Handy Hints, Gadgets, Products & Gizmos

[GizmosMom]

Another member suggested a new forum section with new products but it doesn't look like it will be feasible. So I thought I would post this here under General RVing Issues. If enough people post (even if you have mentioned it before in another post) we can keep it near the top?

Do you have a handy hint, a new product or an old product that makes your RVing or Camping much better?

(Sorry, no commercial advertising allowed)

I'll start:

Someone in the Camping Van posted a reference to using a Super-Chamois to wipe down their shower. I have been using an icky old thick sponge and I like the chamois idea so much more.

Now I want to hear what works for you

[medic9016]

We use those plastic suction hooks outside out TT for wet swim suits and towels. The stick fine to the siding or window of the tt.

[amandasgramma]

StanleyandIris wrote:
The newest and handiest 'gadget' I have bought is the Bissel 3 in 1 vacuum. It is really just a dust-buster with a detachable long handle and brush bar but it is a plug in, so it doesn't run out of juice. $19.99 at WM. I use it constantly.

Iris

PS: I love chit-chat.

Thanks for the info!!! We're just talking of buying something for our new (to us) rig. 🙂 We'll look into it!

[Handbasket]

Amandasgramma, I use a similar rig for a 'shower' when my Tiger is winterized. But I got lucky and found a 2-gallon pump-up ag sprayer with an optional mini-shower head. I heat part of the water on the the stove, and mix it with cold. Not enough flow or pressure to get a really satisfying shower, of course, but enough to later and rinse all the stinky parts. Less trouble than de- & re-winterizing for a one or two night trip.

Jim, "A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well."

[StanleyandIris]

The newest and handiest 'gadget' I have bought is the Bissel 3 in 1 vacuum. It is really just a dust-buster with a detachable long handle and brush bar but it is a plug in, so it doesn't run out of juice. $19.99 at WM. I use it constantly.

Iris

PS: I love chit-chat.

[4BeachCampers]

popeye59 wrote:

You use a whole tube per fire or do you cut them down?

We've been using 1 empty roll stuffed with lint to get the fire started. We don't cut them down.

[popeye59]

4BeachCampers wrote:

We've been making Fire Starters by taking the lint from the dryers and stuffing it into toilet paper rolls. Burns slow and never had a problem lighting a fire.

You use a whole tube per fire or do you cut them down?

[4BeachCampers]

kebmw wrote:
One of my husband's favorite tricks is to pour some (cheap) liquor down the pipe and it flames out the top end and makes a brief torch and the kids think it is the coolest thing. Fun around the campfire....

I will have to do that for the kids maybe I can get them to spend more time around the campfire and less time in inside.


Something like this may have been said before, but I'm not g0ing to look through 248 pages.


We've been making Fire Starters by taking the lint from the dryers and stuffing it into toilet paper rolls. Burns slow and never had a problem lighting a fire.

[amandasgramma]

First of all -- thank you ALL for you contributions to this thread. What GREAT ideas you all have!

Now I want to show you what my DH made. It's a manual water pump. I'll start right off saying -- it's dirty. 🙂
Dh took a 2 gallon spray container -- used for spraying bug spray. He bought it at Walmart. He painted it black so it would attract the sun and warm the water inside. He cut the metal wand off (the part you use to spray with) and attached a sink sprayer (the kind used in the kitchen). This manual pump spray is great for camping. He's used it for showering when he's camped out in the middle of nowhere. We've also keep it outside of the 5er, with a towel and soap nearby. INVALUABLE for when the grandchildren camp with us ----- they can wash hands and feet without messing up our 5er!!!!

[kebmw]

jassrnj wrote:
"""3 dog nights wrote:

This is one of my favorite's. Go to Lowes or HD and get an 18" piece of copper pipe about 3/8 or 1/4 diameter. Put a piece of tape around one end. You now have the greatest tool ever made to keep your campfire going if the wood is wet or a little to green. If you've ever spent the night blowing on a fire trying to keep it going or to get it to flare up again, you will love this. It will turn the smallest flame into a blowtorch in nothing flat.
edit: obviously you blow into the end with the tape."""


Too short and you can burn your nose and eyes ... how hot does the pipe get? You can also burn your lips. Sounds dangerous ... will let my DW try it first.

This is funny, because we have used a piece of pipe to stoke the fire for years (decades now actually) Started in early 90's when my b-i-l had a 9 foot piece of pipe in his garage that we used to stir the fire in his firepit in the back yard. The guys would poke it, and blow through it to get the fire going and keep it going. It was so long that it didn't burn you to handle the other end and you actually had to stand kind of far away to even blow through it. Eventually we started packing it and taking it camping and it now lives in the trailer. However over the years it would gradually melt away and it is now less than 6' long, probably closer to 5' long. One of my husband's favorite tricks is to pour some (cheap) liquor down the pipe and it flames out the top end and makes a brief torch and the kids think it is the coolest thing. Fun around the campfire....


~Karin

[popeye59]

I see how it is... I think some people really need to have a cup of chamomile tea.

[popeye59]

Tvov wrote:
Actually, I always buy the combination padlocks now instead of keyed locks. I just use my phone number as the combination. Don't have to worry about losing keys. I use a different combination if I think it is important... but most of my stuff isn't all that much to worry about!

Hey, I was gonna ask you something, PM me your phone number would ya?

[Tvov]

Actually, I always buy the combination padlocks now instead of keyed locks. I just use my phone number as the combination. Don't have to worry about losing keys. I use a different combination if I think it is important... but most of my stuff isn't all that much to worry about!

[dcmac214]

Padlocks. Buy them in matched-key sets, all sets same key, and get at least one more set than you think you need.
For decades I've been buying padlocks as needed and it got to the point where even with painting the locks and keys different colors it was a real pia to keep track. So when we got our TH ('needed' a pair of padlocks for the ramp even tho it locks from the inside). Counted all my padlocks...15...and bought four sets of four, all 16 same key. Figures that now I need a couple more padlocks and I can't get another set with that same key even ordering from Master. Sigh.

[Roadtech]

Coleman has a torch that runs off the little green propane canisters. Much safer than Tiki torch and a lot less messy. Also, the pole that holds it folds up and it and the torch goes into a carrying bag.

[allen8106]

One thing about the Tiki torches. I quit using them two years ago. In the ten years or so that I have used them I have had two of them catch fire and nearly catch my camper on fire. Not sure how they caught on fire but once they did the fluid ran down to the ground and caught the dry grass on fire which then started for my camper. Had it not been for a neightbor camper both times my camper would have went up in flames, once while my wife was sleeping inside. I will never use them again.

IF you still want to use them I had found that you can drive a steel tent peg into the ground until about 4 inches of the ten peg sticks up above ground then put the end of the Tiki torch over the tent peg. On most steel tent pegs you will have to break off the plastice head on the tent peg. This leaves you with just a very large nail. I thought it worked pretty well.