Ever Run Out of Power While RV Traveling? We Found The Solution

Ever felt the frustration of running out of power during a road trip? Even if you have lots of solar power there are times the sun doesn't shine. We've all been there. But our guest today, Jonathan Schloo, has a solution that could be a game changer. After leaving his successful tech company to enjoy RV travel, he invented the CarGenerator, a product that solves the age-old problem of power shortage during travel. This innovative device ensures that you never run out of power while on the road. Plus, it's so simple to set up that it's user-friendly for anyone. 

We asked Jonathan the tough questions, like: does it really work anywhere, will it harm my car, and can it run my cappuccino machine?  He explained how this level of power can keep your gadgets and appliances running throughout your road trip or boondocking adventure. We even share some tips on determining the wattage of CarGenerator and that you can  get technical support if you need it, from CarGenerator Support.

And lastly, as avid RVers ourselves, we understand the importance of being respectful of our surroundings. This is why we emphasize the need to do your research before boondocking on public land. In this segment, we share some guidelines and tips to ensure that you're not only enjoying your adventure but also doing so responsibly. We also discuss how you can use RV Life to find the best spots to boondock. So, buckle up and get ready for a ride into the future of on-the-go power.

Jonathan is offering our RV LIFE Podcast listeners a great discount...
Go to:  https://offer.cargenerator.com/rvlife
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RVLIFE200 - $200 off All Weather new

RVLIFE250 - $250 off All Weather refurbished

RVLIFE400 - $400 off Home Integration bundle

Find out more at:  CarGenerator 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever run out of power? This is the RVLive Podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, Patty Hunt, and our guest today has made sure that that will never happen again. His revolutionary new product will give you 12-volt power. Anywhere you go in your car from camping to a power outage from the storm the car generator will keep you warm for as long as it takes to get your power back.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Now we know what it's like not to have power, and not just for hours In our home in our sticks and bricks. It has been days Now that we've been RVing for over two and a half years. Power is always a concern for us.

Speaker 1: 0:57

Now I have a question. I want to start a conversation on our Instagram page. When you are in travel days, have you ever been concerned about that residential refrigerator you put in not running by the time you get to your location? Have you ever been boondocking and your battery just runs out of power? I want to know the answers. I want you to go to our Instagram page and I'll start the conversation. You guys finish that conversation, ask your questions and I'm sure that our guest today will answer any questions that you might have. Now that sound means it's time for today's fun fact. Our fun fact is brought to you by Open Roads Resorts with four great locations in Montana, utah and Texas. Guess what, patty? We're in Texas and we are going to Open Roads in Dallas, ne. Very, very shortly. We're going to put all kinds of pictures up on our social media to show you how great this campground really is.

Speaker 2: 2:13

At the time this podcast is posted, actually going the next day. So tomorrow will be a Dallas NE campground. As Dan said, open Roads Resorts has four amazing locations. We're excited to be right near Dallas.

Speaker 1: 2:30

Okay, enough commercial, let's get to the fun fact.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Okay, the fun fact In 2022, US electric customers averaged seven hours of electric interruption.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Seven hours. That's nothing. I'll tell you, we were way above that average. Where we lived in Villanova, pennsylvania, we lived in an area and we were the very last house on a power grid line. I have to tell you, we lost power at least once a month, for an hour Of course, when we had a baby shower or something like that at our house where we had 20 people coming over for lunch. We were out there for three, four days without power.

Speaker 2: 3:20

Yes, it's been a big thing, excuse me. When Dan and I decided to get an RV and hit the road, we decided we needed solar. We have solar power, we have lithium batteries. It doesn't really help much when you're in Texas, like we are right now, with three days of no sun and I don't know how many days more of no sun. Our solar doesn't work really well at all.

Speaker 1: 3:50

I looked at our Victron chart just a little while ago, right before we went on the air. I was looking at this chart and I'm like I don't understand. It says right now our solar panels are giving out negative 1% power. I couldn't believe that. I've never seen anything like that. Yes, in Texas, and it has been raining and overcast for three straight days. We haven't seen the sun probably in a week.

Speaker 2: 4:20

It feels like it. It definitely feels like it, and our batteries are looking like we haven't seen the sun in a week.

