What's the first thing all new RV'ers do when they buy an RV? Buy ALL the things, of course! I started a pile in our spare bedroom of all the essentials I was told I needed. I did tons of research and waded through multiple "newbie" facebook posts (skipping over the negative nellie's) to make a list of all the fun gadgets and essentials I could find. To save you all the headache (and your money!), I figured I would share my list of must-have's for any new RV'er.
First! A quality sewer hose and seals. I spent way longer than I should have, staring at all the different options and lengths. And I STILL went to our first AND second camping trip missing items. As most campers are built now, only one hose is needed because the pipe for the grey and black tank pipe comes together before it connects to a hose. The one I ended up choosing is great. It's 20ft and can turn into 2 - 10ft sections in case the sewer is right next to your pipe. HOWEVER, as luck would have it, we didn't have the appropriate connectors that create a seal to the sewer. The one that comes on the hose itself is too small. A kind fellow camper gave us one of his sewer seals. As luck would have it again, we needed a different kind for the second trip! The hose we bought is linked here and the seals are linked here and here.
A drinking water hose and water purifier! There are so many different kinds of drinking water hoses that people like. The no-kink ones are really the best, but if you're just starting out and trying to be as cost effective as possible, there's nothing wrong with the camco white drinking hose. The white camco hose is what we have and I haven't had an issue with kinking yet. I coil it up when storing to prevent any issues in the future. We got a 50ft hose, just in case we happen to park at a spot with a spigot far from the camper. We were given the advice that there's nothing worse than getting hoses and electric plugs that are too short. You can always wind the excess hose up neatly by the spigot. Amazon is a great place to buy supplies such as this, but you'd be surprised at the RV section in Walmart! They have just about everything you'll need. They also carry the water filter we bought. This is a camco item as well. You can splurge and spend mountains of cash on a large filter set-up, but we don't drink from the tap anyway, so we find the cheaper camco version suits us just fine. I've linked the water hose and filter here.
Quality leveling blocks and chocks! There's nothing worse than sleeping at an incline and it will ruin your refrigerator. And of course, you have to keep your camper from rolling away. I saw most everyone was raving about the Anderson blocks. When I saw the price, I figured there had to be something cheaper. And there was! A lot of people use square blocks to back onto, but I find the camco leveling blocks much easier to use when leveling side to side. You also need to make sure you chock your tires - even if you are on the leveling blocks. The worst thing would be for your camper to move and bend your tongue jack. Many people also like X-chocks. Those are NOT to be confused with actual chocks for your tires. I've also see damage from people only using those as chocks. They will bend and cause your RV to move and bend your tongue jack. You may start seeing a trend here, but the chocks and leveling blocks we use are both camco products.
Water Pressure regulator! We camped the first few times without this, and each time, a fellow camper came up to us and warned us this is a must-have if we want to keep our camper's water pipes from bursting. We finally gave in and spent the cash. I'm all about preventative measures - which brings me to my next recommendation.
A surge protector! This has saved our rig so many times! We leave it plugged in at home to run a dehumidifier (you Floridians know understand the struggle!), and multiple times the surge protector has helped during storms. You also never know when a campground will have an electricity issue. Frying your electric system in your camper would be a huge expense, so just spend the extra money to protect it! Make sure you get a 30Amp or 50Amp specific to your rig. This is the one that we have and it hasn't failed us yet!
There are so many more items you will find you'd like to have on your trip, but these are some of the essentials. Others are RV toilet paper - I know some don't care - but we like to take care and take preventative measures. This is easily found at walmart in the RV section. Another is a 30 to 50Amp adapter (or 50 to 30Amp depending on your rig. Some campgrounds only offer select sites with 50Amp outlets, but many have replaced this with sites that offer both (make sure to check). We also have a 120volt adapter because we plug ours in at our house when not in use to run the dehumidifier as well as the fridge when loading our groceries.
Don't go crazy buying things at first, just get the essentials and go from there. You'll find what you personally would like to have, along with all of the fun extras that make camping more like "glamping".
Happy Camping All!
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