Why you should keep track of RV maintenance and how to do it. This is Eric Stark with the Smart RV or podcast, delivering the Smarts. You need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down. So today, we have Alexis with us. How are you today,

Alexis? I'm doing good.

All right. Oh, so can you guess what the theme of the show is? RV maintenance. Woohoo. All right, so this is the third podcast in a row now where we've been talking about maintenance and the importance of it. Keeping track of things. So, we're going to dig in a little bit more this week, and then this will be the last one on maintenance for a while.

All right. So everybody out there in Podcast land. Rest, easy. It's a podcast. We're going to hit up some hard stuff. That's right. Get back to the normal routine. But maintenance is important. That's why we're talking about today. So speaking of maintenance, today we have the RV checklist—all righty.

And so, what can you tell us about the RV checklist, Alexis? Well, this is important because your RV can only hold so much stuff, right? So you need to bring the essentials. You need to leave the non-essentials behind because otherwise, you're just going to have a mess all the time. You're going to have stuff you don't need, don't want, it's just going to make the RV heavier. It really is surprising that it will, but, so having some important things is good. You need things like food; you need certain supplies depending on how long you'll be gone, and where you're going. , and equipment, of course. So some of the essentials that I've listed, and I've collected these from a few different sites, including RV lifestyle blog, but things to clean your RV with that would be good.

Keep it to the bare minimal basic of what you need. The basic things you'll need. Paper products of course, makes it a little easier. Or if you like doing dishes, you could have, you know, regular dishes. Having things like cooking oil, having coffee, if that's important to you, having eggs, all the, all the like basic things that you can make a ton of stuff with would be good.

All right, so that makes sense because it keeps the RV cleaner. Less clutter. Easier to find stuff. Less weight. Yep. Uh, you know, the cabinets and RVs. It only sustains so much weight for so long before they start rattling apart. . The doors quit working. Drawers fall apart. I mean, you know, you see it all the time.

Pull out a drawer and an rv and the bottom falls right out. Yep. . Remember when they're making the rv, they didn't make it like a house. Exactly. Not designed to hold anything. That's right. That's right. Not even designed to be used. That's an exaggeration. So, , that's a good, good thing. , having a list, you know?

Yes. And make sure you have what you need. You know, some things, you know, like. There's some things you'll bring with you every time, like clothes. Sure. But maybe there are some basic things that you'd want to keep in the RV so in case you forget it. Like a hat or sunglasses, things like that.

A jacket, you know, depending on where you live, you might never even bring a jacket wherever you go. Exactly. But you never know. You know, mountains, you should always have a jacket. At least a rain jacket. Yep. Definitely. . So keep it basic, you know, not extra sets of sheets and blankets and towels.

No, you don't need it. . You need, or at least. . You know, you're going to be doing laundry probably, and then you can just reuse them. . But just keeping it simple is really what it boils down to. Exactly. And so, and then also, if you're like one of those people that likes to bring a lot of magazines, well read it and chuck it.

Don't, . Or have a Kindle. Just have it on your, your iPad or something. There you go. Don't bring a bunch of modern technology maybe. There you go. That's better. So anything that doesn't make life easier, just don't bring it. Right. There you go. That says it all. So we'll have this on our website and also link to the RV lifestyle blog where you can see more of it.

And of course, you know a list is going to change by person, by rv. You get a little 19 foot travel trailer, you're, you know, like so much you can bring besides you. You know, that's going to change. So you can go to TheSmartRVer.com to check it out under the RV life section. And in our description of the podcast, there will definitely be links to both places where you can look at this list.

And of course, like I said, you can compile your own. Now we're going to go to Staying on the Road and why you should keep track of RV maintenance and how to do it. Now, some of you might be thinking, come on, Eric, really? How to do it? We're not that db. Well, that's not the implication. Sometimes it's just a reminder and then some people aren't doing it.

And then there's newbies who. Don't know what they should do. Yep. And also maintenance becomes this black hole, if you will. You know, it, it becomes guesswork on when things were done. It seems like it was yesterday, but it's not. And when it comes to maintenance, what always stands out to me in the auto repair business, , in r in our, in the RV service is, is very similar to that, that the dates get mixed up regularly.

