Carl, the master electrician over at General RV does some of the best work I’ve seen in years, and I can’t say enough about how professional the instillation looks.

Dave and Chris who are the shop and service managers, bent over backwards to make sure our coach was in and out in record time. 

Carl explained to us that with the batteries fully charged, he was able to run the Air Conditioner without blowing a fuse!!

UPDATE - March 2007:  So far, after 4 months on the road, our system is working flawlessly.  The longest we have been able to run for is 5 full days, and the only reason we had to find a campground was to empty our grey/black tanks.  As long as we have somewhat sunny conditions, we have no worries about losing power or skimping on any amenities. 

We would recommend Solar to anyone full-timing and looking to extend their stay or not have to stay at campgrounds nightly.

Update - October 2007: Things we've learned in 10 months with Solar

If you're thinking of installing a full solar set-up and planning on camping like you do when you're plugged into shore power, then save your money.  There are many things you need to learn with Solar and for us, all of them seem fully justifiable.  Learning to conserve our power consumption is something that really made us think about how much energy we normally wasted in the real world.

You cant just turn on the A/C when it gets hot.  If you want a cup of coffee, you have to wait for the percolator to brew it rather then have instant coffee from an electric coffee maker.  But having the ability to camp where ever we want, and not worry about finding a campground when some are way over priced is worth the sacrifice. 

We've also learned to conserve in almost everything we do.  During the daytime while we're traveling, we charge all our camera batteries or cell phones off the 400 watt inverter that's hardwired inside the truck.  We've learned to use a smaller 400 watt inverter inside the camper when we are just working on the computers and not have to fire up the larger 2000 watt inverter which draws more power from the bank of batteries. 

The only time we longed for a generator, was during the record breaking heat wave this past summer when the temperatures hung in the high 90's and the humidity was so thick you could cut it with a knife for a month straight.  Our answer was to find a campground that provided 30 amp service and hide out in the coach with the A/C running non-stop, something we cant do with solar. 

Another thing we've learned, was the solar panels on the roof actually shield a bit of the sun from heating up the camper, and our bedroom tends to stay a little cooler being under the panels footprint. 

What I'm trying to get at is if you only camp a few weekends a year, then I don't think the switch to solar is worth the added cost at this point.  If more people were to dabble with the technology which would bring the high prices down, then this would be a different story. 

If manufacturers were to start building RV's with solar panels standard, or RV's set-up for Boondocking in the first place, I think this would really help this type of traveling become mainstream.  Until that day, I'm glad we built ours the way we did, and I look forward to learning better ways to conserve our consumption habits.    

You can also check out our Solar Tips and Tricks page here.

Here is another page with great reading for those who would like to understand Deep-Cycle Batteries a little better

Update - May 2010: Things we've learned in 4 years of living with Solar

Funny how things change again the more you use them.  The past few years were amazing and quite an eye opening experience for Cindy and I.

In the spring of 2008 we decided that since we had the solar installed and were never running out of battery power, why not test it to its max.

We started leaving the inverter on for days at a time to see how long it would take to drain the batteries to a dangerous level.  I mean we thought we have all this, why not test it 100% so we'll know for our next build what works and what doesn't.

We cant say enough about the Lifeline Batteries.  They've never once failed us and we've drained them dead a few different times.  We can run our computers, the flat screen television and heater all at the same time for most of the night and never have to worry about draining our bank of power.

Our only rule is to watch the weather to see what the next day has in store for us.  If we see rain or a cloudy day approaching, then we might not run everything.

But if we see clear skies in the forecast, we have no worries that a few hours of sunlight will bring the batteries up out of almost any draw we can give them.

Another way we've started saving money is to run the inverter during the daytime if we're going to be away from the camper and switch the Norcold Refrigerator over to the electric mode.  This way we're saving in propane and allowing the sun to keep our food and beer cold.  Sounds almost silly doesn't it.

Cindy and I have found it funny that when staying with people while traveling, they almost always insist that we plug into to their house or shore power.  For some reason, I think people think that Cindy and I live this lifestyle like we're complete misers.

