00;00;28;25 - 00;00;52;16

Unknown

These things are so cool. This is Eric Stark with the Smart RV or podcast delivering the Smarts. You need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down. Now let's talk everything RV. Today we're doing episode 157, so let's just dig into this. Welcome to the show, Alexis. Thanks, Eric. I'm happy to be here.

00;00;52;21 - 00;01;16;19

Unknown

You've come back one more time. I have maybe my last. Who's back? What I need to know about. I'm just Joe. I'll check this out. Alexis is turning a resignation right in a bad lie for everybody in America. We like the drama and hopefully. Just kidding, right, folks? I'm just kidding. Alexis isn't going anywhere. We got a ball and chain on her.

00;01;16;22 - 00;01;43;21

Unknown

She's shackled to the Tell me. Yeah, the blank is actually the orchids, Amy. All right, so here we are. So we're going to be talking all our stuff today. And, you know, there's so much stuff going on out there in the RV world. Good, bad and otherwise. We're going to try to focus on the good today. Yeah. So none of my rants about dealerships, how bad they are or is going to focus on the good.

00;01;43;24 - 00;02;04;13

Unknown

Sounds good. So let's start with conserving water while dry camping and enjoying the RV life. You know, a lot of our viewers are very familiar with how to conserve, but sometimes there's something maybe they're not thinking about or someone new to the RV. Like, you know, we have, you know, 10,000 people listening to this episode. Someone's got to be new out there.

00;02;04;16 - 00;02;29;22

Unknown

All right. We all season the experts. Exactly. So the Lexus, we got nine tips here. You want to run through these? Sure. So conserving water, that's kind of a huge deal when you're especially when you're dry camping. One is understanding your water usage. Two is checking for leaks. That's a huge one. We have water saving fixtures on here, but most derbies come with that anyway.

00;02;29;25 - 00;02;50;17

Unknown

Taking Navy showers is one I thought was good because I've done this, I just didn't know it was coined is called this. But yo, you wet yourself, you travel the water and then you slip up and then you rinse off. So it's just a way to really save but still be clean, which is nice. You can use disposable wipes, but please folks, do not flush them down your toilet.

00;02;50;17 - 00;03;13;08

Unknown

Your RV toilet cannot take that. The tank can not handle that. So don't do that if you're going to use them, throw them in a garbage. Optimize dishwashing. One thing we were talking about was using soap that's safe with a bacterial enzyme that's probably in your holding tank. So using certain soaps can kill that which you don't want to do because then you know it won't work, right?

00;03;13;08 - 00;03;33;25

Unknown

It'll stink. You can cook efficiently. Kind of prepping for meal and cleanup, knowing what you're going to use and kind of planning for that. Your monitor usage. We've talked about making a hand-washing station outside of your RV, so that means if you have kids or just, you know yourself, you can wash your hands outside, conserve more water that way.

00;03;33;27 - 00;03;58;23

Unknown

And then the last one is carry extra water. That's just a smart tip no matter what. Just have extra water on hand. You can use it instead of using the sink or the shower all the time. Emergencies come up, so just having additional water with you is smart. Went through that efficiently. Plus nine points. So this is available on the smart RV care.com and are enjoying the RV life.

00;03;58;25 - 00;04;14;15

Unknown

So these points are very important. And like I said, some people are used to it. They already do this, others are new to it. So these might be some new things or maybe something in here that you haven't been doing that like the disposable wipes that make sense to clean things up, you know, wiping down the kitchen table, doing whatever.

00;04;14;16 - 00;04;38;03

Unknown

Yeah, Yeah. When you're dry camping, you don't want to run out. Even if you're being conservative and you think you have a lot more water than really what you will use. Yeah, let's say weekend you have to go home with extra water is a good thing as emergencies come up. Exactly. Yeah. If you're down to the last gallon, when you pack up your RV and you're going home, you need water for an emergency of some kind cars or heating or whatever.

00;04;38;06 - 00;04;54;00

Unknown

Now you don't have it, so it's always better to have extra. So conserving helps. Then, you know, you can take that longer shower if you want to in the last night or whatever. But also the water that goes from your freshwater tank, if you're using it, it also goes into your gray water tank right. That'll fill up, too.

