INTRO

How do lithium battery warranties stack up? That's what we're going to be talking about today and staying on the road. We're also going to have a nice conversation about how fall will soon be upon us, and we need to prepare some last-minute details, ready to discuss and live the RV life. Then we're going to go to Door County Wisconsin at the Next Stop.

I had a hard time saying that. Door County, Wisconsin. All right, then we will wrap up the show with RV Envy in this RV. In this episode, we will talk about cordless drills and impacts. It doesn't sound too exciting, but heck, we'll try to make it exciting. 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.

LIVING THE RV LIFESTYLE

Today's show is episode number 132, so Alexis, welcome to the show. Thank you, Eric. I'm glad you're feeling better now. I am. Alexis wasn't feeling good in our last episode. Now she's feeling awesome. Great. Yep. Alright, so just a reminder, before you buy an RV, make sure it's the right RV for you and that there are no problems with it.

And if the problem there are problems that they're disclosed and it's out on the table, what's going to be done about them? Alright, I'm going to keep that to a very minimum today. I don't want to. Badmouth the industry, and every show, but just be cautious of what you buy. Even experienced buyers are making bad decisions when it comes to purchasing RVs.

Yeah, so be cautious. Now, today, living the RV life, we're going to talk about some of the reminders, the things for going into fall. Now I know what you're thinking. We're in the middle of summer, but you know, this episode won't be out for. Four weeks or so. Yep. Well actually, you know, if you're hearing it, it's already out.

Yeah. So high boy. Yeah. You can tell we're clueless here as well. So, reminders for the fall and it's, these things are probably not, Uh, that big of a deal to a lot of experienced RVers. You know, the seasons change. They come and go. You get used to it. But sometimes we get, you know, wrapped up in other things, other things in life, and suddenly fall upon us, winters upon us freezing weather.

And you know, I know here in Montana where we're at, we can have, you know, we're in the fall and suddenly, we got snow on the ground. You know, you're trying to clean up leaves in your yard and next thing you know there's snow covering them. So, it's being prepared maybe a little bit early. Yeah, so one of the things that many people do during the fall is they travel, they're still traveling.

They want to use their RV to the fall, to the last possible moment. Depending on where you're at and where you're going, you want to make sure your furnace is working right, Alexis? That's right. That's a huge deal, right? Huh. And furnaces, you know, you must check it before you go. Don't just assume because the last time you used your RV, it's going to work.

If you're relying on that furnace, make sure it works. And maybe it needs some maintenance done too before you go. Exactly. It might need to be cleaned out. The electrode might need to be cleaned, so make sure some of that stuff's done. Just basic things you don't have to get into, you know, really carried away.

But make sure it works before you go and the chances of it working there are much greater. You're not going to run into a problem. And then another thing that we're going to be talking about a little bit differently is RV batteries. Inspecting the batteries is a good thing to do. Making sure they have water, the cables aren't corroded, all that kind of stuff.

Mm-hmm. That they're fully charged. You know, we hear a lot of times, you know, people leaving on a trip and the batteries aren't fully charged and they get through their gun. They had a problem with their tow vehicles, so they weren't charged and they're dry camping, you know, so there's problems. So, make sure your batteries are charged.

Yep. You know, maintenance on batteries should be done regularly. Batteries are not a maintenance free type thing unless you have maintenance free batteries. They need water, add water, you know, distilled water is what you should be using. So, it's good to always keep some of that around just in case. And so, Alexis, what else would you recommend for a fall-type trip?

Um, it mentions two to inspect all safety devices, so that means. Like your, uh, co detector, your LP gas detector, that's important. Because if you're out somewhere where you can't get to an RV store very easily, then you're going to want that, that device to be working correctly. Um, especially if you're inside a lot, if it's a little chilly out, you really want that to be working.

So, check those things. Make and make a list. Make a, make a calendar so that you know when the last time you checked it, and you can check it again and do that in sequence so that you're kind of organized. Right. And that goes back to a couple of episodes back talking about, um, a maintenance schedule and keeping track of that.

