Checking in with Hughes Autoformers - the Power Watchdog people
On this week’s RV & camping podcast we speak with Brett Thomas from Hughes Autoformers about the thinking, need and functionality of their Power Watchdog. There are lots of choices out there - what makes this our preferred choice for over 6 years?
We also test an RV bidet and have the debut of a new more affordable line of travel trailers including one that could be an office, a bunkhouse, a toy hauler and more in one unit. Plus we spent four days off the grid camping in a post card - for $10 a night!
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
We started out talking about campground etiquette - here are nine tips for campground etiquette.
Our favorite way to make coffee on the road is with the Aeropress - here’s why.
Our guest this week comes from Hughes Autoformers and we’ve written an article about why we think you need an RV surge protector.
We really enjoyed our trip to the Jemez Mountains and Peggy has a recap of our time at Vista Linda Campground.
Our article and review of the RV bidet by Clean Camper.
Tony’s review of the Ember RV E-Series 240ETS travel trailer.
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 transcription of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 244
Mark Ferrell
Welcome to the weekly podcast all about turning the great American RV adventure into stress less camping. Each week, we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some stressless camping.
Peggy Barthel
Hey. Who blew out the campfire? I'm Tony. I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And we're 2 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,
Peggy Barthel
Tricks.
Tony Barthel
And discounts.
Peggy Barthel
It is blow e here.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It is. Well, I mean, we got even the high wind warnings. Not a good time to be pulling a trailer through New Mexico, but fortunately,
Peggy Barthel
we aren't. We got home just in time. We did go on a weekend trip. We got home and it was starting to get windy and it has gotten more and more windy for the last 2 days.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's it's crazy windy out there, but we got to spend 4 days at Jemez?
Peggy Barthel
Yes. Yeah. We'll talk about it more later, but we stayed in the Jemez mountains with our local friends and had a fantastic weekend.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We've stayed with Brian and Patrick and Mickey and Michael at a place. We'll as Peggy said, we'll we'll get on it. But that does bring about a few words about campground etiquette.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We have talked about campground etiquette before, but just, uh, uh, I'm I'm sure our listeners probably don't need a reminder. But so maybe this is just a little nag fest a little bit.
Tony Barthel
Nag fest.
Peggy Barthel
You know, you always wanna keep in mind that you don't wanna disturb other people. I mean, you wanna enjoy yourself. So but there are some things that are just not enjoyable for your neighbors and one of them is having your loud music of whatever kind whatever kind it is. I don't care what kind it is. It could be everybody's favorite in the whole campground, and too loud is still too loud.
Peggy Barthel
It just happened that we had neighbors who were playing music we did not appreciate one little bit.
Tony Barthel
Well, I have to say, no matter what music you like, nobody likes it at the next at 2 campsites down
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
No matter what it is.
Peggy Barthel
You know, we don't understand why, but there are people who don't even like Jimmy Buffett. What? I'm just saying. Yeah. There are.
Peggy Barthel
Really? And so we don't play our Jimmy Buffett louder than we need in our own campsite. Our neighbors probably don't wanna hear it.
Tony Barthel
Or our grateful dad.
Peggy Barthel
Or for that matter. We'll pick on each other.
Tony Barthel
Right.
Peggy Barthel
The other thing that can make a lot of noise and be disturbing to other people is a generator. There was a neighbor of ours that had a generator, but he was super considerate. I didn't hear it run until about maybe 9 o'clock in the morning, and it was usually done by noon or so, so it really wasn't a big disturbance. And I know a lot of campgrounds have specific hours that you're not allowed to run it, you know, past 10 or before. I think there was one that they couldn't run their generator till about 9, and one of our fellow campers was like, how am I gonna make my coffee?
Peggy Barthel
And so, of course, we told them about AeroPress.
Tony Barthel
Well, one of the things about this campground, it had no services. So there was barely water and all of that. Right. And so you had to have your own resources on your RV or tent. There were some tent campers there.
Tony Barthel
Well, anyway, we have an article about 9 campground etiquette tips, and they will be in the show notes. That is on stressless camping.com as is a link to our Amazon store.
Peggy Barthel
Right. So if you don't know, we do have an affiliate link with Amazon, and what we've done is actually put together a list of RV basics, and it's the things that we think, I mean, some are maybe not quote unquote necessities. Oh, yes. I know they are to us, of course, but some things are just, you know, like I see a lot of times people ask what kind of plates can I have that aren't going to break? And you know people use paper plates, okay that's not the way we like to be.
Peggy Barthel
People use Corelle, and I know that those don't break until they do, and when they do it's a terrible, terrible mess. So that's fine if that's what people want. We happen to use wheat straw because it won't break and it's microwave safe and all that. But anyway, we have our RV list.
Tony Barthel
When you go to our store and at the bottom, there's discounts and deals and one of the things on there is our link to our Amazon store. It doesn't change the price you pay at all. Right. What happens is good old Jeff Bezos says, oh, they are sending people my way, so they send us a eensy, beansey, teeny tiny cut. Jeff calls us personally
Peggy Barthel
and says, thanks, dude.
Tony Barthel
Thanks, dude.
Peggy Barthel
Here's a penny.
Brett Thomas
Yeah. Exactly.
Tony Barthel
So the way to find our Amazon affiliate link is you go on the website to our discounts and deals, and then at the bottom, there's some buttons there and one of them is our Amazon affiliate link. And that's the way to basically help us out.
Peggy Barthel
And as Tony said, it doesn't change your price. It shouldn't change your experience really once you get to Amazon, but it does let Amazon know that we recommended that you go there, and it helps us out. Every little bit helps.
Tony Barthel
Yep. That is absolutely true.
Peggy Barthel
And our guest today actually is Hughes Auto Formers, and the Hughes Power Watchdog is one of the absolute things that I list first when people say, what do I need to buy for my new RV ing experience?
