I recently made the leap. I bought my first Camper! It’s nothing too fancy; It’s used, and it’s definitely not perfect, but it’s something that my kids and I will always appreciate. And with buying my first camper, came buying everything else they don’t tell you about that you absolutely HAVE to have.
Now, I’m a single parent with two wild kids, ages 2 and 5, who love to participate in everything I’m doing. The problem with that, however, not everything having to do with campers is the most kids friendly. Especially concerning the set up and waste. LUCKILY, there are some amazing products out there that make setting up your camper a breeze, and dealing with the waste as easy as taking out the trash!
I was extremely nervous when I first bought my camper about the kid’s safety while doing all the things that aren’t included in the picturesque expectation of sitting around a campfire making s’mores. Of course that’s the expectation, but in reality there’s so much more to it, even before leaving for your first trip. I’m going to talk about the products I found to be the absolute essentials, even before camping in your rig for the first time.
One of the most important things you will need before even bringing home your new camper is a way to make sure it stays where you want. A camper moving when you don’t want it to is the worst nightmare of RVer’s. And the first call you make after buying your camper should definitely not e to the insurance company. I use these chocks, and to make things even easier, I bought rope and tied them together in pairs so their easier to lug around and they can easily be pulled out from around your tires when it’s time to go. Just make sure you have your chocks in place when you cut your rope and cut a little extra. You can find these chocks here.
If you haven’t done any research into campers, you will also need a way to level your rig. There are so many different options for leveling, but there is nothing easier than this style of leveling block. It’s as simple placing the blocks behind your tires and backing onto them. I would highly recommend having a working parking brake. There are many different brands of this style of leveler, but these and the “Anderson Hitches” and I have been more than pleased with them. These in the picture come as a kit with stabilizer blocks. You never want to extend your stabilizers all the way to the ground and the blocks with this kit have been phenomenal.
You can find the entire kit here.
If you don’t need the blocks and just want the levelers, you can find them here.
That leads us to the most important MUST have when coupled with the progressive leveling blocks. The LevelMate PRO. There is nothing easier than only having to get out of the truck once to place the progressive leveling blocks behind your tires. After that, you can watch your level as you back up from inside the vehicle. The initial set up isn’t hard. Level your rig the old fashion way first. I used a carpenter level to make sure you get it as accurate as possible. Then just mount the LevelMate PRO somewhere at the front of the rig. Inside a cabinet is always a great place, out of sight out of mind. Get their app and Bluetooth your phone to it and that is it! You want to mount it toward the front of your rig so your Bluetooth can reach from inside your vehicle. This paired with the progressive leveling blocks are the most important two items for me. It allows me to quickly get leveled and have the trailer secured without having to worry about letting the kids out of their car seats or them getting angry they have to sit in their car seats any longer while you’re out getting things set up, especially after a long day of driving when all they want is to be unleashed. You can find the LevelMate PRO here.
While it isn’t an absolute necessity, you will definitely want at the very least the ability to plug your camper in at your house. But if you don’t have a designated 30 amp plug in at your house, you can’t plug it in. For the record, while it might look the same, this is not a 240V plug, so do not try and plug it in to the your welding, dryer, or kitchen stove outlet, it will not work. There may be times in your travels where you might need a little extra length on your cord as well so it is always nice to be prepared and have an extension on hand. And lastly, you always want to protect your investment, especially since its value is never going to increase, so a surge protector is always a big recommendation.
Moving into the dirtier side of things, the waste can always seem daunting at first. There’s so many ways it could be messed up and the repercussions are ones that you won’t soon forget. It’s important you have things ready to go on your camper so that when the day comes for you to dump your first black tank, you can be prepared to minimize those repercussions (Yes, I’m talking from experience.). Doing research before buying my camper, many of the recommendations were to put your sewage hose into a tote or a bag and place it into your dry storage accessible from the outside of your camper, which is usually underneath your bed. This is something that I just could not tolerate as that space is used to store so many other things, like my water hose, leveling block kit, chocks, stabilizer crank, and extension cord. This hose storage mounts to the frame of your camper underneath the rig, so it’s outside. My recommendation is to mount it forward fro your wheels, if you mount it behind, road debris could kick up and break it. You can find this hose storage here.
Having a good durable hose is important, one that doesn’t crack after one winter of storage. What’s even more important and something I consider a Must have, is a way to rinse out your sewer hose with ease. I once visited a campground who had a fixed sprayer nozzle on their water hose for the dump site. Ever since then, I can’t stress enough how important having a capped rinse nozzle is. Just thinking about it makes me want to go shower now.
Camco makes a great hose, even for their base model version, it can be found here.
And the rinse cap can be found here.
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my content! This is my first blog and I can’t wait to continue to share my experiences! I already have a lot planned and look forward to hopefully helping someone find what they need or to share a story that makes someone smile! I am trying my hand at the whole affiliate marketing thing, so if you see a product you like, clicking on one of my links gives me a commission from that purchase and I would greatly appreciate it!