Upgrades
Whether you buy a new or used motorhome, there are always things you’d like to change. This is especially true if you are living full time in it.
Sometimes it’s the decor or furniture. Other times it’s an appliance or device of some sort. Or it could be a mechanical or safety improvement.
Below are some of our favorite upgrades. They make all the difference to our nomadic life.
Splendide Washer-Dryer ($970)
Our first upgrade was a Splendide washer-dryer combo. A combo is a washer and dryer in a single unit. We would have preferred stackable units like in an apartment, but our motorhome only had room for the combo. When we bought our rig, we told the dealer we had to have a washer-dryer or no deal. He agreed to sell us this one at his cost and install it for free. We were happy.
Having a washer and dryer on board sure beats having to go to the laundromat. And it’s a lot cheaper. Since laundromats typically charge $2.00 to $3.00 per wash and another $1.50 to $2.50 per dry. Doing just four loads a week costs over $1,000 a year. Yipes!
But on the downside, the unit is small and will only hold the equivalent of three bath towels. Because the washing and drying is done consecutively in the same unit, it takes about twice as long to finish a complete load, one to two hours depending on your settings. That means that most days we’re doing a couple of loads to keep up. But we’re not complaining.
Brentwood Home Mattress ($695)
Mattresses in RV are notoriously uncomfortable. When we bought the motorhome, it still had the original mattress, and we knew we wanted to swap it out for something better.
On our first attempt, we tried an RV Short King at 72″ x 80″ from Brentwood, which was the same size as the original. We loved sleeping on the new mattress, but it significantly overlapped the width and length of our bed platform, making it hard to move around the bed.
Like most RVs, our bed platform is not a standard size. Winnebago calls our bed a King Size and says it’s 72″ x 80″, but our bed platform is actually only 68″ x 75″. So on our second attempt, we got two RV Short Twins at 34″ x 75″ from Brentwood. Putting them side-by-side proved to be the exact right size. A 75″ mattress (6′ 3″ long) might be a little short for a tall person. But we’re both well under six feet tall, so it’s plenty long enough for us, and gives us lots of room to move around the bed.
Our mattress is a Bamboo Gel-9. It’s covered with a 4-way bamboo stretch knit. There is a top layer of New Zealand wool, which keeps us surprising cool in warm weather and warm in cool. Below that is a 2-inch gel memory foam layer on top of a 7-inch therapeutic support base. Brentwood Home sells their mattresses online and ships them by UPS. We highly recommend them.
Safe-T-Plus Steering Stabilizer ($460)
Our Winnebago handles much better than our first coach, the Thor Challenger. But it still had a tendency to road wander. The solution was simple, install a Safe-T-Plus Steering Stabilizer.
When properly adjusted, Safe-T-Plus automatically centers and maintains straight-ahead steering, reducing road wander even when encountering side winds, a blowout, pavement drops, road ruts, and other hazards. But the secret is to have it properly adjusted. It took three attempts, but the mechanic finally got it right, and we love it. Installation cost $150.
KING Jack TV Antenna ($135)
Our rig came with the classic bat wing style TV antenna from Winegard, the kind that you have to crank up and twist around until you get decent reception. Then you have to remember to crank it back down when you travel. Always hated that.
So we decided to replace it with the KING Jack TV antenna. It doesn’t need cranking and comes with a built-in TV signal meter. The reception is only slightly better than with the old antenna, but we don’t have to crank it up or down and it’s much easier to find the best reception. We did the install ourselves.
2 Maxx Fan Roof Vent Fans w/Remote ($179 each)
We also installed the Maxx Fans ourselves. It was not hard. We have one in our bathroom and another in the living area. The fans are quiet and powerful, but the best feature is the remote.
We have 7′ high ceilings. The original fans were manual, which meant that we had to use a stool to reach the controls. But the new fans have a remote control, so no more climbing stools to turn them on or off. Because it’s easier, we use them a lot more. The new fans also have a rain sensor, so we can leave with the vents open and not worry about the rain getting in. And the sensor really work. We can also set the fan to automatic, and they’ll come on and off depending on the temperature. Definitely worth the money.
