RV Wheel Safety with Rich from Air Gear
Have you had the wheel fall off your RV? This week on the StressLess Camping RV Podcast, we speak with Rich Luhr, co-editor of Airstream Life magazine and co-owner of Air Gear dot store. Rich helps us avoid this potential disaster that is not as uncommon as you might think. Yikes!
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Clark Howard’s article on avoiding scams finding a work from home/work from the road job.
Clark Howard’s article on finding legitimate work from home/work from the road jobs.
Air Gear’s article on lug nut safety
Air Gear’s tips on torque wrenches:
Ryobi One+ Stick Vac - good for RVers?
More information on the AirGear Tire Changing Kit (we have one and love it!)
Our article about the Ryobi One+ Stick Vac
Our honest review of the Ryobi One+ Verse clamp speaker
Our discount on Harvest Hosts membership
An article about previous adventure through Tucumcari, New Mexico on our Route 66 adventure
Our fun and friendly StressLess Campers Facebook Group
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 278
Tony Barthel
Have you had a wheel fall off your RV?
Peggy Barthel
This week on the Stressless Camping RV podcast, we speak with Rich Loehr, co editor of Airstream Life Magazine and co owner of Air Gear dot store.
Tony Barthel
Rich helps us avoid this potential disaster that is not as uncommon as you might think.
Peggy Barthel
Yikes. I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And I'm Tony.
Peggy Barthel
And we are 2 RV industry veterans who travel part time
Tony Barthel
In a small trailer.
Peggy Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips
Tony Barthel
Tricks.
Peggy Barthel
And discounts.
Tony Barthel
I'm not so sure we're gonna be able to say that much more. Yeah. More on that. More on that. I think Coming up.
Peggy Barthel
I think anything under 30 is small.
Tony Barthel
Alright. Alright. Then we qualify still. And and that there's your sneak preview of something coming like a freight train down the track. Well, we are listeners to a lot of podcasts.
Tony Barthel
I'm sure you are too. And one of the ones we really like is Clark Howard. And Clark Howard does a lot of sort of life advice, financial advice, just how to manage your finances. But another thing he does, he has this whole research not research. Resource.
Tony Barthel
Resource. Yeah. Resource of it.
Peggy Barthel
Probably very well researched.
Tony Barthel
It probably is because he's got a whole team. Anyway
Peggy Barthel
This week or last week on 17th October, he talked about remote work. Yeah. And so we will put a link to his episode about remote work, but also that episode links to another link that we will add. So if you wanna go directly there and not listen to a podcast, but you should, you can read an article about finding those remote jobs.
Tony Barthel
And, you know, there's so many scams out there. That's another thing he kind of helps you avoid is scams. So many scams out there on remote work and and just a bunch of malarkey. It's a good resource that's vetted. And if you're looking to work from the road, maybe this is a helpful hint.
Tony Barthel
Who knows?
Peggy Barthel
You know how we always talk about upfits?
Tony Barthel
From our friends at ABC Upfitters. From our
Peggy Barthel
friends at ABC Upfitters and we didn't have an upfit. We actually have a factory included power package.
Tony Barthel
Right. Which is it was designed and developed by ABC Upfitters Mhmm. And is basically the same system you can get from them as a aftermarket upfit. They provide a lot of these kits to the RV industry including to Rockwood and companies like Thor Motor Coach and all that. But they will also install systems in your RV, whatever that happens to be.
Tony Barthel
And turns out we're gonna be one of their customers in about a month.
Peggy Barthel
So that might be another little tiny hint as to what's coming up in our lives in the next month or 2. But before that, we actually have 2 boondocking trips.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Even though it's gonna be, you know, late October, early November, we're still going. Yep. Fall camping is something we really like.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We'll be using our power package. Well, you can't use it up, but we're gonna get the most use out of it that we can before we take it back to Indiana and our next chapter begins.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Uh, you know, and that's a very valid point. Uh, you said you can't use it up. That's a nice thing. These systems have many thousands of cycles built into them.
Tony Barthel
So unlike the typical RV battery, these very safe lithium systems have thousands of cycles built into them. We were just talking with somebody who was one of the first customers of ABC UPFITTERS and went back and had more stuff added Right. Bill. And they tested his battery because it logs how many complete discharges, and he's barely scratched the surface. So these systems can last as long basically as as you can last as an RVer.
Tony Barthel
So if you want a custom tailored system that is right for you, that fits within the way you like to RV, whether that's just a simple battery upgrade or a complete system. Our friends at ABC Outfitters are the people that we really trust. They listen. They do great work, and we've been very pleased with them. So you can reach them at 574 333-3225.
Peggy Barthel
That's 574-333-3225 or check them out at abcupfitters.com.
Tony Barthel
We follow a lot of other RVers also, including Rich Loehr from Air Gear or Airstream Life. He is a avid airstreamer. He also has a blog about the RV lifestyle, not dissimilar to stress as camping, and he literally had a wheel fly off his trailer.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. While he was on the highway. So he wrote an article about it. He sent it out to us, and I said, hey, we want to
Tony Barthel
hear more. We don't want your wheels falling off your arms.
