How to Install Starlink Gen 3 in an RV? Use the Speedmount!

How do you install Starlink Gen 3 on an RV roof? This question plagued me until I found the Speedmount made by Trio Flatmout. It is a simple yet durable frame system that flush mounts the Starlink Gen 3 dish onto your RV roof. There’s no risk of the dish flying off while driving or getting snagged on low hanging branches while parking or being stolen from where it’s placed on the ground.

Being part-time RVers, we wanted our investment in Starlink to provide not only an RV internet solution when we’re on the road but a home internet solution when we’re living in our house. With a little creativity, we found a slick way to do that.

Links to the various cables, extenders, and other gear we used in our installation are listed at the bottom of this article.

Starlink Gen3 RV Installation with Speedmount by Tio Flatmout

Our Starlink Gen 3 Dish is installed permanently on our RV roof with a Speedmount from Trio Flatmount.

There is a learning curve with Starlink, and if you haven’t paid any attention to it over the years, like I hadn’t, it takes a while to sort it all out.

Many RVers are using the first or second generations of Starlink, and those systems are completely different than the new Gen 3 that was released in December 2023. So, YouTube videos, blog posts and forum discussions about those older systems are not only unhelpful but can be very confusing. This page explains a simple way to set up Starlink Gen 3 on an RV and use it for Home Internet too.

Since we installed Starlink on our RV a few months ago, we’ve had internet access everywhere in our travels.

Not only have we had internet everywhere we’ve camped, we’ve also used our Starlink RV setup while driving to navigate through the Rockies using Google Maps on our iPad with a wifi connection to our Starlink router mounted in the trailer. This was awesome because there was no cell signal anywhere on these roads.

In addition, for four straight weeks we camped in remote parts of the Colorado Rocky Mountains where there was no cell signal from any carrier. Our Verizon and AT&T hotspots were useless the whole time.

As icing on the cake, when we return home from our RV travels we will continue to use our RV Starlink installation as our Home internet solution when our trailer is parked next to our house!

Rather than installing a Starlink dish on the roof of our house, we’ll use the dish on the roof of the RV while the trailer is parked next to the house, and we’ll connect it to a Starlink router located inside the house with a permanently installed Starlink cable that comes out of the house to the RV parking area.

So, how do you install Starlink Gen3 in an RV?

Let’s start with what Starlink offers as far as equipment and service goes.

Currently the Starlink equipment comes in three sizes: a very big and expensive “Performance” dish and associated gear for professional and commercial users, a large dish and router combo aimed at residential users and a smaller dish/router aimed at people traveling around.

Most RVers and residential users opt for the mid-size or small-size system. The mid-sized residential-oriented dish can access more satellites than the smaller travel dish, so it may get better or faster service. However, the smaller dish is more compact for smaller vehicles like cars, trucks and vans.

There are also two types of service: Residential and Roaming. The Residential service assumes the Starlink equipment is installed at a fixed address. The Roaming service assumes the Starlink equipment will move from one location to another and can even be used while in transit at up to 100 mph.

We wanted to use Starlink both in our RV while traveling and also at our house when we are living at home. This way, we wouldn’t have to start and stop the service. We’d have Starlink every day all day no matter where we were as long as we were in close proximity to the Starlink equipment in the RV.

So, we purchased the mid-size residential dish and router (not the smaller RV gear) and signed up for the Roaming monthly service plan. We installed the Starlink dish on the RV roof to use it in the RV while traveling. When we are at home and the RV is parked next to the house, we swap Starlink cables and it becomes our home internet service.

Starlink Dish and Router General Layout

We can connect the Starlink dish on the RV roof either to a router inside the RV when we’re on the road
or to a router inside our house when we’re living at home.

For part-time travelers like ourselves, this makes a lot of sense. We pay the higher monthly roaming Starlink fee every month but get to use the Starlink equipment every day no matter whether we’re at home or on the road. We have no need for another internet service plan except as a backup.

We had been using our Verizon and AT&T hotspots for our home internet for the last five years because Verizon is extremely fast at our house. Surprisingly, it’s faster than any other internet service providers in our remote area. We still have the Verizona hotspot but have reduced the amount of data on our plan to the bare minimum because we’ll only need it if there’s a glitch with Starlink’s global service—which there was last week—or if the dish can’t connect to the Starlink satellites for some other reason (which hasn’t happened yet).

What’s In the Starlink Gen 3 Box?

We were surprised to find only five items in the Starlink box:

—Starlink Gen 3 dish (or “antenna”)
—50’ Starlink Gen 3 cable to go from the dish to the router
—Starlink Gen 3 router
—Router Power supply
—5’ A/C power cord to go from the router’s power supply to a 120 volt wall outlet

Starlink Gen3 components out of the box.jpg

There are just five items in the Starlink box: Dish, Starlink cable, Router, Power Supply and Power cable.
They are arranged here in the approximate way they get connected…!

We were also surprised that the only instructions were nearly wordless technical drawings and Starlink’s very poorly rated tech support via online ticket submissions. Yikes! Fortunately, instructions weren’t really needed.

Another surprise was that the online Starlink Store for additional equipment isn’t “open” to customers to look at or shop in until they activate their account. So, researching alternate parts (like longer or shorter cables) wasn’t possible until we activated our account.

Lastly, when we did set up our account, Starlink examined our credit card credentials more thoroughly than any other vendor we’ve ever dealt with. They didn’t like our phone number because it was a Skype number (Voice over IP) and not an actual cell phone number from a cellular carrier. So, our payment was declined. When we contacted our credit card company to sort out a solution, they were shocked that a vendor would go that deep before accepting a customer’s payment.

I guess it’s all part of the futuristic Starlink mystique.

Basic Starlink Gen 3 Setup

Before trying to set up the Starlink gear on our RV, we played with it for a few weeks on the floor and in the back yard at our house! This gave us a sense of how it all works and it was easy and fun to do. We highly recommend you do that too, at least for a few hours if not a few weeks!

As soon as you activate the equipment, the clock starts ticking for your service plan. You have 30 days to return everything and get your money back. So, we wanted to make sure Starlink was better than our old Verizon 5G MiFi hotspot at our house before we got into any kind of permanent installation.

The setup of the basic Starlink Gen 3 gear is a cinch, although a simple diagram like the one below would have been helpful!

Starlink Gen 3 Basic Layout out of the box

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The Starlink Gen 3 dish is very roughly 15 inches x 24 inches x 1.5 inches tall (a few inches taller when the “kickstand” is extended so the dish can sit on a slight angle).

The 50’ long weatherproof Starlink Gen 3 cable that connects the dish to the router has identical connectors at each end. These connectors are similar to RJ-45 ethernet connectors but don’t have the little plastic clip on them. You simply shove the connector into the receptacle very firmly until it clicks or pull it out using some finger strength.

I found I had to stand the dish on one end and put some real force on the connector to push it all the way into the dish’s receiver so it would “click” and make a full connection. Pulling it out feels really weird because you have to give it a very strong pull.

Starlink offers only two sizes of their Starlink cables, 50’ and 150’. 50’ was fine for our needs. if you need a different length, you can get different length Starlink Gen 3 cables from third party vendors on Amazon and elsewhere.

The Starlink Router connects to the router’s power supply. This power supply is then plugged into a standard wall outlet using the power cord that comes with the Starlink gear.

The 50’ Starlink Gen 3 cable carries power on it as well as the data signal. So, only one cable goes to a wall outlet, and that is the router’s power cable. You turn the Starlink dish on and off by plugging or unplugging the router’s power cable in the wall outlet. There’s no power switch for the dish.

After connecting everything and plugging it in, we carried the Starlink dish outside and set it on the ground. We downloaded the Starlink app to our iPad and used it to connect directly to the dish. Various screens came up as the dish was located and activated. After about 10 minutes or so the router found the satellites it needed in the sky, and we were able to log into Starlink from our laptops and get on the internet.

We ran some tests using the independent website https://speedtest.net. Starlink provides their own test site but we preferred to use the same one we’ve always used since there’s no potential bias towards one service or another.

At first the speeds seemed slow. However, we kept checking every so often for the next hour, and soon the speeds totally blew our minds!

Where the Verizon Mifi 5G hotspot had typically gotten speeds of about 25-35 Mbps for downloads and 15-25 Mbps for uploads, with Starlink we were seeing speeds as high as 360 Mbps download and 100 Mbps upload.

Of course, all of these speeds, both cell based and satellite based, are largely due to where our house is located and how many people are using the various services at the time of the test. Also, the remote server that the testing software selects for its speed test also makes a difference, as it might be a faster or slower server and it may be experiencing a lot of traffic or it may not. So, from one test to the next we sometimes saw very different speeds. However, we rarely saw download speeds slower than about 180 Mbps or upload speeds slower than 15 Mbps.

Over the years, as we’ve traveled with the Verizon 5G Mifi hotspot in very remote areas where we got 1 to 2 bars of service, we’ve generally seen download speeds of less than 10 Mbps and upload speeds around 3 or 4.

In addition, we learned that Latency Speeds are actually as important or even more important than the download and upload speeds. Latency speed has to do with response time and ultimately affects how long it takes to load a website. Our Verizon hotspot’s latency speeds were typically about 120ms to 150ms. However, the Starlink latency speeds were around 30ms to 40ms!

The real test, of course, was to go to some of our favorite websites and see how they loaded. When we did that, all we could say was, “WOW!”

Besides websites loading much faster, we also saw big improvements with our Apple Mail interface to Gmail and Hotmail. With the Verizon Mifi hotspot we had often been unable to view the photos people sent us. We’d have to double click each one individually to see it or download them all and look at them using the MacOS Preview app. What a pain. With Starlink, the photos were visible on Apple Mail before we could blink.

Although it took over 30 minutes for the Starlink dish to get up and running 100% the very first time, it took just a few minutes each morning after that.

So, we turned off the Verizon 5G Mifi Jetpack and put it in a drawer!!

We were still using Starlink with the dish lying on the ground in the back yard, however. So, now we had to figure out what equipment we needed to get the Starlink dish permanently mounted on the RV roof and also be able to switch between using it from inside the RV while traveling and using while it inside the house when we were at home.

Figuring this out took a while, and hopefully our notes below will save you a lot of time and research!

Starlink Gen 3 RV Mounting Options

Like solar power, Starlink installations are highly customized and are unique for each RV. With the older generations of Starlink most people set the dish on the ground.

Placing it on the ground or on a stand is a perfectly viable way to go. However, it’s a pain if you travel for long periods (or full-time) and have to set up the dish each time you set up camp.

An RVer has placed the Starlink Gen 3 dish on the ground in front of his truck

We saw this Starlnk Gen 3 setup at a campground. The dish is on its kickstand in front of a truck

An RVer put the Starlink Gen 3 dish on a stand in front of their trailer

Here an RVer has placed the dish on a stand away from the trailer and trees. We’ve found as long as the dish has a view of the sky directly above it, Starlink works just fine, even if there are tall trees close by.

Starlink makes a $10 mount for the dish called the Mobility Mount that is okay for use on slower moving vehicles. However, it is better suited to a boat than an RV, and the top recommended speed is something like 40-50 mph. We purchased a Mobility Mount but quickly realized it wasn’t what we wanted on our RV roof!

Starlink Gen 3 itself is rated for vehicles moving up to 100 mph, so why not use a mounting system that is also rated for 100 mph?

The Speedmount from Trio Flatmount

Trio Flatmount makes a fabulous mounting system rated for 100 mph called the Speedmount (you can see the details about it on their website here).

The Trio Flatmount Speedmount makes it possible for the Starlink dish to sit flush on the RV roof, screwed down in four corners. It is essentially a “frame” for the dish with a lip that encloses the edges of the Starlink dish and holds it snugly in place. The frame gets screwed onto the RV roof in the same way solar panels do, and those screws require liberal amounts of weatherproofing Dicor just like solar panels do.

Using this mounting system, not only can the RV travel at highway speeds without risk of the dish flying off but the dish is also protected from snagging on low hanging tree branches and being pried off the roof when you’re maneuvering into a tight campsite. Also, being permanently mounted on the roof, out of sight and out of mind, it’s extremely unlikely anyone will steal it. And if they did, they’d still need to get a router and remove your name from the service contract and put it in their name.

We read about other mounting systems, but when one fellow described arriving somewhere and discovering his Starlink dish was no longer with him, we saw the value in using Trio Flatmount’s rugged and solid Speedmount mounting system. It is an expensive mounting system, but it is well tested and highly rated. There are some Speedmount knockoffs on eBay, but the reviews were mixed and we didn’t trust them.

Starlink Gen 3 Kickstand – The Basis for Many RV Mounting Systems

One caveat for RVers considering other mounting options is to examine how the mounting system actually attaches the dish to the roof.

The bottom side of the Starlink Gen 3 dish has a “kickstand” that can be opened up so the dish sits at an angle to the sky rather than flat.

Starlink Gen 3 Dish back side (underneath)

On the bottom of the dish there’s a “kickstand” that folds out. In this pic it is folded in.

Starlink Gen3 Dish underneath showing kickstand open

Here the kickstand is opened up so the dish can be flipped over and set up on a slight incline.

During our “testing” phase before we installed the dish on the RV roof, we set up the router and its power supply on the floor next to a sliding glass door and ran the 50’ Starlink Cable through that door to the back yard. Every morning we carried the dish and its connected Starlink cable out into the back yard and plugged in the router, and every evening we brought the gear back inside and unplugged the router.

As a side note, we found the speeds were identical whether the dish was set up on the kickstand or lay flat on the ground So, after a few days of setting it up on its kickstand, we simply laid the dish directly the ground and didn’t bother with the kickstand.

Some mounting systems rely on the clip that attaches the kickstand to the back of the Starlink dish to connect the dish to the mount. Starlink’s Mobility Mount works this way. The kickstand clip is strong, but a mount of this kind is not nearly as secure as a frame that encloses the four sides of the dish and is screwed onto the roof in four corners. It was this kickstand clip that gave way for the poor fellow who arrived at his destination to find he no longer had his Starlink Gen 3 dish on his RV roof!

How to Install Starlink Gen 3 on an RV roof using the Trio Flatmount Speedmount

To install the Starlink dish in the Trio Flatmount Speedmount, the first step is to remove the kickstand from the Starlink dish all together. A firm tug pulls the kickstand out.

Starlink Gen3 Dish how to remove kickstand

The kickstand is removed from the back of the dish by giving it a strong tug.

Starlink Gen3 kickstand removed

With the kickstand removed, you can clearly see the hole where the Starlink cable plugs into the dish.

The Speedmount is a white plastic frame made up of four corner pieces that get screwed together. The lip of these frame pieces fits around the edges of the Starlink dish, and the four pieces are then drawn together as the four corners of the frame are screwed in using the supplied screws and Allen wrench.

The outer edges of the dish are completely enclosed by the lip on the surrounding frame and the frame is screwed directly onto the RV roof.

Easy!

Trio Flatmount Speedmount Starlink Gen3 Mounting Bracket

The Speedmount is made up of four corner pieces that get screwed together to make a frame around the Starlink dish. A different set of four screws (not supplied) goes through the four outer corner holes to screw the frame onto the RV roof.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount Corner Bracket

The lip that secures the edges of the Starlink dish is fairly deep. In this image you can also see two of the weep holes along the top of the lip that allow rain water to drain off of the dish.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount hardware and allen wrench

Four machine screws and an Allen wrench are supplied for screwing the frame together.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount Installation

The Allen wrench is used to tighten the screws and create the frame.
Again, the weep holes for draining off rain water are clearly visible along the top of the lip.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount Starlink Gen3 Mounting system installation

The upper (outer) screw holes are the ones used to mount the Speedmount onto the RV roof.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount Starlink Gen3 Mounting Bracket

Here the four golden screws we’ll use to mount the Speedmount on the roof are set into their respective holes.

Swapping Starlink Cables Between RV and House Routers

It was easy to see how the four pieces of the Speedmount would go together and enclose the dish and then get screwed onto the roof. However, as noted above, our plan wasn’t to use Starlink only in our trailer. We also wanted to use it as our home internet solution when the trailer was parked next to the house.

In order to do this, we planned to switch between using a Starlink Gen 3 router installed inside the RV and using a Starlink Gen 3 router installed inside the house. We would simply change which Starlink cable was connected to the dish depending on whether the RV was parked next to the house or was out on the road somewhere taking us on an RV travel adventure.

One very short cable would go between the dish and the router inside the rig (a 6’ third party Starlink Gen 3 cable was the shortest I could find) and another long cable (the 50’ cable that came with the kit from Starlink) would go between the dish on the RV roof and the router inside the house.

We weren’t sure if we’d carry the router and power supply back and forth between the RV and the house when we switched between living in the RV and living in the house, or if we’d have two separate routers/power supplies installed permanently in each location.

Whether we employed one router/power supply or two, I wanted the switch to be easy to do and I needed the cable connections on the RV roof to be 100% weatherproof.

However, the problem with my cable-swapping idea was that the Starlink cable connection is on the bottom underneath the Starlink dish. Once the dish was permanently mounted on the trailer’s roof, we wouldn’t be able to access the bottom of the dish any more. So, we wouldn’t be able to plug and unplug the Starlink cable from the dish and switch between the RV router and the house router as I wished.

Taking a tip from this video, we purchased a pair of waterproof cable extenders. The idea was that the cable extender would lie outside the dish on the trailer roof, and whenever we took the RV traveling or came home and parked it, we could unscrew the cable extender and change which Starlink cable was plugged into it. This way, the dish could remain in place on the roof and the cable swap would take place outside the dish and not underneath it.

Starlink Gen3 Waterproof Cable Extender

This waterproof cable extender would allow us to swap cable connections to the Starlink dish.

These waterproof cable extenders are very rugged. Unfortunately, they were about 15 inches too short to go from the receptacle on the back of the Starlink dish through the cutout on the bottom of Trio Flatmount Speedmount to an accessible spot outside the Speedmount frame where we could do our cable swaps.

So, I connected two of them together to make a longer extension. The first connector sits underneath the dish and the second sits outside the end of the dish where I can reach it to switch cables. Not totally ideal, and there was some extra expense for the extra extender, but it works just fine.

Perhaps a longer version of this high quality waterproof cable extender will eventually be available. I did find a cheap one on eBay but it didn’t look rugged enough to me. Fortunately, this setup has worked just fine for us with no degradation in speed.

Starlnk Gen3 with Trio Flatmount Speedmount bracket and two cable extenders

I used two cable extenders connected together to get to the exterior of the Speedmount frame. This photo shows that two together is long enough but I don’t have the full waterproof pair of connectors screwed together. Installation pics further down show the two extenders properly connected under the dish.

