RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
"The Ultimate Guide to RV Gear and Safety with Joshua Sheehan
In this episode my expert guest and I discuss essential RV gear, offer safety tips, and address listener questions to enhance the RV living experience. RV Life Podcast, with me (Patti Hunt) and guest Joshua Sheehan of RV Gear and Far, explore topics ranging from key RV gear recommendations, such as the Micro-Air EasyTouch thermostat and gas stop safety device, to practical solutions like motion-activated LED nightlights and digital photo frames for personalizing your RV space. The episode also features a discussion on whether to store personal belongings when transitioning to full-time RV life, alongside exploring the benefits of a digital toll pass system. The featured campground of the week is Thousand Trails Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch in Gunnison, Colorado, known for its scenic beauty. Through valuable insights and personal anecdotes, the episode aims to educate, entertain, and inspire RV enthusiasts to explore and enjoy the RV lifestyle more fully.
Connect with Joshua Sheehan, RV Gear and Far
Fun Fact by Move Mortons on the Move Great article on Selling an RV
Article Sell My RV
Proteng Fire Suppression and detection device
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What is your RV must-have gear? I'm Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Today's guest is going to share some of his top RV gear that you may need or may just want. For those of you new to the RV Life Podcast, my mission is to educate, entertain and inspire you to explore the RV lifestyle. Being full-time for the past three years, I've learned so much and I continue to learn every day. Now, some of that learning came from epic fails, big, major mess-ups, and I try and share those with my audience so that you don't make the same mistake. This podcast was created to pass that knowledge on to you, our listeners. Each week, my expert guests bring valuable information as well as products and services that help you, the RVer. I think the best part of this is a lot of times we can offer you special discounts that help you to afford this RV lifestyle. Now it's time for our fun fact, and that is brought to you by Open Roads Resorts Now. Open Roads Resorts now has five great locations. They have two locations in Montana, one in Idaho, one in Texas and their newest location in Omaha, nebraska. It's called West Omaha KOA, which is the newest addition to the portfolio, and it is great for guests traveling back and forth from the west to the east coast. This summer you can take a pit stop in Omaha. But I think it's more than just a pit stop place. This campground is highly amenitized for all family members, including the four-legged ones. It's the perfect scenic setting. Close to it all. Open Roads Resort now has five great locations. The fun fact today is more of a tip this week For those of you that are thinking about selling your RV, whether you're looking for a new RV or you're thinking about stopping the RV life.
Speaker 1:My friends, tom and Kate from Morton's On the Move wrote an incredibly informative article and it has great suggestions on how to sell your RV. They talk about finding the right time of year to sell the RV, certainly taking great pictures and having a great description. They also say to be honest, share honestly what's going on with your RV, share the maintenance records. They talk about pricing it right and where to list your RV. Now, as many of you know, we are selling our Monaco Dipl and pricing it and finding where to sell it, I got to be honest, was a challenge. So we were introduced by Patrick Buchanan from RV Life to National Vehicle and I called National Vehicle and I spoke to Krista. Krista is an amazing person. She walked me through their whole process. She told me everything that National Vehicle will do to help me sell my RV. And I gotta be totally honest any of our RV podcast listeners know I am all about transparency.
Speaker 1:As she was talking I was thinking this is going to cost a small fortune and I'm out. That was my thought. I got it, totally be honest. So she walks me through everything that National Vehicle does. They help you price it right. They get all your pictures up and added. They help with the description. They have it posted in six different places. They have it posted in six different places. So RV Trader Craigslist, six different places. And the best part, she said, was when someone calls about your RV, they have a call center so they verify those callers. The worst part of selling something is the scammers out there so trying to verify real RV customers. So that alone I was pretty sold.
Speaker 1:Except again, I was still thinking, okay, how much is this going to cost me? And I will be honest, when she said the price, which was under $700, I had to repeat it, thinking it was $7,000. I'd literally said I forget the exact price. I want to say it was $695. And she said $695. And I said $695, not $6,000, because I believe the service is worth so much more. So I've had the RV listed with National Vehicle and it has been an absolute amazing process. I also spoke to Kevin Tadlock, who is the president of the company Again, a wonderful human being. He saw a need in the industry and he is filling it and he will be a guest on the RV Life podcast in the next several weeks.
Speaker 1:Now today we're talking about products that we love, that we use. Our guest has tested products, but I got to tell you one of my favorite products is my fresh tank and this is a cleaner. It cleans and deodorizes your fresh holding tanks, the water supply lines and the fixture, and this is by Clear 2.0. And you can check them out at clear2ocom. It's the beginning of the season for a lot of RVers and it is now time to flush those tanks, get them cleaned and sanitized. To flush those tanks, get them cleaned and sanitized. If you've winterized your RV, pouring all that junk in it, now you could use Fresh Tank to de-winterize Again, really cleaning and flushing that tank out and the lines you can find out company with amazing products.
Speaker 1:Today I'm excited to introduce Joshua Sheehan. He's a thinker, a gear tester, a tinkerer. He's a thinker too, but a tinkerer you don't hear that word a lot. He's a gear tester and a one-man show behind RV Gear and Bar. Embarked on the full time RV journey two years ago with his wife and twin sons and their dog in a 35-foot travel trailer. As the face of RV Gear and Bar, joshua curates a wealth of knowledge on all his channels, offering valuable RV tips, how-to guides and insightful gear reviews. His expertise extends beyond video content, having served as the charismatic host of the RV Entrepreneur Podcast and as the driving force behind the RV Content Creators Mastermind Group, fostering a community of like-minded individuals passionate about the RV lifestyle and content creation. Joshua's journey is a testament to the possibilities of blending travel, family and a passion for sharing experiences in the ever-expanding world of vehicle-based adventure travel. Joshua Sheehan, welcome to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, patty, for that warm introduction, and I'm excited to continue this conversation. We've talked numerous times offline and it's finally time to talk online, and I'm grateful for it.
