Do I need to lock my RV? Wait a minute. How do you lock an RV? This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer podcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down. So here we are, episode 117. It's snowing outside. Yes, it is. Although, by the time this airs or not airs, but it's published, who knows what the weather will be like.

Yeah, it's cold. Supposed to be minus 14 or 16 or something tomorrow. So, we got some cold weather, but that's cool. We like that. Yeah, it's literal. Cool as to the day. All right, so Alexis is here with us. We're doing episode number 117, and we're going to be talking about RV locks and how to lock your RV.

And we're not talking about the entrance door. Mm-hmm, how to keep your RV from getting stolen. Right. That's where we're heading in this. But before we talk about that, we're going to talk about living the RV life. So today, staying fit while on the road is our subject matter. Yes, it is. So, a little hesitation there.

RV LIFESTYLE

Sometimes my notes get mixed up. No, you’re right. All right. So, staying fit while on the road. So that's important. You know, when you're driving an RV. Yeah. You know, just driving somewhere makes you sluggish. I know you can get very sedentary when you're driving on the road and living that lifestyle.

So it's, and you get to where you're going and maybe set out the comfy chair and, let's just chill for the next five days. So, we don't want to do that. So, Alexis, how can we stay fit? On the road?

ALEXIS- Well, like you were saying, when you're RVing, you're kind of in that vacation mode and nobody wants to exercise when they're on vacation.

ERIC- Mm-hmm, but actually can be really good for you. You can help you keep that stamina going so that you can continue traveling, which is what you want to do. Obviously if you're RVing, um, a one great. To stay fit is to get out and explore wherever you're going. Just take a walk, take a hike. I'm sure where you're going is beautiful.

ALEXIS- You know, park your RV. Um, get out there and walk. Take a trail. Go with each other. If you're traveling with your family mm-hmm, enjoy the scenery. It's just a, it's a good way to do that.

ERIC- Right? So, you know, staying fit while on the road. Maybe not really what we mean. Stay active. Stay active. That's right. I started thinking that you might not be fit to begin with, you know, if you're not exercising at home. Right?

ALEXIS- True, true. Very true.

ERIC- But it's getting some exercise while you're out traveling. It's important because it's easier to just do nothing. Yes. And maybe that's what you want to do is do nothing but.

You know, she still gets some exercise. You really should. It's good for you. Yeah. If you're eating and generally when you travel, you eat more. I do. It might not be as healthy as you normally eat at home cause you're kind of subjected to what's available, you know? Yeah. Now you're, you go to the grocery store and you're hungry, what do you buy? You know, bad junk stuff. Junk food, you know, junk comfort food. Yeah. Like I said, you're in that vacation mode, hey, right, you know, that's where like having bicycles with you. Yeah, they don't have to be quiet cat e-bike spot from us, but they can be just bicycles, you know, if you just ride a mile or two each day.

ALEXIS- Yeah, that's still a nice feat. You know, you cover some ground, get some exercise, right, and yeah, go ahead. If you're into it more, like you said, if you're just wanting to stay active, that's great. If you are really into staying fit, um, maybe you need to find a park near Amen. That have gyms, some of them do.

ERIC- Yeah. Or swimming pools. You know, if you have your routine already set up, you can probably do it just about anywhere. Maybe even in your RV, right? Depending on the size of it. But there's, there's apps, there's schedules, and if you have a buddy. That always helps. Yeah. keep you motivated. So, if you're not in that groove, probably the easiest way to do something is just explore.

Yeah. Get out and do stuff. You know? Even if it's just an RV park, you can explore the RV park.

ALEXIS- Absolutely. That's probably the easiest way to do it. Most places you go, you can walk and do things. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's easy, but just try to make something a little more dedicated to it, I guess, is the point.

ERIC- Exactly. It'll make the rest of the trip well or better as well. Mm-hmm. So that's a good tip. You know, we do want to stay active. Yep. In shape at some level. Yep. We're RVing or just chilling out. We still need to do something. Keep going. So now that takes us to staying on the road and we're going to talk about locking your RV.