Tony Barthel
It was interesting to speak with him, and I bet you wanna hear from him too.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Today, we are super excited to be talking to Brett Thomas, the general manager of Hughes Auto Formers and the makers of one of my, I'm gonna say, maybe my most often recommended safety item, the Power Watchdog. Brett, thank you so much for spending time with us today.
Brett Thomas
Thank you, guys. Thank you for having me.
Tony Barthel
Why don't you share with us what exactly is the Hughes PowerWatchdog?
Brett Thomas
Sure. So just kind of going backwards if you will, everybody tells you you should have a surge protector on your TV or your computer at home Mhmm. And you may not know why. Most people don't know why, and I would like to tell you that that is a great idea. I I highly recommend it because you do have these things called surges or spikes that that can happen.
Brett Thomas
Not necessarily that they will, but it is a possibility that they can happen, and that surge or spike can damage sensitive electronics. So, you know, again, if it's your computer or your TV connected, they could be damaged from that surge. Most RV surge protectors are just that. They're just really a surge protector sitting there waiting for a surge or spike that may or may not ever come. And again, that's not negative.
Brett Thomas
That's what a RV surge protector is, but that's basically where they kind of stop. That's all the features that they do. So about 6, 7 years ago, we came out with our PowerWatch dog line of RV surge protectors, and what makes ours different is that the module that would get used up or does get used up from surges and spikes is replaceable. So it's not a one and done. Um, other brands, if the surge module goes out, you're basically buying a whole brand new unit.
Brett Thomas
With our units, the PowerWatchdog, just a simple control module, a surge module is what gets replaced. So that's a unique feature to us. And then in addition to that, you know, again, the surge protector just sitting there waiting for a surge spike that may or may not come, we added a feature, uh, of bluetooth to all of our watch dog units. So you can download a free app. And then now, um, you can see on your phone, whether it's a phone or tablet, You can see in your hand your volts, watts, amps, frequency, kilowatt hour use.
Brett Thomas
So you're getting this real time data that's providing a service. So not only is it that original surge protector sitting and waiting for a surge or spike that may not may not come, it is giving you active benefits, active service, letting you know what your voltage is, how many amps you're drawing. So you can do proactive things. If you're getting low voltage, do you need to go to another spot? Are you are you drawing almost too many amps?
Brett Thomas
Do you need to balance your load? So now that you have that data in your hand, you can you can be aware and and proactive of things.
Peggy Barthel
And the thing you said about being able to replace the component of a watchdog and even we're not gonna talk about these, but other brands that you can replace the surge protector itself, someone might say, well, that's expensive, blah blah blah. But the compared to the price of replacing all the electrical components in your RV, this is a way better option.
Brett Thomas
Correct. I mean, penny wise, pound foolish. You do want a surge protector. Um, it is an insurance policy in that regard. You know, you hope that you never need to use it, but one big surge or one spike can can take out equipment that's, you know, cost much more than just a surge protector or that surge module.
Brett Thomas
So you definitely do want a surge protector.
Tony Barthel
And one of the things that we have found, I don't believe that our Hughes Power Watchdog has shut off because it will. It'll just shut off if it senses a surge. But what we have found more frequently is it protects our RV when there's not enough power. So low voltage.
Brett Thomas
Correct. Yeah. In the RV field, more people are aware or hear of, you know, spikes and surges. It's kinda like the boogeyman. It's the name that people know.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Brett Thomas
But low voltage really is actually the problem that's there more often. The RV part can be old. If it was built in the fifties or sixties, people didn't have big RVs that needed the electricity that they do now. So, um, older parts, you know, could be supplying you with low voltage. COVID and, you know, that time since then, we've had a a really big boom of RVers.
Brett Thomas
So there's just more people out there. The power's naturally gonna be go down. Voltage is gonna go down. Obviously, RV's getting bigger. Summer's getting warmer and and longer where you need that AC.
Brett Thomas
So there's a lot of compounding factors that are gonna drive issues where you're gonna have low voltage. And with the Watchdog, it will the EPO unit, the emergency power off, it will shut you down if you do get low voltage, but low voltage in general is actually the the bigger issue, uh, a little bit more so than than surge and spikes, but you need a voltage booster in that case.
Tony Barthel
Something I've learned from my buddy, Mike Sokol, who who's the RV electricity guy. Low voltage can kill motors and and things like that pretty quickly.
Brett Thomas
Correct. Yes. Low voltage with an inductive load, so motors are are an inductive load. It's a reverse, or I should say inverse relationship between volts and amps. So if, you know, voltage goes down, then the inverse happens.
Brett Thomas
The the amperage goes up. Your AC compressor, you know, is a motor. That is the biggest single load typically on a RV. And when you have low voltage, so, you know, 120 is the ideal number. It's the most efficient for motors.
Brett Thomas
If you get low low from that, you know, a couple volts low, a couple volts high, not a problem. But, you know, we're talking about sustained, you know, 113, 110, 108, which is very common. You can definitely get that in RV park. Your compressors and motors are now drawing more amps than they normally would be, so they're gonna get hotter. The heat can damage the magnetics, could damage the windings.
Brett Thomas
You know, uh, there's not a sliding scale like it's gonna explode in in 10 minutes.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Brett Thomas
But the easiest way to think of it is just that, you know, rather than it lasting 3 years, 5 years like it should, you know, maybe it's gonna last 1
Tony Barthel
year or 2 years. We know for a fact that, you
Brett Thomas
know, low voltage is damaging.
Tony Barthel
Well, and something that as someone who used to manage a warranty department, you might find, okay, this RV park, my air conditioner fried or my more commonly now, the 12 volt compressor in my refrigerator died. So you go to the RV dealer and go, okay, I need to replace this. And they're like, fine. We can get you one in 8 months.
Brett Thomas
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Luckily, you know, during COVID, there was that and and just after COVID, there was the, um, big issue of supply chain. For the most part, I think we're a little bit out of that neck of woods, but but still, yeah, you know, something goes down and, you know, you're out using it, you're out the cost of the replacement part, you're out the labor.
