Note: Mike & Jennifer Wendland are members of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.

As RV journalists, we like to swap out RVs every year or two so our reporting can be based on first-hand experience with different brands, models and chassis. Over the past nine years, we’ve had five different RVs – including a Leisure Travel Vans Unity FX model – all built on the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 3500 Cab Chassis. Sprinters are rugged, reliable, and make an excellent van or chassis when outfitted and used as an RV.

We truly have loved our Sprinters. We may get another some day.

But as we’ve covered the RV industry and interacted with our followers over the past couple of years, we couldn’t help but notice a lot of strong interest in the Ford Transit chassis by both manufacturers and everyday RVers. So when we heard about how LTV was adding lots of new options like a bigger inverter and heated lithium batteries on its Transit-based Wonder model, we ordered a Leisure Travel Vans Wonder Rear Twin Bed (Wonder RTB), built on the updated 178″ Ford Transit Cutaway Chassis. Technically, for insurance and titling purposes, it’s a Class C, though it is sometimes described as a Class B+ motorhome.

Jennifer and I bought our Wonder RTB on June 24, 2020, and ever since we drove it home from Holland Motor Homes in Holland, Michigan (our nearest LTV dealer), we have been pinching ourselves.

Yes, this really is ours!

Sometimes, between RV trips when it’s just parked in the driveway, you can find me in it, using it as a man cave, doing some work on my laptop, tinkering around with a project and, yes, sometimes even taking a nap in it.

In the driveway.

I just love being in it.

This Wonder has more of our most-wanted RV features than any other coach we have had. It is also a very sleek, easy-to-drive RV, and very comfortable. Let’s start with those rear twin beds.

After years of converting a sofa into a bed in our previous Class B motorhomes and, most recently, setting up and taking down a Murphy bed in our former LTV Unity FX model, the idea of having two dedicated beds in the rear of our unit all made up and ready was something we both really wanted. Those twins, by the way, can easily be pushed together into a queen. As twins, with some pillows propped up behind us, we can use the beds as sofas. If we put up the handy Lagun table between them, we have an office desk… or a dinner table.

We like small motorhomes precisely because they are small – meaning, maneuverable. But until now, with that small size there has been a liability.

All of our previous RVs just did not have enough storage space to bring along all the things we wanted. I’m talking a couple of bikes. Some gravity-style lounge chairs. An inflatable kayak. Fishing gear. Golf clubs. Cross country skis, poles, and snowshoes. And there’s all my photo and video gear, a remote podcast studio, my portable ham radio station, and assorted antennas.

On our previous Sprinter RVs, a lot of that stuff had to stay behind. There wasn’t room.

But our Wonder RTB solves our space issue with a huge pass-through storage area in the rear that we call the “garage.” It can hold a ton of cargo. I can even get a couple of bicycles in there. (The RTB model is the only LTV Wonder model that has the “garage”.)

And to take us to the remote spots where we could use all that gear, we ordered ours with all-wheel drive (AWD), an awesome option for those of us whose preferred camping style is boondocking as far as possible off the beaten path. AWD has really helped on those remote two-tracks we drive back in the boonies.

And in the wintertime up in Michigan, it has given us much more confidence. AWD applies torque to all four wheels. The advantage of quickly getting traction under slippery conditions gives us a lot of confidence to range far from developed campgrounds. Since AWD turns four wheels instead of just two, this means a much better grip. And when the road surface is frozen – such as when we’ve been on snow and ice –or made of loose sand – we’ve been able to accelerate better, with less or even no tire slippage.

Another benefit that we’ve discovered under all conditions is that AWD seems to accelerate better than 2-wheel drive, something we noticed on our very first drive home from the dealer, as I pulled onto the freeway.

The Ford Transit Cutaway Chassis

You no doubt have seen many of the Ford Transit vans on the street. They have become one of the best-selling utility vans in North America. RV manufacturers are also discovering them, buying the chassis, and then upfitting them with galleys, bathrooms, and sleeping quarters. The ones that use the traditional Transit van bodies are categorized as Class B RVs. The RV maker gets an empty panel van and customizes it, constrained by the existing panel walls of the van.

