Securing peace of mind: exploring the benefits of RV extended warranties
Should you buy an extended warranty for your RV? What are some of the things you should look for - and is it better to shop at the dealership or independently? Do you need a warranty to qualify for financing? We speak with the Vice President of Operations at Wholesale Warranties to see how that company works and the kinds of things you should look for.
We also go back to Route 66 and stay at two landmark places and have a new essential that should be in every RVer’s tool box. Plus our weekly maintenance tip is an easy inspection that could keep your RV from literally falling apart.
Other places to hear the StressLess Camping RV podcast
Mentioned on this episode
The hummingbird feeder Peggy got on Amazon
ABC Upfitters article on potentially getting a tax credit on your solar upfit.
This week’s guest was Jim Hoffman, Vice President of Operations at Wholesale Warranties
Tony’s article on extended warranties - is an RV extended warranty right for you?
We got to stay in a couple of iconic Route 66 motels. We detail those places in this article on Route 66 landmarks
Tony’s article on what happened to the historic motels of Route 66
Peggy’s recipe for gluten-free tuna poppers
Tony’s article and video on Nite Ize gear ties
Our honest RV review of the forthcoming Alliance RV Delta 262RB travel trailer
Speaking with Scott and Tay from Camper’s Hub in Colorado
Join our weekly email family for more tips, tricks, articles, hints and hacks.
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Our trusted partners - RV Discounts and Deals
Automated podcast transcription for Episode 203 - Wholesale Warranties
Welcome to the weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into Stressless 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 who travel part-time
In a small trailer
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Tricks,
And discounts.
We are loving our own sticks and bricks in the desert. It's like being camping because we're out there every day watching the birds nests and watching the babies and hearing the coyotes Howell and uh, I'm gonna call it the bunny hop. I don't know if they were fighting or flirting, but it was fun to watch. They'd run around a little bit and then they'd just hop straight up in the air together. Yeah,
I, I think I know what they were doing. Yeah, they were making rabbits.
Might have been a mating dance or something. I dunno. Something <laugh> and the hummingbirds. And I wanna tell you about a hummingbird feeder I bought at Quartzite in January, well actually two, because I couldn't decide between red and purple. So I bought both. So they're pretty cool feeder. They're like a tray. Then the lid to the tray has a lot of raised holes in it. And then there's a, like a shaft, the hanging part. And they're really great quality. I've had a similar design before, but this one is like that unbreakable acrylic, even the shaft.
And they're, I just really like them a lot. Now the one thing is the instructions. There's inside the tray as a little divided part and it says fill that divided part with sugar and it's got little, it's like a grid wall and then pour the hot water over that sugar and it dissolves the sugar and fills the whole tray.
Well, I don't know if it's that method or this dry air, but a couple times that we've been gone for long periods of time, we come back and there's a lot of sugar crystallized in the base of that tray. In the bottom of the tray. So today I tried it and I boiled the water like I used to. And I'm gonna see if that makes a difference because I always thought that you have to get the water to just slightly boiling just for a little while to make sure that that sugar's really, really dissolved.
And also, I want to implore you please, if you look for hummingbird feeders online, every single one of them is brightly colored red, sometimes purple, but bright colors. And that is what the hummingbirds are attracted to. Please don't use red food coloring in your sugar water. All you really need is a cup of water and a quarter cup of sugar.
They will find it. They're not really meant to eat food coloring.
Right.
Speaking of dos and don'ts, we had a friend who shall remain nameless who wanted to upgrade their solar package and had asked a number of times, and of course we're gonna recommend ABC Upfitters because I think they do a superb job. And everybody I know who's gone there has been very, very pleased with the work. Well, unfortunately, this friend decided, no, I'm gonna save a little money and do it myself, which has postponed his camping season and he's running into all sorts of issues with wiring and components and it's just a a, a big pain in the neck.
It is not Stressless, not Stressless
Camping.
In fact, it's no camping right now.
Yeah. Because they have to wait for stuff to get fixed. So unfortunately, and you know, here's another piece of great news though about solar. Ah-huh
<affirmative>,
I heard that it's possible you might be able to write off your solar package.
Well you might write, be able to write off a portion of it. Ah, okay. Not the whole thing because that would be fantastic. But sure. There is an article on the ABC marketing website. ABC Marketing owns ABC F Fitters. There is an article there that explains how you might be able to write off a portion of a solar upgrade. Again, their installs are engineered, they're designed specifically to what you ask for and how you camp. They do ask you a bunch of questions when you're planning your system.
The bottom line is they just work. They're installed properly, they're matched properly, they're high quality components and Uncle Sam might even kick down a little bit of tax credit. At the very least, if you're solar curious or thinking of going solar, give ABC Outfitters a call. They'll talk to you and and answer questions and the phone calls always free. Right, right. That's what I suggest. And we have links to ABC Outfitters in our show notes
And you can read about that possible tax break and you can read about their systems and stuff. But if you really just want that personal touch, give them a call. Their number is 5 7 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 5. Yeah.
And don't forget they are offering a discount if you're gonna join us at the Frog rally in August, uh, they're in Indiana, there is a discount available as well. So lots of reasons to call them. A very important one of which is when you get us ABC Outfitters Solar package, it just worked one
And done and you're out there camping. Yeah.