00;04;54;02 - 00;05;11;03

Unknown

Mm hmm. So all these things have a purpose. And it's good to think about that when you're out dry camping, especially when you have family with kids. Kids have a tendency of wasting water. They do. And then you run out sooner, and then everyday is yelling at each other. Nobody's mad They got to go home or there's no more water.

00;05;11;09 - 00;05;33;15

Unknown

Yep. Hopefully they're mad because no more water won't be. Well, why not care? Yeah, exactly. Water smarter. Who needs that now, man? There we go. Yeah. Alexis is running for the door. All right, So. Okay. Now. Yeah. I said go to our website. So it's just a nice reminder. I want to throw this one plug in for us out here today.

00;05;33;15 - 00;06;02;03

Unknown

And this is it. There's. I'm going to say for us today, we have over 10,000 people listening to this podcast. So what I'd really love to see is 10,000 new views on our YouTube channel. Yeah, go to our YouTube channel and watch at least one video. Do it like it. Subscribe. Let's make this happen. Let's turn this channel into some of this on fire.

00;06;02;04 - 00;06;18;18

Unknown

We're getting some traction, but we got great videos there. You know, we really want everybody to look at them, watch them. And sometimes we while we do parts of this show, the same down the road becomes videos. We got a new video. This could be coming out we're going to talk about in the next episode, which you guys are going to love this one.

00;06;18;21 - 00;06;40;20

Unknown

It's going to save you tons of money if you have a dramatic toilet. But go to our YouTube channel. All 10,000 of you don't do it all today or you get an hour, a few days. Well, I'll show you what we got. Okay. What we're made of, how we stick together. That's right. Next step. So we're going to talk about community Celeste, you know, show it will display that before you get to that next episode, there we go.

00;06;40;21 - 00;07;05;18

Unknown

00;07;05;21 - 00;07;32;09

Unknown

00;07;32;11 - 00;07;56;23

Unknown

But what have I walked away with? You know, one thing that Alexis and I were talking about yesterday was then numbers versus model numbers. Yeah. Yeah. And what I mean by that is one of the one. Well, it starts off as a well, sometimes a question or it's a statement, but it's leading into a question. I have the VIN number of my RV.

00;07;56;24 - 00;08;20;23

Unknown

Can you tell me what awnings on it or what furnace is in it or what whatever's on it, Right. Well, we're not a dealership, so we don't sell different RVs. So Vin numbers are meaningless to us. They don't help us. No, there's some app out there I don't know about, but at this point, they're meaningless. Now, to a dealer who sells your brand of RV that VIN number could have some value.

00;08;20;25 - 00;08;38;01

Unknown

00;08;38;04 - 00;08;59;22

Unknown

00;08;59;25 - 00;09;19;28

Unknown

The day you have to use VIN number is more in the You do yeah yeah but not with our RVs but our RVs is the model number of the appliance or the part you're looking at. And so you know we get asked the question trying to find out what furnace they have, you know, hey, can you tell me what my furnace has or or, you know, how come I a furnace isn't working?

00;09;20;00 - 00;09;39;15

Unknown

And so we ask which model furnace is it? Then it goes back. Well, I got the VIN number. Okay, we need the model number, the furnace, that is. Well, I don't have that. I have the VIN number and that we explain that doesn't help us. And then is the model number and this is why I preach about the model numbers, writing them down.

00;09;39;17 - 00;09;55;25

Unknown

You know, if you buy out the time one day, go through your RV and write all your model numbers down in a book and just keep that book handy, be smart. Then if it changes your opening water pump in does write down the new number, a new furnace, which I don't now and often, but air conditioner refrigerator. It makes life so much easier.

00;09;55;25 - 00;10;18;25

Unknown

You know is talking to a guy about his refrigerator. You know there's there's a thousand questions right there. This refrigerator thing. And the model number is the refrigerator here is on the back side of it. So he literally has to take the refrigerator out to get the model. He says, I've already done this a couple times. And I suggested writing the down.

