Getting ready

More mods and purchases

Based on our experience with several RVs in the past, we wanted to do several things before our first trip.
So we bought:

• A 25 ft drinking water hose to fill the fresh water tank
• A fancy two part (10ft each) hose for dumping the holding tanks. The trailer came with a hose for this purpose, but it's just barely usable and not really adequate. The fancy one has an elbow to a threaded connector that goes in the campsite dump fitting.
• "Store-bought" leveling pads (instead of the 2x10 boards I used with the motor homes)  
• Plastic wheel chocks 
• A little 'carpet' piece for the outside step makes it seem less slippery and it may help keep some dirt out.
• We have a small entrance mat that fits OK just inside the door. It probably does more to keep some dirt out.

We also got a small wire shelf(Rubbermaid?) for inside the cupboard over the sink. A tension rod helps control items on the shelf.

Storage

Knowing that storage is always a problem in an RV, and our small trailer doesn't have lots of storage, we bought several plastic storage boxes to help organize things. Two clear plastic underbed storage boxes went one on top of the other, well, under the bed in the area reached from inside. Three Rubbermaid Roughneck storage totes (10 gal from Home Depot?) worked very well in the pass-through storage. One held tools, 30 amp cord, 20 amp extension, adapters, cable-tv coax, etc. Another had the holding tank drain hoses with fittings. The third had the fresh water hose, an awning tarp, outdoor carpet, poly tarp, etc. These three totes fit in the pass-through storage like they were made for that purpose. Smaller totes held additional tools like the drill and impact wrench I used for the stabilizer jacks. The leveling pads, wheel chocks and a small step-stool also fit in the storage area.

Almost as important as storage is being able to access the storage. The R-Pod has the very common single thin plywood cover/seat over the dinette storage. A large hole makes it easier to remove, but it's a bit of a hassle. It's a little less hassle with a piano hinge in the cover/seat so we cut it, reinforced the edges with 1x2 scraps, and installed the hinge. Now, the 'backrest' cushion must still be removed, but the seat cushion can be leaned up and left on the non-opening side of the hinged cover while accessing the storage area. I eventually did the same with the much smaller storage area on the other side of the dinette.