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Issue 1035 • January 17, 2019
Welcome to another fabulous edition of RV Travel’s Daily Tips newsletter. Here, you’ll find helpful RV-related, and small-space living, tips from the pros, travel advice, a handy website of the day, our favorite RVing-related products and, of course, a good laugh. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate your readership.
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QUICK TIPS
Boondockers – share the land
Nina and Paul from the wheelingit blog have a few insights on boondocking from years of first-hand experience. Here are some thoughts on sharing: “Public land is there for all of us to share. It’s yours, but it’s not yours if you get what I mean. If you’re a regular boondocker the spot you had last year might not be available this year, or you might get a neighbor who parks a little closer than you’d like. Unless you’ve paid for the deed and own the property there’s really not much you can legally do about it. So, you either talk to your neighbor, pull up stakes and move or deal with it. The very nature of public land means that anyone can go there whether you like it or not. I’ve seen boondockers get ‘possessive’ over a piece of land and even go so far as to put up barriers and ‘no trespassing’ signs. I personally think that’s taking things too far. If someone is bothering me (e.g., with noise) I’ll go talk to them about it, but ultimately we’ve got the wheels to move if it doesn’t work out.”
How fast can you stop while towing a dingy?
Tests performed on a flat, dry, paved surface using a 34-foot Class A motorhome show that traveling at 50 mph required 132 feet of braking distance to come to a complete stop. Under the same speed and surface conditions, but with a car in tow that weighed 4,110 pounds and no braking system, the stopping distance of the motorhome expands to 209 feet. If you are towing a car behind your motorhome talk to your dealer about a supplemental braking system. You may be breaking the law in some states for the amount of weight you can tow without a supplemental braking system. Mark Polk, RV Education 101.
DID YOU KNOW?
More than half the population of Iceland believes in elves! According to a recent study, 54% of people in Iceland either believe in elves or think there’s a possibility that they exist. Huldufólk, literally meaning “hidden people,” is a harbor town located just outside Reykjavík, and is said to be the elven capital. Icelandic architects are aware that they should be mindful when designing and building, careful not to disrupt any elf homes or villages. Roads have even been designed to go around elven villages, not through them. One member of parliament claims that his life was saved in a car accident by an elven family. Nope, we’re not making this up, folks! If you want to learn more about elves, you can enroll in The Elf School, where you will earn your elf diploma (while eating pancakes and drinking tea).
ON THAT NOTE: Iceland is a great place to RV! We highly recommend “Rick Steves Iceland” guide book to get you started. It’ll get you off the beaten path and will connect you with local culture. Learn more or order.
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•News about trucks for RVers
•No RV parking at these Walmarts (weekly update of stores that don’t allow “camping”)
•RV emergency preparedness tips
MORE QUICK TIPS
Dog-proof your RV screen door
If you travel with a canine friend, you probably know they can get a little enthusiastic. “Taking out” the screen on your screen door is not beyond the realm of possibility. Here’s what the folks from the Adaptable DIY blog have done: “We used two sheets of metal from Home Depot. The pieces are 1 foot by 2 feet which fit perfectly in our door without having to make any cuts. My husband drilled holes in the door frame and metal sheet. Then he used a pop rivet gun to join the two. Additionally, he also used this method to connect the two pieces of metal together. It’s very important that you do not use any fasteners at the top, or the piece that slides forward to cover your handles will no longer function. Since the two pieces of metal are connected just below the top bar, the sheets were secure without the need for fasteners on the top rail. If the sheets rattle a little bit, you can add small dabs of silicone discretely.”
Foreign objects?
“Keep the toilet lid closed to prevent foreign objects from falling into the toilet. It is a major job to retrieve anything from the holding tank.” —From Motorhomes Made Easy
Do you have a tip? Send it to Russ (at) rvtravel.com
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
360° panoramas from Mars by NASA’s Curiosity Rover
This is an amazing Facebook page that contains 32 mind-blowing panoramas taken on Mars from NASA’s Curiosity Rover. Makes you feel pretty small, doesn’t it?
Check out the long list of great RVing-related websites from RVtravel.com.
Hang up the heavy stuff!
RV walls aren’t exactly designed for having screws or nails driven into them. Enter acrylic mounting tape. This is a clear, double-sided tape that is sturdy enough to hang heavy objects and can easily be removed without doing damage to the walls. Get some on Amazon here.
LEAVE HERE WITH A LAUGH
A young girl had a beauty pageant coming up and her mother wanted her to look perfect for it. She bought her the prettiest dress, and took her to a plastic surgeon to get Botox. A few weeks after surgery, the mother was arrested and lost custody of her daughter. The daughter didn’t look surprised.
Today’s Daily Deals at Amazon.com
Best-selling RV products and Accessories at Amazon.com. UPDATED HOURLY.