00;10;18;28 - 00;10;38;19

Unknown

He thought it was a novel approach, you know, So while, yeah, let's not do this, you know, how many times have you looked at the model number? Just write it down or, you know, keep it online or, you know, on your phone or book a physical book. Just keep it some place. All right. So that got a little sidetracked there.

00;10;38;19 - 00;11;06;17

Unknown

But that's part of the learning thing. What we learn is, you know, that our customers don't realize VIN numbers don't work in most applications. And now another thing, too, that's pretty interesting is that our our customer base, our fan base, our audience, it ranges from persons with almost no skills to the do it yourself or who's on steroids.

00;11;06;19 - 00;11;29;16

Unknown

And so there's a big difference there between those two groups of people. Yeah. Then you have all sorts of varying skill sets in between there. But what we find is the ones with no skills sometimes teams or very little, they don't really want to develop a skill set. They don't want to be able to check that fuze ourself.

00;11;29;16 - 00;11;47;11

Unknown

They want to be able to take it to a dealership or RV repair center and have them do it. Cost so much more, though cost more the time involved. You got to take the RV and maybe you have to leave it all day or all week. Pick. Yeah, all week anymore. Pick it up. Then you find out just a fuze.

00;11;47;14 - 00;12;13;04

Unknown

Yeah. Add some. You could have done it. Maybe you canceled your RV trip and the fuze. Exactly. So if you're in that category, develop some skill sets. It will not kill you, man. I promise. And then by the same token, you have to do it yourself or on steroids. Who knows? His RV inside and out. Yeah. And you know, we're all guilty of this.

00;12;13;04 - 00;12;43;13

Unknown

I know. I do it when I'm talking to customers, whether it's in person on the phone. Sometimes I'm already jumping ahead to what they're I think they're going to say I'm not listening anymore. And so that's bad on my part. But by the same token, it can happen the other way where someone's not listening to me. Yeah, and I'm asking questions and I'm trying to get down a path here and then the questions don't get answered as sometimes it's okay.

00;12;43;18 - 00;13;09;00

Unknown

All right. Okay. Now let's go back to the question, right? You know, whatever it is, and we waste a lot of time. And so it's like I do the same thing. I mean, I'm guilty of it. So I try to correct myself to make sure I'm listening. And I'm not jumping ahead to question, because sometimes when I really just sit and listen, even though it's taken a long time to get there, finally it gets to the point.

00;13;09;00 - 00;13;33;20

Unknown

It's like, okay, I wasn't expecting that. This is what I was expecting. Now that changes the direction of this, but it makes more sense. Yeah, because the way the conversation started then where that path took us. So the point is we need to listen, all of us to add. You know, sometimes the questions I might ask, questions that seem ridiculous, like, holy smokes, man, what is this guy thinking?

00;13;33;23 - 00;13;52;29

Unknown

But they're all building up to there's a reason, you know, all building up to something. Yesterday, I was helping somebody on the phone and he kept saying there, Kovacs Cable run from the circuit breakers to the outlets, like, Are you sure? And I described Kovacs Cable. Yep, Yep, yep. And by the end of the day, no, that wasn't it.

00;13;53;02 - 00;14;16;24

Unknown

It's just regular all roll max cabling. Yeah. And that what he was describing made no sense that it totally sidetrack the entire diagnosing process is like, Wow, this is just bizarre. You know, they use this. This is weird. Yeah. Yeah. Now and I'm not saying that's every conversation, but things like that, you know we got to be sure what we're talking about and patient's got to be patient.

00;14;16;24 - 00;14;38;19

Unknown

So I've learned a lot. Yes. These phone calls, you know, they every has to be patient with me. I got to be patient with you. Exactly. That's the way it works. Yes. And then the other thing that is so handy and I love it when some customers are really on the on the ball with this where they not only will text those pictures, but they'll like, draw on them and point out an arrow pointing to what they're talking about.

00;14;38;21 - 00;14;56;24

Unknown

But and that's all nice and that's great. That's a person that's very capable. They like computers. They're like technology. They're very comfortable at their phone. But batteries that way, yeah, like I can do all that stuff, but I'm not going to do it unless you push me and, you know. Yeah, you know, So I'll text you a picture.

