Our Purchases: RV Living

In preparation for living, working and staying healthy on the road, I spent countless hours researching, comparing, ordering, troubleshooting, testing and returning products. It was literally my part time job for almost half a year. And to this day our arsenal of "stuff" continues to evolve as we spend more and more time on the move.

If you'd like to benefit from all of my sweat, blood and due-diligent tears, here's your chance.

On this page you'll find almost every single item we've ever purchased that relates to RV Living.

If it's here, that means we were satisfied with it and it ended up being useful in some way.

If it didn't really work for us, or it downright sucked, you won't see it here.

From one-off cool little knick knacks (like these embroidered Abarth seat-belt cushions) to full blown project master part lists (like the ones here) everything on this page has our stamp of approval.

Plus, any time you actually click a link and make a purchase, you're helping to support ATSWG by earning us a sweet commission!

Win. Win. Win. - Michael Gary Scott

(NOTE: This list is a constant WORK IN PROGRESS so if you don't see what you're looking for, have specific questions, or even find a link that's no longer working, feel free to shoot us an email at atswego@gmail.com or submit a message HERE and we'll get back with you as soon as we can.)

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Day-One Necessities

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Office

Add-Ons & Upgrades

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Office

Ikea Laminate Countertops

View on Ikea

LILLTRASK White Laminate Countertop – 74 X 1 1/8″

These are the countertops we purchased from Ikea to use as our desks in the office. We simply removed our HappiJack couches and mounted these on the existing brackets with the same hardware.

Loctite Blue Threadlocker 242

View on Amazon

Loctite Heavy Duty Threadlocker Blue 242

We used this on the HappiJack hardware in hopes to help keep the bolts from backing out of the desks due to vibration and heavy use.

Dual SIM Cellular Modem

View on TechnoRV

Pepwave Max BR1 Mini Cat 6 LTE Advanced Modem + PrimeCare + 12V Power Supply

This cellular modem provides our primary connection to the internet. It can pull internet from two different SIM cards and any external Wi-Fi networks, offering redundancy and fast speeds.

Cellular Roof Antenna

View on TechnoRV

Poynting 7-in-1 MIMO Omnidirectional Roof Antenna

We mounted this to our roof, which provides much stronger cellular and Wi-Fi signals to the Pepwave cellular modem & router, boosting connection reliability and speeds.

Aluminum Sheet (grounding plane)

View on Amazon

RMP 6061 T6 Aluminum Sheet – 12″ x 12″ x 0.063″

We installed this sheet of aluminum beneath the external cellular antenna as a grounding plane / plate in hopes to improve the signal, even if just incrementally.

UPS Battery Backup

View on Amazon

UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Battery Backup Surge Protector – 425VA

We have 3 of these units, two providing backup power for each of our iMacs and the other providing backup power for our internet equipment.

8 ft Extension Cord

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White 8-Foot Extension Cord

We ran this power cord from the floor-level wall outlet up to the overhead storage cubby to power the UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) of the internet setup.

Cat7 Ethernet Cable - 25 ft

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Cat 7 Ethernet Cable 25 ft Shielded Flat RJ45 – Black

We used this 25 ft ethernet cable for providing a hardwired connection to the iMac closest to the router.

Cat7 Ethernet Cable - 50 ft

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Cat 7 Ethernet Cable 50 ft Shielded Flat RJ45 – Black

We used this 50 ft ethernet cable for providing a hardwired connection to the iMac farthest from the router.

Cat7 Ethernet Cable - 6 ft

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Cat 7 Ethernet Cable 6 ft Shielded Flat RJ45 – Black

We used these 6ft ethernet cables for connecting our Pepwave to our ethernet switch.

Wall Cable Management Cover

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Peel and Stick Cord Organizer, Concealer and Protector for Wall – 144 Inches

We used this for cleanly running and concealing our power and ethernet cables for our internet setup in the office.

5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch

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NETGEAR 5-Port Gigabit Ethernet Unmanaged Switch

We installed this so we can have more hardwired ethernet ports coming from our Pepwave cellular modem / router.

Titanium Step Drill Bit Set

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5PC Titanium Spiral Grooved Step Drill Bit Set with Automatic Center Punch

We originally purchased these for drilling a hole through the roof to install our external cellular antenna. Since then they’ve been useful for drilling holes through many different surfaces and materials.

Dicor Self-Leveling Roof Sealant

View on Amazon

Dicor Self-Leveling Lap Sealant for RV Roof

We use the self-leveling version of Dicor for maintaining a waterproof seal around almost anything on top of our rubber RV roof, including antennas, skylights, exhaust fans, etc.

Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Detector

View on Amazon

First Alert Combination Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector

Our rig did come stock with a couple of detectors but we added on a few more across the entire rig for additional coverage and redundancy.

