Every November around this time I come up with my RVing Christmas wishlist. These are things that I don’t absolutely need but sure would like. In the past years Santa or should we say Mrs. Claus has been very good to me.
Last year it was a 200W Renogy Solar Kit and Fantastic Fan, the year before a Big Buddy Radiant Heater and before that a Progressive Industries Surge Protector.
As you can tell I must have been a really good boy. Here is hoping for some more cool RV goodies this year.
My Love Your RV 2015 wishlist:
Garmin Dash Cam 20 Standalone Driving Recorder with GPS
I’m mainly interested in this Garmin dash cam recorder for my YouTube trip report videos. I think other RVers would find the footage useful when planning their own trips. But more than that, video footage can be really important if we are ever in or witness to an accident.
InteliPower Charger
Our Keystone Cougar came equipped with a WFCO converter which has never had a failure but has never done a very good job at charging our batteries. I really noticed it when I installed solar panels. The cheap little charge controller that came in the Renogy Kit does a much better job. I think the problem is how far away the WFCO charger is located. It’s installed under the stove about 20 feet or more away from the batteries.
My wish is to install a higher quality charger like the Progressive Dynamics Inteli-Power right next to the battery bank in the front storage compartment. This will become my off-grid charger when I need to use our Champion generator to charge up the bank. The increased charging efficiency should reduce the time I need to run the generator.
Andersen Levelers
I’ve always used wood boards but have had my eye on this particular trailer leveling aid for a while now. It’s a crescent-shaped ramp you place under the tire then as you drive the trailer onto them they raise the trailer up gradually to a maximum of 4 inches of the ground. They would work really well in concert with my new ReVo Leveler device. I could easily get an exact side to side level every time all while still in the truck.
Garmin RV 760LMT Portable GPS Navigator
We tow our fifth wheel with an old 1994 Ford F350 diesel truck. Big Blue has been a faithful beast and we love him. The only drawback is the lack of modern onboard electronics like a navigation system. We have an iPad which works out pretty well. Anne navigates with it while I drive. But a fancy dedicated Garmin GPS navigation unit sure would be nice. So it’s on my Santa list.
Water Storage Bladder – 30 Gallon
Last year while boondocking in Arizona I saw a number of folks using an inflatable water bladder to fetch more fresh water. What a great idea I thought! I don’t have the room in my truck to permanently cart around a rigid tank, so one of these would be ideal.
Rather than breaking camp to refill the fresh water I could just take the truck in and fill the bladder in the bed. Our fresh water tank is 60 gallons but our waste tank capacity is much more, nearly 120 gallons. So we could almost double our boondocking time between trailer moves.
Since I’ve recently replaced our noisy OEM FloJet 12 volt water pump with a new (much quieter I must say) ShurFlo 4008 pump I now have it as a spare. It will be perfect to rig up as a transfer pump.
Heng’s Vortex Fan Bathroom Fan
A bathroom fan upgrade has been on the old to-do list. The Heng’s Vortex fan attaches in place without having to remove the roof vent. It’ll give us a lot more air flow than the dinky little fan that’s in there now. That’s an important thing when living in such close quarters with your mate.
Trimetric TM-2030 Battery Monitor
Now that I have installed solar panels and extra battery capacity for our off grid RV adventures, I need a way to monitor the power storage. Kind of like a fuel gauge for my battery bank. Several friends of mine use the Trimetric monitor and love it. It comes with a 500 amp shunt that gets installed very close to the batteries then a thin data cable is run inside the RV to a wall mountable readout panel. At a glance, I can then know exactly how much energy we are putting into or taking out of our batteries and percentage left.
Ahooooga Horn
This one is just about fun. I’ve always hankered for a good old fashion Ahhooooga horn to be able to blast at thoughtless morons. You know the ones who love to do stupid things in front of our RVs. Maybe a funny horn will wake them up!
Vizio 43” 4K Smart TV
Our rig came new with a 32” LCD TV. It’s been OK but is a little on the small side when viewing it from the other end of the living area. A larger TV has been of the wish list ever since. Luckily for me it recently got stroked off! My extremely generous sister and her husband bought us a little early Christmas gift, a brand new Vizio 43” 4K LED TV.
It fits perfectly in RV entertainment area; the extra inches make a world of difference when watching movies and sports. Even though it’s viewing area is much bigger the power usage is actually less than the 5-year-old 32” set it replaced. The set has a decent Over the Air digital tuner to pick up free TV transmissions from our RV TV antenna plus built-in apps like NetFlix and YouTube when we are graced with good WiFi.
Well, that’s the RV Christmas wishlist for this year. Stay tuned for reviews of what finds its way under the tree this years. Happy Holidays – Ray
Looking for more RV gift ideas. Check out 20 upgrades I’ve done to ours.