The Ford Transit chassis we have is what is known as a cutaway chassis. It consists of the Ford Transit engine and cab and the skeleton rails and wheels that make up the rest of the vehicle. There are no walls or panels built on. It’s shipped to the RV manufacturers as a cutaway chassis, and they then build the motorhome area as a separate box that they securely attach to the cutaway chassis.

RVs built on the cutaway chassis are officially designated by the industry as Class C RVs, though, as I noted above, you may hear some models like the Leisure Travel Vans Wonder referred to as a Class B+, because they are a bit sleeker looking and don’t have the traditional cabover bed section that sits atop the cab on the conventional Class C.

The Ford Transit Cutaway Chassis was recently upgraded. For one thing, the dash has been completely redesigned. There’s an awesome 8″ touchscreen that controls the entertainment system and Ford’s Sync3 navigation system. I use my Apple iPhone and the Apple CarPlay function built into the Ford entertainment system for podcasts and music as well as some of my favorite apps, like Waze for up-to-date traffic information.

The redesigned dash is impressive, as is the ability of both the front and passenger seats on the Wonder to fully swivel around. In previous Transit models, only the passenger seat could swivel. Now both do.

Notable safety and security features include an anti-theft system with engine immobilization, a lane-keeping system, pre-collision assist with automatic braking, tire pressure monitoring system, side wind stabilization, electric power-assist steering, auto start-stop technology, and a 10-speed automatic transmission.

But what does this mean in real use?

Handling and Road Noise

Jennifer and I think it just may be the easiest RV we have ever driven; quiet, stable, and so comfortable to operate it feels like you are in a high-end SUV. That was the first thing we noticed with our new Wonder: how quiet and smooth it was to ride in. All of our previous Sprinter RVs rode much rougher. Some were better, and some, like the 4WD we had a few years ago, were worse. All of the Sprinters had more of a truck-like ride. The Wonder feels more like a car or SUV. Not completely, but mostly.

Our Sprinters were so noisy that sometimes we could hardly record useable audio for our on-camera video shots as we were driving down the road at highway speed. There was a lot of wind and road noise. Maybe because the Transit is not quite so high as the Sprinter, we find it considerably quieter. We are able to more easily carry on a conversation, especially when videoing. Don’t get me wrong – the Sprinter is generally comfortable and pleasant to drive. But I’d be less than honest if I didn’t point out the cab noise.

Parts and Service

It’s no secret that Mercedes Benz and Sprinter maintenance is expensive; parts and service cost more. One reason is that all Sprinter parts are made in Germany. True, they’re now building the Sprinter in the US, but most of their parts come from a long way away and are at premium costs.

Another issue is service centers. There just are not that many places where Sprinters can be serviced. Many Mercedes dealers flat out refuse to service the Sprinter. Sprinter repair facilities can be hard to find. On a couple of occasions over the years, we’ve had to drive several hundred miles out of our way to get the necessary service on the road for our Sprinters.

I’ve found that parts and labor are less expensive on the Transit. With Ford, there’s a dealer in just about every town. And while not all Ford dealers service the Transit, there are still many more Transit service shops than Sprinter service shops.

Fuel Efficiency, Power, and Towing

The Wonder runs on gasoline, while all of our previous Sprinters were diesel. Since gas is now considerably cheaper than diesel, that’s been a plus. And gas is more widely available than diesel. On some of the back roads we’ve driven, there were more than a few times in our Sprinters when all we passed were stations selling gas. But on the other hand, on the Wonder, I’m only getting about 12.7 miles per gallon (mpg). On the Sprinter-based and diesel-fueled Unity, I got 15 mpg. On some of the Sprinter B vans we had before (all diesel), I got as much as 18 mpg.

As mentioned above where we talked about AWD, the Transit is quick off the stop; at least quick when compared to the diesel Sprinter. True, the Sprinter has more sheer pulling power, but it can feel ponderous when taking off from a dead stop.

The Transit lets me quickly accelerate and merge into heavy interstate traffic (sometimes a bit of a challenge for the Sprinter). And at stoplights, it would never bring frustrated honks from the line of vehicles behind.

Our Transit has a turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 engine that generates 310 horsepower and 410 ft-lb of torque with a 10-speed automatic transmission. A Car and Driver review of the Transit van tested a Transit engine like ours doing 0 to 60 mpg in 6.8 seconds. A 2019 Sprinter engine like we had did the same 0 to 60 in around 11 seconds.

