RVing tomorrow: what’s new and next in RVs?
After being surrounded by ever new RV for 2025 we caught a few trends and have some interesting things to share with you. We got to attend an RV dealers-only open house and saw some great new things, some trends, lots of new RVs and some fantastic new technology that could transform your RVing experience. What did we see? We have the answers on this week’s StressLess Camping RV podcast.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Curt Touring Coil suspension system: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/blog/curt-touring-edition
Anti-lock braking for trailers - the best new safety tech for towables: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/blog/abs-for-trailers
Froli sleep system: https://nickleatlantic.com/
Furrion Chill Cube article: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/blog/furrion-chill-cube
10-56 brewery: https://www.1056brew.com/
Bean and Barley Brew: hhttps://www.facebook.com/BeansandBarleyBrews/
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 transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 275
Peggy Barthel
What is going on in the RV industry?
Tony Barthel
What kind of innovations, ideas, and inventions are coming your way that you'll absolutely want?
Peggy Barthel
And what kind of gadgets are coming that you might as well ignore?
Tony Barthel
This week, we report back from an open house for RV dealers where the RV industry showed the newest RVs and RV gadgets.
Peggy Barthel
We've got the highlights, the lowlights, and a scary ride this week on the Stress is Camping RV podcast. I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
You are? Oh, yeah. That's right.
Peggy Barthel
That's how you started now. It Tony.
Peggy Barthel
And we are 2 RV industry veterans who travel part time
Tony Barthel
in a small
Peggy Barthel
truck trailer. Small truck.
Tony Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips Tricks. And discuentos. Discuentos. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So we're gonna refer you first of all to episode 260. We put that episode together in like April or May and we said, hey, what are the new trends for 2025?
Tony Barthel
Well, we did get a chance to meet with a few manufacturers and see what's kinda coming down the pike. Right. So it's worth it to go back and listen. We'll wait.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Go ahead. Are you back? We'll put a
Tony Barthel
link in the show notes.
Peggy Barthel
We will put a link in the show notes, and you can go check it out. I think most of it pretty much held true, and we might Yeah. We're we're not gonna repeat some of the same things again, but I guess, uh, we wanna refer you back there so that you know that we kinda know what we're talking about sometimes.
Tony Barthel
Or like a broken clock where we write twice a day. Right twice
Peggy Barthel
a day.
Tony Barthel
Well, speaking of being right, we got to camp with Steve and Kathy. That's right. And they went to our friends ABC Outfitters and got a power package like system. They got their master boat power system installed in their travel trailer.
Peggy Barthel
So instead of us telling you what they did, we asked them to tell you what they did. Yeah. And here's what they said.
Tony Barthel
We're here with Steve and Kathy Royce, and they just got a new ABC UPFIT Mastervolt power system. So tell us how the experience was of working with ABC UPFITters.
Kathy Royce
The whole group, they were amazing. They were amazing to work with. They sent us drawings of what this was gonna look like, if it would be able to fit here. Totally impressed.
Steve Royce
Yeah. We had to decide how we were gonna get it into the rig, and so we gave up the refrigerator that used to be here and the storage for the griddle that was over here. I sent them measurements because they didn't actually see it firsthand. I sent them pictures and measurements. Then they they said, okay.
Steve Royce
That'll work. We we think we can do just fine, and they did. And all of the installation, they had put a new wall on that side, but that was other than that, they had just used what was already here.
Tony Barthel
Any regrets?
Kathy Royce
When we picked it up from them and did the the tour of everything, we went and camped at Potato Creek in South Bend for a weekend. Even though I paid for electric, we weren't planning on plugging in electric. We get home and Steve says, I didn't ask you. Do you have any regrets about doing this? I said, well, it's kinda little late now.
Kathy Royce
But, no, I do not. I do not.
Tony Barthel
So it just works?
Steve Royce
It works perfectly. Thank you.
Peggy Barthel
Are you interested in being like Steve and Kathy?
Tony Barthel
Having a system that it just works. Great solar and lithium from Mastervolt who makes these systems for the marine industry where there's pretty much no tolerance for failure.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
Right now we are operating on our own Mastervolt power.
Peggy Barthel
We are. We'll talk about this a little bit later, but we are hops hopping. We are staying at breweries across not a long stretch but we're spreading it out as much as we can and staying at a bunch of different breweries that are harvest hosts and we are of course using our power package. Yep. So if you are interested in talking to ABC Upfitters, you can give them a call at 574-333-3225.
Tony Barthel
That's 574-333-3225 or visit their shiny new website atabcupfitters.com.
