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↓ Episode 136 – RV Furnace Repair and Maintenance to Keep You and Your RV Nice and Warm
27th October 2023 • The Smart RVer Podcast • Eric Stark
00:00:00 00:34:58

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This is Eric Stark with The Smart RV’er Podcast, Delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV Lifestyle without the fear of breaking down! Enjoying the RV Life: Alexis and Eric engage in a comprehensive dialogue regarding the five crucial pitfalls that RV enthusiasts should steer clear of, accompanied by demystifying some of the underlying reasons. Their commitment to facilitating a more streamlined and secure RV experience for their audience is evident throughout their discussion. For a more in-depth exploration of this topic, readers are encouraged to peruse the complete article available at TheSmartRVer.com. Staying On The Road: Eric delivers a comprehensive discourse on the meticulous maintenance of RV furnaces, offering a wealth of valuable insights to his attentive audience. His presentation encompasses an array of strategic recommendations, emphasizing best practices while cautioning against common pitfalls. The underlying principle underscores the significance of regular maintenance for safeguarding substantial investments, thereby extending the longevity and reliability of these critical systems, ultimately reducing the frequency of replacements.  The Next Stop: Eric and Alexis embark on a journey to Baja California, venturing into the enchanting realm of Tijuana, Mexico. Their insightful discourse revolves around the scenic splendor of this region, coupled with the sheer delight of an adventurous road trip to this locale. Furthermore, they meticulously delineate prime culinary destinations, providing invaluable recommendations for locating the finest dining establishments in the area. RV Envy: Eric highlights Designer faucets and their matching accessories. He tells his customers how to make their RV’s look and feel like home!  Check Out Our No-Nonsense YouTube Videos RV Sunshade, Windshield Covers & Slide Out Awning Fabrics RV Parts & Accessories The Smart RVer Podcast Website Marine Cordage- Anchor Lines, Dock Lines, Tow Lines, etc. RV Roof Magic Dura Faucets- Click Here RV Destinations Magazine- RVdestinationsmagazine.com

Transcripts

INTRO

RV Furnace Maintenance and Repair is a hot topic and staying on the road today. Enjoying the RV Life segment today is going to be about five mistakes RVers need to avoid. And once again, we're going to go on a road trip. This week we're going to visit Baja, California, to be specific, the coastline.

And that's going to happen in the Next Stop. And now we're going to wrap up the show with RV Envy. And in this episode, we're going to talk about designer RV faucets. With matching accessories, 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.

ENJOYING THE RV LIFE

Today's episode is 136. So, let's get to it. So, Alexis is again here with us in the studio, ready to, I don't know, make so many great points about the Next Stop and living or enjoying the RV Life. She doesn't look too enthused though. Come on. Wake up.

Alexis- I totally am Eric. I'm here.

Eric- All right. So now she's alive and with us. Here we go. All right. So, hey, I want to just share one thought with you people out there that didn't sound right. You people, people of earth. So, if you're looking at RVs and it's got one of them nice glass, black glass entrance doors on it, you know, they're cool looking. Think twice before you buy an RV with one of those.

We just heard the other day that when the glass breaks, it can go upwards of 1,600 for a replacement.

Alexis- My goodness.

Eric- So that's usually on the travel trailer is all black glass on the outside. It looks sharp. So, watch it. That's a lot of money. And you know, you can almost count on that glass breaking, you know, you slam the door too hard, rock hits it.

Something happens. I think I've brought this up before. So be aware, you know, some more of that, um, the ingenuity that the designers of RVs are incorporating in RVs today to make them. I don't know. Not so much fun. Yeah, exactly. Let's ruin your, let's try to ruin your vacation. That's the new motto, the engineers and designers make some money here.

Right. Sadly, you know, in an episode a while back, I said something about, you know, just everybody should quit buying RVs for new RVs for a year, you know, and somebody said that that's not right because so many people would be out of work. You know, the potential of that. I mean, it's not just the manufacturer, the dealerships, and so forth, and you know, there's some truth to that.

But then again, how do you get the point across to manufacturers that they're producing garbage? I mean, Alexis, what do we hear in the store? And people walk in, they bought a new rv, are they happy? Nope. They've got endless amounts of problems endless. And they're frustrated. They've spent all this money, and they basically get no warranty or, you know, limited warranty because the dealerships just don't want to do anything.

