With Class B RVs being so popular most of them are so expensive that you might need a second job to buy one. But we found a company who makes a high-quality conversion that is also remarkably affordable. Plus they’re designed to be reconfigured in minutes if. Join us as we learn more about these remarkable conversions.

Other places to hear the podcast

Mentioned on this episode

Our full review of Wayfarer Vans Class B RVs

Our full review of the Andersen and Beech Lane levelers for RVs

Michael Lynch’s guest post about Cumberland Falls

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.

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Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 238

Mark Ferrell

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.

Peggy Barthel

Can you hear the neighbor's campfire

Tony Barthel

<laugh>? I certainly can. And I'm also Tony. I'm

Peggy Barthel

Also Peggy.

Tony Barthel

And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time

Peggy Barthel

In a small trailer

Tony Barthel

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

Peggy Barthel

We are in a campground and we have very close neighbors. Yeah. And they're having a good time. Yes, they're, and that's okay. I don't know if you can hear them, but we can. We certainly

Tony Barthel

Can.

Peggy Barthel

Hopefully you can. But that's what happens when you're in the campground.

Tony Barthel

Yeah, that's true. And it's one of our favorite campgrounds. Well, it's, it's got one of our favorite features, right? We are at the Joshua Tree, Palm Springs, KOA

Peggy Barthel

In Desert, hot Springs, California. Right. It's probably one of our, maybe our most visited campground perhaps because we really, really like it here because of the hot springs. Yeah. In Desert Hot Springs, there are minerals, hot mineral springs. There are all kinds of campgrounds around here. We've talked about this before. Sometimes you go to the one that you just know. And it's not that, I'm not gonna say it's the best one 'cause we've only ever been to this one.

Tony Barthel

Well, but the other reason we like it is that it is just a few hours from the world famous court site. Right. Sports vacation and RV

Peggy Barthel

Show. And that's why we come here so often. We come here and soak up all the water and then go to quartzite and where

Tony Barthel

There hardly is any, and that's where we will be tomorrow mornings or tomorrow afternoon.

Peggy Barthel

That's right. Tomorrow afternoon. We're actually gonna leave here tomorrow and head to the big tent. Yep.

Tony Barthel

We'll have no gray or black tank content. No. And we will be ready for tent days of camping off the grid, I believe. Well,

Peggy Barthel

We will be at the show for

Tony Barthel

Two weeks.

Peggy Barthel

12 or some number of days.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. We get there before, because we like to get into the big RV show before a lot of the vendors get there, because it just becomes a mess. And we do have our camper in the actual show as a place to camp, not as a demonstration of anything. Right. But we will be there at the Quartzite Sports vacation and RV show held in Quartzite, Arizona. Starts Saturday, January 20th in quartzite and goes all the way to Sunday, January 28th.

Tony Barthel

Some of the reasons you might want to go, we are the official sponsors of the workshops and seminars there. And there are all kinds of great,

Peggy Barthel

So many,

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Everything from, of course, a lot of solar and lithium, a lot of gadgets, a lot of trips, A lot of hints. Work camping.

Peggy Barthel

So basically every day, Saturday through Saturday. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Right. There are seminars pretty

Peggy Barthel

Much all day Saturday. The next Sunday, I

Tony Barthel

Don't think we have any on Sunday.

Peggy Barthel

Okay. So Saturday through Saturday there are seminars from starting at nine or 10 o'clock in the morning and ended at four or five o'clock in the afternoon.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Goes the whole day of the show. Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

Now are there a lot of repeat? Like if you, there

Tony Barthel

Are some, but

Peggy Barthel

Not if you miss something on Monday, you might get to see it on Thursday.

Tony Barthel

Sometimes yes. And sometimes just a little bit though. We have a really good slate of workshops. But the best one is gonna be Monday, January 22nd. Because if you're there with us at 4:00 PM Monday, January 22nd, we will be recording next week's Stressless Camping RV podcast. Yay. Live in front of a studio audience. Right. And that may be one person, or it may be three more. Three <laugh>. Yeah. Who, who knows. But if you're in court site next Monday, come on down and join the audience.

Tony Barthel

And we, we have some fun stuff planned for that. So yeah, that's the deal with that. Now here's another reason to attend the workshops and seminars. We're giving away a portable power station, a solar generator, as it were.

Peggy Barthel

As it were.

Tony Barthel

We are also giving away a $500 gas card.

Peggy Barthel

Wow.

Tony Barthel

And there are other prizes too. So

Peggy Barthel

May I enter to win

Tony Barthel

<laugh>? You may not. Well, you know, there's really at this point no rules, although I don't think

Peggy Barthel

It would. Yeah. I think that would be a little cheesy if I won <laugh>. I, yeah.

Tony Barthel

Coffee. Gee, I think <laugh>. Oh man. We could fill up the

Peggy Barthel

Twice,

Tony Barthel

Right? Maybe <laugh>, at least in California gas prices. <laugh> hoo. We saw as high as 7 29. That was crazy.

Peggy Barthel

That was crazy. So we will be there starting before the show starts. It's not gonna be open to the public. So we're not gonna talk too much about being there early. Right. We're just gonna get there and get ourselves tucked in and stay out of the way of the vendors. And then we can go out and spend our days in Quartzite while they're all setting up <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. We'll get on our electric e-bikes and ride around and we will be under the power of our solar and lithium battery system. Right. We will be using the system designed by a V Outfitters. Last year they were there at the show with us, which I thought

Peggy Barthel

Was great. They were. And that was so much fun. I wish they were able to make it back again this year.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. We're gonna miss you, but we're gonna be there unplugged and running our system and, and you know, that's something we just haven't had to worry about. I mean, especially quartzite, there's plenty of sun. You know, we don't need the air conditioner at that time of year. Mm-Hmm. It's pretty ideal.

