Issue 1048 • February 11, 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
Adjusting to the fulltime lifestyle (part 1 of 2)
Olivia and Kyle jumped into the fulltime RV life – moving into a 16-foot RV. They learned in a hurry that doing the fulltime life isn’t as easy as it might first appear. Here is the first of a two-part “tip” of some things they feel might help others:
“It’s a major adjustment to leave behind the life you knew. You’re saying goodbye to your house, your friends and family members, and probably your old job too. You’re journeying into the unknown and that’s HUGE. If you’ve made this transition or plan to, you’re so very brave and you have a huge community out there to support you.
“SET REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS! People refer to RV life as a “permanent vacation” and that’s just not true. We still have to work, keep up the laundry, buy groceries and pay bills. We’re not immune to stress and our problems don’t disappear. RV life has some amazing perks, like exploring beautiful landscapes and changing your backyard whenever you want, but we do regular-people stuff too. You could be on the go all the time and moving every couple days, but we’ve found that we need balance so we don’t burn ourselves out. Find that balance and a pace that works for you.
“BE OPEN TO THE JOURNEY! Mindset is everything. If you approach things with an open heart, without expectations of what it “should” be, you will save yourself a lot of grief. Almost nothing goes as planned when you want it to, so be flexible and learn to adapt. Be open to changing plans. Not holding ourselves to strict schedules has given us so much freedom. That doesn’t mean there’s no planning involved, but we give ourselves some wiggle room. We can add a few days at a location or leave early if we want to.
“On actual travel days, we personally like to leave early and move no more than 200 miles. That may sound short, but it keeps us stress-free and we still have the whole day ahead of us. Sometimes you get a flat tire, or the campground is full or you get on the road later than expected… We like to have a lot of daylight to come up with a backup plan. No matter the obstacle, there’s always a lesson to be learned from any situation. You just might end up learning a new skill, finding a great new camp spot, or making a new friend.”
Simple RV maintenance tips: tires, tanks and lights
Tires – Inflate to recommended specifications and check them often. Inspect for any imperfections before travel. Keep lug nuts tightened to proper torque settings. Get a torque wrench and learn how to use it. Minimize exposure to the sun.
Tanks – Sanitize the fresh water tank as often as needed. For me, it depends on how much I use it, but usually every couple of months I’ll run some bleach mixture through the system. I use some Borax and Calgon water softener in my black and galley tanks to clean and deodorize. Also when dumping I make sure to have a nearly full tank to properly expel the solids with a good flushing action. This will help avoid the dreaded poo pyramid!
Lights – Carry spares for every type of bulb your RV uses. Check the signal and marker lights for proper function before every trip. Thanks to loveyourrv.com.
Have you ever explored Etsy? It’s a huge e-commerce website focused on handmade and vintage items for individuals to have a selling platform. It’s a great place to support small businesses! Here’s a link to explore their “RV” section. If you ever need a place for gifts, this is it.
RIDDLE
The most famous fantasy riddle of all time comes from the story of “Alice in Wonderland,” written by Lewis Carroll in 1865. The “Mad” Hatter asks Alice, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?”
Any ideas? Click the image to play the clip. (The answer is below.)
MORE QUICK TIPS
Tire ply ratings versus load range
Tires and load range designations on tires have changed over the years. It used to be a 6-ply or 8-ply tire, and you knew the higher the number the stronger the tire. Now they use a letter to designate load range and tire strength. To help simplify this you can take the letter for the load range on the tire, determine what number it represents in the alphabet, and multiply that by two, to determine the strength of the tire. It sounds much more difficult than it is. If your tire is a load range “D” that is the fourth letter in the alphabet. 4 X 2 equals 8, so a load range “D” tire is equivalent to an 8-ply tire in strength. —Tip from Mark Polk, RV Education 101.
Lacking credit? You can’t co-sign but you may be able to do this
You cannot legally co-sign on an RV but you can do something called co-buying. (Literally the same thing, but with a legal loophole and a synonymous name.) If you want more details on co-buying, ask your banker or the finance manager at your local dealership.
—From Beginner’s Guide to Living in an RV: Everything I Wish I Knew Before Full-Time RVing Across America.
Do you have a tip? Send it to Russ (at) rvtravel.com
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
Pop-Up Camper History
Want to brush up on your RV history? Here’s an interesting read about the history of the pop-up camper.
Check out the long list of great RVing-related websites from RVtravel.com.
New & interesting finds at Amazon.com
See what really cool stuff Amazon is featuring today. It’s a whole lot of fun just browsing through all these great items. The selection changes every day, so check back often. You never know what you will find, which is part of the fun of visiting here. Check it out.
RIDDLE ANSWER
Carroll never had an answer, but after being pestered about it for years, he finally came up with one: “Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!” However, Carroll spelled “never” as “nevar” – “raven” spelled backward – but a proofreader erased the inverted pun before it was published.
LEAVE HERE WITH A LAUGH
Q: Why did the egg cross the road?
A: To get to the Shell station
Q: How do comedians like their eggs?
A: Funny side up!
Q: How do monsters like their eggs?
A: Terri-fried!
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.
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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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You are incorrect saying “it used to be 6 or 8-ply” and “now it’s a letter”. BIAS PLY tires are classified by the number of plies they have, such as 6, 8 or 10. That would be meaningless for RADIAL tires, because they all have between 1 and 3 plies, no more. That is why radials are classified by a load range letter.
We don’t level other than to get within spec of the frig and that allows a significant tilt at 3 degrees side to side and 6 degrees front to back. Also the foot of the bed needs to be lower than the head!
If leveling is needed it involves moving the RV until a decent spot is found. Used lynx blocks the first three months of RV’n and none since for the rest of the 11 years since.
Although certainly not advisable, I wonder how many people in the poll would have answered that they DON’T level unless it’s unbearably sloped. Since we have a lot of “live load” (big people walking), we can’t get away with it unless we want to get seasick, but I’ve seen quite a few folks who roll in and declare “good enough”…
I’m not sure our truck camper with a StableLift raise/lower/level system fits in this big “RV leveling” scenario, but we usually lower the camper-mounted rectangle frame to take weight off the truck springs, preventing the rock ‘n’ roll seasick effect, and with its three electric frame jacks, we level the camper.
I love it. We too are large people and “level” to keep the “boat” from rocking on flat land.
It’s easy to see y’all are still snowed in!