How does your RV roof look? Good, bad, or ugly? That's the question that only you can answer by getting on a ladder and going up there and checking it out, and that's what we're going to be talking about today for staying on the road in TheSmartRVer podcast. We're also going to talk about Cruise America. And then we're going to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park. Say that 10 times fast. And that's going to be at the next stop. And then we're going to wrap up the show with RV Envy. In this episode, we're going to talk about wire connectors, and volt meters at a logic probe. You've probably never even heard of a logic probe, but we're going to talk about it today.

This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer Podcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle. Without the fear of breaking down. So, today's episode is 130 and before we dig into it, I just have one thing I want to say. This could be like an Eric rant. So as many of you know, we bought an RV for our business a while back, and it's a marketing trailer.

It's, uh, 28 feet long and it's got all this stuff on it that we, not necessarily sell, we sell it, but it's all products that we push, promote, talk about, you know, it's got, um, we just redid the axles we're putting on RV defenders, which are cool. They're, I'm going to have to get into that. Another episode coming up.

We're going to have the owner of the company, but it protects your wheel wells from blowouts fur on cameras. I mean, you name it, we've put it on. If it's not on, it's going on. So, we're going to, you know, pimp out this ride, as they might say somewhere in the world. But one thing that's really aggravating, and it goes back to new RVs, is we bought this RV new.

Take it all from the dealership, you know, the rear brakes or the brakes. Didn't feel like they worked properly on it. And I kind of, whatever, you know, worry about when we get home. Parked it for the winter, took it out, and used it. Forgot about the brake issue. And the brake issue was still there. So, the brakes pretty much didn't work, you know?

Or they partially worked. So going down, Steve Graves was getting scary, a little rough on the brakes on. The truck pulling it. Um, everything gets hot and so I determined that the rear brakes weren't working on the trailer. Now, when I mentioned this to the dealer, Bishop's RV in Idaho, they have many locations.

They told me I was nuts. There's no way the trailer left there with a brake issue that I was full of it. And that seemed to be a trend with dealerships. Just talking to someone yesterday, and the customer told me he is crazy. You're imagining that basically, that's what they did, made me feel like I was imagining the problem.

So, after we got back from this trip and the brakes weren't working, I knew the rear brakes weren't working. Because when we got to our destination, the front brakes were smoking hot, the rear brakes were just, you know, room temperature for your will. So, they weren't working. When I got home after digging into it, oh, by the way, this is a Heartland trailer, so they're responsible for this mess.

Bishop just sells it, provides the lack of customer service, and um, Heartland is the one who put this together, so it has a full body pan underneath it. So, you must, you know, peel that back and. Dig into it. And so, tracing the wires because there's no power going to the rear axle, power to the front axle, no power to the rear axle.

Well, lo and behold, what you, what I found underneath was surprising. The wire that goes to the axle was never connected to the power that was coming from the front axle. Oh no. They neglected to hook up the rear brakes. So that's not only a safety issue, but that’s also just really, really messing up at a level that.

Unacceptable. So, when you're buying a new RV, make sure now I checked it out, everything thoroughly other than that. So, I will take some blame for it not working or catching it at the dealership. But Heartland completely screwed up when they built this trailer and didn't hook up the brakes.

So, it makes you wonder what other wires are lying in weight there that haven't been hooked up? You know, I heard one the other day, it was just yesterday. A guy bought a brand-new RV and the dealership, which is a local one here near us, I shouldn't say local, might implicate someone that I wouldn't want to, but in Montana, and they never even checked it out.

And when he got home and he hooked up water to it, water was leaking out from everywhere. None of the plumbing was hooked up. It was all laying in the belly pan, but none of was attached to anything. Oh no. So, what a disaster. Well, I shouldn't say any of it. So, there's enough to where water was leaking everywhere, you know?

So, you've got to check out these RVs before you ever give them a dime or sign the contract, and make sure that everything's working. because they're going to tell you it is and it's not. And the brakes are annoying because it was such a simple thing. But they told me I was full of it. We tested them. We put it at home, we put on a voltmeter before it ever leaves.

