The focal point of this podcast episode is a comprehensive discussion on essential RV maintenance tasks that are often overlooked by owners. We delve into a range of maintenance items, emphasizing the significance of regular inspections, such as checking roof seals and ensuring the functionality of GFCI outlets, which can prevent costly repairs and enhance safety. Additionally, we explore the financial benefits associated with performing maintenance independently, highlighting how such practices can lead to substantial savings over time. Our episode also features an enlightening interview with Graham McWilliam from PowerMax Converters, who shares insights into their products and their importance in the RV ecosystem. Finally, we journey to Dillon, Montana, and uncover the historical charm of Virginia City, providing listeners with valuable travel tips and enriching experiences for their RV adventures.

• In this episode, I discuss the importance of performing regular maintenance on your RV to prolong its lifespan and enhance your travel experience.
• We delve into the often-overlooked maintenance tasks that RV owners should prioritize to avoid costly repairs in the future.
• I emphasize the value of DIY maintenance, illustrating how it can save you a significant amount of money over time.
• The interview with Graham from Powermax highlights the critical role of RV converters in maintaining an efficient electrical system during your travels.
• Virginia City serves as a fascinating historical site, showcasing the rich history of Montana's gold rush era that RV travelers should not miss.
• Finally, I recommend upgrading to LED lights in your RV to improve lighting quality while conserving battery power during extended trips.

In today's episode in staying on the road, we're going to have that powermax converter interview that I promised last episode.

And then in enjoying the RV life, we're going to talk about the 10 most overlooked RV maintenance tasks.

And in money saving tips, going to make it clear how doing your own maintenance can save you some cash.

And then in the next stop, we're going to visit Dillon, Montana and in shadows of the past, towns that once were, we're going to visit the historic Virginia City in Montana, not Nevada.

And then an RV envy upgrading to LED lights.

This is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your trusted source for tips and insights to embrace the RV lifestyle without worries.

So let's talk everything RVing.

Today's episode is 181, so let's just dig right into it.

Now, have you ever wondered what happens when your trailer coupler comes undone while you're driving down the road?

Well, we're going to talk about that at the end of the show today because I know somebody who experienced that more than once.

In fact, for some reason he experienced it quite often.

So Wendell's story of his stupidity will make it clear what you need to do so that doesn't happen to you.

So we're going to get back to that at the end of the show today.

Now, as a reminder, we'd like you to check out wholesale warranties.

Many of our customers, our listeners, are saving money.

They're getting these wholesale warranties, the extended RV warranty.

It's saving them some cash with full transparency so they know what they're signing up for.

They're not running into problems, overpaying, being lied to like you get at some of the dealerships and some of the other extended warranty companies.

So use the link in the description to get a quote from wholesale warranties and get that discussion and dialogue going with them.

Now that brings us to enjoying the R.R.V.

life.

The 10 most overlooked R.V.

maintenance tasks.

I can't even say it.

The 10 most overlooked RV maintenance tasks.

Now, we're going to take these kind of one by one, but we're not going to really spend hours on this.

We don't have the time.

And again, you know, last episode we talked about some maintenance.

Prior to that we have, we're really pushing the maintenance summertime.

Keep your RV going.

Stay on top of things.

Now, today's list of maintenance things is different than the, than what we had in episode 180.

Some of it might overlap a little bit.

So don't think you're wasting your time.

It's information that's going to help you and if not anything else, it's just a good reminder.

This is number one on the list.

It was number one on the list in episode 180.

Inspect the roof seals and seams.

Make sure everything on that roof is good.

When do you want to do this?

At least twice a year.

If you do it at the end of the season, beginning of the season or the beginning of the season, and halfway through the season ever how you want to do it.

I mean, I think three or four times a year is probably more appropriate because things crack.

You might check it, let's say the beginning of the season, then a few months later you could have a crack.

But if you're not checking it till the end of the season, you might not notice it.

Maybe you have a skylight that's peeling up, but you don't really see it from the ground.

You can't see it from inside.

Then all of a sudden you got a leak.

Make sure that stuff is taken care of on the roof.

And clean your, clean your slide out seals and mechanisms.

You know, we keep emphasizing this because it'll save you some money, especially those seals.

They make special products to spray onto those seals to extend their life.

Even if you have slide out awnings on your rv, you want to protect those seals the best you can, make them last longer.

When they don't stick to the side of the RV when it's moving, they're not going to tear off prematurely.

Stretch out, wear out.

It's going to keep them going.

Now here's one we haven't talked about, I don't think at all in quite a while is testing your GFCI outlets.

They do have a little button on there you can test to make sure they're working properly.

And GFCI outlets are kind of a tricky little guy.

You know, they're, they're there to protect your circuits, to protect you.

It's going to blow.

There's water, electricity, electrical issues, bad grounds.

But do you know, sometimes when you plug your RV into Your house, the GFIs in your RV will throw the breaker in your house on its GFCI outlet.

If you're plugged into one or a 15amp service, not a 30amp or 50amp, but the 15amp service.

Maybe just have a regular extension cord, three prong residential extension cord, 15amp type.

Sometimes they don't like each other and the one in the house might detect a little bit of bleed or a grounding issue that well, it thinks is a bleed or a grounding issue in the electrical system RV so it'll trip its breaker.

Sometimes you just have to go to another outlet.

Problem solved.

But just so you know, don't call an electrician.

That's generally just a problem that GFCIs have sometime.

And I will elaborate on that a little bit more in this article because it will be posted on our website.

Then check your co detectors, LP and CO detectors.

Make sure they're working.

You know if they're doing that intermittent beep beep, it's time to replace it.

You can even pull them off, they have a date on the back.

Most of them do either a sell date or a replace date.

And do the math.

About five years is about it.

Different brands work a little bit better.

I mean I've seen some of those things go 15 years.

Seeing some only last a few years.

I mean that's not the end of the world.

If you're out on a trip and your LP detectors fails, it would be up to you.

Your decision.

I'm not recommending this, but if it was disconnected so you don't hear it and over the weekend you know it's disconnected, you're a little more mindful or your carbon monoxide, if you're not running a furnace, a stove, things like that might not be the worst thing in the world, but that's your decision.

Not recommending it here at the Smart RV or podcast.

Then also going underneath your rv, whether you have a travel trailer or a motorhome looking for, well, especially trailers.

Motorhomes don't seem to have as big of a problem like this because it's more of an automotive type of type system.

But trailers, loose bolts, shackles starting to wear, excessive wear, where they're going to break.