Speaker 1:I am too, because the conversations that we have like I have with a lot of my guests is so informative. We've got to share it time on the road for the last two years wife, twin sons and a dog. Take us back to the time where you and your wife had this conversation and you decided to go on the road full time. What did that conversation? How did it start? What did it look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we my wife was active duty Air Force and so we had moved around quite a bit overseas in the States since getting married and it was always in the back of our head of we didn't necessarily know where home was going to be once she got out of the military and we had actually met. When I was doing an internship for a college in Idaho, I was working at the military base out there doing an internship with the outdoor recreation program and my wife was volunteering as a wet water rafting guide and they put me up in one of their RVs at their RV park. That was my housing for the six-month internship and so I was living in full-time in an RV stationary before I even knew it was a thing. And now, looking back on that time, I didn't touch a gray or black tank the entire time and I'm now knowing better, wondering what kind of havoc I did to that RV and what they set it all up for me. I didn't even I had no clue what kind of things I needed to be doing, but I think that might've set the seed. And then, a few years later, we were doing the math of how old our boys were going to be when she retired and the fact that we didn't know where we wanted to be.
Speaker 2:Let's just do a big road trip and my kids were eight when we left and it was two part a big road trip to go see the United States, but also exploring where we might want to settle down, and we're actually transitioning to more part-time lifestyle.
Speaker 2:At this point we're looking at buying a house and I think it's going to be a good blend of doing the road trip and setting up our lives in a manner that we can go, take three, four, six week trips and then be able to come home and have the best of both worlds be able to have a little bit more stability in a home base, but then also making sure that we keep our life designed in a way that we can go out and adventure and take trips and explore in a way that's more than just a four-day weekend.
Speaker 2:And I don't know, we can't trace it back to a hey, let's go RVing and someone saying that and having that in our conversation. It just it was there and so definitely for the past six, eight years, that was the plan and we started off with a pop-up camper, because that's what our minivan could tow and we had two pop-ups before we bought our current travel trailer and it's been a wild ride and I've heard someone reference pop-up campers as like a gateway drug into RVing and that was definitely holding true for us of being able to get in easy, quick, cheap, being able to store it in the garage, not have to deal with getting a new tow vehicle, being able to store it in the garage, not have to deal with getting a new tow vehicle, and it's led to now my entire passion and career is now revolved around RVing and RV content creation.
Speaker 1:Wow, yes, and I want to get into that, but I'm still stuck on. The tanks were never emptied, I just, and I think we could leave it.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't think they took out the black tanks and direct plumbed it, as would have been appropriate for that type of thing, because it's just this specific military base. They had rental RVs and they just took one of the rental RVs and set it up at the campground. So I don, some of our RV listeners are new.
Speaker 1:Okay, I know that if I am hooked up to sewer service and I have water, so gray and black tank, I can go. If I'm taking showers at leisure and I because I know I could dump them at any time I can maybe go six or seven days. Look, truth be told, I love my long hot showers. You can't go six months in any trailer.
Speaker 2:No, but I now know better that I shouldn't be leaving my black tank open all the time. Right, you need to fill it up to 75% full and then dump it, and I didn't do any of that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so it's possible they were left open. So again, this is a great teaching point for our listeners. We have a lot of new people there's. The black tank should never be left open. There's a lot of controversy as to whether or not the gray tank is okay to leave it open. So you can look at different people. Some people say absolutely not, bugs will get in, do not ever leave that gray tank open. And some people say, yes, it's fine to leave it open. Do you have any thoughts? I'm putting you on the spot here. Do you have any thoughts on leaving the?
Speaker 2:gray tank. My thought is that this is a debate that we will never settle. It will always be a topic of conversation in forums and I don't think that even if the top three biggest RV companies come out with a recommendation, that it will ever be a settled debate. I personally keep my gray tank closed until we dump and or if we're going to do two or three showers in a row, we'll open it, let it go during the showers and then close it back up, but I don't think this is a B. This one, and then also driving with your propane on, are going to be debates that are never going to be settled.
Speaker 1:So I am, you're right and I think that we can leave it at that. I'm with you. I started closing the gray tank just two of us and we could both take a shower. I like to keep the gray tank closed, especially because before I dump the black tank, I want to dump the black tank and then have the pressure of the gray tank to flush it through. There's our RV listeners' first tip on black and gray tanks. Now you chose a 25-foot travel trailer after the pop-ups, 35. 35 foot, I'm sorry, 35 foot, thank you. I get asked another impossible question. So maybe this is the day of impossible questions. I get asked all the time what's the best RV type for me? And I say to people what's the best house for you? So why did you choose a travel trailer? What was the thinking?
Speaker 2:Sure, we were looking for something that we could afford and we were also looking for something that had both a bunk room with a closable door and a master sleeping area with a closable door. So obviously travel trailers are on the more affordable side of the spectrum. As far as hard-sided RVs with travel trailers, fifth wheels and motorhomes, we didn't necessarily at that time want to be dealing with two different motors, so a Class C with a towed was not really appealing to us. And then it was fifth wheel or travel trailer. Originally we had done some research and we're wanting to tow with a half-ton pickup Again with a half-ton pickup Again, just the not knowing a lot about RVs and towing capacity and payload capacity and by the numbers, the half-ton pickup we chose with this max tow package would tow this RV in towing capacity. But as soon as I towed it for the first time and then I took it out one more time after that I said there's no way that I'm driving the entire country white-knuckling it this whole time. So we ended up upgrading to a three quarter ton gas engine truck, which has been fantastic.
