Saturday, September 19, 2015

That Can Work (Hilarious RV Innovations)

Living in a little old motorhome on an efficient budget in remote locations without a car, has it's moments. There are times when things need to be fixed  or done and I have to scratch my head and come up with some wild wacky ideas. Hmm... That can work!



My motorhome has no backup camera. I have on occasion backed into the wrong tree. Matter of fact, I owned my rear cargo carrier less than a month before I put an offcenter dent in it (a centered dent would have looked much nicer.) Recently I bought an inexpensive portable iball wireless trailer hitch camera. In essence, it's a remote wireless camera with a screen. You stick the camera on anything magnetic, turn it on, then use the screen to look at what your're running over or hitting while reversing. While my bumper is metal the rest of my motorhome is fiberglass. Besides the bumper is hidden by my rear cargo carrier rack which holds a big plastic trunk. So... in my enthusiasm to test out the camera, I cut the metal bottom off a big coffee can then taped it to the center top of the rear plastic trunk. Now when I need backup help, I just place the portable camera on the coffee lid, then reverse the motorhome while watching the wireless screen which sits up front in the 12 volt plug (cigarette lighter). By golly, this camera will be a huge help in identifying things to run over or back into. Eventually I will work out something neater than the coffee can lid, but hey, for now that can work. 


My motorhome has a compact washing machine but no dryer. Some campgrounds don't allow clothes lines outside. This compression post closet rod fits along the side wall of my motorhome bedroom. I put in flanges to hold the rod in place when weight like wet laundry is hanging on it. Now my clothes hangers do triple duty. When I need to dry some items that came out of my washer and can't dry them outside, I just hang them on the clothes hangers about an inch apart and let them dry indoors. Works great in the rain! That clip on fan is facing my bed, but I can rotate it around to speed dry my laundry. That can work. 

Clothes hangers aren't just for clothes. When my inside busted up broken accordion shower door had to be replaced, sadly the beautiful brass trim had to come out. What a shame to toss that away. Oh wait, with a notch sawed into it, then several holes drilled, it became an instant outdoor laundry dryer. Its pops on the chair rack on the ladder on the rear of the motorhome in 2 seconds. Just hang laundry on hangers then place them in the drilled holes. Strong winds won't blow the hangers away, but sometimes clothes pins are needed on the hangers to hold laundry. It's nice to hang my shirts and tunics up to dry on hangers, then just transfer them to the closet, still on hangers. The bonus of having laundry drying on hangers, is that if a rain squall appears out of nowhere, it's easy to snatch the hangers and rehang them inside on the overhead pole in the bedroom or the shower. That can work. 


I love having an outside faucet, but it didn't come with anywhere to hang the hand held shower head. I didn't come with three hands, so this was problematic. I might be filling a bucket, or rinsing sand off my feet, or washing grease off my hands or doing dishes alfresco or washing a muddy doggy. I found this goose necked push button suction shower holder. With the push of a button, the handheld faucet can be placed anywhere at any height and the goose neck allows it to be at any angle. That can work! I now have a second one, I use for the inside shower stall too.

I only buy the small bottles of dish soap because my galley (kitchen) is small and I like things neat. Besides the small bottles also fit inside my outdoor faucet compartment. When the door is opened, there is room to hang a wash rag there, ready for the next dirty little secret. That can work. 

When I bought my old used motorhome, the access door for the electric cord and generator outlet had a raggedy ugly hole for allowing the cord to drape outside (so it can plug into the electric post at the campsite). I hated that unsightly hole, it looked like a blind man with a dull chainsaw tried to cut it out. I used a piece of beige rubber I custom cut with scissors from a sink guard to cover up the unsightly hole. I stuck it on with outdoor double stick tape on the underside. What's so hilarious, is that this was over 5 years ago, and the same piece of rubber is still there covering up that ugly rough cut hole. I can keep the bay door closed (keep out rain water) yet the heavy electric cord can hang out at the campground and it looks neater. That can work!

3 comments:

  1. I love coming up with solutions to our everyday problems. Have you ever seen an add for something you invented by yourself pop up on TV? I have. For us it is just a "that will work" for someonelse it makes money.

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  2. I admire your ingenuity. You are a problem solver.

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