RV Accessories For Your Camper That Are Must-Haves!
Once I have purchased my new camper, I took it out, and I made a list of all the many RV accessories that I needed to buy. I introduced in that list, all the things I wish that I would have bought, like a handheld vacuum. I also added some entries with other RV must-haves that I had purchased and you must buy too, such as an RV insurance.
If you have recently bought you RV or are thinking of purchasing one, this list of RV accessories will be handy and getting the items will make your trips so much more enjoyable. If instead, you are planning a travel trailer rental, or renting another category of RV, these travel trailer accessories listing may also be helpful for you.
Generator
Although it might be obvious that you are required to purchase a generator, and for me, this is the most important of all the RV accessories.
Ensure that you go for a quiet one and that is furnished with a remote start. Champion is a new brand of generator that was recently introduced to the market, and it costs about half of what an equivalent Honda or Yamaha generator will set you back.
Champion is getting plenty of very good reviews on the internet for their generator and it comes with a remote start option built-in.
RV Insurance
As far as I am concerned, insurance is one of the RV must-haves and not a luxury. If you are in an accident, the insurance will take care of paying for any damages, while there are policies available that will also cover injuries to anyone that visits you in your mobile home.
Healthcare Protection: Hand Sanitizer
This hand sanitizer is a gel, more or less viscous, so sometimes it is very liquid to combat any agent regarded as infectious in your hands.
They are recommended by Sandra Eades who is an expert author at IMedicalSociety.org. She considers that the usage of hand sanitizer complements the usage of soap and water and is not a replacement for it, in general, healthcare lines, and also as a way to avoid coronavirus. We added it in our list of RV must-haves, in our mid-2020 update after the outbreak of coronavirus.
Trailer Ball In Your Towing Vehicle
As you will be towing your trailer, you will definitely need a trailer ball. I should include in this list of RV accessories, also the weight distribution system bars, that most of us will need to have.
These trailer balls, RV must-haves for sure, are manufactured for heavy-duty towing applications and are often used on SUVs and full-size trucks. Three finishing options are available – raw steel, chrome, and stainless steel. Trailer balls are 2-5/16″ in size and have capacities ranging from 6,000 lb. to 30,000 lb.
Bubble Level
Once you have reached your destination, it can be tricky to get the trailer precisely leveled, especially when you have to park on uneven ground. If you do not get your trailer level, it is not only inconvenient, but it is possible that your fridge might get damaged, although this does not happen often.
Therefore, one of the most important RV accessories is to have a small bubble level and always keep it in the trailer, you can easily get the trailer level with its help. The bubble does not have to be a fancy, expensive one, but a cheap $5 bubble level will get the job done just as well.
Gas Can
While you are about it, you may as well get a new gas can for the generator and keep it in the trailer. If you fill-up the generator itself before going on a trip, a 5-gallon gas can be enough to run the generator continuously for around 28 hours, depending on how much gas it uses.
As you will only need to run an air conditioner for more than a couple of hours per day if you are camping somewhere where it is extremely hot, 5 gallons of gas should last about a week. This is one of the RV accessories that you will really miss if you did not purchase or did not refill it.
Sheets
While new travel trailers often come with some pillows and a quilt, sheets for the beds are not included. You will want to buy sheets for the beds before you use the travel trailer for the first time.
On Amazon, sheets for an RV are not very expensive, are of reasonably good quality and they are available in various colors that will hide some dirt. Although you could go out and buy new bedsheets for your RV from Amazon or anywhere else if you have older sheets lying around the house, those will also do the job, so probably should not be included in this RV accessories listing.
First Aid Kit
When you are out camping, minor accidents are bound to happen, resulting in cuts, scrapes, and bruises. For those occasions, a first aid kit will come in very handy.
We recommend you get one of the Müller brand first aid kits from Amazon as these are pretty good and contain all the things you’re likely to need while traveling around in your RV.
RV must-haves include a first aid kit. If you are a reader from the European Union, know that, from the list of RV accessories, this accessory is mandatory by law.
Brush for Toilet Bowl
RV toilets are generally shallow and have very little water in them. That results in some of your err… ‘stuff’ to adhere to in the angles and flanks of the vessel or bowl, although the majority of it should be flushed. A brush for the toilet bowl in your camper’s bathroom is very handy to clean the bowl when you dump the trailer’s black tank.
Toilet bowl brushes are however often sold in a pack with plungers. As you will not utilize a plunger in your travel trailer, we recommend buying on Amazon. These often come with a pretty cover with a hole in its handle where a hook can be attached to store it in the bathroom to prevent it from falling around while you are driving.
Water Pressure Regulator
There are RV campgrounds around where the water pressure is too high, causing unnecessary stress and eventually leaks in your RV’s water system. Therefore, it is well worthwhile to spend a couple of dollars in some RV accessories, to make sure that this does not happen.
We recommend getting a water pressure regulator that is installed between the RV or trailer and the freshwater hose to prevent this problem. Plenty of good ones are available, but some of these are very expensive. Camco has a brass regulator available that sells for about $10 on Amazon.
Hampers
Many people new to RVs and camping do not think about getting a hamper, leaving them no place to put their dirty clothes. Although stuffing these into all sorts of random places will work, it will also make things very messy.
