15December 2021
– We get a lot of requests
to show you what tools that we use while living
full time in our RV. – Yep, and we're gonna show you right now. ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ (upbeat music) When we were getting ready to hit the road full time in our RV, you
had to really got through your tools and kind of downsize and figure out what we
were gonna take with us. – Yeah, I had the really
big craftsman toolbox and whole shelf full of tools. So it was a process of
going through everything and trying to figure out what I needed. Basically I took everything that I could fit in the toolbox. – 'Cause at that point we had no idea what we were gonna need.
– Exactly. So, I took everything I could, and if you've already got tools, take everything you can.
It was a process of laying them all out and kind of saying,
"Okay, got to have you, "got to have you, got to have you, "let's put it all in there and
see what else I can fit in." And the things we're gonna show you today, it's not like our day
one video where you gotta go buy these tools before
you go full time RV'ing. Maybe a couple and we'll point those out. But take everything you can, and then buy a tool when you need it. And that's the best part of a project, "Oh my gosh, this project,
I need this new tool." Lowe's is to a grown adult man what a toy store was to a small boy. – [Tara] Yeah, true. (laughing) – We're gonna show you
everything that we carry right now after lots of adding
and removing and pruning and a new toolbox.
And we're gonna start here. – Wait, I'm gonna get out of the way, 'cause I don't have any interest in tools. This is your thing, I
don't need to be in it. So I'm gonna stay on the sidelines. – She's gonna go direct, make
sure I don't mess things up. I tend to screw up a lot, and
she kind of keeps me in line. So that brings me to actually a point that I wanna tell you guys about. If you watch mostly our how-to videos, you're gonna see a lot of my face, and I'm sorry about that. But, Tara is behind the
scenes all the time. In fact, she does all of our editing, and our channel is a 50/50
partnership all the way. Tara's the one who makes
the videos look good, I just stand here and talk. Let's get started and
we'll take a look in here. We're gonna start on our
passenger side basement. This is where I keep things
to have quick access, and easy walk out the
door, get 'em and go work. All right, so over on this side, I keep a couple of tubs full
of just miscellaneous tools that I know I'm gonna need frequently.
You've probably already
got one or both of these, basic drill, impact drill. If you've got these, bring 'em with you. If you don't, you'll probably
want some at some point. – [Tara] Why the two different ones? – Well, this one's made for drilling, and this one's made for screwing. (laughing) – All right.
– I use this especially if I need to drill some
self-tapping screws into the frame for some of the projects I've done under there. And this is for other stuff. I eventually wanna get down to all DeWalt, because DeWalt is sold at both Lowe's and Home Depot. You'll also notice that
I've mounted the chargers for both the DeWalt and the Ryobi up here. So I have quick access. In here, of course, I
keep some Gorilla tape, and some Gaffer tape. Gaffer tape is not as sticky as this, so if I need to tape something that I want to take the tape off of, and not have a bunch of gunk, Gaffer tape is great.
I also keep our wood splitting wedge, and some various tie-down
tools for our awnings, for soft ground, for normal ground. Not really tools, but in
here some of the fun stuff. So this and this are
essentially the same thing. There's always some overlap, but it's always good to have an assortment of screw head sizes and hex head sizes, and square head sizes and adapters. You know, you never know
what you're gonna need, so that's why I like these kits with lots of options in 'em. Now that Lowe's carries Craftsman, I've been getting a lot
more Craftsman tools, because they're all guaranteed. And they're all just really good quality. And where I can, I'll put links below, but again, a lot of these, like Tara said, are just gonna be– – We've had for a long time.
– Yeah.
Got to Lowe's and you'll find something. – Cool.
– And of course, there'll be less expensive
options if you want those, entirely up to you. This and this are all
different kinds of drill bits. These are standard drill bits, and I also keep a step bit in here and a punch tool for marking, or starting your drill. And this is a set of high speed step bits and metal bits for when I
have to drill into metal on the frame, very handy to have. This is just a basic hex key set.
Metric and standard tools. Some rags. My glasses, 'cause I'm blind. A good head lamp is a must. I like this one because it's rechargeable. I can plug it right in to USB. And it's super bright. – [Tara] You actually use that a lot more than I would have ever thought. – If I'm working on something, I throw this thing on,
it's just much easier. I did get this on Amazon, so there will be a link for this below. This is a little mini branch cutter. (laughing) So whenever you get into those
sites where you've got it in, and you're in and it's good, but you've got a couple of small branches still brushing your RV, I've got this to get up on
the roof and trim those off.
