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When you purchase a camper, the expense of the camper is not your only expense. There are many things you need to purchase before taking your camper out on it’s first adventure. Many camper/RV dealerships have their own store with the items that you need, however check prices! We found many items were available at our local Walmart and Amazon for much cheaper.
What Should Come With Your Trailer
There are several items that should come with your new camper, however always double check with your salesman. If you are asking for anything extra to be thrown in make sure that it is in writing.
- White Water Hose (do not use a green hose – it needs to be a hose safe for drinking)
- Water Pressure Regulator (plumbing in a camper is not made for high water pressure)
- Electrical Cord
- Sewer Hose (ours came with the cheapest and shortest hose, this will probably be one of the first items we replace) – Update: we had to buy another sewer hose because we pulled into a site and our hose would not reach, so we upgraded to this one.
- Full LP Tanks
- Battery
Items You Will Need to Purchase
- Wheel Chocks – You will place one in front and one behind each set of wheels, so that your camper does not roll away from you 🙂
- Leveling Pads – You will use these under your tires to help level out your camper. Your camper has to be level for any slides to operate and for your AC and refrigerator to run properly.
- Leveling Bubbles – Place these small levels on the outside of your camper to easily be able to tell if you are level.
- Lug Wrench – Did you know that you are supposed to check the lugs before you move your trailer each time? So keeping a lug wrench in the storage area of your camper is very important.
- Sewer Adapter and Clear 45 Degree – In order to hook up your black and grey water tanks at the campground or dump stations you will need a sewer 4 in 1 adapter. In addition, you will need a clear connector to be able to tell if your tanks are empty and when you flush your tanks to make sure they are clean. If you purchase this sewer kit those two items are included.
- Holding Tank Rinser – This allows you to backfill your tanks and clean them out. You will be amazed at how much more “stuff” comes about when using this. We do not use this every time we dump our tanks, but we always use it at the end of a trip. (Some campers are already equipped with something similar ours is not.)
- Bio-Paks – This helps break down and neutralize odors in your black water tank. We always add one to our tank after emptying it, so that we always have one in our tank.
- 90-Degree Water Hose Elbow – This is so that your water hose will not crimp and eliminates unnecessary stress and strain on your water intake hose fitting.
- Water Pressure Regulator – To help regulate the water pressure and protect your camper’s plumbing. Our camper came with this, but if yours does not you will need it.
- Water Purifier – To protect your water tanks and for better-tasting water, we placed a filter on the outside of our camper.
- Electrical Adapter – Depending on your camper, you may need an electrical adapter to be able to plug into different plug-ins at the campground or your house. For example, my camper is a 30amp so I would need a connector to take it down to a 15amp to plug into my house. My parents’ camper is a 50amp, so they need a connector to take it to 30amp which is more widely used at campgrounds.
- Surge Protector – To help protect your camper against power surges and to check for faulty plugs.
- Towing Mirrors – To help you increase your visibility on the road while you are towing. These mirror extensions can clip right on your current mirror. I’ve upgraded my towing mirrors to these. They allow us to see our surrounding area better.
- Ball and Hitch Lock – To protect your camper and hitch from getting stolen. The padlock also keeps the ball of your trailer in your hitch when towing.
- Flying Insect Screens – Place the screens over areas where flying insects may want to build homes including furnace vents and hot water heater compartments.
- Ladder – Our camper does not have a ladder attached to it and we need to be able to clean off the top of our slide before pulling it back in. We have a regular 6-foot ladder in our storage compartment but it is crowded! A telescoping ladder would be the perfect solution.
You will also need a 4×4 piece of wood to place under the tongue of your trailer to keep it level when parked.
We thoroughly enjoyed our first camping trip and cannot wait for our next one. Update March 2016: We have been on ten camping trips ranging from week-long trips to weekend trips since we got our camper in June 2015. We are always looking forward to our next trip!
Keep an eye out for more camping-related posts including Keeping Kids Entertained While Camping and What I Learned on Our First Camping Trip.
Do you have a camper? Or are you looking to purchase? Are there any items I missed?
Tire covers for when you are not using your RV. We have not gotten any and we will regret this I am sure!
We were actually discussing tire covers this past weekend. Thanks for the tip Aimee…I am off to check prices!
For the first years we owned a trailer we could not afford tire covers. We used quarter inch boards we cut to fit in our wheel wells when we store our trailer. Years later, we have found it is cheaper to have the wood “covers” on the (4) tires than replacing the cloth tire covers every few years. We buy scrap pieces of wood from a Home Depot or Lowes, paint them to match our (tan) trailer and also write our storage space on them. (Learned that the hard way when ours were stolen!) So far we have never had sun rot on any of our tires!!
Great tip K. Rob! Thank you for sharing.
These are great suggestions– and one thing I didn’t realize but that my grandma told me (they used to spend about half the year in their RV) is that leveling the camper is not only helpful for your fridge to run, but actually imperative! If you run your fridge when the camper is not level, it can actually ruin the fridge!
Thanks for linking up to The Pretty Pintastic Party, and for repinning the features! We are featuring this post in the party next weekend!
Yes Jaime! Keeping your camper level is so important. Thank you so much for the feature!
Yes, level is important also for comfort. Example is sleeping with head lower than body can cause a bad night and/or headaches the next day. The refrigerator level is the wall the refrigerator is on must be level. On the side it is front to back or if it is on the end of the unit then the level is side to side.
