How low voltage RV sucks the life right out of your RV appliances is the topic of choice today and staying on the road and enjoying the RV life segment. Today, we're going to talk about taking amazing photos while you're out on the road. And once again, we're going to go on a road trip and this week.

We're going to go to Hawaii and we're going to talk about RVing in Hawaii and the next stop portion of the show. Then we're going to wrap up the show with RV Envy. And in this electrifying a segment, we're going to talk about Hughes autoformers and stopping low voltage. This is Eric Stark, the host of the Smart RVer podcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down.

Today is episode 139. Now let's just jump right in. So Alexis is with us. And how are you today, Alexis?

I'm doing very well. Yes, sir.

This is Alexis's Monday, you know, it's a Tuesday. That's

right.

She got lost over the weekend. I did

found my way here though.

That's good. So there's a lot of things that are always constantly going on in the RV industry.

A lot of changes, a lot of things happening, new parts, old parts, things getting updated, things getting outdated. So we're going to try to keep you up to date on the things that we feel you need to know about. And one of them is. Don't buy a new RV. I'm still on this kick too many problems. We just keep hearing one thing after another about dealerships, manufacturers.

In fact, I called the company Heartland who makes my RV and they just had a who's cares attitude about everything, talking to them, asking them some questions, like whatever we don't care. You know, you bought it, go back to the dealer, stop your crying and your whining. And that's just it. The manufacturers don't care.

And you know, I've said it. In the past episodes about, you know, not buying new RVs and then I kind of retracted a little bit, you know, that maybe it'll hurt, you know, people lose jobs and stuff, but you know what? The only way these guys are going to wake up if everybody quits buying new RVs, stop buying new RVs for a while, just buy used.

In fact, we'll help you with that. We'll gladly help you with that. All right, so now we're going to get into the rest. Oh, wait, you know, before we do, if you look on YouTube now, there are video after video of people talking about buying new RVs and all the problems they face. So it's becoming a huge.

Problem in the United States. This problem doesn't happen in other countries like Australia, where they make RVs cause they make them right. You know, we're talking about the house itself, the appliances that whatever, you know, the appliance manufacturers are going to do what they're going to do. But the RV manufacturers are the big issue here.

So yes, it's becoming a big problem. So look at YouTube. That'll give you a clue of how many people are getting fed up with the dealerships and the manufacturers of RVs. Okay. Now let's get into the. Rest of the show, what we've all been waiting for, enjoying the RV life. So this week we're going to talk about taking amazing photos on the road.

And you know, most people, yeah, it's a broad brush, I guess, but most people. Really don't take good pictures. It's true. They take a lot of pictures. Mm hmm. Good thing we have digital cameras, because otherwise processing film would be a fortune. Mm hmm. That was probably before your time, huh, Alexis, processing film?

I totally had those little disposable cameras. I loved them. But yes, we're thankful for digital.

Uh huh. So, you know, when you're developing your own film, you could just not waste your time on the pictures. You didn't want, you just find the ones you wanted. But when you took it someplace, you had to pay for the whole roll, right?

Unless you knew for sure. Even then, it still wasn't cheap. It add up, you know, yeah. And so I used to be in photography and did a lot of that. So I really, I know what it took buying the film, getting the development. Now we have digital cameras, Smartphones, you know, everything's a camera today are toaster.

No, just kidding. Game changer. But it's just easier. So we might take more photos, but are they good? Are they worth keeping? You know, I know I take a lot of pictures and some just really stand out others. You know, it paints that picture and those are the pictures where I take more time. Alexis, your husband, he's a photographer,

right?

He does a great job. I love his photos and you're right. It does take a little pre. Work, you know, know what you're doing. Know your camera, maybe, even if it is a smartphone. Know the, the things on it, and then you can use them to the best ability.

Yeah. That's a lot of it. Understanding the camera. Mm hmm. And that's probably the hardest part because that takes time and practice.