Check your wheels on trailers, make sure those lug nuts are tight every.

This is a good thing to do.

And if you did it every three to six months.

Obviously if you don't use your RV for six months, you're not going to do it in three months and six months if it hasn't moved.

So think about that.

But get on a routine for that.

Inspecting things, making sure stabilizers, leaf springs are all good, no problems.

And then the furnace.

You know, it's quite often said to clean the furnace.

Now that's easier said than done, especially in the rv.

Out of the RV you can just hit it with compressed air, blow everything out real good, the combustion chamber, the fan, everything.

The blower wheel.

But in the RV is harder.

But if you open up the the inspection panel on the inside of the rv.

Most of them have it where even if your RV goes out the side of the RV on the outside, you can still access it from the inside and pull that out.

Maybe vacuum out any dust, debris, animal hair, human hair, whatever's in there, keep it clean so it's not pulling that stuff through the system making the ducting dirtier.

RV inducting is not one of those things that you can probably easily clean.

I hear there's companies that do it.

I'd be leery of it, because if it's not connected well, then you create another issue.

RV ducting is not accessible.

Like a house where you can go up in the attic and fix a hole, reattach it.

RV ducting is not accessible in most RVs.

Sometimes the furnace is because it goes under the floor and like, you have a belly pan where you can access it.

But for the ac, generally not so keep it cleaner to begin with, clean those AC filters.

Make sure you don't have a bunch of garbage going through them on travel trailers.

When was the last time you greased your wheel bearings?

Has it been 5,000, 10,000, 20,000?

A million miles?

Typically 10 to 12,000 miles is the range where you want to make sure they're repacked.

Time does not change miles.

So if you haven't repacked your wheel bearings in several years, when you've only gone 5,000 miles, don't worry about it unless you want to repack them.

Grease doesn't degrade like oil does, you know, if you don't change your oil, let's say you don't do drive 5,000 miles in a year, well, you should change your engine oil annually if you don't meet the mileage.

Wheel bearing grease is not like that.

Now, if it's something you just want to do, you want to get back to point zero, you know, then go ahead and do it.

But just keep a track of the date and the miles.

I always recommend keeping a ledger how many miles you spend traveling in your rv.

I mean, a motorhome, you got an odometer, tripometer, all that good stuff.

But a trailer, you don't.

So just keep a little ledger.

Just write down how many miles each trip was.

Doesn't have to be exact.

Just get you close so you know that you're not at 10,000 or you're way past it.

Because sometimes you might be years before you get to 10,000 miles and you think, wow, I got to do my wheel bearings.

It's been so long, when really you might only have a few thousand miles on it.

So you get the point there.

And check your battery, make sure the connections are tight, that they're not corroded.

The terminals aren't all nasty, the cable ends aren't all nasty.

Keep them clean.

That's basic stuff.

You know, I recommend just a wire brush.

Keep them clean.

There's all sorts of remedies out there.

Baking soda, things you can buy, what works, what doesn't work, it's hard to say.

Just stay on top of it.

That's the best thing to do.

The more you touch your RV and explore and do maintenance, the better you get to understand how things work.

So when you do have problems out on the road, you know a little bit more about it and you're the smart rver and you can get in there and fix it rather than ruin a trip.

So check and make sure that the caulking on the side of the RV around your windows and doors is good and clean, not peeling up.

And don't overdo it on caulking on the side.

You know, don't put layers of caulking on top of caulking.

Don't use silicone.

I repeat, do not use silicone on your rv.

Silicone has no place on an rv.

Now, some may argue with that, but silicone is hard to clean up.

It's messy to use, and after it dries, it's never coming off.

I shouldn't say never, but it's hard to get clean.

So don't use silicone.

Use products like Dicor cap sealant for the side of your rv, things that are made for it, not things that aren't.

And then, of course, lubricate your hinges on compartment doors, entry door, things like that.

Basic little things.

So these are basic do it yourself things.

And as a bonus, this is the free tip.

Keep a maintenance log.

It doesn't hurt to just write down, even if it's just basic.

You know, sprayed hinges on entrance door, cabinet door, lubricated all the hinges in the rv.

Then you got an idea.

You know, you're doing this regularly and all of a sudden you start having a problem with something.

Hey, I've been doing this pretty regular.

So it's time to just replace this hinge.

Or maybe it's time to replace the entrance lock because you have to lube it every three months.

Just lubrication dries up, stops working.

So just keep track of it.

You're going to have less problems out on the road.

And some of these things you might think bringing a hinge down out on the road is not a big deal.

It's not a big deal.

If it doesn't turn into a big deal.

That makes sense.

So stay ahead of it.

That's really what you got to do.

Now in money saving tip today we are going to talk about.

Oh, by the way, we're moving on to money saving tips.

You can check out that full article in on our website, the smartrver.com under Enjoying the RV life.

I feel like I'm just in a big hurry today.

Got so much to do trying to get not trying to get this done, but just it's been a long day so far and as you noticed, I'm here by myself too.

Alexis is no longer on the show.

If you haven't been listening to the show for a while or new to it, she has moved on to bigger and better things.

So it's just me, the voice of me reason, right?

Maybe, maybe not.

Okay, now let's get back to money saving tips.

So doing your own maintenance.

So I have been a do it yourselfer to type person my entire life.

It's just the way I am.

And I don't mind doing stuff myself.

In fact, I save a ton of money.

I get to know things.

So when problems do arise, you know whether you need to call somebody or not.

And typically I don't call anybody or take anything in for repairs.

I just pretty much handle everything and I like it like that.

Saves a lot of money.

I understand my vehicles, my rv, my house, whatever it might be much that much more.

Now, not everybody is a do it yourselfer.

So don't get me wrong, you know, if it's your cup of tea, it is.

If it isn't, it isn't.

So doing your own maintenance, you have to know what your skill set is, where you're going to draw the line on what you can or can't do.

But there are some very simple things in RVs that you can do yourself, like checking tire pressure, checking the water in your batteries, making sure your water pump's working and circulating, you know, looking for leaks.

In an rv, you don't have to be a technician to find a water leak in an rv, pressure up the system, whether it's plugging into the hose bib at your house or the water source at an RV park, wherever you're at, or turning on your water pump, you build up pressure, open up all your faucets, make sure there's no air in the lines, and then all you have to do is get a flashlight, shine it in the cabinets to see if there's water dripping anywhere.

Look around the water pump.

Is the floor around the water pump wet?

What's causing is a leak on the fitting.

