The Ins and Outs of Winter RV Living: A Conversation on Staying Warm

Are you ready to embrace the chill and adventure into winter camping? This episode promises an engaging exploration into the world of RV living, especially when temperatures drop. We're joined by Jim Phelan, founder of AirSkirts, who revolutionizes winter camping with his innovative invention. Listen in as he takes us through the benefits of the AirSkirts product, which insulates the underside of RVs, conserving heat, and protecting pipes from freezing.

Adopting the right gear for your RV can significantly impact your camping experience. We learn that with Jim, as he walks us through the different lengths and varieties of AirSkirts suitable for various types of motor coaches, travel trailers, and fifth wheels. Say goodbye to hay bales and hello to accessories like tire covers and tire wedges that can make your journey more comfortable. And guess what? AirSkirts aren't just for winters. Jim explains how they can make your summer RVing cooler, potentially lowering your electric bills.

We're not just talking about comfort here, but also convenience and longevity, with the robust construction of AirSkirts and a  five-year warranty that comes with it. Jim also introduces us to a space-saving inflatable cooler that can keep your food and beverages cold for up to five hours. So whether you're a seasoned RVer or planning your first adventure, join us as we unravel tips and tricks that can make your RV life more efficient and enjoyable.

Find out more about AirSkirts at https://www.airskirts.com/
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever camped in the winter? This is the RV Life Podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and we are here at the Hershey RV Show in Hershey, pennsylvania. They call it America's largest RV show. Not sure about that one, but that's what they call it, and so that's what we're going to go with today.

Speaker 3: 0:32

Dan and I have been full-time for two and a half years and we usually spend our time chasing the warmer weather, and today I'm excited to learn what did it be like and how to stay warm if we are going to be in the cold. Now we are. As Dan said, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It's beautiful here. I thought it was almost fall, but it's 88% humidity. Today. It feels like 90 degrees, but the leaves are starting to change colors and it's beautiful and the cold weather is right around the corner.

Speaker 1: 1:09

Now I will tell you we have been granted permission to record our podcast in the Freightliner booth, and this is just incredible. We have a studio audience here with us today. It is absolutely beautiful here at the Freightliner booth. Our guest today owns a company that makes winter camping easier for all of us. That would be all of you, because winter camping is not in Dan's vocabulary. Okay, so, patty, talk about us.

Speaker 3: 1:47

So we are again usually chasing the summer, but I am looking forward to seeing you know how to stay warm in the winter. This is going to be I was going to say really cool. No pun intended.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Now, that's how it means. It's time for today's Fun Fact, and our Fun Fact is brought to you by Open Road Resorts, with four great locations in Montana, utah and Texas.

Speaker 3: 2:16

Montana and Utah have three beautiful locations from Open Road Resorts. These locations do close down actually in the winter, so we will be going up and visiting them when it's warm, but if you are going to Montana and Utah, you need to stay with us and learn how to stay warm during the winter. But let's get into the Fun Fact. According to RV Life, an article put out by RV Life winter is the fastest growing camping season and it's up 40.7% since 2019. That's pretty 40.7%.

Speaker 1: 2:56

That is an amazing factor, that there are 40% of the millions of people that are here at this RV show and that RV all over the country have decided that winter camping is a good thing. I think that we need more psychologists and stuff in the world, because I don't know that winter camping is a good thing.

Speaker 3: 3:19

We're just going to show them how to stay warm. Obviously, Jim's got it figured out, so let's jump in.

Speaker 1: 3:25

Jim has got it figured out and we're going to talk to Jim right after this.

Speaker 3: 3:32

When traveling. Do you have a GPS, keep a map, a GPS, or do you use Google Maps? Our sponsor, rv TripWizard, has the solution and it just works.

Speaker 1: 3:52

And I know that it just works because I do not move my RV one single solitary inch without first consulting with RV TripWizard. You're listening to the RV Life podcast and we're having a little bit of a technical problem with this sound channel, but we're going to work it out. Our guest today Our guest today is a software architect by trade. He has started several companies in the B2B enterprise software space, as well as served as a VP of a Fortune 1000 corporation. After selling his home in Brooklyn, new York, and most of his possessions, he began living and traveling full time in his 2016 Airstream. For those of you that don't know what an Airstream is, there's one right in front of us right over there. Jen, if you could take a picture of that Airstream for me and we'll put it up on social media so everybody knows what an Airstream is, there we go. Airstream was an invention of necessity for Jim, as he spent several seasons of frustration with traditional skirting methods Trying to keep that cold air out from underneath of what you're talking about right here.

