In this post we’ll pick up where we left off in our exploration of the basic tools you will want to have to maintain and repair your RV.
Pliers
A simple set of pliers is a valuable part of any RV tool kit. At a minimum you will want a pair of slip-jaw pliers for loosening hose fittings. Every time you connect or disconnect your RV from a water source you have several connections to deal with. Ideally, they will all be leak free with just hand-tightening of the connections. But after you have been through the tighten/untighten process a few dozen times you may find that your fitting requires an extra turn beyond hand-tight, and that’s where your pliers will come in clutch. Even if you are successful making a leak free, hand-tight connection, the RV park gremlins like to come around after midnight with a pipe wrench and make sure everything is good and extra tight for you the next morning when you need to get on the road early to make it to your next destination. You’ll be thankful you have your trusty pliers to bust everything loose!
Scrapers
If you own your RV for more than a few years you will find that a lot of your free time is spent either preventing, or chasing down, roof leaks. And whether proactive or reactive, you will spend a lot of time up on your roof scraping off old caulk or sealant so you can replace it with a fresh, very expensive, layer of new sealant. For this task you will want an assortment of metal and plastic scrapers because your finger nails will only last so long.
Caulk Gun
Once your surfaces are scraped nice and clean, you’ll want a decent caulk gun to get everything sealed back up. The “best” type claims to be drip proof. In my experience this at best overly optimistic, and at worst just a bold faced marketing lie. There always seems to be just a little bit that continues to ooze out and end up exactly where you don’t want it. Bonus points if the gun has a built-in pokey thingy that you use to stick down in the tube to break the seal.
Cordless Drill (and Bits)
RVs are held together by an endless number of screws. A cordless drill, with the appropriate driver bits, can help make short work of these projects. A recent window repair – 24, #2 square drive screws. Roof vent replacement – over 30, #2 Phillips screws. There are lot of things to be screwed! Pro Tip: Get a drill that has adjustable torque settings and use the lowest setting possible to avoid over tightening and stripping the screws – it is very easy to strip them out when they are just holding two pieces of thin sheet metal or fiberglass together.
Rivet Gun
This one may be a little unique to Airstreams. Airstream really likes rivets. It’s kind of their thing. Everything that isn’t held down with a screw gets a rivet. And almost certainly you will run into a few on your RV as well. When you do, you will want a simple rivet gun and a selection of replacement rivets. You can use your drill from above to drill out the old rivets, and your rivet gun to install the new.
Credit Card (or a big pile of cash)
And finally, the one tool to rule them all – a credit card with available credit. I’m not suggesting you run up a large balance and carry a lot of debt, but RV ownership can be expensive. Sometime staggeringly so, and often unexpectedly. You’ll want to have the ability to purchase what you need, or hire out a repair, when needed. A new set of tires for a motorcoach can run $4000 – 5000. New house batteries - $700 - $1000. New fridge - $1200+. With the right card you can at least be earning cash back or travel miles when these large expenses inevitably occur.
I’m sure we could add many more tools to this list, but these are the ones we have found we use all the time. They are the ones that are always at the top of the tool box. You probably already have many of them in your collection. If not, it’s never too early to start dropping hints for Christmas, or your next birthday!
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