Speaker 2:It was night and day difference in the truck towing the trailer versus the trailer pushing the truck of what we could afford, what fit our need and also as far as the RV, but also then what size truck we wanted to get into. And at that time I wasn't interested in getting into a one-ton truck. If I could go back and give myself advice, I would just get the one-ton truck to begin with and avoid the half-ton moving to the three-quarter ton. And if I couldn't do that, I'd give myself advice of going from the half-ton to three-quarter ton. Just go with the one ton. You're never going to be upset about having too much capacity, especially when we're talking about towing RVs up and down mountains and across the United States. It's all a cost-benefit analysis and you have to decide what works for you, what's available. Truck prices the past few years have been astronomical.
Speaker 2:There's plenty of full-time families I've met that they could tow a 25-foot travel trailer with a half-ton truck and they made it work. So don't let the lack of getting the perfect thing stop you from getting out on the road, because I don't know that I've ever met an RVer that's RVed for any length of time, that has only had one RV. The time in your life is going to change. The space is going to change If you're getting an RV that fits little kids. When you have two or three teenagers in the house you need a different setup, purely bunk space, and then when they leave, you don't need that bunk space anymore and you'd rather have the living space. So I don't think that there's a perfect RV, especially for me and our family, of going through those family stages, of buying the last RV first. It's just, it's not possible at this point in our journey. It's what worked and it worked well for us, traveled close to 20,000 miles in two years and it's served us well.
Speaker 1:So the impossible question with a lot of great advice. And it really does depend. Dan and I have a 40-foot diesel pusher. It's just the two of us. It's great for us and we would go back to a Class A. That's just what works for us. And people know that Dan is dealing with medical issues. So, with coming, you just never know. It's like you said, you never know. So a lot of great advice there for people that are looking for that. What should I buy? There's a lot of things that you shared for people to consider. So thank you for helping with again one of those impossible questions.
Speaker 1:This is the second one in our first 20 minutes of the show, but let's switch gears a little bit. You're a lot like me and you wear many different hats. When I first was introduced to you, you were the charismatic host of the RV Entrepreneur Podcast and you provided so much incredibly valuable information and I invite people to go back and listen to those episodes because that information is still so important. Now, while you're not the host of the RB Entrepreneur Podcast anymore, it is our partner podcast and the new hosts are Jim Nelson, rose Willard and Kimberly Crossland and again, if you're an entrepreneur, I highly recommend it. It is a great resource for entrepreneurs. But now, josh, you just switched gears. You're still very much involved with providing entrepreneurs with resources, information, knowledge, and you started the RV Content Creators Mastermind Group and I had the privilege of actually meeting you in Tampa just recently.
Speaker 1:And what's really interesting about being in the RV world and quote unquote meeting people? We had talked many times. I felt like I knew you. I'd seen you, I'd seen your videos. I felt like I knew you And'd seen you. I'd seen your videos. I felt like I knew you. And there we were, in Tampa just four months ago, and it was the first time we ever met face to face. I felt like I had known you forever. So it's funny, when that happened, we were at that event in Tampa and it was what an incredible event, what an incredible event. It was what an incredible event, what an incredible event. So any listeners out there that are entrepreneurs, content creators, influencers whatever you want to call yourselves these are the events they need to connect with you. So tell people about this idea of creating the RV.
Speaker 2:It was a totally selfish idea. I was beginning my journey as a content creator about four years ago with my first channel, gander Flight, and I wanted to ask some of the people who are further on down that path some questions and get some insight and some advice. And I thought I could reach out to them individually and I may or may not get an answer back in a direct message or an email. But what if I create a space that's a closed room environment so it's not open to the public, but where we can have a mastermind or a conference session on best practices of the things that aren't necessarily forward facing to the community? And so I was like there's got to be something already out there. There's got to be a space where all these people are talking, because the RV community is so interconnected. I can't imagine that channel A is not talking to channel B and they were, but there was no central location where they were, and so I was like, let's see if we can. I'm going to try and create this space. And so a simple Facebook group and started sending out invites on Instagram. There's now 1500 content creators in there and, as you pointed out, we're doing in-person events and connecting all the content creators together and also the industry partners.
Speaker 2:So there's a lot of overlap between brands and aftermarket manufacturers, but there's also not been a lot of historical connection between them and getting them in the same space, and so that's been the goal the past few years, but it basically was selfish. It was like, hey, I want to ask these questions and I'd also like to crowdsource these answers. Let's create a space for that to happen. And it's been incredibly well-received, super beneficial. I don't even know if there's a way we could measure the metrics of how beneficial that space has been for connecting people and getting people started and encouraging them and moving them along down their journey as a content creator. But yeah, it was selfish. I wanted to learn more, so I created a space where I could bring in people who were more experienced than myself and by facilitating that, I got to ask all my questions.
Speaker 1:And I love that you were selfish, because it created an amazing space. A lot of people know, or maybe they don't, but Dan's background is in the entertainment industry. So from the time he was a baby, he was in and around the entertainment industry, behind the camera, in front of the camera, creating content, and that has changed over time, obviously, but it's his field. And when you move into, let's create an RV podcast, let's create an RV YouTube channel. We both have YouTube channels as well. What's different about that? Because there are still things to learn and ways to grow, and your group, facebook group, your live event, was incredible. It just is that wealth of value. Has that the value, I feel like, within content creators.
Speaker 1:I talked to a lot of people that are starting out as content creators, for I want to say, most RVers and I don't have the statistics most RVers need to do something to create money, and the go-to is usually let me create content somehow, whether it's a YouTube channel, podcast, a blog, whatever. There's endless ways to create content and a lot of people would ask what do I do? What about microphones? What about this? What about that? I've had people now say I want to start a podcast. Where do I begin? So I think that the need within the RV community is huge for this, and the nice thing is, people are willing to share. I've never seen an industry where people are so willing to help each other and share, and then you've created this environment. There were I don't even know how many people were at that event a couple hundred.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about 40.