Peggy Barthel
We wanna help our listeners avoid that. So we asked Rich Loehr, and he came and talked to us. Let's hear what he has to say.
Tony Barthel
We have the privilege of having our friend, Rich Loehr, here. And Rich is the co publisher of Airstream Life and also the co owner of the Air Gear store, which a lot of you have supported through Stressless Camping. So, Rich, thanks for coming back.
Rich Luhr
Oh, it's always my pleasure. I love love chat chatting with you guys. You one of the more informative podcasts out there.
Tony Barthel
Oh, thank you. You and I kinda had a similar experience. We both went to a not at the same time, but we both learned something from Dexter Axel that really surprised me and made me happy that I have the tools that I have. You wanna share that with us?
Rich Luhr
Well, I think what you're talking about is we've we've I know I've had, you've probably had the experience of a real tire and wheel disaster where you're on the road and something awful happens involving your wheel. In my case, the the lug studs that the nuts could screw onto um, broke off and the wheel went flying away, never to be seen again.
Tony Barthel
Thanks. Yeah,
Rich Luhr
it was quite a disaster. I was, I was going down a steep grade in Idaho and, uh, I'll never forget it. And I just, all of a sudden there's this weird noise and the side view mirror, I saw this flash of black and silver,
Tony Barthel
and I thought, what what was that?
Peggy Barthel
Of course, it's gonna happen in the worst. It's not like on a flat 30 mile an hour empty road.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. As your wheel passes you on the highway, like, oh, look somebody's wheel. Uh-oh.
Rich Luhr
Well, in my case, there was that initial flash and I'm thinking, what was that? And then somebody passes me and starts waving frantically, you know, that whole routine.
Tony Barthel
The photos that you shared is that's from your Airstream, right?
Rich Luhr
Uh, yeah. There's a photo that I shared of, uh, of a it's actually a disc brake in that particular case, but you can see that 5 of the 6 lug bolts are just completely snapped off at the base and there's only one left there.
Tony Barthel
And the surprising thing is this is not at all uncommon.
Rich Luhr
No, it's one of the big problems and one of the things that people don't talk about because, you know, people just don't understand the importance of getting that wheel seated properly with the correct torque on the lug nuts. That's that's really all there is to it. And yet, it's such a it's such a weird mystery to so many people, myself included at that point.
Peggy Barthel
And it's so simple.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So what we're talking about is the lug nuts, which are the the nuts that hold the wheel to the axle rim of the trailer. On aluminum wheels, those can back out because the aluminum wheel is actually more rigid than the steel wheel. And it may not seat properly and over a short period of time, they can actually back out and the wheel literally falls off as it did in your case.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. Actually, mine was worse. So there's there's 2 failure modes. I mean, you described one of them pretty well. If if the lug nuts aren't tightened properly, um, they can back off, and that's one failure mode.
Rich Luhr
The other failure mode is what happened to me, where a well meaning mechanic with an air wrench went and Oh. Taking the lug nuts for me. He said, Oh, let me just check these. And and that that their air wrench puts out way too much torque for those for those nuts. So they were all torqued like 200 foot pounds, you know, and I didn't know.
Rich Luhr
I didn't know any better. This isn't really in my my days. So what that did is that stretched the the lug stud or the bolt too much. And so, the strain of that extra stretching from the overly tight nuts and rolling down the road, the conclusion was inevitable. The, they just failed.
Rich Luhr
They, the metal fatigued and they snapped off at the base and that was the end of that. So, there's 2 failure modes, too tight and too loose. Mine was too tight.
Tony Barthel
Right. Right. What was described to me by the Dexter Axel guy, and it was the same guy that was at the Airstream rally and at the frog rally.
Rich Luhr
Bill Snyder.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. He's a good guy. He had said that surprisingly, the lug nuts can well, of course, if they're over tightened, they won't back off. But, uh, if they're normally tightened, the fact that the aluminum wheel doesn't always seat properly, it can wiggle the nuts loose and then the wheel just comes flying off. Mhmm.
Rich Luhr
Which is Which
Tony Barthel
is a bummer.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Rich Luhr
It's it's definitely a bad day. So that's why the advice is to check the torque three times with a torque wrench. You tighten those bolts those nuts once drive 25 miles check them again 25 miles check them again and after you do it 3 times at least in theory the seat the wheel should now be properly seated And it's true because I've done this many times and every time you take, I take the wheel off, I go through this procedure and the first time and the second time I check those things, inevitably 1 or 2 of them has gotten loose. It takes that long, you know, 75 miles for them to be really everything's all kind of seated in where it needs to be. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's it's I mean, over time, if once that's seated properly, it's not something to be as concerned about, but it's still good to have a torque wrench because the only way to know how tight the wheel lug nuts are is with a good torque wrench.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. You you can't tell by feel. You know? Right. People people are I think they compare it to their car and their car, you know, they just kind of go, oh, okay, it's tight.
