20 ESSENTIAL TOURING ACCESSORIES
Whether you’re new to motorhomes or an old-hand, there are a number of gadgets you might not have considered for your tours. Here, Peter Rosenthal selects 20 must-haves
Thanks to a certain pandemic that you might have heard about, it’s boom-time in the motorhome and campervan market.
The manufacturers can’t make them fast enough and plenty of new owners have come on board to enjoy the many pleasures of this amazing lifestyle.
But after you’ve invested all that cash in a leisure vehicle, which other items are worth adding, to make the most of your new purchase?
We’ve shopped around and whittled it down to our top 20 favourite things. Some of these are practical essentials, while others are a bit more left-field and might even surprise you.
It’s also worth mentioning that these are our ideas for touring – everyone tends to have a different view of how they want to relax and spend their time on holiday, so pick and choose what best suits your needs. You might not need all of the items listed here, but we think that they’ll add value and enjoyment to your holidays.
1. Second 12V battery
Yes, it’s an unexciting purchase (hey, it’s not all barbecues, G&Ts and fairy lights, you know!), but you’ll thank us for it. The thing is, nobody ever writes to Practical Motorhome complaining they have too much power and struggle to drain their leisure batteries. They never report that even with their inverter and fan heater on, they just can’t seem to flatten the battery.
In a modern motorhome, the entire habitation system runs off 12V power and if it goes flat, things start going haywire – heating systems don’t fire up, water pumps won’t run and then eventually, the LEDs stop working.
It’s the heart of your vehicle.
If you never stray far from a mains hook-up, one battery might suffice, but it’s really much wiser to cover all eventualities (such as a lack of mains hook-up pitches) by adding a second battery to your set-up.
Ideally, you’ll need to match the brand, specification and age of your existing battery. If this isn’t possible, then either buy two new lead-acid or AGM batteries, or consider switching to lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) .
These are best purchased from a UK-based supplier, for reliability and warranty reasons. Avoid anything that is shipped direct from China or other non-European countries via an online retailer – these units can sidestep UK and European testing laws and are a lucky dip in terms of quality and safety. The top cause of domestic house fires is poor-quality electrical items.
While adding extra battery capacity to your motorhome isn’t going to be your most thrilling acquisition, it is still an essential. After all, how else are you going to keep the beer, wine and gin cool while you’re touring?
2. Battery-to-battery charger
If the thought of being tethered to an electrical hook-up is anathema to you and you would like to break free, then a battery-to-battery (B2B) charger is well worth adding.
While many people have a solar panel fitted – and this can be a handy trickle charger in summer – the reality is that they are variable in output and don’t work that effectively over a British winter, where their output might be a fraction of their summer performance. Some would struggle to recharge your phone, let alone a leisure battery, on a dark winter day.
A B2B charger is a far more powerful device, which can rapidly recharge your battery whenever the motorhome engine is on. They can output anything from 30A to 100A and are a brilliant buy for anyone who likes to hop from campsite to campsite while touring.
They often fully recharge the leisure batteries while you’re travelling to the next site and can avoid you having to use a hook-up at all. Think of them as a built-in Tesla Supercharger that recharges all of the batteries like magic when your vehicle’s engine is on.
If you do buy a B2B charger, it’s best fitted by a professional firm, because the currents involved can be quite high and they need to be installed safely, with suitably rated fuses.
3. Battery top-up device
Many motorhomes don’t automatically recharge the vehicle battery and if your ’van fails to start after being laid up for the winter, it could be a sign that your mains charging system doesn’t top up the vehicle battery.
Some models have a manual selector switch to direct the power to either the leisure or the vehicle battery, but unfortunately, these systems have one crucial flaw – you!
Humans can be forgetful creatures and will invariably forget to set the manual switch to the correct position, flattening one of the batteries.
An automatic system is preferable because it removes human failings from the equation.
Various automatic battery-charging devices are available, such as the Van Bitz Battery Master (£70 for DIY fit or £130 fitted), Sterling Battery Maintainer (£60 plus fitting) or Votronic 3065 StandBy Charger (£35 plus fitting).
