Shownotes
Transcripts
INTRO
Propane. Staying safe and sound in your RV while using adapters for barbecues, grills, and other LP appliances. That's what we're going to be talking about today while staying on the road. We're also going to be talking about RV-friendly recipes. Yes. Food. That's what we live for. Okay. We're going to talk about RV-friendly recipes and living the RV life.
Then we're going to visit Enchanted Circle, New Mexico in the next stop section. And then we're going to wrap up the show with RV Envy. And in this episode, we're going to talk about keys to like locks for your RVs. Now can you imagine just having one key that is sweet? So that's what we're going to talk about. because most RVs are not key the like, so this is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer Podcast, delivering the Smarts.
LIVING THE RV LIFE
You need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down. Today's show is episode number 131. So, let’s dig in. Alexis, welcome to the show today. Thanks, Eric. Happy to be here. Alexis says she's happy to be here. She's not. She's not feeling well, but she's going to power through this.
That's right. So, we're going to try to get her awake and alive. All right, so last week I ran about a dealer about dealerships and how they don't fulfill our obligations when they sell RVs. And I'm not going to continue that today, but I do want to say this, if you have any experiences with the dealership you want to share.
Go to our contact us page on TheSmartRVer, send me a note, and, uh, let me hear about your experience. Good or bad. Good ones can help people if they're trying to find a dealership that, uh, they can trust. If you trust your dealership, then maybe share that so we can get it out there. You know, good dealerships deserve to be uh, rewarded.
Bad dealerships don't deserve it. I'm going to leave that alone, and we're just going to continue. Now let's get into living the RV life. So, we're going to talk about RV-friendly recipes. Many of you have experienced RVs. Maybe have this down pat. You've got some recipes you use, but you know what? Recipes are one of those things that are always being shared.
And with the internet today, man, you can just get. Recipes for just about anything. Well, not just about you can for anything. So, Alexis, what do we have on the menu today?
Alexis- All right, well, I like this website. It's called Trekking.com, and it's got some RV recipes on there. I like what it says. Being on the road doesn't mean you have to sacrifice your culinary standards. So, if you like to keep to a certain diet and you can do that on the road, you can keep that. And we've just listed a few here that are easier to cook on the road. One is a stuffed pepper casserole, which sounds pretty good. Um, what's one on there that looks good to you, Eric? I like, the instant pot Hawaiian pulled pork myself.
Eric- Yeah, pulled pork is pretty good. And egg and potato breakfast scramble. I know. That's just the basics, you know. Yep. Good old food. Delicious. Call it comfort food, uh huh. That's right. You know, it's an interesting point because a lot of people think it's harder to cook on the road than it can be. So, you just must adjust and maybe buy some new, uh, cooking equipment, utensils for cooking.
Alexis- Mm-hmm. But you know, there's, you can do some basic or pretty good things with basic stuff. If you have a barbecue, if you have a grill, which we're going to talk about.
Eric- Barbecues and grills are a little bit later in this show. I think it's this show. Yeah. Can't keep track of it all. Yeah. So, you know, some basic things.
Alexis- And you can make great meals. Yeah. You can, you know, and healthy meals, you know. Yeah. Meals don't have to be, just eggs and potatoes, you know? Right, exactly. All sorts of stuff. Yeah. When you eat a little healthier on the road, it's probably better because you get more energy. Feel better. Yeah.
Eric- You know, you're traveling, you want to see where you're at. You don't want to just sit in your RV and feel like you're all bloated and can't move. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, and so staying on the road or you know, if you're living the RV lifestyle, whether it's a weekend, week or full-time, you want to stay somewhat healthy, you know, you don't have to be a health nut.
And, and, but you know if you're into health, that's great too, you know? Yeah, yeah. If you have good recipes, easy, and honest, it's always great to share them with your neighbors and friends and stuff. I think. So. It's what we want to do, right? Exactly. So, RV-friendly recipes, you know, they're just that and this, Trekking.com will have that link on our website as well, and in the pod details of this podcast.
Yes. So, if you're listening on iTunes, Spotify, one of those great channels and you can, um, See it there as well. And I'm sure there are other websites and there's plenty of ideas and you might, there are books, I mean there's everything anymore. Mm-hmm. Sometimes websites are easier, especially if you're on the road.
You can just bring it up while you're traveling and look at it and exactly. Go to the store in the morning. Vouch you need for dinner that night. Yeah. Nice and fresh. That's all right. Cool. So, I think that's going to wrap it up, um, for. RV recipes and living the RV life. And now we're going to get into staying on the road and we're going to talk about propane.
