Issue 1975
Welcome to RV Travel’s Daily Tips Newsletter, where you’ll find helpful RV-related tips from the pros, travel advice, product reviews and more. Thanks for joining us. Please tell your friends about us.
Today’s thought
“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” ―
TOMORROW: Chatting with Chuck
RVtravel.com founder and publisher Chuck Woodbury, along with a friend or two, meets up with his readers, talking about RVing — sort of like sitting around a campfire, except no campfire (not allowed in cyberspace). Please join the discussion via chat, or just lurk and learn a little and have some fun. Starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time (1 p.m. Eastern), tomorrow, Oct. 22. Watch on YouTube • Watch on Facebook.
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day!
On this day in history: 1879 – Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.
Tip of the Day
Why you should carry an extra hose in the RV
Sometimes as RVers we aren’t sure of what gear to carry. After all, there’s only so much space in the rig—being piled from floor to ceiling isn’t conducive to moving about freely. But there’s one thing you may want to carry more than one of: a water hose.
Keeping a long water hose in the rig is always a given, particularly if you frequent RV parks with hookups. But a short, coupled water hose, just a few feet long, can make life a whole lot easier when on the road.
Today’s RV review…
Reminder: Tony is stepping back from his daily RV reviews for now. Here’s a note from him:
I want to share with you that I am stepping back from my daily RV reviews. I will still review a new model RV in every Saturday’s newsletter, highlighting the best of what I see. I will also continue writing regular gadget reviews and editing the Great RV Accessories newsletter. And I’ll have some other contributions here and there.
For previous RV reviews, click here.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Even though Tony is irreplaceable, we’ll bring back RV reviews on a daily basis beginning soon, and, of course, Tony will have a review every Saturday.
CONTEST! Is this your RV?
Win a $25 Amazon gift certificate if today’s RV photo shows your rig
Every day we post a photo of an RV either submitted by its owner or by our editors as they move about the country.
Click here to see if your RV made it into today’s issue.
Ask Dave
Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and author of the “RV Handbook.”
Dealer says my RV’s air shocks aren’t adjustable. What?!
Dear Dave,
How do you adjust the air pressure on air shocks? My dealer says you can’t adjust them. My manual says you can add air to make them stiffer or let air out so the unit will ride softer. —Harry, 2019 Forest River Forester 3271SF
Video of the day
Historic 1950s Wally Byam Airstream caravan tour of Mexico
By Cheri Sicard
This is an incredible historic video of an incredible two-month-long RV trip undertaken by members of Wally Byam’s Caravaners club in the 1950s. (The date was not given, but it is post-1954, as the video references that earlier caravan.)
This is RV travel as I wish it still was. Although I understand such an undertaking today would likely be even more of a logistical nightmare than it had to have been back then. For instance, there is no way I can imagine a caravan of 200-plus Airstreams in the streets of downtown modern Mexico City!
UV protection for RV tires
By Roger Marble
This is a reprint of a post I did in 2014 on UV tire protection. The facts and data have not changed. For some time I have been reading posts and advertisements about tire covers and UV protection. As an engineer, I prefer FACTS over sales PR. This investigation has taken more time than I originally wanted as I needed a reasonable way to measure UV and a day with full sun – not something easy to find in NE Ohio [when this was written in April]. Continue reading.
You may have missed these recent popular stories…
- GM spanked in $102M class action lawsuit—Should RVers go after Elkhart?
- Hitchless towing unveiled by Toyota: Is this the future of RVing?
- New RV sales head downward—What’s the future hold?
- I want to dump our RV Dish TV service
Reader poll
Do you plan a special drive to view fall colors?
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?? MYSTERY PRODUCT OF THE DAY ??
Wrap yourself up like a burrito! No, really, do that… Or like a pizza, or waffle, or warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie… Click here to see how.
Quick Tip
Check between your duallies
Take an occasional peek between your dual tires to make sure nothing has wedged in there. If it seems like something has been there a while, it might be best to have a tire shop inspect for damage.
On this day last year…
- Tip: Adjusting trailer brake controllers
- RV Review: 2022 Keystone Springdale 282BH
- Ask Dave: Should a hitch ball be greased or not?
- Featured article: Basement storage disorganized? Fix it!
- Recipe: Cheese Dip That Will Make You Famous
Website of the day
Current Gasoline and Diesel prices
Every Sunday we tell you the current price of gas and diesel in the U.S. Here’s the site we get that information from.
Clubs and useful organizations
PLEASE NOTE: We may receive an affiliate commission if you join any of these.
• Harvest Hosts: Stay free at farms, wineries and other scenic and peaceful locations for free. Save 15% on membership.
• AllStays: The best website for RVers! Your membership will become your RV-bible.
• Boondockers Welcome: Stay at homes of RVers who welcome you in their driveways, yards, farmland or other space on their private property. Modest membership fee.
• Escapees: Best Club for RVers: All RVers welcome, no matter what type of RV, make or model.
• Road Trip Wizard: Make your RV road trip planning easier than ever.
