Keeping vintage RVs safely on the road
Adam Blair works to keep vintage RVs on the road and traveling safely and has some great tips or people interested in buying or restoring an RV. Adam has worked on thousands of vintage trailers and his tips can keep you safe and in great style to boot.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Tony’s coverage of the FMCA Convention in RVBusiness
We met some fellow RV content creators at the FMCA:
Our podcast guest, Adam Blair, hails from Avalon RVs
Highlights from our visit to Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and Dollywood in Tennessee
Our RV gadget review of the Omnia Oven
Tony’s RV review of the Alliance Avenue All Access 22ML
StressLess Camping podcast group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StressLessPodcast/
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Podcast transcript
This is an AI-generated transcription of this week’s episode:
Welcome to the Weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into Stressless camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some Stressless camping.
Welcome to the Campfire.
I'm Tony.
He's Tony. And I'm Peggy
<laugh>. And we are two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
In a small trailer
Coming to you from the forest, looking to share big adventures
And help you with great tips, tricks and discounts.
Yep. We are in a forest in Alabama.
Yes, it's lovely here. It's the Oak Mountain State Park just south of Birmingham. And it's lovely. And our starlink works.
<laugh>. Yeah, I was, I think in the next couple weeks we're gonna talk about internet, but yeah, even with the trees, I am just blown away that we're able to use starlink. But anyway, we have some news.
Yeah, news. It's been a while. I think we, I think we attended the last California RV show in 2019. Yeah, it was in Fontana in those days.
<laugh>. Yeah, it was, it's been two years and it had recently moved. It was only in Fontana for two or three years because it was always in Pomona and it's back in Pomona this year. Yeah.
The California RV show is an actual RV industry show as opposed to a dealer show. And the difference in that is that the RV industry brings out, you know, all of their rigs to show you they are gonna be doing something very different this year. What they're gonna be doing is they're gonna be segregating the RVs by category. So if you wanna find, if you want to compare travel trailers, you can do that. If you wanna look at the Class Cs, you can do that. That's nice. Yeah. That's brilliant.
And at this juncture we have plans to be there. We are not completely sure.
Yeah.
But we're kind of sure it kind of clashes with something else, so we have to duke it out. So, you know, we've been at the F M C A convention and we got to run into some friends old and new.
Yes. That was great. <laugh>. Yeah, it was great. Jennifer and Eric stopped us while we were shopping <laugh> and said that they were listeners. So that was fun.
We got to spend time with Bill Ellsbeck again, which is always a big pleasure. In fact, we are looking to plan a joint trip perhaps
Yes. Coming up. Yes, yes. Later this year, we also got to meet Dawn Polk from RV Education 1 0 1.
Mark and Don Polk do a really terrific job with RV Education 1 0 1. And so it was really a pleasure to meet Don. Mark was busy working on stuff <laugh>, but we gotta meet Dawn. We also bumped in a couple times to Kenny and Sean from Beyond the Wheel. Yep. They have their podcast and they were actually doing live feeds, I think every morning and every afternoon at the convention. So they were busy, busy guys.
Yes, they were. And we also gotta meet Brad and Lori and my gosh, this is like, Romper Room <laugh>.
Where's my magic mirror? Was that Hobo Kelly?
No, that was Romper Room.
Was it? Okay. Oh yeah. All right. We also got to spend all that time completely off the grid, which <laugh> through the parking volunteers at the FMCA for a loop, because most of the people there are hooked up to shore power, even though they have Class A rigs. In fact, this was a bus show, let's be honest.
We had requested, cuz it was on the application that we get into this section that had no generator usage. And we did with two others. <laugh>.
Yeah. There were a total of three people in the no generator section. And this, I guess week that we were there. It was cloudy and rainy and cold. And you know, it's all the weather that people say, well, how's your solar gonna work in that weather? Well work
Fine. It worked fine. And we even ran the star link, which we have been told is an absolute power hog. So being able to run starlink the whole time on solar is a testament to how great the power package from ABC Upfitters really is in this rig.
And in fact, bill was there, our fellow mini light friend who has the ABC Upfitters package installed in his RV. And one of the things we can both attest to is we were able to fully recharge our systems every single day. So it, it just, you know, the thing is it just works, right? It's a system that you don't have to worry about that provides great off-grid functionality without needing to fiddle and worry with it and all of that.
