What's in the Camper: General Essentials
Prior to getting our camper, and even now, I regularly scour the internet for things other folks have found helpful/necessary to camping in a pop-up. My primary advice is this: The things you're going to consider necessities will depend on who is camping with you, what you require as a standard level of comfort, and what type of camping you're doing. Aside from a few things you'll definitely need no matter what, it's best to spend some time camping in the camper to figure out exactly what you need. I'll tackle the things that I've found necessary for our camping comfort in a different post, but for now, here's the very basic stuff that for me has been helpful whether we're fall or summer camping:
- A Level: The key to a happy pop-up is a level pop-up, both front to back and side-to-side.
- The BAL leveler - Speaking of being level side-to-side, you just slide this puppy around the tire on your low side and crank it up, and it acts as both the chocks for that side and, well, a leveler. We found that the blue ratchet wrench it comes with is garbage and you'll want to get your own 3/4 wrench for it.
- Standard Chocks for the other wheel(s)
- Electrical Grease I didn't even know this was a thing that existed until we started having issues with one side of the camper lights not working when connected to the TV. Before I drove myself nuts testing the grounds, I put some of this goo in the 7-pin and problem solved. I keep it in the camper's tool bag now.
- A good working spare and jack. I have this one in the camper at all times along with 2 jack stands.
- Duck Tape (obviously).
- A 15 to 30 amp plug converter so you can still get power to the camper even if your site doesn't have the right plug (but you won't want to pull too much power off of the 15 amp power source).
- Since our camper is stored in an area with no shelter, I also have a breathable camper cover on her to keep the elements at bay.