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Seriously, everyone I know that has an RV loves gadgets but I am always surprized at how little the RV stores cater to this personality defect.
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Firepit We bought this one at Target. It is light and comes with a case to pack it in. I feel much better about a camp fire in a metal pit with a cover. This one has a grill. We aren't allowed to have a camp fire in our park, but we can barbecue... Yes, it's raining. |
| Echo Charger While we were in Camp Verde we moved the motor home and when I went to start it the chassis batteries were dead. No big deal since the Monaco has a "jump start" switch to use the house batteries in such a situation but, why are the batteries dead? With all my health issues at the time I forgot about it, but when we went to start it the next time the batteries were dead again. I was in the hospital when Marnie moved the rig up to Flagstaff but she said it started right up. Well, when we needed to re-level (we are parked on dirt) the batteries were dead again. I naturally assumed it was time for new batteries. It is probably good for the engine and generator to run every once and a while so I started the rig up and the batteries took a charge. So I got on the internet to see why my batteries don't charge when plugged in. Probably a fuse I thought. Well I found a weblog that mentioned that there is a design flaw in the Monaco coach line in that they don't charge the chassis batteries when plugged into shore power so on extended stays, the batteries go dead! The same article went on to recommend the Echo Charger (shown) as the fix. While I like most of the features of the the Monaco over similar priced coaches this is an rediculous thing to overlook. I bought one that next week and Marnie had to install it due to my back condition but it was easy to install and "Echos" the charge on the house batteries to the chassis batteries. I bought it from Jackrabbit Marine for around $100 plus shipping. I was dissappointed that something designed to go in a battery compartment wasn't water and airtight but it seems to work okay. |
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 | Squirrel Feeder Priceless! |
| Magnet The picture shows some nails, screws and staples that we found in our current site. That nail is nearly six inches long. This is by no means the most stuff I have found. With the price of tires (worth their weight in gold!) it might be worth the magnet and effort if you stay in un-paved sites. |  |
 | Liquor Padding The rattle while traveling was driving us nuts so I got some padding and put it in the liquor cabinet to keep the bottles from rattling. |
| Skype We first learned about Skype from our sailing friends Pat & Carrie on the Terra Firma. This is a voice over internet system that we have used several times to chat with them from their sailing vessel. This is a great and inexpensive way to stay in touch with our friends and family members. Here is a tip, if you start hearing echos while you are talking, have the person on the other end turn their volume down. The speakers on most computers are near the microphone so it is easy to get feedback. Skype also sells the headsets and other hardware if your computer, like mine, doesn't have an appropriate microphone or speaker system. Click on the link and then shop. |
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 | Wine Fridge Ah. The search for a wine celler that fits in the basement of an RV... I finally found this one at Wine Enthusiast. |
| Folding Tables I have been taking a six foot folding table camping for as long as I can remember. It is handy as outdoor living space surface area and priceless when I am cooking outside. Right now this table is serving as a computer desk until we can get some custom cabinetry with workspaces. Marnie found some small folding tables at Walmart that work as endtables or for ironing or whatever. We have two of these and they work both indoors and out for all kinds of uses. The height is adjustable so they adapt to match the height of a table next to them. Let's face it, I have never seen an RV with enough counter space! |
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 | Movie Storage The ZioTek Disk Carousel is great! It holds 150 CDs or DVDs and if you buy software from Collectorz it interfaces to these units quite well. We have two that we use for DVDs only. We use Ipods for our music and the original CDs are stored at a friends house so that we are legal. |
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Dish Network by AllSat We have the "everything" package. |
| Kayak Rack We had a hitch installed and then had this rack custom made for the hitch. How To: Sorry, we had all this done for us at the local RV repair shop (Buddy's). Since we are fulltiming I have gotten rid of many of my tools so we must hire the work out. |  |
| Water Pressure Our water pressure is low. Is it the park pressure? Our regulator? Do we need to change the filter? A meter before and after the regulator and another after the filter yields the answer, our regulator is only putting out 20PSI. You don't know until you measure it. Put a meter from CW on these points and it is never in question again! Read the gauges when a faucet is open to get the right readings. |  |
 | Propane QD I like to grill all year round. We bought the Coleman Roady Grill and each can of LP was going to last one or two cookouts. Shown here is the quick disconnect to attatch the grill to house gas. How To: Our local RV store sells both the quick-connect fittings and an adaptor hose that takes the place of the small propane tank on the grill. There was alread a gas pipe with a plug located where I wanted a grill so this was easy. The adaptor keeps the grill regulator and so the gas gets regulated one extra time causing the pressure to be a bit low. For cooking big things I have to go back to a gas cylinder. |
| Water Tank Drain & Outdoor Faucet I like to be able to wash my hands outside. More importantly DW likes me to be able to wash my hands outside! I left the OEM valve intact so in the winter we could drain the added line. How To: The OEM drain valve had a 3/8" barbed fitting on it already so all I had to do was connect a hose. I mounted my new spigot in the side of the trailer and bought a 3/8" barbed nipple for it and connected the fittings with polyflow tubing. This system is gravity feed only of course but that is all you need to fill a coffee pot or wash your hands. |  |
 | Vent Crank Its the first thing I did. I made this extension handle so we could open and close the vents without balancing precariously on a chair. How To: I had a 3/8" (or 1/2" not sure) piece of stainless tubing laying around. I bent it to the shape of a crank with a pipebender and I drilled and tapped a 6-32 in the side of the end of the tubing. I then cut the splined end of the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) vent handle off and sanded it down to fit in the tubing. It is held in place by the 6-32 screw. This spline fits the vent spline with the OEM handles removed. |
Macerator Pump
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