And the dealerships are part of the problem here as well. But the manufacturer is both. I got the dealership. Sometimes they're between a rock and a hard spot on that warranty, but if they can't warranty it, why are they selling it? Were you going to say something?

Alexis- No. I'm just totally in agreement with you.

Eric- Yeah. People might lose some jobs, but how do we get the point across to the manufacturers, what they're producing? Isn't right. They're taking people's hard-earned money and they're selling them garbage. Yeah. And you know, I just hear more and more every day. So, if you're thinking of buying a new RV, be aware, and be careful about what you purchase and from whom.

Ask a million questions. Yeah. Check out that RV. The one you're going to get from top to bottom before you ever put a dime down on it, make sure everything works, go through it, and have an inspector come out if you can afford it. And if the dealership will let the inspector on the lot, be cautious. I have many more things to say here, but I'm going to save some for the next couple of episodes.

So, let's, uh, get on with why we're here listening to TheSmartRVerPodcast. And believe me, it's all about having fun in an RV. It's not about all the problems. So even if you do have some difficulties, remember the bigger picture is the RV and I certainly promote that. We love hearing about it, you know, because customers are coming to the store, they're using an RV, they're happy.

Even with the problems, they're still happy, they're just frustrated with the manufacturer. We need to just stay on course here. Look at the big picture, making memories in that RV about you and your family having fun. And sometimes there's a little bit of lemonade along the way, vinegar, or something. All right.

So now that's going to bring us to enjoying the RV life. All right. Change of mood. All right. So, we can enjoy the RV life though. Now, there are quite often things that are going to happen when you're buying an RV or owning an RV and it's just like anything else, a house, a car, an airplane, a bicycle, mistakes are made.

And that's just part of life. That's part of the process. So today we're going to talk about five RVing mistakes to avoid. Yep. Now remember, RVing is a great way to explore the world. Or the United States, or well, it's your world, whatever you make of it, right? So, there are things that people make, mistakes that people make, that sometimes just kind of keep going on and on and on.

But that's probably too, because some people have learned, other people are just getting into the RVing lifestyle. So, they got to learn the hard way, I guess. So, if you're new, listen up, this will save you some headaches. That's right. So, Alexis, what's the number one mistake?

Alexis- So, the biggest thing that someone can fall on, um, is unfortunately neglecting proper maintenance. They're not keeping up with things. I hear a lot about people coming in and they did not winterize properly, which is a huge thing around here, at least, you know, it might not be in other places, but things can get so damaged when you don't do that.

Eric- So, it's, uh, there's more to it than winterizing, but yeah, just that, that regular maintenance really needs to be kept up, right? We see it quite a bit. Rough leaks, problems on the exterior and it's all maintenance. You must take care of your RV, especially if it's outside. It's inside. Things don't happen as much if you store it outside, you must stay on top of that maintenance. Yep, you do.

Alexis- Okay. So, number two on the list would be overloading the RV and poor weight distribution, excuse me, poor weight distribution. Yeah. You know, if it's a trailer, well, even a motorhome, trailers would probably be more susceptible to this, but you know, not distributing the weight through it.

Eric- Properly, you know, having a whole bunch of weight on one side and nothing on the other because of some safety issues. You can understand your RVs weight limits, you know, a lot of RVs, especially trailers are kind of maxed out when you buy them, you know, it might have a 7,000 pound, um, suspension on it, or two 3, 500-pound axles. But the trailer might weigh almost 7, 000 pounds when you buy it right now, that way it is distributed throughout the whole frame of the trailer. So. It's not like 7, 000 pounds is directly on the axles, but you must be careful how much weight you put on, put in it, um, or upgrade the suspension. Yeah, that's exactly what I did on, on my trailer.

We upgraded it, um, because it really was, wasn't built right. Right, yeah, you know, you, and you knew it. Yep. Right. And yeah, it's just normal. I think anymore, these companies are cutting back every which way they can, but that's been an ongoing problem too, for many manufacturers. Okay, so Alexis is number three on the list.