Speaker 3: 5:16

Today we're speaking to Jim Fadlin, founder of AirSkirts. Welcome to the RV Life podcast.

Speaker 5: 5:23

Thank you guys so much for having me. It is a pleasure to be back.

Speaker 3: 5:27

I'm glad to have you here. Let's talk about cold and Airstream in winter. How cold was it? This isn't the start of a joke.

Speaker 5: 5:36

How cold Well our product works for all makes and models of RVs. I got an Airstream in 2016. The idea was to get out of the Northeast and go to where it's warmer, but it turns out that I wanted to go back and see my family and Connecticut in the winter. What I quickly learned is you need two things. You need a heated water hose. There's a kind of commodity item we have one company we like that we use. You have to have a heated water hose. You have to have a skirt.

Speaker 5: 6:02

What you'll see at most campground is a hodge podge of people cutting styrofoam and taping it together Anything to go around the perimeter of the RV to prevent air from whisking the warm wet air away from underneath and freezing pipes. If you don't have a skirt, you're not going to have running water. You're going to burn through twice as much propane. The issue with that. I did the styrofoam thing the first year. There are other methods where you can drill holes into your RV and snap a vinyl skirt on. I didn't like any of that Real messy.

Speaker 5: 6:33

Some people use hay bales. Attracts prudence. I thought jokingly to myself what if I put some balloons under there? Air is a good insulator and they'll just cinch up between the ground and the underside of the RV. How to prototype and made. They're actually a long series of inflatable tubes that go around the perimeter. You get a lot more insulation out of that because you have trapped air acting as a natural insulator and you don't have to modify your RV at all. The air pressure holds the product in place and keeps that warm pocket of air underneath the RV, keeps your pipes from freezing and keeps that warm air from dissipating, causing freezing.

Speaker 3: 7:10

You do a lot of good information and we're going to break all of that down. Before we get there, let's hear a little bit about you. What's your story? Why did you decide to go full-time RV? Let's start there.

Speaker 5: 7:24

It was something I thought about doing for a long time, probably when I was 19,. I drove around the country for a few months. I loved it. I ended up moving to New York City and working in the software business, started a couple of companies there. About 12 years in New York City seemed to be about my limit. Love New York, miss New York, but it's a lot. I had a three-family brownstone.

Speaker 5: 7:47

I was sick of software too. I sold one of my startups, closed down another startup and I was ready to move on the air stream. Life just seemed like the way to go for me. I sold my house, I sold almost everything I owned. I bought an air stream travel trailer and I hit the road. I spent three years full-time traveling and then moved back to Connecticut to start this business and ended up living stationary in the RV, but I was not sitting in the air from skirting even more. That's the genesis. Airskirts is really something I made just for myself, just because I didn't like the other options that were out there Enough. People saw it. That kept coming back to me and said you should really be selling these things. Fortunately for me, people seemed to like them and I was able to stop doing software work. Focus exclusively on this.

Speaker 3: 8:34

Now I know this being a podcast, people don't necessarily yet know what we're talking about and we're going to explain what airskirts are For me. I've never camped in the winter and you mentioned-.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Wait, wait, wait. There was that one time that we were at the Seattle RV show and we were at Sahelis. Sahelis Still can't say it Can't say it, but that's where we were in Washington in January, february In February. So we're in Washington in February and we got about six inches of snow on the ground that night.

Speaker 3: 9:09

It was an inch. There was a dust.

Speaker 1: 9:11

It was cold.

Speaker 3: 9:12

But it was time to go it was for sure Time to go. Now you said and we're going to get back into some of the stuff you mentioned. Obviously they obviously heated hose because that's going to be out there and it's going to freeze, you're not going to have heat. What else, before people jump in and do this, what else should people consider?