I also have this, which
is just another set of various driver heads and
sizes, and hexes and squares. Whenever I go to the toy
store, I mean Lowe's, you know, you see this and you're like, "Ooh, that one's got cool stuff in it." This is all impact rated, which is why I bought
this versus the others, 'cause I did break a
couple with the impact gun.
Had to go down and buy new tools! – [Tara] Mm-hmm. – A laser infraometer, which is good for checking temperature, this is great for the grill. It's great for if you want to
check your hubs and bearings when you're pulled over at a rest area. You can just shoot this at it and see if one of them is over temp. All kinds of uses for this. I know right now the
camera is 72.4 degrees. This is a really cool little
tool I got from Lowe's. It's Cobalt brand which is their brand. It looks like it's just a regular kind of ratcheting screwdriver. That's normal speed. If I grab this, it like,
quadruples the speed. And of course it came with yet another set of various heads. (laughing) So those could all be used together. But again, out here real quick, boom, I got a screwdriver, I got a razor knife. Just stuff that you're gonna need. Scissors. These aren't your normal scissors. These are masculine, man scissors. – [Tara] They're not like
the pink ones I have– – They're not like the pink
ones I used to have down here that I would take her
scissors from inside, and she's like, "Where are my scissors?" So I saw these and like,
"Oh, those are perfect, "those are oh yeah!" – [Tara] Oh my gosh.
– This is really cool. It's a nice long stick
with a mirror on it, and this thing is adjustable. So I can walk around on
my T24 before travel day. T24 is our 24 hours before departure. We have a lot of inspection items, like tire pressure and stuff like that. We've got a separate video on that, and a blog post with our checklist, so we'll put that link below. But I use this to get under there and inspect our linkages and our wet bolts and hangers and leaf springs and all that.
And I can kind of look under there, and get an inspection. That's it for in here. There's some other stuff in here, but it's not related to tools. It'll be stuff we have in a future video. Other stuff we have in
here, just shop towels, we have a whole video on
this wash wax all kit, for dry cleaning our
RV, it's really awesome. – [Tara] Would you
consider the ladder a tool? – Yeah, I'm gonna get it. So now we're gonna go over here. – [Tara] Oh, okay. – So you might wanna
come on this side now. – [Tara] All right, see? I didn't even know. – Over on this side, I keep
a couple of lubricants out, like white lithium grease,
I'll put this sometimes on our hitch or our kingpin
before we hit the road on T24. This is a lubricant
that Boeshield sent us, they didn't send us this can, they sent us a tiny little sample can.
But, this stuff's really good. Just to give you an example, I used to have to lubricate our RV lock, our latch for our door
probably about once a week, or once every other week,
'cause it would get stick, and I'd spray some silicone
into it, and free it up. I sprayed this in there
about nine months ago, and I haven't had to lubricate it since.
It's got some ceramic
coating or something. I did get this on Amazon, so
that link will be below also. And in here, nothing super important, just lots of miscellaneous. Tubs are great for
organizing your basement. There are no tools in here, just various cleaners and lubricants. – [Tara] And I do like that
you have the clear tubs, because you can kind of
eyeball and see what's in there without having to–
– Yes. – [Tara] If it's tucked under stuff, you can kind of take a peek in there and see what's in there. – Yeah, definitely get clear tubs. If you want to go really, really crazy, go watch RV Geeks, they have
a system where they take every one of their tubs, and they like label it and number it, and they have a spreadsheet of everything that's in every tub, so
whenever they're looking for something, they go, "Oh,
that's in tub 3B," or whatever.
It's way above what I would do, but you know–
– But it's pretty cool. – It's pretty cool! So we'll put a link for that below also. This is just our Bernzomatic
blowtorch for lighting fires. I saw Mark on KYD using this. I'm like, "Ah, why didn't I think of that? "That's such an easy way to start a fire!" – [Tara] He loves this toy. – Anything that sounds like this… (blowtorch firing) Yeah.
– Yeah. (laughing) – [Tara] Closet pyro right here. – Moving on. A three pound hammer. You're gonna see once we get to the truck, I've got another hammer in there, but this is great for
putting in your stakes and things like that. It's just the right weight to
get some good mm behind it. Also over here, I have an ax. I originally got this for splitting wood, but it does okay. This thing's lack of ability to cut wood was why I got this.
This and the three pound
hammer, you can split any log. – [Tara] So do you really use the ax? – I don't use the ax really at all. I keep it around in case
I wanna ax something, but I don't use it a lot. And this is another every now
and then use kind of thing. It's just a tiny little
shovel for obviously little shovel projects. Where I've had to use this is
if I'm backing into a location and have to go across grass and cut, our wheels of course drag,
and just tears the crap out of some grass. So we've had to use this a couple times, to kinda dig dirt back into a hole. We've also had to use this to move posts. Remember in the state parks? We've had a couple of state
parks where we're trying to fit our truck onto the lot, but the little number sign is there, so we relocate it temporarily.