In reality, we leave our computers running all day long just like most people do at home.  We never worry about turning the television on to watch a movie or plugging the phones or cameras in to charge the batteries up.

Our conclusion: Why is this so hard for home owners and the world to figure out?  We live 100% of solar and propane and at a simple cost of filling one propane bottle every month.  Usually around $25 give or take a few bucks depending on what the going rate of Propane is.

The propane heats our water, cools our food in the fridge and cooks our food on the stove.  The solar panels provide all our electrical needs and allows us to live with such a small footprint, I cant think of any other way to go about it!

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Our Turbine and Air Actuated Turbine Mast

After years of using only solar to keep our bank of batteries charged, we've now added a 400watt Air-X Turbine to the camper for those days the sun decides to hide behind the clouds, but the winds continue to blow.

We had Dave Hoskins from Aluminess Products make us an Air Actuated Mast and it's amazing how simple it makes the turbine set-up process.

Click on our Turbine Page to read more detail about the entire set-up and what we think of it.  Another amazing feature that we cant figure out why more people aren't using!

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     Adding a few 12-Volt receptacles for Boondocking

Since we Boondock more then the average Camper, we've had General RV install a few 12-Volt receptacles in various locations around the coach.

This gives us the availability of using 12-Volt appliances when normal 110 shore power isn't an option.

One spot we wanted a receptacle installed was in the storage locker on the Drivers Side of the coach. We bought a Macerator Pump that runs off of 12-Volt power and the sewer hook-ups are on that same side. There are also various times something might come up that we need a 12-Volt appliance on that side of the camper, and while we were having General RV install the 12-volt outlet, we had them go ahead and throw in a 110 outlet in the storage locker too.

After a few months on the road, one thing we found that helped us out quite a bit was a smaller 400 watt inverter.

We plug it into the 12-Volt receptacle that came standard on the Sunline, which is in the Living Room Cabinet.  When we don't have shore power availability and might not want to run the larger 2000 watt inverter, this smaller inverter drains less power off of the bank of batteries.

The only problem is, the cords of the lap top computer or anything else were using at the living room table were slung across the living room. This was a big argument when one of us would be working on the Lap Top and the other would be trying to move around in our 200 square foot of living space.

We were having the Sunline brought into General RV for some basic maintenance, so we thought we'd solve some arguments and have them install another 12-Volt receptacle under the living room couch. There is a ton of empty space under the couch, and with the electrical box being a straight shot from this location, this addition wasn't too hard.

Now when one of us is on the lap top and we're boondocking, the cords will only be run up from under the couch rather then slung across the living room. Problem Solved and no more arguing, at least not about this cord thing.
 

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Custom Cabinet for Living Room

The Sunline 2499 came from the factory with a basic cabinet in the living room. 

 It was designed to hold a standard TV on the top and left quite a bit of wasted space.  I'm sure the guys that designed these trailers hadn't thought about the invention of Flat Screen Televisions becoming the norm, as the space was left available for larger tube Televisions.  

Anyone who's spent time inside a Travel Trailer knows every square inch of space is needed to be used to its fullest.  Lucky for me, I have a Brother-In-Law that knows his way around when it comes to building things with wood.  I called him up one day and asked if I could borrow him for a few hours.  This is harder than you think considering he and my sister have 5 rambunctious kids to take care of!!

I explained what my plans were to Sean, and we got to work.  A few days later, we had one of the coolest looking cabinets I've seen.  The Coach came with hard-wood maple doors, but the material they use to make the surrounds is a pine laminate.  We chose to use all pine since it's considerably cheaper. 

After we were finished, the original Maple doors look like they're the ones that have been made aftermarket.

If you want to see plenty of before and after pictures, check out the Cabinet Gallery and don't hesitate to change the floor plan of your own coach if you think you can get some more space out of it.  When looking at the pictures, the black thing you see on the right is my CPU which houses the DVD player and powers the sound system we installed. I was able to hook up to the the stock radio in the Aux. Inputs, so the stereo can play through-out the Coach from my CPU.

