What are the important things to do to get your RV ready for camping season? We speak with Dustin Simpson from Cal RV Specialists to find out how to avoid pitfalls and enjoy a season of StressLess Camping. Dustin’s got some great tips and advice including some thing you may not have thought of.

We also talk about RV frame flex, hiking in the Jemez Mountains, a great RV breakfast recipe and an RV that’s sort of not quite an RV.

Other places to hear the podcast

Mentioned on this episode

Our YouTube video with our visit to a Lippert RV frame factory

Josh Winters’ video about RV frame flex

Our podcast episode detailing how to determine if your RV is overweight and how critical it can be

Another gadget for helping you determine if your RV is overweight - review of the Curt Betterweigh system

Our guest, Dustin Simpson, comes to use from Cal RV Specialists

Previous we also spoke with Dustin about slide room maintenance

Our free downloadable and customizable RV checklists for StressLess Camping

Our article about whether or not you should cover your RV and which cover might be the best

Revisitng our visit to the Jemez Mountains and Vista Linda campground

A great RV recipe from our friend Ingall - an easy campground frittata you can make in your RV oven

Some more reasons you will want the Airgear tire changing kit

Tony’s review of the 2024 IBEX RV Suite RVS1

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.

Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 245

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 stress less camping.

Peggy Barthel

Welcome to the campfire. I'm Tony. I'm Peggy.

Tony Barthel

And we are 2 RV industry veterans who traveled 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. If you are on the YouTubes or almost any social media, all of a sudden lately, there has been a huge amount of discussion and videos and complaints about what is called frame flex. And it appears that it's predominantly larger 5th wheels, and it's not just flex. It's failure. Uh-oh.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. It's not it's not good at all. We don't have an answer. We have been to the Lippert frame factory, and quite honestly, we're very impressed with the operation. We have been to a number of RV manufacturers.

Tony Barthel

And some of the videos, and we will include a link to the ones we really liked, it seems to come down to especially large 5th wheels that are just coming apart. And I wonder if those 5th wheels are overloaded because our trailer, we got it weighed and it was way overloaded. Yeah. And I think that's exceptionally common. And imagine if you have all the space that you have in some of these gigantic 5th wheels and how much just stuff you can put in them.

Peggy Barthel

In our defense, when we waited and it was overloaded, it was when we were quote unquote homeless, and we had more things than we have normally. We knew we had too much stuff, but it was stuff that we were waiting for a home to put away.

Tony Barthel

Okay. That's true. And the truck was ridiculously overloaded too.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah.

Tony Barthel

But I think this goes back to and we'll put a link to our episode about having your RV scaled or weighed. And if you're going to something like an FMCA rally or other things where there's somebody there who will weigh your RV. Oh, do it. Absolutely. It may be quite shocking.

Tony Barthel

There was a dude who was getting his RV weighed at, you know, basically in line with us.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

And what was it? Like, £10,000 overweight or so?

Peggy Barthel

It was

Tony Barthel

crazy overweight. And that's just I mean, that is a failure waiting to happen. So

Peggy Barthel

And just so that you don't think that he was camping with that much, it was a vendor and he had vendor product.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. He had a triple axle box trailer that was full of product.

Peggy Barthel

Behind a class a.

Tony Barthel

Right. But

Peggy Barthel

still But still, you need to know these things. Just because a class a is big and heavy and can carry a lot or haul a lot doesn't mean it's unlimited.

Tony Barthel

Absolutely. So have your trailer scaled. We have ways to do that. We'll share that in the show notes. Be careful out there, y'all.

Peggy Barthel

Well, now that our trailer is not overloaded well, right now, it's kind of empty because we're prepping for our next big trip, and the trailer's sitting out in the yard waiting and waiting for us to bring a bunch of stuff in. But you know what else it's waiting with is power. Yeah. So we can start hauling things out to the fridge right now if we wanted to.

Tony Barthel

Because we have our solar and lithium system, honestly, we don't turn off the fridge in the RV. It's a 12 volt Dometic fridge that we really, really like. And, honestly, it's kinda like the spare fridge from our house.

Peggy Barthel

It really is.

Tony Barthel

So we just keep it running. And that's another neat thing about these 12 volt fridges. There are no issues shuttling down the street with the fridge running.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

Now I wanna get into whether you should or shouldn't with the propane fridge, but these 12 volt fridges are are good. And the way we keep it running is we just have our solar and lithium system from ABC Fitters. It's a great master volt system that is not something we have to worry about. This is ready to go.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah.

Tony Barthel

So if you're solar or lithium curious, people at ABC Upfitters know what they're talking about. They're honest. They are nerds, but they can speak normal. You can give them a call at 574-333 3 225. Again, 574-333-3225.

Tony Barthel

Or, of course, you can find them on the Internet or through a link in our show notes. So give them a call. They're they're really good people.

Peggy Barthel

As Tony said, our guest today is Dustin Simpson. Our trailer's sitting out in our yard, fortunately, so we can kinda keep an eye on it. But if your trailer's in storage or your RV's in storage and you're going to be getting ready for the upcoming season, We thought maybe Dustin could give us some pointers on the things to look for before you go out there and find a problem. You wanna check and make sure there aren't any.