Speaker 1: 4:30

We want to see the sun, and to see the sun, it just takes something that works, and this just works. We'll be back right after this.

Speaker 2: 4:40

When traveling in your RV. How do you navigate? Do you use a paper map, a GPS, or do you use Google Maps? Our sponsor, rvtripwizard, has the solution and it just works.

Speaker 1: 5:02

Our guest today is a serial entrepreneur.

Speaker 1: 5:06

He's an inventor who ran a tech company for not one, not two, not three, but 20 years. He sold that company and became one of us, that's right. He bought an Airstream. When he bought that Airstream he brought his invention to the TV show Dragon's Den. Now that's a show that used to be on in England, and then I went to Canada, where he's from. It's a show kind of like Shark Tank, and when he went on that show he went out there and he convinced not one but two investors to invest $100,000. He's been featured in RV Life, on the RV Geeks, on the RV Entrepreneur Podcast, our sister podcast, and right now he is here live with us on the RV Life Podcast.

Speaker 2: 5:57

And today we're welcoming Jonathan Shulou, inventor of Car Generator. Welcome to the RV Life Podcast.

Speaker 4: 6:06

Hello Dan and Patty. Hello Dan and Patty, it's great to be here and I love the energy and the vibe of your show. It's awesome to be here.

Speaker 2: 6:15

Thank you.

Speaker 1: 6:16

I got to say the spelling of your name is just odd and I'm sure that we screwed up the pronunciation of that. So tell me again, how do I pronounce your name?

Speaker 4: 6:30

It's Jonathan. Shulou is the German pronunciation. European pronunciation it's like school, but with the L before the O's. That's all.

Speaker 1: 6:39

Okay, now let's get right into the meat and potatoes of what we're doing here today. You ran a tech company for a lot of years, 20 of them. What did that company do? What did you do?

Speaker 4: 6:53

That was in the software space, that company. We did CRM, custom CRM software and we implemented for companies like Moleson, mccain Foods, ups, lots of different large companies and smaller companies doing database work for them to keep track of their customers and to know who, when they were working with a customer, who that customer was, and to let teams across the country interact and share that information, to be on the same page. So I did that for 20 years and then, well, should I go on?

Speaker 1: 7:28

No, let's say Patty, jump in here.

Speaker 2: 7:30

So let's jump to the next thing. Where did becoming an inventor come from? Tell us about that.

Speaker 4: 7:38

Sure, I've always been very technical and in fact I was one of six kids. My parents came here from Switzerland and Germany. They were immigrants to the country and we didn't have a lot of money growing up, and so I would actually go and get stuff electronic things from the garbage and rip them apart, take the switches out of them. I have a whole still a giant stockpile of integrated circuits and gypsum transistors that as a kid I had actually unsoldered and taken out. So I built my own modem when I was early on and I built my own circuit boards. So I was very technical, and so that's how I got started in this. And then, of course, then I ran the tech company and I sold that and my wife and I bought an Airstream, and the story continues from there.

Speaker 1: 8:28

You bought an Airstream. Of all the campers in the whole world you could buy, you decided to buy an Airstream.

Speaker 4: 8:36

You know, I didn't even know what an Airstream was. And then one day in an RV show we had a pop-up camper trailer and I went and walked into this thing and it was like this crazy aluminum space pod. You walked inside and it felt like you were in, like a condo in New York somewhere, like a super sleek space pod, and so we were hooked and we looked at them and looked at them for years and years and finally we bit the bullet and bought one and started traveling with it and loved it.

Speaker 1: 9:03

You know, the RV Life founder, Andy Rabinowitz, also has an Airstream, loves the Airstreams we have. Rv Life has an Airstream group or blog group, so I'm sure you're a part of that. Well, we're glad that you love that Airstream. Can you talk to us a little bit about being on Shark Dragonstone? Yeah?

Speaker 4: 9:33

Yeah, so that's kind of an interesting story. So when I sold that and I had the idea when we started traveling with that, and then I was really excited when we bought it because it had solar panels on it. So I thought this is great, we can go anywhere and we can camp off grid. And then we tried to use it, but we kept on needing power to press the cappuccino button. We used the things in the RV as you're supposed to, and we just kept on running out of power and I thought to myself am I really? I love to find clever ways to reuse something you already have. It's kind of like those mixers that people have on the counters. You can use them to mix, to make a cake or something, but you can also attach a meat grinder, you can attach a pasta maker. You can do all these different things. And in that way I just found another way to use my car. So I thought my car is 90% of a generator right there. Why would I go out and buy another 200 pound motor and drag it around and all the hassles and gas cans, when I can just start my car? And so I perfected a way to do that.