Peggy Barthel

Although I have to say I almost turned it on today.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. <laugh>, I mean here it is, January and I feel so bad for so many people experiencing terrible weather, but we are not on that list. Right. It was, we almost did turn on the air conditioner today. Right. I looked at it and I'm like, Hmm, <laugh>

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. Anyway,

Tony Barthel

Sorry. There's gonna be a lot of people there talking solar and battery at the Quartzite show. But truthfully, the systems designed by a BC Upfitters really are a complete and total solution. And it's just something we don't worry about. Our system just works. If that's the kind of experience you want, you could give a BC Outfitters a call at (574) 293-9399 or visit them on the old internet. We have a link in our show notes here@stresslesscamping.com.

Tony Barthel

Or just give 'em a call as we say, (574) 293-9399. Just good people who do good work on a system that is truly Stressless.

Peggy Barthel

This week we have a really awesome guest and unfortunately I couldn't <laugh> figure that out. I,

Tony Barthel

We, we've been having some fiddly

Peggy Barthel

And the weirdest technical difficulties, things that we haven't had before. And so Tony and Austin spoke and I sat over to the side making funny faces at Tony <laugh>,

Tony Barthel

What we talked about. You know, we always have an RV review as part of these, well, this week basically the podcast is an RV review. Right. And we get a lot of people who are interested in Class B RVs or Vans. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And I see some of these Class B RVs over $200,000, which is a little bit nuts. And one of my favorite Class B vans comes from the company that you're about to hear about. Sit back, grab a beverage, and hear from Austin, from Wayfair vans.

Tony Barthel

We have the pleasure of having Austin mainline from a company called Wayfair Vans. Right now Class B vans are super hot for a lot of good reasons, but they're really expensive. And I've looked at Wayfair vans in the past. So first of all, Austin, welcome.

Austin Boehnlin

Thank you Tony. Appreciate you having me.

Tony Barthel

Tell me a little bit about Wayfair vans, because for a lot of reasons I enjoy recommending them. But tell us the story of Wayfair van.

Austin Boehnlin

Yeah, thanks for spreading the word on us. We've been around since June of 2015 and it started with Ian, the founder of the company, Ian Horgan. Like a lot of great initial entrepreneurs working out of a single car garage. He was pumping out his, uh, little ProMaster city conversions, which was the first platform that we worked off of. We called that conversion the Wally. And we followed the W trend all the way through every conversion we have Wilma, Wilford, Walt Walter.

Austin Boehnlin

So we've been in the game for a little while, but from the beginning the mission has always been to keep things counter to what you just said, like the spend your life savings on a camper van, a recreational vehicle. As much as we hail recreation as an important facet of life, like it's critical for us to get out there and experience the beautiful places of this country, it still doesn't feel like something that you have to be a millionaire to afford or forking over six figures in general for something that's, you know, for fun.

Austin Boehnlin

It goes against the name of your podcast stress less. Like you're gonna end up being chained to that van for a long time if you couldn't afford it going in, or you could afford it and now you can't afford to travel because of it. So we tried to go counter to that.

Speaker 6

That's one of the interesting things. So Wayfair is one of the few companies I've encountered where you can BYOV, you can bring your own van. So if you find an appropriate ProMaster now you also do the Ford Transit. Yes. And you could buy one new, but if you find a great used van, Wayfair will still do the conversion for you.

Austin Boehnlin

Absolutely. Yeah. It really helps to fit the budget more to what you can do for the whole project. There's always the mission to find the van and sometimes that can be the trickiest part of the whole ordeal. 'cause once you've located the vehicle and you purchased it, we'll get it done for you within a really short period of time. Our installs, they typically take one day from start to finish, and our lead time generally doesn't go above six to seven weeks. And through the summer we will, you know, keep things pretty short even too.

Austin Boehnlin

So yeah, once you find the van, whether it's, you know, a 2014 ProMaster that's got a good amount of miles on it, or a brand spanking new 2024 model for a transit, whatever. Yeah. We have four different vehicle models that we convert. So if if it's the size of the vehicle that we like, then we'll do it for you real quick.

Speaker 6

I'm gonna add my own opinion here. 'cause why wouldn't I, I like that you use the Ford Transit and the Ram Pro master because while the Mercedes sprinter is a great van, it's also 500 bucks for an oil change and No, and then you, you have to find a mechanic in wherever to work on theirs. They're, they're great vans, but they're too expensive <laugh>.

Austin Boehnlin

Right, right. Yeah. And even initially, like for a long time we did the ProMaster until the all-wheel drive feature came out in the transits. And that was a huge point of interest. Like we know people want to get a little further out there with their vans, so all wheel drive is gonna help that. And inheriting the, the Ford Transit within the family was, was great. You know, know it's, it's caused a lot of good attention. But yeah, we haven't quite got around to a Mercedes like design yet.

Austin Boehnlin

And I don't know when we will or if we will, but in the meantime it's nice to know that you can get these vans that we do convert now worked down wherever.

Speaker 6

You're pretty likely to be near a Ford dealer or a Ram dealer anywhere across the country, let alone independent mechanics. One of the other things I like about the Wayfair van, you know, obviously any, any machine, the van engine transmission will need service, but your conversions themselves are very simple and straightforward and not likely to need a lot of repairs. Tell us about what goes into the actual Wayfair conversion and the, and how you do it and what's inside.