These simply allow excess charge to flow from the leisure battery to the starter battery. They will only allow current to flow in one direction, so they don’t let it flow from the starter battery to the leisure battery.
Equally, they only charge when the leisure battery has excess current (for example, when you’re connected to a mains hook-up or a solar panel is producing power on a sunny day).
They’re a great fit-and-forget item that every ’van needs if it doesn’t have an automatic vehicle battery charging circuit in the factory-supplied
built-in charger.
4. Tool set
“Argh! But I don’t want to do much DIY,” you might be thinking. “That’s what I pay the dealer for.” Well, we do hate to break it to you, but motorhomes are handbuilt products with lots of complex systems and occasionally, things will go wrong/drop off/break.
It’s a pretty safe bet that this will happen when you’re 200 miles away from your nearest motorhome dealer, the site shop is shut, it’s night-time, and there’s no phone reception. Or you might simply be in France on a Sunday.
Either way, sometimes you have to rely on your own resources. A good all-in-one socket set with a selection of sockets, some spanners and some screwdrivers (or screwdriver bits) can be worth its weight in gold to sort out annoying things that don’t warrant recovery to a dealer. Securing loose cabinet door hinges, tightening a leaky hose clamp – those sorts of things.
And who knows? The satisfaction of a successful DIY quick-fix might give you the confidence to tackle more such projects and become an expert. Or at least keep the dealer busy…
Lidl and Aldi sell a good selection of tool sets that are excellent value for occasional use, but for something more durable, head to Halfords and take a look at any of their Advanced range (which all have lifetime warranties).
We’re also big fans of Bahco tool sets – time and time again, I find myself reaching for the S330 mixed drive set (£42 from Screwfix). So much so, that I now have three of them – one for each of my vehicles!
Another really good purchase is an adjustable spanner, because it saves you having to have a complete set of (payload-munching) spanners. But only buy decent branded adjustable spanners, with no play in the jaws – cheap ones will round fixings.
5. Mains tester plug
Again, this probably isn’t the most exciting purchase, but it can save you getting shocked – literally – so it’s another essential item.
These come in various forms, but most are a simple three-pin plug that slots into your onboard mains socket. You’ll need to get into the habit of plugging it into your mains sockets each and every time you plug in your electric hook-up cable.
What it does is to check the mains supply coming into your vehicle for earthing faults, reversed polarity and any other wiring faults. These will be indicated by LEDs or a display screen.
Reversed polarity between live and neutral wires isn’t uncommon on some overseas campsites and, while it won’t affect the operation of mains-powered devices (AC pulses forwards and back along both neutral and live wires), it does mean devices will remain ‘live’ even when they’re switched off. So when a device isn’t in use, unplug it.
Some people make up their own reversed polarity electrical hook-up leads, but you’d need to take great care – it potentially runs the risk of mixing up cables and creating an issue on a correctly wired hook-up.
If any wiring fault other than reversed polarity is indicated, don’t use the hook-up and inform the site owners.
6. Fire extinguisher and blanket
A motorhome is a large box filled with electrical systems, soft furnishings, pressurised gases and all manner of wood-fibre based products.
While all of these items have to be fire-safety rated to resist combustion for a certain time, that’s not the same as being completely resistant to fire.
In addition, there’s all the kit that you stuff into the vehicle’s lockers: things like books, maps and alcohol will burn with great enthusiasm.
All motorhomes must be fitted with carbon monoxide detectors and smoke alarms (check the batteries at the start of the season) and, while your ’van might also have been supplied with some sort of fire extinguisher, chances are it’s a token offering and quite small and weedy. So it’s always wise to add an additional, larger-capacity one.
Aqueous film forming foam (AFFF) versions are good all-rounders to go for and will tackle many fire types (except fat fires). Being filled with water-based foam, they don’t ruin things as much as a dry powder extinguisher and are easier to clear up after.
For a pan fire, always use a blanket rather than an extinguisher.
