INTRO

Is it standard? Does every RV really have one? Probably not. RVs are not part of the automotive industry. This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVerPodcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down. Here we are, Alexis, episode number 125.

Eric- How are you today?

Alexis- I'm doing good. How are you?

Eric- I'm doing good. Good. I'm ready to tear into this. All right, the first part of the show is Living the RV Life, and today we're going to talk about it. How to safely travel as a lo woman. Alexis, what insights can you share with us on that?

Alexis- Yeah, this is a cool subject because a lot of people are traveling these days.

The first tip is, I think, an important one. Use the virtual buddy system to keep your friends, and your family informed on where you are, where you're going, where you're going to be, and at what time. They know where you are. You don't want to, you know, head out, get lost, lose signal, and nobody comes looking for you.

Eric- Let people know where you are. Right. Last week was the Weeklong Virtual RV put on by Stuart Takahiro at RVDreaming.net. And that's one of the things he talked about that he does. In one of his discussions, he says that he has people along the way that he contacts or keeps in contact with. And times they do it electronically. Sometimes it's a phone call.

But there are different ways of doing it. Yes. Just letting someone know either I'm coming to visit you, or this is where I'm going next. I should be there. That's a great idea. It is. what other points can you share? Well, just for safety reasons too, don't go too far off the well-beaten path.

That's just a good tip in general, you don't want to get out somewhere again and get lost. Maybe there's me. Creepy pern out there, or animals that you shouldn't be around. Just staying where it's more populated, where it's a little safer is just a smart idea. Right, and things are changing, but things have always been kind of different.

If you're out in the middle of nowhere or replace, with not a lot of people, you do have to be more cautious. Yeah. I know throughout my life I've had interesting experiences with people out in the desert and mountains camping, especially as a lo woman, you know, you need to be more cognizant because unfortunately you are a target or yeah.

Okay. Now what other point can you bring out?

Alexis- for one, changing your routine like we were talking about, that's what people watch for. Don't stick to the same thing every day. Change it up a little, you know, change up what you're doing to always keep your keys handy. This is a good tip.

Eric- We've seen people come into the store, wearing their keys around their wrists or their necks, and it's just a good idea to be able to make a quick escape from humans or animals. Right. That's great. Yeah. Change your routine. Yeah, very important. Keeping those keys handy. You know, it's being alert is really what that is.

Yeah. And be aware that there is the potential for something. And people watch routines. Nefarious people watch routines. Yes. And they target people who have a routine. It's much easier to do that way. Isn't that what bank robbers do? They watch the bank and see what Yep are. Exactly. you're just a minute.

Your bank, right? Oh, all right. Should anyone have an exit plan when they're camping or, heading replace or out walking type of thing? Yeah, I think that's super smart. Wherever you end up going, wherever your destination is. Take a few minutes to look around at your surroundings, and figure out, okay, where am I going to go?

If this happens, how am I going to get out of here the fastest? That's just a good way to be, whether you're alone or with your family even. I mean, having an exit plan is always smart. Right. Very good. My. Now, here's the point I like carrying my protection. Now, do you recommend a 44, a 3 57 Mag?

What's the flavor here?

Alexis- I mean, personally, probably not. You know, pepper spray can do just as well as anything to protect you. maybe having that on you is a good idea. I think you were saying something about having wasp spray, right? Wasp hornet type sprays smart because of the distance of it. Yep.

And if you're sitting at your campsite, you have a canary, or in the RV, you know you got a long shot with it, it cleans up easily too. Yeah, that's fine. And that'll disable that pern. Yeah. Perfect. And all carrying a stick of ChapStick. There you go. Put it in your, in your hand when you make a fist.

And that way you won't break your fingers. Good tip. Simple but real. And that's for guys too. You know, roll a ChapStick, something. A knife, a roll of pennies. Well, no, a folding knife, you just hold it in your hand. Right, right, right. Not going to stab the pern. All right. I think that covers it. it's not, we're, we're not trying to, you know, deter any women from traveling by themselves.

In fact, it's becoming, I think, more of a trend these days. Yeah. It’s being more cautious and sometimes it seems like the more people do that, the bad people realize that, oh, here, there's me easy targets. Let's go look at that. It’s just being cautious and keeping alert to different things.

STAYING ON THE ROAD

Now that's going to take us to our next section, staying on the road. This is the part that we're going to dig into this. Is it standard? Does every RV really have one? Probably not. RVs are not part of the RV industry. Now, why do I say that? Why do I ask those questions and make that comment? Well, let's get into it and we're going to find out.