Austin Boehnlin

Yeah, absolutely. So all of those w names I mentioned earlier are the names of the base conversions that we make. And each one of those base conversions comes fully insulated. A kitchen galley with a sink, water tanks, uh, lighten is included a couple additional outlets on the driver's side wall, a full bed set up, it's a little bit elevated. So we call the space below the garage where you can fit bikes, kayaks, all kinds of big gear. Um, and then you'll have at least one seat.

Austin Boehnlin

Most of them come with more than one seat that has storage integrated into that box with upper storage as well. From there we have many different accessories that can further outfit it with a heater or vent fans, electrical, refrigeration, all kinds of stuff like that. But we don't make it to the point where you, you feel forced to buy those more expensive accessories from the front end.

Austin Boehnlin

You can get just a vent fan to start and maybe a fridge and then you can come back to us. Any one of our accessories have the option to be retrofitted later so we can incorporate them as people make their summer vacations through Colorado at another time. And that makes for kind of a built-in financing program for those that know they want every last bell and whistle, but even on the front end they're thinking, I just need the camper van to get out there, then I'll come to find you guys. You have a lot of RV experience yourselves, but you've aggregated that over time.

Austin Boehnlin

And for someone who's brand new to a camper van, they don't fully know how much electrical they need or you know, heating they need. So after a couple good experiences out there, they can swing back through and say, Hey, I'm ready for a window and a event van now, or whatever else.

Speaker 6

That's one of the another really unusual thing about the way you do things. And your components, I believe are modular and can be moved even after you get your van.

Austin Boehnlin

Absolutely. Yeah, that's, that's something I didn't mention a second ago. So all of the furniture is held down to an L track system on the floor. So all you need is a nine 16 socket wrench, whether you're on the road and decide to rearrange the furniture. 'cause you'd rather have the kitchen gallery facing the door or you'd rather just take a box out completely for some trip where you don't need as much seeding. You can easily just pop those items in and out across the board, the bed, the upper cabinetry, all of that will come out or be modified however you choose later. We've got a lot of people that are on the verge of like, should IDIY, the whole band myself and spend a year of my life doing it or should I, you know, have the conversion done quickly and then still have the opportunity to modify it later.

Austin Boehnlin

That's what the modularity does for folks to kind of still express that DIY hand, they want,

Speaker 6

I don't know anybody trying to think, I don't wanna have to eat my words. I don't know anybody who has an RV who hasn't modified it anyway. And the fact that that's built into the way you've designed the Wayfair vans is I think it's brilliant and also makes a much better use case. Thank

Austin Boehnlin

You. It's fun for us that way too. I mean like a lot of our ideas come from our own experiences out in the mountains here in the Rockies and just, you know, coming back from a weekend and thinking, hey, it would've been nice if like I could have opted to slide in this kayak in this way and still have a mountain bike on board and then my kitchen galley. If I can just shift it a couple inches, then I'm not permanently anchored with any of the furniture. Like a lot of, you know, traditional RV formats, they assume maybe that you wouldn't want to rearrange things, but you've got your own toys that you want to bring along with you.

Austin Boehnlin

Maybe for the young couple that just has a kid just had a kid, they now need a place to seat that kid safely when driving to their next destination. So we can put in a removable seat that has a seatbelt and a car seat function and all of that. Like after the fact you can just recreate the van over and over through the years. Uh,

Speaker 6

That's I think why you're my favorite van conversion company. I, it just the flexibility. But then listeners might think, Ooh, that sounds really good, but very expensive. But the conversions are not. So typically what is the cost of taking the van and then converting it?

Austin Boehnlin

So I'll just give a range of the base conversion since we have four different options. They go from $21,200 to $24,500 and that'll get you all the fundamentals that you need to get out there camping and more. But then, you know, that doesn't include the van. So if you do need help finding the van, we do have dealership partners that pretty regularly have a rotation of vans on their lot. So if the idea of, you know, those numbers I just mentioned still feels like, ah, I mean I don't know how I can front that immediately and I and summer's coming and I want to get ready for it right away.

Austin Boehnlin

Well our dealership partners have helped us a lot to extend that opportunity to take bite-sized payments off of things. So what you can do is bundle the cost of the full conversion value no matter how many accessories you, you add to, into the value of the vehicle so that you finance the whole thing over time. And in that case you wouldn't owe us anything. The dealership will cover the cost of the conversion and then you just make payments monthly on the whole deal.

Speaker 6

So there's a lot of flexibility. And let's say you find a used ProMaster whatever and it's $40,000 or, and then you add a conversion. So for less than the price of a pickup truck, a new pickup truck, you have a converted RV as opposed to the, I just did a review of a new RV that was a new class B that was announced $240,000. So

Austin Boehnlin

<laugh>

Speaker 6

No, no. And you can't change anything in it. Right? Yeah. Whereas yours, it's a fraction of that and it's reconfigurable. And another thing, the way you've done things, the systems are easily maintained. You don't have a lot of things that break. Now there are, they are simpler. You don't have showers in your vans. Correct, correct.

Austin Boehnlin

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Speaker 6

But if you, if that's something you want, you could get one of those portable shower stations. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> problem solved. There's no black tank in the rv, but you could use a cartridge toilet like we do in our overlander. So they are less complicated. And that's good because the more complicated an RV gets, the more stuff breaks.