Peggy Barthel
So as Tony said, we did get to spend some time at the RV open house, dealer open house. This is not really a public well, this is not at all a public event. It is for dealers to learn what's coming down the pike for the next year and see, I think, every single 2025 model that every single manufacturer has on their line. So it
Tony Barthel
was a coalition of RVs. It's crazy.
Peggy Barthel
I don't know how. I mean, I guess dealers kind of know what brands they're looking for and they focus there and we didn't have that advantage. So we wanted to see everything. You can't see everything in 3 days. We didn't
Tony Barthel
see everything.
Peggy Barthel
We did not see everything. We wore
Tony Barthel
our shoes out. We were pooped at the end of this 3 day thing, and we tried to see as many RVs as possible. This event is so big. It takes over the entire Museum parking lot. It's huge.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, 2 or 3 slipper. Giant parking
Tony Barthel
lot. There's a manufacturing parking lot. There's individual manufacturers that it's enormous.
Peggy Barthel
It's enormous.
Tony Barthel
So you can't really see it all no matter what.
Peggy Barthel
So what we tried to do was get a really good overview of kind of a lot of different things because what we wanted to see was what's coming for 2025 that might be a little bit different. What are the trends? What are the new things? What are the, you know, new exciting things? And what are the things that are like, I hope they get rid of that next year.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We
Tony Barthel
wanted to learn Wazuh. Wazuh.
Peggy Barthel
So one of the things that Tony is super enamored by is there are a lot more in this coming year on every sort of rig, patios or or porches or whatever you want to call them like fold down outdoor patios.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And some of these companies have done an exceptional job with this. Keystone had a couple of examples out where the the patio was all the way at the back of the RV as you would expect. When it's up, there's a big window there. When it's down, it's an open space and we were pretty impressed with that.
Peggy Barthel
Now, that might make it sound like you step on the window. No. No. The patio is only half of the height of the wall, if that makes sense. When it's up, half of the height is wall and half is window.
Peggy Barthel
When it's down, half of that that solid half is floor, and then the window half is like a a wall, like a railing.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's like a glass wall.
Peggy Barthel
Like a glass wall. That was really really clever.
Tony Barthel
We saw a few of those. We saw a couple of rigs where that fold down patio with the glass was on the side of the rig, which really made sense, including a saber that just nailed how the the saber and I didn't get video of this and I'm really sad, but the Sabre had this fold down same fold down patio, but with a sliding glass door. So when it was up, there was no disadvantage. When it was down, you got this side patio. So I thought that was pretty slick.
Tony Barthel
The one on the back, I really liked. And then, there were a bunch of RV's that just had a permanent deck. There were travel trailers, 5th wheels, park models that had this, like, notched out permanent deck. It started last year with the Cherokee and their Timber Lodge, I think it's called, and, uh, we talked about it last year, and it's just spread like wildfire throughout the industry.
Peggy Barthel
Now what you're probably used to seeing this deck is as a ramp to bring your toys into a toy hauler, and that is certainly where it started. And then it was not just a ramp, but it, you know, you could hold it straight up so it was a patio, and now a great deal of the time, it has nothing to do with bringing a toy in. It's just it just goes from up to out, but it doesn't even go down to the ground for Yeah. To make into a ramp. It's not even designed for that in a lot of these units.
Peggy Barthel
Now a lot of where we saw those was also on a great number of destination trailers.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So destination trailers are typically used at RV parks where someone will buy one of these. They're usually pretty cumbersome to haul and oftentimes are hauled by a professional hauler. And they're usually placed at an RV park or on a piece of land or something. And once they get there, that's where they live.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Tony Barthel
And a lot of these destination trailers are designed, so you can put a patio deck. So a lot of them, the entryway is a sliding glass door.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
And we saw a lot of these decks on those destination trailers.
Peggy Barthel
So the cool thing about some of the destinations is almost all of them are, like, super tall and have a loft, so it's not really 2 stories, it's maybe 1 and a half stories, and I climbed up into one of those lofts. Now, there's a lot of them that are like stairwells, staircases rather than a ladder, which is good. I climbed a ladder too once, but, uh, anyway. I climbed up into a loft in a very narrow, kind of steep staircase, and then crawled over to the railing where it overlooked the rest of the trailer. I had to crawl because that's how tall it was.
Peggy Barthel
It was it's not it's not a bedroom for adults, unless you'd like to crawl around. Yeah. But if you have kids and if you, you know, have a property on the lake or something, you wanna put this there, and then the kids have their loft and there was a separate bedroom and living space. And and like Tony said, the the patios, the decks, and the outdoor possibilities really open things up.
Tony Barthel
So it was that these destination trailers were companies that specialized in destination trailers and they're they're pretty enormous. Mhmm. Now, some of them are as small as regular travel trailers, some are the same length as travel trailers, but taller. The variety of destination trailers, basically trailers that are kinda not that great to tow, but great once they're there, is really expanding. And I wonder how much of this is because as we know, there's a big housing shortage.