Rich Luhr
Good enough. You know, and on cars, there's a lot more tolerance, um, for a lot of reasons. Those, those bolts aren't under nearly as much stress as they are on a trailer. And so while you can get away with that with a car, sometimes uh, you just can't with a travel trailer, aluminum or steel wheels really, you you need a torque wrench.
Tony Barthel
It's amazing to me when you look at the when you go over a tight turn and you have 2 axles or even 3 and how the wheels can be almost bent looking. Yeah. Do you imagine the torque that it takes to to bend that whole assembly that much?
Rich Luhr
Yeah. It's it's kinda scary. The first time you see it, you do a tight turn in a parking lot and then you look at the trailer and the wheels look like they've been bent. Right. I don't know what what happened here.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Just about every gas station. That's how it is.
Rich Luhr
You you Exactly.
Tony Barthel
Maneuver in and you look and you're like, oh, gosh. I can't stay here very long. This is this just doesn't sit well.
Rich Luhr
Just looks bad. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And when we when we set up at a campsite too, if he's had to turn to get into a site, and I go, okay. This is exactly where we wanna be, and he's like, no. No. But I have to go forward and back up because the wheels are funky, and, um, we're not gonna leave it like that. So then we can't get back in the same spot.
Rich Luhr
But but Tony's Tony's need for for perfection is satisfied, and I totally sympathize
Peggy Barthel
because I've done that too. We manage we manage to find another level spot, but it's always, you know, half an inch different from where I had us in the first place. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And Airstreams and Rockwoods have the same basic torsion axles from Dexter. So it's the it's the same experience, but this doesn't matter no matter what axle you have. It's the same. So you have come up with a good solution for this basically.
Rich Luhr
Well, I've been singing this song for years because because, you know, when you buy a new travel trailer, it generally doesn't come with any tools at all for changing the tire. Mhmm. In recent years, Airstream's thrown in a little four way wrench thing. It's kind of a folding four way, which is great. It'll take the lug nuts off, but you still don't have most of the things you need, including a torque wrench.
Rich Luhr
So we've sold for a long time an air gear tire changing kit, and it's basically all the tools you need in a bag so you never have to You just throw that bag into one of your storage compartments and it's there if you need it. You never have to think about, you know, oh geez, did I bring the right things? It's always there. And, but the key thing is the torque wrench because without that, you're just flying blind. You have no idea if you've got Right?
Rich Luhr
And and that's the key, as as we've both discovered painfully.
Peggy Barthel
Now, I think it's important to let people know though that although it's called Air Gear, it's not only for Airstreams. This particular tool there are some, of course, some things in the Air Gear store that are really specific to Airstream trailers, but this is something that's way more universal.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. We actually modified the kit. Um, we used to include 2 different sizes of, uh, of sockets for the 2 common nuts that Airstream used, but we've now on it to have 4 different sizes of sockets in there. So it pretty much covers every travel trailer made. Okay.
Rich Luhr
But you should have a socket in the kit for your travel trailer. So it's yeah. It's a universal kit or as close as we could possibly get to it.
Tony Barthel
I've used mine for more than checking the lug nuts. Although I've used it for I've used it when I installed a new hitch. There was a spec on how tight the bolt should be. I've used it to take out and put in the anode rod in my water heater.
Peggy Barthel
Oh. What's the torque spec on an anode rod?
Tony Barthel
I don't remember. I knew you were gonna ask me that. Dug on it. But I've used it for that. I've checked the truck torque, you know, the lug nuts on the truck.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I've I've used it for a number. So it's just it's a useful thing and because the torque wrench is I don't know what is it, 2 and a half feet long or whatever, you get good leverage too.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. It's probably about 18 inches long. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Rich Luhr
Um, I will caution you about one thing though. Um, the torque wrench should only be used to tighten nuts, but never to loosen them cause that can knock it out of, uh, its calibration. So that's why we also include a solid steel, what we call a breaker bar and that's for removing nuts because you won't hurt that by, you know, to use it. So you use the breaker bar to remove the nuts, use the torque wrench to put them back on and get them to spec.
Tony Barthel
Okay. See, I learned something today. Hopefully not at the expense of my torque wrench.\
Rich Luhr
It's probably still accurate. Don't worry too much about it. But as a general practice, it's one of those things, you know, you want to take care of your torque wrench. You should always wind it down to close to 0 every time you store it. Because if you leave it set at a torque setting, it's going to the Springs inside are going to develop a set and they won't be accurate.
Rich Luhr
So you always want it down to 0 and always put it back and it's protective plastic case that keeps it from getting banged around and knocked out of calibration also.
Tony Barthel
It seems to not want to go back in the case if you don't wind it down anyway.
Rich Luhr
That's right. It will fit. It would
Tony Barthel
be a little bit. Yeah.
