Tuesday, November 26, 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
“We all have our likes and dislikes. But when we’re doing the daily news covering politics, it is our duty to be sure that we do not permit our prejudices to show. That is simply basic journalism.” —Walter Cronkite
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Cake Day!
Tip of the Day
Shopping for an RV loan? Read this first
It is possible to get almost any kind of RV loan if you have good credit. You will pay more interest if your credit score isn’t 700 and above. There are lending institutions that won’t lend money on low-end RVs because of the rapid depreciation. The same thing applies to rigs older than 7 to 10 years.
Tell the loan officer what type and age of an RV you’re considering buying before you fill out the application. Keep in mind that every application you submit will affect your credit score from 5 to 10 points. Don’t bother with companies that will not loan on your chosen RV type.
You can get several finance quotes, but do not pay an application fee. If they want money up front, walk away. All the reputable companies can complete your loan application within an hour or so. They may want to work out the terms later. Don’t fall into this trap! Get all the numbers and know exactly what you will pay up-front in down payment and exactly what the monthly payment will be. Also insist on no prepayment penalties in case you decide to pay off the loan early or make larger payments.
From So, you want to be an RVer? And Enjoy the RV Lifestyle? [Revised]. Available on Amazon.com
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
How to replace the window in an RV door
If the window frame in your RV’s entry door is beginning to look a little frayed around the edges (UV light can chew them up), or you need to replace your entry door glass, you may be puzzled about how to proceed. The job isn’t all that difficult, but there are a couple of tricks that can make it much easier. Russ and Tiña De Maris clear up some of the mystery. Learn how.
Reader poll
Quick Tip
Simplify your RV meals
Try cooking one dish meals with an easy-to-make side. Most RV kitchen spaces aren’t meant for gourmet cooking. Try pairing one dish with a simple salad or another side you can easily put together.
From RV Living Full Time: 100+ Amazing Tips, Secrets, Hacks & Resources to Motorhome Living. Available on Amazon.com.
The cutest ornament we’ve ever seen…
This adorable little camp stove is the perfect addition to your, or a family or friend’s, Christmas tree this year. Makes the perfect gift for an RVer, camper, hiker, fisher…well, anyone! Learn more or order here (and see some other equally cute RV-related ornaments here).
Random RV Thought
The appeal of RVing must surely be up among travelers as airlines hike fares, charge more for bags and cancel flights in bad weather. There’s no charge for bags or carry-on items on RV trips, no security lines, and no canceled trips because of bad weather at your destination.
Website of the day
Field & Stream
We’ve bought our Thanksgiving turkey at the grocery store, but if you’re a hunter, you may have taken a different approach. Field & Stream is a great website to poke around if you’re a hunter or a fisher.
Get rid of your RV’s P-trap. Look here.
An honest RV dealer (and one of our sponsors). Click to learn more.
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:
• 15 percent have owned only one RV in their life.
• One-third of our readers read a printed daily newspaper every day or almost every day.
• 17 percent never use a space heater to help warm their RV.
Trivia
Replace the letter “W” with “T” in the questions “Where, What and When” and you will get the answers to each of them.
Easily clean those 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.
Help Wanted
Trailer Haven RV Park in Walla Walla, Wash., is looking for a part-time manager to live on-site. Compensation will include either free lot rent for your RV + $300 per month or $600 off the onsite 3-bed, 1-bath home. More information.
JOB RESOURCES:
• Host positions in California State Parks
• Volunteer in a Maine State Park
• Camp Hosting in a Texas State Park
Leave here with a laugh
I just read a list of “100 Things To Do Before You Die” and I was quite surprised that “Yell for help!” wasn’t one of them.
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.
This website utilizes some advertising services. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Regardless of this potential revenue, unless stated otherwise, we only recommend products or services we believe provide value to our readers.
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
Always keep your tools and emergency road items in storage on the passenger side of RV. This way if you have an emergency you are not on the road side in traffic trying to access your tools.
I have practiced exiting a MH at an RVW convention!! It wasn’t mine but it was used for us to use this! Great training that you hope you will never need but NEED to know! Since then I have included into my rig a marine ladder to the base of my bed! All rooms have a larger than issued fire extinguisher!
I have been trained at a former job on HOW to use a fire extinguisher, too!
I pray I never need to utilize these skills!
Education is key!
We have a KZ 302 with main entrance just past front bedroom AND rear door in bathroom on opposite side of trailer. Emergency exit at dining area slide out and second in bedroom up front. Works for us.
I saw that cute propane stove and am reminded of our propane lantern. We have given up battery lanterns and gone back to traditional propane. We find we get better light and save a ton of money on these lanterns. Plus Coleman had a year end sale where we bought 2 new ones for cheap. I found a glass for the old one, took some doing but found it on E Bay. We find the mini propane are much cheaper and much easier on the landfill since metal corrodes and batteries well damage the ground. So next time you find your propane lanterns? Might want to crank them up. Better for the environment.
I have a 4 section 12’ ladder that converts to a 6’ step ladder that I put under the bedroom emergency exit and firmly tie it to the slide out. We are seniors that would be hard pressed to exit and drop the 7’ to the ground in a position I’m sure would result in extreme injury. This way we exit onto the ladder and climb safely down.
We are shopping for a Newmar tag axle for very specific reasons… one of which is their rear bath exit door. I’ve seen the videos of RVs on fire, and there’s NO FREAKIN’ WAY I’m gonna try to wake myself up sufficiently during the night, try to make sense of what’s happening, and get BOTH OF US out the same window – head OR feet first. Grab a pillow? Sounds great … unless you’re in that exact emergency moment.