Both the Sprinter Unity and the Transit Wonder models have an 11,000-pound gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). The Unity could tow 5,000 pounds. We can only tow ~2,000 pounds with our Wonder RTB model. Other Transit LTV Wonder floor plans can tow 3,000 pounds. The Wonder RTB is less because of the way the rear garage is designed. I think the peppier acceleration makes up for the lower towing capacity, but this depends if you like to tow.

Interior Design and Floor Plan

Back inside the motorhome, our Wonder has a dry shower, a must-have on our list of desired features. The self-contained, stand-up dry shower in our Wonder can accommodate someone 6’2″ tall. It even has a sunroof to let in lots of natural light. The RV comes with the Truma Aqua Go instant hot water heater, which means water is always hot and you don’t waste any water by having to leave it running to warm up.

I love boondocking deep in the wilderness and being able to take a hot luxurious shower. Turn the shower on, and it’s instantly warm. And because the shower is totally separate from the rest of the RV, there’s nothing that needs to be toweled off and dried. (Except you, of course.) The “wet” showers on the Class B RVs we used to have always required more time to dry the bathroom afterwards than it took to shower.

Even though our Wonder is just shy of 25 feet long, it really has two separate living areas. The door on the shower has a double function. It can be used to seal the bedroom area at the rear of the coach from the front galley and lounge area.

I’m an early riser – I get up about 5:30 am. Jennifer (and Bo) like to sleep till around 7 am. I can block off the back and make my morning coffee, read, work, and putz around the front of the RV without disturbing them.

Video Reviews

We’ve done a very extensive video review of our Wonder RTB, which you can see here:

And if that is not enough, we even did a Part 2 of the review here:

Our Top 10 Favorite Things About the Wonder

We sat down the other day and made a list of the various options and features we most like on our Wonder:

1. The stowaway picnic table. It attaches to the side of the RV, then folds up and fits inside the “garage” when not in use.
2. The two 100-amp lithium batteries, with built-in heaters. Lithium batteries charge fuller, faster, weigh less, discharge deeper, and greatly extend our off-the-grid capabilities.
3. The 400 watts of solar panels. These help top off my batteries when we are boondocking.
4. The 2,000-watt inverter. The only thing we can’t operate off the batteries is the air conditioner, but we also have a generator that will let us do that when far off the grid.
5. The touchscreen Firefly control center. All of the controls we need are right at our fingertips.
6. The massive inside storage under the beds. There’s space for Jennifer and me to bring hang-up clothing and lots more.
7. The large bathroom. It has a fan, a window, a medicine cabinet, and lots of room. Right across from it is a roomy dedicated dry shower.
8. The rooftop Winegard ConnecT 2.0 Wifi Extender and 4G LTE antenna. It brings in WiFi signals from a wide area and allows me to set up an Internet hot spot inside the coach.
9. Being prewired for satellite TV. If I add a satellite dome dish to the roof, there are no holes to drill. If I use a portable dish, there’s an outside connection.
10. The heater to warm the lithium batteries in cold weather. This is such a great addition for those of us who like to camp all year round.

So there you go. Now you know why we love our Wonder. If you see us out there on the road, we’ll be glad to give you a tour.

Happy Trails!

Note: The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Triple E Recreational Vehicles.

As travel is slowly being opened up again after the nationwide lockdown, we’re now planning our 2020 RV travels. We thought we’d share the tools and resources we use to plan our trips, along with 12 apps and web services we use to make our travel more fun and efficient.

Physical Books and Maps That We Use

We love technology and apps, but first we hit the books. Yes – we still use old-fashioned books and we always carry paper maps to go with our digital directional tools.

Before we head out, we like to check out these paper products for ideas on what to expect along our route and what to see:

• National Geographic Guide to Scenic Highways and Byways: The 275 Best Drives in the US 
• National Geographic Guide to State Parks of the United States and Canadian Provincial Parks
• Fodor’s The Complete Guide to the National Parks of the West 
• Amazing Festivals (Hundreds of Hometown Celebrations)
• Rand McNally 2020 Large Scale Road Atlas
• Rand McNally Folded Map: United States

We love these books and guides and usually carry them along with us in the RV. But, this is a high-tech world and we must admit that we rely heavily on apps to help us get from place to place, to find the right spots to camp, and to find things to do out there on the road.

