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June 4, 2019
Welcome to another 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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FEATURED TIP
Bye bye petroleum!
With veteran RVer Mike Sokol
Never use any kind of petroleum-based products on rubber or plastic components in your RV, such as your trailer connector. That includes products such as Vaseline, WD40 or any other type of spray lubricating oil. Doing so will eventually break down the plastic and/or rubber components causing them to swell up and eventually disintegrate. The proper treatment is anything silicone-based. We use a lot of the CRC Heavy Duty Silicone in our shop for general connector cleaning and lubrication, and it’s also useful on rubberized door sweeps and such.
COMING UP SOON
If you will be near Hagerstown, MD, on June 8 you might want to consider taking one or both of Mike Sokol’s classes on RV electricity. The details are here.
In case you missed it: Should you plug into an RV park pedestal that was submerged during a flood? Mike has the answer in his RV Electricity Newsletter, published Sunday.
Wonder if those As Seen On TV products really work? Here’s a video from Household Hacker testing the most popular As Seen On TV automobile gadgets (most of which would work in your RV too). Click the image to play.
MORE QUICK TIPS
Freshen up your face after a long drive day
“Here’s a tip from my days of long-distance airplane travel that works wonderfully after a day of long-distance RV travel. Buy a single serving size of your favorite yogurt, plain or flavored/nonfat or regular, and smear about a teaspoon to tablespoon all over your face and neck. Sit down and either eat the remaining yogurt or read some of your travel literature and relax until the yogurt has dried completely. Now rinse with cool water. See how good your skin feels?” —Thanks to Suzy Dow with Forest Camping.
Roof vent runaway
Remind yourself about an open, uncovered vent. Posting a picture of a flooded, ruined camper after a summer rainstorm next to where you keep your keys would be helpful. Better yet, hang your keys from the vent and that way you can’t forget. —From 100 RV Tips and Tricks (Mack’s RV Handbook).
Do you have a tip? Send it to Russ (at) rvtravel.com
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
Tiny Houses that may convince you to downsize…even more!
Can you say adorable? These Tiny Homes are sooooo cute (and some are downright gorgeous!). Flip through these 84 tiny homes and get ready to want one of your own.
Check out the long list of great RVing-related websites from RVtravel.com.
Easily clean stubborn bugs off your RV
The Microfiber Mesh Bug and Tar Sponge has millions of tiny fibers embedded in the microfiber cloth that grabs and holds the dust and dirt. It is so effective it even cleans without chemicals, saving both time and money. The secret of this sponge lies in its unique, double-layer microfiber mesh. Older nylon bug sponges can harm your clear coat, but this one is completely paint safe. Learn more or order.
LEAVE HERE WITH A LAUGH
Comic by Mark Parisi
Did you miss the latest RV Travel Newsletter? If so, read it here.
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RV Daily Tips Staff
Editor and Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Managing editor: Diane McGovern. Contributing writers: Russ De Maris, Bob Difley, Gary Bunzer, Roger Marble, Mike Sokol, Greg Illes, J.M. Montigel and Andrew Robinson. Advertising director: Emily Woodbury. Marketing director: Jessica Sarvis. Financial affairs director: Gail Meyring. 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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This newsletter is copyright 2019 by RVtravel.com
I recycle, but now that China is no longer accepting shipments of our plastic a lot of it winds up in landfills anyway, even if you put it in ‘recycling’.
We recycle everything we can, so don’t really think about it all that much. Even on trips, I bag up recyclables and find a proper place for them.
This seems to be a “lose lose” situation. First we complain about all the plastic bags ending up in the landfills, Ocean, etc., so it’s outlawed. Now we complain about the loss of the free pooper scoopers we used the bags for…. Like I said Lose Lose…..
I just clicked the read more button and it did not work
I can remember when California mandated using plastic bags over paper. Now that its blown up for them, they ‘banned’ the use of free plastic bags and now mandate 10 cents for a plastic bag that is three times thicker. Like that will help. Go figure!
MONEY!
The “three times thicker” bags are reusable and should be used as such. Of course there will always be those non-believers who think it’s bunk and anything else California comes up with.