I dig a hole, put it in. (radio beeps) – [Tara] Number five, right by the tire. – Ah. Again, not something you need on day one, just pick it up when you need it, and then carry it around like I do. We've had a couple of people say, "Why do you need a blower?" Because, we wanna blow stuff. (laughing) So this again is a DeWalt tool, wasn't super expensive, uses
the same 20 volt batteries. But this is nice on T24
when we're up on the roof. Rather than sweeping the roof off, or sweeping off our slide toppers, if we have a lot of leaves and branches, I just get up there
and blow the thing off. Also, when we do have our
rug laid out on the patio and lots of leaves and stuff on it, every few days I'll blow it off, keeps the camp site nice and neat. We just recently got this ladder.
It's a variation ladder you've probably seen in our other videos
where it's a single telescoping ladder, and that works great. The single one works great, it's served us well for several years. But whenever I need to work on something that's away from the RV
and I don't have anything to lean it on, is where it's lacking.
Recently, I was troubleshooting
our awning lights. I needed to get up there
on the end of the awning with the awning out, and
the only way to do that with the single ladder was
to lean it on the awning. And that's just bad news. So this works really good,
it works as both an A frame, and it also folds out flat, so it hasn't been like
a bazillion feet long. I've used it a few times now, so I can recommend it. Either of those types of ladders, they're not as sturdy as a solid ladder. I mean they're telescoping,
so they're gonna bend and sway a little bit, but
they are solid and sturdy. – [Tara] The A frame one,
can we still use it for when the girls stay over?
– Yeah.
– Okay.
– And I know this isn't a tool but since you're gonna see it, you're probably gonna ask about it. You're probably wondering
what these crazy things are. And they are lawn drink holders. Put your drink in there. But we don't use them for that. We use them for our tiki torches. This works great with
some citronella tiki oil that we also get on Amazon, and we'll spread these out and it keeps bugs away pretty well.
I almost forgot, I have
these blue fire gloves, there's probably lots of
different kinds on Amazon. But this is great, you can
actually put this thing on, reach right into your fire and grab a log and move
it around, be safe. But I also use this when I
am cleaning off the grill before seasoning it and
putting it away for the evening or the day or whatever.
These are good to have. Now, we're gonna go over
to the driver's side where I keep a tub of some
things that are more household related that I don't access very much. (beeping) If you're wondering, these are RV locks for our baggage doors. We have RV locks all the way
around on both baggage doors and both of our doors. Separate video on that. We have a box that you saw
on our recent day one video of all the sewer connections. That stays on top obviously, 'cause I access that all the time.
And underneath that I have another tub. We've got some basic
household kind of things, for household projects
like shelves and desks and those type of things
that we've had videos on. It's nothing spectacular. I've got some steel wool,
various grits of sandpaper, a little sandpaper block. A caulk gun. Painting tape of two different sizes. More sandpaper. Cheap paintbrushes, because
I don't like to clean paintbrushes, I'd rather buy cheap ones, use 'em and throw 'em away. You'll need whatever
type of leveling sealant is appropriate for your roof, and that's you know, check
with your RV manufacturer what type of roof you have, what kind of sealant they recommend. Grand Design recommends
this Alpha 1021 or Dicor. This is what they actually recommend. And you're gonna want
this probably a few months into your RV'ing if
you're gonna be full time. We'll do a separate video on it, but you wanna get up there now and again and look for any gaps, holes, bubbles.
Over time the sealant just
kind of moves around a bit, so it's real easy, you clean
it off with some mineral spirits and you fill it in. But we'll do a separate video on that. I have a couple of tubes
of just plain old silicone. And these little airtight
things to save them so they don't go bad. Aluminum tape for things like duct work. If you saw our RV maintenance video, you'd see where we
actually use this stuff. – [Tara] That's the RV
maintenance air conditioning. – Yes. Some stir sticks, I carry this
around because I've repaired our screen before from little daisy. These cones go with our AC maintenance to actually straighten out your fins on your heat exchanger and compressor. Just a scraper and you're
probably wondering what this is. The whole idea here is
to put a can in here and get it on the end of a pole, and then you can spray the
can at the end of the pole in case you need to
spray something far away.
