The Millers in Motion Podcast
The Millers in Motion Podcast
Join Ryan and Lauren Miller as they take you beyond the world of RVing to explore all things travel! Whether it’s road trips, flights, cruises, or the hidden gems of small towns and big cities, the Millers bring you along for the ride. In each episode, we’ll dive into our latest adventures, share insider tips, discuss travel challenges, and meet fascinating people along the way. Whether you're an experienced traveler, a weekend wanderer, or just looking for inspiration for your next trip, we’ve got stories and insights that will inspire your journey. Let’s keep those wheels rolling—wherever the road, sky, or sea might take us!
The Millers in Motion Podcast
28 - What do you Wish you knew BEFORE Buying your First RV?
What did you know before you purchased your first RV? Or maybe what do you WISH you knew before gettin your first RV?
Inspired by running into a friend from before our RV life (Who just got into the RV Life) we realized how far we have come with our RV knowledge, but also how sometime newbies to the lifestyle may need a bit of help! Plus Ryan may have a small rant...
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Thanks for joining in all the Shenanigans!
welcome back to the rv shenanigans podcast, brought to you by liquified I'm lauren, he's ryan, and together we're millers in motion.
Speaker 3:We sold our ranch in texas a couple years ago and are now enjoying new adventures in our Alliance Valor RV.
Speaker 2:And at the time you're hearing this, we will be doing my I don't even know how to say this oh boy, Most anticipated upgrade we've done to our Valor that we previously did to our Solitude.
Speaker 2:And one of the things people comment on the most. Yeah, this is probably the thing we get the most questions on because of the size of the system, how we put it together, all the different things. But I will give you a quick little spoiler, because you're hearing this on a Tuesday, if you're listening to it when it came out, if you're hearing it the few days after, we're still there. But we are headed down to meet up with our friend, todd Henson, and Tony and all the other people down in Athens, texas.
Speaker 2:And it is finally, time for the solar install, woo-hoo. So we'll be somewhere in the middle of the build. We're going to meet up with some other friends that may be getting a system at the same time. That will probably not be the same. I know it's not the same size, yeah, but so a little spoiler those videos are going to be coming on the main channel and we are going to bring you one solar podcast here as well. Also, we are on the edge now of two other big events. Okay, dos eventos, we're in texas. I wanted to say eventos oh, that was terrible.
Speaker 2:I don't even know if it's right, is it right? No, perfect okay, well, it's texan, right. Um so uh, in the next week or so will be the Alliance National Rally. So if you are going to be at the Alliance National Rally, just know we have some stuff planned. I'm not exactly sure when and where.
Speaker 3:Shenanigans abound.
Speaker 2:Yeah, pretty much, and so I do know that there are two things that we are definitely going to do. We will obviously be there, we'll be filming a regular YouTube video, and we're going to do at least two podcasts Probably only two podcasts.
Speaker 3:That's interesting. Last time we talked it was one.
Speaker 2:No, it's not, it was two. We are going to be doing a fireside chat. If you are curious about learning how a rally is put together, we're going to have the people that put together the Alliance National Rally Plus I'll be there because I do any live events we do. Plus, I also do the RV Unplugged Rally, and so that's the other side of that. So we're going to do kind of a little pull back the curtain, if you may, with the team at Alliance that does that. And then we are also hosting at least I'm hosting I don't know if you may have to work the full-timers panel, because we do live full-time in our valor. They asked us if we would mind hosting that and I said, sure, under one condition I want to record it. Aha, and they all paused for a second and I got nervous. They were going to say no, and then Joe finally said of course.
Speaker 3:He's learned well, I have a rule it's the answer's no if you never ask.
Speaker 2:I also asked for a million dollars, and they did say no to that multiple times, anyway, so that's kind of what's coming up. We do have an eye-opening show for you today.
Speaker 3:Intrigue. I like that you're confused about this already.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy we have a podcast where words matter.
Speaker 3:I'm so glad you thought this through.
Speaker 2:So I don't necessarily consider this that much fun of a show. I'm gonna make it fun, but it is something that if you are a first-time rv-er, you really should listen to.
Speaker 3:Um if you haven't been around.
Speaker 2:We make everything fun yeah, uh, I will say that if you're a seasoned vet, full-timer weekend warrior, doesn't matter. Uh, you'll find entertainment in this, because I have a big question to ask all of you and I want this conversation to continue for weeks. Oh boy, let's take a quick break and get some word from our sponsors and we'll come back with eye-openingness. What's the worst part about RVing? It's the black tank. No one likes to have to deal with a stinky or messy black tank. Let the team over at Liquified RV Black Tank Management help you out.
Speaker 2:Created from the team over at Matt's RV Reviews, this is a 100% biodegradable product made right here in the good old US of A. Liquified will help break down your black tank waste as well as help with those odors. In addition to helping with those odors, it's got an actually really great orange smell to it. So not only does it help break down those odors, it also helps freshen the bathroom. One of my favorite features is actually this easy measure pour spout. Because it's designed this way, you don't have to bring in other cups or measuring devices of any kind. Dump what you need in for your size tank, put the cap back on and you're done. To learn more about Liquified RV Black Tank Trubit. You can visit liquifiedrvcom. Do us a favor. Please support the brands that support us because they enable us to be able to bring you the podcast and the regular videos To purchase Liquified Black Tank Treatment, please see the link down below. All right Intriguing. Intriguing. Yes, I left that on a cliffhanger.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:That's what they tell you to do. Okay. Cliffhanger it before you go to an ad, because people don't like ads. Sorry, but Liquified's a great sponsor. You should check them out. We use it. What do you wish? This is a question All right. What do you wish you would have known before we got our rv? Well, that is a good question actually this is not a full-time or versus part-time conversation.
Speaker 3:This is a right straight up rv doesn't matter how you do it you know, I really I don't know, um, because I think the biggest thing that we went into it was like expect the unexpected, expect for stuff to break, expect for things to change, and and so we were really excited to jump into this just feet first I was more head first, but sure, yeah, sure whatever.
Speaker 3:Um, and just for transparency, ryan takes care of most of the things around the rv. He pretty much everything credit. Just saying, yes, you do get credit, so happy, this is being recorded I. I go to work and I have my responsibilities there and he does a fantastic job of taking care of all of the systems here. He makes sure that we have propane, he makes sure the tanks are taken care of, that the water is what it needs, that we're parked, that we get towed in the places we need to go and through, parked in the middle of all that, yes he parks the rv.
Speaker 3:I've never driven or parked the rv, and so for me like understanding that my biggest job was to be flexible and to allow a learning curve for both of us and let me start by saying that editing all of this stuff and managing all of our website, that's work it is yeah I enjoy that crap out of it but it's work, and so I do have to sit back to my right in that little toy hauler space for like eight ish hours a day staring at a screen, whether it's editing or anything else.
Speaker 2:So don't think that's all I do.
Speaker 3:No, no, but I am trying to give you credit for all the things that you do and that my perspective of what I wish I had known is kind of limited because of, ultimately, how much I don't do, if I'm just gonna put it out there I don't know what to do with that anymore I think the question is what do you wish this?
Speaker 2:entire podcast topic all of a sudden.
Speaker 3:What do you wish you had known that you'd have to do it all that I'd have to do everything.
Speaker 2:We don't script these, we just have a little like to be honest, I have a little paragraph that gets me started on here, and then we have bullet points.
Speaker 3:And he's like I'm not going to tell you what question I'm going to ask you, and and then we have bullet points.
Speaker 2:And he's like I'm not going to tell you what question I'm going to ask you and this is what happens. Ay, ay, ay. Okay. So let me start by saying this topic was actually inspired and I'm going to call him out by name because I told him I would, because he said he would listen. Kirk, you better be listening. So I have an old buddy. His name is Kirk Edmonds. I met him through his brother originally, met him through his brother originally. We were this goes back into my pga days, my golf bro days, and we played golf every once in a while together. Always got along. But you know, just like everything else in the world, you lose track of some people and hadn't talked to him in a couple of years and a lot of people in the golf industry. As soon as you don't have free golf, it's magical what happens.