Alexis- Oh yeah, this is a good one, or bad one, it could be inadequate route planning. So that means you didn't rely on your GPS, or you didn't pre-plan it out. So now you're facing things like low-clearance bridges, which we know could go wrong fast. Narrow roads that aren't suitable for RVs. So, you really, really got to think about that because you could run into a lot of issues.

Eric- Right, you know, you can go down a road, go into a remote campground, get to the end of the road. It's the wrong road you're on and there's nowhere to turn around. Exactly. A big motorhome or a truck and a trailer and suddenly, you're at the end, you go, how do I get out of here now? How scary is that?

You know, backing up for miles can really be lame. Ah, yeah. Especially in the trailer. Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, reliance solely on a GPS could be a problem too. Now, not that it's going to take you into Lake, like what we see on TV. Well, the GPS said to turn right here and then go right into a Lake, you know, like Dwight and Mike on, uh, the office, but you know, it can take you into, uh, it just can steer you wrong basically.

So, you do have to have an idea of where you're going and have an overview of the trip. Yes, please do. I mean, sometimes you can just plug it in GPS and you're fine. Other times you can't. Yeah. Yeah. Just know where you're going and uh, right. They still sell maps today and you can still look at the bigger picture on, you know, the internet if you want to ever, how you want to do it.

Alexis- And now another one here is ignoring campground reservations. Oh yeah. So, um, that could be, you could take those several different ways, not making them. Right, exactly.

Eric- So, I mean, we just, have some friends that recently. Made campground reservations online. Yeah. And when they got to the campground, the campground said, well, we don't really check that.

And we booked your spot with someone else. So, they got a lame spot instead. And so that was a small campground. So, there you go. They got reservations online, but they're not comparing what's on the internet with what their physical book is. So maybe just call. Yeah, I would call and check, double-check, and make sure they got it.

Alexis- Um, you don't want to show up without reservations and not be able to stay any place. You want to make sure they're there. It's just like a hotel. Sometimes they lose reservations. Things aren't done right. Yeah. And so many places are asking for reservations that weren't before. So, you just, you got to check.

You can't take that for granted. Right. Yep. All right.

Eric- And then the fifth point. Alexis is what? Uh, traveling too far, too fast. So, what does that mean? It's a problem. Uh, well, when you rush, rushing around from one, you know, destination to the other, the first, you're not enjoying yourself probably, and that's what we're talking about, enjoying the RV life.

Um, and then being realistic about what you and your RV can do, you know, driving distances like that. Maybe you're not getting enough rest. Maybe. You're not doing the proper inspection on your RV, you could have a blowout, or you could just not be. Identifying problems that are going on. So, you know, slow down.

RV life is not about rushing around. It's about taking your time and enjoying it. So, there's more to it than that. Right. And there's some good advice there. Take your time, enjoy it. And like Alexis has brought out a good point is, you know, if you're spending the night someplace, the next day you're traveling again, you got to make sure you check out your RV, you know, visual walking around it.

Yeah. That'd be super in-depth because you're using it, but still check things out. Yes. Okay, so here is the bonus tip. This is the one bonus tip of the century. Read it, Eric. Man, I can relate to this. Leaving home unprepared. You know, it seems like it'll take seven or eight hours to pack up the RV or the car, whatever, you know, we're going down the road and forgot this, forgot that, you know, some things you can do without, sometimes you find yourself in a store buying them.

Yeah. Extra money. And you got one more. Now you have eight of these things because you keep forgetting. Yep. Exactly. You know, some things just leave your RV. Some things just maybe have a kit, you know, certain things you take out of the RV, just have them in you know, a box of some kind where maybe you don't take the box, but you just take everything out, put it in the RV and then put it back when you get the home type of thing.

That's what I'm doing most of now, whether we're going off-roading or in the trailer and having some things just kind of ready to go, just grab a bike type of thing. All right. So that's the billion-dollar bonus tip. Being home unprepared. All right. Boy, that's just part of life going to the store, spending seven or $80 at the Conoco.

STAYING ON THE ROAD

Uh, that's so bad. Okay, so now that's going to bring us to Staying on the Road, and this is the part that everybody's waiting for, how to maintain and repair their furnace. So, the furnace repair, we're going to get into that fir, but first we're going to talk about cleaning it. But remember, this is a podcast, so I'm going to be explaining this stuff so it's a little more difficult.