Is the filter housing cracked?

That happens.

Maybe you don't want to tackle the leak, but fighting it, well, that's half the battle.

Now you can take it in.

Hey, I got a leak right here.

Let me show you.

And when you're all done, would you mind checking for any other leaks?

But if you're confident there's no others, then don't worry about it.

It's not that hard.

And the reason why I say doing this kind of stuff yourself again, it goes back to those trips.

It's not going to ruin a trip.

And understanding water leaks too.

You know, a little drip can turn into a flow if something gets worse or the fitting breaks.

A lot of RVs have these plastic elbows and straight connectors on them that they break internally.

And next thing you know, you got water going everywhere.

So those are something that if you have, you know, I've start replacing them as time permits or your motivation factor permits because they will leak.

And now another thing, you know, do it yourself or.

So here's a warning.

And the water lines are this way, or they can be this way sometimes, depending on the age of the rv.

You know, you go to fix one leak and something else will leak because you moved the water line, the pex tubing, you twisted something, you didn't break anything, you just disrupted the connection and you might get another leak.

So you might have to fix that leak.

But then fixing that leak, you might get another leak.

So sometimes you might have to cut out a whole section of stuff, replace it all.

Maybe if you can do it ahead of time, or you do it all rather one piece at a time, just do it all at once.

Just a word of advice there.

Now do it yourself Stuff could be, you know, a light's not working.

Is it the bulb?

Is it the fixture?

Is it a fuse?

If all your lights are out, it's probably a fuse.

If one light isn't working, it's probably a bulb.

Light fixtures themselves, well, they used to not fail very often.

LED light fixtures fail more often because the electronics in them have a tendency of failing.

The bulb might not, but the electronics around the bulb do.

So if you have a voltmeter, you can check for voltage.

You drop the light down out of the ceiling or take the lens cover off and you might be able to do it there.

But if you Drop it down two screws.

The wires are right there.

So as I was saying, with the voltmeter you can check to see if you have voltage there.

You should have 12 volts.

You got two wires, a positive and negative.

Hook up your voltmeter to it.

If you got 12 volts then the, the light fixture is bad.

So these are simple things, but they're easy to do and they'll save you money rather than taking it into a shop.

And I'm not anti taking your rv and believe me, I'm not.

We do a lot of stuff like that because people just don't have the time or it's just not in their wheelhouse.

They don't want to mess with electrical things.

And the reason why doing your stuff yourself is important I think is so when you're out on a trip, it doesn't ruin the trip and you can catch little things before you ever leave.

And that's what's important.

These little basic things, doing your own maintenance.

So checking things out, whether it's tires, plumbing system, your 12 volt system, the 110 volt system and maybe 110 volts you don't want to mess with.

12 volts you're more comfortable with.

That's fine.

If your refrigerator is not working properly then you know, you can check it out to a certain point.

But maybe you're just going to take it into the to the shop, let them fix it, but at least have a good idea why it's not working, what the problem is.

Does it cool on gas but doesn't on 110?

Or it cools on 110 but not on gas or it doesn't cool on either.

These things can rule out some problems and save some time for the technician because refrigerator pairs can be a little more time consuming and sometimes, you know, you pick it up and they think they fixed the problem, but they didn't because they didn't fully understand what was wrong.

It wasn't explained to them properly.

So understanding yourself makes it easier.

So you might not be doing that repair, but you're going to help the technician understand what the repair really needs to be.

Sounds kind of weird, but that's the way it can be.

So do the repairs yourself and we're going to have a little bit more on this.

Maybe some of the tools you need, some basic stuff on the website, the smartrver.com under money saving tips.

Doing these basic little things will be a great step in the right direction of saving some cash.

And again putting that money into The RV trip, the next RV trip or the next repair your RV needs.

Maybe need an air conditioner.

It's coming up.

These things can help pay for that.

So again, the full article will be on the smartrver.com now this brings us to Staying on the Road and we're going to have the interview from Powermax about, about Power Max Converters.

So let's get into that.

So here we are in Staying on the Road and we have Graham McWilliam from Powermax converters as our guest today.

Graham, welcome to the show.

Hey, thank you.

Good morning.

I appreciate it.

How are you today?

I'm doing wonderful.

So Graham's our good, good expert today on Power Max converters and all things converters for RVs or power for RVs, I should say.

So Graham, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and the company, just briefly what you do there and yeah, absolutely.

Eric, thanks for the intro.

Well again my name is Graham at William, I'm with PowerMax Converters.

I've been there for coming up on 14 years now.

We are in our 15th year of business so pretty much shortly after the company was started again Paramax Converters we are, our core business is obviously converters which something that all RVs have, trailers, travel trails, etc.

We've also branched out into other, other products within, within the RV industry, hoping that we are you know, ideally the one stop power solution for, for RVers when it comes to anything converting power, inverting power, etc.

You know, we've got plenty aftermarket business, OEM business too.

So starting to really grow in the industry now for the last probably 10 or 12 years.

All right, good.

Yeah, so you mentioned something about aftermarket.

So you're not in all the brand new RVs but you guys certainly have your place in the aftermarket to replace power converters such as Wolfco or Iota, whatever brand that someone might have their fails and.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, we do, we do both deck mount option and lower tray replacements and you know our ideal swap out for any of the OEM products that are in there from, from the new build.

And then obviously, you know, down the line if you, if you have a failure on the converter there, you know, we do act as an exact swap out for them.

We do have some OEM business, it's more for some kind of offshoots a little bit from the RV industry at times like command trailers, restroom trailers, horse horse trailers when they've got living quarters built in them and there are one or two.

There are one or two RV OEMs that we do have.

Heartland was one of them until.

Until recently, obviously.

But yeah, so we are in, we are in some on the oem.

Brinkley is another actually that we, we have some and Rev Rev RV group, we're OEM with on some of their lines too.

So we do have a gaining momentum on the OEM business.

All right, so OEM is for those that aren't familiar with that term.

It's the original equipment manufacturer.

So in other words, the manufacturers of the rv.

So powermax converter is not in every RV being made, but it's a ideal replacement for the converters.

Inverters are already in an rv or if you're building something new, it's definitely a great option.

Now Graham, you mentioned something about deck mount and I think you said power center.

What's the difference between a deck mount converter and a power center?

Right.

Yeah, the first thing really maybe we should touch on, Eric, is that obviously what a converter does.

A lot of RVers, especially if they're potentially new to the game, you know, they, they get this rv, this trailer, they power it up and turn it on and obviously lights come on and they, they assume it's a home on wheels, but may not necessarily understand what's behind the walls or under the cabinets and everything else.

