This is where we use them. We have 20; we typically use 5 under each bolted-on scissor-jack at each corner of the camper (if we're on very level ground). Extending those jacks goes a long ways toward making the camper feel solid. If we're on gravel or dirt, and we've been there a while, the hubs will tighten up the jacks a bit to counteract any sinking into the ground the blocks might have done.

That's a start - if anybody has more tips, ideas, experiences to share related to these topics, please chime in. Future topics: travel plans and weather, some ways houses and campers are different construction-standard wise and how we've offset some of it, and anything else I can think of.

 

Notes for me: Not enough outlets. Better tires. Thermal loss. Better mattress/pillows/cushions. Weight. Enough truck. Weather affects plans.

@spezzy

[Emissary2Ornj]

Construction differences, part 1

Electricity

1. Outlets aren't always installed in convenient, useful places; or there aren't enough.
   1. There are probably some "dead" (unused) spaces you can add an outlet or two. Example: my husband added one to the front of our floor cabinet storage and plugged it into the wall outlet under the table (which is difficult to access anyway.)
   2. A power strip mounted to the side of the counter near the table top also helps a lot.
2. Outlets only work on shore (or generator) power, not off batteries
   1. My husband mounted an inverter in his clothes hamper and 2 outlets (w/USB ports) - one by each of our beds. The inverter is wired to the batteries, and the outlets are wired to the inverter. As long as our batteries are charged and we turn the inverter on, we can plug phones and laptops in, and/or a small USB fan.
3. Charging the batteries: solar panels wired to batteries w/a whole lot of stuff in between
   1. Our original solar charging system was set up according to information found on handybobsolar.wordpress.com. I don't know if that website has stayed current with technology changes over the years or not. I'm not endorsing or verifying it. I would think there's still valuable, practical info there, but you'd need to use your own judgment/knowledge to parse it out, or find someone who really is an honest expert (and not trying to sell you something).
   2. Our system worked really well because my husband put serious time into studying and understanding it. He installed it himself and didn't skimp on the important components. He knew how to maintain and operate the whole complex thing - batteries, charge controllers, fuses, the computer, the wiring, the panels.
   3. My understanding of the system we had is this: if you have enough batteries, and enough panels to charge them, and enough sunshine getting to the panels at the correct angles - a solar charging system is about the quietest way to gather and store power I know of. There's more thinking involved - you have to know/keep tabs on how much you're using (taking out of the batteries) against how much you're putting in (through the solar panels), and how fast you need to replenish that. We used a Kill-a-watt or similar instrument to determine how much power each electric device required (coffee maker, laptops, fridge, etc).
   4. Solar panel placement is important: they work most efficiently when angled directly at the sun; when not (even partially) shaded by roof vents; A/Cs, trees, and cloud cover; and when kept free of snow, dirt, and dust. It's not that sunlight can't get to them in those situations; it's that your charging capacity will significantly drop under those conditions. That could mean your batteries not getting completely charged before you need to use them again (say, needing the furnace to run on cold nights).
   5. Takeaway: do your research, know your needs and plan your system accordingly. There's a LOT of good information and experience out there. Be a smart nerd, and don't necessarily rely on the salespeople's info.
4. Charging the batteries: Generators can be loud, noisy, and smelly, and not exactly environmentally "friendly". But they are a real-world option and even necessity if you aren't going to be plugged in somewhere, and don't have or can't use an alternate battery charging source (i.e., solar or wind).
   1. They make small, relatively quiet portable inverter generators, in several brands. Honda is kind of the gold standard in the RV forum world, if you have the money to spend on them. We have used Powerhorse and currently have 2 Champions. Predator is another option.
   2. It's possible to have 2 small generators, and buy a connection kit to run them in parallel (more power, still quieter than one big one, easier to move, less wear/tear on each since they share the load).
   3. We've been charging our batteries for a few hours a day with the smaller generator. Campground quiet hours and general common courtesy tell you it's better to not run a generator all night with close neighbors. If you're boondocking, and the neighbors are a good distance away, it's possible to run a genny all night. This might be necessary in extremely cold temps, or to run a medical device.
   4. Gains in altitude will negatively affect generator power output. Even if you change out the carb jets to burn your fuel more cleanly, the unit will not put out as much power (according to our generator's manual).
   5. It's important to follow the manufacturer's directions for breaking in your generator. Using correct weight oil is important, too, as is routine oil changes and basic maintenance.
5. ALWAYS plug in an RV surge protector/tester to check the power source before plugging your RV in. And always use that surge protector between your power source (shore/generator) and the RV. The converter (the device that charges your batteries when plugged into shore power or a generator) in your RV is an important piece of electrical equipment. Protecting it and all the other electrical appliances just makes sense.
6. Even if your RV electrical cord plug is a 30amp shape, buy a 30A-to-50A adapter for it. Then when you're at a power pedestal with both 30 and 50 amp options, you can take advantage of the larger 50A plug-in and breaker.