So maybe if you don't really want to take the time or don't have it to invest in understanding your camera better, just take the time to set your picture up better. Yeah, exactly. And sometimes you can't. If something is happening right before your eyes and you got to get a picture quick and that's understandable.

Mm hmm. You know, Alexis made up a great list of, um, steps here. It's like a 12 step program to better pitchers and actually stop drinking to follow all 12. It's amazing. Dual purpose. No, just kidding. So it's about better pitchers. So we're going to have this on the website under, um. Enjoying the RV life, taking amazing photos on the road.

So the, it's too much to go through here in the format we have for the podcast, but it is a great step by step process and you can go through it. Maybe some things you're already doing, some things you're not, maybe just read it and kind of go, okay. And in the future, this is what I'm going to try. Or try one thing, make a goal out of it because you know, pictures when you're taking them, you have, you're deleting half of them or if you're going through them, showing somebody, Oh, don't look at that one.

Oh, nevermind that one. Oh, here's the good one. And the good one's just really a better version of the lame one. You're not accomplishing much. Exactly. Right. So how many photos does, uh, Cole. Chuck out the door when, you know,

a fair amount, but he has gotten better at it. So it's less and less. Yeah, he's a photographer.

He's still exactly, exactly. Yep. Lots of

variables. Go to the website, smart RV or. com and check the click on the link and join the RV life and you will see this article there. And check it out and it'll make you a better photographer. That way your memories are better of your trip. That's right. Unless you don't want those memories.

I don't know why you want it. It's an RV and you're having fun. All right. So now that brings us to staying on the road. And today we're going to talk about how low voltage sucks the life right out of your RV appliances. The question might come up. Why does low voltage exist in RV parks? You know, power surges are typically what RVers prepare for.

They don't prepare for low voltage and low voltage doesn't exist in all RV parks. It is. Quite commonly found in older RV parks, ones that were built before RVs had more of the electronics than they have today. It can even be an RV with two air conditioners just pushes the limit in some of these older RV parks, or maybe it's a newer park.

Not brand new, but a newer park and the infrastructure just wasn't done that well. Maybe the company that did it just didn't really understand what they were doing. They're just running cables and putting in outlets, you know, so that's the issue. You don't really know what you get at each park and they might not be able to support the higher power demands.

And now even some newer parks might experience low voltage for one reason or another as well. You know, it could be a brand new park and maybe something just went wrong. They didn't use the right components, and maybe the park doesn't understand it as well. It's an investment group type of thing, and they just built an RV park.

So it can be found everywhere, low voltage. But it can also be a controversial, uh, controversial Topic in an RV park that has a voltage park managers, or if it's an owner operated park, sometimes they're going to defend their systems. To the detriment of their RV. They're going to say, no way our power is good.

You're the problem. Your RV is the problem because if they say they have the problem, it's an admission to the, to an infrastructure as old or just flat out lacking, you know, or it could even be a park that has had an expansion and they tapped into the existing power grid without really expanding those capabilities.

So they just weakened it. You know, that's kind of what people do in their homes. They just. Add cables to existing cables without really doing it properly. And then they start running on low voltage in their home or having breakers popping all the time because they didn't do it properly. The question arises, what should the shore power or the voltage be at an RV park?

It should be 120 volts. And it should stay right at 120 volts as you're using it. Now this might vary from park to park, and from time of year, and even time of day. You know, all these variables can play into it. But it should be at 120 or really close to it. And as your RV powers up, you start running your air conditioning, things like that, and the, you know, later in the day in the park.

More people are running their appliances. The power should stay at a consistent 120, 118, 119. It shouldn't be dropping down, going down, down, down. Yeah. If you're at a park and the voltage drops to 108 volts, that's getting too low. So a huge auto former or a huge voltage booster. If you had one would boost that back up to approximately 118 volts.

That is a safe range. So having that power up there is very important. And that's what we're going to discuss about in this, uh, segment here. Cause you know, we kind of wonder, well, what does low voltage do? You know, maybe you've been at parks and you've never been affected by low voltage or that you know of.