STAYING ON THE ROAD

Do you need a lock for your rv? Well, if you don't want it to get stolen, you probably do the, the real thing is here. RVs have locks on the doors, and we all know that. And locking your door is one step to keeping someone from breaking into your rv, but we don't want them to drive off with your rv. So why even tempt a thief?

Make it clear that your RV is going to be a headache to steal. If it's even going to be possible. I mean, the true criminal, if he wants your rv, it almost isn't going to matter what you do. He's going to get that thing. This was talking to someone the other day, you know about. locking up your tires in a car. You know, you buy some new wheels, and you got nice tires and wheels.

If someone really wants them, they're not going to take the tires and wheels. They're just going to take the whole vehicle. That's how it works. Okay? It's easier to steal a car than it is to steal four wheels. When it comes to your trailer though, you want to discourage people from stealing it. So, you know, when we talk about locking an rv, someone might say, like, when they come into the store, hey, I need a lock for my trailer.

Mm-hmm, then you know, the question is, you know, Maybe in my mind is that your door lock compartment, door lock trailer, you know, blah, blah, blah. Lock. What lock do you mean? Mm-hmm. See, it's a very vague thing, but they, what they mean is they need a lock to lock their trailer so no one can drive off with it, steal it.

And generally, that boils down to a coupler lock, especially in our area because so many people have travel trailers here. You know, there's hardly any motor homes, some fifth wheels, but it's mostly travel trailers. But if you have a fifth wheel, then you'd want a kingpin lock. Totally different than a coupler lock.

And if you have a fifth wheel, you know that a kingpin is completely different. And kingpins are pretty much just one size. The style might vary a little bit, you know, on your, your seat, the box and all that. But the pin itself is just one size, so easy to lock up. You got you. One lock. Sometimes there's different varieties of it, different spins on it, but it's the same thing.

So, when you look at a trailer lock, though, in fact, I'll hold up a kingpin lock, you can't even really tell because it's in the pack and it's just round, has a cylinder on the end, and the pin goes in there and locks it onto the kingpin. Awesome. Very simple. And there's some different flavors of that, like I said, but trailers or couplers have different options for locking them.

Much different than a fifth wheel trailer. So couplers, you know, they have different size latches on that. You flip up to release it so you can get it off the ball and put it on the ball and lock it. So, you have some variation there. Different size couplers. You have engine seven, eights, two inch two and five sixteenths.

Most travel trailers are going to be two and five sixteenths. Utility trailers are going to be most of them two inches and your little smaller trailers inch and seven. , you still don't want it to get stolen since seven, a's going to be a utility trailer of some kind. You know, small. And they have different flavors for that because obviously there's different coupler locks.

So, before you even go buy one, you have to know what size ball you have. Mm-hmm. so, you can get the right lock. And depending on what kind of lock you want, you're going to have to have maybe some other measurements or buy something a little more universal. Like if you have a coupler where it has a little lever, you flip up.

Sometimes that lever might be an inch wide, sometimes a half an inch wide. You know, I'm approximate numbers here, so you need to know that. Mm-hmm. And you can't just go tell the guy at the RV store, you have such and such RV, and expect him to know you must go with a little. Of information to help do that.

The ones I have here, there's a couple different styles now. These are kits, but you can see this one here and if you're watching or listening, you know, it's a, a coupler lock that's about two and a half inches wide, so it'll fit on any coupler which works. You know, little extras hanging off isn't going to make a big difference.

Then there's a narrower one that's about an inch wide. So, you have an inch of area that's going to slide through the latch. Okay. So, it just depends on your coupler. And most RV stores are going to have these, even some automotive stores will have them. It's not a, you know, real tricky thing to do. And I recommend if you're going to lock your coupler, you'll lock your hitch and get keys that are the same.

Get a set so you have one less. Two locks can generally mean two keys. You don't want that. You just want one key for both locks. Right? Then always keep a spare in your tow vehicle. Yeah. some place where you know it's at. Because if you lose your keys, you want to make sure you can unlock your trailer. Yeah. That can be a nightmare.