2 Dually Valve Stems ($120 each)
One of my pet peeves with Class A motorhomes is the configuration of the tire valve stems for the rear dual wheels. The inner stem is too short to reach and the outer stem faces inward. It’s nearly impossible to check the air pressure and even harder to add air. Essentially, the valve stems are inaccessible.
We tried valve stem extensions, but the inner ones rubbed dangerously on the wheel holes and the outer ones were still hard to reach. Plus extensions simply aren’t as reliable as properly installed stems. I never felt at ease with them.
So we decided to replace the original stems with new stems specially designed for our dual 22.5 inch steel wheels from www.yourtireshopsupply.com. The actual installation was done by a commercial truck tire shop for $140, and took about 1.5 hours.
The long inner stem is passed through a large rubber grommet that is set in the hand hole of the outer wheel to keep it from rubbing. The outer stem is perfectly curved to face outward in the center of its hand hole. Now it’s much easier to check and air up the rear tires. The benefits of having accessible valve stems is so obvious that these should be mandatory on dual wheels.
Tire Minder Tire Pressure Monitor ($469)
It’s hard to overstate the importance of having properly inflated tires while driving a 33,000 pound motorhome down the highway at 65 MPH. You do not want to have a blowout!
Step one in preventing a blowout is to be sure that the tires are properly inflated before embarking on a trip. That means having accessible valve stems as mentioned in the item above. Step two is continually monitoring the air pressure while you are driving. That’s what the Tire Minder does.
A small sensor screws on the valve stem in place of the cap and sends information back to the monitor in the coach. At any point, we can view the air pressure and temperature of each tire, and in the event of air loss or high temperature, a audible alert is sounded so we can pull over quickly and safely.
Using a tire pressure monitoring system is kind of like wearing seat belts. At first is seems a bit silly and unnecessary, but eventually you come to realize how important they are for your safety, and wouldn’t drive without them.
Update: Shortly after the one year warranty was up, two of our six sensors began to incorrectly report low air pressure. A couple months later, two more did the same thing. We debated whether to replace the sensors or the entire system. We opted to just replace the four sensors. The system is now reports air pressure correctly. We also are more diligent to replace the batteries every six months of so.
2 Battle Born Batteries ($899 each)
Our motorhome came with two cranking batteries for the engine and two deep cycle Marine/RV hybrid batteries for the house. All four batteries were the traditional flooded lead acid type. That meant we had to regularly check them and add water about once a month.
The solution for the engine batteries was simple: we upgraded to two sealed lead acid Deka batteries ($150 each) with 950 CCA each, which are for the most part maintenance free. We are quite happy with them.
We also upgraded the house batteries to two 66 amp hour Optima AGM batteries ($250 each), which were better than regular lead acid batteries because they are maintenance free. However, like regular lead acid, they are limited to being discharged to no more than 50%, which means that only 66 of the total 132 amp hours are usable. In addition, they take a long time to recharge.
We knew at the time that what we really wanted was lithium, but there didn’t seem to be any good options available. But recently we have seen a lot of other RVers upgrading to lithium batteries from Battle Born. They offer a drop in lithium replacement for lead acid and AGM batteries. So after two years with two 66 amp hour AGM house batteries, we upgraded to two 100 amp hour LiFePO4 lithium batteries from Battle Born.
We are thrilled with the result. LiFePO4 lithium batteries have two major advantages over AGM. They can be full discharged without damage, meaning we could get the full 200 amp hours if needed, and they can be quickly recharged with the proper charger. And as an extra bonus, they are half the weight as the AGM batteries.
The entire electrical system, including the batteries, converter, charger, and inverter, is a complex topic. But in simple terms, the purpose of house batteries is to provide 12 volt electric power to the lights and ceiling fans, along with 110 volt power through the inverter to a few outlets when camping without electrical hookups.
Our rig does not use much energy as long as we don’t use the air conditioner or microwave. All our lights are LEDs, and even with several of them on we only pull about one amp per hour. The ceiling fans sip just 0.2 amps per hour, and are surprisingly effective, often making air conditioning unnecessary. And the only 110 volt outlets wired to the inverter are at the entertainment center. Any outlets not wired to the inverter, including the air conditioner and microwave, don’t work when boondocking unless we turn on the generator.