So I had written an article a while back about extended warranties and whether or not an extended warranty is right for you. And a lot of people assume that you have to buy the extended warranty with your rv, but actually that can be a bad idea for a number of reasons. One of which is that you are financing the extended warranty for the same length of time as you're financing the whole rv.
But typically the warranties don't run as long as RV financing does. So you're paying all this interest and there's a period of time that you have the financing but don't have the coverage. Dealerships sometimes sell you really great warranties. I know I was very proud of of the warranty company we dealt with when I worked at Redwood Empire RVs cuz they just fulfilled the the claims. Right. They were good. But not all dealerships are like that.
And the biggest thing of all there are dealerships who say you have to have an extended warranty to qualify for financing. That's actually not true and it may not even be illegal. So my advice is if you're buying an extended warranty, you can look after market at companies. And we had the privilege of speaking with Jim Hoffman who's the vice president of operations of a company called Wholesale Warranties. And they are essentially a broker that sells a variety of warranties that are actually vetted.
So I got to speak with Jim Hoffman this week and I think if you are at all interested in an extended warranty, this is a pretty interesting interview. And I was very pleased with the lack of sales of this company and I've heard about them for years and they have a really good reputation, which is surprising for a warranty company, right. Cuz people usually write reviews after they're cheesed off.
So anyway, without any further ado, Jim Hoffman, the Vice President of Operations of Wholesale Warranties. I've heard of your company for years and years and you guys do really well, especially for an RV warranty company.
We step into the batteries box with two strikes on us. We're an online company so we can't shake hands with our client that already for the demographic is a little concerning. And then two, we're an extended warranty company, which over the last 30 or 40 years isn't coming with a great reputation for a warranty brokerage. I think we have done exceptionally well. And I mean selfishly I'm really proud of this, this service that we provide. And I think that hopefully speaks through, there's value to what we bring and, and I think that transcends through how we conduct ourselves.
So what is the history of wholesale warranties? How did you guys come about?
Our owner and Josh Shelton grew up in Minnesota and his family was in the marine industry like a, a boat dock. And you know, people could with, they could run out boat slips there and as he progressed and you know, he would see a lot of people bring their RVs and boats and different things and obviously boats similar to motor homes or or auto, you know, break down every now and again and he would watch people go through filing a claim and what have you. Went off to college shortly after graduation, he went kind of back to the marine industry and, and started to be an agent for dealers on extended warranties.
And kinda what he was realizing was that these dealers he was interacting with after the sale, there wasn't a lot of follow up other than him. So he would get calls from customers and asking anything from can I get a copy of the contract to, I don't agree with the denial on this claim.
And he kept trying to work within a dealership establishment of trying to get assistance instead of him being the point of contact. And then he decided to become the point of contact himself. So instead of being an agent individually to all the different dealerships in the Minnesota area that he was at, he just incorporated <laugh>. He became a full-time RVR and as some in cold weather stakes, he got in his RV and headed out to California kind of doing his business the old fashioned way at at different RV sites and campgrounds and, and he got to San Diego and he enjoyed it and he's like, I'm gonna establish my roots here.
And for I think the first two years it was strictly out of his rv. He eventually got a few employees and kind of wholesale was started with the notion of it seems that you can only buy a extended warranty at the time of purchase from a dealership. And what he was able to research and kinda carve out as his niche was all be able to offer extended warranties to anybody. Whether they're a new vehicle, a used vehicle, whether you're buying from a private party or a dealership.
He was able to carve out away to get that transaction to happen outside of there.
Which makes a lot of sense and something that I think can't be understated is when you buy a new rv, a lot of them are fi, are financed for a very long period of time. They are, I mean we would do 15 and 20 year loans on some RVs and you buy the extended warranty as part of the new RV purchase. Now you're financing that for 20 years but the warranty's only good for whatever the term is, right?
That's something that makes no sense. So buying not from the dealership and not rolling it into your financing can save you thousands of dollars just on that factor alone.
I think one of the things that we try to, to educate people who reach out to us, one of the things that we try to stress is that a dealership is great and you may have a great rapport with that dealership and a vast majority of dealership employees are on the, you know, not necessarily the up and up, but they're there for the benefit of the customer. But at the end of the day a dealership's business model is to sell and buy RVs. And so to your point, when a warranty is financed into the contract, you know you're paying a lot of the interest first and you're not actually paying down on the rv.
The other component of it is we try to educate our customers to ensure that they understand what type of warranty that they're buying from the dealer. There's different plans based on the year make value, but compared to an acquisition cost of an RV of a hundred grand or 150 grand, the warranties, you know, a small percentage of that. And so when it just kind of gets dropped in there, a lot of customers you know after the factor are more like, ah darn it.
I really wish I would've <laugh> been a little bit more present when that, you know, that sales pitch happens in the dealership
Having come from a dealership. The typical thing to sell a warranty as well, it's only $7 a month or whatever the number ends up being. But really that that's not what serves you well. I mean you should really read the co the warranty contract cuz there's so many different variables. But back to wholesale warranties, how do you guys go about choosing a warranty for a customer? Because I know that you don't just have one kind of extended warranty.
Our owner does a really good job of going out to the different admins and seeing which admins are fully insured and you know, he has a checklist of what policies we wanna be able to offer. And then once we find an admin that we are comfortable selling that policy. The next phase is to kinda look at what they currently offer, how long of a term, what coverage. There's a listed component or exclusionary or if you're concerned just about the high ticket ones, there's engine and power train.