Speaker 5: 9:33

Well. So I mean winter camp can mean a lot of things, so it could be in Connecticut where probably it doesn't get any colder than 15 degrees. I have to do very little other than have a heated hose and have my air skirts in place. We have customers down in Montana where it may get to negative 30. They're doing considerably more. They're insulating from the inside of the RV. So that might mean putting reflectics in the windows, looking for any cracks and crevices, putting a heater under the RV in between the air skirts to help create a larger pocket of air, because the principle here is that no matter what you do, hot air is dissipating through your floor and under the RV. That's the air that air skirts are retaining. Once it's negative 30 out, you have to help that process a little bit. If you're camping in negative 30 degrees, I think you're kind of insane to begin with. So you might just mean psychologically prepare yourself a little bit too.

Speaker 3: 10:23

Okay, that's exactly what I was thinking, because I'm not even walking out to you. Better hope the RV is warm.

Speaker 1: 10:29

You know, when we first bought our RV, we bought it in Colorado Springs, colorado, on the coldest day they had in the last hundred years, and it was negative 30 that day that we picked up our RV.

Speaker 3: 10:43

Now we did not stay in it. That's a whole nother animal and I don't know that I could do that. But let's talk about air skirts. Again, this is a podcast. Those people that are in the booth can see the air skirt implated in front of us. Looks like a torpedo. Explain to people, because it is audio.

Speaker 5: 11:03

So for these audio listeners, these are very large, marine grade inflatable tubes. So they're very similar to the construction of a zodiac boat Same material you would use on zodiac boat. They are heat welded seams. We have some special features that are specific to our product, but they are kind of fun to play with. You know, if you wanted to put that on the ground and bounce on, it makes it. You know, we bouncy houses are also made out of these.

Speaker 3: 11:28

Okay, and Dan is literally sitting on one of them. It looks like a four foot torpedo.

Speaker 5: 11:34

I'm tempted to jump on the other end to see if I can send him flying.

Speaker 3: 11:38

Okay, we definitely need video rolling for that.

Speaker 5: 11:40

We got to do that. But yeah, they are. It's a little hard to explain, but they're basically long tubes that go around the perimeter of your RV and, you know, hopefully some of the audio listeners will get a chance to look at some of the videos and the assets.

Speaker 5: 11:52

Absolutely On the website and things, but imagine a series of long inflatable tubes. They come in two different diameters and three or four different lengths, so we have that's a 22 inch, we got 34 inch for larger rigs, and then there are some other accessories that go along with this.

Speaker 1: 12:09

Now, Jim, how strong are these? Could I use this as a bumper or a cruise ship?

Speaker 5: 12:16

So it's actually very similar to a boat fender bumper. The main difference in the there's no difference in the construction that one actually will start blowing off air at 0.7 psi, and that's because we don't want to pick your RV up off the ground.

Speaker 4: 12:29

So that doesn't make.

Speaker 5: 12:30

It does make it different from a boat fender bumper. But yeah, you could. I mean you could lick, you could lift a truck off without that valve. You could lift a truck off off the ground.

Speaker 1: 12:40

You could lift a truck off the ground. Yes, you could. Or when, in the case where we buried ourselves in our RV, we wouldn't even had to call you, jeff, on that one we could have just put one of these underneath there and blown it up, and it'll blow our inflated it.

Speaker 3: 12:55

No, no, no, no, no. First of all, Jeff's other from Freightliner is standing here and Dan said he'd put one of these air skirts under and inflate it. And Jeff is shaking his head. No, no, no.

Speaker 1: 13:07

Now does this go on the frame?

Speaker 5: 13:10

Yes.

Speaker 1: 13:11

Not on the body of the RV.

Speaker 5: 13:13

So if you have an exposed I-beam that goes up against the I-beam, if it's a sealed underbelly, like on an air stream or other more insulated models, it just presses up against roughly where the I-beam is on the sealed underbelly.

Speaker 1: 13:24

Okay, so I am looking at a Freightliner chassis, because we are in the Freightliner booth and I'm looking at a Freightliner chassis. Now we got our social media person, jen is here, so she's taking pictures of me with this thing right now, so we'll have this up on the internet for everybody.

Speaker 3: 13:43

Okay, so Dan is leaving the building. I don't know what's up with that, but I'm going to take over, and this has never happened on the RV Life Podcast and this will not be edited out. He has left the building, so let's get back to this idea.

Speaker 1: 14:02

Jam, it doesn't fit.

Speaker 3: 14:03

Anybody? Uh-oh, okay, it's just all gone wrong now.