Tony Barthel

So without any further ado, here's our friend from Cal RV specialist, Dustin Simpson. We are here with our friend, Dustin Simpson, from Cal RV Specialists. Dustin has been here before and really knows his way around RVs, and so we thought we'd talk to him about what you should do now that it's kind of the start of getting out RV season. Welcome, Dustin.

Peggy Barthel

Thank you for joining us today.

Dustin Simpson

Hey, guys. Thank you for having me.

Tony Barthel

Always a pleasure, man.

Dustin Simpson

You guys.

Tony Barthel

The good thing about talking to Dustin is he and I can nerd out on RV stuff for a good long period of time. So Peggy has quite the editing job ahead of her.

Dustin Simpson

I'll try to stay on track this time.

Peggy Barthel

If we have too much to say, we'll make it 2 episodes. That's okay. There you go.

Tony Barthel

Continued next week. We were talking about now some people are taking their RVs out of winter storage or just kind of planning to start using them again. And we're talking to you about the kinds of things they might do before they officially go camping.

Dustin Simpson

Yeah. It kinda depends on the consumer, you know, the RV that they have. So we'll probably go in a few different directions, but, um, there's some generalized stuff that I would tell anybody as well as, you know, let's say you're in my area. So in my area, we're not we're not dealing with the snow or freezing temperatures.

Tony Barthel

Right.

Dustin Simpson

So we can go back and forth and touch on both sides of it. And then, of course, towable versus motorized.

Peggy Barthel

Right. There's there's gonna be a lot of differences there too. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Although you're not that that that far from Truckee. Now, I'm talking about snow.

Peggy Barthel

Snow there.

Dustin Simpson

Exactly. So occasionally, we do get somebody that comes in and says, hey, Dustin. We want you to, you know, de winterize the coach. And typically, when they're winterized, we find that, you know, the owners of of, you know, you watch the YouTube channel or somebody's kinda coached them along the way to add some antifreeze to their system. Mhmm.

Dustin Simpson

So typically, what we would do is we would, you know, advise you to go ahead and, like, find your low point drain on your coach, drain all that fluid out of there. They make all kinds of different, um, flushes or air pressure flushes that could go through, like, your city water fill connection. That gives you the ability to go ahead and either rinse out the system, or you can blow it out by air, either one. But both of them are you know, I would recommend using both of them. But that's just kind of my my little topic on the de winterization of the antifreeze system.

Dustin Simpson

The rest of it's kind of common stuff that's everyday. But there are things that we should think about, people that they might not consider, or just little tips and advice that I have to give.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. That's good. So a lot of people think, oh, when I winterize, I put in the pink stuff. And when I de winterize, I take out the pink stuff and I'm ready to camp.

Dustin Simpson

And I'm ready to go.

Peggy Barthel

And that's great. But, you know, maybe it's time for that annual maintenance checklist that you haven't done for a year.

Tony Barthel

Exactly. Something I've seen a lot of people forget as they de winterize is the water heater bypass.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

They'll leave the bypass on, and they're like, why am I not getting any hot water? So just if you have and we have a checklist of winterizing and de winterizing. Go over that checklist couple of times just to be sure of, you know, of things you didn't miss because it could be frustrating. It could be funny or could actually damage your RV if you run that water heater on electric with no water in it.

Dustin Simpson

Yeah. That's so true.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. But I think we'd like to go beyond the plumbing part and just talk about all those other things that maybe we don't all think of.

Dustin Simpson

Some of the other things that you could consider is, you know, whether you, you know, have it parked inside in an inside storage or a garage, or let's say it's just outside exposed to the weather, whether you're using an RV cover or not, each one of those situations, um, they all call for a different scenario. So I'd say, let's let's talk about if you have a cover on there. So I've, hey, I've covered it for the last few months, whether it was rain or snow or or just, you know, trying to keep the sun beaten off of it. Whenever you go to unbag or remove that cover, that's your time to be up there on the roof checking, you know, to make sure at the time, you know, is there any damage to my vents, to my skylights, to my sealants? So even though you have an RV cover on it, you know, you're still subject to wind, you're still subject to if it's snowing, you know, if a a bird fell and hit it or ran into it, or if an animal jumped on it for some reason, you know, squirrel, a a rat, a mouse.

Dustin Simpson

So there's a lot of things that you wanna think about. Just because you have a cover on it doesn't necessarily mean that it's protected for you for the downtime of that winter season.

Tony Barthel

And I've seen where some of these covers can actually cause damage themselves.

Dustin Simpson

Yep. Usually, what we'll see is we'll see that the cover has shifted and made rub marks on the roof or the body. It can actually rub through the rubber membrane. So if it's a TPO or rubber roof, it can actually cut into it and cause damage to the roof itself. The other thing is that it will, you know, typically damage their rain gutters.

Dustin Simpson

If it's, you know, moving around in the wind, it causes mold because you're now you're, you know, think of it as a, uh, you're putting on a sweatshirt. Well, if you're still doing something and you're getting hot and sweaty, you know, underneath the sweatshirt, that's still doing something similar on the RV. It's actually causing a difference in temperature between the surface of the roof and the surface of that cover. So now you have a situation where you're gonna start growing mold on the roof, on the sealants, embedding into the plastics and so on.

Peggy Barthel

Yikes.

Tony Barthel

Well, I had never thought of that.

Peggy Barthel

I'm glad we don't cover.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Well, we just keep using ours.