So starting out with the converter, what that basically does is take the 110 bolts, basically what would come out of a wall outlet, and then converts that to 12 volt power.

That will charge batteries that you have in your, in your coach, your rv, so that you can boondock, which is basically when you're running off battery power with no external type of, you know, sure, plug in at a campsite, maybe a remote location.

So the converter takes that 110, drops it down to 12 volt.

Because there's a lot of items in your RV that are 12 volt powered.

The obvious ones are going to be lighting, water pump, and then you get to someone's a little bit more obscure, the thermostat that sits on the wall.

Even though your air conditioning is 110 volt powered, that tiny little thermostat right there is 12 volt powered.

So if you don't have 12 volt power and the converters potentially failed, then there's no air conditioning or heating running.

And then 12 volt is also when you slide out your awnings, maybe a couch bed that raises up and down.

So that's the basics on what the converter does I think we talked a little bit yesterday.

If, if that item fails in your coach, then you, after your batteries are drained, you're going to realistically have no form of power for certain items in your coach.

So that's why it's one of those kind of key, important items in your, in your coach, your rv.

But unfortunately a lot of people don't realize they've got one until the point when it, you know, it fails.

And now we're getting into the different types.

So there's typically two types of converters.

You've got your, what's called a deck mount.

Not 100 sure where that phrase comes from, but ideally it's something that would just sit on the floor or mounts to the wall and is plugged into a 110 outlet.

And then on the back of that it would have a couple of 12 volt positive and negative leads.

And from that it would run to a distribution panel, which is something similar that you might have in your home in the garage where you've got your breakers, you know, for air conditioning and, and your sockets in the house.

So that's, that's something that's in an rv.

So the deck mount version is one that physically plugs in the wall outlet.

And then the other option, which has become very popular in the last probably 15 to 20 years, is what we call a lower tray replacement.

And that's something that sits in the, the breaker box, for example, or you know, like I said before, like in your house garage, you'll have a fuse box.

Well, that's something that's in an rv.

And essentially it's the power of, it's the power center and the hub of where your RV gets its 110 volt in.

You'll have the breakers, there'll be a DC board and then underneath will sit the converter which is actually hardwired into the DC board and then it's hardwired to a breaker.

So those are effectively the two types.

You've got your deck mount and what's referred to as a lower tray replacement, sometimes a main board assembly.

And that's kind of your two options right there.

And we make both.

We have replacements that cover, you know, our competitors too, be it Wifco, Progressive, Iota, etc.

Intellipower is another one.

Right?

Very good.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of confusion with converters, inverters, and there's definitely a difference.

An inverter is creating 110v converters, charging the battery and creating 12v and so that's where people.

Yeah, I was saying that the convert is going from 110 down to 12 and the inverter takes from your battery and goes up to 110.

And then just to complicate matters a bit more, you can get inverters with a built in converter and that's called an inverter charger.

Right.

Inverter charger.

You cut out there.

I don't know if you cut out for everybody else, but yeah, an inverter charger.

There's definitely some things out there that RVers have to be aware of.

And that's where that terminology comes in.

Not only, you know, when you call up Graham to ask him a question about your rv, but calling up me or your local RV tech that way you're talking the same language they know, which helps.

So Graham, help us understand here.

So if someone, let's say has a Wolfco converter, and I'm not picking on Wolfco, but let's say it fails, it's the type, the power center type and it has what they call a main board assembly.

Why would someone want to upgrade their.

Main board assembly to your lower tray, as you call it?

Yeah, yeah, well, there's a couple reasons there.

Primarily it's going to be an exact swap out for it.

So when they do, you know, if they do make that choice, you're going to find that it's just simply a plug and play.

It's, you know, you've got all the cabling there, both AC and DC wise.

It's going to fit in and hold in place with the, with the tie down lugs to fit in there.

So it's a very easy installation.

There's no, no complex switch over.

In fact, we do provide up to just under 2ft of cabling there.

So there's plenty of space to fit in.

Tie in the cables to the breaker side on the 110 and the DC side on the 12 volt.

We also, one thing we haven't really touched on just yet is all of our products lithium compatible.

So in their factory setting they're good for your kind of lead acid and standard battery types.

And then with, with both our deck and lower tray options, we have a small switch on there that you can just move across to a fixed output mode, which is what we'd recommend for charging lithium.

And that's also adjustable too, so you can actually fine tune that exactly to where you need.

Because not, not all lithium batteries are created the same in the sense of each manufacturer may want a slightly different charging voltage.

So that's another key difference where we sit between our product and our competitors.

Other key features are it's a more affordable option so you can you save a little bit more money on that front.

And the final option is warranty.

We actually offer an industry leading three year warranty on our, on our converters.

So when customers are picking this up through RV dealerships, you know, they've got the peace of mind that should there be an issue with ours and unfortunately it is electrical item, you know, there's surges that happen now and again and other things like that.

So there's a potential for a, for a failure.

But we stand behind our product and we also offer a kind of no hassle warranty exchange as well.

We trust that when they go into a dealership and you know your tax or whichever location they're at, it's a quick, simple process for them with volt meters and everything else, making sure there's power to it if there's no output and breakers and fuses are all looking good.

We just simply offer the dealership to do the exchange there and then on the spot with the customer, get them back on the way and then we'll deal with the dealership after the fact and get a replacement out to them within a couple of days of stock.

So the idea being there is your customer is in with a problem and hopefully out the door within you know, half an hour and they can still go out on their vacation that they were planning at the weekend because again, converter, as little as people know about it and as small of an item and you know, cost wise couple hundred dollars, it's a real key component within any RV or travel trailer and can make or break the vacation.

That's very true.

And just so people out there, you.

Know, RVers listening when you go in for a warranty, sometimes the dealership may be hesitant to do a warranty unless they know they're going to get reimbursed or a replacement part is going to be sent there.

And as Graham brought out, it's a hassle free warranty.

And by the way, PowerMax answers their phone.

They're a real business, they offer that customer service that that's the kind of company we like to deal with.

And you can see why, you know, as soon as you're out on the road and your converter fails and as a new converter they'll make sure it's.

Taken care of, they'll take care of.

The dealership, you get back on the road.

So that's important in that hassle.

Free warranty, man, that is worth it right there.

You know, we've been selling, it's straightforward.

Realistic and you know, we've been selling their product for quite some time now.

We've had no issues with it whatsoever.

