5 tools that should be in every RV!

what's going on guys you've asked and you've asked you've asked today you shall receive I have been asked numerous times about the list of tools that every RV should have or at least a basic RV tool kit um at least from a technician's perspective so today I'm going to be going over the five tools that should be in every RB it doesn't matter if you have a travel trailer or a Class A motorhome like this one these are the five tools that everybody should have they all have their purpose most issues in your RV can be solved by you the owner with a little bit of know-how and a couple of tools on board there's plenty of support online not just me on how to make all the most basic repairs Diagnostics a lot of things in RVs are very simple issues some of the more complex ones sure if you're not that skilled you will still have to bring it in for service but you can save yourself a lot of money by having these basic tools on board and knowing how to use them so first things first we have our impact or driver nothing special don't need anything powerful a good set of bits is going to benefit you but honestly the number two square number two Phillips are all you're ever really going to use in an RV um it's what 90 of the Fasteners are just to be honest with you two of them that's it but it doesn't hurt to have a good bit set you're going to use an impact for everything from tightening hinges and latches and small things to installing things on the wall of the coach uh removing hidden panels uh where you're going to find things like your water heater behind or electronic components drill is just going to be your best friend it's the key to everything and it's hard enough to do this here with one hand but as soon as I get this bit out one more thing you're going to be able to do with the drill if you do have the manual stab jacks or level legs you'll be able to bring those up and down with a simple three-quarter adapter if you don't have that a socket adapter with a three-quarter socket will do just fine your drill is going to absolutely be one of your best friends it's going to be involved in every project you do on the RV No Way Around It going on the number two an entire drawer full of diagnostic tools and this is the one I could not live without and that's a multimeter you don't need anything super expensive but try not to go cheap this is the CL 800 from Klein Tools and it's been my favorite for RVs so far it does everything I needed to do voltage amperage capacitance uh checks for ohms and resistance you have the amp clamp up top which is used for a lot of different things on an RV checking for parasitic draw I'm checking to see what kind of load you have on the batteries when you're trying to figure out a solar setup but the most important feature is right here checking for voltage at the pedestal low voltage is the number one killer of RV air conditioners and a lot of times when parks are overcrowded you will have voltage issues it's very simple check you can check 50s you can check 30s you can check any source of power really with a multimeter everything from AC circuits to DC circuits it's all there so checking your pedestal voltage is extremely important making sure that voltage is transferring over into the coach at your Outlets you're going to use it for that as well you're going to use it for testing small appliances you're going to test lighting circuits with it you're going to test some refrigerator stuff not so much the residentials um if you're working on a slide room the very first tool that I'm going to grab is going to be a multimeter to make sure my Motors are getting power so it's a very versatile tool you can even use it for basic maintenance checking out your batteries making sure your batteries have good voltage and your converters have a good output it's just a very versatile tool here I'm checking for amp draw seeing what kind of amps the coach is drawing off of the batteries you can use the same test to test for parasitic draw if you have issues with batteries draining you can test all your lighting circuits on the exterior of the coach as well as the seven way itself and then once you get to a little bit more advanced stages of the multimeter you're going to be diagnosing things like your water heaters and furnaces most of the Diagnostics on any of your appliances will only need a multimeter so again it's going to be your best friend in the RV especially if you plan on doing any kind of your own Diagnostics multimeter is absolutely a must-have a lot of people have these test lights that's great a Power Probe if you're somebody who does this day in and day out but the multimeter is ultimately going to be the number one tool moving on to number three hand tools this one's going to be generalized again it it's hard to say just one hand tool you would need just a general set of hand tools is all you need socket set a 3A socket set is one of the more important a quarter inch will do just fine but you're not going to have the sizes you're going to have in the 3A set that you would in the quarter set to your smaller hand tools a set of Allen Keys is going to be great you're going to find mostly SAE on the coach but occasionally you'll run into a little bit of metric and even a Torx bit from time to time some people call those Star Bits but it's a Torx bit set like this is pretty inexpensive you'll spend less than 20 bucks on something like this next thing is going to be a multi-bit screwdriver something that has changeable bits on it you're not always going to be able to get the drill in some of those tight spots so having a bit like that is going to work better than something like this in all those tight areas next thing is going to be pliers you don't need every single one of these pairs of pliers some wire strippers and crimpers for electrical connections is going to be very important probably the most important one you'll need and then really just your basic pliers most plier sets will come with your Basics your needle nose a set of like slip joint pliers um some Cutters any one of those like three or four packs that you see uh in a you know it doesn't need to be a high-end brand when it comes to pliers if you're planning on just doing some DIY stuff but your basic set will do just fine don't forget about your basic screwdrivers um the multi-bit driver is great but of course having regular screwdrivers is also beneficial getting onto the smaller tools you need little pry bars you're going to come into tons of situations where you're going to need a little tiny pry bar to pry off some trim or some fascia to get to something I usually recommend the little plastic ones because they won't Mar or scratch anything but the metal one is going to benefit you as well on some of the tougher stuff razor blades uh some kind of scraper these are fantastic for removing sealants wherever needed when you're resealing things and then of course the plastic razor blades as a replacement are great because they're not going to scratch any of your finishes and you can be a little more aggressive with them you can usually get those by the pack wrenches not super important but if they come in your tool kit I definitely recommend having them there are some places that you can't get sockets and wrenches again you don't need anything super fancy they don't need to be ratcheting most of those basic tool sets you can get from Home Depot like a husky or something like that will usually have a lot of these hand tools like wrenches and Allen keys in them already and you don't need anything fancy a basic tool kit is going to be just fine brand is not important having them is important because you're going to run into Times where you need hand tools even something as basic as changing out a battery here you see we need hand tools to remove the Fasteners on the battery