Necessities for New RV

remoandiris · July 23, 2015

When it comes to sewer hose, get "Rhino" brand. More expensive than the red colored lines, but well worth the money, IMO.

The biggest challenges I've had with park hookups is the sewer. The distance between the discharge pipe on your coach and the sewer intake for the park might be 20' or more. In 4 yrs of RVing, I've had to use my 50 A extension twice. Have had to use the "dog bone" adapter (50 A - 30 A) a few times when 30 A power was all that was available. Never had to use a fresh water hose extension.

Just take a look at where you position your coach in reference to hookups before you start connecting things together. It sucks having to disconnect, adjust the coach, and re-connect. But like everything else, those times teach valuable lessons to remember.

sushidog · July 23, 2015

I bought a 50amp to 30 amp adapter in 2006 when I got my camper, but never had to use it once. I have had to use my second fresh water hose a couple times though. Once I was only a couple feet short for a single 25 ft hose. The second time I used almost 50 ft of hose as the sewer connection was at the back of the site on the left (where you'd expect it to be) but the fresh water spigot was at the road on the far right ad the site was very long. I guess they were too cheap to run the pipe to where it should be. BTW, the latter was at Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas.

Of course wheel chocks, leveling blocks, jack pads and a sewer hose supporter (legally required in some states) are a necessity. While maybe not a necessity, one item that I've found comes in handy is a "water thief" which is a rubber adapter that allows you to fill your fresh water tank from a non-threaded spigot, found in many state parks and some gas stations.

Chip

catrobin · July 27, 2015

Thanks once again. There are some great tips here. I have already done my Walmart trip and next will be Camping World.

Kirk W · July 27, 2015

One more thing which I will suggest and which I use on our RV refrigerator, just as Mark Nemeth does on his. It is a temperature control device which does not allow your absorption refrigerator to exceed safe temperatures if traveling with it on or even if too far off level. The device is called an APVrv and Mark has used one for more than a year now and mine has been in service for about 6 months. I use the one in their package #3 and I don't know which one Mark has.