↓Episode 158 – What is the One Problem We See or Hear About the Most on an RV?

Eric Stark: What's the one problem we hear about the most? Whether on the phone, in person, or through our shop, we will discuss it today and enjoy the RV life.

We will be venturing down the path of rving with the community.

So rather than being the solo guy, maybe with the community now, we will visit the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri or the Ozarks at the next stop. And then we'll talk about an RV envy, the Flowmaster, made by Lippert toilet valve that'll work on a Dometic 300 series toilet.

Wow, that was a mouthful.

Hey everybody, this is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer Podcast, which delivers the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down. So, let's talk about everything RV. This is episode 158. So, let's jump into this. And Alexis, I see you came back.

In the last episode, you said maybe you're here again.

Alexis: I'm here. I'm the star, so I have to be here.

Eric Stark: Wow. Her union settled the strike.

Alexis: That's right, it did.

Eric Stark: Came to an amicable agreement.

Alexis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Amicable.

Eric Stark: Yeah. Give her more or else.

Alexis: That's right—more pizza.

Eric Stark: That's the way it works.

Alexis: Mm-hmm.

Eric Stark: In the last episode, we just made one plea. So we're going to do the same thing today.

We want all 900 million of you to go to our YouTube channel and like and subscribe to a video. Pick a video—anyone, a video or two videos. If you want to listen to or watch them all, that'd be great, too. But like and subscribe.

We want to build up that channel. There's so much good information; the more information, the more people will go there.

The YouTube algorithm picks it up more, and then I will start popping up on everybody's algorithm, their feed, and boom. Now people are learning they're becoming an intelligent rver. So we're seeing that this is an all-based community. That's what we're going to talk about.

We're a big RV community, so we must help one another. Let's start by liking and subscribing to the Smart Rivers YouTube channel. We expect 900 million of you to do that by the weekend.

Alexis: Yep. Get on it.

Eric Stark: Maybe not by the end of the weekend. Well, not 900 million either, but, you know, all 10,000 of you.

Alexis: Yes.

Eric Stark: All right, perfect. So now let's jump into this rving with a community. This would be like running with a gang, your posse, right?

Alexis: Yes, exactly.

Eric Stark: All right. So, Alexis, what made you decide that rving with a community might be a good subject?

Alexis: Well, Eric, I want all like-minded individuals to attend this. No, I'm just kidding. I'm not creepy. Anyways.

No, I just think especially, you know, whatever phase of life you're in, if you're a newer Rver, if you're a couple, if you’re RVing solo, or if you're older, maybe you’ve been doing this for years.

It's fantastic to have people who also do this and to know because they know things they've been through, experiences that maybe you haven't been through, or they've been through experiences you have been through, and you can share that. So it's fantastic. There are online forums you can use. There are social media groups that, you know, are in places you're going to.

You can meet some of them, ask questions, and seek recommendations for campgrounds or repair services with us.

We're conveniently on Highway 93—many people RV in Montana. If you come here, we'll help you out. There are also RV rallies and There arengs. We've talked about that before.

You can volunteer. You can get involved with RV communities. It's a great way to give back from what you've gotten out of it.

You can attend educational works and even do seminars. Just really being a part of a community that enjoys rving as much as you do. And helping with that, it's an excellent idea.

Eric Stark: Yeah, excellent. You know, there's a lot of good to it. Some people don't like that idea, but I get it.

But when you think about fellow RVers, you're all in the same thing, the same thing, hobba y. You can help one another out. It's like going to the forums online, and someone has a problem with their refrigerator, and they get all these answers.

Most of them must be corrected, but there's usually one. There might be.

Alexis: Yeah, exactly.

Eric Stark: And, it's helping one another out. One another out. Even the answers that need to be corrected in those forums don't matter if they are wrong.

The person is not being malicious and is guiding you down the road.

Is Alexis: They're trying to help.

Eric Stark: They're trying to help.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: It's just. What's the word? I'm looking for brainstorming.

Alexis: Exactly. There we go.

Eric Stark: This is my experience. This is what I think or whatever.

Alexis: Brainstorm. Yep.

Eric Stark: But even at RV parks and places, RVers are always RVers there. How hard could it be to start up a conversation? Hey, that's a fantastic RV. What year is it? How do you like it? Exactly how those tires work for you.

Alexis: Yeah. There are so many things.