Our Favorite 12 Apps and Websites for Trip Planning and Travel

We use the iPhone and iPad and our laptops, but most of our favorite apps also have an Android version. Most of these apps are free but a couple are subscription services; check the links because we can get you discounts on the membership fee for some of them! 

The Dyrt

This is a fast-growing campground directory app that boasts over 500,000 listings, with honest, crowd-sourced reviews, tips, and contact information that makes it very easy to book a campsite. They also publish a great camping magazine and run frequent contests. The basic site is free, but the $29-a-year pro version has even more info. We use this on our tablets and smartphones; both iOS and Android apps are available.

Campendium

Campendium has state-by-state listings and directories of commercial campgrounds, national forest camping areas, state parks, national parks, and free campsites. The app is very fast and helpful, and they have done the best job of any app we’ve found on reporting what is open and what is closed during the COVID-19 shutdown. See that updated list here.

Allstays

This has been our main go-to app for years. It lists campgrounds, boondocking spots, BLM land, parks, attractions, and more, and shows them all on a map. You can search near you, along a route, or by state to have the map show you everything from campgrounds to interstate rest areas to Walmarts to RV dump sites – pretty much anything an RVer needs to find. This app is only available for iOS devices.

Harvest Hosts

We’re members of Harvest Hosts and we love it. More than 1,400 farms, wineries, museums, attractions, and golf courses across North America are listed in this subscription service as places where RVers can stay overnight free of charge. The website provides directions and contact numbers, and shows details, photos, and reviews from other RVers. Many Harvest Hosts offer overnight camping in absolutely beautiful spots. We’ve never been disappointed! Get a 15% discount on a Harvest Host membership here! 

Cracker Barrel

The Cracker Barrel app shows Cracker Barrel locations near you or on your route, many of which allow free overnight stays in the parking lot for RVers. You can also order take-out meals from restaurants along your route, so that your food is ready by the time you arrive. Cracker Barrel is very friendly to RVers, usually offering plenty of parking room even for big rigs.

The KOA Camping App

KOA is our campground of choice for overnights on the road when we need a commercial campground to get some laundry done and empty the tanks. The app lets you see photos of the campground, get an idea of what amenities are available, and read reviews from other RVers who have stayed there. You can also use the app to reserve a spot.

iExit

This app is great for finding out what services are available at the next interstate exit, or an exit miles away. It locates fuel stops and tells you the average cost per gallon, and also notes restaurants and businesses at the exit. The app makers call it “your roadtrip pit stop finder” – it helps you save time when figuring out where to pull off and find the services you need.

Yelp

We love Yelp and use it all the time to find great restaurants. Pick a location and see what’s near you. Here’s a hint: We always look for places with the best reviews – four or five stars – and we’ve never been disappointed. In fact, we have found some awesome local restaurants that we would have passed right by otherwise.

Roadtrippers

This app helps you find fun and interesting things to see along your travel route. You can filter it however you want but the app covers just about every region in the country and makes some great suggestions for off-the-beaten-path exploration. Read reviews from others who have been there, and we guarantee you’ll find some fun places to stop.

Waze

Yes, we have GPS built into our RV. But Waze is hands down the best app we have found to not only navigate us to where we need to be but to show us things like traffic backups, speed traps, road construction, debris on the road, and other important information about what’s ahead, all in almost real time. It’s updated by users like you who are up ahead, and you’re encouraged to report issues you encounter for those behind you. We use it with Auto Play right through the entertainment console on our 2019 Leisure Travel Vans Unity FX. It also works with Android Auto.

Overnight RV Parking

This is another subscription service and it is awesome, listing something like 14,000 places where you can camp overnight for free or at a very low cost. From inexpensive county and local parks, to boondocking locations, to the parking lot of welcoming businesses, to national and state forest campgrounds, this app will find you a place to stay anytime. Note: If you use our referral link above you can get 15 months for the price of 12!

Go Pet Friendly

We travel in our LTV with Bo, a 65-pound Norwegian Elkhound, and this app makes sure we give him a good time, too. It helps us find pet-friendly hotels, campgrounds, and beaches, off-leash parks where Bo can run, veterinarians, pet supply stores, and even restaurants and wineries where pets are welcome to join you.