But we really do try to push back on a lot of the administrators to say, you know, instead of a four year we want a five year instead of a six year we want a seven or instead of a deductible at 200 we wanna see an option for a hundred. We try to do our best to get as much information or as many variables out there. But then typically our warranty specialists, based on a kind of a culmination of all that information, we'll recommend a policy that the customer ultimately, hopefully feels good about.
So then basically you work with people rather than say here's what we have. It's more detailing the various warranties to the needs and expectations of the individual rvr, which is pretty cool
In our database. At any given time we have about 200, 300 different variations of policies for any given rv. There can be anywhere from a one to a two year policy all the way up to seven and soon I believe soon to come an eight year policy. And of course you have a different deductible where the customer is comfortable on a deductible amount. We do our best to gather as much information as we can and then educate our clients on here are the options and here's why we recommend
It. One of the things I understand about the way you operate, you can also provide warranties for some older rigs, doesn't necessarily have to be a brand new rig. Correct?
I'd have to double check but I know we go back at least 15 years and we can go back as many as 20.
Wow.
And I say that but I also, there's caveats, right? The odometer has to be probably under I think hundred 25,000. The title needs to be clean. We do have policies that will go back for vehicles. What are we in now? 23. So <laugh> in 2003 model year. Wow. Again, our kind of philosophy is we're gonna get as many options as we possibly can, but hopefully at the end of the day, that customer that reached out to us, they're getting information in an education on warranty specifically.
So you could buy a used RV and have it covered under an extended warranty, which is pretty cool.
That's a place that was relatively untapped I think or or not given the attention it deserved. If I went and bought my rig from you in a private party transaction, now I have a rig and I may not know that much about it. I may not be comfortable doing my own repairs. And so it might make sense for me as a new owner of, you know, a 2010 RV to get it inspected and then to look at the options on a, on an extended warranty.
Cause those, you know, the House on Wheels aspect of it, things will go wrong right at some point. Whether it's a slide or a refrigerator or ac. But then also the House on Wheels analogy, also the wheels, you know, the engine and the power train, those can be very costly items to repair.
Even what I used to think of as minor repairs, an alternator water pump, those type of things used to be, ah, you know what, that's just, you go and buy one and, and they're not expensive. That's not true anymore. And there's so many systems in an RV and oftentimes they're all interrelated. When I worked at the dealership, the way the warranties work that we sold is we would submit pictures and whatever details to the warranty company, they would give us a credit card and basically pay us on the spot.
And we, we really like that. How would somebody file a claim on most of the warranties that you guys sell
Fair? And that one, to me that sounds like it was a little bit more, the dealer was a little bit more entrenched being the conduit, uh, for a repair itself. For us, we do house or employ a uh, claim support department. So they are employees that are literally there to help file a claim with a different administrator. And then we do our best to be the conduit from the dealer or the customer in there as well. So we'll try to be the nucleus between the admin company, the customer, and the repair facility.
Especially when it comes to different administrators, you know, whether they approve or deny a repair. They're also RB people to an extent as well. You know, a customer might get off the phone and say, I was just denied but I have no idea why or I was just approved and I still don't know what's going on.
And so we do our best to kind of facilitate that. We don't make the final yes or no on if a claim is approved or denied, but when a claim is denied, we will work with that customer to present their case again or from a different angle or with verbiage from the contract to say on this particular repair it should be covered under the contract under Section D, subsection two, paragraph one <laugh>, you know the flux capacitor is covered uh, when it happens.
And so, you know, oftentimes we get repairs reversed for us, we're the broker, right? So we get as much information from the customer as we possibly can, how they're gonna use a rig, what kinda rig they have. Then we look at our different admins and say okay, these are all the different options you have. Along with that you will have, you know, a team here at wholesale that can assist you when you file a claim when you need to update, you know, a mileage or you know, if you got something repaired and you want the warranty company to know about it, you present it to us and we'll facilitate with them so they get that information.
Our team of claims support specialists will help customers from the beginning of the claim process to the end of the claim process. And then to answer your other question, we do make sure that all of our admins pay by credit card right then and there.
If the repair facility's waiting for a paper check, uh, they very likely would hang onto that rv, right? I mean cause absolutely how they know they're gonna get paid or, or they may ask the RV's owner for payment. So this method where the company pays by credit card, that's, to me that's the best, the warranty company that we used to use started a like a tech help line. Do you know if any of the warranties that you have have a component like that?
We do. I know at least one and I believe we offer it also as an ancillary that you can team up if you don't want a warranty for whatever reason. I think it's part of a roadside that's specific for RVs. So one of the things that the owner went out a while back was a lot of the admins started in the auto world. And while a thousand dollars of towing might be great for auto, it's gonna get you about a quarter mile, maybe a mile down the road Yes.
For an rv cuz it's a different type of tow truck. While the process is the same, the actual components is different. I do believe that a, a roadside policy that we offer does come with a 800, I'm gonna try to walk you through it before sending out a mobile mechanic. We literally have employees from, from eight to five on working days that are, that are here to help in the claims process or in the troubleshooting process.
Now will they know the answer possibly, but they also have the quick resources to get that answer. So even if a repair is being done or an installation or something that isn't necessarily under the scope of the warranty, our team is still here to ensure that the dealer or the repair facility is giving an accurate quote. Right? So number of hours or labor rate or thi all those things that go into a repair of any magnitude, there are kind of checks and balances that we're able to go back to our client and say, yes, if you're going to install the flux capacitor on your own dime, you know the labor looks correct, the parts maybe tend to be a little high, but all in all that repair is, is within the budget or within the line that we would expect.
