Issue 1548
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
“Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground. Let their spirit ignite a fire within you to leave this world better than when you found it…” ―
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Cold Cuts Day!
On this day in history: 1891 – Shoshone National Forest is established as the first national forest in the U.S. and world.
Tip of the Day
Time to replace those cabinet carpets! Do it for under $15
By Kate Doherty
Recently, we decided to replace the carpet under our RV’s kitchen sink. Over the years it had become stained and discolored. It wasn’t looking good any longer. Originally, we were thinking indoor/outdoor carpet for the cabinet, but nothing jumped out saying “Buy me!” Disappointed, we abandoned that thought for another time.
A couple of days later while walking through Costco, my intuitive spouse stopped and picked up an oversize rubber-backed woven doormat, saying, “Honey, what do you think of this? This would work.” See how they used this doormat for under-the-sink carpeting.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
JUST GETTING STARTED RVing? Read our editor’s book The ABCs of RVing for free with Kindle Unlimited.
Today’s RV review…
In today’s column, industry insider Tony Barthel reviews the new 2021 Keystone Cougar 24RDS Fifth Wheel. As he reports, “At under 29 feet in total length, with about three of those feet being over the cargo bed of the truck, this could be a logical choice even if you want to stay smaller without giving up the advantages of a fifth wheel such as cargo space and tank capacity. That would be especially true if you outfitted this with the solar and inverter upgrades.” Learn more.
Did you read Tony’s review yesterday of the Bushwhacker Plus 17 BH Teardrop? If you missed it, you can read it here.
For previous RV reviews, click here.
Is this your RV?
If it’s yours and you can prove it to us (send a photo for comparison), tell us here by 9 p.m. Pacific Standard time today, March 3, 2021. If it’s yours you’ll win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.
If this isn’t your RV, send us a photo of your RV here (if you haven’t already) for a chance to win in future issues.
Last week one reader claimed their $25 Amazon gift card: Debra Lewallen of Cincinnati, Ohio.
We’ll have another photo in tomorrow’s RV Daily Tips Newsletter (sign up to receive an email alert so you don’t miss the issue or those that follow). Some of these photos are submitted by readers while others were taken by our editors and writers on their travels around the USA.
Funny oil change instructions for men versus for women
These are just too funny! The original author is unknown, but these have been on the Web since at least 2005. This list is tongue-in-cheek, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Read it here.
Yesterday’s featured article: Good solar design will meet most RVers’ needs
ONE MONTH TO SAVE!
Harvest Hosts membership increasing – join now and save!
Harvest Hosts NEW member prices are going up to $99/yr. in April 2021. If you buy a membership now, it’s only $67.15 a year after our 15% discount. This link will lock in this rate forever, regardless of how much the prices increase in the future. Use HHFRIENDS15 at checkout. Save over $30 off the new price on a whole year of unlimited overnight stays. Learn more.
Reader poll
Have you installed a lithium battery in your RV?
Please tell us here.
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
• DIRECTORY OF RV PARKS WITH STORM SHELTERS
Did you buy a lemon RV? Here’s more about RV lemons and lawyers who will represent you if you need help.
Quick Tip
Stop the shower leaks!
One of the great things about RVs is showers and tubs, but they can and will leak without maintenance so you need to keep an eye on them.
At the factory the glass and plastic surrounds are usually silicone sealed to prevent leaks, but two things can happen: either spots are missed or come loose, or because of the twisting and torquing the silicone beads rip open. In either case, rot is the eventual result. Any signs of stray water after a shower should be investigated and fixed immediately to avoid damage.
The glass door should open and close freely. However, especially with neo-angled showers, the twisting of the coach can hang them up. This occurs especially in trailers – that tend to be more flexible than motorhomes. When sealing the shower, a good kitchen and bath silicone sealant like GE Kitchen and Bath Silicone caulk is recommended.
?????? MYSTERY PRODUCT OF THE DAY ??????
We’re having a hard time deciding if this is a brilliant invention or a totally gross invention (or maybe just weird)… What do you think?
Website of the day
The Internet map
This is more fun than it is useful, but it is certainly a unique place to spend some time. Can you find RVtravel.com on this visually awesome “map” of websites around the world?
Are you introverted or extroverted? What about your partner? See how introverted Gail Marsh and her “extremely extroverted” husband differ at campgrounds. Click here.
Popular articles you may have missed at RVtravel.com
• Monster truck and RV combo takes off-road RVing to extreme
• Birds build nest on RV. RVers must stay put or face jail or $15,000 fine
• Will Irish Spring soap repel rodents from your RV?