Follow the 330 Rule

Don’t forget to follow our 330 Rule to enjoy your travel! That means don’t drive more than 330 miles a day, and stop by 3:30 pm local time to keep from being exhausted and still have time to explore.

Happy trails, and have a great summer!

 Find more great apps recommended by RVers in our Leisure List here.

Please note: During this time of uncertainty, we are continuing to post stories on the LTV Blog. In doing this, we hope to give you reasons to smile, and a chance to dream of future adventures. All travel mentioned in these posts took place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions. We ask our LTV family to follow all recommendations of local health and government authorities regarding travel and social distancing. We are all in this together. You can read our full COVID-19 response here.

One of the questions we often get has to do with how and where we produce a weekly RV podcast, our RV Lifestyle YouTube channel videos, our RV travel guides, and my NBC TV syndicated technology reports all while being on the road half to three-quarters of the year.

When we answer that we do the vast majority of our work right from our 2019 Leisure Travel Vans Unity FX, people think we’re spoofing them. They imagine us working with a big production crew, doing most of our work in a state-of-the-art video production studio.

But the truth is, we do it all from our state-of-the-art RV.

Fact is, technology makes it all possible and the technology is now so compact and multi-purposed that, when not in use, it fits easily in a cabinet or one of the outdoor storage boxes on the side of the Unity.

Back when I worked as an on-air TV reporter, it used to be that to produce a news story required a videographer, a sound tech, often a lighting tech, a producer, and me (who my videographers called a “blow-dried microphone stand”). 

TV production has sure changed from those days just a few decades ago. First to go was the lighting tech, then the producer, then the sound person. When I left daily TV news at the turn of the century, it was down to just the reporter and videographer. Now, it’s as likely to be just one person, what the industry calls a “one-man band” (though the videographer is just as likely to be female as male).

Fast forward to 2020 and the only similarity to my old days in daily TV news is that we still travel in a van. Instead of a van cramped with bodies and electronic gear and a huge telescoping microwave mast, we travel in a luxurious Sprinter van that has its own kitchen, king-sized bed, bathroom and shower, refrigerator and microwave, and lots of comfy chairs. 

To get a report back to the TV studio back then, we used that microwave antenna – which took forever to point back to the station – or a full-fledged satellite truck with a massive dish antenna that we beamed 22,000 miles up to a satellite. It was a very complicated procedure.

It’s been said that in this age of the Internet, anyone can become a media star. And it’s the truth. When Jennifer and I visit RV shows, it seems like every other person we meet now has a YouTube channel. And they all want to know about our tech gear, as do many of our followers who send us email.

I’ve promised a post like this to many people over the past couple of years. Now, with time on my hands during the stay-at-home orders we’re under because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have the time to do that post. I hope it’s not too techy, and I hope it also inspires you to go out there in your RV and tell your stories using some of these technology tools I’m going to describe.

Cameras

I have bought a lot of cameras over the years. Documenting our trips in video and through still photos is as much a hobby for me as it is my job these days.

I use six different cameras. Now let me point out that clearly, you don’t need all of these. If you’re just starting out, you can do an amazingly excellent job with just your cell phone. But for me, here are my camera tools.

Canon EOS R Mirrorless Full-Frame Digital Camera

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We just got this camera a few weeks ago. The EOS R is one of the most sophisticated cameras I’ve ever used, yet very simple to operate during our on-the-go style of videos. We expect to use it as our main vlogging (video blogging) camera for probably 75% of our video work. I shoot mostly in 4K and the images from the R are so good that I can grab individual frames for stills when needed for our blog or social media. I use a 24-105 mm F4 kit lens with it, and an adapter that lets me put on a 300 mm lens for wildlife shots.

I carry it on a small Manfrotto Pixi EVO mini tripod for most of our hand-held selfie shots. We also mount it on a MeFOTO RoadTrip Classic AL Leather Edition – Titanium tripod. That tripod telescopes down to just over 15 inches and stores in the front wardrobe of the Unity. You can also convert the tripod to a full-size monopod by combining one of the legs with the center column.

