The primary focus of this discussion centers on the essential task of preparing one’s recreational vehicle (RV) for the impending winter storage period. As winter approaches, Eric underscores the significance of proactive planning and meticulous preparation to ensure a seamless RV experience throughout the season. He also explores a range of money-saving strategies that coincide with winterization, explaining how these preparatory measures can help mitigate potential financial burdens in the spring. Furthermore, he explains the picturesque landscapes of Southern Arizona, emphasizing its allure as an optimal winter destination for RV enthusiasts. Lastly, he engages in a thoughtful discourse regarding the merits and drawbacks of RV covers, thereby equipping our audience with comprehensive insights to make informed decisions regarding their RV maintenance and storage.

In this episode, Eric delves into one of the most crucial topics for RV owners: preparing your rig for winter. As the cold season approaches, it’s crucial to take the necessary steps to protect your RV from damage and prevent costly repairs in the future.

Eric walks through the essentials of winterizing, from draining and protecting water lines to checking key mechanical systems that are especially vulnerable in freezing weather. He shares practical tips on spotting warning signs your RV might be giving you and how to deal with them before they turn into major problems.

Beyond the “how-to,” Eric also talks about the financial side of winter prep. While it may feel like extra work and expense now, proper maintenance and preparation can save you a lot of money over time. Using quality products and doing a thorough job pays off in durability and fewer headaches later.

Eric also takes a closer look at whether or not you should use an RV cover, weighing the pros and cons so you can decide what’s best for your situation.

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clear plan for keeping your RV safe through the winter months. More importantly, you’ll understand how being proactive now not only protects your RV but also helps stretch your travel budget further.

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Enjoying the RV Life: See All of the Articles

Money Saving Tips – How to Save that Hard-Earned Cash

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Shadows of the Past – Towns That Once Were – See the Script

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Wholesale Warranties – RV Extended Warranties

RV Defender - Tire Blow Out Systems

SunproMfg Fresh Water Repair Kits

Harbor Freight RV Jack

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Howes Fuel Additives Diesel Fuel Additives

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Welcome back, Smart RVers. Today's lineup is going to be absolutely awesome. First, we're going to talk about how to prep your RV for winter storage.

Winter is right around the corner, so it's time to start thinking, planning and prepping now and enjoying the RV life. Your RV does not speak English, but it is talking. Are you listening? Now, money saving tips.

We're going to capitalize on winter prep, how winter prep can save some cash. So they go hand in hand, prepping for winter and saving some money. And then the next stop, we're going to combine it with shadows of the past.

We're just going to cover Southern Arizona. It's a great winter destination. And again, we're talking about winter prep.

And to go along with that in RV envy, to cover your RV or not to cover it, we're going to discuss the pros and cons. So this is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your trusted source for tips and insights, sites to embrace the RV lifestyle without worries.

So let's talk everything RV and today is episode number 186. So let's just dig right into it. So welcome back everybody. We got another episode, we got a great menu today of stuff we're going to talk about.

But before we get into that, this is a right reminder and I know I talk about this quite a bit, really it's about self inflicted inflation.

You know, I was just talking to a guy who owns a diesel repair shop near us and one of the things he shared with me was how a guy, his name is Jim, but he shared with me how customers will go on to the Jungle website, they'll buy all these parts to rebuild the def system on their trucks. Diesel, you know, it's part of the diesel engine.

Automotive parts, RV parts, residential stuff. Be cautious when you buy it because if you buy it and it's super cheap and it's not made right and they're not, they use lower quality everything.

Diod, solder wire, all the electronics are cheapened down. To sell them cheap, there's a reason why. So when they fail, you're replacing them again.

And then if you go the right way, spend the money, spend it up front. Like he says, cry once and buy it once, you know, when we do it over and over again, we're just wasting our money.

And today we need to be careful with our money. This world we live in is just an economic disaster. So you got to pay attention to your cash and make it last. Squeeze it as far as you possibly can.

So I don't want to go on too long about that, but just avoid self inflicted inflation. Don't buy it twice or three times or more. Just spend the money up front and pay for it once. All right, so now another reminder. Wholesale warranties.

That's our favorite company. Just talking to someone the other day about it, how they got an extended warranty. Everything about the warranty is wrong.

The way they were sold it, it'll cover everything. The people come to your rv, you don't have to pay a dime for that. And you can go through any company you want. Any company you want.

But us, we're going to sell it to you, but we're not going to support it. It's basically what happened.

The customer found out the hard way and now they just want to get out of their warranty and they're going to get a. Oh, it's like six months old and they're offered just some low ball price to get out of it. So the customer doesn't know what to do. So be careful.

So go to our website or the link in this description for this podcast and click on wholesale warranties and start the process of getting a good warranty, an honest warranty, and a transparent warranty or extended warranty, I should say, for your new or used rv. All right, now that's going to bring us to enjoying the RV life. Why? Your RV doesn't speak English, but it is talking. Are you listening?

So your RV is talking to you. It's making sounds, it's making smells. It's communicating in the best way it knows how.

