10 Low-cost Ideas for a Small Camper

A while back I did a series of do-it-yourself videos for a small trailer. They were low-cost, simple ideas that I wanted to share because I was really inspired with the trailer I had at the time. Now I have a different trailer and it's inspired me even more. So let me start the series off again with the first 10 low-cost ideas for a small camper. Well I'm typically a man of few words and even fewer spices. This is my entire collection of spices I travel with but I still need a place to store them. And I've tried putting them in cupboards and in drawers and when I bump around they always fall over and make a mess. So I needed to first find a place that was convenient for them to be and not fall over. I think this area would be a good idea because this is my kitchen galley. However, how do I put them on the wall? And so I went searching on Amazon and I found this. It's called a spice gripper and it's got some self-adhesive tape on the back. You just unpeel and put it up there. It works really good. On fat ones it actually just expands. On the little skinny ones, well it just holds up by the cap. So that works as well. I think I'm going to give it a try. I'm going to take the fat ones and line it up. I only get one chance at this. I think that looks good. Peel the tape and just about there I think. Done. They just sit on that little ledge out of the way. Hey, that was one of the easiest installs I've done in a long time. Well if you happened to catch the video I did when I first brought the Outback out to the woods, you know I had a little bit of a gripe about this fan. Because it only has three speeds. It has noisy, noisier, and noisiest. It's a noisy fan. And if you don't believe me, let me show you. I mean I'm talking the same level, but the fan is overpowering. And not only that, it's powerful. It makes it really drafty in here. I want a little bit of airflow, but not that much, and that's only level one. Now level two for some reason actually seems a little slower. Don't know why, it's still noisy though. And level three is like you're being sucked into the jet engine of a 747. It's too loud, it's too powerful, and it's using too many amps. I really don't like it. And that is, by the way, the fantastic fan. Now my original thought was just simple, you know what, I guess I just have to get another fan. Until somebody in one of my videos, a guy named Doug, commented that there was a way to fix this. And what Doug recommended was this little gadget here, which is a DC motor control board with a variable speed controller. What it basically does is it replaces this knob, which only has three settings, with this one, which starts at zero, and you can just increase it gradually until you find the intensity of the fan you want. You don't have to get stuck with high, high, and too high. You can start with a low setting. Now these things are really cheap, under $20 easily, and apparently they're easy to install. But let's find out for sure. Installing the controller starts with removing the fan cover. There are five Phillips screws that hold it in place, plus the machine screw on the vent knob. Power enters the array by the flow direction switch, and to the left is the existing speed switch. Some might prefer to remove and replace this, but I'm simply going to install the new controller at the corner that is not used, this one here. The controller circuit board just fits into this area with nothing to spare. I'll just drill a hole for the control knob shaft right in front. Since the existing wall was curved, I added pieces of plastic to support the circuit board. These were attached by a glue gun. Here's the completed controller, with everything installed, and the wires fastened in place. So there it is, all installed. You see this little knob here, and it's got a green line. I just line it up to that black dot, which is the off position of course, and it's ready to test. Now, if I was a little skimpy on wiring, it was on purpose, I really don't want to show you how to wire. I'd rather you go to a professional, or if you have the knowledge, I think you can basically figure it out, because what I basically did is I took the controller and I bypassed it between the three-way switch and the in-out, the reverse switch, to give power and to control over the three-way switch. This still works, by the way. Everything works the same. The only thing is, this has to be on for the other two to work. So to try it out, I'm going to put it on out, just gradually increase that. Now that's really, really subtle. That's minimum airflow, but it's totally silent. One little bit more. Okay, now I can feel the breeze coming in from the door window. That's enough. There's a little bit of a draft. Very subtle. Chances are, that's how I'd leave it on for most days. Now if I was cooking, or I was having a shower, increase it a little bit more, there's a little bit more flow. That's great. It's still not overpowering. Now the only reason I'd have it any higher is if there was something I really had to clear the air quickly, like smoke, or