Product Reviews

RV Products

These pages contain my impressions of a variety of RV products I have used over four decades on the road. Some people may not agree with my conclusions — others will find it helps them choose from among several similar products.

Towing & Safety

Brake Buddy

Eight wheels braking beat four. The Brake Buddy applies the towed vehicle's own brakes — easy to set up, adjustable sensitivity, and the Vantage Select offers full or proportional braking with an in-cab diagnostic remote. The Stealth model frees the footwell entirely; after 7,000 miles of towing it proved immediate and flawless.

Towing & Safety

Blue Ox Tow Bars

The safest way to tow is all four wheels down. The Aladdin is a strong, lightweight Class III bar that can't pop loose like ball hitches; the Aventa LX handles up to 4,500 kg; and the Acclaim's easy-release handles make unhitching painless even when you're not perfectly straight.

Handling

Roadmaster Antisway Bars

After severe sway on a Ford-chassis Winnebago Vista, these heavy-duty front and rear bars transformed the drive. From Quartzsite to Death Valley on twitchy, winding roads, the RV finally tracked straight instead of needing constant wrestling.

Power & Solar

Samlex Solar Kits

A complete kit for powering your RV with the sun: panel, first-rate charge controller, wiring, and mounting hardware. The SCC-30AB controller offers PWM 4-stage charging, automatic equalization, and support for multiple battery types.

Power & Solar

Solar System Setup

Boondock without the generator noise. Panels plus a voltage regulator protect your batteries, and a 1500-watt pure sine wave inverter safely runs laptops, TV, and lights. Wire dedicated 115v circuits for the light-draw appliances you actually use.

Driving Aids

Rieker Inclinometer

Ever feel the rig losing power on what looks like flat road? A dash-mounted inclinometer tells you at a glance that you're actually climbing a long, imperceptible grade — simple, useful information for mountain driving.

Towing & Safety

TireMinder Pressure Monitor

Soft tires overheat, fail, and waste fuel. The TireMinder A1A puts a sensor on every valve stem — motorhome, trailer, and towed car — and alerts you before pressure drops into the danger zone, plus a 167°F temperature alarm. Free lithium battery exchange programme.

Comfort

Fan-Tastic Endless Breeze

A 12-volt portable fan with the quiet running Fan-Tastic is known for. Plug it into a cigar lighter and move cooling wherever you need it — it even defrosted a Class A windshield faster than the factory system, and works great beside your chair on hot days.

Chassis

HWH Levellers

An honest long-term report: sticky jacks, burned solenoids, and a piercing siren — mostly caused by road salt corrosion past the seals. The factory in Moscow, Iowa rebuilt them willingly and the production quality is genuinely high; northern RVers should just expect maintenance.

Chassis

Dyna Beads

Forget hammered-on lead weights. These ceramic beads ride inside the tire and continuously rebalance it as you drive, adjusting automatically as the tire picks up mud and debris — and they can't fall off on the highway.

Sanitation

Blue Streak Toilet System

A measured shot of deodorizing chemical is injected with every flush — no wasting an entire bottle per tank fill. Keeps the bowl clean and the black tank odour-free, with a 100% satisfaction challenge behind it.

Driving Aids

Mountain Directory

Two volumes — West and East — mapping and describing the percent grades and curves of mountain roads across the country. Available in print and digital; click any marked hazard on a state map and read exactly what's ahead before you commit to the route.

Camp Setup

RV EzLevel

Tired of the bubble level and shouted directions? Place this gadget on the RV floor where the driver can see it, drive up on your blocks, and stop when the flashing red lights turn green. From the inventors of Brake Buddy.

Performance

Banks PowerPack

Frees the power your big engine already has: a smooth, high-flow air intake plus individual torque tubes and a large free-flowing exhaust. The gasketless metal-to-metal manifold fit also ends the broken manifold bolts that plague Ford and Vortec chassis. Note: on both of my installations the heat-shield welds eventually failed — inspect them periodically.