I tried it with our slide
toppers underneath it, where I wanted to actually treat our seals for our slides, but they're
underneath slide toppers, so you can't really get to 'em. Jury's out on this. Todd from Two Beards and
a Babe recommended this for slide seals treatment. So gonna try that out. – [Tara] And he's an RV
IA certified technician? – Exactly.
– Yeah. – I have a few spare parts in here. I have a spare tail light. I've got a spare thermal
switch for our furnace. Some extra LED bulbs. I've got the little starter
thing for our furnace. I've got a sale switch for our furnace. And we've heard that little vent caps underneath the sink sometimes go bad, and lets odors inside your RV, so I got a couple of those. But just a couple of
things that I carry around. And oh, mineral spirits again. I think that's pretty
much it for over here. – [Tara] So a majority
of that stuff though isn't an essential tool for RV'ing.
This is just what we carry with us. – Every single thing in
here you do not need. Until you need it.
– Right. – Yeah you don't need this on day one. – Okay.
– Okay, so let's get into the fun stuff in the truck box. By the way, that's a hint for
our upcoming toolbox video. Toolbox and Tonneau cover
we'll go over next week. Right, so we're gonna
start over on this side, and work our way over. I have this organized so
that I can get to some things on the edges without having
to get up into the bed. First and foremost, air compressor. This is something that you need day one, because you're gonna
wanna maintain your tires, and you're gonna wanna make
sure they're the proper temperature every time you travel. That combined with a TPMS is the best way to take care of your tires and know what's going on.
So I keep this right here. Vaiair makes awesome, awesome compressors. We've had this one for
two and a half years. It's never missed a beat,
we'll have links below. Of course I've got some
gloves and a razor knife that I keep right here in
the side that I can access. Also what I can access over
the edge here is a socket set. So you've probably already
got some sort of socket set or tools or toolboxes.
Just got this one recently to replace one that was missing some. I also have this little bag here with just an assortment of
screwdrivers and wrenches and hex drivers, all kinds of just miscellaneous standard tools. Nothing really spectacular in here except a torque wrench. This is a smaller Inch
Pound range torque wrench. This is an item that
you'll definitely not need until you need it. It's an easy out. We used to use these a lot in the navy, and it's basically a little
tool that you can use to get out screws with stripped
heads or no head at all. These are great. Also in here is a circular saw.
This is one of those things
that if you've already got one take it with you, but obviously you don't
need it on day one. I do a lot of projects in our RV. I just made some shelves,
I made our desks, and of course, gotta cut wood. Speaking of torque
wrenches, I have two more. I've got the big boy here that I will use on lug nuts and things like that. This one I did get on Amazon, and this one goes all the
way up to 300 foot pounds. You can see it's a, oh, whoa! – [Tara] Did you get it? – Yeah, I got it. You can see, it's a big one. Always remember to zero
out your torque wrenches when you're done with them. I also have another torque wrench. Just a cheap one and this one only goes up to 100 foot pounds. But it goes as far down as 20 foot pounds. I think this one only goes
down to 50 foot pounds. I also in here have a four way. It's good to have in case
you need to change a tire. Granted, if we really
needed to change one, I would probably use a
torque wrench and a socket, but you know, you come
across somebody on the road who needs some help, and
they've got weird lug nuts, this is a good thing to have on hand.
I also have a breaker bar. If you don't know what a breaker bar is, you never needed one, you will someday. It's just again, a big leverage. I've got a couple different
straight edges and nineties for again, projects on
shelves and things like that. A level, which of course you saw in our measure your RV video. This is one of those box
of miscellaneous stuff. In here I have a tire repair kit. If you run over a nail and
you wanna do a real quick and easy fix of that tire, I've never had to use it on our setup, but if I did, I would
always get it re-patched by a professional because
these tires are no joke.
Zip ties, fish tape. Bungees, a heat gun for electrical work that requires some heat shrinking. Tubing, I've got a staple gun
for miscellaneous projects around the household. I've got a grease gun,
this grease gun is called a lube shuttle and it's really cool, because these cartridges go in there, and they're very neat, you
don't have a bunch of grease all over the place, you're not trying to shove grease into it. I use this to lube our
wet bolts and our hubs and stuff like that and bearings.
But it's one of those things
that I haven't done a lot of, so I'm not gonna do a video on it until I'm comfortable with it. Also in here is a very, very
important tool for RV work. That's a Dremel tool. If you've never seen a Dremel tool, it's basically a thing that
spins really, really fast, and has blades for cutting,
for routing, for drilling.
It's just a neat thing to have
to make miscellaneous cuts. If you saw our RV lock video, where I had to make
some cuts into the frame to fit in the latches,
this is what I used. Of course, I've got along
with it a bunch of accessories and various cutters and
drillers and all kinds of stuff. This is a digital caliper for the odd time when you need to measure
something really, really tiny. And of course, this is just a drop light. And a masonry blade for the circular saw. I used this when I cut the
tiles for our fireplace.
