RV Accessories: No BS, What do you NEED to go RVing?

The “Hookups” (Utilities)

1. Electrical (1 Item)

Surge Protector

You just spent a bunch of money on an RV, so I’m guessing (and I am just spit-balling here) the last thing you want to have happen is for your RV’s electrical system to be fried by some shady RV park electricity?

I didn’t think so.

It is no secret that RV parks do not often have the most reliable connections when it comes the utilities. Protect your investment with a surge protector.

This is the exact model of surge protector that we use on our fifth wheel. Just make sure you select either 30 or 50 amp depending on your RV’s needs.

2. Water (3 items)

As hit or miss as RV park electrical can be, the water supply can be even more questionable. We have had everything from a firehose, to a trickle; clean pristine water, to water flowing yellow straight out of the faucet. There is a few RV accessories that you can purchase to protect your pipes and your health.

Hose

First thing is first, to connect your RV to the bib you are going to need a hose. While any old hose will technically work, regular garden hoses aren’t rated for potable water (they can release contaminates into your drinking water). I recommend getting 2 smaller hoses vs. 1 long hose, as about 3/4 of the time a shorter hose is all that is needed and you won’t have to have a massive coil laying on the ground.

There is so many different types of hoses, but all that truly matters is that it is rated for potable water.

I use 2 of the 25 ft Camco standard style hoses below. But some people swear by the collapsible style hoses because they are lightweight and coil easily.

Remember that if you bought a four season RV and plan on putting that claim to the test, you need to have someway to prevent your hose from freezing up. They make heated hoses for this purpose.

Water Pressure Regulator

You’re probably asking, why in the world would I want to limit the amount of water pressure I have in my RV? Well, I hate to break it to you, but your home on wheels is NOT indestructible. While RVs are now manufactured with the use of PEX (the same fresh water plumbing used in most houses) most manufacturers recommend to not exceed 45 psi on the pressure inlet.

On the contrary, if you have a “on-demand” water heater like we do, it most likely will not operate very well without a minimum of 45 psi. In other words, the sweet spot is most likely between 50-55 psi if you have this type of water heater. But I must say, you should always follow your manufacturer’s recommendation in the manual.

There is a few different styles of water pressure regulators. One style is very simple and preset at the factory between 40-50 psi. The downside to this style is that if you want to bump the pressure up a few psi to get consistent tankless water heater operation, you cannot do it. Additionally, you have no way of monitoring how much pressure you are actually getting. My choice is an adjustable regulator with a gauge for monitoring so that you can dial in the best pressure for your unit. Unfortunately nothing can really be done about low water pressure, but high water pressure should be limited with a product like what is found below.

Water Filter

Did I say we have had yellow water coming out of our faucet? Yeah that was the moment I decided it was a necessity to have a filter on our water inlet and not just the water we drink.

Depending on how intense you would like to go with your water filtration, there is several different options. We personally use a secondary, much more intense, filter for our drinking water so we do not use any super high tech filter for our water inlet. We have used both the options below and they perform very similarly. It just depends on whether you would like to replace the whole housing or just the internal filter each time.

Finally, I do not own a high end Blu Tech filter, but I do see A LOT of them around. When we got our RV, we considered getting one as they are the highest rated water filter out there, but since we use a really nice water filter for our drinking water, we ultimately decided it was not necessary for our needs. But, those that do own one swear by them and will never use anything else.

3. Sewer (4 items)

Not every part of RV utilities are glamorous. In fact, one particular part of owning an RV is crap. Literally.

Every RV comes with its own poop chute, but that poop chute isn’t endless. It must be emptied (dun dun dun). Luckily, this can be a [relatively] clean process. Clean for you, not for the inside of your hose.

If you have ever seen the infamous Robin Williams scene from RV, you may have some anxiety about this part of RV life.

https://gfycat.com/colorfulcookedhyrax

With a little help from these RV accessories, you can virtually eliminate the risk of any disastrous (yet hilarious) hijinks involved with emptying your grey or black tanks.

Hose Kit

First things, first, you need a hose to get the contents from point A to point B. Also, you need the adapters to connect it to your RV and the ground. Most of the prefabricated hoses are universal, but the easiest way to make sure you have every necessary part, and they all work together, is to buy a kit.

The Camco RhinoFLEX products are my favorite because you can collapse them easily and they stay collapsed. A lot of other manufacturers claim their products collapse down, but it is a lot like trying to put anything back into its original packaging, it just doesn’t work. My recommendation is to get a kit with the larger hose and get a couple of shorter hose extensions. This way, you can (much like the water hose) have only the amount of hose out as necessary. This is especially important when it comes to sewer because you want your hose to be as straight and streamlined as possible since gravity is the only force helping it drain.

Clear Elbow

This may sound really weird, but you need to be able to see your tanks drain.

