Wednesday, October 23, 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
“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.” ―D
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Mole Day. (We’ll leave it up to you to decide which kind of mole.)
Tip of the Day
Improve heater floor registers
Most RVs with floor registers have plain plastic louvered-style registers. These are fine for awhile, but often break if stepped on the wrong way. There’s an easy fix: Remove one and take it to your favorite home center. They’ll be able to match up new ones for you, even if they have to order a special size.
SAFETY NOTE: The floor registers in your RV didn’t come with closable registers for a reason. If the air flow is restricted too much, it can cause the furnace to overheat and fail. It is recommended to purchase only registers that do not close, or to remove the closing mechanism prior to installation.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
Fighting mildew wars
Chris Dougherty is a certified RV technician. He received a letter from a reader while he was serving as RVtravel.com’s technical editor regarding combating mildew in a high-humidity area such as Florida. Here are his tips.
Like RV books? So do we! That’s why we’ve compiled our favorite books about RVing – we’ve made it easy for you! Click here to see the books we recommend for your RV travels.
Reader poll
Refrigerator bars keep everything in place
It’s happened to most RVers – you open the fridge (even slowly) after a day of driving and a heavy jar falls on your toe – “Ouch!” Never have that happen again with these easy-to-install spring-loaded refrigerator bars. They’re also useful in cupboards and closets. Order for a good price.
Jayco recalls Alante motorhomes: missing heat shield could cause fire
Jayco, Inc. is recalling certain 2016-2017 Alante motorhomes built on the Ford F53 chassis. A heat shield may have not have been installed, allowing the hydraulic lines to be exposed to excessive heat, which could lead to a fire. More.
Outstanding tire pressure gauge
The Accutire MS-4021B digital tire pressure gauge has an easy-to-read LCD display that provides pressure readings from 5-150 PSI. It’s ergonomically designed with an angled head and a rubber-coated easy-grip handle. If you forget to turn it off, it will do so automatically. The included lithium battery never needs to be recharged or replaced. Used by the RV Travel staff. Learn more or order.
Helpful resources
• NATIONAL TRAFFIC AND ROAD CLOSURE INFORMATION.
• ROAD AND TRAFFIC CONDITIONS ACROSS THE NATION.
• WEATHER ALERTS FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
• CURRENT WILDFIRE REPORT.
• LATEST RV RECALLS.
Did you buy a lemon RV? Here’s more about RV lemons and lawyers who will represent you if you need help.
Quick Tip
Protect your wiper blades
RV windshield wiper blades are expensive, and they get damaged by the sun and by sitting against the windshield. As a fix, buy some inexpensive black foam pipe insulation, cut it to length, and slide it over the wiper blades. This helps keep them protected from the sun and from sticking to the windshield. This an especially good idea when storing your vehicle for weeks or months at a time.
For less than $20 this could save your life. Keep one in your RV at all times. Millions sold. Click.
Random RV Thought
When traveling with your RV and in no hurry to get somewhere, stay put rather than drive into headwinds. Wait until the wind is calm or, better yet, at your back. Your gas mileage will improve significantly.
Website of the day
Road-tripping in retirement
Here are ten helpful tips to help you road trip in retirement. Any useful tips you can rack up to help you save money, fuel and time will really pay off in the long run.
Popular articles you may have missed at RVtravel.com
• When is a “service dog” not a service dog?
• RVer’s new trailer is a continuing nightmare.
• I live in an RV park, which is really a mobile home park.
#863-1
Stay warm this winter
- Space heater uses less than two amps! RVtravel.com has one, loves it! More.
- This 12-volt electric blanket will keep you cozy. Click.
- Camco’s insulated skylight cover keeps the heat in your RV from escaping. More.
Trivia
In the Philippines, there’s an island that’s within a lake, on an island that’s within a lake, on an island. Read more about that here.
Leave here with a laugh
A sea captain and his crew spotted a pirate ship approaching. The crew was worried, but the captain was calm. He yelled, “Bring me my red shirt!” The crew obliged, which he immediately put on and then led his crew to victory. Later, two more pirate ships approached. Again the captain asked for his red shirt with the same outcome. That night, the crew asked him, “Sir, why did you call for your red shirt?” The captain explained, “If I’m wounded, the red shirt does not show blood, so you will continue to fight unafraid.” The next morning, the lookout screamed that 15 pirate ships were closing in. The crew waited for the captain’s command. Ever calm, he ordered, “Bring me my brown pants!”