Speaker 4: 10:34

And then we had a big bad incident.

Speaker 4: 10:37

We had an ice storm and we had no power for three and a half days and I used an early version of this product, hooked it up to run my furnace in my home natural gas furnace or oil you can use as well and it kept us all warm.

Speaker 4: 10:53

The fridge ran, the freezer, all those kinds of things and we ran for three and a half days, 83 hours, and when the power came back on in that case we were using a Toyota Highlander hybrid we used about half a tank of gas. So it was a great success. And then friends of mine told me hey, you should go on this show called Dragon's Den, which is like Shark Tank. There's about 4,000 people that apply on that and maybe 160 actually do a pitch in front of Dragon's and only 80 get on the air on national TV with millions of viewers watching and I'm on Netflix and all those things as well now and I actually walked onto that show and they loved the product. They actually got out of their chairs, came down, picked up one of the investors actually picked up one of the car generators and said I love this. And so that's how that happened and it was just a great pivot point just to really endorse the product and everything. So, yeah, super fun.

Speaker 2: 11:50

Okay, Now we have a lot to dig into here. That was a lot, and we want to catch our listeners up. First of all, one of the most important things you said and it's a concern of mine is the cappuccino machine working. So I'm sorry that's where my head's at. I have a cappuccino machine on board, and when I'm worried about power, that is the most important thing is getting it working. So you hit the right one.

Speaker 2: 12:18

Yeah, coffee is life, especially the cappuccino with the froth. The milk has to be froth, the whole thing that uses a lot of power. So I'm with you all the way. But we're talking about car generator for our listeners. Let's take this in pieces. Okay, so you invented this car generator, you got this investment. Let's talk a little bit about how it actually works.

Speaker 4: 12:48

Yeah. So car generator is really easy to use and that's one of the things that people love the most about it and I really wanted to make a product that was very approachable. You know, surprisingly or not surprisingly, there's a lot of people who are intimidated by a generator. Some guys love their generators. They're fierce defenders of them. They probably give them a hug and they sleep with them and whatever, and they love them. But there's a lot of people that are actually intimidated by generators. They don't want a big, giant motor, they don't want to store a bunch of dangerous, smelly gas cans.

Speaker 4: 13:19

And car generator is 11 pounds it's the size of a backpack.

Speaker 4: 13:23

So when you need power, all you do is you take this thing weighs 11 pounds and you hang it on the front of your car and you attach it with the built-in cheap proof jumper clamps which are kind of like if you've ever jumped started your car.

Speaker 4: 13:38

It's kind of basically like that. If you can do that, you can use car generator and then you just run an extension cord into your house and either you can just plug that into your fridge or things like that, or we do have a home integration kit which is like a generator switch that you can plug that into and then just flip a switch and it'll run your items different items on backup power. So that is that easy. And the best part is when you're done, when the power comes back on, all you do is you just take this car generator, roll it up, hang it on a hook, put it in your garage or in your basement and forget about it, and it'll work three years later, five years later, just as well as that day. You don't need to maintain it, worry about oil changes or anything else. So that's kind of the long answer to the question.

Speaker 1: 14:25

Okay, Jonathan, I'm going to ask you a question that I kind of know the answer to because I have one of your car generators right here in front of me right now. Let's take this use guide and talk about the RV life Now. Patty and I have a 40 foot class A. We have lithium batteries, we have solar up on top, we have all kinds of stuff, but we also use one heck of a lot of power. How much power does this thing put out? And if we have been driving for, say, 10 hours in a day and our batteries getting low? Talk to our listener and let's get them to understand how car generator can. When we stop and tonight let's just say we were going to stop at a, where are those places we stop? Cracker Barrel, right Cracker.

Speaker 3: 15:27

Barrel. We stop at Cracker Barrel as we stay overnight in Cracker.

