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Do you find a nomadic lifestyle alluring? Here’s how you can repurpose an RV and get ready for living life on the road. Read on!
Recreational vehicles were originally intended to be used for weekend picnic trips and small excursions. Nowadays though, more and more people are leaving the fast-paced city life along with huge living expenses and traffic jams in pursuit of living the life on the road.
Life in an RV can be a very comfortable one if you are willing to work on it and know what needs to be done. That’s why we’re here to offer a couple of useful tips on how to repurpose your RV for a 100% nomadic lifestyle, so let’s dig straight into it.
Make As Much Space As Possible
Most average-sized RVs are smaller than tiny homes and flats, so it’s easy to get a bit claustrophobic if you want to start living in it as it currently is. Aside from the fact that you’ll want to install a few facilities and bring a couple of items that you can’t go by without, you also have a lot of unnecessary space that needs to be cleared out.
Given that the majority of RVs come supplied with a couch of some kind, you’ll want to remove it and install a foldable bed instead. Regular beds can take up about a quarter of your available space while foldable ones are normally much smaller and substantially more practical.
Aside from the bed, you should consider removing any interior walls; if these walls are necessary to support the roof or are constructed in such a fashion that removing them could cause damages to your RV, try making the most out of them.
Repurpose them into clothes hangers, driers, or at least make them look a bit better with stickers, stencils, or even some art. Either way, don’t make any drastic moves on your own if you’re not completely certain that tinkering with the walls is 100% safe.
Repurpose Your Cabin
A great way to save even more space while making your life in an RV more enjoyable is repurposing the cabin, where the driver will invariably spend the majority of the time. There are a couple of neat ways to do so.
The first and the easiest one is to organize the control board and make everything you’ll need readily accessible. Water bottle holders, ample space around the gear changer, enough room for you to move your arms and sit comfortably. These are just some of the small tweaks that can drastically improve the quality of the RV driver’s life on the road.
The second say requires a bit more work, but it’s even more practical in the long run. Essentially, you should upgrade the seats with 360-degree spinning chairs and install a dining table right beside the driver’s seat.
With proper measurements and a bit of creativity, your RV dining room for up to five people can be half the size while still being as cozy and comfortable. If the idea of installing any fixed structure behind the driver’s seat doesn’t strike you as ideal, you can always use collapsible tables instead.
Install a Skylight Window
Another cool upgrade you can add to your RV is the skylight window. There are numerous benefits to this decision, including adding more natural light to your RV, improving ventilation and letting in more fresh air, saving up on your electricity costs due to solar heating, and having an absolutely gorgeous view at all times.
This may require a bit of DIY finesse, as you’ll essentially have to carve up a good chunk of your RV’s roof and make sure that the construction is tightly placed. Poorly installed skylights can end up costing twice as much through replacement and reinstallation.
Additionally, make sure that you pick a good spot for your skylight. Generally, most people tend to place it right in the very middle, which isn’t always the best choice. Given the fact that direct sunlight can bother someone sleeping right underneath the window or even disrupt the driver at certain angles, you should measure your RV’s interior twice before deciding.
Add a Bit of a Personal Touch
A home-on-wheels will still feel like a vehicle unless you personalize the space a bit. Hang your favorite paintings, install a music system, and invest in some upholstery for your furniture. There are so many ways to go about this, and the best thing about it is that it’s up to you and your taste for aesthetics.
You can still add a bit of flair to your new home while keeping things simple. Some curtains on your windows and a nice, big rug are sometimes all you need to make a difference.
Buy a Better Power Generator
The power generator should be one of the most important items on your checklist. The simple fact that it supplies your entire home with electricity should be enough to back up such a claim.
However, not any model would cut it. Power generators range from backyard buzz-makers with barely 500 watts of strength to industrial workhorses with over 10,000 watts. You should look for something in between, but even a modest 2,000-watt generator can still be too large and heavy for an average-sized RV.
Look for portable generators instead. These are specifically designed generator models that offer the same amount of wattage as their larger counterparts while being a bit smaller (and slightly more expensive).
Upgrade Your Plumbing
The worst thing that can happen when you are hundreds of miles away from the first city is not having a good plumbing system. Water leaks and water shortages are just some of the many problems you may face if your RV is fitted with flimsy factory copper tubes, so prioritizing upgrading to PEX tubes may be worth your while.
PEX pipes are significantly more flexible than copper and steel ones, and they are far more resistant to corrosion. Furthermore, they’re remarkably simple to work with; fixing any problem should be a piece of cake since they respond phenomenally well to even the most basic sealants.
In a nutshell, upgrading your plumbing system will finally make your recreational vehicle a portable nomad-worthy home. We hope that this guide was useful to you and that you’ve learned something new today on RVs and nomadic life.
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