The 23" Plasma is mounted to the wall behind it and swivels around so many ways, you could be sitting outside and watch the Television (NO LIE!) The Plasma also acts as the monitor for the CPU. The middle cabinet that used to always be open and I'm assuming would be a junk collector, we made a door for it, with hinges so it can swing down and hide all that clutter. That space also houses the wireless keyboard and mouse for the CPU and anything else that goes along with the computer.

We took the original counter top off and moved it to the top of the new cabinet so it maintained the look of the kitchen counter top and the dining table. By doing this, we gained so much usable space that I cant believe anyone wouldn't go through the work it involved.

It only took us a few days of tinkering to complete everything. I think the longest part was matching up the stain and driving back and fourth to the liquor store :)  A skilled carpenter could finish the wood working part of it in an afternoon.

Also, the bottom cabinet has a center piece of wood that acts as a backstop for the two doors. I wanted to hide my Klipsch subwoofer for the sound system somewhere and thought that I'd have to put it behind the rocking chair. Then I noticed the center piece of wood was only screwed in.  Once I took it out, I could install the sub box, put the wood back in and hide all the wiring in the cabinet.  Sometimes the littlest things just make me soo happy!!

I know I cant thank Sean enough for helping me with this, but I hope he knows how much this will help us in our travels.  Thanks Man, I owe you one!!

Hiding the Klipsch Speakers

Since I'm a music nut, I love to hear my music played over quality speakers and usually louder then normal. I think I have over 50,000 songs in my MP3 file on my CPU or roughly 120gig of space, and Cindy and I enjoy music of every Genre.

 I owned a set of Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Speakers for my Computer that we mounted in the cabinet before we left, and those speakers came with us on the journey. Originally we had the speakers sitting on the top shelf and when ever we moved, we would unhook the speakers and store them in the cabinet below.

Obviously after a few weeks of moving non-stop, this became very tiresome and I knew I needed a better way of mounting them. When I hooked up the sound card on my CPU to the AUX Input on the stock camper stereo, I noticed how much wasted space there was in that section of the cabinet.

I decided that I could pop out both of the panels that were just there for cosmetics, and hide the speakers in the wasted space of the cabinet. By removing the speaker stand that was mounted to the bottom of the small speaker, I was able to hide the speaker in the slot and mount it with some metal strapping material screwed to the base of the cabinet.

Of course I had made a few measurements before hand, and was very excited that the speaker fit almost perfectly. If you don't want to use Klipsch, there are plenty of other speaker companies that make speakers this size that could be hidden in these compartments.

At one point I thought I had made a huge mistake when I realized the volume controls made one of the speakers too tall to fit. I about Crapped my pants when I discovered this, because all along, I had been doing all the measurements with the smaller speaker.

All I could think of was Cindy bludgeoning me with the speaker for cutting into the panel before figuring this out. Then upon further inspection, I noticed that the volume controls just slide off the bottom of the speaker and I could mount them under the cabinet in the next storage compartment below!!

Once everything was put back together, someone walking into the coach for the first time would think they're stock.  The sound coming from these little speakers is fantastic and well worth the hour it took me to install them.  When Cindy and I watch movies on the DVD player, these speakers really add to the sound and make you feel as though you're at home with a larger speaker system.

Here is what the cabinet looked like stock


Here is what it looks like now with the speakers installed

With the Powered Subwoofer hidden below the speakers and stock radio, everything is kept hidden and almost stock looking.

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Gutter Extensions &
Cleaning the Gutters Themselves

One of the main things people talk about on RV Forums is Black Streaks on the sides of their campers.  While touring the Sunline Factory and talking with Carl Kern, he told us one way to easily avoid those dreaded black streaks was to add a good ol' fashion Wooden Close Pins to our gutters. 

This would allow the water to drip freely from the camper and not allow the nastiness to collect on the side of the camper.  I tried this and after a few hundred miles, realized the clothes pins, which I almost always forgot were up there, would blow off while driving. 