One of the things that we hear quite often is that every RV has one. It is a standard item. Why can't you get it? They're all over the internet. Every RV I've owned has had the same one, and we've heard those statements repeatedly. And, you know, for 30 years you have heard the same statements. You wonder, are they correct?

Are they incorrect? Well, it's a yes and no answer to that when, when it really gets down to it. Not every RV is standard, not every RV's going to have one. But let's just break this down a little bit, and we're going to dig into how the RV industry works and hopefully, it's going to bring everybody closer to the same page in a not organized.

Or standardized industry. You know, the RV industry is not the automotive industry, and sometimes we compare it to it or try to, but it's not. Now, first, let's break down a couple of differences. A dealership that sells RVs, that sells RVs versus parts and service center, we’ll call it a dealership versus a servicing center.

Okay? A dealership sells certain brands, they sell them day in, day out. The longer they sell them, the more familiar they become with each brand, and typically have a good feel for what service parts to carry for that specific brand. They all have a relationship with the manufacturer of that brand as well.

That does give them a home-court advantage for looking up parts for the RVs that they sell. Now, if it's an RV, they don't sell, they probably won't have a way to look anything up. And dealerships typically are your warranty center for a new RV. That's really where the majority of, or what I feel most people go back to a dealership for is warranty.

Now, if it's a good dealership and you're comfortable with them, you might go back for repairs down the road. Okay? Now an RV parts and service center, al known as a service center, deals with many brands. It's kind of like a general repair automotive shop. They deal with Ford, Chrysler, Chevy, whatever.

That's what a. Service Center does. They might not get every type of RV in there, but they get a lot of them. Service Center has a more difficult time becoming familiar with all the brands because they're working on everything, but they don't get them in day in and day out. The same ones, they might get me of the same ones regularly, they under start to understand them a little bit more, but they're not getting the same ones all day every day.

it makes it harder to know about certain problems that a brand might have. something that's common, maybe among the brand owners, this dealer, the servicing center, might not know unless someone informs them about it, or they have enough experience with it. Now, a servicing center, on the other hand, becomes very familiar with a lot of the appliances and the components on an RV or the RV parts in general, because they're dealing with all of that.

The brand, the house portion of it typically is not where the problems lie. Sometimes they do, but it's more of the appliance than the parts that make it all work. And they deal with real-world out-of-warranty problems. Service centers usually have no way to look up brand-specific or brand-specific parts as a new RV dealership does.

There’s a difference there. They can look up appliance parts and other non-brand-specific items that might not fall directly under appliance parts. They're usually good at bringing or figuring out how to overcome obstacles. Dealerships tend to fall short in that area. A service center, they're going to overcome it because that's their bread and butter fixing your RV.

Sometimes you might feel like you're getting a lot of runs around when you try to buy a part or have your RV serviced, and you might be, but let's say you're not. And let me explain why you might feel this way. It can be a lack of understanding of how each party views and communicates the situation.

The parts guys should listen and ask questions. Now, Alexis, do I ask a lot of questions when people are asking for parts and stuff? Yes, you do. Drives them crazy sometimes, right? For me ran. Me of these questions you, they, they will ask questions. If they're not asking questions, they're not listening.

He should listen and ask questions and understand that not every RV owner is a parts guy or is not a parts guy, right? You know, the RV owner doesn't understand what it's like to be on the other side of the counter, the parts guy must understand that. In other words, the parts guy has more knowledge than the RV owner in a lot of cases about the RVs or the parts that are being discussed.

He must recognize that that's where the listening and questions come in. Now the RV owner, on the other hand, knows what their RV has on it and that is what they see. They don't see anything different other than what's in front of them. Exactly. the parts guy sometimes might ask questions getting away from that.

The RV owner wants to steer it back. It’s that communication thing. It could all be that the RV owner sees what's in front of them and asses all RVs have the exact same appliances and components. Not realizing there could be several brands and a multitude of models for each brand. that's where the questions come in.

And explaining to a customer. Sometimes, you know, there's more than one model. You know, I understand it's a suburban furnace, but there's more than one suburban furnace. The RV owner maybe has had, let's say five RVs. All five RVs have a and e manual awnings. It’s understandable that the RV owner would think that every RV has the same type of awning on it from the factory when they don't.

