Back in the camper. Finally!

 It is the end of March, 2022.

Yes we consider our 5th wheel a camper. We also called our two pickup campers campers. Some people get heartburn over that, so I thought I would just state this now. I understand why they feel that way, I get that way when people call staying at a Cracker Barrel or a Walmart boondocking. Boondocking is, you know, out in the boondocks. Everything else is dry camping or overnighting. As long as I am venting, in my opinion there is no such thing as "moochdocking" It is dry camping in someones driveway. Not everything has to be some sort of "docking". Along those lines, our 5th wheel has a kitchen, not a galley. Galleys are on boats. We have an RV, that we call our camper.

This really isn't what I started this entry to be about, so I will get back on track. It is the end of March and the weather is warmer than average so as we usually do, we jump at the chance to get out of the house and into the camper. Since we are currently in the camper, I thought it would be a good time to expand on the modifications we have done since we bought this 5th wheel new April 13th 2018.

One of the first things I changed was the thermostat. It came with a very simple thermostat from Airxcel, and I switched it out to a Honeywell 7 day programmable thermostat. It is the same thermostat we use in our house so there was no learning curve to it at all. The temperature is programmed to go to 60 at night during heating season, and then it goes to 69 in the morning before we get out of bed. That way neither of us has to get up and turn the temperature up. This thermostat operates on two AA batteries, and they will easily last over a year.

I also added some RGB led lights under the cupboards for counter lights. Those were listed as one of Melanies favorite things when I asked her. I also added an led light over the kitchen sink. It is a 13" light strip from Superbright LEDs. No we aren't sponsored by them,  I just like their product offerings. I installed the same style light in a 9" light over the bathroom sink.

Another early addition was a cold weather power cord. I was putting our power cord away in below freezing weather, and the factory cord did not want to bend. The new one is very flexible down to near zero temps. Maybe below that, but I don't really want to find out.  I don't remember where I got it from but it is an SJOOW cord, and many places have it available.

Our Arctic Fox came with a Progressive Dynamics 9260 power converter, and I added the charge wizard to be able to bump up the voltage if I wanted to. That really helps if I am running the generator so I can push more amps in to the batteries in a much shorter period of time. If I am running the generator, I want to take advantage of it. We don't often need to run it with our solar though.

Along the lines of making things more efficient power wise, we use a Mr. Heater Portable Buddy that I use 1 lb. refillable propane bottles with. The Flame King bottles have a bleeder valve and a refill adapter that makes filling the bottles much faster than using a homemade hose that I used to use. The bleeder valve helps vent pressure off the bottle, and is also a full indicator. Once the bottle starts spitting liquid instead of gas, just let go of the handle on the adapter. They can fill in as little as 45 seconds in my experience, so holding the handle on the adapter is not a big deal.

A small and simple addition was magnetic catches on our outside compartment doors. I got tired of getting hit by the doors when I would do something in the wind. The magnetic catches were bought from Amazon for under twenty bucks for a two pack. Since I had two doors to put these on it was perfect, and they work perfect.

I have also added many different shelves to compartments and opened up some storage areas, but most of these are rv specific. If you start looking around, there are usually several places that you can find or free up more areas for storage to help with making these more liveable longer term. Like I stated earlier, we are both still working full time, but we have gone as long as three weeks living in our camper and commuting to work. It helps to have an rv with big tanks. 

One limiting factor to spending that much time in a camper is fresh water. To take care of that we bought a 60 gallon water bladder that folds up to take up very little space. We got an AquaTank from Amazon to be able to extend our time out. With the tank sizes of our fifth wheel, we figure we can go through two fresh water tanks before we need to worry about filling our bathroom grey or our black tanks. If you haven't tested that out by pumping water into your tanks you should.  Of course if you don't want to boondock or dry camp and always have hookups, then it really doesn't matter.

When we took delivery of our Arctic Fox from the dealer over 500 miles from home, we spent the first night in a full hookup site so we could test everything. We did pump the water from our fresh tank into the black tank first. About the time the black tank was full the  pump started getting air from the fresh tank. We repeated the same test with the grey tanks so we would know how much they held, that the drains worked, and that there were no leaks anywhere.

There has to be a way to move the water from the water bladder to the campers tank. I use a Sureflo water pump that I replaced in our older 5th wheel. There is a story behind that. One day I was draining the water out of our previous fifth wheel and I used the pump to push the last of the water out of the tank and lines. When I was finished, I accidentally left the pump running. For a day and a half. I was convinced I ruined the pump so I bought a replacement. Well, that original pump is still working. Those pumps are very durable and reliable. To this day I am using it to pump water from the water bladder to our tank. I am also pumping it through a water filter, so it isn't just a simple transfer.

Speaking of water filters, whenever I fill my water tank the water goes through a Camco 20 micron filter. I use the larger diameter filter to hopefully reduce the restriction when using it. I don't know if it makes a difference, but it should allow more filter area at the very least. The reason we use a filter even when filling at home is one time we were at a South Dakota state campground and the water had a very bad odor to it. Everyone who filled their tank there ended up with gastrointestinal issues. We always leave home with a full water tank. We stayed at that campground for over a week, so we needed to get our fresh water tank topped off, and noticed the smell even though we only took a relatively small amount. Less than a quarter of a tank. Luckily we didn't have the same issues. Since then many of us that were there that weekend filter our water.

We will use the water out of our fresh water tank to make coffee, brush our teeth etc. but one of us is kind of a water snob. But then neither of us like to use plastic bottles so we carry water from home or we get RO water from a grocery store dispenser. We carry the water in collapsible water bags from WaterStorageCube website. We actually got them from Amazon as that is where their buy it now link took us.

We dump the water from the bags into a 2 gallon water bottle. Then we use a air pump to dispense the water. It isn't necessary to do it this way, you can just pour it from the bag to use it, but we like it this way. The water bottle fits nicely in our sink when we travel.

If you plan on spending much time in your camper, you might like to hang some pictures. We usually keep the pictures in the 4X6 range, and hang them with Command strips that are double sided, similar to hook and loop. The Command strips pull off the walls very easily and don't leave a mess behind.