Preparation days

We somewhat foolishly thought we would have our trailer on the road just a day or two after we got her home. That couple of days turned into much longer. Once we looked over the inside and outside of the trailer in more detail, we found lots of little things we needed to do and even more "important" accessories we needed to buy.

Smoky was in charge of the outside (thank goodness), and I'm sure I won't remember all the things he did. Two really cool things were made with bamboo. The first item was a hook he added to a long bamboo pole so he could pull items from the middle of the pass-through storage out toward the door. Bamboo is light-weight, always a plus in a setup like ours, and it doesn't take up a lot of space.

The next item was a clothesline. Because condensation is an issue on the inside of a trailer, we knew we needed a way to hang towels to dry outside. Our back bumper wasn't being used for anything else, so Smoky bought some short tubular metal, open on both ends, that he painted black and clamped between the bumper and the trailer. When we need the clothesline, we drop a large bamboo pole into each holder. These large poles have a really cool loop system in two places, into which small bamboo poles can be inserted. Instant clothesline! I'll add a photo when we take one.

I'm amazed at how many power cords, adapters, hoses (both for fresh water and emptying and flushing black and grey water tanks), tools, buckets, etc., are needed to live on the road. Fortunately, our CampLight has a fair amount of outside storage space.

Inside, Smoky added aluminum tubing supports under the shelves in the floor-to-ceiling storage cabinet. This cabinet is great for storing food supplies, now that the shelves don't sag in the middle!

During the prep period, we read the LivinLite Owner's forum and other trailer forums, hoping not to make every new-owner mistake ourselves! There were a number of entries regarding the shower, most of which encouraged the purchase of a better shower head. That sounded like a great idea. We settled on an Oxygenics shower head that guaranteed more water pressure without using more water. It installed easily and actually delivered on its promises.

Another entry in the forum said you couldn't have too many Command hooks. The inside of our trailer is Azdel, a remarkable lightweight material that is not affected by water leaks. Using stick-on hooks was our only option. I used several in the kitchen area to hang up utensils that I need for cooking. Now that Smoky found some Command strips designed for wet areas, we are adding some in the bathroom for hanging hand towels and washcloths.

Once I decided which sheets, blankets, towels, shower curtain, placemats, napkins, dishes, glasses, cups, and cookware we needed and got everything moved into the trailer, we were almost ready for our trial run trip!

--Shann