Austin Boehnlin

Right? Yeah. It's just, it's just a matter of time when you're actually using the van. If you're letting it sit in your driveway and collect dust, then that's one thing. But for a lot of people that really wanna get out there and experience, you know, some of the rougher country and that has its own abuses to it. Even the highway here in Colorado sometimes has that, it's pretty rough. So that kind of driving is eventually going to just rattle things into submission at some points. And then you have a homework assignment and it really comes down to how much of a project you want to buy.

Austin Boehnlin

If you want to, you know, get your hands dirty and have some maintenance involved and you know, play a role regularly with the, the van. There's, there's plenty that are like that. But for us, we're using quality materials and we're, we're testing again, I'll, I'll just say it over and over. It's a part of our story. We test everything. We put in the vans over and over through countless ski trips, mountain bike trips and you know, just really trying to make sure that it's gonna stand the test of time with good quality stuff.

Speaker 6

Yeah. Unlike a lot of RV companies in general, you guys actually go use yours <laugh>. Another thing I thought was really unusual, obviously. So you have a place there in Colorado where people can bring the van or have the van delivered and you'll convert it, but you can also ship the entire kit if somebody feels they're able to install it themselves.

Austin Boehnlin

Yes sir. Yeah, that's something that was, I would say born out of the pandemic. It was a time where it was difficult to travel and people were still wanting their vans and I would say in droves, as you've seen too, the whole RV industry experienced that mass surge and with some places inability to travel at all, become, get their van. We realized we can set up third party shipping companies to flatbed truck, deliver the van right to your house after the conversion's been done. And so we have a one-way shipping program where if we source the van for you here in Colorado through one of our partners, then once the build is complete, we'll give you the ETA and it'll get dropped off during hours of, you know, that fit your schedule at your house.

Austin Boehnlin

Or if you find a van in your area and you can't get out to us because of work schedule or family things, then the empty van can be delivered straight to us. We'll take care of the conversion. And I kind of like that option a little better because that means you fly out and only see the van when it's done. You don't drive some empty boring van to us

Speaker 6

<laugh>.

Austin Boehnlin

And you get the best of both worlds 'cause you, you get a sweet road trip home with this brand new maiden voyage van. Like it's the best way to do it.

Speaker 6

That's pretty cool. So where are you in Colorado?

Austin Boehnlin

We're in Colorado Springs just a little bit east of downtown. We've been located here since the beginning.

Speaker 6

So you also get a trip to a nice place too. <laugh>. Yeah,

Austin Boehnlin

Exactly. We've got the mountains right here in our backyard and we've got plenty of places to send you out, you know, for your tr your first trip, whether you wanna detour, if you live out east, we can send you through a good detour into the mountains and then pop you out to the east coast from there. Whichever direction. We've got a lot of cool ideas to share with people coming out.

Speaker 6

Oh, that's cool. And then I have to ask, where do the names come from?

Austin Boehnlin

Yeah, well so I mentioned Wally being the first one, the ProMaster city. I guess it just felt fitting, it kind of felt childlike and the van itself was very small so we just picked a w name like Wayfair to kick things off. And then from there it just felt like Walter being the bigger van, it was the one, it's the 1 56 inch wheel base. I don't know, it felt like the older brother name. And then Walt felt like kind of the grandfather. He's the biggest van we convert, but still a pro master. And then, yeah, the story continued with Wilma and Wilford, which we joke about being brother and sister too.

Austin Boehnlin

In some ways it's all family here. <laugh>

Speaker 6

<laugh>, I like it. And then you have some neat storage features too that I've noticed in years for, you know, every, we all bring our stuff and you've done some neat jobs integrating storage,

Austin Boehnlin

Thanks. We realize that with our builds when you first walk into them, it feels like very roomy. There's, there's a lot of extra space which people appreciate knowing that they're gonna have the dog, they're gonna have, you know, their mountain bike and their skis and, and just general camp gear headlamps. All the little things tend to add up. And if you don't have smaller compartments to break that up and kind of stay organized, then without that you're constantly playing chess in your own van. Just moving things, trying to get that stove out and trying to like clear a path for this new item you want to bring into the van you picked up on a small town you pass through.

Austin Boehnlin

It gets frustrating. So for us we felt like, let's just have little sections. The garage space itself is really wide open and large if you don't put a cabinet down there.

Austin Boehnlin

But we have two different cabinets to pick from. So you can still fit at least one bike in the middle and then you'll have two cabinets on the side. If you decide to not travel with a bike, you can use those two cabinets as a lower bunk. So you can sleep up to four people, I'd say pretty comfortably. And so the best thing for us is thinking, you know, they're always gonna be the, the conversions are in a van, which still has a limitation with square footage on a certain level. It's not a foot, it's not a fifth wheel. Right. With that, we want to have multipurpose to everything we put in those lower cabinets being turned into a bed, but also being used as a shelf.

Austin Boehnlin

Every seat that we put in has storage within it and it has a backrest built in so you can kind of stay comfortable while you sit around and play cards with friends. There's table mounts on all of our seats too, so you can relocate the lagoon table that we've incorporated. We just want to think, how can this be, how can this remain functional without feeling cluttered?

Speaker 6

As I said, I've been very impressed with your builds and that's why I wanted to share so well, anything else our audience should know? Oh, one of the things you have some vans already converted and ready, if I'm not mistaken.

