Household items are not designed with being mobile in mind; they are often large and bulky, taking up large amounts of space: that’s where gadgets for campervans come in. Gadgets for campervans are items that are specifically designed with traveling in mind. They make life easier and traveling more enjoyable by providing simple solutions to everyday problems those who travel encounter.
We have lived tiny for four years now, first in a bus conversion and now in a self-built camper van. Over these past few years, we have found some great items that make tiny living and full-time travel better. We are calling these items gadgets for campervans.
Whether traveling full time in an RV, bus, or van. Or taking a one-off road trip, these are some of the must-have gadgets for campervans that we use daily and recommend. Make sure to also check out our list of must-have apps for vanlife that we use daily.
Best Kitchen Gadgets For Campervan
Coghlan’s Egg Holder, 12 Eggs
Depending on the type of campervan fridge you have, storing eggs can be a hassle. Standard egg cartons do not provide much protection, plus they can take up a lot of valuable space. We use one of these rigid shell egg holders and love it. It keeps our eggs safe, plus it takes up less room in our fridge than a standard egg carton does.
Magnetic Camping Utensils
What you will do for silverware is often overlooked when taking a road trip or even when starting out traveling full time. When we were living full time in a bus, we used everyday silverware you would find in a house, but since making our move to a campervan meant having a lot less space, we ended up ditching the household silverware.
With not having the room for a silverware drawer, we have tried a few different setups designed for camping and backpacking, and we weren’t all that happy with the silverware options we tried. Until we came across these aluminum magnetic utensils, they take up no room, stack with magnets, making it so you can’t lose any pieces, and even come with a storage bag.
5 Qt Colapsable Colander
Any collapsable gadgets for campervans are fantastic, especially cooking items that usually take up much room. That is why we love having a colander that can be folded almost completely flat. When our collapsible colander is put away, it takes up very little room; with a push to the center, it pops out to be a full-sized colander.
It was essential for us to find a collapsing colander that is high heat safe as we cook pasta often and would be using it to drain the water. Many collapsing colanders are not designed to be used with boiling water. The one we recommend here has held up to three years of weekly use with boiling water and still looks brand new.
Berkey Water Filter
Having clean drinking water is a must. When traveling, you don’t always know the water quality that goes into your holding tanks. So having a reliable water filtration system is a must. Our favorite is the Berkey water system, particularly the travel-sized Berkey, as it doesn’t take up much space. The travel Berkey holds 1.5 gallons of water.
The Berkey is a gravity filtration system, so it does take some time to filter the water. We find the Berkey can fill the lower chamber in about 45 minutes. We check the water level of the lower section throughout the day, and whenever it starts to get low, we add some water to the upper chamber, so we do not ever run out of drinking water.
AeroPress Coffee Maker 1-3 Cups
If you are a coffee drinker, you know how important it is to have a good coffee maker. The AeroPress Go is one of the highest-rated travel-sized coffee makers out there. The AeroPress can make one 8oz cup of coffee, perfect for one person. Plus, the included cup doubles as a carrying case that stores all the parts of the AeroPress, that way, you never lose any of the parts.
Portable Espresso Maker
If espresso is more your thing, the minipresso is the perfect campervan gadget. It can quickly make an excellent single shot of espresso; all that’s needed is some coffee grounds and hot water. The minipresso has a push lever on the side that pressurizes the container forcing hot water through the coffee into the built-in cup that attaches to the bottom of the Minipresso.
Best Outdoor Gadgets For Campervans
Suggested Reading: How To Insulate Your Campervan
Coleman Camp Chair
Chairs are an obvious essential when traveling, but finding a good set of chairs can be challenging. We have gone through a few sets of camping chairs and find the director-style camping chairs are the most comfortable.
They take up more room than a traditional folding camp chair but provide more support and last significantly longer. The Coleman camp chairs are by far our favorite chairs that we have found. They are stable, comfortable for extended periods of use and last years.
Outdoor RV Rug
Nobody wants a campervan full of sand and dirt. RV rugs are designed to let sand and dirt fall through. It is something we highly recommend. Most RV rugs are made out of woven plastic material, so they are durable no matter where you are camping.
Plus, the woven design lets sand and fine dirt fall through the rug when it is time to put it away. The only issue with our outdoor RV rug is that it often gets muddy after it rains. Luckily since the outdoor rug is made out of woven plastics, it dries fast. Pairing an RV rug with a campervan awning helps expand your living space to the outdoors.
Portable Stainless Steel Grill and Firepit
Campfires on the go? Yes, please! While most places you stay while traveling will have a fire pit at each site, there are still times when there is no provided fire ring. That is when having your own fire pit that you can set up anywhere comes in handy. Most portable fire pits are large and take up a lot of storage space.
Lately, there has been an increase in the number of available folding fire pits. A folding fire pit is so helpful because when it is put away, the fire pit will not take up much space and can be easily stored in tight spaces. Plus, most folding fire pits come with a grill top to act as a two-in-one gadget.