You know, maybe someday I'll do a video, but for now, we're doing the podcast and it's not as hard as many people think working on their furnace or at least diagnosing it or getting close to being able to fix it. You know, one of the important things is a furnace can fail the day before you're going on a trip.

You start up just to check it and it's not working, you know, and you're going someplace where it needs to work or out on the trip, it fails. And you might not be able to get someone to fix it. Even if you were to take it out and take it into a shop, they might say, well, we can do it, but it's still going to be several days.

So, this can help you, uh, you know, avoid that problem. You know, if you're against the timeline or just in general, if you want to just do the repair yourself. Now, first, let's talk about cleaning the furnace. You know, you must make sure it's clean and you know, it's not, so you, you know, there's part of it where, you know, the inside of the RV.

There's generally a vent kind of covering where the furnace is, and you want to make sure that area is clean of dust. If you have pets, make sure there's no fur building up. Sometimes pets with the shedding of their fur can really cause problems for furnaces. The blower wheels can get filled with fur.

The sale switch can get a piece of fur in it and not work. So, you must really make sure it's clean. So, you get in there and vacuum that out. And depending on the type of furnace you have; you might be able to take a cover off and do some vacuuming in there. You can go outside and put air compressed air into the vent on the outside and blow out any debris that's built up in there.

So that's kind of your basic cleaning of the furnace interior exterior. And then the outside exhaust, you do want to check before you ever put air in there, look in there with a flashlight. And see if there's anything building up like a, I can't think of the word now, but little nests for little critters, mud daubers, things like that.

You know, they can get in there, and over time they can build something up quickly that can keep your furnace from working properly. It must have good airflow. Without proper airflow, it's not going to work correctly, and it's also a safety issue if you want to want something in there. It could catch fire or get the furnace working properly.

And you'll have more carbon dioxide coming in the RV. Then, then, you know, it should be. And, you know, that can create serious health problems, if not death. So, you want to make sure your furnace is working properly. Remember, you're in a small place in the RV, so things can happen quickly as well. When it comes to repairing an RV, it’s going to depend on, you know, what's wrong with the fur, excuse me, repairing a furnace.

It's going to depend on what's wrong with it. You know, some furnaces, you can work on them while they're in the RV. Some of them might just be easier to take out and put on a bench to work on it. And for some basic testing, you don't even have to have propane hooked up. You can just have 12 volts hooked up.

You know, the gas valve will clunk and sound like it's opening, then it'll start sparking. Then if you get to that point, you really want to hook up propane, then hook up propane. It's not too hard to do. You'll have to have a line made to do that. But if you're doing your own maintenance, it might be worth having a propane line to accommodate that.

The RV and how it's made is going to dictate which method you use. Um, so we're going to have to come out no matter what, and otherwise you can do some of the repairs on the RV. It sometimes can be harder, or some of them are, some of the repairs can be basic, like some of them are circuit boards.

There's no point in taking out a furnace to check a circuit board. Getting to the point here, you're going to have to look at your furnace and determine what you have, how it was put in, and what you can do. And furnaces aren't that scary. Sometimes they look like it, they, because they're in the case, and they're sometimes awkward.

But they're not that hard to get in and out. So don't get it, don't be afraid of it. You know, it's like a car. Sometimes you open the hood, and it looks scary until you take the air cleaner off and go, oh, yeah, it's not so bad—same thing. To understand how to diagnose a furnace, you must understand the operation of it.

Now, not all furnaces work identically, but you can take the operation and apply it to most of them and get you going in the right direction. And before I go on and forget most furnaces, let's say you have a Suburban SF30F, you can find a manual for that. And if you need help getting a manual, after you try, you can let us know and we can probably get you a manual.

We have access to a bunch. And so, the manuals will have a lot of good information in there, how to diagnose it, you know, how the operation works. And by understanding that it's going to help you to diagnose the problem. So that manual can be indispensable. And so, I would recommend getting one now, and I've said this before, get it now before you need it.