Speaker 1:It was packed and I made so many connections. I learned so much from people. I've connected with people that have been on the podcast offering me information and valuable resources, as well as my listeners, so it was an incredible event. Now I happen to not in the area. I'm going to make sure I'm in the area and, again, I want our listeners to know that's how important. So if they're looking at creating content, being an influencer again whatever they want to call themselves, people who have affiliate programs they want to be affiliates for whatever product or service. That's an entrepreneur. You're creating content. How can you do that? So I can't say enough about it, because I think that your selfishness has certainly led a lot of people to something very valuable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:I want to go ahead and plug the RV entrepreneur side of that as well, because a lot of times someone who's interested in creating content is going to search that out and they want to be content creators and go down that route.
Speaker 2:But there's this entire other sector of just the rest of entrepreneurship, that is, I understand that I have to have a Facebook page and maybe I need to do a few videos, but I'm not like that's not my passion. My passion is providing this service, whether it be taxes or route planning or whatever it may be. Or I have this product that supports the RV industry, or I have this industry that's totally unrelated to RVing, but I want to full-time travel as an RVer. That's where the RV Entrepreneur podcast and Facebook group and community comes into play, because it's not just content creators. So as much as the content creators are part of the RV Entrepreneur group, it's more niched down and I think if we take one step up in the hierarchy the RV Entrepreneur and his sister podcast that realm of community is so much wider that it has. If you're an entrepreneur or a solopreneur or a business owner of any sort and interested in RVing, that's the place to go.
Speaker 1:And thank you for clarifying that that is so important. So, thank you, you said it perfectly, you're absolutely right. And again, I think there's only a small percentage of RVers that said, okay, I could RV full-time, part-time sometime, I've got retirement, I don't need to worry about making money on the road. I think that's just a small percentage. So for the rest of us, there is the RV Entrepreneur Podcast. Thank you for clarifying that. And, to add on, in September, the Hershey RV Show on the 12th, which is that Thursday. That Thursday, the RV Entrepreneur, as well as RV Life Podcast, is now a two-part event where the RV Entrepreneur will be doing the whole day for entrepreneurs that are learning, just like you talked about everything there is to know about business, and then at night it will be the RV Life Live After Party. So information will be coming on that soon. So that's great information.
Speaker 1:Now let's get into. You are a tinker, a gear tester and a one-man show behind RV Gear and Far. So let's, what is RV Gear and Far? Talk about the other selfish reason how did that get started?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so RV Gear and Far is my, I guess my brand. It's a YouTube channel primarily, and also Instagram, tiktok, facebook, all the social media stuff where I'm sharing RV tips, gear reviews and how-tos, and so I really enjoy testing product A versus product B and finding out what's the best use case for an individual user, because the crowd favorite might be perfectly fine for 75% of the RV community, but maybe you fall into that 25% and want to know why you might choose the maybe less popular product for a reason that's going to fit your situation better. And just sharing those insights and those experiments and those perspectives and just gather it. The goal is to create a one-stop shop of places to go. If you are looking to make a decision for RV gear or you'd like to learn some new tips or maybe some hacks of how to make something better, that RV gear and forest is the place to go, and it's originally.
Speaker 2:I was doing a lot of that stuff on my prior channel, gander Flight, but I also had a lot of just regular DIY things and the reason the RV gear and FAR came about is because I was becoming so varied in the things that I was posting to the previous brand that the audience was a bit confused.
Speaker 2:They didn't know whether they were getting backyard DIY stuff or RV content, and sometimes as much as there's a lot of overlap between those two backyard DIY stuff or RV content and sometimes as much as there's a lot of overlap between those two DIYers being RVers and RVers being DIYers.
Speaker 2:There's also a lot of disconnect and through the mastermind group of just talking with other content creators and going to conferences and learning more about YouTube, I decided it would be better to make a more clear lens for the content and say, if it's RV related tips, gear reviews and how to's, then it's going to go here, and then I still have Gander Flight where I can do all the passion projects and the creative outlets that don't necessarily fall into that. But it was just a clear lens for both myself and for my audience of what am I going to get here and it has been absolutely one of the best decisions I've made. It's absolutely humbling starting over from zero, when you've put three years into something, but the amount of feedback that I've gotten because of that narrowing and focusing down of people knowing what they're getting when they come, has been astronomical and I think it was, long-term, the best decision I've made.
Speaker 1:That, yes, and again, that's an entrepreneur content creator. Starting over is a lot, but I have used the YouTube channel, RBGear and FAR. I've looked at your videos, I've used the content, I've used the information and it is so valuable and I'm glad you decided to information. It is so valuable and I'm glad you decided to start over and create this, because there's so much there. Now, when I asked you to be on the show, I was thinking and we said what are we going to talk about? And I'd like to have a little bit of a focus for our listeners. Although we often go in different directions as things flow. I wanted to talk about some valuable products. Again, it's May people are starting out their RV journey. Let's talk about some of the gear that you have used, tested, tinkered with, and I asked you to just come up with five of them. So pick one that you want to start with and let's talk about that gear for our RV listeners.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that is important to remember is that oftentimes, a lot of the content creators it seems like they are full-time RVers, and a lot of the time when you're investing into gear for full-time RV travel, your budget is a little bit higher, because you're going to be using it every day, you're going to be constantly working on it, and so things like a keyless RV door lock are going to be super valuable as a full-time RVer, but if you're going out for two or three, four weekends a year, it may not be a good return on investment for you to put a keyless door lock on your RV. That's being used less often than a full-time RVer, and so, while a keyless door lock is fantastic, that wasn't one of the things we're going to talk about, but I just want to point that out and that there's a difference between sometimes, when you watch a content creator for ideas on new gear that's coming out, make sure that you realign your perspective as to how much you're going to use something versus the cost financial, energy, time compared to what you're going to get out of it, and so this first one is in that realm micro air easy touch thermostat. It's a wifi enabled thermostat that allows me to connect the thermostat in my RV to wifi and then control it from my phone wherever I am. Now, the reason that I invested into this piece of gear, and am also recommending it, is because I can control the thermostat anywhere that I've got, and that's super important because we travel with a dog. I can set it up to where it will give me a notification if the temperatures get outside of a certain parameter, and then, unlike some of the pet monitoring services that just send you that notification, I can actually go in and adjust that setting. So if the fan's not on, I can turn it on while we're over at a sightseeing event or granite.