Rich Luhr
It gets a little longer when you wind it to torque. So you got to wind it down to 0 to to fit inside. That's true. Good point.
Tony Barthel
Which is smart.
Rich Luhr
Kinda kinda idiot proofs it a little bit. And believe me, I've been the idiot because once in a while, I've phoned to put it back in the case and I'm like, dang, it won't what's oh, yeah. I forgot.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I'm I'm the guy who gets to test things whether or not they're idiot proof because if they're not, I'm the idiot who'll figure
Peggy Barthel
it out.
Rich Luhr
And now that's actually the biggest part of my day sometimes is figuring out all the ways people can screw something up and then figuring out how to help them not do that.
Peggy Barthel
Excellent. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So any other tips like that that we should share with people?
Rich Luhr
Um, a couple of things that come up. I remember in Bill's seminar, a lot of these things came up too. First of all, never put anti seize or any kind of lubricant on the threads of the lug bolts. People think that they should use any sees and actually that's going to screw them up because that that makes the threads slippery and you won't get a good torque rating. Then you do that.
Rich Luhr
So that torque rating is for dry threads, nothing on them. So if you've put any seas on them, you need to clean it off with a good cleaner and get them back to where they were originally. Um, that's a big one. It comes up because people make that mistake a lot. Let's see.
Rich Luhr
Put your torque wrench away. Right. We covered that. Oh, yes. A lot of people think that you have to keep checking the torque every trip or something like that.
Rich Luhr
And that's really overkill. If if you check the torque with your torque wrench, it won't do any harm. But Dexter's advice is that you really once the the wheel is seated, you really only need to do it about every 3,000 miles or so. So it's not it's not a it's not a big maintenance item and it only takes a couple of minutes to do it anyway.
Peggy Barthel
And so, Vian, in the very beginning, check it often a few times in the first 100 miles and then after that, when you know they're well seated, then you can back off and not worry so much. And Exactly. Just to make sure that I understand torque wrenches properly, the way you can check it is you put the torque that you want it to be and you kind of pretend like you're tightening it, and if it's at the right torque, the torque wrench kind of just I don't want to say breaks because that sounds bad, but it it it pops loose and doesn't doesn't go tighter because that's where it's set to to stop.
Rich Luhr
Well, almost. What it's gonna do is when you get to that torque setting, it's gonna give you a very abrupt click, big loud audible click, and you'll feel it too, and you just stop there. If you keep applying pressure, it will continue to tighten. So, it doesn't stop you, you, but it does alert you. This is the time to stop.
Rich Luhr
And, I mean, you can't you can't miss it. It's a big, big physical click that you feel.
Peggy Barthel
I know I felt it. I just it's been a long time since I've done the task because that's that's one of Tony's jobs. But but thank you for describing that so that people, when the first time they use it, they know what they're getting into.
Tony Barthel
There's a really good video that you did too, so we'll put a link to that. That's a very good video on not only using the torque wrench, but care, all of that Mhmm. Stuff. So Yeah. We have a link to that.
Tony Barthel
Another thing, since we're talking about retirement Oh, boy. I typically check the inflation pressure on my tires before any journey as well. And the time to do that is in the morning when the tires are cold.
Rich Luhr
Correct.
Tony Barthel
That's another huge thing that a lot of people don't do and is a big safety item.
Rich Luhr
We generally recommend that people get a tire pressure monitoring system.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Rich Luhr
You know, 2 to $300 depending on how many wheels you have. Really good investment. In my opinion, you can certainly always check the air manually, but the nice thing about the TPMS is, first of all, when you're getting ready to go, you just turn the thing on and it checks all the pressures for you so you don't have to actually do anything. And secondly, if you have a loss of pressure during the trip, it's going to alert you before that tire completely deflates and shreds and destroy something on your trailer.
Tony Barthel
Right. My favorite ones are also the ones that report the heat. So if something gets really hot, like, for example, a wheel bearing feeling, then you get an alert for that too.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. The TST system that we sell, Truck Systems Technologies, does temperature. I think all the good ones do. And it's alerted me a couple of times to a dragging brake situation.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Rich Luhr
That's very important. One day I towed my trailer just across town here in Tucson, maybe 15 miles. And when I pulled into my driveway, the wheels were all running a 122 degrees, which was way hotter than they normally run. And so that led me to, you know, do some investigation and find out that I had a faulty brake controller actually, that was causing the brakes to drag.
Tony Barthel
Interesting. Mhmm. We just got back from a 33 day trip, and we're coming back into New Mexico and there was a lot of headwinds. And I well, as you said that, it reminded me that I was getting about 6 and a half miles to a gallon, which is a lot worse than normal for our car. But that could also you know, you get a dragging brake, and that'll affect your fuel mileage too.
Rich Luhr
Good point. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of advantages to a TPMS and I really think that it's just kind of basic insurance for a heavy traveler. So, you know, I recommend it to a lot of people. And by the way, we just came back from a 17 day trip.