Although a standalone hamper will work, these often get in the way as there is often not a specific place to put it. An alternative good idea is to use a simple net bag hamper like college students often use to carry laundry when going to a laundromat. You can get these at many stores and it is handy to put it in an open storage compartment on your RV.
Dump Hose
One of the least fun jobs associated with having an RV is having to dump the tanks. Although having the correct equipment and RV accessories to do the job will not make it any more pleasant, it will make it easier and quicker to do.
When you buy a hose, there are a number of things you should keep in mind. A hose length of 15′ should be more than enough for most, if not all jobs. This length will allow you to reach most dump tanks, but this is not too long and you could have eventually problems to get the liquid to flow in it. With a 20′ hose, you’ll start picking up flow problems, while a 10′ hose might be too short to reach everywhere you need to.
Therefore, my recommendation is to purchase a 20´hose.
Hoses with a transparent view piece in the 90-degree bracket are very handy as it will enable you to see what flows in the hose. As it is normally frosted, you will not be able to see how gross it is, but you will be able to see that there is still liquid moving through it so you do not remove the hose before the tank is empty.
Make sure that your dump hose fits into the travel trailer’s bumper. If the connectors are too big and the hose does not fit, you will have to keep it in a compartment inside your trailer which is plain gross.
Get a high-quality hose that is likely to last for a long time and is able to take a fair amount of punishment. You definitely do not want to find any holes in the hose while you are busy emptying your black tank or wastewater tank. Cheap hoses are the worst RV accessories and often crack easily when you accidentally step on them, so buy a hose that can be identified as more durable.
Although I am sure that there are many hoses available that will meet these criteria, I recommend the 20′ dump hose by Camco from Amazon as we have used that one and it works well. It did not break when I stepped on it by accident.
Filler Valve
Using a filler valve to fill up the freshwater tank on a trailer is one of the RV must-haves. Without one, filling the tank takes a really long time due to the “bubble back.”
Amazon has filler valves available for as little as $10. Simply attach the valve to one side of the hose and put the other side of the valve into the trailer’s freshwater intake.
Hoses
Every trailer probably needs two normal garden hoses, so these are two RV accessories actually for this topic. One of these hoses is a hose for freshwater that gets water from the city network into the travel trailer itself or to pour water into your freshwater tanks. The other is used at dump stations for sprinkling out the water in your black tank using a special sprinkler system. It is a good idea to use different color hoses so they do not get mixed up.
Although some people believe that the hose used for fresh water must be white for it to be nontoxic, this is not true. As stated above, different colored hoses are simply used to be able to tell them apart easily. Any type of lead-free hoses can be used as these are safe to use for drinking water, and Amazon has white hoses for sale for this purpose.
How long your hose has to be, depends on your setup, but a 25-foot hose should be an adequate length for most scenarios. If you get one longer than this it starts getting tricky to get it out from storage.
Movies
If you will have internet connection in the RV park, you can simply watch Netflix movies. However, if you do not have access to the net, you should download several movies in advance or buy some DVDs beforehand.
You might like to go camping without watching the TV at all, but if you enjoy a good movie while traveling around, remember to get a DVD and a selection of your favorite movies to take along. These could be a great way to relax and enjoy yourself, especially during the heat in the middle of the day when it is too hot to be doing anything else.
A Handheld Vacuum
Camper trailers typically have different types of flooring, for example, wood in some areas while others are carpeted. It is also a small space that will get dirty very quickly and using a broom is a losing battle against the dirt constantly coming in from many dirty shoes and feet coming and going.
A handheld vacuum cleaner is ideal to keep the dirt under control and the Pivot Vacuum from Black & Decker on Amazon has a huge number of very good reviews while it is not expensive. This is the one I have and for me it is fine.
Kitchen Utensils
It is very easy to forget essential kitchen utensils and items that are not used every day, like cooking spray and a spatula. Before you go on your first trip, take some time to really think about what you will need in the kitchen. If you later find that you have still forgotten some essential items, make a list so that you can remember to buy these crucial travel trailer accessories before the next trip.
Toilet Chemicals
When you use your trailer for camping, it is a good idea to perform flushing of the toilet of the travel trailer for at least fifty seconds before the bathroom is used. This puts a decent amount of water into the trailer’s black tank and will prevent stuff from getting stuck to the sides of the tank.
You should also introduce chemicals in the tank that will prevent smells and break down toilet paper. A very common way of doing this is to use porta packs. This convenient batch of chemicals can simply be dropped into the toilet.
Drill and ¾” Socket
It is really a pain to take the travel trailer’s corner stabilizer stands down and up again by hand, and although a powered jack stand is an option, it takes forever to use those.
A very simple solution is to use a cordless drill fitted with a ¾” socket. This will help you take the jack stands down and up quickly and easily.
A Mat for Outside the Steps
Using a big mat outside the steps of the RV will help keep a lot of the sand and dirt outside the RV where it belongs. You will cut down tremendously on the amount of time you would have to spend sweeping and vacuuming.
There are plenty of nice big ones available from Amazon and it will help keep things clean and orderly. They are not very expensive and well worthwhile getting.
RV Accessories List: Conclusions
I hope that this list of RV must-haves, is useful for you. These are the things you will discover that you need to buy for your first trip. Many products I have mentioned as useful RV accessories do not have links. This is because I have not tested any brand that I can recommend.