Speaker 2:You have to have a connection both from the RV and to the RV, but we're getting to the point where that is far more common than uncommon, and so installing this thermostat and replacing the factory thermostat with this micro air easy touch, being able to control it remotely, especially with having a pet in the RV, was super beneficial.
Speaker 2:And then the other really easy thing that we use on it all the time is it's got. You can set both a low end and a high end, so I can set it up to where, if it's cold in the morning, the heat will turn on and if it's hot in the afternoon, the air conditioning will turn on, without me having to manually switch from hot to cold. It just sets those parameters by itself and then you can set it to switch automatically. Because I know with our prior thermostat it was either hot and a temperature or it was on cold and a temperature, and if you wanted to switch it you had to be there to do it, which also means that, depending on where you're at and where the RV is and solar exposure, you could leave at 11 and come back at one and have gone from needing a little bit of heat to now I need the air conditioning and again, especially if there's pets involved, it's been a super valuable piece of gear for us.
Speaker 1:Now, before you go on and I think this is a great piece of equipment I just want to say that you do independent testing. People could see these videos on your YouTube channel, rv Gear and Far. I want to lead people to that, so they're independent. You've tested these and again I'd like that. You said not everybody needs all these products.
Speaker 1:So for me, living in an RV I don't have a pet I do set the thermostat. If it gets to a certain temperature the air will kick on. There are times where I leave in the morning and it's 40 degrees and I need some heat. By the afternoon I need the air. It's not as important for me. The thermostat that I have works fine. So to your point and I'm not sure what those costs, I think the cost that I think we're both trying to make is a lot of people when they start RVing and they hear about these products, they go out and buy a bunch of stuff, a bunch of gear, and then they say it wasn't necessary, it costs a lot of money. So that's, I think, the caution here. But if you have a pet or I know there's older people that have somebody that's in the RV more that maybe can't control the thermostat. This sounds like a great product. Okay, what's next on your list?
Speaker 2:The next is ramp levelers. There's a couple of companies out there that make these, but they're basically wedges that, especially if you don't have a self-leveling system so we're talking travel trailers and some fifth wheels you roll up onto this wedge and it allows you to incrementally stop to get your RV level. We've all seen the stacking Lego blocks by pretty much every RV company out there makes them in every different color, and those are fantastic. I don't think that these would necessarily suit those blocks, like if you're going to have only one. Those blocks are so versatile that you should have those first.
Speaker 2:But these ramp style levelers are a unitasker. There's really only one thing to use them for, but they do it so well that it is something that I would personally choose to invest in. And so it's basically a wedge that you shove under the wheels, you roll up onto it and then, when you're level, you stop, and then you get out and you chalk the other side, and it just has significantly reduced the amount of time it takes us to level because we don't have to go back and forth. If we're off, we just roll a little bit more. We don't have to go all the way off. Add another block, come back in and it's made the setup time and the setup process significantly faster and significantly easier.
Speaker 2:The big brand name folks are going to recognize is Anderson. Those are the red ones. I personally use the Beach Lane ones. You can find them on Amazon and they're black. I did a video comparing the two of them and ultimately they're both good products, and now there's tons of other companies that are coming out with the same thing, because the merit of that style of using a ramp to ramp up and then wedge it in is super, super convenient and super efficient, and so, yeah, those are definitely an easy recommendation for me of just that style of leveler.
Speaker 1:And I watched that video and it was a very cool video. Now my question is and maybe this is a dumb question, but I guess as a teacher I always said there's no dumb question- Agreed.
Speaker 1:So okay, so we're good. So we have a class A, but it's 40 foot and there's a leveling system, but it's 22 years old, so you know what that looks like. It also has a. It's a tripod leveling system. So there are three. Probably the dumbest idea I've ever seen. There are times where we've needed to to get one of the wheels up higher. Would this work on a Class A to level a side? It?
Speaker 2:depends. So the wedges are rated at anywhere from 30 to 35,000 pounds. So if you think about how much weight is going to be on one single wheel in the front, you probably would be okay using them and what it's hard to say, but what you might also, what might also be more beneficial for you, is to raise it up higher than you need to go, add some of those Lego blocks underneath and then set it down, because having that hydraulic lift system is super beneficial and being able to control it. But we also know that the actual automatic leveling part of it is not always accurate. So what I would suggest for you is you definitely could. I think that they would work. Especially you have a lot of weight. You have a diesel pusher, so, yeah, the front wheels definitely would be. So it would also depend on which campsite you're at right, like, do you need to raise the rear or do you need to raise the front? So yeah, I definitely they're a no-brainer for fifth wheels and travel trailers. Motorhomes would be a more gray area.
Speaker 1:It's a maybe, maybe, okay, we'll give it a maybe. Maybe when we're at a campground together you could try it, although, again, that RV is being sold because there's hydraulic push a button and everything's level Sounds like a great idea. Okay, so we have some more product. What would be or gear as you call it, and I love that term what would be your next piece of equipment that people may or may not need, but that you've tested and you like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the next one is a gas stop. So we hear countless. Everywhere you go looking on RV forums, you're going to hear about the necessity for a water pressure regulator, knowing that the pressure of the water supply systems at RV parks throughout the country varies so drastically that you want to make sure you protect that water coming into the RV so you don't blow anything up with pressure in the plumbing lines. But we have not been hearing enough about propane systems and it may be a diverging topic in the coming years because a lot of our viewers are now coming without any propane appliances at all. But the gas stop it looks like a gauge that would measure the amount of propane in the tank. Okay, but that is.