Speaker 1: 14:11

So Dan is trying to see how the air skirt there we go, there it went.

Speaker 3: 14:16

I'm going to turn his mic off.

Speaker 5: 14:19

So Dan has lost the tube at this point.

Speaker 3: 14:22

Yes, thank you, jim, for telling people what's going on here. Dan has lost the tube and I have the ability to turn his mic off, so I've done that. So I want to talk to our audience. That's listening. Air skirts are fitted for pretty much any size RV. Is that correct? Talk about that.

Speaker 5: 14:43

Yeah, that's right. So depending on the length of the RV, we sell our kits based on the length. So for any travel trailer fifth wheel, we have pre-configured kits that we sell kind of off the rack and they have a pre-fitted. The price is just based on the length of the RV. Okay, so it's based on the size of the RV. Now, if you are in a motor coach, a class ABC, what we do is get some measurements from you and then we customize the kit.

Speaker 5: 15:09

That's all included in that price as well. It still affects price.

Speaker 3: 15:12

Okay, so I have a class A, and then there were these triangular shape. I've shut you down, dan. We're talking over here.

Speaker 1: 15:21

I'm listening to what you're saying.

Speaker 3: 15:23

You have these triangular shape inflatable things in the booth here at the show. What are they for?

Speaker 5: 15:31

So we have a number of other products that go with the system. The wedges that you're referring to sit between your dual or triple axle tires. Those are optional. We also have dual axle tire covers that we recommend to be sold with every kit. So the tire covers are going to cover up both tires. Our tubes don't go between the tires, our tire wedges do, so you can get the tire covers, you can get the tire wedges, you can get both, but you'll need one of the two, otherwise you'll have a gap between the tires.

Speaker 1: 15:58

Okay, Jim, One of the questions I have. I just took this tube over to that brand new Freightliner chassis over there.

Speaker 3: 16:05

It's a shame you people missed it because it was a batch.

Speaker 1: 16:08

Jen, you got it right. Yeah, the wind actually blew it underneath the chassis and blew it down the midway here, but let's talk about the fact that the chassis was actually higher than this.

Speaker 5: 16:20

That's right. So that tube is intended for either a motor coach, an airstream or another low-pop profile travel.

Speaker 1: 16:27

Okay, so this trailer that we have right here, which is a NASCAR trailer, it will most likely fit on there, Yep.

Speaker 5: 16:33

So for that big Freightliner chassis over there we make a 34-inch diameter tube.

Speaker 1: 16:39

And how long does it take to blow this thing up?

Speaker 5: 16:42

I mean, I would be out of breath. So we have a high-velocity AC air pump. That tube there takes about 45 seconds. Some of the larger tubes might take a minute and a half, two minutes, but the whole setup should take you under half an hour and I have my setup in about 15, 20 minutes on my airstream.

Speaker 3: 16:59

Really so when it's cold and you're out there, you don't want to be out there long. So 15, 20 minutes, a half hour and you're done and you can go back inside and get warm.

Speaker 5: 17:10

And this is relative to people who are doing something with Styrofoam, let's say, or even some of the vinyl snap-on skirts. I've had people tell me they've been out for an entire weekend making a vinyl skirt and that's something you have to throw away at the end of the year and not be able to reuse, let alone reuse on a new trailer, which ours can be done, reused on a new trailer. You can't even reuse it the next year, and it's quite an intensive process, you know. And then the pieces are blowing all over the park and so, yeah, you can do it quickly and they break down very quickly.

Speaker 3: 17:38

Right, we had somebody on the show that said he uses hay bales and all like. That's what I said. What about mice and rats and who knows what else?

Speaker 5: 17:49

Stench as well. So out of all the options out there there are a lot of options. There's Styrofoam, there's vinyl. Hay bales would be the lowest on my list, because they attract rodents. You're creating a warm nest under your RV, right? You're trying to keep warm and air in there, so that's going to warm up the hay too. It gets wet, it gets smelly, it could possibly grow mold, but mice are definitely going to like it. So, whatever you do, just don't do the hay bales. A lot of people do it because it's convenient, but I think they tend not to do it the second year.

Speaker 3: 18:16

Yeah, they do it once and learn. So here on the RV Life Podcast, we want to keep you from making a huge mistake, Hay bales no, no to hay bales.