Yeah.
Cause sometimes the thing that seems wrong may not actually be what's wrong that has a lot of value to help somebody go through and figure out what's really wrong and is it covered, things like that because it's, it is a maze and it's not easy. And that I think has some value as well.
One of our main values is that we wanna get you back on the road quicker, right? Most if not all of our employees to some facet enjoy an RV experience, right? Like myself, I've never been camping in an rv. I camped in a 1972 Volkswagen Adventure wagon. Oh. But the experience and the process is the same, right? The longer you have an issue with a mechanical component, not necessarily the worst that that experience gets, but it, it brings it down a little bit.
And so whether it's us being able to offer our customer support team or us able to offer an 800 number to a valid technician, like we wanna be able to problem solve as much of the issues that arise because there's nothing better than just getting out there and exploring, right? Getting out there and and and seeing what, what all there is to see and stop at all the crazy stops. But you can't do that if your slide won't go in. Yeah. Do you need a mobile mechanic? Do you need to bring into a dealer or is it something that's just a fuse hidden?
You know, you just didn't have that pirate map to find the other fuse box that's behind the other fuse box. That was a simple fix, you know, so we try to have those resources available for our customers.
That's pretty cool. The last thing I wonder is with the dealership, of course you can finance the warranty with your financing of whatever, however that is. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, do you offer something similar to that with the warranties?
We do. We don't offer it as long. A lot of the dealership warranty is, like you mentioned at the beginning, is based off the loan of the original asset. Right. Or the acquisition. And those are obviously higher volume or higher dollar amounts so they go out longer. Uh, but we do offer financing today up to 24 months. There isn't a charge for our financing. A lot of our clients love that option. Especially if you're only gonna keep an RV for a year or two years.
The financing option is great, but yeah, we offer anywhere from one payment all the way up to 24 payments
And then you're not paying the interest for 20 years or 15 years on something that only has seven years of coverage or whatever the numbers work out. So I think that from a financial standpoint, if you can swing that, that's a big advantage. A huge money saver. And on the subject of money saving, how would you compare the prices typically for something from wholesale warranties compared to what I might, the equivalent of what I might find at a dealership?
That's a kind of a tricky question. Only in the sense where each dealership is different. There's benefits for each dealership to sell warranty programs for their customers. The pricing that a particular dealership may offer could vary drastically. It is very uncommon for a dealership to have a better price point than we do. Often what we will find is that they'll get a quote from a dealer, then they'll get a quote from us and then the dealer will will match it.
Part of our philosophy and part of our education in that is well if they were willing to offer it to you for 10 grand but then you saw that it was owned, that it was six grand through us and now they're willing to do six, that's fine. But just understand what that just meant in that bucket when it comes to price specific, you know, we're gonna do our due diligence with our customers to say, is it the same apples, apples policy?
Cause you wanna just ensure that that's gonna be the same thing also with, you know, when it pertains to dealers to, to read a contract because some contracts will state that you have to bring it back to that dealer within X amount of time or x amount of miles. There are a lot of like little idiosyncrasies that we're just gonna educate to say, whether you go with us or you go with the dealer, that's gonna be your prerogative. But we wanna make sure at least that, you know, the, the pros and the cons on both or scenarios that we've seen in the past. Our kind of philosophy is dealers are excellent at buying and selling RVs and depending on the dealer that you have or that you're buying from, they may be very good at offering ancillary products such as a extended warranty or roadside or something along those lines.
And that's really where we wanna just make sure that if nothing else just to give us a call and talk to a warrant specialist just for free information or free education. Because there really, unfortunately there really isn't much worse within the RVing experience then to have a breakdown and then assume that you have something that's going to help you or cover it or at least help in that scenario. And then to find out something isn't what it seemed just makes a stressful situation a little bit worse.
Yeah, that's for sure. Part of what you do is you vet and look at these warranty companies to see how they perform. You're actually cross shopping all the different companies that you come across. So I think that's a component of what you offer as well. Right. And there's a lot of value in that. There
Is, I mean we take, we do take pride in, our owner has done a fantastic job from finding admin who have certain attributes. Not only are we vetting the admin, but we're, we're putting our best foot forward to make sure that the contracts are such that they're backing up what we're, what we're educating about that if we say mobile mechanics included, that our clients don't get a surprise saying, oh my gosh, mobile mechanic was denied and now I'm out X amount of dollars.
That's nothing that that we ever wanna have happen. And to your point, a lot of that starts with making sure that we're vetting the admins, that they're reputable, their service is good, that they're insured. <laugh>, you know, there's a lot of boxes that we check otherwise we would offer everybody, right? For what we're trying to accomplish. We don't wanna be the biggest, well we do wanna be the best. We wanna make sure that the products that we put out there, we stand behind and that we're proud of.
My recommendation would be if you're in the market for an RV new or used and a warranty makes sense for you. Cause it doesn't for everybody, but if it does, before you make a commitment to a dealership, give you guys a call and just see what the comparison is and make a decision for yourself. I think that's a prudent part of buying an rv in my opinion.
