Tips & tricks
RV Accessories — Unusual and Unique
By By Ron Jones
Aug 23, 2006, 08:13

There are a few items/accessories/thingies for RVs that may be forgotten or often take a back seat when purchasing the coach. People get all excited about the wallpaper but disregard something they may need/use every day. I do not know if all of these inexpensive-to-expensive accessories can be used on every RV but it's worth asking.

SaniCon… A sewage “pump” that is cleaner (by far) than traditional sewer hoses, easier to get out and put away, with nearly unlimited access to dumping (pump 300 lineal feet with a 20 foot rise through a ¾” garden hose). We have never used a traditional sewer hose on our current coach. Where to buy.

Washer/dryer combo… It took my wife a while to figure it out (and now she does seminars on “Wrinkle-Free Laundry”) but the thing works great—and she's a real stickler for getting excellent laundry results. The stack units waste too much valuable storage space.

Tow Bar… Blue Ox is what I use. They have customer service that exceeds your wildest dreams. They will maintain and repair (rarely needed) your tow bar—I guess, forever—at no cost. Plus, when unhooked, there’s nothing hanging on the front of the car and it’s nearly invisible.

Motosat Satellite… If medium-speed Internet is important to you, this is the only answer. Lots of RVers use their cell phones as connectors but I really do not know anything about that method. You can now buy used Motosats. You can get TV (Dish or Direct) and Internet (24/7) with it. Since by law, the front TV has a lockout wired in so it will not operate when the ignition is on, “in-motion TV” is a joke/sales pitch. If you are going to get a Motosat, you do not need the “dome” on the coach that contains the in-motion dish.

GPS… The least expensive and an excellent system is Street Atlas 2008 (Delorme). Less than $100, it includes the software and GPS antenna. Although earlier versions of Street Atlas would not work on a Mac (a PC was required), with the new Macs, Delorme stated, "Compatibility with Intel-based Macs running Boot Camp for Microsoft Windows XP."  The good news is that your GPS “map” is the size of your laptop screen.

Plug Dog… This is two individual fabric “handles,” held on by Velcro, with one fitted on the 50-amp male plug and the other on the 30-amp female adapter. They always stay on. Using the Plug Dog allows you to easily unplug these two—always a difficult job.

The best place to shop for accessories is at a large RV rally or big RV show. A variety of vendors will have booths set up and are happy to talk with you about their wares. As with all products, there are gadgets and gizmos out there that seem to always easily work well in the hands of the seller. Remember your Latin… Caveat Emptor: “Let the Buyer Beware.”

(This suggestion is one of the more than 500 in All the Stuff You Need to Know About RVing (ISBN 156870514-X) by Ronald Jones info@rvstuff.org and Robert Lowe bob@rv-partsplus.com)