Speaker 1: 18:26

Yeah, sub 30 degrees, sub negative 30. No, that's just me, but let's talk about you. Know, when you and I first talked, you talked about you have pretty much suspects of every RV that's ever been invented. Almost You've got a lot of them, so you will actually like. When you and I were talking about putting them on my unit, you were saying that you would have the manufactured for my Monaco 2002. 40 footer.

Speaker 5: 19:01

So it kind of depends. So with travel trailers and fifth wheels, we sell pre-configured kits that come with a variety of different length tubes and in 99% of cases some combination of those tubes is going to fit in the right place so that the customer will get the tubes, they'll set them up and they'll make it work. They're inch-give here, inch-give there or whatever With a class A, b or C, because we have to get everything perfect. So between the tires has to be perfect, up to the bumper has to be perfect. We get some measurements from the customer. The price doesn't change, but we send a diagram showing where to put each specific length tube on that chassis. So yes, in that case you will get the exact fit based on those measurements that you provide, and those would fit under my frame rails and not the body and not the.

Speaker 1: 19:51

So we would actually take these and drop the air before we put them in and then blow them up till they get to the top of that frame rail.

Speaker 1: 20:01

And we're going to get Jeff up here in a little while and we're going to talk to him and see if he's okay with that. You know what? We got to take a break, but right after the break we're going to talk about what's next for air skirts. We're going to talk about this inflatable cooler that you came up with last year right here at the Hershey Show, that you actually let me introduce it to the public. So that was incredible and we're going to answer the question do people that sit in the front row really camp in sub-zero degree weather? We're going to talk all of that and more on the RV Life Podcast right after this.

Speaker 3: 20:39

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Speaker 2: 21:25

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Speaker 1: 21:56

We're here at the RV Life Podcast. We didn't have the podcast last year at Hershey, but you and I got a chance to sit down and have dinner and talk, and I know you're the kind of guy that's always thinking about something new and something exciting. Let's talk about what's in the future for Areskirt.

Speaker 5: 22:15

Sure Well, we're always working on new stuff. Obviously I wish I had something like last year where I could just give you a new product intro. Unfortunately, everything right now is in that point where we don't quite have the patent application.

Speaker 1: 22:29

So you're not talking about it, because I would love to because I'm real excited about it.

Speaker 5: 22:34

But there are things that are in our space that are a little bit different from what our core product does. Trying to branch out, we're trying to do things that we can set where very seasonal business, so we're trying to do things that make sense in the summer as well to reach a broader audience. But a lot of really cool stuff in the works.

Speaker 1: 22:49

You brought up the summer. Let's talk about extreme heat in this product. Does it keep it cool underneath or do you have to have a fan going to keep air flow through, or does it really help out when you're out in the Nevada or Arizona desert?

Speaker 5: 23:06

It truly does. Yes, so if you have this, thing already for the cold.

Speaker 5: 23:10

Absolutely use it in the summer. I recommend using it in the summer anyway. One thing it's going to do is air. Obviously we know that cold air sinks. We know that air dissipates through these poorly insulated RV floors. So the air skirt set up. The same principle that makes it work for heat protecting your heat pipes from freezing is going to retain cold air under your RV as well. So one benefit to that is your air conditioners may not cycle on quite as often. I only have one air conditioner on my air stream. It is not enough. So without the air skirts it gets too hot in there and anything above 90 degrees. With the air skirts on, it's great. And if you're paying for electric so if you're in a monthly site and you're paying for electric you're going to save a boatload there as well.

Speaker 5: 23:51

So absolutely use them in the summer, it doesn't make a difference Now.

Speaker 1: 23:54

you invented this product and you said it takes you about 15 minutes to set it up. Jeff, you're an avid person in this industry and see what this does. Talk to me. Do you think you could set this up around an RV in 15 minutes?

Speaker 5: 24:11

Yes, with some help. I need help.

Speaker 1: 24:13

You need help? Yeah, that's me. I always got to help her.

Speaker 3: 24:17

So Jeff's saying yes with four or five of his people. God, a team, teamwork makes the dream work. But now I want to talk about something that we have firsthand experience. Talking about the warm weather, the cooler that we got last year. We saw it at the show, we looked at it, we double took it. We started asking about it. We have one of the inflatable coolers and it is cool. It is, first of all, as in our VAIR. Dan and I have a 40-foot, we have a monocoque, lots of storage space. Unfortunately, dan has taken up most of the space. What's really nice about this cooler is I inflate it with a pump that comes included. Then I can deflate it. Where did that idea tell us? I'm getting excited. I'm sharing it myself. Tell us about it.