And that, that says a lot because as you know, RVs are fiddly
<laugh>,
The systems from ABC Upfitters are engineered by the company and installed properly with all the right wiring and all the, all the bits and pieces to make them work. Right. So if you want a system that, well, it just works. Give ABC Outfitters a call or check out their website. They've been great partners of ours and we really like the things they're doing.
Indeed. This week we got to talk to Adam Blair from Avalon RVs about how to maybe take your vintage trailer and make it safe, not only by repairing and replacing the vintage parts, but also to do some upgrades. So let's hear from Adam today. We are happy to have Adam Blair with Avalon RVs from Benicia, which is in the San Francisco Bay Area. Adam, thank you so much for hanging out and taking some time to talk with us.
Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Thank you for having me.
So we got introduced to you by Engel Bull, who some of our listeners will remember, had a great hack for getting into some of the national parts. Yeah.
Right.
And he has a vintage Airstream and he said, well, Adam's the guy who keeps that rolling. Right. And so let's talk vintage trailers. If you happen to find a great vintage trailer, what are some of the things you should be looking at to make sure that everything is safe?
I would say unfortunately, that most vintage trailers that are being sold are not necessarily safe. That you really need to look at many things to determine they're safe. And and I approach it from, from the beginning of, it needs to go down the road safely cuz they're planning on moving it around. So you have right tires and, and we can go through the these in more detail, but you have tires and bearings and spindle nut, how tight it is. The lug nuts if they're tightened down, brakes, breakaway, switch battery.
How, how secure the tanks are. I mean, it, it just goes on and on. But it is
A big list. It
Is <laugh> and each one of those things has its own set of requirements of what makes it safe. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But when you're looking at buying a new or a, a used vintage trailer, I recommend customers go out there and touch everything that they're going to be using every cabinet door, every window, every door, and getting an assessment from every appliance. Try to turn things on and off electrically with the propane system, all of those things.
Cuz then you have an assessment of what's working, what's not, what's happening is the seller not showing you something that you do wanna see. All of those things are factors. And you don't have to be that trailer savvy to go in there and just start saying, okay, help me turn on the water heater or help me. Right. You know, turn on this fan. Whoever's selling it should have a pretty good idea how those things are working.
And then, you know, if it's functional, functionals the first part, safety is not as clear to people that aren't electricians or that are familiar with the requirements of, uh, propane to make sure it's safe. And so those things, most likely new buyers are gonna want to go buy a shop and have someone take a look at those details to make sure that they're safe. One thing that a new buyer absolutely can do is take a look at the tires, see if there's cracks.
They can check the date code on the side of the tire to see how old the tires are. They can inspect for other issues of the tire if they're overinflated underinflated. I've picked up trailers that were absolutely completely out of air where the trailer's literally sitting on the ground rotting and I've been able to put air in those tires and drive it home.
So just because it looks bad doesn't mean it's completely bad or without merit. But you have to know. Right. I mean, I know a little bit more than the average buyer and I know what I can be careful of and take chances with. And whenever I move a trailer for this first time, I want to jack it up a little bit, check how much plays in the tire to make sure the bearing's okay. And then if I decide to take it as is in that condition, I just drive it down the road, maybe a couple blocks, and then I go back and I put my hand on the wheel and I check for temperature.
I'm looking to see if the bearings have heated up, if the grease has been a problem. Ideally you would repack the bearings before you get going, but that's not always possible depending on where you're picking it up from. So I'm just mindful.
Yeah. Yeah. We've backed into sketchy lots and hauled trailers out of them before <laugh> and you're just woohoo. And, and heading out <laugh> just because somebody wants it off their lot or whatever. Right,
Right.
<laugh>, so one of the things that I have found with that is if you do find a vintage trailer, the stuff I like to bring are obviously basic tools, but also an inflater, like a mm-hmm. <affirmative> tire pressure Inflater. Yep. Compressor, I guess. <laugh>. Yeah. And then one of those battery jumpstarters, because they don't always have batteries in 'em. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. And so you can check lights and, you know, some of the 12 volt stuff with that.
Yeah. That's a great idea.
So how did you get into vintage trailers?
