Camper Hacks - Love to hear your solutions

I use a wine box under my dinette table to store bottles of spaghetti sauce, salad dressing, whiskey, and -yes - wine when the trailer is rolling. I stuff the dog bed on top of the box, then pull in the slide and it all stays nice and secure until I get to the next stop. (My dog is 60#, so it's a large sized dog bed.)

A 7# block of ice will keep my fridge at food safe temperatures for a week as long as I use some common sense and minimize how often the fridge is opened. This is handy when the thermocouple goes out and you're dry camping.

We store our glass dishware & glasses in the cupboards over the sofa.
I stuff a large clean bath towel on top of the dishes & glasses. It keeps everything quiet & stable. No breaks so far.

Here's one I did just this year. Suppose your water heater goes out! Both electric and gas! Mine actually did. You're desperate for a shower, but the outside temperature is in the middle 50's. Way too cold for a cat bath or a garden hose shower. You want a hot water shower! What do you do?

1. Heat water on your gas stove top and pour it into a big bucket or a big container that will hold at least a couple gallons of water or more. Fill it with hot water from the stove top.

2. Take your winter by-pass hose for your on-board water pump and drop it in the bucket.

3. Flip the winter by-pass valve on your water pump. (or if you have a separate hose, connect it and drop it in the bucket).

4. Turn on your water water pump and turn on your shower (cold side will do just fine). You don't want till your water heater with the water, just pump it through the cold side. W

5. Water will begin to flow in the shower nice and warm. Not steaming hot,but nice and warm. Take a Navy Shower, rinse quickly before the 2 gallon bucket runs out.

We actually did this for 4 showers. It worked very well.

Turned out the thermostat on the water heater was dead, so neither gas or electric worked.

As the post above refers, I have a brother in law who is quite bright, well educated and successful in his field who can hardly change his own light bulbs let alone do anything mechanical. I have met many good people who were more impressed with themselves and their "education level" and yet were the ones that need the most help when camping......I was watching a man in a campsite across from me one time messing with his windshield wipers on his class C. After a little bit of amusement I went over and asked if he need a hand.....he was only changing wiper blades and could not figure out how to get the old ones off. Not to be too impolite I took my time in getting them off feigning having some trouble at it, 5 minutes later he had new wipers on. Thanked me profusely and offer a beer which I accepted and we sat down had a nice and interesting chat. Great guy he was, and that judging people thing is a two way street.

Two of my favorites.

Often when I’m traveling I’ll put a can of chili or stew on the top of my engine. When I stop for lunch it’s all warmed up and ready to eat.



Did you ever have problems with a failing lift gate support? Take off the support and cut a piece of PVC pipe to fit the opened gap. Reinstall the support and use the PVC to hold it open. When not in use the pipe slides down the support for storage.



Some food for thought:
A guy gets a flat tire in front of the local insane asylum. As he’s taking off the flat tire to mount the spare he notices a fellow watching him from the other side of the asylum fence. About this time he stumbles and drops all his lug nuts down a very deep sewer drain! He stands for a minute wondering what to do when the watcher says “Why don’t you take a lug nut off each of your other three wheels. Three lug nuts will hold your wheel on long enough to get you to a service station.” The man looks at him and says “You’re right, what a great idea! But what are you doing in an insane asylum?” The man looks back and says “Just because I’m crazy doesn’t mean I’m stupid!”

What I'm trying to say is that I could go on and on about helpful things I've learned through the years, often times from people who otherwise didn't seem very bright. Keep an open mind and never stop learning!

Steve

Problem: fridge breaks down
Solution: I keep a softsided cooler stashed in the closet; if something goes wrong with the fridge, I can just buy ice and keep on camping.

Problem: RV lights don't work
Solution: I have supplemented my RV lights with battery operated puck lights throughout the clipper; if the RV lights don't work, I just use the puck lights and keep on camping.

Problem: water pump won't work
Solution: I keep a couple empty plastic water pitchers in the RV; if the water pump stops working, I pull those out and use the campground water for all my needs and keep on camping.

Problem: water heater won't work
Solution: I have a stove top tea kettle that I can heat water in and keep on camping.

Problem: stove won't work
Solution: I have a small propane grill and always keep some 1lb propane bottles handy and I can keep on camping.

Basically, I don't let a malfunctioning/non-functioning appliance end my camping trip. Other stuff is just ignored.