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What is the CarGenerator and is it useful for RV boondocking?

StressLess Camping Podcast

With California’s impending generator ban what can you do if you still need clean, safe power for your RV? This week our RV podcast guest is Jonathan Schloo who has invented a gadget that lets you tap into your vehicle to provide power for your RV or even devices in your home. This is a unique solution that really makes sense and we have the fully story. 

This is also a great resource if, like us, you have a solar and lithium system in your RV but want to have a back-up for cloudy days or shady campsites. 

The StressLess Camping podcast is a weekly RV podcast with information, tips and tricks to help every RVer and camper enjoy some StressLess Camping.

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Automated transcription of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 201

Welcome to the Weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into stress less camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some Stressless camping. 

Welcome to the Campfire. 

I'm Tony. 

I'm Peggy. 

And we are two RV industry veterans, zoo travel, part-time 

in a small trailer, 

Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, 

Tricks, 

And discounts. 

Spring has sprung in New Mexico. I think it has sprung in a few places, but I know there's still some people out there that are saying, I got to know this week. So that's stinks. I know it does, but I don't know. Spring is my favorite, favorite, favorite season, especially in the desert, because I have very, very, very fond love for Spring Wild Flowers. 

Last week on our social stuff, we did share articles about Joshua Tree and the Spring Wild Flowers there. Yes. And funny thing, there's Spring Wild Flowers here in New Mexico too. 

Yeah, absolutely. 

We also shared a whole bunch of stuff about New Mexico. So for those of you who follow our podcast, that's what last week's episode was all about. 

That's right. Now we got lots of ideas and advice about where to visit in New Mexico. And as a follow up, I got a bunch of emails and we got a lot of comments about more places that we hadn't even talked about. So Tony and I have some exploring to do if we'd ever stay home for more than a day at a time. <laugh>. Yeah. 

And I'm, I'm really good with that. One of the cool things about being out here in the desert, and one of the reasons we bought this place Yeah. Is to host Boondockers. 

Absolutely. And that could be all of you, <laugh>. 

Well, not all of all of you at 

Once. There might be too many. We do have an acre, but still there's a lot of you out there <laugh>. But of course that includes you if you're coming through town. But also as members of the Harvest Host and Boondockers Welcome program, we are Boondockers welcome hosts. Yes. And we are super excited. Like in the next few weeks we have three different people coming to Boondock with us. Yeah. 

And we're really looking forward to that. And you know, if you would like to find great places to Boondock Harvest hosts and Boondockers Welcome, have over 4,000 places. And many of them are what I call experiential. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we got to stay on a farm a few weeks ago. That was neat. Yeah. 

We even got to buy some eggs from that farm. 

We stayed at a distillery. We've stayed at breweries, we've stayed at museums. 

And those are all Harvest hosts. But we've also stayed at Boondocker welcome sites. Yes. So we have stayed at private properties. That's the boon, docker's welcome side of things. And the private properties are, you know, just someone who has enough yard or driveway that they can accommodate an extra RV parked for a day. Yeah. Or, or even a couple, actually, boondockers welcome tends to have a little more leeway. A lot of times Harvest Host, you'll need to stay only one night, but some boondockers welcome. 

You can stay two or three nights. 

Yeah. And the good thing is, since Boondockers Welcome are predominantly private properties, people's houses and such, there is no cost to stay there. Although there are some hosts that do provide or make available electricity or water or other services. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and of course you can talk to them about that separately. Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts are essentially owned by the same company. Yeah. We have a discount through our discounts and deals section of our website. 

And that's what we're going on about <laugh>. It's a great service. We use it quite a bit to find basically free camping all over the us. Yeah. That is also a great camping spot. So if you have a self-contained rv, that's, that's what they require. You might look into becoming a member of Harvest Hosts and Boondockers welcome. And if that's something that appeals to you, look at our discounts and deals and save yourself a couple of bucks on saving. That's right. Yourself. A couple of bucks, 

<laugh>. There you go. Now people will say in the Harvest Host system, you know, they do expect you to buy something or take the museum tour or something like that. But honestly, those are things we would buy or see or do anyway. And we usually try to find Harvest hosts locations that are things that we're really interested in. So it's not like it's a hardship to, I don't know, buy a growler of beer or <laugh> or take a tour of a train museum. Right. 

All of those things are things that we would wanna do even if we weren't camping there. 

Yeah. And, and something you might use, if you are at a Boon Docker's welcome site or a Harvest host site, is, uh, what our next guest has created. And so, without any further ado, we're gonna talk to Jonathan Sch, SL of Car Generator. And before you, some of you say, wait a minute, aren't you guys all about solar and battery systems? 

We are. But we talk about that. So Jonathan and Tony and I will talk about why this car generator is a good backup to the solar. That's a backup to <laugh>, whatever else, 

<laugh>. Anyway, here we go. We are with Jonathan Sch SL who founded a company called Car Generator, which allows you to use your vehicle as a generator. So Jonathan, welcome. Thanks. 

Thanks for having me on the podcast. And it's nice to be with you and to chat about us. 

I think some listeners might be surprised when we talk with someone with respect to a generator because we have been advocating solar and battery power for our own use. And actually, I think what you have is a perfect compliment to how we use our rv. So first of all, let's talk a little bit about the car generator. 