I met a fellow back in 2004, 2005, that was a vintage collector. He had probably 20 or 30 vintage trailers, <laugh>. And he was into the more unique, the more rare that's what he wanted. And there's a few guys like that in California and around the country that just collect. Yeah. And he had a quasi business around it as well as mostly for himself.
But he was doing some work for people that he was meeting because, you know, it was, it was pretty rare back then. It was very new. And he and I met and I started, I, I already had another job, but I started just helping him out on the weekends. I was interested in it. I grew up with my parents having an rv. We traveled the country Canada into Mexico and we went across the states many times. I loved the rv, but it was never, ever on my radar that this would be my career.
Never crossed my mind.
<laugh>.
Prior to this, I was in the custom home product industry. I was doing custom doors, custom windows, custom cabinetry. I did electrical stuff on my own. I liked working on cars. And so I had hobbies and my profession that were appropriate to jump into this field. I had no idea hobbies
And also skills. <laugh>. Yeah.
Yeah. And so when I met, I was like, wow, I really enjoy doing this. But it never made sense to leave my job. I mean, I, I had a family uhhuh that I took care of and it was just kind of fun for me at the time. But then as I worked with him, I kept seeing Airstreams come by. Uh, and he would talk to them and he'd say, no, no, we're not working on them. Or he would work on a couple of them. And I kept asking him, how come we don't do more of these? There's a lot of them coming by and I see them everywhere, <laugh>.
And he just wasn't interested with them. It just wasn't his, the style of RV that he wanted to get involved in.
They weren't rare and crazy enough.
<laugh>. Yeah. I've literally worked on thousands of Airstreams over the years. Thousands <laugh>. We've counted them up and it's like pushing 2,500, 3000 Airstreams that I've Wow. Either, you know, just done little repairs on. Right. It doesn't always have to be a big job, but I've touched a lot of Airstreams and I've worked on a lot of canned hams. I've worked on a lot of the long trailers. I mean, there's a lot of variations in between that. But can ham is kind of a general term for a lot of the, the stick and twin build trailers. Yeah. So anyway, he, he didn't wanna do the Airstreams and I saw it as an opportunity and asked him to do it with me.
He didn't want to. And so then I started my own business in his space. We traded <laugh>, we traded my time to work on his trailers to rent some of his space for me to work on my project. So that's where I started. We did that for Cool a year or two. And then I just, my opportunity just blew up. It just became this bigger deal. And so I ended up getting my own shop and then that grew and then I moved to another shop. Yeah. Yeah. So that's kind of my beginnings
And Airstreams are so hot. What got you to focus on vintage Airstreams?
You know, I, I absolutely love the vintage market. I have all kinds of favorites between the holiday house and the Clippers from Silver Streak. I've had probably 15, 20 vintage trailers over the years that I, I just had to have. And then I had it and I used it with my family. Airstream is just kind of the emphasis of what I've worked on. And most people, most shops don't want to work on the older Airstreams, but we get tons of Canham trailers that come through the shop.
It's just SRMs are unique and they're set of problems. There's so many curves that cabinetry is really complicated.
<laugh>.
Yeah. And I tell everybody, there's only one straight line in an Airstream cabinet and it's the front, the floor isn't flat, the walls aren't flat, the ceiling's not flat. And so there's a lot of scribing and details. Hence why, you know, we're a custom cabinet shop is cuz we're building a lot of custom shapes. Yeah. And that's my background. So we, it just fits like my interests. And there's so many of 'em. They say that there's around 70% of every Airstream that's been built is still on the road or Wow.
At least sitting somewhere <laugh>.
Yeah. Yeah. Still in existence.
If you do find that vintage airstream now we've, we've gone over the wheels and tires and such. Anything else that you might really look at the choose tend to see more frequently?
I have a list of, of what I recommend to people that either own an vintage rv, not, it's not Airstream specific, it's pretty much any trailer Barings tires, brakes is the next one. Most RV owners, trailer owners don't always realize that they need to have a brake controller in their tow vehicle if they don't have a brake controller mm-hmm. <affirmative>, it's not gonna work. There's only a few trailers that have brakes that are surge activated like a boat.
Most of them are electrically activated through the harness. And you have to have a controller in order for that to operate. Also, you need to have a breakaway switch by requirement from the law so that if the trailer becomes disconnected, it's gonna engage. And in order for that to work, you have to have an onboard battery and or a dedicated breakaway switch battery. There's a lot of little things that come up and when I'm teaching this class, I just see everyone's eyes go, oh my gosh, I don't have that <laugh>.