Brett Thomas
So there's a lot of things, you know, uh, and having a surge protector or a voltage booster is gonna prevent a lot of that headache.
Tony Barthel
So what do you say to people who, you know, I've been RVing for 30 years and haven't had to use one of these things?
Brett Thomas
You're lucky. I mean, we do get that. So, again, I never would wanna push anything on somebody. I always like to tout the benefits of what we offer. 30 years ago, rvs weren't as high-tech as they were.
Brett Thomas
You may have had, you know, incandescent lights. Things that were much more rugged, you know, but at the same time rudimentary. Literally a wire from point a to point b. Nowadays, you know, we have smart sensors and smart this and a computer chip that's literally, you know, in every point of connection along the way. It's the fine circuitry.
Brett Thomas
It's the fine electronics. It's the small wires, microscopic wires, those chips. Those are the ones that get damaged in surge and spikes. Little one penny resistor that's, you know, smaller than your fingernail, that that little thing goes out because of a surge or spike and now your, you know, your microwave doesn't work properly or it doesn't work at all. So things have changed over the 3rd over over 30 years.
Brett Thomas
Infrastructure for parks are are are is older. Um, more people are RVing. You can get a surge or spike from your neighbor, you know, unplugging their RV correct, you know, incorrectly. So you definitely do want a surge protector, and then again, the R's have that added benefit of giving you the the data in real time. So it's not just sitting there doing nothing.
Brett Thomas
It is giving you your volts, watts, and amps alerts if there's a a problem detected.
Tony Barthel
Well, and that's something that I have used quite a bit because I am a nerd
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Tony Barthel
And I love to see Okay. I'm gonna turn on the air conditioner and I have the app open. Okay. How many amps does it draw? Or the refrigerator or anything like that.
Tony Barthel
It it's for me, I like to see how much power I'm drawn and what the different devices actually consume, and you can do that with the app that you get with the Hughes Power Watchdog.
Brett Thomas
And and we get customers calling us up and telling us how they're using that information. But a good point to that is dealers and consumers alike, there's a lot of unknowns about, you know, what size generator or solar systems setup you would need to work, you know, boondocking. So with the Power Watchdog, if they have that unit, they can turn on, you know, your TV, your radio, you know, whatever, blender. You know, whatever you wanna be able to turn on on a battery, inverter, or solar system, and it is gonna show you your amp draw, your watts that you're using, things like that on your phone. So now you can go back to that dealer or, you know, your solar installer and you tell them, hey I need a 1200 watt system.
Brett Thomas
Because you you can see how much power that's using on AC shore power. So when you're going on boondocking, you already know what you need. So again, when you have that data in your hand, you can use it in a multitude of different ways.
Peggy Barthel
That's a really good idea.
Tony Barthel
I had never actually thought of it. That's a good point. So one of the stories that I've shared a few times regarding our power watchdog, one time we were at an RV park, and it was summer. And we had ours Well, first of all, what we do is we plug our power watchdog in before we even back into a site. So if we don't get the white dog, we head back to the office.
Tony Barthel
Right. We were at a park and everything was fine and then a dude pulled in next to us in an air stream And all of a sudden, our power watchdog kicked our power off. What the heck happened? And I looked and the guy had 2 air conditioners on an air stream, on a smaller air stream. What the heck?
Tony Barthel
He wired them himself and and basically, I don't know what he did to the loop because the power watchdog was off that quickly, but it protected us. But not everybody on that loop had a power watchdog. So you might think you're fine, and then here comes, you know, Joe Backyard Mechanic with his jury rigged air stream and could cause damage.
Brett Thomas
Right. Yeah. And if you don't have the watchdog or or any other, you know, smart device for that matter, you you really are flying blind because you obviously can't see electricity. So even if you're getting low voltage, your lights are still gonna be on, you know. But meanwhile, your your appliances are working harder and they're being damaged.
Brett Thomas
So if you don't have a device that's letting you know what your your real time volts are, you are just at the mercy of the pedestal. You're plugging in and crossing your fingers.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's true. And and you might plug in and everything's fine and all of a sudden something changes and it's not fine anymore.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Brett Thomas
Yeah. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So can you tell us about the warranty for the PowerWatchdog?
Brett Thomas
Yeah. So the PowerWatchdog units, uh, they have a limited lifetime warranty, and we stand behind our products. So we are still a small, honestly, a family, um, based company out of Anaheim, California. We are not, uh, that company that, you know, pushes your your phone calls overseas or anything like that. You you call and you get one of the 4 of us here to answer our phones.
Brett Thomas
We can definitely do any kind of tech support. So a lot of issues that, you know, people think that there's an actual issue with the Watchdog, And I'll be honest, a lot of it's just simple things. You know, they download the wrong app. So there's not actually anything wrong with the unit. And if there is anything, again, there is a limited lifetime warranty.
Brett Thomas
Uh, so they can reach somebody here at our office and we'll take care of them. One thing actually I do wanna point out. We we don't make a big mention out of this as we should, I guess, but, uh, obviously the PowerWatch aug units, they come with a surge module already installed. That's what you're getting. Um, but if there's a customer that uses up their surge modules in the first two years, they can give us a call, and we will actually mail them one free module.
Brett Thomas
So it's kind of a joke. You know, it's not the cat with 9 lives. It's the dog with 9 lives. He can keep replacing that module if he needs to.
Tony Barthel
Something that I understand about those power surge modules is that little spikes can reduce their life. Right? It's not like Correct. Everyone thinks of, like, the big shock, but it may not be the big shock. It may be
Peggy Barthel
A bunch of little shocks.
Brett Thomas
Yeah. Basically, uh, the MOV, metal oxide varister, it it can degrade over time. The spikes, you know, it's essentially excess energy electricity. So it's trying to go through the MOV from point a to point b, and it essentially has to burn a hole, if you will, to make that conductivity to get to ground. So it degrades it in that sense where you can't burn a hole where there's already a hole.