Speaker 2:By the way, that is true um and it's sad more than anything else, but you know, just like life, friends come and go sometimes, and he anyway. We ran into him in the campground. We were in literally walking the dogs in there, ryan, and then we sat and chatted and it comes to turns out he bought his. This is his first towable RV. He had a Class C very, very briefly, but doesn't understand towables all that much. And they bought this RV a couple of weeks ago. And so he a day goes by and he finds out that this is what we're doing now is the podcast and all this other stuff, and that we have more information than we probably should have at this point on RVing thanks to the content creation stuff.
Speaker 2:Sure, the next day I get a text message from him and he goes hey, I'm sorry to ask this, but what are the chances you have a more powerful drill than just a regular drill? I'm like, oh, I've got one, because we keep a one-inch impact driver, which is what you can use to take like a tire off, so it's much, much stronger to get your lug nuts off. And I said, no, I've got something. Why, what's going on? He goes oh, I think I overextended my. He called them leveling jacks. They were stabilizer jacks.
Speaker 2:That's when you knew, yeah and I was like uh-oh, I was like, okay, hang on. And so, and, kirky, I'm sorry I'm throwing this out there in the world, but but yeah, you didn't have the tongue jacked down man, so that kind of inspired it. We got it fixed. He learned some things and I think that's and I told him. I said this is the great thing about the RV community is whether it's me, whether it's the guy next to you around the corner in the campground.
Speaker 3:typically, if you ask, they'll at least try to help. Not everybody can because the tool I had to get that fixed for him not everybody carries that.
Speaker 2:In fact that's a little more rare and did you know that oftentimes you don't even have to ask If you just get on your roof or lay under your truck.
Speaker 3:people stop by without you asking Whether you want them to or not, they help you park, they do all kinds, but really the community is so incredibly helpful and that's unique, don't you think?
Speaker 2:It is, and I think that there's not a lot of other industries that are like that, in the sense that somebody is so willing to I think back to and hopefully you're listening to this but our buddy, pete, west from West, on the Move, hi, pete, pete is literally that guy that. Hey, pete, do you know where I can find Taco Bell? I'll go get it for you. No, hang on, pete. I'll buy you. Taco Bell, you can bell, I'll go get it for you.
Speaker 3:no, hang on, pete, he I'll buy you taco bell, you can have my shirt, you can have my car. You're my rig. You can have my dog, sweet, he is so kind-hearted, always there for you and we stay in touch with pete pretty regularly.
Speaker 2:In fact I talked to him a few days ago but that's kind of now. Pete's an extreme um, but that's kind of how the rv for the most part. There's always that egg um, but for the most part that's how the rv community is. And I say that a lot of full-timers are that way because they understand like if you've ever owned an rv for longer than five minutes, you know like we have to be in this all together, otherwise we're all gonna go freaking insane because, right, just the things you put up with in rv life, it's very different than if you had a sticks and bricks or just general traveled or anything else. So but that, going down there and talking Kirk through, all of that stuff was like you know what let's?
Speaker 2:let's pose this next podcast as a question to what do you wish you knew? And apparently it's what Lauren knows which is very little.
Speaker 2:Well, you know more than you know you more. I do, yes, and I and I say that because I'm pretty sure like if I had to be gone for a week, which does happen sometimes. I still have other things I do and I have to leave, sometimes without the rig, and you get by perfectly fine, I do. I also leave you in a position where you shouldn't have to do much of anything. That is very true, but that's also because I don't want you to have to deal with something I normally do.
Speaker 3:And you know every family has their dynamic that works, and so I do a lot of the very boring, you know, mundane things.
Speaker 2:Finances.
Speaker 3:Yes, I do finances and accounting and planning and calendars.
Speaker 2:Speaking of when can I get the?
Speaker 3:drone. I told you when it's not soon.
Speaker 2:The only thing I know about our finances.
Speaker 3:I can spend a little bit, but not when she says no, which is sometimes and so you know, everybody has their balance, and so I work a stressful job and long hours and take care of those things, and he makes sure that I have a pleasant place to come home to in the evenings.
Speaker 2:And that you know we can enjoy our time together. And that is true and being able to relax and sometimes that's hard in an RV Well, because it's just your close proximity. I can't imagine smaller, like we're a big RV.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And even I get to a point sometimes where I'm like I got to get out of here because I'm starting to twitch and the dog's driving me nuts, and so the people that, those of you that do this with like two, three, four kids, I don't know how you do that Bless you. Patience of Job, something like that. So when we talk about kind of, what do you wish you knew when you first started, we've gone off on a tie right here Per the usual.
Speaker 3:It's kind of like where do you? Even start. And I think that's the biggest thing is, we've been doing this for two years and there is so much to know, and that's kind of why I mentioned the learning curve is because I think, ultimately, you don't know what you don't know, right like he didn't know that he, he didn't see any problem with it, except that he'd overextended yeah, and me he now he pretty much just couldn't figure out how to get him back in.
Speaker 2:That's why that started that way. And then that's when I was like, oh, let's see this. I'm like, why is my one inch driver even having problems with? This Like it shouldn't Like. This thing moves hard. And then I looked at his tongue and realized it was four inches off. So I think when you ask that question, there's a lot of places you can start. And it really depends on you, because not everybody learns the same way.
Speaker 3:And not everybody full time, so maybe they haven't had some of these same experiences.
Speaker 2:So if you grew up with RVs, you've already started. Sorry, like, even if you didn't like, if you grew up with them and hated them as a kid. Now you've got one as an adult, you already have a general baseline. This is really not the whole show, but this question is really for the people and I'm phrasing it for the people that have no clue Like, oh, an RV sounds cool, because I saw I talked to this guy once that out of Buc-ee's we're always at Buc-ee's that was taking his family across the country and I want to do that. Or they stopped in an rv show and walked in one, yeah, that kind of thing, and so I think the big thing there is that figure out how you learn um.
Speaker 2:There are so many resources out there, like there's well youtube podcast youtube is fantastic yeah, and and just know that you can go down that rabbit hole on youtube pretty hard and and I don't what I'm going to say is not a jab at any individual YouTube channel by any means but not all information is created equal on the internet. I know shocking there's stuff that's wrong on the internet. Youtube is the internet right. Not everybody out there puts in research time and they just don't Like we go out of our way to make sure that what we're saying is correct for the scenario we're in. That's why you don't um, like we go out of our way to make sure that what we're saying is correct for the scenario we're in. That's why you don't hear us talk about driveables very often, because I don't know. And when we do talk about driveables, I will typically bring somebody on or at least ask that question like hey, how do you deal with this? Right? So that I know how to answer it correctly.
Speaker 2:Not everybody does that, unfortunately right um, I will tell you that for technical stuff, chad from Changing Lanes is phenomenal, absolutely.
Speaker 2:That's where I learned a lot of the more technical, intricate stuff, like when it comes to GV, like towing capacities and all that stuff. He has a great video on that, and so you will find channels that work for you. Like, our YouTube channel is a little bit more travel, how we live in it, so we don't always go into like super fine detail on the hows, but there are channels out there that do that, so you'll find it. Also, if you're going to go down the YouTube route, find someone that has a similar type rig to you. Oh, that's a good point. So, like, I love.
Speaker 2:Mark and Trish from KYD, but they're in an Airstream. If I'm looking at a drivable, follow them for the entertainment, follow them for the reasons you want to follow them, but find somebody that's in a drivable as well. Follow a Phil and Stacy, a Ben and Charity Today is Someday and Grateful Glamper or Chris and Katrina have a Class A with our Everyday Getaway. Find somebody that has a similar type rig so that you can kind of go down that rabbit hole with them and learn what in some scenarios what you shouldn't do but that happens to all of us and that's a learning moment.
Speaker 3:It does like for us.