Eric Stark: Yeah. I mean, you know, it's. Being involved- you can be as little or as much as possible.

Alexis: Exactly.

Eric Stark: You don't have to go all head in.

Alexis: No, it doesn't have to be crazy.

Eric Stark: President of some club or anything. You do what you want to do, you know.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: It's up to you. Get a little burnout on it. You can just go to a park and don't talk to anybody. There you go.

Alexis: You haven't seen anyone? No, not at all.

Eric Stark: Be more involved and engaged. Everybody has something in common, and that's rving.

Alexis: That's right. That's nice.

Eric Stark: Everybody's going to the next stop, you know.

Alexis: There we go.

Eric Stark: So where are you going next, exactly? You know, plenty of things to talk about.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: Yeah. So that's nice. That's a good subject. The community. Rv community. And again, that community. Go to YouTube to smart rver.

Alexis: Please do it.

Eric Stark: All right, so there's the second plug. I promised I wouldn't do that.

Alexis: That's okay.

Eric Stark: Okay. So now let's go to Staying on the Road and spend a few minutes here. We're going to talk about the problems or the most widespread problems that we see, which either we speak to people about on the phone in the store or come through our shop. There's trying to differentiate between questions about something we sell, like slide-out or patio awning fabrics. We get a lot of questions about those.

Alexis: Yes.

Eric Stark: So there's definitely. That's up there, but problems can be suitable for your trip.

Alexis: Sure.

Eric Stark: A torn awning fabric doesn't cancel out a trip.

Alexis: No.

Eric Stark: Slide-out fabric that tears off doesn't cancel out a trip. So there are a lot of questions about those furnaces in the same way. There are some things like that.

Alexis: Yes.

Eric Stark: Yeah. We get a lot of general questions, but the biggest problem we have or see is that people come walking into our store. This is counter-type stuff. Are water leaks?

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: And I'll bet every store and service center in the United States has the same experience. You know, and I know we were in Arizona, our highest-selling category of products in the store was plumbing.

Alexis: Makes sense.

Eric Stark: Same here.

Alexis: Yes.

Eric Stark: So plumbing sells a lot, and many questions exist. And it's generally a plastic fitting with a barb on it, like for a quest. Clamp. They break off. Yeah, that's. That's the biggest culprit. But it's the Pex water system in general, though, that's the biggest problem of people walking into the store. Now, in our service department, that's not the biggest. It's part of it, but it's usually other things. Furnaces are giant, electrical problems are significant, and awnings are substantial, and then it's just a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, you know?

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: So electrical problems are there, too. And some of those things are self-inflicted because of a lack of knowledge. People are walking into our store calling, wanting to take their RV or their dryer cord and adapt it to a 30 amp RV outlet. Well, this is what my house has. It has this 30 amp out. Lee, it looks outlet. They send you a picture. It's. It's for an RV, but they want an adapter to plug their dryer cord into it or something with a dryer cord adapting to something you shouldn't be doing.

You know, there's that online ghetto marketplace that sells all sorts of adapters that probably are illegal as could be for doing some of this stuff because they don't care. RV stuff doesn't adapt, so that's a lack of knowledge.

Alexis: Exactly.

Eric Stark: And then it's trying to adapt and needing to understand what the Rver has. So those are a significant category of problems, but those are easy to solve because a few questions, you work through it, and this is the adapter you need. Same with the plumbing. It's just trying to understand their actions to ensure you sell the correct part. It's the easiest one to install and put back in there.

Alexis: Yep.

Eric Stark: Yeah. You want to sell with a flare fitting only if they can get their arms in there to push in the fitting.

Alexis: Yeah. And that's not going to work.

Eric Stark: But we're like the best packs with the eco poly fittings barbed for packs. They slide in, you put a clamp on, and then there's those relatively new. Oh, I need to remember the clamp. Name of the clamp now. But they're the plastic ones you can close with channel locks.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: How could I forget the name? They're my new favorite thing.

Alexis: I know they are.

Eric Stark: Julie Andrews sang about that in a song once—my favorite thing.

Alexis: Yeah. The clamps.

Eric Stark: Yeah, that's it. That makes it more accessible over the counter. But over-the-counter, such as plumbing, is our most significant thing.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: So what do we do with that? What do we take away from that? Well, your RV has plumbing.

Alexis: Yes.