Car generator is a really simple device and people, you know, probably I, I sometimes I wonder, why didn't someone else do this first or invent this first? And it's really, it's a really simple device that turns your car into a generator and it does it in a very user-friendly, simple way. In a very safe way. So my background, I'm a bit of a serial entrepreneur. I ran a tech company for 20 years, and then my wife and I bought an Airstream trailer, a 30 foot Airstream, and we love it. And we started to travel. 

And when I first got the trailer, I was really excited because it had five big solar panels on it. And I thought, man, we can go anywhere and we can do anything. But then we kept pressing the cappuccino button a little bit too many times and we found that we actually need more power. 

And we also found that many times when we were camping, especially with the tightness of campsite these days, a lot of times you're camping in the shade or under trees, or it's raining, the weather just doesn't cooperate with you. And so I thought to myself, man, am I gonna drag a whole big engine and a 200, 150 pound engine around with me or whatever? And I said, my car actually is a generator right there. So I figured out a way to do it safely. And that's how Car Generator originally started. 

So we could camp off grid, recharge our trailer batteries and run things in our trailer. And, and then one day in the fall, I was sitting on my front porch and I was thinking, what happens if the power went off in the wintertime? How am I gonna keep the house warm? And first I had bought a bunch of kerosene heaters and I was all prepared with a, you know, ways to keep it warm. 

And people think, you know, oh, I got a bunch of firewood, I've got, you know, three cords of firewood in the back and I can burn them. And you yes you can, but it's a lot of, it's kind of also a lot of hassle. It's a lot of storage and hassle. Yeah. And I realized there's a way. So I hooked this up to my home gas furnace and it ran, and it feeded the whole house. So you can use car generator. And then that winter we actually had a big ice storm. We had no power for three and a half days, and we just started our car and ran it. 

And we ran our furnace, our fridge, internet, a couple of things like that. And we ran for three and a half days. And when the power came back on, wow, we'd used about a half a tank of gas. So that's how Car Generator was born. And we realized, this is the product right here, you can, we have to bring this to more people. So that's where Car Generators started. And then a couple years later, we actually went on a show called Dragons Den, which is like Shark Tank. And we landed an incredible deal, a hundred grand with two investors. 

That was a real big pivot point with millions of eyeballs, uh, people watching us across the nation. And that's really, car generator has been growing since then. 

That's incredible. And it's a, it's a great story too. And now Jonathan and I crossed paths digitally when as a quote unquote old car guy, <laugh> me, said, oh, you can't, can't idle your, you can't ile like that. You can't ile your car for long periods of time, you're gonna ruin it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and I used to write a syndicated car column and then I thought maybe I should contact some of my contacts. And they're like, no, dude. Idling is no longer a big issue like it used to be. 

The other side of it is now that so many cars idle anyways, any hybrid car, when you sit there, you'll notice that the car, any hybrids for sure as well, you just sit there and it starts up and it idles for five minutes and then it shuts off. Another big pivot point was just a couple years ago, Ford came out with for Pro Power on board. So now you can buy a Ford F-150 with a 2000 wat inverter built in. And Ford tells you, you can just start your truck and let it run for 85 hours. 

Ford fully support it, warranties it, it's completely fine to do. You can do that. And when you run out of, you know, when you're done with that, you can go fill the tank and then just run another 85 hours. And nothing foundationally has really changed. It's a simple Ford Gas boring F-150, just a standard F-150. They have a hybrid version that's got a much bigger generator. But just at its most basic level, the F-150 with a 2000 wat built-in inverter does. Exactly. We do the same thing with our product, but you don't have to buy a new $70,000 truck. 

You can do it with the the truck you already have. And people love that. So that's what we do. I 

Like the no $70,000 truck perspective of it. <laugh>, there is a lot of news being made about California banning generators, but that doesn't apply here. 

In most cases. It doesn't apply. So sometimes if you're in a very urban environment, there's anti idling bylaws, you have to check them. We actually have a standing offer, the first person to get an anti idling ticket or whatever while they're using their car generator for emergency backup purposes that we will either pay or defend it. And we've never been taken up on that because the truth is, if your whole neighborhood is, is out of power and you're running your, you know, car to create backup power, I gotta say I'm pretty, uh, very doubtful that any, uh, bylaw officer is gonna come by and ticket you. 

And in fact, in most of the anti idling bylaws, you'll notice there's exceptions for emergency situations for what's called PT O powered takeoff. So that's, if you're doing something with the power, if you're using it for something, it really doesn't apply. 

And on top of all that, most importantly, it's just greener. It's much better, it's cleaner. I can tell you when we've been at campgrounds, uh, we were, we stayed in a campground, it was actually a radio free campground, uh, a couple of years ago. And when I walked around, all I could hear was the sound of generators running. And it's like everyone was running a small lawnmower at their site, <laugh>. And it was honestly, it was terrible. <laugh>. And I ran our car generator every once in a while, every day or two just to top up our batteries and our neighbors didn't even notice it. 