All right, so then the locks are, you know, basically it boils down to storage for storing your RV or for towing your RV. And it gets simple with a, uh, a fifth wheel because it's going to be for storage. You know, you're not going to tow your fifth wheel trailer with a king pin lock on it. It's impossible.

Not going to happen. Mm-hmm, you know, there's not a lot of ways to lock a fifth wheel trailer to your truck. and generally, fifth wheel trailers don't get stolen because they are attached to the truck and you'd have to move the truck first. So, if someone wants the trailer, they're probably not going to steal the truck and the trailer.

Yeah, yeah. You know, or get the truck unhooked from the trailer. Uh huh. I mean, a real good thief would just steal it all, you know? Yeah. Make it easier. But that doesn't happen very often. Um, the bottom line is if you lock something up and someone really wants it, they're going to get it. You know it's going to happen.

And the same is true with some of the locks you can buy. You know, some of these locks are very cheap quality. There's a guy on YouTube, the Lock Pick Lawyer or something like that, , and he shows you how to break into every kind of lock there is. and it's amazing how easy some of these locks are to Yeah. To pick or to open.

Even when the company sent them new ones saying, no, this one's been fixed. He still got into it in like two seconds. Wow. Now this is what this guy does, you know, so he, he understands it. He has a deep understanding of how to pick a lock. Most people don't have that understanding. Your typical thief doesn't either.

Yeah. You know, they're more blunt force than they are, technical. Mm, mm-hmm, but you still want to consider that you don't want a real pile of junk lock. You know, you do want to have something that's worthwhile. It'll probably stop people in most cases, but like I said, if someone really wants it, they're going to get it.

And another thing that is not so obvious in store sometimes or wheel locks that go around the wheel, it kind of clamps on the tire and. So, you couldn't drive away with it. Mm-hmm, you know, but someone could take the wheel off and put it on their own. Or just leave it off. Possibly. If you have a Tandem Maxwell trailer and drive away with it, you know, they'd probably just put their own on there, but it slows people down.

It's a deterrent. You know, that's what you're trying to do is deter people. Right. You know, in the past I've had wheellocks. Um, you know, they're kind of a chore, but any lock is, you know. But if you put it on there and it sits for three months, who cares? You know, the chore doesn't matter. So, trailer lock.

So, your typical coupler lock, they have different ones for traveling, for storage. So you have to kind of determine where you want to lock your RV, you know, if it's more for traveling or more for storage. You know, if you're going to lock your, your RV. And you want it locked down for traveling, then you want to make sure you lock the ball mount.

Mm-hmm. That's one thing that most people forget about. Ah. No one will mess with that. Well, the easiest thing is pull a pin out and they can just pull the trailer out. It, it's that simple. Then they got a ball mount to put into their hitch. Yeah. There you go. Real simple. You know? So, lock the ball out.

Mm-hmm. And you know, like I said, you can get a matching set. Coupler lock ball mount. Lock all in one, one key for both. And you're good too. And get, um, the Ace key type locks, they're harder to. Right. You know, that's the round key, not the regular flat key. Even a double-sided flat key is better than a single-sided flat key.

Mm-hmm, you know, they just have the little ridges on one side. Those are easier to open. Yeah. Little variables there, but you might not pay attention to that when you buy it. You're looking at the bigger pitcher, not the little details. You just want to lock your RV and you might miss that and that's fine.

So you really had to determine whether you want to lock your RV for traveling or for storage. For storage. There are locks designed. I don't have one here in front of me, but it slides over the coupler and kind of blocks everything off so you can't hook anything up to it, which they work good for. Storage Master makes one, or at least they used to, and there's probably a million other brands out there now.

Everything's been knocked off time and time again. Then there's a lock that. I do have here that it fits up in the coupler. It's got like an, uh, simulated ball on it and a U-shaped, uh, locking portion that slides down and it kind of locks the coupler so you can't hook up to it as well. Hmm. These are popular.

Mm-hmm, I'll be more popular than the other one that slides over the coupler. Then of course, you know, some trailers, like if you buy a utility trailer, a dump trailer, their ball or their coupler systems, sometimes they have locks specifically made for it. So that's another variable. We're talking about travel trailers here.

