RV Accessories that make a Big Difference - Winnebago View

Attaching the hose to this RV was not very easy

We thought that this was a great use of space. Simple device we found is this savor drop, water gauge

This is one of my favorite items. It's a wide-handled hitchpin. Leaving this place, the sun's about to break

You're riding shotgun. and shotgun. I'm just going to drive, drive, drive

Hi, I'm Louise. And I'm George. And we recently published a video on small RV accessories

And after we published it, we found a whole bunch more. So we decided to do another video to share these other little items that have made a very big difference in this lifestyle. Right

These are all small and inexpensive. accessories that have a huge impact on this lifestyle

We found them very useful. So if you have other items like this that you find very useful

please leave a comment below and let us know what those items are

Let's share ideas with each other. Sometimes the small things make a really big difference

And if you haven't seen that other video, I'll put a link up here somewhere

We don't use this ladder. This ladder is to get up into the over-the-cab sleeping area

but we don't use it. But we didn't want to get rid of it

We thought that this was a great use of space. We have these small plastic see-through containers

This one is taller. These two are shorter. But it's great for little items like sunscreen and bug spray

and things that we want at ready, lens cleaner, flashlight. These bungee cords, they're about a foot long

These actually came with our wheel covers, but we found ourselves not using them

There's neat little hooks at the end of them and such, but you could use any bunchy cord

as long as it holds this in place. All of this can stay right where it is when we're driving down the road and such, and it doesn't

even rattle. It's been a great little addition. This next item, we researched to find out a solution for

probably the second or third, maybe the fourth campground we ever pulled into

Attaching the hose to this RV was not very easy. This little tiny plastic attachment point, very hard to get your fingers on

It's just a very small knob. It's plastic. It was almost impossible to attach a hose to it without it leaking

So we found this 45 degrees hose elbow. that is perfect with this

You install it once, and once we got it installed tight enough so that it didn't leak

we attached a quick connect to it. And because it's 45 degrees

it aligns almost perfectly with the hose access port in this bay

We tried a 90 degree one, but the angle wasn't right. So we tried the 45 degree one

and it works perfectly. It makes setting up when you arrive at a campground

so much easier, especially in this RV, where this space is so small

And getting this connection tight enough so that it didn't leak was really a challenge

And this changed our life. I mean, it really enhanced our quality of life, if you will, at least during setup

I had these hooks in my car before we transitioned to this lifestyle and just found them really, really helpful

And so I brought them in here and they are fantastic. We have a couple in the Jeep

We have a couple in here, and it just lifts my pocketbook and my bag up off the floor

I always know where they are but yet somehow I feel like they have a spot and it a lot more organized We got these from Amazon They called headrest hooks

And they come in packages of six and I highly recommend them. They're fantastic

Another simple device we found is this savor drop water gauge. When we're going to be traveling from one camp round to another

We'll only put on maybe five gallons of fresh water, just enough so that we can flush the toilet

a few times during our drive. I just attach it after my water filter in between my hose

It allows me to monitor the amount of water that I'm putting into the fresh water tank

That way it gives me some peace of mind that I'm not putting on too much water or even not enough water

And I added the quick connect attachments to it so that it's

trivial to attach it to the hose. George installed these drawers when we first bought the RV

They've been fantastic. I guess they're junk drawers, but I keep things that, you know

little things that I want readily available that would probably otherwise just be all over the place

You know, scissors and tape and a box cutter and a small measuring tape, my earbuds

you know, pens, pencils, whatever. It's just really great to be able to just reach in

and have them right there. They hold a lot. George has one here, and mine is here

And he also put Velcro on them so that I can lock it in place

as part of my interior packup so that they don't slide open

and end up on the floor when we're traveling. Ask us how we know

This table is a piece of starphone with some lemon on both sides of it

So putting screws into it is not going to be very secure

So I did both. I did the screws, but I also put some VHB tape in between here so that it would not come off

Speaking of Velcro straps, I, this is this is a little bit of a cord strap

This is one of my pet peeves wires. They really do look very messy

But with the Velcro straps that we have found in two different sizes, by the way

this one's a little bit bigger than this one. I'm able to just simply fold up the straps on a regular basis

Use the Velcro to tie them. and then another use of command strips and command containers put them right there they're readily

available but yet everything's neat and up and organized it just i think makes a huge difference

we have them everywhere because you know you have cords everywhere um just a great little item

What I like to do with them is just do half the cord as secured

I can use just the amount of cord that I need without having cord tangled up all over

the place. That way there

This isn't all piled up over here. It's kind of out of the way

And then when it time to pack it up I just undo half of the strap coiled them up and then secure it

And when I'm ready to use it the next time I can just unravel half of it, take the cord out and set it up