Rich Luhr
We were off to Missouri and back. So, we got some of those headwinds too, which really sucked. My rule of thumb is, uh, unless I'm on a killer schedule, if my gas mileage drops below 9 miles per gallon, I'm looking for a place to spend the night. I just Yeah. Hate fighting the truck down the road the whole time.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. It's it's exhausting.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It it really is. And and that was this, but we had to get back, but we made it. Just a lot of my truck was just really very thirsty.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. It felt bad.
Tony Barthel
I was not not happy. Not a happy Tony. And I dropped the speed and everything. It it's just blah.
Rich Luhr
When there's a 30 knock headwind, what are you gonna do? You're gonna go down the highway at 40 miles an hour? I mean, there's only so much you can do.
Tony Barthel
Right. Yeah. Makes you wish you're going the other direction though. Yeah.
Rich Luhr
We did catch a little bit of that one day, and, oh, it was glorious. Seventeen miles per gallon for a while. Wow.
Tony Barthel
You'd think they'd move the highway so that we'd get more tailwinds.
Peggy Barthel
Alright. I'm gonna rein you guys back in. So I wanna I wanna talk about the tire changing kit. It obviously, it has torque wrench. It has the nuts that pretty much will help every travel trailer user.
Peggy Barthel
What else is in that kit?
Rich Luhr
Let's see. We have a safety vest because, you know, it's really a bad idea to be changing a tire by the side of the road without something to make you visible.
Tony Barthel
Mhmm.
Rich Luhr
Let's see what else. We've got the breaker bar that I mentioned for taking the nuts off. So if they're stubborn, you can put all the force you want on that breaker bar. And we also include instructions, which is really important.
Tony Barthel
Yes. If you
Rich Luhr
don't change tires on a regular basis, you know, the day you're going to be stressed out, like you pulled off by the side of the road, you got a flat, You know, the dog is barking. Your wife is screaming. I don't know what's going on. There's trucks roaring by 18 wheelers, you know, 3 feet from your head and you're going, I got to do this now and you're frazzled and you haven't done it. So printed instructions with pictures to say, this is it's going to be okay.\
Peggy Barthel
Step 1, take a deep breath.\
Tony Barthel
Step 1, have a shot of whiskey. No, don't do that.\
Rich Luhr
Don't do that. But you get it. You know, I try to put myself in the position of I've been in this position. I mean, I remember changing a flat by the side of a busy highway in Cincinnati. And it was awful.
Rich Luhr
You know, trucks like literally 6 feet from me, going 60, 70 miles an hour past me. It's unnerving to to be in that situation. And when you don't have a choice, you know, so I think about that when I'm writing these instructions, trying to go, okay, what would I want someone to say to me? And what picture would I wanna have to so I don't have to figure this out right now.
Tony Barthel
When you had the studs break off, I guess they just had to flatbed the trailer away.
Rich Luhr
Well, fortunately, I had a tandem. And like you, like your Rockwood, we have a torsion axle. So with a torsion axle, you can actually just tow on 3 wheels, which is
Peggy Barthel
what I did.
Tony Barthel
Like an old Citroen.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. Like an old Citroen.
Tony Barthel
When you raise one tire?
Rich Luhr
What was that? The Royal the Robin in England, anyway.
Tony Barthel
Oh, yeah. That 3 wheel thing.
Rich Luhr
Wasn't it? Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yep. The Reliant Robin. That would tip over at
Rich Luhr
a slight cross breeze.
Peggy Barthel
So is there a limit to how fast or how far you can do that driving on 3? Well I mean, obviously, you're not just gonna finish your 1500 mile trip and not worry about it.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. Well, it's funny because, uh, AirStream used to publish in their owners manual that you shouldn't exceed something like 30 miles per hour if you're towing on 3 wheels. Um, that's really not a scientific number. I think that's just sort of somebody's idea of, like, this is what you should do. But out of paranoia, I had to tow, I think, like, uh, 12 miles back to a tire shop, and I did it at 30 miles an hour, and it was really upsetting because causing traffic problems.
Rich Luhr
And it wasn't great. One day I was talking to a guy named Dave Schumann, who used to be the, uh, director of service at Airstream years ago, and he said he had a customer call up who had this problem and he's told the customer he could tow on 3 wheels and the customer unbeknownst to him was in some place like Tennessee and towed it all the way to the Airstream factory in Ohio on 3 wheels at highway speeds.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, gosh.
Rich Luhr
Because he misunderstood. He thought it was okay. And so he got away with it, 65 miles an hour all the way to Ohio. Wow.
Tony Barthel
So how
Rich Luhr
much to say? But personally, I would slow down a lot.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that not only additional stress on the torsion axle that's still touching the ground or the wheel, but also the frame, all of that, it's it's not good.
Rich Luhr
And don't forget the other 3 tires. They're now carrying the weight of 4 tires. So Mhmm. As a step, what I would do now, knowing what I know now, I would inflate those other 3 tires to their max cold rating before I started towing because you want them to have the maximum weight carrying capacity.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, good point. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
That's a good point.
