Updated November 5, 2021
Updated May 10, 2025
A new RV purchase is very exciting and oftentimes overwhelming. Many people will tell you about all the immediate purchases you must make or upgrades you need to do in order to create the perfect rig.
There’s no doubt we love our RV Lock, Anderson Levelers, and Level Mate Pro. But our favorite upgrades to our 2017 Heartland North Trail travel trailer are the things that make life inside a little more reliable and comfortable.
Digital Thermostat
Our RV had a factory-installed Coleman-Mach analog thermostat that worked okay, but we found that it was hard to find a comfortable temperature. With quite a bit of research, we decided to install a household-style thermostat as compared to upgrading to a digital RV thermostat. This Honeywell unit was perfect for what we needed and the price was right.
Note: Installing this style thermostat will make the “fan-only” settings no longer useable. We didn’t use these settings previously so we didn’t find this to be a problem.
After making this upgrade we are remarkably more comfortable in our RV, especially at night. And we find that the system runs the heating and air conditioning more efficiently as well.
RV Mattress
Most RV owners find their mattresses to be sufficiently lacking in comfort and we were no different. After a few nights in the camper, we knew we needed something better. With a long-distance camping trip around the corner, we were pressed for time and quickly ordered a replacement on Amazon.
Our singular condition was that we have an innerspring mattress rather than a memory foam mattress that is a common swap these days. We found a hybrid mattress that had great reviews so we took a chance. Luckily we made a great choice and still enjoy our RV mattress more than a year later. (The mattress we ordered is no longer available, however, you can search “short queen” and find many results.)
Bathroom Faucet
Recently RV manufacturers have been putting great thought and detail into small interior touches of their products. We love our kitchen faucet, but the bathroom faucet was so small it was nearly unusable for someone washing their hands. And the plastic felt flimsy and breakable. With a straightforward change out to a residential faucet (now out of stock, here’s a new option), we were able to change the whole appearance of our vanity and make the sink more functional as well.
Slide-out Pantry Shelves
We are very lucky to have a large pantry in our trailer. In fact, it’s so large and I’m so short that I would’ve never been able to reach everything in the back of the pantry. After trying to brainstorm a few options like baskets, trays, or totes we decided to add slide-out shelves to our pantry. Now combined with organizational containers from IKEA we have a fantastic solution to a large RV pantry. This was our first big upgrade to our rig and it’s still my favorite.
Fridge/Freezer Thermometer
While there is great debate amongst RV owners regarding whether or not to run your propane while towing to keep your fridge cold we have decided it’s best for us to not run the fridge while traveling. As a result, our fridge temperatures can fluctuate. After seeing a fridge thermometer on Changing Lanes we decided that would be the best solution to our concern over the safety of our food.
Tip: I keep nearly all of our foods that would be affected by unsafe temperatures in the freezer (while traveling) anyway. That way there’s nothing to worry about.
This thermometer will tell us the highest and lowest temperatures the fridge and freezer reach and we are able to assess what works for us and what doesn’t. You would be very surprised to see the tremendous temperature variances your fridge goes through when traveling. We highly recommend this upgrade just for food safety alone. And a bonus is that we now know when it’s safe to start loading up our groceries when packing up, as well.
Etc.
There are so many other little “upgrades” you can do to make your RVing experience just a little more comfortable. We have brought in throw pillows, blankets, candles, our favorite movies for rainy days, an extra fan, and a little heater. These are all creature comfort items but are important to us.
We appreciate you using our links as we are Amazon Affiliates and earn a small commission on these items, best part is, it costs you nothing. If you have any questions please feel free to drop us a line campfiretravelers@gmail.com
* Please note that a few of these items are specific to our particular rig, so you may need to double-check if it will work for you as well.
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