And they lied through their teeth is what they did. So, keep that in mind that they're not on your side when you're buying an RV. It's all about getting your money and that's it, period. Mm-hmm. And if there's anybody at the dealership that wants to argue about that, call me. I'd be glad to argue about it now that I've got my rant out of the way.

And it's not just rent, it's just letting you know that it's not always what it is when you're buying an RV. And I went nice. There I was. I was downplaying that. And so, Alexis, welcome to the show today.

Alexis- Thank you.

Eric- If you want to leave, you can. Now's the time.

Alexis- I enjoyed your rant.

Eric- Let's talk about living the RV life and Cruise America now.

LIVING THE RV LIFE

Cruise America's a rental brand that probably every RVer has seen on the road even before. Oh yeah. Yep. I see it all the time. Especially in certain parts of the country. I think they're in Florida and Arizona. That's their two strongholds. Mm-hmm. So, you really see them in those states or the, the states around them.

Yeah, and I, I remember these things have been around forever. They have, you know, yeah. They have. We're not going to try to sell you on renting an RV. Because you own an RV. Right? Right, exactly. We're bringing out some points that maybe you haven't thought about, or if you're a new RV, some things too, uh, think about.

Alexis, what can you tell us? What can you add to this at this point?

Alexis- Well, for one, like we were kind of discussing, if you are an RV owner already and you want to check out maybe a different model of an RV or if you have a trailer and you said like you want to check out maybe like a Freightliner or a Mercedes or whatever.

Type of, you know, RV, um, that you can do that. Also, I was thinking too, if you have family in town and they're not RVs, you know, but you guys want to go on a camping trip, then get them set up with a, with a Cruise America RV, right? What do you think, Eric?

Eric- I think that's a great idea. And to elaborate a little bit on what you said about trying out a new RV.

So, an example would be if you had a travel trailer, and you wanted to get a motor home, let's say a Class C, then you just rent one of their class C’s. Yeah. And that gives you a good taste of it, you know, try to, Maybe look at some RVs before you ever rent one. Find something that they have, maybe it's not the same brand and all that, but the same style, you know, the overhang and so forth.

Because there's going to be going to catch you off guard. If you just go buy one, you're going to get home sitting in the driveway going, oh man, what? Yeah, I miss my old trailer, you know? Mm-hmm. There's old blue, let's get her back. Right. Exactly. So, you don't want to find yourself that way. Um, motor homes are different because, you know, here, and being around them for many years, you get into them and drive them, and they just have a different feel.

It's not like pulling a trailer. Yeah. It's kind of like pulling a trailer myself rather than driving a motor home. Yeah. Yeah. That's me. But preference, there are pros and cons to it all. And Alexis brought out a great point too, about family visiting or something like that. You know, even if you're, because I was thinking about this the other day where we went to California for a quick trip and driving back, I was thinking, you know, our family is so spread out and I have an RV.

They don't. But we could meet someplace if they just rented an RV, we could meet halfway. Yeah. Meet on the Oregon coast or something. Right. And it kind of turned into a fun trip. Exactly. Do you know? Or even if they flew to Oregon, they could rent an RV up there, you know? Yep, exactly. So, there are some options there, you know?

Yeah. You just need a spare room for a week or two. Someone's coming to visit you. You don't want them in the house. Honestly. I mean, there you go. In our RV it says Cruise America on it, but it's ours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's real. So just throwing some things out there. Sometimes we, you know, forget about this, you know, we might think about like, uh, uh, uh, renting a VRBO or something, or yeah.

Or different things. But RV is cool. Or if, you know, you have friends who really wanted to get to the RV lifestyle, you know, maybe. Convince them to rent an RV and try it out. Exactly, exactly. Because it'd be different renting one versus tagging along with somebody. Yeah, yeah. Do you know? For sure. Then they get a full taste of it and help them out, you know?

STAYING ON THE ROAD

All right, so now that's going to take us to live the RV life, excuse me, staying on the road. It has been a hectic day already. I was ready to not do this today and now, we got to do it running behind schedule, like always poor Eric. So, staying on the road. So, it is time to inspect your RV's rubber roof, you know, and I say rubber roof because most RVs today have a rubber roof on them, but you might have a different type of roof.