Rich Luhr
That's why I always travel with a 12 volt compressor because you never know when you're gonna need it.
Peggy Barthel
Really good point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We we do and then what did we inflate? We inflated air mattresses. Mhmm. Well, I mean, other crazy stuff that not just
Peggy Barthel
Our inflated truck topper.
Tony Barthel
Our that's it. We have a inflatable truck topper and we use inflator for that.
Rich Luhr
Perfect. Yeah. They're so useful. Things like that. A rivet tool, a torque wrench, an inflator.
Rich Luhr
Once you have these things and you carry them around, you find all kinds of uses for them.
Peggy Barthel
Right. Right. And hopefully, once you have these things and you're super prepared for any kind of disaster, that's when those disasters don't happen. Right? So
Tony Barthel
Right. It's true.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So get your tools and be prepared. And if something terrible happens, it takes away that stress of not knowing how far or how fast or, you know, how long you can continue to drive on your problem tire. 2:5
Rich Luhr
Yeah. I think about my early days, and I used to go wandering around looking for gas stations with tire inflation things. You know, you put the quarters into. Yeah, yeah. For a couple of years of that, of course, you know, you get to the gas station, you can't fit in there, you can't reach the inflator because there's some car in the way.
Rich Luhr
And then the light bulb went on. I'm like, why am I doing this? Why did I just put a second here? So Yeah. I wasn't born knowing everything about Airstreams.
Rich Luhr
I learned a lot of things through my own stupidity. It was it's been a long process.
Tony Barthel
You know, at some point, your frustration level, you're like, you know, for a $100 or whatever it is for a inflator, I can solve this problem and blow up camper shells and air mattresses too.
Rich Luhr
Yeah. Yeah. I think I only spent the $30 on mine at Walmart. It's nothing strange. Oh, geez.
Rich Luhr
Nice. Does the job. You know? Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Our whole world is we have so much Ryobi stuff that if if I can put that Ryobi battery on it, I'm buying 1.
Peggy Barthel
Right. Actually,
Rich Luhr
there's a lot to be said for that, to to have that kind of unified system. I'm kind of envious because I've talked to people who have the Ryobi uh, vacuums, and they cordless vacuum inside their trailer. Yeah. And that seems really useful. So we're actually pondering going that route.
Tony Barthel
We just bought well, not just. Now it's been quite a few months. We bought the latest one that they have. We had the previous one, and it was not very it was pretty lousy.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. It was pretty good. This new
Tony Barthel
one is really good. So they've definitely improved it.
Rich Luhr
Good to know because I I am in the market. I'll check it out.
Tony Barthel
We like it and then there's all kinds of lanterns. What started this addiction was lanterns, and now we have lanterns, drills. We have the inflator. We have blowers. Oh, I use a blower to blow off the top of the slide.
Tony Barthel
I mean, it's it's funny how
Peggy Barthel
We're like a walking Ryobi commercial. A driving while Ryobi commercial commercial.
Tony Barthel
Our latest thing is these little Bluetooth speakers that can be linked, and you can link up to a 100 of them.
Rich Luhr
Yep. Yep. I've got some of those.
Tony Barthel
You know, once you've got the addiction, which is the battery. Right?
Rich Luhr
Right.
Tony Barthel
Then it's like they I keep getting the email. Oh, look what Ryobi has now. And I don't need that, but I want it.
Rich Luhr
Okay. Maybe I shouldn't get the Ryobi vacuum. It sounds like it's the beginning of a slippery slope.
Peggy Barthel
Beginning. Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's a slippery slope.
Peggy Barthel
In fact, for some reason, you've got a battery right here on your desk, like, completely out of Texas.
Rich Luhr
Throw it out.
Peggy Barthel
Just happens to be sitting there. I don't know why.
Rich Luhr
There's one in the bathroom too?
Peggy Barthel
Probably. Oh, probably. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Oh, man. Well, Rich, it's always good to see you, and this is really some good information for people to to know. And we'll put a link as always to where they can buy their own air gear tire changing kit and the tire pressure monitor system.
Rich Luhr
Mhmm. Yeah. That'd be great. I always enjoy chatting with you guys. I look forward to the next time.
Tony Barthel
As do we. We do. Thank you.
Peggy Barthel
Thanks. Alright. Have you got on air gear dot store and done your shopping?
Tony Barthel
Oh, my gosh.
Peggy Barthel
We'll wait. Ready? Okay. Okay. Last week, we stayed at Harvest Hosts and this week, we're gonna stay at a Harvest Hosts and probably the following week on the way to a rally, we're gonna stay at a Harvest Hosts.
Peggy Barthel
Usually, we use Harvest Hosts for overnights on our way to somewhere.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's typically what we do.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. It's a way of just having a safe place to sleep overnight when we're on our way to another destination. This week though, there's actually a brewery that's not too far from our home and our friends have been asking us for, like, a year when we can get together and just hang out and go to this brewery. So that is happening this week.