This isn't good if one was to blow off and hit a passing car windshield or worse yet, a motorcyclist.  How do I fix this?  This was easily accomplished with a $10 item from General RV.

The Gutter Extensions is something that RV manufactures should be putting on as standard equipment on the RV's.  It's just basic knowledge that as long as you can keep the water off the side of the coach, you don't have to worry about black streaks causing you troubles.  But then there is always the clutter that accumulates in the gutters.  Cindy noticed the other day after a good rain, that the water wasn't even dripping off the gutter extension, it was running down the side of the coach.

I crawled up on the roof to see what the problem was and see if I could figure out a way to solve this annoying habit.

If you've never looked in your gutters of your camper, you'd be amazed how much junk can accumulate in there over a short period of time.  One time while camping under a particular messy tree, it took me an hour to clean the gutters out.  That was until I figured out this trick!   

After trying my hardest to get the stuff out with my fingers, which didn't seem to work, I went into the tool box and grabbed a piece of flexible rubber tubing, like what you'd use to replace your vacuum lines on the trucks motor.

By crawling along the edge of the roof with the rubber tubing scrapping the gutter, I was able to remove any gunk that was lodged in the gutter, which was quite a bit! The bottoms of the gutter itself were also soiled black, which is what I'm sure causes those nasty black streaks on the sides of the camper that we normally used our Thetford Black Streak Remover for.

The tubing was just wide enough, that if I pushed down hard, it scrubbed the black junk off the bottom of the gutter, leaving a clean, white gutter, free of any debris.

All in all, it maybe took 5 minutes and is some easy preventative maintenance and something that I plan on doing every other week from now on. Between that and my gutter extensions, hopefully I wont have the dreaded Black Streaks anymore.

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Clear Screen Door Slide

With me being so short in height, it always bothered me when I was sitting on the couch inside the camper and was trying to see out the screen door.  For some reason the Screen Door Slide section was a white piece of plastic.  This drove me nuts, because I'd have to get up off my butt if I wanted to see what was going on.  It seemed like what ever I was trying to see was always right in that section of my line of view.

Looking through the Camping World catalog, which is like Porn for me...LOL  I noticed that they made a Clear Slide Section to replace the white plastic.  For only $15.99, this had to be one of those items we had immediately.

Here's a picture of what it looked like originally.  This is what my view was while trying to look out the door.  You can see that the white plastic slide section is right where I want to see.

Now with the Clear one in, I can see outside perfectly!!  This is another one of those items that should come standard on all RV's!   

One of my only worries once the clear section was in, was it would be easy for people to see in the door.  For some reason it's hard to see through the screen from the outside, but I figured you would see right through the Clear Plexiglas. 

Then when I went outside to look in and my worries were eased when I noticed the Plexiglas has a curve to it, so you don't see in!  Perfect!!

From the outside, this is the view.

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Insulating the Cord Compartment

On our Sunline 2499, The cord storage compartment was a concern for me. Camping all last winter in some below zero temperatures, we used to fight over who had to sit on the couch. There always felt like a cold draft was blowing across your feet.

I was working on the compartment under the couch and figured out why that draft blows so cold.



The compartment that holds the shore power cord is basically open to the outside and allows cold air to flow freely into the coach. No wonder why my feet were always numb!!

So I cut a few pieces of insulation board and glued them around the compartment. I also made a piece that fits along the top of this little compartment that I stapled to the board that covers the heater and water heater. While I had the insulation board out, I cut a few pieces to fit the back of the kick board under the couch so any cool air that might get into this compartment might be trapped under there rather then allowed to circulate freely around the floor of the coach.



This only took a few minutes, and a 4'x8' sheet only costs around $15. I'll let you know once the temperatures drop whether this helped or not. But something tells me it might stop the drafts.  Another option that a friend suggested was to eliminate the door completely.

Pat - "If you still get cold air through, another option you could try would be to convert your power cord from an attached cord to a detachable cord. This way you would have a sealed, water tight power connection instead of the hole. They sell conversion kits that you can convert your attached cord to a detachable cord, using the same cord.