Tony Barthel
There's a big affordable housing shortage. And these destination trailers could be a great solution, especially if you do contract work, and you're like in this state 1 month, and the next state 6 months later, and all that, this might be the best solution, and there are Some are affordable, some of them are really premium, so the destination trailers were a big deal.
Peggy Barthel
Yep. Let's talk kitchens. Let's talk cooking.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
There were some trends that we noticed. We saw a lot, I'm gonna say all, I'm gonna say most of the refrigerators these days are 12 volt refrigerators.
Tony Barthel
Oh, I don't think we saw any propane fridges.
Peggy Barthel
I don't think we saw any propane fridges. Some of those big giant units, of course, the big 5th wheels and the really big Class a motorhomes are probably still going residential, but frankly, I saw some enormous 12 volt refrigerators. So 12 volt is really the way it's going. I know that some of you had asked us to find out from manufacturers when they were gonna stop doing that to us. I don't think they're gonna stop doing that to us.
Peggy Barthel
I think that that is the way that things are going. There is the opinion that the 12 volts are much cheaper and therefore way better for the manufacturers. I don't know that that's true. I do know that get some people said, well, they should give you a choice. Well, here's the thing about a choice between a gas electric refrigerator and 12 volt refrigerator, completely different wiring.
Peggy Barthel
The need for plumbing, the need for vents if you have a electric gas refrigerator. They can't they can't build them to spec or to order without being a huge nightmare. Right? Like, they do the same thing over and over. If they had to this one's this way, this one's that way.
Peggy Barthel
It would just be and I think it would really slow down production. Our prices would go up. So
Tony Barthel
And we spoke with somebody at Lippert. Lippert, again, big RV component manufacturer, and they were talking about just in the past few years the improvements in efficiency on the compressors of these 12 volt fridges. So, they're here to stay folks. I mean, don't expect the RV industry will go back to the propane electric fridges anytime soon. I guess within 2 or 3 years, they'll just no longer even make them.
Tony Barthel
I could be wrong, but that's what I, that's what we see. And we see these 12 volt, as Peggy said, these 12 volt fridges with all the fancy features and size of some more premium residential fridges. So they're just getting better and better and more and more efficient and that's what's coming.
Peggy Barthel
That's what's coming. The other thing in the kitchen is the cooktops and the baking options. We saw, uh, I'm not gonna say it seems to be going this way, but in especially, I think in smaller rigs like in the class b's and some class c's, we saw induction cooktops induction cooktops and not propane cooktops.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Propane cooktops is another thing that I'm seeing fewer of, especially, you're right. In in an RV that might have a generator like a class c or class b and definitely class a's, There were a number of class a's that had no propane No propane whatsoever. Whatsoever.
Peggy Barthel
So that, of course, means you don't have a propane oven. Some of you are cheering right now because you hate your ovens, but I use my oven a lot, so I'm not I'm not ready to go that way. However, for the most part, if there was not an oven, there was a convection microwave. Now, I did see a couple of rigs that didn't have an oven and it just had a regular microwave.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. What are they thinking?
Peggy Barthel
I know. And and so and I did see a convection microwave that was microscopic. I don't know what Oh, yeah. You're gonna make like one muffin at a time. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
I was But, I mean, they're trying, I guess, and, you know, it was a small rig, so it has a small amount of space. So you you use what you can, but again, I don't think that propane is going away
Tony Barthel
I
Peggy Barthel
do overall, but I think propane is going away in a lot of places.
Tony Barthel
Well, I Yeah, maybe I did see a number of RVs that were you know, they were motorized. So they're either B's or C's and they had diesel heaters which has been available for years, but now smaller ones and I even saw a couple that had gasoline Fired heat and water heat And, again, no propane aboard whatsoever, so I don't know propane. I wouldn't invest in the propane industry at the moment. I'm just saying.
Peggy Barthel
Wait it out and see what happens. So, also, some of you had asked about mattresses. Could we get the RV industry to stop putting terrible mattresses? Well, again, this is what I see as an absolute nightmare. It would really be a giant hassle.
Peggy Barthel
Again, this rig wants that mattress, and that rig wants this mattress. And some people really like the junk cheap, you know, the I should say, the thin and hard mattresses. Some people really like that really firm mattress, don't have a problem with it. On our very first rig, we just put a topper. This rig, we now have a Ghost mattress.
Peggy Barthel
Everybody's different. Even Tony and I have a hard time choosing one mattress that we both like. So imagine if they gave you all those choices.
Tony Barthel
Oh.