Peggy Barthel

We just keep using.

Dustin Simpson

Yeah. And and in my area, you know, I've I've been doing this now 25 years. And for my particular area, kind of Central Northern California, I, for the most part, steer people away from buying RV cover.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. That's You know,

Dustin Simpson

it is for a bunch of personal reasons. I've had too many owners that are friends or family have fallen and got hurt just installing those covers, taking them off and off.

Peggy Barthel

Oh, right.

Dustin Simpson

You know, slipping off a ladder or, you know, stepping through a skylight. I mean, you know, you're up there flapping it around, like if you're making a big bed, you know, so it's kind of difficult.

Tony Barthel

That's a good point. So once we have the cover off, what else should we be looking at?

Dustin Simpson

Do a thorough inspection of the overall unit. You know, check out your roof, check out your sealants, make sure all your vent lids open and close. Because you know, they were sitting there stored up for so long during that winter months, the condensation and humidity change can actually cause those ventmids to get stuck in the closed position.

Peggy Barthel

Mhmm.

Dustin Simpson

Or you might have to have somebody go inside, try to operate it, whether it's manual or electric, and give that lid a little lift to help break it free.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Dustin Simpson

Basically, it'll stick on the seal. With the body, same thing. You know? I mean, whether you're, you know, going in and out of it or you're living in it full time, you you know, or even going in and out of it just to check on it throughout that winter season, things flex and move and creak and shift. And so check out all the sealants, you know, on your windows and your compartment doors and your moldings, make sure nothing has separated or come loose.

Peggy Barthel

I think in New Mexico, you don't even have to go in and out of it. Just the wind blowing causes that much wax.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. We hit there was some 90 mile an hour winds here, which is nuts.

Dustin Simpson

That brings me up to your awnings next. Right? So, you know, let's say it's, it's closed and the unit's not under a cover. It's not in an inside storage. It's just outside exposed to the elements.

Dustin Simpson

Well, every time it rains, you're gonna get water inside that awning. And so opening and closing the awning, you know, more than likely, you know, I can't tell you how many times, even myself, I've took my own units to go camping and forgot to pull out the awning. So when I did, you know, a ton of water came out, you open it up, it's all moldy and nasty and you go, Oh geez, honey. Let's close that.

Peggy Barthel

I want

Dustin Simpson

the guy next to me looking at me going, where, how come you're not taking care of your coach kid?

Tony Barthel

Well, at least you and I don't have to worry about getting our hair messed up by water.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. True. Yeah. Exactly.

Dustin Simpson

Exactly. And, you know, other things to think about side out operation. You know? So whether, again, if it's in the open or closed position, once you go to initially inspect that unit, that's your time to cycle those rooms in and out, make sure everything's opening and closing good. Again, make sure no, you know, varmints or mice or anything crawled through a slide out, you know, got inside a squirrel or somebody wanted to keep warm.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. The last time we had you on, that was what we talked about was slide maintenance. So if people have slides, y'all should go back and listen to that previous podcast also and make sure that your slides are in really good shape.

Dustin Simpson

Even with the slide outs, there's enough, you know, now with with the side outs, as far as they've advanced so much, you know, we have refrigerators on them and stoves and water pipes and conduit and all kinds of stuff that flex in and out. So what we don't think about is there is openings underneath, you know, a 5th floor, a travel trailer, or a motor home, where a rodent can crawl through those areas and get in there inside your coach. And we don't necessarily see them because they're hidden underneath that slide out room, but there's still enough room to let a small little varmint get through there.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Those things are they'll find the littlest spot, and they can weasel their way right in.

Dustin Simpson

Sure will. And can cause a ton of damage, you know. Oh, yeah. Another thing I'm always encouraging is batteries. You know, again, whether it's it's set for, like, the winter or even a long period of time, cycling your batteries.

Dustin Simpson

It's so important to know what type of batteries you have, what size of batteries you have. And then, you know, if they're a wet cell battery, if it's a, you know, glass matted battery, AGM, if it's a lithium battery, how to properly maintain those. You know? So it's it's I refer to it as, uh, I I give an example to my ladies. I say, you know, Hey, we've all made a pot of macaroni and cheese.

Dustin Simpson

And if it's boiling on the stove and you don't go over once in a while and stir it, what happens? The noodles stick and burn at the bottom. Yeah. So the same thing kind of happens to the wet cell batteries. If you're not charging and discharging them, if you're not checking the water level on them, it'll actually cause damage to the plates in the battery.

Dustin Simpson

The technical term is, uh, sulfation. You know, they basically think of it as the acid and the water separating it's now eating those plates. So, you know, checking the water level on your batteries, the connections before you really get into that coach after it's been parked before you go to do anything. Because the batteries are the lifeline of that unit.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Yep. And some people I know, especially with, uh, flooded or lead acid batteries we'll have taken them inside somewhere and put them on a trickle charger, but not everybody.

Dustin Simpson

But not everybody.

Tony Barthel

I mean, there's been I've seen a few pictures recently on social media of exploded batteries.

Peggy Barthel

And something to remember, even if you take your lead acid batteries inside and trickle charge them, you still have to check that water. I've seen people, a lot of people say, well, I don't understand why my battery is no good. I've always had it on a charger. I've always had it at a campground. That's actually not the best way.

