f you’re an entomologist, you love bugs. If you’re an RVer, not so much. For RVers, the bug collection can be found on the windshield, grilles and the front of their rigs — and they make a mess. Once bugs have dried on these surfaces, removing them can be pretty difficult.

Over the years I have used several commercial bug cleaners; some work and some don’t. Recently, I ran out of cleaner — and the bug remains stacked up. Since I hate to see bugs on my tow vehicle and fifth wheel, I experimented with a few products I already had in my storage compartment — and discovered that, together, they worked amazingly well.

hen you’re RVing, you never know the quality and hardness of the water you hook up to at a campground. Hard water wreaks havoc on any RV water system and usually ends up leaving heavy calcium and other mineral deposits on the faucet spray head or aerator — to a point where the water either stops flowing or does a wild dance all over the sink counter. Removing these ugly deposits should be done periodically to keep the water flowing smoothly and prevent damage to the faucets.

While there are products on the market that are formulated to break up these calcium and lime deposits, finding a way to use them without first having to remove the spray head, aerator and/or even an auxiliary spigot can be problematic. After some head scratching, we found a slick and easy method to get the job done with little effort and expense: We enlisted small Ziploc storage bags, cable ties and CLR Calcium, Lime & Rust Remover, all commonly available in grocery stores and Walmart.

hile the RV industry is rapidly moving away from carpet to more easily cleaned flooring products such as linoleum and tile throughout many motorhomes and trailers, floor coverings made of thick woven fabric can still be found in many new RVs — and a lot of older units. And if there’s one thing RVers have discovered, it’s that carpet is a dirt magnet.

Fortunately, most common stains can be removed with a spot carpet cleaner, but beware: They are not all created equal. In fact, some carpet cleaning products can actually make stains worse, as their residue can actually attract dirt.

So how do you know what’s best for you and your RV? Look for products that have been awarded the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) Seal of Approval (SOA). The CRI tests an assortment of carpet cleaning solutions and equipment and has found a big difference in how well these products work. According to the organization’s website, the CRI is the carpet industry’s only scientific program designed to test and measure the effectiveness of cleaning products and equipment, helping consumers make informed decisions about the product(s) they use. Products are evaluated on seven performance attributes: soil-removal efficacy, resoiling, residual moisture, surface appearance change, pH level and optical brighteners.

onnecting a hose to the RV hookup spigot seems like a benign process — but there are times when the placement of these faucets can have you scratching your head, wondering how designers managed to complicate the process when installing the faucet as part of the hook-up utilities. That’s when a wye connector comes in handy. These simple “splitters” do the obvious: They allow two hoses to be connected at once. Further exploration, however, reveals several other convenient purposes when using this inexpensive piece of equipment.

First off, I use a home-style pressure regulator, which is bigger and bulkier than the typical fitting found in RV supply stores and in starter kits provided with new RVs. Faucets that are too close to the ground, or worse yet, pointed downward, made it difficult to attach the regulator and hose without crimping the hose and impeding water flow. Adding a wye adapter (like the one I purchased at Lowe’s for $11) allows the connection point to be moved into a position that will provide additional clearance.

toring fruit and vegetables seems like a simple enough proposition, but for most RVers, there is a certain amount of spoilage that translates into a waste of money and more runs to the grocery store to replenish the refrigerator. The Internet is chock-full of products designed to store food, including the more common plastic bags and containers (which, at the least, may help you stay organized). Most containers, however, are bulky and take up precious space in the smallish confines of a typical RV refrigerator.

My wife, Lynne, discovered the solution to spoiled produce many years ago — special green storage bags designed to prolong the life of fruit and vegetables. The first ones were marketed without much hype, and we were told that they were invented in Japan. Nowadays these bags are marketed under the Debbie Meyer Green Bags moniker and are readily available on the Internet (debbiemeyershop.com).

rab handles can be indispensable when it comes to entering and exiting an RV — especially with travel trailers and fifth wheels, which usually require a longer “hike” to get to the door threshold or ground. Unfortunately, constant use means the foam tube mounted around the center portion of the arm to facilitate a secure grip will eventually deteriorate — and without it, the grab handle can become slippery and dangerous.

Replacement foam grips are available from RV supply stores and online, but I discovered that bicycle handlebar tape — the stuff we all used as kids on our very first transportation vehicles — is a great alternative. Like so many other things, I learned this almost by accident; while traveling last summer, the foam grip on the grab handle of our fifth wheel ripped off. Not able to wait for a replacement to be shipped — there were no RV supply stores in the area and waiting for a delivery would have caused me to surrender my next reservation — I procured handlebar tape while visiting a local, small-town bicycle shop for $20. There are dozens of handlebar tape styles on the market in different patterns and colors — some thicker than others. I was happy to find handlebar tape in black that was impregnated with real cork. It was fairly thick and offered plenty of shock absorption. Higher-end tape, used by hardcore bicycle enthusiasts, is even thicker and prettier — albeit more expensive.

e all know that food that’s cooked outdoors just tastes better. That’s why so many RVers pack along a barbeque. It’s always fun to take in the aroma that permeates the adjacent sites, encouraging others to cook outdoors or come looking. Portable gas grills and griddles are probably the most popular among RVers heck, the Blackstone has developed a cult following and products offered by companies such as Way Interglobal’s Greystone line are a hit with outdoor enthusiasts, as well.

