Here’s our first attempt at leveling a rented RV in Alaska in literally the very last (very unlevel) campsite in Riley Creek Campground, Denali National Park.  Definitely not a good use of perfectly good firewood!  We’ve learned a couple of things since then… obviously we needed some basics when we bought our Lance 1685 that we didn’t know we’d need!   Boat’s don’t use most of this stuff!

1.  Lego Building Blocks — otherwise known as leveling blocks.  Ours are Tri-Lynx Levelers and come in a package of 10.  Plus we have the accessory wheel chocks which “lego” attach making it one neat package.  We ended up buying a second set of 10 because we’ve needed to go two high in some locations.

Our new leveling legos – we own two sets. After originally purchasing one set we quickly found that if we wanted to use them for both leveling and under the stabilizing bars, we needed more than one set.

2.  Wheel Chocks – we use them on both sides, the orange ones match the lego leveling blocks and we also have yellow ones that we use on the tires on the other side of the trailer that’s not needing leveled.

3.  Extendable Sewer Hose Connection – Our trailer came with a very flimsy sewer hose, both of us wanted something a big more substantial and chose a RhinoFlex by Camco.   We also opted for an extension hose – so we have the main 15′ hose and an extension for 10′ longer just in case we need it.  To date, after 3,000 miles, we’ve never used the extension, but hey, when we need it, we’ll be glad we have it!

The infamous slinky sewer hose – hoses that lay on the ground rarely allow the contents to escape into the sewer correctly. Note that this is NOT our hose, it’s a neighbor’s hose by HIS picnic table in an undisclosed location before we bought our slinky.   🙂

3.  Slinky for Sewer Hose  Turns out this is an extremely useful “slinky” – from state parks to RV parks with full hookups, when the sewer hose lays on the ground, the draining contents simply puddle in the hose until you go pick it up and move them along.  NOT something we want to be doing.  So we added what I call the “slinky” which collapses to almost nothing and slopes from 7″ to 4″ to allow for a gradual gravity drain – BIG PLUS!  Ours is new from Camco and is 15 feet long, they also come in 10, 20 and 30 feet long, but we can’t imagine being farther away than the length of our trailer.

4.  Two 25′ lengths of drinking water hose  Several experienced campers told us to get two 25′ drinking water hoses as opposed to one long hose.  Turns out it’s been good advice – so far we haven’t had to use the second 25′ hose and we haven’t had to wrangle a longer hose every time we hook up, just use the one 25′ section.  Easy is good!

I guess it’s working … but the water is still HORRID at all but one place we’ve been. Ugh.

5.  Water Filter for full hookup sites with water — Who knew supposedly “potable” water (drinking water) could taste so bad!  So bad that I found myself NOT drinking water anymore and subsequently getting dehydrated even though the temperatures were in the lower 70’s.  Ugh.  We bought this filter thinking it would help – not sure about that.  We also bought the kind you can change filters, but if we had it to do over again, we might opt for the one year, throw it away version – they’re cheap and they don’t cause the hose to hang which bugs David.

6.  Extra hose to rinse our sewer connection – just a cheapo hose, short, because I don’t want David using my drinking water hoses for rinsing the sewer hose or even washing the trailer!  David added a Y connector for the faucet in the RV park in case he wants to hook up his “wash something” hose to wash down the bikes or whatever.

7.  And most important (at least to David) …. the coaxial cable to connect to cable TV where it’s available – even some state park campgrounds now have cable.  Not that we waste much time watching TV, but when my fantasy football team is playing, it’s nice to see what’s happening in the game!  🙂  I hate losing to my brother!!!

Trailer Levels on two corners … forward so we can see them before we disconnect the trailer.

8.  Last, but not least, Easy Corner Levels for two sides so we can see if we’re level front to back and also side to side.  The refrigerator won’t run right if the trailer isn’t level and I’m not fond of sleeping on a slant either.

At least all this stuff was nowhere as expensive as when we started outfitting the boat!  Thank goodness for small favors!  Anything I’ve missed?  Please leave a comment and share!  Cheers!  Jan

Related posts:

Why We Love Our Lance 1685 Travel Trailer Lessons From Our First 1250 Miles Towing A Travel Trailer With a 6 Cyl Toyota 4 Runner?