RVs don't really talk and we know that, but they do different things. Like when you're driving down the road, you might hear this rattle you've never heard before. Okay, something's going on.

Maybe, you know, the stove isn't working right, the flame is flickering. Something's going on. Right, so your RV's communicating.

Now we could blow off these little things and wait until it's a major problem and then all of a sudden we got this repair and we're going, holy smokes. Why didn't I pay attention to this sooner? Well, we all do that. Heck, I even do that.

You know, sometimes I ignore stuff and I Just determine in my mind. Well, it doesn't sound like it's going to be too serious or oh, this needs to be checked out right away. Now I have a more of a mechanical aptitude.

Years working on everything. I'm the do it yourself expert. Save tons of cash by doing things myself.

Even once in a while I can let things go too far and all of a sudden going, oops, should have caught that sooner. I should have done something sooner. I knew there was a problem, but I didn't do anything. So we have to act on it.

And so procrastination becomes the enemy when we put things off. So in your rv, when it's communicating, it's saying, hey, I got a problem here, help me fix it.

Now in a motorhome you might be hearing a clunk all of a sudden when you put it into drive or reverse, all of a sudden clunk. So there's something going on there. Or maybe when you're driving down the road you hear like a rattle. All of a sudden it comes out of nowhere.

Or whenever you hit bumps, you hear this different type of noise that you never heard before. Something's going on in the suspension or the driveline. For that clunk, it's worth checking out.

Maybe you hear a high pitched noise whenever the water pump comes on. It sounds completely different than it used to. Maybe it's thirsty. Maybe you got a leak. Maybe it's just not working right anymore.

Or your converter is overheating. You hear the whine of the fan. It could be a lot of different things. You got that rotten egg smell. Is that a propane leak or is it something else?

Something you're not familiar with. Is something in RV or going wrong? Maybe it's the vent underneath the sink for the black water tank or the gray water tank and it's failed.

Or the check valve, I should say. And now you got this horrible smell inside your rv. See, there's something happening here. Do you smell plastic burning? That's an interesting smell.

Whenever you smell plastic burning or it doesn't smell like wood burning, you know, it's a different. Well, even wood burning. If you're, if you smell wood burning your rv, you got a big problem. It's probably on fire. Jump, bail, abort.

But if you smell plastic burning, that's generally an electrical problem. Electrical things should be dealt with right away. Do not ever let that smell just go electrical.

Fires can consume an RV or destroy things pretty quickly. So you want to jump on that and take care of it as soon as you possibly can the other thing too, is it sight or it smells and sounds.

But what about just walking around your rv, visually checking it out, looking for problems? See, all these things are signs. If you see a crack in your fiberglass on the side, you got a problem going on there.

It could just be a crack, the fiberglass split there. But there might be a bigger issue. Now, maybe it's something you're not able to or can't afford or it's beyond repair.

You know, they total your RV if you turned in an insurance claim or just, you know, over the top expensive. But look anyways, be aware of what's happening. Look at seals. You know, a simple seal can turn into a big repair.

You know, a seal that's leaking water. You know, water is horrible. In fact, you know, there's a couple full time RVers, Sarah and Luke. See, they learned it the hard way.

You know, they smell a musty smell, you know, like smells like water, smells like moisture maybe. And now it's growing some mold. So that ended up being like a $2,500 repair because the water leak turned into, well, turned into much more.

Started devouring the wood and one thing led to another. So, you know, $15 worth of lap sealant could have solved that problem. Instead, it was $2,500.

So do a walk around, check out your RV, keep a notepad in your RV. And I've said that forever. Keep a notepad in your rv.

I know electronic devices are pretty handy, so if you're really good with yours and you're going to use it for that, then that's great too. Either or write down things that are problems and check them off. And if you want to just leave that page in the notebook, that's great.

And put a date next to it when you repaired it. That way you have kind of a running record of everything that's going on. But the big thing is to take care of your rv.

Listen to sounds, act on those smells. When you smell something burning, something different, there's generally something wrong. So take care of it, do not let it go.

Now that's going to bring us right into money saving tips because it goes hand in hand. The smells and sounds and your visuals, you see those things, you get on it right away. You're going to save tons of money now in money saving tips.

Today we're going to talk about winter prep and how it can save cash again. Money's getting tight in this world. Things are happening very rapidly around the globe.

And not that this is a Financial channel or anything like that. It's just we need to be aware. So we want to save money where we can now in winter or actually winter prep.

So we're going to actually get into that in staying on the road as well. We're going to get more in depth.

But this is really emphasizing the point here in money saving tips, how when we get ready for winter and we do it right, we can definitely save some money.

And you know, the savings generally come out on the other side of winter and spring when you don't have any problems, you've done things right, you got your RV ready for winter, and you did it in a way that will not cause problems in the springtime.

You know, it's cheap insurance, if you will, to spend a little bit more time and sometimes a little bit more money up front because the savings can be astronomical. We spend a lot of money on insurance for our cars, our house, everything else, our RVs. And a lot of times there's zero return, it's net zero.

If you don't have a claim, you've got nothing back out of it. It's just that peace of mind. Well, this is peace of mind. That's a lot better than insurance because it doesn't cost as much.