00;14;56;24 - 00;15;21;05

Unknown

You figure it out. But texting pictures helps out so much because there's so many things that, you know, I mean, we think we know exactly what you're talking about. And maybe it's this better example, something in the store. Someone will describe something. Oh, yeah, I need a new cover for my propane tanks. Okay. So you got two seven, two £30 tanks.

00;15;21;05 - 00;15;35;25

Unknown

Yeah, that's easy. I could ever need the cover that goes on it on them. And so we or we have if we don't have the cover, let's say we have to order it because we're out of stock. We get a man and call the guy. We got your covers in near your cover and he comes down is why I don't need that.

00;15;35;28 - 00;16;09;14

Unknown

I need the little lid that goes on top. Yeah. Where you flip it up and you can turn the valves on and off. Yep. And you're like, Oh, so pitchers want to help that right? Communication, you know, that clear understanding of things. And so it goes back to that listening or explaining, explaining. Right. You know, and just thinking about, you know, the amount of questions that I get asked, you know, one thing I learned is sometimes by the end of the day, I mean, I'm pretty tired of questions.

00;16;09;16 - 00;16;31;29

Unknown

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ask Alexis and Karen. Eric for you, Grouchy. Are they human questions? But, you know, the questions are what everybody has. I mean, I go to the stores and I ask questions about things. Maybe it's a car or I don't know, whatever. I mean, I pretty much know everything, so it doesn't matter now. Oh, wow. But, you know, I ask questions and I know sometimes the guy doesn't understand what I'm asking.

00;16;32;01 - 00;16;50;00

Unknown

Maybe his skill set is not as high as I thought it was. So I got to lower the quality of the real dumbed down. The question, I guess, you know, you know, and make it easier for the person to understand or draw, you know, make it a little more clear. And in the Dummy's Guide to figure out Harper guy to Eric.

00;16;50;02 - 00;17;17;00

Unknown

There we go. Yeah. And you know you can get mad. I'm doesn't do any good now. Stupid doesn't do any good. You know it just makes the the conversation more intense. Yeah. And you know, listening to people, all the questions are almost all the same. It's always the same things about furnaces, refrigerators, air conditioners, cars. It's. Why doesn't it work?

00;17;17;05 - 00;17;44;02

Unknown

All right. That's the you know, why doesn't it work is the biggest question we have, regardless of what it is. And then I would say second to that would probably be about our Sun pro products, windshield covers on in slide out fabrics, maybe. How do you measure things like that? Oh, yes. So, you know, to say that I've learned so much about these questions, you know, it's just changed my life.

00;17;44;02 - 00;18;14;23

Unknown

I don't think I can say that. Yeah. But I've learned that people have a lot of problems with RV's and they want to fix them, whether it's themselves or having a company do it. But it's that desire to get it fixed and fixed, right? So that's important. And that's actually, you know, one of the reasons why we do this podcast is to help people learn how to take care of their RV or to learn new aspects of taking care of their RV.

00;18;14;23 - 00;18;34;12

Unknown

Some people are very good at this. You know, they could probably host this podcast, but, you know, that's the goal is to help people are YouTube videos is the same thing too so weed out the garbage that you find on YouTube, in the Internet, you know, misleading you into buying stuff. We don't do any paid commercials to speak of.

00;18;34;12 - 00;18;55;06

Unknown

You know, we're not doing a YouTube commercial or a YouTube video promoting something that we don't believe in. That will never happen right? You know, we get emails all the time asking us to do YouTube videos for companies and promote this thing and that thing. Yeah, portable air conditioners and this and that. And it's just it all of this garbage.

00;18;55;13 - 00;19;22;03

Unknown

And we won't do it unless we believe in the product, you know? Yeah, apparently there are some sunglass company or eyeglass company are offering deals or not. We got to look out a little bit more, see the quality, you know? Yeah. I mean, everybody wear sunglasses or eyeglasses, but the point is, it's that quality stuff and, you know, that's what we're trying to teach everybody are YouTube videos, the podcast, and even these places where we suggest to go, we've done research on them.