When something was installed or purchased. In fact, I just talked to the owner of a Yamaha dealership yesterday and I asked him how old his batteries were and he said, well, they're a year old. And I said, are they really a year old? You know how that goes? And he goes, well, you're right. You know, the more he thought about it.

And he goes, you know, I asked people the same question, how old's that motorcycle? Or When did you buy it? Oh, I just got it a year ago, and it turns out it's five years old, you know? . So that's the point, but. Batteries are probably the biggest item, the number one thing that people lose track of when they bought it.

It seems like every battery out there is brand new. You know, everybody asks how old your battery is? Oh, it's brand new. Right. Are you sure? , it's brand new, so that is not possible. . You know, everybody doesn't have a brand-new battery, so that is the most, , common answer to the question. It's brand new.

How old's your battery? It's brand new. Well, after some investigating, you ask a few more questions and it turns out the battery's a year old. It's two years old, it's three years old. Heck, they've even been five and six years old, but it's brand new. So somewhere in our mind we, we associate that purchase with something that didn't work right much long ago, or we have several vehicles and we got confused on which battery was actually the new one.

So why does it matter? You know, whether the age of something is correct? I mean, if they're going to, wouldn't they just check the battery and figure it out? You know, if you're in a store asking somebody, you know, do I need a new battery? And they ask you how old it is, you say a year, well, they're probably going to say no.

But now if you said, you know, I was five years old, they'd probably say yes. So you see how it can change. The trajectory of the question. You don't want to, and, and then there's times when you just don't want to wait for the part to fail, whatever it might be. You know, you . Might have that attitude, well, I'll wait till it breaks or dies.

Don't do that. And in some cases you can't control that. Other things you can. . Like an re battery, a deep cycle. Battery's going to last, you know, three to five years, maybe a little longer, maybe a little last, but you know, if you're five years, Old, it's probably time just to replace the batteries. You know, the climate.

If you're in Arizona, you know, definitely if they even make it that long . Montana someplace cooler, they might go six years, but why wait until they die? Because they're not going to die in your driveway. They're going to die when you're out camping. . Every person that gets batteries. I was out over the weekend and my batteries died.

. You know How old are they? Oh, they're six years old. They're seven years old. Oh wait, they're brand new. That's right. Oh, okay. They're brand new. Just kidding. Alright, so the smart rvr doesn't want to wait until it's too late. That kind of rhymed. I'm a poet. I don't know it. So there are sometimes when a part will fail regardless of the best record keeping things happen.

So let's break down why it's good to keep records and then how to do it. One reason why is to stop the bad actors from selling you parts too soon. You know, they ask a question, you answer it, but you're not a hundred percent sure. Then they go down that road and push apart down your throat. For example, some items like might look older than they really are, such as a battery.

Sometimes they look like they're ancient and they're brand new. You know, it could just be the battery itself. It's just ugly from the factory. Maybe some acid is on the top, you know, it's real dirty. Oh, that battery's really old. That's just bad battery. Or a water pp could be, have a lot of, you know, dust and dirt on it.

Maybe a little corrosion somewhere. So the, the technician or the person you're talking to might suggest replacing them based on the appearance. That's not how it works. You know, they might say, well, it looks old. It must be time to replace it. Well, it might be, but you can't go by looks that doesn't fly.

You know, there's so many different things. Awnings, tires, there's a lot of things that you can't just go buy looks, , time. Has something to do with it as well. . In fact, trailer tires, you know, they can look brand new and be five years old. The tread is awesome, but they're rotting away on the inside.

So we might just look at something, oh, it just sneeze that, but they didn't really look at it closely enough and therefore it might have another problem. Right? Like, you know, in fact, we have an awning out in our shop right now. It doesn't roll up all the way. Everybody's trying to sell the guy a new fabric.

But when you look at the rv, The awning rail bows in about an inch towards the front arm. Yikes. So his RV's crooked basically, and the awning fabric is, , a half an inch off. Well, that would explain that. So everybody wants to sell a new fabric, but there's no guarantee that'll fix the problem. We can't just jp to conclusions by looks.

. You know, and hope that it works. Hoping doesn't fix problems. So also not knowing the right age could possibly change the direction of the diagnosis. So just suggesting a part is brand new could lead someone away from that problem. It shouldn't, but it could. So, for example, let's go back to the battery and you tell the person, oh no, it's brand new.