It might be fiberglass, it might be a. It might be an extreme roof; it might be a whatever roof. It might be a metal roof from an, if you have an older RV, it doesn't matter. A roof is a roof that needs to be checked out. Now how you maintain it's going to vary. Our subject will focus mostly on maintaining a rubber roof.

Or an EPDM as they're also called. We don't really have time to get into the other things. And what usually works on an EPDM will work on just about everything. Yeah, I safely say that. So Dicor has some great information and that's what we're basing it on because we like Dior products. You know, when it's time to check your rubber roof, there are things you're going to want to look for.

But you know, how often do you check it? Let's just start with that. Really. You should probably wash. Plan on doing maintenance three or four times a year. Two would be the bare minimum, but you want to get up there and inspect it because remember, the roof protects everything in the RV. You know, that's where the money's at.

The money's not on the roof, it's in the RV. So that's what you want to protect. You don't want to have leaks ruining things, a ceiling, a wall, and sometimes leaks if they're undetected for a while. Can cause a whole lot of damage. Or if you don't do anything about it, the damage can be phenomenal. And once dry rot starts, it just keeps on going.

It's like cancer. Mm-hmm. So that inspection is very important. And you know, not only inspect the outside of the roof but go inside and look inside the RV. Look for water stains and watermarks. Open the cabinets and look inside there. because you might have a leak. In a cabinet that you don't really notice because you're opening it, grabbing something, shutting the door, but go in there and physically look for leaks.

It takes a little bit of time, you know, but it's not going to be that much time. And while you're on the roof, how does it feel? Does it feel soft in any spots? Is there a problem brewing that you're not aware of? Is the roof or the rubber becoming, uh, delaminated? Do you see little wrinkles in it or large wrinkles?

Yeah. I don't know if you've ever seen that when you're driving down the road and you see an RV maybe coming at you or a passenger and the, the roof is lifted about four feet into the air because it's become delaminated. Well, that probably just started in one spot and just gradually pulled the rest of it up over time.

Maybe one trip, two trips, three trips, and the owner of the RV might never even notice it. Uh-huh, yikes. No one tells them, or they don't go up on the roof to see anything. Mm-hmm. Do you know? Mm-hmm. And generally, the fabric will wrinkle, or the material wrinkle up kind of like a bed that's not made very well. You can kind of tell, you know, so you want to inspect it for things like that.

And it might not. Be something that's an easy fix, but at least you're ahead of it. Yeah. You know, rather than going down the road and the whole roof just blows off. You know, the rubber portioned. Exactly. Yeah. Nothing but plywood, which would really suck if it rained. Yeah. So, look for things that are obvious, you know, and while you're up there, not only look to see if there are any seals around your vents, um, you know, if you have a rack, the stanchions on a ladder, you know, a plumbing vista.

See if the sealants broke there. Just inspect it for everything. Make sure your vent lids aren't broken. If you have an air conditioner, well, not if, if, see if the air conditioner shroud is cracked. Maybe do some air conditioner maintenance before you ever start cleaning the roof and going down that road.

So, it's getting ahead of it, you know? And from the roof, you can kind of see down on your clearance lights too, see if they're falling apart, see if they need to be resealed. So, take advantage of being up there and. Plan on doing some work while you're there. Yeah, it's more than likely it'll need it. Now, if you're on the regular maintenance schedule and you're doing it three or four times a year, you're probably not going to be doing repairs three or four times a year, at least not to the physical roof itself.

Probably once a year we'll work on that, you know, but that's why you get up there and inspect it. Just to make sure to get ahead of any crack seals so they don't start leaking. And when you're, when we're talking about a rubber roof, you can't just use anything you want on it. You must be cautious of the cleaners.

Anything generally with petroleum in it is going to be bad for a rubber roof. It's going to cause it to disfigure and kind of bubble up. I remember in the early days of our rubber roofs, you know, shops didn't know any better and they'd get up there, the things they always used and well, they'd cause problems, you know, might not ruin the roof, but it sure makes it ugly in spots.