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RV Daily Tips Staff
Editor and Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Managing editor: Diane McGovern. Staff writer: Emily Woodbury. Contributing writers: Russ De Maris, Bob Difley, Gary Bunzer, Roger Marble, Mike Sokol, Greg Illes, J.M. Montigel and Andrew Robinson. Advertising coordinator: Gail Meyring. Marketing director: Jessica Sarvis. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen.
ADVERTISE on RVtravel.com and/or in this newsletter. Contact Gail Meyring at Gail(at)RVtravel.com .
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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Stopping distance. I wonder if the 135′ is the distance once the brakes are applied. I find a number of web sites that suggest a car can stop in about 125′ once the brakes are fully applied but the “thinking” or “Reaction” time can mean the actual distance is closer to 200+ feet. I think that no matter what table we look at an RV is always going to need a much greater distance to stop with or w/o a toad w/ or w/o supplemental brakes. IMO the suggested clear distance of one car length for each 10 mph for cars might be ok but in an RV we probably should think on one RV length (2 or 3 times a car) for driving an RV.
I don’t get the joke… is that the whole joke or was some left out?
Hi, Jerome. That’s the entire joke. Botox tends to “freeze” people’s facial expressions, so that’s why the daughter “didn’t look surprised” — because her face was more or less “stuck in neutral.” 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
because of the botox, she couldn’t look surprised.
We replaced the screen at the bottom of our screen door with plexiglass. That way, it lets light in and the dogs (2) and cats (2) can lie there and see out when the weather’s nice.
Why an advertisement about a RV show that happened last year?
Hi, BenC — If you’re talking about the Seattle RV Show, it’s February 7-10, 2019. (If it showed an incorrect date when you looked at it, it’s been updated [literally].) Thanks. Have a great day! 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
No, not the Seattle show, my copy, which I already deleted, showed a dallas show from last year.
I discovered that I still have the newsletter on my Smart (dumb) phone and it was theSouthwest Show at the Dallas Market Hall Sept 13 -16, 2018. I suspect it has something to do with my phone, since it did not show on my laptop.
Thanks for the explanation, benC. No wonder I couldn’t figure out what you were referring to. Take care. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
How likely are we to buy an RV in 2019?, not likely.
We started full timing 2013 with a brand new Dutchmen Rubicon 2900. Due to no quality control during our trailer buildout, we had many post-warranty problems we’ve had to take care of.
We’ll spend 3-4 months parked this winter taking care of some major projects. New slide-out floor, new refrigerator compressor along with the normal yearly maintenance tasks. In the last five years we put 33,000 miles on the trailer, over 120,000 on two different tv’s. In Feb we’ll start into our 7th year of Full Timing with excitement looking forward to our next season’s travels. Thanks to a long list of online RV resources such as RVtravel we never in it alone. Safe Travels
RE: Supplemental braking systems. Since we’ve owned our motor home and tow a Honda CRV weighing 3200 lbs I purchased a braking system for the toad right away since my state requires one for anything over 3000 lbs. I’ve often heard people claim they “can’t even feel” the toad behind their motor home when they are on the road so they therefore don’t use one but I’ve often wondered what the lawyers and insurance companies would have to say after an accident and it was discovered that a supplemental braking system was required but not installed. We are, after all a litigious society and I would bet anything that the supplemental question would come up immediately.
In addition to the legal issues, how bad would you feel if you killed someone because you couldn’t stop in time and that supplemental braking might have made a difference?
I believe anyone who tows no matter how big the towed or how big the motor home should have a supplemental braking system.
I agree but far too many think the supplemental is not necessary.
RV Travel is back after not working for two weeks (access denied message). Thanks for getting it working with Firefox again!
Hi Tom, YAY, we finally figured out the magic combination to stop blocking some of our readers from the site.
I would like to say THANKS to everyone who emailed us about the problems! It all helps us track down these bugs.
Kim
Excellent!
Every year Jim and I have a discussion about whether to sell/trade our well-built, comfortable 2010 Carriage Cameo 5th-wheel coach but considering the cost and poor construction of many new RVs, we are just updating our current rig. All the major systems are still in good working order and it still meets our needs. Better yet, it’s been paid for since 2011. We are currently removing cracked and faded decals (will repaint the graphics ourselves) and might update the carpet and vinyl flooring. Otherwise, there is no need to trade unless we get something smaller in a few years. We’re more likely to buy a newer used *truck* since ours is 11 years old now. You could have a survey about that.
Towing your dingy:
Would have been more useful to also show those same circumstances with using some type of auxiliary breaking system in the toad! Would have been even better to test all the popular braking systems.
Dave
Agree with Dave. The way I read the braking distance is MH only and then MH with toad and no auxiliary brakes. How about completing the example and show the stopping distance with the auxiliary braking activated.
Elves, Sasquatch, Greys, they’re everywhere.
Went to the Mars 360 panorama page. Wonder what the greyed out areas are.
The gray out areas are parts of the rover that NASA doesn’t want shown.
I was thinking that, but some of the other photos seem to show those same parts from another angle.