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When we go to Caravan Salon, naturally, we spend a lot of time looking at RVs. But that’s always a little bittersweet for me. Yes, we can see some cool floor plans, but they’re mostly unavailable in North America. Since most of our viewers could never hope to have one (us included), we don’t spend a lot of time doing detailed RV reviews from the world’s largest RV show.
But besides RVs, there are an awful lot of RV accessories available at the show. (Well, it’s not exactly a retail show where you can buy things, but the accessories are there in force.) Some of these are the same as the accessories you can find in North America, but some of them are new to us, but cool enough that we think they *should* be available here in North America. So that’s what this video is about.
I hope one of a few things happens from this video.
- Perhaps someone with better Google skills than I have will see this, and let us all know “Yes! You can get this in the US! Just go to XYZ products and they’ve got it on their website.”
- If that doesn’t happen, perhaps the manufacturers themselves will see this and decide “You know what, Hans? Maybe we should sell this in North America.”
- And if that doesn’t happen, perhaps enough folks here will see the video and want the product and we can start a massive email and phone campaign to bug these accessory manufacturers – at the conclusion of which they decide “You know what, Hans? Maybe we should sell this in North America.”
And if none of those happens, we may just have to go back to Europe to pick some of these up.
Anyway, without further ado, here are the products in the video. If someone finds a link, or if we get contacted by the manufacturer, I’ll update these sections with the relevant info so you can purchase these yourself.
HEO Solution – Better Locks For Your RV
Besides the one or two locks I show in the video, they also have other locks for the sliding and cargo doors on vans. I found their website here: https://www.heosolution.de/en/, but you can’t place an order from it, so no dice there.
I am aware that Expedition Upfitter has them listed for sale in the US, but they don’t seem to have the whole product line. Maybe Expedtion Upfitter just travels to Europe occasionally to get stock? I don’t know. But they didn’t have model 1958 with black faces available, and that’s what we’d need for our own RV.
Flamefield – Classy Camping Dishes
Melamine camping dishware that doesn’t break and doesn’t look like camping dishware. Nice.
I found their website here https://flamefield.com/ but you can’t order from it, unfortunately.
I’ve been looking on Amazon for them, but haven’t found them yet. We may have to wait until the end of October as we were told. When the Amazon store is up, I’ll post a link.
Daewoo Mini Washer
I’ve been hunting this washer for a couple of years now. They supposedly even make a washer/dryer version that would be just perfect for our RV. But alas… I can’t get them.
You can find them on eBay and other sites, and you can find them rebranded as other names, but the one thing they all have in common is that they require 250 volts… which we just don’t do over here. I suppose I could try to do something with a step-up transformer to get it working, but that will have to wait until I really run out of RV mod projects. (So you’ll know when I’m officially out of mod ideas if I tackle that one.)
Anyway, good luck finding links for this one. They don’t make it easy!
Twusch for Thetford Cassette Toilets
Swapping out a plastic toilet for a china one is a common RV upgrade. But it’s been one that’s unavailable to cassette toilet owners until now. This isn’t a replacement, but rather a ceramic bowl liner.
I was able to find a website (but I haven’t tried to order one yet) here: Twusch Toilet Bowl Liners. That website seems to be based in Alberta, so perhaps there’s hope there.
We did speak with a representative from Thetford, who told us they plan to make the bowl liners available here “at some point in the future.” I’m not holding my breath though…
Electric Bike Lift from BR-Systems
Riders of heavy e-bikes rejoice! If this lift delivers, it promises to make it much easier to load your bike onto a bike rack for transport.
I did find the web site for BR systems here: https://www.br-systems.com/en/store/producs/electricbikelift
And they do seem to have one dealer in Canada. Getting products from Canada isn’t too tough, so if anyone tries this out, please let me know!
Cinderella Incinerating Toilet – Diesel Edition
With more torque than gasoline powered toilets, this one really takes the lead in managing heavy loads…
Just kidding. But Cinderella does (if you look at their website) seem to be actively recruiting US dealers. So getting a Cinderella incinerating toilet in the states may be about to get easier.
Good luck getting the diesel version though. We were told that is in the prototype stage for now.