Speaker 2:You know, when we were looking at toy haulers, um, when we were looking at rigs in general, we watched a little bit of everybody to kind of get an idea. And then, as we dialed in, I went and found people specific to types of coaches doesn't have to be the same brand or floor plan or all that stuff. It is handy. I'm not going to lie, but just something. So when we were looking at fifth wheels, originally I went down that rabbit hole. I'll try to find people that were in traditional fifth wheels. That's how we found Less Junk, more Journey, because they were in a solitude Finding Our Someday, but they were in a reflection travel trailer which was close enough for me. But then that's how we learned some of that stuff. And then we found chad and tara from changing lanes and they're in a toy hauler but a fifth wheel, um, and so that's where we learned a lot of that stuff from. Now, with that being said, there's podcasts out there.
Speaker 3:Um, I haven't found a podcast that's overly technical like chad quite yet right, and I think having the visual of some of that technical stuff is really helpful. So I'm with you. I haven't found a podcast that, as far as the technicality is really intriguing to me.
Speaker 2:Sometimes it's really hard to describe something verbally when you're doing something technical on an RV. Now, if you're just looking for general information, travel tips, that kind of stuff, they're great, especially if you're driving somewhere. That's how this podcast came to. Creation was we were driving a pigeon forge and like why are there no good rv podcasts that we want to listen to? And I'm not saying the other ones out there are good but no, no, they're just different.
Speaker 2:Um, for what we wanted to listen to is more the lifestyle side, more conversational base. That didn't have to rely on guests all the time, but we bring them in when it makes sense to bring them in and it's general RV lifestyle. There was always the destinations, there was always the how-to stuff, but that's why we started. This was to kind of fill that gap. So that's where I would tell you to start. And then, if you're a reader, I'm not a reader. Blogs are another one. Sometimes blogs can get cumbersome because the amount of ads that are on the page. That's always been my pet peeve with some of that.
Speaker 3:They can, and again, it's hard to walk through a very technical process in a brief manner through words. It's really difficult just to put words onto a page and convey a process.
Speaker 2:sometimes so I think the biggest thing is that if you're looking to RV and you don't know where to start, go look at an RV Mm-hmm, that's a good point, and then make a list. Mm-hmm. So that when you're walking around the RV you're going to see a box on the outside with a vent. You take a picture with your phone and write it down and go. What is that?
Speaker 3:And you know there are certain people you can ask at some of these RV shows too. That will be very knowledgeable, so you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the other thing too is I think that's important to know when you go to an rv show like god bless salespeople, there's some phenomenal ones out there. Matt from matt's rv reviews this is kind of what he does that's what he started doing. He's phenomenal. He learned all these things even though him himself wasn't necessarily an rv, or he is now. But we've been to some shows and talked to some salespeople that could barely tell me the difference, like I would say kingpin and they wouldn't know what that meant.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 2:And a kingpin is the pin. It's the actual name of the pin that comes down on a fifth wheel, so it's not a fifth wheel hitch that's in the bed of the truck, it's a kingpin, and so that's the technical name for it.
Speaker 3:And now you're seeing how it's hard to describe that without seeing it Right. Right Versus a gooseneck, that's what. I was getting to so.
Speaker 2:But not every salesperson knows everything about every RV, Exactly Just like every car salesman doesn't know everything about every car. And so do take that to a grain of salt, that when you're talking to a salesperson, he has one mission, whether he's being nice about it and doing it the right way, or just trying to push you out the door for a number. Push you out the door for a number. At the end of the day, he wants you to buy an RV.
Speaker 2:Now some are going to treat it like Matt and say I want you to buy the right RV for you at the right time. Right, if that's with me, amazing. If it's not, I understand. But he wants you to get in the right RV, and so sometimes that's not always the case, because there are people out there that care more about the almighty dollar.
Speaker 3:Shocking. Well, maybe that's something that new RVers should know.
Speaker 2:Yep. So when you are going into it, just know, ask questions. If something doesn't seem quite right or they don't seem very confident in your answer, just re-verify with somebody else there you go, Whether it be a YouTube channel or another person physically there. I was going to say the other way too is if you have a friend that has an RV, ask that person specifically, regardless of the type of RV, because they'll at least start pointing you in the right direction. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:So from there I would tell you, if you decide to get into RVing, I would probably rent one first. We did that and that was eye-opening for us and allowed us to kind of take that at our own pace and ask questions and again kind of find out what it is that you don't know.
Speaker 2:And there's a couple of companies out there that does it RV Share.
Speaker 3:What's the other one Outdoorsy?
Speaker 2:Outdoorsy they do think Airbnb, but RVs.
Speaker 3:And they'll even like deliver them if you're not comfortable towing them.
Speaker 2:And it can get pricey. But look at it this way of if you can find a similar type of RV that you're looking for, the chance that you find the exact floor plan you're looking for, if you're being specific pretty hard. I mean I'm not saying it can't happen, but let's be honest. That's like saying I want a two to six story mansion in Beverly Hills on Airbnb. It's like, okay, how about this over here instead?
Speaker 3:Think about it like horseshoes. Close.
Speaker 2:Okay, Sorry, we have horses, so that confused me because I was like what? No, they have to be right because the horse's feet will get messed up, and then we have to spend more money on a ferry.
Speaker 3:Playing the game. Yeah, the game. Horseshoes, I got it. Most of them are going to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did. I went right to the expensive fix for the horses.
Speaker 3:It's all right, guys, I got you.
Speaker 2:So that's a great place to start Um, if you already have made that purchase and you're learning Kirk um and there's no problem with this, please understand that we have all been there. Listen, I think the first thing that somebody told us was oh, your first RV is just the one to you. Figure out what you really wanted. Right, and that's very true, because we loved our three 90.
Speaker 3:We really our first.
Speaker 2:RV. Like everything about it was great from how we want to do RV.
Speaker 3:It was, and everything that we thought we wanted, we got, and then we toted once and then we just didn't know what we didn't know.
Speaker 2:And then we found out what we didn't know, and obviously Grand Design's got some stuff going on.
Speaker 2:We kind of didn't foresee necessarily the extent of it, but we definitely saw some problems when we were in our rig, and so we learned what we learned, and now we're in the rig. That's right for us, because there's not much I would change. I mean, visually, we're changing stuff, we want to make it more homey, and all that, but as far as the rig itself, it operates exactly how I was hoping it would, which is, at the end of the day, all I wanted right. So from there, if you already own the RV, I would tell you start by making a checklist. It's the amount of people that don't do this is terrifying.
Speaker 3:Hey, that was us too.
Speaker 2:It was. But we figured that out really fast because it's amazing when you like with we had to strap so much stuff down in our kitchen of our first RV. Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2:That if you skip one thing, like where are all our forks, where did they go? Well, they're there. They fell behind the door because they jumped out and so literally having to strap everything down, knowing everything we need to do. Like you knew, you had to take everything down outside. But what I didn't know is there's a kind of an order that works better than others.
Speaker 3:Right Now in some scenarios too.
Speaker 2:That order come back to you. Kirk matters for the safety of your rv, so like like he put his state, so I figured out what happened in his scenario. He put his stabilizer jacks down first before taking his uh travel trailer off the pin oh, okay and so then he lifted up to go to the pin and then he brought it back down. He only brought. When he brought the trailer down, he thought he had to come up in the front and he did it with the stabilizer jacks and not that.
Speaker 3:So there's just a systematic series of error that's resolved by a checklist it is, and I'll say this even goes for very small trailers. I tow the horse trailer, which is a little two horse bumper, pull on my gas powered f-150 and even still, when I do that, I have a checklist and a series that I go in Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and those are important because it not only gives you what you need to do but a thought out order of operation too. So like for us, I never put our stairs down before I hit auto level, cause if you auto level or really level anything with your stairs down, if your stairs touch the ground so like again, if you don't have flip out stairs like we have in the back some rvs that's their main stairs you can get by with that. Hopefully they just don't touch. But with the flip out stairs, like the moride solid step that we love, if it's down and I go to auto level and it drops down, it could actually rip the door frame off of the RV because it's not moving on the bottom and I think somebody at one point I don't remember who it was made a good point that said that if they're in the middle of their checklist and they get interrupted, that they actually start over, they don't just keep going from where they were, because at that point you're distracted.