Tony Barthel
And that's the thing with these Harvest Host Days. They are very experiential. They have over 5,000 hosts now of all different types. Obviously, we go to breweries a lot, but you can go to museums or cultural places, farms, drive in movie theaters Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
I wanna find those.
Tony Barthel
All kinds of stuff. So if you're interested in upping your adventure and finding all these unique places, of course, Harvest Host is a great place to do so and we do have a discount. So check it out. We also have an interview with them and more information at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy Barthel
So one of the places that we stayed last week on our way home from Indiana was Tucumcari, New Mexico. Now we've passed through there several times, of course. It's usually it's a little close to home for making an overnight stop, but we couldn't make it all the way home. So that was where we stopped last week on the way home. You know, I think our first time through there was in 2021 when we did our Route 66 trip, and we saw this week revitalization projects going on and new murals and Route 66 stuff, and I think it's it's time for Tucumcari.
Tony Barthel
Uh, it's clear that, for example, we ate at a little diner. What was it called? I don't remember that.
Peggy Barthel
It was called Kicks
Tony Barthel
with the next Kicks on Route 66.
Peggy Barthel
On 66. And they serve pancakes, just in case you're in the mood for pancakes. We didn't have those, but
Tony Barthel
completely sort of revitalized fifties diner.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Right? And all you know, you could really tell somebody took a lot of care in putting this place back together. The KOA that we stayed at was recently bought by a new couple, and now they had like, you could have breakfast delivered right to your RV.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. So we thought about doing that. The reason we didn't, this is gonna be so typical us, it was windy and chilly outside, and we would have had to walk back to the office with our order form. And we didn't wanna go outside, so we did not have breakfast delivered. But it was like a pancake breakfast that you could have delivered.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, we did end up going to, uh, to Kicks on 66, and that was fantastic breakfast as well.
Tony Barthel
We didn't have pancakes.
Peggy Barthel
We didn't have pancakes. But the next time we go, I I realized that for the past 3 years, I got 2 locations mixed up. And we stayed at a campground in Shamrock, Texas that I thought was the Blaze and Saddles, and it wasn't. Blaze and Saddles is actually in Tucumcari, and we loved that place. The owner fully embraces the Blazing Saddles movie.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. All the movie quotes and all the it was really, really fun. So I guess next time we visit Tucumcary, we're gonna have to really pick whether we go for pancake breakfast or silly movie references.
Tony Barthel
Well, and the point is there there seems to be and, of course, if you go without an RV, the Blue Swallow Motel is Yeah. Legendary on Route 66 for its exceptional neon.
Peggy Barthel
And there are a few hotels that are like that. And in fact, right next door to Kix on 66, there was an old hotel that was I don't know what it was called because the sign was laying on the ground and covered with a tarp because it had blown over, but the building was being rebuilt. So next time we go to Kixxon 66, there might be a hotel next door.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Well, there is now, but they're they were working on the sign and all. So, again, Tucumcari seems to be go undergoing a revitalization. Know that next year, 2,026, is the 100 year anniversary.
Peggy Barthel
Next year isn't 2,020 6.
Tony Barthel
I'm sorry. 2026 is the is the 100 year anniversary of Route 66.
Peggy Barthel
We're getting there.
Tony Barthel
So there's a lot of stuff that will be happening along the road.
Peggy Barthel
And if you like to celebrate 90 nines, that's next year. That's
Rich Luhr
next year.
Peggy Barthel
Well, while we were at the RV Miles homecoming in Iowa, we got raffle tickets for
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Of course. Participating and stuff, and we actually won tire covers. Yeah. So we have always wondered, like, should we have tire covers, and do we want tire covers, and will we use tire covers? Well, now we're gonna find out because we actually won some.
Peggy Barthel
So kind of excited to check those out. They seem like they're just super easy, you know, just unfold them and slip them over the top of the tire. Maybe we'll get around to some pictures of that before this episode comes out.
Tony Barthel
I don't think so. But potentially
Peggy Barthel
in the world. Eventually. Yeah. We are looking forward to having those. Now the trick is to sit long enough to actually cover the tires because I'm not doing it every time we stop for 1 night.
Tony Barthel
No. No. When we went to Indiana in September, we got to go on a tour of the aluminum trailer company or ATC. We have a video this week and story about that factory tour. So if you've been curious, like, oh, how do they make RVs?
Tony Barthel
We have a number of those factory tour videos, but this ATC factory tour is our newest, and it's called the Aluminum Trailer Company because they make their trailers completely out of welded aluminum. It's kinda cool. Cool. So if you're, uh, curious about that, check out our video. There's a for all of the things we mentioned, there are links in the show notes, and that page will have all the things that we talk about and the links and all that.