All fire extinguishers and blankets must be mounted close to hand inside the vehicle – somewhere near the bed or the kitchen is best. Remember that they are designed to damp down fires so people can escape. The number one priority is to get everyone out of the motorhome and save lives.
7. Cassette awning
There are lots of freestanding awnings for sale, ranging from those that have 4000 complex tubes to erect, together with 47 tent pegs to bash in, to those that simply inflate at the touch of a switch on an air pump. But they all require rather more effort to erect than a cassette awning.
Cassette awnings are much quicker to set up – either by using a manual wind-out handle or an electric motor – and don’t require any heavy lifting. Another bonus is that because they’re bolted to your motorhome roof, they don’t take up storage space, either.
For providing shade from the sun and framing your outdoor area, they’re a brilliant addition to any vehicle. And of course, in the UK they fulfil another very important function – they also make great umbrellas!
Many people simply use their awning for shade and/or rain protection, and don’t bother adding the optional side sections, but you can get a range of additional panels that slide into place to provide an extra room for the side of your vehicle, usually with zip-up windows, doors and extra windbreaks. Bear in mind, however, that adding side panels will also eat up some of your storage space and payload, and add a little more faff to the set-up.
The most important point about using any cassette awning is to follow the weather forecast, to make sure that your awning is always wound in during high winds – otherwise, they can act like a giant sail and rip off or whip up over the roof, causing damage.
Always make use of the optional storm straps, and wind in the awning if you will be leaving your vehicle unattended for any period of time.
8. Portable barbecue
One of the great delights of owning a motorhome is being able to cook outdoors in a relaxed social setting, and you can’t beat a barbecue for that.
There are basically four options when you’re choosing a barbecue for touring: disposable, tinfoil, charcoal-filled ones sold by garages and supermarkets; the camping-style liquid or solid fuel models; the reusable charcoal- or wood-burning types; or the more upmarket gas-powered units.
There are endless variations on this theme and we’re not going to get into the debate about charcoal versus gas, but the two key things to consider are how easy the barbecue is to clean and where it will live in your vehicle.
Generally, less is more: I did own a massively complicated gas-powered one that had multiple cooking surfaces which were so large they couldn’t be washed in any domestic sink (or most campsite sinks) – it was a headache. Bulky to store, hard to clean, heavy and cumbersome to set up. It was
replaced by a tabletop charcoal model with a fan-powered air system.
This fits into one modestly sized bag and is far easier to clean, mainly thanks to its stainless-steel inner drip bowl. Yes, it’s slower to cook with than using gas, but it suits us much better.
9. Battery-powered fairy lights
You can’t beat the cheery addition of some glittery lights to create a pleasant ambience. And because they cost so little, they’re a great way of adding a touch of sparkle to your vehicle.
Whether you want subtle white fairy lights or a 1000-bulb techno-fest, we would always go for battery versions
(use rechargeables) – they won’t zap you and can be used anywhere. Avoid the ones with phone-sized solar panels as they only seem to work for a few weeks.
10. Washing line and pegs
After that decorative diversion, we’re back to the practicalities (but still on the theme of motorhome interiors).
Hanging a length of twine to dry your wetsuit on after a hard day’s jetskiing avoids having water dripping all over your lounge. If your site allows it, attach one end of the line to your vehicle or awning and you’re away (don’t forget to take it down before driving off!).
An alternative, if you have one of those upmarket motorhomes with a huge washroom, is to add a hanging rail over the shower tray. But the outdoor ones work better and mean you can still use your washroom.
If it helps, you can also string your fairy lights along the washing line at night. Practical, ambient and will help other people spot the line – winner!
11. Wind-flat water hose
This is one of those mundane items that newbies tend to forget when they first visit a campsite, forcing them to make a distress purchase in the site shop (or blag one off a neighbour).
As the payload pinch bites modern motorhomes, manufacturers advise you to fill the water tank only when you arrive at the site – and this is nigh-on impossible without a hosepipe.
You could just lob in your domestic hosepipe, but they tend to be bulky and, crucially, are not food-safe. This means they can leach plastic nasties into your water supply.