But maybe you're not there all the time or for lengths of the time. Now I stayed at an RV park or had my RV at an RV park in Arizona for about six months and it was during the summer, late spring, summer, early fall. And after that, I needed a new air conditioner and a new refrigerator, and I can attribute it to low voltage at the time I wasn't a hundred percent sure, but after the fact, it's like looking back.

Okay, now I understand what happened. That's my problem. I should have been on top of that, especially being in the RV industry at the time. Should have known better. So the low voltage is going to affect your RV in different ways. And what it is, is when the line usage sees an increase, in other words, others in the RV park are turning on their 110 volt appliances, and that's going to include air conditioners, microwaves, everything that's in an RV.

The, the line usage is increasing that point, but the voltage will drop when line voltage drops, more amps are being used by everyone in their 110 volt appliances. Then the more amps that are drawn can cause the following problems. And this is where it really comes in to be an issue. Like you could have a dramatic airflow or reduction airflow on your air conditioner.

Maybe you've heard it, you know, the air conditioner starts kind of running a little bit slower. But also a lot of components like air conditioners, the greater the airflow, it keeps everything else cooler that needs to stay cool. Circuit boards, the blower motor, things like that. So it not only slows down the airflow in the RV, so you're not, it's not as efficient, but it's also damaging the motor and excessive motor heat.

Which is about 40 percent of all motor failures is because of excessive heat can ruin the motor. So it actually drops the voltage and it can exceed, or it can actually withstand like a 5 to 10 percent drop in voltage. But when it starts exceeding that, the motor becomes at a dangerous level because the amperage is too much.

It's pulling too much on the motor and it starts to get hot. And then it's going to burn up over time. It's not going to happen right away. This sometimes takes, you know, over a period of time. Your lights will dim. The breakers will start popping. Or you're pushing the amps just below the point of allowing the motors to heat up.

And then you're putting the coach at a risk of fire. You're, you know, all these little things that can happen and not that these things are happening all day, every day. You don't see fire RVs catching on fire because the motor is just right at that point where it's just getting hotter and hotter and hotter, but it's not going to fail and the circuit breaker is not going to pop.

You know, a lot of people rely on circuit breakers, but they're not always going to pop when you think they should. Sometimes they just catch on fire and start burning before they ever pop. If they do, it happens. They're supposed to pop, but they don't always do that. So these things can be happening in the background.

that can be creating the low voltage and causing problems in the RV. Microwaves are affected by it, air conditioners, those are the two major things. So now, does this mean that you need to run out and buy a voltage booster to battle this potential problem? I'm gonna say no. First, you need to evaluate where you use your RV.

You know, are you going to old RV parks that might have these problems? Are you going to new RV parks where, you know, they don't, and you know, one way to check is having a good digital volt meter inside the RV and monitor it throughout the day at these RV parts you go to, if you go to the same, you know, if you kind of visit them regularly now, if you're camping off the grid, you're not plugging into a park, probably not going to be an issue because you're not plugging into anything other than possibly your generator, but you might have a solar.

So it's not. even an issue. So you need to be familiar with the parks and where you go and then you decide if you need a voltage booster or not. But I'm going to tell you a good reason why to just get one regardless as we come to the end here. There's a little more to all of this. So if you, if you decide to purchase one, you'll need to know whether you have a 30 amp or 50 amp service on your RV.

That seems like a very, uh, simple question. But from our experience in our store and talking to people on the phone, they quite often don't know whether they have a 30 amp or 50 amp service, you know? So you have to understand that a 30 amp is a three pronged cord. A 50 amp is a four pronged cord. I'm talking about the end that would plug into shore power.

Yours might be hardwired into the RV or your cord might twist in. That's a, that's a different deal. But the end that plugs into the shore power, well, the whole cord would be 50 but that's what makes it easy to identify. You know, some RV parks, well, you might be in an RV park and you're using a voltage booster and some well intentioned campers might say that the, you know, they'll see that it's a huge auto former and they might say, well, that's stealing power.