#958-1
Trivia
If you were to drill a tunnel straight through the Earth, all the way through to the other side, and you jumped in it like a slide, it would take you about 42 minutes to get to the other side. Wheeeeeee!
*How many USPS mail carriers are attacked by dogs each year? The 2015 stats might make you gasp! See the number in yesterday’s trivia.
Hang up the heavy stuff!
RV walls aren’t exactly designed for having screws or nails driven into them. Enter acrylic mounting tape. This is a clear, double-sided tape that is sturdy enough to hang heavy objects and can easily be removed without doing damage to the walls. Get some here.
Readers’ Pet of the Day
“Maggie Mae, ready for a camping trip.” —Don Welch
Send us a photo of your pet with a short description. We publish one each weekday in RV Daily Tips and in our Saturday RV Travel newsletter.
Leave here with a laugh
What do you call a dead magician?
An abracadaver
Did you miss the latest RV Travel Newsletter? If so, read it here.
Oh, and if you missed the latest Sunday News for RVers, make sure to catch up here.
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RV Daily Tips Staff
Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Editor: Emily Woodbury. Senior editor: Diane McGovern. Social media and special projects 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.
Mail us at 9792 Edmonds Way, #265, Edmonds, WA 98020.
This newsletter is copyright 2021 by RVtravel.com
The trivial is wrong.. It would take more than 30 hours to reach the other side of the earth if you could fall thru a tunnel, not 42 minutes. Terminal velocity is less than 400 kpm and the earth is over 12,000 kilometers in diameter. Plus you would slow as you passed the center of the earth.
You would never reach the other side. Even if you discount the heat, gravity would keep you at the center.
But there is effectively no gravity at the center — the force would be equal in all directions, each opposite direction cancelling out, and the motion through would be unimpeded. However, air density would be tremendous (equal columns of air either way in the tunnel, not cancelling pressure but maintaining it even in the no-gravity center, slowing you down by resistance) reducing terminal velocity all the way. The result would be to slow your acceleration ‘down’ and slow the rise ‘up’ on the other side, adding to the pull ‘down’ of gravity that increases from the center; you’d slow and reverse well before reaching the other side, like a quickly slowing pendulum.
My thinking as well.
The mystery product of the day is something your kids would probably pitch when they clear out your house.
Or sell it at an estate sale and everyone would be wondering what it is. 😆 Thanks, Richard. Take care. —Diane at RVtravel.com
I’d like to see an article explaining backing up and maneuvering a 5th wheel compared to a travel trailer. Is there also more issues pulling a 5th wheel because of the height?
Reference the oil change… he could also have added in a few lines regarding greasing all the zerks (and of course breaking one or two off)..
As it is it sure had my bride laughing and me remembering……….grin.
Thanks.
We liked the joke of the day:)) thank you
With the Trivia question, IF you could drill this hole and jump in…. how could you make it past the center? You would have to “fall up” to the surface on the other side on this slide.
Also, if the diameter of the earth is roughly 7,900 mi. and if it took one hour, would your speed not be 7,900 mi/hr? You are saying it would take 42 minutes which is 0.7 of an hour so your answer has the person going 11,200+ miles an hour…. what is this slide made of? It would have to have less friction than free falling.
I was just wondering the same thing. You’d have to be sliding at almost 12,000 mph, without the logistics of the gravitational pull pst the mid point.
My son has the mystery product, egg cooker and loves it making breakfast burritos.
Leave here with a laugh today was sick.
Sick, yes, but funny as “heck”
As mentioned, I miss the thumbs up and thumbs down click.
Me
2
Me three. I appreciated the ability to add a quick supportive thumbs up, in essence agreeing with someone’s post. It seems a bit much to add a comment in agreement, but very easy and supportive to click the thumbs up. Wish it would be added back.
Hi Marty, I replied below in more detail as to why that’s gone.
-Kim
I believe your joke writer has been trapped inside the COVID 19 hiding place to long, the need for fresh air and sunshine is very apparent, this is three days in a row help is needed. Lol
Leave here with a laugh: And what does a dead songwriter do? He decomposes.
I am afraid that Jiffy Lube costs more than 20 dollars and I have never paid for coffee there.
If you want a good laugh, read the comments on Amazon about the “Mystery Product of the Day”
Just spent ten minutes reading reviews and looking for more videos! 🙂
Yes, yes, yes! DO follow the link and read the first review by someone named “Kayem”. Be sure you have fresh Depends on because you’ll laugh yourself silly. His (or her) description of how this thing was used is priceless.