So they might just think, well, brand new batteries very rarely are bad. And then they go on to another way of diagnosing the problem. Maybe you're in a store and you're asking questions, you know, they don't have the rv, they're just going by what you tell 'em, trying to help you. So that could lead them away from that diagnosis.

So that could be misleading. So then the age can be a factor, like wheel bearing repacks. So a trailer could have, or you know, maybe the wheel bearings haven't been repacked for 10 years. The grease, or there's only, you know, a thousand miles on it in that 10 year span. So you don't really need to repack those wheel bearings.

The grease doesn't go bad just by sitting. Now you might want to repack 'em just to start out fresh, but that's one of the things, you know, that where age isn't a factor in this case, age can be a factor in other things. You know, also forgetting that you had certain things done in the last year or two, you know, like, gosh, did I get that done?

I don't remember. So you don't have a note to go by and then you're thinking, did I do it? Didn't I do it? Well, I'm just going to do it. It could be your wheel bearings again, maybe you don't really know if you had 'em repacked. . Thinking it is time. Did I do that? And you can't find a receipt, so you just go ahead and do it again.

Anyways. You know, the technician, he could tell you, , these were already redone, but what does it matter? He's already got it apart, right? . He's going to do the job, so you're paying for it again. And that's just one example. You know, if that's where notes are so important. And also if you have records, you can see if a pattern is emerging.

Oh, . So like if you keep replacing a, let's say a water valve, On your Dematic three 10 or 300 series toilet, which you're going to replace a lot of many ways, if you're replace replacing more than the normal amount, which might be one every two years, you know, if it's every six months, well then you got a problem.

You know, there's something wrong. You know, you water pressure's wrong, or it's freezing in the wintertime, you know, and maybe you can think it through, but maybe it's time to just get a new toilet. It's hard to say, but. It helps you to see the problems that are happening. So keeping records is very important.

You know, what are some good ways to keep records? You know, it's easy to talk about it, but what are some good ways? It's not always cut and dry sometimes, you know, and everybody keeps records or is organized in different ways. Now, one thing I do sometimes, Let's say it's my vehicle maintenance. I just write it on a piece of paper, it goes on my desk.

Then eventually gets entered into, uh, my notes that I have in Microsoft, uh, outlook. Then of course, outlook gets synced with all my other devices. So everything's up to date. You know, I very rarely walk from wherever I'm doing it at to the computer and put it in, but I was writing on a piece of paper and I know it's going to get in there.

So that's one way of doing it. And then, you know, sometimes, depending on what you're doing, you just want to get it written down so you don't forget to write it down. Maybe your hands are dirty and, but you get it written down. That's, that's all you need to do. That's the starting point. Anyways, so the other way of doing this would be to have a log book that you're going to, or a journal, whatever you want to call it.

You know, a notepad, something, you know, start writing things in, you know, directly as you go. But you know, that's up to you. You know, it might be easier to just write it on a piece of paper and maybe shove it in the book. You know, then you, when you get all cleaned up, ready to go sit down and write it out and eat.

Because if I just wrote it in the book, you wouldn't be able to read it. It look like chicken scratch what's, why's the doctor writing prescriptions in here? And that'll come back in a second. I want to say this first though, because it's probably running through your mind that, you know, how do I keep track of mileage on a travel trailer or a fifth wheel?

Well, you can't really keep track of mileage on either one of those vehicles. Then it might be a hassle to, you know, write down the mileage of your tow vehicle and then, you know, when you're all done at the trip, write down the ending mileage and then, you know, do the math. Rather than do that, just get an approximation, you know, what you did for the trip.

Right? It's just getting you close and, and that's what's important is just getting an idea. Even dates sometimes, you know, because maybe you forgot to write down the mileage, but you wrote the date and you think, oh , that's when we went such and such and that trip was 500 miles. Maybe you write the destination.

So, you know, so that helps you keep track of mileage for the things that like wheel bearing repacks, how many miles you're actually getting outta your tires before you have to replace them. Because maybe you're not using your RV that much and it seems like every five years you're having to buy tires and it's frustrating.

