• Your new fifth-wheel RV may not have it all.lake mead national recreation area 14 image by Jim Parkin from Fotolia.com
  
  A new fifth-wheel RV should come fully equipped, but the size, number or quality of some of the roadside safety items may be less than optimal. Before you take your first trip, examine every item in your new vehicle. You may need to improvise with household or workshop items or purchase everything recommended. Afterward, you will be able to drive with confidence, knowing that you are prepared to handle any roadside emergency or campsite engineering issue that arises.
  
  

Four Boards

• RV refrigerators must be "dead-nuts level" or they will not work, advises full-time RV camper, Scott Bidstrup, author of "RV Fulltiming: Is It Right for You?" While most new fifth-wheel trailers are equipped with automatic leveling jacks, the feet of these jacks are rarely large enough for soft ground. Keep four pieces of two-inch by four-inch by 24-inch stock lumber handy to place under the leveling jacks when you are on sand, pea gravel or muddy ground.
  
  

Four High Quality Metal Wheel Chocks

• Many standard-equipment chocks are too small, made out of plastic, or have insufficient strength for emergency roadside or long-term campsite use. Wheel chocks prevent "trailer creep" when parked on uneven ground, according to the Lifetips website's Material Handling Tips FAQ, "Why Use Wheel Chocks?" Wheel chocks also help control any side-to-side motion or bouncing when you walk from the front of your RV to the back. Wheel chocks are required equipment for trucks, trailers, buses and RVs.
  
  

Second Spare Tire and Rim

• Dual blowouts do happen, so purchase a second professionally balanced, full-sized spare tire and rim before leaving the dealership. Running on a single spare with a dual blowout is extremely hazardous. Replace both spares immediately, once you use them.
  
  

Truck Drivers' Emergency Roadside Kit

• Purchase a professional-grade emergency kit that includes flares and reflective safety triangles. The kit should contain several pairs of heavy-duty work gloves, a set of socket wrenches, a four-pound sledge or cross pein hammer, and the largest pair of channellock pliers you can find. The hammer and pliers are especially useful if your hitch pin or lever jams.