Must Have Items for New 5TH Wheel???

[reg11756]

Picking up new Cedar Creek 5er next week and will be full time for at least 3-6 months. NEWBIES. Looking for list of ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE items to buy today. We know we will add as we break it in, but things like sewer hose, dogbones, surge prot etc will need to be first. So, keep it simple, but educate us with your boundless wisdom and experience!!

Cedar Creek 388 RK; 2020 Ram 3500 DRW 8' bed.

[450Donn]

Septic safe TP, real dishes, silverware, cook ware etc of course. After that, a quality 25 foot white potable water hose, and maybe a 12 footer too. Slinky or a means to support the sewer hose. Clear elbow to monitor dumping flow. I also like to have a "Y" for the fresh water line and a pressure regulator, and a 25 foot regular hose for rinsing stuff off.

[Bob_C]

A hardwired Progressive Energy Management system, wheel chocks or X Chocks, water filter, and lots of tools.....A spare tire and a decent jack, leveling blocks of various thicknesses....never know what ground conditions you'll run into......

[Cumminsfan]

After 10 years of dealing with blue or white hoses that kink up when the temps drop into the 40's I bought a black Zero style flex hose like this,
https://www.camperid.com/teknor-apex...hoCdAIQAvD_BwE
One of the best upgrades I've ever done. No matter how cold out it is it never kinks. It folds up into a small bundle that you can stick anywhere.
Only issue with it is that when disconnecting it has a lot of built up PSI and doesn't drain as fast as a regular hose. So I added a 'Y' at the spigot so I can relieve the pressure.

[JollyCamper]

Get a GOOD sewer hose. Most likely they will throw in an el cheapo sewer hose, but try to get a good quality sewer hose like a Camco Rhino or the like. A wastebasket for the kitchen, paper towels, trash bags, first aid kit.
Are you hitting the road directly when you pick it up? If not, find a close location, or even your own driveway, and spend a couple of nights in it. The house is best probably. Make a list of the things you run into the house to get and bring out to the camper. Those are the things you need!

[Old-Biscuit]

50A to 30A Adapter
Jack pads
Comfortable zero gravity lawn chairs
Small folding table for between the chairs

AND most importantly...........LESS Stuff then you think you need!

After getting fully loaded/packed up...go to CAT Scales and get weighed
Truck/Trailer combo
Drop trailer in parking lot and go back for rewiegh of truck only

Compare weights with Truck/Trailer RATINGS especially axles/tires

Enjoy this next phase in your lifes adventure!

[CecilD]

Add grease gun, rig to pedestal television cable, black tank chemicals, tire gauge to 110 lbs., door mat, kneeling pad. Enjoy!

[artman1913]

Originally Posted by bob caldwell

A hardwired Progressive Energy Management system, wheel chocks or X Chocks, water filter, and lots of tools.....A spare tire and a decent jack, leveling blocks of various thicknesses....never know what ground conditions you'll run into......

Lug wrench for the trailer.

[Midlotexan]

My wife would say air fryer and insta pot.
I use quick couplers on all my water hose connections.
If it didn't come with a power cord reel, think about that. That 50 amp cord when its stiff can be a challenge to wind up.
First big expense purchase was tire pressure monitor system.
I found alot of good used items on facebook marketplace, including my B&W hitch for a third of new.
Travel safe

[hamm2018]

Originally Posted by reg11756

Picking up new Cedar Creek 5er next week and will be full time for at least 3-6 months. NEWBIES. Looking for list of ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE items to buy today. We know we will add as we break it in, but things like sewer hose, dogbones, surge prot etc will need to be first. So, keep it simple, but educate us with your boundless wisdom and experience!!

Cedar Creek 388 RK; 2020 Ram 3500 DRW 8' bed.

List of items, that we deem essential for us:
GPS system for RV
Rear Observation/back-up camera system
Tire Pressure Monitor system
slide-out toppers
disc brake system to replace the electric brakes
the first 5 I would work into the deal for the RV

then over the next few months slowly get these item:
water filter system
water softener system( https://www.rvwaterfilterstore.com/r...Filter%20Store)

emergency red triangles if you break down for use on the side of the road
extra large fuel tank for the truck/extra fuel tank in bed of truck
extra tool box to hold tools and items in truck bed between hitch & tailgate (Dually Depot in Goshen is where we bought our tool box)
tools/tool box
extension cord
air compressor we use a VIAIR 450P-RV (https://www.viaircorp.com/rvs-portables/450p-rvs)

Yes we do carry all of these items.