uh-oh, who farted? Oh, there we go. It goes to 11. Woo! Get that baby out of here. Oh yeah. So that seems a lot more practical, and now I can say it is a fantastic fan. The tongue of a trailer tends to be a place of storage. Now when I got this, it had two 6-volt batteries side-by-side, lead-acid batteries. Big waste of space and weight, really. What I did is I have a 12-volt AGM, a single 12-volt battery, inside. So I had this space, although it was a little awkward because there's a frame there with that much thickness. So what I did is I got two cutting boards from a dollar store to raise it up. I couldn't use wood, but I could use plastic. That's going to last. And I bought a Magnum ammo crate utility box. I picked this up at an auto supply store in Canada, however you may see these in sporting goods or army surplus in the U.S. I first fastened the box to the battery frame using four stove bolts, nuts, and fender washers. I strap it down with bungee cords there, it's got these two latches, and there we go. Right now, it's just a tarp, a wheel, a connector, shocks, and a lock. I can put a lot more in there. I wanted to see how it worked on the highway before I really loaded it up, but it worked fine. You can never have too much places to store things. There's always something you can fill up that storage space, as I always do. Well anytime I find something that might be useful for storage in a trailer, I've got to check it out, especially if it's cheap. And this is what I found this time, this little bedside storage organizer. It's meant for the side of your bed, like in a house. It also has hooks that'll go in the back of your chair or on a rail or something like that. But for a trailer, it's kind of unique because it seems to fit on most windowsills. It's got storage for DVDs, notepad, cell phone, flashlight, glasses, a little place for pens, and even hooks for keys. You can move it wherever you want, and you can also switch it and put it on another window. Kind of handy, low cost, no tools required. By the way, when I bought this in the ad, in like the used camper section, it said it came with a fire extinguisher. And I looked all over, I was like, what fire extinguisher? There's no fire extinguisher here, until I looked in here, and there's the fire extinguisher. You know, it looks like a little aerosol can. But it also says expires November 27th, 2010. So thank you, but I don't think I'm going to use that. I will dispose of that and get a brand new one that works. Where you locate a fire extinguisher in a trailer or an RV is a matter of safety and convenience. You don't want it like above the stove because the stove is one of the main places you'd expect a fire, and you don't want the fire between you and the fire extinguisher. A lot of people put it by the exit, which is fine, but I prefer a little compromise because I'd like it near the bed. Middle of the night, fire, I'd like it a little bit closer than the exit. Now, I bought a KID, which is a popular brand, a very good fire extinguisher. I put it here, just straps, it comes off. This is a bracket that comes with it, and I just screwed it onto the fiberglass molding. Easy to use, effective, and hopefully I'll never have to use it. One thing to always check though is the level. It should always, the dial should always be on green for full, and you should check that often. While I'm still on the floor, there's one other thing I wanted to show you, and it comes from the first time I took my trailer out in the backwoods. Opened the door and found everything was all over the floor, and most of it was the stuff I'd stored underneath the bed. So what I did is I got some D-ring hangers, pitcher hangers, and I fastened them to the corners of the fiberglass molding, and then I just got some flat bungee cords. These are three-foot bungee cords. Put them in a pattern like that, and it works great. Easy to install. It doesn't hold everything really rigid. It actually bounces a little back and forth, but the nice thing about it is if I wanted to grab something, I don't have to unfasten anything. I can just pull it down, grab a bag, put it back when I'm done. Really easy, convenient, didn't cost a lot of money. I also use a command hook in the middle to tighten the bungee, and hopefully people will stop asking me where I store my cassette toilet. When I first got this trailer, I thought it was a real bonus having this nice tall mirror here until I went to actually use it, and standing up, it's no use at all. As a matter of fact, all I can see is my crotch, and it's one of those trick mirrors. If you go like that, it makes things appear bigger than they actually are. Well, I don't need that. Why didn't they put it all the way to the top? And the reason being was because there used to be a microwave up here, and people wanted to see what they were eating. They didn't want to see if they had broccoli in their teeth. But for me, I need something like at head level so I can see if I'm actually getting a head in life. You know what I mean? I need a mirror here. Most dollar stores have what is called a locker