Eric Stark: So check it for leaks, become familiar with it, and look at it realistically. I guess so. For example, if a fitting were to break behind, under the counter, or start leaking, could you fix it? Or is it something you just need to have someone else do?

Alexis: Right.

Eric Stark: And, you know, that decision-making factor can play into it because if you're going on a trip, and it's like we talked about in the last episode about water conservation if you leak, leaks are wrong, to begin with, but you're wasting water. If you're going off your freshwater system, you know freshwater to fix that before you go on the trip so it doesn't get worse, especially if it's something you can't fix if you don't feel you could do that.

Alexis: Exactly.

Eric Stark: And, you know, some of these valves, where they're put on RVs, the water lines, are in the most ridiculous places you could imagine. We had one in here a couple of weeks ago. The freshwater drain valves were on a bathroom counter. The counter had the toilet right next to it. And there's a cabinet 2ft in front of the valves. Then you had a tub. So all you could do was look in the cabinet door and lay on the floor. Look in the. Lay on the floor, you know, laying down on the floor. Look in the bathroom and hallway to see if valves are there, and then try to reach them. You know, what a nightmare.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: If you had to replace those, you'd have to take the toilet out and take part of that cabinet apart to fix them. Now, I would never replace them. I would just bypass them. I'd come up with something different. I'd move them back. I'd do something else. That's just insanity. But those things ruin trips, or you spend all day trying to do it. Now you're frustrated. You know, you got the toilet out. Oh, sorry.

I just remembered that I need to check. Let's see if I can get a co for it. You know, it's just one thing after another.

Alexis: Exactly.

Eric Stark: Being prepared for that is a good thing. So I'm pausing here because I'm looking at something flashing at me. So we're getting so, yeah, being prepared. All right, you know, understanding your RV and ensuring that you don't allow these problems to attack you out on the road if you will.

Alexis: Yes.

Eric Stark: So that's what we learn from these. These questions are the problems that we see. If we know the problem regularly, you'll undoubtedly experience it sooner or later. So that's one of the major things we see other things. Sometimes, you can only do a little about like a furnace, you know, to proactively take your furnace out, replace all the replaceable parts, and put it back in. Is that going to buy you extra time? It probably would, but is it something you need to do?

Your furnace should be able to go another two or three years without a problem anyway. But I would say the first sign of a problem is to get it taken care of—don't let it go and turn into a bigger problem, which is normal.

Everybody does that with cars, problems around the house, and a leaky faucet at home. We can put something underneath there, you know, do whatever.

And so, it's talking to, you know, if you have a favorite service center where you go to your favorite one, ask them what they see the most. That'll give you a little indicator of other things that RV service centers run across the most.

And, you know, awning fabrics are a massive thing because almost every RV has them, and they. They are a little fragile. You see, they. They sometimes tear easily.

They get damaged by hail, but those will not ruin a trip. Your plumbing is the thing that can ruin a trip. And that's where I want to be the most prepared.

Alexis: Yes.

Eric Stark: And then the second would be propane. You know, having a propane leak can ruin a trip, you know, if you can't fix it quickly, like. So, you look for the obvious things when you get propane. Are you looking at the hoses that hook up your? The regulator to your propane tanks? Those generally leak. That's your most prominent leaker on an RV besides the regulator. So check those out.

You may have to replace them periodically. Most propane hoses are made of propane hoses, and the rubber starts cracking immediately. And some of them are real.

You know, you go to that online ghetto where they just sell the lowest quality stuff you could get away with, maybe barely legally. You know where it is, and, you know, it leaks after a month. Yeah, I mean, we see stuff that's just. It's incredibly cheap.

We make our propane here, so ours last; they're quality hoses. You. Will they replace these things in a year, two, or three years? No, they're good enough to last.

It's probably a wrong business move on our part. People say, "Why do you make good stuff? You should be selling junk." So I have to replace it more often.

Alexis: Yeah, different from how we roll.

Eric Stark: That's not how we roll. Exactly. So it's, you know, understanding what will fail and being ahead of it.

And that's where, like, why we bring this up, the things that come through our door and, you know, tires are another one. Now, we sell tires, but tire shops do a lot more tires than we do.

But almost every RV that comes through our door that we see probably needs tires. You know, they're all old, checked, and split. We talk to people, but it's constantly squeaking out another mile or two of them. And I get it. I'm trying to save money, but tires are an issue. Trailer tires are just there. They don't last long.