Speaker 3:Where did you actually leave off? Did, did you miss? A step did you complete the step you were on, and so they'll.
Speaker 2:They'll start over yep, and that's all great advice. There's plenty of checklists out there. If you're part of our family, which is our membership site, our checklists are on the back side of the website for that we created these by experience yeah, um, and I will tell you too that, like we had somebody ask us about ours, the Garves Hi. Hello. Andy asked me about ours and I said, well, I like to do this first because of that, and then his response was oh yeah, that's a good idea.
Speaker 2:And so, quite literally, we made it as we went, well, and he did something differently than we did and I changed it, and so we don't have qualms with changing our checklist. Gosh, no, listen, we know that everybody is going to RV their own way and everyone's going to have their own processes. Sometimes that works for you, sometimes that doesn't work for you. So don't be scared to change the checklist. Just understand what you're changing. I guess is the best thing to say if you are going to change a checklist, especially if it's drastically, and then also if're in more on the drivable side. Ours are mainly towable based, which you can get away with for toy haulers, non toy haulers and travel trailers.
Speaker 2:Um, if you are a drivable person, phil and Stacy have some checklist on that side and you can check theirs out at uh. Today is Sundaynet.
Speaker 3:And we have both like how to set up and unhook and then the vice versa. How to? Break everything down and hook up to leave so set up and then break down camp is what it's, not just reverse right.
Speaker 2:So in the process of figuring out that checklist, the other side of this, too, is understand your rig. You could literally have two solitudes. I don't know why I picked Solitude. You could literally have two Alliance Valors sitting next to each other, same floor plan, both 44 V14s, and there might be something different about one of them.
Speaker 3:For sure.
Speaker 2:That requires that other rig to do something slightly differently than what we do. We've structured our rig and I say that with everything we do to make it easy to pack up and go and to be versatile, right, like we have stuff we put out Don't get me wrong Like there's a mantle sitting kind of below you guys, and if you're watching this, if you're listening to this, there's a mantle. Everything on that's stuck down. If it's not, then it has a travel place Right. And so we kind of know, like I can do the garage the night before because we don't use it all that much. We just have to be able to get to the dog food really is the only thing and we leave everything else about the same and then we can do the rest of it the next morning.
Speaker 2:I know that we can get by with 10 gallons of water for a day and a half, so I can throw a little bit of water in the fresh tank and go ahead and take down all of that and drain out our filters and all that stuff. So learn your rig and what works for you. Also, all these rigs tow differently. Oh, that's the truth. Like our solitude towed completely differently than this, I mean you would think, being that we are six feet, seven feet, whatever it is longer, and we have a whole other axle, um, and that we also are heavier, that this would tow worse than the Solitude, and it's quite the contrary this tows so much better than the Solitude ever did, which is one of the reasons we didn't like that rig is it towed like crap, because weight balance is rough from the engineering perspective and we don't do two and three-hour travel days, we do like 12-hour travel days halfway across the country, kind of stuff Also.
Speaker 2:Learn your limitations on that we don't have them.
Speaker 3:I was going to say we haven't met ours yet, have we?
Speaker 2:Well we have. You made me pull over one of the first ones we did.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did.
Speaker 2:That was more of a time of day versus quantity of day, though I think it just hit that line where I was going to go to sleep no matter what. Yeah, so but learn your rig. That what's the series of things you need to do to unhook. What's the series things you need to do to re-hook up.
Speaker 3:it's all comes back to that checklist thing, which you can obviously address and find a way to stay on that checklist, whether it's printing it, laminating it and like checking it as you go. Phil and stacy, do the little slap bracelets.
Speaker 2:Now they have a steering wheel to put the slap bracelets around, so they do that. So phil doesn't leave and go wait. What's that?
Speaker 3:right, and so find a way that keeps you on task with your checklist as well.
Speaker 2:Exactly In learning your rig, towing and driving. The biggest thing that I ask of new RVers is understand that when you hook up your rig, it's not just you and your family's safety that you need to remember about, absolutely Because when you choose to tow an RV down the highway Because when you choose to tow an RV down the highway, every other vehicle that's within 300 yards of you, any direction, is also subject to how you did things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:And I say this for a lot of reasons. But you see so many Trailer. Sway is a big one, so I'm going to just focus on trailer sway for a second.
Speaker 3:Let's start there. There's a lot of things.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of things being overweight, running with propane on you name it, but trailer sway is one of the things that I see, and under towing is one of the things that I see on the road almost every single time I go out under towing mean meaning for anybody who's yeah, not not familiar with that.
Speaker 2:Not enough truck for the vehicle you're towing yeah, so there's in weight, under tow, overow, we are in weight when we are out of solitude. We over towed right undertow is like trying to pull, like having a f-150 trying to pull a 35 foot travel trailer that is way over your payload and way over the truck's capacity, without stabilizing bars or weight distribution bars, and so just know like when, when you do that, like there's a video going around. I know a travel trailer, um, that was being towed by an f-150. Again, it was being undertowed and wind caught it and it shoved the right side over.
Speaker 2:Well, if it had been a bigger truck, I don't know that would have happened yeah, well, several factors I'm sure you have yeah, but it didn't, it jackknifed and it took out like three of the cars.
Speaker 3:And that's the problem. And so you get the wind, you get the sway and losing control of those sorts of things, and now the people that are next to you are in danger. They didn't know, they didn't sign up for that. I'm also going to add braking and braking distance, because if you are undertowing, it's not just going, that's important, it's stopping. That, to me, is probably even more important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely it is.
Speaker 2:And so, and braking is one of those things. So like you don't see trailer sway in fifth wheels quite as much, yeah, just the nature of how they're towed, it's not as big of a problem Still a problem, but not as big of one With the fifth wheels. People don't understand their weight. And when you have and I'm saying this, this is most common in more stock RVs If you've upgraded systems, then you may have a little bit different ability. We have an independent suspension with disc brakes on our rig. We can stop pretty quick. Everything in the rig is going to end up forward, but I'd much rather that than run into somebody or cause any other problems.
Speaker 2:Exactly but I'd much rather that than run into somebody or or cause any other problems. Exactly. But if you have the stock axles, uh, and stock drum brakes, which is an electronic brake, so a drum brake, if you don't understand that it's an electronic magnet, it gets activated, gets deactivated. So there is no like, like in your truck, a series of like. You can stop faster or you can stop slower. Like a disc brake, because it's hydraulic pressure. It's either braking or it's not. There is no in between. So if that is braking at its max amount, slash only amount and it's pushing on your truck. If your truck can't stop, you're going to get pushed into the back. Now, there is nothing wrong with towing a trailer with drum brakes. Don't take this, as you have to get disc brakes.
Speaker 3:This comes to understanding your rig, your limitations.
Speaker 2:Don't ride up the rear end of somebody, because if they slam on their brakes because of something going on in front of them or God forbid they hit somebody. Can you stop?
Speaker 3:Can you stop safely, without injuring them, killing them yourself?
Speaker 2:The best analogy I heard on this, just as a little tip, is when you were growing up, everybody told you to keep two car length distances oh, you got two, okay, no, well, minimum right, why? What were you told? Who taught you first of all? Was it your mom?
Speaker 3:no, okay, no uh, no, it was keep a mile and a half distance. So you know things change. But I was taught one car length per 10 miles an hour of speed. So if you're traveling at 60 miles an hour, six car lengths I was just always told two.
Speaker 2:But so I also my instructor also put me in a camaro um, so I was told two um, but it's the length of your vehicle that we're talking about right so if you're in a 60 foot rv or 45 foot rv. It's two of those. Yes, if you're in a four foot car, it's two of those, and so let's take this with a grain of salt.
Speaker 3:This is not driving school and we are not legally responsible for your actions.
Speaker 2:We are not, and I will tell you that. Understand your own rig and that's what this boils down to. But just know, I've seen plenty of times RVers, towable RVers. We cap out at 65 miles an hour and that's not because of a safety concern for ourselves, a safety concern of other people, to be honest with you. Anytime we've seen the tow over 65 miles an hour. The rig just shakes in a manner that things seem to break.