The manager might even tell you that, well, they don't steal power. There's no way for them to steal power. They're just boosting the power. They can't steal what's not there. All they do is boost the power. And a lot of park managers will turn this into a problem. And they don't, and it's because they don't understand that the voltage booster simply converts amps to volts.

And the breaker at the pole regulates the maximum amount of power you can draw. So it'd be impossible to take more power than the amount the park allotted to you unless it was tampered with. Someone's messing with it, which you wouldn't be doing that. You know, it's not only unethical, it could be dangerous, it's illegal, you know, so you're not going to tamper with the power pole.

And you know, most parks will flip out if you ever do that. Even if you call an electrician out on your dime, they're going to flip out. They're in control of that pole and they want it to be that way. And there's probably some good reasons because some people might do things wrong. And then the next person that hooks up has a serious problem, or you do, then you blame it on the park.

Be cautious there. But it can't steal power that's not there. All it's doing is boosting it. And some parks will ban a power booster. You know, they'll see that Hughes name on there. Oh no, you can't use that. Get that out of here. You know, in the past there's been some other brands that'd be the same thing.

So if you find yourself at one of these parks Stay calm. Just explain how power boosters work. But maybe before you even get to that point of plugging it in, see what the voltage is. See if you do need to use it. And then plug your booster in. And then if they have a fit, you know, try to comfort them, take them to the Hughes auto former website, let them see for themselves, you know, they could Google it as well, let them understand it.

And you might change it where they can understand this now. And they'll allow other RVers to use their, uh, voltage booster without it being a big deal. They can lower the band because that's happened. Some RV, RV parks has banned these things. You can't use that here. You're stealing our electricity. And if they insist that you can't use it, there might be a problem in the park and it might be a park you no longer want to go to, you know, because of that reason, maybe they do have low voltage and they just don't care.

They don't want to admit it and it becomes your problem. So the investment for a voltage booster is not that much money compared to a lot of other things you purchase for an RV. So if you have a 30 amp system, you're going to be spending less than 500 bucks for one of these. If you have a 50 amp system, you're going to be spending around 750.

Now, the cool thing is they have a surge protector that's built into it, and you can replace it. It doesn't have to go back to To use, it doesn't have to go back to a dealership. You can do it. And that's nice because now you don't have to have a voltage or a surge protector because it's built in. Now, if you have a surge protector and you were to buy one of these voltage boosters, you could put the surge protector in front of it and give it a, uh, double protection, if you will.

So the first surge protector, maybe the less expensive one would take the hit. And protect the voltage booster. If you were concerned about that and the, the replacement surge protectors for the, uh, Hughes, auto farmers, aren't that expensive, they're under 50 bucks and they're going to last, depending on how much you use it, how many, uh, voltage surges there are things that can damage it, wear it out over time, then you might have to replace it.

Like I said, under 50 bucks, it lasts you two or three years, four years, five years, that is not a big deal. So when you think about that, buying a voltage booster, let's say you have a. A 30 amp system. And you're going to spend 400 and let's say 75 under 500 bucks, a surge protector, a good one could be 150 to 300 or more, depending on what you buy and how it's installed.

If it's hardwired in, or if it's just goes in line. So a little extra money might be worth it. That way you always have the, the voltage booster and the surge protector and one nice, neat package. Makes it easier to use. So I hope that makes sense. And low voltage is a problem in RV parks. Or it can be a problem.

And it damages your RV. So it can cost you money. And there's a lot of reasons why you don't want that to happen. You know, one thing, top of my head is, you know, your microwave fails. And I've talked about this before. You can't just go out and buy a new microwave. In most cases, it's going to fit right back in.

Microwaves come and go. So it saves you the headache of that. That microwave's gonna last a lot longer. In fact, I have a Hughes Autoformer, because that's what they used to be called, where Auto Formers. I'm just stuck on that name. I have one. I brought it to the store. It is at least 15 years old. It is so basic.

It has two lights on the front of it and that's it. Now they have much more stuff on 'em, but the thing still works. Yeah. And I still use it and it's over 15 years old. Now that's pretty cool. So these things are worth the investment. They're going to last. And if it were to break, you can always send it back to Hughes.