Dustin Simpson

Yeah. It's not. So to top on that, 50% of our customers live in them full time. And when we get that phone call that says, hey, Dustin. Everything's dead.

Dustin Simpson

You know, nothing's working. You know? When was the last time you checked your water and your batteries?

Tony Barthel

Mhmm. Now we would sell a lot of RVs to people who did that, who lived in them full time. And we'd say, probably see you back here in a year or 2 for a battery. Mhmm.

Dustin Simpson

Yeah. Well, if they, you know, if they're hearing this podcast and, and they understand, uh, something as simple as unplugging the coach once a month, pretending like you're dry camping, running the batteries down for 3 or 4 hours, and then plug it back in to charge them up. Think of it as like waking up in the morning and stretching. That's a

Tony Barthel

good point. Yeah.

Dustin Simpson

You're operating or cycling them. You're out there running them and training them to remove the charge and then to recharge. If they're always topped off, they tend to want to dump. They're not ever getting drained down. So it actually is cooking the battery, which draws down the water.

Dustin Simpson

And then at that point, the converter and the coach just simply says, hey. I'm hungry. You know? It says, oh, the battery's hungry. Let's feed it.

Dustin Simpson

So when it goes to boost mode and, you know, depending on the voltage of it, you know, 136 to depending on if it's lifting 14, you know, 146, 142, it will now start to overcharge that battery, damage it. And then not only do they ruin the battery, but they're also ruining the converter. They'll burn up the high side on the converter.

Tony Barthel

Now you're starting to talk money.

Dustin Simpson

Yeah. So, you know, so that's why batteries is so important going down the line. Once you know, your batteries are good, get inside your unit, open everything up, turn everything on, make sure your propane is, you know, full, keeping both tanks on. If you have 2 tanks, cycling from one side to the other to make sure that the regulator's functioning for either tank is a good thing to do. Go in and and light off your stove, you know, to bleed the system, operate all of your appliances on both the propane and on the 110 side.

Dustin Simpson

If it if it's, you know, 2 sided, make sure that they're working before you go take plan on taking that trip. Another thing I would recommend to you is check out your LP detector, your CO detector, your smoke detector. Now, you know, most smoke detectors are usually good for 10 years. Some of them are hardwired nowadays. Some of them have their lithium battery in them.

Dustin Simpson

So they're 10 year, you know, the last for 10 years. But your CO detector and your LP detector, sometimes those are separate, and those are usually hardwired and are operating off of that 12 volt battery, or they're a dual purpose. On those detectors, there is an expiration date. They're typically only good for 5 years.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Dustin Simpson

And that date's either written on the front or stamped on a sticker on the back that says replace me by. You know? So just something else to think about.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Those LP detectors are important because you can go to sleep and and be dreaming of great things, and then you wake up dead.

Dustin Simpson

That's true. You you not wake up. Why does it look so nice here? Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Or why is it so hot? There's

Dustin Simpson

all these flames. I'm young and I'm in shape and I feel great. But you're right. I've seen that happen in my time of doing RV repair. I've also had a local upholstery shop blow him and his son almost out of a coach because of a propane leak.

Tony Barthel

Really? Oh, wow.

Peggy Barthel

Woke up in the middle of the

Dustin Simpson

night, lit a cigarette, and poof.

Peggy Barthel

Oh, gee.

Dustin Simpson

Like dropping a cherry bomb in a toilet. Just all four sides and the roof and the windows burned them and everything. So Wow. The reason that those propane detect to me are so important is, you know, they put them low on the ground because propane is 10 times heavier than oxygen.

Tony Barthel

Mhmm.

Dustin Simpson

So if you develop a leak, you know, in a slide out, let's going in and out, or just from shaking or jarring down the road, something does come loose. That's what that guy is designed for us to say, Hey, there's a problem. Now we've all gone in our coaches at one time or another and heard that beep beep.

Tony Barthel

No, you're not till like 3 in the morning. Yeah.

Dustin Simpson

That comes back to the whole, Hey, battery issue. Right? If the battery's below 12 volts, that sensor is gonna warn you that, Hey, I don't have sufficient amount of voltage to keep it running. It's there to tattletale and say, Hey, go check your battery, silly. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. It's the second battery detector.

Dustin Simpson

Exactly. I think I talked about the propane tanks and cycling them. So if you have a dual stage regulator, it's always good to go switch that little valve from one side to the other.

Tony Barthel

And propane tanks too have an expiration date.

Dustin Simpson

They do.

Tony Barthel

Probably most people don't have an RV over 10 years old because most don't last that long, but I shouldn't say that.

Dustin Simpson

We don't sell coaches. So we're, you know, trying to be here to help maintain what you have.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Dustin Simpson

So we're we preach a lot about, you know, maintenance and inspections and stuff. And it's kinda like this this list for me. This is stuff that I do on my own unit if I'm gonna go out on a trip. Mhmm.

Peggy Barthel

You

Dustin Simpson

know? And some things we just learn as we go or the neighbor tells us, wow, why didn't I think of that sooner? Some other oddball things. Again, it depends on if it's a motorized or a towable unit, let's say towable, for example, right? If it's a 5th wheel or travel trailer, and it's been setting through that winter time and you're getting ready to go camping with it, you know, think about the bearings just sitting there, the grease, the tire pressure.