It turned out that I actually needed a third cable extender because one full extender (two halves) was used underneath the dish and half of a second extender was used to reach the outside of the dish. Then I needed two more halves, one for each of the two Starlink cables.

The 50’ House Router Cable coming from the interior of the house would have half of a cable extender on the RV roof end of it. Likewise, the 6’ RV Router Cable coming through the RV roof from the router down below would have half of a cable extender on the roof end as well. This way, either cable extender half could be screwed onto the cable that came out from under the dish on the RV roof.

Starlink Gen 3 Dish and Router Layout for RV and Home Internet

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Starlnk Gen 3 with Trio Flatmount Speedmount bracket and two waterproof cable extenders

Here you can see a pair of cable extenders screwed together. There’s another pair underneath the dish. To swap cables, unscrew the visible pair of extenders and screw in the extender from the other cable (not shown).

Mounting the Trio Flatmount Speedmount and Starlink Dish on the RV Roof!

Now that we had an idea of our basic layout and the cable swapping technique, we needed to figure out where to place the Starlink router in the RV and how to run the Starlink cable from the RV roof down to the RV interior.

We wanted to mount the Starlink router securely on a wall inside the RV, and the most solid vertical surface in the rig turned out to be the end of the upper kitchen cabinets. This panel was solid wood that could support screws and hold the weight of the router and power supply as we drove around on rutted dirt roads in search of campsites. The other walls were ultra thin wallboard.

Another advantage of this spot is there’s a 120 volt wall outlet on the ceiling right there.

How

The most solid vertical surface in the rig was the end of the kitchen cabinets which is solid wood.
A 120 volt wall outlet is on the ceiling just a foot away
The cup hooks at the bottom are for holding bunches of bananas or bags of avocados!

As for running a cable from the RV roof to the interior, we considered using an existing hole in the roof but there weren’t any good ones. A propane refrigerator vent opening would be ideal. But our trailer came with a 12 volt electric fridge, so no such opening existed. No other options seemed viable, although we did consider the Wineguard antenna opening for a while. In the end, we decided to drill a hole in the roof and snake a short Starlink cable down through it.

Up on the trailer roof, we estimated the location of the router on the end of the kitchen cabinets from the locations of the trailer windows and then positioned the Starlink dish in its Trio Flatmount Speedmount on the roof.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount RV installation for Starlink Gen3

The Speedmount will be installed right about here.

After marking the locations of the Speedmount screw holes on the roof, Mark placed a large dollop of Dicor on each screw hole on the Speedmount and then placed another large dollop of Dicor on the trailer roof where the screws would screw in.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount RV installation for Starlink Gen3 Placing Dicor with caulk gun

Mark put a dollop of Dicor in each screw hole on the bottom of the Speedmount. Note that the cable extender junction that will sit underneath the dish has both halves screwed together in this pic.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount RV installation for Starlink Gen3 Placing Dicor with caulk gun

Mark also put a large dollop of Dicor on the roof in the four screw locations.
The cable extender that sits beneath the dish is more clearly visible here.

Then he screwed in all four screws.

Trio Flatmount Speedmount RV installation for Starlink Gen3 Screwing it onto the RV roof

The last step was to screw in each of the four screws to attach the Speedmount to the RV roof.
Note the weep holes along the edges for draining rain water off the dish.

The mounting screws did not come with the Speedmount. Mark used some long self-tapping screws from his collection.

Mounting Screws to install Starlink Gen3 dish on RV roof using Trio Flatmount Speedmount

He used these long self-tapping screws (they did not come with the Speedmount).

After the four screws were screwed in, Mark put one final enormous dollop of Dicor on top of each screw head.

Installing the Starlink Gen 3 Cable from the Roof to the Interior

Inside the trailer, we estimated the location of the dish on the roof and Mark drilled a pilot hole for the Starlink cable run and then used a hole saw to make a grommet-sized hole in the ceiling. We purchased a white grommet to dress up the hole in the ceiling.

How to install Starlink Gen3 on an RV running the Starlink cable from the roof to the router

Mark drills a pilot hole in the ceiling.

How to install Starlink Gen3 on an RV running the Starlink cable from the roof to the router you need a holesaw to cut a hole in the RV roof

Then he expands the size of the hole with a hole saw.

Up on the roof, he drilled another hole for the Starlink cable to go through. The connector on the end of the Starlink cable doesn’t come off, so the hole had to be big enough for the RJ-45 style connector which is a bit bigger than the cable itself. Then he snaked the 6’ Starlink cable from the roof down into the interior of the trailer. A 3’ Starlink cable would have been preferable but I couldn’t find anything shorter than 6’.

How to install Starlink Gen3 on an RV roof use a hole saw to cut a hole in the RV roof

Mark drilled a hole in the roof large enough for the Starlink RJ-45 style connector end to fit through.

Starlink Gen3 RV installation the hole in the RV roof has been made

Next step is to snake the cable down through the roof into the interior of the RV.

This new hole had to be weather sealed and we used Dicor for that. In order to keep the Dicor from oozing through the hole and not sealing properly, Mark took a thick piece of plastic from an old lunch meat container, cut out a small square piece and then used a hole punch to punch a hole in it. This was the exact diameter of the Starlink cable!

Install Starlink Gen3 in an RV - Prepare waterproofing for cable run from RV roof to interior

Mark used a hole punch to put a hole in a thick piece of plastic that would support the oozing Dicor.

Then he cut a slit in the side so the cable could go through it.

Waterproofing protection support for Dicor on Starlink cable run from the RV roof to the router in the interior

He slit the side of the plastic piece to slide the cable through.

With the Starlink cable snaked down through the roof into the interior of the trailer, Mark cleaned the area of the roof around the hole and placed the plastic piece into a bed of Dicor on the roof. Then he squeezed a bunch more Dicor on top of it and around the cable. This made a good waterproof seal around the Starlink cable and the hole. We’ve been in quite a few huge downpours and some short hailstorms and so far so good.

Starlink Gen3 installation in an RV prepare the roof for Dicor waterproofing

Mark cleaned the roof material around the hole with rubbing alcohol so the Dicor would adhere to it.

Starlink Gen 3 cable goes through RV roof with plastic protector and Dicor waterproofing

Then he put a bunch of Dicor around the hole and pressed the plastic piece into it.

Starlink Gen3 cable goes through RV roof with plastic protector and thick layer if Dicor

Additional Dicor on top will prevent any leaks around the hole and cable.

Next, we connected half of one of the cable extenders to the end of the 6’ Starlink cable and screwed it onto the cable extender coming out from under the Starlink dish. This is the junction where we will swap between the 6’ RV Router Cable and the 50’ House Router Cable.

Starlink Gen3 waterproof cable extender for RV roof

Both the 6′ Starlink cable (for the RV) and the 50′ Starlink cable (for the house) have half of a cable extender on the end so they can be screwed into the cable extender coming out from under the Starlink dish.

Starlink Gen 3 Dish installed on RV roof with Trio Flatmount Speedmount with removable Starlink cable

The dish remains in place at all times. In this pic the dish is connected to the cable that goes to the Router inside the RV. When we use the router in the house instead of the one in the RV, the cable end coming up through the RV roof is disconnected and encased in a waterproof protective cover. Then the 50′ cable that comes through the exterior wall of the house (from the router inside) will be brought up the exterior wall of the RV to connect to the dish on the RV roof. When we’re using the RV router, the unused 50′ House Router cable remains coiled by the exterior wall of the house with a waterproof protective cover on the cable end.

Back down inside the RV, Mark used a Starlink cable sized grommet to dress up the messy hole in the ceiling.

Starlink Gen3 Router installation in an RV - use white grommet for hole in ceiling

This grommet tidies up the hole in the ceiling.

RV Starlink Gen3 installation - Use a grommet for the hole in the ceiling

The grommet gives the installation a finished look.

Installing the Starlink router inside the RV

Taking another tip from this video, we purchased a Starlink Gen 3 router wall mount kit and Mark screwed it to the end of the kitchen cabinets. This wall mount kit supports both the router and its power supply.

RV installation of Starlink Gen3 - Install a wall mount for the router inside the RV

The wall mount bracket supports both the router and its power supply. The power cable plugs into a 120 volt outlet on the ceiling and the extra cable is coiled onto a rubberized cup hook.

There was quite a bit of extra Starlink cable and there was also quite a bit of extra cable between the router and its power supply. So, we put a large rubberized cup hook next to the router and coiled all the cable on it.

The router’s power supply plugs into a wall outlet on the ceiling. This outlet was originally intended for a TV but we don’t watch TV, so it’s unused and in a perfect location.

Starlink Gen 3 Router and Power supply mounted inside an RV

The Starlink router and power supply are firmly mounted to the end of our RV kitchen cabinets and have stayed in place despite driving over some insanely rocky, rutted and potholed dirt roads.

We can turn Starlink on and off by plugging and unplugging the router from the ceiling outlet. However, since we dry camp nearly 100% of the time, we keep the Starlink router plugged into the ceiling outlet all the time and power the Starlink system on and off by turning the RV’s inverter on and off.

Generally, we turn on the inverter in the morning and keep it on all day unless we go out somewhere or won’t be needing a/c power for a while. We turn the inverter off at night and Starlink (both dish and router) gets turned off with it.

Setting Up the House Starlink Cable for Our Return Home

Our house used to have a satellite dish for TV and internet service, and the coax cable for it was still on the outside of the house and still ran into the interior of the house through a hole in the exterior wall.

We pulled the now-unused coax cable out from the interior of the house through that hole in the exterior wall and snaked the 50’ Starlink cable through the hole in its place. We used black rubber grommets to seal the hole in the exterior wall and dress up the interior wall hole. We used a liberal amount of silicone on the outside to ensure it was weatherproof.

We only need about 8’ of the Starlink cable inside the house to reach the router in there. The router sits on a shelf and its power supply is positioned next to it — no wall mounting needed. Outside the house, the other 42’ of the Starlink cable extends a short distance to the base of the trailer then goes up the exterior RV wall and over to the Starlink dish on the RV roof with a few feet to spare. So, when that cable is not in use (while we’re out traveling in the RV) it gets coiled and hung on the house’s hose bib outside to wait until our return.

Because the end of the 50’ Starlink cable is exposed to the elements while it’s hanging on the hose bib and we’re out traveling, we put a silicone weatherproof protective cover on it just like the one that goes on the cable that’s on the RV roof when it’s not in use. We don’t totally trust these little waterproof silicone hoods, so we also wrapped the entire end of the cable tightly in thick plastic and taped it.

50' Standard Starlink Gen3 cable on exterior of house ready for connection to Gen3 dish on parked RV

The Starlink cable that connects to the router inside the house is coiled up and hung on a hose bib when not in use. The cable end has a waterproof protective cap and is also wrapped in plastic and taped.

When we get home and park the RV next to the house, we’ll bring the 50′ House Router cable up to the RV roof and screw the end into the cable extender that sticks out from underneath the Starlink dish. The dish will be mounted nice and high in the air (on the RV roof rather than the house roof) and the router will be on a shelf in a bedroom facing the rest of the interior of the house (we’ve tested this and the speeds are great).

We’re very happy with this simple solution that gives us Starlink both at home and on the road.

How Does Starlink Gen 3 Perform in an RV?

Starlink Gen 3 is awesome! Just turn on the inverter and we’ve got fast internet wherever we take our trailer.

How Long Does it Take Starlink Gen 3 to Boot Up?

At most, it takes 5 minutes or so for it to get up and running in the morning. We’re always busy with breakfast and other morning activities anyway, so we don’t even notice the time it takes to boot.

Even when we change locations, we haven’t found that the time lag is more than a few minutes for Starlink to find its satellites and start providing service. Perhaps the longest time has been about 6 or 7 minutes.

How Does Starlink Gen 3 Work When Driving?

We’ve been astonished to be able to use Starlink as we tow the trailer. We turn on the inverter in the trailer and keep it on as we’re driving. Sitting in the truck, my laptop and iPad can connect to the Starlink router in the trailer very easily and I have full internet access at fast speeds anywhere Mark drives.

How Does Starlink Gen 3 Work with Trees and Other Obstructions?

We’ve had no trouble with trees and other obstructions. As long as the dish can see the sky straight above it, it can find the satellites it needs. This is very different than the older Gen 1 and Gen 2 versions of Starlink that required positioning the dish either manually or using the dish’s internal motor.

RV camping in the forest but Starlink still works great!

We had internet download speeds of over 350 Mbps and upload speeds of over 35 Mbps in this spot.
See next pic below!

Speedtest.net results when camped among tall pine trees

Speedtest.net test results on a Thursday morning in the heavily treed campsite pictured above.

Starlink provides an Obstruction Detection system in their app, but we don’t use the app since we don’t have a cell phone and we don’t bother using the iPad very much except for navigation purposes. So, we’ve never tried the Obstruction Detection software.

We’ve been astonished to camp surrounded by tall pine trees and not have any negative impact on our internet service. We’ve been camping among trees a lot more this year than ever before, not on purpose but just because of where we’ve traveled, and Starlink has been great. We did have about 3 minutes of trouble in one heavily treed setting where we were living in full shade all day, but we used Starlink there for a total of maybe 10 hours, so that little blip was not a big deal.

Since we live on solar power, we prefer not to camp in the deep woods anyway. In general, the impact of shade from nearby trees has been far more noticeable on our solar panels this year than on the Starlink dish. (The solar panels have performed really well too, thank goodness!).

How Does Starlink Handle Rain and Storms?

We saw a video of an early version of the Speedmount where the RVer complained that rain pooled on the Starlink dish and it lost its signal until he dried it off. He recommended installing it at an angle.

The Trio Flatmount designers have fixed this issue on the Speedmount and now have weep holes along all four edges of the frame so rain can drain off the dish. We have sat through (way too many) huge rainstorms this summer, several lasting quite a few hours, and we’ve snuggled up inside the rig and used the internet throughout. We have not lost the signal during a storm, and although we haven’t climbed up on the roof to check it, we assume all the rain water has drained out of the weep holes as designed or it wouldn’t have worked during the storms!

Our Speedmount is installed at about a 2 or 3 degree angle because our RV roof isn’t 100% flat. But it is an extremely shallow angle so the weep holes are doing the draining as designed more so than the angle of the Speedmount installation.

Would We Recommend Starlink for an RV?

Yes, 100%. And we’d recommend using the Trio Flatmount Speedmount to install it securely and permanently on your RV roof too.

If you are a part-time RVer like we are now, we’d also recommend swapping between using it for internet access at home as well as on the road the way we are doing.

Of course, if you have a superior or cheaper home internet solution, then this won’t make sense. But if you are like us and your home internet options are limited and expensive, then you can’t beat Starlink even at the higher prices you’ll be paying for the Roaming service during the months when you are living at home.

We envy our neighbors who use Starlink with their much cheaper cost for the Residential equipment (same equipment we have) and cheaper Residential monthly service fee. But we think the flexibility of being able to take Starlink with us wherever our RV wants to go, even if it’s just on a long weekend RV trip close to home, is well worth the extra cost.

When and How to Buy Starlink?

In an effort to expand their customer base, Starlink offers every customer a special promo link they can share with friends to get them to sign up. This link gives the friend a free month of service and also gives the existing customer a free month of service too. A win-win!

Unfortunately, although we had friends who’d encouraged us about Starlink for two years, when we finally pulled the trigger we had no idea they had a special link that could have helped both us and them. So, we didn’t win and neither did they. Darn!

However, if you want to get a free month of service and don’t have a friend with a special link, this is ours and we’d love for you to use it. It takes you to the Residential landing page, but just click the “Roam” button to see the current Roaming equipment and service options.

Get a Free Month of Starlink Service!

If you use this link, please let us know, and thank you very much for the free month of service…we hope you enjoy yours! Once you’ve signed up, you can spread the joy through your own link and/or send friends back to this page for our Starlink RV installation tips!

If you aren’t in a rush to get Starlink, keep an eye on their promotions. When we signed up, the Roaming equipment cost dropped from $499 to $349 and the Roaming monthly cost was $165/month. A week later the new promo was FREE equipment for Residential users who committed to 12 months of Residential service at $120/month. Since we were about to head out on our RV travels for the summer, we sure didn’t want to commit to 12 months of staying at home, but that was a sweet deal for folks who didn’t want to take their Starlink dish on the road!!!

These promo deals change all the time…

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Is Forest River a Good RV? Well Built? Here’s Our Experience

When we told a friend we’d just bought a 2024 Forest River travel trailer (an Arctic Wolf 17CB), he excitedly forwarded us an email he’d received from Warren Buffet’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, that told the story of their acquisition of Forest River.

Forest River sounded like a very special company. Obviously we’d made a great choice with this trailer!

But when we told another friend about our purchase, he exclaimed in horror, “I can’t believe you bought a Forest River! Don’t you know those things are junk? The fresh water tanks fall out of them as you’re driving down the road!”

So, which is it? Are Forest River RVs any good? Are they well made? Are they worth the money?

Here’s our experience with our brand new rig.

Is Forest River a good RV band? Are Forest River trailers well made?

Are Forest River RVs Well Built? Here are our thoughts!

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB travel trailer

Our trailer purchase was unique because we bought a brand new never used trailer from a private owner. He’d traded in his $200k motorhome for the cheapest trailer on an RV dealership lot so he could get his cash out of his motorhome. Then he immediately put his new little trailer up for sale.

When we bought this trailer, we paid a fraction of what a brand new unit would have cost because we didn’t get it from a dealership and the seller really wanted to unload it.

However, because he hadn’t ever intended to use the trailer himself, he skipped doing a thorough and detailed Buyer Walkthrough and simply towed it home.

When he showed it to us, it was apparent he’d never done more than poke his head inside. It had sat on the dealer lot for a few months and prospective customers had looked at it, but other than that typical dealer lot exposure before he bought it, it was the same as it had been the day it left the factory.

So, we got to see in depth what a brand new trailer fresh off the Forest River production line is like when it lands at an RV dealership.

Here’s what we experienced in the first five months of use:

1) Fresh Water Tank Can’t Be Filled

Responsible: Forest River Assembly Line Workers

The first day we had the trailer, Mark put a hose into the gravity fill fresh water intake so he could fill the fresh water tank and test the plumbing systems. Instantly, the water spurted back out at him and soaked him completely.

Fresh water intake on a Forest River RV 2

When Mark put a water hose in this fresh water intake, water gushed all over him!