Brett Thomas
So essentially that's kinda how they go bad. So, yeah. If you have the the better and best analogy that I can kind of think of is, you know, a shield with like a 100. If you hit it with, uh, a bat, you know, at 1, you can do it a 100 times. If you hit it with a bat at a 100, you know, you're gonna do it one time.
Brett Thomas
So we get a lot of questions, you know, how long is this gonna last? And that's, you know, an un unanswerable question because you just don't know, uh, what type of surge or the severity that that you may or may not get.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And that's the thing. It's there to kinda keep an eye on things so you don't have to know what might Yeah. Cause damage. You just know you're protected and keeping on camping on.
Brett Thomas
Yeah. You got protection. Right?
Peggy Barthel
How do you and you may already know this, but how do you know if you've blown your surge module?
Brett Thomas
Yeah. Good question. So the EPO units, there's gonna be a fault code window down at the bottom right of the unit. So it's gonna turn the faces of the dog's gonna turn red, uh, and then it's gonna display an e nine code that lets you know that the, um, surge module's used up. Any of the fault codes displayed on the EPO units, there's actually kind of an engraving on the side of the unit.
Brett Thomas
So you can match it whether you have your phone on you or not. If you do have the phone app synced, then you're gonna get that alert on your phone. You know, e nine code search module used up for the EPO units. And then on the base model units, there's a indicator light on the actual unit itself just just like any other other, uh, you know, base model brands out there.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Brett Thomas
A physical light on the unit that will let you know that search module needs to be replaced.
Peggy Barthel
Great.
Tony Barthel
Too bad you couldn't make it so the light up dog had like x's over its eyes.
Peggy Barthel
So that'd be funny.
Tony Barthel
It's one of the neat things. You don't have to know anything about electricity. You basically plug it in where you plug your RV in. And if the dog lights up white, everything is bueno. If the dog lights up red, something's not bueno, and you can go from there.
Tony Barthel
But, yeah, I mean and then you also have, like, super nerd mode. So you can go in and see what you're Correct. Using and, you know, what's happening and all of that. So I like that it's at its core is one of those things that anybody if you know how to plug an RV in, you know how to work one of these.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
But there's sort of the advanced mode where it's like you can you can go so much deeper and and use it not just as a surge protector, but also to kinda see what all is going on with your RV. And I I dig that kind
Peggy Barthel
of stuff. Right.
Brett Thomas
No. No. You're absolutely right. You know, obviously, RV ing, the crowd a little bit older. Right?
Brett Thomas
You know, so it's hit or miss whether they are tech savvy with a smartphone, etcetera, etcetera. But the Watchdog is fully automatic in that regard. You know, it's you can just plug it in and then forget about it, and it's gonna be as good if not better, well, I should say it is better, than what's out there. But really the devil is in the details with the app because, you know, then then you can get down to the details like you mentioned Knowing how much power you're using if you're at a RV park that charges for power. If you have a, uh, 30 amp RV and you're drawing 27 amps, you know that you can't turn on that microwave or that Right.
Brett Thomas
Filter oven or hairdryer because you're gonna be going over 30 amps. So you don't have to use the phone app, but but but using that app gets you that proactive ability which is just huge, you know. We have people that that never thought they would be playing with their phone all the time and that's that they call us up and say, you know, that they're on their phone all the time to see what they're getting. And again, you know, before you had that you were really just flying blind. You just plugged in and kind of hoped for the best.
Brett Thomas
And this kinda takes a lot of the, uh, stress out of things. You know, you can actually see the data, proofs in the numbers. If everything looks good, then then you're good, and, you know, you go on go on your way. But before, you really just didn't know.
Tony Barthel
So you're saying having a power watchdog is stressless camping? What?
Brett Thomas
I do believe so. I mean, if you see bad numbers, uh, it's not like the numbers weren't there initially. Right? So I think it should relieve your stress, you know, seeing that you got real time data on your in your hand.
Peggy Barthel
So it
Brett Thomas
could definitely give you some stressless camping.
Tony Barthel
Fantastic. And anything we didn't cover that we should have?
Brett Thomas
So, I mean, the biggest the big push, obviously, is a a surge protector. We do, you know, Robert Hughes, obviously, Hughes Autoformer. We we started with our Autoformer. And to all the listeners, I mean, it is a higher ticket item, and I'm just being cut and dry. So it's a harder sell just because it costs more.
Brett Thomas
But the autoformer is the only device on the RV market, in the RV market, that boosts voltage. So if you have a power wash dog, and now you can see your voltage in real time on your on your phone and your tablet, and you got a good voltage, well then you don't need an autoformer. So, you know, you got the you got the surge protector. If you got the EPO model, it can shut you down. You know, you're good.
Brett Thomas
Um, but I tell I tell customers, you know, if you have the the watchdog and you go traveling around enough or you're full time, you're probably gonna hit up an RV park that has low voltage, you know, especially during the summer time. And if you're seeing on your phone, you know, the app that you're getting, let's just say, 113 or lower, you're in brownout zone. Again, you know, your AC may not blow up in 10 minutes, but it may not last as long as it should. So if you if you are getting low voltage, then then you know that the autoformer, again, the only device on the market that boosts that voltage is the product. So definitely, uh, our original item that started in, you know, Hughes Auto Formers hasn't gone anywhere.
Brett Thomas
It's just, uh, been changed over the years and now has surge protection as well, but that is, uh, an integral item to have for anybody that's suffering from low voltage.
Tony Barthel
To be very clear, the auto former is a separate item from the Power Watchdog.
Brett Thomas
Correct. The auto former has, uh, surge protection. The Watchdogs are surge protectors. The Autoformer can boost voltage. The Watchdogs have Bluetooth.
Brett Thomas
They're both surge protections, uh, surge protectors, but they do have differences as well.
Tony Barthel
Right. Okay. Got it. And is the Autoformer a portable device as well, or is it hardwired in?