Speaker 1: 15:31

Barrel. The only problem is that puts us in 24 to 48 hours of not being plugged in on the grid, and sometimes that's pushing those lithium batteries down to the lower levels. So let's talk about how car generator can fix that problem for Dan or Bob or Steve or Tom or anybody that's got an RV rolling down the road and they want to stop at a Walmart, a Cracker Barrel, wherever where there's no place to plug it. For sure, I still want my power For sure.

Speaker 4: 16:09

So car generator is a modest amount of power. I'm going to say so. If you know, I was at a rally a couple of months ago and they had. They were pulling an Airstream with a pickup truck and they had a 7000 watt generator and it was in the back and they it took three guys to lift that thing out of the back and that generator can power everything they want to run both air conditioners and run their microwave all at the same time. So that's a whole different kettle of fish.

Speaker 4: 16:37

Car generator is a modest amount of power for the people that are okay with running their fridge, running their propane furnace. It's typically our most popular model is a thousand watts, so that basically just takes for most vehicles out there. Instead of using the car is a generator, it's got an alternator. So instead of using that power for running the things in the car headlights and cabin fan and heaters and things like that, our concept is very simple we just pull that modest amount of power out and use it for recharging your RV batteries or things like that. So we do have larger models.

Speaker 4: 17:20

If you do have a big pickup truck with dual alternators or heavy duty alternator, you can go to a 2000 watt or even a 3000 watt model and that works great. But for most, a lot of people, our thousand watt model is the most popular, which doesn't sound like a lot of power, but it's enough to very easily recharge your batteries to power up your TV, to power a small coffee maker, your small blenders, things like that. So it really and I'll give you a tip, I'll share a tip with your listeners the easiest way, if you call your dealer of your whatever or whatever vehicle you're driving and ask the parts department, they'll tell you what the amperage of your alternator is. You just reduce that by half because it's idling times. 12 volts equals what the watts are. So that kind of gives you an idea of how many watts you can use.

Speaker 2: 18:12

So yeah, Okay, so I have to break this down because you got a little technical for me, but what I think I'm hearing you say is if I turn everything else off, I could run my cappuccino machine.

Speaker 4: 18:28

Well, here's another thing you want to look at your coffee maker and all of them are different. So look at the things you want to run and see how many watts it uses, and then you'll know how many watts you need to use to do it, and that'll help you size it. And I'm going to also mention, if your listeners need help with anything like this, the technical part. You've got an amazing technical team that if you just call our 800-800-750-466-0, you can will help you to figure out those kinds of questions and what you can run in those kinds of things.

Speaker 2: 19:05

Okay. So that really helps because, all kidding aside, a lot of times what we're looking for is to make sure you know for us, our refrigerator doesn't, you know, stop working and we lose all our food and things like that heat when it gets cold or conditioning when it's super hot. People could also check out CarGenerator by going to cargeneratorcom and, as you said, it sounds like you have a great customer support that'll be able to answer questions for those people like me who aren't technical but, you know, really need to know, if this you know, I mean, I see it working for Dan and I being on the road, but each, like you said, individual is different.

Speaker 4: 19:48

Yep, and we're happy to answer anyone's questions about that. It's a very simple way to get power.

Speaker 2: 19:56

Okay, and the phone number, the website, for those people who are, you know, listening to our podcast while they're in the car. All of this will be in the show notes below the podcast.

Speaker 1: 20:09

Well, right now it's time to take a break to pay for all of the things that we need to do, but after the break we're going to answer these questions. Can you really use this car generator all night and leave your car running? Can anyone use this product and will it hurt my Jeep Explorer 2? I do not want this thing to hurt my Jeep. We'll find out all of those answers right after this.

Speaker 2: 20:37

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Speaker 3: 21:23

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Speaker 1: 21:54

Okay, jonathan, I'm going to put you on the spot here. You and I were in. I met you two years ago at the Hershey RV Show where I gave away one of your car generators. Now, at that time this fast forward one year you gave us a car generator to use so we could talk about it here on the podcast. Now I got to ask you this question after you and Patty were talking a few minutes ago and I really can. I really run my car outside all night long. So all evening long we need to watch TV, we need to have the heater on, we need to give Patty some cappuccino, I need some hot chocolate, we need to roast some marshmallows, we need all of those things while we're out here. Is that not really bad for your car to run it all night long?