Our TV is also a low power LED and only pulls about four amps per hour. Recharging the cell phones and computers takes three to four amp hours each. That’s about it. The only other appliances that pull from the house batteries are the refrigerator and the furnace. Both of them use propane to do the actual work, and only use electric for the controls and fans.
Added all up, we rarely use more than 60 amp hours per day while boondocking. Our two lithium house batteries provide us with 200 amp hours, theoretically giving us three days of boondocking without recharging.
And if we do need to recharge, we can do so with the alternator by driving or with the generator. With the right lithium charger, we can charge the battery bank at up to 55 amps using 14.4 volts. That means if we use 60 amp hours in a day, it will only take a little over one hour to fully recharge the batteries back to 100% even without solar. But we do have solar. Oh yeah! (See below.)
Renogy 200 Watt Eclipse Monocrystalline Solar Suitcase with 20A Voyager Charge Controller ($660)
The Renogy Solar Suitcase is an easy to use solar system in a single, compact, and portable package. It is one our favorite upgrades.
It comes in either 100 or 200 watts. We opted for the 200 watt version since we have 200 amp hours of lithium batteries. The rule of thumb is to match the total number of watts in the solar system with the total number of usable amp hours in the battery bank. It’s just how the math works out. Our battery bank holds 200 usable amp hours, so our solar system needed to be at least 200 watts.
The unit weighs in at just under 37 lbs. It includes includes two 100 watt panels, a 20 amp waterproof charge controller with an LCD Screen for power regulation, and protective casing for safe portability. It’s a great system, and stores perfectly in the back of our Honda CR-V.
But I have one complaint. It only came with a short 10ft undersized power cable with alligator clips to make the connection to the battery. So I replaced the standard cable with two 15 ft beefy 10 AWG cables and installed a permanently attached pigtail to the battery. The cables use MC4 connectors. Having 30ft instead on 10ft makes this solar panel kit much more versatile when it comes to finding a sunny spot to put the solar panels.
The Renogy Solar Suitcase is a great way to have solar without having to permanently install panels to the top of the motorhome. It also avoids one of the biggest challenges to installing solar panels, which is wiring them to the battery bank.
The kit came with a 20 amp Voyager charge controller, which is waterproof and can be set to charge using a lithium algorithm. The lithium setting pushes the charge at 14.4 amps and then turns itself off when the battery bank is fully charged. It pings the batteries every few hours to see if it needs to start the charging cycle over again. Wonderful. If only they made a converter/charger that was as smart.
We routinely pull 8-12 amps from this panel on most days. That means we can generate an average of 100 amp hours. This more than recharges our lithium batteries, which normally need only 60 amp hours or so per day.
With solar panels we seldom need to run our 6,000 watt Onan generator, which otherwise would use about $10 a day in diesel fuel. So besides having quiet, pollution-free power, this solar suitcase pays for itself with only 66 days of use, which is about the number of days we boondock per year.
PowerMon Bluetooth Battery Monitor by Thornwave ($119)
A small but critical component of a usable electrical system for boondocking, especially one that depends on lithium batteries, is a properly functioning battery monitor to measure the state of charge.
Our motorhome, like most, came with a built in battery monitor on the main control panel. But it only had four indicator lights to show the house battery’s state of charge: 100%-66%-33%-0%. This monitor is nearly useless with lead acid batteries, and completely useless with lithium.
The reason is that the built in monitor is simply a voltmeter that only measures the battery’s voltage. The logic is that the higher the voltage, the higher the charge. As the battery’s voltage goes down, so does its charge.
Volts (electric pressure) X Amps (current) = Watts (power)
A fully charged AGM battery usually puts out amps at 12.8v, but it steadily drops to 11.0v when it’s fully discharged. (Lead acid and AGM batteries should never be discharged below 50%, which is at about 12.0v.)
But scientifically, a battery’s state of the charge can only be accurately determined by measuring amps (current) with an ammeter. Manufacturers know that with lead acid batteries, there is a rough correlation between volts and amps. So they assume that measuring the state of charge using a voltmeter is good enough, and it costs them a bit less to install a system that just measures volts instead of amps.
But with lithium batteries, there is no correlation between volts and amps. A lithium battery maintains a nearly level voltage of 13.2v while it is discharging. It doesn’t drop below 12.8v until the battery is nearly dead. So a typical built in battery monitor based on measuring volts will indicate that a lithium battery is always fully charged.