00;19;22;06 - 00;19;47;17

Unknown

We're not going to send you into an alligator pit. Exactly. Yeah, not intentionally, no. But, you know, so it's the questions are always good. And so there's no negative to all these questions that we get. The questions are what make the we'll go round or there's business work. Yeah. Every question turns into an answer. Every answer for us turns into a customer, you know, and so we like it.

00;19;47;17 - 00;20;16;24

Unknown

00;20;16;27 - 00;20;37;05

Unknown

No one seems to know the answer to this question. Can you help? And we help them, you know, because that's what we do and we understand it, you know, And sometimes things just can't be done. Yeah, parts just aren't there or, you know, maybe some of those has been discontinued and we haven't found a replacement for. But someone else has.

00;20;37;06 - 00;20;57;05

Unknown

But we don't know about it. But. Right. You know, we, we work on that stuff but by asking the questions you'll find out. So it's not a negative thing. Questions are good. So keep the questions coming. The more questions you have actually means, the more you're learning, more you care about your RV, the more you care about your family goes in.

00;20;57;05 - 00;21;16;22

Unknown

Your RV is running good and everything's working. Then you're taking care of your family because they want to go in that RV and use it and go on trips, make them happy, make them happy. And there you go. It's like my RV. Everything in the tip top shape. Yes. Alexis, how's your RV? It's good. It's good. And it really is in top shape.

00;21;17;00 - 00;21;41;02

Unknown

Almost all of there's always something, right? Yes, There's always going to be things. Always. That's why we learn that we can take care of our RV's. I mean, the questions are great. Keep them coming and you can contact us by phone. We talk to people that listen to the podcast all the time. Yes, we do text us, send us emails.

00;21;41;04 - 00;22;06;16

Unknown

You know, we love it. All right. Now that's going to take us to the next stop. And today we are traveling across the country from Montana to the East Coast. It's all humid, nasty right now. Yeah. Let's go back right. We're going to go to Boston, Massachusetts. Yes, we are. So besides red old red brick and. Yeah, yeah, whatever.

00;22;06;16 - 00;22;34;17

Unknown

Smell the cobblestone roads. There we go. Hudson, Boston, Massachusetts. Alexis Well, it's one of America's oldest city, and that is evident everywhere. So there's we can stroll along the Freedom Trail, a 2.5 mile path winds through historic neighborhoods and iconic landmarks like the Old North Church. That's where Paul Revere's famous ride. He went by that with the gleaming golden dome.

00;22;34;18 - 00;22;57;26

Unknown

So that's kind of cool. And then for a deeper dive, you can go visit the Boston Tea Party ships there in the harbor or the museum. Kind of a neat you know, walk through history. There's cultural delights, which means they've got an art scene there. A lot of museums, a lot to see in in that type of thing.

00;22;58;02 - 00;23;20;26

Unknown

Local flavor, street performers, they really have everything there, even natural places you can hop the ferry and go to the Boston Harbor Islands. That's pretty cool. As in our beer, we like to get outdoors, so that might be something that would be really fun. And of course there's RV parks all around, but you just have to do a little research.

00;23;20;26 - 00;23;42;26

Unknown

And if you want to see Boston, I'd say do it. It's pretty cool, especially in the fall. I'm on my way. There we go. All right. So there you have it. So, you know, speaking of questions, you have questions about early American history. Yeah. You go there. You know, you can go there and start asking questions. There's a lot of history there in Boston, I'm sure.

00;23;42;28 - 00;24;04;16

Unknown

I mean, where it all began. Yes, sir. Where all the anarchy came. So it kind of this is, you know, well, that's where the United States got its history from. So very neat. That was the starting point of that. So there's a lot there. And, you know, it's amazing. It is still intact. It is. Yeah. It hasn't been bulldozed or something new put up or it offends this person.

00;24;04;16 - 00;24;20;05

Unknown

That burning out, tear down these red bricks are offensive, you know. Right. Right. So it's pretty cool. So I would say check that out if you haven't been there, if you're in, you know, it's kind of where you live or maybe a long track, but there's other things to see along the way. Yeah, it's worth it. Yeah. Yeah.