Arwinger Cassette Toilet Conversion Kit
If you’ve wanted to replace your cassette toilet with a composting one, but couldn’t due to space or design constraints – this may be the ticket for you.
To be completely clear though, I wouldn’t call this a proper composting toilet. It’s a separating toilet, yes, but there’s no agitating or drying of the solid wastes. Most likely, you’d cover them up with sawdust or kitty litter or something, and just dispose of bagged waste every 3 to 5 days.
Still – they’ve got a website up in English, and Sven said he has no problem shipping here if he gets orders. Curious to know if anyone tries this out.
CATO-R Cassette Toilet Dumping Splash Guard
Quite literally the ABSOLUTE WORST thing about dumping your cassette in a home toilet is the possibility of splashing. Nobody wants that. It’s just gross.
These folks had an incredibly simple idea, and they made it happen.
Unfortuantely, I’ve been unable to find a website for them at all. The web site on the card we got from them is www.reisdch-tech.de. But I can’t find this product on their site.
They told us in person they would ship to the US, so if we can find them, I have high hopes.
If you can find these for sale, let me know and I’ll post the link for everyone to get one.
I contacted Flamefield in October and they said I could buy the products from their website even though they are not yet on Amazon. I did so and they shipped from Europe. THEN when I got the products today I found out about all the restrictions that make them almost useless for my use cases. Here is part of what I just wrote back to them:
“They look great, but imagine my disappointment when I saw all the things I could not do with them:
– Do NOT put boiling water into the mugs. How am I supposed to make the tea if I can’t put the freshly boiled water into the mug with the tea bag?
– Do NOT use in a microwave. Really? I heat up many dinners on the plate in the microwave when I am in my campervan.
We were going to use some of them at home, but then there is this:
– Dishwasher safe at LOW temperatures on top shelf. Really? We don’t put plates on the top shelf, they do not fit, and we do NOT use a low temperature, everything in the dishwasher gets the same temperature. We might just put them on the bottom shelf at the standard temperature and hope they don’t break.”
I ended up telling them I would not have purchased if I had known of all these constraints.
Oh wow. We didn’t see any of these constraints at the RV show, but that’s disappointing.
I suspect you’d be fine to put them in the dishwasher, use them for coffee, etc. I think they just don’t want to do a warranty replacement.
I’m with you though. That is disappointing.
They sent me a note after my comments to them, saying they could go in the dishwasher as normal but that would degrade their life. However they were clear that you should not put boiling water in them nor use them in the microwave. In fact the FDA website states that “Foods and drinks should not be heated on melamine-based dinnerware in microwave ovens.”
To be fair to them they also said to me that they would give me “a $80 discount code for your next purchase when our Amazon store is up and running.”
I did use their products on my recent long weekend van trip, they are nice plates and dishes, both good looking and light weight, but of course I could not use the mug for my tea or the bowl in the microwave, so I still kept 1 each of my older crockery.
Good info. Thanks for the follow up!
Hi!
I’m Nadine and the owner of Twusch.com Ltd.
I can confidently confirm that the Twusch porcelain toilet insert IS available in North America.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions at [email protected]
I represent Expedition Upfitter and we are the North American Distributor of the HEO solution locks. We’d be happy to order what you need, but it does take quite a bit of time to get the exact items in and all keyed alike. We actually ordered the locks by the pallet load for the van life community. There are extra locks that can be purchased but we focus on the van locks. We use the 1958 (universal locks on many of our Total Composites campers) they are excellent. Please reach out to us if you need something that we don’t offer.
Thanks, Katie!
You don’t have to wait until the end of October for those melamine dishes! You may not spend a lot of time in Target, but they have a lot of melamine with really interesting patterns. Maybe not that exact one, but go to Target and search on melamine dishes. You’ll find pages and pages of them. I like the Portofinos. (I’ve been switching over to plastic dishes – and Corelle – in the house because I ruptured my thumb tendon last year, and my grip is pretty flaky. I’ve had several heavy, porcelain dishes just fall right out of my hand and I can’t adjust my grip to catch it. So as the dish attrition rate mounts, I’m moving over to non-breakables at home like what we have in our B van.