There's a handful of people who either love warranties and we'll get 'em on everything. There are a handful of people that hate warranties and won't get 'em on anything. Then there's <laugh>, certain percentage in the middle there that can kind of go either way. One of the things that we do try to stress is if you know what vehicle you're shopping for and you, and you've located it, you can call us no obligations, no strings attached, you can at least be provided a number of what we would price the policy at.
If you're a first time buyer and you're looking for your RV and you found it, our warranties do come with an inspection Now as an asterisk, that inspection is to make the, the admin feel confident or comfortable with the unit that you're using. So it's not, it's not necessarily for peace of mind or pre-purchase inspection, it's basically just checking out the the mechanical components of the rig.
And that kind of goes hand in hand with, if you're going to be buying one, it could be in your best interest just to talk to us just to get a market number before walking into the dealer. At least having that understanding that there's different policies that you can get. Is it engine and power chain? Is it listed component? Is it exclusionary? Right? So which level of coverages are out there and the terms and the deductibles. Cause often our clients will say, well the dealer gave me this and it's for a particular term or time and it has this deductible, but no other options, right?
It's just that particular one. We at least wanna educate consumers that there are usually plenty of options out there and there is something that can, that can fit your needs and your lifestyle, you know, outside of what the dealership may have to offer.
As I said, I think somebody would be wise to at least give you a call and talk to the people there and find out what's available. The dealership might be a great option, but it could be, I like the way you've structured, the way you do business. I would recommend people call you. There
Are a lot of dealerships that do an amazing job. We also know that there are dealerships that will just put a warranty in there and the customer doesn't have a 800 number a copy of their policy. You know, they're just, it's almost like it's set up for a negative experience. And with our owner and and myself and a lot of our department heads, we really enjoy the outdoors and nothing is more frustrating than when you have an issue and you can't find the way to resolve it.
Yeah. And that's really, we try to bridge that gap and lessen that time to get people back on the road.
Yeah, I think that says a lot. Well Jim, I really appreciate your time today sharing with our audience things to look for. Yeah, as I said, I think it's a prudent decision to, at least if a warranty is right for you, give wholesale warranties a call and see what the story is. Hundred
Percent. If if nothing else, our kind takeaways, you'll walk away with options. And while we hope you come back to us with those options, it's not uncommon for a lot of people to use that information and get something through the dealer. And to be honest, that's okay too because at least in that scenario, the customer is more educated and more knowledgeable about what they're purchasing versus what could have happened if they just walked in and, and got it.
We're here to help and support the RV community and you know, we've found our little niche and thus far our customers are happy with us. Yeah,
And that says a lot, so very good. Thank you so much for your time and uh, hopefully we, our paths will cross maybe at Confusion Hill, <laugh>, you never know,
Just by legged off the 1 0 1 in the, in great redwood country. Yeah.
Don't forget to drive through the drive-through tree while you're up there too. I will do so. All right, thank you.
Take care Tony.
You as well. And thanks for your time.
Always.
So you might have noticed a definite lack of Peggy in that interview. <laugh> and I had to be out of the house and so I missed out on actually hearing this all directly, but it's such great information. I think some people think that having like a broker or a, you know, travel agent or something like that is gonna wind up costing you more money. But the thing about brokers is they're the experts on all the different plans so they can help you choose the right plan, which may very well save you a lot of money.
Yeah, that's, that's absolutely true. Again, I just wanna, if your RV dealership says you have to have an extended warranty to qualify for financing, that's the time I would get up and walk right out the door. Yeah, that is not the case. It just shows, uh, honestly, I'm gonna say a sleazy operation. I, there's no other way to put it <laugh>. So if that happens to you Ron son. But another thing that we didn't discuss that I should have is typically, let's say you buy a new rv, right?
Well a lot of that RV is covered under the manufacturer's warranty and that can be the manufacturer of the air conditioner or the stove or the furnace or all of those components have a warranty. And then the RV itself has a warranty from the manufacturer. So let's say for example, you buy a new Rockwood mini light, well good choice, but also Forest River Rockwood covers that RV for at least a year, bumper to bumper and then longer for other components.
Well anyway, my point is you have a period of time, even after you've purchased that RV, where you can still qualify for an extended warranty and, and if the dealership that you're buying from has a good warranty plan, then you might be able to buy that after you've already made the decision to purchase the rv. But you can also then wait a while and shop warranty. So don't feel under pressure in that little room where the finance person is twisting your arm.
You don't have to make a decision then in most cases. And you do have the opportunity to shop and of course if you've already made a choice as to what RV you're getting now you'll have a serial number and a value and model and all of that stuff to go shopping. I do think, as I said in the interview, if I were to buy an extended warranty, I would at least talk to wholesale warranties. I really like the way they did things and it's just part of your shopping process. So that's our take on that.
We also have an article about should you buy an extended warranty and we'll link to that in our show notes. Lots to think about.
Yeah. So here's another great thing about living where we live. We have room to be a host in the Boondockers welcome program. Yeah.
That's one of the reasons we bought this place.
Yeah. And we have had a bunch of visitors a lot through the Boondocks welcome system and it's been so fun to meet people and chat with them and learn about their travels and their pets and their <laugh> there are
And their rigs. Yeah.
Yeah. It's been so much fun getting to know people and we love, we love when we travel to stay at Harvest hosts and Boondockers welcome sites and we love that we get to be a boon docker. We get to welcome Boondockers <laugh> and everyone that we have met, both as hosts and as guests has been so friendly and so respectful. You know, our guests have been very respectful of our space and our privacy while they're here. Such a remarkable system.
