RVing Gotta Have Gadgets

ToadDate 0334.08.28.17-NM

We arrived in Albuquerque today. Tomorrow, we will be going by Camping World to have them repair the backup camera we purchased from them. The camera seems to have a loose wire but since they installed it, we would like them to repair it. This backup camera is only one of the gadgets we have bought for the RV. Which brings me to this post – some gotta have gadgets if you are full-time RVing.

First gadget is a GPS made for RVs. We picked up a Garmin RV770 LMT-S GPS, which the first time we plugged it in required over an hour of WIFI to download all the maps – we exceeded our cellular download limit that month, which is why we now have an unlimited plan. This GPS asked us for the type of RV we have as part of the setup. We put in the type of RV (Class A motorhome, but they had all kinds including trailers in their database), weight (fully loaded weight), and height. It stores this information and uses it when selecting the best routes for you take. This is very helpful since you don’t want to end up stuck under a bridge. It also shows our vehicle as a cute Class A motorhome on the screen.

Second gadget is a TireMinder TPMS. You put remote meters into each of the tire stems (replaces the cap) and then they send information to an app on your phone (only one phone can be set up) with what the pressure is in each tire. Really neat and saves lots of time, but (you knew there would be a but) if you lose connection to a tire, an alarm sounds, and it looks like you have little to no pressure in a tire. We were stopping a lot to check if the tires were OK at first. Now we turn it on, confirm tire pressure is good, and then turn it off.

Third gadget is a multi-port car adapter box. It seems many of the gadgets plug into a car cigarette adapter, and we ran out of spaces. We got our multi-port at a truck stop. It was reasonably priced and there were several choices as to how many ports you want, there was also a good selection of colors (if you liked black). Our adapter has 4 ports and we can plug in a USB adapter and have 3 slots for plugging in some of the other gadgets we use.

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