When we started RVing Full-Time we watched a lot of YouTube videos and read a log of blogs on RVing. Many of these recommended unneccesary RV improvements, renovations, and purchases. 2024 is our fourth year of full-time RV living! We have learned so much about ourselves and our Full-Time RVing. We have made few RV improvements to our little travel trailer as we are not remodelers nor are we mechanics.
Our little travel trailer has done amazing for us. It is our means of comfort while not exploring and playing. However, we are not people who are comfortable drilling holes, doing major rewiring, or making significant overhauls to our camper. Our few RV improvements have been simple, easy, and have made our full-time RVing more comfortable for us. We do believe in preventive maintenance, however, and try to inspect and clean our camper on a regular basis.
Our RV Improvements
Silicone Roof Sealant
For the first year of traveling, while we had warranty on our roof, we cleaned and took care of our rubber roof. While sitting in North Carolina under trees, our rubber roof got black mold in some areas, although we never saw any punctures or integrity loss. After North Carolina, we began investigating coatings for our roof to provide more protection and to minimize maintenance. We decided to apply a silicone roofing layer to our camper. This may not be the best choice among experts, and we are not RV techs. However, we love our new roofing.
When our manufacturing warranty on our roof expired, we added the silicone layer. We know that reseach indicates that rubber RV roofs should last ten years, and we had no issues with our rubber roofing. However, we have also known people whose RV roofs had to be replaced within a year. Because we are the sort of persons who like preventive maintenance, we wanted to avoid any obvious leaking or issues before they happened.
Our travel trailer now has two layers applied. We really coated the areas around the skylights and fan bases with the silicone to make sure there were no leaks and to better insulate our little travel trailer. The camper is definitely more insulated and more comfortable. During the nights when it gets cold, we will still wake up with the camper about ten degrees warmer than the outside air.
Although we still inspect the roof a few times a year, we do so less frequently than when we had the rubber roofing only. We were checking about every one to two months with the manufactured rubber roofing. Now we check around every four to six months. If we start seeing issues where areas are not covered or the silicone layer is reducing around the skylights, we will apply another layer. And, if we purchase another RV with the rubber roofing, we have already decided to add the silicone layering after the warranty expires.
One of our favorite RV improvements is our silicone roof. We have no issues that we are aware of. It doesn’t leak, is well insulated, and stays cleaner. Applying our due diligence, we even made sure our camper could handle the extra weight of the layer on the roof. However, the slideout still contains the old rubber roofing. It is not recommended to add roofing layers to slideouts and we wanted no issues. So, we clean and maintain our rubber roofing on the slide. But it is a small area that does not take long to clean.
We do not recommend everyone add silicone layering to their roof. We are not experts and we are always learning more about our camper. And we have made a lot of mistakes. However, our silicone layer on our roof is one of our simple, but positive RV improvements. Everyone should research and decide their own roofing maintenance and replacement if needed. We do recommend that instead of YouTubers and Bloggers, however, asking questions of RV techs is the best way to decide on your personal RV improvements.
LevelMatePro for RVs without Automatic Leveling
We live and travel in a small travel trailer that we love. It does not, however, have automatic leveling. We purchased many items when we first started RVing full-time that we did not need. Again, we were led astray by many YouTubers and bloggers. Yet, the LogicBlue Technology LevelMatePRO Wireless Vehicle RV Leveling System we purchased on Amazon has made leveling our travel trailer so easy. You can turn it on any time before you set up.
Our four year old LevelMate Pro connects to our cellphone using bluetooth. Please note, however, there have been many updates since we purchased ours. After it connects, the app on our cellphone simply tells us which side needs to be raised and how much. It also tells us how much we need to raise and lower the front jack to be level. The most difficult part of using the LevelMate is remembering to turn it off! It is so easy to use we recommend this tool if you, like us, don’t have self-leveling jacks on your RV.
Leveling is very important to us and worth the extra money of purchasing the Levelmate Pro. We do not put our slide out if our travel trailer is not level. Also, we have been told that if you have a propane fridge, it is not good for it to run while not leveled. Besides, Jessica does not like sleeping in an unlevel camper. It is no fun to feel as if you are rolling downhill while flipping in bed.
New Battery and Solar – Our Favorite RV Improvements
Our first year of full-time RVing, we kept the lead acid battery that came with the travel trailer instead of replacing it. Unfortunately, we did not know that if you let a battery empty, it decreases the ability of the battery to hold a charge. At the end of that first year, when we pulled over in rest stops for the night, we only had lights for about fifteen minutes before the battery went dead. Luckily, we carry lots of flashlights.
