So you just spent ages finding your Moho and probably a considerable amount of money on it, but they never have everything you need to live comfortably in them, particularly if you are spending lengthy trips away from home or planning to become longtermers. That’s why we have compiled a list of motorhome upgrades that have been made to our Moho either by us or the previous owners including approximate costs and links on where to buy them. They might not be to everyone’s taste or budget, but they are things we think are either essentials, or things that improve the quality of our Moho life. To simplify things we have broken them up into inside and outside upgrades and are things that are permanent fixtures to the van. Our packing list will contain a full inventory of what we believe is essential kit to take with you (warm weather Moho-ing) excluding the obvious things like clothes and toiletries. This is the most commercially driven section of our site with links to Amazon. If you chose to buy the products via a link on our site, we will receive a small commission that will help towards the cost of running the site. Like a big supermarket says….every little helps!
Upgrades – Outside
Awning
Again, for us an essential piece of kit to be able to sit outside in the relative comfort of the shade – more so for Marley. Ours was in the van when we brought it but expect to pay anything from £800 plus fitting. We were lucky in that ours can be fixed back to the van for support rather than having to peg the legs into the ground. We have been known also to string a washing line between the 2 arms when there had been nowhere else to secure it, for drying our clothes.
Refillable LPG
Let’s face it, gas is expensive at the best of times in the UK. So if you are frequently using your Moho in the UK and need heating or if you want to be able to wild camp, it might be worth considering upgrading to a refillable gas tank. Ours has a single 11kg bottle that is refillable plus we have a calorgas bottle as a back-up. If you are upgrading, you can get a 2x refillable bottle system from Gaslow for around £400. The cost of which I’m sure would pay for itself over a couple of years. We have been using up an 11kg tank in around 3 weeks in Europe to heat our water, cook and keep the fridge running. It would probably last longer if we stayed on campsites and powered the fridge by electric. As it’s averaging around 25-30 degrees (lucky I know) we have not needed to use the heating so far. In Spain in particular, gas is very cheap and it costs around 15 euros to refill a tank completely. 
Bike Rack
For us and any mohomers out there, having another mode of transport is essential as it’s not always practical or indeed possible to go everywhere in you van. Perhaps the cheapest and simplest form of private alternate transport is having a bicycle and for we need a bike rack. Ours was on the van when we bought it. it’s a Thule and has a capacity of 75 kilos. Ours has space for 2 x bicycles but we have seen them with space for 4 bikes. We have seen an increasing number of people opting for electric bikes, just make sure if you do go down this route, then your carrier has enough weight capacity as Electric bikes can be fairly heavy. 
Solar Power System
This comprises a solar panel and something called a solar controller that converts the power from the solar panel into the correct output to charge you leisure batteries. Ours is a 100w system that was on the van when we bought it. It was running through a cheap controller that wasn’t wired correctly and didn’t link up with the mohos computer. So we had that upgraded and can now see how much power is being produced. We are currently in Southern Europe (in July) and it gives us enough charge in the sun not to have to use electric hook up anymore – a nice feeling as we are no longer tied to campsites. You may need a more powerful system to be off grid in the UK (I’ve read somewhere between 250-300 watts should be enough). 
Oyster Satellite
This is an auto tracking satellite that picks up terrestrial (plus Sky if you have an account) anywhere in Europe. It’s not something we would have purchased as they are very expensive (circa £2500) but as it was on the van when we bought it, it has been a nice luxury. 
Headlight Protectors
Having a shattered headlight on a Hymer is no joke, as we experienced earlier this year for no apparent reason, we went to start of a journey and saw the front light in pieces. It was £750 for a new one so we decided to buy a set of headlight protectors to save us from stone chips and another £750! Check-out ebay ‘hymer headlight protectors’ – Currently £80 or the the lazycamper.