RVs built in the last several years have refrigerators that refuse to work after a period of being out of level. Back in the 80’s I had to have a ammonia system replaced in a small camper because it quit working properly due to not having it level.
So true Bob!
Great list! I never thought about all the extras that we would need if we choose to purchase a camper in the future! Very informative!
Thank you for sharing with us at #MommyMeetupMondays!
It was surprising to me how much extra stuff was needed. Thanks Brandyn!
We bought a pop-up last September and are enjoying it. So much better than a tent! Great tips. I’m pinning for when we upgrade.
Thank you Kristia! Enjoy the rest of camping season!
Don’t forget an indoor/outdoor strip of carpet for the ground below your steps and under your awning! And a couple of folding lawn chairs. Also, bring a broom to sweep out tracked in grass clippings, etc. An electric broom is perfect for this! Bring along a collapsible laundry hamper to hold dirty clothes until you get to the laundramat.
Thank you for your tips! I use my broom all the time!
What type of hitch/anti sway set up are you using? What tow vehicle/engine are you using? Looks good!
We have not had any problems with swaying using a 2 point hitch that we bought from the dealer when we purchased the trailer. The hitch is similar to this one http://amzn.to/1MC1JjO (affiliate link) My Jeep Grand Cherokee has a V8 Hemi and with the tow package can tow 7100 (if I remember correctly). We’ve already taken the combo on a long trip (1200 miles each direction) and several shorter trips with no problems.
Fire extinguishers!!! Three minimum, but then I’m paranoid. One at the front of the trailer, one at the back of the trailer, and one in the tow vehicle. This way, because there’s only one door at least on ours, you have the extinguisher at either end if you get caught in between and can’t quickly get that window out. Also, kids are at one end and we’re at the other so I’m even MORE paranoid. My 7 & 10 year old both know how to use the fire extinguishers and they’re small enough they can handle them.
Great suggestion Kristan! Our trailer came with a fire extinguisher by the door but I am thinking I need to add another one to the other end of our trailer.
Great list! When I purchased my pop-up, I didn’t realize how lucky we were as far as all the goodies it already came with, until I read your post! You provided the “reality” list of needs that many folks may not know they need until they are trying to set up for their first trip! .I linked to your article in my latest blog post. Thanks!
Thanks so much Mindy! It is quite the list of necessities!
Don’t forget tank treatments for the fresh, grey, and black tanks. Keeping the tanks healthy is imperitive. Also, having a tyvek
suit, rubber boots and gloves for that nasty job of dealing with the sewer line setup and takedown. I also suggest keeping spares of important bulbs such as brake lights and turn signals on hand. And while you are locking up your trailer and hitch, a good cable type lock can protect your propane tanks from theft.
Thank you so much for your suggestions John.
Nice list. We don’t have screens for the bugs. However, I found that the off clip on is great to hang by the door it has worked for us!
Great tip!
This is a good list of the basics. I work for an RV Center and we always suggest to new RVers that they take the first outing close to home and make a list of the things they forgot before they go too far from home.
When you mention the electrical adapters it should be noted that if you adapt down from what your RV is set up for you should avoid using large power items like air conditioners and microwaves as these pull more power than your 15 amp and 30 amp cords are designed to handle. This can lead to meltdown and possibly fire. We also recommend never running microwave and air conditioner at the same time. You will end up at best tripping your breaker or even frying your converter (very expensive repair).
Thank you for the great tips. Enjoy your camping.
I didn’t know about running an air conditioner and microwave at the same time. I’ll have to keep that in mind. Thanks
Great list!! We having been enjoying our travel trailer this past year. It was our salesman 1st day on the job when we bought ours. He didn’t know that we were suppose to get the starter kit so we purchased it all our self’s. Your pictures look just like our setup too LOL.
What I would suggest is a separate black hose to clean out the black tank and some disposable gloves. We also spray the water connection with Clorex bleach cleaner (not the bathroom one) before we connect the drinking white hose and before we leave the site. You never know how someone handles the faucets, if they touch it with their hands or dirty hoses from cleaning the black tanks. Yuck!!!
Yes, we use a separate hose and disposable gloves too and it all goes into it’s own plastic container in our storage compartment (minus the sewer hose which is in the bumper). Oh gross, now I am going to have to pick up some clorox bleach! 🙂 thanks so much for the tips
We bought an extension cord for electric cord, have had a few camp grounds were the electric box was to far away
Oh no!
Just bought my first Trailer. I knew nothing about the ins and outs. Now I feel like I know something. It will be a learning experience I’m looking forward to. Lots to still learn.
Lynn
I wish you many wonderful camping trips!
Thank you so much for the post, and the links to the products. Was just what i needed to know.
You’re welcome Dustin!
Thank you for this very practical list! I’ve been searching for all the “must haves” and people are listing things like “Kitchen Aid Mixer”, “frozen drink maker”. Ugh!
You are welcome Lee! I haven’t needed either of the above in the camper! 🙂
Great list! We bought or first camper in July ’16 and thankfully stocked extra fuses of all sizes used in or camper. Upon arrival on our first trip, we had blown the fuse (to control the slide out & awning). All of our electrical setup features have manual overrides, but they are so much more involved… We are also adding a nozzle for the extra hose, especially helpful for beach trips!
Wondering if anyone had a clever suggestion for how to store/manage a dual hose setup…
Always a great idea to have extra fuses and a spray nozzle! We use clear under bed storage boxes: one for our clean water hoses and one for anything that touches the sewer.