I just love
It. Yeah, it really is. So the way Har hosts and Boondockers welcome work is you pay a fee to Boondocker welcome, for example, and then that opens the door to like 4,800 places you can stay across the us. Yes. And if it's under the Boondockers welcome, it's typically people like us who have a piece of land and there's space for an rv. And for the most part there are no services provided other than that space, but it's free, free to stay.
There are also hosts now that have maybe power, maybe water, some services or even full
Hookups and some allow wifi use. Yeah, we have stayed at a co, in fact, our first starlink experience was actually a boondocks welcome site that we stayed just outside of Reno a couple years ago.
That's true. Yeah, it was remarkably fast. So anyway, we have a discount to Bock's welcome and Harvest host on our discounts and deals section of our home on the web at stressless camping com
Com. So I saw a post on Facebook this week and I just wanted to turn this into a little maintenance tip. If you have a towable, a travel trailer or a fifth wheel, hopefully not so much in a van or something, but Oh dear.
Yeah, <laugh>
People have noted that when they go underneath and check they see that the bolts that are holding the trailer to the chassis, the nuts are starting to back off. Yeah, that's, and the bolts are getting loose and I know that in our first trailer there was one actually missing <laugh>.
Yes, there was. So I think there were two
<laugh>. Yeah. So our maintenance tip is every time you, well I don't wanna say check the tires because with all the tire pressure monitoring systems, people don't get down on their knees and check the tires so much anymore.
I would say you're supposed to check the seals on the outside of your RV every 90 days. More frequently is of course a little bit better. Okay. But typically let's typically every 90 days. But yeah, let's use
That. Yeah. So every, every 90 days when you're checking the seals on top, crawl underneath and check those bolts on the chassis as well.
Yes, absolutely. And what I would suggest, I think one of the tools that's an essential in your RV toolbox is a torque wrench. It allows you to fasten the nuts that hold the wheels on or anywhere. It allows you to fasten bolts to a specific torque rating. The people at air gear have a really nice tire changing kit that includes a torque wrench, which is what we have. You know, you don't wanna over torque the bolts that hold the trailer body to the chassis.
Right. And so the torque wrench helps that. I check the lug nuts when we leave. They have a torque spec. So all these bolts have specs is how tight they should be and you can absolutely overtighten them. So it's good to have, which is not a good thing. No, that's not good. What we have done is taken lock tight on those bolts on our current trailer, but on our first trailer where we actually found missing bolts, I bought the bolts that have nylon on the inside so that they wouldn't back off.
I don't know why they don't use lock tight on that, on travel trailers because this is not an uncommon thing. It's nuts not to check your bolts
<laugh>.
You know, we oftentimes tell you about a destination that we've taken our travel trailer, well this last week we had to make a trip to Southern California and we didn't really need or want the travel trailer. So we did what we always say, we don't like <laugh>. Yeah. We stayed and we stayed in hotels, but we did it the best way, at least
To us.
Right. We were driving on Route 66 and on Route 66 is the town of Kingman, which is a great little town in Arizona and in also on Route 66 is the town of Holbrook, Arizona. So on our trip out and on our trip back, we stayed in some really iconic retro vintage, I don't know what the word is for hotels or Oh, they're
Motels.
<laugh> motels. That's right. And they're motels. And do you know the difference between a hotel and a motel? At a motel you motor up to your door. Yep. <laugh> and a hotel usually, you know, like you enter from the inside from an inside hallway and maybe there's an elevator. Anyway, <laugh>, we stayed in Kingman at El Tro, uh, I don't know if you pronounce that last letter, elto Trove Tore or El Trove. And they have done a great job of renovating that old hotel. We drove through that a couple years ago, actually just drove through the parking lot because on the outside is like the world's largest mural and like the whole, well
The largest Route 66
Mural. Oh large. Okay. Route 66 mural. The whole entire building is a mural of Route 66. So that was fun to look at from the outside. And then we decided we might as well check it out from the inside as well. Then on the way home we stopped in the town of Holbrook, Arizona and we stayed at the Wigwam Motel.
Yeah. The wigwam are motel rooms that are shaped like Wigwams or Tepees.
So they're actually individual building. Each room is its own TEP shaped building. Kind of like the cozy cone in cars. In fact, I think the Wigwams were the inspiration for the Cozy Cone Motel in the movie cars. So they're a lot of fun. And like Tony said, there each one is its own individual thing. This one in Holbrook has the added feature, fun feature of having a whole bunch of old cars parked, you know, as if they're staying in the motel, but then there's still room for you to park your own vehicle in front of your wigwam.
The nice thing about the Wigwams, we stayed both in San Bernard Bernardino and now in Holbrook at those Wigwams and they're so, well not, they're not even restored, they're just well maintained. Yeah. Without really any updates, which we really, I mean the beds were comfortable and they had modern climate control and,
But they still had like the, you know, iconic 1950s tile bathrooms and things like that. And those are the kind of things we dig. And if we're gonna sleep in a bed that we don't own, we're gonna do it in something that's fun. Yeah,
That's true. We also went to Mr. D's in Kingman, which is a Route 66 diner. The plate was as big as my head.