Peggy Barthel
I just think it would be a nightmare for the manufacturers to try to figure out what goes in which rig, and I just don't see it ever happening. I'm sorry. You're just gonna get that thin hard mattress, and you're gonna have to do with it what you will.
Tony Barthel
Now, we visited with the folks at Jayco, and they have very specifically stated that they've improved the mattresses across the board and some of them we thought they were pretty comfortable, but well, you know, you're in it for like 2 minutes or whatever right another solution we saw which we've known about for years is something called the Froli system. Mhmm. And what this is is essentially it's plastic springs that go under the mattress and the advantage of that is it raises the mattress. I don't know what is it like half inch or whatever or whatever. So you get airflow, so you don't have a mold issue.
Tony Barthel
These Froli plastic springs are available in a variety of firmnesses. Mhmm. So let's say you have a weird size mattress in your rig, you could accommodate that with one of these Froli systems.
Peggy Barthel
So the system I think I assume that when you get the box, it's really a box that's chock full of 4 by 4 inch square plastic spring things and you put them together. So they have like little, you know, tab and slot and then you put them together. So if you have a 60 by 80, you build it, you know, 6 across by 8 long. That's not the right numbers, but anyway, you know what I mean. But if you have one of those mattresses that's cut off on the corner, you just don't put any Froli on that corner.
Tony Barthel
Right. Well, the other thing is they have various densities.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
So let's say you want your hips to have it softer or you want your back, you know, like you could have hard soft soft hard. Yeah. So you can really accommodate your own taste and use the mattress that came with your RV. And Again, the fact that it's raised up off the platform. Yeah, means that there's airflow underneath So we're very intrigued by this Froli system and it's been around and there are a few like Winnebago has a few motor homes that have it included.
Tony Barthel
And I think that is really the solution more than trying to accommodate all the different Mattress.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And you could even have on a mattress. Let's say you have 2 people sleeping side by side. You could have a totally different
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Spring profile on one side versus the other.
Peggy Barthel
Correct.
Tony Barthel
I'm thinking the Froli might be the the way to
Peggy Barthel
A good way
Tony Barthel
for it to go. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. So what did we see in the air conditioning world?
Tony Barthel
Be still my heart. So we have talked about the Furrion chill cube in the past. In fact, we even got one to test and our buddy Paul tested it for us because he couldn't measure the electrical draw and they are remarkably efficient. They're so much more efficient than the antiques that most of us have on the roofs of our RVs. They're also quiet, the temperature sensors in the remote, so if you bring the remote in the bedroom, that's where it prioritizes cooling.
Tony Barthel
If you have it in the living room, it prioritizes cooling there. The one thing that has not been available on the Furrion chill cube line is a ducted version. So if you have an RV that has ceiling vents like ours does, you're kind of out of luck because the Furrion chill cube only worked with
Peggy Barthel
What's called direct dump? Direct dump. It just came only out of the air conditioning unit itself. That was the case with the one that we received that we sent to Paul. Now, Paul actually needed to add it to his bedroom for a second air conditioner because they were kind of forced into a very, very, very, very warm situation.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Arizona in the summertime.
Peggy Barthel
And Phoenix in the summertime. Yeah. And so now, Furrion has at least started to release. I'm not sure how widely spread, but they now have the chill cube available as a ducted system.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Now, don't go rush it out to your local Furrion dealer. It's, right now, just, like, only one container of these has arrived, and it's only for testing. It will eventually spread throughout the industry, because Furrion's owned by Lipper, so they've got their distribution down to a science. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And it'll be in a lot of RVs. If, again, I wouldn't invest in Coleman Mox stock at this point.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Or GE air conditioner stock at this point.
Peggy Barthel
But, there's a couple other options too.
Tony Barthel
There are. Yeah. So, also, our friends at Dometic introduced the FreshJet and it is a very similar in performance air conditioner to the Furrion chill cube. So, it's also remarkably efficient. It is basically a different way of the compressor and the fan are 2 different motors.
Tony Barthel
The compressor can run at various speeds. So, it just really is a remarkably efficient and quiet system. They have a number of configurations, including some for big class a's that are, kinda, long and thin, and then they have the typical travel trailer version that's more, kinda, square. So those are coming soon from Dometic. By the way, all of these run on a 120 volt, you know, household power.
Tony Barthel
Dometic can also be had as a 48 volt unit. So with all these new lithium power systems that we've seen, that might be at least something to consider, depends on how your RV is wired.