The down side is it’s more expensive than what you did, you lose the cord storage area and you would have a separate power cord to put some place. - Hutch

I think we might wait to see if this solved the cold air problem, if not, the conversion kit will be our next option, thanks for the suggestion Hutch.

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Screen Door Closer

One of my pet peeve's is the screen door being left open. There is nothing worse then having a camper filled with mosquito's, fly's or any other insects.

This little item just solved many arguments.

It only took about 2 minutes to screw in, with one screw going in with the stock screw in the hinge, and the second one going in the door frame. The hardest part was getting the spring stretched while holding the screw in the little hole I had pre-drilled.

Cindy can attest to this, as she was laughing at me cussing while bending over to keep picking it up.

The package came with two springs in it. I thought one spring would be strong enough to close the door, but it wasn't.

With both springs attached, it slams the screen door, so be careful. With the screen door attached to the main door, it pulls it to the door frame, but isn't strong enough to close it all the way. No biggie, as long as it pulls the screen door closed, that's my main concern.


Door Closed, Cold Drink in Hand, No BUGS IN RV!! I'm a Happy Camper!!

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Adding Extra Scissor Jacks

I was getting peeved by the amount of sway in the coach when the scissor jacks were down and we were set up for camp.

No matter how hard I put them down, it seemed like there was always a bit of movement inside the coach. Since the coach was going into General RV for a few other scheduled repairs and upgrades, I asked if they could bolt on an extra pair of scissor jacks.

We lucked out because they had a set in the scrap bin that they gave me at a steal of a price. We had them mounted in front of the axles, incase road debris was to get kicked up, it wouldn't be as likely to hit them if they were mounted behind the axles. This is also right were the kitchen and bathroom is on our Sunline 2499 model camper, so it seemed a good place for some extra support.



Now, when we're camped, there is not a bit of movement inside. I think these Scissor Jacks retailed for around $80, so even if we had paid full price, it would have still been worth it.

Again, we're Happy Campers!!

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Mountain Bike Carrier

One of the things that was driving me crazy was our mountain bikes.  Cindy and I really enjoy riding bikes and knew we had to bring them along, but we had no place to store them.  For our first six months, we were carrying them in the back of the truck, but this meant we had to take off the front tires and lay them on their sides. 

Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, till you want to get to something underneath them.  Numerous times I would just need to get to a storage bin that was in the bed of the tow vehicle and it would take a half hour to move the bikes, and then put them back.  We had looked at the Top Rails type of bike carrier, but with our bank of 6-volt batteries, that rack couldn't be mounted on our frame.

Like everything else we've done, I just decided to have one made that was similar.  I found a welder while we were in Michigan, and explained what I needed.  Sean Campbell said he could have it welded up in an afternoon and I just needed to bring the camper over so he could use it to build the rack exactly how we needed it.    

This shows how the rack is bolted onto the main frame.  I used Grade 8 Bolts so hopefully it'll last the many miles we log on the Sunline. 

Sean added a little piece of angle so the vertical bars would be straight.

Here is the way it looks with the bikes loaded and rolling down the road.  We still have access to the propane bottles and the bikes can be pulled down quick if we want to go for a ride.  So far they have stayed put and don't even wobble while we're driving.

UPDATE:  If you build, or buy a bike rack like this and fulltime in an RV, then spend the money and get a good bike cover.  When I went to the RV Store to try and find a bike cover, my cheap spending habits said "$50 for a nylon bike cover, come on!" and I didn't buy it.

Now that we've had the bikes on the rack, exposed to the sun for almost a year straight, they are taking a beating from the elements.  The tires and leather seats are dry rotting and at $25 per tire, the $50 cover would have saved us money in the long run.

Like many other lessons learned the hard way, sometimes you have to spend money to save money. 

I've also realized that I way over built the rack.  For two bikes, this size of metal was overkill.  I probably could have shaved off a few pounds by using lighter metal or even aluminum, but again, another lesson learned.

