Great RV Accessories Newsletter – Issue 4

I am so grateful to all of you reading this, but also appreciative of all the readers who came to talk RVs and RV gadgets at the RVtravel.com Media Tent at the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show. 

By all measures it was the most well-attended in the event’s 39-year history, and I got to see a lot of you face-to-face. I have a few gadgets I really liked from Quartzsite and a few that left me scratching my head.

Did you know that we also have a new forum where you can weigh in on your favorite gadgets or share tips and tricks or even questions about ones we’ve looked at? Check out our Gear & Gadgets forum and let us know what you think.

EDITED BY Tony Barthel

Feelin’ saggy?

Here’s a piece about helper springs I put in my 2015 Ram 1500 pickup truck to help with the saggy bottom syndrome common in some pick ’em up trucks.

When I was selling RVs I noticed that Ram and Toyota pickups were especially prone to this condition and this is one solution to that.

There’s gold in them thar gadgets

I am continually impressed by the number of RVers who also count prospecting in their hobbies. Makes sense, right? You can take your home to the places where finding precious things is more likely to happen.

So I read Randall Brink’s article on Modern Prospecting equipment for the RVer with great interest.

And now from Quartzsite…

They’re even niftier!

If you haven’t checked out the Gripstic closures for things like chips and such, do so. They’re really nifty! But I found a new product from the company at this year’s Quartzsite show called the Snap Bags. While they’re not especially inexpensive, the quality and functionality were enough to make me buy two sets of these bags (they were selling them for three differently-sized bags in a set). Oh, and find them at a show—the price is much better than on their website.

An almost-showstopper

Another showstopper, to me, was the Travel Easy Decks. These nifty portable plastic decks have it all over campground rugs and help keep the dirt out of your RV. Plus, I like that the company makes ’em right here in the good ol’ US of A. You’re going to want to check them out.

Throw in the towel… or not! 

I bought yet another set of microfiber towels at Quartzsite this year, which made me appreciate Gail Marsh’s article on them. In fact, we are even now using microfiber bath towels! I wrote a short piece about microfiber bath towels, which we’ve been using for a while now and really like when we’re on the road. Read it here.

The ubiquitous gadget… er, spray

Gail Marsh also has a nifty new column entitled How it Happened. We all love the back story of things and this week it’s the back story of a gadget that I think many of us find in our RVs. Especially if there are pets and the little folks camping with us.

Yep, Scotchgard. A great gadget and here’s the story of how it happened.

From Quartzsite

Thanks to the many of you who stopped by the RVtravel.com booth at the 2022 Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show. Here’s the video we shot where several content creators were discussing the various issues that face the RV industry – and that face creators.

The Book Nook

This week I had a chance to read a book by our own Andy Zipser entitled “Renting Dirt: An Unfertilized (no BS) Look at What it Takes to Run a Campground and RV Park.” I highly recommend this well-written tome as it’s a good peek behind the curtain at the type of business I believe we all patronize. It’s available on Amazon.

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It came in the mail!

Lots of folks send us stuff in the mail to try out and some of it is actually worth writing about. Here are a few items that were shared with us that might have value to you.

A lot of RVtravel.com readers are putting away motorhomes and other gasoline-powered vehicles for the winter. One way to keep the fuel in those vehicles from gumming up, especially all that “wonderful” fuel with ethanol in it, is with GAS-SHOK from USA Fuel Service. I haven’t tried the product but it also claims to help process water in the fuel.

Creative Brainworks is back with another highly portable game that promotes activity and fun at the campsite in their B3 Riftball Paddle Ball Game System. The game reminds me of badminton. The kit has everything from the net to the paddles and balls in it. You can get yours on Amazon.

I’ve had the chance to play with another game from the company called Bean Bag Bucketz and thought it was fun. I also liked the fact that it was highly portable when it was time to pack up.

It’s not quite a gadget…

While in Quartzsite I got to meet Cortni Armstrong, The Flipping Nomad. Cortni has made a name for herself by taking drab old RVs and turning them into showpieces. She also customized a Keystone Montana with all sorts of RV gadgets, which is how it warrants being in this newsletter.

From the steam fireplace to the custom Dometic kegerator to the huge amount of solar and batteries, this was quite a showstopper.

And then, the new eStream concept…

If you haven’t heard, Airstream has a new electric trailer concept that actually overcomes the losses inherent in towing a travel trailer. I got to spend time with Bob Wheeler, head of Airstream, and McKay Featherstone, chief of technology, and learned a lot more. If you’re curious, as I was, here’s the article I wrote about this nifty concept.

RETURN TO TODAY’S RV TRAVEL NEWSLETTER.

Staff

Editor: Tony Barthel
You can contact me through our RVtravel.com Gear & Gadgets Forum

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Everything in this newsletter is true to the best of our knowledge. But we occasionally get something wrong. We’re just human! So don’t go spending $10,000 on something we said was good simply because we said so, or fixing something according to what we suggested (check with your own technician first). Maybe we made a mistake. Tips and/or comments in this newsletter are those of the authors and may not reflect the views of RVtravel.com or this newsletter.

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