That’s where that communication comes in, misunderstandings, because the RV owner just assesses that every RV has that thing on it because they've had, that's their experience. And then they kind of get. Maybe, a little frustrated because you're asking questions and then the comments come out.

Like every RV has one. It's standard. You know, every RV I've ever owned has had the same thing on it. See, that's not helpful. It might be true, but it's not helpful. And then that frustration kicks in and the parts guy probably isn't going to want to help you at that point, unfortunately. that patience comes in.

They're just going to get out their book, look it up, no problem. And now my parts might not be available, but it'll have a part number, or it'll say obsolete or something like that. But you can still look things up for that car. RVs are not like that now. Dealerships have better odds of looking up parts when an RV is newer.

But as time goes by, the ability to look up anything for an RV diminishes, and al another thing to consider is that over time an RV will change from the way it came from the factory. for example, from the factory, it might have come with a DO refrigerator and somewhere along the line that refrigerator failed, and the owner put in a new refrigerator and maybe it was a nor cold.

For that matter, it could have been a Dometic, just a different model, but it's not the same refrigerator. If you had a way to look up that RV, a guide, let's say, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be accurate at this point because it would be showing a, a, let's say a Dometic RM 26 52, where now it has a 28 62 or, or a nor cold in whatever.

The guide wouldn't be accurate, it wouldn't be of any help. And a lot of people don't understand that. Well, can't you just look it up? Well, that's a great question and we wish we could, but it doesn't work that way. Or maybe the RV didn't come with an air conditioner and somewhere along the line later, someone put one on.

There’s a difference with RVs. The car will always have an AC compressor on it. It's going to be, and if you must replace it, you can just go buy another one. It'll fit. It's, it's just different. I might not be explaining that, right, but that's just the way it worked. Now, the parts guy al might expect you to understand how the RV industry works because you're an RVer.

The assumption would be you'd get this, you know, you've bought enough stuff and you know how it works, but that's not the case. You're an RV, you're using the RV, the industry is there to support you, and you're not expected to know it. At least you shouldn't be. And that's how I feel about it. They might feel that way, and I guess that could be understandable.

You know, it's just an assumption, sometimes not really thinking it through. With, they probably only know the world that they work in. You know, they're within this industry. It's nothing like the automotive industry, which, you know, it's what most people are used to.

It’s no wonder why it can be challenging to get parts and repairs done, let alone get answers to simple questions, you know, they're stuck in this world, and they can't see beyond it, and they don't know beyond it. Even if they own an RV, it's not the same. When you own an RV and you're in the RV industry, it's just you look at it differently, it's just done differently.

It's not a big deal. You just look things up or this is what my RV needs because you just know it because it's your RV. Times you know the RV parts guy must look outside the box, start thinking outside the box, and the RV or needs to understand it. It's a parts guy and he's in his little world now.

A lot of RVs, or most RVs you could say, have very similar items such as refrigerators, and water heaters. Let's say water pops and as a category, they could be standard. that could be a standard type of item on an RV. Now, I always say the only thing that's truly standard on an RV is that the tires are black.

Okay? Black tires are standard sizes and are a whole different ballgame. those things could be standard on most RVs, you know, not brand specific, just the item itself. For example, every RV might have a water heater, but are all RV water heaters the same? No, they're not. Every RV might have a furnace, but are all furnaces the same?

No, they're not. Now, many RVs over the decades have come with a 2.9-gallon water pp or something like a 2.9-gallon. It might have been a three at 2.8. It fluctuated over time, but they've been pretty much the same style of water pp. They've pretty much been the ShurFlow brand. ShurFlow is a popular brand, but when it comes to the water pp, it's kind of like the AC compressor for that Buick Riviera.

Almost any water pp that's made for an RV today will replace ShurFlow and vice versa. ShurFlow will replace any other water pp. That's one of those items that is standard, and you pretty much don't need to know a lot about it. I need a water pp for my RV. 98% of the time it's going to be a sure Flow 2.9 gallon or another similar one.

That's 2.8, 2.93 gallons per minute. that's a very easy thing to deal with, but that's not the case with everything on an RV, like a suburban water heater. Well, there are a lot of different models of suburban water heaters. I don't know how many there are. There are hundreds at least. You know, it goes on and on and on.

Water pp is one of the few things like a door latch, you know, or my things like that. But even those, there are different lengths of them. It's always a game where you have to bring in a sample or, , take pictures, and make measurements because things can't be looked up by the RVs. Now, there are me items on r the RV that can be upgraded or downgraded.