Speaker 3:And that tells us that our setup is not at its best at that speed.
Speaker 2:So that is our general speed on a highway. I know a lot of the interstates are 70, 75 in the US. I get it. I'm the dude going 65 in the right-hand lane getting flipped off and I couldn't care less.
Speaker 3:And if you are speeding whilst driving an RV, I can't tell you how dangerous that is.
Speaker 2:Well, I think the big thing there is understand how irresponsible that is Right. And again it comes back to if you choose to do something that harms you, that's you know on you. I don't wish that on anybody. Just remember your families that you might be leaving behind. But at the same time to the second, you take other people's unknowing safety into your hands. That's a whole different ballgame and I lose a whole lot of respect for people when that happens.
Speaker 3:And aside from the speed, the braking and stuff, I remember one time leaving a horse show, and when we leave horse shows there's a lot of trailers and RVs that leave at the same time. We were on some narrow streets in Waco trying to get out and a large toy hauler went to make a right-hand turn at a light. And I'm not kidding when I say I had to move because he didn't realize his tail swing was going to take me out.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I at a red light. I had to find a way to maneuver out of the way because he was turning and he didn't know that he was going to hit me if I didn't take responsibility for that and get out of his way and that was with a horse trailer yeah, I had the horse trailer attached so if you ever want to see ryan get really super mad, put his wife or any of the animals in jeopardy and I will lose my ever-loving mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like.
Speaker 2:I will find this microphone and beat you with it.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's enough of Ryan's threats for today, but just how oblivious that person was just kind of speaks to that. So please don't be that person. We don't mean this to be negative. We just mean think about all these facets before you take your rig out onto the road, please.
Speaker 2:And we don't want to scare you into not doing it, but it just comes back to understand how your rig operates. We have tail swing.
Speaker 3:Yes, shocker and potential consequences and things like that and so like for me, and you've been in the truck sometimes when, I do this like have you ever seen a semi go into a? Right hand turn lane.
Speaker 2:Reasons one they don't want to go up on the curb because that potentially shifts their load and they could fall. Same thing with an rv, because we're loaded high, um, and they need more room to physically make that turn. Especially right-hand turns are notorious for that. And then for us, like when you do that, never stay like if there's two turn lanes, never stay in the left-hand turn lane and assume that you can just turn right and not worry about it mm-hmm the stronger you take that right-hand turn, the more your butts gonna move out of the way.
Speaker 2:that's called tail swing and you could potentially swipe swipe a car, so a bigger, another big reason why I will do that on tighter roads I'll take up two lanes to make that turn, not just to clear the corner right, but also to allow my rear end to clear without taking out anybody else next to us, and so there's a lot that goes into it and that's. You hit a little nerve there on me, didn't?
Speaker 3:you, I think so. You found your little soapbox there, didn't you Well?
Speaker 2:and towing and driving is the easiest way to completely total your rig and kill somebody.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Again, I'm not trying to be overdramatic. If you full-time and you're on the road as much as we are, you understand what I'm talking about you see it.
Speaker 3:And so you're like, oh my gosh, I have this new rig and I love it and we're having so much fun. But how do I know these things? Practice go to an empty parking lot, just like you did with driver's ed right. Learn how to maneuver your vehicle. Set up little cones, see if you can do certain things.
Speaker 2:Even if you're not a YouTuber, film it.
Speaker 3:Film it just so you can watch yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean like put a GoPro or your phone or something out there and write down your line and take a turn and watch how much your tail swings when you turn and how you turn.
Speaker 3:For sure. Or you know, if you're in a parking lot and there's nobody there, start to make that turn and then get out and look at it and then maybe you have a visual of it. If you're a visual learner, people think about like kyd and stuff like that. Remember, they started with nothing. And do you know how many times I've seen them on their channel in a parking lot with cones? Yeah, practicing, because they're getting to know their rigs, they're getting to know how to maneuver them safely, right and we did a similar thing.
Speaker 2:We well, okay, so, and everybody has different skill levels, right? I think that's the important thing to know.
Speaker 2:We are assuming, you don know ever, never have towing before and all that we're so we're assuming kind of the the lowest point of entry on this whole thing yeah I had experienced towing some larger rigs because of our horses and some other things, and so I already had a comfort level with with doing that and I've always seemed to have a little bit of a knack for being able to drive bigger trucks and that kind of thing. So when we first got our solitude we also lived on property where I could play with it a little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we had three acres and so we could maneuver things and just see how it went.
Speaker 2:So I could pull in straight. I could actually make a three or four-point turn and then back it in somewhere.
Speaker 3:And so.
Speaker 2:I got good quickly at being able to do those things.
Speaker 3:And, mind you, we also had a 12-foot gate with culverts on either side that you had to nail, regardless of what rig you were in. You had to get through that little 12-foot space.
Speaker 2:Yeah and a lot of people would be shocked to learn on that. It was actually easier to back into it than it was to pull forward. Yeah, people don't realize. Like when you see, when you're in a parking lot, this is soapbox time, I'm sorry, and you see a bigger truck that pulls up on an angle, get off their ass. But sorry, I cursed, so it's easier for big trucks our pivot points further forward than a regular vehicle.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it's easier for us to back into a site than it is to pull straight into a site. It's also easier to get out afterwards.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:If I pull straight into a site, it's at least a four-point turn for me, yeah.
Speaker 2:I agree, and that's assuming it's a good spot, which it's normally not, because of Raduli, and then same getting out, and so if you see, like, just like, the amount of people that ride up your butt when you do that is crazy. And I just said I'll be honest, I'm that guy that just sits there with my reverse lights on, like you can move. I'm sorry, sorry, but there's no reason to be that close. Everybody can just chill the boom out.
Speaker 3:Oh boy, you guys, we did strike a nerve I think Ryan needs a drink of water, cold drink of water. So water systems. On to that. Tell us about water systems. Are you as enthusiastic about water?
Speaker 2:systems. Mine is now vodka.
Speaker 3:It's not.
Speaker 2:This is bubbly water for anybody that's actually watching this. Otherwise not a sparkling water in the normal human language bubbly water, bubbly water so this is liquid death. It's in a can. They're trying not to use plastics. This one is berry flavored, um. So if you see me with this no, it's not a 40, even though I kind of wish it was right now I do too, after that rant so obviously we're talking about learning your rig.
Speaker 2:I know that we've taken some soapbox moments here, but towing and driving is a big deal. Learn your rig, do those things. When it comes to the rest of your systems in your RV, I mean, it's kind of breaking down that learn your RV thing just a touch farther and we're not going to go into a super ton detail, mainly because it is ranted for like 20 minutes.
Speaker 2:And the AC is off so that we don't blow you guys out with the microphones you're welcome, um, but when it comes to your systems, uh, just understand that rv water systems are not like your house. True, it's pex line or pex like material, which is a flexible tubing that is normally held together with a plastic fitting of some sort and then a clamp um, they call it a shark bite clamp, and so it's. There's pressure limits, and so if you think you're just going to be able to hook up to every rv site and run that thing, you're not like, get a pressure regulator they are not as robust.
Speaker 2:Let's say that and don't go get the one. That's like it's a water pressure regulator. It looks like a little twisty hose ends. And it's like that big, get one that has a dial on it, because you don't know and don't take it over 50.
Speaker 3:And if you have any questions, visit our Amazon store for some of the ones that we actually use.
Speaker 2:We use all that stuff on there looking to up your water game um yeah that video's come out by now. Um, if you're looking to up your water game, and because it comes at time of recording, in about an hour and a half, um, you can get some blue water filtration systems.
Speaker 2:They have the coolest pressure water regulator I've ever seen they have some really neat stuff I can tell you that we've had our system now for a little over a month and we just now put the video up because we wanted to have it and experience it before we just threw it out there. Uh, we love it we love it.
