I wrote this post in October, 2024, detailing the upgrades I performed to our RV prior to departure.
On April 12, 2024, we took delivery of our Outdoors RV 28 DBS titanium travel trailer. This gave me 87 days to get the rig fully prepared for our journey. Travel trailers are not really designed for full-time living, and they also don’t come with everything you need, so there was a lot of work to accomplish. This post will describe the items I purchased and the projects I completed prior to departure.
If you are looking for a post describing an adventurous day, this post is not for you. This post is all about getting our RV ready for fulltime living.
An RV has all of the systems of a “sticks and bricks” house, all jammed together in a small package that is subjected to a continuous earthquake whenever it rolls down the road. The biggest difference is that an RV has DC electrical systems and AC electrical systems whereas a traditional house has only AC electrical systems. The other big difference is that in an RV, paying attention to tank waste management is much more important. In a house, you never really think about your water supply or what goes down the toilet or the sink unless there is a problem, in an RV, everything that goes down will go to a holding tank before eventual disposal.
Fresh Water System
Lets start with the water system. It is possible to hook your RV directly up to the spigot of a campground using a hose, but it is not a good idea to do so. Campground water systems can have all sorts of unpleasant things in the water, so filtration is important. Also, the pressure can be too high which can cause damage to your pipes. You really don’t want to burst the pipe buried somewhere inside the walls of your RV.
The first step is to filter out any large particles from your water supply. I chose the Camco TastePure inline water filter that filters down to 20 microns.
The second step is to filter down to 1 micron using another sediment filter.
The third step is to filter down to 0.5 micron using a carbon filter.
In my setup, step 2 and 3 are combined together in the “Essential Whole RV Water Filter System.”
By the end of step 3, you should have removed all of the large sediment and bacteria as well as most of the chlorine, volatile organic compounds, lead, and other heavy metals.
Step 4 is to run the water through a water softener. Soft water is better for your pipes and better for your skin and you will come across a lot of hard water on your travels. We added the “16,000 grain Essential RV Water Softener” to our system.
Step 5 is to ensure that the water pressure entering the RV is at a safe level. I’m using the Renator M11-0660R Water Pressure regulator.
Step 6 is a final water filter, under the cold-water inlet of the kitchen sink, that removes any remaining lead, chlorine, odors and such. I’m using a Waterdrop 10UA.
Naturally, you need all of the correct hoses to link all of this together. These hoses need to be labeled as “safe for drinking water” as typical garden hoses may have lead inside. All told, I have 5 different hoses of varying lengths for my drinking water system.
As I’m writing this, we’ve been on the road with this system for about 90 days and I’m very pleased with the performance. It won’t take bad-tasting water and make it taste “good” but it will take bad-tasting water and make it tolerable and it will take good tasting water and make it taste great. I highly recommend having a good filtration setup for anyone living in their RV.
Of the things listed above, the only one that came with the RV was a single hose provided by the dealer. Everything else was an extra purchase.
One more upgrade we made was to at an RV water pump controller. RV water pumps are notoriously loud, especially when only asking for a small amount of water from the plumbing fixture. Flushing the toilet while using the water pump is loud enough to wake up everyone in the whole RV. Fortunately, there is a Canadian electronics engineer who invented a smart water pump controller that eliminates most of the noise. I highly recommend the IRVWPC2 Intelligent RV Water Pump Controller. You do have to buy this using PayPal, and it ships from Canada so it takes a while, but it is a great addition.
The actual installation of the IRVWPC2 involved unscrewing the back of the cabinet under the sink, detaching the current water pump and all of it’s electrical connectors, adding in the pump controller, then putting it all back together again. It wasn’t terribly difficult, but it is quite cramped inside that part of the RV and made me wish for smaller hands.
Sewer / Tank System
In a house, all of your drains (toilet, sink, shower) go to the same location. It might be down a sewer pipe to your local treatment plant or it might be a septic tank, but there is generally one stream of liquid waste leaving your abode.
In an RV, the drainage from the toilet goes to it’s own tank (the black tank) and the drainage from sinks and showers goes to another tank (the gray tank). In my 28DBS, I have a 40-gallon black tank for the toilet, a 40 gallon gray tank for the bathroom sink and shower, and another 40 gallon gray tank for the kitchen sink. This fits nicely with the 100 gallons of fresh water storage I have on-board.
My RV is outfitted with a San-T-Flush system which lets you add pressurized clean water via a hose to your black tank for the purposes of cleaning it out. It is crucial that you do not use your drinking water hose to flush out your black tank, so I bought a dedicated Clean-Out Hose. It is bright orange and not easily mistaken for the drinking water hoses which are either blue or white.