Peggy Barthel
Are all of these, when they're readily available, are they really easy to just put in place? Yeah. Because they all have that 14 inch hole in they all require that 14 inch hole in the ceiling.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And something Lippert told us about the chill cube, you know, typically, you like in a bedroom system, you wire in 110, but most RV air conditioners well, a lot of RV air conditioners run with a thermostat on the wall. Right? Well, you have to run wires, feed wires down to that thermostat. The chill cube, because it uses a wireless remote, it's only 110.
Tony Barthel
So it's much simpler to wire too.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Tony Barthel
And it's better functionality. It's like no downside.
Peggy Barthel
Something I liked about that Dometic, and I don't remember if it was in the air conditioner part, but in their vent system.
Tony Barthel
Oh, that was, uh, the Max Air vent.
Peggy Barthel
The Max Air. Okay. So their newer kind of system is the if you ever have to replace that Max Air vent, the shroud or the framing of that is permanent. So, if you put in 1 and then you want to replace it, you don't have to take that framework loose from the roof and cause more holes in your ceiling and everything. That's a permanent thing that you can just plug and play other things, and I assume even an air conditioner.
Tony Barthel
I don't think I don't know that. But this thing, this FreshJet vent fan or Max Air 2, I think it's called from a manufacturing of your again, this was a show from the manufacturers. So, if you're building a bunch of rvs, you can buy the El Cheapo version of this fan system, which a lot of our v companies do. But then, as an owner, you can pop out just the little fan system and pop in a high performance vent fan, but there's something more. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
They provide a port in their fan, so you could run wiring for solar, or you could run your Starlink dish cable, or whatever comes down the pike. So there is actually a couple of ports on the side of this, so you don't ever have to reseal around that thing if you wanna swap it out and it has these port. It is just yes.
Peggy Barthel
Really smart.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. They really thought this through.
Peggy Barthel
So for a few years, you have been talking about the trauma eventa. Yeah. I'm not gonna say and I want Tony to talk about the trauma eventa but the point that I wanna make is there are becoming more and more choices. Now, Dometic and Furrion and, you know, it's not only trauma that makes something that actually makes sense in an RV. Right?
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. That's becoming more of a thoughtfulness
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Fortunately, RV air conditioners are finally coming into modern times, and I'm so happy about that. Because that's always been the thing, right, with solar and lithium. People go, well, how long can you run your air conditioner? Well, and the problem wasn't the solar and lithium, it was a lousy air conditioners that are inefficient and loud, and just they're terrible.
Tony Barthel
And, now, they're not terrible anymore, and I I, as I said, if I were Coleman Mach, I would be scared.
Peggy Barthel
Maybe Coleman is working on something too.
Tony Barthel
I would imagine they are, but don't ask them that at a seminar because they'll They
Peggy Barthel
don't like it when you ask if they're if they're doing something as innovative as someone else.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Boy, that
Peggy Barthel
makes them Imagine that. Yeah. Okay.
Tony Barthel
Alright. So the next big thing
Peggy Barthel
We want to talk about suspensions? We do. So we're talking now about 5th wheels, right? Like big heavy 5th wheels.
Tony Barthel
Yes. For the most part. I don't
Peggy Barthel
know that there was a lot of suspension talk in the small trailer or the drivable at all.
Tony Barthel
That was a couple of years ago when Curt introduced their independent suspension, and there's been the torsion axle that Airstream, and Rockwood, and Flagstaff have used for years. So travel trailers have had good suspension options now for a few years.
Peggy Barthel
Now, it's a 5th wheels turn.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So we got to go now, we have a separate video about 5th wheel suspensions and we have a separate video about 5th wheel braking systems. Mhmm. Both of which we experienced firsthand, but suffice to say
Peggy Barthel
There's some innovative new suspension systems. Yeah. There are kind of 3 that we learned about. Right? The slipper spring suspension.
Peggy Barthel
I said it right that time. Good job.
Tony Barthel
Peggy has had trouble with that name.
Peggy Barthel
The coil spring suspension, I swear there was another word that used to get thrown in there.
Tony Barthel
They call it the there's a name for it.
Peggy Barthel
Kurt touring coil. Touring coil.
Tony Barthel
Right. Touring coil.
Peggy Barthel
A little bit of a tongue twister. And then, you know, there's the regular leaf spring kind of normal suspension. And so we got to go to a closed track and feel what those different suspensions felt like, and that was
Tony Barthel
It was eye opening.
Peggy Barthel
Very eye opening.
Tony Barthel
I mean, the the difference between Kurt's touring coil suspension and the true even a better version of traditional leaf springs was night and day. Yeah. Watch that. We'll have links in the show notes, or if you're on our web page, we will have the videos right there. Where you can see we we videoed inside a trailer going down a track with a bunch of expansion joints and just a remarkable difference in how these suspensions performed.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Let's step outside. Not at this moment. Yes. Step outside.
