Author: Amanda Brandon
Fifth wheels are the second most common RV sold in America with more than 88,000 sold in 2018, according to Business Insider. Why do you think so many people love these big rigs that require a special hitch? The simple answer is SPACE.
When you travel or live in a fifth wheel, there’s often a place for everything, unless you’re trying to make a less-than-desirable floorplan work, or you have too much stuff. My crew falls into the “make the floorplan work until we save enough for a better floorplan.”
In all my research to keep our family of five in our fifth wheel for another year or so, I’ve learned so much about storage solutions for fifth wheels. So, if you’re looking for some new inspiration, here are some ideas for fifth wheel storage collected from my research.
Under the Camper
We repack our underbelly all the time because we move every two to three weeks (sometimes every week). We’ve learned that everything that goes under there needs a tote or a spot. Clear totes are best because you can see what’s inside.
Here’s a common packout I found in some of the RV groups for your fifth wheel basement:
Clear bins for sewer, water, and electrical.
A tote for grill and firepit gear.
A tote for décor and tie downs.
Fishing gear in a tackle box or tote.
Hooks along the underbelly ceiling to hold tools, fishing rods, hoses, and other gear.
A dedicated space for your generator (if you don’t have a specific compartment.
We currently use the front basement compartment (under the hitch) to keep our tools, our air compressor, and our blocks.
DIY Outdoor Kitchens
Another under-the-camper storage solution we’ve seen (and built for our camper) is the DIY outdoor kitchen. Here’s a typical setup for the DIY Outdoor Kitchen (and it all fits in a tote besides the fridge)!
Tabletop Griddle - The Blackstone Tabletop Griddle is one of the items all the RVers are talking about. When we crushed our propane grill in an unfortunate hitching up accident, we went looking for a replacement and settled on the tabletop griddle that hooks right up to our onboard propane tanks.
Griddle Kit – A couple of squirt bottles for oil and water, egg rings, two spatulas, and a scraper plus a sharp knife and a two-pronged fork equal an outdoor chef’s setup. (I’d add a bacon press to this list to round it out.)
12-Volt Portable Fridge – This thing is awesome. I camped with my kids out of our Jeep with this handy little thing for a month last summer. We put breakfast and lunch supplies in our portable fridge for long travel days. We keep this in our extra vehicle most of the time, but we can set it up on a table outside when we’re on full hookups.
Slim Folding Table – If you asked me about 10 essentials for your RV, one of these would be at the top of my list. This fold-in-half table is the perfect outdoor kitchen prep space. We also put our outside TV.
The Outside of Your Rig
Have you ever walked around your fifth wheel to see all the places you have to attach things to for storage? Here are a few ideas I’ve seen, and they are genius:
Sewer hose in the bumper – Did you know you could do this? If you haven’t looked, check out the little plugs they put on either side for you to slide that smelly hose inside. We’ve been able to squeeze two 10-foot hoses into ours.
The ladder – So, I’ve seen some COOL stuff attached to the ladder. Here are a few ideas:
A chair rack to keep the chairs out of your underbelly. I’d add some bungee cords to keep things stable.
A honey wagon bungeed to the ladder. This one is really common. When you don’t have hookups, this thing is a lifesaver. Hook it to the rungs of your ladder with a couple of heavy-duty bungees and go!
The ladder clothes wrack. We all know that clothes lines are taboo at campgrounds, but I’ve never seen anyone complain about the little drying rack that attaches and slides out when you need to hang up some wet towels. Discreet and smart storage!
Large coolers mounted to the trailer hitch cargo carrier. Coolers are rugged, roomy, and bear proof. We use a large cooler for our loose camping gear. It’s simple to store them on a cargo carrier that you attach to the camper trailer hitch. Simply add some webbing to tighten it down, and your extra gear travels with security.
Inside the Camper
This could be its own series of blog posts, but I’ll share a few ideas that can increase your space and keep items safe and stowed in your fifth wheel.
Use your doors and over the door hangers. Over-the-door hangers are cheap and so useful. Add hanging shoe organizers to the hooks and you have lots of little spots to cram smaller items. Each person in our crew gets an over the door hook for his/her bath towel. It works great to keep the towels fresh between washes.
Add cloth sweater storage racks to your closets. You can fit a child’s entire wardrobe in one of these. I use one for our beach towels.
Use the insides of all of your cabinet doors. We have a knife wrack on the inside of one door. We also have a plastic bag holder attached to the inside of our pantry door. This vertical space is so useful for storing small items.
Lift your couch or use that space behind it. You can get furniture risers that bring your couch up a few inches. I recommend building a small platform for the couch to sit on. This gives you 4-6 inches of space (depending on your couch size to store extra blankets, pillows, or books. We use our under the couch space to put folding cots and a pillow for our younger kids. We store all the kids’ pillows and blankets in the 6-inch gap behind the couch. Morning cleanup is a cinch.
I could go on and on about storage solutions for your fifth wheel. Do you have a creative hack to share? Tell us about it in the comments.
Related Tags
Camping Gear + Accessories, Children and Families, Education, Hacks, RV Tips