Over the past couple of years, we’ve managed to stock our RV with a variety of useful items. A few of these products have achieved “must have” status, in that we wouldn’t go camping without having them on board. Since we often receive questions about these products, we thought we’d create a page with a variety of recommendations…

Note that we DO intend to update this list. Some of these items are of a common household nature. In the future, we will add more RV-specific items to these selections.

Without further ado, here’s our list.

Wells Lamont Leather Gloves
Pick up a 3-pack at Costco for $19.99. Look in the hardware section. They are tough, comfortable, durable, and essential around any campsite. These will save your hands time and again. Don’t hitch or unhitch without ‘em!

Kirkland Signature Non-Latex Gloves
I wear these gloves when dumping the water tanks. A 2-pack (which lasts a LONG time) costs $15.99 at Costco. Look in the pharmacy section. We keep one box in the truck, and the other under the Airstream sink.

Trailer Life Directory
This book helps you find the best campgrounds. It retails for $24.95, but you can find it for less. We bought ours at Camping World. The Directory will help guide you to Good Sam Parks (which offer a 10% discount to Good Sam Club members). It also helps you find excellent campgrounds that are not affiliated with Good Sam Club.

Silly hat is optional, but recommended.

GPS (Any GPS!)
We chose a Garmin Nuvi. I believe the current equivalent of our model is the Nuvi 760. We bought ours from Amazon, but these days I would watch Costco for a coupon special.

With prices on these things falling faster than the stock market, you probably don’t need to pay more than $250 for a state of the art unit with ALL the bells and whistles. But who knows, you may find a nice one for half that price. If possible, get one with a wide screen and the text-to-speech feature. Check cnet.com for the latest reviews.

Oxygenics BodySpa Handheld Showerhead
Quite simply, it delivers a great shower as advertised, increasing water pressure while using less water. These cost around $50, so they are expensive as showerheads go. But they’re worth it! We bought ours from Amazon, but you can also find ‘em at Camping World.

Of course the utility of this one may depend on your rig and shower arrangement. But I think this showerhead works with all Airstreams, and probably with the majority of RVs.

Clorox Wipes
Here’s one of those household items that comes in handy when camping. We buy Clorox Disinfecting Wipes in a 3-pack from Costco. They’re handy for wiping counter tops, cabinets, etc. I like the convenience factor of these wipes, and the fact they nuke germs is a welcome bonus.

Purell Hand Sanitizer
I use a lot of this stuff, both via a pump bottle and little portable bottles which I carry in my jacket and backpack. Feel free to make fun of me for doing so. (Oh, and I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been sick! What a shame. Wonder how that happened?)

Novaform Foam Mattress Topper
A good night’s sleep is essential to enjoying the camping experience. Our factory RV mattress, quite frankly, left much to be desired. It was not only thin, it was resting on top of a flat wooden slab instead of box springs. We added one of these foam toppers and it really transformed the mattress. Now we enjoy a completely comfortable and cozy sleeping environment. At $140 for a Queen size, this seems expensive. But a good night’s sleep makes it worth it.

3/4-inch Drill Socket Adapter
Our rig has manual stabilizer jacks. With one of these socket adapters (less than $10 at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or your hardware store of choice) you can use a cheap ($20) electric drill to raise and lower your stabilizer jacks. This is a nice time saver and convenience.

Power stabilizer jacks... who needs 'em?

Crocs Flip-Flops
I bought a pair of these flip flops on sale just to see what the “Crocs” mania was all about. A few months later, I bought a second pair.

Check out those tan lines!

These are my shoes of choice when camping about 99% of the time. They are light, comfortable, water proof, durable, and easily slip on and off. (But with regard to water, please note that they do get a little slippery when wet.)

We’ve marched all over Disney World wearing these Crocs and suffered no foot pain. I don’t know what proprietary blend of rubber they use to make these shoes, but Crocs has built a better mousetrap.

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