Yep. So, if you're doing that, you could possibly even just look at it and say, no, I just replaced my LP detector last year. Should be good. So, I got several years to go, you know, I don't have to worry about that. Right. Exactly. But also, when you're coming to this time of year, um, you do want to think ahead.

Are you going to be using the RV? Exactly. You know, if, if you No, absolutely. Certainly, you're not going to, it's time to winterize it. If you're in an area where it needs to be winterized, no matter what, I think you must do something for storage, depending, you know, no matter where you live. So just start looking at it.

Okay, well, we're not going to be going anywhere. I know for sure. Just put that RV into storage then. Mm-hmm. You know, if you're going to have a couple more trips, then just make sure that after that trip you have time to get it into RV storage. Whether it's winterizing it, or just putting a cover on it, whatever you might do.

Stay ahead of it. Yep. Winter sometimes does come quickly. It does. Yeah. And out of nowhere. Yep. You need to be cautious of that. I think that'll wrap it up for living the RV life with these fall RV tips and reminders. Just keep that on your mind. I want to hear from you guys out there. If there's one great tip you have for your fellow RV or someplace you've gone, something about maintaining your RV.

You know, a certain kind of meal to make, just whatever it is. One great tip. One of the things that you'd really want to share with somebody, like whenever you know, somebody gets an rv, what's that one thing you tell them? You know, I want to give you a piece of advice, and you put your hand on their shoulder, and you tell them a little story.

STAYING ON THE ROAD

You know that one tip. That's what we want to hear. All right, now let's get to staying on the road. We're going to talk about lithium batteries and how their warranty stacks up. Now this is not a trick question, man. It just takes. Time you must investigate the warranties on lithium batteries, and I'll bet no one's doing that.

We don't look at warranties on anything we buy. We just ask questions. We asked the guy at the car dealership, well what's the warranty? And he tells us what he thinks we need to hear. We asked the guy at the RV dealership, what's the warranty? And he tells us what we think we need to hear. It doesn't matter where we go, we never read the warranty.

One of the things that is, you know, lithium batteries, we sell them in our store. We have a couple of different brands. We have a more expensive one. The X-pion 360. We have the least expensive ones, the Dakota Lithium batteries. The warranties are almost the same, 12 years with X-pion, 11 with Lithium or uh, Dakota lithium.

That's the advertised warranty, but that's not the warranty. I guarantee you these batteries do not have the warranty that you think they have. And it's important you understand that now lithium batteries are good batteries, but they're still new. In fact, we're coming into the timeframe now where a lot of these battery companies, their warranties are going to be put to the greatest test they've gone through because they're coming up on the 10-year, eight-year, nine-year, 11-year, uh, points in their life.

And this is where the companies really shine or don't shine. It's kind of like your insurance company for your car, your motor home when you buy the insurance, oh, this sounds so good. You feel like, oh, what a great purchase. I don't have to worry about a thing. Now. You know I can breathe easily. If my motor home catches on fire while it's falling off a cliff, I'm golden.

So, it's the same with these lithium battery warranties. Now, lithium batteries are great batteries, don't get me wrong. Even the lame, lame ones are good. Batteries, the inexpensive ones, and you can get a lithium battery for 300 bucks with a five-year warranty. But check out the warranty. You can get a $500 battery with a five-year warranty, you can get a thousand dollars battery with a five-year warranty, you get a thousand dollars battery with a 12-year warranty.

It doesn't matter. Read the warranties. So let me get into this a little bit. So, we've done some education here. Uh, we've done the research, we've looked at, you know, many different warranties and we don't have any notes on this. We didn't write it all down. I'm just going by memory here because I don't want to be too committed to this.

Um, because you must read the warranties yourself. Each company is very similar, but there are differences in their warranties. Sometimes they're subtle, sometimes they're obvious, but you must, you know, decide on the company that really attracts your attention. Okay, this company, this battery really looks good before you get too sold on it.

Read their warranty, find it on their website, and make sure that it's the same warranty that comes with your battery. In writing you want to keep that warranty that comes with your battery, and you want to keep the receipt because without the receipt your warranty's done, that receipt is going to make or break your warranty.