Speaker 4: 22:54

Well, I'm going to answer that with a. I'm going to share a story about one of the most the best things that happened. That happened in the last couple of years. So Ford has was actually the leader in it. They came out with, they released something called ProPower, which is any of the standard Ford F-150s. Now you can get just regular gas ones, just a regular standard gas, or Ford F-150,. You can get a built-in 2000 watt inverter generator and Ford completely endorses as well that you can just leave that thing running for 85 hours, so you can leave your Ford.

Speaker 4: 23:33

F-150 running just find it 85 hours is what it's fully right there. And Ford has one Toyota. In their new cars they offer a 1500 watt outlet that runs again indefinitely. That's in their hybrids. Honda Ridgeline has a outlets that are built into it that are offered for TV, tailgating, slow cookers there's so many different things, so more and more manufacturers are creating this, so that's part of it.

Speaker 4: 24:06

That was one of the biggest things because we always knew that it was possible. So the answer is yes, you can run your car running. One of the only qualifiers on that is if you have a diesel car. It takes about. There's something called a diesel filter and it takes about 12 hours. If you run that for about 12 hours, the filter will start to fill up and all you need to do it. We just say, if you run it for more than eight hours, take your diesel car and go and run it around. Now I will also mention that when you are being, the number of times you actually need to let it run overnight is really very rare. Most people just run it for a couple of hours, fill their RV up, their batteries up and then carry on and that's it.

Speaker 1: 24:49

Okay, I'm gonna throw a curve ball at you. I have never, ever, ever, ever seen this yet. I say yet because out here on the road, like Patty and I are full time, you see some of the darndest things out here. What if I have a Tesla, an electric car? Does this thing work on an electric car as well?

Speaker 4: 25:09

It sure does. It works really. I'm gonna talk about that. It works really well on electric cars All of them. It works on gas, diesel, hybrid and pure electric cars. Tesla's a little bit weird right now. They throttle the output. They only allow you about 200 watts, but all the other electric cars we're working on a cable to work around that but all the rest of the cars you can do that and it's just like a giant. Most of the cars, the electric cars it's like a giant battery that you're basically just pulling from. I will mention one other thing. If you have a hybrid car, a hybrid vehicle, it is the world's most efficient backup generator, simply because if you have a hybrid car, you'll notice you the engine runs for five minutes and then shuts off and then sits there. You can sit in the air conditioning or whatever it is, and that starts up, runs for five minutes and shuts off. So the gas use is very, very minimum and you get the maximum use out of that. So yeah, car generator works great on gas, diesel, electric and hybrid cars.

Speaker 2: 26:12

Okay. So we could use pretty much any car and what you're saying is you hook it up and then you charge the battery. Now I do a lot of things on the RV, I'm pretty handy, but I guess my question is is this something anybody could go out and set up and do? I, you know a group that I'm part of. Our girl campers were connected with them, and I just thinking about you know the ladies out there, we tend to not be as mechanical, sorry, ladies, some of us, some are great. So again, the question is can anybody do this? Can anybody set it up and use it?

Speaker 4: 26:53

They sure can. And I'm going to actually suggest that anyone that wonders. Go to cargeneratorcom and click on reviews and you'll see real customers and what they say. And one lady is. I love her, she's from Ohio and she just writes I'm a 90 year old lady with a bad back. If I can do this, anyone can. I hope I don't need to use it, but I have the peace of mind just in case, some kind of insurance if you don't. But you're happy you have it. So that's just an example of one. It makes it very approachable, especially for lady campers, because you're not dealing with a big giant 200 pound generator. Anyone can like my mom is 80 years old and she can use this, so it's a very simple solution that anyone can get back up power.

Speaker 1: 27:37

Okay, the big question for me is putting this on my 2002 Jeep. Is it going to hurt my Jeep? Is there anything I can do to backflow it or do anything that's going to make my Jeep go? I don't like this and then burn up, so I'll answer that question.

Speaker 4: 27:58

In our instructions, one of the things that we say is to make sure there's a big number on the front of a car generator and as long as that number stays above 13.5, your car is happy and it's producing all the power that you're pulling at and everything is good. If it drops below that number, then you know you're pulling a little bit too much power and then you back off a little bit. So as long as you stay above that, there's nothing. There's no issues. And I'll just also add that we've been in market for more than five years with thousands of customers across North America, canada, the United States.