2-Step Lightweight Folding Steel Step Stool

View on Amazon

Rubbermaid 2-Step Steel Step Stool, 225-pound Capacity, White

We primarily use this indoors to access storage or perform maintenance of anything out of reach, such as our loft storage area, garage cabinets, a/c units, lights, etc.

Adhesive Color Changing LED Light Strips

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Adhesive Color Changing LED Strip Lights with Remote

Our main living area already had a ton of different options for lighting, but the garage was lacking, so we added on a couple of these for simple and customizable mood lighting.

Dry Erase White Board Sticker

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Self Adhesive Dry Erase White Board Sticker + Dry Erase Markers – 17.3in x 11ft

We used this to apply a dry erase surface directly to the wall instead of hanging up a heavy whiteboard in our office.

Oscillating Ceramic Tower Heater

View on Amazon

Comfort Zone 1500 Watt / 900 Watt Oscillating Ceramic Tower Heater

This is mainly used for supplemental heat in our office / garage during very cold weather but we’ve also used it throughout the rig to take advantage of unmetered electric and save on propane costs.

Apple iMac 27" All-In-One Computer

View Specs

Apple 27-Inch iMac 4.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with Retina 5K display

We both use a Mid-2017 5K 27″ iMac with a 4.2 GHz Quad-Core i7, 64GB of RAM, 500GB of Flash Storage and upgraded 8GB Radeon Pro 580 graphics processor. Handles all aspects of our businesses without skipping a beat.

Apple AirPods (2nd Generation)

View on Amazon

Apple AirPods (2nd Generation) Wireless Earbuds with Mic & Recharging Case

We use these for wireless audio with Siri, tap gestures & 24hr battery life. They seamlessly move from one device to another with the click of a button.

Beats Wireless On-Ear Headphones

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Beats Solo3 Wireless On-Ear Headphones

These are AK’s favorite headphones for use in the office.

External HD 4TB USB 3.0

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Seagate Portable 4TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0

These hard disk drives transfer data much slower than solid state drives, but they are much cheaper, so we primarily use them for storing & creating multiple redundant backups of all of our data.

Tiny USB Flash Drive

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SAMSUNG 64GB Extremely Compact USB 3.1 Flash Drive

We keep one of these connected at all times for quick, convenient, temporary backups of one-off files or anything else we might want to quickly duplicate. Fits hidden beneath Apple keyboard and out of site.

500GB External SSD USB-C

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LaCie External SSD 500GB Solid State Drive – USB-C, USB 3.2

These high speed solid state drives allow us to edit smaller Final Cut Pro projects in real time and quickly and easily move from working on one computer to another, allowing us to collaborate and/or take things from desktop to laptop instantly.

500GB RUGGED External SSD USB-C

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LaCie RUGGED SSD 500GB Solid State Drive – USB-C, USB 3.2

These high speed solid state drives allow us to edit smaller Final Cut Pro projects in real time and quickly and easily move from working on one computer to another, allowing us to collaborate and/or take things from desktop to laptop instantly.

2 TB External SSD USB-C

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LaCie External SSD 2TB Solid State Drive – USB-C, USB 3.2

These larger high speed solid state drives allow us to edit bigger Final Cut Pro projects in real time and quickly and easily move from working on one computer to another, allowing us to collaborate and/or take things from desktop to laptop instantly.

2 TB RUGGED External SSD USB-C

View on Amazon

LaCie RUGGED External SSD 2TB Solid State Drive – USB-C, USB 3.2

These larger high speed solid state drives allow us to edit bigger Final Cut Pro projects in real time and quickly and easily move from working on one computer to another, allowing us to collaborate and/or take things from desktop to laptop instantly.

AA Rechargeable Battery Kit

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Panasonic Eneloop AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Battery KIT 2000mAh

We use these for most of our AA battery applications (wireless mouse, etc.) so we don’t have to keep buying disposable ones.

AA Rechargeable Battery Kit

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Panasonic Eneloop Pro AA Ni-MH Rechargeable Battery KIT 2550mAh

We use these for higher drain AA applications (wireless mic packs, etc) where we need the longest lasting rechargeable battery possible.

WiFi Smart Outlets

View on Amazon

Heavy Duty WiFi Smart Outlets – No Hub Required

These allow us to remotely control our outlets from anywhere. We use one for power cycling our internet and the other three are used throughout the RV for heaters, fans, etc.

Rollo Thermal Shipping Label Printer

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Rollo Direct Thermal High Speed Shipping Label Printer

We use this for printing shipping labels and custom black and white stickers. It uses no ink and prints extremely fast.

HP Compact Wireless Printer

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HP DeskJet 3755 Compact All-in-One Wireless Printer

We use this for all of our standard printing needs. Quality and print speed are pretty good and the wireless feature makes printing from any computer quick and easy.

Which category would you like to see?

Day-One Necessities

Maintenance

Safety

Security

Tools

Water & Sewer

Office

Add-Ons & Upgrades

Vehicles

Replenishables

Miscellaneous

Projects & Mods

< Back to Lists