[Emissary2Ornj]

Construction differences, part 2

Where's the insulation?!? heating/cooling and thermal loss (and related miscellany)

1. Single pane windows and ceiling vents
   1. Foiled bubble wrap, cut to size, 2 layers glued together, friction-fit inside the frames. Helps with both extreme cold and heat.
   2. Stuff a store-bought pillow or cushion inside ceiling vent openings, or make your own vent pillow. I cut, glued, & stacked foam board and covered it with fabric. It friction-fits inside our opening. I take it down when traveling.
2. Rooftop air conditioners
   1. From what I've read of others' experiences, it's hard to keep a large camper (think big 5th wheel or motorhome) comfortably with just one A/C unit. Thankfully, 1 one was sufficient for our ~24 footer.
   2. Ducted units (rooftop A/Cs which blow air through duct work into different areas of the RV) are supposedly quieter. I don't have personal experience with a ducted unit, but I can absolutely testify that non-ducted rooftop units are extremely noisy, especially in smaller campers.
   3. We added a Hard Start Capacitor to our rooftop unit when we still had it . This will lessen the load on your power source when first starting the compressor - which means a generator will "bog down" less initially, and the compressor has to work less hard to get started.
   4. Ultimate upgrade: removing the rooftop A/C and installing a sufficiently-sized mini-split HVAC unit.
      1. Ours is rear-mounted: the outside unit sits on a hefty bumper bracket my husband made, and the inside unit is mounted on the back wall above the back window. They may also be front-mounted (on tongue and interior front wall), depending on your needs & the RV construction and layout.
      2. Our small generator is sufficient to power the A/C on this unit - but wasn't powerful enough to run the rooftop A/C. (The heating function of mini-splits requires more power than the cooling.)
      3. I couldn't possibly overstate the noise level improvement. It went from overpowering & disruptive to.... unobtrusively pleasant. I know the A/C is on because of how cold it is, not because of whether I can hear it or not.
3. Staying warm
   1. Some rooftop A/Cs come with a heat strip. I have zero experience with those.
   2. Solar heating is amazing! Camping in full sun during cool seasons can reduce the furnace usage.
   3. Built-in propane furnaces.
      1. The fans on these can be noisy in a very small camper. In our 24 footer, it's less of an issue
      2. At higher altitudes our furnace doesn't get enough oxygen to stay lit without extra help. Even after modifying the outside plastic furnace cover (cut 2 more rectangular holes, placed mesh grate/wire in them to keep insects out, and added rain covers made of empty fish tins - painted, glued, & screwed on) to allow more air in, my husband loosens the cover once we're set up. He just removes the screws and pulls the cover out slightly. Furnace stays lit. ?‍♀️Works for us.
      3. We've had to change out the sail switch a couple times. They aren't a big part - small enough to keep an extra 1 or 2 on hand as spares.
      4. We replaced the computer board with a better version. (The problem we had ended up being a bad sail switch, but I'm okay with having a better version of something important.)
      5. Upgrade: you can buy a simple battery-powered digital wall thermostat. It'll be more precise than the lever-type thermostats that our camper came with.