To make a similar item work in its place. You know, like let's say a door latch, you know, for the entrance door, maybe it has a long one on there, 10 inches, and it's just crazy. For me, someone did that, maybe that's all they can get that day. Right. And they just put it on there and see.

That's where that fit chart wouldn't even work, right? Yeah. And it really needs to be six inches. you downgrade that basically to a six-inch one. Not every item on an RV can be readily purchased in your local RV store, and there's a reason why, and you've probably seen that you go into the store and of them, they just don't have the parts all the time that you need.

The dealership is different. They're going to have a different inventory than a parts store because they sell units. they're going to have an inventory of parts for the units that they sell regularly. An RV store purchases its products from a distributor. They don't buy them online at Amazon or eBay.

They're going through distribution channels. They supply what is known as the aftermarket stores, a brick-and-mortar RV pars Accessory store is an aftermarket store. Camping World is an aftermarket store, and your local dealers are the same way. They're an aftermarket store, but they all have the new components for RV, which expands their inventory a little bit.

Some of these parts just never really come on an RV. Let me back up. me of these parts that come on an RV that you think a store should have because you've seen several RVs with it and maybe in your thinking, well, every RV has one that might not be the case. And a lot of parts that come on an RV do not trickle out.

To the stores, whether it's a service center or even a dealer. And that goes back to what has been said in the automotive industry for decades. You know, when I was a Cadillac mechanic, there were parts we just couldn't get. And now we bought it from a dealership. But there were things that we just flat out couldn't get for new cars.

It was a dealer item only. And it's the same with Ford, gm, Toyota, Ferrari, whoever. There are me things that will only come from them, and they're dealer items, and it's the same in the RV industry. There are my things that will only come from Winnebago, they'll only come from Fleetwood, they'll only come from whoever.

Keep that in mind. the point of this entire discussion here, it’s for you as the RVER to understand how the RV industry works, you have better insight into how things work at a store, whether it's for the better or worse, you have my insight, and it's not that you as the RV owner are the bad customer.

I would say that generally, the parts guy is the bad guy because they're not listening and understanding and trying to see things from your vantage point. They're there to serve you. Now we must work together, though. If you want your RV fixed or that new part, sometimes we must work together. communication is just, it's, it's key between you and the parts sky, and it's just not, this isn't just isolated to the RV industry.

It's everywhere. You know, I went to a local electronic store here a while back looking for an adapter for a computer and the guy didn't want to listen to what I said. He said, Nope, those parts are not available. Let me show you what I have. He shows me like the, you know, $70 part versus the $5 parts. But yeah, you don't even want these.

They're not going to work for you. You know, they're, what you want isn't made. I went online and bought it elsewhere because that was the only store in town. I didn't have a choice and I didn't get it from Amazon. The point is it happens everywhere, I just feel worse, or it seems more obvious that there's a communication gap.

All right, hopefully, that helps. That makes everybody understand us a little bit more. And I know it's kind of not the normal staying on the road type thing. We're talking about maintenance, but this is indirectly related to that maintenance and keeping your RV on the road. Hopefully, it helped. All right.

NEXT STOP

That was good information. Now we're coming to the destination part of the show. The Next Stop. Today we're going to visit wall drug, South Dakota. Oh, yay. Exciting. Alexis, what is going in at on at Wall Drug? South Dakota. That’s a drugstore.

Alexis- It is.

Eric- And what's the name of the city?

Alexis- Wall.

Eric- There you go. I know. I love that. That's clever. Very clever. Right.

Alexis- I've been there personally, and it was fun. My dad and I went on a road trip once, but yeah, there's a lot to do there. They’ve turned the drug store, the famous drug store, into a kind of strip mall. It's huge. There's a lot to do with it. There's a donut shop. They kind of. Are famous for that. They have dinosaurs everywhere. There's a gift shop. There's just a lot in there to do to see, you know, there's something about this part of the country where you see Bigfoot things everywhere. Yeah. Then, yeah, the one gas station, I can't think of the name of it right now.

Eric- They got the dinosaurs in front. Okay. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. It's green. I can't think of the name of them, everywhere. It's a popular brand everywhere up here. Yeah, it's unique. The dinosaurs. Right on. Oh yeah, tons. Wall Drug is popular. It's one of those things if you're driving through Utah Dakota nearby, you'd want to stop.

Yeah, I think. And there's more to do around there, but as far as like once you're all there in Wall, are there other things to do besides hanging out at the drugstore all day?