Speaker 2:I think that is their major downfall in the product design. Is that? It looks like that but actually what it is? A manual shutoff switch that if there's a catastrophic event of too high of a flow, there's a manual piston that shuts and it turns off the propane. So you install this at the propane tank either there's some for onboard propane and then also for the portable propane tanks and you stall at the tank, in between the tank and the RV, and then, if there's a catastrophic event. This manual shutoff turns off the propane and I tested it. I hooked up a sacrificial propane hose to my outdoor kitchen and I cut it with a knife and it shut it off.
Speaker 1:So it's kind of one of those things where you question.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of one of those things where you question why is this not coming? Like you go to an RV show or through the campground, just peek underneath you can see propane lines running below the frame or attached to the bottom of the frame and if there's a catastrophic tire blowout or something and that starts spinning around and you happen to forget to turn off your propane even if you're not running your fridge or anything else like if there's still propane flowing through those lines, there's a possibility for a catastrophic event and gas stop is just a manual shutoff valve, an event of a propane emergency. So I really like them.
Speaker 1:Yes, that seems like a simple solution. So we don't hear about catastrophic propane incidences happening often, but when they do, again it's catastrophic. So why not use something this simple? You're right. Why aren't they being put on at the factory? And again, a lot of the major I know with the Class A's they're not really using propane anymore. Very rarely are they using propane. But something I want to add here and again, this is about gear that is helpful and for safety reasons. There is a National Indoor RV Centers we are very much connected with and they offer a product that's called ProTang and it is tube-like. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 1:So, maybe you could talk more on it. But the way I understand it, I've seen them, I've touched it it's a tube-like thing. It almost looks like a kid's big, thick, low-light type thing and they are installed on the bottom of the RV and again, you could probably talk more about this. And if there is heat before a full-on fire breaks out, these things have a system to suppress that heat and that fire in an RV. And I think that is just amazing because we've all seen the RV that goes up very quickly. So do you know about these? Protang, can you talk Again? We had talked about this.
Speaker 2:I can't talk on them other than I've seen them at the trade shows and know the basic premise about it, that it's a passive fire suppression system that needs to be custom installed on each RV. It's not something that you can order and then install, because it's like seamless gutters they form it to fit the actual space that they're installing it on, with the idea that when it gets to a certain temperature or heat point, that tube melts and releases the fire suppression inside.
Speaker 1:Okay. And again, I've seen the actual tubes. I've talked to Brett Davis from NIRVC that has these and does install them. And again we talk about gear. And what gear do you need and how much money do you spend? These types of things sound like a great safety. Now we're talking about safety. Even the thermostat you're talking about that's safety for an animal that's left in the RV. So these are some good products for people to think about.
Speaker 1:Now I do want to take a little bit of a break because, talking about products and services, I do want to take a little bit of a break because, talking about products and services, I have got to talk about the Open Roads Fuel Card. I don't know if you're familiar, joshua, I didn't ask you, but the Open Roads Fuel Card used to be called TSD. The card is free. You could get the card. It's free to get and then you have an app on your phone and you can find diesel fuel around the country and you could see what the price is. I have saved anywhere from a few cents a gallon probably five cents a gallon was the lowest all the way up to sometimes 80, 90 cents a gallon Now in a hundred gallon RV or even in your truck, even in a pickup truck that has diesel. That's a lot of saving. And Dan and I love this card. We had it before we even started our RV journey and it has saved us so much money.
Speaker 1:And that's Open Roads Fuel Card and you could see the link in the show notes. It's openroadscom, but more recently they came out with the innovative tolling solutions and that's through Open Roads as well. It covers all 48 states, costs $24 a year. Best part the concierge service. So if you get that toll fine, like I did in Texas, I did get to the toll message soon enough and I got a fine. If you do get a fine, they have a concierge service that'll help you deal with it, so you don't have to worry about paying these fines.
Speaker 1:Now you want to talk about testing something. Dan and I have had this pass for four months, probably more than four months. We're, I believe, the first ones to have the OpenRoads innovative tolling and we have used it and it has been amazing. We could drive in our RV. We can drive separate in our car or have the car attached to the RV. Either way, this toll pass works fantastic. So I highly recommend that information in the show notes. But let's get back to you, josh, and what is your next product you want to talk about?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So these last two are not RV-specific gear and I can talk about them simultaneously. One is motion-activated LED nightlights that come in a red light. Getting up in the middle of the night and having to go to the bathroom, it's going to happen, but having to turn on one of the bright LED lights that come standard in RVs is a bit more of a jarring experience. So these little motion activated lights they only come on when they sense motion and you can set them up to have a red light so it saves your night vision. It's less drastic but when one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. So it gives me a walkway to get to the bathroom and it's just been a little bit more pleasant of having than having to turn on those extremely bright led lights that come in all rvs and just making it so that also, again going back to the pets thing, the motion activated means that it's not on all night, so the dog doesn't have to sleep with the light on, but it turns on when we walk past and need to get to the bathroom, so we're not stumbling over things, because oftentimes it happens to be when we're doing an overnight boondocking spot on the way to somewhere else. That's when your schedule gets messed up and you wake up a bit more during the middle of night. That's also going to be when there's stuff in the main living area because you didn't unpack, you didn't set up, and so being able to avoid those and not have a tripping hazard or an incident which then falling sucks any time of day, but especially in the middle of the night, in the dark, and now you're on the ground with no light. So these little motion LED lights they're pretty inexpensive and you can get two for less than $30. And then there's ones that you can plug into 120 volt power If you have an inverter, it'll work all the time or just when you're plugged into shore power. Or you can get battery powered ones and just remember to charge them every two or three weeks. I've had good success with those.