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Mr. Heater Propane Heater

One thing that kills our bank of batteries faster then anything is running the campers heater.  I'm not sure why the RV industry is so far behind in this department, because the Marine Industry has had non-electric propane heaters for years.  Dickinson is a name that comes to mind and if you were going to be doing any extended camping in cold climates, they would be the company to contact. 

For us, we try and follow that perfect 65-70° range year round, so we try and run our heater as little as possible.  What we found to compensate for this is the Mr. Heater portable heater.  This small heater uses the little 1lb propane bottles and gives off 9000 BTU's of heat.  For around $100 dollars, this little guy should save us from cold nights and too much battery consumption. 

When we first bought the Mr. Heater, it stated on the box that it would run for 220 hours on a 1lb bottle of propane.  Our first test only gave us about 10 hours on a 1lb propane bottle?  We usually only run it in the mornings when we first wake up to take the chill out of the camper and then only when it's in the 50's outside, or sometimes just before going to bed to warm the camper up nicely.  After multiple bottles in a months time, I was in a outdoor store and grabbed one still in a box to see if it really said that 220 hour statement or was ours just broken? 

The box says (in fine print) it will run for 220 hours off of a normal sized propane tank which needs a separate 12' Hose Adapter to make the heater work.  No big deal, for the little time we use it, it's really saves our battery usage and keeps us warm when we need it.  If we were to hit a nasty storm, I bought the hose adapter kit and could run it for longer periods off of our 30lb tanks on the tongue of the camper.

Word of Caution!:  You should NEVER run the heater in an enclosed space without proper ventilation.  We always crack one of the roof top vents when the heater is running.  We also have a carbon monoxide detector in the camper, so we feel a bit safer knowing if there was any danger, it would alert us. 

NEVER Leave any heater running while you're not there, and NEVER, ever, leave any heater running while you are sleeping.  There is too great a danger that something could go wrong and you might never wake up.  We'd hate to see anyone have any damages caused because they used a heater we recommended and burned their camper down.

We got this nice email from a concerned reader:  As I read your reply, I was reminded of many other such things that you might mention, along with the the propane heater. People turn their stove top on for heat. Or, even their oven, if they have one. You may have readers who, like me, dream of traveling like you, but aren't there yet. They may even be using a tent. Tenters are even more apt to use something like the heater and because the tent is so much smaller, they are at greater risk. A kerosene lantern left on over night, as a nightlight, can either kill you or give you a monstrously terrible headache and nauseous stomach. Tenters have used charcoal and never awoke again. (One of those occurred right here in Mason County.)

So, in short, warn them to never sleep with anything (even candles) burning that is not vented to the outdoors.

Thanks, you two, for a wonderful blog.

See you on down the road.  Dale Bannon - Michigan

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Window Covers

Making the mistake on not getting dual-pane windows on our camper has really bothered me.  In the summer time the heat these single pane windows allow in the camper is awful.

What I wanted were some window awnings to block the sun from coming in our two big windows in the back of the camper.  But once we had the windows measured, we found out that with the ladder on the back of the coach, the awning mechanism was too wide to be mounted.

So while talking with Best RV Inc., in San Diego California, who went out of their way to fit us in before we left for Baja, we decided to go with window covers instead.

These are simply a fabric that allows you to see through during the daytime, but blocks 99% of the heat coming in the window. 

It's amazing what a huge difference these window covers make on keeping the inside of the camper cool.  The best part is, we got both covers made for the cost of one awning!  How's that for a good deal. 

Best RV Inc. measures the windows and custom sews the covers for each order.  Normally they'll come to your location (in California) and install them for you, but for us not having any specific location, we decided to come to them. 

When they were finished sewing the covers, they installed some stainless steel mounting tabs on the side of the coach, so within a few minutes time, we can have the covers on, or take them down if we needed to.  We really don't need to since our installer said they're built strong enough to leave on while we drive. 

I'd recommend these window covers to anyone who has single pane windows and wants an inexpensive way to keep the inside of the camper cool.  Best RV can custom make them for any size window, and out of a handful of colors to match almost any color scheme.