Dustin Simpson

You know, it's a good idea to, you know, whether you're let's say you have it at your home versus you have it at a storage yard. Right? So if you have it at a storage yard, you're gonna go pick it up. You're gonna connect everything. You're gonna make sure your lights are working, and you're gonna check your brakes before you go, or you're gonna find out on the way home.

Tony Barthel

Step on the brake pedal and say the words your mom told you not to say.

Dustin Simpson

Exactly. Say you are at home. You know, a lot of us keep it on our properties and whatnot. So before you just saddle up and get ready to go, hook that up, go drive it down the road or the freeway 2 or 3 miles, and, you know, make sure everything's functioning and that the, whether it's a 5th wheel or a travel trailer, that there's no problems with, like, your weight distribution hitch or your actual 5th wheel hitch. You know, check your 7 way cords, walk around and do your light check.

Dustin Simpson

And we call it a break check too. You know, go ahead and have somebody outside there slowly following you along and pull that emergency brake cable and Hey, did it actually lock you up? That's a

Tony Barthel

good point. Can that runs on battery power too?

Dustin Simpson

Yep. Yeah. We've even seen that too. Tony people will come in and, and, you know, have been parked over the winter and, Hey, my brakes aren't working. The truck is supplying 12 volt to the trailer.

Dustin Simpson

But if the batteries are bad, you know, that battery is trying to get charged first before it's sending that power enough power back through that system. I mean, it's kind of a 2 fold, but it can give it a weak breaks versus not the full power.

Tony Barthel

Interesting. I had never thought of that.

Dustin Simpson

Same thing with the tires. You know, obviously go out, check the condition of your tires, learn how to read the date code on the tires. You can Google that and go online. You know, check out the tire pressure, check out the age of the tire. Is the tire safe?

Dustin Simpson

Is there any weird wear and tear marks on it or bubbles on it? If you don't have or you do have tire sensors, something that gets over checked too is the batteries in those sensors. So whether you have, like, a, uh, TireMinder or you have a TireLinks, you know, by Lippert, check and make sure that those batteries are working, that the transponders are receiving the signals for those. Some of those are are dual purpose as well. Some of them tell you the temperature of the tire Right.

Dustin Simpson

As well as the air pressure where some of them don't.

Peggy Barthel

The thing you said about checking the date, it's important to remember that some tires are just they just age out. Even if you don't use them very often, they are going to need replacing even if you've driven 200 miles, if it's been 5 years or whatever.

Dustin Simpson

A basketball joke for the basketball guys. Pretend your grandkids came over, right, grandpa, you got a basketball? And you have one in the garage. It's been sitting there for 20 years out of air. It's flat on one side.

Dustin Simpson

You go to air it up, and it just doesn't bounce the same. Right? So the tire is same way. You know? If it's parked too long and not being moved, you know, those belts can develop weird little flat spots in them.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Dustin Simpson

Cause issues as well.

Tony Barthel

That's a good analogy.

Dustin Simpson

Same thing with, like, the braking system. You know? Make sure that everything on that coach that you learn about the maintenance.

Tony Barthel

And I think that's something that might surprise new RV owners is, you know, you get a Honda or Toyota or whatever, and it's, you know, once every 10 years, you change the oil. I mean, not quite, obviously, but they're so bulletproof, and RVs are not. And there's all this maintenance that is required to keep them running properly, especially regarding seals and leaks and that sort of stuff. But, yeah, all the things you mentioned are really good points. If somebody's looking to get more information or follow you, where would they do that?

Dustin Simpson

So if you'd like to visit our website, it's californiarvspecialist.com. We use that kinda to help to help us all out.

Tony Barthel

Sure. Well, Dustin, we really appreciate your being here. I'm gonna let you get

Peggy Barthel

Thank you so much for spending some more time with us. And we definitely have some ideas of things Yeah. That we would like you to tell the rest of our listeners in future episodes.

Dustin Simpson

You're welcome. You guys have a good one.

Tony Barthel

You too.

Peggy Barthel

Traveling with your RV is the best way to get around.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. But you wanna do it safely. So using your phone's GPS can lead you down some potentially dangerous places.

Peggy Barthel

For sure. That's why we love RV Trip Wizard, part of the RV life suite which lets you plan your journeys before you go and then use the RV life app on your phone or tablet to safely navigate your journey.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. You can set parameters such as how far you like to travel in a day, how many miles you can go between fuel stops, and even read reviews of campgrounds. It also takes into account the size of your RV and more.

Peggy Barthel

Then you can rest assured that your phone isn't gonna lead you into trouble.

Tony Barthel

If you have an RV, you need RV Trip Wizard, and we have a great deal for you. 25% off your annual subscription.

Peggy Barthel

Check it out on your discounts and deals page on stressless camping.com where you can listen to our interview with RV life and learn about the whole RV life suite and save your RV while you save on an RV Life subscription. Now that's stressless camping. Hey, let's go not very far away again.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Somewhere that we've been before.

Peggy Barthel

We can't seem to stop talking about Jemez Mountains.

Tony Barthel

Okay. I hope all of you are sitting down, like, if you're out there mowing your lawn or if you're water skiing or whatever.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. You don't wanna hear this without sitting down.

Tony Barthel

We actually enjoy to hike. For all the things that we do when we RV, hiking is not often something that we talk about.