Speaker 3:We actually wanted to do something like this before, when we had the house, um, and we never got around to it, and so I I can't tell you how happy I am to have this on the rig yeah, it's crazy how much like so we didn't really drink the water before, but you inherently kind of did through brushing your teeth and a little bit coffee and cooking kind of stuff um it tastes so much different
Speaker 3:I told my dentist that we put the water filtration it's a water softener and a three-stage filter and certain things and my dentist was happy yeah, that's weird, but okay no, because you're not getting as much of like the calcium and deposits. It's actually better for your teeth. Okay so dentist approved.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't know. I don't need a dentist, I know apparently. If you ever see us in real life, ask what that means.
Speaker 3:Ask about that story. We're not going there, but anyways, and so, yes, that's one of my favorite upgrades.
Speaker 2:I drink a lot of water and having that accessibility, yeah oh, it makes me happy. Well, and I think too, like that was one of those trade-offs, like people look at water filtration systems and like, well, but it's not like that's kind of pricey.
Speaker 3:I mean you can get up there. It could be $1,000, $1,500. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Our specific system if you were to buy it, I believe was $1,199. You can buy a case of water for five bucks, and you can but just have some social responsibility with plastics.
Speaker 3:Right, and not all the campgrounds are good about recycling as much, especially with the plastics.
Speaker 2:By not all, you mean most.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's kind of a weakness in the RV community. But also having the filtration and the softener on before our lines keeps the lines healthier. We're not getting the deposits in them either.
Speaker 2:Which is crazy, and on top of that, just added bonus, that's turned into this. You don't see, like when you wash dishes and stuff you don't see water spots, quite the same. Oh, that's, true you don't see as much grime on the shower. You're showering in there, so you still do, but you don't get as much it but you don't get as much.
Speaker 3:It's just soap and that kind of stuff and, like our washer, we wash all of our clothes in our clothes washer here on board.
Speaker 2:I think it actually does better now and so it's doing better now.
Speaker 3:So there were a lot of things. I don't think that we understood the importance of it, and so now that we have it For value, Let me rephrase that.
Speaker 2:I think we understood the importance of it, but for the dollars spent.
Speaker 3:And so I got really excited about this, and in talking to Corbin, the CEO of Blue, I learned a lot and I have a much larger respect for it. So if you have questions, come chat with me, because just like he's passionate about driving and towing. I like my water.
Speaker 2:So I will say, a couple of weeks ago now, in fact the time we're recording this that video comes out today about our filtration system. So I will link that video down below so you can go check out our blue system in a little bit more detail and then just know we can save you a little bit of money. That's another one of those little perks. So if you click the link down there as well, we can save you seven percent on pretty much anything on the website, and you can also see that on the our partners page of our website as well.
Speaker 3:So and, per the usual, we did nearly all or nothing. Yes, we got the softener and the three stage and all the things.
Speaker 2:If you're going to do it, do it right.
Speaker 3:If you're going to do it, do it, and we love it.
Speaker 2:Well, and I will say if you bundle it all together, you do get a system from top to bottom. Don't got to worry about it, yeah.
Speaker 3:And all that to say, the system comes with a really nice water regulator.
Speaker 2:And a hose. The quick connects by the way Awesome, I'll be honest, they haven't made anything that I've gone. Oh, that's kind of weird.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't understand why it existed, and now I do, and it's awesome. It's awesome. And Moving in from water to electrical systems, I'm trying to get the things that affect people the most, and this is going to be our last big topic. But electrical systems could literally ruin your camping trip and your coach In a blaze of glory. Unless you like bonfires and hate money, Then it could be great. Well, you just made this nice and awkward there, didn't you? So electrical systems are probably like from people that go from homes to RVs. There's probably the biggest amount of misconceptions with the electrical system over everything. Your water system kind of works the same. You just can't run at the same. Pressure is really all it is.
Speaker 3:You just have to be cognizant of that.
Speaker 2:yeah, Right, and people don't understand also why, like if you have your washer going and your shower going, why don't you have any water coming out of your faucet? It's because you don't have as much water pressure and you shouldn't because of how rvs are built. When it gets to electrical systems, they're not different, but they're drastically different. Do tell so, and I will start by saying I am not an electrical specialist like I've gotten really good with water and I've gotten enough to know to break something really good in electrical.
Speaker 2:But I will say that if you want to learn more about electrical, you absolutely need to go and I'm going to wrap all this up at the end with one place to go if you really want to learn a lot of stuff about your rig. But definitely go over to the NRVTA or Tech Tips with Tony and Todd, because Todd had an electrical background before.
Speaker 3:That's what I was going to say is that neither of us are very electrical savvy. We weren't in the house. I'm getting there, you are, you're getting there, but you needed somebody to lead you in that.
Speaker 2:It's hard to learn that, even through the YouTube videos, and so we have a good friend, todd may be by a multimeter, which I'm glad Because I've used it a couple of times now and it's handy because it tells me what I need to know. But when it comes to electrical systems, there's some things that you need to know in your RV. It's not In a house you don't have 12 volt power. You have 110 or 220. 220 is where your washer and dryer are hooked up to the big plug, think 30 amp.
Speaker 3:Let me translate Big plug, yeah.
Speaker 2:Higher amperages, all that kind of stuff, and in an RV you have 110, and then you also have 12 volt, and I can't tell you how many first-timers or early adopters in the RV life have stopped me on the road, not on the road, in the campground, whatever, and gone. Yeah, but I try to run my AC when I'm not plugged in and it doesn't work. Well, yeah, it's 120 volt, you've got to be plugged in or have a generator or have something creating power for you Inverters in a solar system.
Speaker 3:And they say but I have a battery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 3:Insufficient funds.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this has a battery too. Doesn't mean it can run an AC.
Speaker 3:But that's kind of where people Insufficient funds.
Speaker 2:I just got that Sorry.
Speaker 3:But that's a learning opportunity for those people is that not all power is created equal? No, it's not, and I think it's important to know that just because you hook your rig up to a pedestal does not mean that power is sufficient or safe.
Speaker 2:Well, and the other thing too is and you hit it on the head of where I wanted to go with this is there's a lot of things inside your RV that you need to understand if you're going to dive down that road of transfer switches 12-volt versus 110 versus 220, versus split phase versus floating it's a rabbit hole. Go check out. I'll link Tony and Todd's page. They have a lot of good technical videos. But Lauren hit on the head when she said not all powers create equal when you plug it in out there. Our last RV park that was more of our full timer park and if you don't know, if you only listen to our podcast.
Speaker 2:We haven't talked about this on the podcast, but we spend a lot of our time in North Texas. We do live full time in our RV, but we do have to spend two or three weeks a shot in North Texas because of someone's job and I like paying for this stuff. So we do that and because of that we keep a site year round in North Texas and then we travel around your schedule. And so our last full-timer park in North Texas the power was questionable at best. Is that the nicest way to say that? Probably, if a storm came through and knocked power out for everybody else and if you live in a house you know I'm talking about especially in North Texas it'd have for like an hour or two, maybe three or four at the most. For us that'd be days.
Speaker 2:Literally three days one time yeah just because of a thunderstorm, and so it would go out just randomly for a day like no reason why.
Speaker 2:It was dicey at best. Whether the park was overloading their systems or it was overloading the city breaker, it doesn't matter, not our problem, except for it was our problem. And so, understanding what's coming to and from like, did you know that if you have improper power, you can create something called hot skin on your RV, where you literally touch the outside of your RV and you get shocked? Sounds like a horror movie.
Speaker 3:Like I'm home.
Speaker 2:Go to open the door Pretty much. That's rare, but it can happen. Can happen you also as much as just like anything else in a house, like if you think about your power surging up. That can be really bad right. It can fry your breakers it can start to overheat electrical lines, all that kind of stuff, and that is bad.
Speaker 3:But just as bad low voltage and I think that might be a little bit more common sometimes in what we've experienced at least is that people will go to plug in and it's like oh, it's not working, it's this or that. And they're like no, it works just fine. And there's an argument. It's like no, the problem is, it's actually not enough.