And you're not paying money to a company that really doesn't care who you are. You're just basically in a way, paying it yourself. And you care about yourself. You care about your possessions much more than any big company does.

So one thing you can do to save some money is prepping the water system properly so there's no catastrophic failures come springtime. You don't de winterize your RV and all of a sudden there's water pouring out everywhere.

You got, you know, three or four leaks, the water pumps frozen, which by the way, Suburban has their Envision line of water pumps that supposedly can freeze. I highly recommend if you're replacing a water pump, put a envision water pump in there.

You know, I'm not advocating that you just let it freeze, but if it does freeze, heck, it's not so bad, you know, freeze with water in it, I should say. And also your tires and wheels or tires actually, you know, during the wintertime cover them up.

I mean, you should always have your tires covered, but during the wintertime especially cover them up.

You know, sometimes putting them on a piece of wood, depending on where you're parking them is good, so they're not sitting in gravel or mud sinking in. You don't realize they're two inches below the Surface of the dirt, make sure they're inflated properly.

Fill them up to the maximum tire pressure, especially trailers. Motorhomes do whatever the recommendation is by the motorhome manufacturer. But on trailer tires, maximum pressure all the time.

And then you're inside, in, inside of the rv. You know you want to keep it nice and clean all the time, but when you're putting it away for the wintertime, clean it out.

Don't leave a bunch of stuff in there. We're going to get in that little bit more in depth in the next section, staying on the road. But keep it clean in the exterior of the rv.

Do the same thing if you're going to store it for the winter. If you have a place to keep it out of the elements, great. Inside of a shop or a lean to or an RV port, that's awesome.

If not, consider an RV cover, which we're going to talk about at the end of the show as well. An RV envy RV or RV covers have pros and cons. So before you buy one, you definitely want to listen to the rest of this and think about it.

But protecting it, making sure everything's good and waxing it, you know, getting that outside prepped. Even though it's going into winter storage, we don't want to just neglect it all winter long. An excuse. Ah, get it in the spring.

Nah, get it in the winter or the fall, I should say. And then your batteries, Batteries are expensive and you don't want to just buy new batteries because yours froze.

And see, we're talking about a lot of stuff here in the areas where it gets really cold.

You know, Southern California, Southern Arizona, Texas and some of these places, Florida, they don't have the freezes like the northern part of the country, but they still get the freezing weather. And sometimes it comes unexpected. When I was in Arizona, I know we had days where things froze. You know, it'd be 20 degrees.

I would have to wrap my pipes that are outside for our irrigation system so they wouldn't freeze. You know, because fixing a frozen pipe, it. Five in the morning absolutely sucks.

It sucks even at eight in the morning, nine in the morning, ten what doesn't matter, it just sucks. Prepare for that, for freezing temperatures.

So your batteries maybe take them out of the rv, keep them on a trickle charger in a warmer environment, someplace where it's not going to get below 32 degrees. That trickle charger, like a Noco brand, will keep it going all winter long. Come springtime, you put it back in, that puppy is ready to go.

In fact, chargers or maintainers actually extend the life of the batteries as well. Batteries like that activity, that's what's one of the benefits of having solar is keeps those batteries alive and they love it.

And they're going to last longer. It might be a year, might be two years, it's hard to say.

And then preparing for pest damage, you know, pests can destroy a lot of stuff pretty quickly. In fact, on our website, sunpromfg.com, we're going to have some. Oh, man, I forget what it's called now. Shoot. Shame on me. But it keeps rodents away.

It'll be pretty obvious and I'll have a link to it in the description here, but it's going to keep rodents away. The stuff works great. I've been using it around my house for, gosh, months and months now, and I don't see any mice, anything like that.

None of the normal problems we have. So I know it works.

And it's based on the same principle as other products in the past that have come out that have done very well for keeping rodents and pests away. It's smell, they just smell it and just pushes them away. So it has, you know, it doesn't last forever. It has a time where you have to replace them.

But hey, it's worth it, man. Mice and things like that, they cause a lot of damage. So that's how we can save some money prepping, right?

So there's going to be more information on the website, the smartrver.com these articles will be there ready for you to just dive into them, memorize them, put everything in action. It's all about action. You know, an rv, we're, we're moving, right? An RV goes down the road, well, we have to move sometimes too.

Even when that RV sitting and you know, we, we enjoy the RV lifestyle, so we want to take advantage of everything we can to make it better. And RVing is absolutely awesome. I mean, it's just one of the things in life that we can enjoy.

We can let our hair down, we can kick back, we can really enjoy it. We can see different places at our leisure, stay in our own hotel. So it makes it really nice.

So take care of that bad boy so you can really enjoy it more. Now that's going to bring us to staying on the road. Winter prep. Are you going to prep for your winter time and are we going to do it early?

And so when winter comes, we're not messing around with this thing. And winter prep, I know, like here In Montana, you know, now is when you have to start, start actually getting into it.

I know we're already selling RV antifreeze bypass system, so people can winterize their rv, the fresh water system. But it goes beyond that. You know, seems to be the big thing that everybody thinks about. There's. But there's much more to it.