That's, that's for sure. So, you want to be careful with that. And I. I just say you use what's recommended by Dicor and other manufacturers who make things specifically to clean a rubber roof. And the reason why are they have special cleaners in them called surfactants that will bring out the dirt, open the pores, and it makes it a much better cleaning job where something like if you don't have that, you could use dawn dishwashing, uh, detergent or liquid because it's safe and it's very versatile, and so you could use that as well.

But I recommend using what Dicor makes or any company like Camco. Orford. They also make rubber roof cleaners the best products. There's a lot out there, but make sure it's made for cleaning a rubber roof. Now also, when you're using cleaners of any kind down the roof, you must remember that all that water's going to run down the side of the RV.

Now, Dicor recommends that you mask off or, or. Plastic off the side of the RV. So, you wrap it with plastic on the side. So, any water will run down on the plastic and not the side of the RV, and that's going to be your call. The plastic certainly makes it harder to do, but you must make sure that you don't use the plastic to see to it that the side of the RV is always wet.

So, it might take another person to help you to keep the side of the RV wet as you're cleaning the roof, and basically, they're going to be hosing off. Helping to hose off anything that's running down the sides because I have seen it discolor awnings, it will discolor paint. Even just a cleaner will do that.

It will take any dirt out of the side of the RV, and you have a very bright spot there. Take the waxes off. So, you must be cautious. Dicor is going to recommend the most sale fail-safe way of doing it because well, their names are on it and they must be cautious that way, but that's going to be your call. Just make sure that you're not just hosing off the roof and forgetting about the sidewalls.

Otherwise, you will regret that. Keep everything nice and wet at a bare minimum. And now sometimes a roof might have tough stains on it and you know, you can get really carried away trying to clean them, but I wouldn't worry too much about that. I think you, if you get too carried away, you're going to do more damage than you are.

Good. For example, if you have, um, mold and mildew or grown on the roof or mold and you know, you scrub it off and it leaves these black stains, well the black stains probably aren't going to hurt anything. It's more of a visual and really who cares, unless you're in a high-speed chase and that helicopter's coming in from behind and they Oh, look at his roof.

How rude. No, I doubt that's going to happen either. But you never know currently, anything could happen. So, if you really feel like you got to get the mold off the roof after you've scrubbed it and just leave the stain, you could use something like TX on it, but be cautious. You know, you want to just clean it to the bare minimum.

Don't get carried away and sit there and scrub the roof and spray on more, you know, scrub and spray on more. It's, it'll only damage the roof at a certain point, it's not going to clean it, and certain berries might leave stains. My take on it is to get as clean as you can without going crazy. I wouldn't even use their normal cleaner.

Who cares. You can't see the roof and it's not going to hurt a thing. It's just a stain. It's not going to damage anything. It's not going to shorten the life of it. Now, sometimes you might get tree sap on a roof. Now that gets a little trickier, and that's one you probably want to just avoid ever happening, so you don't find yourself having to clean it.

But one thing you can do is put ice on the sap, on the drops, depending on how many there are. And the ice will freeze the sap, and sometimes you can just peel it up that way, so that makes it nice. But that could be time-consuming as well, depending on how much sap is on the roof. Or you can use mineral spirits, but you must be very cautious with mineral spirits because they're not really what should be used on a rubber roof.

If you put it on a rubber or on a towel and not on the roof, you put it on the towel and then try to clean it off. You could do that. If I were going to do that, I'd try to get off as much of the sap as possible before I did that. That would almost be like a final cleanup. You know, you right, try to scrape it off a little bit as left and the mineral spears will get the rest of and you know, SAP once it dries sometimes might be easier to clean, but it might be harder.

It's kind of a double-edged sword there. But the best thing to do is avoid trees where there's going to be sap coming out, or they have nasty berries in them. Mm-hmm. And I know sometimes you're out camping where you want the trees because it provides shade. So that's something you must figure out. You know, if you're going to be there for a while, maybe you could get a tarp, you know, that sounds kind of ghetto.