Brett Thomas
It's a portable device. We do have a, uh, internal kit, so you can mount it internally in in the same way with our Watch Dogs. Just standard. It is a portable unit you plug into the pedestal.
Tony Barthel
Okay. Interesting. So see, there's something that I learned.
Brett Thomas
Yeah. We we will have to let you examine a sample here.
Tony Barthel
Sure. Sounds I'm always all over trying out new stuff. Yeah. For sure. That's my thing.
Tony Barthel
Well, we sure appreciate you're making time for us and sharing the information with our audience, and we'll continue to keep traveling with our used PowerWatch, dog. Thank you for the products and the way you support the product. It's a good thing.
Brett Thomas
We appreciate that. Like I said, yeah, we're still a small company, so we care about the customer. We really do versus just being a number or, you know, you know, just a a a data speck. So, um, we appreciate that. You know, feedback, good, bad, we we do love it.
Brett Thomas
Like I said, we're in we're in Anaheim, so that kind of benefits for the a lot of the customers out there that are in the East Coast. You know, if you have an issue or a question or anything like that, you can give us a call and and we're still generally at work. So
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Brett Thomas
Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. It's our pleasure. So now your power is protected. And as we've said in the past, you know, this is not new news for those of you who have been followers of ours for a while. We really like the Hughes Power Watchdog quite a bit, and that's for when we are plugged in.
Tony Barthel
But as Peggy said, last weekend, we were 4 days off the grid in a New Mexico State Park, Fidders, and we never really worried about it. What would happen is overnight, we have a 400 amp hour lithium battery in our travel trailer, and overnight, we'd get down to about 65 to 70%. And truly the big pig in that is the refrigerator, but we were also running Starling.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We ran Starling pretty much all day long every day.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So morning, we start around mid sixties in state of charge. Usually by, like, noon the same day, we're back up at a 100% state of charge.
Peggy Barthel
Yep.
Tony Barthel
So the system just performed flawlessly, and we were all sitting around talking about how well these systems work now and how it's just not something you have to think about. But being the nerd that I am, I love the little display on our solar and lithium system that says how much power. Like, there's times we're getting in 38, 39 amps of power, and this is in February. So the sun is relatively low. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And we're camped in a canyon.
Peggy Barthel
Even I was sitting out there soaking up the sun. I'm surprised the camper even could get any because I wanted it so much. But we had 4 beautiful, sunny, gorgeous days.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It literally was the perfect weather for off grid camping. Yeah. The perfect spot and just the perfect system. And if you want a system that works to the point where you really don't have to think about it or worry about it or fiddle with it and it just works.
Tony Barthel
Our friends at ABC Outfitters put in those kind of systems, whether it's a van, a class a, travel trailer, 5th wheel. However your rig is, they can accommodate it, and they have actual engineer on staff who can go through and they'll ask you questions about what you use, where you like to camp. You know, they don't do just cookie cutter systems. Mhmm. It's systems designed for the way you enjoy your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
So if if that sounds like the kind of people and the kind of system that floats your boat or
Peggy Barthel
calls your campers Calls your camper.
Tony Barthel
Give them a call. They're at 574-333-3225. Again, 574-333 3 225. Or, of course, you can find them through a link on the show notes at stressless camping.com. Well, where were we camping off the grid, Peggy?
Peggy Barthel
Well, you know, we keep saying, like, gosh, we wish we'd stay home long enough to explore some New Mexico locations, and we have been, and we're super excited to be able to do that. Well, this last weekend, we went to Jemez Mountains. That is a little north of us, actually not very far, maybe an hour north of us, which is fantastic getaway. Right? It's almost a staycation.
Peggy Barthel
You don't have to drive really far. You're not really tired when you get home, but you get to a whole new place and experience whole new things. So we stayed at the Vista Linda Campground, which is just south of the Jemez Springs Village, and it is a state campground. It is $10 a night, which you cannot beat.
Tony Barthel
I'm gonna encourage you if there are state parks or small this was, uh, campground. What did there 13 spots in it?
Peggy Barthel
There's 12 or 13. I think there's 13 counting the camp host site.
Tony Barthel
It's a small campground, and it's on a road. You might just blow right by it if you weren't if you didn't know it was there.
Peggy Barthel
Trying to follow the Apple map that doesn't know. Oh my
Tony Barthel
gosh. Right?
Peggy Barthel
Now it that could have been my fault. I could have put in the wrong address, but try to find out before you go if you if they if it really knows where you're headed to.
Tony Barthel
There there are days I just wanna take Siri and
Peggy Barthel
Well, again, that could have been my fault. So there are 12 sites though. They are not reservable, so you go there and you just hope that there's a space available for you. We went on a Thursday to make it a little more likely, and there were spaces when we got there. The site that our friend, Patrick, had told us to take, someone got there on Wednesday and took that one.
Peggy Barthel
But that's okay. We had a beautiful site that we loved, and we were right next door to Michael and Mickey, and they were right next door to Patrick and Brian. And we each had our own experience. You know, Patrick and Brian's site was right by the river. I I wanna call it a creek, but it's actually called the Jemez River.
Peggy Barthel
It was small, but anyway, you could hear the Creek running. So you have that like babbling Brook noise while you're sitting in camp. We had a site that had a covered picnic table with an actual, you know, roof over it.
Tony Barthel
And that's something we've seen in a few New Mexico parks.
Peggy Barthel
Maybe all the state parks have had that covered picnic area. So that's really been nice. We really do like that amenity. In that campground, there are 2 buildings that have pit toilet, you know, men's and the women's side pit toilets. And there is running water, but it's not something that you can hook up to, or you can even hook a hose to fill your tank.
Peggy Barthel
So show up with water. Don't show up expecting to be able to get water from there, but they are lovely sites. They're all very well separated. They're pretty good size.
Tony Barthel
There's enough native vegetation from one site to the next Yeah. That you really don't see your neighbors. That was pretty cool.