room mirror with a magnet. I just removed the magnet and added two-sided tape. And I'm going to put it about there. No broccoli in my teeth. There's so many ways to fasten things onto the walls. And one of the most popular methods is using two-sided tape. It's cheap. It's quick. You don't need any special tools. But if you have a small trailer or a camper, that might not be the best thing. Because if you go somewhere hot, the adhesive gets soft and it falls off. And if you go somewhere where it's cold, it gets hard and it falls off. So I was looking for an option of fasteners that had nothing to do with temperature. And here's what I came up with. I bought 150 of these, which are buttons. Snap buttons like you'd find on an old coat. They're great. And I've used them actually for the floor. I put one in each corner. So if I want to clean the carpet, I just unbuckle each corner. Out it goes. I can clean it, sweep the floor, put it back again in seconds. Awesome. But I had another thing that I was trying to resolve. Where in a trailer do you keep paperwork like receipts and instruction manuals? If I put them in a cupboard or a shelf, they get buried and I can't find them. I needed a place that was unique, easy to find, and it didn't take up any space that could be used for anything else. And this is what I came up with. Behind the door, I have a little pouch. It's for eight and a half by 11 paper. It's something you'd find in a school supply place. It's got a zipper on it. And inside, I can keep all my instruction manuals, receipts, really handy. And of course, it's on with snaps. So I can take it, use it somewhere else. And when I'm done with it, two snaps, it's out of the way. Very easy to store. I know where everything is and it's handy. I give that idea two snaps. One thing that happens often is when I bounce the trailer around, the power controller door flies open. Seems to happen a lot, even though it has its own flimsy little lock. I went to a hardware store and picked up some small wood screws and a pack of storm buttons. I just drilled a hole above the lid and screwed in the storm button with a little tension to hold it in place. Now it only opens when I want it to and stays closed the rest of the time. So storm buttons are now good for earthquakes too. Now I'm totally into trying to improve your RV or trailer experience by doing little fix-ups and make the whole thing work a little bit better. But you've always have to keep an eye on safety concerns. Now before I bought this trailer, somebody, and I know it wasn't Trillium, made a little improvement which I'm kind of a little wary about. And what I'm talking about is putting a blind on the door of a trailer. And the reason being, and this actually happened to me, is I was outside the trailer when it started raining and all of a sudden I had to run into the trailer to shut the windows. What I did was this. And what happened is the blind swung out and it actually hit me right in the eye. Do not put a projectile on a swinging door. That is dumb. The purpose of a blind is not to blind you. This is a very bad idea and it's gonna go. It seems some do things more for style than practicality and these blinds were flimsy at best. Crap! Rather than try something new, I went to Tried and True, a curtain rod on brackets. The only innovation was to put wood screws above the curtain rod to stop it from jumping off in travel. Yes, fabric curtains follow the KISS rule. Looks fine. Easy to use. And no eye patch necessary. Blinds are curtains. I think the eyes have it. And if you do happen to poke your eye or cut yourself, it's good to have a first aid kit handy. And mine is right here. Storing it on a cupboard door means fast access when you need it. Now I did mention this reclaimed storage space underneath my galley in another video and I probably also mentioned that I use these refrigerator bars, which you find in RV shops, to keep things in place. And then they're spring loaded and rubber tipped and they work quite well. You put them between two walls. But if you've got a little bit more weight or if you're going down more back roads like me, they tend to shift anyway. I needed something to secure them a little bit better. So what I did is I got a recycled water bottle, took the cap off, and I just screwed the cap in place on the sides. And that gives me a really secure place to put the bars and nothing is going to fall out. And of course, when I need the stuff, I just put this in the back. Out it comes. Easy, convenient, works well. Well, you've been very patient, so here's one more. Two prong coat hangers are great for coats and caps, but put one on your door and you can hang a bag for your trash. Well, I hope you found some of those ideas useful, or it at least inspired you to try your own. I don't have all the answers, and I really encourage my viewers to share their ideas with me. For example, I don't even know how to store a cast iron fry pan because, you know, it bounces around. Where do you put one? Any ideas? Let me know. I hope you enjoyed this video, and please check my other ones as well.