Motorhome toolkit: The essential guide

the motoroamers

Motorhome toolkit: The essential guide

Earlier this year we were asked by a new motorhomie what were the most essential items that she needed to pack in her new home.  It prompted a blog on this very topic, which had a very purposeful female slant – The Top 20 Motorhome Essentials for Ladies.

We promised to draw up a male influenced Essentials List, which I delegated over to Mr Smilisie.  Now clearly, I recognise that there are plenty of solo ladies out there, although we hope you will forgive the masculinity of the topic and get some benefit from our list.

* Affiliate disclosure – some of these items have a link to Amazon, with whom we have an affiliate partnership. If you click on these links and decide to purchase, you will not be charged any more – we just get a small commission from any purchases you make.

1. Duck tape

There will always be little incidents and accidents whilst you’re away and sometimes things may need holding together until you can get it repaired.  One of our essentials is Duck Tape that is either translucent or the same colour as your van.  It deals with a multitude of sins and allows you to hanging things together whilst you’re away and before you can get to a garage to get it fixed.

2. Velcro ( heavy duty and standard) rolls

This has been a god-send to us, as we constantly look to evolve the organisation in the garage.  Having the Velcro allows us to keep everything in place especially in the garage and more importantly easily accessible.  It has so many uses, we could go on and on and on!

Keep some on board, you’ll not regret it.

3. Zip ties

Who would have thought that ZipTies could come in handing whilst living life on the road?  Buy a variety pack, you never quite know when they will come in handy.  And yet they do.  We’ve used them in so many different weird and wonderful ways. Now then; gripping a tyre when we were stuck on soggy ground, holding things together……. Not always with successful outcomes, although none-the-less, a great garage accessory to have.

4. Toolkit Essentials

For any garage, motorhome, cyclist or camper, there’s always a mini tool kit lurking somewhere in a tiny space somewhere.  Whilst you may not be able to bring all your beloved tools away with you, well not if you want to keep within your payload, there are some essentials that you just can’t do without.  Here are our vitals:

  • Multi-screwdriver
  • Small adjustable spanner
  • Stanley knife
  • Hammer
  • Tape Measure
  • Good quality torch
  • Bungies
  • Pliers
  • WD40
  • White Spirit

5. Assortment of fuses

This has been one of most recent purchases, as there’s something about our 12v charger point in the kitchen that keeps tripping out the fuse.  So we’ve got a neat little box of fuses to replace the duffers.

6. Araldite glue

You always gotta have glue, it’s amazing the number of things that come unstuck that need putting back together again. If it works for Humpty Dumpty, then surely it must work for us motorhomies too.

7. Baby wipes

Now who would have thought that Baby Wipes would have got a mention on a blog like this!  Yet these little babies are fantastic for cleaning off the bugs and grime on the outside of the van, as well as helping sterilise stuff on the inside.  Marvellous.

8. Solar panel with pure sine wave inverter

This is one of our best ever purchases and whilst not a specific tool as such it is a great resource, especially as we do a lot of wild camping.  It’s a 120W Solar Panel that together with an extra Leisure Battery gives us all the power we need to run some household appliances, like the Nutribullet and Juicer for the Mrs and keep our devices powered up.

9. Power Packs

Whether you are travelling as a family, solo or as a couple, you will undoubtedly have devices that will need constant charging.  If you’re like us and do work on the road, these little bundles of power pack a right old punch and keep us connected both with the work we do and our family and friends back in UK.

They’re not expensive or difficult to store although essential pieces of kit.  Just make sure you get enough of them – we have three and sometimes even that’s not enough.

10.  Ratchet Straps

These straps are great multi-taskers and are just one of these pieces of kit that you need to keep in your garage somewhere.

We use ours for a bit of safety when we’re wild camping, strapping the two main doors together – it might not stop them getting in although they’ll certainly wake us up trying!

As always, not an exhaustive list, although these are the items we believe have been essential to us.  There are other items we carry, although perhaps more nice to haves – which is a whole different post altogether.  So for now, we hope sharing our experiences is helpful.  Kx

/Karen

Published: October 30, 2017

4 Comments

  1. Willy Carson

    Excellent list for all

    Reply
    • Karen Davies

      Thank you Willy, lovely feedback. Kx

      Reply
  2. Carol Weaver

    Size of pure sine wave inverter would be useful

    Reply
    • Myles Davies

      We have a 1000w inverter but it depends what you want to power at any 1 time. If you have a microwave going (800W) and an hairdryer going ( 1000W) you’ll need a 2000W inverter but the bigger the inverter the more drain on the batteries. Hope this makes sense

      Reply

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