Recipe of the Day
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins
by Sherri Greer from Smithsburg, MD
Super tender, these pumpkin muffins are filled with chocolate chips in every bite. It has a fall feel to it, but you’re not overwhelmed with pumpkin spice. Cinnamon is the more prominent flavor. Canned pumpkin helps make the muffin moist and adds just the right sweetness. We like using a combination of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour in this recipe. It gives them a slightly different texture than your normal muffin. They’re a bit chewy, but not dry. A delicious pumpkin muffin for fall.
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Trivia
Champagne can polish your shoes and in the early 20th century, in fact, that’s what most people used to do! Give it a try and let us know how it works.
*How did the beloved Addams Family get their start? Yesterday’s trivia tells you this timely answer.
Readers’ Pets of the Day
“We adopted these two Beagle/Pekingese mixes, Minnie and Pearl, last week from Basset & Beagle Rescue of the Heartland. They are four months old. Our hearts are full but our minds think we have gone crazy. Life has become a full-time RV puppy-wrangling adventure. Our cat, Frank, thinks his life is ruined and we are not to be forgiven.” —Patti Hooper
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. No blurry photos, please! Please do not submit your photo more than once. Thanks!
Leave here with a laugh
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Contact information
Editor: Emily Woodbury
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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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I never used champagne to polish my shoes – but we used to use the regular military “spit shine” – I also enhanced that sometimes with Old Spice shaving lotion. The alcohol seems to set the shine and make it deeper. I was initially in Air Force Security (Air) Police which required spit shined boots – top to bottom!
Pretty funny. The gasoline/diesel price webpage you use is one of the many pages published by the federal agency (U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical agency of the U.S. Department of Energy) for which I worked many years (as in decades) and from whuch I retired 4 years ago. Hopefully recent retirements (not me, important former-colleagues) will not adversely affect the quality of the published data.
Saint Mother Teresa😇
Traveling in Mexico in the 50’s looked so glamorous and safe back then.
We were thinking of getting rid of our dish, but this time of year, we use it often. With Hallmark, football and even Circle TV we are ok paying. What we don’t like is paying for old shows we can get OTA. As for the new shows and movies, we to wonder why they have to copy old ones and redo them. Can’t people come up with their own ideas. It’s like redoing a song, it may be ok, but for those who heard the original, it’s still not as good. Bad enough you got spin offs . Don’t be lazy, think and come up with your own. That’s my opinion only.
Looks like some political strings are being pulled at the EIA. Diesel does not takes as much refining as gasoline. I wonder if this is an attempt to justify the greater cost incurred at the pump and for all products transported by diesel. After all there are more gasoline voters than diesel.
20 gals of gas out of a barrel of oil and 12 in total of other fuels like diesel, jet fuel, & heating oil. Global diesel demand is growing more rapidly. Future projections: diesel consumption at 30M bbls/day vs 27M of gas. If the world needs about the same amount of diesel as gas but a bbl of oil can only produce half as much other fuels, then what happens to diesel prices relative to gasoline? Enough diesel production = flood the gas market. Enough gas = diesel market restricted.
Besides motor fuel, plastic is made out of oil.since the government wants everyone to have high speed internet, a staging area for TDS is right down the street and has miles and miles of 2″ orange tubing (oil ) that will protect the fiber optic cable (oil) . And the pex waterlines and electrical wires and the hated plastic bags and tires and your gardenhose Thd real question us, how much of our oil stays in the US and how much is exported to other countrys? Even our enemy’s thru straw purchases.
Nope, the low sulfur requirement in 2010 created a huge gap supply vs demand, many refineries thought that the environmental agencies would not actually enforce the new requirements. They did. Many plants are not making diesel as they cannot meet the new requirement and the modifications to a refinery to produce losuldiesel is right at a billion-dollar investment.
Leave here with a laugh was great!
Pet of the day made me smile. We’re on our own puppy-wrangling trip (1 pup, 6 months old, no cat) and it is NOT going well. At age 70+ have we lost our minds? Our kids think so.
Yes, like us you have lost your mind, lol. They are fun though.
My Cairn Terrorist, Bobby is a rescue. There is just something about a rescue dog that so wonderful. Getting 2 of them at one time is really ambitious, but double the love. And if you need help with them, I’m sure Frank will keep them in line!
When our cats died after 20 years we vowed NO MORE PETS! No cats, dogs, fish, gerbils, not even an ant farm. So far we’re holding steady – but we are dyed in the wool cat lovers. Maybe adopt a 15 year old lazy fat cat that just wants to sleep – like me.
We said the same thing, so after 9 year it is still holding true.
I got a giggle thinking about Frank the cat not forgiving his owners for adopting two dogs. Cats are very funny. Some act like you live with them instead of other way around.
We are the cats pet and Frank owns us, exactly. 😊
What do you do about Franks claws with leather furniture??
As you probably already know, in
Ancient Egypt cats were worshiped as gods. We no longer do so but cats have a difference in opinion
There’s no way in hades that I’m wasting one single drop of Champaign on a shoe!
The residents of Champaign in Illinois would probably appreciate you not polishing your shoes there even if you did use Champagne. Ain’t language wunnerful!
If you have enough champagne to polish your shoes, just drink it and you won’t care what the shoes look like!
SO true!
Frank sure looks like he has it tough
He sure does. 😊