I can’t think of a more horrible way to die than in a fire that consumes your entire home and belongings in mere minutes, maybe seconds. Unless it’s being caught in your seatbelt as you car sinks to the bottom of a deep body of water. Nope. No.
I really have trouble understanding RV manufacturers who fail to see this need in their BUYER community…. the people who PAY MONEY, oftentimes BIG money for their product.
This is a primary concern and #1 shopping point with me: A second exit DOOR.
Like most people, I checked “No, Never” on the Reader Poll. However, I am not worried about it. Our Class B is built on the Sprinter chassis. The emergency exit is the rear door of the van. I haven’t exited the vehicle through that door, but I don’t anticipate any problems doing so.
RV loans- be very wary if the dealer calls you within a few days after the paper work was signed, stating “a mistake was made” and you need to return to sign the new documents. Get very specific about which mistakes were made, AND- be positive the interest rate is exactly what it was on the original documents…look closely.
Escape windows – Class B, four full sized doors.
Roof Maintenance – little to none.
Backing – no worse than our Lincoln Town Car.
MPG – 14
We are happy campers.
To exit a window, put a pillow, cushion, or something over the window sill and go out feet first on your belly.
Our 2018 Newmar Bay Star Class A has two escape windows, the bedroom side window below the TV and the other over the dining table. They are each 17″ H by 24″ W. They are each about 8′ off the ground. They only way out is headfirst on your belly ripping two grooves in your belly from the latches. No Thanks!
Our bedroom had a large (32″ H by 42″ W) window in the rear wall, but no opening. We replaced it with a vertical slider window. The slider is 30″ H by 19″ W. The screen is also a slider. Now, in an emergency, we can slide the window and screen open and just step out onto the roof ladder and climb to the ground. We had the window custom made at Motion Windows in Vancouver, WA, USA. We have no affiliation with them except as a happy customer.
I just recently read somewhere that rv exit windows are designed to become un-hinged and fall to the ground if you lift them more than 90°.
considering the size of some of people I`ve seen camping the exit windows are a joke. I wonder if they have ever considered the consequences of to much fried chicken and camping.
My Lance truck camper has an escape window in the cabover which is pretty high off of the ground, but a much easier way out is the vent/escape hatch above the bed which would be much easier to exit, then go down the ladder at the rear of the camper or slide down the front of the camper to the hood of the truck then to the ground.
My emergency exits are standard window with an extra red pull! 1988 variety.
I’ve thought about leaving through the exit window. I think going feet first is the way I’d try. The window hinges up and you push the rod out and then thru a hole to clear the escape route. Not going to try it as it’s 10 ft to the ground. Not going to suffer unnecessary injury to practice. I figure there would be injures getting out but probably would survive.
we’ve never practiced simply because the window is way too small for my mobility challenged wife plus it is placed directly above the tow bar. I do fret about this and wish the RV mfgs would design an escape door that can actually be used.
There needs to be more education and sense imposed all way around in the RV sector.
If I had any say in the matter it would start with eliminating the vast majority manufacturering the crap foisted on unsuspecting adventurers, who go massively into debt in droves each year to avoid gropers, long lines, rude ustom folks and the like.
Then I’d legislate that nobody -NOBODY – drives an RV until they’ve taken a course teaching them how to operate and handle the dam thing in any conditions, and situations, how to maintain it, and not least in importance get out of it when it’s on fire. How’s that for a start?
Unfortunately none of the former is going to happen – we love our freedom to be as dam dumb as we please! People are still going to go into to debt in droves buying heartache, after heartache, they’re still not going to have a clue how to back a fifth wheel into a spot at the CG, or how to handle the Monaco during a blow-out event, and they’re going to die, or suffer life altering injury when the frying pan catches on fire and they don’t even know they have a way out through the bedroom window.
Right On Alvin:
You sound like me, when I’m ranting on my Soapbox. Usually gets a bunch of really hate filled reponses. But, you nailed it. I agree that NO ONE should be able to drive an RV off a Dealers Lot, without knowing how to operate and maintain the RIG! Personally, there should be a Practical Certification Test given, before they are handed the keys! But as you say, this will never happen. Too much money at stake for the Greedy dealers out there and any kind of extra knowledge test, would drive buyers away!
Maybe this is one of the reasons there are between 75,000 and 80,000 NON-Life threatening accidents every year with RV’s. That is according to the NHTSA! I have yet to find a good figure for the FATAL Accidents each year, but they number high too! And most accidents are caused by 2 main factors. AGE and Inexperience and both those go pretty much hand in hand!
Funny thing is: I was accused by some dumb cluck on this forum for being too safety conscious! When is there ever a case of being too safe???
OK, off the soapbox once again.
It is very troubling that SO MANY People have never tried to escape from their RV Emergency Window(s)
We have a 5th wheel and have 2 escape windows. One in the Bedroom and One in the Living Room.
Both Windows are clearly marked, as required!
We have an Emergency Escape Ladder in our Bedroom, that reaches to the ground. As for the Living Room Window, it is not a far drop to get out to the ground.
In both cases, neither of these Windows have a Screen on them, eliminating the hassle of removing it, in case of a quick escape. The last thing you want to do is fight with a STUPID Window screen that could impede your exit from the RV.
Of course we have Fire Extinquishers in all the rooms. You should also have a Blanket available to toss over the exit window frame, to avoid cutting yourself or other serious injury!
Too many RVers think, “IT WON’T HAPPEN TO ME”! Well, it should be a consideration in the back of your mind!
There needs to be more education on RV Fire Safety and Emergency Egress!
You all be safe out there!
I have an exit window?
Yes, you should have at least one and depending on what kind of RIG you own, maybe several exit windows!