Speaker 2:Right, and I'll tell you that if you ever have that problem and I'm going to come up with a device that you should use in your RV, where you don't think something's working right or there's something going on with the power and you don't know what, just know there's one of two sides to it it's either the park or you.
Speaker 3:Fair enough. Which is it? It's a good place to start.
Speaker 2:And so the easiest thing to do is figure out which one first, and most people will be like well, let me check the RV first. Have have you ever looked behind your storage capacities? And, like most RVs, some are not this way, most are this way, and this is one thing that I wish even Alliance would get better about. It is a rat's nest of lines of things? Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:And it's not that it's like. Alliance does a great job of color coding everything, so every line has a different color. So you know what it is where it goes. There's diagrams in the back of our breaker panel Like it it goes. There's diagrams on the back of our breaker panel like it has a much better system in place, but it doesn't change the fact that it's still a ball of fun back there and I think, at the end of the day, you need to remember that you are responsible for you yes like these parks and their management.
Speaker 3:They don't care quite as much about that as you might, and so you need to find ways that you can kind of troubleshoot some of the basic things.
Speaker 2:So the easiest thing to do to figure out if it's your rig or the park is check the park first. You only have one option from the park Bingo Unless you can run 30 and then you got two. So check the pedestal. So, what we use is by Hughes Autoformers. It's called the Power Watchdog. So it is a surge guard, slash EPL. So what it does is it protects the rv from weird power, is the easiest way to say it. Low voltage, high voltage, surges, all that kind of stuff which is really important.
Speaker 2:People underestimate that so one of the cool things and the reason why I like this so much is you can connect to it with your bluetooth and you can tell. You can not only tell what's going on with the power, so if you're not getting, it's going to be an error code and you click the error code and it actually tells you what's going on.
Speaker 2:So it's like I can't find a ground, which means something's wrong with the ground on the park, which is probably a pedestal problem, or it's a low voltage. High voltage, whatever scenario, and it will not allow the power to pass through itself to you.
Speaker 2:Now it also has a surge guard, and the reason why I like the Hughes Autoformer one the most is that other brands and I'm speaking when I bought ours, which was over a year ago if there's a surge and your guard takes the load, it destroys the surge guard. That's how it's designed. Well, these things are a couple hundred bucks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Two 250 for a 50 amp external unit unit. You can wire them into your coach as well. If your unit gets destroyed, you have to replace it. There's no like. It's just how it works it's. It's a sacrificial and it's like an anode rod in your hot water heater and if you're listening to the newer, that's just something that keeps all of the stuff inside your hot water here from eating the metal casing. It eats that instead. That's kind of how it works. On the electrical side it acts as a sacrificial lamb to save your coach over that surge like a lightning strike. That kind of stuff With ours, with the HughesNet. If that were to happen, it's actually a mechanism inside that fries and doesn't allow it. It pops it and it doesn't allow it to go. They'll actually send you another one free, so you don't have to buy a whole new thing. You literally just open up four screws and pull out and push in and you're back up and going again for much less than a couple hundred dollars.
Speaker 2:Yeah I think it's like 30 bucks if you had to pay for maybe 40 and so there's um.
Speaker 3:There's two things that I like about this. First of all, you can get an error code and tell park management. Hey, I can't plug in because this that happened at Silver Creek. Yes, because sometimes people are like oh, you know, it's not our fault, or they don't have much, they don't have much knowledge, and so sometimes you kind of have to lead them to the answer, and in this case you have it.
Speaker 2:Not all park hosts are electricians. Let's just say that, and it's not a knock on them.
Speaker 3:They just aren't, and this is again you look out for you. The second thing is, let's say that you do plug it into your pedestal and because it's external and not in line, built into our coach, we can do that. We can plug the watchdog into a pedestal and it will tell us if it's going to work, if we can get started or not, and if we can get started or not. And if we can't, we can just, instead of taking the whole rig, we can just take the power watchdog to the next pedestal.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's I was going to say, we do that in Waco. So in Waco we have a horse show. We do in Waco at an event center there and there are a lot of pedestals.
Speaker 2:It's a parking lot and you just back in and there's pedestals all down the row. Well, half of them are 50 amp, the other half are 30 amp and that's all they do. And so for us, like what we do, is not all of them work, and this is typical of event centers. They just don't main. It's not an RV park, it's not their first priority. They'll get to it when they get to it. And I remember pulling in the old rig, backing all the way in getting almost completely hooked up. And then I go to plug in and the stupid pedestal didn't work right. And what did I do? I hooked up, moved over. Guess what? The next pedestal?
Speaker 3:didn't work.
Speaker 2:Jokes on you I did that three times before I found one that worked and I was in a spot I didn't want to be in. It was just yeah, cluster, and then miss smarty pants over here comes out and she goes doesn't that thing move? Like yeah, I was like, just move it, just move it.
Speaker 3:Just move that, just carry it. That's him hitting the microphone on his head. In case you're not watching, yeah, if you're just listening.
Speaker 2:So yeah, now when we get there like I pick a spot and I back up-ish, I get reasonably just kind of out of the way, more so than anything else. Yeah, horse trailers can get by, workers can get by, and then I go out and the very first thing I do before I do anything else is I grab the power watchdog from our electrical cabinet and I plug it in and I make sure it works. Now I do that everywhere I go. When you're in a campground, you're in a signed campsite. You just can't pack up and move. So that's a little different. If I have a problem, I will probably go ahead and start unhooking, but I'll tell Campoaster management first and make sure they don't want me to move before I start unhooking yeah, because sometimes that is an option.
Speaker 2:They're like oh well hey, two sites over, there's another one open are you okay, moving down exactly because they don't have, like their handyman or the electrician guy might not be available to come look at it right then. Uh, in our first full-timer park on the west side of fort worth that we were at, we had this problem, literally first freaking spot with our rv and I couldn't plug in our RV, so we literally closed on, the house moved, the RV couldn't get power Right, yay.
Speaker 3:RV life. It's a way to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, but luckily we knew what it was and it was just a low voltage. And they're like, oh, it might be the old breaker. We were having some problems with that and replacing them as they come up Within 15 minutes and they were great about this Within 15 minutes they came over, swapped out the breaker, everything was fine, but I was able to pinpoint it for them. Yeah, they came out. They had an idea based on what had been going on in the park already, like, oh, it's low voltage, then it's probably this. So, between our information and their general knowledge of what was going on in the park, they fixed it in like five minutes.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and.
Speaker 3:I know this sounds like a lot of responsibility. You're like oh my goodness, I have to worry about my own electricity and my own water and not hitting people, and so is life, and all these things, but by the same token, I actually enjoy that.
Speaker 2:I enjoy not being reliant on other people as much and to me, once you kind of get your rhythm and you're comfortable with it, it's relaxing well for you miss I just come home and things are done um no, but there is a, so I'm going to use it more of a term a sense of freedom yeah, I see that and it's such a big deal, like the number outside, like when we were installing the solar system on the first coach, people understood why we were doing it. We had just well, we, I had just experienced rv unplugged I was miserable.
Speaker 2:I wasn't miserable, it was actually a lot of fun, but the night sucked because I didn't have appropriate power. Yeah, it was really hot in the rig. I mean, we're talking 90 degrees during the day. Luckily the dogs weren't there, um, but it was. The experience was amazing.
Speaker 3:I was less than thrilled with the sleeping temperatures which, as for you, know right that type of show.
Speaker 2:That was what expected let's just say I didn't sleep a whole lot during those two weeks and I told todd when we're leaving I'm like I never want to do this again in this way. I want to do this again, just not like this, right, because I'm miserable, like I haven't slept, because I'm so hot, and he's like. And that's when we put the first solar system on right and that system allows us to be more free.
Speaker 2:And I say that in terms of if we chose to boondock, we can function. Yep, and it's great for days wait till you see another system um and and could we run everything like we were front of 50 amp?
Speaker 2:no not on that system, that's not like it, but on the other system, spoilers all over the place. Um, on the old system, no, we had to pick and choose and if it was too hot we had to bail, because we couldn't run more than two acs at once, which was still a lot, by the way, in that world, if you're curious, but it allows us, like when we had a storm come through in the old place and the power went out, we didn't know because the system we had automatically switched over.