As we discussed some of it just a minute ago in money saving tips about prepping properly. But you know, it's. There's three areas that you really want to prep for that. So it's freezing water, pests and moisture.

All three of those things can cost some money and take some time, and they're all avoidable.

Now, one thing about winterizing your rv, if you do it yourself, and this might sound crazy, kind of goes against everything, but depending on where you're at, it might cost two or three hundred dollars to get your RV winterized. You know, if you do it yourself, whether you use an antifreeze, RV, antifreeze, or blown out the lines, you're saving a lot of money.

And I look at it this way. At the end of the day, if a faucet were to crack, you missed one thing and you have to replace it and you can do it yourself.

Maybe it's a bathtub faucet, shower faucet, it might be 30 to $50. You're still money ahead. And you know, that faucet probably was getting old anyway.

And so it might be an opportunity to get in there and check out that plumbing system a little bit closer. Maybe closer than you've ever have before, see what's going on in there. You might get a little curious. Hmm. Wonder how the rest of it looks.

Now, I'm not advocating you get sloppy and just break a faucet because you didn't want to winterize it properly. Definitely not advocating that, especially when we're talking about money saving tip.

But it's just sometimes that those things happen, even when somebody does it. A professional winterizes an rv, sometimes they have the same problems and most of them blame it on you. The rver.

They'll say something like, well, how do we know you didn't de winterize it? How do we know this didn't happen after you de winterized it?

Well, you didn't have us de winterize it, so we don't know, and they'll put it right back on you. I've heard it time and time again that most of these places will not stand behind their winterizing.

And I kind of get it because there are questions that can come up, but the point is, it might just become your problem anyways.

When you're doing the freshwater system, you want to make sure that you drain all the tanks, that you have the bypass on the water heater, and you empty it. And then you're going to fill the water lines with antifreeze or blow them out, I should say RV antifreeze.

So that's two different methods of winterizing the fresh water lines. Using the RV antifreeze, where you fill the lines, you purge out all the air and all the water, and you have nothing but pink fluid in there.

Or you can blow out the system, get a blowout plug that goes on the city water fill, and it just blows out all the air out of the system. And there's a way to work through that. We have that information on our website, and I'll put it under this article as well.

There'll be a link to it so you can look at that again and refresh your memory. Print it out if you want, whatever you want to do, but it'll be there. And, you know, a lot of people are very familiar with winterizing.

They got their. Their routine down, if you will, and so they do it year after year. Others are new to this. Maybe this is the first time you're going to do it.

You're a little nervous about it, but you can do it. It's really not that hard. Don't overthink it. Just take your time.

You know, don't have a car full of your family sitting in the car waiting for you to go somewhere before you start, you know, so you're in a rush. Just take your time and do it properly and I think you'll be good. Now on the interior of the rv. Oh, let me back up a little bit.

Part of winter prep is getting everything done before winter really sets in.

Because during the wintertime, especially depending on where you're at, you might not touch your RV for five or six months because it's in winter storage, basically. You know, there could be 4ft of snow on the ground. It's hard to get to your rv.

It could be in a storage lot where during the wintertime you don't want to mess with it. So getting everything done now or, you know, just before winter comes and really hits is important because that way it's done.

When you put your RV into storage for the wintertime, it's done, and then you come out in the spring and it's ready to go, other than de winterizing it and it's Going to save money, but it's just now is the time to do it and not put off a lot of stuff. I'll do that in the spring. No, do it now. It'll pay off as well. Worth it.

It's one less thing you got to do in the spring and one less or a lot less problems, possibly so on the interior and the appliances. Give them a deep cleaning, really clean out the rv.

It's not just vacuuming, wiping things down, but it's, you know, looking at the kitchen, the bathroom, places where food crumbs can go. The food crumbs get moisture on them. They can kind of dissolve, make stains turn into mold. It becomes a bigger issue. Take all the food out of the rv.

Don't leave any food in the rv. In fact, you know, it's probably good not to leave food in an rv, depending on where you're at.

Like if you have mice problems, because that attracts them to the rv.

It's better to have food outside the rv, like poison and traps, where the mice go in and eat that and they die because that's where they're going to go when they go into your rv. They're looking for food most of the time, so keep the food out of it. That way they're not going to be inclined to go in there.

So take all the food out, canned goods, everything, just take it out. You know, some of that stuff will freeze and you don't even know it. You don't even think about it, you know, and you don't want it to do that.

And also you just don't want food sitting in there anyways. You can use it in your house. And then in the springtime, buy all fresh and keep your appliances clean. Wipe them out.

Make sure there's no water, moisture in them. Refrigerator, prop that and doors open so it doesn't build up any mildew inside of it and it doesn't get that odor. If you have a wa.

An ice maker, make sure that water line to the ice maker is. Well, even the ice maker, make sure there's no water so it can't freeze.

You want to really go through the RV and you want to make sure that it's not going to have any moisture inside. Use moisture absor absorbers if you can. Or, yeah, you know, the dehumidifiers, they work well, but those have to. You have to empty the bowls on them.