Because if you don't have it, you can't prove you ever bought it, and you will not have a warranty. And I also say to keep the original warranty that comes with the battery because most of these warranties are on websites. You can go in and change a website in 30 seconds or less. It's not a big deal to change.

And some of them are downloadable PDFs, which is okay. That's great. A little harder to change, but it can still be changed instantly. In fact, their warranties say that their warranties can change at any given time, but if you have the original warranty that came with your product, then they're stuck to that warranty.

They must honor that warranty, not the new warranty. These warranties, they're interesting. Some of them read that. The company's not liable for anything. If your RV catches on fire, someone dies because of the battery. They're not liable for a thing because you purchased the battery, because you purchased it.

You haven't signed a thing, you just purchased it. So be cautious. Now, most of these warranties have timeframes. They might have, well, there's one brand very popular. Their warranty on their batteries is five years, and it's just a prorated warranty on their website. Just says it's a prorated warranty.

There's no other information about it. It's just prorated. And they may or may not decide to fix or replace a battery. That's it. And it doesn't really get into the details. And that's where you can't call them and say, what's the warranty? You must get it in writing. because they can tell you anything they want or what they're being told.

Today, the salesperson was told today, the warranty is this, and in six months it can change. So you have to have it in writing. And I can't emphasize that enough because there's. A catch to all these warranties. For one, they can change two if you don't have your receipt, three, if you don't have your original warranty, and four, they can change it, and five, blah, blah, blah.

Just keep on going. Some of these warranties, let's say it's a 12-year warranty, so for the first eight years, they're going to tell you, we will repair or replace the battery at our discretion. And now they can decide because it's at their discretion that the battery failed because of normal wear and tear.

At the eight-year point, let's say you call them up, my battery doesn't work. You have got a 12-year warranty, it's eight years old. Here's the data I bought. I have all this. You have everything you need. You can, you took photos of how you hooked it up. Because they're going to try to squirm out this warranty saying you didn't hook it up right.

It wasn't in the right condition; you didn't have the right charger. They're going to use everything against you to say you did something wrong and you've got to prove to them you did it. And then at eight years, they might say, okay, well, we just feel that your battery's just worn out. You just used it.

There is no warranty at that point, even though it might have a 12-year warranty. So, it's at their discretion. So, your battery could come to the end of its life in eight years, and they can tell you that there's nothing you can do because you agreed to it by purchasing that battery, you agreed to the terms and conditions they put upon that battery.

So that's kind of interesting. And now the warranties are read differently on different brands. So, I'm giving you what we came across of things that stood out. And, you know, they can repair or replace. And that sounds great. You know, the battery's four years old. They're not going to just give you a new battery every time.

Get that out of your head right now. They're going to repair this battery. And to a degree they are repairable. It could have a bad cell, you know, it could have a bad, um, battery management system. Something could fail inside of it. All the screws could come loose because they don't use lock tight on them or uh, poxy or anything, and you send it to them, and they can replace it.

But now to send it to them, you're going to pay for the shipping and batteries aren't cheap to ship. And you're going to find that out the hard way. You know, a battery might cost a hundred dollars or ship on u p s even though it's only 30 pounds or whatever, but it's hazardous material. Ah, there's the catch. It's a hazardous material.

And so, you might think, well, I'm going to take it back to the store I bought it from and shove it down their throat. Well, they're going to tell you the same thing. The warranties through the manufacturer will ship it to you, but you're going to need to pay for the shipping. It's not going to change. You must pay for the shipping.

In some cases, you're going to pay for the return shipping. In some cases, you won't, depending on what their warranty says or doesn't say how they're going to handle that. But you're going to pay the shipping back. There's no way out of that. So that could be 75, a hundred bucks, easy. So, keep that in mind. So that's part of the warranty process.

So, if you go eight years without any issues and you've done great, but somewhere in those eight years, your battery might fail because of normal wear and tear. It might fail because of a bad part that they'll decide whether they're going to replace it or give you a new battery. Then let's say you get to the eight years, you make it through there and you're eight and a half years and you call them up, your battery's dead, and they say, oh, okay.