Peggy Barthel

No. And and and I wanna say we really should call it a walk. True. Not a hike, because hike to me means, like, you're on a little path going up a mountainside somewhere. And I'm sure, you know, I know that's not really true, but, I mean, we were on paved a paved road, like a paved road that cars can drive on.

Tony Barthel

So

Peggy Barthel

Well, so what we're going

Tony Barthel

on about is the Gillman Tunnels up in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. And we talked about the Vista Linda Campground last week, and I finally got around to editing and posting our video of the Gillman tunnels. And it was one of those things that, I mean, you can e bike up there. You can bike bike up there. You can walk.

Tony Barthel

It's truly exceptionally beautiful.

Peggy Barthel

Any in season, you can drive.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. You could even drive this road depending on when you're going. Boy, is it pretty. I mean, it's just, uh, it's beautiful. So check out the video.

Tony Barthel

It's on the same story as the one Peggy wrote about the Vista Linda campground. By the way, we have talked before about campgrounds that we write reviews of and such. And if you look at stresslesscamping.com, there is a map right on the homepage of the campgrounds that we have written stories about, so you can click on that and just go see the the cool places that we've been.

Peggy Barthel

Either been or interviewed because there are some True. Up in New England that we haven't been to yet.

Tony Barthel

We will. Watch out, New England. We're coming for you. So, anyway, that's a quick way to find the campgrounds that we have written stories about at stresslesscamping.com.

Peggy Barthel

So let's go let's go back to Quartzsite. I mean, not really. We're not gonna talk much about Quartzsite, but, you know, I do like to share recipes. And while we were in quartzite at the meetup, we had several potlucks, and I got some great recipes and some great friends that were willing to share with us. And so this week's recipe of the week is actually another one from Engel.

Peggy Barthel

He gave me his frittata recipe and he calls it any way you like it frittata. Because really you can add, you know, after you get the eggs and the dairy in there, everything else is kind of a free for all. So whatever vegetables you have, whatever meat you'd like to put in it, whatever flavor cheese you like.

Tony Barthel

Bacon.

Peggy Barthel

Doesn't matter what you put in it, but he made a frittata for us during one of the potlucks, and there's a little bit of talk of him visiting us later this spring. And he said if he comes, he'll make us a frittata. Woo hoo. That'll be our payment for him boondocking in our yard.

Tony Barthel

Absolutely. That was really good. It's in in some ways, it's a little bit similar to our quiche that we used to make Yes. At the Featherbed Railroad.

Peggy Barthel

It's just a little bit different recipe. You know, I when we had the bed and breakfast, I actually had 2 cookbooks that were all quiche recipes. So there were like, I don't know, a 100 quiche recipes. Now granted, some of them were exactly the same recipe with a different vegetable put in, but also the way that you make your custard can vary so very much.

Dustin Simpson

And

Tony Barthel

It's very, very

Peggy Barthel

very, very much. You know, I had found a couple of different ways that we like to make it, and this is a different custard part. The the egg part, Ingalls weighs a little bit different from ours.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. But it sure was good.

Peggy Barthel

It sure was good. And he

Tony Barthel

baked it in his RV's oven.

Peggy Barthel

He certainly did.

Tony Barthel

His vintage Airstream. Right. So with Dustin, we talked about getting your camper ready for the camping season. And part of that is gonna be if you have one of the particularly suburban water heaters that has electric and propane, you're gonna have to put in your anode rod. Right?

Tony Barthel

And, of course, you know, you're gonna inspect it, make sure that there's some of the material left, and then put in the anode rod. And what I found, I use the air gear tire changing kit torque wrench to do this. And so I put the torque up at I think it was £40.

Peggy Barthel

Okay.

Tony Barthel

And zipped that thing. I have, in the past, said many unkind things about that Anode Rock, And this has really made it easy to install the doggone thing. That's just another use for the air gear tire changing kit. Now speaking of that, if you don't know, you may not be able to change the tires on your travel trailer. And this air gear tire changing kit has really come in handy.

Tony Barthel

It's got a torque wrench and a safety vest and and and a number of other pieces to make sure you can change the tire in your travel trailer.

Peggy Barthel

Right. And we have luckily not had to do that on the side of road anywhere, but we are prepared to do so. But that tire changing kit, as Tony said, comes with a torque wrench. You can use a torque wrench for a lot of things.

Tony Barthel

Well, for example, when we put in the BMW Continuum Hitch

Peggy Barthel

Yes.

Tony Barthel

It said torque all the bolts to 40 pound foot of torque. Well, I had my torque wrench, and I did. And so there's a lot of reasons why I like this thing, and it's also big enough that it has good leverage, but it's not so big that it's like, hey, can you help me lift this thing?

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. And leverage is good when you're trying to work with an anode rod because it's kind of especially when they're new, they're heavy on the far end, and it's hard to keep them lifted in the right position to get them to thread into the spot. And also, by the way, using a torque wrench is a really good idea because we had someone change our anode rod one time, and it was in there so so tight. I didn't know if we were ever gonna get it out.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. It took some doing to get it back out, and they had just put it it wasn't like it had rested in place. No. They had just put it in the day before, and I'm like, nah. I should probably take the water out of the water heater because it's winter.

Tony Barthel

Man, it was there's no reason. It just needs to be tight enough not to leak.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

And another little trick, I shove a paper towel in the socket when I put in the anode rod to kinda hold it. So that there's your little extra tip. Oh, extra tip. Yeah, that Air Gear tire changing kit is good for a lot of things, including changing tires.