STAYING ON THE ROAD
Now, I've talked about propane in the past, but today we're going to talk about propane, staying safe and sound in your RV while using adapters for barbecue grills and other LP appliances. This is one of those subjects I bring up because propane, we get so comfortable being around it. There could be a leak right next to us and if you smoke light up a cigarette, not, don't even think about it or do something, start welding accustomed to being around it in an RV or even boats home or natural gas.
So, we don't really think of it sometimes when we should. And what we need to practice in our RVs is safety. We need to make sure there are no leaks. So, we're going to get into the adapters and stuff in just a moment, but I want to talk about just. General RV safety when it comes to propane. So, you want to make sure that there are no leaks from the regulators.
The different fittings, you know, the lines going to the, uh, stove, the back of the refrigerator, and they're simple tests. You can just get the liquid for testing it, just do it on and it'll, uh, bubble up. And if you've got a leak, you take care of it. But the regulator and the LP lines, which I've said before, are probably the most commonplace for leaks to start.
Check your regulator and the lines going to them, especially on trailers, travel trailers, and the two lines. They have nice bins in them and curves, and generally, they're too short and they get hard and stiff, and then they start leaking where they're connected to the fitting. So, check that out and do it when you're at home.
Do it on your own terms. Don't do it out on the road. You might not be able to find the lines, or you might be paying a little extra, more extra for them. So do it on your own terms. And I don't know if I'd keep spares of those because they might sit around for a long time and go bad. Just sitting unless you keep them in a Ziploc bag in a nice cool compartment or something, and buy good quality lines, barbecue and grills and adapters, and appliances, all these things that everybody wants to hook up to their RV to enjoy food or light or whatever it is.
There's a lot of stuff out there that makes it seem simple. It's not always as simple as it appears to be, especially when you get into barbecues and grills and, you know, lights. Most people don't want outside lights. It's mostly grills and barbecues. Those are the two main things that we're constantly making or coming up with hoses for, um, helping people to adapt them to their RV.
Now, one of the things that, well, the most common thing we get are people that want to hook up their barbecue or their grill to the quick adapter or quick connector on the side of their RV. It looks just like an air hose fitting, but it's made of propane. And so those are put on so many RVs today, and they have been for years, but it's changed a little bit.
So those things are great. You know, it's low pressure. They're handy, they're convenient, and even when they're not in a convenient spot, it only takes a second to hook up to them. So, it's an inconvenience for, you know, 15 seconds while you hook up. Then after that, you're good to go. But you do need to understand how those work.
And this is the thing that most people don't understand who have RVs and they go buy a grill or a barbecue and they want to just hook it up and they, they don't understand why they can't. So that's a low-pressure line that, um, on the RV with the quick connect and being low pressure, it's coming after the regulator of the RV.
So, let's say it's a travel trailer, so that quick connect may be at, the center of the trailer on the passenger side. Maybe at the rear, it doesn't matter. But physically it is after the regulator. So, it's regulated just like your refrigerator is and your, uh, stove is your water heater. It's in the same circuit basically, or the same line, so it has a regulator before it.
So, the propane coming out there is going to be low pressure because it's regulated. So, I hope you understand that the quick connect is regulated on the side of your RV and manufacturers put them on all the RVs now, just a cookie-cutter thing these days, and they give you what, no real explanation of how it works.
The dealerships sometimes don't even understand how it truly works. They don't have a good explanation, so this is what you need to understand about it. It's regulated. So, if you go out and buy, let's say a Blackstone Barbecue or a Blackstone Grill, first off, I have to say, if you buy a Blackstone Grill, you must command attention.
You must be like the cook, right? Those things are just bad, you know, you must, you must just know how to cook if you got one of those. But anyway, you got a Blackstone Grill, and you want to hook it up to yours. So, the quick connect on the side of your RV, well, not every Blackstone Grill will work with that. So, this is where it gets a little tricky and this, the principle with Blackstone follows over to, uh, it doesn't matter what brand you have, Coleman Camco, Weber Qu, and Art Flame King, magma, Blackstone, blah, blah, blah.
You name it, it's out there. It's all the same principles. Some of these companies make adapters and will provide some advice on them. They all work the same way. So, let's say you buy a Blackstone Grill and it's a freestanding one. It comes on its own wheels and everything, and you, you know, you haul around in the back of your truck, wherever you go.
So, you get to where you hook up and you pull out an extra tank and it has a regulator on it, the regulators on the tank, not on the barbecue, and there's just a three-eight line that hooks up to the barbecue. You tighten it up with the wrench. Okay? That's a simple one. Because the regulator is not built into the barbecue, you can just hook up that barbecue directly to the quick connection on the side of your RV.