So if you're not going to be around the rv, that might be a problem.

You get so much moisture in there, it might just Overflow the bowl, and then you got water running on the ground, freezing at night, thawing out during the day, you know, so pay attention to things. It's just keeping that water, the moisture out and make sure all your entry points, where water or moisture can come in are sealed up nice and tight.

No leaks, no air leaks, no water leaks, no leaks, period. So now that's going to bring us to the outside. Let's just wash and wax the rv. Let's just do it. Bite the bullet.

Clean the roof, put the UV guard on the rubber roof, wash it down, clean the side of the rv, then wax it. Get them tires. If you put Armor all or something like that on your tires, which I would recommend using 303 over anything.

303 is one of the best protectants on the planet. Works well, doesn't leave any films on. It, just looks nice when it's done. But wash and wax it. Pull out the awning, make sure it's dry.

Treat it with an awning protectant, or 303 if it's a vinyl awning. Do whatever it is you're going to do with your tires, make sure they're aired up.

And another thing about storage, especially trailers, it's always good to take that thing out if you can and put some miles on it, you know, once a month, every couple months, if you can, put five or ten miles on it, get them tires moving rather than sitting in the same spot every time. They'll develop flat spots and trailer tires will get ruined. It's better to keep them suckers rolling if you can. I know it's hard.

It'd be the same for motorhomes too, but they're not as bad. They don't deteriorate like trailer tires, but those flat spots can be a problem. And sometimes they.

They'll work their way out, and sometimes they don't. But on a trailer tire, you can actually be breaking the tread inside the Tyler and tire, not even realizing it. So we want to stay on top of that.

Make sure all your windows are sealed. All this, you know, everything on the roof is sealed. There's no leaks, nothing coming in.

And that's going to keep out bugs as well, or it's going to help keep out bugs.

And now when it comes to the engine on a motorhome, you know, if you have a travel trailer, you don't have an engine, obviously, but maybe you have a truck you're going to store in the wintertime as well. You know, batteries can be an issue. Now, depending on your Vehicle, you might want to just leave the battery in it.

Like I leave the batteries in all of my vehicles with engines and I just start them up occasionally, make sure I drive them. You know, I bebop around cars here in the wintertime.

I drive my truck more than anything else because it's four wheel drive does better in the colder weather. But we also have a Toyota Prius that sometimes sits because the snow's too high.

But we make sure we start that up and at least drive it around our yard, get something happening in it because I know the batteries would go dead and that becomes a problem. It's not only self drain on a battery, but it's also any kind of drain inside the car. Parasitic draw that can drain that battery down.

All of a sudden you got a dead battery, then it freezes. That's no good. That ruins batteries. The trailers pull the batteries out, put them inside a warmer climate.

On a Noco charger, just do it on everything. My dump trailer, I pull the battery out. My travel trailer, I pull the battery out. Even if it's lithium batteries, pull them out.

Regardless what manufacturers say it's better to just pull things out and keep them warm and. Or the batteries and keep them warm and on a Noco charger and no, I don't get paid for saying NOCO every time I do. I wish I did.

That'd be nice because Noco makes a really good maintainers chargers. They can do one battery, two batteries, three batteries, four batteries all at the same time. It's very cool. And that's what I use.

I just throw it on all my batteries. Boom, I'm done.

And if you're going to let your RV sit, you might want to put in a fuel stabilizer or something to help keep it fresh for the winter time. And also if you have a diesel, something with a diesel engine in it, it's going to sit well even if you're driving it.

You want to put in something to keep the diesel fuel from freezing or, or gelling up. Trying to think of the brand of stuff I use for my tractor is Howard's or something like that. Works really well. Love the stuff.

You just pour it in and away you go. And then you're going to want to check your fluids, make sure they're all topped off, everything's good in the engine transmission fluid.

Just do it all before you know. That way in springtime it's done. You have to think about it. And of course make sure your propane tanks are turned off.

They're not Sitting there all winter, probably be empty by the time you come back in the spring. So that's going to save you some money as well. So there's a lot to the RV as far as winter prep. Oh, I shouldn't say a lot.

It's just going, getting through a routine, checking things out and making sure you got it covered well. So that pretty much covers it. So it wasn't too bad. This isn't going to take you too long. These are all things that you could pretty much do in a day.

The washing and waxing the rv, you know, might take you a couple of days, depending on your health and circumstances and all that fun stuff when you add all this other stuff to it. But think about winter prep as getting it ready for winter so when you come out in springtime, you don't have to monkey with anything.

You might have to wash it again depending on where you're at. But that's okay. If it's already waxed, the washing is that much easier. And you only have to wash the size.

Don't worry about the roof yet, unless you're going to put the UV guard on it, which, you know, I recommend doing it two or three times a year.

So if you do it going into winter, you do it in the springtime and once in the summer, wash the roof, do the UV guard, wash the side of the rv, wax it. I keep everything waxed. Wax is very good. A lot of newer things don't have to be waxed as much. But you know what, RVs still need to be waxed.

So take care of that bad boy. Protect everything about it.