[450Donn]

And dont forget a notebook. Every trip as you find stuff you need and once home go buy it. Conversely about twice a year go throuh everything and take out what you have not used in 6 months. That includes clothes.

[grindstone01]

Originally Posted by 450Donn

And dont forget a notebook. Every trip as you find stuff you need and once home go buy it. Conversely about twice a year go throuh everything and take out what you have not used in 6 months. That includes clothes.

I agree, don't get caught up in buying everything you can think of for your first trip. Take your camper out for a couple of weekend trips, take notes of what you need and talk to other campers to find out what works for them. Next determine if that item fits you priority of must have things.
We full time and have discovered half the things we thought we needed went unused. We also met other full timers trying to sell off expensive items they had bought but never used, like water conditioner systems. For some people that may be important and for others it may be unnecessary.
Another example is that I carry a small wire welder that has saved my butt a couple of times and I would not leave home w/o one. For 99% of campers, that tool is unnecessary.

[bddadles]

Lots of good stuff covered above.
We have been full timing for 11 years and I think there are 4 things you really need for living on the road.
1) A good road service. Personally we have Coachnet.
2) A tpms (Tire Pressure Monitoring system).
3) A EMS (Electrical Monitoring System). Personally I have a hard wired Progressive.
4) And one of the MOST Important things you can pack is your sense of humor. Because that will be days that you will need it. And be sure to have fun.

[happy2rv]

Must haves:


Unless you are going to rely on roadside service, and IMHO even if you intend to, you should have a jack capable of lifting the 5th wheel with a flat. This means a jack with enough weight capacity and either short enough to go under the axle with the rim on the ground or tall enough to lift the frame enough to raise the axle high enough to get the spare on.



Spare tire. Most rigs still come with them, but apparently some don't. I will never be without a spare. In fact after recent tire issues, I've started carrying two.



A lug wrench capable of removing the lugs. I actually carry a 1/2" battery powered impact driver with a lug socket set in the truck. A torque wrench is also good to have to verify actual lug torque instead of just "guessing" with a lug wrench. This is not just in case either. You are supposed to periodically check the torque on each wheel.



As others have suggested, I consider a TPMS system a necessity. It's not a cure all. It was of no value in my recent blow outs, but it can alert you to a lot of failures before they happen. Most people don't check their tire pressures nearly as regularly as they should. The TPMS keeps a constant watch on pressure as well as temperature. Temperature can alert you to a failing wheel bearing as well.



Buying from a dealer, especially a new unit, they should provide a "starter pack" that has a cheap sewer hose, cheap fresh water hose, cheap pressure reducer, and possibly a dog-bone power adapter. Notice I prefaced all of those with "cheap". That's both in the it didn't cost them much and it's not high quality, but it's enough to get you started. You can decide what you need as you go. I agree with other posters, you will want a better sewer hose. However, if you don't already know the layout of your sewer on the rig, you may want to wait until you've dumped once or twice to figure out the best setup. For instance, my Hemisphere has two separate sewer hookups with three valves. One for the forward gray tank (the bathroom) and black tank with valves for each and another hookup near the back under the slideout for the rear (kitchen) gray tank. For most campgrounds, two sewer hoses connected to a Y at the sewer hookup is the best solution, but some campgrounds have two sewer hookups. In those campgrounds it's often easier to have two elbow adapters and use both hookups instead of the Y. Point is, the cheap starter kit will get you started, and once you've done it a few times, you will probably have an idea of what will work best for you.



You will likely want better and longer or multiple fresh water hoses. Short hoses work in most campgrounds and are easier to manage, but there will be campgrounds where you need more length. Most people also carry a "gray" hose, a non-potable water hose for hooking up to the black tank flush and any other non-potable uses. I'd recommend a quality water pressure regulator in place of the pressure reducer they provide. Something like a Watts adjustable regulator.



Hopefully you will have an opportunity to take a few "shake down" trips before hitting the road full time. These short trips give you an opportunity to become familiar with everything and make sure everything is working as expected. There are a lot of "must haves" for most people. However, in reality most of them are really "nice to haves" and one person's nice to have is an other's waste of money. I also agree with other posters advice about over packing. Don't buy out camping world or Amazon and try to pack it all in. Experience will tell you what you "need" and what you want.



The only more or less "necessities" for your first trip are:
A sewer hose of some kind to drain the tanks.
A potable water hose to fill the tanks and/or hook up "city water".
A power cord (should be included in the RV).
Leveling blocks or boards unless you have luck into a truly level site


Absolute leveling is only critical if you have a propane refrigerator. If you have a residential (all electric) refrigerator, its not critical to be perfectly level. It will make things more comfortable to be level though.