Speaker 5: 25:11

So this is another one of those things that I came up with just because there was no way in the 27-foot Airstream to fit a Yeti cooler. It's just not possible. It would take up all my floor space or it would have to go in the back of my truck or something. So this cooler is a 56-quart cooler. It's pretty big. It uses the same material that stand-up paddleboards use. So when you think here in inflatable cooler, you think okay, that's kind of a pool toy, kind of gimmicky.

Speaker 5: 25:37

This thing is actually rigid, 15 PSI. You can stand on top of it, which I've been doing over at the booth at the show here to show people. I could make a lot of people nervous. So it's made out of this drop stitch material that gets very, very rigid. It's the same principle as air skirts. That's a little bit of where it came from. It's just thinking well, air is a good insulator. How else can we apply air to insulate things? We know that RVers are at our premium for space. We know RVers use coolers a lot. So this thing basically blows up to a full-size cooler. It has a removable liner which makes it easy to clean, but then it comes with a carry bag. You fold the whole thing down, I put it in my wardrobe next to my button-up shirts, and it takes just a tremendously small amount of space, so people who might not have been able to have a cooler before can now have one. It's a little hard to picture, but it doesn't look like a regular cooler. It doesn't look like a blow-up.

Speaker 1: 26:31

Now we will take a couple of pictures and put them in our social media, just so people can see what it is.

Speaker 3: 26:37

But we actually did a video on it last year on our YouTube channel and exploring through our lens.

Speaker 3: 26:43

We did a video on the cooler. You've got to check it out. One of the things I'd love a lot of times with something that's inflatable. It's getting on the air out and you actually attach the pump and you reverse the air out, you pull the air out so it really deflates nicely. So I know we're talking about a cooler, but yeah, for RVers it's a big deal. I could take it where I want to go, pump it up, get it all set up, put my cold stuff in, and it keeps stuff cold. We had it on a boat with us in one of my favorite places in Crystal River in Florida. So we had it with. We had a bunch of friends and they loved it.

Speaker 1: 27:23

They really, really, really loved it. I don't want you to get any of it. Jim said he folds it up and he stores it in his closet next to his clothes. Don't get any ideas. It's fine in the basement.

Speaker 3: 27:33

Yes, it's a basement.

Speaker 1: 27:34

You're talking to a guy that carries not one but two tuxedos in his RV with him.

Speaker 3: 27:39

Jeff, you need to help me with that.

Speaker 1: 27:41

Yeah. So I got to say move over Yeti, because this thing keeps stuff cold all day. We were out on that river for Four or five hours.

Speaker 1: 27:49

Four or five hours and everything was still ice cold. It tasted great. All the ice was still there. Air is a great insulator and this thing is just designed and engineered absolutely perfectly, so it is one of the best products that I have seen. As a matter of fact, I'm going to do a video here at the Hershey RV Show later this week and talk about the three coolest products that we found this year, and no pun intended. That cooler I call it my blow-up cooler, but it's inflatable cooler, so my inflatable cooler is probably the one thing that we have on our RV that I wouldn't give up. You couldn't pay me to take that thing back, because I use it all the time. I love it. It is just a great, great thing for us on our computer.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Oh, not on your computer, not on your computer, just on our RV.

Speaker 3: 28:47

So I just want to lead people to find out more about AirSkirts. You can go to airskirtscom and before the show. I try not to ask this while we're on the show, but before the show you said there was a show special that people can get.

Speaker 5: 29:01

Yes, so during the show we have two coupons codes. If you use the code, I think the code is show for 10% off and then for our veterans, first responders, active duty, all that stuff, healthcare we have a code show thanks 15%.

Speaker 3: 29:19

Wow, that's awesome. Thank you for doing that. That's incredible. So 10% off go to airskirtscom. And I want to say something In the world we live in now. I'm not getting political or anything, Don't worry. When you call a company, you are lucky to get a human being. They act like they're human but they're computerized. The people at your company we've talked to six, seven people from your company and they are amazing. They are willing to help, they are patient. That is so important in today's environment, Like there's nothing more important than knowing if I'm trying to fill or if Jeff's trying to fill his air skirts up and put them on his RV and he's having difficulty to be able to call customer service and get a response. Talk about them.