And this full article again will be on the smartrverier.com and also if you need any awnings now, if you want to put them on now or you want to wait till springtime, check out our website, sunpromfg.com we have awning fabrics. We have slide out awning fabrics. We make slide out awning fabrics and they're absolutely awesome.

We sell them and ship them all over the United States, in Canada. They're an awesome product. Enough of the sales pitch. Let's go to now Southern Arizona.

In the next stop, we're going to talk about Southern Arizona and why it's the ultimate winter escape for RVers. See, this is all about winter. We are talking about winter. We're getting you prepped for winter time.

Other than giving you a coat and some earmuffs, you're going to be ready to go. At least your RV is. So if you're Going to stay at home, your RV is going to be stored away and it's going to be in tip top shape come springtime.

Now if you decide to leave and you're going to go to Arizona, Texas or someplace, well then, heck, you can work on your RV all winter long, right? And dabble with it while you're playing in the sun.

Now Southern Arizona is a very unique place for RVers because the weather is so nice in the wintertime. You know, it's actually nicer than Southern California even though they're so close, even Nevada, it's just something about that Arizona sun.

In the wintertime it's nice. You have those chilly mornings, but the days are very comfortable.

You don't have to wear a jacket all day, but it's not too hot, you're not running your air conditioner. It's that windows and doors open type of weather. Keep everything just fresh. So that's Southern Arizona.

Now in Southern Arizona, there's several places to go. Now if you're a snowbird and you do this every year, you and thousands of others are flocking to Arizona. And you got it, you figured it out.

You know where you go, you have your favorite places. You might stay here a month, over there, there a month or two months, three months, whatever it is, you have your deal, you share it with others.

And everybody has their, their place they want to go, they have the reasons why they want to go there. Some people like to go there, stay around places where there's water so they can go fishing.

Others like to bring their side by sides or their ATVs and go out and explore the deserts, which that's just absolutely huge. And it's awesome there. Especially like the Yuma area because I'm more familiar with that because I used to live there.

You know, you can literally leave so many RV parks in the Yuma area right on your ATV and be out in the desert exploring.

You know, it's not these, one of these things where you have to cart it on a trailer and go someplace and you know, staging area, unpack it and go riding, come back, load it back up and go back to your RV park. So many of them just leave right from the RV park and it's awesome.

And you see groups of guys out there doing it, males, females, it doesn't matter, you know, if you got an RV or a side by side, it's a great place to go. Like I said, I'm just familiar with the Yuma area more than any other place. And I know some of the other areas you might be able to do that.

Maybe not as easy though. You got, you know, Tucson, Benson, Apache Junction, that whole area. Apache junction all the way into Phoenix along the Colorado river.

I know I miss a quartz site. Can't leave out court site, Tucson. So there's a lot of places to go and each one kind of has its own feel.

Yuma is different than Tucson or, you know, if you go south into Benson in those areas, it's different than quartzsite. Courtside has a feel of olive own. If you've never been to court site, you need to go.

And now you can go in January when the big tents there and deal with that dog and pony show. You know, the traffic is intense. You know, to go a quarter mile is going to take you an hour. I don't know if I'd go then.

Unless you want to go to the show, the big tent show. Because quartzsite outside of that is pretty much the same all winter long. Quartzite's very unique.

All the people out in the desert boondocking, you know, living off their. Off the grid, just in their rv. It definitely has a flavor all its own, just like Yuma does. Even Welton, right next door to Yuma is different.

You have bard and some of these dateland, these places near Yuma, they have a different feel. It just depends on where you go. And that's why it's so cool going to Arizona and why so many people go there.

Because you can try different areas and explore the place you want to be. Even if you're staying in Yuma, you can make day trips or two or three day trips going places to see. Hey, maybe we'll go here next year.

We have our reservation this year for here and we're going to stay, but maybe next year we'll go here. You might find a couple of places you like to try. Make those reservations early though. It fills up because everybody's going there.

But you can explore. Tucson is totally different. You might want to spend a one winter in Tucson just exploring that area.

You have Carson, your caverns, you have Benson, the OK Corral. Trying to think of Tombstone. You got all these areas out there that are definitely worth exploring and to really explore them, right?

You know, it could take. It could take weeks because, you know, you're rving, you're doing other things as well. You're golfing, fishing, playing, you know, shopping.

A winter time or half the winter. Arizona is just awesome. And I know this, you know, saying Arizona is just awesome. That's not enough to motivate you. But there's a lot to do there.

And there's golf courses, especially yuma golf courses. Water. Apache junction is totally unique to itself. I like Apache junction a lot. Very cool.

Then you can just get on that main street and go right on in Apache trail, Take it right into Phoenix all the way if you want to. Mesa the other side, you got Goodyear. Different places. There's a lot there. And outside of court site you have courtside itself.

But there's different little communities outside of court site. I just heard of one the other day. Never heard of it in my life. And I've been in that area for a long time.

Even before I lived in Arizona, Quartzsite was kind of a stomping ground for me in some ways or a pass through, going different places and there's just little communities out there. It's like amazing. These people have these little communities where they go in the wintertime.

They just live, enjoy life and then they pack it up and go home in the spring. Very interesting.