Strange right? Well, hear me out. Your dumping your tanks and you think it is done, so you disconnect the hose. Next thing you know, WHOOSH! A poo-splosion all over you. It wasn’t done draining yet.

Well, hopefully not that bad, but among other reasons, when you are counting every pound and water is one of the heaviest things on your RV, it helps to make sure your tanks are actually empty when you empty them. You need to be able to see it, even if it is your wife’s liquified poo.

This is probably one of the simplest RV accessories on this list, but very important.

Parking

Depending on the type of RV and the size, this category of RV accessories may be simple or relatively complicated.

1. Chocking (1 item)

Probably the most important part of parking your RV (besides not hitting anything like the guy that just nailed a tree in the spot next to us) is making sure your RV doesn’t roll away on you.

It took a genius to get the wheel rolling 5000 years ago. It still takes a chunk of virtually any material to stop it today.

However, it does take a little more thought than just grabbing a rock or log from your parking spot. I have found that the best chocks are the solid rubber ones because they do not slide. I had a set of the lightweight plastic ones that we replaced with a rubber set. They may have flown out of the back of my truck-bed while towing our trailer, but that is only part of the reason they were replaced. The other reason was that I found out when I went to do the “pull-test” when hitching up, they actually slid on the concrete. That kind of defeats the purpose of them.

Another thing to think about is type of ground that you will be parking on most of the time. One of our first campsites that we took our trailer to was very sandy. When we went to pull out of our spot, my wife couldn’t find one of the chocks. This is because it was actually buried in the sand under the tire. In situations like this, X-chocks could prove useful as an added safety measure, even though this isn’t really their true purpose. Despite them being a type of wheel chock, they are not meant to fully replace the use of the standard wedge style chock. In reality, they help reduce the amount of sway from your RV rocking back and forth on the wheels. They could really also be placed into the stabilizing category because this is more of their purpose.

X-chocks are far from a necessity but can easily help provide security in softer ground and stability on smoother surfaces. Truly a single set of wedge style chocks is all that is needed.

2. Stabilizing (1 item)

Stabilizing refers to making your RV more rigid so it is not moving around on you while you are trying to live in it. RVs are designed to be towed or driven down the road, which means they sit on a suspension system that softens the ride while it moves; good thing for driving, bad thing for living in it. To fix this problem, RVs are built with a system to add more rigidity when parked. This can be as simple as a scissor jack bolted to the frame, or more complex like the hydraulic jacks found on large motorhomes and fifth-wheels.

A lot of modern RVs have self-leveling/stabilizing systems that do not require much more than pushing a button. Even with these high tech systems, they could use a little help.

I think we all could.

The product that you choose depends on what type of RV you have and what type of leveling/stabilizing system your RV is equipped with.

Travel Trailers

If your RV is a regular bumper-pull travel trailer, then stabilizing your RV is most likely accomplished with individual scissor jacks at each corner of the trailer that are actuated with a crank and good old fashion elbow grease. If your travel trailer is extra fancy, it may have tandem electrically actuated stabilizers at the front and the rear that are controlled in pairs. It is important to realize that NEITHER of these options are meant to level your trailer.

The best thing you can do to help these stabilizers (or yourself if your jacks are human powered) is to provide a stable and raised surface for them to bed down on. The classic way of doing this is to stick a chunk of wood (or 6) underneath the jack before you lower it. The downsides to wood are that it rots, bugs are attracted to it, and it is often much heavier than the plastic alternative.

Most travel trailers you will see in the RV park will be using interlocking stackable plastic blocks because you can use them to serve multiple purposes (i.e. under your tires to level the axles) and you can use as many or as little as you would like. Some, however, choose to use single blocks under their stabilizers and tongue jacks. There is many different manufacturers, but the most popular is Andersen. Whatever product you choose, just remember that you will need enough to go under all (4+) stabilizing points and your tongue jack.

Fifth Wheel/Motorhome

The leveling and stabilizing systems on fifth wheels and motorhomes are pretty similar to each other. They consist of 4-6 leveling/stabilizing jacks and are hydraulically powered in most cases. They do not need any additional products to operate either, but placing something under them can greatly reduce the stress and prevent the chance of them slipping on the ground.

Most people use one of 2 options for this purpose: Andersen Blocks or SnapPads. Their use is simple and both of them attach to the bottom of the jacks. Their only real difference in use is that SnapPads are (semi) permanently attached to the bottom of the jacks. They never have to be removed, even when driving down the highway. Andersen Blocks do have to be removed every time you use them and only attach temporarily with magnets. The advantage of Andersen Blocks is that they provide a much taller support for the jacks. In some cases, depending on the amount of slant in your parking space, a block may still need to be placed under a SnapPad to extend the length of the jack and allow it to reach the ground. I personally use Andersen Blocks on my fifth wheel because of this reason.