Year 4 Upgrades
It's been a while since we talked about RV modifications, so here is a summary of some of the more recent changes we've made as we are now into Year 4 of full-time RV living. Our upgrades include an Amazon Blink security system, high-powered USB ports in the driver/passenger area, a new kitchen sink and faucet, a 5G/4G LTE MIMO Panel antenna, 960AH LiFePo4 battery bank (in progress), premium sewer hoses, and an upgraded latch for our step drawer.
Amazon Blink security system
We saw Costco had a deal on the Amazon Blink security systems so we bought the package that includes the hub, doorbell, an indoor camera, and two outdoor cameras. There are many kit combinations available. The reason we chose this system is that it is battery-powered, wireless, and has temperature & motion sensors. The doorbell is attached to the outside wall near the front door using construction adhesive between the backplate and fiberglass wall. Then we used either velcro Command strips or screws to attach the indoor and outdoor cameras respectively. For locations (see pictures below), we placed one outdoor camera at the bottom of the rear ladder, a front-facing camera inside looking out the front windshield, one in the bedroom, and additional cameras inside looking front to back and back to front. These cameras also provide temperature readings so if it starts getting too warm inside for the kitties, we'll know in advance. Now when we leave the RV we can enable the system and get motion alerts both outside and inside sent to our smartphones as well as check the temperature and take photos or see live video. Since we don’t have a remote power monitoring system we can use when we are away, we’ve also used an additional Mini camera pointed at the power management system panels to make sure shore power is still available.
These cameras use high voltage Lithium batteries like Energizer Lithium (not to be confused with rechargeable lithium batteries you find in a lot of consumer electronics). Depending on how much you arm the system, remotely view the camera feeds, or trigger motion alerts determines the battery life. These have lasted a year for us but they are pretty expensive to replace (18 packs is $35) so we opted to buy rechargeable AAs for long-term savings. Because of the 1.5v demand, you cannot use just any rechargeable batteries so we splurged and got a nice set of 16 Panasonic AA Eneloop Pro rechargeable batteries with quick charger.
High-powered USB ports in the driver/passenger area
Our 2014 Phaeton has USB charging ports for the driver and another for the passenger, but they don’t really charge modern devices very well which have bigger batteries and fast charge options. This was a very easy swap out with this new pair of $16 dual USB port Quick Charge power outlets. No problems charging our iPhones and iPads now!
New kitchen sink & faucet
Our 2014 Phaeton came with a double side sink and Price Pfister four-hole faucet with a separate hand sprayer. The hand sprayer we stopped using almost immediately as it became stuck in the on position too often (probably due to hard water mineral deposits) and then most recently the faucet itself started to leak a little from the neck. It has a lifetime warranty but did not transfer to us, the second owners. As for the old sink, we never used the smaller left-hand side and always wished we had a much larger, deeper, single sink. So we decided to replace both! After careful measurements, this Elkay Lusterstone sink and drain were a direct replacement with no modifications to the retaining clips or sinkhole. Since we under-mounted the sink like the original, the original sink covers still work as well. For a new faucet, we went with this Delta Varos from Costco that has a lifetime warranty and the premium features we wanted. We did the installation ourselves which took about four hours (we’ve never done any kind of work like this), and the whole project was around $700.
5G / 4G LTE MIMO Panel antenna
A recent 6-week stay in Florida City over winter with poor wireless internet reception caused us to buy this antenna kit. We have a Weboost RV, but for whatever reason, the signal-to-noise ratio in this area was so bad that our hotspot and the Weboost were not enough to get a solid connection. After some research about what local cell towers were nearby (https://cellmapper.net is great for this), we got this dual-channel panel antenna to see if it would work better, and it did! Since then, it has saved us in a couple of other areas where the Weboost was ineffective. Cellmapper.net helps you identify where the towers are so you know what direction to point the directional antenna towards. The kit included mounting hardware and various connector adapters to connect to most hotspots that have external antenna inputs. This worked great with our Netgear Nighthawk M1 (MR1100) which provides our always-on internet connection. We just mount it on a telescoping pole that we stand up outside near the front door and run the wires through the front passenger window.
960AH LiFePo4 battery bank
This one is still pending installation so we cannot review its full performance yet. We ordered a pair of 460AH LiFePo4 batteries from Basen Energy for $2400 all in including tax and shipping. They take 50-60 days to come in from China, but they are a fairly well-reviewed Chinese brand and the capacity-to-$ cannot be beaten unless you DIY and build your own battery. They are each 8D size, each with a customizable 200A BMS with Bluetooth for remote monitoring, come in an IP67 waterproof box, and two of these are almost a direct replacement size-wise in our existing battery tray. These will be replacing the 6 x 6V GC2 FLA batteries we installed in 2019 that are starting to show their age, read about that upgrade in RV House Batteries (Replacement, System Upgrades). Currently, when boondocking, if we charge the batteries to a 90% SOC by 10 pm, we reach our 11v low battery cutoff by around 7 am and that’s just running the residential fridge and nothing else really other than the vampire drain from our always-plugged-in electronics. When dry camping, we’d like to be able to use our home theater or two computers with external monitors into the night and also run a white noise machine and CPAP without having to drain the battery. This battery bank should give us 24-48 hours of power for all of our needs since it’s nearly 3x of the usable capacity. There are some other caveats to consider such as you cannot charge below freezing temps (solved with heater pads), they require a different charging profile (that we can program into our Magnum inverter), and alternator charging while driving needs to be curtailed enough that you don’t burnout the alternator (not an issue on our RV). There is a lot of corrosion and dirt in the battery compartment that I plan on deep cleaning and touching up at the same time.
Premium sewer hoses
After developing a couple of leaks (that I attempted to patch successfully in the short term with some silicone sealant) and ultimately failing after stretching too far one time, we replaced our sewer hoses with the Camco Rhino kit and 10-foot extension. I wish we had done this years ago as unlike the basic Camco hoses, the new hose is thicker (and thus, more durable), and more importantly, it compresses easily to a smaller size for storage. The other hose would uncompress on its own like a slinky and was a pain to get to fit into the wet bay. This one is effortless! It’s just a much better product than the basic hose for about $10 more.
Step drawer
Anybody who also has a 2014 Phaeton like us probably has a problem where their step drawer (we use it as a tool drawer) just slides out on its own anytime you take a left turn or park on a right-leaning incline. It has tripped me up several times going down the steps too so it’s a safety hazard for sure. After disassembling the existing grab handle to see that there was already a 2” hole almost drilled all the way through the drawer front, we decided to finish drilling it out and install this Perko flush mount non-locking latch. Now the drawer slides out no more! I wish we had done this years ago!
Let us know if you want to know more about any of these or upgrades you’ve done that you wish you had done earlier because they are so good! We also had a few DIY repairs involving both our electric and hydraulic slides that we had to do with the help of YouTube so let us know if you want us to do a write-up on those.
Interested in other RV upgrades and repairs. Check out our RV Repair Log Year 1 and RV Repair Log Year 2 articles.