Again, a lot of tools you use them once, then you stash 'em away and they're there if you need 'em again. Moving on down the line here, I have yet another clear container, and this has all of the
miscellaneous little tools that just kinda don't fit anywhere else, or they're just kinda oddballs. I've got of course just a
giant roll of extra duct tape, because you never know when you're gonna have to duct tape something. A PEX line cutter. This is to cut plumbing lines. Along the same line, I have a PEX tool. Now this is what is used to actually clamp or crimp the PEX clamps. And I'll show you, I've got some of those, we'll get to that in a minute. Other stuff in here, again,
miscellaneous giant sockets for various projects that I've had. Various adapters and u-joints
and things for sockets. I've got two different pin adapters for the lube shuttle. Of course, it's got a
Zerk fitting on one end, but I use this to lube our new Reese M5.
But again, the misfit toys all go here. Also over here, I have
a digital multimeter. Now, there are a number of
uses for this obviously, but if you're gonna be
doing any kind of wiring in your RV, whether it's
DC or AC or whatever, get one of these, you'll need it for that. If you're gonna do wiring,
you probably already know that you need a multimeter. I've got this one. Kind of along the same lines,
this is a bag of various wiring and networking
tools that I've had since my networking days.
And I've kept some of it. Probably the only thing
you would ever find that you would need are basically some crimpers for electrical. I also do carry a giant hydraulic cramp for the very large cables. You'll see that in our invertor video. – [Tara] And I know you guys can't see me, but don't forget to click
subscribe and like this video. – Also, don't forget to click that bell. And check us out on social
media, Instagram, Facebook and also our website, changinglanesrv.com. Last but not least, actually two things. One, just a giant crow bar. I don't really remember
what I use this for, but I still have it around. But I have three of
these types of containers full of miscellaneous
screws and attachments and wood screws, metal screws, just everything you can think of. If I've bought screws, I put 'em in here. I've got some you know, like nineties, and things for various projects. I also have a lot of
various fittings for PEX. I've got some shutoff valves that I'm going to install in our toilets.
You can't go wrong with
having an assortment of screws available. So of course, a tape measure. I've got a tape measure here, I've got one in the basement,
I've got one in the office. I don't have to walk around
and find a tape measure. – [Tara] 'Cause it's so– (laughing) – Protective eyewear, for
whenever you're sawing or doing various projects, you want to keep those peepers safe. And last but not least, a
little pack of various fuses. Again, day one for sure. You will blow a fuse. And that's it for the truck toolbox. So we're gonna get to the
toolbox and tonneau cover, because I want to really
focus on those and go over some of the pros and cons and my evolution of toolboxes that led to this setup that is freakin' awesome and
I can't wait to show you.
You're just gonna have to
wait just a little longer. But, just to kind of
fill you in a little bit, here's a little bit of a preview. (birds singing) There's a giant bumblebee. (Tara shouts) Just don't move, don't move. It'll go away.
– Don't, don't– – He'll go away, he's gone. – [Tara] Don't swat him, okay. – I gave him–
– You have him space? – Yeah, I gave him–
– You gave him warning? – The psychic "better
get out of here, bee." – [Tara] Jedi? – It's a torque, it's a
measurement of torque. – [Tara] You're a torque. – You're a torque. – How are short legged people s'posed to– How is this helpful? Oh God. – It's helpful, because it's better than getting in the bed. Oh, my legs! – [Tara] That's why I had to get up. – It's also good if you're
working at the border, looking for drugs under someone's car.
Can't go every tool, every guy should have a set of good sockets. That's probably weird. – [Tara] Thanks. – Also over here, I've
been using these Velcro against this (burps) sorry.
– [Tara] The whole thing over. – Yeah, so let's take a look over. Also over here, sorry. – Sorry!
– What are you laughing at? Shut up. (laughing) – Nice!
– Nice! – Jeez! (laughing) This thing's heavy! Kind of expected it to be a little heavy, but I didn't expect it to be like. You could get a workout in. Tools, yay! – This is– – You can lift it with your pinky. Stop, don't, don't, no don't. Don't. (laughing) – That's it over here,
that's all the quick access, get to it quick, stupid. (laughing) We're gonna get to that next week. We're gonna get to that
in a couple of weeks. (laughing) I'm saying it each way.
– I know! – 'Cause we don't know when
we're gonna put it out.
– I know, it was awesome,
it just made me laugh..