It turned out the fresh water intake hose didn’t go downhill to the tank the way a gravity fill hose should. Instead, it looped upwards for a foot or so and then back down before going to the fresh water tank. The water from the hose in Mark’s hand couldn’t go uphill, so it spurted back out all over him.

Fresh water intake hose bad installation on a Forest River RV

The white fresh water intake hose goes up for about a foot from the basement and loops over all the other hoses in the bottom of the vanity before going back down below the flooring to the tank.

Obviously, a properly installed fresh water intake hose goes downhill or horizontally all the way from the intake to the tank and doesn’t go uphill at all.

Was this improper installation due to bad training or incompetence? Why didn’t Quality Control catch this incredibly obvious problem?

The intake hose is located below a rat’s nest of water hoses and other things under the bathroom vanity, and it’s very hard to reach, so it was not an easy repair.

It took Mark nearly a day of work to troubleshoot the problem and then fix it. He cut about a foot off the intake hose line and rerouted it to lie below all the other hoses and lines, making sure it had a downward or horizontal slope the whole way to the tank.

Forest River RV removing excess hose ion the fresh water intake line

Mark cut off about a foot of the fresh water intake hose so it would lie flat along the trailer floor.

Forest River RV fresh water intake line rerouted so it can work properly

He re-routed the fresh water intake hose underneath the rat’s nest of other hoses instead of on top of it.

2) None of the electrical outlets worked

Responsible: Forest River Assembly Line Workers

The second day we had the trailer, Mark hooked the trailer up to shore power and plugged his electric razor into a wall outlet to see if the outlet worked. Nope!

It turned out NOT ONE of the wall outlets worked!

This was because they were all wired to the GFI outlet in the bathroom, and that outlet had been wired backwards. The Hot went to the Load rather than the Line.

Forest River RV GFI outlet was wired backwards at the factory

This GFI outlet in the bathroom was wired backwards, so none of the electrical outlets in the trailer worked!

Wow! Had the installer been trained to wire GFI outlets backwards? Or did s/he forget how it’s done? Or was it sabotage by an disgruntled employee? How many RVs did that employee wire backwards? Has that employee learned how to do it correctly yet?

Clearly, Quality Control never bothered to plug something into an electrical outlet in this trailer!

That problem took another few hours for Mark to troubleshoot and fix.

3) Slide-out Adjusted Incorrectly

Responsible: Forest River Assembly Line Workers

Next, we opened the single slide-out for the first time, and just as it finished opening we heard a loud crunch/thud as it jerked into place. Oh dear!

The single slide-out on the trailer uses an Accu-Slide Cable Actuated system that consists of pulleys and chains mounted to the wall above the slide-out behind the fascia board.

Slide-out needs adjusting on a Forest River travel trailer

The Accu-Slide mechanism is behind the fascia board at the top of the slide-out.

The two pulleys move horizontally along the wall parallel to the road in the direction of travel while the slide-out itself moves in and out perpendicular to that. It is considered very ingenious, or even genius.

Accu-Slide adjustment on a Forest River travel trailer

Chains with pulleys move horizontally to move the slide in and out.

However, it must be adjusted very precisely. On the outside of the slide-out the cables should have about 1/2 inch to an inch of play in them. Instead, one cable was sagging by two inches and the other was banjo-string-taught.

Clearly, Forest River didn’t adjust the slide-out mechanisms on this trailer before it was shipped to the deal. The Accu-Slide mechanism was fastened to the wall and that was it.

After some research and studying a slew of videos, Mark figured out how to adjust this Accu-Slide cable mechanism.

He did 3 complete adjustments and spent the better part of two days studying, adjusting, testing and sorting it all out until he could repeatedly bring the slide in and out and retain the correct tension on each exterior cable. It is now adjusted properly and it goes in and out with just a small clunk when it reaches the full Out position.

AccuSlide adjustment on a Forest River RV

Adjusting this Accu-Slide mechanism was not easy and took three full repeats of the process to be 100%.

4) Camco Shower Wand Leaked

Responsible: Camco

Mark then turned on the water in the shower to test it. The shower wand leaked like crazy all over everything. He tried to fix it to no avail. So we bought a replacement.

Oxygenics shower wand leaking

When Mark first turned on the shower the shower wand leaked all over the place and couldn’t be repaired so he bought a replacement.

5) Outdoor Shower Leaked

Responsible: Lippert Components

Next up was the outdoor shower which also turned out to have a leak which Mark fixed.

Leaky Outdoor Shower Wand on a brand new Forest River travel trailer RV

When it was first turned on, the outdoor shower leaked all over the place too.
Forunately, it was repairable.

6) The tankless “instant” hot water is useless unless you have a Sewer Hookup

Reponsible: Forest River Designers

With the basic electrical and plumbing systems finally functional, we took our first weeklong shakedown cruise to a campground at Lake Pleasant, Arizona, that had electrical and water hookups as well as nice bathrooms (just in case!). Our site didn’t have a sewer hookup.

One of the two funky things about this new trailer is it doesn’t have a hot water tank (the other is that it has a 12 volt electric refrigerator). Instead, it has a tankless on-demand “instant” hot water heater.

Rather than heating up a tankful of water before taking a shower or washing dishes, this system heats the water as it flows through the pipe into the sink or shower when you turn on the hot water faucet.

All of our previous RVs had hot water tanks (Fleetwood popup tent trailer, Fleetwood travel trailer, Hitchhiker fifth wheel, Arctic Fox truck camper, Genesis Supreme toy hauler) and they worked just fine.

Tankless hot water heater on a Forest River travel trailer RV

The Forest River Alpha Wolf travel trailers come with a tankless “instant” hot water heater

Unfortunately, we immediately discovered that the tankless “instant” hot water heater is more accurately described as a tankless “eventually” hot water heater. It is anything but instant! A lot of fresh water has to pass through the tankless hot water heater before it gets hot.

The shower, which is right next to the heater, wastes 2 gallons of fresh water as you wait for the hot water to arrive. The kitchen sink which is about 12 feet away from the heater wastes 5 gallons of water.

That’s 9 gallons a day of wasted water for two people taking showers and doing one load of dishes! Never mind washing your face or hands in hot water at other times during the day!

Worse, if you want consistently hot water to flow, you can’t turn the faucet off at all while showering or washing dishes. If you do, you’ll have to waste the same amount of water all over again when you turn the faucet back on.

Ultimately, the tankless hot water heater sends massive amounts of clean fresh water down the sewer drain, either into the RV park’s plumbing system if you have a sewer hookup or into the RV’s gray tank if you don’t.

So, without a sewer hookup, you fill up the gray tank in no time! And that’s what we experienced.

What’s even more unsettling is that when you’re dry camping, every PINT of fresh water you carry is precious and you don’t waste any. So putting all that good fresh water down the gray tank drain is a colossal waste.

In our over 3 thousands nights of boondocking we developed a simple system for heating and using hot water with our hot water tank. We’d heat the water in the tank for 15 minutes once a day which was sufficient for showers and dishes. In all our rigs the water in the hot water tank stayed hot or warm most of the day.

Before showering, we’d put a small sauce pan in the shower and capture the first quart of water that had been sitting in the pipe between the shower and the hot water tank and was still cold. Later on, we’d heat this water on the stove and put it in the sink for dishes. We’d turn the tap to hot (which flowed cold at first) and fill the sink the rest of the way. As we rinsed the dishes, the water in the tap would be warm and then become hot. Super Easy!

Unfortunately, because of the tankless “eventually” hot water heater, we stopped using hot water all together after the first day of that first shakedown cruise. Ugh!!

But what to do longer term with this new trailer? We certainly weren’t going to travel only to campgrounds that had showers!!

Workaround: ShowerMiser Hot Water Heater Product Saves the Day

Replacing this tankless hot water heater with a tank-based system would have been very difficult due to space constraints.

Fortunately, we found a workaround product that Mark installed when we got home, and we both absolutely love it. It’s a ShowerMiser and we’ll be describing the installation and how it works in a future blog post. It’s a simple concept but tricky installation. Fortunately, some RV brands are now installing them at the factory.

The only problem is that it works for just one faucet. So, we have it on the shower but nowhere else. This means we can take hot showers but we don’t have running hot water anywhere else in the rig.

ShowerMiser installation on a Forest River travel trailer RV

Installing a ShowerMiser has made it possible to take a shower in our trailer!
But we can’t use hot water at either the bathroom or kitchen sink or at the outdoor shower.

We’d love to install a second ShowerMiser for the kitchen sink and a third one at the bathroom vanity and a fourth one at the outdoor shower so we could have hot water at each of those faucets. But the installations in those locations are prohibitively difficult.

So, we’ll just travel and live with hot water in the shower but nowhere else. We’re okay with it, but what a huge step backwards from every rig we’ve ever owned, including our 2005 popup tent trailer!

In our opinion, any RV with a tankless hot water system MUST HAVE a factory installed ShowerMiser at each faucet that has a hot water tap if it is to perform equivalently to an RV with a hot water heater.

Even for RVers who stay strictly at RV parks with full hookups, just imagine if every RV in the park had a tankless hot water heater. The amount of the park’s fresh water supply that would be going straight into their sewer would be significant.

For now, we have nice hot showers and we heat water in a sauce pan on the stove for dishes. We rinse our dishes in cold water (yucky in the wintertime) and we have no hot water at the bathroom vanity or the outdoor shower.

That’s pretty primitive living for a brand new 2024 RV!

7) Gray Water Dump Hose Handle Fell Off

Responsible: Forest River Assembly Line Workers

At the end of this trip Mark went to dump the gray water tank at the RV dump station and discovered the handle for the gray tank was gone! We’d towed the trailer over a hundred miles, so it must have fallen off while driving. We bought a new one and Mark used Loctite to screw it on securely. While he was at it, he put Loctite on the black tank handle too.

Looking for silver linings in all this frustration, the original two wastewater tank handles were both black but the new gray tank handle is gray. So now the black tank handle is black and the gray tank handle is gray — easy to distinguish!

Black and Gray water handles on a Forest River travel trailer

The Gray tank handle fell off. We replaced it with a Gray colored handled to color code the two tanks.

8) Nowhere to store a dripping wet RV Sewer Hose

Responsible: Forest River Designers

The rear bumper is presumably designed to hold an RV sewer hose. However, it is too small to hold a modern RV sewer hose with a flange on the end for attaching it to the waste tank valve.

Also, the endcaps on this too-small bumper have a tendency to fall out of the ends. So, Mark used a self-tapping sheet metal screw to hold the endcaps in place.

RV dump hose bumper on a Forest River travel trailer RV

This bumper is too small to hold a sewer hose and the endcaps fall off while driving.
So Mark screwed each one in place.

9) Massive Water Leaks in the Basement

Responsible: Lippert Components, Inc.

Now that we could use hot water in the trailer, we went on our Second Shakedown Cruise for 5 days at Canyon Lake Marina RV Park near Phoenix. This campground had electric and water hookups but no sewer hookups, so we could test the ShowerMiser.

Before we even tried the ShowerMiser at the campground, Mark filled the fresh water tank because we planned to run off the tank and refill it from the water hookup if necessary.

Suddenly, a puddle of water began to grow on the ground right by the tankless hot water heater. Mark took the cover off, and the basement compartment where the heater was installed was full of water.

After sopping up the mess, he discovered that as long as we had the water pump turned on or were connected to city water, the water heater would flood the floor under the vanity with water. If we turned off the water pump or disconnected from city water the leak stopped.

So… we camped for 3 nights and 2 days without using any water in the rig at all except what we’d brought in drinking water containers. We’d turn the water pump on very briefly to flush the toilet and that was it for water use. We used paper plates and brushed our teeth with bottled water. It was awkward and dirty living for a fancy new RV.

We ended up canceling our final 2 nights at the RV park. Why spend good money on a park when you can’t even rinse out your coffee cup without causing a flood in the bathroom? The campground had a strict no refund policy but we persuaded them to bend the rules a smidge due to our mechanical failure.

The tankless hot water heater is a Lippert product, and once we got home, Mark tried working with Lippert’s Tech Support on the phone. However, after several phone calls and submitting multiple photos of the problem area, he was getting nowhere.

So, we called a local mobile RV tech who got it fixed in a few hours. The problem was two cracked O-rings deep inside the heater. They were impossible to reach without removing the hot water heater from the rig all together.

$220 later along with two perfectly sized O-rings that Mark had in his collection, we could now turn on the water pump or connect to city water and not have water leaks fill the basement with water. Yay!

The RV tech commented that when he’d worked at an RV dealership, they would have replaced the whole hot water heater rather than troubleshoot the problem and find the broken o-rings inside. They would have done this whether the trailer was under warranty or not, and it would have been a very expensive repair.

10) Insufficient Solar Power

Responsible: Forest River Designers

Now that we’d fixed the huge water leak in the hot water heater, we returned to Canyon Lake for our third Shakedown cruise to use the last 2 days of the reservation we’d canceled and then move on to camp at one of our favorite places, Roosevelt Lake, which is all dry camping with no hookups.

This trip went well.

At Roosevelt Lake we used the Honda Generator because the 200 watts of factory installed solar power on the roof wasn’t enough to boondock for more than 24 hours at a time due to the 10 cubic-foot 12 volt refrigerator.

200 Watt factory installed solar power system on a Forest River travel trailer RV

The 200 watts of factory installed solar power are enough to keep the refrigerator working while underway but not enough to live on AND use the fridge for more than a day.

We knew that ahead of time and were pleasantly surprised that using the generator for two hours or so a day gave us plenty of power and supplemented the small solar power system very well.

When we returned home we installed a large solar power system which gave us all the power we need to boondock indefinitely and will describe that installation in a future blog post.

11) Three Water Leaks in the Bathroom

Responsible: Forest River Designers

Now that we were fully set up for dry camping, we took our 4th Shakedown Cruise and spent 8 days at one of our favorite spots, a dry camping campground called Bonito Campground outside Flagstaff Arizona. This is where had a wonderful surprise visit by a pair of camels and a guy wearing a Civil War officer’s uniform!!

We wanted to test the solar power system to see if it was sufficient for our off-grid RV lifestyle with that big electric fridge. It worked beautifully even though the panels were shaded for about 3 hours a day. It was late May, a few weeks from the summer solstice, so the days were long and the sun was high in the sky — ideal for solar power.

However, after washing our hands and doing a few dishes on the first day when we got to the campground, we noticed the water pump was “grunting” periodically when no water was running.

We listened to this for a while and determined it wasn’t just the elevation change (3,000’ to 7,500’). It was a water leak somewhere.

It actually turned out to be 3 water leaks!! Each one was at a junction between two water hoses under the bathroom vanity and below the shower.

Forest River uses pex cinch clamp rings to connect water lines together and some of the water lines are joined in places that are impossible to reach after the appliances have been installed.

When RVs are built, all the wiring, plumbing and conduit runs are put in place first before the appliances are installed, so it is common for important things to be in places you can’t reach without extraordinary effort.

If the designers planned ahead for repairs and used higher quality fittings, leaks would be less common and would be easier to fix. Our beloved sailboat had two stainless steel hose clamps on every water pipe junction. You don’t want water leaks when you’re in the middle of the ocean!

The first two leaks were fairly accessible and Mark fixed them within an hour. The third leak was underneath the shower stall in the far back corner. Worse, it was behind the shower drain tube, virtually out of sight and out of reach.

Somehow Mark managed to get his arm under the drain tube and replace the fitting with a hose clamp. But when he tightened it, it began to twist and became impossible to tighten completely.

Shower leak under the shower pan on a Forest River travel trailer RV

The leak under the shower pan was below the far back corner. Mark had to squeeze his hand underneath the drain pipe and then blindly feel for the broken connector, replace it and tighten it. No small feat!

So, because he couldn’t tighten it all the way while were out camping, we had a slow leak throughout that shakedown cruise. For a full week we turned on the water pump only when we needed water and turned it off immediately to avoid getting a pool of water under the shower pan. After turning off the water pump, we’d “burp” one of the faucets to make sure there was no pressure on the leaky fitting. This was an inconvenience, but we lived with it.

When we got home Mark put another hour or two into fixing that water leak. He came up with a creative way to make an extension rod that could reach the fitting and fortunately was able to tighten it. So far it seems to be holding. Yay!

12) Entry Stairs Don’t Work on Unlevel Ground

Responsible: Lippert Designers

This trailer came with fold-down entry steps that are now found on most trailers. While these are much more solid underfoot than the older style flip-out stairs of yesteryear, they require some forethought when parking.

There are three stairs on our step system and they stick out enough from the trailer that you have to ensure there’s space by the trailer for them to touch down. When we were camping at Bonito Campground we were in a very narrow site and there was about a one foot drop right in the spot where the stair supports needed to be. We had to stack several blocks under the feet in order to set up the stairs. Ironically, we moved campsites after a few days and had the exact same problem in the second campsite!

They also rattle a lot while traveling. We’ve tried wedging things in to make them stop wiggling but haven’t found the right solution yet.

Lippert Solid Step RV Entry Stairs on Uneven Ground - Yikes!

The stairs could not reach the ground and required several blocks stacked up the feet.

Smaller problems and inconveniences

Responsible: Forest River Designers and Assembly Line Installers

Those were the major problems the trailer has had in its first four trips. However, there were lots of other little things that cropped up too.

– Not enough Dicor was used on the roof skylight installation and there were some big rain water leaks waiting to happen. Mark went over everything on the roof and added a big dollop of Dicor wherever needed

— Forest River has begun leaving certain items off their new trailers. This trailer did not come with a dump hose, a TV or a ladder to the roof even though it has a walk-on roof.

There is a sticker on an interior wall indicating that’s where to hang a TV. There is also a backing plate on the back exterior of the trailer for installing a roof access ladder which Lippert makes.

We bought a dump hose. We don’t watch TV. We’re making do with a household extension ladder at home and taking a telescoping ladder with us on the road. I sure miss the ladder on the back that is permanently attached and is so easy to climb at a moment’s notice.

— The water pump is installed in such a way underneath the rat’s nest of hoses below the vanity that it makes a massive racket whenever it runs. We haven’t yet decided how to dampen the noise.

— All four trailer tires and the spare were low on air. This is to be expected on a unit that sat on the dealer lot for a long time but during a Buyer Walkthrough it is worth insisting the tires be pumped up to spec.

— All the wheel lugs were loose. Again, if the trailer were new from a dealer they should be tightened before you tow it off the lot.

So… Does Forest River Build Quality RVs?

With all the catastrophic failures, it would be easy to call our trailer a lemon, but in reality I think it’s a pretty typical trailer.

I suspect that every Indiana-made RV brand arrives at the dealerships with similar types of problems, and we’ve had plenty of experts who are “in the know” tell us that is the case.