Tony Barthel
So it's all in one place, nice and easy. Breezy lemon peasy.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm. Well, Rich talked to us a lot about tire changing kit and TPMS. As a maintenance reminder, we wanna make sure you also remember to grease your bearings and maintain your wheels and tires and bearings and axles and all those parts that make the wheels turn. Lift, uh, Lippert, not lithium. Lippert actually has a blog how to grease a trailer axle, and we will put a link to that in the show notes so that you can check it out.
Peggy Barthel
You know, maybe you just are the kind of person who's not a DIY and you're just gonna take it somewhere and have them do it.
Tony Barthel
Which isn't a bad thing.
Peggy Barthel
And that's all good.
Tony Barthel
Take and have the the axle bearings greased. If you're towing, uh, whatever you're if you're driving, then it's a might be a different maintenance Right. Schedule. But if you're towing, you should have these bearings greased periodically. And, of course, there will be instructions from the manufacturer on how frequently, but we like to do about once a year.
Tony Barthel
We take it to a place that they pull the whole tire off and look at the brakes. So they pull the brake drum off. They look at the how the brakes are performing and whether they're wearing excessively and also repack the axle bearings on the trailer. So it's the lazy way to do it, but
Peggy Barthel
So maybe you wanna do it right now as you're winterizing, so you don't have to worry about it in the spring. Winterizing. I know. Maybe you wanna do it right when you're opening things back up next spring to start the trailer.
Rich Luhr
Better to do it
Peggy Barthel
now since
Tony Barthel
it's scorched.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
There's no barrier to getting you on the road as soon as you want to. Maybe even in wintertime.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Well, next week, just to kinda keep you updated on our ridiculous amount of travel lately, we will be in Senoita, Arizona. I'm pretty sure that's how it's pronounced. We will be at Romp It Up, which is a music festival hosted by our friends from the Porter Hook Ups. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Dave and Jacqueline put together this whole rally, and so we are going there. We'll be boondocking, so we'll be using our ABC system, we're gonna have some great music, and we have a couple different couples of friends that we haven't seen in a while that we know are gonna be there, so we'll get to meet up with them, which is fantastic. And then just a little reminder that next Thursday is Halloween, so start preparing yourself now to listen to the Halloween episode. Those 3 of you who listen, that is. Yep.
Tony Barthel
Well, as always, you know, we have our question of the week on our fun and friendly Facebook group, the Stressless Camping Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
And so last week, I asked you to share your funniest camp stories. Now, I think you're all still, like, trying to decide which one is the best because only a couple people have responded, so I won't recap those stories, but I will encourage you to go and check out those stories on our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group. And this week, maybe when you're in there writing your funny story, you'll also answer this week's question, which is please share your
Tony Barthel
spookiest camp story. And you can answer that question or ask your own at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group, which is you can get to on Facebook or, uh, there's links right on our web page there where you can go right to it.
Peggy Barthel
While you're on our web page, you know, you can sign up for our once a week free newsletter. It has links to stories and videos and podcasts and whatever we find that we think will help you get the most of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
Just visit our website and you can sign up at the bottom of any page or a lot of the pages just have a sign up form. Know that we only send one email per week. That's it. And we never share your information with anybody. Absolutely.
Tony Barthel
That would not be stressless camping.
Peggy Barthel
Also on the website, you can find the show notes for this episode, which is number 278 on the podcast page.
Tony Barthel
Wow. It's stressless camping.com. That's a lot of podcasts. We have not missed one yet.
Peggy Barthel
We have not missed one yet.
Tony Barthel
Of course, 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
And if you know of a deal that we don't already have, please reach out. Let us know. We want all the best things for all of you.
Tony Barthel
Of course, we're also in all the social places and you can start at stressless camping.com, and from there, jump off to all the places where you like to waste time. Uh, be social. Oh, yeah. That. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
You know,
Peggy Barthel
if you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast
Tony Barthel
It's free.
Peggy Barthel
It is free to subscribe on any podcast catcher and we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Tony Barthel
And don't forget to like and comment and a review, of course, of this podcast on wherever you're listening to podcasts really does help tell those podcast Poscasts?
Peggy Barthel
Poscasts.
Tony Barthel
It really does tell those podcast providers that people are listening and enjoy us. And that means they recommend us to more people, which is kind of a cool deal. So it's free to do, means the world to us. So thank you in advance.
Peggy Barthel
Something else that means the world to us is when you share something that we say or do or make a video about or write that that you think other people would like to hear as well. So if you see something like that, please hit the share button on Facebook, hit the share button wherever, or if you're not really sure how to get something off our website and share it in your social places, we have instructions
Tony Barthel
for that on the website too. That's right. Well, with all of that, we really appreciate your back. Your your back? And we appreciate your front too, your top end.
Peggy Barthel
We appreciate the
Tony Barthel
Wait a minute.
Peggy Barthel
Wait a minute. We appreciate that you're back.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We appreciate that you're back here with us again this week. Hopefully, you've had a great week. Maybe you have some great fall camping plan.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Maybe you have Halloween plans. Oh. But whatever it is, we really appreciate you and 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.