It takes me time. Yeah. I haven't seen how people lived back to exactly what life was like. It's very different. Yeah, exactly. What about eating and, and eating? Well, there's not a whole lot there. It is a very small town, but there are a couple. One is bad. Bad Land Saloon and Grill just offers, you know, burgers and all that kind of stuff.

And then there's the wardrobe restaurant, which I believe in my research burned down once and I don't know if they have it going again. I think they do. Right. But we'll see. I guess if you go, you know, fashion Saloon, you kick the doors in and draw, shoot someone. That's right. Maybe not digging it too far, but that's, that's kind of cool.

You know, it's, it is a small town, yeah, wouldn't expect too much. And what about camping? If you bring your RV there?

Alexis- Yeah, there's, there are plentiful camping spots. One of them though, an RV park is the Sleepy Hollow Campground and RV Park. That's a nice one. The Sage Creek Campground is one that allows RVs and then there's the Bad Lands boondocking area, which is cool.

It's got a beautiful view. But it is very off the, you know, off the grid as far as technology and hookups go. But if you're looking for just an overnight, you're good to go to that area. All right, nice.

Eric- What time of year is the best time to go?

Alexis- Probably May to July. I mean, that's kind of a busier time too, but it's nice there.

Really, anytime you want to go, you know, if you want to tackle the roads, you can get over there. Okay, cool. All right. There you go. Wall Drug, South Dakota, I mean, wall South Dakota. Visit Wall Drug while you're there.

Eric- Well, that's the only reason to go there. It’s, you know, might be out of your way, you know, but look at the map as if you're going somewhere or trying to decide where to go if you can incorporate, it's a great place to visit.

Yeah. And I want to remind everybody to share this podcast with everybody, especially the part about you know, that understanding and how the RV industry works and all we're coming into that time of year, or that time of year, is upon us if you're, traveling in a Freightliner M2 or S2 RV, or a Mercedes Sprinter at SunPro Manufacturing.

Make windshield covers for those and they're awesome. You can see out people can't see in. They provide that privacy and keep it cooler in the hot summer months, especially in the hotter areas where you really need it check that out at SunPromfg.com. There'll be a link to it in the description of the podcast as well.

Now that brings us to RV Envy.

RV ENVY

Having an RV is kind of cool, but that could cost a fortune. Or you must find something old and retro and totally deck it out, make it cool looking. There are other ways to just have a nice RV with all the little gadgets that everybody loves or wishes they had and that they're envious of.

Today we're going to talk about Magnadyne Internet. Now we just did a video on this. Yeah. And it should be out It it's out. It'll be out by the time this podcast is out. We record everything ahead. That's why I'm hesitating here. But yes, it will be thinking out loud as they say. Magine is a company that sells a lot of things to the.

RV manufacturers and imagine the internet, their internet system and antenna system come what can come on me RVs, it's already prepped for it, all you must do is buy the rest of the components and make that internet come alive. When it's prepared for it, you get TV reception and AMF and reception.

That’s basically what you're going to get if your RVs are already prepped. But if you want to add internet to it or Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and internet, you can go to magine.com and they sell the systems there and I think that's about the only place you're going to be able to buy them, and their stuff. Rocks. Yeah. We've done their cameras, their internet, they've sent us USB, ports, which are kind of basic, but everything they have seems to be good and works well.

It's designed for the RVer and that's what's important. And their internet is a good internet system. Yeah, it’s worth looking into if your RV is prepped, and I wouldn't even think about switching to a Winegard system or anything else if it came prepped with the Magnadyne. Yep, it's already wired.

Just go ahead and use everything that's there. Add the functionality that you need and boom, you're done. Now, keep in mind when you add internet to an RV, it doesn't matter who, or what brand it is, you're going to have a monthly fee that goes along with it. Keep that in mind. Yep. For more information about that, you can go to magine.com and al if your RV didn't come prepped for internet, you can always add their system to your RV.

It's one of those things as well, and it's a do-it-yourself versus, thing. It's not that difficult. It takes more time just running wires, but it's not complex. Deal. Even though it's the internet, it's just plugging things in, it's like setting up a new computer. Yeah, just plugging my stuff in. Not a big deal.

Outro- All right. Well, that brings us to the end of the show today. I want to thank everybody for tuning in and listening to the show. Don't forget to share it with others. This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVerPodcast. It's been great hanging out with you today. If I don't see you on the road, let's connect at TheSmartRVer.com.