Austin Boehnlin

Pretty often we do, uh, at least this time of year it's a little easier to keep them in stock 'cause it's not quite as busy in in January. But, um, yeah, if, if not already converted then the dealerships I was mentioning, they typically have at least a couple bands just sitting there waiting to be converted. So once someone puts their name on one, we'll have it brought to our shop and then we'll get the conversion done at the next available install date. Which right now is only like two weeks. You could have the conversion done before the end of January, even if you're popping in new to the game right now.

Speaker 6

You could almost make it down to CSM court site

Austin Boehnlin

<laugh>. Yeah, exactly. You know, you just, it stones throw away just to keep moving, right? Yeah. Come from another part of the country. I think that what a lot of people find useful too when they're, if they never spent time putting together a van build or maybe they have in their own mind out of like a DIY interest, then they'll pop on our website and use the van builder page. It just says build your van on any one of the conversions that you see on the site. And so with that feature you can literally assemble with the 3D rendering the van that you want based on the accessories we offer the platform, the chassis choice.

Austin Boehnlin

And then you can well pop on there just to get a quote using this tool. Or you can solidify like, okay, this is exactly how I want it to be built. There's gonna be room for the heater, there's gonna be room for the fridge. My kids have these toys that they're gonna have with them, or the dog bed's gonna go right here. They can envision the whole thing that way.

Speaker 6

That's another thing I really liked was the van builder on your website, <laugh>. I don't know why so many RV companies have terrible websites, but they do. But that is another way you guys stand out. You don't <laugh>

Austin Boehnlin

<laugh>, we learned a lot. It's definitely been a learning process to, to watch what other people even, you know, outside the van world are doing with their sites. And we live in a cool era for that. It's very interactive. Yeah,

Speaker 6

It's, the opportunity is is pretty impressive. Well that's it for my questions except for the, my two favorites. As a camper yourself, do you have a favorite camping experience?

Austin Boehnlin

Yeah, I would say one that comes up for me and my wife pretty often is a trip that we took with one of the vans up to the Rio Grande Headwaters here in Colorado. So the river obviously massive going all the way down to the Gulf Coast from here based on snow melt and all of that. But we went through Creed Colorado, which is a real low key beautiful mountain town and then made our way up through several waterfall areas to the actual beginning of the Rio Grande River and fished along the way, mountain biked along the way.

Austin Boehnlin

It was an amazing summer trip. Super fun.

Speaker 6

Oh that sounds good. And then do you have a worst camping memory <laugh>?

Austin Boehnlin

Um, let's see. I can remember one time when I was in one of those original ProMaster cities, one of the WWE conversions I was talking about and I was pretty cramped in there. We've since discontinued this conversion, so I don't wanna bring in any confusion with this story, but they stopped making the ProMaster Cities so we stopped it with that build. But it was tight in there and it was really cold outside. I was running a Mr Buddy heater in there to try and stay warm.

Austin Boehnlin

And as you probably know with those Mr Buddy heaters, they can blast some heat really quick, but they're almost a little volatile with that heat range if you're in a small space

Speaker 6

<laugh>.

Austin Boehnlin

So I had a camelback that was hanging above or too close to where the heater was and it just about caught on fire inside this van with me <laugh>. So I slid open the sliding door and threw it out into some snow and stomped it out. <laugh>. Those were from Master Cities van. I have a lot of stories out of them, that van. But uh, that was a good one. I'd say another one that competes with that and maybe answers both questions that you've asked at once was a time where I, I was camping out of a ProMaster city in Crested Butte, Colorado, and I woke up to snow at the door handles of the van.

Austin Boehnlin

It was just packed in from all sides. And I was thinking, how am I gonna get outta here? I didn't even have a shovel at this point. I was pretty freshly moved up from Texas to Colorado, so I didn't know how bad snow could get overnight, but the snowcat had kind of packed in the van from all sides, not knowing someone was camping in there and without a shovel. I think I used a snowshoe to dig my way out, <laugh>. So that was a fond one, but also a, a tragic one because I was so like juxtaposed by like, I'm gonna freeze to death out here.

Austin Boehnlin

And then I made my way out and had a good trip after that. <laugh>.

Speaker 6

Well that's good. Yeah, that sounds like a great adventure. Well Austin, thank you so much for your time and look forward to sharing this with our audience and let's keep in touch.

Austin Boehnlin

Thank you Tony. Yeah, I'd love to. And I just want to also say before we sign out that we're, we're super thankful for y'all's work and the mission that y'all have to set out and make the whole perspective of the camping world a lot brighter as far as just people that are new to it, trying to understand it. Y'all bring a lot of great points and, and guests onto this podcast and we as listeners just really enjoy the variety and the knowledge of gear and all of that. So I just wanna brag on y'all and say you do good stuff and we appreciate you.

Speaker 6

Well thank you very much for that. I, I really try to help people 'cause there are so many ways to not make this Stressless camping and I, my goal is to help people so they understand, you know, yes, you can really enjoy this lifestyle or just weekend, whatever, whatever suits your world. So thank you. I really, I really appreciate those kind words. And I also wanna encourage people to find Wayfair vans@wayfairvans.com.

Austin Boehnlin

Yeah. Come visit us, check out our YouTube page. We're putting out new videos and accessories all the time. We'd love to see you guys. All

Speaker 6

Right, sounds good. Thank you Austin. Thank

Austin Boehnlin

You Tony. Alright, bye-Bye.

Peggy Barthel

Those sound so great to me. I, you know, we've talked quite a bit about having a van and we've talked about doing a conversion in a box trailer and I know that they specifically have certain build outs that they do, but that modular system is pretty, it's

Tony Barthel

Yeah,

Peggy Barthel

Pretty exciting to me.