They are fragile little things that, you know, can take some beating going down the road, but you pothole just right, and that's it. That tire is done.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: Are more durable. They can deal with a little bit more.

Alexis: Yeah.

Eric Stark: Truck tires are the same thing.

Alexis: Sure.

Eric Stark: So these little tidbits help, and that's the idea: to give you an idea of what you should be looking at or, you know, be aware of. So I hope that makes sense to you. And, like I said, talk to your favorite service center and see what they have to say. Let's wrap that up and go to the Next Stop, where we will visit the Mark Twain National Forest. Here we go. All right, so, Alexis, why are we here?

Alexis: This place is pretty cool. It goes the Ozark trail. It's right through there. The Nashville forest has a fantastic ecosystem out there. So, this is an excellent place if you're looking for something new. It just has a lot for anglers. There's a lot of fishing. There's a lot of historical significance. There's a lot of wildlife.

If you want to do bird watching, you can do that here. There are even black bears, wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, and all the cute little animals you don't want to pet. Don't pet them.

But no, it's set up for people to visit and see new things. If you've ever wanted to see the Ozarks, this national forest is for you. There's plenty of RV camping to do.

Eric Stark: Yeah, it sounds pretty good. We've talked about the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Alexis: Ozarks. All these places are in the. They're similar, close by, relatively close, but in different areas.

Alexis: It's very different.

Eric Stark: It's a lot of. I don't want to say it's untouched, but it's not trampled like many other places.

Alexis: Right, right. Yeah, no.

Eric Stark: You know, and like the article brings out, you know, it's just a place to get away and unwind. You see, we have to think about that once in a while. You get there, it's like, man, this is nice.

Alexis: Exactly.

Eric Stark: Getting away from it all. The Ozarks sound like an excellent place to go. Missouri. I don't know. Missouri doesn't attract me at all. But.

Alexis: But this might.

Eric Stark: Yeah, it's just how people talk about Missouri, or they call it Missouri.

Alexis: Missouri. Yes.

Eric Stark: I don't know, but it's. Yes, it's too. I am coming over to get over these psychological barriers about places.

Alexis: Right.

Eric Stark: We hear about it, or we get something in our mind, you know, from childhood.

Alexis: Yeah, exactly. That may not be fair.

Eric Stark: We hear something, and that's it. I'm never going there in my life, and we don't. So overcoming these barriers, looking on maps, checking it out online, you know, there's a lot of good information to help in these decisions.

Alexis: Oh, yeah.

Eric Stark: So that will bring us to the end of the next stop. And now we'll hop into that flow, Max—Flowax toilet valve. Lippert components make this. Now, you might only see this valve in some RV stores. It comes as a kit. It has a valve, a water line connected to it, and a vacuum breaker. And it's for Lippert's flowmax toilet.

Believe it or not, the Lippert Flow Max toilet looks identical to this Dometic 300 series toilet. Their awnings look similar, too. Something is going on there.

Alexis: Fascinating.

Eric Stark: So the valve not only looks identical but is also similar. This will ruin it for Dometic, but this valve with a vacuum breaker line sells for about $30. The Dometic water valve sells for anywhere between $70 and $70.

Alexis: Yeah, that's going to say it's $80.

Eric Stark: And 70 is low. One hundred's a little high, but it's right in there. That valve is expensive, and it breaks a lot.

We sell many of those valves, and we finally got these Flowmax valves in, so now we're turning people onto those. And we have yet to have one person come back. We have identified some as guinea pigs to try this out and ensure it works for them.

No one has come back. And there will be a video on this. We're going to keep this short. We're going to do a YouTube video.

You can check that out on our YouTube channel, TheSmartRVer, and look for the Flomax toilet valve.

Alexis: Awesome.

Eric Stark: This will save you some bucks. It's worth buying, too, to have a spare. This is the original eqThisxis. Okay.

Eric Stark: So it's different from one of those things you get on one of the marketplaces online. It's an aftermarket for $15; you must buy six to get through a year. Yeah, I like that at all.

Alexis: Great.

Eric Stark: All right, so look out for the YouTube video. It'll be out there. And so that brings us to the end of the show. And next week's going to be episode number 159. And we're going to see what that one is.

It's a big surprise. This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer Podcast. It's been great hanging out with you today.

If I don't see you on the road, let's connect at TheSmartRVer.com.

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