A while ago, some friends of ours bought a new camper van and, as newbies, I started thinking about what might be useful and what wasn’t quite so essential. The result is a short list that I’d like to share with you here.
BUT how important these things are can vary from person to person. Personally, I find the water filter, for example, the most important of all, whilst some people do without it entirely. Others also think it’s important to have a curtain on the windows, which doesn’t mean anything to me.
BURGLARY PROTECTION
- Protection for the tailgate: https://amzn.to/496W3Ag
- Protection for the AdBlue tank: https://amzn.to/3x6nJbd
- Protection for the driver’s/passenger’s door: (Model year 2022) Driver and passenger door locks for Ducato 8 – camperprotect
: check whether your vehicle is a 2022 or 2020 model… with motorhomes, a distinction is made between the vehicle’s year of manufacture and that of the bodywork
- Protection for the sliding door from the inside: Sliding door lock with anti-burglary protection – camperprotect
- Protection for the sliding door from the outside: Diskus lock for securing the sliding door from the outside – camperprotect or https://amzn.to/3Vu7Nte
WATER FILTER
- Silver-ion water, which we simply keep in our tank: https://amzn.to/3TQcLPG
Just for the sake of completeness: the effects and side effects are controversial; however, we use the small ‘up to 60’ litre set in our 90-litre tank and haven’t had any build-up in the tank in three years; however, all dosing methods where the chemical is added based on volume are completely impractical, as it’s easy to end up with the wrong mixing ratio, and some even claim you can manage without it altogether
- External water filter: https://shop.smaker3d.com/products/alb-filter%C2%AE-mobil-active-trinkwasserfilter
and the pre-filter to go with it: Alb Protect – the pre-filter – SMaker3D
Whether you then opt for an internal filter is up to you; in the Knaus, it was designed to be easily replaceable, but many motorhomes lack a connection for this, and as I’ve already mentioned, the one in ours is rather poorly positioned for preventing bacterial growth. The filter seems a bit more expensive initially, but the cartridges for the annual replacement are significantly cheaper, and you can also flush the filter out if it gets clogged with sediment, as you can open the housing. There’s also the ‘Krasse’ complete set, similar to the one we have ourselves, but then you’d need to fit it properly inside the vehicle https://shop.smaker3d.com/products/alb-filter-pro-camper-set-drinking-water-filter-combination – for example, on the cold water pipe before the tap
- I do have a great hose in the shop (though I don’t use it myself because it’s too expensive), but I’d really recommend getting a high-quality hose from a DIY store, along with a Gardena connector (they’re usually white for drinking water, but not certified), and then 3m and 2m lengths including the connectors. The important thing is that the filter and the final half metre of the filter set at the end are used directly on the vehicle
- For a simple connection for filling with water: https://amzn.to/49dSUhY
ELECTRICS
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Before you’re ready, let’s have another detailed chat about this – I’d put that on the back burner for now. BullTron POLAR for the camper – SMaker3D
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If you haven’t fitted a sat-nav, that’s fine, and my mobile phone holder is absolutely brilliant: Smartphone holder for Ducato/Boxer/Jumper/Movano – SMaker3D
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We’ve got this 20m-long cable https://amzn.to/4a3089Z and, on top of that, a https://amzn.to/3IQuPD3 for those pitches that aren’t quite up to standard
VEHICLE
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We’ve also got these levelling wedges https://amzn.to/3IQoWG0, but there are loads of different systems out there and I don’t really know much about them… all I’ll say is that the stepped ones handle better than the continuous ones