Mm-hmm. Now another thing for RVs for storage could be the same locks you use for traveling for the coupler. You know, the latch on it and the, and the um, uh, ball mount lock, you know, the latch lock you could use, but you could also use a padlock on most trailers. You can get a padlock with a long shaft on it, or a long shank that'll go through the lever.

You lift and down. Mm-hmm, and you can just lock. Now I like the padlocks because they're easy. Okay. Because you must have a clip on that le that lever anyways when you're traveling, so it can't come undone. The padlock does that, it locks it when it's in storage. Um, a good lock, you know, they're not going to mess with It's harder to pick.

Yeah. Yeah. Someone might cut it with bolt lock or bolt cutters, you know, but that can happen with anything. Sure. And then depending on your RV, you might need two or three locks on it, and then you have them there, depending on what you're doing. Mm-hmm, and padlocks, you can buy in sets of, you know, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, all key to like, yeah.

You know, that's ideal. All my trailers have the same key for the padlock, for the coupler. Smart makes it easy. I have a utility which is a dump trailer with a box on it with a battery and the hydraulic, and it has a lock on it, but it's the same key as the locked is on the coupler. Nice. Now what I do is I use the pad.

and I also have a cable. I got like a 12-foot cable, and I cable one trailer to the next. So, both my utility trailers are, have a cable going to them, and a big heavy duty lock on it. Nice. Didn't skimp there, and they're locked together. So that gives you a little extra security. And most trailers you can lock to something smart.

Generally, there's something nearby, you know, even if it's a tree, yeah, they can cut down a tree, but that's a hassle too. You know, you have to really be motivated to do that. I mean, make it a big tree, not a little small two inch tree. And then there's the wheel locks that can go on the wheels, you know, if they hook up to the trailer, it's going to certainly make it harder to drive away with, you know, the locks on the wheels.

Mm-hmm, um, by the way, if you use, use the padlock, put the lever in the down position, like it would be for towing. That way if they do have a ball mount, they can't get the ball up in. It locks them out, you know? Mm-hmm, because if that's open, they can just set the, the coupler on the ball and maybe not latch it and drive away.

You just have to be careful, right. And make sure it doesn't bounce off, but that can be done. Hmm. People leave those things unlatched all the time and drive for hundreds of miles before it catches up with them. Yikes. Another thing you can do is park a vehicle in front of you. Or if it's a motor home, if you have a vehicle you can park in front of it.

Mm-hmm, you know, motor homes are a little bit different. They don't need the same security as a trailer does. You know? Yeah. It's more of an automotive, so it's going to be the car thief who's going to steal the motor home. Sure. Not the trailer thief, but parking in a vehicle in front of it makes it harder.

Mm-hmm. I wouldn't put a cable on a motor home and cable it to something, because if you forget it's, or someone steals it and they don't know it's there. That could get really ugly. That could be bad. So don't cable your motor home to anything. Um, just your trailer. But even that, you got to remember it's cable to something.

Oh. So, make it obvious. I always leave the lock in a certain spot, so no matter what, I'm going to undo it. Mm-hmm. Park in a vehicle in front of it, that's pretty safe. Like my two travel tr or utility trailers. I park my truck in front of one of them and you wouldn't be able to get the other one out without moving the truck.

Smart. So that makes it easy, you know, and I got the cable on it and the padlock. I don't want them to get stolen. And then, you know, if it's in a. Like behind your house, behind a shop, a garage, make sure there's some lights out there. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. thieves love dark places, you know, and the lights help you anyways for doing stuff on it.

But having things lit up, you know, you should have lights lit up on your home, your garage, on your property. You know, it's kind of security 1 0 1. So now that's for storage and you probably have some things you do on your own that work for you. You know, depending on where you're at, you might put your trailer in a shop.

Mm-hmm. problem solved. In most cases, no one even knows you have it. Right. Which is, you know, a good way to go that way. The trailer's never there. See when a parked in storage in front of your house and it's there for month after month, and all of a sudden, it's not there. A week or two weeks, people notice that, oh, they're on vacation.