Peggy Barthel
I'm in in terms of looking at trends and things in the in the RV industry. There were a lot less swoops and a lot less swirls.
Tony Barthel
Hallelujah. I
Peggy Barthel
am. Tony has hated swoops and swirls for a long time.
Tony Barthel
Oh my god.
Peggy Barthel
And talked about it a lot and, you know, there's still a lot of graphics on the outside. Don't get me wrong, but they're very
Tony Barthel
Tasteful.
Peggy Barthel
Straight lines and angles and very geometric and and a lot of scenery. There were a lot of tree lines and a lot of mountain ranges and a lot of, you know, not just swoopy swirls.
Tony Barthel
It was as if all of a sudden someone in the RV industry decided, hey, let's do something tasteful for
Peggy Barthel
Let's straighten these lines out.
Tony Barthel
And it's funny because we're sitting here recording this at a harvest host and the next rig over is a carnival float. Not really. It's a
Peggy Barthel
It's not brand
Tony Barthel
new. Class a.
Peggy Barthel
Is that brand new?
Tony Barthel
No. No.
Peggy Barthel
It's Oh, it is.
Tony Barthel
Only a few months.
Peggy Barthel
It's not that swoopy though. It's very
Tony Barthel
It's a carnival float.
Peggy Barthel
But it's very angular, but yeah, there's still a heck of a lot of graphics on those big class a's. I don't know.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I don't know.
Peggy Barthel
But anyway, also the that fiberglass printing
Tony Barthel
Oh, gosh. That
Peggy Barthel
you really like.
Tony Barthel
Something that I saw that was really unusual was there were 2 trailers where they actually? Printed directly on the fiberglass surface So rather than it being stickers or paint It's literally printed on and I think they had a 10 year warranty on that from I
Peggy Barthel
think so. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I think it was a 10 year warranty on that detail, but one of them looked like wood planks, and it was so realistic and beautiful I had to go touch it. Another one was like this nature scene, oh, it was it was so pretty.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. They're very pretty.
Tony Barthel
And it was very tasteful and very unusual, and it's as if someone at the RV industry finally woke up in the graphics department. It was it was so refreshing to see, And this painted on, we'll put pictures of the painted on rig and of the nature scene rig. Uh, I just loved them. But, as Peggy said, the travel trailers, a lot of them, the the actual paint scheme matched the structural lines like you've seen in the auto industry since the 19 sixties. They finally are making stuff that doesn't look like a carnival float, and I'm all
Peggy Barthel
for it. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Two thumbs up.
Peggy Barthel
Two thumbs. Alright. Do you want to talk about the EV?
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So I got to drive a prototype of Thor's new EV motor home. It's an electric motor home, and the way it works is kinda like a freight locomotive. So it's got election election? It's got electric motors that actually drive the thing.
Tony Barthel
That's what gives you the propulsion. And then, there's an internal combustion engine that provides charging and some energy. So, you can, with this Thor E V Motorhome, plug it in and then just go on pure electric power if you want, if that's your thing. And, of course, there's solar panels. Those really, let's be honest, takes so much energy to move a big box like this.
Tony Barthel
The solar panels are more for once you're camping and what you can do there. Then, let's say, you get to the end of the range of the batteries, well, a little 4 cylinder engine kicks on that's like a generator and you just keep going and Thor guesses that with the batteries and a full tank of gas, because it runs on gasoline, you can go about 500 miles and then you just go to a gas station and put more gas in. You can also charge this at an EV charging station if that's your jam. You can charge it at the campground. So, you know, like a Tesla is an EV only and that's its benefit.
Tony Barthel
This is all things and allows you to take advantage of what works best at the time. So, do you want to drive an EV motor home? You can. Do you want to go 500 miles on a in a day, which, oh my gosh, my hind end Oh,
Peggy Barthel
I don't want to do that. I don't
Tony Barthel
care how good the motor home is. But, you can. So, this was only a prototype, but, I really enjoyed driving it. It just makes sense. This thing, you know, it's not like some pie in the sky weird.
Tony Barthel
Like, you have to behave differently and hold your left leg in the air and tap the top of your head and maybe you'll magically do stuff. No. This is just, if you see 10 motor homes on a sales lot and one of them is this EV, it would compete inconvenience with all those other motor homes. Now, when will it
Peggy Barthel
be here? Who knows?
Tony Barthel
Because What was it? 2 or 3 years ago, Thor showed the E stream Airstream's electric travel trailer. Haven't seen it.
Peggy Barthel
That's still not out. Right.
Tony Barthel
So, yeah. Uh, Winnebago showed their electric class b. Haven't seen it. So, we got to talk to the guy responsible for this. Because it uses a chassis from a company called Harbinger, they actually make commercial vehicle chassis.