The way you clean out your black tank is to empty it into a sewer drain, then close the exit valve, then put about 10-20 gallons of fresh water in the tank using the orange hose, then turn off the hose, then open the exit valve and let it drain. If you do this 3 or 4 times, you can get out almost all of the waste from your black tank. The only problem is figuring out how much water has gone into your tank. Since you are filling a tank with the exit valve closed, if you over-fill it, you will cause sewage to come up out of your toilet into the bathroom and also up out of the vent onto your roof. I use a Water Flow Meter and a stopwatch to ensure I never have that type of poo-mergency.
I also have 3 separate sewer hoses. Generally you don’t need more than 2 sewer hoses at a time, but this is one of those items where it is a good idea to have an extra one on hand.
Plenty of campgrounds require that you keep your sewer hose off the ground using a sewer hose support. I bought a nice collapsible one that is 20 feet long
Finally, I bought multiple different adaptors for attaching to different drains. You will come across drains that are threaded and those that are not. You will come across drains that are sticking above the ground, level with the ground, or even sunk into the ground. You will come across drains of varying diameters. You really need a variety of sewer hose adaptors for all of the various scenarios.
RV tanks are not septic tanks, they are holding tanks, but any time you are holding waste, particularly when it is warm outside, you may find yourself faced with unpleasant smells. I use TankTechsRx Probiotic RV Tank Treatment. This treatment was recommend by Sue, “The Queen of Poo” Rasmussen of Royal Flush RV. Sue runs an RV tank cleaning business and gave a lecture when I went took a class at the NRVTA.
Exterior
The 28DBS has an automatic-leveling system, but the feet are bare-metal. I purchased set of SnapPad Xtra leveling pads to use on the feet of the automatic leveling system. Installation was easy: put them down on the ground under the feet, then extend the feet until they snapped into place. The SnapPads give a bigger surface area of contact and are slightly squishy.
The tongue jack on my trailer is geared in such a way that it takes a long time to travel from fully extended to fully retracted. In order to speed the process, I bought an Anderson Trailer Jack Block (It just looks like an extremely heavy-duty bucket). The first time we camped with our trailer I didn’t have this item and it was one of the first things I ordered.
If you are parking the RV on an incline, you may need to use leveling blocks to ease the strain on the stabilizers. I bought the Tri-Lynx Orange Leveling blocks. I’ve found that if I’m out of level by 3 or more inches in any direction, using these blocks underneath the SnapPads helps significantly.
When you park your travel trailer and want to detach from the truck, it is very important to prevent the trailer from rolling. There are a wide variety of wheel chocks available. I went with AFA Tooling Heavy Duty Rubber Chocks. These Chocks are rated for vehicles up to 20,000 lbs, so I know my trailer will stay put.
When the trailer is parked, preventing someone else from towing it away is a good idea. Proven Industries makes the best trailer hitch locks, so I bought the one that fits my underslung coupler, the 2516-J Trailer Hitch Lock.
Our rig has a built in Onan 3600 propane generator, but the exhaust comes out right below the bedroom window. If you are going to use it for any period of time, you want a way to divert the exhaust away from the rig. I bought a Camco Gen-turi generator exhaust system.
Mouse proofing
Our RV is home to 5 mammals (4 humans and a dog) and we do not want any unwanted guests to take up residence in our walls or attic. The front cap of our RV came with several large openings which potentially allow a mouse to climb up the front of the cap on the inside, and then drop down into the attic and make themselves at home. I used metal lath and spray foam to seal off these openings. It was a miserable job, but necessary.
Battery box storage container
From the factory, the 28DBS does not include a robust battery box. The factory expects you to buy a plastic box and batteries from your RV dealer. Thompson RV offers a very nice metal box that has been powder-coated which fits on the tongue of the RV behind the propane tanks. I had this installed on the day of delivery and it is a very nice storage container.
TMPS Sensors, repeater
When we upgraded Red Rover, we added a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) which had the ability to monitor the air pressure in the trailer tires as well as the truck. I had to install a TMPS repeater in the front storage bay as well as the TMPS sensors (caps) on each of the 4 RV tires. This TMPS system monitors temperature and pressure of all of my tires continuously. Installing the TPMS repeater wasn’t too difficult, but I did have to tap into a 12-Volt wire.
Front door keypad lock
We knew that we wanted an easy way to lock and unlock the front door of our RV and I installed an RV Lock V 4.0, keyless lock. This is another upgrade that significantly improves quality of life for ongoing usage. It also means that you don’t need to carry RV keys with you every time that you come and go from the RV.
Insect screens
A simple upgrade was adding insect screens to our furnace. Apparently there are insects called “Mud Daubers” which like to go inside the exhaust vents of RV furnaces and build a nest inside. Once this occurs, the next time you light up the furnace, it can prevent airflow or even cause a fire. One thing to know is that the RV furnace manufacturers don’t technically approve of using these screens, so if you ever need to take your RV in for servicing the furnace, be sure to remove the insect screen first.
