Additional 12v Port

We always use a Garmin GPS as our primary device, so it dawned on me that its power supply should be up on the dash, rather than hanging a cable down to the ashtray. So we installed a new 12v receptacle here, which is almost exactly where Mercedes installs them on the passenger vans.

Paper Towels

It was inevitable, ugly but convenient. 

And by the way, if you don't know about these things, you should check them out. It's like having a roll of rags, good for serious clean-up that normal paper towels tremble in fear of. We keep a roll on hand in the van at all times.

Console Storage

Since we removed the Mercedes shelves near the visors in lieu of our headliner shelf, we are short on cockpit storage. I moved the old console organizer from our Eurovan Camper into the Revel, and it works pretty well. 

It also comes in black, and can be found at Pep Boys and Amazon.

Outerwear

We use our headliner shelf for storing all of our outerwear. However, hats and gloves get lost up there, so we're using packing cubes for storing them. Color-coded cubes might be handier for identification at a glance.

Refrigerator Findings

We cook all of our own meals when we're on the road, so we always have a loaded fridge. We wish the refrigerator were larger (and less noisy), and we may attempt to improve that at some point.

We got a thermometer that has a remote sensor so we can always see how the fridge is doing while we bang around in 100 degrees. The sensor in this picture is the little white box on the 2nd shelf. It reports its data back to the main unit in my hand, and we keep the main unit up by us in the cockpit. 

We noticed that this fridge is happier and more efficient if we don’t pile much stuff near its thermostat in the upper left corner — it needs air circulating past it. In fact, there is often a 8 - 12 degree difference between the area near the door and the back of the fridge near the thermostat. Based on feedback from the Revel Facebook group, we bought one of these, and think it's helpful. And while we were at it, we got some of these, too.

Drawers

This is our early attempt at using the galley drawers in the Revel. As the months have progressed, we have made some refinements, but it's basically what you see here.

This smallest, lower drawer is holding atmospherics, like candles, LEDs, Xmas lights, etc.

Galley Cabinet and Dishes

This is our solution for storing cookware in the cabinet over the stove. Nested cooking pots on the left, plates and pans nested in a vertical holder, insulated coffee mugs on the right. Everything is wrapped with foamy cloth stuff (cabinet shelf liner?) to keep items from rattling. We hate rattles!

Doing Dishes in the Revel

Our system for doing dishes: dirty on the right, clean on the left, and don’t forget your dish towels. Don’t really love the macerater pump, but it's a necessary evil, given the location of the refrigerator. Love the hot water, we never had that before in our beloved Eurovan Camper!

Gloves and detergent live here when we're traveling.

We needed a good place to hang our wet dish towels so that they can dry. We decided on this location, and I reluctantly put a few screws in the door to fasten the clothespins. Others have suggested using hot glue, but I've never used it, and don't know much about it.

Keeping the Van Clean

Call us prissy, but we have a NO SHOES IN THE VAN rule. Keeps it super clean inside, and we run around in socks or slippers inside. To make this work, we have a thick, rubber-backed doormat that we always drop outside the sliding door. Take off shoes, step onto mat, hop into van. At night, we bring the shoes inside, too, and store them in the footwell of the sliding door. (A small dustpan and broom are also useful for us.)

Cargo Net in the Garage

My wife and I feel that ‘everything has to have its place’ in a small van, and can’t stand disorganized, jumbled crap rolling around & getting under foot. Since we travel with oddly-shaped exercise equipment (like the yoga mat, below), we needed a simple solution for it. 

As a first approximation, I threw this cargo net solution together very quickly. It was wider than we needed, so it’s doubled over on the right side, but could stretch to the back corner of the van, if needed. 

I wanted any/all mods to be non-destructive, so I used existing screws for the tie-down points for the cargo net. In this case, I bought some ‘1 Hole Strap’ fittings that are used for tying down electrical conduit, and bent them to make them a bit smaller & tighter. 

Just to be clear, I did NOT drill new holes here, I just used existing wood screws that fastened to the cabinetry through the plastic housing. 

This is ugly, but it was the fast, $2 solution that my hardware store had. I’m just CERTAIN that there is a little device that slips over a screw head in order to provide a ring or hook point, but I’ll be damned if I could find anything in my local store. 

Edit: This would be an improvement: https://fasteners.fasnap.com/viewitems/metal-d-rings-hardware/screw-mounted-d-rings

WGO ships the Revel with three screws in the top of the bolster (under the bolster pillow) that are driven into the steel frame. I used these as the anchor points, then attached two chain links and an S-hook. Again, this was the fast, $3 solution to the problem that I found in my limited hardware store. 

Edit: This would be an improvement: https://fasteners.fasnap.com/viewitems/metal-d-rings-hardware/screw-mounted-d-rings

Here’s the cargo net that I bought off Amazon for a few dollars. 

Update 2020

I finally followed my own advice and used D-rings throughout the project. I'm not sure if I'll continue to use the black plastic hooks that accompanied the cargo net, or if I'll maybe bend some S-hooks.

Screen Compartment

I didn't like the fact that our screens and tarps didn't have a safe, flat place to reside without getting smashed or bent. 

I noticed that there about 3 inches of vertical space in the rear of the bed, so I decided to make a compartment for the screens and tarps there. However, the belts that raise the bed also travel through this space, so I needed a way to shield the screens and ensure that they didn't slide into the belts and get chewed up.

I wandered the aisles of my hardware store to find something that was L-shaped, lightweight, several inches high, and could be installed into the Revel non-destructively. I came up with this thing, which has a plastic L shape and which I could easily cut into two pieces with a hacksaw.

I fastened the two pieces to the inside of the bed with double-sided tape. In the above picture, you can see one of the pieces forming the left side of the new screen compartment. 

This is an overview of the new 22x29x4" compartment with the screens inside. The left and right sides are formed with these L-shapes, the top is formed by the center brace that Winnebago installed in the bed, and the bottom side is formed by the side of the bed itself. This works very well - - they don't move around, they don't get beat up & smashed/bent, and they are easy to access by just lifting the mattress and reaching in.

Pantry Improvements

We make all of our meals when we're on the road, so we tend to travel with a lot of food. As a result, our pantry is typically very full. However, Winnebago's first few units did not extend the shelf supports all the way to the top and bottom, meaning that owners have less flexibility in how they use the pantry. We needed to fix this.

Can't put shelves up here.

 Can't put shelves down here.

I bought 4 new pieces of 48" shelf support, twice as long as what was previously installed.

Ran it all the way to the top.

All the way up and down.

Winnebago only shipped the Revel with 2 shelves, and that just wasn't enough. So I made 3 more shelves using aluminum stock and some plywood (didn't go hunting for matching formica).

I just used the existing shelves as a pattern, and it took about 2 hours to make these new ones. Required a jigsaw, hacksaw, drill, and screwdriver.

Also needed more shelf clips, easily purchased from my local big box store.

Locked and loaded!

Dinette Cabinet

We wrestled with different ideas for the dinette cabinet, and decided to go with this simple, non-destructive approach for a while. We bought these simple folding/stacking shelves that have lips and sticky dots for keeping things from sliding off them.  

First aid kit and toiletries to the left, miscellaneous 'important stuff' to the right, with an aisle between for taller items.  This system has been working well for us, even after 3 long trips.