One quipped, “If it’s 80% functional, then it’s ready to ship to the dealer.” So, that’s the goal: 80% operational.

While we were going through all of this, a friend of ours who has a new Airstream told us his trailer was in the shop at that very moment for warranty repairs. Even though his rig probably cost two or three times what ours did, he’d experienced much the same misery.

Crazier still, he had a friend with a new Tiffin motorhome who’d also gone through the wringer with ridiculous numbers of stupid problems even though that motorhome probably cost three times what his Airstream did.

So, the kind of quality we all might hope for when buying a new RV is completely missing across many brands, no matter what the price point.

All the responsibility for getting the unavoidable repairs taken care of falls on the Buyer/Owner, and the best time to get them done is while you’re still a Buyer and not yet an Owner!

When doing a Buyer Walkthrough on a new rig at a dealership, it’s a good idea to insist you see water successfully going into the fresh water tank, make sure the black and gray water handles are attached securely, verify all the electrical outlets work, heat a mug of water in the microwave, put a thermometer in the fridge, test all the faucets and shower wands plus the hot water system, air conditioner, furnace, stove burners, etc., not to mention verifying everything on the roof and the windows are sufficiently sealed from the elements.

The dealership may want to hustle you out the door, but until you sign the papers and transform from a Buyer into an Owner, all the power is in your hands. After that you have to take your turn in line for service and live without your rig while it’s in the shop or tackle the repairs yourself.

Why Are RVs Built So Poorly?

I think it boils down to two things.

1) Speed vs Quality

We’ve toured many RV factories (Fleetwood, Northwood Arctic Fox, KZ Durango, Keystone Raptor, Jayco Highland Ridge, Thor Heartland, NuWa Hitchhiker) and we were told time and again that the trailers are built in 2.5 to 3 days. That’s pretty quick for throwing together a rolling house, and each factory was very proud of their speed.

So, the goal is speed, and assembly line workers (and perhaps the Quality Control inspectors and repair people) are measured by how fast they complete their jobs, not by how well their jobs are done.

We’ve also toured two super high end custom manufacturers (Space Craft and Luxe) as well as a tiny tear drop trailer manufacturer (Escapod) and a tiny travel trailer factory (Casita), and those factory environments were completely different.

Their whole focus was on quality, not speed of manufacture. Things like wiring and plumbing lines were proudly shown off for their tidiness and organization, and at Casita we watched a trailer standing under a torrent of water being tested for water leaks. However, trailers at those first two top-of-the-line brands take weeks to build and they exceed most RVers’ budgets.

And even being super high end, we spoke with customers at both of those plants who’d returned to the factory for warranty repairs. They each had a long list too. Apparently, no RV is immune to that!

2) RV Manufacturers are not RVers

I think the other primary reason RVs are built so poorly is that the manufacturing executives are not RVers themselves.

When I wrote for Trailer Life Magazine, I published three different articles surveying all the toy haulers, full-time quality and weekender quality fifth wheel trailers that were on the market at the time. As part of my research for those articles, we met with executives at several well known RV manufacturers while we were in Indiana.

As a lark, I asked each executive we met, “So what kind of RV do you have?’

I expected they might own the brand they sell so they would know their own product line on an intimate level. Or perhaps they’d own a competitor’s brand for market research purposes. Or perhaps, like NuWa (Hitchhiker) used to do, the company had a few of their own products available for employees to use. They could take these rigs out on weekends for fun and also educate themselves and come home with valuable feedback.

However, only one executive out of half a dozen we met in person and another dozen I spoke to on the phone currently owned an RV…or had ever owned an RV for that matter!

The most common answers I got from these RV executives were:

“My wife doesn’t like RVing.”
“We prefer flying to distant vacation destinations because we don’t have time to drive there.”
“We go overseas (or to the tropics) for all our vacations.”

This explains a lot about the failures in the RV manufacturing industry.

One wonderful exception to all this was an RV designer I corresponded with who worked on the Forest River Cherokee brand (which is the brand our Alpha Wolf is part of).

He was not a top flight executive in the corporate ranks but was the designer of a small toy hauler that I thought was a particularly clever layout. I asked him what kind of RV he owned, and he said he owned that trailer! So, he not only designed it but he went camping with it too.

No wonder it was such a great design!

RV Manufacturers are “Assemblers” more than “Manufacturers”

In the end, RVs are complicated little rolling homes and RV manufacturers are more “assemblers” than true “manufacturers.”

RV manufacturers install a bunch of products made by other companies into a rolling box. The walls, ceilings, ductwork, wiring and plumbing are their purview, but all the appliances and systems we rely on in the RV life are made by third parties.

Interestingly, in most cases, the “other companies” are actually just “one company,” that is, Lippert Components, Inc. Just about everything in an RV, from trailer frames to windows and doors to kitchen and bathroom appliances to climate control systems to entry stairs and toy hauler ramp doors, is made by Lippert.

There are other component manufacturers out there, but Lippert’s products are always cheaper and generally not as good. So, more often than not, RV designers choose Lippert’s products over the competition to save on costs.

Also, if a new company creates a clever new product, Lippert frequently buys the company out and suddenly every RV has one. Then they find shortcuts and material/component alternatives to make the product cheaper to produce.

Lippert can be very aggressive with pushing their products as well. One executive told us they deeply discount their products when sold in bundles, so if the manufacturer wants a specific item, it’s often most cost effective to take the whole bundle even if there are products in the bundle they’d rather not use.

I asked an executive of an RV component company that has all the skills and manufacturing capability to build superior trailer frames why they didn’t get into that business. He said it would be impossible to compete against Lippert which virtually owns the trailer frame market (with a few notable exceptions).

We saw first-hand the strong arm tactics Lippert uses in the industry when we attended a horse trailer dealership owner’s gathering in Oklahoma. A Lippert rep was demonstrating a new landing leg system for horse trailers to a group of dealership owners. One fellow in a cowboy hat said with a casual drawl, “That will never fly with my customers. They wouldn’t like that one bit!” The young and eager rep’s response was, with a laugh, “Just shove it down their throats!”

Fortunately for the deep pocketed buyer, higher end RVs are typically built with fewer Lippert components and the highest end fully custom RVs openly eschew Lippert products all together.

So, to a large extent, all brands of mass market RVs are essentially the same because they are just assemblies of identical components. The difference could be the care with which the components are installed, but if every company measures its assembly line workers by how fast they do the job-because time is money-then they’ll all have the same problems with quality.

Years ago, we traded in our “lower end” year-old Fleetwood travel trailer for a “higher end” Hitchhiker fifth wheel that cost over twice as much.

We were astonished to look around the interior of our new rig and realize that almost all the appliances were the exact same models as the ones we’d had in our cheaper trailer.

So, Are Forest River RVs Well Built?

Given all this, I think the answer is a resounding, “No.”

However, from what we’ve seen at the RV factories, RV dealerships and in talking to other RVers, Forest River trailers aren’t significantly worse…or better…than the competition. No matter how much money you spend on an RV, failures of some kind are pretty much guaranteed.

The bottom line is that if you like traveling by RV, then dealing with failures is just part of the picture. And if you can’t afford a fully custom RV, then generally shoddy construction is to be expected, with few exceptions.

However, people like ourselves who love RVing will continue buying and owning these poorly built mass market rigs because, well, RVing is a great way to travel and explore! And for us, in the end, the fun outweighs the hassle (and Mark can fix almost everything)!

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2024 Alpha Wolf 17CB Trailer – Our Goldilocks RV!

After our big beautiful Ram diesel truck gave up the ghost in May 2024 right before our summer RV travels, we sold our 2022 Genesis Supreme toy hauler and quit RVing. Just like that!

It was a bitter blow to turn our backs on a lifestyle we loved, and it took a few months to adjust to the idea. After all, we’d been just weeks away from a summer of RV travel adventures when we walked away from it all!

But we’d had it with modern diesel trucks and were ecstatic to trade in our now unreliable 2016 Ram 3500 for a trusty little gas powered 2021 Toyota Tundra. It couldn’t tow a big fifth wheel trailer, but it was perfect for hauling a tent.

Above all else, we didn’t want to make an investment in an RV until we’d thought it all over for a good long time. We were willing to think it all over for as many years as necessary!

Periodically we’d notice a trailer for sale on a street corner or we’d peruse the online ads for various types of rigs, but we had no inclination to do any serious RV shopping. The tent was just fine for now…or forever.

As time went on, though, we really began to miss having a rolling weekend getaway home. We began talking about small trailers the Tundra could tow comfortably. We even took a very long look at an ad for a barely used popup tent trailer. But for some reason we didn’t pick up the phone to go see it.

And then, on the very last day of 2024 — New Year’s Eve — everything changed.

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17 CB Travel Trailer RV

Our cute new digs.

Mark had noticed an ad in Craigslist for a small, “NEW” and “NEVER USED” pre-owned trailer.

Huh? How could a “pre-owned” trailer be “new” and “never used” ??

He contacted the seller to see if it was a scam or if it was being sold by a dealership. No, it was for real and the seller was a private party who’d towed it home from the dealership a few months ago and never used it!

In Arizona there is no sales tax levied on private sales of used vehicles, so buying from a private seller would be very advantageous.

I shrugged it all off, though. I was standing by our strategy of waiting to get back into RVing…indefinitely, if need be!

But on New Year’s Eve morning, Mark said, “Hey, we’ve got nothing going on today. Why don’t we go kick the tires on that trailer I saw in Craigslist?”

Aw heck…it was a beautiful sunny day…why not?! So, the three of us hopped into the Tundra and drove 100 miles to take a look at it.

As soon as we stepped inside, we were smitten. It was perfect!!

The funny thing is we’d had no idea what “perfect” was before we opened the door of this trailer. But we knew this trailer was it when we saw it!

Within an hour we were signing papers.

We drove home in shocked silence. We’d had no idea when we woke up that morning that we’d be buying a trailer that afternoon. But we sure were getting 2025 off to a great start!

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17C Travel Trailer RV & 2021 Toyota Tundra truck

One of our first shakedown cruises to Canyon Lake.

This trailer is a 2024 Forest River Arctic Wolf 17CB travel trailer. It’s 23’ long end-to-end and it has a single slide-out.

It has an open floor plan with a walk-around queen bed, super comfy wall hugging theater seat recliners, a small but functional kitchen and a big enough bathroom to do what ya gotta do comfortably.

It’s light and airy inside and has a pass-through basement compartment underneath.

Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Floor Plan

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB. In our unit the dinette was upgraded to theater seats. More details here.

The biggest surprise, though, was that it has many features of a much larger trailer despite its small size.

It stands on two axles and has a cargo carrying capacity of nearly 2,400 lbs. Yet it’s GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) is only about 7,000 lbs., a weight the Tundra can handle, even in the mountains (its “limit” is 12,000 lbs.). It can carry 81 gallons of fresh water, has a whopping 10 cubic foot refrigerator and a 15,000 btu air conditioner.

These large capacities are not at all typical in small and lightweight travel trailers!

Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Specs

Basic specs for the 2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB. More details here.

But was it really “new” and “unused” ?? The seller had an interesting story.

He’d owned a huge $200,000+ motorhome outright and wanted to get the cash out of it quickly. But he’d had trouble selling it. It occurred to him that it would be a whole lot easier to unload a super cheap and small travel trailer.

He’d been a car salesman at a big name dealership for 25 years, so buying and selling vehicles was old hat for him.

He traded in the motorhome at an RV dealership for one of the smallest brand new trailers on their lot. He got his cash out of the motorhome, and he also avoided paying sales tax because his net outlay on the transaction was negative (he’d already paid sales tax on the motorhome when he bought it).

All he had to do now was sell the little trailer.

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17C Travel Trailer RV & 2021 Toyota Tundra truck

The Tundra and the Alpha Wolf 17CB make a nice and tidy little package.

We lucked out because he did all this during the holidays and he had more trouble selling the trailer than he’d expected. By the time we came along, he was so thrilled to get out from under it that he happily let it go for a song. We were equally thrilled to find such a cute little brand new trailer at a bargain basement price. Win-win!

Best of all, it’s homey and cozy but has enough space for the three of us to move around without crowding each other.

Come on inside and have a look around!

Welcome into our 2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

Welcome to our new digs!

When you walk in, the kitchen is on the right (passenger’s side), the bed is up front and the recliners are on the left. It’s surprisingly spacious!

Interior of our 2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

It’s an open but compact layout.

The kitchen is small but it has everything we need, including an oven, which we might use if we’re out for a while and Mark gets a hankering to make muffins or banana bread!!

The microwave is a wonderfully small low energy unit, drawing just 900 watts. It is hard to find a modern RV that has a low wattage microwave like this, as most are residential size and draw 1,500 to 1,800 watts. But this little guy is perfect for warming a small plate of food which is all we’ll ever use it for.

There are only two upper cabinets for our pantry and dishware. However, there are three full-size drawers for everything from eating and cooking utensils to office supplies like pens, paper, scissors and other goodies.

There’s also a very large cabinet under the sink that can hold 9 one-gallon bottles of drinking water. We like carrying our drinking water this way and storing it on the floor of a lower cabinet.

Kitchen in the 2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

The kitchen storage is modest but we’ve found it is plenty adequate for the three of us.

The bed is a walk-around queen. The mattress is 80 inches long but the platform under it is actually the length of a short queen (75 inches) or perhaps an inch or two longer. The mattress is firm enough that it doesn’t flex a whole lot at the foot end even though it is unsupported there.

“Walk-around” is a little bit of wishful thinking because the bedside tables (which are actually the ceiling and walls of the basement below) stick out far enough that it’s a challenge to tuck anything in along the top of the bed unless, perhaps, you’re over 6′ tall! But it’s good enough if you aren’t super fussy about how beautifully the bed is made!

There are closets on either side of the bed with hanging space for shirts and jackets. Above the head of the bed there are three doors that open to a single upper cabinet that runs the width of the trailer.

2024 Queen bed in the Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

Each side of the bed has a closet and a drawer.
The cabinet above the bed runs the whole width of the trailer.

The earlier editions of this trailer a few years ago came with a window at the head of the bed. Many small trailers are built with windows like that and it really makes the interior bright and gives you a cool view of the stars while lying in bed.

However, some people—including a friend of ours—have had the nasty experience of a rock flying up and breaking the front window on their trailer when it was being towed. For our friend, the expense was covered by the trailer’s factory warranty, but the time lost to repairing their new trailer was frustrating.

The wall hugging theater seat recliners stole the show for us. If anything clinched the deal, it was when we both sat down in those chairs. They are super comfortable!!

For us, being able to relax completely in a comfortable recliner at the end of the day is really important.

We had recliners in our full-timing fifth wheel and we actually went through two different pairs of wonderful recliners during our 12 years of living in that RV. We loved being able to come home, kick back and put our feet up, and chat with each other about that day’s adventures or mess around on our laptops.

2024 Theater Seats Recliner in the Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

The theater seat wall hugging recliners clinched the deal.

We didn’t have recliners in any of our other rigs besides our full-timing fifth wheel — not in our popup tent trailer which we owned before full-timing, nor in our 27’ Lynx travel trailer that we used for our first year of full-timing. We didn’t have recliners in either of the rigs we used part-time after ending our full-time travels either…these were a truck camper and a fifth wheel toy hauler.

And we really really missed them in those rigs!!

It is possible to sit sideways in a dinette and put your feet up in front of you, but it’s awkward and not relaxing. We did that in the truck camper and Lynx travel trailer, but it wasn’t great.

Our toy hauler’s Euro Chairs could recline a little bit, but they weren’t anything like truly cushy recliners. Toy hauler furniture has to be easily moved, and we tried replacing those chairs with gravity chairs and thick cushions, but they were hard to lock into position so they’d stay at the right reclining angle. The arms weren’t cushioned either and the chairs were uncomfortable for sitting with a laptop in your lap.

But these wall huggers in our new trailer are absolutely fabulous.

It’s embarrassing to say, but we almost feel like we’re towing around a pair of recliners. The rest of the trailer is just icing on the cake!

2024 Theater seat Recliners in the Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

We’ve sat in a lot of recliners and these are among the most comfortable!

We aren’t the only ones who love the recliners. Buddy loves them too, especially my side.

Fortunately, the bed is a perfect height for him to spread out and still be part of the scene with us near his eye level. So there’s a place for each of us to relax.

2024 Sharing the Recliners in the Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

Buddy claims my side of the twin recliners.

Dog on the Recliners in the 2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

“Mine… Don’t even think about it!”

As you can see, the kitchen is compact. However, it works better than the L-kitchen did in the big fifth wheel toy hauler. There’s a flip down top for the stove and a slotted insert for the sink that extends the counter space so we can stand side by side and not get in each other’s way.

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV Kitchen

We can maneuver side by side without crowding each other

Hmmm…Buddy wants to show you what’s in the bathroom!

Who's there in the 2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

“Hi Dada! Can we come in too?”

There is a big stall shower, toilet and vanity. It’s funny, not all stall showers are the same. This one has a long wide shelf for soap, shampoo, razors, etc., that’s very convenient. It also seems larger than some other stall showers.

Bathroom in the 2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer RV

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There are two things in the trailer that gave us pause, though. But we decided they weren’t deal breakers and thought we might actually appreciate them in the long run.

One is that gargantuan 10 cubic foot 12 volt refrigerator. Sure, plenty of RVs have full size 110 volt residential fridges that are 18 to 22 cubic feet. But we’ve always had a propane fridge that was 8 cubic feet or less, and even though one had to be replaced, they’ve worked well enough and not put any demands on our solar power system.

We like to boondock and were off grid about 98% of the time when we were full-timers. An electric fridge will require a lot of solar power to support it. So, we’ll have a much bigger solar power system than any we’ve had before, yet we have less roof space than ever before too!

The other thing we weren’t crazy about is the “instant” hot water heater. I had an “instant” hot water heater in a liveaboard sailboat in the mid-1990s, and all I can say is that we never had hot water at the kitchen sink even though it was located just two feet away.

You had to waste precious water while it ran cold until it finally heated up, and if you turned the faucet on and off while you did dishes or took a shower, it wasted even more water as it went from cold to hot every time you turned the faucet back on. Frankly, I hated that thing.

While we would have been perfectly happy with an 8 cubic foot propane refrigerator and a 6 gallon hot water heater, that’s not how this trailer or many other 2024/2025 small trailers are being built.

So, we decided to take a “wait and see” attitude…and hope we could fit enough panels on the roof to satisfy the fridge and hope that “instant” hot water systems have improved over the last 30 years!

Let’s head outside again and have a look at the exterior once more.