So, you have it, you know, put it on your phone or computer someplace or print it out, whatever you want to do, but make sure you have it. So anyway, back to the operation. So, you go to your thermostat on the wall, and you know, you slide it or it's digital, you turn it on, and you set it to the desired setting.

And after, you know, the blower motor should come on right away. Then after 15 to 30 seconds, you're going to hear it ignite. The blower comes on and then it should ignite. Well, what happens is when you turn the thermostat on, you know, the contacts close, there is sending power out to the furnace, and the blower motor starts.

Depending on the furnace, when it gets to about 70 percent of its speed, the sail switch will move and close the contacts in there. And that's going to allow power to go through the sales switch, down to the high limit switch, and then that's going to go to the circuit board. So, if that circuit is good, then the circuit board gets its power, and then it should, if it's working properly, tell the gas valve to open, and at the same time it starts sending a spark to the electrode.

And voila, you have heat. What would a caveman say? Oh, you have heat. So anyway, that's the basic operation of a furnace. And some furnaces have a relay in there, a time delay relay, some don't, so depending on the furnace, there might be a relay in that mix as well, but it still diagnoses the same way, so you should have 12 volts going through the sail switch, the high limit switch, the relay, to the circuit board.

And if you have 12 volts all the way through there, then it's not any of those components. So, I hope that makes sense so far following along with that, the operation, and then those basic things. Now, if the limit switch only has 12 volts going to it, nothing comes out. And the fan's spinning, and you can look in there and see that the limit switch is moved all the way to where, or excuse me, the sales switch, that the sales, you know, all the way back is closing the micro switch, but there's no power coming out, then the sales switch would be bad.

Now, if there's power on both sides of the sail switch and it's going to the limit switch, but it only has power on one side, then the limit switch is bad. So, it's all power, all voltage. So, you do need to have a voltmeter. While we're speaking of voltage, if your battery voltage is too low, your furnace won't work, period.

So, make sure your batteries are charged up or the RV is plugged in, and you have, you know, 12 and a half volts at the batteries because it will, the circuit board detects low voltage and won't allow the furnace to run either. So, you must. Be aware of that. So, there's, you know, and make sure your propane's on, make sure you have propane.

Some of the basic things. Sometimes we get in a rush and forget these little things. Now, if the, so those are the basic things that help that are that going to ignite the furnace. You know, that's basic. Now, if the furnace doesn't light, so it goes through the cycle, the fan comes on, the furnace doesn't light, it's going to finish its cycle.

Then it's going to go into what is called a lockout mode. And so, the lockout mode now won't do anything. It won't try to light up or anything like that. Cause there's, you know, all the components aren't there. So, when it does that, you must turn the thermostat off and that stops 12 volts from going to the furnace.

Give it a few seconds. Then you can turn the thermostat on again and it should try to light. So that's the basics of a lockout mode. So that might be frustrating cause it stops working suddenly when you just must turn the thermostat off. You know, basically cut power to the furnace. If you're doing this a, on a workbench, you might have thermostat wires tied together.

You can just turn the power off, just disconnect the 12 volts. It'll do the same thing. And some furnaces even have an on-off switch or a reset switch on the front of them for when you're working on it, you can use that as well. So, there's, you know, that's the basic operation and kind of the basic function.

Now, one thing too, is if you're a suspect of the circuit board, Most RV places, you know, that do repairs and stuff, will check it for you at no charge. And it's going to tell you if it's lighting, or if it's igniting, basically, and if the gas valve opens. If both of those are working on the circuit board, The board could still be bad, but those two functions are working and those are the two that fail the most, or at least what we see here.

Now also, in testing the furnace, let's say you're, you go to your thermostat, and you turn the thermostat to whatever temperature it is, 80 degrees, and nothing happens at the furnace, nothing at all. Okay, so that doesn't necessarily mean it's the furnace. It could be. So, what you must do is diagnose whether it's the thermostat or the furnace.

So, diagnosing the thermostat is easy. You get the two wires that go to it from the furnace. They're usually blue or it might be blue. Well, it depends on the RV, and how it's wired. The thermostat will probably be marked as well, but the two wires for the thermostat just get tied together. And then if the blower comes on, the furnace starts working, then the thermostat is bad.