For a microphone, I use the RODE VideoMic Pro shotgun mic mounted on the camera’s hot shoe with a RODE Deadcat Artificial Fur Wind Shield.

Canon EOS M-50 Mirrorless Camera

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Until we got the EOS R, this was our main camera and we’ve had it for almost three years now. It’s rugged and takes excellent videos. We will use this as a back-up to the EOS R and dedicate it to shooting our on-camera driving shots from inside the van. The EOS M-50 is smaller and lighter than the EOS R and thus better suited for the confined conditions of shooting in the cab area of the Unity.

GoPro Hero 7

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This is our action and time-lapse camera. I have a suction mount for it that lets me get driving-down-the road shots from outside the Unity. I have a chest mount for point-of-view shots while doing things like ziplining, white water rafting, or bicycling.

BlackVue DR590W-2CH Dashcam

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This is a top-of-the-line dashcam system. I love its high quality 1080P front and rear cameras. The front one is mounted at the top of the windshield and is pointed towards the road ahead. I have it wired up so that as soon as we are moving, it starts recording. The rear camera is mounted above and slightly behind us in the middle of the cab and is pointed at our backs for an over-our-shoulder driving perspective. We like these point-of-view road shots and usually get some in on every travel video we do.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max

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I am daily stunned by the quality of the images – both video and still – that come from this latest generation Apple iPhone. It is now my main still camera, the source of a great many of the photos we use to illustrate blog posts, our travel books, and social media. The three-lens system with wide-angle and telescopic features captures fabulous images. And it also shoots 4K video. In fact, using the DJI Osmo Mobile 3 gimbal, it has produced some of the highest quality video imagery we’ve done.

Dji Mavic Air drone

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I’ve had several drones over the years, some much bigger in size and boasting more features. But the compact size of the Mavic Air makes it so easy to carry and it is very easy to fly. I use it for scenic vistas and shots of the RV to give aerial perspectives.

Camera Gear Storage

Where do I keep all this gear? Almost all of it stores snuggly and safely in the hard plastic Pelican 1535 Air Carry-on Case. The case is airline carry-on size and I store it right behind the driver’s seat of the Unity. The drone fits snugly in a small soft carrying case, and I store it at the back of the cubbyhole on the right side of the Unity as you come in the center door.

Computer Gear and Software

What do I use to edit all of that video footage and still images? I use the Apple MacBook Pro 16 inch laptop. I have it loaded with 64 GB of memory and a 1 TB SSD drive. I use LaCie Rugged 4TB portable hard drives to keep all my video and images, and since those hard drives contain all of our work for the almost nine years we have been doing this, I store them in the security safe that we had LTV install in our Unity. For software, I use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the videos and Adobe Audition to edit our podcast audio files.

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Where do I do this work?

I usually do my video editing in the back of the Unity, where I pull out the special ottoman that stores under the rear sofa. I am a huge fan of this little extra from LTV. Pull up the top of the ottoman, and you have a perfect portable desk.

Podcast Gear

Every Wednesday, we do a weekly podcast called the RV Podcast (available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and all the major podcast apps, as well as our blog, RVLifestyle.com). We record it in the Unity, setting up our gear on the dinette table we can configure from the front lounge/murphy bed. I sit on one side, Jennifer on the other. Between us are our laptops and our podcast gear.

To record the podcast, we use the RODECaster Pro, a portable production studio that integrates a mixer, sound effects player, phone tap for taking phone calls, recorder, and more, all in one box.

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We each use a high-quality professional grade RODE PodMic as our microphones.

The RODECaster Pro – connected to my MacBook Pro – is also used for processing and mixing the audio during our weekly Ask Us Anything livestream on our RV Lifestyle YouTube channel.

For switching between produced videos that we sometimes show in the livestreams, I use the Elgato Stream Deck XL, a keypad-controlled video and audio switcher.

All of the podcasting gear packs away snugly in the SKB Cases iSeries RODECaster Pro Podcast Mixer Compact Case. That case stores behind the driver’s seat right next to my Pelican camera case.

Internet Gear

The key for me being able to work from the road is the Internet.

We ordered our Unity with the integrated Winegard ConnecT 2.0 antenna system. Mounted on the roof, it serves as our TV antenna, a WiFi extender, and a cellular router that links to nationwide 4G LTE networks for reliable, uninterrupted, in-motion and stationary coverage while traveling. It came standard with AT&T, but I went up to the roof and swapped out the SIM so I could use it with my existing data plan from Verizon.