So we haven't had to experience that warranty.

But we do call them from time to time with questions and we get answers.

So hopefully we don't experience the warranty anytime soon.

You know, now I would say that's obvious because you have a well known brand in the RV industry and if you had a high failure rate, you wouldn't be a.

Well, you'd be a well known brand.

But for other things and after 15.

Years you probably won't be here.

So that's good.

Now also, you mentioned the lithium battery.

Lithium batteries are getting put in RVers right and left these days.

It's the new trend, people switching to solar, they like the green idea.

You know, you're not going through so many batteries.

It's basically a plug and play.

You mentioned the switch, but it's still just basically a plug and play type application on whichever converter they get, whether it's a deck mount or a power center.

Correct.

Okay.

Yeah.

Because you know, people like to, when they make these changes, they don't want to have to jump through hoops and do all these different things because they're already spending a lot of money, big investment and they want to just wrap it up.

So that's great to know.

So the, you mentioned the lithium batteries and also why is it that there's a setting for lithium?

Do lithium batteries charge at a higher voltage than let's say AGMs or lead acid?

Yeah, great question, Eric.

Yeah, lithium batteries actually generally sit higher on their voltages.

Not just charging wise, but also when they are, you know, fully charged, they, they sit that little bit higher.

So for example, you kind of lead acids, they, they hover when they're fully charged at just a little bit over 13 volts, about 13.2.

So with our, with our regular profile, the three stage smart charge profile for lead acid and everything that's based on a bulk absorption and float.

And that would be a 14, 6, 13.6 and ultimately a 13.2 float.

And there's various time bands within that when it steps down from one to the other.

So again, when it's fully charged, lead acid 13.2 is usually where that sits.

With most brands.

AGMs are fractionally higher, about 13.2to4.

And again with our units in the three stage profile that can be adjusted and changed a little bit to fine tune in.

If your brand of battery maybe wants something a bit different and ultimately that's something to refer to, you know, the battery manufacturer or give us a call because, you know, we, we've usually get an idea on what most of those are.

Now when it comes to lithium, those charge at the same kind of bulk rate that you would.

We have our, our product set to the converters in their bulk stage.

However they want that profile for the whole charge cycle.

So in other words, when it's, you know, down low 30, 20, 10%, it wants to be charged at that higher 14, 4 to 6, somewhere as low as 14 too for the entire profile until the battery's, you know, fully charged.

And then once it is fully charged, we're dealing with BMS system that's in the battery will then determine a point to stop accepting the charge and cut off.

We do have a converter that actually has a two stage profile where this will actually charge a lithium battery and then float the lithium battery because that's a completely different setting as well as opposed to just charging.

And we are making a bit of a change in our units towards the end of this year where we will implement, and it's at the beginning of next year where we're going to implement this additional profile across there.

So you can actually float that as well.

The downside is some brands don't necessarily like them floated too much as well.

For example, everybody, I'm sure when they park their RV up, if they're not going to use it for a couple of months, we'll usually plug the coach in and let it sit there.

Because you want to keep that lead acid battery topped off.

Because a lead acid battery as it sits there is just naturally draining down.

And if it's potentially not topped off, you know, over about a month or so, you can find that battery does start to really drain and get low.

Lithium on the other hand, does store power very well.

That's one of the advantages of it.

You don't necessarily need to have that continuous float as you would on a lead acid battery.

Lithium will typically lose a couple of amps over the period of a month or so.

So it really doesn't need much maintenance.

Now if you're not going to be in your coach for, you know, three or four months, I'd probably recommend at some point in that time just to power up for a half an hour and just top that thing off just so it's fully charged and ready to Go on your trip.

Those are kind of the difference is the other thing too.

When the lithium battery is full and it's in its resting state of charge, it's higher.

Again, it's about 13.6 volts.

So again, lead acid, 13.

2, lithium about 13 6.

Okay, very good.

The, the lithium is not this complex battery that so many people think that it is.

It's pretty basic, especially when you have the right equipment.

Like your technology with your converters keeps them charged up.

It's not really an issue.

It's smart.

You mentioned smart charger and that's what's important.

That's today we have smart chargers, we have smartphones, we have smart everything.

So it makes it much easier to maintain things.

Small batteries too.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

Because we have a brand of lithium batteries too with the power max.

And you actually, you can have an app on your phone to monitor, you know, how much charge you have, how much power is going into it, how much is being drained.

Lithium batteries, you turn them on and off, you know, they really are a great, a great option and a source for power.

And you, the other advantage to lithium is you get that constant voltage across the entire state of charge.

So I'm sure everybody's been with the lead asses that have been in their coach or RV and if they're boondocking without any generator running, after a while they'll notice the light start, dip and get a little bit browner.

And the, you know, the, the color goes down and getting dimmer and dimmer.

That's just lead acid battery losing its power.

And the voltage is dropping.

With, with lithium, the voltage keeps at that steady state so the lights are bright from when the battery is fully charged to right at the point when it's, when it's empty.

You know, I kind of compare that like a cordless drill.

Today you have cordless drills.

You turn it on, it'll run and then it just stops because the battery went dead.

So that battery from the top to bottom has that voltage where the old days, you, you know, your cordless drills start giving you some signs.

The battery starts slowing down, the drill's not drilling like it did and you put a new battery and it starts working great.

So it gradually fades out where lithium, top to bottom, you got that full voltage.

So that's very cool.

So you actually run longer on your 100amp hour battery.

If that's what you have, versus an 88amp hour battery.

It's going to be that consistent voltage from top to bottom.

So that's great to know as well.

And your lithium batteries, how long you.

Been, have you been selling the lithium.

Batteries or producing them?

To two to three and a half years.

We have had some projects, you know, before that with some other brands there.

I mean ultimately people are using our converters to charge batteries.

So probably what, six, six plus years now since lithium's really started to gain the momentum and certainly a lot in the last two or three years.

So we've always been getting these calls and customers saying well I'm switching to this brand, that brand of battery.

So you know, as those calls kind of pick up and people have to advise from us as to what's the best way to charge these, it just seemed like the obvious next step for us to offer a lithium battery as well as it is with some of our other products.

Realistically, as we like to think of being, the power solution to the RV is so we're a one stop again.

10 years ago we were having enough calls about inverters so we went down the line of inverters and we do generators too.

Anything that's kind of providing power for a customer's coach.

Even water pumps because obviously that's an item that's powered on the 12 volt side.

Right.

So we, we go down that route too.