Front door reinforcement
A small, but important upgrade for traveling with a dog is to reinforce the front door screen to prevent the dog from scratching / clawing / breaking through the screen door. I added an Aluminum RV Screen Door Grille to the front door to keep it protected from Ranger.
Step covers
The final exterior upgrade was to add step covers to the entry steps. As purchased, the steps are bare aluminum with a little rubber strip for traction, but nothing that helps get the dust and dirt off your shoes. The first set I bought used velcro to attach and didn’t work, but the second set I bought used straps and clips and work much better.
Internet
One important task while traveling is to ensure adequate internet access. I wanted to have a triple redundancy.
My primary internet source while stationary is Starlink. There are plenty of people who dislike Elon Musk and all of his shenanigans, but his vision to create reliable broadband satellite internet was excellent. I wanted to mount my Starlink satellite to the roof of the RV, so I bought a Trio Flat Mount. Whenever I’m parked somewhere with a good view of the sky, I get outstanding internet access. I also have a tripod mount for the Starlink with a 100-foot-long cable so I can move the Starlink out from under the trees when necessary.
My secondary internet source is using the hotspot feature on my cell phone. I use FirstNet, which is a cell phone service that offers priority service on the AT&T network for healthcare workers. The best part about my FirstNet plan is that it offers unlimited 5G hotspot data.
My tertiary internet source is using a T-mobile hotspot. For $10 / month, I get 50gb of hotspot data.
My quaternary internet source is using a WiFi network provided by the campground. This source is notoriously unreliable, but sometimes it is better than nothing.
If I’m camped in a location without a view of the sky that also lacks AT&T coverage and lacks T-Mobile coverage, and lacks WiFi, then I just don’t have any internet access.
Climate / Monitoring:
I added a significant amount of monitoring devices so I can manage my RV effectively.
Digital thermostat
Our RV came with an analog thermostat and I wanted to upgrade to a WiFi connected digital smart thermostat. I selected the MicroAir Easy Touch RV 352C. Installation was quite easy and only required removing a couple of screws, taking out the old wiring, and plugging it into the new thermostat. I can now view my air temperature and turn on or off my air conditioner or furnace remotely.
WiFi Thermometers
I added additional thermometers to my front door area, my fridge, and freezer, all made by Govee. This allows me to set alarm temperatures at various locations. For example, if the air temperature near my front door exceeds 88 degrees, it will send me an alert. This helps me make sure that it doesn’t get too hot inside the rig when Ranger spends time home alone.
Propane Monitor:
Propane is important in my RV as I use propane for my water heater, Blackstone Griddle, Ooni Pizza oven, fire pit, oven, stove, generator, and furnace. When I got it, there was no way to monitor the level of propane in either of my 40-lb propane tanks. I set up a WiFi enabled system by Mopeka that lets me monitor my propane status, in real-time, remotely. Installation consisted of putting a little petrolatum gel on the magnetic sensor and then sticking one to the bottom of each tank. It uses ultrasound to determine the current level of propane in the tank. (Sort of like thumping the tank with your knuckle and listening to the tone.)
Blackout blinds
After our first night in the rig, we discovered that the kids woke up at the crack of dawn due to light coming in their bunkbed windows. I measured and then ordered custom blackout shades for each of their windows from https://blackoutez.com/
Fan for fridge
Another thing we discovered is that our 12-V DC Fridge is either too cold in the back or it is too hot in the front. This is a common problem for RV fridges, so I got an RV Fridge Fan to help move the air around.
TV Sound bar
After our very first movie night, we decided that the audio from our built-in TV was terrible and needed an upgrade. We picked the Sonos Beam generation 2. This has substantially improved our audio experience.
Cabinets
The cabinets in my RV are fairly wide, tall, and deep, but they did not come with suitable shelving or drawers. I spent a huge amount of time designing and building cabinet upgrades.
The largest cabinets in the rig are in the back, next to the fridge, and are originally envisioned for use as a coat closet. I put a divider down the middle and then added multiple shelves. The top shelves serve as our pantry and the bottom shelves serve as storage for Annalise and Dexter’s clothes.
The kitchen cabinets were each one large box without a shelf, so I built a middle shelf for each of them.
In the bedroom, the cabinets are very deep, the walls aren’t parallel, and the front is trapezoidal. I decided to build custom drawers for this area. Figuring out how to build these was the bane of my existence for a few weeks, but I’m pleased with how they turned out. This was the 2nd most difficult RV upgrade I performed, but well worth it.
The final RV upgrade that I performed was improving the electrical system. This project was complicated enough that it deserves it’s own blog post.