We got a lovely shot of the trailer at sunset and then another at sunrise!

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17C Travel Trailer RV

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2024 Alpha Wolf 17CB

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We feel a little Like Goldilocks and the three bears with this trailer! When she entered their house, the papa bear’s porridge was too hot, the mama’s too cold and the baby bear’s porridge just right. Then when she sat it their chairs, the papa bear’s chair was too hard, the mama bear’s was too soft but the baby bear’s chair one was just right!

Since we moved out of our full-timing fifth wheel back in 2020, we’ve tried several different types of RVs.

The truck camper turned out to be too small and cramped (among other things).

The toy hauler ended up being too big and ungainly (among other things).

But this new Alpha Wolf 17CB travel trailer may be just right.

We’ve taken it on a few shakedown cruises and have MUCH to report about how those went.

Hint: It wasn’t until the THIRD shakedown cruise that all the systems were fully operational (YIKES!). We even had to cut the second journey short and head home earlier than planned because of a catastrophic failure!! (YIKES AGAIN!!). But we’re still smiling about this trailer because it’s just right!

We’ll have more on our shakedown cruise (mis)adventures coming up!

2024 Forest River Alpha Wolf 17CB Travel Trailer

Our second shakedown cruise was fun but had to be cut short!!

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Reese Goose Box Review: 20K Gen 3 TESTED + How to Hitch

This page is a review of the Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3. We’ve used ours for over a year and tested it thoroughly towing our 15,000 lb. Genesis Supreme toy hauler over 2,000 miles of varied terrain that included mountains, back roads, interstates, switchbacks and dirt roads. If you’re curious how to hitch and unhitch a Reese Goose Box, we’ve included some tips and tricks we’ve found make it as easy or easier than a traditional fifth wheel hitch!

This hitch is essentially a replacement for the original kingpin that came with the trailer. So, you remove the original kingpin and replace it with the Reese Goose Box. The beauty of the Reese Goose Box is that it hitches to a gooseneck ball in the truck bed, eliminating the need for a fifth wheel hitch all together and freeing up the truck bed completely when you’re not towing!

We paired the Reese Goose Box with a B&W gooseneck ball that is designed for the Dodge Ram OEM puck system (we have a 2016 Dodge Ram 3500 long bed dually truck).

Reese Goose Box Review 20k Gen 3 Tested + how to hitch and unhitch

What do we think of the Reese Goose Box after towing with it for 2,000 miles over the course of a year?
Read on and find out!

For over a year now, we’ve towed our trailer on all kinds of roads, including freeways, secondary roads, around tight winding switchbacks and on very lumpy, bumpy, potholed dirt roads on our way to remote boondocking locations. We’ve also climbed up and over several towering Colorado mountain passes, including Monarch Pass, Hoosier Pass and Slumgullion Pass (twice!), each of which is more than 11,300’ in elevation.

The Reese Goose Box has performed flawlessly everywhere. The ride is much smoother than any fifth wheel hitch we’ve ever used, and it’s easy to hitch and unhitch.

Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch - How to hitch and unhitch

The Reese Goose Box replaced the original kingpin that came with our trailer.

We installed Reese Goose Box on our trailer ourselves, just the two of us. It was intimidating but it wasn’t difficult, despite the heavy weight of the original king pin and the even heavier weight of the Reese Goose Box. (There’s a trick to it!)

However, before we describe that process and present our step-by-step installation method (in a future post), we wanted to explain why the Reese Goose Box is so unique and also show you how to hitch and unhitch a trailer so you can see exactly how it works.

How to Hitch and Unhitch the Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch

The 20K Reese Goose Box is rated to tow up to 20,000 lbs.

Here are some shortcuts for this article:

 

WHY A REESE GOOSE BOX?

We’ve been towing fifth wheel trailers around for 15 years now, and we’ve used a variety of fifth wheel hitches made by Pullrite, B&W and Demco.

While each one was a fine hitch with certain great advantages, the drawback with any fifth wheel hitch is that when you aren’t towing a trailer, the bed of the truck is occupied by a large and heavy fifth wheel hitch.

It is awkward to remove the hitch, even a lighter weight one (as we discovered with our Demco hitch), and it’s all too easy to avoid this chore and simply leave the hitch in the truck bed indefinitely. Unfortunately, with the hitch in there, you lose the use of the truck bed except for hauling smaller items that fit around the hitch!

Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 - how to hitch and unhitch

With the Reese Goose Box there is no need to have a fifth wheel hitch in the bed of the truck.

When we were full-time RVers, we didn’t need the truck bed except for carrying whatever we used in that lifestyle: spare water jugs, patio mat and chairs, portable generator, bbq, etc.

However, now that we RV seasonally, we wanted to have the full use of our truck bed during the off-season when we’re at home. It’s no fun hauling plants, soil, mulch and lumber in the trunk of a passenger car or trying to fit those things around a fifth wheel hitch.

How to Hitch and Unhitch the Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3

The “business side” of the Reese Goose Box is the driver’s side with the locking lever and air bag status window clearly visible (more on those important items below!).

By using a gooseneck style hitch instead of a fifth wheel hitch, all you need in the truck bed is a gooseneck ball and gooseneck receiver. The gooseneck receiver can be a factory installed OEM puck system or can be an after-market installation. What an easy way to free up the truck bed!

For this reason, some people switch out their fifth wheel kingpin for a gooseneck hitch. However, that puts a lot of strain on the fifth wheel trailer frame (fifth wheels are a lot taller than horse trailers…), and fifth wheel manufacturers advise against it.

Unlike a gooseneck hitch which has a long vertical lever arm that creates strain on the frame as it sways back and forth, the profile of the Reese Goose Box is angled and shaped like an ordinary fifth wheel kingpin. That reduces the strain on the frame significantly.

We were surprised to learn that the Reese Goose Box is the only gooseneck style hitch that Lippert Components Inc. has approved for use with their fifth wheel frames. I spoke to a Lippert sales rep to verify this, and he stated that, unlike other gooseneck style hitches, the use of a Reese Goose Box does not void the warranty on a Lippert fifth wheel frame. Like most fifth wheel trailers, our Genesis Supreme 28CRT toy hauler is built on a Lippert frame.

Obviously, many things can ultimately contribute to the failure of a fifth wheel frame, so I have no idea how that would play out in the event of the frame developing a crack. But it’s an impressive endorsement.

In our research, we came across some comments on the internet asserting that of course Lippert Components endorses the Reese Goose Box because they own Reese Products! However I looked into it, and that’s not true. Reese’s parent company, Horizon Global, was purchased by First Brands in early 2023, and neither Horizon Global nor First Brands is related to Lippert Components.

We have the 3rd generation of the Reese Goose Box that is rated to tow a 20,000 lb. Trailer. The Gen 3 version of the Goose Box was released in the Fall of 2022.

Reese Goosebox
Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 hitch as seen from behind the truck

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We decided to pair it with the B&W gooseneck ball designed for the Ram truck OEM puck system on our 2016 Dodge Ram 3500 long bed dually. This gooseneck ball is a very nifty piece of gear with a huge handle. You can easily latch the gooseneck ball into the gooseneck receiver in the truck bed and also pull it back out using that handle rather than grabbing the ball itself with your hands.

B&W Gooseneck Ball and Safety Chain Kit

The B&W Gooseneck Ball and Safety Chain Kit fits in a cool suitcase.
The actual chains themselves are sold separately.

That may seem unimportant until you’ve actually lubed up the gooseneck ball and used it a few times! It’s much nicer to use a big handle to pull the gooseneck ball out of the truck bed rather than grab the greasy ball itself! We would have used this gooseneck ball with our Demco 21k Recon fifth wheel hitch, but the handle got in the way of the hitch.

B&W Gooseneck Ball for Ram Trucks

The B&W OEM gooseneck ball kit also comes with two safety chain anchors that get inserted into the OEM puck system on a pickup. These are used to secure the safety chains (which are not part of the kit — we got the safety chains separately here).

Reese Goosebox Safety Chains

 

HOW TO HITCH UP A TRAILER USING A REESE GOOSE BOX

REESE GOOSE BOX vs. FIFTH WHEEL HITCHING PROCEDURES

Hitching up a trailer using a fifth wheel hitch involves backing the truck (and its fifth wheel hitch) into the trailer’s king pin. It is a horizontal movement of the truck, and the connection locks in place once the truck has backed the hitch into the kingpin.

Hitching up a trailer using the Reese Goose Box involves lowering the trailer’s kingpin (the Goose Box) onto a gooseneck ball in the bed of the truck. It is a vertical movement of the trailer’s kingpin that is controled by the trailer’s landing jack leveling system. The connection locks in place once the Reese Goose Box is completely lowered onto the ball.

So, the hitching technique is quite different for each type of hitch.

ALIGNMENT: LEFT to RIGHT (DRIVER’S SIDE/PASSENGER’S SIDE)

With a fifth wheel hitch, we always found we had some room for error in aligning everything from right to left (driver’s side / passenger’s side) due to the shape of the fifth wheel hitch jaws.

If we backed the truck up so the fifth wheel hitch was slightly misaligned with the kingpin, the jaws of the hitch would catch the kingpin anyway and still make the connection and lock the two together.

However, with the Reese Goose Box, if the truck is slightly off, the kingpin will lower down and hit the top of the gooseneck ball and stop right there rather than slipping over the gooseneck ball as it is lowered into the locked position.

Where we could always “eyeball” the left/right alignment when backing up the truck with a fifth wheel hitch, we now use a small telescoping magnetic pole with a bright yellow ball on top to get a perfect alignment between the Reese Goose Box and the gooseneck ball.

Amazingly, that little pole makes this process a cinch!

I place the magnetic pole directly in front of the gooseneck ball and then Mark uses the pole to align the truck and Reese Goose Box side to side as he backs up.

How to hitch and unhitch the Reese Goose Box with a magnetic telescoping alignment pole

Put the magnetic telescoping pole directly in front of the gooseneck ball

Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch - How to hitch and unhitch

This simple little device makes it possible to be precise when backing up the truck.

We have the two Ram OEM backup cameras in the truck, but Mark finds them inadequate for this job and he prefers to use the magnetic telescoping pole with the ball on top.

He then backs up the truck until the kingpin hits the magnetic telescoping pole and tilts it forward.

How to hitch and unhitch the Reese Goose Box Gen 3

The magnetic pole helps the driver align the gooseneck ball and the Reese Goose Box left to right.

How to hitch and unhitch the Reese Goose Box Gen 3 Hitch

When the magnetic pole tips forward, Mark stops the truck for a moment so we can adjust the alignment from front to back by an inch or two.

Magnetic Trailer Hitch Alignment Kit

ALIGNMENT: FRONT to BACK

The Reese Goose Box has to be aligned accurately from front to back as well as left to right. For this, Mark relies on me peering into the bed of the truck and guiding him verbally until the alignment is correct. For folks who hitch up solo, you’ll probably have to get in and out of the driver’s seat a few times to get the truck positioned correctly. If you have some tips and tricks for solo drivers, let us know in the comments!

At 5’4” I am just tall enough to see into the bed of our 2016 Dodge Ram 3500 dually if I stand on my tiptoes.

When we were researching the Reese Goose Box, we saw reports that it is hard to hitch up. After learning how to do it ourselves, we suspect that those comment might have come from people who were either trying to eyeball the left/right alignment or were hitching up solo and struggling with the front to back alignment.

If you have a driver and a spotter, it’s a piece of cake.

LOWERING & LOCKING THE REESE GOOSE BOX – TRUCK IN NEUTRAL

Once the truck is positioned correctly, I use the landing jack leveling buttons to lower the Reese Goose Box onto the gooseneck ball. We’ve found it helps to put the truck in neutral at this point. That way, if the positioning isn’t 100%, the truck can shift a little bit as the Goose Box is lowered.

Our truck has an auto leveling option, so as soon as the truck senses the weight of the trailer in the truck bed, it inflates its airbags and raises the truck bed up. This effectively pushes the gooseneck ball up into the Reese Goose Box. At that point I generally don’t need to lower the trailer much further to complete the connection.

Just like a fifth wheel hitch, the Reese Goose Box automatically locks its connection to the gooseneck ball.

It’s easy to know when the Goose Box/gooseneck ball connection has locked. First, as the Goose Box slides over the gooseneck ball, the locking lever on the driver’s side of the Reese Goose Box moves slowly from the Locked position (green label) to the Unlocked Position (red label). Then, once it has locked in place, it snaps back to the Locked position (green label).

How to hitch and unhitch the Reese Goose Box Gen 3 and locking the gooseball

Before the Reese Goose Box slides over the gooseneck ball, the locking lever (blue arrow) is in the Locked position (green label)

The Reese Goose Box Gen 3 hitch unlocks autoamtically

As the Reese Goose Box slides down onto the gooseneck ball, the locking lever (blue arrow) slowly moves into the Unlocked position (red label)

The Reese Goose Box locks onto the gooseneck ball automatically

As soon as the Reese Goose Box locks onto the gooseneck ball, the locking lever (blue arrow) snaps back into the Locked position (green label)

At this point I can finish raising the landing jacks up all the way into their fully raised position for towing.

SAFETY CHAINS and POWER CORD

The final steps to hitch up with the Reese Goose Box are to latch the two safety chains to the B&W safety chain anchors in the truck bed and plug in the power cord.

Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch safety chains

Next step is to connect the safety chains to the B&W safety chain anchors in the truck bed.

Connecting the safety chains to the Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch

Connecting the safety chains.

How to hitch and unhitch the Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch: connecting the power cord

Last of all, connect the power cord.

Like all kingpins, the Reese Goose Box has a trailer breakaway cable that engages the trailer’s brakes if the trailer accidentally disconnects from the truck. With our fifth wheel hitches, we always looped this cable around the hitch handle. With the Reese Goose Box, we loop it through the hook on one of the safety chains.

Reese Goose Box Gen 3 hitched up with safety chains attached

Ready to tow.
Note that the trailer breakaway cable is connected to the safety chain hook on the left side.

The trailer breakaway cable is shorter than the safety chains. So, if the trailer were to become detached from the truck, the breakaway cable would snap and engage the trailer brakes before the safety chains were fully extended. At that point, the drag of the trailer brakes would keep the safety chains taut, and the driver would slow the truck and trailer to a stop.

 

AIR BAGS

The Reese Goose Box is equipped with internal air bags that use the same technology as the Trail Air fifth wheel hitches. They are inflated using the Schrader valve on the top of the Goose Box. We used a pancake air compressor to inflate them.

That pancake compressor is too big to bring with with us in our RV travels, so we bought a Ryobi cordless power inflator to use on the road if needed.

Unfortunately, there isn’t enough room in the Goose Box’s Schrader valve compartment to attach the cordless power inflator’s locking valve to it. So, we purchased a 135 degree valve extender to use with it. Luckily, we haven’t needed to use that setup at all yet.

Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 has the air bag inflator on the top of the kingpin

The Gen 3 Reese Goose Box has the Schrader valve for inflating the air bags on top in the center. Previous generation Reese Goose Boxes had this valve on the underside and it was hard to reach.

Ryobi Portabe compressor 135 Degree Valve Extension

The Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 has a gauge on the driver’s side that allows you to see the level of inflation of the air bags. This is another new feature with the Gen 3 that wasn’t on the previous generation Reese Goose Boxes.

When the air bags have no air in them, the viewing window is a black circle. Once they begin to fill with air, a silver bar appears in the top left part of the window.

Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch inspection window shows the air bags are not inflated

The air bag inflation window lets you see the status of the air bags. Here the bags are barely inflated.

As the air bags become more and more inflated, this bar moves lower and lower in the window.

When the air bags are inflated to the ideal amount (somewhere between 40 and 50 lbs. of pressure), the bar crosses the middle of the window at a slight angle.

Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3 Hitch inspection window shows the airbags are properly inflated

As the air bags inflate, the silver bar moves down from the top.
When the bar is in the middle, as it is here, the air bags are properly inflated.

We have not had to change the inflation of the air bags at all in the two months we’ve been traveling with our trailer, despite being in altitudes ranging from 3,000’ to over 11,000’ and being in temperatures ranging from 30 degrees to 95 degrees.

 

HOW TO UNHITCH A TRAILER WITH A REESE GOOSE BOX

UNHITCHING CAN BE DONE SOLO (WITH AN EASY-TO-MAKE MODIFICATION!)

Unhitching a trailer with a Reese Goose Box is as easy as pulling on a cord and extending the landing jack legs! I love it because one person can easily do it solo.

Unhitching with a Reese Goose Box (as opposed to a fifth wheel) is particularly handy in situations where you won’t be driving the truck by itself but still want to raise the nose of the trailer to make it level.

For instance, when you stop for a quickie overnight in a rest area on unlevel ground, you might want to level the trailer from front to back by raising up the front end.

All you need to do is raise the trailer off the gooseneck ball to the point where the trailer is level from front to back and leave it there. When you are ready to continue driving, simply lower the trailer back down onto the gooseneck ball and away you go!

With a traditional fifth wheel hitch, the truck and trailer must be completely unhitched, i.e., the truck must be driven out from the hitch in order to level the trailer from front to back.

All this is truly awesome, but we did have to make one minor modification to the Reese Goose Box to make it possible to unhitch so easily, as explained below.

 

RELEASING the GOOSENECK BALL EASILY — With a SIMPLE MODIFICATION!

The Reese Goose Box is locked onto the gooseneck ball by a lever, as shown in the three hitching up photos above. While hitching up, the lever moves from the Locked position to the Unlocked position and back to the Locked position automatically as the socket on the Reese Goose Box slides onto the gooseneck ball.

For unhitching, however, this lever must be held open in the Unlocked position to allow the Reese Goose Box to slide up off the gooseneck ball. You do that manually by pulling back on a long cable that connects to the locking lever.

The cable rests on a hook on the side of the Reese Goose Box. It has a nub on it that can be secured in front of the hook, forcing the lock to remain open while you extend the landing jack legs.

How to hitch and unhitch the Reese Goose Box lock release handle

The hitch locking mechanism is automatic when hitching up. When unhitching, a long cable (above the arrows) must be pulled back to unlock the hitch and allow the Reese Goose Box to rise off the gooseneck ball. The white arrow shows the nub that can be secured in front of the hook (blue arrow) to keep the Goose Box unlocked.

We’ve found it very difficult to reach the cable’s handle from the back of the truck when the truck’s tailgate is open.

Ironically, the truck’s tailgate is always open at this stage of the unhitching process because you are disconnecting the safety chains and power cord. Also, you can’t drive the truck out with the tailgate closed.

