4 RV Tips That Made Full-Time Travel Easier (And Saved Us Costly Mistakes)

One thing we’ve learned from full-time RV living is that some of the most useful lessons don’t come from instruction manuals.

They come from experience.

Sometimes something doesn’t work quite the way you expected. Sometimes you discover a simple modification that makes a huge difference. And occasionally you learn a lesson because something breaks and you really don’t want it to happen again.

After spending years traveling with our travel trailer, we’ve collected plenty of those lessons.

Here are four simple RV tips that made our life on the road a little easier, safer and less frustrating.

1. Tighten Up Your Hitch for Smoother Towing

Our first tip involves something every travel trailer owner cares about: how the trailer behaves while you’re towing it.

We use a ReCurve weight distribution hitch and have been very happy with it, but we initially had some movement in the hitch setup that bothered us.

There was a little play where the hitch fit into the receiver, and that movement translated into more motion while we were traveling.

Eventually, we added a hitch tightener that helped remove the extra play between the hitch and receiver.

What a difference.

The improvement was noticeable almost immediately. The entire towing setup felt more solid, and the trailer pulled more smoothly.

That was especially noticeable when driving in windy conditions. Instead of having that additional movement working back and forth, everything felt tighter and more stable.

If your own hitch has noticeable play where it enters the receiver, it’s worth taking a closer look at the setup. Your hitch system may be different from ours, so always follow the manufacturer’s installation and torque specifications for your particular equipment.

Sometimes a relatively small adjustment can make a surprisingly large difference in how your trailer feels going down the road.

Check Your Hitch Regularly

This also reinforced something else for us: don’t assume that because a hitch was installed correctly once, you never need to look at it again.

RV equipment gets bounced, shaken and subjected to thousands of miles of road vibration.

Before traveling, take a few minutes to look over the entire hitch assembly. Check for anything loose, worn, bent or simply different from the last time you looked at it.

Catching a small problem in the campsite is much better than discovering it on the highway.

2. Our WeBoost Worked Much Better Once We Raised the Antenna

Reliable cell service can be a challenge when you spend a lot of time camping away from cities.

We bought a WeBoost cell signal booster for our RV, and initially Ed wasn’t impressed.

Actually, that’s putting it mildly.

We’d spent quite a bit of money on it, mounted the antenna on the roof as instructed, and didn’t see enough improvement to make us feel the purchase had been worthwhile.

Then we changed the antenna setup.

Instead of leaving the outside antenna mounted at roof height, Ed attached it to a telescoping pole that allowed us to raise it considerably higher when we were parked.

That changed everything.

The pole collapses small enough to fit in the basement storage area of our travel trailer, so we can put it away when we’re traveling and raise it once we’re settled into a campsite.

With the antenna higher in the air, the WeBoost suddenly started doing what we’d hoped it would do.

In one location, we couldn’t get a usable signal on our phones at ground level. There were trees and other obstructions around us, and the phones weren’t picking up enough signal to be useful.

We raised the antenna.

Suddenly, we had service.

A Cell Booster Can’t Create a Signal From Nothing

There is an important distinction here.

A cell booster needs an existing cellular signal to amplify. It can’t create service where absolutely no cellular signal exists.

But your phone showing no usable service doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no signal anywhere nearby. Terrain, trees, buildings and other obstructions can affect what reaches the phone.

Sometimes getting the outside antenna higher and into a better position can allow it to pick up a signal your phone couldn’t reach.

For us, antenna placement made the difference between wondering whether we’d wasted our money and being very happy with the booster.

Technology has changed considerably since we bought our system, so newer equipment may work differently. But the lesson still applies: before deciding a piece of equipment doesn’t work, make sure the problem isn’t the installation or placement.

3. Don’t Leave Your RV Awning Out When You Leave Camp

This may be one of the simplest tips on the list, but it can potentially save you a very expensive repair.

Be careful with your RV awning.