So there's that. It's just a lot quieter and cleaner. No generator out there has thousands of dollars of emissions like your car has built in. So 

That's something not to be overlooked is most generators have an, uh, muffler and that's it. And it doesn't That's right. Seem to do much. But anyway, but your car, your truck, whatever you're driving has a tremendous and very sophisticated emission system. And your emissions from the idling a vehicle are actually pretty darn low. They 

Really are. 

And further, something I really like with car generator, let's say you, you're deciding should I buy car generator or a generator? Generator? Well, a car generator, you're already maintaining your vehicle. Yeah. 

Mm-hmm. 

<affirmative>. 

Whereas a generator, you have to, you know, you dump the gas at the end of the season and blah, blah, blah and change the oil and all that and find a place doing that to your car, 

And then you have to find a place to store that generator. Yeah. 

And the gas, 

And you have to lift it up into the back of the truck. <laugh>. Yeah. 

I would say that's the most common thing we hear people do as soon as they buy a car generator, is they sell their existing generator. We've been at rallies and people buy a car generator and a couple days later you see their, their generator in the flea market in the open swap exchange market because they're done with it. They've been carrying it around for months and months or carrying it around all summer with a bunch of smelly gas cans. And they never use it or rarely use it. And they love the fact that with car generator, they can just, it's there, it's nine pounds for our dry model, 11 pounds for our all weather model model. 

And you can store it, you know, under your bed in your trailer. You can store it in your vehicle, you can store it in your bedroom at home, whatever you like. It doesn't, there's no smell, there's no none of that. Yeah. 

It's just simple, good electronics. It's not, there's no gasoline, no muffler, none of that. How does car generator hook up to your vehicle? 

Car generator at the heart of it is a pure sine wave commercial grade inverter. So that's what's inside the car generator. And what we've done is we've created a user-friendly, patented engineered enclosure that it's all in. So you can basically take your car generator in less than a minute, just hook it onto the front of your car. There's an adjustable strap that you can put it to the right level. And then you attach the built-in custom engineered heatproof engine booster clamps and start your engine and plug in whatever you need to your car generator. 

So basically it attaches to the jumpstart points of the vehicle. So in some vehicles, the battery is under the passenger seat. In my car, in my car. It is, uh, in some cases it's in the trunk. You never attach it there. You always attach it where the manufacturer has designated jumpstart vehicles and jumpstart points. This goes also for hybrid vehicles for pure electric vehicles, wherever the manufacturer says to attach jumper cables for emergency, uh, starting, that's where you attach car generator. 

Okay, 

Makes sense. So it's simply like hooking up a a ba you have the clamps and it's simple Yeah. Hookup. And of course, as you said, it doesn't weigh 150 pounds, so pretty much anybody can lift it. There are different models available too. Correct. 

There are. So we started off with, again, what is our, also our most popular model right now as well. It's the 1000 watt all-weather model. And while on the surface some people might think, oh, a thousand watts, what can you do with that? Or people are normally thinking in 3000, 5,000, you know, 10,000 watts. The trick with car generator in the, the, the, the magic is in figuring out the, you can take a modest amount of power out of your car safely and easily and use it to do a couple of things that you need. 

It's not gonna power everything in your house and it's not gonna power your hot tub and your walk-in wine cellar and everything else. It's really <laugh>. Just the magic isn't taking what the car is ready engineered to do and just pulling that out to do a different job. 

So every car out there is engineered such that you can go start it on a cold day and turn on everything, all the wipers, heated seats, um, cabin fan on high air conditioning, whatever it is you want. And it will run all and support all those things. And car generators simply, we just say, okay, you're not driving anywhere. Shut off all those accessories and pull that power out to do a different job. And your alternator doesn't care at all. All uh, whether you're, you know, running your, the fan in your cabin, in your car, or whether you're running the fan in your home furnace or running your fridge, it doesn't really care. 

It just produces power. So that's really, that, that's how, uh, you connect car generator. And one, one other interesting point, people have asked how much gas does it use? And we've actually shot videos. 

And you can even use an O B D scanner if you, you can get one from Amazon for a hundred bucks and you can see on it what your fuel rate is. So you can see for yourself, it uses about the same amount of gas as a portable generator. The reason is because a small engine, a, a small primitive sort of dumb engine that is a, that is a gas generator is no match for a, or is e equal in terms of fuel consumption to a large but very sophisticated, very calculated engine that every vehicle is. 

So it's about the same to run either of those. 

It's simple. If you look at physics or math, it just takes so much energy to accomplish a task. Right. So it doesn't matter. It does well, there's not that much factor of how big an engine, it's more about what you're actually trying to do with that engine 

And the calculation. It's interesting, just so you know, um, the techies in the room, they find it's interesting. So it's about five horsepower per 1000 watts. So to generate a thousand watts is about five horsepower. So you can see, you know, modern engines are several hundred horsepower. It's really a very, very easy task for it to do. And it's not hard at all. 

That's pretty cool. And one of the things not to be understated is, let's say you use this for camping as mm-hmm. <affirmative> would be the logical reason why we're talking with you. But let's say you're living somewhere like Northern California where they choose to shut off the power for an hour a week, whatever it happens to be, and you're using medical devices or you don't want a thousand dollars worth of meat in your freezer to go bad. That's another use for, for this. 