Peggy Barthel
Right. Exactly. And then each side has a fire pit and a picnic table, and I think they each had a barbecue grill. I know our site did, but we actually took our smoker for the very first time. It got to go camping with us.
Tony Barthel
Oh, I was gonna say, we actually brought our pellet smoker, and I ran it off the portable power station that we have. Right. So it was out there under that metal cover, and I smoked a tri tip. And New Mexico, we're we're gonna have to have a discussion because
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Tony Barthel
The tri tips here don't have the the fat cap. And doggone it, that's part of the whole thing that makes them yummy. Yeah. So come on, New Mexico. You can do better than that.
Tony Barthel
I mean, the food here is pretty doggone good, but so far, the tri tips, I don't know. I don't know.
Peggy Barthel
So apparently, there is good fishing in the river. We don't fish, so we don't we don't know that, but I did read that in a couple different places. One of our friends said that they have seen a bear there. We did not. I'm don't know if I'm disappointed or happy.
Peggy Barthel
Like, I, you know, I kinda always, like, hope I see one, but not so close that they're scary. Right? Just like, oh, look up there on the hillside, there's a bear walking around. Yeah. We also took a couple of day trips.
Peggy Barthel
We went into the village a couple of times and had some lunches. One time, we had burgers at Los Ojos restaurant and saloon.
Tony Barthel
And that place has been there for a 105 years, and it looks like it. And that's not a criticism at all. No. It is just a good old down home saloon place that sells really decent food and has Mhmm. Decent beer.
Tony Barthel
And you you kind of expect, you know, there to be some there was a piano, and you expect some dude to be in there, like, playing the piano. Right. And all of a sudden, you know, here comes bad boy Smith
Peggy Barthel
or whatever. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And and the door opens and the piano stops and everyone, like, gets quiet.
Peggy Barthel
That's not that did not happen. Place.
Tony Barthel
No. It didn't happen.
Peggy Barthel
That's like wanting to see a bear. Like, that'd be cool to see, but then you're you could be in the line of fire. So This town ain't big enough for
Tony Barthel
the both of us.
Peggy Barthel
The other place that we ate was Hamus Mountain Brewhouse, which is not yet its own brewhouse, but they said they got all the paperwork done and they should be starting to brew in the next month or 2. So when we go back, we'll get to have whatever they're brewing, but they do carry, you know, a lot of good local New Mexico beers. So that was nice. And they have really good pizza.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. But the calzones are just pizza.
Peggy Barthel
It's a folded in half pizza. It's not like a pocket. So just so you know.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I would say stick with the pizza and maybe pass on the calzones. But that's me.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Another thing we did was the Waletoa Visitor Center. Oh, yeah. Which is really nice. It's got a small museum.
Peggy Barthel
It's got a little coffee shop. And the man who was working behind the counter said, oh, I make this thing called a s'mores coffee. And we're like, okay, hook us up. So we had coffee and we checked out the museum. We got some, you know, souvenirs, and they actually have a guided walk through the Red Hills, but I think the guy that was making coffees normally leads the hikes.
Peggy Barthel
So and and I don't I I hesitate to call them hikes. They look like it's it we saw a video and it looks like a very simple walk through the hills with a with a guide. So they talk about the vegetation and they talk about the rocks and, you know, what it means to their people.
Tony Barthel
The Jemez Mountains where we were, I believe, was tribal land. Right? It was the Wauwatosa.
Peggy Barthel
We were just outside the Pueblo. The Wauwatosa Visitor Center is in the Pueblo, but we were just outside of it.
Tony Barthel
Okay. And so that's where the guided it's people from the tribe who give you a walk among I mean, if you've ever looked at pictures of Sedona, this is every bit as pretty as Sedona. And so these members of the local tribe walk you through this beautiful red rock with these amazing formations, and they tell you, oh, our people have done you know, use this plant for that or that plant for the other, and and it's a real educational walk through, you know, the way these people lived for many, many, many, many years. Another thing I really appreciated is the people at the visitor center speak their native language. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And that was pretty cool to me.
Peggy Barthel
I think I read that that's the only Pueblo that they do still keep the language alive.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So it was it was just a neat experience. We did not go on the hike, as Peggy said, because the dude who does the hike a lot was the dude who was making the coffee that day, and he did a great job with that.
Peggy Barthel
But that just gives us a good reason to go back.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's only like an hour from
Peggy Barthel
where we
Tony Barthel
live, so why not?
Peggy Barthel
The other thing that we did do was there's a place called the Gilman Tunnels, and it is an old rail bed where they blasted tunnels through. It's no longer rail, but now in season, you can drive through the tunnels. But right in the wintertime, I think because of falling rock and, you know, just maintenance issues, they close it off for the wintertime, but you can park right outside the gate. And we just walked up the road up to the tunnels. So that was a nice little walk and really cool.
Peggy Barthel
And we saw some waterfalls, and it was a really nice area.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It was that was fun. And even lazy me had no problem doing the walk. The tunnels were pretty amazing. I made train noises as we walked through them.
Tony Barthel
Of course you did. So that was a lot of fun.
Peggy Barthel
So when we go back in order to take that red rock trail guided tour, we also need to remember to take our swimsuits. Yeah. Because in Jemez Springs, in the village, there are a couple of ways that you can enjoy the hot springs. And one is a bathhouse, and one is a place water we're gonna wanna do that, of course. And something else, we didn't go any farther north, but I found out later that just north of the village is the Jemez historic site, which is supposedly one of the most beautiful sites in the Southwest.
Peggy Barthel
And it has, like, 700 year old village and a church and things like that. So we already know what we're going to do the next time we get a chance to go to Jemez. I have a whole weekend planned.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. You know, this New Mexico place ain't half bad. For sure. So one of the things we did while we were camping is we got to enjoy some of Mickey's fruit fluff.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, my gosh. You know, we've talked a few times now about potlucks. And, man, no matter what your favorite thing is to cook, it's always there's always a new favorite when someone else cooks. Right? Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Right. Well, Mickey made what I call fruit fluff. She just calls it fluff, but because there's fruit in it and I wanted to be more fancy Oh. I called it fruit fluff. It is so, so easy.