The plate was bigger than your head. It was like a, it was, it was like a charger and it was
A Dodge
Charger and you had, what was it? Chicken fried steak and yeah,
It was
Good. Really good food. It's a fun atmosphere. Mr. D's, that's d Z by the way. Yeah, <laugh>. They make their own root beer.
Yeah. They also have old cars out in front
And really designed, you know, very kind of fifties decor like Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley all over the place and things like that. So great place to eat. Also, we have eaten in the town of Seligman at the, oh. And we did again this time the
Road kill, we rode the Kill back came, we had the same server this time as we had last time. And we asked her, she's been there seven years and just great service and also just a neat experience. Their food at the roadkill, the menu has all these
Oh, they're hilarious. They're
Hilarious. The
Names of their dishes Yeah. Are all named like, you know, possum pudding or whatever, like all kinds of things that might have gotten killed on the road. It's really actually, you know, normal chicken, it's normal. Yeah. Beef and whatever. But they're just really fun names and it's fun to read the whole menu before you decide what you're going to eat. <laugh>. Yeah.
If you haven't guessed yet, we really like whimsical stuff that just makes us smile. So that's our road trip and we've covered that this time. Not on our website, although there are links to articles there, but we covered it on our fun and friendly Facebook group. So go there and, and we had some neat interaction with people about our journey. So another reason to go and be a part of that conversation.
Hey Tony, do you wanna tie up this podcast with a nice gadget
Report? Oh, you can tell she's been living with me too long. <laugh>. You know, there are some tools that you have in your RV toolbox that are just ubiquitous, right? They're just there. They're everywhere. Yeah. <laugh> and you use them frequently and don't really think about them. And what I'm blabbering on about are the Night Eyes gear ties, and I did a zippy tip video about 'em this week. But what they are is they're like twisty ties with the rubber coating and they come in all these different lengths and I use 'em for tying up cables.
We've hung flags on our ladder with them. I use them <laugh> to put the GoPro on the pole that I talked about last week so I can actually see what I'm cleaning on the roof.
You know, when we took the theater seating out of our slide and we put two office chairs, we don't want them standing up and rolling around while we're traveling. Oh right. So I lay them down together and then I use a couple of night Eyes gear ties to strap the arms together. Yep. So they don't flop around. Yeah.
These things, we just use 'em all over and they may be more useful than Duct Tape. What, maybe I've even used it on our first trailer, the Mount for the Sewer tank broke. Oh yeah. <laugh> and I used Night Ice Gear ties to finagle a temporary repair. Yes.
I mean that's true.
They, they're a cheap, really good thing that I'm so happy. I found out about our nephew, Donny had one and he wanted to see if he could break it and he was bending it and bending it and bending it for a whole weekend and it was just fine. Yeah. These night ice gear ties are inexpensive. They're good. And they just work. It's a, it's a good thing to put in your RB toolbox for
Sure. Tony mentioned that they have different sizes, they're color coded, so if you want the big thick one, you look for an orange one. They're some so tiny, they're like not two inches long and they're so adorable and they're really easy to lose.
Yeah. They are <laugh>, but those are great for cables and, and yeah. You know, all those annoying little charging cables that we always have so many of.
Yeah. So they're good for wrapping those up or wrapping them together. So there's just so many uses we haven't run out of ways that we can use those things.
Well, every week we have an RV of the week. One of the things about the way my brain works, if somebody really says something is great and we've got this revolutionary product coming to market, when you say, oh, we're going to make this game changing, whatever, my Bologna filter comes on Strong and Alliance rv who have made fifth wheels that I really, really like. They're one of the few independent RV companies still and they're really knocking it out of the park with their fifth wheels.
I really like them. Well they said we're coming out with a travel trailer and it's gonna be a game changer. And they came out with a travel trailer. Is it
A game
Changer? Not really. Oh. It's a good solid offering in a travel trailer, in a floor plan that I've seen quite frequently. There are a number of very good features in this trailer, but I think there's a lot of places where they could have changed the game and didn't. The way they do their fifth wheels, they absolutely have changed the game. They have done outstanding things with cabinetry, for example, when they build one of their fifth wheels, they actually fill the holding tanks and take it on a drive to make sure that everything is solid.
Now they do that with their travel trailers as well. It's a good solid offering. If this floor plan works for you and there's a review on our home on the web@stressescamping.com, I would look at Alliance for their travel trailers, but game changing, not really, just a good solid offering in the travel trailer world. Some of the things I really liked were the way they did their bedside tables and the way they do their furnace ducting, which is not through the floor and the floor is a laminate floor.
And that can be good or bad. Those
Are good things, but there are things that others have.
Right. And in fact, like we've talked about Ember, including last week, that was a game changing rv. Yeah, absolutely. Just groundbreaking in so many ways. This is just a good offering and that's okay. It can be that check it out and weigh in. They are not finalized in all the details yet and they're looking for people's input. And that's how Alliance started was a survey of like 3000 RV owners of what do you like or what don't you like about your fifth wheel? So let 'em hear your voice.
Yeah.
Speaking of game changing last week Tony had a question for you and for the question of the week that if maybe campgrounds read it, they might change their game.
Yeah, they could.
The question was what can the campground do to plus it for you?
And that's a term that I borrowed from Mr. Walt Disney. He always used to say, you know, how can you plus it and it means just make it better.