Now if nothing happens, then the thermostat is good, and you're going to focus your attention on the furnace. And you're going to be checking, the blower motor to make sure it has power when the thermostat is on. If it has power going to it, but the blower motor still doesn't work, more than likely the blower motor is bad.

So, it's simple, but blower motors generally make noise and stuff before they fail. They, they give you a screaming warning, all sorts of rackets. And so that gives you an indicator that you have a problem there. So, it's important. You understand that now also the circuit board is going to have a light on it.

That's going to blink and do different things. And that will help you diagnose the problem in the furnace as well. It might be airflow; it might indicate the board is bad. And some furnaces have a chart for what the lights mean right on the furnace. If not, it will be in the manual if you get the manual.

If not, you can go to the Dinosaur Electronics website, and they'll have it there. It doesn't matter what brand it is first. The lights all do the same thing, or, you know, they have the same indication of how many times they flash, or if it's solid flashes once they mean different things, so that can help you as well.

Assuming the blower comes on, then it's going to be somewhere after the blower, the sales switch, the high-limit switch. And those are the easy things to check. So basically, if you really look at this correctly and you understand the operation, you should be able to diagnose it without buying a bunch of extra parts.

You know, some people just throw parts at it, but one thing I do recommend is that this will come at a cost sometimes because sales switches are sometimes hard to replace. Because of where they're located, if you have the furnace out, you should put a new sales switch in it regardless of whether it's good or bad.

Just put a new one in because it might be good right there. You move the furnace around; something moves around that micro switch and the furnace might not work when you put it back in. How frustrating is that? So, that's kind of a furnace repair in a nutshell. So, like I said, get the manual, understand the operation of the furnace, and you will have this figured out.

And you might be a hero when this thing stops working the day before you go on a trip, and you can get it working, and the family will love you. And then your trip, your plans aren't ruined, or you don't have to go to all this alternative stuff. A little bit of a rush to get it done maybe, but you got it done.

If you need help with the manual, let us know. I'm sure we can get one, but... You know, check online first before you ask us, cause I, I don't want 10, 000 people coming to us tomorrow asking for manuals and they are available all over the internet and that concludes staying on the road. And as a reminder, I want to bring up SunPro manufacturing, the slide awning fabrics, slide awning fabrics are, you know, they deteriorate.

They need to be replaced. I know we're kind of going into wintertime here, but you know, a lot of people still travel in wintertime. Sometimes getting that fabric on there is an extra layer of protection against the slide-out, even though it's closed, you still don't want stuff running in there if your seals are getting a little on the fringe, maybe they're not as good a shape as they used to be.

So having a new slide-out awning fabric can be a protection for the slide room and your RV in the wintertime. And for the people that travel in the wintertime, you must have a good slide-out fabric. It's got to work right. So, if you need one, check out Sunpromfg.com under slide-out awning fabrics.

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NEXT STOP

Now let's go to the next stop, and we're going to talk about Baja California, more specifically the coastline. So, Alexis, what can you tell us about Baja, California, the peninsula, peninsula, peninsula?

Alexis- Oh boy. Well, there are campsites and RV parks, which got my attention. Cause that's what we talk about. So that's cool. So, if you want to have an adventure, you can go down there. Um, there's a lot of marine life and whale watching, which I think is cool. That would interest me. So, if you're a nature enthusiast, this place will not disappoint you.

Um, Oh, and snorkeling and scuba diving. That's the other thing. I'm not super into scuba diving. I'll snorkel a little, but I don't like being, you know, underwater much. It doesn't appeal.

Eric- Scuba diving is about staying alive underwater. I know, I don't like it.

Alexis- Um, but there's a lot. There are a lot of towns in between, and places to eat. There's a lot of wineries down there. There's a lot of farm-to-table. Uh, type of restaurants, just beautiful places. I mean, you just Google it and you're going to, you're going to find somewhere really cool to eat.

- The peninsulas, I think are:

Alexis- No. Depending on where you live, you might just have several destinations. If you live in, you know, California, Arizona, someplace close, you can obviously go down there and work your way through it, but it's a gorgeous area. A lot to see.