Peggy Barthel
There is a tub of cool whip, a box of
Tony Barthel
pudding Excuse me.
Peggy Barthel
Cool whip. Cool whip. Cool whip. A box of pudding and some fruit. And what she advised is that you put about half of the box of pudding in and mix it into the cool whip.
Peggy Barthel
Just put the powder in and mix it in, and if it's still a little too liquid, put a little more powder. But if you put all the pudding, she said it gets too stiff, and then it's not fluffy anymore. And then you stir in some fruit, whether it's frozen fruit or fresh fruit or fruit you've cut or just some berries, whatever you want, and you've got this really refreshing, fluffy, fruity dessert, and it's so fantastic.
Tony Barthel
It was good. I really enjoyed it enough to, you know, more, please.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. For sure.
Tony Barthel
But we got a new toy to try.
Peggy Barthel
We did.
Tony Barthel
And we were really flushed with excitement about it.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, no. Here we go.
Tony Barthel
Anyway, we got a bidet to test out. I'm sure they don't want it back.
Peggy Barthel
Don't imagine we're borrowing it.
Tony Barthel
Try this, and then when you're done, send it back. No. I don't
Peggy Barthel
No. I have
Tony Barthel
a question. They're they're like, you know, don't don't send that back. But what we got was the RV bidet by Clean Camper. We got it while we were there, so it just so happened that the package came after we left the house, and our buddy Brian went and picked it up. So while Peggy was visiting with Mickey, I put this thing in.
Tony Barthel
It was super easy to install. And something that really impressed me was the quality of all of the fittings and plumbing, and it is all specifically designed to be used in an RV. So everything just fit. It just worked. So if you don't know what a bidet is, it sprays your backside and is kind of a replacement for toilet paper, kinda sorta.
Peggy Barthel
Kind of.
Tony Barthel
You know, you still use something to dry your behind when you're done, but it uses far less toilet paper. This thing also had a sprayer for the lead.
Peggy Barthel
The front side? Yeah.
Tony Barthel
There are 2 knobs, one that varies the pressure and one that varies which sprayer sprays. You can put it such that the knobs are on the right or the left of the toilet. As I said, everything is really well made, and this is my first time using a bidet.
Peggy Barthel
Mine too.
Tony Barthel
And so what we did was we took a little video of our first ever bidet experience. Yes. And there's a whole video review of the RV bidet atstressescamping.com, which you can get to from the show notes. Overall, I we liked it enough. We're gonna put a bidet in our house.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. I have really been curious about bidets for a long time, and I just, I don't know, was afraid to take the plunge. I was afraid to ever try it. And so
Tony Barthel
Well, you didn't wanna buy one and get soaked.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, boy. So, anyway, we are very pleased that we were able to get one, test it out, decide we actually do like bidets, and, you know, now we waited this long and now we have one.
Tony Barthel
Right. Well, and something one of our friends said, they they looked at it and they said, well, this is more expensive than some of what you see on Amazon, and I'll give you that. I think it's a $130, and I've seen some bidets on Amazon for 40 bucks, $35. Yeah. I I don't know.
Tony Barthel
When it comes to plumbing and especially RV plumbing Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
You don't wanna mess around for me.
Tony Barthel
Better. The hose for this was a braided metal hose. The fittings are just really top notch. I'm a firm believer in buy the best and cry only once.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Tony Barthel
So we give 2 thumbs up to the RV bidet from Clean Camper. It was a a pretty neat oh, another thing it does, it has a cleaning mode. Right. And so you can turn that on, and that will fill the bowl that, you know, your toilet bowl. And that's another way to put water in the bowl with this.
Tony Barthel
Now something that I've been told by RVers who have bidets, this reduces the number of issues you tend to have with your black tank because there's just a lot less toilet paper going in Right. Or none if you choose like, one of our friends uses small They
Peggy Barthel
just have a reusable towel. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That they use to dry themselves off instead. So it's a lot less toilet paper and more water, and that's something that your black tank likes very, very much.
Peggy Barthel
And apparently, your backside.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Apparently, it's good for you. I have a whole on the article at Stressless Camping, I found a whole resource of why bidets are supposed to be so good, and we think they are. We we're sold.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Will you tell us about the RV of the week that someone might put their own bidet in?
Tony Barthel
Well, we're back with our friends at Ember, and there has been a trend in the RV industry of what they call decontenting. In other words, during COVID, RV companies realized that they could sell anything they could run down the assembly line. So what they did is companies came up with fancier bits and more stuff and they incorporated it and RVs got more and more and more expensive. And now, with RV sales, more normal to how trends are. RVs are becoming less content rich, and you're seeing brands who are actually removing features that maybe you didn't want or even coming out with models that are less fancy, less content rich.
Tony Barthel
And that's this new series from Ember, which is the e series. And Ashley Bontrager, whom we've interviewed in the past, refer to them as the essential series. So everything you need, nothing you don't. One of the things that Amber has really done a good job of is their basically reconfigurable bunk office storage locker. It's just unique in the RV industry.
Tony Barthel
So this trailer can be a bunk house. It can have a hammock. It can have a desk. It can have a pterodactyl. No, wait.
Tony Barthel
Not that. But but it's a very flexible floor plan that's not a huge trailer. It is a lot less expensive than some of Ebers Overland series and Ebers touring edition. And what they've kinda taken out is it's a traditional leaf spring suspension, but still rides on Goodyear tires. It doesn't have the frameless windows, but it still has that reconfigurable bunk area.
Tony Barthel
It's a genuine queen-size mattress, and it still uses Asdel substrates on the walls. So it's kind of more of a mainstream trailer than some of what Ember has done in the past with their more upmarket models. Something though that really impresses me about Ember, people who make decisions in Ember and the factory workers, you know, the line workers, are all people who go camping. And you see that in the decisions made by Amber. So this still has the Lippert quick drop stabilizers.