Well yeah, your battery's just dead. Um, it sounds like it died because of a malfunctioning part. So, we're going to give you a new battery. Well, they're not going to say that. You're going to have to send them the battery back and they're going to test it, and then they're going to say a, a part failed. And the battery's no good.

And maybe it's their fault and they're going to, okay. So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to give you 30% off a new battery. This battery's no good. We're not going to give you one for free, but we're going to give you 30% off. And that sounds great. 30% off. Wow. Is it though, if lithium prices plummet between now and then, that would be great, but lithium prices are not going to plummet.

They're going to go up if not anything else. All the metals and the things they need to make. Lithium batteries are not dropping in price. Stocks are going up. The prices are going up. There are only a few places in the world that mine this stuff and every place where they mine it is a hot spot in the world.

So, I really doubt it's going to drop. So, the battery could go up 40%. So that discount does you nothing. You're just buying a brand-new battery at full price. And let's say it's a $1,200 battery and you did get 30% off a big deal. You got $360 off. You still spend a thousand bucks. Essentially, you're shipping and everything else.

So, you got one brand new battery and now you have one, two, or three used ones that are. Maybe, uh, eight years old, nine years old, are they going to just keep failing one right after another? I'm taking this, I guess, down the long road because you need to understand the warranty. And some of them will offer even, you know, in the last year maybe, um, only 20% off.

So, the warrant to the percentage off is going to change depending on what year you're in. So, it's, it is very prorated and may or may not work in your favor at all. And if you have more than one battery, that could work against you having one new battery and several used batteries. It's nice to have them all in the same life, the same span.

Now it might not work that way, and if you must replace one, you replace one. You might be thankful, hey, at least they did something for me. As I said, the time is coming for these warranties to come to the test, how good they're going to be, and the warranty. Let's say in year number, say year number six, you got a battery with a 10-year warranty, you're number six.

They say we're going to give you a new battery. You're like, wow, that's awesome. So, it is. They gave you a brand-new battery. All you do is pay for the shipping to get yours to them. Maybe they will charge you to ship you the new battery. So maybe you're into this new battery, 200 bucks.

If they charge, you know, if they're shipping both ways, it's still pretty good. Now the thing you need to keep in mind though, is. The warranty on that battery is essentially over. It doesn't continue like it did before. They don't add on. A new 10-year warranty, you still only have four years left in the warranty.

I know that probably doesn't sound very pleasing, but that's the way it is. You know if the battery fails, they give you a new one, that's it. The warranty is still just for four more years. It doesn't extend the warranty for another 10 years. Even if some repairs are going to be the same.

We must repair the battery. It doesn't extend the warranty. The warranty is still for the set amount of time that you purchase the battery, and that's fair. Most companies do that with cars and everything else. That's normal, but you just need to know that. because sometimes we lose sight of that.

Oh, I got a new one. The batteries or the warranty starts all over again. It doesn't, it's still the same warranty. That's why I'm saying to read these warranties. So, if you're going to be looking at. Two or three brands of batteries get the warranties, and that might narrow it down to two. Then between those two warranties, you know, you can decide which one you want to deal with.

I don't know. I, I, I look at these warranties and we've read them. We get people coming to the store asking about lithium, and they ask us about the warranties, and we tell them about the warranties that we know of for the batteries we sell. We tell them, we try to be honest about it. Because we don't want to deal with it down the road.

We don't want to have someone mad at us. This is a thousand-dollar battery they purchased. So reading is very important and most of the manufacturers of these batteries are going to tell you that the warranty is way better than it is. In fact, when we talk to battery manufacturers, they tell us the same thing.

Oh, it's a 12-year no-question warranty, then you read their warranty. It's nothing like that. Every question is asked. Every question is asked, and it's not 12 years. You know, they advertise a warranty that really, they can say it's 12 years, but it's not really 12 years. When you really look at it, there's coverage, but it's not great coverage, you know, so if you look at a battery that has a 10-year warranty, 11-year warranty, 12-year warranty if you get 5, 6, 7, 8 years out of it, you should probably be happy.