LED Daytime Running Lights (DRL’s)
Related to the previous on headlight protectors, we read that the standard DRL’s can make the headlights very hot and perhaps prone to shattering in cold mornings. Not sure if any of this is substantiated, but for £2 we changed them for LED variants and of course, they are more environmentally friendly. 
Superchip
Our Moho already had this installed when we bought it, but it’s supposed to increase the BHP (Break Horse Power) by remapping the ECU (Engine Control Unit) of the engine – we have a + 30 BHP increase in horsepower and 20% improvement in fuel economy – trust me this all helps as they are not the most efficient or powerful engines when you are close to 4 tonnes in weight! There are multiple sources for these online and depending on how mechanically minded you are, you can fit them yourself. 
Reverse Camera
For us, an essential piece of kit, ours had one when we got it, but it was old and did not give a very good image. As we already had a pioneer head unit with screen, we decided to get a pioneer camera (ND-BC8) – really straightforward to fit and we did not have to run cables front to back, as we spliced into the old wiring. There are stand alone units with screens available, even wireless options. See the links below for some options; 
Tracker
We went with a company called Phantom in the end, they came out to us to install and now our Moho is monitored 24/7, and wired into our Sigma alarm system. So far so good. It cost £300 of which approx £100/year subscription for their service.
Upgrades – Inside
Dashcam
Having been in insurance limbo trying to get the other party to accept blame for my motorcycle accident 7 months ago a dashcam/helmet cam would have been invaluable to speed this process up. We opted in the end to go with market leaders nextbase due to ease of installation, wifi connection and the simplicity in retrieving data should you need to. We opted for the 515GW as it records in Quad HD (Whatever that means) it does have excellent quality footage – see our Nerja Post and how not to drive up a hill in a moho…..or check it out on youtube that footage has been reduced in quality to keep the file size down. We also opted to have it hard-wired into our fusebox – a really simple job that only took about half an hour. 
Inverter.
Again, we were lucky enough to inherit a 1500w inverter when we bought our van. The purpose of the inverter is to run or charge 220v alliances when you are not on electric hook up – just make sure you have enough juice in your battery before you plug in. 
12V TV
Our van has a specially adapted cupboard for a T.V, so when we chose to upgrade the 15” rather dated original T.V, we wanted to keep it discreet and still have something that would fit. There are 12v market leading brands out there that come with DVD players built-in, but as we got rid of our DVD collection sometime ago in favour of streaming films, we opted for a lesser known brand that was considerably cheaper and has all the functionality we need from a T.V. It’s only 19” but how big a T.V do you really need – we only really watch it a couple of times/week. 
LED Bulb Lighting
Another upgrade definitely worth doing if you intend to do a lot of wild camping and reducing the drain on your leisure batteries – LED bulbs can consume up to 90% less power than halogen equivalents. We have changed all the bulbs in our Moho for LED . G4’s are the most common 
Mobile Internet/Router
So, depending on what domestic network provider you are with, how much data you use and how long you are going to be away for, will impact on how you choose to get your internet abroad. For us, we’ve tried a couple of things so far with varying degrees of success. (We have been away for nearly 11 weeks so far). Most UK providers will have a ‘roam like at home’ tariff for you to use data within the EU. We are with EE and we get up to 15GB each while we are in Europe. They have a fair usage policy whereby after 2 months they class you as not being on holiday and can therefore restrict your usage allowance….touch wood so far, they haven’t capped us other than the 15GB each month. We will update you on this, should things change. As a back-up for the Moho, we purchased a Huwaei mobile router with a signal booster, so that we can connect our Firestick to stream films (When we do not use our mobile as a personal hotspot). For that we bought a couple of pay as you go sims -The first a 24GB with Three network 
You can also buy a permanent 4G signal booster for the outside of your van and install it yourself or get these guys to do it for you. They seem to be the industry leaders at getting everything you need in your Moho in terms of WIFI and broadband. We haven’t used them, but have heard good things. Why not check them out: motorhomewifi.com