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Last summer, I also installed a weBoost Drive X RV cell phone booster kit in the Unity, mounting the outside antenna on the top of our rear ladder.

My plan was to use it to boost reception for our cell phone and Mi-Fi data card as another way to access the Internet if Winegard’s system was not strong in a particular location. It was a bad choice. Truth told, the ConnecT 2.0 does a better job and the weBoost is never needed.

While I’m at it, here’s another Internet mistake I have made. Taking advantage of an awesome deal from AT&T last summer for a device called Togo (it looks just like the ConnecT 2.0, but is white), I installed it up top as well. That way, I figured, when I entered an area where Verizon was weak, I could switch to AT&T. The deal at the time was $360 for unlimited access for an entire year.

In all our travels since then, the problem of a weak Verizon signal happened only once, in the very remote Flamingo Campground at the far southeastern end of Everglades National Park in Florida. AT&T did indeed work when Verizon didn’t, and I felt pretty smug about having that redundancy in my setup.

I had planned to renew the deal with Togo. But last December, AT&T cancelled that deal and, if I was to renew, they now charge a rate that is so high it is prohibitive.

Satellite TV

Alongside the solar panels, the weBoost antenna, the Winegard ConnecT 2.0, and the Togo, there was still a little more room on the roof of our Unity. So I installed a Winegard DISH Playmaker up there. It was so easy. As LTV has two prewired connections available in the roof, I didn’t have to do any drilling to snake the satellite antenna cabling inside (I used the other connector for the weBoost).

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That satellite connection terminates inside the entertainment compartment just behind the passenger seat, and the compact HD satellite receiver from DISH called the Wally fits perfectly.

The receiver connects to the antenna, which automatically acquires the signal. It also works with WiFi so we can stream Netflix, Hulu, and other programming to our TV screens (one in front, one in back – both controlled by a switcher pre-installed by LTV).

So there you go. I know, that sounds like a lot of tech gear.

Truthfully, most people don’t need six cameras, a podcasting studio, and much of the other gear Jennifer and I have. But while it sounds like a lot, it all is amazingly compact and very lightweight, and fits so easily in our Unity.

When I look at the Unity and how we have turned it into a mobile studio for our travel videos and reporting, I am amazed how broadcasting and journalism have changed. We are now able to reach millions of people, live from our RV, anywhere, anytime, by uploading, livestreaming, and sharing audio, video, and photographs, and writing and publishing books and blog posts. That allows us to earn the majority of our income while on the road and enjoying the RV Lifestyle.

That is pretty cool.

Then there are the apps that we use to manage our trips and find campgrounds, boondocking spots, dump stations, and things to see and do along the way. I’ll save that for another post!

With stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders the new norm as North America reels under the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us are now finding our workplaces expecting us to do our job remotely. And for those used to working outside the home, that can be downright daunting.

Jennifer and I (and Bo, our Norwegian Elkhound) have been working remotely since 2012 and, as RVers who are on the road and work from our Leisure Travel Vans Unity FX almost three-quarters of the time, we have some easy suggestions that will help you navigate all the ins and outs of not being able to physically go into the office while working from your sticks-and-bricks home.

Tip 1: Dedicate a Workspace

The first suggestion we have is to dedicate a specific area for your work where you can lay out your computer, cell phone, charger, papers, and work materials in one place that won’t have to be picked up at the end of each day. That could be a spare bedroom, a dining room, even a corner in the basement. But the key is to dedicate that workspace only for your work, a place other family members won’t disturb.

We have the perfect suggestion: Set up your office in your RV.

If it’s out in the driveway… perfect! If it’s in storage, can you move it to the driveway for a few weeks, or however long this crisis will last?

If you have a 30 amp pedestal out there, which we have installed at our main sticks-and-bricks home in Michigan, it’s a no-brainer. You’ll be able to run the AC if needed, and power and charge your laptop, a printer, and whatever you need. But even if you don’t have a 30 amp hookup, you can run a 110 volt extension cord from the house or garage for everything but the AC. If the weather is warm enough and its dewinterized, you even have a private bathroom you can use.

