By Gail Marsh
If you think leaf blowers are just for blowing leaves into piles to easily pick up, you’re wrong! We originally packed our leaf blower into our RV’s basement for a work-camping job. It didn’t take long to discover many other handy ways that the leaf blower helped us as we traveled in our RV.
Here are a few ideas for more ways to use leaf blowers:
• The leaf blower easily gets rid of small sticks, leaves, and other debris on top of the slide-outs. We use the blower each time we retract our slides. The same goes for the awning. A quick blast of the leaf blower and dust, spider webs, and more are gone! Ditto for your outside patio mat and/or toy hauler deck. A leaf blower works much easier (and quicker) than a broom.
• Use a leaf blower to clear dust, leaves, and more from the bed of your truck. (Be sure to remove loose items first!)
• A light covering of snow is no match for a leaf blower. Use it to clear the windshield and get on the road sooner. A leaf blower will remove that green pollen haze on your windshield, too.
• Use the leaf blower to dry your newly washed vehicle. Start at the top and blow downward, back and forth, for no spots or streaks.
• Parked under a tree? Use the leaf blower to clear your roof of acorns, pine needles, and other debris.
• Can’t figure out how to sweep out your basement storage area? Remove all of the basement items and then use the leaf blower to completely remove dirt, sawdust, sand, and any other detritus from the storage bay.
Cautions
• Always wear safety protection: earplugs, dust mask, goggles, and gloves.
• Make sure no children or pets are nearby. The leaf blower can potentially hurt a passerby as it kicks up dust, rocks, and sticks.
• Always let the leaf blower’s engine cool down before refueling. This will prevent gas vapors from igniting if they contact a hot engine.
• If your leaf blower has several power settings, always choose the lowest setting possible. A powerful blower can easily damage frayed or degraded materials. Experiment first with a low-setting mode before proceeding.
Here’s a highly-rated (electric) leaf blower for under $40.
RVT1234
We have used ours to help get a fire started a few times too!
The gas blower gets used in the fall, but the battery powered blower finds work to do all year around.
Finally broke down and bought a well-rated corded electric blower. Much less expensive than gas or cordless and it quickly breaks down for easier storage. Not quiet, but less noisy than gas operated. And campsites aren’t THAT big. A 50′ cord has always been more than long enough.
One caution on blowers. I used a blower to “sweep” my school bus as well as church vehicles. The school bus had a switch console which included a low heating duct. Trash would accumulate over time under that console and into that heating duct. So be careful about areas that might trap any trash.
They are TOO NOISY!! Like constantly barking dogs, loud generators & screaming kids, they disturb the peace that many of us are seeking when we camp. Please leave them home.
Yeah Rebecca.
The last thing we need is the noise pollution of leaf blowers. I hate them at home and hate them more in an otherwise peaceful campsite. Nope, nope, nopity, nope.
I just received a new battery leaf blower [EWORK] from Amazon, not as heavy as a corded blower. I went out to blow large leaves pile from curb. worked great. Will be taking it with me on RV trips. I did not realize how powerful it would be. $49.99.
Our leaf blower has an attachment for sucking up leaves, turning them into mulch. Several times through and the consistency is perfect. Stored in open construction bags in a shed, it is used as biodegradable mulch in flower and vegetable gardens.