This is like kind of a very common answer. Better wifi. And that's, as I said, very common. We travel with our own wifi because we don't trust any campgrounds to have it. Even though some do. And
Even if they have it, you're not necessarily secure using it. Yeah. So if you're doing, you know, like let's say you're buying things or paying bills or accessing your personal financial information. I wouldn't do it on a campground wifi on any public wifi. Yeah.
Chris thought it would be a great idea. And I love this idea to have cubicles or tables with actual kind of business class features, including wifi of course, but having a real workspace
Campers hub in Colorado has that it, the main building used to be a school and they've set up a whole place there. In fact, kudos to them. They got their power pulse installed this past
Week. Yeah, yeah. So they're almost ready to start taking campers in manias on it. She says hot tub sites. We have been to a couple of KOAs I think that had hot, that had a couple of individual sites with hot tubs in the campsite.
Well remember that place we stayed up in the mountains in the Sierras that had hot spring tubs at each site. That was Oh, it was so awesome. Yeah.
Well a couple people said they would like to have bigger sizes and more space in between the sites.
Boy, isn't that the, we have stayed at sites. Oh boy. Yeah. Where if somebody was baking and they needed a cup of sugar, they could almost reach out their window. Through the window. Excuse me, can you pass me a cup of sugar? Sure.
Along the lines of the hot tub. Well, Monya said actually hot tubs or hot springs, which is great. And Michael said A lazy river. Oh yeah. The timeshare in India where my mom usually does our family gatherings, has a lazy river and the first hour in the morning it's open only to walkers. And then after that the walkers have to get out and then you put an inner tube in there and you just float around and round in circles on the river. It's awesome.
There was also a lazy river in Pigeon Forge at the k a up there. Right. But oh, I didn't go in cuz it was bloody gold. It was really gold.
John would like to see nice, clean and well maintained shower facilities with unlimited hot water. Tom is just always thinking of Tony and he says, just for Tony, I think campgrounds should have beer carts, <laugh>, you know,
I I agree. Or a margarita trailer. Wouldn't that be cool on that? I weighed in with that. You show up with a mar, you know what I'd like to see like a margarita truck, the horn. You know how there's those horns that go well instead it goes <laugh>. The Margaritaville song
Tom though really just wants trees. He said he knows that it hurts the solar guys. But trees are great. There's another vote from Julie about nice bath houses.
I don't think that's so much as a pl of a plait as just a basic, I mean, yeah. I think that's, you gotta keep your bath, bath houses clean and and nice. Yeah.
And Deborah came up with a great idea. Have a long enough dog park that the dog can actually run in it. A lot of times those dog parks are very small. Yeah. It's a place for you to take your dog to go boo or whatever. But they don't get any exercise like that. And since they have to be on a leash all the time, unless you can run as fast as your dog, your dog doesn't get any run time.
Yeah. We used to have a dog that could outrun us and she did that at every occasion she could possibly manage.
Yes. So those are some really good ideas and we appreciate your input. Yeah, I'm sure campgrounds that are reading this, appreciate your input so that they know what is important to us as campers. Yeah.
We have a surprising number of campgrounds who listen to this podcast. So your input is always welcome and encouraged. We appreciate it. And this week we have a question. We
We're curious about the makeup of who you guys are out there. So I was curious in terms of full-time for you, is it a reality? Are you a full-timer? Is it a dream and you wanna be a full-timer? Yeah.
Or is it a nightmare? You're like,
You're like, that does not sound like, no
Way, Jose.
So that is our question of the week. Where is full timing on your range of happiness? Yeah.
And you can answer that in our fun and friendly stresses. Camping podcast, Facebook group. There's a whole lot of folks over there and they have really remained friendly and it's spam free and it's one of the really great places to visit. If you happen to be on Facebook.
It is one of the great places. A great place to visit if you don't happen to be on Facebook is stressless camping.com <laugh>. Yeah.
That's where you'll find our discounts and deals. Stories, show notes for these podcasts. This is episode 2 0 3 and all kinds of stuff. So stresses campaign.com is our home on the web and the starting point for whatever things we have
Now, if you are new to listening to the podcast or new to you've not been to the website, the first time that you go on the website, you will get a popup. It'll ask you if you wanna sign up for our weekly newsletter. Our weekly newsletter is weekly, not daily. We do it once a week. It's free. We just ask for your email address. We don't do anything else with that address. We just send you a weekly email that has links to stories and videos and podcasts and things that we think will help you get the most out of your RV experience.
Yeah, I know of course that we never share your email address with anybody, period. End of story. And while you're at stresses camping.com, don't forget that in the upper right hand corner is a link to all the places where we're feeling social, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, all of that stuff.
All of those things. We are so social. <laugh>, <laugh>,
While you're out there fiddling around on all that social stuff. Don't forget that. If you don't wanna miss a future episode of this podcast, it's always free to subscribe on any podcast that,
And we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Indeed. Absolutely. And you betcha.
We also wanna remind people that reviews really, really help other people find the podcast. And that means we get more listeners. And the more listeners we have, the better we can do at continuing to get super great guests like we've been having lately. So if you haven't had a chance, would you please be so kind as to take a few minutes and write us a review. If you've already done that, then maybe you find something on the website or a podcast episode that you particularly love and you wanna share it with your friends.
Please do that. That is also very helpful to us. Yeah.
And all of that is free to do so. Thank you in advance. We really appreciate your being here with us for this weekly podcast. Thank you so, so much. Hope you're out there planning some epic adventures for this summer. Yeah, because that is
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