Peggy Barthel

Imagine that. Do you have an RV to share with us this week?

Tony Barthel

I'm gonna pick something that was really strange that I saw at RV Open House.

Peggy Barthel

Okay.

Tony Barthel

And our buddy Josh just did a video of it. And I'm like, hey, I have a review I could write of this thing since I saw it there. It's the Ibex RV Suite. I had, in the past, written about the Cherokee Timber Wolf 16 ML, which is, like, they call it a lodge, mobile lodge. And that's sort of what this thing is.

Tony Barthel

It's very square. Right? I mean, travel trailers are square. This thing is, like, extra square.

Peggy Barthel

Like, never even worn their hair too long square?

Tony Barthel

Not like that. But it is very square, and it's interesting. It has a really nice bathroom. It's all electric. There is no propane on board whatsoever.

Tony Barthel

So everything runs on electricity, which is good and bad. Right? I mean, well, the idea of this thing is to take it somewhere and leave it rather than it being a trailer per se. Although, you know, it is a trailer because it's got wheels.

Peggy Barthel

A little bit more of a maybe a seasonal site or something?

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Seasonal site or if you have a nice piece of property and you're allowed to leave an RV there.

Peggy Barthel

With full hookup?

Tony Barthel

Right. With full 50 amp service because you're not you know, it's this is definitely not an off the grid thing. But it was kinda neat because the way they did the bedroom, there's a Murphy bed. And then when the bed is up, it's a big space. They made a really unusual couch in this thing that you can reconfigure to be like a daybed or a couch or a pterodactyl.

Tony Barthel

Oh, no. Not a pterodactyl. A really big bathroom and had a washer dryer in it. It's designed to be like a little vacation home. It's just interesting to see the direction that some RV makers are going building stuff like this.

Tony Barthel

So we'll put a link in the show notes to the review, which will be at stressless camping.com under honest RV reviews.

Peggy Barthel

Somehow, I got it in my head that suite was gonna be like a 2 bedroom, but I guess a suite really is like the bedroom is separate from the living space.

Tony Barthel

I guess. I don't know. I mean, I think it's, you know, it's just a name because the bedroom isn't really even a bedroom. You know, it's like whatever.

Peggy Barthel

It's just a

Dustin Simpson

it's just

Tony Barthel

a name. Okay. But, yeah,

Peggy Barthel

I don't

Tony Barthel

know about the word suite. You know, it's like whatever. It's just a it's just a name.

Peggy Barthel

Okay.

Tony Barthel

Like, fladiddlehonder. Right. That's the name.

Peggy Barthel

That is a name. Alright. Good thing we never had children.

Tony Barthel

Oh, man. Hey, Fladidlunder, come here.

Peggy Barthel

Last week's question of the week was, what is the best mod you've made to your RV? And we had some great answers. I love

Tony Barthel

Oh, boy.

Peggy Barthel

I love learning about mods cause I either say, oh, I'm glad we can live without that, or I say, oh, let's do that. Yeah. So Bill said the best mod he said that's easy, my solar lithium upgrade from ABC Upfitters. But the best mod that he did was to add shelves to the cabinets on the sides of the bed.

Tony Barthel

I like Engel's answer because he said the best mod was not replacing existing systems on his 1965 Airstream. That was pretty cool.

Peggy Barthel

That is good. But there is something that Engel did do.

Tony Barthel

Engel did put in a XAMPP SolarPort, solar suitcase, and Victron wireless shunt to monitor it all from his phone.

Peggy Barthel

You got that.

Tony Barthel

Two thumbs up.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. Eric said he hasn't done much, but it's a three way tie between the Levelmate Pro, a TV in the bedroom because it loves to rain when they're camping, and modifying the shelf under the sink so the trash can can live there.

Tony Barthel

Oh, that's a good idea. A new mattress, man. Those are

Peggy Barthel

Oh, Cathy. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. We did that in our trailer too. We have a ghost bed, and we like that dug on ghost bed so much. We wanted to put one in our house, but they didn't make one that was a split queen at the time. So we got another mattress that we're not I know.

Tony Barthel

Sleep better in the doggone trailer.

Peggy Barthel

We do.

Tony Barthel

And, oh, she has those Mopeka, uh, propane sensors.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

Also a Levelmate pro.

Peggy Barthel

Levelmate pro, and she added curtains to the slide windows. So Kathy's done a few good things. Real Trailer Life added a Halo 3 camera system. Oh. Mhmm.

Tony Barthel

Mark took out his dinette and put in recliners. We took out our theater seats and put in an office.

Peggy Barthel

Well, we didn't put in an office so much as we have chairs and tables. Yeah. That's true. We didn't really install anything. Sandy says her best mod is coming up next month.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. I know what that's gonna be. I think she's visiting, uh, our friends in Elkhart.

Peggy Barthel

Oh, ABC Upfitters, maybe?

Tony Barthel

Yep.

Peggy Barthel

Alright. Cedar also said solar panels and lithium batteries.

Tony Barthel

I'm gonna go back to when we were at Vista Linda, and all 3 of us had really good solar and lithium systems.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. We camped off grid for 4 days, all of us.

Tony Barthel

What you can do nowadays with those systems is just it's incredible. It has changed the face of how we choose to camp.