Eric- You know, even Tijuana, it's like the, it's a popular city, but it's a big city, but it's still interesting. You know, there's a lot of places to eat there. And sometimes, you know, we call them whole wall places here in the States, but their whole wall place is bad, you know, but sometimes the food can be good. So, it depends on how brave you are. Right. Exactly. What are you willing to try? Right.

You know, and Mexico is always. It has the reputation of being so dangerous and overall, it's a pretty safe country. It's probably changed some in the last couple of years and got a little worse, but I have friends who live in Mexico. They don't have any problems. I used to go to Mexico quite a bit. Yeah. Problem-free, you know.

Honestly, you just need to be alert. Yeah. You know, don't look like a tourist. Don't act like a tourist. That's right. I know your RVs can give it away, but you know, one thing I recommend too is just learning their currency and adapting to it right away. Yes, sir. Don't put it off. Nope. Easier. Because I'll tell you, every time you use American money, you're going to get something back that doesn't make sense to you.

It makes sense to the person at the store who gave you the change. Just use the pesos. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Now we're going to. We covered the next stop, even though it was a big peninsula, we went through it quickly. So don't you see, we traveled fast. We just talked about traveling too fast.

And we just blew through Mexico. Oh, well. All right.

RV ENVY

Now let's talk about RV designer faucets and the matching accessories. So, this isn't really a complex situation or a conversation here. You know, a lot of faucets today, like from Dura faucet, Dura faucets, our favorite brand right now. We got a store chock full of Dura faucets.

In fact, we got rid of the other brand, which is Phoenix or one of the other brands, and all we're carrying is the Dura faucet, all their faucets, just have a nice look to them. You can still get the basic Chrome ones, which is fine. You know, if that's what your RV is and it works, you know, you don't have to have one of these designer-type faucets and oil-rubbed brass and fancy handles, but they're nice looking.

And in a lot of cases, they're not that much more than your basic faucet. But the other thing is you can get matching accessories like the shower or the, well, yeah, you could have all your faucets matching, let's say oil rubbed, rubbed bronze, but you can get a shower head and a shower hose, and the same finish looks nice in the bathroom.

It kind of completes it. And, you know, in some cases you, um, might have to go to, let's say, uh, a box store or whatever, but find a towel bar, um, things like that, other accessories that will match the faucets just like you would do in your house. And a lot of times the towel bars and things that you would put in your home will work fine in an RV.

And that's why I bring that up so you can have everything matching. As I said, it's not imperative that you do that. It's just if you're going to put a faucet in and then down the road, you must replace the shower head, make it all match, you know, I'm not saying to throw it all away and buy new stuff, but.

Just change it as you go, and it's going to look a little nicer. And remember, this is your home away from home. So, when you're out RVing, you know, it's nice that everything matches, looks good, makes it a little more comfortable, you know, makes that home away from home. More cozy, you know, everything is there.

You like being there because it's RV is about wanting to be in the RV. Well, or being outside, but either way, you know, you get the gist. So, if you can make everything match, Dura Faucet, as I said, is a great brand to investigate, all their faucets are very nice. And they come in a lot of the new RVs, you know, I don't know if that's good anymore or not, but Dura-Fast is, well, we don't really have any problems with them.

We sell a lot of them. So, they're a good brand. So, you know, we endorse that brand. If you know, your stores carry it, if not go with whatever they have, there are only three or four brands that are. Mainstream in the RV industry that you can buy aftermarket all sorts of junk come on them. But what stores sell there are only a few right now for our final call to action here go to YouTube and check out TheSmartRVer channel and like and subscribe to the videos and watch some videos. You know hit the like button if you like and subscribe, we appreciate that very much, and builds us up in the YouTube system.

So more and more of our videos get viewed by other RVers. Now that's bringing us to the end of our episode today of 136. So next week in two weeks from now, in episode 137, we're going to be talking about roof vents and escape hatches and high-velocity fans. We're going to kind of sort through some of the myths and misunderstandings on this.

OUTRO

So, you can be more informed and well prepared when you go to an RV store to replace one of those products or a part of it. So, I want to thank you all for listening today. This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVerPodcast. It's been great hanging out with you. If I don't see you on the road, let's connect at TheSmartRVer.com.

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