Power & Solar

Xantrex ProWatt SW Inverter

Two thousand watts of true sine wave power waiting in your batteries — coffee and toast in the morning without the neighbours hearing a generator. Gentle on computers and electronics, with GFCI outlets, USB port, optional remote, and the clever Inline Transfer Relay that switches circuits automatically when shore power appears.

Camp Setup

RV SureStep

A wider step edge lit with soft blue-violet light — no light means the step isn't out. Motion sensors trigger it from the door or the ground, and installation is five holes with a supplied template. Sadly no longer in production; battery life was its one weakness.

Navigation

DeLorme GPS & Maps

Street Atlas and Topo North America have proven their worth for years of trip planning — 2D or 3D terrain views, drawing tools for marking points of interest, and voice guidance with the fast Earthmate GPS LT-40 receiver. DeLorme is now part of Garmin.

Camp Setup

Stromberg Carlson Platform Step

When your lowest RV step hovers high above the ground, this wide aluminum platform makes the last step easy and feels rock solid — a favourite after two knee replacements in the family. Strong, lightweight, and the legs fold flat for storage.

Camping Clubs

Passport America

Camping costs add up fast. Passport America membership brings 50% discounts at more than 1,800 campgrounds, and the directory is right beside you when it's late and you need a site for the night.

Tools

Megapro RV Screwdriver

The most-reached-for tool in the fixit drawer. Bits store in the handle so one is always there, the bright colour is hard to lose, and the 15-in-1 RV set covers all the unusual screw heads hiding in your rig.

Comfort

Olympian Catalytic Heater

For boondockers, the furnace is noisy overkill on cool desert mornings. This wall-mounted catalytic heater is silent, sips propane, and doesn't touch the batteries. Hinge it to aim the heat, crack a window for ventilation, and cover it when not in use.

Kitchen

Omnia Holiday Oven

Bake without an oven: this compact stovetop oven sits on any electric element or propane burner. Light, stores small, and with a little heat-setting practice it cooks most of what your home oven does — scalloped potatoes and ham came out perfectly.

Entertainment

Dish Playmaker Antenna

Don't want a satellite dish bolted to the roof? The Playmaker is Winegard's smallest portable, sets up fast, and Dish's pay-as-you-go TV makes it ideal for snowbirds who don't need a full-year subscription.

Entertainment

Winegard Rayzar

An automatic amplified digital HDTV antenna in a small roof dome. Set it scanning, let it find local broadcast signals, and tune them in with your TV's built-in tuner — free over-the-air TV wherever you park.

Connectivity

Winegard Connect

Campground WiFi is often weak or missing. This roof-mounted unit does an excellent job harnessing distant WiFi stations, and a 4G LTE version with data packages keeps you connected where there's no WiFi at all.

Comfort

RV Chandelier

A low-power light garnish for your ceiling: LED trim that replaces the ring around a power vent, lights the whole room on just 8.6 watts, and barely touches the batteries when boondocking.

Kitchen

Dometic CFX Coolers

Compressor-driven coolers and freezers in several sizes — 12-volt in the trunk, 120-volt at home. Ruggedly built, and happy to spend the day at the beach full of cold drinks.

Vehicles

Roadtrek Popular 210

Class B motorhomes are booming, and the Popular 210 is the most streamlined of the Roadtrek line. Built on a Chevy gas van chassis, its ride is amazing and the interior is comfortable and quiet.

Camp Setup

GCI Freestyle Rocker

A camp chair that rocks — literally, on a spring-type shock absorber. Wide, stable, comfortable seat with a drink holder, folds to 25″ × 35″ × 5″ at 12 pounds. Everyone who sees it at the campground wants one.

Navigation

Allstays

Find campgrounds, fuel, propane, and rest areas on your route with map-first software loaded with useful detail. A simple click expands any stop for more information — a step ahead of the competition.

Sanitation

360 Siphon Roof Vent

Holding-tank odours? After a full Arizona winter, this vent eliminated our odour problems entirely — even without adding any odour-preventing chemicals to the tanks.

Looking for a Good Read on the Road?

Browse western novels and scenic RV travel guides by W. James Stoness on Amazon.

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