Yeah, wherever you're kind of tying the power in.

It's what we'd like to do as far as as products now.

I mean our latest item is it's a hybrid solar inverter charger.

So that combines both an MPPT controller, a 3,000 watt inverter, a control, a charger, a transfer switch all in one item that's roughly around £25.

So it's a super compact product there for that.

So again we're just tying in all those products so you can hopefully get to the point where powermax is providing everything power related in your coach.

And obviously lithium batteries are, are the key, you know, the key part of that equation.

Realistically, definitely the water pumps, we've been selling those for a while now and they sell really well, problem free.

We haven't had one return which is very nice.

And Graham probably doesn't remember this.

I'm going to surprise him here.

You know, about a year ago I talked to him on the phone late in the day.

In fact it was late in the day for me, it was nighttime for him.

He answers the phone and we talked for a while and I asked him about the lithium batteries.

And you know, he said the same thing then that he said to me yesterday about the warranty on the lithium batteries.

And this is important because if you've been listening to our podcast, you know, I'm a stickler about these warranties on these lithium batteries because they're filled with little booby traps and stuff.

So, Graham, what's the warranty on a lithium battery?

Give me the boiled down simple version of it.

Well, five years, that's where we sit on that.

And you, that is a key thing about lithium.

There's a lot of options out there for customers.

So you do have to.

It's definitely one of those buyer beware items.

You can find them under a couple hundred dollars if you search and hunt around.

And I'm not saying that you won't.

You, you might not be lucky if you get one.

You might be great.

You'll have a year or two on it.

But then, you know, this is your investment for your coat.

If someone's saying they've got a warranty that's X years long, you also hopefully want to be able to contact them at that point.

Right.

Again, we're 15 years into business now, so we are.

We're planning to be around for at least 15 more.

So if, if my lithium battery I bought four years ago fails today, what do I have to do to get a new one?

We're just gonna want you to give us a call.

We'll troubleshoot it a little bit with you.

And ultimately, if it's something that can't be, you know, troubleshot on the phone, there'll be a replacement on the way out.

You know, just keep that proof of sale, be it from your RV dealership.

It's always best whenever you buy any product.

You know, not just converters, batteries, anything really.

We've all got the smartphones nowadays.

Take a picture of your receipt, send your email to yourself, just make sure you have that.

And ultimately, that's what we're going to need.

Just give us a quick call, an email into our warranty department with your proof of purchase.

We're all set.

Yeah, so that's pretty darn simple.

See, it's so every day for Graham.

He doesn't realize how easy this is.

Where other companies, you're gonna have to jump through hoops and flaming fiery hoops and do all this different stuff.

I heard one the other day that the company just said, you know what, we'll give you a $20 refund.

How's that?

After the guy got a brand new battery and it wasn't any good.

It was a cheap battery, but.

So it wasn't a PowerMax battery.

But it shows that that warranty is very important.

Five year warranty, you're four years into it and they send you a new battery.

You gotta love that.

So, Graham, you guys got a great product lineup as a service center and also doing the podcast.

I really appreciate it because it's a quality product.

You got great customer service and you guys are there standing behind the product, and that means a lot today because customer service is dwindling on a large scale.

So you guys give yourself a pat on the back.

And everybody there at powermax tell them we think they got a great product line.

We appreciate what they do.

So I want to thank you for coming on the show today, carving the time out of your busy schedule to be here and share a little bit of information with our customer.

I mean, our, our listeners.

So we truly appreciate that, Graham.

Well, thanks, Eric.

Appreciate your time and also you supporting our, you know, business over the years and carrying our product.

We like to keep it pretty simple, you know, make a good quality and affordable product, offer it to the customers, and ultimately, if, if it goes wrong, fix the situation as quickly as possible and make everybody happy.

Because, you know, that's, that's the nature of things.

Unfortunately, they do fail from time to time, but it's more about how you react and fix that afterwards.

And that's, that's kind of where we're at with it.

Customer service is key to powermax.

All right, there you go, everybody.

You heard it.

So you buy a powermax product, you got a great warranty.

So, Graham, again, thanks for stopping by today.

We really appreciate the time you carved out for us.

All right, that brings us to our next stop.

Now that we know everything about powermax converters, let's get on with our travels and go to our next destination, Dillon, Montana, off Highway 15.

So who's been to Dillon, Montana?

Raise your hand.

Just kidding.

I can't see your hands, can I?

As Dillon is called the gateway to the Southwest, it's in Montana.

It has.

It's in an area where it's surrounded by three mountain ranges.

The Ruby Mountain, the Tobacco Route, and the gravelly mountain ranges.

So it's surrounded, it's in a beautiful area.

Dylan, Montana is not the metropolis you're going to want to move to.

It's not a massive city.

I don't remember what the population is, but it's not a huge place.

It's more of a farming community.

I guess it has a purpose, but it's a great base camp or that type of place.

A hub to take your RV and go out in different directions from there, making day trips or two day trips or whatever you want to do.

Or you take your RV from there.

You could go to Yosemite, you could go to Virginia City, which we're going to talk about in the next in shadows of the past, our next segment.

So Dillon has a purpose.

It has grocery stores, fuel, propane, RV parks.

It's a great little town.

It has that small town flavor, but it has all your modern amenities.

So from there you could park your rv, make some day trips or you could just stay there if you wanted to.

Everybody has different tastes when it comes to this.

And again, we're just trying to get you thinking about different places to go, get your imagination flowing because you might say, hey, I'm going to check that out.

Next thing you know, you're right here in Hamilton, Montana or Victor, Montana.

But they got some great RV parks there.

And not too far away is Bannack ghost town, which it is a true ghost town.

No one lives there.

It's a state run deal and it's very nice, very informative.

I mean it is totally awesome.

You need to check that out.

In fact, I will throw some pictures up on the website under this article because from Dillon you can go to Bannack and Bannack's 25 miles, 30 miles away.

It's not a big deal.

I mean you could go into Hamilton, that could be a day trip.

You can go to Helena, you can go into Idaho, you can go to Virginia City and go into Yosemite.

Ennis, you can go up north to Caldwell to I can't think of the other Whitehall, you can do a big loop there.

You know, I'll put a picture of Match map in on the episode on the website as well.

Or make sure there's one there at this point.

Well, we're talking about this.

So the web, the article is done.

So check out the article.

I always forget we do some of our episodes in advance, but by the time this episode gets published, the website's complete with everything we want on it.

So it's not I will, it will be there.

But Dylan's it's not the most beautiful town in a lot of ways.