We think we're going to get a few more made for the rest of the windows on the camper now that we know how good our first two worked.  Best RV said that we can call them with our window measurements, and they can make more covers, then just ship them to us and we can install the mounting tabs ourselves.  Each tab is just two stainless steel screws. 

This is the view out the side window with the cover on.  This was also in the afternoon with the sun beating directly on the window.  The cover acts like polarized sunglasses and allows you so see out, but no harmful rays come in.

Sewer Hose Holder Mounted to Frame Rails

I was sick of always walking to the back of the Camper to retrieve my sewer hose while at the dump station. On the Sunline 2499 model camper, the sewer connection is in front of the tires and the only place to store a sewer hose is in the back bumper.  I know, that 20' is a long way for my lazy butt to walk.

I carry a 5' hose for when we just go to the dump station and that way I don't have to pull out the big 10' or the 20' hose we carry in the rear bumper. This helps in speeding up a messy process that is the worst part of RVing.

So I bought one of the sewer hose holders, along with some metal strapping.

Here is a shot of the frame rail where I planned on attaching the hose. I didn't want to mount it under the frame, as I thought it might take away from that precious ground clearance.

I bought some Stainless bolts along with some Nylock nuts so I wouldn't have to worry about them coming loose from the vibrations. I made sure to put enough strapping that I could wrap it around the frame and bolt it to itself.

The sewer holder could have actually fit perfect IN the frame rails if I would have had the right tools to shave the plastic a half inch, and drill through the frame. But all of this was done in Jeff's driveway in San Diego. 

He was nice enough to allow me free space before we headed to Baja, the last thing I needed to be doing was major construction in his driveway.  I was a bit worried about drilling through the frame rails anyway, so I decided to leave it out from the frame a bit.

Once it was mounted, it rides up and away from any road debris right on the frame. This was wasted space in my mind, so I actually lost no ground clearance or any space that could be used for anything else.

If I wanted to use the rear bumper for anything else, I could always mount another one of these behind the wheels for my longer sewer hoses, and get the poop tubes out of the back bumpers all together.
 

You can see in this picture that the sewer holder is protected from road debris by the front section of the frame that blocks the holder. This way if I was to kick something up with the truck tires, the holder wouldn't be damaged.

Now when I pull to the dump station to do the dirty business, I have the hose right there where I need it. The holder is also big enough that I can leave the Clear 45 Degree attachment on the end of the sewer hose in the tube. This is 100% better than having to take it off every time and store it somewhere which I hated doing.

Total time for this was about a half hour and I think I spent under $50 total.

Our Solution to Carrying Extra Water for Drycamping & Boondocking

It didn't take long for us to realize the stock 40 gallon fresh water tank on the camper was way to small to live fulltime out of.  We were pre-filtering our water before we put it in the holding tank so we could always drink right from the tap.

Heading down to Mexico where the water is a bit questionable to say the least, I was contemplating adding another holding tank.  Then I saw what the cost would be to have another tank added, and decided to mount one in the bed of the truck instead.

What this has accomplished is, we now use the 35 gallons that we carry in the bed of the truck strictly for drinking water.  The 40 gallons that we carry in the campers holding tank is used for flushing, showering and washing dishes.  If we are set up in a nice secluded spot and we run out of water in the camper, I can run into town with just the truck and not have to break down camp to go fill the holding tank.

The tank in the bed of the truck can act as a transfer tank and will allow me to refill the campers holding tank as long as I can get within ten feet of the side of the camper.

By switching to this 35 gallon fresh water tank, we have cut our plastic water bottle usage to almost nothing.  We used to always keep a case of bottled water with us.  Now we use a 3 gallon jug that has a spigot on the bottom.  We refill this from the tank in the bed, and if we're going out anywhere, we use reusable, washable Nalgene bottles to drink from.

This is doing our part to cut plastic waste going to a landfill or needing to be recycled.