. So that kind of helps put it in perspective because maybe you are putting more miles on it and they're just actually wearing really good. So maybe those tires are the ones you want to keep on buying. . See, that helps you. Otherwise you don't know, you're just guessing. You know, you go to the tire shop.

They have a recommendation for Atti and he said, oh no, I want to go with mine because I know these, how they work on my trailer and you got a note of it, what they were the brand or you have your receipt or something, but you have records to help you do that. It's important to do that. It's , it changes things.

So now you can use anything you want to keep records, anything. The bottom of a whatever Pepsi can. There you go. You know, written records are probably the easiest thing to keep track of and then maybe transfer it to a computer if you want to. . You know, there's tons of apps that you can have on a computer that will sync with your, uh, phones.

Whether it's an Android, iPhone, iPads, tablets, doesn't matter, you know, like, , Evernote is one. Oh man. There's another one. I used to talk about it quite a bit, but there's a lot of 'em. They're just little note apps you can get and you can download on your computer. You might have to buy it. There might be a monthly fee.

It just depends. And then it'll sync to your devices. Or if you have a Microsoft Outlook, or even Google, I think, and Gmail has some sort of note thing in it, you know? Yep. But I like things that sync to a device myself. Get the point here, and then if you really want to get carried away and just use, probably the most powerful tool you're going to find on the internet is RV life Maintenance.

So it's a, uh, uh, it's software or web-based software that keeps track of everything on your rv. You can put in model nbers. The whole nine yards. And really that's what you want to do. All your model nbers should be in one place. . And nobody does it. And it makes it so much easier when you go to the store, Hey, I got a furnace and it's not working.

Can you help me? And the guy says, what's, what model do you have? And, well, I don't know. They're all the same. Well, they're not, no. You know, there's hundreds and hundreds of models of furnaces. . But if you go it on your, get on your phone and you go to the website or wherever how it's stored, you can look that information up and go, this is what I have.

Yep. You could probably even have a picture of it as well. RV Life Maintenance helps you do that. It makes it easier. And that one is a paid subscription, but it's a nice, powerful program, so it works. It's nice. In fact, , I have my RV set up in there and you know, everything's there. And it's kind of cool.

You can go to it. , and look, like I said, when you're in a store or whatever, you just want to look it up, see what you're, you're looking for a part for it. It just makes it so much easier. You don't have to walk out your rv. Now, getting all that information to begin with, all the mile nbers can be a pain.

Probably easiest thing to do, be walk around your RV and take a picture of the. Model nber tag on your refrigerator, your furnace, your water pp, everything that you can possibly get a tag of your air conditioner. You might have to go up on the roof, take the ceiling or the shroud off, or drop the ceiling assembly from the inside.

Little extra work there. But once you do it, you have it, and then you just record it and don't lose it. Whether it's a book or online or on your computer, it doesn't matter. And having all those model nbers. I mean, I really can't emphasize it enough because that's one of the biggest questions we ask every day.

Do you have the model nber? . Not every part on every part or on every water heater is the same, even if it's the same brand. There might be a few things, but noting, so RV life maintenance is a great way to go if you want to pay the fee. If not, just figure out another way to do it, whether it's written or a device.

You know, if you're tech savvy, obviously you'll be able to find an app on the internet pretty darn quick. You can put it on your computer, on your phone type of thing, or just keep a simple notepad where you can just throw notes in it. Then later on, transfer 'em on to a page and keep it in some kind of order.

Maybe it doesn't have to be a hundred percent, but then you could also shove all your invoices in there as well for work you get done. Hopefully you're doing all the work yourself, because this is the Smart RV podcast about doing it yourself. That's right. And there's hardly anything on an RV you can't do yourself.

All right. So the point is that the records will help you spot a pattern. Stop you from wasting money on needles repairs. And hopefully it's going to keep, , the maintenance in front of you so you can avoid some headaches. So that wraps up staying on the road. So check out the RV life Maintenance website.

It's RV Life and Maintenance. You just type that into Google and boom, you'll be there and you can see if that's the app for you. Now let's go to next stop and today Alexis is going to load us up into the RV and we are going to go to Sequoia National Park. . Now, is that the Sequoia National Park in California?

It sure is. Probably the only one. The world. I think so. In the world I think it is. Just want to make sure, you know. I love it. All right, Alexis, so what can you tell us about Sequoia National Park? Well lay it on us. It's a national park. No, I'm just kidding. National Park. Thank you. That's it. You have to deal with all day every day.