Plan on the warranty falling three to four years early or the falling or falling out warranty three to four years early, and you'll probably make a better buying decision. It'll help you understand it when finally, they do say, no, there's no warranty left on this battery. You have got to buy a new one. And they might not even give you a discount.

That would only be if they're admitted to, there's a warranty issue. If it's just worn itself out because of natural, normal wear and tear, they're not going to warranty anything. Even if it's before the warranty, the warranty period's up, which sounds weird, doesn't it? Normal wear and tear before the warranty is over.

Running a $1,200 battery because of the warranties brings companies into question what they really will do. So do your homework, check it out, see for yourself, and if you have any takes on this, if you have any thoughts on it, let me know. Use the Contact Us page and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you.

Maybe you've gone through some warranty issues that worked out great. Or worked out horribly. Let me know. So, you go to TheSmartRVer.com, use the Contact Us page and send me what you think. Let's get to the Next Stop. Wake up, Alexis. Once again, you need to crawl that corner. Get in front of that microphone.

NEXT STOP

Alexis- I'm awake. Start talking. Dora County, Wisconsin. All right. So, uh, either Mr. Door started the county, or they made doors there or something, right? Uh, sure, let's go with that. Now, tell us about it. This place is beautiful. Um, I always, when I go through these, I make a list of places I want to go and visit, and this is on there.

There's so much to do there. Um, for one, they have a beautiful Peninsula State Park. They have these cute little towns in there like Fish Creek and Sister Bay. There are ferries that you can get on and go cherry-picking. There are scenic drives you can take, and there are lighthouses, which are so cool. Um, you can go wine tasting, you can do water activities. There are lots of lakes. So, there's just an endless list of things to do here. It's a cool place to go RVing.

Eric- Wow. Well, there is a lot to do there. There is. There is. Yeah. Oh, I want to say something so bad, but I'm not going to, it'll offend too many people.

Alexis- Oh, say it?

Eric- No. Well, oh boy. Then I'm not going to say it. I couldn't control myself today. That's good. Right. No, that does sound good though. There's a lot to do there. A lot. Yeah. I never really envisioned it. Wisconsin with too much to do. Right, right. You know? Yeah. It doesn't seem like it, but this place is unique. It's very, very neat. Yeah. And it's got a lot of different stuff.

Alexis- A big variety. It's kind of all over the board. Very much so. Yeah. So, what else is there to do there? Go there and you eat pink. You know there are places to eat. Always your RV. Yeah, you could do that. Um, there's a few places, there's a ton of places. I know, I know the White Gull Inn, which is in Fish Creek. Um, it's famous for its, uh, cherry-stuffed French toast.

Doesn't that sound good? That sounds good. Eric's like, I don't know. There's the Cookery, which is also in Fish Creek. There's Fran and Fuzzies Waterfront and Bar and Grill. I just love that name. See what else is there? There's Harbor Fish Market and Grill. There's Chives restaurant and Shoreline restaurant.

There's just, I mean, that's a lot. An abundance of places. Yes. Yeah. And a lot of places to stay too if you're an RV or, absolutely. We've got a few listed here. Um, the Peninsula, state Park, waken Trail Campground, fish Creek, campground Door County Camping Retreat. There's just, I mean, you just Google it and you're going to find, uh, campsites and RV parks all over, all over, uh, Door County.

Eric- Uh, there's a lot. So, this entire list will be on our website. Mm-hmm. Now, um, a lot. It's a lot here. This is probably one of the most comprehensive ones. Oh yeah. Yep. Door County Wisconsin, so that might be worth checking out if you're going to be in the area in Wisconsin. Um, yeah, worth it.

Alexis- Like I said, I didn't think there was much in Wisconsin, but that kind of changed my attitude. I know, I know. That's what's cool about these things is you learn a little bit and change your whole take on a certain area, you know? Yep, yep. You maybe never thought of going there. Right, right. And suddenly, hey, this doesn't sound so bad, and we're always up in that area, or we go by the, you know, every summer we go to, Cousin Bob's house in New Yorker.