If you, you know, like us, we would just make a line with the quick connect fitting and the three eight female flare that goes to the barbecue, the length you want, and you're hooked up, you're ready to go. Real simple because it doesn't have a regulator built into it. When you get into some of the other grills, whether it's Blackstone or any other brand, they're going to have regulators built into it.
And how do you know this? If it takes one of those green bottles, they're called throwaway bottles. Throwaway cylinders, you know, they're one pound, you use them one time and you chuck it. Some people might refill, but they're meant to be thrown away. So that's a quarter by 20 threads. And so, if, if it takes a bottle, that means the regulator is built into wherever you connect the bottle.
So, if you hook a line up from there to your quick connect on the side of your RV, it's going to be regulated twice. The RV will regulate it, and then the barbecue or the grill or the appliance will regulate it and that will not work. You cannot run something with two regulators. You won't have a flame if it'll even light.
So that's a no-no. So that regulators got to go. In a lot of cases, it can't because it's part of the appliance. You may be purchased the wrong one and you're going to have to repurchase or just settle on having a bottle sitting on the ground or a tank sitting on the ground, you know, let's say a five-gallon tank that you bring with you that doesn't have a regulator on it, and you have a line going from the tank to the throwaway cylinder or the throwaway, uh, cylinder, uh, fittings.
So, it hooks directly into the regulator. So, like we could make a line for that. If you can't buy one, they, you know, some places will make lines. I only say we, because we just make a lot of the lines rather than carry them all. Because there are so many variations and links and all that. It's just easier if we make them.
That's an easy one to do, but it won't hook up to the RV. And now if you have um, let's say a 22-inch or 17-inch Blackstone grill, it has a fitting that comes out of the side that you can get an adapter to. Hook it up directly to the side of your RV. That will work because you're bypassing the part that comes with it that would regulate it.
So, the regulator on that model comes off and you just put an adapter on there, which Blackstone sells, and then you can hook it directly up to the side of your RV into the quick connect fitting. That makes it easy, but not all of them do that. One of the things we're going to get here in a moment is these adapters that you can buy.
We're going to pin it for a moment, but uh, we need to talk about that and how safe or unsafe they are. I think the point is, is clear here that the two regulators don't work. So, before you buy a barbecue or a grill or anything that you want to hook up to the side of your RV, you must be sure that it's not regulated if you want it to work.
And CAMCO is one that sells barbecues that are unregulated, and there are probably other brands out there. You know, it depends on what you want. If it’s truly portable, Camco makes ones that'll sit on a tabletop where Blackstone’s' tabletop ones will work, but they're freestanding ones. Are much bigger.
Their barbecue or their grills are much bigger, so they might be too big for you to lug around. Do you know? It is like you don't want to carry that. You want something tabletop size. So, you must be sure that it's not regulated. And I can't emphasize that mu enough, because so many people come to our store looking for these things.
They think we're just making it up and we're not. We've talked to the people who make these products, and they agree, you know, it can't be regulated twice. So, if you don't really care about using the quick Connect on the side of your RV, then you can just get a free-standing tank, you know, a five-gallon tank, and have it sitting outside next to wherever you cook and have it with a line going from it to the appliance.
That'll work. You don't have to use those throwaway bottles, but most people don't want to carry the extra tank. So that's why we're going down this road and talking about this. You know, in a lot of cases you might buy something that has a three-eighths flare on it, and more than likely it's not going to be regulated.
There's a good chance it won't be. But before you buy something, make sure if you want to hook up to your RV, that is not regulated, that there's no regulator built into it. If there is, can you take it off? And now Coleman, I know as I think Weber, Blackstone, they make some adapters, so you can pull out their regulator and hook on the adapter, then hook a propane line up to it directly to the side of your RV.
Now there are adapters all over the internet. Oh, the market. Oh, there are some marketplaces. They're very large. I'm not going to name names. And yeah, they're becoming the ghetto of the internet with all the stuff you can get that's probably not safe, and you shut it. Have and use, and these propane adapters fit into that category.
You must make sure when you buy these things that they're not going to leak. You must keep an eye on them. If you do buy one, maybe it's the only thing you can find, and you absolutely must do it. Okay, that's fine. But be careful with it. Make sure it's not going to leak. Check it from time to time. I suggest buying it from Coleman or Blackstone Weber, one of the manufacturers of the appliance.
Because more than likely the quality's going to be better. Now it might come from the same continent. Different factories make things in different ways. Some of these adapters are so inexpensive, you must wonder how they can even work. You know, how can they make them and sell them so cheaply? So be careful with that, but you, you know, if you need the adapter, then check it out.