Tony Barthel

Yeah, I mean who doesn't get an RV and immediately go, you know, if this were over there it'd be a little better, right? <laugh> and in these Wayfair vans you can just do that.

Peggy Barthel

I don't wanna cook on this side today, right? Or outside today.

Tony Barthel

What do you think? You know, we're always like your input on this, let us know. We also do have a full review of the Wayfair vans on our website this week on the Honest RV reviews section. And we'll put a link to that in the show notes. Now we talk a lot about the show notes and if you go to stressless camping.com, there's a podcast button, just tap that And this is episode 2 3 8 2 38. 2 38. Man, can't believe it's been that many, you know,

Peggy Barthel

You like to make that joke about two 30, that's the time to go to the dentist <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Oh.

Peggy Barthel

And sometimes 2 38 is 'cause you ate the wrong thing and now you're two thirds <laugh>. Yeah,

Tony Barthel

That was the time I went to that hamburger place and broke a tooth on a french

Peggy Barthel

Fry. Some green chili <laugh>. Oh

Tony Barthel

Was it green high anyway?

Peggy Barthel

Well it was green chili fries. You say it was a french fry. I say it was something in the chili.

Tony Barthel

Okay, well whatever it was, it was a bu <laugh>. What's

Peggy Barthel

A bummer? So we said we're gonna be in quartzite this week. Yeah. And I, one of the best things about the big RV sports vacation and RV show, I got it <laugh>

Tony Barthel

Almost. But that, well

Peggy Barthel

The Quartzite sports vacation and RV shows all the vendors and not just vendors selling things but you know, like work camping experiences and location experiences. And we know that Harvest Host s Boondockers welcome will be there this

Tony Barthel

Show. Yes, they will. And they are, they're one of the big sponsors of this show. We're one of the little sponsors of the show, <laugh>, they're one of the big sponsors and Word is they're gonna actually have like a fake farm there to show how camping with Boondocker welcome and Harvest hosts can be very experiential. It can be not just a way to save a whole bunch of money, but to camp where you might not have thought of camping before. And I mean we've certainly done that. We've done Llama Farms for sure.

Tony Barthel

And Pig Farms breweries, <laugh>,

Peggy Barthel

Yes. <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Just all kinds of cool stuff. And so we do have a discount for Harvest Hosts and Boondockers welcome. But it's a great way to add to your experiences and in many ways save a lot of money because camping, especially with Boondockers welcome, it's

Peggy Barthel

Free. Yeah. And they kind of saved my bacon this week because I did was looking for a place in the Phoenix area. It's really hard to get a short term stay in the Phoenix area in February. Yeah. In case you'd ever tried. And so I was just so excited that I got on the Harvest host Boondocks welcome website and I found some terrific places that we can stay, keep us in the area so that we can visit our friends that are in Phoenix area.

Tony Barthel

Yep. And I mean, you know, as they say, there are over 5,000 wineries, breweries, farms, attractions and other things that are part of the Harvest Host program. So they're everywhere and all kinds of experiences and if you want a certain type of experience, you have them to get your discount. Go to our website stresses camping.com, click on the discounts and deals section and there's a big green button. Claim your Harvest Host discount. That's where you'll get it. Save some money and then save some money.

Tony Barthel

<laugh> kind of cool. Yeah. And open up the camping window.

Peggy Barthel

This week's destination is a little bit different. We have not been to this location. We have called and talked to and interviewed people about destinations and this time the phone call just wasn't working for us. But we had our friend Michael Lynch write an article for us. That's

Tony Barthel

Not something we typically do.

Peggy Barthel

Not something we normally do, but because we couldn't really make it work out in the other way. Well

Tony Barthel

And also it was such a compelling story Yes. That we couldn't not share it

Peggy Barthel

With you. We could not share it. Right. So we found a way to share it. And so there is an article that we've posted on our website called Discover the Enchanting Moon Bow at Cumberland Falls State Park. A nighttime Marvel unveiled and Yes, you heard me Moon Bow. Yeah. It's not a rainbow, it's a moon bow. It happens at night. There's only a few places in the world where they're very consistent and Cumberland Falls State Park is one of those places I mostly am putting it in my brain so that the next time we get a chance to go to Kentucky, I'm going to make sure we go and see this

Tony Barthel

<laugh>. Yeah. But I mean check out Michael's article and that will be linked again in the show notes. I keep telling you to go there, but that's the place to find all this stuff. That's where you wanna find it. And it's a pretty neat Cumberlands Falls State Park in Kentucky And check out what is a moon bow? There's pictures. Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

This week's gadget report is coming to you from the past

Tony Barthel

Under our tires

Peggy Barthel

From the past <laugh>. I can't believe that we hadn't talked about these before. We've had these beach lane levels for a year and a half or so.

Tony Barthel

The funny thing is we haven't used them much just because we seem to keep finding these great level spots. Great spots. If you need to level your RV and you don't have an automatic leveler, we can't recommend these beach lane leveler. We can't recommend these beach lane levelers more highly. What they are basically is a ramp and you just drive your RV up based on how much you need to level it. And then the other half of this thing is kind of like a wedge and binging bang boom.

Tony Barthel

It's really easy to level your

Peggy Barthel

Rv. Right. So the ramp is like a curved ramp? Yeah. And there's this, there's two of them. There's two of everything. So there's a ramp and then there's actually a little ramp lifter, like a one inch extra. So if you really need extra height you can put that lifter on. I usually take that off. So you've got the two sloped curves and those go one under each tire on whichever side you need to lift a little bit. And in front of the tire or in back of the tire. But obviously both in the same position on the tire <laugh>. And then as the driver backs up to, or pulls forward onto these ramps, they like curve around under the tire and lift you up a little bit at a time.