Telescoping Campfire Sticks
If you are going to have a campfire, then you have to have some roasting sticks. That way, you can have roasted hotdogs and marshmallows over the fire. Telescoping campfire sticks are even better as they pack down to a small size when not in use.
The campfire roasting sticks we recommend even come with their own carrying bag, so the sticks do not get lost or damaged when they are put away.
Mosquito Repellent Lantern
Bugs, especially mosquitos, are often a problem when at a campsite, especially if the campsite is somewhere without a breeze, such as a forest or in the desert. That’s why we like to carry with us an assortment of bug-repelling methods. Spray repellents work, but often we do not want to spray ourselves down every hour, plus the sprays do not help keep bugs out of our campervan.
We have started using Mosquito repelling lanterns after having issues with flies while in Michigan and have had great success so far. Repellant lanterns require refill packs, but on average, each refill will last us a few days if we are not running the lantern all day.
Hydro Flask Water Bottle
If you do not already have your own reusable water bottle, now is the best time to get one. Single-use water bottles are a massive waste of resources, plus they can have a detrimental impact on our environment. Our favorite reusable water bottle is the Hydro Flask bottle.
Hydro Flask bottles are made of stainless steel and have double-wall vacuum insulation that we have found keeps our drinks cold for hours, with ice taking up to twelve hours to melt fully. Hydro Flask bottles come in a couple of sizes. In our opinion, the 32oz bottle is the best for both day-to-day drinking needs and for when you go on a longer day hike.
Pop-up Pet Shelter
Having a pop-up pet shelter can be invaluable if you travel with pets, particularly cats or small dogs. When free camping in a National Forest, we do not feel comfortable letting our cat wander free, and at developed campgrounds, pets must be on a leash when outside.
Having a pop-up pet shelter allows us to expand our cat’s living space by having a safe area outdoors they can hang out in. Plus, pet shelters like this one fold flat and take up virtually no room.
Hammock
Hammocks are perhaps the most versatile camping accessory; from being an extra bed, a place to relax during the day, or even some extra seating around a campfire, hammocks have many great uses. We love these small packable hammocks that can roll up into an attached carrying bag.
When rolled up, they take up little to no room and weigh nothing. Plus, they come with all the hardware and rope needed for stringing up your hammock wherever you are.
Best Tech Gadgets For Campervans
WeBoost Signal Booster For Rv’s
If you work online, having a reliable cell signal is non-negotiable. We use the WeBoost Drive X RV signal booster and love it. We have been able to go to many places we otherwise would never have been able to due to weak cell signals.
The main thing about cell signal boosters is that you still need a signal for the booster to amplify. The booster can not increase a signal that does not exist, to begin with. The WeBoost signal booster can run off 120v power or be wired into your campervans’ existing 12v system. On average, we can almost double our download and upload speeds when using the WeBoost.
Portable Charger
We love having a portable USB battery bank when traveling. Sometimes a device is running low on battery power, and you are not near a charger, are going for an all-day hike, or maybe your house batteries are running low, and you need to give your phone a quick charge.
Whatever the situation is, we find ourselves reaching for our portable battery pack almost every day. We can charge one of our phones from empty to full about four times before the portable battery pack needs to be charged with the one we recommend.
Portable Bluetooth Speaker
Having a good Bluetooth speaker is something we have enjoyed while traveling. With a battery-powered Bluetooth speaker, you can take your music with you no matter where you go.
We enjoy watching movies and TV shows while we travel. The sound quality from our laptops is horrible at best, so one trick we have started to do is hooking our Bluetooth speaker up to our computer to have a massive improvement in sound quality.
Then after the movie, we can easily swap the speaker over to a phone to listen to music. The battery of most Bluetooth speakers can last around twelve hours, all the way up to thirty hours, depending on the brand and the volume the speaker is used at.
Cordless Vacuum
While a small space means it does not take much time to clean, it also means it takes even less time for the area to become dirty. Whether car camping, on a quick road trip, or living full time in a campervan keeping your living space clean will be a daily, and sometimes multiples times a day, task. We love having a small, powerful handheld vacuum cleaner that is battery-powered.
We found a Dyson v-5 vacuum for sale years ago at over half the retail price and have used it daily for the past four years without the vacuum showing any signs of wear. Most handheld vacuums come with a few attachments, such as a roller head. That comes in handy for cleaning your vehicle’s floor mats or if you have a rug in your van or RV.
12v Inverter
In our campervan build, we did not want to go through the extra steps of wiring in a full-sized inverter to charge our 120v devices. Instead, we went with a small portable inverter that plugs into a standard 12v outlet. These small portable inverters also work great if you are on a road trip in a car or if you car camp.
The 200w supply that this inverter gives has proven to be more than enough for keeping our laptops and 120v devices charged. Plus, it does not take up much space, being about the size of a large laptop charger.
Conclusion
These are just a few of our most used gadgets for campervans; what are some of your favorite gadgets for campervans, RVs, and car campers? Leave a comment below with some of the gadgets you use the most in your travels!