And then if you're an rvr, you don't necessarily have to attach it to the RV to power the freezer in your house or your C P A P or whatever. You could also use, if you have a regular car at home, 

You sure could. And that's interesting over the, um, the real pivot point, um, since 2018, we have so many customers, we've seen so many stories. We've had people that use it for C P A P machines, oxygen makers. One person had, his wife was on a, they had a hospital bed at home that had an oxygen, uh, like an airbed or something like that. And the power went out and they needed a way to keep that bed running. Another customer used it, his wife had a hip operation and she had an assistant, one of those chairs, the electric lift chairs and sh they needed to run that so she could get in and out of her chair. 

So there's so many things you can, you know, you need power. The most recent one we've been kidney dialysis. Oh 

Huh. 

People that do dialysis at home and have a machine at home, well when the power goes out, they, that has to go on. They need to do that. And so it's very easy, you know, it's not just start your car, attach the car generator and do what you need. And we produce pure sign wave power, which is very clean. You can use it for not only sensitive electronics but also things like that as well. 

It's a neat device and I'm convinced I, I think this makes so much more sense than lugging around a big generator. 

And I think I would add to that, it's interesting that car generator is an intentional choice. You know, a lot of people they can buy, they could easily buy a cheap generator, you know, at anywhere, a big box, Walmart, home Depot or whatever. But they intentionally choose to buy a car generator even though it's around the same price because it's just less hassle. It's less storage of gas cans. They don't have to store a bunch of smelly gas cans and deal with the danger of that. It's light, it's maintenance, there's no extra maintenance to do. 

It's reliable. So car generator is really a choice for people that really don't want the hassles of a gas, a gas generator. <laugh> 

<laugh>. Yeah. Okay. So I'm convinced, where do I get one? 

You go to www.car generator.com uh, and you can buy, our most popular model is the all weather 1000 watt. Now if you have a bigger truck or a bigger vehicle, you can, you could look at a bigger one, like 1500. We have a make a 15, 1500 wat model, a 2000 wat model and a 3000 wat model. The way that you can calculate, if you want to know how much power you can take out of your car, if you call your car dealer and you hit the parts department and they will tell you what the rating of your alternator is, it's very easy. 

Then reduce that by half because it's idle speed times 12 volts and that gives you what you can pull out. So if you had a 200 amp alternator as an example, that's a hundred amps at idle times 12 is around 1200 watts. 

Roughly around that is what you can expect so that you can, we also have a really cool upgrade program that if you buy a thousand watt car generator today and then in the next two or three years you need to upgrade to a bigger model and you have the vehicle to support it, you can upgrade for just the cost difference. So we'll give you your money back for the one you bought towards a larger unit. You got a brand new bigger unit. And then we're able to use those other units to come back in our demo fleet or in some cases for cool humanitarian and emergency aid, um, purposes. 

So it, nothing goes to waste. But yeah, it's a pretty cool program. You can upgrade even two or three years afterwards. So the main model to look, look at is the all-weather 1000, it's, it's 1,001. 

So if someone turns their used one in to upgrade, is there maintenance that you have to do in order to make it reusable or, or is there things that we should know as owners that we have to do to the car generator? 

Nope, there's no maintenance at all when we get them back in that kind of situation. Uh, depending on their condition, um, sometimes we will refurbish them and sell them as factory refurbished in some cases. In other cases they'll become part of our demo fleet for people that want to try them. In other cases, we actually, you'll see on our website, if you go to www.car generator.com and click on videos, you'll see we partnered with a company called Global Medic and they actually use products like this to go in into humanitarian where there's disaster areas to produce power as needed for things like that. 

So there's all kinds of cool things that we do with car generators. The main point of it is that you can upgrade, even if you, you buy a the thousand wat model, if you do need to upgrade in the next two or three years, you can and just pay the difference to go to a bigger model. That's 

Unheard of in the, in any industry. Right, right, right. You get it all your money back to upgrade to Yep. The bigger better matter model 

And you're, what you're using, whether you upgrade or don't upgrade what you have now or what you buy the first time or whatever is something that you don't have to worry. You don't have to know how to maintain it cuz you don't have to <laugh> 

<laugh>. Yeah, that's always good. 

<laugh>, there's no maintenance. I always say it's like the old VCR we have in the corner that we bought in the the nineties. It's still sitting there flashing 12 0 0 <laugh>. Um, cause <laugh>, it's still works just as good as the day it was born. And generally speaking that's the joy with car generator. It's not like a, you know, one of the things that we hear is the, we call it the two and a half year. Oh my gosh. And that's where people rushed out two and a half years ago. They bought a gas generator in a power outage. They used it, then they threw it into the shed or the garage forgot about it and now they need it again. 

And it doesn't start. I mean that's the biggest downfall is it's like having a car that you buy that you only use once every two years only to drive to the hospital for an emergency. Like the, the concept of using something that you really depend on only every couple of years, that's a mechanical thing you have to maintain, you know, it's much better to use the car you use every day. Yeah. 

Right. 

Yeah. It just makes sense cuz you're already keeping it running and now you've got a smaller thing and, and I know there are campers out there who tow with SUVs or vans or Yep. Things like that and you just don't wanna put a standalone generator inside one of those things. Yeah. So then what do you do with it if you bought that? 