The 35 gallon poly tank was purchased at a local feed store and is food grade plastic.  I put a hose shut off at the bottom of the tank where I could keep the water flowing to the hose by a simple lever.  The tank was $89 and with the hose and fittings, I'm right around $100 total for the set-up.  It's held in the bed of the truck with a ratchet strap that is connected to the tie down in the truck bed and wrapped around the tank.  This holds it steady from shifting when it's full with the water.

Here is a shot of the shut off valve I made from pieces I purchased from the local hardware store.

To make it easier to refill our 3 gallon jug, I bought 10' of clear food grade braded poly hose and attached to the hose fitting on the end of the shut off valve with another shut off valve on the end of the hose.  This way, you set the jug on the ground, turn the hose on and let gravity fill it with no use of motors or pumps.  The valve in the bed is always on, and we just use the shut off valve on the hose to allow the water to empty. 

I just thought it might be smart to have a shut-off valve right at the tank itself incase we were going to move it or empty it at any point.

If we need to fill the camper holding tank, I only need to back up to the side of the camper to within 10' of the filler location.  The truck bed sits higher than the fill valve, so gravity will do its job here too.

Sure I could have added a second fresh water tank, but with the hassle of installation and the work it would have taken to accomplish, the hour it took me to set this up, and the minimal cost was well worth it.  Plus it keeps us out in the boonies longer, which is worth its weight in gold!

I know this Mod isn't really done on our Camper, but I figured it fit here better than adding it to the Our Truck section.

Things we wish we would have changed if we would have known better

I'm sure everyone does this, but after a few months of living in a camper full time, you find plenty of things you wish you would have changed from the start.  It's always so much easier when the Coach is being built to have them make the changes rather than you do major adjustments aftermarket. 

1. We would NOT have had carpet put anywhere inside the coach.  Linoleum floors are so much easier to just sweep and mop clean, where the carpet is a pain to vacuum or steam clean and you have to carry along a small vacuum cleaner. 

Sure, good carpet looks nice, and can hold some of the cold feeling off the floor in those cooler temperatures, but when you add up the maintenance, it's just not worth the hassle.  We both regret having Carpet installed in the coach.  

2. We never knew you could do this, but I guess a few others have had aluminum roofs installed rather then the typical Rubber Roof.  There is just something about a Rubber Roof that leaves you  worrying about tearing anytime you drive under a low lying  branch.  The ease of maintenance and never having to worry about tearing with a aluminum roof would be so much more relaxing on that mind.  If we only would have known. 

3. A water treatment system.  We planned on having one of these Everpure Systems installed as to not have to worry about where we draw our water from.  In the long run, we thought we would pay for the system over and over again saving on the cost bottled water and the hassle of carrying around the many jugs of clean water.  UPDATED JUNE 2007 - We tried to have this system installed at Camping World in June and they told us that our trailer couldn't have a system like this?? 

They told us that most campers had a main water inlet and that we'd need a filter attached to each water inlet, since ours has two separate lines?? We were told not to install it unless we wanted to buy two separate filters??  I really wanted this system, since I don't want to worry about stomach illness in any areas that have water trouble.  So I'd rather wait and see if we can have another system installed that will fit our needs.  We decided that we could just add a couple of filters to our set-up we were already using and save a bit of money.   

4. Adding another Fresh Water Tank.  We currently only have one 40 gallon fresh water tank.  Once we head out West and the campsites become more sparse, and Boondocking will become more inevitable, the added fresh water will come in very handy.

5. Roof Mounted Storage Bins - I really wish we would have had the factory install a set of these roof mounted waterproof storage bins.  This way we could keep seasonal items up and out of the way, but still bring them along.  Camping World said they would NOT warranty anything that screws through our rubber roof? 

6. Convection Oven - I hate using a Microwave because of it's harmful affects it has on the food.  I'd rather have paid the extra money and had a convection oven installed.  After living in the camper for over a year and only using the microwave 3 times, we actually pulled the microwave out while we were in Quartzsite Arizona and sold it for $50.

The extra space it gave us for storage was way better than the amount of space and weight it was taking up and not being used.

Every Miles A Memory!

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