Speaker 4: 28:34

Zero vehicle issues, zero engine issues like the old. We're actually going to create a web page called Grumpy Old Men and we're actually going to put on there all the old wives tales that the Grumpy Old Men get up, fired up on the internet. Oh, this will break your alternator, it'll break your car, and the actual truth is it won't when you use it, as we provide instructions to use it. It won't, and it hasn't for anyone in more than five years now with thousands of people. So there's the answer.

Speaker 1: 29:02

Okay. So one of the things that Patty and I do is we do the RV Life podcast all over the place. I am currently looking for one of those Boondocker type guys that has been off the grid for five years. He lives 20 miles out in the desert. So what you're telling me is I can take all of the equipment and you've seen the RV Life podcast in full production. I can take all of this equipment and I can go out to this Hermits Cave that's 20 miles away from nowhere. He's lived off the grid for the last 20 years, but I can take all of my stuff and I can power it all up and do the RV Life podcast anywhere I want, as long as I have Explorer to my Jeep with me.

Speaker 4: 29:49

You do as long as you. So we also provide a power meter, an AC power meter with the car generator, so you can plug that meter into all the equipment that you use and you'll know exactly how many watts it uses. And if it uses less than a thousand watts you can definitely do that. Or if you have a bigger alternator in your Jeep, you can get even more power if you want and actually Patrick Buchanan has a Jeep as well. There's lots of RV owners that have a Jeep that they use with car generators.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Yes, Jeep is probably the number one tow or towed vehicle out there, and most of the Jeeps do. If you have the towing package, you have an upgraded alternator on there, so those all work with this very, very well. Well, Jonathan, you know we've known each other for a couple of years now. You are a high energy, high sales. You want to get these things out here. What is the one thing, one reason that you can tell the RV Life podcast listeners that they need to have this.

Speaker 4: 30:56

Backup. You need this Backup. You need this. It actually is a really surprised us the people that have generators. They have a built-in own-in generator in their Class A, nor they have already. They're pulling a putto behind trailer and they have a generator. Or they have a big generator at home and maybe they'll run out of fuel, maybe it won't start. We've been really surprised how many people buy this as a backup. One customer said it's like having a fire extinguisher If you buy it when you need it, it's too late. You want to have it ahead of time and you want to have it there ready for that moment when you need it. I would say that's really it. Or, quite honestly, backup for solar the number of people that have great solar setups, lithium batteries, all these things. Well, if you don't get power, if you don't get sun for four days, this is your backup, and there's lots of people who have experienced that. So yeah, really it's backup.

Speaker 1: 31:55

Well, I'm going to say not only backup, but for the RV Life Podcast listeners, it's peace of mind. You're right, because it works. And having a heater or an air conditioner or, most important, a cappuccino machine in this RV, not to mention a blow dryer or two, those kind of things, will work if you have this, and it doesn't matter where you are or how much sun is up in the sky. It just doesn't matter because you can make this thing work.

Speaker 2: 32:31

I'd love that backup as a backup, peace of mind Again, waking up and being able to have my cappuccino. Then all is well in the world. So this sounds like a great piece of equipment for us to be carrying with us and, like you said, hopefully we don't need it, but in our two and a half years we certainly could have used it. We had times that no solar, no hookups we definitely could have used it. So we just want to thank you, jonathan, for being on the RV Life Podcast. We appreciate you inventing the car generator. We appreciate you taking the time out to be on with us and give us all this information that anybody can understand. So I appreciate you breaking it down.

Speaker 4: 33:18

You're welcome. I mean one thing that literally came in on Friday from a customer that just bought. She said being a single, almost 77-year-old grandmother, I gave serious consideration before I charged this to my credit card, but your product was very enticing no heavy five-gallon jugs of gas, no spills, no fumes, no frozen foods, thawing and spoiling. That really sums it up right there why people love the product.

Speaker 1: 33:44

OK, I'm going to put you on the spot. I'm going to let you jump into my clothes here to this part of the podcast, so just stay with me. Ok, stay with me. Here we go. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Our guest today has been Jonathan Slow from car generator.

Speaker 1: 34:06

Jonathan slow From car generator, from car generator. He had one line and he blew it. There we go, jonathan slow from car generator, and Patty and I will be back with our question of the week.