That's exactly right. The people that tow an SUV or a van especially, I mean we actually do, and especially in that case where where am I gonna store a gas can and a smelly generator? I can, I've, I have friends that actually that bought a camper and they spent a lot of money to have someone custom make a big giant metal box to go on the back bumper of the camper so that they could store this smelly gas generator and a gas can in there. Yeah. And to me that's just a lot of work. You know, like how often do you really use that? 

Why do you want to carry that around? It's just something else to, they actually had it custom made, it was like a, a big custom metal dog cage that stored their generator. And that's a lot of effort, honestly. Just get a car generator and that's a simple way to do it. So use the car you already got. Yeah, right. 

It makes, it makes a lot of sense. And even if you're people like us who are really kind of nuts about solar and lithium, there's days where that just doesn't produce enough to, to fill the tanks. So you hook the car generator to your tow vehicle, plug it into your camper, top off your batteries and you're done. And, and it makes the pack with any electric thing nowadays, whether you have an electric car or an electric RV mm-hmm. Or whatever, there's always the, what do they call a range anxiety <laugh>. 

Yeah. Right. And this completely eliminates that. The 

RV geeks, they're another podcaster and they actually got a car generator and took it on a trip and all that. And that's exactly what they, they called it battery anxiety. So they've got solar, they've got a trailer, you know, all that's good. But they had battery anxiety because if the sun doesn't shine and you need the power Yeah. It's called battery anxiety. Other people call it that as well. Okay. 

Yeah. It's more than the sum of its parts. Right. I mean you could collect the individual pieces, but what you've done is you've packaged it such that all of the components work together. It has the quality. Yeah. It's weather proof as you said. So, and those are all really important factors when you're dealing with a tremendous amount of electricity. 

It is, I mean, you think about your, especially with home backup, you're connecting the two most valuable assets most people have, which is their car and their house <laugh> and you're connecting them in the rain in bad weather. Like what could go wrong with that <laugh>? Yeah. Right. Or your trailer, you're connecting your car and your trailer electrically with high voltage in the rain. What could go wrong with that? Like that's where we've solved those problems to make it safe and usable for people and, and a very turnkey solution 

That can't be understated. Yeah. 

So I just thought, you know, what if there's not an emergency, what if you just happen to be carrying your car generator around in the back seat of the truck mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you just happen to be carrying your induction cooktop and your picnic basket and you wanna go to the top of a mountain and have a warm picnic. Yep. There you've got power for your induction cooktop. You don't have to carry a propane stove top either. 

You got it. Exactly. And in fact, I love that you brought that up because we've actually shot videos of me cooking soup by the side of the road just, just because I could. And actually you go to car <laugh> car generator.com and you click on videos, you'll see that and it's very simple. It's right there. We just use an induction cooktop or you, we used an instant pot, those kinds of things to heat up or make food while we're on the road. And it's just, it's, it's a beautiful thing. So your car is so useful and so versatile and it's just so simple. 

Also, this 

Is gonna change tailgating forever. Yeah. 

<laugh>. Well, and if you're an off grid camper mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, I like, we have our solar generators, which are basically just a box with a battery and an in is inverter and, and that sort of thing. But this also again allows us a way to charge those. So it just, it makes sense even if you're like us, you're kind of solar nerds or <laugh>, that kind of thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> it, it's still something you want in your arsenal of camping here. 

All right. That's a really good point. We've actually been surprised a lot of customers have a solar generator like Jack EcoFlow, blue Eddie Goal Zero, any of those kinds of things. And then they use their solar generator and it gets run down and they don't have sunshine or they didn't bring their solar panels with them or whatever. They just run the car generator for a couple hours and it'll quickly refill it. So that's another way of looking at it. You know, that's another really important thing. Solar is great, but car generator is like having 10 massive a hundred watt solar panels that you don't have to put up or do anything with. 

Really. You just start up your car, attach car generator and it's the equivalent a thousand watts of having 10 massive solar panels. But that's day or night without any hassle. And when you're done, just put it away and forget about it. Yeah. 

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, if you're using your solar generator, the mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the battery, you know, when you're gonna discover that you're out of power is right at sundown, you're like, oh man. And then you have your car generator, you're 

Set. That's really the truth. And when it's raining outside and you're stuck in a campsite, you're gonna be inside. You need power. That's actually when you need it. You're not, all those solar generators are lovely. It's always a sunny day and the family's out picnicking, but that's not always the way it is. Sometimes you're stuck on a campsite in the shade, in the rain inside and you wanna watch TV or use your computer and that's where car generator is fully weatherproof. You can see videos on our website under a full monsoon shower. And that's really what it is. 

It's not just an inverter. It's actually a fully patented North America wide engineered enclosure that makes your car turn into a generator. 

It's a heck of a great device. Yeah. And I'm, I'm really glad I got to learn more about it and I think it's just something most campers should have in there arsenal of camping goodies. Yeah. 

Thank you. And the one other thing we've, I'll mention from our customers, um, a couple of times they've sent in reviews that they, they have, you know, flaky batteries in their rv and they're worried about going camping, but running outta juice. And for them this has been really a lifesaver because even if your batteries are a bit flaky, you know, you're not gonna be super hung out for to Dr. High and dry. You know, even if your batteries are kind of not so good, you can just easily hook up and recharge them easily. So 

That's a very good point. 

