RV Mods and Tips

There's a lot I wish we had known before we started out on this RV adventure, roughly two months ago. So the purpose of this post is mostly to amuse my future self with anecdotes about things we've learned. But maybe you, dear reader, are considering or even planning a similar adventure so this advice might be useful to you. Let's start with the ways we modified the interior.

The theme of this post should be, "sponsored (without compensation or knowledge) by 3M." Because the RV is not ours, all of our modifications had to be without permanent impact. Fortunately, it's 2019 and 3M (and others, I suppose) makes all of these removable adhesives and associated products.

In the picture at left, you see the inside of our bathroom door. At the top are three hooks (from the "fancy" line) and shoe organizer. Each pocket has something that a family of six needs in its bathroom cabinet, pantry, junk drawer, etc.

This is also something that changed quite a bit over time. We started with about a gallon of stuff in this hanger that we realized we didn't need, or didn't need in such an accessible location. That stuff went in the trash or deep storage elsewhere.

Another clever achievement in the bathroom involved the early decision that we wouldn't shower in the RV. This decision got easier when we learned that the hot water tank only held 6 gallons. So we bought a cheap tension shower rod and, voila, added four feet of closet space for the jackets, raincoats, hats, etc.

You can also see the presence of more 3M hooks here. Two for the broom and mop and one for goggles. A fourth used to be here for headlamps but it died at some point. These adhesive things aren't worth it.

As long as we had commandeered the shower, we also used the space under the closet rod for a laundry basket and miscellany.

 Here are two more bathroom applications of cleverness. Top left, the bathroom has these seemingly useless cabinets that are about four inches deep. We did our best with toiletry kits and other sealed containers that were shallow but we also found some small pocket hangers. These came with over-the-door hooks but if 3M was paying us more (or at all), we'd probably use something of theirs here instead.

But let's turn to the basics. The RV did not have a toilet paper holder so this cheap plastic one is affixed with more adhesive hooks. The shower caddy (which you need if you're always showering somewhere else) is on the right below the sink and the Box for Healthy Teeth is directly below it. That one came out every arrival and stayed out until every departure. It's the little things!



Now, the bedroom and Elise's greatest RV-mod point of pride.

The issue is, how do you pack for two months in a tiny space? First, you pack for about a week and count on finding laundromats along the way, which we did with ease (mostly). The stroke of genius here is the hanging caddy, making good use of the closet rod. This allowed us to leave the six drawers for the four kids (2 drawers for each of the older kids and 2 drawers for the twins to share).

We extended the value of the caddy with some foldable organizers (also from Target, which, like 3M, should sponsor us but hasn't). Indeed, I could have brought more clothing than I did and often I wish I had. The little organizers were terrific for containing socks and other small bits. We used them in the kids' drawers with great success.

Here's one more awesome mod on the interior. You have to understand that at home we drive a minivan that has 17 cup holders (slight exaggeration) and is otherwise purposebuilt to convey a family of six to eight and all their stuff. The designers of this RV, on the other hand, didn't consider kids and possibly had never met any. So on the dashboard we added more 3M strips: a pair for our bluetooth speaker, a pair for a tray to hold knick knacks and another pair for a phone holder whose suction doesn't work on the crenelated plastic dash.

These are adhesive on one side and velcro on the other. Some other applications of these did not work so well. In particular, we tried these adhesive velcro strips in the kitchen in order to install a paper towel holder. It turns out that if you pull off a sheet of paper towel, you use enough force to separate the velcro. Oh well.

And here's one exterior mod, one that I didn't figure out until just a few days ago when the trip was almost over. You see, the RV requires a water pressure regulator that came attached to the inlet. Many campgrounds also require or recommend that you use one. But it causes near constant dripping on/in the RV. Finally I figured out that I could put the regulator at the other end of the hose. This way the dripping happens at the spigot instead of at/in/on the RV. (Note: this also makes it easier to attach the hose.)

One other subject is tech. Below is a picture that captures it as well as I can. This is an Anker power port that can charge 6 USB devices at once. For us, that means one iPhone, the Skyroam hotspot and four kindle tablets (at other times, some wireless headphones, a bluetooth speaker...you get the idea). The orange puck is our hotspot. We got this because Elise has had a good experience with a Skyroam abroad but, so far, it has not met our expectations or needs. But it does come in handy, especially for supporting our Chromecast (not pictured). At this point it should go without saying that both the powerport and the hotspot are attached to the wall with 3M velcro adhesive strips!

Other things that have come in really handy:

• Collapsible Coleman Grill. It's a bummer that we had to haul a 20 pound propane tank when the RV has so much propane on board but that would have meant a specialty low-pressure grill.
• A really good set of heavy duty rubber gloves for handling the sewer line. I've gotten really good at completing the chore and then washing off the gloves. Peace of mind!
• Griddle. Our kids love pancakes and bacon and it was really nice to have an electric griddle that made these easy to prepare without getting involved with the propane-fueled stove, which is mediocre at best.
• Lap desks. On a whim, we picked up two small lap desks and they have turned into dinner trays on most nights (the table only seats four of us). They are also helpful for school.

Some things that have been a waste of space:

• Guitar: to my surprise, we didn't have a lot of campfires and the guitar only came out on some of those occasions. So that's a big item subjected to big temperature swings plus a cubic foot of unused songbooks.
• DVDs. The RV has four TV's (out home has one) and I thought it would be easy to plug in a drive and play an array of movies. We only ever used one of the TV's and the drive didn't work with it. We used a chromecast to stream pretty regularly, usually from YouTube.
• Legos. We brought about one cubic foot of legos and spent two months trying to avoid using them for fear that they'd slip into cracks and cause damage to the damage-prone moving parts of the RV.
• Bag of games. In one of the underneath compartments we have a large grocery bag full of games and playthings, like the wonderful magnetiles. Aside from two or three small games (like cards), we've hardly touched this bag. 

Some things I wish we had:

• A fan. The back bedroom has very poor air circulation. There's a flimsy sliding door that separates it from the front and this was usually open. Even open the sleeping was stuffy and with it closed it was oppressive. There's one small window in the bedroom which might have been more useful with a fan to pull in more fresh air.
• Books. We made a very valuable stop in a small Virginia town to visit a used book store and we left with a box. It was the best we could do in a store that was not meant for kids. We could easily have packed more books from home. I think we thought we'd use our devices (kindle tablets, e.g.) for reading to the kids. 
• Coax cable. I didn't realize that RV parks generally provide free cable. So we were one cable away from having easy access to TV. We've talked about this a lot and agreed that we're better off with less TV. But every time I get in a fight with the hotspot or the chromcast, I think it would be really nice to have easy entertainment. CouldaWouldaShoulda.