So I guess the bottom line is when we're talking about southern Arizona, you know, from Yuma, Tucson, court site, Phoenix, Apache Junction, all the little towns in between, there's a lot to do there. It's a place for everybody. It doesn't matter what you're into, there's a place there for you.

From my experience, Yuma is probably one of the best places to go for rvers in the winter time. I'm not knocking any of the other places. I just think Yuma has more to offer.

It's like the entire package for wintertime stuff, you know, wintertime stuff. In the sun, enjoying that sun. And I think you'll love it. If you haven't been there, you gotta check it out.

It's one of those places you just need to go to. And you know, you could go Arizona one year, Texas another, then back to Arizona, then go to Florida, then to Texas to Arizona.

You know, I wouldn't get totally wrapped up into one place unless you just fall in love with it. And a lot of people do.

You know, Yuma is one of these places where they have a lot of mobile home parks and a lot of RV parks are becoming mobile home parks or they're, you know, giving up half of the normal spaces for RVs, turn them into mobile home spots. So it's that permanent year round deal. And a lot of people buy mobile homes and just, you know, have their second residence there.

They go and live in their mobile home in the wintertime for them. It's not the RV so much. It's the area.

They love it so much, they might drive their RV there and use it during the wintertime to do some other trips in Arizona, which is pretty cool, but they'll buy a home there because they like it so much. But, you know, you got to make sure you really like it and you want to live there because it is a very cool place. Check out Southern Arizona.

Get on that map and start looking into it, doing some research. If you haven't been there, decide where you want to go. Awesome place. And for those that have been going there for years and great. Share with others.

Let them know about what you like about Arizona. All right, guys, let's move on. Arizona's been beat to death more ways than one, right? Part of the old West. Oh, yeah, the Yuma Territorial Prison.

A lot of stuff there. You got to check it out. When are the west anything to do with the west is always cool in my book, that Americana stuff.

Now let's talk about RV envy and covering your rv. To cover it or not to cover it. What are the pros and cons of using an RV cover?

RV covers sound so awesome on the surface, but they do have their cons. They have their pros. They can be a good thing or they can be a bad thing. Depends on your situation. So let's just dig right into this. You've got pros.

It's obviously going to cover your RV and keep you protected from UV damage in the, well, the winter time, summertime, some. Depending where you're at, you might be covering the summer versus the winter. Now, I'm going to say this right off the top.

You know, in Arizona, like in Yuma, people would buy an RV cover. Didn't matter what brand, top quality one, the most expensive, the best warranty, blah, blah, blah.

After two or three months of sitting in that Arizona sun, with the wind and the sun, quite often it would just be a pile of material surrounding the rv sitting on the ground because it just got beat up so bad so quickly. And that can be a problem. You have to really protect them from the wind.

And, well, they're designed to be in the sun, but Arizona kind of a different animal. So they're not infallible, they're not going to last forever.

So that's something you have to keep in mind, especially if you live in an area where there's wind. Wind is horrible for these things, but okay, let's go on. Little sidetrack there. Weather protection.

So it's going to Keep it protected from uv, from the weather.

It's going to protect the plastic and all the stuff on top of the RV and the sides, you know, the skylights, the vents, the air conditioner cover, the shroud on the air conditioner, the plastic parts, the rubber roof, it protects all that. It's going to keep the RV cleaner. You know, it's going to keep dust and dirt out. You're going to keep, you know, bird droppings and stuff off the rv.

So when you take off the COVID it's definitely going to be much cleaner. And an RV cover can deter past to a certain degree. I don't think it's going to keep everything out, but it can certainly help.

So those are some of the pros. Now let's look at some of the cons. So cons are definitely potential drawbacks, right?

So if it's a wet area, it could trap in moisture and create mold or trap in the mold and let it just keep growing.

So that can be a problem, you know, so you definitely want to cover this breathable one that's going to breathe, let air in, let air out so that RV can breathe. So you got that air going in there and not allowing the mold or moisture to continue to grow and get worse and worse.

Now, in windy conditions, an RV cover can definitely cause abrasion, scratches on the rv. You know, it's going to be like sandpaper. So the looser it is, the more it's going to want to move around.

Whether it's just shifting from side to side, front to back, the wind picking it up and, you know, pushing it up and down on the side of the RV or across things, it'll act like sandpaper. You don't want that. It can ruin the finish of an rv. So you have to be very careful and think about that.

You know, you can be able to get it tight enough so it's not blowing around, and they can. Well, they can also tear, too. You know, anything on an RV becomes a tear point, it seems like, with covers.

And I'm not a big fan of RV covers, to be honest with you. I know some people really like them. They. They live by them and they do it right and they get years of use out of them.

You know, they might get three to five years, which I think is a long time in a lot of areas. You know, if you live in an area where you don't have a lot of wind and it's just sitting there, that's not so bad.

But there's a lot of wind or harsh sun. It's not going to last as long. You know, the cost of a cover versus like building a RV port or something to put your RV in a permanent structure.