Ah, they're not going to steal your trailer, everything. Going to rob your house. Exactly. So little things there, you know. So now if you're traveling in your, your, your trailer, you know, motor home, obviously you're just going to lock it up, a fifth wheel, the same thing, leave it hooked up to your truck. But if you're traveling, basically all you can really do is use a coupler.

In a hitch lock. Mm-hmm, and you could get a small cable and actually run it around the, the tongue of the trailer, around the hitch of the tow vehicle. Mm-hmm. to be small so it didn't drag, and you could just leave that there on all the time and wouldn't hurt anything. So, you just have to get the right size.

And smaller cables probably have to have maid or make your own. I don't think you might be able to buy one, but anyway. So, the locks are very simple to use, relatively inexpensive, especially when, if you. $50,000 trailer. Don't skimp on a lock. Oh look, this lock's only $15, but this lock's 25. Buy the $25 lock and you're locking up $50,000 worth, right?

Mm-hmm. And don't say you have insurance because insurance doesn't always work. Yeah, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. And by the way, Frank asked me to talk about this. Um, he emailed in some information. It's been months, but we finally got around to, and I don't know if it's covering everything he was thinking, but security in an RV is very important.

RVs do get stolen. Um, another option would be buying a safe, a wear safe GPS tracker. Mm-hmm. And putting it in the RV. And then you can tell if it's moving, rocking back and forth, it'll notify you on your phone. That's another option. And if it did get stolen, you can see where it's. and get your RV back.

Brilliant. Yep. Yeah. And you get it back quickly. Because you know if someone steals your RV and they have it for a few days, a week, a month or something, you might not want it back. Yeah. It might be trashed out, you know? Mm-hmm. But if you can get it the same day, chances are it's still going to be a one piece, and everything will be okay.

Yeah. You know? Chances are if they're pros and they want to strip it down real quick, eh, maybe not. You know, more than likely be able to get it back, but the best thing to do is just deter people. Yeah, to keep them from wanting to steal your RV. And that's really what it is. It's deterrence. Just making it harder.

Little things. Yeah. Because people in general are lazy. Oh, I'm going to have to cut that lock. It's going to be more obvious or have to move this, move that. Forget it. Yeah. They're not going to do it. And look how we do just with our own. Yeah. You know, like when we go on vacation, we don't want to do anything. That's why we were talking about staying fit.

Right, exactly. . . So, deter the thief, reduce the headaches. You know, that's the point here. RV stores, you know, they have different locks, and you can look in catalogs, but a lot of it's just repetitive stuff. A lock is a lock in some cases. But don't cheat. You know, go cheap. Buy the better quality, but don't throw away money, just because it's more, doesn't always mean it's better.

Check it out and make sure that it is. Mm-hmm. All right. So hopefully that helps everybody make good decisions in locking up their RV and reducing the theft, you know? And if it's locked up, a lot of people are going to think, well, we probably don't even want to go inside of it because there's not going to be anything in there of value.

They're going to take everything out. These people are smart, you know? Yeah. Keeping them out of the RV is harder. But just keeping the RV so it can be an overall deterrent.

NEXT STOP

Mm-hmm. All right, so now that your RV's safe and secure, let's take a moment and go to Banff Canada. and Alexis is going to share some information with us about Banff and what an awesome place it is.

ALEXIS- I'm so excited about this one. Have you ever been to, I've been through Canada. Yeah, through Canada.

ERIC- Yeah. I wanted to get out of Canada as fast as I could because it was so expensive.

ALEXIS- That's very, very true. It is. But it's also beautiful. It is. Um, yeah man, there's so much to do there. Lake Louise is kind of the famous lake.

Um, and you can take guided tours on that or just check it out, go swim in it. Um, go take a kayak in it. And then, um, one of my favorite names, I think. Lake Mini Wonka. Mini Wonka. Isn't that great? I think everybody's heard that name.

ERIC- Yeah, I think so too, something like that. Something in a movie maybe. I think.

ALEXIS- Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's a lot to do there. You can hike, you can fish, you can canoe, um, whatever, you know. Delights you. You can do, the Northern Lights. Yes. You can see those there. Mm-hmm. in the winter. Yeah. There's been sightings. That's, and if you've never seen them, that makes the trip worthwhile. Exactly.