All right. So then I have a surprise question for you <laugh>. Sure. 

I love 

It. We always love to spring this on people. What is your best camping memory? 

Ooh, wow. The best camping memory. Uh oh. You know where it was. We were going along and we needed a, we needed a place to stay for the night for the, it was getting late in the afternoon. We needed a place to stay for the night. And we just looked for where was the closest campground. And we found this place called, I think it was Eaton Campground. It was in upper New York state and it was this most beautiful, magnificent, lovely campground. We were right on the edge of a lake, our campsite backed right onto it. 

And we ended up staying there for two days. It was a real surprise. We didn't book it ahead. We didn't even know. And it was, the weather was amazing and we just had such a beautiful time there and it wasn't planned. We didn't, we didn't know where it was gonna be. We just happened to find a stumble upon it and it was really awesome. 

Awesome. So conversely, <laugh>, what is your worst camping memory? 

You know what, I'm gonna answer that. My worst non-camp memory was, I remember this very clearly, and I'll explain why I call it that. We had done a road trip to Florida and we were driving back from Florida. We had no trailer at the time. And we were driving back and we were super tired and every town we stopped at, we were checking into hotels, we were trying to see could we stay here, could we stay there? Nope. Drive an extra 50 miles to the next town. And then I realized if we had a trailer with us, we could have literally stopped anywhere, cracker Barrel, Walmart, whatever, and be all set. 

So that was actually my worst driving non-camp memory. And that was for me, the pivot point when I realized, you know what, having this thing with you always is honestly the best way to go. 

I just, the stress, well, in the theme of Stressless camping, right? <laugh> the stress of w Right. The stress of worrying about a hotel and accommodations. And finally in that particular night, we ended up in this Fleabag motel. It smelled terrible. And we just stayed overnight cuz we were so tired. But I realized never again, why wouldn't I just like park somewhere and sleep in my own bed, make my own coffee in the morning, enjoy myself, have a shower in anywhere I am. 

And I love that. So that's, that's really, that was a pivot point where I realized that trailering is, that's our way of, of travel. We love that. The hassle of 

Excellent 

Planes and trains and moving. It's, it's, it's the way to go <laugh>. And it is truly Stressless. And I love that man. 

That might be the best answer we've ever gotten. <laugh>, 

Thank you. It, it is like once you start doing that and you realize that, why would you wanna travel any, any other way, honestly? Like why would you? Yeah. Why? You've got your own bed, you've got your own sheets, you've got your own clothes, you're never packing an unpacking, you know, trying to catch a ho bellman in a hotel room and fighting with people in elevators. You're just in your own space. Okay. <laugh>. So the downside is you have to dump, dump your own black tank once in a while. Well, fine, <laugh>, I can, I can live with that. Yeah. But yeah, 

<laugh>, 

Yeah, 

It's freedom. It's truly the best. And I love that we have two dogs and they travel every with us. So Yeah, they can literally go anywhere with us and they can travel and we don't need to worry about is there a hotel nearby, they accept dogs, all these kinds of things. Right. 

Yeah. It, it's just another aspect of RVing. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, Jonathan, thank you so much for your time and for your product and for sending us one to try out. Yes, 

For 

Sure. We will definitely keep in touch. But I, I truly do believe this is a component of your camping arsenal that should be in everybody's toolbox. Right. 

Thank you very much. I really appreciate your time and being on the show. Thank you for having me. And let me know if you ever need help and I'll also mention if anyone needs help with their card generator, just card generator.com or call us anytime. +1 800-611-7550 and we've got North American support that actually can help you or video or whatever you need anytime with car generator. So we're here to support it and we wanna make sure that every single customer loves our product. And thank you for having us again. 

Oh, it's our pleasure. Thank you. Thank you 

<laugh>. Okay, enjoy. And have a great day. You as well. 

You too. Thanks. Thanks. Okay, 

Bye. 

That was pretty dog on. Neat. We think the car generator is a really nifty gadget to have. 

Absolutely. And it'll make a really good backup for us as we're traveling around a backup to our a ABC Outfitters power package solar system. Because on those days where maybe you get a lot of shade to park in, or maybe there's a few cloudy days or something and the solar panels just aren't soaking up enough sun, this is a good, easy, lightweight, <laugh> way to have some power, even if the solar isn't the one providing it. 

For example, uh, we talked briefly about harvest hosts and boon block's. Welcome at our most recent stopover. Our neighbor had a great solar system, but because of that he was so happy with it. He ran the air conditioner for hours. Yes. And suddenly found himself having to replenish the power once the sun was about to go down. That's right. And if he had had a car generator, he could have done so. But I showed him our system from ABC Upfitters and he was really impressed with the quality and how well packaged it was and how well integrated it was. 

And I see a lot of people who say, oh, well I can put my own, you know, lithium batteries and blah, blah, blah. Sure. Yeah. But you know what, I just like when stuff works and the systems from ABC Outfitters just work and they're there as a backup if you have questions or needed more information and that sort of thing. 