Speaker 5: 30:10

Well, I can't tell you how much that means for me to hear. I think, as an entrepreneur, business owner and a human being, I think the most important thing in a company is its employees Customers super important. Obviously, we wouldn't have a business without the customers, but I put my employees first because they're dedicating a majority of their lives to me and we have a really cool staff of people. Some of them are longtime friends Our sales staff almost all of our sales staff lives full-time in our beats. One of our newest hires two of our sales staff were customers first. I just think we have the greatest crew of people. I'll never be farming. I don't care how big this business gets. I don't think it'll ever get that big but there's no way I'm farming any of this stuff out to India or China. This is a Connecticut and Colorado-based business. We believe in those values and we think our people are our most important assets. It's so nice to hear you say that.

Speaker 3: 31:06

I really appreciate that and I truly mean it. We have people on the show sometimes and I can't honestly say that I truly mean it. They are incredible.

Speaker 1: 31:17

Picking up the phone and calling your company is a pleasure, and I'm going to say the same thing for Freightliner Corporation 24-hour-a-day customer service or customer support right 24 hours a day, seven days a week, seven days a week, 365?

Speaker 3: 31:35

365.

Speaker 1: 31:36

I got the thumbs up on that one, because when you get, your RV stuck in the mud.

Speaker 3: 31:39

It doesn't happen Monday to Friday, nine to five, right.

Speaker 1: 31:43

And we had our RV stuck all the way down to the axles and mud. It rained six inches over a two-day period and we sunk all the way down to our axles and I met Jeff after we burnt up two tow trucks getting it out of that mud. But Jeff said you should have called me, you should have called us, our people would have walked you through that process all the way through. I was sitting with the CEO of Newmark Corporation and he told me that their customer service goes through Freightliner first and I just thought that was one of the most amazing things when CEOs, when owners of companies, put the customer out there and make their employees so special. I will tell you, here you are. We're at the Hershey RV show, america's largest RV show and the logistics of setting up this podcast without somebody calling me. Yeah, wow.

Speaker 3: 32:44

This truly is live.

Speaker 1: 32:45

This is a tow company calling me because we burnt up their tow truck when he's trying to get it out. But the logistics of setting something like this up is very difficult. To get internet and power and everything, it's a very difficult thing to get the logistics put together. I got to tell you the Freightliner people were incredible.

Speaker 3: 33:11

And I've got to say, yes me, I've got my steps in for the next two weeks. We will. Next week show we'll be with Freightliner because, again, as we talk about customer service, we're moving into the next section of what we usually talk about on the podcast. We're just winging things here as we do, but next week's show will be people from Freightliner talking about what they do and what that means to me and RVer and I had no idea Can't wait for that interview. We will be doing it live tomorrow, so that'll be cool.

Speaker 1: 33:49

Now I will honestly say, until I met Jeff at Tampa last year, I didn't think it was important to think about the chassis of the next RV that we buy.

Speaker 3: 34:00

But let's save that for tomorrow. We're jumping ahead to tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 34:04

Well, I was going to say I didn't think that I needed air skirts either, but we've been really hot and we've been really cold in a few places and I will tell you if those things, those torpedo things, work as well as that cooler I just can't even imagine.

Speaker 3: 34:21

And while we haven't used them ourselves, we know people who have and usually we hear people using them for the 90 degree weather. But this weather we've been having in Pennsylvania you're going back to Connecticut, right this weather has been it's 95 degrees, it's 88% humidity. I grew up in Philadelphia. This is crazy weather, so I wish I had the air skirts.

Speaker 1: 34:45

We'll have to try them and we're leaving here and we're on our way to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. Now that sound means it's time for today's question of the week. So that is going to be a it wasn't going to be a live question, but our live question. People left us. So, Faddy, you got a backup question there from Kyle R of Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Speaker 3: 35:14

And so he, as we walk around, we talk about what we're going to be talking about on the podcast, and he wanted to know how long will the air skirts last? So I inflate them in the winter, I deflate them, I put them underneath how long will they last?