No, it's pretty cool. , general Sherman is the biggest tree there, which I've always wanted to see. I think that's so cool. So by vole, it's known as the largest living single stem tree. That's pretty neat. Wow. Big tall guy. , and then also there's Grant Grove Village, which holds near it, the second largest tree.

They call it General Grant, which I love these names. , , there's a few things to see there and there's a lot of camping to do. So if you're going to go, I, I recommend taking the RV and staying a while. So this is a pretty. Popular place. Oh . . And a lot of people just refer to it as going to see the Sequoia.

. Bath of Sequoia. Exactly. And everybody kind of knows what you're talking about. They know. . Seems to me there's pictures of like the iconic picture of like a tree that's carved out and a car driving through. Yep. You know? Yep. You can do that still. Yep, yep. They have that like the six season, an old like country squire station wagon.

Yes, I know the picture. Isn't it cool? Yep. You can do that. . So a lot of these places that are in front of us, Are some of the best places to go. I know. And then for people that live near them, probably never go to them. That's so true. You know, it's like growing up in Southern California, I mean, I went to Disneyland maybe two times.

Right, right. You know, not Berry Farm, maybe one time. . Magic Mountain a couple times. It was wrong there. It was like, eh, it's always going to be there. Right, right. There's no urgency. Right. You know? You know, and it was like, you go, what's that? Seen that. It's so true. So Sequoias, I've never been there.

I've been close to there, but I've never been there. Huh. Interesting. , I think it'd be fun to see sometimes those are just the coolest places to go. I agree. . You know, then if you live in California, Northern California, central California, you're right there, man. Shaboom. Just go see 'em. So now after you've been arrested for cutting down big trees and.

Driving through them. You're going to be hungry. That's right. What's on the menu at at the Sequoia National Park? Well, there's a few spots that are close. One of them is Sequoia Coffee Company. They have surprisingly coffee and baked goods, so if you are a coffee lover and then there's Riverview Grill and Bar.

Which just has stuff like burgers, sandwiches, salads, and they have got beer on tap and then Sierra subs and salads. I think that's a, A chain, I'm not sure, but they have sub salads and soup, so that kind of genre. So they got a little bit of everything else. . Is like, yep. The coffee club people. You can get your scone and a cup of coffee to go or whatever.

. Get your sub salad or you can get some chicken wings. . One or a burger. Nice. So there's always food and that's what we like. So now, If you want to camp out there in your rv, are there any RV parts? Oh, there's a ton. It was listing just endless amounts of, , camping spots, but some good ones for that are RV friendly.

, is Sequoia RV Ranch? There's Lemon Co Village, RV Park, and three Reverse Hideaway. So those are some good ones for RVs. Why does it seem like every single next stop that we talk about, there's three RV parks? I only list three. Okay. There's many more though, I promise. All right. Yep. You see Alexis is holding back.

I am. You need to do your own research. She must be getting kickbacks from these RV parks. Oh , definitely. All right. When's the best time to visit? I mean, it is National Park, so there are some times of year when it's not open, which that would be good to check before you drive out there, unless you're close.

You know, usually the best times are June through August. You're going to have a lot of people, but you're also going to. You know, have everything in the park be open to you. So weather probably won't be an issue during that time. You'll just have to deal with other tourists. . And there you gets chilly in the winter.

. But you can still go, there'd be all right. . . So the, the great thing about going to California is there'll be no traffic going there because no one's going to California. But when you leave, after you spend two weeks in the park or a week or whatever, that's where you can get all the traffic from everybody fleeing from California.

Oh, I see. Oh boy. There's my thoughts on California and I'm going to check them right there. I don't want to keep going. That's good. All right, so now go check out Sequoia National Park. And there's other places in that area too, that's not too far from, uh, Oh, Petala and other places along that corridor. , my mind escapes me.

Wine country. Well, wine country's not right there, but, Ag that area. There's a lot of stuff to do up in that area in general. The ocean's not too far away, so that's pretty cool. Yes, definitely. In fact, where these trees are at is kind of unique because the ocean's not that far away. . . Really cool.