It's just a town.

It has good spots, bad spots, but it's a great place, a hub to make trips out from there.

Even if you stayed there, you know, stayed there for a week, you could go out every Day in different directions and do stuff.

That's how my wife and I like to travel.

We like to find a hub and kind of go out from there generally, unless you go to like Yosemite or something, then you know you're in, you're in it, you know you're there or if you're doing boondocking, whatever your flavor is.

So Dylan is not the worst place in the world.

Oh, that sounds really bad.

Doesn't has these small little shops.

If you're into cowboy boots or cowboy wear, there is a store there, it's called Atomic, Atomic something or other.

I haven't been there in a couple years.

They got some killer boots.

They make custom boots there, cowboy boots.

A great little store, very, very nice.

You gotta check that out.

So we're near Dylan, that's why I know these things.

It's not that I go there all the time.

It's like I said, it's been a couple years since I've been there.

They got some great places to eat, meals.

Got a little cafe called Sparky's, it's like a garage, you know, you walk in, it's got that auto shop flavor or not flavor, you don't want that in the food, right.

So check out Dylan.

If you're there for a day, there for a week, whatever.

It's a great place to go.

Like I said, there's maps on the website give you a little flavor of it.

Definitely a go to place.

Now that's going to bring us to shadows of the past.

Towns that once were.

And today we're going to talk about.

Virginia City, which is very close to Dylan.

It's a day trip away.

Virginia City is a old town, a very cool town.

So we're gonna have a nice little reading here about Virginia City.

So this is another one of these pages I tore out of Grandpappy Popeye's book of interesting places to go.

Picture this.

Six prospectors led by Bill Fairweather and Henry Edgar are trudging back to Bannack after a rough journey.

They've been captured by Crow warriors and lost most of their supplies.

But along Alder Creek they strike gold.

Literally.

Their first pan yields a small fortune in today's dollars.

They try to keep it secret, but sharp eyed miners spot their gold filled sacks.

By summer, 10,000 fortune seekers flood the gulch, living in tents, shacks and caves.

They call the new settlement Varana, after the Confederate first lady.

But a Union judge registers it as Virginia City.

Overnight, it becomes the heart of Montana's gold rush, the richest placer strike in Rocky Mountains, pulling 30 million in gold in just three years.

Tents give way to permanent buildings, saloons, a hotel, Montana's first public school, and the Montana Post, the territory's first newspaper.

But with wealth comes trouble.

The remoteness of Alder Gulch breeds lawlessness.

The town sheriff, Henry Plummer, is later revealed as their secret leader.

Fed up, locals form the Vigilance committee of Alder golch.

In just four months, they hanged 24 suspects, including Plummer and his deputies, without trial.

Justice was swift, brutal and controversial, but it brought order.

Virginia City's glory days were electric, but short lived.

In Helena.

They brought up a third of the town, restoring buildings and reconstructing others, including nearby Nevada City, which had been nearly obliterated by dredge mining.

Their efforts turned Virginia City into an open air Museum with 150 certified authentic buildings filled with periodic artifacts.

Today, Virginia City is a living ghost town, bustling with tourists from May to September.

Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, Virginia City's haunted vibe adds intrigue to its boardwalks.

So that's Virginia City.

You can take your RV there.

It's got a nice highway or road to get there.

It's paved.

It's a interesting town.

The cemetery, you know, cemetery, just that alone is worth taking a walk through and checking out the names of the people, the families.

How many children didn't make it past three years old, four years old, Kids died right and left back in those days.

I mean it's not just in Montana, it's everywhere.

You know, when you get to old cemetery sounds odd, but it's very interesting to see how people, how long they lived or how long they didn't live.

War heroes with their, their headstones, it's an interesting thing.

So they do have a cemetery there and he overlooks the town.

Kind of a cool view, if you will.

So that's Virginia City and again it's near Dylan.

You know, you've got Caldwell and Whitehall to the north.

Very cool places.

So check it out when you have time.

And again the full article will be on the smartrver.com now this is going to take us to RV Envy.

You know, we're going to talk upgrading to LED lights in your RV.

Now you might be thinking, come on LED lights, how many years have these things been around and we're just talking about it now.

Well, you'd be amazed at how many people are still using incandescent bulbs or they're unsure about going from an incandescent light to an LED light because they know there's problems with the electronics and LED lights.

So let's talk about this.

LED lights are a good idea.

Now one thing to get straight here is that are you going to save money with LED lights?

No, not in your rv.

You're going to put them in and what you do is you get brighter lights and you consume less battery power.

Now does that cost you money?

I'm going to say no.

You might say yes.

You know, I don't think it's going to kill your or add enough life to your battery because you're not using as much to make a big difference in your world financially.

It might be pennies, maybe it's a few dollars, but you're not going to get that much more life out of your battery over the long haul.

Now your battery will last longer at that 12 volt point, especially lead acid batteries.

It's not going to drain down as quickly because LED lights don't have near the amp draw that incandescent lights do.

So saving money is really not on the table for RVs.

But your battery will last longer.

You're going to go more days or nights running LED lights, I mean LED lights, you could probably leave them all in your RV overnight and your batteries are still going to be fine in the morning.

It's not going to dent it like an incandescent light would.

Definitely don't want to leave incandescent lights on.

But LEDs not so bad now.

So your battery is going to last longer.

They draw a lot less amps, which, that's, you know, an RV buzzword.

Amps, everybody understands amps.

The less amps it draws, the better because you only have so many amp hours in your battery.

Most batteries are 80 to 90amp hours, you know, give or take a few amp hours here or there.

So they're going to save that.

And so it might allow more power for other things.

Maybe you have a 12 volt refrigerator which draws a fair amount of amps, so the LED lights will allow more battery power for that.

If you're out dry camping, you're going to be able to go longer on your batteries because they're not pulling down the power like incandescent bulbs do.

Now, upgrading LED lights is pretty basic.

You can't get the lenses for it anymore.

It's falling apart, is burning up, whatever it might be.

If it's not doing that, save that fixture.

The fixture is good.

Just buy LED replacement bulbs.

And I say that because those fixtures will last, not forever, but they last a long time.

LED fixtures are failing right and left because the electronics inside fail.

The bulb might still be good, but the electronics fail and that's a downfall.

We see it new RVs, brand new lights, you know, they're a year old, two years old, three years old, that's not brand new, but you know, I exaggerated that.

So newer lights, they're failing and you're having to replace them.

So upgrading from the older fixtures to LED is definitely worthwhile.