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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
I alternate between Grits and unprocessed Oat Bran. It tastes like Oat meal but has the consistency of grits. I am a type II diabetic and it helps me maintain my blood sugar and cholesterol level. Plus it tastes good
For those who are interested in saving money on fuel, whether on a budget or not, have you tried Gas Buddy? Gas Buddy.com can save a lot. It can be set up for gas or diesel.
I said I eat cereal everyday BUT I actually eat a bowl of fruit with yogurt and a spritz of granola (cereal) there was no category for ‘sort of …’
Wow! How did I get bye all these years without your following Random RV Thought? (sarcasm)
“When traveling with your RV and in no hurry to get somewhere, stay put rather than drive into headwinds. Wait until the wind is calm or, better yet, at your back. Your gas mileage will improve significantly.”
Having air in your tires is also a good idea. Having brains instead of hot air works for some travelers too.
Come on Chuck, please stop underestimating the intelligence of your readers.
Robbie, our readers range from RV newbies to people who have been RVing for 30, 40 years or more. I believe we have created at least 1,000 Random RV Thoughts through the years. Not all are of interest to every RVer. You go ahead and submit some thoughts of your own and we’ll be happy to post them if we have not said pretty much the same thing before. I believe I wrote the Random RV Thought you referred to here while waiting out some high headwinds on one of my trips.
Robbie, I’m sure you mean well, but your comment came off somewhat arrogant. I’ve yet to read any newsletter or other forum where I didn’t learn something. If I come across something not important to me, I move on and read the next article. But having said that, I can assure you that being a senior citizen and growing up before the computer age , just about any computer article, no matter how basic, is informative to me. Experience rules. Intellect really has little to do with it.
I don’t think Chuck is underestimating the intelligence of his readers, or at least not all of them. In fact, I think he’s probably met a good number of them and knows them well enough to know some need his advice…
I don’t think the random RV thoughts have so much bearing on the intelligence of the reader. I believe they are more connected to the experience level of the individual RVer. We all have to start somewhere.
Spouse and I enjoy hot oatmeal with raisins or craisins. Spouse also adds chopped walnuts. I add a measure of grits for texture. Hot cereal is becoming harder to find in supermarkets, usually down on the bottom corner shelf displaced by shelves full of honey-coated sugar crystal cereals.
Note added to say that for those of us watching our cholesterol and fat, I use “soy non-dairy beverage” on my hot cereal. It was formerly known as “soy milk” until the dairy industry instructed the USDA to forbid the word “milk” on anything not from a cow. Which means that we also use “non-dairy beverage of magnesia” for stomach upsets. Which also may be extended to hoping for the “non-dairy beverage of human kindness” when in relations with our Corporate masters.
The Accutire MS-4021B digital tire pressure gauge is a great device. However, it has a life span. There are replaceable batteries that operate the backlight, but there is also a non-replaceable internal lithium battery. Once it dies, the gauge is useless. Some say the gauge can be sent back to the factory for replacement, but I haven’t confirmed it.
Good joke today!
Cream of wheat or oatmeal. None of the Kelloggs/General Mills/Post/ Malt-o-Meal varieties.
My cereal everyday is bowl of oatmeal with blueberries & flax seeds. Very boring but working on cholesterol for last 20 years.
We replaced all our plastic floor registers with same colored metal ones from a local big box store. Very happy with them. I did seal off one register with a piece of cardboard. Forest river in their wisdom placed it directly under the thermostat causing the furnace to short cycle. The rv never got warm and the furnace was constantly cycling on and off. We have seen no issues with functionality with the one closed off register.
Oh, and I eat egg beaters whenever possible. Cereal for absolute emergencies. I don’t like all the sugar (if it doesn’t have sugar it tastes like wet pencil shavings).
Why didn’t I think of the relationship between the thermostat and heat register? Our thermostat is in the rear of the RV, nearly directly above one of the first and warmest registers from the furnace. Thanks Scooter.
Cereal is a snack food or as Gigi says a quick lunch or dinner replacement.
I most often have cereal for dinner when I’ve been working hard all day in the yard. I’m too tired to cook and it’s a fast easy meal !
On your survey: we eat old-fashioned oats or steel-cut oats every day with fruit, nuts, etc. This is an important distinction to just plain, sugar fortified cold cereal.