You know, obviously there's a huge difference in prices, but when it comes to an RV cover, again, don't go ultra cheap. Buy a good quality cover and there's a lot of them on the Internet. Evel is a brand that I see more and more on YouTube.

I used to sell eval covers and I'm going to be honest with you, we got so many returns on those things, it was ridiculous. The warranty claims were through the roof and the warranty claims were a nightmare for us and the consumer. So we stopped selling them.

It just became too much. Some of that's because they're an Internet based company. I don't think they're, you know, like an Adco or a Classic where you can talk to someone.

Or Camco, I like the Adco Classic and Camco covers because they're mainstream rv, they have good warranties and the warranties are different. Like Adco, they give you one replacement, that's it. Classic is a little bit more friendly on that. I think Camco is as well.

They might replace it two or three times, but they don't want to keep replacing your cover and you don't want to do that. You want to solve the problems. Why is your cover falling apart apart? Why is it tearing? Fix those things. You know, it's up to you too.

You can't just take it back to the place where you bought it. Here. This thing tore. Well, they might say, you know what, it tore because you did this or that, you know, didn't just fall apart.

You have to think about that. Don't just think you're going to be able to warranty all the time. Every time there's a tear in it. It doesn't work that way.

Back to Adco will give you little patches to fix it. So will Classic and Camco. It's up to you now.

I almost think you have to wrap your, your RV in carpet foam, you know, or padding to protect it so it doesn't tear. Now it's an exaggeration like always. But you know, think about it, the cost, you know, is it something you want to invest in?

Are you going to be able to do it right? Get it on there so it's not tearing. You might want to try one cover and see how it goes.

You know, maybe it'll get you two or three years down the road, which Works for you. Maybe it only lasts one season. You're like, oh, I'm done with this thing. But you want to spend the money on it.

Get a good one look at reviews, talk to the company. And by the way, if you can't call the company and talk to them over the phone, be done with it. Don't deal with them.

If they don't have customer service on the phone, they don't have customer service. It's getting worse and worse.

I say this all the time, but man, day by day, it's just getting impossible to find companies who actually take care of their customers on the phone. Email is a bunch of nonsense that takes forever.

And I know we get a lot of email stuff about customer service and it's because that's how you're becoming trained. We got phone numbers all over our website and people email us thinking that's just how they're supposed to do it.

Call us, call any company when you have a problem. That's what you should be able to do. Remember the good old days. All right, so we're kind of rambling here. So don't go cheap. Spend the money.

Prep your rv. Make sure that there's no edges that are going to tear it. You might have to put padding on some of them. Make sure your RV's dry before you put it on.

There's good airflow. And check on that cover periodically. You know that storage. Don't just put things in storage and forget about it.

You know, check on your cover, you know, if it's at your house, check on it daily, weekly, whatever. If it's in storage, check on it, you know, at the interval you choose.

But make sure you're checking on it so you don't come back to a total disaster because it fell apart, tore to pieces, it's gone. Someone stole it. They thought they needed it before you or more than you.

And another thing to keep in mind too, sometimes RV covers, you know, they're big, they're heavy and they're hard to put on. They can be clunky depending on your roof.

You can't just roll them out sometimes and drape it over the sides because you got vents and air conditioner and stuff. So it's a little harder to do. So keep that in mind as well. You have to also take it off the rv.

What's that going to be involved when you bring it down off? The RV is going to be laying in dirt. Oops, don't want that. Right? So think about all that. Putting it on Taking it off.

All right, so that's going to wrap up RV covers. Now you're obviously can do more research. I'm going to have this stuff on our website as well under do it yourself articles.

And as a reminder, subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast channel. Give us some reviews, tell us whether you like it or you don't like it.

If you don't like it, we prefer you let us know so we can address it directly and not only the problem, but with you as well. And you know, we want you to share it. Go to YouTube, share our podcast, our videos. Show us the love, man. That's what it's all about.

And I do have to say this summer's been like a. Oh, it's been busy, it's been crazy. It's been a grind as they say on the Deadliest Catch. So I've been super busy and I haven't been able to get any videos out.

I'm behind on the podcast videos, getting them on YouTube. It's just been a crazy summer. So I apologize for that and we're going to get back on track.

We're working on this, trying to figure out how we can get this stuff more dialed in, but it just takes time and we got behind so we got to play a little catch up here. So if you've been looking at our YouTube channel, you haven't seen new videos lately, I apologize. I've got a stack of them already made.

Just haven't had a chance to get them edited. Being a human as I am not a robot, not an AI bot, you know, it takes a little bit longer and you know, we, we use AI where we can.

I don't know if you guys use AI or not, but we try not to use it in a whole lot because this is a personal show. This isn't a robot show. And so we try to give you stuff, personal, real experience, life, life changing things, RV changing things.

So hey everybody, it's been awesome doing this today. I love doing the show. I love the RV life and I know you guys do too.

So come by in two more weeks and we'll have another episode out, episode 187 and we will share some more insights on the RV life, Do it yourself, maintenance of an RV and how to keep that bad boy going down the road. So this is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your go to guide for smarter RVing and unforgettable adventures on the open road.

Thanks again for coming by and I'll see you in two more weeks.