ERIC- Northern Lights are awesome. Yes. I mean, beautiful. We're in Alaska. Oh, that's really cool. Yeah, it's quite a treat. Yeah, it is. Definitely.

ALEXIS- That's cool. Yeah. And then there's something called heli-skiing. So, um, just a quick to explain it, it's when you take a helicopter to a slope mm-hmm. , and instead of, you know, the traditional way you actually jump out of the helicopter.

ERIC- Right. And do like a, it would be like a back slope, you know, somewhere you can't get to. Higher up. Farther back and it's a day trip. Yes, very much so. It's not just a one run down the mountain trip. Right, exactly. Like in 20 minutes. Exactly. So, they take your horse more treacherously. Yes. You definitely have to be a good skier.

ALEXIS- Oh yeah, Black Diamond Run. Yep. A hundred percent.

ERIC-I've never done it, but it's always been intriguing. Yeah. You know because of where you're at. But you do have to really know. Know how to survive too. Yeah. I'm just skiing because there's avalanches and other things. Exactly. That causes serious problems for you.

Yeah. But they generally don't just drop you off someplace where you're going to die. Right? Hopefully. Hopefully not. All right. Cool. So, um, besides that stuff and it's all kind of winter related. Uh huh, well, not really. Um, some end winter, but the winter's a big push and both are, they really are. Many places are like that.

I know. It's great. More and more, um, that we discover things like that. Yeah. So now of course after you've been out helicopter skiing all day, you're going to be hungry. Uh huh. and probably cold. Yeah, probably. So, what can you do to offset that? Mm-hmm.

ALEXIS- There are a few places like downtown Banff, um, one called Farm and Fire. like it's kind of the, the big place there. I guess it got really good ratings because they have amazing pizza. From an amazing chef. Um, they also have live music and fireplaces, abundant fireplaces. So it might be nice to curl up with some pizza and yeah, and warm up. Listen, listen to some music and yeah, why not?

ERIC- I’ll not chill out. But yeah, might be on the wilder side.

ALEXIS- Yeah, maybe they have, there's alcohol and live music. Always you, know that's a mixture right there. Yeah. And then they have Chuck Steakhouse, which you can imagine what they have there.

ERIC- Do they have steak tartar by chance?

ALEXIS- Yes, they do. Yeah. They're finding out that's not so good to eat these days. Uh, that's fine. But if that's what you like, that's what you like. Yeah. I mean if it's. Done professionally, I guess, but. All right.

ERIC- So, then any other places that you'd recommend?

ALEXIS- There's one more called the Bear Street Tavern, and again, it's just a joint for beer and pizza.

It's kind of. That's its vibe. Typical, yeah. Typical, typical mountain town place. Exactly. Yeah. When he hangs out Fun place. Mm-hmm. Where everybody knows your name. Yeah. All right.

ERIC- Then um, what about staying there? Places to Camp RV?

ALEXIS- Yeah. If you bring your RV, hopefully you do. There's Tunnel Mountain Village number two campground with over 160 sites, so you'll be sure to find a spot.

Yeah. And then there's Lake Louise Campground, which has stunning mountain views. I looked at the pictures. They're beautiful. Yeah. Ugh. Yeah. That's the place think anywhere there is very picturesque. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Gorgeous. Yes. And then there's mosquito. Creek campground, which the name could be intimidating, but I don't think they have a mosquito problem.

ERIC- So you'll be okay, maybe, maybe not. You'll find out, you will generally this place too. Um, if you have a smaller rv, it'd probably be better, uh, staying there. So, yeah. All right. So, when's the best time to go?

ALEXIS- Um, I put this down just in case I. Like we talked about, you can go anytime of the year, but you might want to check the Canadian travel advisories.

Cause I know sometimes the border. Might not be open. Yeah. I think it is probably now for most, uh, people, but sometimes they, yeah. They do weird things. I think that might be harder to get to. Yeah. Especially if you're driving from here. Yeah. For the states, you know? Yeah, exactly. You fly into somewhere, renting a car can still be difficult.