It’s far better to invest in a food-safe hose – the wind-flat ones in a cassette are the space-saving choice. They’re widely available for £30-£40.
Winding the hose into the holder also squeezes out any remaining water, reducing the risk of mould build-up and stopping them dripping all over your storage locker. The flat hose takes up very little storage space, too.
12. Solar panel
While we’d always advocate adding a second leisure battery, upgrading to lithium or fitting a B2B charger before installing any solar panels, they are still worth having – they’re a non-invasive, fit-and-forget product.
You just have to be realistic about their output. A single 150W panel will produce around 10A during the peak of summer, but this often reduces to less than 1A in winter, while a device such as a hairdryer, or a coffee machine running off an inverter, might easily consume 100A.
However, if you’re a light electrical consumer (that is, no inverters, coffee machines or toasters), and you like
to holiday in sunnier countries than the UK, a solar panel is worth having.
The prices have fallen a lot recently, too. Add as many panels as you have room for on your roof and make sure you clean them regularly, to keep their performance optimum.
13. Battery-powered portable lantern
If having to wind fairy lights around your awning sounds a bit too much like hard work and you don’t want to use the LED awning light (why are these always as bright as a BMW on full beam?), the lazy person’s best option is to go for a battery-powered lantern.
These are widely available in all shapes and sizes, ranging from ones that are as bright as a lighthouse – rather missing the point of adding some gentle ambience – to dainty little warm-white units that can be elegantly scattered around your outdoor furniture to achieve the ultimate campsite cool.
A crisp twenty is all you’ll need to invest in one. But do look for models that have a built-in rechargeable battery and a USB recharge lead.
Some of the clever ones even switch on automatically at dusk, so you can avoid the arduous task of having to reach for a switch.
The perfect addition while you’re enjoying a cold one and waiting for your takeaway pizza to arrive!
14. Spare fuses
Another everyday item, but a vital one. No matter how hard you try, at some point you’ll blow a fuse in your vehicle.
It might simply be due to age (the vehicle’s, not yours), an increased electrical resistance, or a switch-on current spike.
Fuses are spindly bits of wire with one job: they stop your wiring catching fire in the event of an electrical issue with the wire itself or an appliance.
Without fuses, the wiring loom becomes the fuse and acts like a kettle heating element, glowing red-hot before setting fire to something.
Clearly this is very disappointing, but it can be entirely avoided by your friendly little fuse. They might be small, but they really are vital.
Your best bet is to find the fusebox for the habitation equipment on your vehicle, as well as the base vehicle fuse boxes, and purchase a set of fuses from Halfords, or your motorhome dealer or factor, that fits those types. There are several different fuse types, so if in doubt, just take one with you and ask the store to match it.
Always replace fuses with one of an identical rating (for example, a 5A fuse must only be replaced by a 5A fuse, never a 10A) and don’t use cheap fuses – these have been
known to cause issues.
15. Spare wheel
Picture the scene. It’s a warm Sunday evening and you’ve just had a very agreeable meal in a bistro in a little picture-postcard town in France.
It was fantastic, the servers were friendly and the food exceptional.
All is good with the world. Then you return to your motorhome to find it has a flat tyre. Sacré bleu!
In the UK, this might involve waiting a couple of hours while a very helpful person in an orange or yellow van rolls up with a replacement.
In France on a Sunday, however, you will have as much chance of getting hold of a motorhome tyre as you would of seeing the Pope waterskiing. While juggling three ferrets. It’s not going to happen. And to make matters worse,
the difference between regular van and car tyres is that some sizes and brands of motorhome-specific tyres are only made in batches and are not going to be that readily available, even during normal office hours.
Equally, the special tyre foam that is supplied with many motorhomes is going to be of limited use.
I well remember having to ring up one breakdown firm and asking to be recovered when I was on a business trip in a company car that suffered a blow-out (and didn’t have a spare).
The pleasant call-centre staffer cheerfully suggested that I should try the tyre sealant. “I don’t think that will work,” I replied. “Why not?” they asked. “Because I can put my hand through the hole…”
It makes sense to carry a spare wheel, or just a spare tyre if you have limited payload. Especially if you ever want to visit France on a Sunday!