I'll take care of it. So in the last section of the show today, RV envy, I'm going to talk a little bit more about the Hughes auto farmer and the warranty and some of the things that you need to know about purchasing it. Okay. So you can go to Hughes, autoformers. com, or you can go to our website, sunpro mfg.

com. We have the auto farmers on there. The exact same prices Hughes, they're having a special, they're giving away some things and we have the identical deal going on our website as well. So obviously we prefer you to go to our website, sunpromfg. com. They're right on the homepage, or if you can't see them on the homepage, just look, click on RV power.

And there they are now, this brings us to the end of that section. And now to next stop, where we are going to visit Hawaii, not taking our RVs there, but RVing in Hawaii, and Alexis is going to take us right into that.

That's right. Yeah, I, unfortunately, you know, unless your RV is really cool and transforms into a submarine, you probably can't take it with you.

I guess you could. It'd be expensive, though, I would think. Plus, you don't need to because there's plenty of RVs on the island, on several of the Hawaiian islands, to rent, which can be really, really cool. Usually when you go to a place and rent, they're already kind of set up for that place. So, they've got the right things and amenities, or, or, right.

You know tires on them even for that area so that can be kind of cool And when you do go there and want to rent one You can ask where the like the good campsites are, you know, so you can get some insider information as well What do you think? Is this something you would do?

You know, it sounds interesting I would maybe do it.

I wouldn't be opposed to it Hawaii's pretty cool A lot of stuff to see there and you could rent cars and do day trips and stuff, but I don't think you're getting the full flavor of it all. Right. And that's where if you, um, go there and rent an RV. That might be the deal. Right. I agree. Like you said, they prepare the RV for that environment.

Yep. Yep. So you just show up and use it. It's kind of like using a hotel room on wheels. Exactly. Exactly. Like for the kids, if you have kids, I think it would be a greater adventure for them. Love it. Yeah. It's just all sorts of stuff to see. And if you can spend the time rather than darting around the island.

Spending a half an hour here, half an hour there. But yeah, we saw all this stuff, you know? Yep, exactly. So I think it'd be

cooler. I always that way. Yeah. When I'm traveling, I don't know if this is maybe TMI, but , I never know, you know, when I'm gonna need to use the bathroom, to be honest. So I like to always know that I have a bathroom.

So that might be a, a bonus for people who are like that ,

there's plenty of trees and bushes in Hawaii. That's true. Might not

be an issue. .

Okay. I guess. So Alexis compiled another massive lift here for, um, places or things to do in Hawaii as well. Not just how to RV there and renting it, but the different places you can go.

And we just don't have enough time to go through it all, but it will be on the website under the next stop, um, RVing in Hawaii. And I think it's a great thing. You know, you can still get an RV thing, you know, you just show up with your clothes and just move on, you know, go to the grocery store and there you are good to go, you know, forget about all the other things that you have in your RV.

You're on an Island, you know, breaks down. Can't be take that long to get, you know, you'll be okay. And, you know, I wouldn't think that'd be a very long trip either. Like a week would probably be very sufficient. It definitely would be. Yeah. It'd be great island hopping. But if you stayed on one Island. You know, depending on the size of the island, a week would probably be even more than enough time could probably see the whole

island pretty well.

Yeah. Yeah. And enjoy it and what you're doing it. All right, cool. So go check out Hawaii in an RV, not your RV, but in an RV got to make sure we emphasize that don't want to be driving off the pier in long beach or something. Headin over to Hawaii. Uh, yes. Okay, now let's go to RV Envy and we're gonna kind of pick back up on the Hughes Autoformers.

You know, one thing I didn't cover in the low voltage section, cause we were talking about low voltage, but Hughes Autoformers are really a great product and those, that's the auto, or the voltage booster that, you know, we get behind. Others have come and gone throughout the years. And they've been kind of nipping at the heels of Hughes, but they've, they haven't lasted.