All right, so now that, that's going to, so check that out on the, , you can go to our website or you can list, check in the description of the podcast, but also just a reminder to look@rvdestinationsmagazine.com, the magazine that has a lot of content. Awesome pictures. I'm going to keep reminding you for quite some time.

They're not a sponsor of the show. We just love their product. . They got a great product. Okay, now that's going to take us to RV Envy. So now what cool trinket can you put on your RV where your neighbor, your buddy's going to say, Hey, I want one of those. So keyless entry door locks. Nice. These are kind of a unique little thing.

So they're mostly for travel trailers. , there are some for motor homes, but they're definitely more popular on travel trailers. And these aren't new. These have been around for a long time. They've come and gone though because of quality issues. Maybe timing wasn't right either. For some of 'em, they came out too soon where they couldn't work out quality issues, especially with electronics, or it was just too early on in the game for someone to want it.

And that happens. Sometimes products come out, it seems like it's great. They just don't catch on for another 10 years. You know? In the meantime, that company's gone and a few others. . So all your major law companies like Bauer Global, they all make them, , TriMark, you know, there's knockoffs out there.

These things are generally in the $250 price range for a good one. . You can get cheaper ones on the internet and be cautious of that. You know, I've seen them, some of 'em don't work that well, especially if it has Bluetooth. If you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you know how I feel about Bluetooth.

It sucks. It doesn't always work. It's not a hundred percent reliable, like a little wireless type system, but that's what they're doing. So they got the apps, you put it on your phone and they'll lock your door while you're standing there rather than touching the keypad. . Wow. One more thing on your phone to worry about.

Global Creative Products group. They make, they, , repackage all the Global Link products and get it out there into the retail market. Now they just came out with the Bluetooth one that's replacing their non Bluetooth. They're going to a hundred percent Bluetooth, but it still has the, the entry pad on the door.

They came out and admitted they had some problems with their first lock and they overcame it and they're now, this generation is, you know, fault free. , now the Bluetooth might be a different issue, but the lock itself works great. So if your blue, if you get one with the Bluetooth, it may or may not work good, but if it has the touch pad on it, probably on most of it'll always work good.

, probably. I say, but I know Bauer, I mean, uh, global Inc. They worked out their issues. Or creative products group who sells the global link? Just repackage. And that's the one I would probably go with. In fact, that is the one I'm going to go with. That's what I'm going to put on my rv. Try it out, see how it works, and then you'll hear more about it.

If it works, great, I'll let you know. If it sucks, well I'll let you know that too. So check out the keyless door entry. Door entry locks are pretty cool. And you know, it's one less key on your key chain, although you can't just get rid of the key, because they do come with a key, you know, in case the keypad were to break, the battery goes dead.

So then you have to have a key someplace in your RV or on in your tow vehicle. So it goes back to organization if you put it someplace. You'll probably forget where you hit it because you hit it so good. But the heart, the more clutter and junk you have, the harder it's going to be. And remember, you don't want to put it inside the rv.

You want to put it someplace outside where you can access it, where you won't need another key to it in case you lose all your keys, you know, in a propane de propane department, , heck, if you got a trailer, you could actually put it underneath the propane tank because once it's there, it's not going to move.

You could, uh, put a little magnetic case. He could do a lot of things with it just to hide it, you know. I mean, now that I say it, in, every thief in the world listens to this podcast. That's how popular it is in prisons and jails and you know, but no, so you could actually do that, but underneath the propane tank there's a lot of things.

But you can come up with that, you know what's best for you. But just don't forget, you need to have a key in case for an emergency. And we will have some of these locks on our website at at smart rv parts center.com. Alexis. That's right. We got a note of this. Yes. All right. So anyway, so that's another cool add-on for your rv.

You know, you know these things, we call it RV nv, but really they're just super cool add-ons that make life easier, especially in this case, one less key on your key ring. . Away you go. Then you can get combination, uh, compartment locks, and there you go. There you're set. You set 'em all the same. There you go, man.

You'd be ultra cool. Really envious. All right. Well that brings us to the end of the podcast today, podcast nber 129. So I want to thank everybody for coming by and listening. So this is Eric Stark with the Smart RV podcast, and as always, it's been great hanging out today. And if I don't see you on the road, let's connect at the Smart RV or.com.