When we did successfully maneuver ourselves to reach the handle, we found it extremely difficult to pull the cable back far enough to place the nub in front of the hook!

I’m sure Reese will address this issue since it has been raised by many people. However, in the interim, we found a super easy solution.

We tied a strong cord onto the latch cable’s handle and then used a short dowel to create a mini handle at the other end of the cord.

Reese Goose Box Gen 3 lock release handle modification

We tied a strong cord onto the handle of the hitch latching cable. Again, the white arrow is the nub that can be secured in front of the hook (blue arrow) to force the lock to stay open, but we found it tricky to do.

Reese Goose Box lock release handle modification

We made a handle at the other end of the cord with a short dowel.

Now, all we have to do to get the Reese Goose Box off the gooseneck ball is to pull this cord to open the lock and extend the trailer’s landing jacks. Then the Goose Box rises off the gooseneck ball very easily.

Reese Goose Box lock release handle modification

One person can simultaneously pull the hitch lock open and extend the trailer’s landing jacks!

The beauty is that one person can do this job alone by holding the Goose Box’s locking cord in their left hand and pressing the trailer’s landing jack control buttons with their right hand.

Once the Reese Goose Box is clear of the gooseneck ball, the Goose Box’s locking cord can be released and the truck can be driven out from under the trailer and parked elsewhere.

To tidy things up, just snap the safety chains onto the back of the Reese Goose Box and stow the power cord inside. Be careful, though, because there’s 12 volts coming from the trailer batteries on one of the pins.

How to hitch and unhitch a Reese Goose Box 20K Gen 3

There are two holes in the back of the Reese Goose Box to hold the hooks for the safety chains.

How to hitch and unhitch the Reese Goose Box 20K Gen 3

Chains and power cord are out of the way.

 

TOWING WITH THE REESE GOOSE BOX

As I mentioned, we have used the Reese Goose Box to tow our 15,000 lb. trailer all over Arizona and Colorado for two months on all kinds of crazy roads. Not only has the towing been smooth but we’ve been super happy with how easy it is to hitch and unhitch.

The airbags inside the Reese Goose Box make the ride super smooth. There is no chucking and no bouncing, and best of all, no noise! The trailer kind of floats along behind us.

We’ve taken some very sharp turns and haven’t had a problem with the Reese Goose Box touching the bed rails of the truck, and we’ve gone over some serious bumps and sharp inclines and declines and haven’t had the overhang of the fifth wheel come too close to the top of the bed rails either.

We are delighted with the Reese Goose Box and the B&W gooseneck ball. Best of all, now we’re able to haul anything we want in the truck bed, even 4×8 sheets of plywood. All we’ll have to do is remove the B&W gooseneck ball, clean it up and put it away in its little suitcase. Then the whole bed of the truck is available to use!

So, that’s our review of our fully tested Reese Goose Box 20k Gen 3. If you have any questions, please put them in the comments below. We’ll be happy to answer as best we can. If you own one of these very cool hitches, we’d love to know what you think of it!

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Here are all the parts listed in this post and where to get them:

The Goose Box:

The Gooseneck Ball:

Magnetic Pole for Hitching Up:

Compressors:

More info about Reese Products:

Other blog posts about trailers and hitches:

Our most recent posts:

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Quick Release Pull Pins for Fifth Wheel Landing Jacks – YES!

One of the very first upgrades we did to our 2022 Genesis Supreme toy hauler was to install quick release pull pins for the fifth wheel landing jacks. Our full-time Hitchhiker fifth wheel trailer had come with this kind of landing jack pin installed at the factory, so we assumed it was standard for all fifth wheels with electric landing jacks. Not so! And what a difference they make!

Quick Release Pull-Pins for Fifth Wheel Landing Jacks Installation

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Our Genesis Supreme toy hauler came with goofy D-ring pins that were clumsy and fussy and added a frustrating and unnecessary step to hitching and unhitching our rig.

https://amzn.to/3xJ4mVD

These pins were slow and frustrating to use!

After messing with these things two or three times, I got online and started hunting for the really nice quick release spring loaded pins we were accustomed to, hoping that they were something we could get our hands on. They were! We got ours HERE.

Tools and parts needed to install Fifth Wheel Landing Jack quick release pull pin

The quick release pull pins (left two) and the tools necessary to install them (right two). Not much to it!

We put a bottle jack under the front of the fifth wheel to support the trailer while we removed the silly pins that had come with it and replaced them with the quick release pull pins. You can also hitch the fifth wheel to the truck and work on the legs that way instead. However, the bottle jack worked just fine.

Bottle jack supports fifth wheel trailer for landing jack quick release pull-pin installation

We supported the front of the fifth wheel trailer with a bottle jack.

Fifth Wheel Landing Jack D-ring Pin 2

We removed the D-ring.

The hardest part of installing the quick release pull pins on the landing jacks is simply lining up the two pieces. They fit on either side of the landing leg like a clamshell with two long bolts holding them in place.

Make sure the handle is on the outside of the fifth wheel where you’ll be grabbing it.

Installing fifth wheel landing jack quick release pull pin

One half of the quick release pull pin.

Installing quick release pull pin for fifth wheel landing jack

Both halves of the quick release pull pin with long bolts that will hold them in place.

We used Loctite to make sure the bolts wouldn’t unscrew and walk back out.

Using Loctite to install fifth wheel landing jack quick release pull pin

We applied a little Loctite.

Then we tightened the bolts.

Installation of quick release pull pin for fifth wheel landing jack

Getting the bolts started.

Installation of fifth wheel landing jack quick release pull pin

Tightening the bolts down.

And there it was — a fabulous new quick release pull pin on our fifth wheel landing jack.

Installation of quick release pull pin for fifth wheel landing jack=k

Ready to go!

We installed the other quick release pull pin on the other landing jack and sighed a huge sigh of relief. These things are so much easier to use!

To hitch up: Simply raise the electric landing legs with the Retract button. Once the jacks are in their fully retracted position, pull out the spring loaded handle and slide the lower portion of the leg upwards into the upper portion. Then release the spring loaded handle to latch it in place.

To unhitch: Pull the quick release pull pin’s spring loaded handle and let the leg drop all the way down so the foot is on the ground. Then raise the leg slightly until the spring loaded handle snaps into place through the hole in the lower leg.

Fifth Wheel Landing Jack D-ring Pin

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And that’s it! We purchased this quick release pull pin for our 33’ 15,000 lb. GVWR trailer, but there are others available> too.

Hitching and unhitching a fifth wheel trailer can be stressful enough as it is. For us, having a super simple mechanism for getting the landing jacks in position is an important stress reliever. It was an inexpensive upgrade, but has made a huge difference.

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How to Replace Electric Fifth Wheel Landing Legs – Easy DIY!

Have you ever wondered how in the world to replace electric fifth wheel landing legs? Well, it turns it’s a surprisingly easy DIY project! We’ve done it twice now, once on our full-timing Hitchhiker fifth wheel 10 years ago, and again on our current Genesis Supreme Toy Hauler a few weeks ago. Yikes!

How to Replace Electric Fifth Wheel Landing Legs

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At the end of our RV trip to Colorado last summer, our 2022 Genesis Supreme toy hauler fifth wheel landing legs started acting up when we were getting ready to hook up and leave one day. Our fifth wheel landing legs are electric, not hydraulic, and they are driven by two separate motors, one for each leg.

Suddenly, the driver’s side leg started making a clicking sound as we raised the front of the trailer to hitch up. The sound was coming from the gear box which is driven by the landing leg motor. The gears were slipping for some reason.



The Reese Goose Box was a GAME CHANGER for us. We got the bed of our truck back (yay!) and hitching/unhitching is easy.

Check out our review: HERE!



We were able to get hitched up despite the slipping gears, and we stayed hitched up all the way from Lake Granby in Colorado, to our home in Arizona. We didn’t unhitch once the whole way!

When we got home, Mark removed the landing leg from the trailer to do some investigating. With the trailer hitched to and supported by the truck, it was easy to remove the driver’s side landing leg to check it out.

When you remove the top cap from the leg, you should be able to turn the shaft on the side of the leg by hand. However, he could barely turn it. Something was binding and making the leg very stiff to retract or extend.

We weren’t sure just how stiff this gear should be, though. So, just to verify whether the gear on this leg was unusually stiff, he removed the passenger side leg and repeated the process. On that side the leg was butter smooth and he could easily turn the shaft by hand.

10 years prior, we’d had a similar problem on our 2007 Hitchhiker fifth wheel. However, that fifth wheel had had only one motor to drive both landing legs — not a very rugged frame design.

We’d been pleased when we bought the Genesis Supreme that it had a dedicated motor for each leg. Nevertheless, here we were again! Argh!!

The Hitchhiker landing leg motor was made by Venture Manufacturing in Ohio. So, when those landing legs failed, Mark purchased a replacement landing leg kit from them. He installed it while we were boondocking in the Arizona desert. We never had any trouble with our landing legs after that.

Mark called Venture Manufacturing again this time to see if they could help us with the binding landing leg on our new toy hauler.

He was delighted to speak to the same customer service rep as he had 10 years prior, Sue Haller. She asked him for some details about the landing legs on our toy hauler. It turned out that they were made by a Chinese knock-off company.

Once he heard that, he decided to replace both landing legs, gear boxes and motors with parts made by Venture Manufacturing. These come in a kit.

The installation was surprisingly simple and the new parts are super smooth. We now feel confident in our trailer’s landing legs as we get ready for our next adventure.

Venture Manufacturing Fifth Wheel Landing Leg Replacement Kit

All the parts that are in the Venture Manufacturing replacement landing leg kit.

Having a good quality socket set in your RV is important. Check out what other tools we keep in our RV basement and in our truck here: Basic RV Tool Kit - Essential Tools & Supplies for RVers



 

Here are the basic steps for replacing the landing legs on a fifth wheel trailer:

  1. With the trailer hitched to the truck, run the landing legs all the way up.
  2. Turn off the battery disconnect switch
  3. Pull the spring pin and drop the lower legs and foot all the way out and set them aside
  4.  
    Do these next steps for each landing leg:

  5. Cut the positive and negative wires to the landing leg motor
  6. Remove the 8mm bolt from the lower gearbox shaft and slide the plastic collar off
  7. Remove the two 10mm bolts (11 and 5 o’clock position) from the motor and slide the motor off the shaft
  8. Slide the gearbox assembly off the motor shaft.
  9. Remove the two 9/16” nuts and bolts holding the leg onto the “U” channel
  10. Spread the “U” channel slightly to slide the leg out.

To install the new landing leg assembly, simply follow the above steps in reverse order!

Here are some pics from our installation:

How to replace Fifth Wheel Landing Leg - Venture Manufacturing Lower Leg

Remove the lower leg section to be able to drop the upper leg assembly out from trailer.

How to replace fifth wheel landing leg - Venture Manufacturing leg view From Outside

Looking in from the outside: The landing leg and gearbox.

How to replace Fifth Wheel Landing Leg - Venture Manufacturing Plastic anchor

To remove the gearbox just remove this screw and slide the plastic piece off the shaft. The gearbox will slide off next.

How to replace fifth wheel landing leg - Venture Manufacturing leg view From inside

Motor & gearbox removed.



If your fifth wheel has electric landing jacks but didn't come with Quick Release Pull Pins, they'll make you're life easier and they're super easy to install!

 
 
How to replace Fifth Wheel Landing Leg Upper Bolt

To remove the upper portion of the leg, remove the upper leg 9/16″ nut.

How to replace Fifth Wheel Landing Leg - Venture Manufacturing Lower Bolt

Remove lower 9/16″ nut. You may need to spread the “U” channel a bit to slide upper portion of the leg out.

How to replace fifh wheel landing legs - Looking from inside

Ta Da! New motor and gearbox attached.

All done! To install the replacement fifth wheel landing legs, do these steps in reverse order.

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CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-Downs – SO EASY!

Trying to tie down an ATV, side-by-side or boat on a trailer for safe towing can be a real pain in the neck! Fortunately, we’ve discovered the CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-Downs which are a total game changer for us.

CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-Down System is SO EASY!

Easy to install and a cinch to use, the CargoBuckle retractable ratchet straps revolutionized our tie-down process!

For the past six years, we have towed our Polaris RZR 900 side-by-side in three towing arrangements:

  1. On a flatbed trailer behind our fifth wheel in a “double tow” arrangement (also known as a “triple tow”)
  2. On a flatbed trailer behind our dually truck (with and without our truck camper)
  3. Inside our Genesis Supreme toy hauler.

 

TRADITIONAL TIE-DOWN RATCHET STRAPS – NOT GOOD!

Using traditional tie-down ratchet straps, we found it was nearly impossible to keep the straps fully tightened as we drove. We’d have to stop after an hour or so to tighten the straps, and then we’d stop to check them every hour or so after that if the trip was long. More often than not, they’d have loosened again and we’d have to re-tighten them.

Also, the setup on our flatbed trailer had some sharp corners and awkward angles that the tie-down straps had to cross in order to secure the side-by-side onto the trailer. This caused the straps to sever completely multiple times. We bought at least three sets of ratchet straps in just a few months of towing our side-by-side!

Needless to say, all of this was very annoying, and also made us quite uneasy when we were underway!

Triple tow Fifth wheel and flatbed trailer with side-by-side double-tow arrangement

Traveling with The Train, we got a LOT of chucking in the caboose…!

Tow Polaris RZR 900 XC EPS Edition on utility trailer-min

Mark used traditional ratchet straps at first.

 

CARGOBUCKLE RETRACTABLE RATCHET STRAPS – WHAT A GREAT CONCEPT!

Cargo Buckle Retractable Ratchet Strap secures a side-by-side onto a flatbed trailer

CargoBuckle G3 Retractable Ratchet Tie-down permanently mounted on a flatbed trailer.

Mark did some research and found a product called the CargoBuckle Retractable Rachet Tie-Down System that mounted permanently to the flatbed trailer, one for each corner of the side-by-side.

In order to tie down the side-by-side, you simply pulled out each strap and hooked it onto a tie-down location on the RZR and ratcheted it tight. To unload the side-by-side, you simply released the tension on each strap to unhook and then let it retract. Easy peasy!

Mounting the straps on the utility trailer eliminated the need to tie everything down from scratch each time we secured the RZR to the trailer. Instead, the strap was right there where we needed it. All we had to do was pull it out!

CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-Down system for permanent instsallation

CargoBuckle G3 (2″ strap).

This is a super slick concept and it completely revolutionized our tie-down process. Now we could tie the RZR down in just a few minutes by pulling out each strap, hooking it onto the RZR and ratcheting it tight. Even better, the straps never loosened underway, so we never had to stop to tighten them or worry that they might come loose as we drove.

Cargo Buckle Retractable Ratchet Straps for front of a side-by-side on a flatbed trailer

The front of our RZR is tied down with two CargoBuckle retractable ratchet straps mounted on the front of the flatbed trailer.

Two CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Straps secure the back end of a side-by-side on a flatbed trailer

The back of our RZR is tied down with two CargoBuckle retractable ratchet straps mounted on the rear sides of the flatbed trailer.

It was just a matter of a few minutes to get the RZR off the trailer too. All we had to do was release each ratchet handle, unhook the strap from the side-by-side and let the strap retract. Best of all, we didn’t have to deal with long messy tie-down straps or stow them anywhere.

We loved this whole concept so much that when we bought our fifth wheel toy hauler we got another set! In addition, we got an S-hook Adapter to bolt onto each CargoBuckle so we could hook the CargoBuckles into the D-rings rather than bolting them permanently to the garage floor.

CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet TIe-Down System for a toy hauler

The CargoBuckle G3 ratchet strap is bolted to an S-adapter hook for removable installations like the D-rings on a toy hauler floor.

Besides providing a very secure tie-down as we drive, these straps are work with that we don’t hesitate to unload the RZR to go exploring for an while and then load it back into the toy hauler and carry on. This is ideal for seeking out boondocking locations down unfamiliar dirt roads.

 

FLATBED TRAILER CARGOBUCKLE INSTALLATION:

Our first CargoBuckle installation on our flatbed trailer was straight forward.

We aligned each of the retractable straps so there was a straight line between the CargoBuckle and the tie-down point on the RZR. Then we drilled a hole in the frame of the trailer for each strap and bolted the CargoBuckle onto the trailer frame. Done!

We angled the CargoBuckles slightly to ensure the straps wouldn’t cross over anything sharp that could make them chafe through. And that was it!

Use an awl before drilling a hole in the side of a flatbed trailer

First we made a starter hole in the flatbed trailer frame with a center punch.

Before drilling into a flatbed trailer frame spread 3-in-one oil on the drill bit

Then we lubed a small drill bit with 3-in-1 oil to keep the metal cool while drilling.

Drill a hole in the frame of a flatbed trailer before mounting CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Straps

Then we drilled a pilot hole.

We then selected larger and larger drill bits and repeated the lubrication/drilling process until the hole was big enough to fit the bolt.

Bolt the CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Strap onto the frame of a flatbed trailer

Once the hole was drilled, we bolted the CargoBuckle ratchet strap onto the flatbed trailer frame.

Cargo Buckle Retractable Ratchet Strap secures a side-by-side onto a flatbed trailer

One down, three to go!

 

FLATBED TRAILER CARGOBUCKLE TIE-DOWN PROCEDURE:

Securing the RZR to the flatbed trailer was now just a matter of extending each retracted strap and placing its hook in the tie-down point on the RZR and then ratcheting the strap until it was tight. Once all four straps were hooked up and tightened, the RZR was fully loaded and ready to go.

Unloading the RZR was equally easy. We released the tension on each strap, removed the hook from the RZR and retracted the strap into the CargoBuckle on the trailer.

We didn’t even have to mess with coiling and storing any long straps because they retracted out of sight on the side of the trailer!

CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Strap tie downs for a side-by-side

We positioned the front CargoBuckles close together to absorb the most severe shocks which is front-to-back.

The straps are 2 inches wide and are made of the same material as a car seatbelt. The ratcheting and releasing mechanisms are very smooth.

We’ve towed our flatbed trailer behind our truck, both with and without our pickup camper, for about 1,000 miles with no trouble whatsoever!

 

TOY HAULER INSTALLATION:

Polaris RZR side-by-side with Genesis Supreme Toy Hauler

Buddy checks out our toy hauler as the RZR waits patiently to be loaded.

The garage floor on our Genesis Supreme toy hauler has D-rings mounted on the floor (bolted to the frame) that are intended for tying down whatever toys you bring along in your travels — ATV, side-by-side, motorcycles, etc.