Tony Barthel
So, it's not some pie in the sky thing, but will it come to pass? All in all, because right now, electric vehicles are not selling as well as they have. But, it was, man, it was quick and it was fun to drive and I like driving it and I hope it comes to market because I think it it just it makes sense for a lot of reasons.
Peggy Barthel
What we said earlier that we are what I termed hops hopping, uh, we are brewdocking.
Tony Barthel
Oh, yeah. Brewdocking. We came up with that term this week.
Peggy Barthel
And we What we are doing is as we travel this week from Indiana to Iowa, which really isn't that far, we probably could have done it in one day. Yeah. But the fact is we had like 5 days to kill before we had another reservation. And so I got on Harvest Hosts, and I started looking at where the breweries are in a route that we could take and not too far out of our way, but also that 80, 90, whatever it is between Indiana and Chicago, I wanted to avoid that at all costs. So we're kind of doing what I see as a smile.
Tony Barthel
Well, it's putting a smile on my face. That's
Steve Royce
for sure.
Peggy Barthel
We left Shipshewana. We went to Knox, Indiana, and that's where we met up with Steve and Kathy.
Tony Barthel
Knox, Indiana.
Peggy Barthel
At the 1056 Brewery.
Tony Barthel
Yep. That was really fun.
Peggy Barthel
That was really fun. We had
Tony Barthel
a band. We had a
Peggy Barthel
great time. Well, a singer.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's true. They had a
Peggy Barthel
musician there. Musician.
Tony Barthel
It was so fun to hang out with Steve and Kathy. We enjoyed some good beers and a lot of laughs and Tenzi.
Peggy Barthel
No. No. No. No. Yam
Tony Barthel
Slam. Yam
Peggy Barthel
Slam. Uh-huh. We also have a game called Tenzi, but we did not play that. We played ham. I had
Tony Barthel
5 beers that day. I don't remember.
Peggy Barthel
He doesn't know what he played. So we got to spend the night there at 10:56 Brewery and then when we got up in the morning and we all just kind of sat outside like what do we do now? And we sat around and talked so long that the brewery opened for lunch. So we went back in and had lunch before we headed out. Now, we are at a place called Beans and Barley, I think it's called.
Tony Barthel
It is really nice.
Peggy Barthel
It's beautiful. So they don't brew their own beer. As a couple, they have brewed their own beer, but they decided they were not going to be a brewery. They are a restaurant. They offer a fantastic selection, a giant selection of beers.
Tony Barthel
They're also a bakery and a coffee place.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
And And
Peggy Barthel
and they're they're really open. Their their restaurant hours are like 6 to 2, so they're for breakfast and lunch. They're not a dinner place. So we've already had our lunch. We'll figure out what we're gonna have for dinner here in the camper, and then we'll be back in for breakfast.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. There I had this brisket nachos type of thing.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So very good.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. I had meatball sliders. Everything was really delicious. So our whole trip this week then is we've got a couple more stops that we're gonna make at different breweries and we're just gonna, you know, enjoy hops hopping, brew docking, and then we will be in a manna colonies for the frog toberfest with Forest River owners group and staying around for the next weekend for RV Miles homecoming. So we'll be in a manna for like 10 or 11 days.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And then who knows? We're we're kicking around the idea of chasing down the the Union Pacific big boys team engines more so who knows? Yep.
Peggy Barthel
So anyway that is a long way to tell you that Harvest Hosts is awesome.
Tony Barthel
It really is. Well last night we were at a no wait last night? Yeah, last night we're at a farm. Yeah. That was good too with the little piggies and
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Horse and
Peggy Barthel
I unfortunately waited too long and the breweries that were in that area got booked up or where I waited too too late to make the request. So we didn't stay at a brewery last night, but frankly we have beer
Tony Barthel
in the first place. Yeah. We bought beer because
Peggy Barthel
We don't we don't need to be at a brewery but the whole idea was like let's just check out the breweries. Yeah. So that is what we are doing with Harvest Hosts. We love Harvest Hosts. You can love Harvest Hosts.
Peggy Barthel
You can get a discount on our website at dressescamping.com on the deals and discounts page. Check it out. If you wanna go brew docking with us, which we are doing at the end of this trip. We're meeting up with Gary and Robin on our very last night. That's right.
Peggy Barthel
And we'll stay in our last brewery before we go home.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Ben Franklin, was he the one who said beer is proof that God loves us and
Peggy Barthel
And wants us to be happy.
Tony Barthel
Wants us to be happy.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. So we haven't talked about, uh, recipe in a while because we have not cooked in a good long time. Yeah. We've been eating
Tony Barthel
Oh, that's true.