Peggy Barthel

And then the other part that Tony was talking about, like a wedge, it's kind of like a tire chalk, you know it's a wedge that goes under the tip of that ramp so that the ramp doesn't fall back down. There

Tony Barthel

Are a number of people who make these wedge levelers, wedge levelers,

Peggy Barthel

Levelers, <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

These have been our favorite for a variety of reasons. One, they fit between our two axles on our travel trailer, which isn't true of all of them. Right. They come in a little bag. So both levelers are in one package so they

Peggy Barthel

Yeah, everything's in the same place. So we don't, we're not looking all over the place. And actually I've never used these, but they actually do come with like a little pad. Yeah. Like a rubber or whatever. So you're on the wrong kind of surface. And the levelers, you know, sometimes if you've ever used these things, sometimes they just wanna kick out from under the tires.

Tony Barthel

Oh. And we had one where we used it once or twice. They had like a rubber. Yeah. Like

Peggy Barthel

Screwed

Tony Barthel

On. Yeah. Screwed on. And of course it shot right off and disintegrated and apparently that's not uncommon. So some of these wedgie levelers are garbage and these beach lane ones seem extremely well made. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, they work on our trailer, they're convenient to use. So that's why they're our favorites.

Peggy Barthel

And when they're in the bag, they're kind of a cube <laugh>, a rectangular cube. I don't know they store well because they stack, you can stack things on top of them and they're not lumpy and round and Yeah.

Tony Barthel

You know, and, and not fiddly. So just

Peggy Barthel

They're not loose and flopping all over the place. So really, really good quality. We have really liked having them and we're glad that those are part of our setup technique. Easier.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. It really makes easier setting up easy, easier. And as somebody who managed warranties, boy a lot of people had issues with auto level. Yeah. And I'm, I wouldn't, you couldn't give me an RV with that on it. These are just so sim you know, simpler to me is always better. Right. And these are simple and they just work. They are the definition of stress testing, stress

Peggy Barthel

Camping, <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

There's a lot of people experiencing a lot of cold weather right now. Yes. And we've seen a lot of people have really bad experiences depending on what you're doing right now. If you're looking at overnight colder temperatures below freezing, let's say, but not like below zero. But just like tonight it's gonna be in the upper twenties, whatever like that, what we do, 'cause we've camped in that condition. Sure. We just put water in our fresh water holding tank. Right. And then we disconnect our hose from city water.

Tony Barthel

Yes. So that we're using the water in the RV and with the pump and

Peggy Barthel

There's not a hose full of water Right. Attached freeze Or even not attached. You don't want that hose to be sitting there full of water to freeze

Tony Barthel

It. No. Gosh, no,

Peggy Barthel

No, no. Because that will be really tough on the hose.

Tony Barthel

Even those air gear hoses that we have. Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

I mean they can take it but Yeah, but you don't how many times <laugh>. Right.

Tony Barthel

I mean we blew up our water filter that way. But anyway, <laugh> it did. Yeah. Make sure your filter's empty too.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. So we do put, we put water in the fresh tank, disconnect any kind of city water. And then we are lucky enough that our Rockwood mini light has heating pads on the tanks. Yep. So we turn those on.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. And they're 12 volt pads. So even if the power goes out, it's no biggie. But also they only come on below a certain temp. So if you don't need 'em, they don't come on. Don't waste electricity.

Peggy Barthel

So it's not to take place of your water heater <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

No, no though do leave that turned on. Right. So it stays hot. Also, if you have an RV where the furnace heats the underbelly, don't use electric heaters, space heaters, use your furnace, use your furnace. 'cause it heats the whole rv. And you don't want pipes on an outside wall freezing either like the ones behind the shower.

Peggy Barthel

Right. Even if your furnace doesn't heat your tanks, your furnace will heat your whole rv. And so what we have done on really cold nights everywhere that's like under a sink, we open cabinets or open drawers and we keep the room warm enough and we the drawers open. Then we're also protecting the bathroom kitchen faucets and and piping and stuff. If you just use a space heater in the bedroom, 'cause that's where you are and you let your kitchen and bathroom get really, really cold, you're risking having piping problems.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. In the cold. Even though you're in there, you're probably not gonna let it get that cold. But still,

Tony Barthel

That's the thing, you know, a lot of people are like, well my furnace uses a lot of propane. Well if it's heating the underbelly, yeah it does. Sure. But it's a lot cheaper than busting a pipe. That's

Peggy Barthel

A lot better than having a broken body.

Tony Barthel

And you know you're gonna discover that after it's thawed. Right? <laugh>. So anyway, just a little thing to think about

Peggy Barthel

For last week's question of the week. I wanted to know, since it was the beginning of the year, <laugh>, have you made a New Year's resolution? I did put a picture <laugh>

Peggy Barthel

Of two computer monitors and one says to the other, what's your New Year's resolution? And the other one? So same as always, 10 24 by 7 68. Oh it's kind of a nerd joke. You don't get it unless you've ever tried to mess with the resolution of your monitor. You can <laugh>, you can change that. Anyway, I don't know. I was just being ridiculous. Uh, and Gary said it took him a minute to figure that out, but it is funny. And his new resolution was to spend more time with his Rio Rancho friends this year if they ever come

Tony Barthel

Home. Hey. Yeah. If we ever come home

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. So I promised him that we would do our best to do that. Michael wanted to know if they, if he didn't complete his New Year's resolution from last year, does he have to do that first? And if the answer is no, does it apply to the previous 20 years? And I said, I bet you probably made a promise back when you were six. You better get busy working on all of that <laugh>. Chris tries not to focus on a single goal, but rather the intention to constantly seek self-growth. Broaden my mind and become the best version of me. That's a great goal. Bill said he tries to follow the advice of Bobby McFaren from a long time ago.