Speaker 2:And then the final one is RVs. Take us to a lot of really cool places and there's a lot of awesome scenery and experiences that we have. But there's also not a whole lot of wall space to display those memories, and so our family has really enjoyed having a digital photo frame set up in the rig. It gives it a nice dedicated place where we can send photos or upload them. A lot of them are Wi-Fi enabled, but they also have a spot where you can put in a memory card, so you don't have to be connected to the internet for them to work.
Speaker 2:You can load the photos in from previous trips or family members and you can set it up so it's a slideshow, and basically every one minute, two minutes, five minutes, whatever you set the settings at, it'll rotate through and display a new photo, and so it's a really cool way to put up all those photos in a way that doesn't take up a whole lot of real estate on the walls, and or trying to get pictures shipped to us as we're traveling through the country is a bit of a harder thing than living in a sticks and bricks with a solid address, as well than living in a sticks and bricks with a solid address. It also has a timer function, so it's not blasting through the rv all night as well, and it's really just added a lot of value being able to send those photos of our travels back to the photo frame and have them make the space a bit more homey wow, and so I gotta admit I was laughing when you were talking about the night light and trying to get up and tripping and falling on your face.
Speaker 1:I I think a lot of us can relate to that. The more I would try to get up out of bed and work my way to the kitchen in the dark, the quieter I tried to be, the louder it was. So the tripping, the falling, the whole nine yards. And yes, exactly, and you got to laugh sometimes because you're in such a tight space. And now here you are falling and making noise and waking up everybody.
Speaker 1:Now the digital frame. I've seen them many times before, but I never thought about that in the RV. It's a great idea. Dan and I together have five kids and nine grandkids. Where do you put all these pictures? I'd love that as a solution, great solution. Now, all of these products that you have tested, and more, are on the YouTube channel, rv Gear and Bar. So you talk about fire extinguishers, how to check them, anti-theft systems, carrying bikes, maintaining your water heater. That's just some of the wealth of information I found on your YouTube channel. So I encourage our listeners to check out your YouTube channel, which is RV Gear and Bar and I will put that in the show notes and we're not done with you yet, but I do want to let our listeners know is there anywhere else they can get to? You did say you know all your different channels, so is there one central location that we can send the website RV Gear and Far will get you links to all of it.
Speaker 2:But Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all the social media platforms, RV gear and far spelled out A-N-D.
Speaker 1:Okay, good to know and I will put that again in the show notes for people to get all of this information. But now it's time for a question of the week, and the question of the week is brought to you by Open Roads. Innovative Tolling Again, that toll pass. I talked about all 48 safe. You have to check this toll pass out All of the information in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Today's question came from Christian W of Pottstown, pa, and I met him and his family standing in line at the ice cream shop. Yes, I needed an ice cream sundae and a lot of times people stop me because the Jeep has Montana license plates. I could talk about that in another time. But he said hey, are you from Montana? No, we have a business there. That's where our RV and Jeep are registered. But anyway, we got talking and they're going full time Now. It just seems like the theme of this RV Life podcast episode of the Almost Impossible Questions and between you and I, joshua, maybe we could come up with some answers for Christian and his family and the question was how much stuff should we put into a storage unit in the event that the full-time RV thing doesn't work out? Joshua, I'm going to throw that to you first.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks for that Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you, you're welcome.
Speaker 2:I think the most pressing question is what kind of ice cream did you get?
Speaker 1:Okay, so I got a chocolate ice cream with walnuts, cherries and whipped cream.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay. So I think I'm going to be a little bit of an outlier, in that we knew that RVing full-time was not like the next entire life chapter. It was a means, to an end, of finding the next home base. We also had some benefits with the military and we ended up storing a bunch of our stuff in long-term storage for the past two and a half years. I also think there's a lot of value in not selling the farm and getting rid of the cow and just to go to try this out.
Speaker 2:I think there's a difference between someone who's never RV'd and is going full-time and someone who has RV'd for the past 10 years and then wants to go travel more and using the RV to do that. They've got a bit more knowledge of what's coming and what it's going to be like. I don't know. There is no answer to this question because it's going to depend on the people. It's going to depend on their situation and their chapter of life. So I guess maybe what I'll do is just throw out another option of something that I've come across full-timers doing that is a blend and a stepping stone is that they take all of their personal belongings the photos, the antiques, the family keepsakes and they put those in a storage unit and then they've rented out short-term rental of their house for the next six months to see whether full-time RV life is something that they want to continue long-term. And then they went ahead and they sold the house nine, 12 months later. It's a bit more complicated. There's a little bit more risk, I'm sure, involved in that, and also you wouldn't have any money from the sale of a house to then invest into an RV. So there's a lot of levers to pull in ways we could go about this, but maybe just throw that out, as another option is maybe you can stair-step yourself into it, rent out your house and then also have that option that if you don't like it you can go back.
Speaker 2:Because as many case scenarios as we've seen of people that have never RV'd before, they never even owned a pickup truck, but they bought a one-ton dually and a 45-foot fifth wheel and they just sold everything and hit the road and are loving it. There's also the other end of people that like, ah, this really wasn't what we expected and we'd actually prefer to just go out for two weeks at a time and then come home. And so the hard part. There's no easy way to do it until you do it, because if you rent an RV from one of the RV share crowd-sharing platforms, it's an awesome way to check out RVs and experience the lifestyle a little bit.
Speaker 2:But if you've never RV'd before, there's such a steep learning curve that if you rent an RV for two weeks, you're going to spend 10 out of 14 days just learning how to RV and not really focusing on what RVing is allowing you to go, do and so packing up the RV with your stuff and then unpacking it. There's a lot of work in renting an RV for two weeks that you don't own, and so it's really hard. It's a good step, but it's also really hard to correlate that experience to what it's going to be like if you are full time. So again, you're giving me the trifecta of impossible questions today, because I don't think there's an answer.