This is a small ceramic heater. It's a 1500 watts and we use it on the chilly mornings or sometimes we leave it connected

all night long. That's why this is there. I'm particularly light sensitive and there's a blue light

that just stays on all the time makes me insane. So George put this little flap on so that we don't

see all the lights in the middle of the night. And you just have to be a little bit cautious with

this kind of thing. You don't want to put it somewhere that a pet or a person is going to knock it down

because it doesn't have an automatic shut off. So just be aware of that. Um

and be careful of that for the one that you buy. We find that this one is just the right size

It's easy to store. It has a nice little handle here. And we've been using it for many years

and just really find it very effective for our needs. These next two items are going to talk about them at the same time

because they kind of go together. They're actually connected together. And the first one is the RV pressure regulator

We learned through many forums that what a pressure in a lot of parks can vary dramatically

And some of them can be way, way too high for the design of these RVs

So we invested in one right away. This is the one we're using

I'll put a link below. But this is actually our third one

Early on, I just kept getting to take them off the pedestal when we left the campground

It has saved us many, many, many times. I've seen water pressure over 60 PSI and that's way too high for these RVs

I like this one because the pressure is adjustable. I can set it and forget it

I don't have to worry about it and I can monitor the pressure, especially when it's low pressure

It'll show me that it's low pressure, that way that way. I know it's not some other problem

It's just that the water pressure is low. It's served us very well

The second item is this simple hose Y connection. It allows us to connect the water filter to one side, and we have the other side available

for something else that we want to connect and get a source of water, in our case unfiltered water

I tend to use it for connecting our flush hose to our black tank flush portal, and I can

really flush our black tank without having to disconnect the water system

I can just attach a dedicated hose to the other side of that Y connection

and connect the other end of the hose to the flush port, turn on the valve, and flush the black tank

So those two things kind of go together and I think that they're essential parts of our equipment

Very simple things, but I think they make a big difference. We really enjoy hiking and walking, but what we don't enjoy is dirty boots and dirty sneakers

Bringing that back into the RV before putting them in where we store them, it just can really add up to a lot of dirt and debris if we don't keep up with them

So when we get home from hiking or walking, we simply take this, it's really a pot scrubber

We specifically chose it because it has the smaller things in grooves, and then this is strong enough to really clean up your boots after a nice hike

Just a small little tool that has made a very big difference

This is one of my favorite items. It's a wide-handled hitch pin

It just makes it easier to detach the Jeep because the original hitch pins that came with the blue ox was just a wire owing and you could put one finger through it and try to pull the pin out

This one allows you to put four fingers through and put a lot more pressure on the pin in order to remove it

Sometimes when we go to disconnect the Jeep, we're parked on a hill, and that puts a lot of pressure on the pin, and sometimes I'd have to start the Jeep, put it in gear, and try to either back it up or pull it a little forward to take some tension off

with this hitch pin we can usually just give it a twist it to and it comes right out

can put a lot more pressure on it sometimes it's still too tight and we still have to move the

jeep but for the most part we can pull these pins out much easier so i would say these are life-changing

our water system uses a lot of connections first we use the clear 2-0 pre-filter and

cheap and expensive water filter and then the hoses get attached to that

and we also use this saver drop water gauge and in order to make those

connections a lot easier to do I install these quick release connectors from

Walmart come on a four-pack I believe and they just make set up and tear down

a little easier wouldn't call them life-changing but they do make life a little easier and they're cheap and easy to use. I've been using these

probably for about two years and they've stood up pretty well. As we travel we

found that the water quality around the country varies. There are some areas

where the water is very hard, has a lot of minerals in it and occasionally these

things start to get built up with residue and the mechanism doesn't quite

work as well. I find that just taking a brass wire brush and just scraping off some of the hard

minerals that are on there just keeps them working more efficiently. I also found that a little bit

of peppermint oil, I put a drop or two on them just to lubricate it a little bit without

using some toxic oil. It has a pleasant smell. I mean I wouldn't want to spray WD40 on this

because it is a fresh water connection, appears to work. First time I had to do this was maybe after using these

for about a year or so. I started seeing some buildup of minerals

This helps them function a lot nicer. This is a cheap utility light, and its only real purpose

in our life is I can put this in the wet bay of the RV

when the temperatures are going to go down below freezing. It's a simple 40 watt bulb

It puts out just enough heat to keep the plumbing inside the wet bay from freezing when the temperatures get low

We've always spent winters in Florida, and there have been a couple of occasions

where the temperature would get down below freezing for a few hours at night

And this really came into play in that situation where I would just disconnect all of the

the hoses and I would pack them up and put them into the shower in our

bathroom and then I would plug this into the pedestal and set it up in the wet

bay and it would keep it from freezing so would you think did you see anything

in this video that makes a big difference I can run out and buy any of these

items and if you have any other ideas please leave them in the comments below

anything that has enhanced this lifestyle for you might be helpful to someone else. And as always, none of these items give us a kickback. We're not

sponsored by any of these things. We provide these links in the description for your convenience

Until next time. Safe travels