Yes, there are melamine dishes elsewhere. But what I *haven’t* found were any that had the non-slip grip rings on the bottom.
Ahhh… the rings. Bet you could kludge something on the bottom of an existing melamine plate.
James, you liked the compact clothes washer at the Düsseldorf Salon, today I saw a US based rv manufacturer called “27North” that is offering a miniature clothes washer in their RexRover motor home. Not sure it the manufacturer of the washer is the same as you saw or not.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
This comment is related to the window fix (thank you!!) …. are the Acrylic RV Strut Fix parts available for purchase ..rather than making them ourselves from the 3 D print out?
(The windows were driving us crazy ..we were soooo happy to see your latest mod fix and were in Forest City at Winnebago Service Center when we saw it!) Thanks!
They are available for purchase – you just have to upload the file.
There’s a link to Treatstock in the post describing the fix.
There’s also a link to the file in that same post.
Download the file.
Upload it to Treatstock.
From there – it’s just like ordering from Amzaon. You pick a vendor (some are cheaper than others, just like Amazon). Depending on the vendor, you may have to pick options. (PLA, any infill between 20-60). You may even get to pick the color.
Enter your address, click buy it now, and wait for the parts.
Others on Facebook have already done it for about $15.
So many of these goodies require more power, more water, weigh more, etc… I’d like manufacturers to simplify! For example, we recently went from a cassette toilet to an AirHead composting toilet. Couldn’t be happier.
Not all of them! One of them was even a cassette to composting toilet conversion kit!
The Perfect-van TTT is another option for a composting/separating toilet that is supposed to be a drop-in replacement for the Thetford C220. James have you seen those in person?
https://www.perfect-van.de/en/products/trenntoilette
Advantage over the Arwinger seems to be that it properly dries out the solids with an always-on fan; disadvantage is it looks like a non-reversible installation.
We’re hoping to replace our Ekko C220 cassette + SOG with something that at least separates; ventilates if possible. Would love to hear if anybody tries either the Arwinger or the Perfect-Van TTT!
That seems to be the same idea as the Arwinger. We didn’t see them at the show, though.
Obviously, we haven’t tried either – and having used a “composting” toilet for years, I don’t think we’d be interested.
But, like you, I’m still curious about the feedback if anyone has tried either of these products.
James, In 2018 I was living in London UK doing some volunteer engineering. I came home for a week to get my wife to go back with me. To my surprise I was not able to access the manufacturers websites over here (WA state) that I could in Romford (NE London). These were only electrical equipment vendor sites so I was surprised I couldn’t see them. So someone would have to set you up with a VPN to a browser stationed over there – maybe that would be a work around.
Interesting. I use a VPN for most of my browsing anyway. If I have trouble with a European host, I’ll switch to a VPN server over there and see if it helps.
Not an expert but it seems to me that your computer subnet mask has to look to that countries network as if you are sitting over there.
order the washer dryer from Australia
https://www.ebay.com/itm/313757836018?hash=item490d6ca2f2:g:G8EAAOSw9bRieibj&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8IOd5u0xRnD1HOR9pIAImmeodvEPwiJImnxRAvvFYa0VCw60z5zsZNq68WQh%2Fyz1v92iV0xTvqWHFA6ohCG%2F9KeBUmp%2BKQM8t9NCccM26feA6PMRtrDQE%2FpNJ8jBouCmm7%2BegkZl4cgfgl7bdA4a%2BdiPA9J%2BxnHcIVThVNiUSvKPGzPBK%2FDtbJp03M0CW2hLHmfFvKlvT9NCrin3hGKbiDAOwo6%2Ba39x3mrfys25IpxlUjAVAnjWc9j%2F0hGnR9mi2HciiHBTOrkcBOpouri%2FVLmM8BUCrnQhRqDbGnRjdp1eZxDHVFMAEONws4mG5XqDYA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABFBM_PmE6dBi
Yes, but ideally, we’d like a 120 volt version!
I have seen the mini washer dryer installed in some expedition trucks using a 240v inverter or a 120v to 240 v Victron auto transformer or another cheaper transformer. Here is a video of the washer dryer
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7_5MMMDd5Ew%C2%A0&feature=youtu.be
We’re so spoiled!! What’s wrong with a bucket, some soap, a gallon of precious water and a dryer line?? That’s what we do and it works great, especially with clothing made from modern easy to clean and quick drying fabrics.