Now, if you need new fixtures and you upgrade to LED fixtures, there are different quality ones and you can buy them on the Jungle website and you will probably save some money, but maybe it doesn't matter.

It seems like these are throwaway anyways, but you might be throwing them away sooner than you want to.

But I highly recommend buying fixtures that hold incandescent bulbs and putting them in if you're going to replace a fixture.

And fluorescent lights are pretty much something of the past.

So if you have fluorescent lights in your rv, upgrading to LED is a little bit harder.

I mean, you can get LED fluorescent tubes, you know, to replace your fluorescent tubes, which is fine, you just remove the ballast in the light and there you go, you've got a upgraded light with an LED tube in it, and that's going to last a long Time.

But some people just want to do away with their fluorescent fixtures all together.

So you're not going to be able to really find a fluorescent fixture.

You're going to find a LED fixture, but you have to make sure it's big enough to cover the footprint of your old light.

And sometimes these lights were cut out and put flush mount in the ceiling.

So there's a hole that has to be covered.

But it can be done.

But are they high quality fixtures?

Probably not your LED or your fluorescent fixture.

Upgrading to LED tubes would keep you in a, probably a better quality light.

None of those, excuse me, fluorescent fixtures are made anymore.

Doesn't matter if it's sunray, thin light, whoever, they're all gone.

They're not doing it.

So you can't replace it, period.

So that's why some people don't want to put bulbs in them or LED tubes because they feel like if now something breaks on the fixture, they've thrown their money away and they're probably right.

So you might want to just upgrade the entire fixture to a new LED light.

So LED lights certainly have their place and I think most everybody gets that.

Today there are issues like in my house, which I've used an example, every LED fixture I bought I've replaced and I don't buy them anymore.

I'm buying the old style fixtures, which you can still get especially for outdoor lighting, putting LED bulbs in them rather than the complete fixture because when it dies, you're chucking it and you're buying a new one.

And these are brand names that I'm buying.

These aren't low quality things off the Amazon.

Oops.

The Jungle website.

They don't want to say that name.

I just prefer the Jungle website.

I think it describes it better.

I'm avoiding the fixtures if I can.

It doesn't mean that everything works out that way.

But if I can, I avoid it.

And of course some brands are better than others when it comes to this LED stuff.

But most of the quality or most of the stuff you're going to find in RV stores, if you're just buying bulbs is going to be better quality.

Made by Volterra or Diamond Group.

The Diamond Group, which is owned by Volterra, in fact, that's what we stock.

I can't think of the other name that they sold.

Pretty decent bulbs, green packaging.

I can't, can't think of the name.

But usually what the RV stores are selling is quality.

Unless they're buying it off the Internet somewhere.

They found a really, really low, low price Source, which I'd be leery of.

I mean, you don't want to just overpay just because that doesn't make sense in a real world situation.

LED lights, when you're out boondocking, let's say you're in somewhere in Montana or Idaho, maybe you're in Silver, Nampa, Idaho, or your favorite place, they can make the difference on whether your battery is going to last for a night or two to maybe just one night or less, because they don't draw the amps and you can run them suckers as much as you want.

They really don't draw the power.

So they're a good way to go.

So don't get me wrong, I think LED lights are great.

They're brighter, they're better lights in a lot of ways.

But in an rv, they're typically not going to save you money.

The benefit is they don't use the same amount of battery power and they light up that RV much better.

Now, if you have an older rv, it might be kind of dark in there and dingy.

You put in these LED lights, you might go, holy smokes, I need to clean this thing.

I need to do a remodel.

Oh, I better call Eric at Highway 93 RV and talk to him about that revive product line.

That was a cheap plug right now.

Seriously, sometimes, you know, you get something in the light and like, oh, it's not as nice as I thought it was.

But, you know, LED lights are the way to go.

So that's it for RV envy.

And we'll have more on this on our website, like always, the articles are published and it gives you more information.

And maybe LED lights are your thing.

You've had them, been using them for years.

But share it with others, let other people know without cramming it down their throat.

Just a LED lights are the way to go, and you're the smart RVer, and that's why you're using them.

We're coming to the end of the episode, and I want to remind everybody to check out our podcast or subscribe to our podcast.

Whether you use an iTunes, Spotify, iHeartRadio, it doesn't matter.

We're on all the channels.

If there's a favorite podcast channel that we're not on, let us know and we will make sure we're there.

We want to be everywhere, but there's a lot of channels out there that, you know, pop up every day that we might not know about.

But let us know and we'll make sure we're on it and also go to YouTube YouTube.com the smartrver and check out our YouTube channel.

Great videos there.

A lot of short videos.

A lot of our videos converted to shorts.

Great information and of course subscribe like and share there as well.

Lets get back to Wendell and his trailer.

Always falling off.

Most trailer couplers have a hole in it where you can lock it, put a pin in it, you know, so people can't steal it when it's not hooked to your vehicle or even when it's hooked to your vehicle, they can't undo it and drive off.

So that hole also could be where you'd put a pin, anything, a wire, a branch.

So when you're driving down the road, the coupler does not pop up and, and then the trailer pops off the ball and is now dragging on the road or tearing up your weight distributing hitch, whatever it might be.

Travel trailer is a little bit different than a utility trailer, a horse trailer or a cargo trailer.

But nonetheless, always, always put something through that coupler to keep it in the locked position or the closed position so it cannot pop up at all while you're driving down the road.

I put a padlock on all my trailers.

They all have the same key, makes life easy.

And I've got utility trailers, dump trailers, blah, blah, blah.

So I got a lot of locks.

One key and it gets the lock no matter what because the coupler can pop off.

Now Wendell, this was a normal occurrence for him.

He could not get it through his head that he needed to do something like that.

And his coupler, every time it popped off got in worse shape, so it just popped off more often.

But it would land on the safety change, which you got to give kudos to the safety chains.

When you actually see them working when they put on properly and they're crossing one another and that coupler falls off, it lands on top of the chain so it's not dragging on the highway.

Whoo.

That could get ugly if it did.

So remember to always cross your safety chains.

Wendell did that.

That's the only thing he did that was smart when it came to pulling the trailer.

Rest of his life, different story.

But anyway, keep that trailer locked, keep that coupler locked, keep it pinned so you don't find yourself in Wendell's shoes going, what happened again?

All right, everybody, thank you for listening to the podcast, watching it on YouTube, it's been great having you here today.

This is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your go to guide for smarter RVing and unforgettable adventures on the open road.