The solution is to use a battery monitor that measures amps as well as volts, such as the PowerMon from Thornwave. It counts the number of amps as they pass through a shunt into and out of the battery as it charges and discharges.
When I set up the monitor, I started with a fully charged battery bank. I told the monitor that we had a 200 amp hour battery bank, and set the state of charge on the monitor to 100%. The monitor then subtracts the amps discharged and adds back the amps recharged over time to determine the net amp hours used. It then translates the total amp hours used to calculate the battery’s state of charge as a percentage.
After a day of solar charging, our 200 amp hour battery bank will usually be back up to 100% by dusk. If we use 60 amp hours overnight, the state of charge will be 70% in the morning. By noon, our solar panels will have pumped 30 amp hours back into the batteries, and the state of charge will be 85%. With another 30 amp hours by dusk, the batteries will be back to 100%. On cloudy days, we can use the generator, which will pump the batteries back up at a rate of up to 45-55 amps per hour.
I choose the PowerMon by Thornwave because the monitor can be installed near the battery. The monitor itself doesn’t have a display. Instead, it has Bluetooth connectivity, and sends its data to an app on my smartphone. This makes it very easy to keep an eye on how the battery is doing. It’s been working very well. BTW: It’s also half the price of most other monitors.
PowerMax PM3 55-LK Charger/Converter ($119)
Our Battle Born LiFePO4 batteries allow us to spend three days boondocking without grid power, which is wonderful. The problem comes when it’s time to recharge them.
There are only four recharging options: plug into the grid at a campground, run the onboard generator, charge it with the alternator while driving, or use solar panels and a solar charger.
The good news is that our 6,000 watt Onan generator is capable of putting out 50 amps an hour, which is more than enough to fully recharge our batteries in short order, assuming our charger can handle that rate.
However, the battery charger/converter that came with our motorhome only provided a trickle charge at 5 amps per hour. At that rate, we had to run the generator all day to get 60 amps back into the battery.
The solution was to replace the original charger/converter with one that can recharge lithium batteries at a much faster rate. We chose the PowerMax PM3 55-LK as our replacement because it has both a three stage setting for lead acid batteries, and a fixed voltage setting that can quickly recharge our lithium batteries at up to 55 amps. In reality, we usually only charge at about 45 amps. But still much quicker than our original charger/converter.
However, we discovered an unforeseen issue. The PM3 55LK charges the engine batteries at the same time as the house batteries. Setting the charger to lithium means that it charges at a fixed 14.4 volts. While this is great for lithium, it’s not good for the lead acid engine batteries. The engine batteries still want to be charged in three stages: 14.4v bulk, 13.6v absorption, and 13.2v float.
The ultimate solution would be to use two different chargers, one for the engine batteries and a different one for the house. But that would entail an major rewiring project. So we simple keep the charger normally on the three stage setting, but change it to the fixed 14.4v setting when we are charging with the generator while boondocking.
Sterilite Modular Stacking Boxes ($8 – $12 each)
While not exactly upgrades, these stacking storage boxes were a great addition. They fit perfectly in the four basement storage bays on the driver’s side. They come in four sizes: Extra Large, Large, Medium, and Small.
See the actual sizes below.
The Extra Large takes up one entire bay. Various combinations of the other sizes can be used interchangeably while taking up the exact same amount of space as the Extra Large. This allows us to store larger things in the larger boxes and smaller things in the smaller boxes in the different bays.
The Large is the same length and width as the Extra Large, but only 1/3 as tall, so we can them stack three high in a bay. Two of the Mediums turned side to side take up the same space as two Larges one on top of the other. And two Smalls on top of each other take the same space as a Medium.
The lids latch nicely and have indentations that fit the bottoms of the various size boxes, allowing us to stack the boxes securely on top of each other in different configurations. The containers were purchased at Walmart.
- Extra Large – 27 gal – 25.75″ L x 18.375″ W x 19.375″ H
- Large – 10 gal – 25.75″ L x 18.375″ W x 7.125″ H
- Medium – 7.5 gal – 18.00″ L x 12.625″ W x 13.25″ H
- Small – 4.0 gal – 18.00″ L x 12.625″ W x 7.125″ H