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Airstream Accessories

Gear Review: Scosche Magnetic Phone Mounts for the Truck and Airstream

Smartphones are a full-time traveler’s best friend, providing music, navigation, email, social media, a camera, and occasionally even phone calls. Of all the places we put our phone on a daily basis, there are two more important than most.

We have a car mount that holds the phone in a good place for navigation, and we have a mount where we place our phones to charge while we sleep. To make alarms quieter, we mount these to the wall right above where we sleep. This makes for potentially faster (and quieter) shutoff when our morning alarms attempt to raise us.

Up until the past few years, we’ve been using these Dockem Smartphone Wall Mounts, but they have both broken in a small way that prevents the phone from falling on our head while we sleep. It was time for an upgrade.

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I had my eye on a solution that would work with a variety of phones, not just the ones we currently have. It had to not require a special case, and should be able to handle different sizes. I settled on the Scosche Magnetic Dash Mount.

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These mounts work by combining a strong magnet in the dash mount with a small metal plate you can stick inside your phone case on any phone. Then, you just place your phone on the mount and it sticks. The hold is strong enough that the phone never falls off, yet can be easily pulled off when we need.

The picture above shows the dash mount glued to a Arkon Dash Mounting Plate left over from use with our previous suction cup phone mount. We’ve used that mounting plate a few times with different products, and it does a fine job sticking to the textured dash, while providing a smooth surface for things that need one.

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In addition to the car mount, they sell Phone Wall Mounts as well, which we placed on the wall where our old holders used to be kept. They look like this:

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Now, our phones mount nicely to the wall and in the truck, with mounting plates that will work on future phones as well! The picture below also shows a black cable clip that we use in several places to hold USB cords in place.

It is worth noting that the same company sells an ‘XL’ holder with stronger magnets for larger devices like full-sized tablets. The normal ones work just fine with our large-ish phones though, so I would only make that jump for a much larger device.

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Airstream Accessories Inside the Airstream

Airstream Accessories We Love – Jambox, Reading Lights, Wall Clock, Garbage Can

Accessories We Love

We’ve updated a few accessories over the past few months, and it’s time to share some of the changes we’ve made. These are all items that we use regularly and love. All links are affiliate to Amazon (where we buy A LOT of stuff). You pay the same, but we get pennies for our Percy Jackson addicted children to buy books. Total win-win.

JamboxJambox

The Airstream has a cool built in sound system that even came with an external speaker. The tech is firmly rooted in 2005, however. The remote speaker is Mono, and requires either an AC plug or a zillion D batteries. We ditched the external speaker for a Jawbone Jambox, and it serves the need nicely. This also saves the power draw of the main sound system in the Airstream. We’ve had other bluetooth speakers before, and nearly anyone would work. The rubber top and bottom of the jambox make it not slide around, because sometimes we get lazy and don’t put it away during drives.

garbage canKitchen Trash Can

Under the sink, there is a built in garbage can. Over the first few months of travel, we decided we didn’t like it, and Jess came up with this Simplehuman Brushed Stainless garbage can. We place it in front of the pantry drawers, and it is short enough to fit under the drawers as they slide open. And of course, it’s silver! This is also nice and stable during drives, as it lives on the floor. In the space opened up by not using the under-sink garbage can, we hide an electric heater, an outside tablecloth, and an athletic roll.

reading lightsReading Lights

Our bed reconfiguration left us without reading lights in convenient locations for the kids. We found some cheap reading lights as replacements, and they have been perfect. In addition to saving battery life while boondocking, the kids have better light and can read without keeping each other awake. Better yet, these were cheap, and we can stuff them with the same rechargeable batteries we already keep on hand.

41kDopNSqnLWall Clock

This clock was actually our first Airstream customization, way back in Virginia. The real magic of this clock is how I mounted it to the wall. I cut a piece of a plywood  to fit just inside of the round clock. I used command strips to stick this to the wall, and the clock friction-fits right to it! Battery changes are easy, and we’ve never had a problem with the clock while driving.

We did modify this clock by cutting the tick marks in half, and cutting the hand wands a little shorter to fit in the space above our television (you can kind of barley see it in this post here). We love it, and I’d buy the same clock again!

eneloop

 

Eneloop Rechargeable Batteries

Jess has over fifty of these AA batteries from her wedding photography days. We’ve had to add a few more Eneloop AAA batteries for reading lights, dream lights, toothbrushes, and other kid’s toys. They work great, don’t loose their charge, and store easy.

 

charger

Battery Charger

To go along with batteries we needed something to charge them with. Jess also picked this Titanium Fast 16 Bay Charger up from a photography friend, and it works great. You can charge the batteries one at a time and it holds both AA and AAA batteries. Best feature? It also has a DC plug so no worries if we aren’t plugged into shore power.

 

These are all some additions we’ve made since we bought the Airstream. You can check out the kitchen post here as well. Happy shopping!

 

Categories
Airstream Accessories Inside the Airstream

Kitchen Accessories We Love: Pans, Utensils, Sink Caddy, Knives

Over the past few months we’ve acquired a few things for the Airstream kitchen that we absolutely LOVE! Here are our top current favorites:

Magma 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware Set with Non-Stick

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This pan set is everything I could want and MORE. So ridiculously happy that Riveted blogged about it awhile back so that we could discover its awesomeness. I chose the non-stick version (also comes in stainless) because that is the way I prefer to cook. I love that these pans nest together to take up the least amount of space possible. There are two removable handles to share between the pans, and as long as I attach them properly I’ve never had one even come close to falling off. Removing the handles while washing also conveniently fits them in our sink.

Simple Human Brushed Stainless Steel Utensil Holder

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Bought this off Amazon and was unsure whether we’d keep it or not after it arrived. A few days into our first trip, we totally fell in love. Doesn’t hold an exorbitant amount of kitchen utensils, but that’s the way I like it. Love that the front compartment is shallower for smaller instruments (can opener, garlic press) and I LOVE the built in spoon rest. Seriously one of my favorite features.

Simple Human Sink Caddy

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We original thought that this wouldn’t fit on our sink as the suction cups kept falling of. Then we cleaned our sink and it stayed just fine. Oops. Stays great even while towing, holds two sponges (one for wiping off counters, one for washing dishes) and a scrub brush from IKEA. We just unhook it and rinse it out every week or so to clean it. Helps keep our counters clear and less wet.

Kai 6-pc Pure Komachi Knife Set with Sheaths

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We originally just bought a few knives from Walmart and stashed them in a drawer. Then I found these at Costco. We debated for a bit as the set contains knives I don’t really use (citrus? really?) but decided it was still a great deal. I love the bright colors, and having sheaths to slip them into helps me feel less paranoid about my kids reaching into the drawer. Plus, it protects them from nicks and dings. LOVE these.