That said, RVers are always looking for something different and the proliferation of pellet grills on the market is spurring big interest from RVers looking to do something a bit off the beaten path. In fact, some companies are targeting RVers with new, compact models, and even RV manufacturers have noticed. KZ RV, for one, will be including a pellet smoker on certain of its Durango fifth wheels for the 2023 model year.

nyone who has worked around cars and metal probably is familiar with J-B Weld bonding products jbweld.com. They are go-to “epoxies” touted to provide the “World’s Strongest Bond” — and they work. One of my first encounters with J-B Weld was more that 40 years ago when brain flatulence possessed me into drilling a hole in a vehicle gas tank in order to mount a clamp for a wire cable. Yup, pretty stupid, but J-B Weld saved the day and held to the day the vehicle was traded in.

More recently, a couple of places on my fifth wheel’s front cap became damaged because of flying rocks. It’s important to seal any holes immediately to prevent moisture intrusion and J-B WaterWeld made short work of plugging those holes.

he trend to opting for compressor-type refrigerators as standard equipment in RVs these days is moving along at a rapid rate. The popularity of 12-volt DC refrigerators is growing every year, offering a practical alternative to residential models which require 120-volt AC power. As the market expands, so does the viability of replacing an absorption refrigerator with a direct-fit model that can be accomplished by handy do-it-yourselfers.

I made the switch to a 12-volt DC Everchill model a year ago and enjoy the versatility of running on battery power — and the increase in food-storage capacity. Other than routing 12-volt DC power to the refrigerator compartment and plugging the LP-gas line, the hardest part of such a project is the heavy lifting. The other consideration was closing off the holes in the exterior access panels, which will prevent an unwanted breeze into the living quarters from the wind and also provide an added level of insulation.

Vs are fitted with a framed entry-way screen that’s integrated into the hinge mechanism and makes it possible to work in concert with the main door. It’s a system that’s as common in the RV industry as wheels — and, for the most part, it works. The screen is designed to be used independently of the entry door and is latched in place when it comes time to close the screen and entry doors together. Over time, however, the screen frame can sag on its hinges — creating a drag that makes it hard to open and close, which also impacts the operation of the entire entry-door system.

The trick to restoring clearance on the threshold is to relocate the screen frame on its hinges, which is a simple 30-minute project.

Placing the sewer hose on the support always resulted in a jumbled mess. The original ties were hard to install and did not keep the hose in place, especially when the support was on unlevel ground.

xtending a sewer hose as part of the hook-up process in an RV park is just part of the deal. In fact, in some places (like Oregon), state law requires that your sewer hose be always off the ground. Then, of course, there are those sewer inlets in parks that simply defy physics by extending the hook-up point above the ground — making it necessary to manually lift the hose off the ground so that the contents run downhill.

To overcome these obstacles, RVers use some sort of a sewer support to position and contain the sewer hose. I carry a Valterra 25-foot Slunky Sewer Hose Support (valterra.com), but there are several other excellent choices out there, including Thetford’s Titan Sewer Hose Support (thetford.com), Camco’s Sidewinder Sewer Hose Support (camco.net/home) and Lippert’s Waste Master Flow Down RV Drain Support (store.lci1.com). All can usually be found on amazon and at RV supply stores.

ometimes little things can make a big difference. Over the years I’ve discovered simple solutions to situations that usually rear their ugly heads in the most inopportune times — and have the potential of impacting any trip. The Internet (and, specifically, Amazon) has made it easy to find things that can be used in unorthodox ways to solve problems and improve the longevity of items that can create big snags when they fail. Here are three of them.

Pinned Down
Entry steps that fold down from the doorway and provide solid contact with the ground have revolutionized how we get in and out of our RVs. Beyond the additional support these steps provide — and the improved safety factor — the adjustable legs make it easy to stabilize the steps on uneven terrain. The pins that hold the step assembly in place on Lippert’s Solid Step system do a great job of immobilizing the inner braces — but grabbing on to the end to remove can be difficult for those with short (or soft) fingernails. Replacing these pins with a counterpart with a spring-loaded ball-and-grab ring provides a much better grip.

y Dometic toilet seat had seen better days after 10 years of full-time service. Heck, I’m truly amazed that it even lasted that long. While there were no splinters or broken hinges to worry about, it did start to look terrible as some of the paint had worn off and other portions of the seat became discolored. Yup — it looked like crap.

I was somewhat shocked, however, when I learned that the price of a new Dometic toilet seat was about $70 — and, as I discovered, local home-improvement stores weren’t a lot cheaper. The bigger problem, though, was finding an exact fit between those residential-sized seats and my Dometic. I did finally find a couple of models that would fit, but I was not thrilled about the cheap plastic finish, nor could I match the color.