Working out of your RV gives you a separate, dedicated area where phone calls won’t be drowned out by noise from the rest of the household and where you can isolate yourself from distractions. You can make coffee, have your lunch there, stock the fridge with refreshments, and have all the comforts of the workplace.

If you are using a laptop and are tired of being cooped up, think about working outside for a while. Spring is well underway in many parts of North America, and doing a little work outside, soaking up some Vitamin D from the sun, is a great antidote to the shelter-in-place blahs. Set up on a picnic table or out on the back deck of the house. An hour or so outside in the fresh air will make that work surprisingly enjoyable.

In fact, as I write this, I’m on the balcony of our condo on the Florida Panhandle’s Emerald Coast, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. We use the condo as a rental unit to supplement our income, and we were down here getting it ready for the new season when the travel restrictions were imposed. Our LTV is out in the driveway, and while sheltering-in-place at the condo, I often find myself using it as my mobile office. After I finish this post, in fact, I’ll head out there and use it as a mobile recording studio to conduct an online video interview for our RV Podcast.

The RV is my Happy Place and just sitting in it brightens my spirit. Making it a secondary workspace to the condo adds variety to my routine.

Tip 2: Set Work Hours

No matter what area you work remotely from – home or the RV – the next suggestion I have is to set specific work hours. Those hours should be your normal working hours and, we’ve found from experience, they should start in the morning. It’s too easy to procrastinate when you put your tasks off till late in the day. Get ‘er done!

In the office, there’s a set routine to the day. Try and establish a similar routine for working at home. A key part of that is to set firm start and end times. When the end of day comes, shut down the laptop, organize your workspace, and make a to-do list for the next morning. Then walk away from that work area and, best as you can, put work thoughts away till the next day.

I’m a big believer in making lists. There are lots of apps you can use, all the major email programs have to-do and reminder features, and I’ve tried many of the digital list-making tools.

But for the past year or so, I’ve been using an old-fashioned paper day planner. I use a pencil – it’s easy to erase when something changes – and jot down the three major tasks I need to accomplish each day. There are always some to-do items at the bottom of that particular day’s page, but focusing on three big tasks and getting them done gives a real sense of accomplishment at the end of each day.

A planner also gives you an at-a-glance schedule. Write down deadlines, phone calls you need to make, teleconferences, and your breaks. Yes, we really mean that: schedule your breaks. Plan to stand up, walk around for a couple minutes, and stretch every hour or so.

But a lesson I learned the hard way – don’t use that movement break to head to the kitchen and the refrigerator. Enough said.

We also urge you not to be working in your PJs or overly casual clothes. You don’t have to be ‘office chic,’ but you should at least be presentable and showered, with combed hair and dressed neatly. Like a clean car and a washed RV seem to drive better, so we work better when we’ve cleaned ourselves up.

That’s especially applicable for those who are doing video conferencing via apps and services like Zoom, Slack, FaceTime, Skype, or GoToMeeting. Shave every day, or put on your makeup as you would at the office. You’ll feel better, make a better impression, and find comfort in the routine.

Tip 3: Turn Off Distractions, and Take Better Breaks

What makes all this work-at-home stuff so successful of course, is the Internet. To that end, during high-demand video conferencing, you may want to ask other family members to stay offline for the duration of the conference to ensure you have enough bandwidth.

There are some etiquette guidelines for working online as well. When conferencing with business contacts, turn off all those pings, dings, beeps, and notifications that sound when you get a text message, email, or social media post. And when working by yourself, deactivating those notifications will help keep you from being distracted, too.

I’d also urge you to resist the temptation to read the latest news on the pandemic during work breaks. Check the news once or twice a day and you’ll be up-to-date. A steady drip of the unrelenting bad news can sour even the sunniest disposition.

Instead of checking the news sites all the time during your breaks, open up your photos on your phone and computer and look at some of those great pictures you have from past RVing trips. Look forward to where you will be going once the all-clear is issued to travel again. Don’t think that the coronavirus lockdown has cancelled your RVing plans – it’s just postponed them. You’re not being denied. You’re just delayed.

Then get back to work… remotely.

This is not forever. And who knows, maybe working remotely from the road on occasion is something you’ll be able to do in the future, allowing you to enjoy the RV lifestyle even more.