Peggy Barthel

Kirsten has a little tab teardrop with twin beds and she said her best mod was have putting dimmable lights over the bed because the only other way to get light was to plug in over the kitchen sink. Daniel and Jennifer put in a residential refrigerator.

Tony Barthel

It's funny because I'm seeing more and more people now looking at the 12 volt refrigerators.

Peggy Barthel

I, you know, we're I think I would prefer a 12 volt over a residential.

Tony Barthel

Right. Yeah. Me too also.

Peggy Barthel

But several reasons. Thomas got electrical freedom by adding solar, lithium, and DC to DC. Now they camp anywhere.

Tony Barthel

And Brenda got a washer and dryer. That would be something we would like, but we just don't have the space for it.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

Though we do have a portable washing machine that we'll never bring with us.

Peggy Barthel

Brian has 3 good categories. For best was tripling the solar capacity. For the latest favorite was the MORryde door latch extender, and his previous favorite was the shower geyser.

Tony Barthel

Oh, hey. I know what next week's gadget's gonna be.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. Something we haven't remembered to write down on our on this list. Absolutely. Yeah. And Larry also got a Camp Queen Costco mattress.

Peggy Barthel

So mattress upgrades seem to be one of the more common answers to this question.

Tony Barthel

You know, if I were the king of the RV industry, I would ship RVs with 0 mattress because it's such a personal decision. Right?

Peggy Barthel

Yeah.

Tony Barthel

But then you'd have a mattress store in an RV dealership.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

And I wonder how well that would go.

Peggy Barthel

Well, think about the dealership you worked at. It was so tiny. There was no way you were gonna have a mattress store there.

Tony Barthel

That's for sure. Our office was one of those mobile office

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. The trailer. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

It was the trailer.

Peggy Barthel

Well, we sold trailers, so might as well. Sense. Yeah. So this week, we were wondering, do you have a, quote unquote, season opener checklist?

Tony Barthel

Checklist made for stressless camping.

Peggy Barthel

You know, all those things that Dustin told us we should be doing or should be on your sort of maybe your annual maintenance list or your periodic maintenance list or wherever it belongs, if you don't already have checklists, you know, you can find them at stresslesscamping.com.

Tony Barthel

Absolutely. We'll put a link in the show notes. I think that's gonna be my new name. Hi. I'm Link in the show notes.

Tony Barthel

Hi. I'm Link in the show notes.

Peggy Barthel

In the show notes. You know that you can answer the question of the week, read the answers, and, you know, post your own things. It doesn't have to only be questions of the week. If you're going camping, if you do a mod, if you have a question, post it in Stressless Campers Facebook group.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. It's pretty fun and pretty friendly there.

Peggy Barthel

Indeed. So

Tony Barthel

we don't get the harsh comments. Well, and if we do, they're just gonna go goodbye.

Peggy Barthel

Bye bye.

Tony Barthel

Did you know we also did a once a week newsletter that's totally, absolutely, completely, and without a doubt free.

Peggy Barthel

We have links to stories and videos and podcasts and things that we think that will help you get the most of your RV experience.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. If you'd like to sign up, just visit our website and you can sign up and know that we would never share your information. We only send one email a week.

Peggy Barthel

Because that's all we have time for.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Pretty much. Right? We don't have time to write a bunch of spam. Although, I'd like to make time to eat spam.

Peggy Barthel

Eat some spam. You know that you can find the show notes for this episode, which is 245 on the podcast page at stresslesscamping.com.

Tony Barthel

That's also where you'll find our discounts and deals for the best deals on the things you'll need on your Stressless Camping adventure.

Peggy Barthel

You know, we kind of are starting to make changes on that every week. So if you've looked at it before, you might wanna look at it again. Yeah. Truly.

Tony Barthel

Of course, we are in all the social places including Facebook that crashed today. You can start at stresslesscamping.com and then jump off to all the social places you like to be.

Peggy Barthel

And if

Tony Barthel

We can waste all the time you're willing to share with

Peggy Barthel

us. Indeed. If you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast A it's free to subscribe on any podcast catcher, and we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.

Tony Barthel

And a review will help others find this podcast. And, you know, the more people who listen to it, the the better the guests and the bigger the discounts, that sort of stuff. In fact, we got a review this week from RVing Ed.

Peggy Barthel

Thanks, Ed.

Tony Barthel

And he said the bee's knees of a podcast.

Peggy Barthel

I think I know which episode he listened to.

Tony Barthel

But thanks again for another informative and entertaining podcast. I learned a lot about bees. I will give the respect they deserve. Hardworking little buggers.

Peggy Barthel

They surely are.

Tony Barthel

Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

So, hopefully, Ed will also share that with his friends so that they all can learn about bees, and hopefully you will share anything that you find on our website or on our social posts that you like. Go ahead and give it a share and tell your friends.

Tony Barthel

Yep. Absolutely. Sharing is caring. Well, that's what we have for you this week. Again, we really appreciate your letting us into your lives for an hour or so a week.

Tony Barthel

We hope you're already planning some great epic camping adventures. Yes.

Peggy Barthel

Maybe our

Tony Barthel

paths will cross this year. And most of all

Peggy Barthel

Stressless camping.

Mark Ferrell

We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next stress less 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

Hi. I'm Lincoln, the show notes.