Issue 902 • May 17, 2018
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QUICK TIPS
GPS home security advice follow-up
We have advised that you never put your “home” coordinates in your GPS, so if a crook steals your GPS and keys he won’t know where to go and clean you out. Well, we heard from Steve B., Kurt, and Tony M., who all advised putting in the local police station as the “home” address. (Would that be a case of “poetic justice”?) But then George B. wrote that he lost a handheld Magellan while out hunting 300 miles from home. About two months later another hunter found the device. Turned out the man lived about 12 miles from George and after tracking the coordinates to George’s “home” (in the GPS) he returned the GPS to its rightful owner. George says, “I’ve told this story many times of how my GPS found it’s own way home. One more case of having trust in humanity.”
Forward your calls at home to your cell phone
If you have a cell phone and no one is home when you travel, forward all your home calls to your cell phone when you are away from home for long periods. Thanks to Bobbie Verstraete for this tip!
Another possible cause for sticky tank valves
All hard-to-open-and-close gray and black water tank valves may not be due to sticky valves. Often the cable gets dry or corroded. When the handle is pulled out (the tank valve is open) liberally spray a lubricant on the exposed wire. Run the handle in and out and do this several times. You’ll likely find this makes opening and closing the valves much easier. Thanks, George Bliss!
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MORE QUICK TIPS
Toilet water conservation and cleaning tips
“We have a Thetford Tecma macerating toilet in our class A. It has a large porcelain toilet bowl. The toilet flushes using either the large flush button or the small flush button. The large flush uses a lot of water. Well, I soon found out that I had to dump way more often than when we had a regular RV toilet like in the fivers we had. We decided that we should operate on the “when it’s yellow let it mellow, when it’s brown flush it down” rule. It increased time between dumps by days. We also found that usually the small flush works fine even if it is brown. You can keep the urine smell down to a reasonable level by closing both toilet lids. But, we also noticed that the uric acid sitting in the bowl for hours would stain the toilet bowl, and eventually we couldn’t completely remove the stains with whatever product we tried to clean the bowl with. Remembering my high school chemistry that baking soda is a good acid neutralizing base, we tried putting in a half tablespoon of baking soda three or four times per bowl fill. No more stains and the bowl looks nice and shiny.” Thanks to Bill Newman!
Full-time RVer Mike Millard sent in the following tip: “Regarding RV day/night shades, my Monaco Diplomat has two-part pull-down shades. The lower part lets light in and acts as a dust filter while letting me see out during the day. The upper part, when fully lowered, is supposed to darken the RV interior but doesn’t quite do the trick, so I bought a can of liquid rubber. It comes in black or white and either works fine, although the black stops a little more light. I took down each shade and sprayed the upper ‘darkening’ part only. What a difference, and the shade still accordions upward!” Thanks, Mike!
Best selling RV products at Amazon
We’re not sure about this, but our guess is that no other retailer has a larger selection of products and accessories for your RV than Amazon.com. In most cases, if a product is available anywhere, Amazon has it, and typically at a great price. Of all those products, click here to see the current best sellers.Â
WEBSITES OF THE DAY
Dictation
We were pretty impressed when we learned about this website. Enable the microphone on your computer and speak! The website transcribes everything you say, so you can then copy/paste it into whatever! Instead of typing a long email, just speak it!Â
Road Trip Songs
Here’s an excellent list of songs to listen to as you go down the open road! Happy travels!Â
29 Summer slow-cooker recipes
Did someone say pulled pork? Be right there!Â
Check out the long list of great RVing-related websites from RVtravel.com.
Lightweight vacuum perfect for RVs
This Dirt Devil Simpli-Stick Lightweight Bagless Stick Vacuum is compact and it works great. Plus it converts to a hand vacuum in a snap! It’s the vacuum of choice in the RV Travel motorhome. Weighs less than 4 pounds. Learn more or order for about $20.
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LEAVE HERE WITH A LAUGH
A burglar enters a home. All of a sudden a voice pipes up, “I can see you, and so can Jesus!” Startled, the burglar looks around. No one is there, so he gets back to business. Soon, the voice repeats, “I can see you, and so can Jesus!” The burglar jumps and takes a longer look around the room. Over in a corner, partially obscured by curtains, is a caged parrot, which pipes up again, “I can see you, and so can Jesus!” “So what?” asks the annoyed burglar. “You’re only a parrot!” To which the parrot replies, “Maybe, but Jesus is a Rottweiler!”