We tie ours down when we’re using it, but even then, we don’t take unnecessary chances with wind.

If the weather starts getting questionable, the awning goes in.

And if we’re leaving the campsite for the day?

The awning goes in.

We’ve seen firsthand why that’s a good habit.

At one RV park, we went out exploring for the day. Before leaving, we retracted our awning.

While we were gone, a strong gust of wind came through the campground.

When we returned, we drove past several RVs with destroyed awnings. Frames were bent and twisted, and awning components were scattered or hanging from the rigs.

Ours was safely tucked away.

That was all the convincing we needed.

Wind Can Change Quickly

The problem isn’t necessarily the weather when you leave.

It’s what the weather might do while you’re gone.

A calm morning can turn into a windy afternoon, and localized gusts can appear with very little warning.

If you’re sitting outside your RV, you can react to changing conditions.

If you’re miles away sightseeing, you can’t.

Retracting an awning takes only a few minutes. Replacing a damaged one can cost considerably more in both money and aggravation.

We’d rather put it away unnecessarily a hundred times than leave it out the one time a powerful gust comes through.

4. Protect Your Portable Waste Tank From Freezing

And now we get to the glamorous side of RV life.

The honey wagon.

If you boondock or camp without sewer hookups, a portable waste tank can be incredibly useful. Instead of packing up the entire RV just to empty the holding tanks, you can transfer waste into the portable tank and take it to the dump station.

Unfortunately, ours taught us another lesson.

We’d been traveling through freezing temperatures before arriving in Quartzsite. The next time we used our portable waste tank, we discovered a leak around one of the fittings.

On closer inspection, we found a crack.

Our best guess was that a small amount of water had remained inside the tank or fitting during the freezing weather. When that water froze and expanded, it cracked the plastic.

Ed was able to seal the damaged area and stop the leak, but we certainly didn’t want the same thing happening again.

Residual Water Can Cause Trouble

The obvious solution is to make sure the portable tank is thoroughly drained and dried before exposing it to freezing temperatures.

Unfortunately, getting every last drop of water out isn’t always as easy as it sounds.

There can be little pockets and low spots where moisture remains.

Our friends Gary and Marianne suggested using a small amount of freeze-resistant windshield washer fluid to help prevent residual moisture in the portable tank from freezing.

It was a clever solution for our situation, although you’ll want to make sure anything you use is compatible with your particular tank, seals and wastewater system and is acceptable at the dump facilities you use.

The larger lesson is one that applies to plenty of RV equipment:

If something contains water, think about what will happen to it when the temperature drops below freezing.

It’s much easier to prepare beforehand than repair cracked plumbing or equipment afterward.

Small RV Improvements Can Prevent Big Problems

None of these tips is revolutionary.

That’s actually what makes them useful.

Full-time RV living isn’t always about buying the newest gadget or making a huge modification to your rig. Often, it’s about noticing the little annoyances and problems that appear over time and figuring out how to make them better.

A little movement in the hitch led us to a smoother towing setup.

Poor cell reception taught us how much antenna placement mattered.

Seeing other people’s destroyed awnings convinced us that putting ours away before leaving camp was worth the effort.

And a cracked portable waste tank reminded us that even a small amount of trapped water can become a problem in freezing weather.

Those are the lessons that accumulate as you travel.

Don’t Assume Everyone Else Has It Figured Out

One of the funny things about becoming an RVer is that there’s an enormous amount to learn.

When you’re new, it can look like everyone else in the campground knows exactly what they’re doing.

They don’t.

Neither do we.

We’ve simply learned more than we knew when we started, usually one problem at a time.

That’s also why we enjoy sharing these little tips. If something we learned the hard way saves another RVer a repair, an aggravating travel day or a few hundred dollars, it’s worth passing along.

And we’ll undoubtedly learn plenty more as we continue traveling.

That’s part of the adventure.

We’ll see you down the road…and Over the Hills!

Continue the Journey

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