And don't forget, if you own a Forest River RV and you plan to go to Frog Rally, which you really should do, ABC Upfitters will be there and they are having some specials that they're doing for Forest River owners at the Frog Rally. That is a good thing to talk to them about now, because you don't wanna wait until you're there because then well, you know, all the appointments will be taken up <laugh>. 

Well we hope so, but even if not, I would give ABC Upfitters a call of your solar curious or just wanna know, you know, what can it be integrated into your rv? What type of workers is involved, all of that stuff. Right. And Peggy mentioned the Frog rally. We will be there. We are giving three seminars at the Frog Rally and Frog is Forest River Owners group. Right. So we hope to see you there. If you are a owner of a Forest River rv and perhaps you could set up an appointment and upgrade your Forest River RV to one heck of a great off-grid system. 

So you know, it's spring in New Mexico. Well, I mean, it's any time in New Mexico that the wind doesn't blow too hard. <laugh>, which honestly is n a numbered number of days, <laugh>. But this weekend we got an opportunity to go and watch a hot air balloon launch and we loved it. It was super fun. And we did, Tony did make a video about it. So we will put a link to that video on YouTube and you can check out if you've been curious about how balloons get themselves up in the air. 

Well they don't do it on their own, obviously <laugh>, but if you would like to see a little bit of the process of putting a balloon up in the air, we got a chance to check it out right from the start. There is something so magical and peaceful about seeing those balloons just floating up there in the sky. 

Yeah. We actually interviewed Adele Woodruff during Balloon Fiesta and this was her balloon. And so we got to go and kind of, well I wouldn't say we crewed because we shot a lot of video. Right. That's really our contribution of the day. But 

We did see a lot about how to crew and we both kind of had the perception that it was like much more physically demanding than it seems to be. There were some kids there doing some of the jobs. So I mean, if an eight year old can do it, maybe I could do it. <laugh>. 

<laugh>. But are you smarter than a fifth grader? Probably not. You know, we wanted to also experience this whole balloon crewing thing because that's the role that we are gonna play at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. That's right. 

We 

Couldn't buy tickets, but we were able to get in by volunteering to crew. 

I mean, we still bought the tickets, 

But Yeah, that's 

True. But in order to get into the group Escapees, which is a, a membership group buys 50 sites every year. And we found out that they had some sites open and so we signed up to go with the Escapees group. So be, we'll be in with 50 other Escapees RVers and we'll be helping to crew. 

Yeah. And then there are a lot of opportunities to crew I know here in Albuquerque and I know they fly hot air balloons in other parts of the world. So if that's something you're interested in, you might find where that's happening in your neck of the woods. Yeah. And go and give it a try. It is a lot of fun, I have to say. Right. 

So last week we kinda skipped over a lot of our features and one <laugh> and one of them was the RV of the week. So Tony, do you wanna skip it again or you got something? No way, 

Man. I got something hot off the presses from our friends at Winnebago. 

They have the new Winnebago Mini 26 30 M L R K. A lot of the posts I read on the various social media sites people are asking for, gosh, when are the RV companies gonna put a desk and things like that. Well, Winnebago absolutely knocked this out of the park. It's a travel trailer and it's a fairly long one at 30 feet, but it is a couple's camper with a real queen bed and a mid bath. 

So the bath actually bisects the trailer. You know, the bedrooms on one side, the living space is on the other. And I know for some of you that's a deal breaker, but 

Yeah. But we really like that idea. Oh yeah. Because that separates the bedroom completely from the living space. So if you have, are a couple who has much different schedules or one of you likes to get up really early, then yeah, that's, that's me. The other one can sleep in without being disturbed. 

Yeah. That's not me. <laugh>. <laugh>. But this is really cool in that it's got a big L-shaped counter in the back and it's just a tremendous amount of, of counter space. And in that counter there's a pullout section that's actually can be a table or desk or whatever. It comes with two sort of folding type chairs or portable chairs. There's a choice of either a folding couch or theater seats. So you could have seating for four, you can take those two folding chairs and kind of turn 'em around and face the couch or theater seats and now you've got dining or game night or flip those chairs around and, and you have a great workspace as a desk. 

There's als, this is the first time I've seen this. I know in the past on the Stresses camping podcast Facebook group, we have asked, do you use your RV oven? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and a good number of you said yes for storage. Mm. <laugh>. Right. And the interesting thing about this trailer is that there is no oven. There is a convection microwave and a three burner cooktop, but no oven whatsoever. 

Interesting. 

Yeah. And I watched a video from our friend Josh Winters, Josh the RV nerd. He said that it could be, they could install an oven, but wasn't clear whether it would be an option from Winnebago or a dealer installed option. But either way, I mean, if you want one, it's possible to, to put one there. But I think this trailer seems to answer a lot of the wishes that people have for a couple's camper. It's a, you know, like I say, real queen size bed, some of the best bedside table organization that I've seen, there's sort of two levels and both sides get both U USB and household outlets. 

That 

Is great. Yeah. Yeah. 

And, and plenty of campsite windows wired up for a second air conditioner if you're, you know, in the south or whatever where it's hot and want that really well thought out trailer 60 gallons of freshwater and 2 49 gallon gray tanks. Ye so a lot of pluses. The only downside is I would, you know, Winnebago has a package that they call flx, which is kind of like the equivalent of our power package from Rockwood. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they don't offer it in this. 