Our second year we knew we would have to boondock more on our trip out west, and we decided to upgrade our battery to a 200 ah AGM battery and purchase a 300 watt portable solar panel. What a difference these two RV Improvements have made to our lives! We know that if we sleep without a power hookup, we will still have lights in the morning and the refrigerator will be fine. While we stored the travel trailer for a month and a half and disconnected the battery, we still had 80 percent left on the battery.
When we need to replace the battery again, we will again purchase the 200 ah AGM again. Lithium batteries are too expensive and require rewiring of our little travel trailer. Many YouTubers praise the lithium batteries. However, a RV tech that we respect warned us against them. He warned that when Lithium batteries lose charge, they plummet instead of gradually losing charge. Our AGM battery should lose charge a little at a time.
We do check our battery frequently, even if it is not hooked up to the camper, just to make sure it does not drop below 70%. We learned our lesson with the first battery. Temperatures can also affect batteries, so while we were staying with family over the winter, we still checked the battery and kept it charged. Yet, if the battery charge becomes insufficient, we can easily buy a new 200 ah AGM battery and continue traveling.
Both the battery and the Jackery can be charged with our portable 300 watt solar panel. The solar helped us out a lot charging the Jackery while truck camping. And we like using the solar to charge our battery in our travel trailer while boondocking. The 200 ah AGM batter, the 300 watt portable solar panel, the Westinghouse Inverter Generator, and the 500 Jackery are sufficient for our boondocking power needs and worth every penny we spent. If we purchase another travel trailer, and upgraded battery will be one of our first RV Improvements.
Water Saving Showerhead
One very small RV improvement that we recommend for everyone is a water saving showerhead. Windell wanted to upgrade the showerhead as soon as we purchased our travel trailer. However, Jessica, not thinking it was a necessity, put it on the bottom of the list. She changed her mind quickly while moochdocking with friends. The water pressure was so low, the water barely dripped through the showerhead. Taking a shower was frustrating and forget about washing your hair. So, we went to Walmart and purchased a water saving showerhead. What a difference!
Instead of trying to maneuver your body under the dripping, the new showerhead allows us to rinse our bodies and wash our hair without being a contortionist. And, when we do have some pressure in the parks (even though we always use a pressure regulator), we can take some awesome showers. The water in the shower can now hit the opposite wall! We never experienced such great water pressure in the shower with the old showerhead. This may be a told you so from Windell, but the water saving showerhead will also be one of the first upgrades in any RV we own going forward.
Reinforcing the Bumper
We had no issues with the original bumper from the manufacturer for the first year of RVing. Therefore, we did not reinforce it. We put the bike rack with two bikes on the bumper and took off with no worries. We traveled from Missouri to Virginia, then south to Florida. So, we may have been a little over-confident in our second year that the bumper was just fine, without reinforcement, traveling out west.
Then, we hit a huge pothole traveling from Washington State into Oregon. Yep, the bumper ripped. During the rest of the trip in the west, when we moved, we put the bikes inside the travel trailer and took them out at the next site. This was an absolute pain in the you know what.
So, we had our bumper reinforced with some plates while we are sitting in our home state. We have realized that putting our bikes inside to travel and outside when we get situated is not a long-term sustainable plan for us. And after several months of traveling this way, we will try to make sure we never ever do that again. Reinforcing your bumper right from the get go is a necessary RV improvement and will probably save you headache in the future. As with everything on an RV, when it breaks, it may not be in the most convenient area to have it fixed.
Bidet
One of our most favorite unnecessary RV Improvement is our bidet. We originally purchased our bidet to save on toilet paper and wet wipes for two reasons. Jessica is trying to reduce the usage of throw away plastics while Windell rolls his eyes. And we are on a tight budget. The money spent on groceries cannot be spend on adventures. So, we try to analyze our expenditures frequently and see where we can save money for more flights and boat trips.
The RV bidet by Clean Camper that we purchased on Amazon was easy to install. We nonmechanics had no issues. At first, we were uncertain about using a bidet. Now, we love it! It was one of the main comforts we missed about our travel trailer while truck camping. It has saved us a lot on wet wipes and toilet paper usage. However, we also feel cleaner. No matter where we live in the future, we know we will want a bidet.
The few RV Improvements we have made to our little travel trailer has made our RVing full-time more comfortable and easier. We are uncomfortable with major improvements that could affect the integrity of our camper. Instead, we enjoy adding simple improvements that we can carry on to the next RV. When we first started RVing Full-time, we watched a lot of YouTube and read a lot of blogs. Some helped us a great deal, but many recommended major changes to our camper. However, our first rule should always be Know Thyself. Our few small improvements have been enough to make us feel comfortable without any major overhauls.