Chuck/Diane: You might try to find out who “Kayem” is – if you are still looking for a writer! The individual has a way with words! Recommended reading!
Thanks, DW/ND and Tommy. I’m checking into this with Chuck and Emily. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
You talked me into reading the reviews. Kayem’s is hysterical! And very well written!
“If you were to drill a tunnel straight through the Earth, all the way through to the other side, and you jumped in it like a slide, it would take you about 42 minutes to get to the other side.”
Wrong! The closer you get to the center of the earth, the smaller the pull of gravity. At the center there is no gravitational pull. You’d get stuck at the center.
You are correct. Even if the gravity is the same whole way to the other end, can you reach a speed of 18000 kph+?
Sorry I don’t do killermeters per hour, you have to be very careful around killer anything’s, killer watts, killer volts. Lol
Not to mention the earth’s core is close to 9800 degrees F. Be close to a cinder long before you got half way.
According to the “experts” the center of the earth is molten rock so it would not be very much fun at that part of the slide. I don’t know how they know this as I’ve never heard of anyone who has drilled to that depth. I know of two daffy nitions of an expert; A stranger in town carrying a brief case, or if you breakdown the word expert you get an Ex or has been and a (s)pert is a drip under pressure. Sorry that’s the best I can do at 5:45AM.
Wellll, maybe in the CA non existent bullet train in an insulated tube. 😄
Just a question? How hard would it to be for you to put a link at the bottom of the comments on each article to take the reader back to where he left the main newsletter? I hate scrolling all the way up to the top, or forgetting that and getting out of the newsletter altogether and having to start all over at the first. Maybe it’s just me!!
This may not be relevant to you, Ron, since I use a tablet to read my RV Travel Daily Tips and not my PC, but for each story I want to read, I long-press the link for that story tease, and choose Open Link In New Tab., and then continue reading the main Daily Tips page. After reviewing comments at the bottom and offering my own thoughts, or not… I close that main page and continue to each of the new open tabs I have waiting.
Personally, I miss the thumbs up-thumbs down feature.
Hey Chuck, you’re not paying attention to your readers! I see many readers wanting the “thumbs up/down” back in some way or another!
Snoopy
There are many who are just fine without that feature!
WHY do you need to see “Likes” (or dislikes)? Go to Facebook for that. :-/
👍
Hi David,
No, we hear you. We talked a lot about this when we made the decision to do away with the up/down votes.
Chuck’s refrain is that he views RVtravel like sitting around the campfire discussing the day’s events with his fellow RVers. Discussing the trials, triumphs and tribulations of RVing and RV life. In the real world, we don’t sit around a campsite with sticking our thumbs up or down when someone says something, that would be rude.
We prefer you engage with your fellow readers and help enlarge the community. We want you to chip in with your thoughts on the article or on a comment.
But we can do without the up/down finality votes. They just don’t add to the community.
And this is another possibility. We turned this off as an automatic function for most of our readers because it’s considered to be a bad practice on the web and when our readers have many tabs open, it draws resources on our server. It is still an option but I’d request that you close the extra tabs when done.
-thanks, Kim
If you’re viewing the newsletter on a PC in a browser, if you hold down the “Ctrl” key while clicking on the link, the new page will open up in a new tab. When finished with that and you want to return to the original newsletter, just close the new tab and you will be returned to the page on the place you originally left it from!
Got any tips on the subject for those of us who read on a smartphone (Android 7)?
Hi Dave,
Yes, if the “back” button doesn’t take you back on Android, you can open in a new tab by long clicking on any link and choosing “Open in a new tab”.
For our iPhone and iPad users the process is the same.
Kim
Hi Norb,
Good advice, a few things:
Thanks,
Kim
I use an iPad for this and when I have finished and start to go back to the top a small blue arrow appears in the upper left corner of my screen and clicking the arrow takes me back to the start of the article. Sometimes I miss and click the black arrow above it and it takes me back to the front of the email as you say.
Hi Ron,
You would think we could do this easily, right? Well, because we have two versions of the weekend newsletter (one for members and one for non-members) we can’t set up an easy return link to where you came from. It’s a manual process to link back to every story at the point you left the original newsletter and that’s a fair amount of work.
But good news, I tested several browsers and used the ◀︎ (back) button and typically they will return you to where you left off. If your browser does not do that you may be viewing RVtravel in a private browsing window (so your browser isn’t keeping track of where you’ve been) or possibly you’re using an older browser that doesn’t support that function. But the back function should take you right back to where you left off in the newsletter if it’s functioning correctly.
Hope that helps!
Best,
Kim
Kim,
Could the comments section default to oldest first? I change this every time.