Top RV Upgrades to Make Your Next RVing Season Even Better

Top RV Upgrades to Make Your Next RVing Season Even Better
Check out some helpful mods and gear additions for RVers!

By: Kenny & Sabrina Phillips

Sabrina and I have owned our Winnebago Vista for nine years, and over that time, we have made a number of upgrades to make our travels more enjoyable. The upgrades and mods I will mention here are items that physically attach to the RV. However, things like our propane fire pit, Truma cooler, and TemboTusk “skottle” grill setup are also great additions we have made. Please be sure to share your favorite upgrades in the comments!

Note that any changes to your RV are made at your own risk, and these are not direct recommendations from Winnebago. 

1. RV Suspension Upgrades

Our ten-year-old Winnebago Vista is built on the Ford F53 chassis. This chassis has been around for a long time, which means there is a huge aftermarket of available upgrades from performance parts for the engine to suspension components. We have always felt the RV had plenty of power for what we need, so we never touched the engine, but we felt the ride quality needed improvement.

To fix that, we upgraded our shocks to Koni, added SumoSprings to the front, Timbren bump stops in the rear, and installed a Safe T Plus steering stabilizer. (Note that the new Winnebago Vistas come with the option to add the SumoSprings suspension enhancement, and the special-edition NPF units come with SumoSprings included!)

The Safe T Plus was our first suspension upgrade. It is designed to help keep the RV driving straight and gives you more control in the event of a front tire blowout—allowing you to safely slow down and pull off the road. A big bonus is that it reduces constant steering corrections, which helps reduce fatigue. Before installing it, my fitness watch used to congratulate me on a great workout after a long day of driving. Now it reminds me to get up and move, so the difference is noticeable. (When ordering your Winnebago, you can ask if adding a Safe T Plus bar is an option.)

The Koni shocks helped smooth out rough roads, absorbing bumps that used to transfer directly into the chassis. The result is a much quieter and softer ride.

The SumoSprings and Timbren bump stops also help absorb road harshness, and we found another benefit along the way: the RV now feels more planted when cornering or driving on windy days, and it doesn’t lean the way it used to while merging on or off highway ramps. We even notice an improvement when parked, before lowering the jacks, because the coach feels more stable as we move around inside, with less rocking side to side.

2. RV Comfort Upgrades

Our Winnebago has always been comfortable; we often describe it as a condo on wheels. Even so, new tech comes out every year, and we enjoy bringing our Vista up to date … after all, it is ten years old now. Over the years, we have added a Micro Air Easy Touch thermostat, an RV A/C Silencer, a Truma AquaGo water heater, an Oxygenics showerhead, and an electric entry door lock from RV Lock.

The Micro Air Easy Touch thermostat really brought our Vista into the modern era. We now have Bluetooth and WiFi control from our phones, along with the ability to program schedules for heating and cooling throughout the week. (Check out the Winnebago Connect for more modern conveniences in Winnebago’s View/Navion models!)

Our RV has a very powerful fifteen thousand BTU air conditioner located near the center of the coach where the television is mounted. The cooling power is great, but the noise level is another story since these older A/C units could be quite loud. That is where the RV A/C Silencer from Wacko Products comes in. I installed it myself, and it immediately cut the noise in half while also increasing airflow through all of our ducted ports. It truly lives up to its name and was a very cool upgrade. We can now watch TV without adjusting the volume to match when the A/C is cycling on and off.

When our original water heater failed, we replaced it with a Truma AquaGo. Sabrina is not easily impressed, but after using the new system, she says we will never return to a traditional tank heater. The AquaGo is more efficient, heats water faster, and keeps the temperature consistent with no sudden hot or cold bursts. It also saves time when we are getting ready in the morning since we no longer have to wait twenty minutes for a tank to reheat between showers. This is especially helpful when family members join us on trips.

While we are on the topic of showers, one of our very first upgrades was the Oxygenics showerhead. We have enjoyed spa-like water pressure for nine years with it. The company claims it saves water, but we never tested that claim since we replaced the factory head so quickly and had nothing to compare it with. We simply appreciate the strong and steady water flow.

Another item that made a big difference is the Atlas RV Lock. Sabrina had been wanting a key fob or keypad entry system for a long time, and this unit gave us both. We can now lock the RV and go for a hike without carrying a door key. The lock uses a rechargeable lithium battery, the keypad lights up at night, and the one-button lock feature makes securing the RV incredibly simple. Sabrina was right about this being a great upgrade. I might enjoy it even more than she does.

3. RV Power Upgrades

Sabrina and I really enjoy dry camping. It fits perfectly with the way we like to travel because we usually stay at Flying J locations, casinos, and Cracker Barrels while we move from place to place. To support this style of camping, we upgraded our Winnebago Vista with more than twelve hundred watts of solar, replaced our lead-acid batteries with more than one-thousand-amp hours of lithium batteries, and paired everything with a three-thousand-watt inverter. 

We also installed a DC-to-DC charger that sends up to fifty amps of power back into our batteries every time we start the RV. In addition to that, we swapped out our two-way refrigerator for a twelve-volt compressor fridge and installed a Micro Air EasyStart on our air conditioning unit.

Our upgraded lithium, solar, and inverter package allows us to use the RV as if we are plugged into thirty-amp power—even when we are in the middle of nowhere. We can use the microwave, the air fryer, all of the outlets, and even the air conditioner. Because of the combination of solar and the DC-to-DC charger, it is not unusual for us to go as long as twelve days without running the generator or plugging into shore power. The added power capacity gives us a level of freedom we never had before.

The new twelve-volt refrigerator has been a great addition as well. It has a very low amp draw, usually less than five amps per hour. This is important because it means we never need to turn the refrigerator off, and our food always stays cold. Our ice cream even survives the summer. With our old fridge, we had to shut it down on travel days because it used too much power, and we were never comfortable driving with the propane left on just to keep it running.

The final component in our power system is the Micro Air EasyStart. This device is installed under the shroud of the air conditioning unit and allows the compressor to ramp up slowly rather than performing the harsh, sudden start that most air conditioners have. This makes running the air conditioner from the inverter very easy, which is where the name comes from. The gradual start also makes the compressor much quieter when it kicks on at night, which helps both of us sleep better.

What RV Upgrades Should We Try Next?

Now it is your turn to help us decide what we should do next. What upgrades have you made that really improved your RV experience, and which ones do you think we would benefit from? 

We are considering replacing our propane stove top with an induction cooktop next. We have used one occasionally and like how quickly it heats up and cools down. If you have an induction cooktop in your RV, let us know what you think of it. Do you like it, and would you recommend it? If you do not like it, we would like to hear why as well.

That is all for now, and we wish you safe travels wherever you go.