Speaker 1:No, there's not. And here's the thing. It's funny because when we talked about doing the podcast, I said, hey, let's talk about products. That was pretty much the extent of our conversation. This is just how the RV Life podcast goes and it just so happened that there was this is the third almost impossible question to answer, but again it gives people thinking points. For me it was a little different In some ways. For me I have a little different take on it. And again, no perfect answer here. I would love for our RV Life podcast listeners to chime in, go to Instagram and Facebook RV Life podcast and chime in on this.
Speaker 1:For Dan and I we had downsized and moved out to Las Vegas, but we still had a house. So we did the storage thing, we did the RV thing. We had decided we were going to get an RV. Four months later I had never been RVing. Like seven days in an RV was my experience. So Sam said let's sell everything and go RVing and I left him thinking he was joking, only to find out he was serious. And so four months of research, watching the YouTube channels, thinking you know what you're doing was our experience level and education level, and so we took a lot of stuff and put it in a storage unit. A lot of that stuff included stuff that was the kids or things that we thought the kids might someday want. I got to be totally honest. We had a storage unit. We needed one big enough and it cost $100 a month. So after 24 months that's $2,400, right, and you go in and you go through the stuff you put in storage.
Speaker 1:I could have bought most of this stuff two times over. So that you have to figure out too and again, it is an individual decision. Now I did have, like you said, the memorabilia and things like that. I also found where a lot of stuff that I was keeping and thought I wanted and someday somebody would want I ended up getting rid of because nobody wanted it. So there's again those things to consider. Is it worth 50 to $100 a month? It may be. You may have expensive pots and pans and whatever.
Speaker 1:But again, a lot of times for me, I just knew that I could have bought most of that stuff a number of times over. I just knew that I could have bought most of that stuff a number of times over. We did sell the house, so we didn't have a house to rent to keep some of that stuff in. So there are a lot of options and I don't know that there's any one answer. And a lot of times you say I wish I had done that after. That's the answer to that. A lot of times you say I wish I had done that after. That's the answer to that. But if our RV community and your community wants to chime in, that would be great to hear different thoughts on this third impossible question of this episode.
Speaker 2:And I'll throw in something that we did. U-haul brand has their own storage units, climate-controlled indoor storage units, and we actually found one that had a second-story storage unit. So you had to have one of those movable ladders and you move it up there. But it was a five by five. So it was perfect to keep our photos and all of those irreplaceable things in a climate-controlled area. But we found it less expensive because it was on the second floor. We had to take this ladder to get the things up there, but for us it's not a unit that we were getting in every other month, like maybe once a year, to go grab something for Christmas decorations when we're at my folks' house. So that was a really good way and I think it started out, patty, at $6 a month. I think it ended up closer towards $10 a month.
Speaker 2:But because it was inconvenient. And on that second story, but to us it didn't matter, that meant no one's going to mess with it and it's climate controlled and indoor storage. So that's another thing to look out is maybe if you find one of those large indoor U-Haul or other brands of storage places, they might have some more quote inconvenient places to store things. But that's perfect, for what we're trying to do is we're just trying to long-term store a small amount of keepsakes, because I could have left stuff at my parents' house or the in-laws, but it would have been outside in the garage and it would have been hot and cold all summer, all winter, and so that was a really good solution, inexpensive solution that worked well for us. That I'll throw out as another alternative.
Speaker 1:Right, and I'm going to add you're talking about pictures and that was something when we were going through the house and again, dan's kids, my kids, five kids and grandkids, there were boxes and boxes of photos. And anybody today that's not doing digital photos I don't know what it's like to print a picture these days but also to take the photos that you have, the old photos and have them digitized or digitize themselves and then, like you said, you could use that photo frame and even run some of those older photos through. So there's another solution for people, because how many boxes of photos are we storing? Good, they're stored. Okay, we've helped solve the possible questions, thank you.
Speaker 1:But I want to talk now about the featured campground of the week, and this campground is by ELS and it is a Thousand Trails campground. It's actually called Thousand Trails Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch Never heard a campground called that and it's located in Gunnison, colorado, so it's a perfect time to start thinking about heading up there. This campground has 350 sites, full hookups, pull-through sites. It does have access for big rigs, it has cabins and on-site rentals. Now I have not been to this park, but I chose it because I've heard so much about the beauty in the park and around the park, and I've heard a quote about this park that this person said it is like being in a postcard every day. How could you say anything more about a campground and an area? It does have a 6.8 rating with 105 reviews. It is a newer campground to the Thousand Trail system.
Speaker 1:Now you could find and book campgrounds by visiting campgroundrvlifecom. It is the most comprehensive source of RV parks, campgrounds, resorts, as well as city, state national parks and corpse of engineer properties. Rv Life Campgrounds is part of the RV Life Pro suite of products and you can get to campground reviews by just doing campgroundsrvlifecom or go to rvlifecom for more information. And because you're a listener of the podcast, you can get 25% off by typing in the code RVLifePodcast. How easy is that? Now, joshua, unfortunately we have to end the podcast. We have to bring it to an end, but I do want to thank you so much for all of your incredible information, helping to answer the impossible question today, and the wealth of information that you have both on your YouTube channel, rb gear and far and that is spelled out when you go to RB gear and farcom, as well as your content creator, mastermind group, and again, all that will be in the show notes. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, patty. I really enjoyed this, and thank you for having me, and please be sure to send my regards and my well wishes to Dan.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I appreciate that and for our listeners, you can reach out to Joshua directly. You can reach out to me. We love hearing from you guys, so don't be shy about reaching out with comments, questions, thoughts and anything you have on your mind. Reach out to us. And on that I'm going to say you've been listening to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Patti Hunt and I want to remind you to have a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.