Throw it up on the roof, cut a hole for the air conditioner and you know, and do what you must do. But the main thing is to be cautious when you're cleaning it. Rubber roofs are very durable, but at the same time, they can be kind of fragile, like so many other things on an RV, like an awning fabric, and durable when they're on the awning.

But when they're on the ground, they're very fragile, easy to tear and cut. Now when you're cleaning your RV rough, it might seem like a daunting task. You know, it's eight feet wide, 30 feet long, 40 feet long. Hmm, 28 feet long, whatever. It's, it's a lot of space. Well, don't look at it at the whole roof. Just look at a section, you know, break it up into little squares, if you will, so that way you're focused on one area.

So lay out a, you know, mental grid on the RV. Like, you know, you have the back of the RV, a side, and maybe there's a plumbing vent that's about four feet from the back. So, you come over to the plumbing vent and then maybe go down the middle. So, you might be working on a four-by-four-foot area.

Then, you know, the piece next to it would be the same size or close to it. So, working a grid pattern, it'll mentally be easier to do. And then it also helps you keep track of where you've been. It's going to make more sense, you know, like if you had to stop and you get back on the roof an hour later, you know where you stopped at.

But when you're cleaning a roof, you probably want to just. Get all, you know, get it all done at the same time, not take breaks because you got that water going, you got cleaners going down the side. For me, it's planned on washing the RV at the same time, so don't do the sides first. Do those last? Obviously, you know, everything you did will be undone.

And when it comes to just cleaning the rubber roof as I said, use I, I recommend using what the manufacturers make. Like Dicor, any product Dicor makes. We're behind it. because they make good products. They know rubber roofs inside and out. They've been making them for decades. They do a great job with it.

So, their products work well and that's what we sell in our store. We sell some other brands, but Dior's our main product, that's the one we push. So, if you keep it going in a grid pattern, even washing it, not just getting down the nitty gritty stuff, but just washing it, it's going to make it easier.

So, work towards the back, let's say. Do the left rear corner, the right rear corner, then the next section, then the next section, and keep going forward. And then when you're all done, there shouldn't be any soapy dirty water behind you. You've been hosing it off as you go then the person that's helping you, or you're doing it spraying down the side as you go as well.

Mm-hmm. So, it makes it a lot easier that way, and it doesn't make it so daunting. Remember, after you get done cleaning it, I should have said this earlier, if you're going to do any repairs on it. Your vents. So, say the sealant is cracked, the lap sealant, you want to do that after you clean the roof, so you get that roof there?

Well actually, you know, there's Dicor who must do all that stuff a couple weeks in advance, get all your repairs done, like lap sealant, and think about it. Makes sense. because that gives it time to dry after you wash the roof, and I might have confused this here, but after you wash the roof, the pores are still open.

So, the roof is going to dry and you're going to have to help it blow off some areas around the fence and things. Get a towel or a squeegee or something, speed it along so it's thoroughly dry that way when you put on your, um, any kind of roof coating if you're going to do that, which Dior doesn't recommend doing that for a long time down the road.

Mm-hmm. Or if you're going to use any UV protectant, it'll soak into the pores. So, you want to do your major repairs first. But if you're not going to do a roof coating, you could do your minor repairs after it's washed. And most often you're not going to do a major repair, like do a roof coating until you absolutely must, to where the black is showing through on the rubber roof.

The roofs have a. You know, 15-year, 14-year warranty, and they'll go longer than that. Mm-hmm. If you do maintenance, and then when finally, that black starts showing through, you want to do a roof coating unless you're just dead set on doing a roof coating. Maybe a roof has gotten so ugly, you just can't take it anymore.

And you're afraid that if someone sees it in a helicopter or a semi, they're going to laugh at you. Then you coat the roof, it'll look nice and pretty when it's all new. Now, keep in mind, coating a roof when it's not done right, just creates a whole another set of maintenance issues. So, you want to make sure you coat the roof properly according to the manufacturer specifications of whatever brand roof coating you use, and make sure that roof is dry, and that there's no water anywhere.