moving on to just changing a control board or anything like that you're going to need sockets to get those off you're going to need crimpers to make these crimp connections you're going to need strippers and crimpers to make a connection in a wire or a repair and a wire if you were to use a butt connector now this stuff all looks a little complex this is a motorhome but even in a starting solenoid battery solenoid you're going to need hand tools to replace that as well you're going to need them on all different types of travel trailers all the way up to Class A Motorhomes having a basic set of tools is super important and again you don't need a big collection you don't need 20 pairs of pliers and every size of wrench it's it's really not important but having at least the basics on board is very important that being one of the more important you're going to use that consistently and the next on the list is going to be flashlights there are many different kinds there are kinds that you just hold and point there are kinds that you can stick to stuff there are kinds that you can hang there are kinds that you can wear on your head and kinds that you can stick in your pocket they clearly all have a purpose having a decent light in your coach is the most important one though reason being is a lot of times you're gonna be working on lighting circuits and things like that transfer switches and areas where you don't have light and you're going to need sufficient light to make that repair especially down here in compartments and you're getting into the back of cabinets and things like that having a good light is going to be super important having something rechargeable is even more beneficial something like this does a little bit of everything it's got a magnet you can pivot the head again I'm not going to try and tell you that you need to go buy all these expensive flashlights that I have because it's really irrelevant on what kind you have as long as you have it there are some good brands out there that I will recommend LED lenser being one of them Milwaukee makes some good lights Stinger makes good lights Streamlight makes lights there's a lot out there and again I'm not going to be brand specific on them just having any kind of light in the coach is going to be super important be careful because you could end up like me and having a serious flashlight addiction and spend way more money than you ever need to spend on flashlights there's something about it it becomes addicting your next one here is going to be a caulk gun a lot of you probably already have one of these but it's going to be one of your most used tools in the RV once again it's going to be used for basic maintenance it's going to be used for replacing things and it's going to be used for fixing you need it for roof sealants you need it for side sealants you have sealants all over your coach and it's something that's going to be considered maintenance and keep up on the regular things like your tail lights when you're replacing them or even if the sealant just becomes cracked any kind of your side marker lights compartments anything that's really attached to the side of the coach is going to need to be sealed at some point it's part of just your general maintenance uh every everything on the side of the coach is sealed let's put it that way everything on the side of the coach you're going to want to keep an eye on all of it like your roof seals something you should be checking at least twice a year or almost every time you camp you're going to find little voids and cracks in there and you're going to touch it up with either dicor or forever lap sealant you know whatever your sealant of choice is you're going to need to be doing that on a regular basis so having a caulk gun is going to be another very beneficial tool that every RV should have inside of it again you don't need the best caulk gun in the world but I do recommend buying at least a decent one because you're going to be using it pretty often and in some cases using it for a long period of time bonus tool it should have been in hand tools is a razor knife you're going to use that all the time you're going to be cutting sealants replacing compartment doors or just simply resealing things you're going to be using it to remove windows and replace windows or remove the sealant and replace it same with roof seals you're going to need it to remove sealant and cut things out like roof vents when replacing them it's an all-around important tool you're going to use it for all kinds of things around the RV I do recommend the ones with the razor blade because you can just replace them and you consistently have a sharp edge on your knife versus a pocket knife that's always dull and whether it's a small little travel trailer or a Class A motorhome these five tools are pretty much all you're going to need to take charge of your own repairs because with the proper tools and just a little bit of training I believe anybody can do anything again these aren't every tool you'll ever need to fix an RV of course there are more along the road or down the road to say they are generally the tools that I'm going to grab if if someone told me I have five tools to grab and I have a hit list of issues on an RV those are the five tools I'm going to grab um hand tools again are generalized a decent tool kit like a DeWalt husky something like that is going to do just fine as long as it has most of those things you got your wrenches a few sockets some Allen keys and basic hand tools as far as power tools go there's no specific brand that's going to be better than the other than an RV again you don't need much power you're just going to do damage and while we're out holes with a big M18 impact or something like that there's no need for having something like that in an RV unless you're planning on doing any kind of work on like your axles or anything like that that's a whole different ballpark though as far as Diagnostics go a lot of it is easy Once you understand how they work I've talked about it before but for RV owners the nrvta's home study course is a phenomenal tool for you guys you can take it on your own time it's just like sitting in the classroom and you're going to learn a lot about your RV and a lot about how to diagnose basic issues and save yourself a ton of money if you guys are interested in that you can find it on my website that rvtech.com I have a link on there um again it is a phenomenal tool I recommend every RV owner take it just because having that base knowledge can not only get you out of a sticky situation in last minute but also just save you a bunch of money down the road with all these basic little repairs that you would otherwise be paying a large shop labor rate to get fixed I'll eventually have another video similar to this for those of you who came to this video as new technicians or somebody interested in getting into the industry and kind of go more in depth into my toolbox the tools I can't live without and the tools that I've wasted money on uh if you guys are interested in more content like this I am going to be bringing a lot more of my content uh that I started with on Tech talk over to YouTube I like the platform over here a little bit better I like being able to get longer videos with a little bit more information in them and not be so crunched for time um so if you haven't already follow me or subscribe to me here um I will have a lot more content coming here uh versus Tick Tock still have content coming there but of course I'm going to push more of it here so thank you guys for sticking around and hope to see you soon

Channel: That RV Tech

Views: 148,418

Keywords: Rv, Rv tips, Rv tools, Rv repair, Rv diy, diy, Rv fix, Rv tool kit, Rv must haves, Rv living, Rv life

Id: zRKPjJpuMcs

Length: 15min 4sec (904 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2022