Because it is bunk. The old bags are reusable as well. I have seen very few having their groceries bagged with the new ‘reusable’ bags. FYI … I and many others take material bags.
Also, the CA Jim Jones ‘believers’ crowds are moving out of State in droves, now that they ruined it.
You see, it did reduce your use of plastic bags…..which was the original reason for doing that…
Everything about California is politicians getting money out of your pocket, look who the majority of Californians vote to represent them.
State of CT outlawing use of plastic bags when new state budget is signed by governor
this week. Me, I reuse them in waste baskets and use to pick up dog “droppings” – but now they will be outlawed!
Isn’t it funny John that they’re only banned until you buy them then they’re not banned, What a charade. I come from a car repair background and let me tell you all, if you could see the automotive fluff (that’s predominately plastics that come out of a car truck whatever when they’re ground up after their useful life) you’d sure change your mind about concentrating/banning simple dam plastic bags. There’s got to be the equivalent of millions of plastic bags in the multitudes of plastic types contained in one modern vehicle and nobody -NOBODY – seems to be making a fuss about any of it. There are literally mountains of this junk scattered around the world with nowhere to go but pollute..
The “more” button at the end of posts that are longer than some arbitrary display limit that is supposed to display the rest of the post has been broken for at least a couple of days now.
Yep, same problem here.
Hi, Jeannie,
Can you specify what “more” button you’re referring to? We’re trying to look into the problem but can’t seem to find exactly what you and Robbie are talking about.
Thanks! –Emily, RVtravel.com
If it’s the “Read more” button at the bottom of a long comment, in order to read the rest of the comment, it’s working for me. —Diane at RVtravel.com
I just clicked a read more button and it did not again today
That’s the button and it is still NOT working for me.
It gets weirder. I just checked on yesterday’s posts and the button is now working there but still not here. Also, there seems to be a post missing here because, right now, one of my posts is the only one with the “read more” button whereas there was another one earlier today.
Also, when I post anything, it seems to do nothing until I refresh the page.
We’re checking into it, Jeannie. Sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. It’s weird because the “Read more” button is working for me, even when I click on it “Anonymously” — so that I’m sure it’s not just showing up because it’s in my cache. Thanks for letting us know. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. —Diane at RVtravel.com
Try another browser. I’ve tried it in Brave (the old Muon version) and IE11 with the same lack of results.
Sorry, Jeannie. It works for me in Firefox and Google Chrome. Not sure what’s going on. —Diane at RVtravel.com
Try it in IE11. Btw, Google Chrome is a bad browser to use. Anything Google is going to harvest personal data for Google’s use or to sell to others.
Thanks, Jeannie. I just tried it in IE11 and it worked for me. And thanks for the heads up about Google Chrome. Yikes! 😯 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Hasn’t worked for me on my iPhone for the last 2 days.
I won’t use any browser except for FireFox and their add-ons. That has been my goto browser for years without any problems or the background garbage and collecting of data.
The CRC Heavy Duty Silicone is a great product for special application areas where needed. However for general purpose lubrication I use a product called Tri-Flow. It is 100 times better than WD-40 which is a water dispersion product, hence WD. Even the folks at PacBrake have approved Tri-Flow for lubricating the Exhaust Brake. I use it for almost everything except where the CRC Heavy Duty Silicone is warranted. Here is a web site for the PDF file on Tri-Flow. https://tinyurl.com/yy6r8dtl
I’m also a fan of Tri-Flow. It is a fantastic lubricant (technically, WD-40 is not a lubricant) but it will attract dirt. I prefer the CRC Silicone where the lube will be exposed to dirt or sawdust.
I agree with Mike Sokol about the CRC Silicone. That stuff is handy and is the best silicone product I’ve ever used (3-in-1 is the absolute worst! It claims to be fast drying but it never does.). I saturate nail-on felt furniture glides with it to make furniture much easier to move on hard flooring (the silicone I applied last summer is still going strong). It’s also a fairly good dry lube. I even use it on hard plastic mouse desk pads to slick them up. Just spray it on the pad, use some toilet tissue to spread it around, then let it dry a few minutes. It’s amazing how much dirt the tissue will pick up (it’s mostly fine dirt that causes a mouse to drag). I get mine from Ace Hardware.