00;24;20;05 - 00;24;41;05

Unknown

Do a big giant loop. Go ahead. Take six months off work. I throw right now. Why not? What the heck? Even that way, you can check it out. Have a good time. All right, so now we've gone through the next stop, and we're coming up to RV envy. Now, this is going to be the most exciting part of the show you ever experience and talk about wire connectors.

00;24;41;08 - 00;25;02;11

Unknown

Not just wire connectors, but wire nuts. Actually, you can drill down a little bit more lever wire nuts. Wow. That makes sense. So I don't you know, you obviously if I had one in my hand, you kind of see it. But the wire connectors, you know. Yeah, we're traditional wire connectors. We use a crimp tool. You crimp them and they work.

00;25;02;11 - 00;25;25;14

Unknown

You know, you slice into the wire, but lever wire connectors, they have a little lever on them that are pretty sweet because you can reuse them. They're easy to use sometimes. Get in a tight spot. You got one arm and there's no way you're going be able to crimp something. But with these lever knots, you can actually get one arm in somewhere and get the wires in and flip the little lever.

00;25;25;17 - 00;25;51;17

Unknown

And these little connectors there, you know, clear plastic, usually orange or blue or whatever lever on it. You get in just about any hardware store, big box store online. Be careful online what quality you buy. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, just shop local people. Yeah. There you go. Put them in your hand. Touch them In the film, you start off that way.

00;25;51;20 - 00;26;09;16

Unknown

So you push the wire in. Yeah, it's a strip at first, but you put the wire into the connector and you flip the lever down and now the wires in there to stay and then you put the other wire in right next to it and flip that lever down that wires in there to stay so you can use them as a permanent situation.

00;26;09;16 - 00;26;28;01

Unknown

They were great in our TV's, or if you're just testing and you don't want to waste wire connectors, maybe the wires getting real short, you don't want to keep cutting that and stripping it, then you can use these wire connectors just for testing things. In fact, for testing, they're super easy because you can put it on there. If the if it works, you can just leave the connector on there.

00;26;28;01 - 00;26;46;21

Unknown

If it doesn't, and you can take it off and go to plan B, whatever, like whatever that might be. Right. So they're pretty handy. And, you know, a lot of you probably already seen them know about them, and they're not new by any stretch of the imagination, but they're still relatively new. You know, a lot of people haven't seen them or you see them.

00;26;46;21 - 00;27;02;25

Unknown

You don't really understand what they are or how handy they can be. So you don't need run out by a kid of a million of them. You know, you just probably need a small little starter set some, you know, a few of each. See how you like them, Try them out and depending on what you're doing, you might not use them that often.

00;27;02;27 - 00;27;22;08

Unknown

But when you do need one, they are certainly handy to have. And that's why I say you maybe don't need a big ol kit filled with them, but just have someone some on hand. So that's my RV envy for the day. The big thing that's going to make all your neighbors jealous, you know? And he got these really cool wire connectors and you walk around the park showing them off image.

00;27;22;08 - 00;27;44;04

Unknown

I got my wire connectors. Oh, wow. Yeah. Who does that? Really weird people. Exactly. Not the smart RV. Or do they follow the guy doing that and then they take their connectors, Right? Exactly. All right. So that actually is going to bring us to the end of our show today. And we're actually I had the time a little bit last episode.

00;27;44;04 - 00;28;09;19

Unknown

We are way over this one couple minutes early. So that's good. You know, we shared the shoot for 30 minutes, but we haven't made that mark in a live episode. But, you know, we shoot for that. All right, everybody. So next week or excuse me, next two weeks, the next episode is going to be 158. And we're going to talk about the problems that we see and hear most often.

00;28;09;19 - 00;31;02;12

Unknown

So the problems we get asked about on the phone, which I mentioned a little bit today, and then the things that we see that come through our store, we're going to talk about that. You might be surprised what it is. So it's been a great show. It's been great hanging out with everybody today. And if I don't see you on the road less connected, the smart RV Avia podcast.