And well, of course you could always go see a Yep. Fitters. Sure. But it's kind of a bummer that they have such a great package, but not on this. But nah, who knows, maybe that'll change. And you can always go to ABC Upfitters, but I just really liked this trailer. In fact, I don't know how many of you remember this, but at one point we were kind of looking to build a custom trailer, starting with a cargo trailer. And essentially this is a floor plan that we wanted to implement. Right? 

It's very, very similar to what we were thinking of. 

So, uh, one of the better couples camper floor plans that I have seen out there. 

Another thing that we didn't get to last week, because we were so fun having so much fun talking to our friends, <laugh> was our question of the week. So I gave you an extra chance to respond, and we got a bunch of responses because this is a pretty touchy subject of which a lot of people want to chime in <laugh>. And there are no wrong answers. And this is demonstrated by the fact that we got all the different answers. The question was, have you replaced your RV mattress? 

And I'm surprised I have to tell this story. When I worked at the RV dealership, a number of people would say, just don't, I don't even want the mattress. Just do something with it. And so I found a woman's shelter and I offered them, you know, all these mattresses from the RVs, they're all of course brand new. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And at some point they, they're like, yeah, don't bring these anymore. They're all, they had enough 

<laugh>. So anyway, a few people said that they like their mattress. Now, one person, I think I remember they said that their RV came with a Serta mattress. So it wasn't just the flimsy RV mattress that everybody hates, so they didn't have to change theirs out, but a few people didn't change theirs out. And you know, I think if you like a really firm mattress, you're okay with the one that comes with the rv, 

Or if you happen to be accustomed to sleeping on a park bench. <laugh>. 

Anyway, about a dozen people said that they traded theirs out, but they didn't tell me what their brand was, and that's okay. Nine people said that they put a topper on. And that was the way we solved ours in the beginning. Well, in the beginning, the first five years, our RV mattress just had a three inch topper on it. And that was fine for us until we were able to get a ghost mattress. Yeah, 

We really liked that ghost bed. 

And then someone in the responses said that they, because of our review, they got a ghost mattress for their home and they liked it enough that they also got one for their rv. Then among other brands, there's the Zionist, the Brooklyn, the Sleep Number, lucid Costco, <laugh> Purple Select Comfort. You know, again, there's no wrong answer. It's what is right for you. And so if you just got an RV and you hate the mattress, here are some ideas of ways that you can fix that. 

Oh, and also we asked Abby from RV Miles to tell us about their affiliate because they have an affiliate with RV Mattress. And if you look in the Stressless Camping podcast Facebook group, in that question of the week about mattresses, you can see the link that Abby posted, if that is the answer that you think is right for you. 

You know, there's kind of no one answer to any mattress question. We also really, really like the Ghost bed. We have an affiliate link for that too. Right. So if the ghost bed mattress is right for you and you want to help support the podcast, well just go to discounts and deals. And there's a link to the Ghost Bed mattress. 

Exactly. So this week my question is, what is your favorite season and why? I don't just want a one word answer here, boys and girls, I wanna know why it's your favorite. Some people loved camp in the Snow, that is not us. <laugh>. I love those desert wildflowers. So, you know, spring is my thing. Spring 

Is your thing. 

That's right. Of course you know that you can answer that question of the week and all the questions of the week at our Fun and friendly Stressless Camping podcast, Facebook group, <laugh>. 

By the way, did you know we did a once a week newsletter and it's free and it has links to the stories, videos, and podcasts to help you get the most outta your RV experience? 

You can just visit our website, stressless camping.com and sign up for the weekly newsletter. It's free. You can sign up as on a popup. If it's your first time visiting, welcome, welcome for sure, <laugh>. Or you can sign up at the bottom of any page if you are finally ready to start getting that weekly newsletter, <laugh>, oh 

Boy, <laugh>. And while you're on the website, find the notes for this episode, episode 2 0 1 on the podcast pages, stressless camping.com. 

Of course, while you're there, you're gonna definitely wanna check out the discounts and deals page for the best deals on things you need for your Stressless camping adventure. Yes. 

And of course, if you have a great deal for our our audience, let us know. We're always on the hunt for the best stuff out there at a great price. Yep. Of course. You know, we're in all the social places too. And you can find us on the social places by starting@stresslesscamping.com. 

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And of course, if you don't want to miss a future episode of The Stresses Camping podcast, it is absolutely positively and totally and completely free 

To subscribe on any podcast catcher <laugh>. We are saving you a seat, around our virtual campfire. 

If you'd like to help out the Stresses Camping podcast, know that a review on whatever podcast tool you prefer will help others find this podcast, which means they are more likely to recommend us when people are looking. And that just helps us grow our little family here. That's 

Right. And another way that you can help us is to share if you see content or if this was like the best episode ever and you wanna tell all your friends, please share it in any social place that you are hanging out. And again, that gets more people to know about us and that helps us grow. It's 

A great way to help stress us camping and it won't cost you anything but a little bit of time. Right. So thank you. Thank you, thank you. 

Well, that's what we have for you this week. Yeah. We hope that you're having a terrific spring so far, and 

Happy camping. 

We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless Camping Adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.