iving in a fifth wheel full time with a small sink and little counter space takes a good sense of humor. Fortunately, the designers of this model were pretty clever, providing a huge storage cabinet and adjacent shelves to house most of the toiletries without being disheveled. Add in the large wood medicine cabinet above the sink — with a mirror, of course — and the facilities are workable with acclimation.
Every square inch of counter space is needed, so placing the charging stands for the cordless toothbrushes behind the sink made the most sense. For years, the power cords were routed along the wall to the power outlet at the end of the counter; stick-on covers were used to “conceal” the wires, but they just collected dirt and were terribly unsightly. A simple fix was to drill a hole near the charging bases and route the wires under the counter and up through another hole near the 120-volt AC power outlet. The wires were ganged and connected to a new plug for connection to one side of the outlet.
At the same time, a power cord for the wall-mounted hair dryer was cut to size and fitted with a new plug. We’ve used the same wall-mounted hair dryer in the last three RVs and it works great, but it’s no longer available. There are others on the market; the models with the built-in night light help with after-dark visits to the bathroom. The plugs for the hair dryer and toothbrushes are pushed into the outlets; one is removed if other accessories are needed. This is admittedly a simple fix — but it made a huge difference in cleaning up the look of the diminutive countertop.
By the way: When you have a sink that barely fits two hands, having a faucet that provides good water coverage is important — and the stock faucet was not exactly up to full-time-living standards. Finding a replacement can be confusing since there are so many models on the market. The sink in these photos received a replacement Moen faucet a few years ago that we have really come to appreciate — and it was a direct retrofit for RV applications. Plus, installing it is a piece of cake; the only caveat is converting the fittings to compression if ½-inch pipe connectors were originally provided from the RV factory. Obtaining these adapters from a local hardware or home improvement store is usually easy. Look for an RV supply line adapter, ½-inch pipe thread to 3/8-inch compression.
Moen is a major provider of quality faucets to the housing industry and it’s Dura Faucet with a brushed satin finish (DF-NML210 SN-RV; $70.90 on Amazon) is designed specifically for RVs. My only complaint is how quickly the aerator plugs up from hard water, but that usually can be rectified via a few minutes of soaking with Lime-A-Way or similar product (it’s best to keep an extra one handy if the corrosion build-up is too heavy).
These few changes to the bathroom sink area resulted in a big improvement in livability, and the effort and cost were minimal.