Tony Barthel
It still has the turn signal system that flashes the marker lights when you use your turn signal. Mhmm. I know some of you may may have to be educated on what a turn signal is, but trust me, it's there. They put a little handle on the inside by the door and a little handle by the shower stepping out. So a lot of touches that transform this from this is the more affordable of Embers campers to something that feels like I got my money's worth.
Tony Barthel
And that's something I really have to give Amber a lot of credit. There are a lot of people who make this same floor plan as a bunkhouse. Again, Amber just keeps knocking it out of the park. So there's a full review at stressless camping.com. It's the Ember RV E Series 22 ETS, and, uh, I got to see it at RV Open House.
Tony Barthel
So you can check out my pictures and story at stresses camping dotcom.
Peggy Barthel
Fantastic. So, wow. 84 responses to this week's question of the week.
Tony Barthel
Well, I'm happy because people seem to be going camping.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. That's right. So the question that I asked last week is when and where is your first camping trip planned for 2024? Now, I'm not gonna read all 84 because I know you guys love when I do that.
Tony Barthel
Well, they can find these at our fun and friendly stressless campers Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. So you can read them for yourself. A lot of people have already been on their 1st trip or were on their 1st trip as they responded. A lot of our responses had to do with the eclipse. So a lot of people are getting out there and making their first trip, the eclipse trip, eclipse trip, and you're going all over.
Peggy Barthel
We've got people going to well, of course, for the eclipse, you know, that kind of is a strip across the country that's going to, you know, kinda dictate where you wanna be, but we've got people going to California and going to Indiana and going to Sedona.
Tony Barthel
We're gonna be in Texas, I think.
Peggy Barthel
Right? Be in Texas for the actual eclipse. Yes. We have, of course, already been on our first trip because we were we left here December 12th and we're camping for New Year. So our first trip was basically Arizona, I guess, you'd say.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. People are going to Kentucky. Oh, let's see. Somebody's gonna be in Elkhart at a place called ABC Outfitters.
Tony Barthel
Oh. It's
Peggy Barthel
a good first trip.
Tony Barthel
That's good. The no shock zone as it were. Wait. No. That's somewhere else.
Peggy Barthel
People are going to Kentucky, going to the Knoxville Raceway, going to Oregon, going to Mississippi. So this is fantastic. I love it. You know? I guess my goal was to especially for the people who are, like, stuck in the cold wintery snow to say, don't lose hope.
Peggy Barthel
You're you're getting out there soon. Tom is, like, excited to use his new trailer for something besides a COVID hospital. Yee. So thank you all for answering. And as Tony said, go check out all the answers because you might get an idea.
Peggy Barthel
If you don't know where to go, you might find someone who's going somewhere really awesome that you'll wanna go to.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. And, you know, we ask a question every week at our Fun and Friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group. What is our question this week?
Peggy Barthel
Well, this week's question is, what's the best mod you've made to your RV? And I think the reason that I asked that is because I was so excited about that bidet and that very easy but also very awesome mod that I'm just curious, like, have you done little things? Have you done big things? What do you think was the best thing that you did?
Tony Barthel
And you can answer that at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group. You can also get to that from our homepage at stresslesscamping.com. Just check out under the hamburger menu, which are the three lines, and that'll take you to all the places where we are social, which is probably all the places
Peggy Barthel
Where you are social.
Tony Barthel
Imagine that.
Peggy Barthel
Imagine. But also while you're on stresslesscanvian.com, you know, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter that we send out once a week. It's absolutely free. We have links to stories and videos and podcasts and anything we see that we think will help you get the most out of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. There are some interesting videos that I've shared for this week's newsletter. So hopefully, you're on the list. Check them out. Uh, we've got some great friends doing great jobs out there that we enjoy sharing.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
And, of course, know that we only send one email per week, period.
Peggy Barthel
That is all we have time to do. And the other thing that you'll find when you're on the Stressless Camping website is show notes for this and every podcast episode. This week happens to be episode number 244 on the podcast page. But if you wanted to go back and see notes from previous podcast episodes, that's where you would look.
Tony Barthel
And of course, another thing there are our deals and discounts for the best deals on the things you'll need for your stressless camping adventure.
Peggy Barthel
And if you know of a deal that you wish that we had, that you are pretty certain exists and we just haven't learned about it yet, please let us know and we will follow-up on that. We want to find all the deals that are great for you.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. Of course, you know if you don't wanna miss a future episode of The Stress Less Camping podcast It's free. It is free to subscribe on any place where podcasts live.
Peggy Barthel
We are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Tony Barthel
And, of course, you know, a review will help others find The Stress Less Camping podcast. And, well, the more listeners we have, the better the guests and discounts and all of that that we can get. So we really appreciate all of you who have reviewed the Stress Is Camping podcast and hope more of you join that little family.
Peggy Barthel
And we also really appreciate when you share our content, whether you see it on our website or you see it on one of the social places. If you just hit a share button and share it with other people, maybe you wanna forward a blog post to someone who you think needs to see it, we really appreciate that as well because that gets more people out there that know about us.
Tony Barthel
We try to find questions that are out there and answer them on stresslesscamping.com. So if you see somebody asking a question on various social media forums and you're like, gee, I wonder if there's a really good answer to that. The search on our website, chances are we've answered that and you can share that as an answer.
Peggy Barthel
That's right.
Tony Barthel
Make yourself look good too.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. Or else,
Tony Barthel
depends on what you think, what we've done.
Peggy Barthel
Well, that is what we have for you this week. We sure do appreciate you hanging out again with us this week. We also hope that the wind stops blowing.
Tony Barthel
Oh, it'll stop blowing. I do have rocks in my pockets.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. And in the meantime, 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.
Tony Barthel
Follower for really? Follower. Follower?