16. Portable battery bank
These are available in many different sizes, from large 10Ah units that can restart a motorhome battery to smaller ones for recharging phones.
It’s the latter we’ve found the most useful, such as the 5.2Ah model (above) costing less than £15 from Lidl. Small and light enough to slip into a rucksack for a day out, this is a handy way to recharge your phone, laptop or tablet while you’re away from the ’van.
This is a safety item, too, now many of us rely on our phone for everything from calling for help to banking.
This particular battery bank can be recharged via 230V mains, a two-pin European plug, or a 12V adaptor, and offers two USB outputs. It’s well worth stowing some of these in any bags you take with you on day trips.
17. Plug-in voltmeter
Multimeters can seem a bit daunting to many motorcaravanners and because they look more complicated than they are, can easily put people off.
But being able to accurately check the voltage of the vehicle and leisure batteries, as well as to see whether your alternator is working, can be very helpful. If an electrical system is suffering from low voltage, the control panel might misbehave and give false information, so having a back-up voltage reader is always going to be useful.
Plug-in voltmeters are a doddle to use. With a 12V battery system, 12V is flat and 12.5V is about 50% charged, while 12.9V or above is 100% charged.
Plug the device into the cab 12V socket with the ignition on (but the engine off) and it will read vehicle battery voltage. Start the engine, switch on your headlights and it will read a higher voltage as the alternator kicks in – usually about 13.5V to 14.5V. If the voltage varies as you’re driving around, this generally indicates a smart alternator is used.
Plug the voltmeter into a habitation 12V socket and it will give you the habitation battery voltage.
Costing about £5, these devices easily measure the battery voltage and are a useful way of double-checking what the control panel is telling you.
For example, if the control panel claims the habitation battery has 13V but the water pump isn’t working, a voltmeter can check if the battery voltage is indeed the problem, or if you need to investigate the pump.
18. Bike rack (and bikes!)
Once they’ve set up their pitch at the campsite, many motorcaravanners like to leave the vehicle where it is and use bikes to get around or pick up a pint of milk. The increase in low-emission zones, which might involve a charge for your vehicle, also means that city centres are best accessed on bikes.
They’re also a great way to explore the surrounding countryside, take a bit of exercise and earn the calories for your dinner. Ebikes make them suitable for all ages, too.
While some motorhomes will have a garage to store your bikes, not all do. In that case, it makes sense to invest in a bike rack. As well as keeping the mud and road debris out of your vehicle, these can be a doddle to load and make it easier to enjoy your bikes.
Various racks are available, depending on your vehicle. Many ’vans also have built-in reinforcement points that will allow you to bolt on a bike rack (for example, a Fiamma type).
If your motorhome has a towbar, you can get a wide variety of bike racks to
suit up to four bikes, although the weight limit of bikes and rack must be subtracted from your towbar’s maximum tow weight. This is around 100kg on a motorhome, usually fine for about four bikes or two ebikes.
19. Anti-slip matting
From stopping storage trays sliding around inside lockers, to preventing your crockery getting damaged, a few rolls of anti-slip matting can be a real godsend in a motorhome.
So if your vehicle is producing a cacophony as you drive along an A-road, it’s time to get yourself online and order a roll or two.
It costs around £5 a metre, although you can probably find it cheaper at motorhome shows and discount shops. A camper might need three metres or less; a coachbuilt, at least 5-10m.
20. Bottle of wine/multipack beers
No, not for personal consumption! Time and again on campsites, we’ve needed the help of others. Whether it’s wrestling with an awning that takes four hours to set up, or hefting a spare wheel, we all need a hand.
Nine times out of 10, some kind neighbour on site has offered to help, whenever I’ve been struggling with something. Usually an awning (and usually quite deliberately!).
In these circumstances, it always helps to break the ice and thank your fellow spare tyre handler/awning builder with a small tipple.
This is only polite and makes a great icebreaker, too. You might even find yourselves making a new campsite friend out of it – which is, of course, what camping holidays are all about.