Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Welcome to another edition of RV Travel’s Daily Tips newsletter. Here you’ll find helpful RV-related and living tips from the pros, travel advice, a handy website of the day, tips on our favorite RVing-related products and, of course, a good laugh. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate you. Please tell your friends about us.
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Today’s thought
“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” —J.K. Rowling
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Nut Day!
Tip of the Day
Be careful with your fresh water hose
Keep your hoses and your health safe. Never allow anything other than potable water in your fresh water tank. NEVER EVER use the hose at the dump station to refill your water tank — borrowing from the song, “Nobody knows the trouble it’s seen,” or the bacteria count it carries. Keep your own fresh water hose carefully isolated from anything that could contaminate it. We keep ours wrapped up carefully in plastic, separated from sewer hoses. And if purchasing a fresh water hose, make sure it’s made for drinking water. Get ’em at your nearby RV supplier.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
Dealing with RV repairs when money’s tight
Think your RV is a money pit? You might feel a little better about your situation when you read this tale of Russ and Tiña De Maris’ ongoing saga of RV problems, and why they sometimes find Craigslist very helpful. Read more.
RV recall
Jayco recalls motorhomes for dangerous position of hydraulic line
Jayco, Inc. (Jayco) is recalling 1,160 model year 2014-2018 Precept motorhomes built on Ford F53 chassis. The hydraulic lines may have been incorrectly routed too close to the exhaust without a heat shield, which could lead to a fire or worse. Learn more.
Microwave cover collapses for easy storage
When heating your food you don’t want to spend 10 minutes later cleaning the splatters inside the microwave. Here’s the solution — perfect for RVers: It pops down flat for easy storage. Lid perforations allow steam to escape to keep food moist. Doubles as a strainer! Learn more or order.
Reader poll
Quick Tip
Odd campsite sewer hookups
At a campground if your sewer connection is on the wrong side or is too far to reach from your campsite, check if the campground has a dump station to use as you leave. Or drive through any empty campsite when you leave, pausing long enough to dump your tanks in an accessible sewer connection.
• Protect your RV’s slideout! Use this rubber seal lubricant. Learn more or order.
• Attention Big Rig RV owners! This annual road atlas will keep you away from too-narrow roads and low bridges. Learn more or order.
• Camping at Corps of Engineers Campgrounds. Many RVers consider these the very best places to stay. Learn more or order the directory.
Random RV Thought
When is the last time you checked your RV’s fire extinguisher? It’s probably time to check it again. At the very least, remove it from where it’s stored and give the bottom a few smacks against the pavement to shake up the insides. Better yet, if you haven’t even touched it in a year or more, replace it. And while you’re at it, get a second one for extra safety.
Don’t blow out your plumbing
Sooner or later, usually “sooner,” every RVer comes upon an RV park water hookup with pressure so high it could blow out the plumbing. None of us want that because it causes a lot of damage and is expensive to fix. The simple solution is to be sure when you hook up use a water pressure regulator, like this one that features a lead-free design to prevent lead contamination. Learn more or order.
Website of the day
Must-do activities in every National Park
Go “flightseeing” in Alaska, firefly-chasing in South Carolina, sandboarding in Colorado, cave-exploring in Kentucky, gator-chasing in Florida, crater-rim driving in Hawaii, and much, much more. Thanks to this article, we’ve got some serious wanderlust now!
Today’s deals on RV parts and accessories. Hurry! They won’t last! Click here.
And the Survey Says…
We’ve polled RVtravel.com readers more than 1,500 times in recent years. Here are a few things we’ve learned about them:
• 22 percent have had a “serious ant problem” in their RV.
• 13 percent often stay in a campground without hookups.
Trivia
The common housefly lives from two weeks to a month. A female is receptive to mating 26 hours after her birth. She can lay about 500 eggs in her lifetime in batches of about 75 to 150.
Essential items for day-to-day living
Toothpaste • Laundry soap • Hand soap • Shampoo • Razor blades • Pet food • Pain reliever pills • Pain creams • Low dose aspirin • Antacid relief • Lipstick • Reading glasses • Breakfast cereal • Coffee • Tea • Bottled water • Soft drinks
Leave here with a laugh
“Mom, I have a boyfriend. His name is Dante.” The mother responds, “Dante the mailman? Oh, dear, he’s so old he could be your father!” The daughter responds. “Mom, age is just a number, it doesn’t matter.” After a short pause her mother says, “No, I don’t think you understood. . .”
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: Emily Woodbury. Senior editor: Diane McGovern. 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
Ohhhh…. now I understand the joke! It’s been a long day.
Some days you feel like a nut, some days you don’t.
re: checking fire extinguishers
If you have Kidde extinguishers in RV or home you need to look at the Kidde web site. Between RV and house and barn I had 5 on the list and got free, new ones from Kidde, to include disposal and free freight. A couple I bought in the 1990’s. For safety I would check this out.
Chuck, whenever this newsletter discusses fire safety or egress, this reminder might be brought up ??
https://www.kidde.com/home-safety/en/us/support/product-alerts/recall-kidde-fire-extinguisher/
We don’t carve pumpkins for display. Pumpkins are food and we don’t waste food. There are plenty of recipes that are NOT pies and they are well worth exploring.
Instead of carving pumpkins and tossing them? We use the plastic ones. We have carved over a dozen or so plastic pumpkins over the years and now we display them. Going to carve a few more and display those as well. There are bins that will hold them and keep them safe. Our neighbors love them and we do a Halloween display during a Halloween camping weekend.
Actually I bake a few pies from fresh pumpkin, especially the white pumpkin if I can find one.
Are they easy to back? Do you use a guide? Be safe out there.
Actually, I don’t carve a pumpkin; I paint a face on it, add a hat and put it out for display. Then on Nov. 1, it comes in, gets cut up, cooked, mashed and eaten by both me and my dog.
Mailman was father, mom had the same boy friend in the past….
Yes we know. No need to explain it.
Well, Darrel, actually some folks didn’t get the joke. So NavySnipe was being polite and helping them out. Thanks, NavySnipe! —Diane at RVtravel.com
I guess we’re to old to get the joke, is it a millennial thing?
I’m old but it took awhile before I got it. Also when your old it’s just not that funny.
We get the big Orange pumpkin out of the closet and plug it in an Preston lighted pumpkin. This year be got George, a 11 foot dragon.
In the Random RV Thought you recommend smacking your fire extinguisher against the ground. Please don’t do that. It will dent and possibly bust open. Turn your extinguisher upside down and gently smack with a rubber mallet. Per NFPA 10.
Or just a few minutes of vigorous shaking, especially if done monthly!
And where did the 1-year recommendation come from? All I’ve ever seen is to get them tested and refilled on the expiration date–usually 10 years.
I don’t get the joke????
“Leave here with a laugh ” I must be senile ….. I don’t get it . Is the mail ma
n her dad ?
Could Be! Or the Milkman!
Mailman Joke
Yes his is the dad
Could be!