Check with the manufacturer first. And sometimes they are more expensive and sometimes they come with propane hoses and maybe the propane hoses the way you need. You just need the adapter. But spending the extra money might be worthwhile. You're trying to go inexpensive on these things. I get why, you know, saving money, but sometimes it's not worth it.
And then they might not last. Maybe they're not going to leak right away, but they might not last very long. You know, you might buy two or three of them. Cheapies versus buying one good one. Just this is, you know, basically just a reminder on these things and some education, you know, be careful when it comes to propane, but also that quick connect on the side of your RV is not as quick and easy as everybody thinks it is, because the appliance must be the right appliance.
And some new RVs do come with, uh, maybe those slide-out kitchens, and they might have one of those quick connects that you hook a range up to, or a little barbecue or whatever. And. It's made for that. It doesn't have, the regulator built into it so that regulator's, the thing you can't have that second regulator is really what it boils down to.
Probably could have just said that you can't have two regulators. That's it. Period. All right, we're done. Now think about it. Before you buy something, it's a great way to have propane on your RV. You just must have the right appliance for it. And like I said, now Blackstone makes a 17- and 22-inch portable grill that works with it.
And I know Weber and some of these others have adapters or their ways to make them work. So just. Do a little research before you buy it, no matter how cool it is. If it's not going to work, it's not going to work. So, buy it all, whether it's going to work or not, maybe it won't be the coolest item, but it'll work.
All right? So, I hope that gives you a little more education on that and helps you out so you're not spending money on things you don't need to spend it on and buying it again. And by the way, we will be doing a video on this, um, shortly enough. And speaking of videos, if you go to our channel on YouTube, it's youtube.com/TheSmartRVer.
You can see the videos that we've done, and we highly recommend them. In fact, I'm begging you, I'm not begging. We go there now, check out some videos. We're trying to get our hours up, the watch time, the views. We have a purpose here, and if you can watch some videos and share them with your friends, we'd appreciate it.
Videos are awesome and we're producing them every other week now on a regular schedule, so check that out.
NEXT STOP
Now we are going to go to the next stop. Alexis had been sitting in the corner over there, not feeling well, patiently waiting. To get to Enchanted Circle, New Mexico. Now, I have never heard of Enchanted Circle, New Mexico.
Alexis- I know. I thought it had such a cool name to it. Just really intriguing.
Eric- So where is it? In the middle of Albuquerque now?
Alexis- No, I, you know, I think it's its own. I don’t know where it's near. I should look that up. Oh, there you go. That's bad. Let me do that. Yeah.
Eric- The experts here at TheSmartRVer Podcast can help get lost anywhere.
Alexis- Exactly. All right, see, I see that it's an 85-mile-long loop. Yeah, it is. Um, there's so much to do with it too. There's so much to see. Kind of a beautiful area. Let me see, let's see. Okay. Teos, Mex, New Mexico. That's where it's close to. Have you heard of that little town? No, I haven't. Okay. Yeah, so, it says the ENC chance circles an area in North Northern New Mexico that includes Teos.
Red River, Eagle Nest, and Angel Fire. That's cool. Oh, Taos. Taos. Sorry. I said that. There we go. Yeah. All right. I didn't pronounce it. So, it's near Taos, New Mexico. Everybody's heard of Taos. Yep. Pretty popular place. Okay, got it. Beautiful. All right. See, we get our act together on the fly here. Yeah.
Eric- You know, this gives you an idea that we're looking this stuff up. We are not. Always just going there. We've been there, you know, but we're trying to let everybody's appetite and you know, New Mexico is an interesting state. I need it, they get a lot of inter cool-looking stuff there. They do.
They do. It's one of those places where everybody drives through New Mexico. It's like, I need to come back and go here. I need to go there. Yeah. Right. All right, anyway, let's not get sidetracked. Okay. So, tell us more about this loop. Oh, it's just very cool. There are some of the things to do, um, on it as you drive it.
Um, there's Wheeler Park and, or Wheeler Peak, sorry. And it stands as the highest peak in New Mexico reaching an elevation of over 13,000 feet. So that's neat. You can hike it if you're a hiker, it's kind of a challenge, which is awesome. And then there's Taos, the town of Taos, and that's a beautiful place.
It's got a lot of culture there. Um, I'm sure there are places you can. Look at art and go shopping. So that might be kind of a fun stop. And if you're into Hot Springs, they have hot springs there in quite a few places. So, there's lots and lots to do. Right. And Taos is that little artist-type community and great for artists, but don't let that dissuade you from going Yeah.