With an open box floor plan like ours, our garage is also our living room (yes, the RZR travels in our living space!) and the D-rings are right in the middle of our living room floor! So, the permanently mounted CargoBuckle retractable ratchet straps weren’t suitable.

Fortunately, the manufacturer of CargoBuckles, IMMI (Indiana Mills Manufacturing Inc.), makes S-Hook Adapter Straps specifically for situations where the CargoBuckles can’t be permanently mounted.

The S-Hook Adapter Straps gets bolted onto the CargoBuckle (G3) creating a single unit that has an open hook at one end, a locking hook on the other end and a ratchet mechanism in the middle.

Attaching the S-hook adapter strap to a Cargo Buckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-Down System for a toy hauler installation

The CargoBuckle G3 ratchet strap is bolted to an S-hook adapter so it can be hooked to a D-ring in the toy hauler floor.

Bolting the pieces together took no time at all and gave us four ratchet straps to hook into the D-rings in the garage floor and clip onto the tie-down locations on the RZR. The D-rings are not positioned symmetrically in our toy hauler.  However, we found four that worked well for tying down the RZR, two in the front and two in the back.

CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-Downs for use in a toy hauler with D-rings on the floor

All four CargoBuckle ratchet straps have S-hooks attached for use in our toy hauler.

 

TOY HAULER CARGOBUCKLE TIE-DOWN PROCEDURE:

When loading the side-by-side, we simply hook the CargoBuckle S-hook onto the D-ring in the toy hauler floor, extend the strap so it can reach the tie-down location on the RZR and clip the CargoBuckle hook onto it. We do this for all four contact points on the side-by-side.

When unloading, we release the tension in each CargoBuckle, unclip it from the side-by-side and unhook the S-hook from the D-ring in the floor. We stow our CargoBuckles on the floor by the toy hauler ramp door along with the rubber mats we place under the RZR wheels to protect the flooring as we travel.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

We have towed our RZR using the CargoBuckle retractable ratchet tie-downs 10,000 miles so far. We’ve set up camp in 64 different campsites and loaded and unloaded the side-by-side each time. In addition, we’ve loaded and unloaded the RZR dozens of other times for scouting and exploring while in transit.

Loading and unloading the RZR has been a sheer delight, and the whole setup has been rock solid in the garage and has never loosened once.

Tightening a CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Strap

Tightening the CargoBuckle at the rear of the side-by-side in the toy hauler.

Tightening a Cargo Buckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-Down

Ratcheting the rear of the RZR in the toy hauler.

Perhaps the most impressive testament to the security of this tie-down system was our 94 mile drive between Shiprock and Gallup, New Mexico, on US-491 in 2023. If you can avoid this highway, please do! It is loaded with shallow dips you can’t see as you drive but that sent our entire rig flying any time we were going faster than 50 mph.

When we finally got to our destination, we were astonished to find that the RZR hadn’t budged and the CargoBuckles were all still completely secure. However, the Lifetime cooler that we keep tied down in the back of the RZR was another story, Even though it was tightly secured on the side-by-side, it jumped clear out of the RZR on one of those flying dips.  When we opened the toy hauler ramp door, we found it dangling off the back end of the side-by-side!

Back end of a Polaris RZR side-by-side is tied down in a toy hauler using CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Straps

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If you have to tie down anything in your travels, whether it’s a side-by-side, ATV, motorcycle or boat, no matter what kind of trailer you’re tying it down to, your life be a whole lot easier if you use CargoBuckle Retractable Ratchet Tie-downs!

These clever retractable straps transformed our whole attitude towards bringing our fun little RZR along on our adventures!

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Basic RV Tool Kit – Essential Tools & Supplies for Rvers

RVers preparing to go RVing full-time have asked us, “What are the essential tools and supplies we’ll need for the RV life?” That’s a big question, but when we began gathering items for our online Gear Store last week, we realized it was a perfect time for us to provide an answer and outline a good solid basic RV tool kit.

Mark just completed two sizeable repair projects in the last few weeks too: replacing the landing legs on our fifth wheel toy hauler and replacing the start motor plus relocating the start relay (so it’s easier to access) in our Polaris RZR side-by-side. Since he had just pulled out all of the tools necessary for these jobs, the whole issue of “essential” vs. “not-so-important” tools was fresh in his mind.

RV Tool Kit - Essential tools for RVers and RV living

What are the “must have” tools when you run off to a life of adventure in an RV?

I asked him to do a pretend shopping spree and assemble an RV tool kit on Amazon while I took Buddy for a walk. When I returned, he’d put together a terrific basic RV tool kit. He’d also discovered a few cool tools he didn’t have yet, and they were all sitting in our Amazon shopping cart!

Well, the Master Mechanic in any RV or boat can never have too many tools, right?!

Mark keeps most of his tools in the basement of our fifth wheel. He also has two additional mini tool kits. One mini tool kit lives in the truck and has duplicates of all the most basic tools he might need for a breakdown on the road or a tire change. The other mini tool kit lives in our Polaris RZR side-by-side in case it has a breakdown or needs a tire change.

You can find all of the tools discussed here in the “RV Tool Kit” curation in our Gear Store or click the blue boldface titles or the images below.

HANDHELD TOOLS for an RV TOOL KIT

RV Tool Kit - Handheld Tools

Handheld Tools

Handheld tools are the heart of the tool kit. Craftsman is a great brand that comes with a lifetime warranty. So, a lot of the tools listed here are Craftsman. If a Craftsman tool breaks, you can just take it to a hardware store that carries Craftsman and they’ll replace it free of charge.

Mechanic’s Tool Set – A good place to start is to get a robust mechanic’s tool kit that has a wide variety of tools: hammer, screwdrivers, sockets, drill bits, pliers, etc. Mark keeps his in the truck so he doesn’t have to go digging for a tool in the basement when something comes up as we drive.

Socket Set – This particular set includes both SAE and metric sizes as well as 1/4 and 3/8 inch drives.

Wrench Set – A robust set like this one includes wrenches of every size in both metric and SAE. Some sets skip certain sizes, so verify that you’ll be getting all the sizes you need. This set can also be rolled up in its fabric case so it’s easy to carry and store.

Adjustable Wrenches – A big one and a small one will do the trick.

Screwdriver Set – Be sure to include both Phillips head and flat head screwdrivers. Want more variety? here is a bigger set.

Screwdriver #2 Square Head – Many RVs are built with things that require a #2 square head screwdriver. We use ours all the time!

Basic Pliers Set – This set includes channel locks and needle nose along with regular pliers. This bigger set has more variety.

Hand Saw – You might need to cut some lumber (we have!)

Hack Saw – You might need to cut some metal pipe (we have!)

Folding Saw – Sometimes we use this saw to cut back overhanging branches at our campsite.

Telescoping Inspection Mirror – With some projects it’s super difficult to see into the deep recesses of where you’re working. A telescoping mirror makes it possible to see the backs of things and around corners.

Telescoping Magnet Tool – If you drop that vital nut down into an impossible to reach spot, you can retrieve it with this nifty tool.

Measuring Tape – Handy if you need to measure something.

Level – Handy if you want something to be level or square.

Kneeling Pad – When you’re working on something low, it really helps to have a kneeling pad to cushion your knees. Mark uses his all the time!

CORDLESS POWER TOOLS for an RV TOOL KIT

RV Tool Kit - Cordless Tools

Cordless Tools

Several companies make a suite of cordless power tools that all use the same battery pack. If possible, stick to one brand to avoid storing a variety of battery packs and chargers (although we’ve ended up with a mix ourselves!).

Ryobi, Rigid, DeWalt, Milwaukee and Makita all make sets of tools based on their battery packs and are good reliable brands. However, each brand offers a different suite of tools. The products linked to here are all Ryobi which we like a lot. We keep two battery packs on hand so we can be using one while the other is charging…or use both at the same time!

Cordless Drill – We not only use ours for standard drilling purposes, but we also use it to raise and lower our landing jacks. We did this on our full-timing fifth wheel and now on our toy hauler. Both trailers came with manual landing jacks. To set up our drill for this purpose we put a 1/4 to 3/8 socket adapter in the chuck and attach an 8 inch extension and a 3/4 inch deep socket with 3/8 drive.

Drill Bit Set – There are bigger kits, but this is a good basic selection.

Cordless Screwdriver – This little gem is fabulous and saves your wrists if you have a lot of screwing and unscrewing to do.

Cordless Screwdriver Hex Bits – These are super handy to use in the cordless screwdriver if you have a lot of bolts to tighten.

Cordless Tire Inflator Air Compressor – This tire inflator can inflate all kinds of tires (Schrader valve) and basketballs too! We use it to inflate the air bags on our Reese Goose Box.

Cordless Dust Blower – After driving our side-by-side, we use this to blow the dust off ourselves. It can inflate air mattresses too.

Work Light – A super bright light that can be hung right over your work area makes it much easier to see what you’re doing.

Hand Vacuum – RV floor space and storage space is so limited that we prefer to use a hand vac instead of a stand-up vacuum.

Flashlight – You can never have too many flashlights. This one is a good all around bright light in a modest size that Mark uses every day.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES FOR RV ELECTRICAL WORK

RV Tool Kit - Tools for Electrical Repairs

For Electrical Work

Multimeter – This is critical for anything and everything electrical. If you want to test what’s going on in a specific location, a clamp-on meter can be placed around a wire and you’ll see the current at that spot.

Aligator Test Clip Leads – Vital for troubleshooting problems

Heat Shrink Butt Connector Kit – This suitcase style kit has marine grade butt connectors from 22 to 10 AWG and comes with a heat shrink tool and crimper. Mark lovs this kit!

Black Electrical Tape – Scotch is a good brand for electrical tapes. Cheaper brands are a waste of money. Get the good stuff!

Colored Electrical Tape – Same as the above but for cases where you want to color code your work.

TOOLS & SUPPLIES FOR RV PLUMBING & GAS WORK

RV Tool Kit - Plumbing Tools

For Plumbing & Gas

PVC Pipe Cutter – It’s really hard to cut PVC without one of these, and they also cut the blue and red PEX water lines with ease.

Tubing Cutter – Use this to cut copper pipe (we used it when installing our vent-free propane heater)

Teflon Tape – Blue Monster is the best brand of teflon tape. We learned about it from a plumber, and Mark has never gone back to the brands he used to use!

TOOLS FOR CHANGING A TIRE

RV Tool Kit - Tire Changing Tools

In case of a flat!

Heavy Duty Lug Wrench — To screw and unscrew the lug nuts on the wheel

Hydraulic Bottle Jack — Get one strong enough to lift your RV or your truck.

18” Breaker Bar — If the Lug Wrench can’t crack the lug nuts loose, a breaker bar and deep impact socket will do the trick. Then switch to the Lug Wrench to finish screwing or unscrewing the lug nut.

Deep Impact Socket — Works with the breaker bar. Match the size of the socket to the lug nuts on your vehicle’s wheels

1/2 inch Drive 10 inch Socket Extension — Necessary to change the inner rear wheel on a dually truck (Mark demonstrates that HERE!).

Flat Tire Repair Kit – It may be possible to patch the tire rather than use the spare.

Fix a flat – When all else fails, it doesn’t hurt to have a can on hand!

Small compressor – Get that baby pumped up!

Tire Pressure Gauge – It’s important to check the tire pressure!

TAPE & FASTENERS

RV Tool Kit - Tape and Fasteners

Tape & Fasteners

Gorilla Tape — All purpose super sticky tape that can attach virtually anything to anything

Alien Tape — Thick double-sided tape that is great for mounting things

Velcro Extreme Mounting Tape – Excellent for mounting things you’ll remove at some point (like clocks that need batteries).

WORK GLOVES

RV Tool Kit - Work Gloves

Hand Protection

Leather Gloves – Protect your hands when doing heavy lifting

RV Dump Gloves – Disposable Nitrile gloves are great protection while doing the dirty deed at the RV dump.

Cut-Resistant Work Gloves – Protect your hands when dealing with sharp metal parts and tools

Are there tools in your RV tool kit that you depend on and that we’ve missed here? Please list them in the comments below!

Check out all of these essential tools under “RV Tool Kit” in our online Gear Store HERE. Or click the image below to see our basic RV tool kit plus all the other goodies we’ve put on the shelves!

RLT Gear Store Storefront

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Christmas Traditions Past and Present – Lebkuchen!

Christmas is such a special time. it is my favorite holiday — a time of full of wonder and love on many levels. Family traditions are the cozy essence of Christmas for many people, and activities in the kitchen are especially beloved.

Merry Christmas

We’re not thinking about Christmas too much in this photo from Crested Butte, Colorado, but what fun it has been to relive an old Christmas tradition this year.

I love Christmas cooking. However, having chosen to live unusual lifestyles most of my life — living on a sailboat in Boston Harbor in the 1990s, living in our office when my former husband I and founded and ran an IT consulting firm, and then cruising around North America via RV and sailboat for 13 years, I haven’t had the kind of kitchen that was conducive to Christmas fun.

One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories, however, is of baking and eating a special kind of German Christmas cookie called Lebkuchen from a recipe that had been in my family since my ancestors lived in Germany in the early 1800s.

It is a honey-based cookie that tastes like no other, and I remember fondly dipping the cookies in milk and later in dipping them in coffee all day long on Christmas Day and for many days afterwards.

My great-grandmother, Emily Riesenberg, learned the recipe (along with many other recipes) from her immigrant mother growing up in a log cabin in Wisconsin, and she became very skilled in the kitchen.

Emily Riesenberg

My great-grandmother and her son Sidney Riesenberg (my great-uncle) in New York’s Yonkers Statesman, June 1, 1928

Although I was blessed with her name, her outstanding culinary skills didn’t make it across the generation gap to me!

She raised four children, one of whom was my great-uncle, Sidney Riesenberg, that I wrote about when we saw the mules at the Grand Canyon last June. He became a well known illustrator in New York. His older brother, Felix Riesenberg, became a well known explorer, tall ship captain and bestselling author.

When Emily had finished raising her family around the turn of the last century, she began submitting her recipes to newspapers and magazines. She was 50 at the time — in 1906 — and as she later told an interviewer with a New York newspaper, “Now it was time for my career!”

Her recipes were published in many publications, including Ladies Home Journal, and she had a weekly column in a Chicago newspaper. Her column, recipes and tips were very popular, and in 1931, at age 76, she published a cookbook called “Easy Baking” that included all her favorite baking recipes.

Renogy 200 watt solar panel

When I was a child, my mother had a cherished copy of this cookbook. It was well worn and stained from being used every year for Christmas baking. My mother would carefully open the book to the Lebkuchen recipe some time in early December and cover the open book with Saran Wrap to prevent us from making any new stains on those precious pages!

A few years ago, my sister found some copies of the cookbook and gave one to me. It had a treasured home in our RV and then in our house. However, each Christmas came and went without me trying my hand at making Lebkuchen.

Easy Baking cookbook by Emily Riesenberg

“Easy Baking” by my namesake!

This year, however, I dove in with gusto. It is an interesting recipe that calls for boiling honey and butter for 5 minutes over a “low fire.” This becomes a very frothy thing! “Soda” is added to water in another step and then the whole thing becomes an extremely sticky batter that has to remain in a covered bowl for 4 days as it “ripens”

Lebkuchen dough ripening for 4 days

The dough has to “ripen” for 4 days. It’s impossible not to peek!

I loved the mystery of all these steps as a child. As I made my way through the recipe this year, I wondered what my great-grandmother would think if she saw me in my kitchen today. It was over 50 years ago that I made these cookies with my mother. 100 years before that, my great-grandmother made these cookies with her mother in a log cabin!

The recipe calls for “citron” or candied citrus fruit peels, and I remember being fascinated by this odd, sticky food that had to be diced very finely. It is a key ingredient in these cookies. Unfortunately, there was none to be found in any of the stores within a half hour drive of our house and none at a reasonable price online either. I imagine that all the true Christmas bakers out there who plan ahead bought it all up before I even got the idea to make these cookies!

I’m sure my great-grandmother would have been quite distressed that I wouldn’t be including any citron in these cookies, but I learned my lesson to start thinking and planning ahead at Thanksgiving. Next time!

After four days of ripening, the dough is extremely dense and requires a huge amount of manipulation to get it to a point where you can roll it out. This was a job my mother always did, and as I wrestled with the dough this afternoon, I remembered watching her putting her whole body weight into getting that dough to comply. I had to do that too!

I didn’t have a rolling pin, but I was able to order one with my Instacart grocery order a few days ago. What would my great-grandmother have thought about my fast flying fingers typing on a keypad so a week’s worth of groceries plus a rolling pin would be delivered at my house the next day?!

Lebkuchen dough ready to be rolled out

The dough is a beast to deal with at first – dense and totally unpliable!

When I was little, we had a huge paper bag full of cookie cutters in all kinds of shapes. There were santas, stars, snowmen and other things. My great-uncle’s favorite cookie cutter was the pig, so we always used that one a lot so there would be plenty of cookies for him.

I don’t have any cookie cutters in my very simple kitchen, but I found that the rim of a mason jar top worked just fine. I could feel my great-grandmother shaking her head at my unpreparedness, but I knew she was smiling too because I was trying, and I had her book open with plastic wrap protecting the pages from flying flour.

Using a mason jar cap to cut Lebkuchen cookies

No cookie cutters? A Mason Jar cap rim did the job very well! I’ll get the ones below next year!

Christmas Cookie Cutters

Back in the early 1900s, ovens didn’t have thermometers, so the Lebkuchen baking instructions were to use a “very moderate” oven (as opposed to a “fast oven” or “slow oven” that were required for her other recipes). No time was given for when they’d be done either — just test them with a toothpick!

I remember my mother being perplexed about what temperature “very moderate” might be and how long to leave the cookies in the oven. And so it was for me today. Would that be 325 degrees or perhaps 350? And for how long? 10 minutes? 20 minutes? 30??

I found other Lebkuchen recipes online (what would my great-grandmother have thought of that?), and the recipes were totally different than this one. None of them let the dough ripen for 4 magical days (and oh yes, we kids often snuck lumps of uncooked dough to snack on secretly when no one was looking — and then we’d be reprimanded when the dough had shrunk by the time baking day rolled around!). The other Lebkuchen recipes online used temperatures anywhere from 300 to 400 degrees, so that didn’t help much!

When I was a little girl, the cookies always got baked somehow. I remember fondly, however, that we always had a batch or two that was quite dark or even burnt on the bottom and a few batches that were too light. Eventually, we’d get our rhythm and they’d all turn out perfectly.

Baking Lebkuchen Christmas cookies

Oh, for my great-grandmother’s skill in the kitchen!