Speaker 2:I think everything blinked once and you kept working out and didn't have any clue exactly and so it like literally the acs kept running right and which is insane to me because of, again, if you've been in rv for longer than 10 minutes, you know that, like if you look at them wrong, they go off, and so that freedom and knowing that I don't have to be reliant on them. Now that does require more work and energy from myself not just to install it in cash to put it in and all that stuff.
Speaker 2:But you have to pay attention to your levels Like you can't just magically assume you have enough power to do everything you want to do.
Speaker 3:Right, and I know some of you are like, oh my gosh, this is overwhelming. Please understand that I speak the same language you do when we're talking about power. I ask can I run the coffee pot? Can I run the hairdryer?
Speaker 2:Can we run one AC, two ACs, not at the same time, Tell me where we are.
Speaker 3:That's the language I speak when we're talking water. Can I drink from the tap? Can I take a long shower? Can I take a little shower? Can we do a load of laundry? Again, those are the languages that I speak.
Speaker 2:She's also a turn at the McDonald's kind of a girl too, that's right. Not left in four and a half miles. No, we don't talk in miles and north, don't go north.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, no. Turn left at the McDonald's.
Speaker 2:See the Mickey D's. You hit the chase, you've gone too far.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right, and so understand that it be that intimidating.
Speaker 2:No, and I know we got on our soapbox a whole lot on this one, and by we I mean Ryan. When it comes to driving and towing, it is a pet peeve. If you haven't figured that out, I am sorry. I'm not saying everyone's a horrible person, but if you feel like you've experienced trailer sway, you know what you've done, taylor Sway, you know what you've done. So I will say that don't be scared to tow, don't be scared to do these things. Just understand and I think that's the biggest thing in all of this. And when you're talking about getting into RVing and all that stuff, don't let these things we're talking about outweigh the fact that if you do put a solar system on and you understand how your rig works and you know what it can do, you can see and experience some amazing things.
Speaker 3:Incredible things that other people will not see in their lifetimes.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like should I fly or shouldn't I? It's like the difference in seeing something and don't Always choose the experience. Yeah, yes it's stressful to get on a plane, but imagine what you're going to get to see when you get off the plane.
Speaker 2:Whatever that happens to be Hawaii, the beach the mountains, whatever floats your boat and you're willing to pay for. So don't let these things scare you out of doing it. It's just a please understand what you've gotten into and so that you do it safely, not only for the people around you and their safety, but your investment, whether you bought a $10,000 RV or a $500,000 or million dollar, RV Exactly exactly.
Speaker 2:You don't want that to get broken. It's just like anything else, and so we are an open book when it comes to this kind of stuff, and it's why I allow myself to express frustration sometime is because we are what you get, and if I'm frustrated, you're going to know I'm frustrated. If I'm happy, you're going to know I'm happy. If I'm sad, you're going to know I'm sad.
Speaker 3:And with that, whereas I work for the. Cia Sorry you won't know.
Speaker 2:She's either happy or frustrated, I don't know which. It's the same spot.
Speaker 3:It encompasses all of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but know that because of that open book, you can ask us these questions. If you don't, I would much rather you ask the question. One more story Remember leaving Santa Fe? So we were parked next to a smaller not quite a teardrop, but like an R-Pod style RV. Really small. Rv About two sides down. They left a couple of days before we did halfway. We were actually going to town to who knows eat something. And this person, like I'd said hi to him a handful of times, one of our horse shows.
Speaker 3:Lauren is kind of dead to the RV. We were there for over a week, yeah.
Speaker 2:And they were there for half of it, said hi to him they watched me film something and ask questions about it.
Speaker 2:It was like, oh, we have a YouTube channel and this is why we do it, we like to inform people and all that stuff. And they happened to pull out with their RV. And then we were behind them and we were just going into town in your truck and we look up and all of a sudden there's sparks flying out from underneath their RV like oh no. So they pull over thank God safely. Nobody else was hurt and what had happened was the trailer come off the ball and fallen down. So it was being drugged by the safety chains.
Speaker 2:Thank God they put them on and so immediately we stopped to help, as RVers do, and we asked like are you okay? Is everything? What do you need help with? And they said oh no. And they weren't very far. And their friend that had the horse trailer it's kind of like when Laura and I travel with that she has the horse trailer, had a jack and so they were just going to bring the jack down. So she figured it out very quickly, which is great, but in looking at it she had the ball, so she had a tri-ball which, if you don't know, what that is.
Speaker 2:that's three size balls on one hitch, and you just turn the hitch to whatever size you need the wrong one on, and so she had a?
Speaker 3:um, a two inch ball for two and two whatever side, she had too small of a ball for too big of a coupler and when she went over a pothole or whatever it, was it popped off and came off, and that's the kind of stuff I'm talking about, like either she didn't follow her checklist or she didn't ask for help and something she didn't know about right she told me.
Speaker 2:I remember her saying that oh, I towed all the way from Colorado like that, that's reassuring, isn't it guys? Which comes back to like understand your rig and that's why we started with that is because she didn't understand that that was the wrong size ball.
Speaker 3:It's written on it, guys. It's written on it.
Speaker 2:It's engraved in it. It's legally required to be engraved. It comes back to that. Don't assume you know everything and I try not to. It gets harder, I'll be honest. It gets harder the more you do it because you feel like you know everything. And so when something goes wrong, I try to look back and assess and go, okay, what did I not understand? What did I not know? Whether it's I didn't follow my checklistops or something I can fix immediately, then it's I don't understand why that happened. Then I'll call todd, I'll call people that know a lot more than I do about whatever it happens to be, and I'll try and figure it out. And so don't don't be scared to learn, just know that it's. The rv community will help. If you just ask if she to come over and said, hey, this doesn't seem right, can you, do you mind looking at it?
Speaker 3:I'd have gone over, mm-hmm, then I would have looked at it and I will say that we actually had a problem here in this rig that we with the multimeter and a master technician could not find the source of our GFCFCI line. And so understand that you don't know everything and that's okay. Give yourself the grace to ask questions and to kind of learn about it, and that if you don't know, it's okay. Just keep going up the chain until you find somebody who does.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what we did. He couldn't figure it out, but he gave us like this is what I know. It isn't. We took that to Alliance out. But he gave us like this is what I know it isn't. We took that to Alliance, alliance goes. We think we have an idea. Can you bring it back to?
Speaker 3:Alliance. Can you drive 16 hours to come see us please? In all fairness, we had a bunch of other reasons to go and so it was one of those.
Speaker 2:We work with Alliance. There's no secret there. We're brand ambassadors for them. If we get the opportunity to go visit friends, we try to take it, and so it did a lot of things. Plus, we got to see. Now that it's out there, paws for Love's new rig.
Speaker 3:Well, I did, you weren't there yeah.
Speaker 2:And I got to see Maverick. I like seeing the.
Speaker 3:Paws, I know I'm glad you got to see the rig, but I wish I could have seen them.
Speaker 2:There it is. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. There is also a bunch of information. If you'd rather read this stuff on our website. Lauren wrote it. Don't worry, I didn't. If you see misspellings or grammar errors, it was me. If it makes sense and there is no spelling or grammar errors, it's definitely, lauren, and don't forget your checklist while you're there.
Speaker 2:Yep, so check that stuff out. And again, if you could do us a favor and like and subscribe on YouTube, and if you're listening to this podcast, please give us a rating and a review. The review is the most helpful one. I'm going to start reading them.
Speaker 3:And thanks for sticking with us through this little journey, because that took a turn. This was a long one, yes, and I'm sorry for my soapbox moments.
Speaker 2:Now you know what not to bring up in public, unless you want to see it in public, and then we'll go for it again. And if you're joining us for the Alliance Rally, make sure to check out the full timer panel with us and then our fireside chat, whenever that may be, because I don't know yet. So, thank you guys, so much for listening, and we will catch you guys next week. Thank you,