Well, I won’t deny that I spoil myself with RV goodies.
But when we’re out exploring, I’d rather spend time hiking or biking than squatting in a river, beating my clothes against a rock.
You could say the same thing about having a heater in your RV. What’s wrong with an extra blanket and wool socks??
We all have to decide for ourselves how much “roughing it” is enjoyable. Something like this obviously appeals to those (like me) who like their roughing it a little less rough.
Cool that you started with the Heosafe locks. When we bought our RV 2 years ago, the first thing that we let install were a complete set of heosafe locks.
Vehicle doors, RV door and the garage doors. They’re all locked behind these extra deadbolt locks.
All based on the principle that our RV has to look better secured than the one next to it.
18 halls you say?
Hmmm. Maybe we do have to visit Dusseldorf next year. It’s not that far from where we live.
That’s a good philosophy. “Our RV has to look better secured than the one next to it.”
I may use that!
I do highly recommend a visit to Caravan Salon. About 2.7 million square feet (250.000 square meters for our European friends) of exhibit space – most all of it indoors.
I installed a C-Head in my old RV (Travato KL) and have looked into putting one in my EKKO, but the way the EKKO toilet is installed makes that impractical, so I found the idea behind the Arwinger quite appealing. What isn’t appealing is the price. A full kit plus shipping is going to be $1500+ which makes this a rather impractical option. If I were going to be full-timing and boondocking a lot, then I might consider it, but not at this point.
Well, I can’t say much about the price. It is expensive.
But the idea is still pretty cool.
James, you invented the Americanizer – can’t you come up with a splash guard for us, too?
I’m sure I could… but since it’s just Stef and me, the costs of getting it produced are a little daunting!
I like the diesel fueled incinerating toilet. Especially since the van I’m building is a diesel and my plan is to use a diesel boiler for heat and hot water as well (hopefully from an added aux fuel tank).
Barring that, the cassette toilet dumping splash guard is a slam dunk.
I still don’t like exterior bike racks. An opinion further reinforced after a friend’s bikes were stolen off his rack while traveling from MT to VA a couple of weeks ago.
We almost didn’t see that splash guard until we were about to leave the show.
I’m trying to contact the manufacturer to get a link or some way that we can order it. I’ll post back if I find something.
I think I found the company website, but it’s all in German and I couldn’t find anything about the splash guard.
https://reisch-tech.de/
Along with a 6 minute video about it – also in German.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-WubYI00WM
However, as I think about it, I have two concerns about the device. First, cleaning off whatever splashes up onto it. Second, you now have this… item… that has had… stuff… splashed onto it… that you now have to find a place to store in your RV. Hmm….
Yes. I found those as well – but with no clear direction on how to buy. I’ve asked them for more info.
I had that same thought about cleaning it. I think if we were to get one, we’d keep it at home, to keep our own bathroom clean. It would also be easier to store out in the garage that way.
I love these kinds of vids.
Can’t see why you can’t order the bin locks from Germany. Be neat for a powered key fob option too.
I really like the Bike rack thing for the exact reasons you mentioned. But, I hate the powered actuator for it. Have to run power to it. I would rather have a replaceable 100 lb gas strut assist with a manual lock. Maybe something you could engineer or design eh??
We have owned an Incinolet incinerating toilet since February. It is truly amazing and a total gamechanger for us at the cabin, built in Texas and YOU can replace all the parts if necessary. We have not noticed a real difference with the energy bill either. We initially looked at cinderella but their pricing is absolutely insane 5k for the toilet AND you have to buy the rest of an install kit and other accessories. The incinolet lets you use any pipe or venting you want, just make sure you make a precise measurement when buying the power cord any keep in mind the plug is a 20 amp plug. I would send you a pic of it but that is not an option here haha
In a cabin, where you might have electric service or a large propane tank, I’d consider an incinerating toilet more seriously. Glad yours is working out for you!
And I’m working on the HEO guys as far as the locks go. I’d love to be able to try a set out on our storage compartment doors!