So those are things to keep in mind. And roof coatings. There are a lot of brands out there. Dicor makes one, um, hangs, elixir makes one. There are other companies that do, you know, it depends on what you're really trying to accomplish. Are you trying to seal it so there are no more leaks? And a lot of these roof coatings won't work that way.

They just coat the roof, make it pretty, and keep the sun off the rubber. But they're not designed to cure all the leaks forever. I'm not saying there aren't roof coatings that do that, because there are, but those are more of a system, a roof coating system that becomes more complex and a little more spendy.

They do work when you find the right company, and there are companies that do it, you know you can do it yourself. You just must make sure they sell or have the instructions for you to do it and kind of help you along the way with everything you'll need to know. But in most cases, you can go at least 15 to 20 years without having to worry about coating a roof.

Just do the maintenance. And after it's all washed and clean, you put on the roof guard or the UV guard to protect that rubber. And if you do it three or four times a year, that roof's going to just keep lasting and there's no reason not to. because you must inspect it. And to really do your maintenance properly, you got to wash it.

So, you might as well do the UV guard as well. Sometimes you get black streaks on the side of your RV and there are black streak removers for that. That's just from the soot and different things on the roof that run down the side. You know, there are a million black streak remover-type products out there, so your local RV store will have those.

So do not worry. So, I think we've covered it. I've covered this before and, in a previous podcast, maintaining that roof is so important. It's just something we must do. Let's just jump onto a whole other subject here and talk about the next stop. Yeah. So, Alexis, wake up. All right, so now, oh, wake up and look.

NEXT STOP

It's sleeping. Bare Dunes National Park. Wow. Exactly. All right, so Alexis, how come we're going to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park?

Alexis- Well, I think this place is super unique. It's on the, you know, the eastern coastline of Lake Michigan and just looking at it. I mean, obviously, you know how big Lake Michigan is, it just looks like an ocean.

So, if you want the ocean experience and you don't have to drive, you know, all the way to the ocean. If you live close by, then go here because it is so, so cool. Just do a Google search and look at the pictures. It's beautiful and there's a lot to do there. There are lighthouses, and there are cool antique stores.

Obviously, there's a lot of camping you can do. There's just, uh, neat museums in the area and, and so much more, but it's just a beautiful place You could even go for the day, just go swimming. Yeah, it's a good idea. Those lakes are huge. Does bring a whole new effect to things. Um, super cool. Yeah, and you know, sometimes people live near those places and like, I've done it.

Everybody does it, and you don't really enjoy it. I know. You take advantage of what's right there, you know. You do. And sometimes maybe where you're at or where you might go might not be the best place and you think, ah, the whole lake has got to be that way.

Eric- Mm-hmm. So sometimes we must get out and explore maybe without the RV, go on a day trip or something and or a weekend trip.

Do some exploration. Yeah. Why not? It's cool. It's a cool place. Yeah. Yeah. And so of course there are uh, things to do there, right? Oh, yeah. Like I said, we've, you've got antique stores that are always, you know, somebody's interest to go there, find something unique. Um, they've got museums, they've even got a lighthouse, the North Manitou Island Lighthouse.

So, if you're into that, you got to go check it out. Yeah. Lighthouses are cool. It's a pretty good hobby these days. Mm-hmm. It seems like they're disappearing more and more, but there's still a lot out there. Yeah. Yeah. So, there are things to do there, and that's what's important. Then of course there are places to eat.

Like always, always. All right, so there's the, I can't even remember. I know, I was going to try to go for it. Trattoria. Estrada. There we go. Italians. Yeah, exactly. Oh yeah. And then we got the red door, uh, coffee house, and a good Harbor grill. So just some nice options. So always food. Now what about for RV? Is there a place for RVers to stay there?

You know it, um, there's a couple Indigo Bluffs RV Park. It's right next to the lake, the Lake Ano RV Park, and then Frankfort, Crystal Lake RV, and that's just a few. There are so many more. Just to mention a few. Yeah. So, we always bring out the things to whet your appetite. That's what we say in every episode. And so hopefully there are some things here that'll whet your appetite.