Speaker 2: 34:22

Yes, an RV pro tip.

Speaker 1: 34:24

And our RV pro tip. All of that will be back right after this.

Speaker 3: 34:29

The most important part of your RV is the roof. If your roof leaks, your trip and your RV get ruined. You can take it to a dealership or service center to be maintained at their expensive rates, or you can maintain it yourself over a weekend for a fraction of the cost. Liquid rubber RV roof products will keep you dry and leak free. Visit shopliquidrubbercom slash RV life. Use coupon code RVLIFEpod15off to save 15%. That's shopliquidrubbercom slash RV life.

Speaker 1: 35:00

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. I am so glad we are part of the National Indoor RV Centers family. As a matter of fact, we are here in Texas. We're going to be in Dallas next week. We're going to visit the Dallas store, go out to lunch or dinner with Brett and just really kind of catch up and we haven't seen him in about a year now it's been since we've seen him and we're going to really catch up.

Speaker 2: 35:57

For those of you who don't know, brett Davis is the owner of NIRVC and he's an amazing person, and that's what's important to Dan and I. He's just a real person. He cares about what he does. He created NIRVC with six locations across the country and it's just an amazing way he goes about doing this.

Speaker 5: 36:24

Uh, uh.

Speaker 2: 36:26

That sound means it's time for the RV Pro Tip with Patrick Buchanan.

Speaker 5: 36:34

By default. Rv Life Trip Wizard creates an RV safe route, keeping you clear of any low clearances. If you want to see all of those low clearances on your map, choose the Research tab, then the Hazards tab and click the Low Clearance icon. If you see a low clearance on the map that you think is on your route, remember to zoom in all the way. You'll find that the low clearance warning is typically on a side road or underpass that is not on your direct route. If you've properly entered your RV information, you won't be routed somewhere you shouldn't be Seeing. The low clearance warnings might be handy for routes you are considering but haven't mapped yet, or help explain why you're being routed a certain way on the map With your RV Life Pro tip of the week. I'm Pat Buchanan.

Speaker 1: 37:19

Thank you, Pat, and I'll tell you what. You do not want to go down a road with an RV, that is what. Are we 12-6? Yes, and see a sign that says 11-5. You don't want to do that. I've done that.

Speaker 2: 37:30

Absolutely not, because a lot of times we have the tow vehicle most of the time, all of the time, and we can't turn around because I don't want to take the tow vehicle off. This is really important. Our vTrip Wizard is our go-to and we don't move without it. But I got to say, talking to Jonathan today, wow was just amazing. Because, as RVers, we what's our big things that we're concerned about. Power is probably number one.

Speaker 1: 38:01

Number one water.

Speaker 2: 38:02

Water.

Speaker 1: 38:03

We're going to talk about water in a couple minutes Because everybody needs it, everybody uses it.

Speaker 2: 38:08

Power is important in as much as we have our lithium batteries and our solar power, and we do go to campgrounds that have hookups. We were in a campground recently and the hookup the electric did not work, so luckily that day it was a sunny day. So if you've been on the road for longer than a couple months, you've probably experienced angst, concerns about having power or the lack bear of. So thank you again, Jonathan, for creating, inventing the car generator. And this thing is small, it's compact, I can lift it, I can use it. So we're going to have to demonstrate that.

Speaker 1: 38:53

We will. We'll put some pictures and some short videos of Patty actually hooking this thing up and doing it. We'll put that up on our social media at rvlifepodcastcom is our website. And then we have all the social media. They're all RV Life Podcasts. You got the Facebook page, you got the Instagrams, you got.

Speaker 2: 39:15

That's it Facebook and Instagram. Dan wants like 20 different social medias, but because I'm the one managing them, you got Facebook and you got Instagram. Or you could private message me. I answer all of the questions or comments. You got the YouTubes.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Okay, so you know, having this piece here and we have one in our living room, we have not used it. I will say that we have not had to use it yet. I'm a little concerned because the last time Jonathan handed me a unit to give away, it was a dummy unit that I was really, really light so I could take it up on stage and show everybody what it looked like.

Speaker 2: 40:03

But it was a demo unit might be a better.