Speaker 5: 35:28

That's a great question. So these are made out of a tarpolin PVC material. It is extremely rugged. So this is a nylon match that's coated in PVC, heat welded together, and it's the same construction that is used for marine inflatable. So zodiac boats, all that sort of stuff, they should not have a shelf life on them. We stand behind them so much. We provide a five-year warranty. They're UV resistant. That heat welded seal is never going to come apart and PVC does not deteriorate with time. So these should be lasting for decades. Now, as a company we haven't been around for decades, but we can see other products in the space, like a zodiac boat. You don't expect that to stop working after three years, right? You expect that to be with you for a long time. Same construction methods, same material. So we would expect the same.

Speaker 3: 36:14

Okay, so that answers that for Kyle Five-year warranty, at least 10 years.

Speaker 5: 36:21

At least yeah.

Speaker 3: 36:21

So you are definitely getting your money. It's worth saving money on the heat money, heating your RV or cooling it, especially if you're paying, like you said, metered. That would be a big savings.

Speaker 1: 36:34

You're listening to the RV Life Podcast. We are live at the America's largest RV show, the Hershey RV show, and all that noise you hear in the background. Well, we are out on the Midway and we are next to the food trucks and they are all running generators. That's part of the RV Life Is those food trucks running the generators. So we will be back right after this.

Speaker 2: 37:03

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Speaker 1: 37:34

National indoor RV centers. With over 1,000 motor homes available across multiple locations, national indoor RV centers continues to provide an outstanding, hassle free motor home ownership experience. National indoor is the number one New Mar dealer in the nation and also features brands like Integra, winnebago and much more. Visit NIRVCcom and become a part of the National indoor RV centers family Now. National indoor is the number one New Mar dealer in the country. Jeff, I'm going to go to you on this one and say New Mar, probably about half of their vehicles go out on a freight liner chassis. Isn't that correct? More than half, a little bit more than half. So that is just absolutely incredible. I am completely sold after sitting here and then watching the demonstration of the new product they unfolded yesterday called their V-Line technology or V-Line the V-Series.

Speaker 3: 38:43

V-Series. There you go, he's got a V-Series.

Speaker 1: 38:45

There we go, okay. So they unveiled that yesterday and it was impressive. I will say to you that I drove a New Mar motor coach at the Seattle RV show and that tag wheel that turns oh my God, I could move that RV around anywhere in the place. And, believe me, when you're into the RV show and indoor RV show, it's tight in there and these things are right up to each other and we were able to do that. So we love all of this. New V-Series. I've got the pen. I'm going to cherish the pen for the V-Series and I know that that will be our next RV If we don't get an air-shrink. No, we won't get an air-shrink.

Speaker 3: 39:29

Air-shrink doesn't work for us at all. Nope, not enough storage space.

Speaker 4: 39:35

And I'm going to hit this button right here and say once you have your basic route picked out in RV Life Trip Wizard and have secured your campgrounds, it's time to add all of those other stops you want to make. At this point you don't need those campground icons filling up your map and getting in the way. You can easily toggle the campgrounds off by clicking the small tent icon in the upper right-hand corner. This makes it easier to focus on adding fuel stops, rest stops, places to eat or things to see anything you wish to add to your trip. Just don't forget to click it again if you need to see more campgrounds For RV Life. I'm Pat Buchanan.

Speaker 3: 40:14

Thank you, Patrick Buchanan, Another great Trip Wizard pro tip. Every week he comes on and he shares a pro tip that really helps people to use Trip Wizard and more of the features. So we always appreciate him coming on. And right now I want to thank Jim Phelan. I asked how to say it and then he's like feeling, I'm feeling good with Jim Phelan.

Speaker 1: 40:41

I'm feeling good. I'm going to write a song about that one.

Speaker 3: 40:43

Got it right. I just want to thank you so much for being on the show and sharing this invention that you came up with.

Speaker 5: 40:50

I can't thank you guys enough for having me on. This has really been a true joy. As always, I'm talking to you too.

Speaker 3: 40:55

Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1: 40:57

We're listening to the RV Life podcast, where our mission is to educate, entertain and inform the RV audience. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and we are live from the Freightliner booth at America's largest RV show, the Hershey RV Show. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, saying have a great rest of today.

Speaker 3: 41:35

And an even better day tomorrow.