We always made a double batch so we’d have plenty to give away. This involved sifting over 14 cups of flour! On baking day, the cookie sheets went in and out of the oven in a magical, sweet smelling dance all afternoon.

I got a soul enriching whiff of all those memories this afternoon as I listened to Christmas carols and cut little mason jar cap circles out of the dough. I’d made just a half batch of dough, and the smell and taste were right on. They turned out a little hard, however. In fact, they are very very hard! We’ll have to dip them in milk or coffee and tea for a long time!

But that’s part of the fun, and it is exactly how we always dealt with the dark and burnt ones way back when.

German Christmas Lebkuchen cookies

My humble first try. Now I have lots of notes for next year!

My great-grandmother’s recipe (and all the online Lebkuchen recipes) call for icing the cookies, but in our house they never made it that far…eager hands pulled them out of the cookie jar too fast and they disappeared into happy bellies! And so it is at our house this year.

Reese Goosebox

Here is the recipe:

Lebkuchen Recipe by Emily Riesenberg in her cookbook Easy Baking

The ingredient list for making Lebkuchen

Lebkuchen recipe by Emily Risenberg in her cookbook Easy Baking-2

Instructions. Quite different than modern recipe instructions!

For comparison, here is the recipe given by King Arthur Flour. They recommend refrigerating the dough for a day and baking at 350 for 20 to 22 minutes. A commenter suggested wrapping the dough in plastic wrap before refrigerating to keep it moist.

Also, here is the introduction to Emily Riesenberg’s cookbook — an essay by her son, Felix Riesenberg, about the importance of baking homemade bread for the health and happiness of your children!

The importance of baking bread for your children from the cookbook Easy Baking by Emily Riesenberg_

Written by her son, Felix, this little intro speaks volumes about a world of simpler and more wholesome times in America in the 1800s.

Here’s a little about my great-grandmother from the front of the cookbook:

About the author of Easy Baking Emily Riesenberg

About my great-grandmother, Emily Riesenberg

Also, here are the opening paragraphs of the first chapter: key tips every “up to date cook” needs to know about flour!

What Every Cook Should Know introduction to Easy Baking cookbook by Emily Riesenberg

What a different and special world my great-grandmother lived in!

Note added Christmas morning:

Mark and I surprised each other when we opened our gifts and saw we’d gotten each other the same thing! A neighbor who has an artisan woodworking shop invited all the neighbors to come check out his work and buy gifts, and we both snuck out with a gift for the other of a boy (or girl) with a dog. What a sweet coincidence!

Boy and girl with dog made by Rust Art

Mark and I gave each other almost identical gifts this year…with Buddy close to our hearts!

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and that you take a moment to reminisce about your fondest traditions, even if they aren’t a part of your festivities now. We’d love to hear your stories too!

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50 RV Gift Ideas for Your Beloved RVer (or RV!)

Is there a special RVer in your life who’d appreciate a tool or an appliance or other RV gift for your life on the road — perhaps a memento of your RVing adventures together? Or do you have an RV you love that deserves a little holiday gift wrapped with a bow?

We have our own list of “must have” RV goodies, and we’ve seen some super cute RV related gifts in our travels, and this inspired me to do a little digging online to see if there might be more. Oh my, if you look hard enough there’s a treasure trove out there!

I had a blast “window shopping” — here’s a list of a few things I found.

If something appeals to you, click on the image or the link in the text above it to find out all the details.

For starters, does your beloved RV welcome you home with a cute little mat by the door? Here’s a wonderful RV welcome mat:

Home is where the RV welcome mat is-min

Yes, indeed!

And another fun one:

Just Another Day in Paradise RV Welcome Mat

Welcome home!!

If you’d rather wipe your feet on a super absorbent doormat instead of a decorative welcome mat (we have one), then maybe a little welcome sign would be a gracious way to invite your friends in:

RV Welcome Sign

A warm welcome for your RV guests.

Ya gotta hang your keys up somewhere, and what better place for the RV and car keys than on a fun set of keyhooks?

RV key hooks - The adventure begins

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And now that you’ve got a great place to hang your keys, how about putting your most important keys on a special keyring?!

RV keyring

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If you want to introduce yourself to your neighbors and give your RV patio a little flair, how about a personalized sign for your campsite?

Personalized RV campsite sign

A personalized sign makes introductions easy.

If you’re a bit shy about putting your name out in front of your rig, maybe just let the neighbors know where the party is with a flag that says “It’s 5:00 Somewhere”!

It's 5 o'clock somewhere garden flag-min

Let the neighbors know where the party is!

Speaking of parties, if yours tend to involve a little wine, then you might find a set of picnic wine glass and bottle holders to be just the thing. Simply shove them in the ground near your camp chairs and your wine will be safe from tipping over.

picnic stix wine glass and bottle holders-min

No spills by the campfire!

For some folks, the stems on wine glasses are a little cumbersome in the RVing life. If you want to go stemless, there are some very cute etched wine glasses made especially for those RVers who are wine drinkers with a camping problem or who are just happy campers:

stemless camping wine glass-min

Is this you — or someone you know??

Happy Camper stemless wine glass-min

Describes every RVer, for sure!

If you’re serving munchies too, then you’ll definitely want to bring out some RV cocktail napkins!

RV cocktail napkins

These will make your guests smile!

There’s nothing like waking up to the perfect cup of coffee, especially after an evening partying with friends, and IMHO the BEST way to make it is pour-over style. This is especially true if you like to boondock. It doesn’t require any electricity and delivers a delicious cup in no time.

Simply place the filter holder on the top of your coffee mug, put a paper filter inside, dump in a scoop of finely ground coffee beans and pour boiling water over the grounds. In a minute or two you have the perfect cup.

Pour over coffee filter holder

The EASIEST way to make coffee in an RV!
Especially for boondockers. No electricity needed!.

If you want to make more than one cuppa joe at a time, get a pour-over coffee carafe. They come in smaller and larger sizes. My family made coffee this way from the time I was 12, and the care we took in making, sharing and drinking it is one of my fondest childhood memories.

The pour-over carafes we suggest come in 36 ounce and 52 ounce sizes.

Pour over coffee carafe

The pour over coffee carafes made by Melitta
come in 36 ounce and 52 ounce sizes.

The reason we recommend disposable paper filters is because you don’t have to deal with the mess of wet coffee grounds. The permanent filters are great in a house where you have endless dishwashing water and no concerns about what goes down the drain. But in an RV, especially when boondocking, cleaning a permanent coffee filter is difficult. That’s also why we don’t use a French Press!

If you want to get really fancy, buy whole beans and grind them yourself so they’re as fresh as can be. We like this coffee grinder:

Coffee grinder

Mark always jokes that morning coffee in our RV is a science project!

You can’t travel in an RV without camping chairs, and of course they come in all shapes, colors and sizes. But how about a camp chair with your RV’s name printed on the back rest or with your name there?! This isn’t a bad idea if you’re headed to a big gathering of RVers in the desert in Quartzsite where lots of folks have nearly identical chairs and the chairs often stay in a ring around the campfire for days on end!

personalized camping chair-min

Personalized camping chair — Will you put your name or the rig’s name on it??

This past summer we swapped out the recliners that came with our Genesis Supreme Toy Hauler with these zero gravity chairs from Best Choice. It was a great upgrade!

Zero Gravity Chairs for an RV

We like these better than the chairs that came with our toy hauler.
We use them inside and outside!

We topped them with these cushions which are very comfortable.

Zero Gravity Chair Cushions

Soft and comfy.

RVers frequently camp in places where you can’t have a campfire. So what could be better than bringing a portable campfire with you? This little guy runs on propane and has a nice flame.

Portable RV campfire

Now you can have a campfire anywhere you take your RV!

50 States 5,000 Ideas Travel Book

No shortage of possibilities!

So far, we’ve been coming up with all kinds of great ideas for making that beloved RV a cozy home for living in and sharing with friends. But how about some travel ideas?

If your loved one needs some travel inspiration, here’s a book that offers 5,000 ideas for where to go with your RV and what to see and do once you get there!

For nature lovers, hikers, photographers and anyone dreaming of seeing America’s stunning National Parks, check out this top rated Guide to the National Parks.

Your Guide to the National Parks

Dreaming of a big RV adventure? Here’s a Guide to the National Parks!

Rand McNally Road Atlas

“Let’s hit the road!”

Are you in the special category of “Wanting to Be an RVer?” and, perhaps, the Love of Your Life is a little hesitant about this crazy new dream of yours?

One way to win him/her over might be the trick that pioneering RVer Kay Peterson used on her husband to inspire him to go RVing full-time.

One day, when she put the sandwich she made him in his lunch box, she wrapped it in a US road map!

The gift of a good quality road atlas can drop a broad hint and comes in very handy for planning your itinerary.

Once you’ve been out having fun in your RV for a while, whether you’ve been traveling for a week, a year, or more, you’ll want to keep a record of all your adventures.

I still cherish the journal I hand wrote (and hand decorated with glued-in photos) of our travels in our popup tent trailer.

Here’s a specially made camping journal with categories and prompts to remind you of all the things you’ll want to remember later:

Camping and RV journal-min

A Camping and RV Travel Journal.

Lots of people wear their hearts on their sleeve, and some go so far as to wear their passions on the fronts of their shirts! Here are a few fun t-shirts (available in men’s and women’s sizes and a rainbow of colors).

If telling the world you love the RVing lifestyle on the front of your shirt isn’t really your style, maybe curling up with some lounge pants decorated with vintage trailers would be more like it!!

Happy camper lounge pants-min

Happy camper vintage trailer lounge pants.

Although it’s nice to lounge around in t-shirts and PJ’s, it’s nice to dress up too. An adorable pair of earrings might be just the thing for your sweetie.

RV earrings

She’ll love them!
Check out these many other styles too!

Guys always love flashlights, and Mark owns quite a few. At least four of his are the Lumintop brand (they make many different types), and he says they’re better quality than his others. One of his favorites is the Lumintop SD26 pocket flashlight. It isn’t made any more, but it’s very similar to the newer Lumintop D2 pocket flashlight which is very bright, rechargeable and has four modes.

Lumintop D2 Flashlight

He’ll be all smiles when he sees this super bright Lumintop D2!

Mark was a Boy Scout, so he likes to be prepared, and his pockets are always full of survival goodies. He actually carries TWO pocket knives, if you can imagine, and he uses them both all the time! One is the tiny Gerber 2 inch folding pocket knife. It has a locking blade and he loves it because the blade is always super sharp. The other is a Victorinox Swiss Army pocket knife. He loves it because of all the tools: scissors, tweezers, toothpick and a file!

Both are tiny — about 2 inches long when folded up!

Gerber LST Pocket Knife

The locking blade on this Gerber LST pocket knife is really sharp and holds its edge.

Victorinox Pocket Swiss Army Knife

Just over 2 inches long, this tiny Swiss Army Knife is full of useful tools!

One more goodie that Mark discovered in the last two years that he asbolutely loves is the Ryobi electric screwdriver. Talk about saving your wrists when you have a lot of screws to deal with!!! I love it to and used it all the time when I was mounting shelves and various things in our new rig. The man in your life — that guy who has everything and is so hard to shop for — will totally love this!

Ryobi electric screwdriver

This little electric screwdriver is the bomb!

Getting back to those special memories that we all create on the road, one fun way to memorialize a particularly special travel moment is to frame a photo of it in a picture frame shaped like an RV. Whether your rolling home requires a motorhome picture frame or a trailer picture frame, there’s a cool one for you:

RV picture frame class C Motorhome-min

A picture frame for that memorable moment from your RV adventures.

RV travel trailer picture frame-min

The trailer version.

Okay, okay, enough of the cutesy RV decorated stuff. How about some practical things that will give your life on the road a little zing and isn’t something you’re likely to find at the local camping store?

First on our list of “must haves” in our RV lifestyle is a set of two-way radios. We use these radios to help us back up and park the trailer, to communicate when hiking in glorious remote locations, and when we get separated in Walmart too. No cell phone reception needed!

Midland 36-mile 50-channel two-way radios-min

We have had Midland 36-mile radios since we started in 2007 and wouldn’t RV without them.

For anyone with a small RV, a top quality set of nesting pots and pans is a joy. We bought a set of Magma nesting pots and pans when we moved onto our sailboat in 2010, and we still use them now in our trailer.

magma nesting cookware for RV travel-min

We bought these pots and pans for our boat and still use them every day.

magma nesting cookware for RV camping-min

The whole set fits into one pot!

Another kitchen item I really loved having with us in our toy hauler’s dollhouse sized kitchen this past summer is my tiny Cuisinart food processor. If you like chopped salads, salsa and guacamole, and your storage space is minimal, this little gadget is a must have.

Cuisinart Elemental 4-Cup Food Processor

Makes guac & salsa in a minute flat and takes up very little space.

There are so many cute things out there to dress up the RV galley. One fun way to give it some color is to hang up pretty hand towels. We saw these hand towels when we visited the La Posada Hotel gift shop in Winslow Arizona and just loved them.

RV and retro travel trailer hand towels-min

Decorative hand towels.

How about a set of RV decorated dishes, each with a unique (and inviting) camping scene?!

Camping dishes with travel trailer RV designs-min

What a great dishware set for your travels!

There’s also a very cool serving bowl (with serving spoons)!

RV bowl and serving set with travel trailer design-min

A serving bowl (and serving spoons) to go with the dishes

Okay, let’s get back to the practical stuff that isn’t decorated with adorable vintage RVs.

Nothing says “love” like power tools, and the two we use most are our cordless drill and cordless impact driver. We use the drill to raise and lower the stabilizer jacks on the back of our trailer (explained in this article), and Mark uses the impact drill every time he changes a tire on either the trailer or the truck (check out how he changes that inner rear wheel on the dually!). I’d like to say that doesn’t happen too often…but unfortunately he’s changed a lot of tires since we started RVing full-time!!

Ryobi Cordless Drill Combo Set

Cordless drill and impact driver set. Mark loves these!

Of course, the way to measure the difficulty of any RV repair job is by how many beers it takes to complete. Whether it’s a one beer job or a two beer job, it goes much better if the beer is cold right to the last drop. Mark LOVES his Yeti koozie.

Yeti beer koozie-min

For the beer drinker with a camping problem!
Cold to the last drop…

If you don’t need your stainless steel beer koozie to say “Yeti” on it, there are other brands that are much cheaper.

Yeti is known for its coolers, but we found that the much cheaper Lifetime coolers are excellent too. We keep one in the back of our Polaris RZR. Lifetime is the right name for that company too. One of the latches on our original Lifetime cooler failed after a few years, and when we contacted the company about it, they swapped out our cooler for a brand new one!

Lifetime Cooler

We love our Lifetime cooler!

One of my favorite parts of the RV lifestyle is kicking back with a leisurely morning cup of tea. My mug (a birthday gift from Mark) says “I love you,” but a pair of “Life is better in a camper” mugs would be pretty cool too!

RV coffee mugs with travel trailer-min

“Life is Better in a Camper” coffee mugs!

Retro trailers are all the rage, but there’s a coffee mug for motorhome lovers too.

RV coffee mug motorhome at night in woods-min

Motorhome camping scene on a coffee mug.

If you’ve got kids or friends over at your campsite, and you’re looking for fun things to do, a party game might fill the bill. Corn Hole and Ring Toss are portable and easy to set up.

Corn Hole Game for RV camping-min

Something fun to do at the campsite besides sit around the campfire!

Ring Toss Camping Game-min

Ring toss game.

For families that get stuck indoors on a rainy day, a fun way for the kids to get some laughs and learn a little at the same time is to play the game Mad Libs. I saw this in a gift shop and remembered loving it as a kid, and I couldn’t resist buying it for my grandkids.

If the kids haven’t learned the difference between a noun and a verb at school yet (and lord knows if the schools are even teaching that these days), this game makes it fun and easy to learn!

RV gift Mad Libs game-min

This is a fun (and funny) indoor rainy day word game.

For RVers who love birds (like me), we’ve seen some beautiful little wooden bird houses shaped like trailers.

We love to hang a hummingbird feeder from our RV, and we have a special one that mounts on our window with a suction cup mount. It’s a blast to sit inside and watch the crazy antics of these tiny birds as they duke it out with each other at the feeder. For anyone who enjoys photography, this kind of feeder is a hoot (blog posts about our humming bird experiences here and here).

Hummingbird Feeder window suction cup mount-min

We hang a hummingbird feeder on our RV window with a suction cup mount.

Window hummingbird feeder

We’ve enjoyed this feeder on our trailer so much we got one for our house too!

Speaking of photography, November and December are the best time of the year to buy a camera. The deals get sweeter and sweeter! If a fancy new camera is on your wish list, now is the time to get one. For us (and many others), Nikon is the brand to buy.

The photography world is a bit split right now between folks on the cutting edge who have new technology mirrorless cameras and those who have a big investment in older technology DSLR lenses that are sticking with DSLR cameras. The mirrorless cameras cost a premium because they are the new technology while the DSLR cameras are a true bargain right now.

At the high end, the camera that has taken the photography world by storm is the mirrorless Nikon Z8 camera. Nikon’s entry level mirrorless camera is the Nikon Z30. Their mid-range full-frame mirrorless camera is the Nikon Z5. If you have an unlimited budget, get the Nikon Z9!

In the older technology DSLR world, at the high end the Nikon D850 rivals the new mirrorless Nikon Z8 in many respects (it has the same sensor) yet it can be purchased for two-thirds or half the price. In the mid-range, the Nikon D780 is an excellent full-frame choice. The entry level Nikon D5600 is a fine camera. We use ours when we’re out on the RZR or driving the truck!

Nikon Z8 camera

November / December is the best time to buy a new camera.

And last of all, whether you’re going to celebrate Christmas in your RV living room or in the living room of a stickbuilt home, why not decorate your Christmas tree with a little RV love?! There are lots of RV Christmas ornaments available including these two:

Airstream RV Christmas ornament

Why not hang a little Airstream on your Christmas tree?!

RV Christmas tree ornament

There are lots of RV Christmas ornaments out there!

On a totally different topic, Mark just came in and suggested I add a note to remind you that now is a great time to exercise your onboard generator, if you have one, and if your rig is not going to be used for a while. He’s got ours going with two electric heaters running full blast so it’s got a good load on it…!

Also, if you are in a warmer climate, like we are, where you can avoid fully winterizing your rig but still experience temps below freezing for a few hours every night, make sure the holding tanks are empty and the fresh water tank is either empty or has lots of water in it, and open all the faucets.

For MORE RV gift ideas, see our post: 101 Great RV Gift Ideas for RVers, Campers and Outdoor Lovers!

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