Eric- Right, exactly. She went by a few hours out of the way, but why not do it? Yep. So that's what's cool about traveling and having an RV go where you want. And it's relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of travel. Exactly. You know, and it's more of an adventure. Yep. Know, you know, it's just like recently he, you know, we went cutting wood the day didn't go well, you know, broke down vehicle, blah, blah, blah.

Alexis- But it was the adventure of the whole thing. You know, at the end of the day, you know, you're tired, you're worn out, it's dark out. You wanted to be home hours earlier, but mm-hmm. Like about the adventure, even in an RV, you know, you might go someplace and turn out to be an absolute dud. Yeah. But the adventure getting there, the whole thing, you look back on the laugh, so the people you're with.

Eric- Yeah. So, you know don't doubt the Next Stop, whatever it is on your list, just go know. Yeah. Yep, exactly. Choose the news one and just keep on going to one stop after the next, you know? That's right. Alright, perfect. Another place to receive great destinations is RV Destinations Magazine. Can't emphasize enough how nice of a magazine it is, and the pictures are just unbelievable.

The quality is unbelievable, and this will get you motivated to go places in your RV. Heck, it'll get you motivated to go there or on foot if you must. That's how nice the pitchers are. They just kind of suck you in. So go to their website, RV DestinationsMagazine.com, and learn more for yourself.

RV ENVY

Now this brings us to RV Envy, and today we will talk about cordless drill and impacts. And most people that I think travel have a cordless drill. I mean, there is no reason to not have a cordless drill currently with all the brands out there, the availability, all the different, uh, you know, uh, bits for them.

You're out in your RV, something breaks, and you take off 12 screws to get to it. You pull out that drill, you're in there and you know, less than a minute. It's nice. Rather than using a screwdriver, you know, I mean if you got to have a screwdriver just in case, but the cordless drill's the way to go, they don't take up a lot of space.

But one thing that a lot of people don't think about is the impacts of the cordless impacts. And I have a DeWalt one. It's a 60-watt. And I got it at, uh, where did I, I got it at a store. I didn't give it to a big box store. I had another store like 500 bucks. This thing is a workhorse man. Like if you had to rotate the wheels on your trailer and your truck out on the road, you could do it on one charge, no problem.

And you could drop it eight times as well. And it's still going to keep on going. The reason why I bring these impacts up is that cordless drills are awesome and make things easier, and you don't even need an impact out on the road very often. But if you just get a flat tire, you can have that d, the lug nuts off in a second versus minutes.

You know, you just get in there and take them right off. Then when you put them back on, you just put them on tight and then you can torque them by hand, which is what I do, just to make sure. But you know, these things will tighten them up so tight that it'll snap the lug if you're not careful. So, it’s a great tool to have with you.

You don't have to have a high-end one unless you're going to use it a lot. We use ours a lot for various things. I'm always doing stuff at home. We have it here at the shop. It's just a great tool and being ready for those things that come up out on the road. Or, you know, maybe you're traveling with someone, they get a flat, and they can't even find the wrench to get the lug nuts off.

You know, they're disorganized. Well, heck, you can help them with that, you know. So, it's just part of being prepared, but it's just a nice tool to have and it falls under that RV Envy section, and you know, all the big box stores have them, all your ranch supply stores, have them, you know, pick the brand you want.

I like DeWalt. Um, everything I own is DeWalt. And there's, I know there are other brands out there that are probably better, but that's just what I have, you know, all the batteries match and that's what works for me. So, you can check that out. You can go to any store you want and do the research, but also, I also want to remind you to go to our channel on YouTube, youtube.com, TheSmartRVer, and check out the videos we're doing. You know, of course, we want you to go to TheSmartRVer.com and look at the website for the different information we post. But we know you're listening to the podcast on, um, you know, iTunes or Spotify or something like that.

But don't forget about YouTube and checking us out there. A lot of good videos. They come out every two weeks, constantly producing them, and we want you to enjoy them. And we want your input on them as well. Because you can always leave a comment on those things too. Alright, well that brings us to the end of the show today.

OUTRO

So, I want to thank you for listening. This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer Podcast. It's been great being with you here today. If I do not see you on the road, let's connect at TheSmartRVer.com.