Today’s Daily Deals at Amazon.com
Best-selling RV products and Accessories at Amazon.com. UPDATED HOURLY.
RV Daily Tips Staff
Editor and Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Associate editor: Deanna Tolliver. Staff writer: Emily Woodbury. Contributing writers: Russ De Maris, Bob Difley, Gary Bunzer, Roger Marble, Mike Sokol, J.M. Montigel and Andrew Robinson. Advertising coordinator: Gail Meyring.
ADVERTISE on RVtravel.com and/or in this newsletter. Contact Gail Meyring at Gail(at)RVtravel.com .
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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Our dinnerware in 4 rigs has been paper plates and foam cups. Silverware & pans are the only things we are interested in washing when on the road
Amazon does not sell trucks. Just had a chat with Amazon and that is what they told me.
That’s interesting, Ralph. When you click on the link in our newsletter, it shows there are 4,000 vehicles listed. And here’s a comment on the page:
Amazon Vehicles Expert Review
To help you find the vehicle that best suits your needs, automotive experts from within Amazon are test driving a handful of popular cars, trucks and SUVS and reporting back on what they like and don’t like. In the coming months, we will publish their editorial reviews right here on Amazon Vehicles.
However, it appears that when you click on the model you’re interested in, you can then click on another link for parts and accessories on Amazon.com for it (not to order the vehicle itself). Also, you can read other owners’ comments about it, see and compare the specs with other vehicles, and ask questions of other owners. Sounds more like a blog or forum, but with a link for vehicle parts through Amazon.com.
Thanks, Ralph! We’ll correct our ad. —Diane at RVtravel.com
For saving water: At night we turn the pump off and flush normally – just no water. In the morning a quick flush with a bit of water and all is sparkling clean! BTW – because we both only appreciate double-ply TP it goes into a small trash bag that gets removed every day, it doesn’t go into the tank.
Why do you put the TP in a trash bag? We use Costco 2ply in all our rv’s, current and past, and have never had a problem with it. I’ve heard of people doing this on some rv forums and it just doesn’t make any sense. 2 ply will work just fine. That’s really nasty putting used tp in a bag. Ewwwww
Most of the world does it. We do it at home as we have a small filter type septic tank. What Marilyn R. does with the toilet and the paper we do in both our home and the rv. Saves a ton of water. It’s a very valuable resource and not much of it left.
Apparently you have not traveled much outside of the USA?
There’s an ad for the Dirt Devil SimpliStick vacuum. I want to recommend this product. It is not for carpets as there is no rotating beater brush. It is outstanding on bare floors and is easy to empty and clean. Very strong suction.
I have a few questions about Straight Talk Wireless from Walmart. Do you have it and is the service good? How is the coverage around the U.S.? How is the data plan?
The service people are awful. They can’t speak English that you can understand. If you try to explain something or argue with them, they will just hang up.
My dump valves have metal rods, no cables.
Metal rods or metal cables they still need lubrication…….
We have a dishwasher, but I use it for dish storage. It is just too wasteful of water to use. Also, we have a trash compactor that I just use as the holder for a regular trash can. This is a 1995 Prevost Marathon that was decked out with all of the gadgets of the day.
Our coach also came with a dishwasher and my DW wanted to pull it out and put in an oven. Since we bought the coach late in season, we decided to wait until the following year to have it done… that way all parts would be on hand at the dealer. However, after using the dishwasher for the remainder of that season and some of the following, she told me that I could only remove it over her dead body. That was five years ago, and not only does she use it daily, it has operated perfectly the entire time.
Hi! FYI. The 29 summer slow cooker recipes link opened to, what appears, selected food items found at various venues. They all look really good but it was not recipes.
I really enjoy your newsletter.
Thanks
Hi, Ellen. Thanks for writing (and for reading our newsletters!). Below each picture is the name of the dish and a description, and then the suggestion to “Get the recipe from Delish”. If you click on “Delish” it takes you to the recipe. Hope this helps. (Those recipes look good!) —Diane at RVtravel.com