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July 3, 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
Battery drain culprits
Ever come back to your RV after it’s been sitting in storage, only to find your battery dead? Small, parasitic loads can add up: alarms that depend on house battery voltage, clocks in some appliances, the TV antenna amplifier (if left on). That, and you may find you accidentally forgot to turn off a light or two. How can you prevent this problem? Install a battery disconnect switch on your house battery. When you put the rig in storage, “open” the circuit with the disconnect switch. Here’s a good one from Amazon.
MORE QUICK TIPS
Keeping your RV cool
Speaking of air conditioner vents, the folks at alwaysonliberty.com remind us, “These are a huge culprit in air conditioner malfunctions. You should clean your AC output and intake vents AT LEAST MONTHLY! Make sure nothing is blocking the air flow in each.”
Be sure your freezer food is safe to eat
Using a conventional ice cube tray, place a coin on top of an ice cube. If you ever find it at the bottom of the ice cube, you will know the power has been off for some time. Thanks to Paul Kelly!
Do you have a tip? Send it to Russ (at) rvtravel.com
WEBSITE OF THE DAY
NASA’s Worldview
Keep this website on hand during wildfire season (or any other natural-disaster “season”). NASA takes a satellite image of each area around the world every day so you can see exactly what’s going on. You can easily find wildfires, storms and other major weather issues. You can add and subtract layers (days), and even create videos to watch the progress of a storm or fire.
Check out the long list of great RVing-related websites from RVtravel.com.
LEAVE HERE WITH A LAUGH
LEAVE HERE WITH A LAUGHLast night I had some friends over and we spent a few hours playing board games and drinking. After quite a few drinks, we ended the night with Scrabble where I was dared to swallow a few of the game pieces. I’m really not looking forward to my next vowel movement.
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. 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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Re: disconnects, I just keep a 47-way meter on my batteries to watch charge/discharge/ capacity, charger performance, etc etc. At a glance, I can see if anything is left on in trailer. I seldom disconnect in-season.
How do I know what size resetable circuit breaker is on my travel trlr..came apart but no markings.
The size of the wire is a hint. Is this on a 120-volt AC circuit or a 12-volt DC circuit?
The house battery cutoff switch is a great idea but newer golf card batteries don’t have the big round connector, only a screw post. I’ve looked for cutoffs for this type of battery and can’t find them. Seems like a product idea for someone
Of course golf card batteries are only used to power your score card. I meant gold cart.
Go back to the Amazon link and under the price of the unit, is “Side Post”, click on that. It should work.
Stay cool
As an additional note, this is an awful idea to use an item that could cause a spark (and it will if there is any load when the disconnect is operated) so near the gassing area of the battery. Better to use a properly sized rotary switch that is enclosed and locate it away from the battery compartment. At the very least close yer eyes and turn your head when operating this type of disconnect. :-/
Stay cool
Exactly right. Gassing off of the battery is extremely volitale. You need the red type switch.
Re: the poll, Yes I use FB, my friend list has only relatives and people I know, and it is a quick way to keep in touch.
I heard my neighbor did the same thing. His next bowel movement could spell disaster.
Some of these jokes certainly bring out the toilet humor or potty jokes in our readers (notice they’re all from the guys this time?). I knew Emily was asking for trouble when she put that joke in there. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
Re the ice cube trick. An even easier way is simply to put an ice cube in a small dish. No need for a coin or an ice cube tray. When you check back later, if the ice cube is still a cube, all is well. If the ice cube has puddled and refrozen, there has been a thaw.
Even easier is put a Ice Cube in a Zip Lock Sandwich Bag
Y’all dug deep for today’s leave her with a laugh!
Scrabble: It’s all fun and games until someone loses an “I.”
Like when you post all those different web sites – thank you and your research staff – have a happy and safe 4th.
RE: Leave Here with a Laugh
Hope you don’t get consonantpated!
Or have a “run on” sentence
Or a dangling participle!
Triple word score if it gives you ‘diarrhea’
P-ing should be easier