Hughes is still here. So that says something about Hughes. They've made a product that works and even with a great marketing plan and pushing it and being the only guy for years to have one, if it didn't work, they wouldn't be here today. They still wouldn't be selling it. And they are. So we have to give Hughes.

A lot of credit for that. They've built a great product and they've stood behind it, stood the test of time. Now the autoformers, or the voltage boosters, come with a limited lifetime warranty. So there's more information covered on their website about that, and of course you can call them and ask questions.

But it's a pretty straightforward warranty. And they will replace a booster, I believe it's one time. Throughout the lifetime of the warranty. So, you know, they're not going to keep giving you a new booster. So in other words, it's going to get repaired. If it's beyond repair, then they'll replace it one time.

It's a limited lifetime warranty. And the only other thing you need to know, or that I feel you need to know is that shipping is not covered, whether it's going to them. Or them sending it back to you. Now, these things weigh 20 something pounds, 22, 23 pounds. So they're not exactly the lightest thing, but they're not super heavy.

So there will be a shipping cost involved. So before you just drop it in, you know, UPS. Make sure that the problem is something that you can't fix yourself or locally. So you want to call them first and go through that process. If the surge module is bad, you don't need to ship it back to them. You can replace that.

In fact, they have a deal where if the surge module wears out within the first two years of the, of the purchase date. They'll replace it at no charge. They'll send you one. They're not going to, well, if you send them the auto forward back, then they're going to charge, you're going to pay for shipping, but you won't pay for the surge model.

So there's no point in sending it back. It's something you can do yourself. So the product works really nice. It has, you know, the indicator lights on. It's going to tell you what it's doing. If it's boosting the power, if it's just running normal, it's going to tell you if there's a serious problem, you need to.

Board, you know, leave the park, leave the park. No, it doesn't tell you that, but it's going to tell you if there's a serious problem and they're, you know, relatively compact, they're not that big. You know, they're like five and a half by five and a half by 12. It's not a big clunky thing, which is nice because they just sit out there by the pole, you can lock it to the pole.

They actually come with a cable to do that. And if you're worried about it getting stolen, which I can see it, they're kind of an expensive thing that someone might want to steal, unfortunately, even an RV park, you know, things disappear, it's well worth it. And you know, like I said, in the previous section of staying on the road is that it has that surge protector built into it.

And if you're already going to buy a surge protector, you might as well just. Look at this instead, make it the surge protector. You'll have a voltage booster and surge protection all in one. You're done with it. Rather than having two different things, you just have one. It works great. Like I said, I've had mine for over 15 years.

It still works. It's an early model, two lights on it. Very basic, but it does the same thing. It's just, I can't tell everything cause it didn't have all the lights, you know, And it doesn't yell out. Abort, abort, . Yeah, the new ones still don't either. I keep saying that, but they don't. So you wanna check these out and you can go to our website, sunpro mfg.com.

They're right on the homepage. Or if you don't see it there, just click on RV Power and it'll take you to them. Or you can go to Hughes auto former's website, hughes auto former.com. Either way, check it out. Even if you don't think it's something, eat, take a gander at it and it might be worthwhile. Okay.

And also while you're on the internet, looking at this, the Hughes auto farmer, why don't you head over to YouTube and check out the smart RV or channel and you see some really great videos on there. In fact, we're going to have one. Coming it out on the auto farmer, which will probably be out by the time this is published this episode, hopefully.

So check it out. We've got other videos to help you decide on how you want to, you know, if you want to buy things, how to fix things, how to repair things, how to stay ahead of problems, and giving you great information on how to just maintain your RV. So that brings us to the conclusion of our show today.

And our next episode is going to be episode 140 and titled how complicated a trail axles. They're not trailer axles are pretty simple. We're going to break it down for you. So I want to thank everybody for listening today. And Alexis for coming by and helping us out the next stop and RV envy. This is Eric Stark with the smart RV podcast.

It's been great hanging out with you. I don't see on the road. Let's connect at the smart RVer. com.