Speaker 1: 40:06

It was a demo. Well, it wasn't a demo, it didn't demo, it was a dummy.

Speaker 4: 40:10

It was a Displate, displate.

Speaker 2: 40:11

It was a prop, like they say, tv.

Speaker 1: 40:14

It was a prop. It was a prop but I could pick it up and show everybody, and that was at the RV Life Live event in Hershey this last year.

Speaker 2: 40:22

Yes, and so two years in a row he donated a real card generator and gave them away, and that was very, very nice. Thank you for doing that and getting them out there to people.

Speaker 1: 40:36

It really, really, really is important. And you know, I've always wanted to go on Shark Tank but I'm just not an inventor type of guy.

Speaker 1: 40:44

Yeah, you know, it's like I don't come up with new stuff. I use the new stuff that cool guys like Jonathan make, but I just don't, you know, come up with all that new kind of type stuff. How about that one? That sound means it's time for today's Question of the Week. Our Question of the Week is brought to you by Clear2O, your RV water solution, and their brand new product, fresh Tank, your freshwater tank cleaning solution. It eliminates taste and odor.

Speaker 2: 41:16

Yes, and it does it without bleach. And I just I was so excited about this product. We saw it when we were in Hershey. It's new out. Keith, the owner of the company, invented it another amazing inventor. The reason we haven't had our tanks cleaned is because they use bleach and they leave it in there for eight to 10 hours. That would drive me nuts. I'm very sensitive to odors and taste. I don't know how I live in an RV, but when Keith told us that this product does not have bleach it needs about two hours in your tank to fully clean it I'm really, really excited about Fresh Tank from Clear2O. Now let's get to the Question of the Week.

Speaker 1: 42:06

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I got one more thing here.

Speaker 2: 42:08

Okay.

Speaker 1: 42:09

You can stay tuned to the RV Live podcast because during the Tampa RV show, keith is going to be with us and a guest. You will learn more about water and your RV water and your house water and all your water from Keith. This guy is an inventor, just like Jonathan. Just cool dudes, they're just cool dudes, amazing.

Speaker 2: 42:32

And we will be broadcasting live, as Dan said in Tampa, and Spoiler Alert Clear2O Keith will be one of our guests. Okay, I'm going to take the next line from you. Yeah, I'm going to take the next line from you.

Speaker 1: 42:46

This question comes from social media and it's from Tony Mantoni. He asked the question can I boondock on any public land? You can take the answer.

Speaker 2: 42:56

Okay, so this one first of all. It's a yes and a no. So no, you can't boondock on any public land, but yes, there are a lot of places you can, and so we can't give like a specific answer. What you need to do is research before you go, and in looking at this question and listening to people's comments and experiences with boondocking on public land, you got to really do your research. So if you go to public land, obviously if it says no camping, do not stay there. Before you ever get there. You want to research. The public land has websites.

Speaker 4: 43:41

They rules for rules for rules but?

Speaker 2: 43:43

but they're needed. They're rules that are needed, and so I will say when you go in and you find out you could boondock somewhere, please make sure you follow the rules for rules, for rules, because this is why not to be negative, but this is why some of those public lands you're now not allowed a boondock because people have left trash there. Take your trash with you. Do not leave a trace that you're there. Don't disrupt the area. Go in camp, enjoy and take everything out with you.

Speaker 1: 44:15

Now there's some places in Seattle that we went where people not only go and boondock on public land and then leave trash and stuff, they leave their whole RV there after they're gone.

Speaker 2: 44:26

Yeah, that's another, a whole nother discussion that I don't think we're going to have on the RV live podcast.

Speaker 1: 44:33

but boondocking there. I really, really, really want to go camp in front of the White House and wake up in the morning and be able to see that grand White House. You think I'd be allowed to do that?

Speaker 2: 44:42

No, absolutely not Now. One way to find areas to boondock is.

Speaker 3: 44:46

But, I'd have power. Yes, you would have power.

Speaker 2: 44:50

But one way to find out where you could boondock is by using RV life, rv trip wizard. There's a filter that will show you boondocking, dispersed, camping, those kinds of things. So let's wrap up. Let's thank Jonathan again from Car Generator. We appreciate you.

Speaker 1: 45:13

I'm Dan Hunt, with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and this is the RV live podcast. I'm going to remind you to have a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.