[Emissary2Ornj]

All the other stuff: construction differences, part 3

Hot water heater

1. These are typically MUCH smaller than your house HWH. 30-minute showers don't really happen.
2. We rarely leave ours on all the time. It takes about 20 minutes to heat up a tank using propane, and I'll leave it lit for a few minutes after I start dishes. Once I turn it off, depending on the outside temps, it'll stay pretty warm for hours.
3. Maintenance tip: if you notice water dripping from your outside hot water heater cover/access, don't panic! The tank may have lost its air bubble and just need "burped". Your hot water heater manual may have the step-by-step procedure for this; otherwise you'll find it on lots of RV-friendly forums. Check this before you start taking apart fittings or draining the tank.
4. Hot water increases the pressure on the lines and fittings. We've had leaks at the back of our toilet until we upgraded the fittings. Also if the HW heater is on, we try to remember to bleed pressure off the lines occasionally at the faucets or at the toilet.
5. If it didn't come pre-installed, you may be able get an electric element for your hot water heater. We installed one and wired a switch up to the inside. Now, if we're on shore power, we can flip the interior switch. This takes a lot longer to heat up - but if we've got electric at the site, we might as well make use of it instead of the propane. Sometimes we'll use the propane to heat the water initially, then flip the element on to maintain its temperature.

[Emissary2Ornj]

Miscellaneous interior tips/comfort upgrades

1. The mattress that came with your camper may not be the most comfortable or best quality . We upgraded to a firm foam base plus a thinner topper. Foam can be cut to size. Hybrid coil/foam mattresses can also be cut to size/shape but require more effort: carefully deconstruct the fabric to reveal the mattress innards. Then snip the metal coils with a wire cutter. Recover it all with the now-excess fabric and sew it all up tightly. When I did this in our first camper, I hand-sewed it with sturdy fishing line, although probably a good thick upholstery thread would work just as well.
2. Moisture - campers aren't great at staying ventilated.
   1. Damp Rid (or equivalent) containers put in places that don't get much air flow can help.
   2. Leaving closet doors open helps.
   3. I try to pack clothes loosely. Opening windows when the weather's nice helps, too.
   4. UPGRADE: Glue FRP wall board to your shower/tub area if it's only wallpapered. Easier to clean and once you caulk it all in, you've added a moisture barrier over the papered, paneled walls.
3. Cleaning
   1. Not that different than regular house cleaning. It's a smaller space, so yes - less to clean. BUT - it's a smaller space, so however many people's and pets' debris was getting spread out in a house is now compacted into that same small space.
   2. Campers aren't usually built as tightly as permanent dwellings; therefore, be prepared for more dust, more quickly.
   3. To save space/weight, pick a few cleaners that will do multiple things. LA's Totally Awesome Degreaser from Dollar Tree diluted in a spray bottle lasts a long time. I use it on almost every surface, including floors. I do use a dedicated glass cleaner for mirrors and windows; the LA's tends to streak a bit for me.
   4. Changing the sheets in most RVs will count as physical exercise, I can promise you. You might even expand your vocabulary while wrestling sheets and blankets. The presence of a spouse does NOT help in this task, I've found. It's probably best for one person to vacate the camper while the other engages battle*. *You may think I'm joking. I'm not. You've been warned.
   5. Keeping clutter down helps, of course. But there's only so much room, and so much counter/storage space. Things just kind of find a place as you use them.
   6. A short-handled  natural grass/soft straw broom has worked great for me (3-4 feet long). You might find them at Asian groceries, or online by searching for a Vietnamese natural grass broom. Be sure to open them outside and shake all the excess grass/straw dust off before using. They will shed over time, but I've used mine for 3-4 years now, and have one unopened in storage. It hangs on the pantry door handle.
   7. I highly recommend buying peel & stick backsplash to put behind the sink and stove area. It brightened up that area (aesthetic) and made it much easier to clean (practicality).
4. Pantry/closet organization (forgot to include this with the storage section up top)
   1. Our camper came with a tall, narrow cabinet between the fridge and the bathroom wall. It had 1 (one?! ONE!) shelf halfway up. We thrifted a perfectly-sized open-backed shelf.  You can buy drawer-type rolling rails, but to save money my husband used scrap angle iron he had on hand to fashion rails. The bottom shelf sides fit under the rails, and voila - sliding shelves. We screwed plastic bins to the shelves, and the space is so much more useful to us now. It doesn't slide as smoothly as if it was on ball bearings, but the plus side is there's plenty of friction so it's not sliding around and banging into the closed cabinet door when we're traveling. We leave the door open when we're camped for easy access.
   2. My husband added a horizontal plywood shelf to his closet, dividing it roughly in half. He uses a plastic drawer and 2 folding fabric boxes for shirts, pants, and socks/undies. Leftover pace behind the bins/boxes is enough to stash some extra out-of-season clothes. We also keep extra clothes under the couch and remaining dinette bench.