Yep. You know, you have to be where of the road cause this mountain roads and. Stuff like that. So, yep. Kind of the same things you do here. Yeah. Just make sure it's, check it out, you can get there. Yeah. All right. Cool. So that's BANF Canada. So, we have left the country now officially. Yeah. For the first time, I think.

Yeah. Yep. All right. So, uh, yeah, that's a good one to plan. Yeah. Yeah. Nice trip. And BANF is very popular. Yes. Very, very popular. Mm-hmm, it's one of those places a go-to place. Yes. Cool.

RV ENVY

Now we're going to move on to RV Envy. And a few episodes back, I talked about diesel heaters for RVs in small spaces. I didn't have a whole lot of good to say about them, but I wanted to kind of go back on this.

And they still have their inherent problems. You know, because it's diesel, it's in your RV. Diesel fuel has an odor, people can be allergic to it. And sometimes they don't realize they're allergic to it. So, they go out in your RV and they go with you someplace for a week or two. Suddenly, you know, they got all these allergy allergic type problems, you know, rashes or whatever.

That can be an issue. And then you have to make an exhaust hole someplace in the RV to exhaust it. It has to have an exhaust. So those are some of the downsides to it. But I was thinking about a little bit more in some of the precarious situations people find them in in their RVs in the wintertime, especially if they're living in the RV or the furnace fails, and they're stuck without heat thinking one of these heaters might actually not be so bad.

For more of an emergency, you know, you'd have to set up some sort of vent for it, which you could do. Mm-hmm. And, you know, if your RV's older, eh, it's easier because who cares? Yeah. But you could do something you could close off when you're not using the furnace. And open it and stick the vin out when you are using it.

You know, you could do that, and you could do it pretty clean as well. Even if it went into a compartment and the compartment door was open and it went outside. Mm-hmm, you definitely want that stuff going outside. Um, so there's ways to do that. But I was thinking because of some of the problems today, if pro someone's out of propane, you can't get it locally.

You need some heat; you'll probably be able to get diesel. I didn't look to see what kind of diesel fuel you can use in here. If it's number one, two, or both. If it's number one, you can use kerosene, so you have some options there. Kerosene's much more expensive, but you could use it, you know, if worse came to worse.

And a small space might even be a home and, you know, if the power goes out. So, one of these little diesel heaters could actually be kind of cool. Hmm. You know, they're not going to heat a big room. They're designed for small spaces, you know, think semi a sleeping, uh, the sleeper on the back. Something like that.

A van think that way for heating. Mm-hmm, but they're inexpensive. Even if you bought one and it didn't really pan out to what you thought it was going to be, you don't have a big, huge investment in it. So, I know I, I smacked them pretty good last time I talked about them. But the more I thought about it, they do have a place, you know, it might not be the perfect place, but they do have a place so they're worth checking out, especially if you really have a need for.

Small space heater or an emergency situation, or a, a backup situation. Mm-hmm. All right, so that's RV Envy. So I want to remind everybody to subscribe and share, share these episodes with your family and friends. Um, if you like them if you don't like them, we don't care. Just share them. Anyways, we want them to get out of there.

We want to help everybody. We possibly can understand you more about their RV and how to maintain it. And don't forget to check out our Fast Tip Fridays on YouTube. So, every other Friday, a new video comes out, and if you subscribe, you'll know when they come out. Anyways, that's the idea of subscribing.

Mm-hmm. It's not that you get spam from us, you just get notified when a new email, I mean, a new video comes out or a new podcast. That's what makes it cool. Yeah. You know it's there. Mm-hmm, you don't have to go looking, it comes to you. Mm-hmm. And that's what we like. We like stuff to come to us. Right? Yeah.

That's right. Perfect. So, it's our concierge service to you. All right. So, I want to thank everybody for listening today. We truly appreciate it. We, we like that you're here in learning more about your RV so you can become The Smart RVer. So, this is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer podcast. It has been awesome being with you today.

So, if I don't see on the road Less connected at TheSmartRVer.com.