So, you have the Great Lakes, Michigan Lake is one of them. Mm-hmm. And so, if you want to enjoy that, get up there. Um, especially if you're not from the area, you know, it's quite a sight to see. It is. Yeah. A lot of things in the United States that are just amazing to see. They're cool. You know, a lot of people like to go abroad, but there's so much here.

Yeah. I mean, it's different from Europe and other places, but it's just unique here. Yeah. Yeah. And on the Rich American history, the cultures, you find a vast variety of cultures as well. Mm-hmm. So, the United States is a cool country to check out. So, this is just one little sliver of it.

That's right. So, we're bringing you the world a sliver of time. And don't forget to look at RV Destinations Magazine. We are always. Recommend that magazine or we have been. Um, it's such a great magazine and we subscribe to it. A lot of good information there. We sometimes will incorporate it into the show.

We haven't really gotten into the full groove of it yet, and we've got permission from them to do it. We're just, you know, we're just us, but we will. But in the meantime, if you guys go to rv destinations magazine.com, you can check it out for yourself, and I recommend subscribing. It's a fantastic magazine.

RV ENVY

Now that's going to bring us to RV Envy, and today we're going to talk about, I said wire connectors, voltmeter, and Logic Pro. But really, it's, you know, wire connectors are straightforward. It's just using the right ones when you're dealing with, uh, 12 volts or 110 volts. I mean, mostly it's 12 volts on an RV.

You know, don't use electrical tape to make connections. Use the right size crimp connectors. Make sure they're right for the job. Crimp them properly. If they're going to be outside, you might want to use ones with, uh, heat shrink on them or put heat shrink on them either way or tape them up good if you don't want to do that.

But make sure they are crimped on, and they're crimped properly. A lot of connectors today, you can get with uh, a solder already in them with the heat shrink. So, you crimp it, hit it with heat and it'll melt the solder and do the heat shrink at the same time. But more importantly, using a voltmeter to check for electrical problems is the most important thing.

Because so often everybody has electrical problems. They come in the store, and they haven't checked out anything they wanted to start buying parts. It's not how it works. You have got to check it out. because quite often the part they want to buy is not the part that's bad. Because a little testing will go a long way and use a voltmeter test.

The lights are okay, but the volt meters are much better. They tell you a lot more than a test light ever will. And then finally, the logic probe. Now logic probes come in different flavors. You know, there are ones with just, they look like a test light with a coil lead on it. And then there are ones that look more like a, uh, electrical tester for like 110 volts where you hook up power to it.

Whatever your flavor is. Harbor Freight sells one for like 15, 20 bucks. It's, uh, simple to use, but what's cool about a logic probe is, let me get to the point here. Let's say you pull out a panel on your RV and it has all these switches on it, and maybe you're looking for the one for the awning because the awning's not working, and you want to test to make sure that the switch is working properly, and you have the power there.

If some of the wires were to pull off the switch, you might not know which ones went where they are. Some switches will have ground wires going to them. They have an internal ground, which is okay. It works. So, with a logic probe, when you, uh, use it properly, they all come with instructions. It'll tell you which wire's positive and which wire's negative, so you can't confuse them.

And a lot of times in an RV, the wires aren't marked. You know, they might be all white coming into a panel. Maybe some will have a purple stripe, orange stripe, but it doesn't mean they're positive or negative, you know? So, a logic probe will help you sort through that. You can do it without a logic probe, but it's easier with a logic probe, especially, um, if you're inexperienced, it'll make it much easier.

So, use the volt meters, use the right connectors, and get yourself a logic probe, even if it's just a cheap one from Harbor Freight. And you got it. It's there. And then you can do it. For more information on this podcast, you can go to the website, TheSmartRVer.com. I was looking at something else as I said that we have so many websites and I skipped over some things to do today, but we're all right.

OUTRO

So, you can go to the website and check it out. Everything we talked about today will be there as always. So, this is Eric Stark and I want to thank you for hanging out with us today on TheSmartRVer Podcast. So, if we don't see you on the road, we will just connect it to TheSmartRVer.com.