If you're not into art because it's just a cool place, you know? Right. The whole area. Um, I haven't been, well, I heck, for all I know, I've been in some of this enchanted circle, but you may have. Yeah, it's, I haven't done it intentionally. So of course, there are places to eat there, right? Actually. Oh, there always is.
We must mention them. The Taos Cow, which is cute. Um, that's more of like a cafe. So, they've got their soups and sandwiches and of course coffee. Um, the Bavarian, um, and that's nestled in the tail, the Taos Ski Valley. So that's, that's kind of cool. They have schnitzel there if you've ever wanted to try that.
Schnitzel, schnitzel. And then they have Sabras Restaurant and Bar. So, uh, right. Cool. Of course, if you're driving your rv, you have a place to stay. Of course, you do. I, there's a, a lot of them, and more than that, there's Enchanted Moon, RV Park, there's Red River RV Park. So, wherever you stop on the circle, and you just want to, you know, spend the night, there are places all over that.
So, you can, you can stay anywhere basically. All right. So, is this map on, uh, TheSmartRVer.com? Um, it will be, yes. It already is. Okay. Yeah. So, everything about this enc, well not everything, but there's going to be some informal. Well, there is information on our website, TheSmartRVer.com. Under the Next stop, enchanted Circle, New Mexico.
So, check that out is quite the place pausing here. Because I had to do something quickly. Lost my screen. Okay, we got it back. I think we covered that. Looks like a great place to go. So, Alexis does a lot of work looking this stuff up, looking for destinations and places to go check out. RV destinations magazines, rv destinations magazine.com.
So, I've been talking about this for a while. We're going to um, because we, we love the magazine. We love the owners of the company. Super friendly, super helpful. This magazine looks like it's owned by some gigantic mega corporation because it's so nice, but it's not. It's owned by a couple that are very down to earth.
They have people out on the road, it's hands-on, 100%. It's not the stuff they're scavenging off the internet like we do that. Just kidding. You know, it's a high-quality magazine, so I highly recommend checking it out whether you get a subscription or. Go to their website and just, just explore it a little bit.
It’s well worth the subscription though. It's well worth it. Okay, next is RV Envy. And you know, there's one cool thing about owning an RV. You can have some sweet things on it, or you can just have a nice-looking RV and people look at it and they get envious of it. You know, they're not going to kill you for it probably, but they're going to, Hey, that's nice.
I like that. You know? Or it might motivate somebody to take care of their RV because you're taking care of yours. Or in this case, you might have one key on your key chain for your rv, and that's it because you've got one key for the entrance door lock if it's a key or a key type. If it's not keyless, then you got one key, and then that same key works for all your key or your compartment door locks.
Wouldn't that be nice? Rather than having two keys, three keys, you know, fumble around with a which one, which well key to, like RV locks are very attainable today. Now there's a company called Global Link. They make a lot of this, these products, and I only mention them because I like their products. It's not a plug for them per se, it's just I like their products.
They have a nice system, but there are other lock companies that are doing it. And what's cool is all your compartment door locks can have the same key as your interest door lock. Now this doesn't happen, you know, with just, um, a few little things. You know, it's, it's, it's a do-it-yourself project. It's going to cost a couple of bucks too.
You might have to change a lock and you change a few locks. You're going to have to change some cylinders in the locks for sure. So, there's going to be some expense associated with it, but it's well worth it just to have one key that works on everything. Or if you have one key for your compartment doors. One key for your entrance lock.
Maybe you don't care that the entrance lock and compartment doors are the same and just go with a keyless entry. Then you don't have to have that key for the entrance door on your lock, and then you just have one key again. So, there are a couple of different ways to do it, and the keyless entry is good to go with, and globally does make a nice keyless entry.
In fact, it's one we're putting in the RV. We just did a video about them on YouTube. See, there's a reason to go to YouTube right now. About interest door locks. So that's one of our tasks. Fast Tip Fridays on YouTube. So, it's simple, you know, to have one key. Whether you want to replace all your locks or just do some of them, you can do that.
It can be accomplished. So, if you're thinking about it or you know, somebody just share this podcast with them. In fact, just share the podcast with others, period. Have them subscribe to it and have them go to our YouTube channel. Stay up to date with it. You know, we produce a podcast every other week. We produce YouTube videos every other week.
So, there's always something coming out basically every week at TheSmartRVer see we're at the end of the show now. That went quickly. So, I want to thank everybody for listening today. It's been great and it's been great hanging out with you. So, if I don't see you on the road, connect at TheSmartRVer.com.