Peggy Barthel
You know, we ate at the event a lot of the time and we went out a few times with Tony and Tina. We camped right next to them in Shipshewana, and now we're in breweries every night. But on the other hand, it's fall y'all. Yeah. And I get to start eating pumpkin stuff.
Peggy Barthel
Not that I don't do that all year long, but now you have to eat
Tony Barthel
pumpkin stuff. Readily available.
Peggy Barthel
And so I've probably shared this before or maybe I haven't, but it's definitely on the website for pumpkin fluff. It's a really simple and pretty low carb. It's not low in fat necessarily. It's heavy cream and canned pumpkin, and I use a, uh, sugar substitute, monk fruit sugar. It's just a really, you know, and then you it's it's a fluff.
Peggy Barthel
Right? It's a mousse kind of stuff. So if it's still hot where you are, and I know it is, and you don't notice that it's fall, that's okay because this fluff is a refrigerated dessert. But if it's fall and you're ready for pumpkin, here you go.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's a moose. I'm silly.
Peggy Barthel
You are silly.
Tony Barthel
Oh, boy. Hey. Speaking of fall, have you checked your roof for leaks? Now, there's 2 ways of doing that. I always say, if you want to know the laziest way to accomplish a task, I'm your man.
Tony Barthel
I have a pole, and we put a camera on it, and walk around and look at the roof fairly regularly, usually after we've been sitting for a while. And so, we have this ongoing documentary, whatever. We have this ongoing video of our roof. So, we know, oh, it's starting to look bad or whatever. But the proper way is to get up there on a ladder and look at it up close and personal.
Tony Barthel
Be careful if you do that. But, all these various seals on your r v, they all do need to be inspected regularly because they're, even if your RV is brand new, they are not guaranteed. This The Where they have the sealant. So do inspect it for leaks. Now is a good time to do so.
Tony Barthel
Some of you are sadly, putting your RVs away for the scene. So it's a really good time to get up there and look at, or do the camera trick. Whatever suits you, make sure that your roof ain't leaking.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. So we haven't asked a question of the week in a while either and that's because like 3 weeks ago, we said, tell us what you want us to look for at Open House and we did that and not gonna read you the questions because we've already been talking about it for whatever the last hour or so. So this week, I do have a new question of the week, and it kind of hearkens back to a few weeks ago when we did our, you know, eating across America. And we were wondering if you might please share a favorite food that you have found in your travels. We cannot stay on a diet when we're in Indiana.
Peggy Barthel
We know that. Nope. We but we've left Indiana, and it's time to start. Well, I mean, after all these breweries and Oktoberfests. Okay.
Peggy Barthel
So when we get home next month Yeah. After we get back on our on our diet again. But if you would tell us when and how and what and show some pictures of great food that you found. We'll try it.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. You know? We will.
Peggy Barthel
We're not that strict on our diet. We should be, but we're not.
Tony Barthel
But we're not. You can answer that at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook
Peggy Barthel
group. You can also sign up if you haven't already for our once a week newsletter. Yep. It's absolutely free. It's very easy to sign up.
Peggy Barthel
There are places all over the website where you can
Tony Barthel
do that. We're adding more places.
Peggy Barthel
Adding more places, but particularly at the bottom of every page, you can sign up. And what we do is send you once a week an email with a newsletter that has links to stories and videos and podcasts and whatever we think that will help you get the most out of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
And you'll find the show notes for this episode, episode 275. On the podcast page at stressless camping.com where you'll find both the video and audio versions of this podcast.
Peggy Barthel
You'll also find our deals and discounts page for the best deals on things you'll need for your Stressless Camping adventure, including a discount to FMCA.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. FRVA.
Peggy Barthel
FRVA. Yeah. And if you know of a deal that we don't already have, please let us know. We would be happy to share that with the rest of the rest of
Tony Barthel
the group. And, of course, we're in all the social places, but you can start at stresslesscamping.com, and from there, jump off to all the places that you'll find us.
Peggy Barthel
If you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast It's free. It's free to subscribe on any podcast catcher, and we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire. Yep.
Tony Barthel
Oh, and don't forget that those reviews really help others learn about the Stressless Camping podcast. And, of course, the more people who listen, the more discounts and deals we can get for everybody. So anybody who's reviewed, thank you. If you haven't, you you still can. And, of course, don't forget to share things that you found on the Stresses Camping website on social.
Peggy Barthel
There's also a page on the website that explains how to share, and I think there's also a tip in the newsletter.
Tony Barthel
There always is.
Peggy Barthel
We appreciate you joining us this week, and as always, 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.
Peggy Barthel
Less swoops and a lot less swirls. Hallelujah.