Peggy Barthel

Oh yeah. Don't worry, be happy. Tony said he needed lessons and Bill said it sounds easy, but it's not

Speaker 7

<laugh>. <laugh>,

Peggy Barthel

Mark said like a lot of other people, his goal was to, or his resolution was to lose weight. And so far he is sticking with it. Nice going. Mark. He listened to podcasts while he is on the treadmill. Hey.

Tony Barthel

All right. So your mind gets fatter while your belly gets thinner.

Peggy Barthel

There you go. Mike. Bracewell resolution is to travel more and I think that's a fantastic resolution. We almost possibly can't travel more as much <laugh> as we could travel.

Tony Barthel

We could. I mean we could. We could not.

Peggy Barthel

We could not spend those two or three weeks at home. Two or three times a year. <laugh>. Anyway, thank you so much for your answers and your participation with my silly questions every week. This week. My question is this, it's kind of multiple choice, but I'm not gonna make it a pull. Are you camping? Are you packing? Are you planning? Are you wishing? What level are you? Where are you on the spectrum of camping in 2024 so far?

Peggy Barthel

I know some people aren't able to get out there and camp right now. It's cold as things. Yeah, I can't say. I couldn't think of, yeah, I can't think of an expression that I wanna <laugh> say out loud.

Tony Barthel

It's colder and a witch is kettle.

Peggy Barthel

Okay. Kettle <laugh>.

Speaker 7

<laugh>.

Peggy Barthel

But then some people are lucky enough to have escaped the cold and snow birded a little bit and

Tony Barthel

Well some

Peggy Barthel

Some of those are gonna be down there in Quartzite.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. The coolest people are gonna be in quartzite. Right.

Peggy Barthel

Least in my opinion. I lot, a lot of people also were in Tampa,

Speaker 7

<laugh>,

Tony Barthel

Tampa, sch

Peggy Barthel

Whatever,

Tony Barthel

Whatever. East Coast <laugh>. You can answer that question on our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group.

Peggy Barthel

You also know probably that we do a once a news <laugh> once a news hoop, once a letter <laugh>

Tony Barthel

Heart link letter.

Peggy Barthel

We once a week send out a newsletter that's totally, absolutely and positively free.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. It's got links to the stories, videos, and podcasts that will help you get the most outta your RV experience.

Peggy Barthel

Just visit our website and sign up. A popup will show up if it's the first time on the website. Welcome.

Tony Barthel

But

Peggy Barthel

Why is it <laugh> <laugh>

Tony Barthel

And know that we only send one email a week period and never ever, not ever share your information with anybody.

Peggy Barthel

Right. Also, while you're on stressless camping.com, you can find the show notes for this for every episode. This episode in particular is number 2 3 8 on the

Tony Barthel

PodcastPage@stresslesscamping.com where you'll also see our discounts and deals for the best deals on the things you'll need on your Stressless camping adventure.

Peggy Barthel

You know, if you know of a great deal that we haven't heard about yet, please let us know and we will reach out and try to make that happen for our whole audience.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. And of course we are in all the social places, but you can start@stresslesscamping.com and from there we have links to all the places that we are, which is probably all the places you are too. Probably.

Peggy Barthel

If you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast,

Tony Barthel

Why it's free.

Peggy Barthel

It's free to subscribe on any podcast catcher. And we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.

Tony Barthel

And by the way, did you know that a review will help others find this podcast? And the more listeners we have, the bigger and better the discounts will be for everybody.

Peggy Barthel

That's right. So thank you to anyone who has reviewed us. And if you haven't, please, please, please do. That's so helpful. And if you have already and you still wanna help, just hit that share button no matter where you are, if you see something that we've written that you really think other people would like to see, hit the share button, share it on social media, email it to your friends, building

Tony Barthel

Spray paint on

Peggy Barthel

Somebody, spray <laugh>, spray paint. Don't spray paint on a building. You might get a do or arrested. Yeah. <laugh>. <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Graffiti not good. Not good. Another thing is, there's a lot of times answers to questions people ask on social media and you can find those answers and share them from the Stressless camping website. Right? So thank you for doing that. We really appreciate you. I mean, gosh, we can't wait. Some of you have already said you'll be in quartzite. Some of you

Peggy Barthel

Already are waiting for, some of

Tony Barthel

You are already there, <laugh>. And, uh, we really can't wait to see you all and spend some time with you.

Peggy Barthel

And don't forget on the 22nd Yeah. At 4:00 PM meet us at the big at the little tent. At the big tent. The

Tony Barthel

The tent, the big tent

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. And we will be recording next week's podcast live. There

Tony Barthel

May be beer. Oh, you never know what's gonna happen. You never

Peggy Barthel

Know.

Tony Barthel

But I do know we will be recording and we look forward to seeing you. And that would absolutely be Stressless Camp Stressless camping.

Mark Ferrell

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

Peggy Barthel

That we do a once a news <laugh> once a news hoop, once a.