What is that? And so then we start talking about it. And just because you have those components doesn't mean that they're connected properly mm-hmm. <affirmative> that they're working properly. It's a little bit of a step by step to make sure it's all there so that you're safe. The propane tanks on the front of the trailer, it's really important that those are secured down and not flopping about as they go down the road.
<laugh>, I think one of the early things we did to the aristocrat that we had is I put a gas stop on. Yeah. Which is, that's a neat, uh, propane safety mm-hmm. <affirmative> device. I had liked those. We have 'em on this trailer too.
Yeah. You know, Adam, one of the things that you told me is that you also do things that weren't, not that you make sure the existing things work, which is important, but also things that they didn't have in vintage trailers, like carbon monoxide detectors and things like that. And so you kind of retrofit or upfit or whatever the word would be to put in some of those kind of modern, newer safety features into the vintage trailers too. Right?
Yes. I approach it from a, a standpoint of safety on the road and then it's protect your investment and then it's safety components using the trailer itself. And the propane carbon monoxide is one of those safety when you're using it. The propane tanks themselves and the propane lines, propane appliances all have the potential to leak. And so I'm not sure when it came out, but the RV industry introduced, um, propane leak detectors.
And as far as I've seen, I've only seen them as a 12 volt appliance. I've never seen them as a one 20 volt component that you can just plug into the wall. And a lot of vintage trailers don't have battery systems in them. Many canham trailers from the fifties, early sixties did not have a 12 volt system. It was only one 20. And so in order to have a propane leak detector, you have to come up with a a 12 volt system.
A 12 volt system. Huh.
Yeah. So that's a Wow.
So that's a pretty involved addition.
<laugh>, it can be, and we've done many of them, but it is involved because if it's only a one 20 AC system, you need to install a converter. So it's charging the battery you need to install the type, proper type of battery, a fuse panel mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that just gets you, your structure to then add the LP carbon monoxide detector. But then you Right. You can add lights that'll help you with your brake situation. Powered fans, a water pump. It gives you the platform to start updating your RV in a more functional way so that when you're off grid, you have it.
And I've found that a lot of people don't realize some of the early trailers don't have holding tanks at all.
Yeah. Yeah. Something that I absolutely love about what I do, but it is a constant conversation is it's the evolution. I see the evolution of RVs because we work on things back to the 1940s all the way to current. So very modern technology all the way back to zero technology. Yeah. <laugh> trailers that didn't even have any power, no AC power at all. They had hand pumps and they had propane lights, or they just used candles.
I mean, it was very basic back in the forties when people went camping. It was like a hard tent on wheels Yeah. Traveling down the road. Yeah. And so we, we get these projects not every day, but we get them throughout the years and we have to update them depending on what year they were and what level of electrical system they had. And then we modernize them forward or to current, however far they want to go. But we try to hide things like the carbon monoxide detector. We don't want that right out in the front with their beautiful cabinetry or fancy floor.
Yeah. We try to tuck it away meeting the requirements that it will still work properly, but just kind of in a subtle location to keep their vintage look intact, but also make it modern. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Yeah.
And have you done things where you've added holding tanks to trailers that didn't have them?
Yes. So in the early seventies, Airstream, I think it was like 73, 74, Airstream was the innovator of the gray tank. Black Tanks had been around for a long time. If you go back into the late forties, early fifties, they had like a galvanized black tank underneath the toilet. You can imagine those don't last very long, but we've seen a few of those come through. We've seen fiberglass tanks, a bunch of variations to tanks, but black tanks were the beginning. And back then you could just run your gray water out of your sink or shower onto the ground.
You dug a little hole. So gray tanks weren't mandated to make the environment safer, I guess until later. And in the early seventies, Airstream introduced the gray tank. So then there's variations to those gray tanks, the capacity and what they did, and the plumbing changes when you have no gray tank and then you add a gray tank.
Cause before it bypassed the black tank valve. I mean, there's all these little nuances, <laugh>. So Yeah. Anything pre mid seventies most likely does not have a gray tank on it, whether it's a vintage trailer or even a more square style, modern early seventies trailer. And so we've installed many gray tanks into trailers. Technically you don't need one. If you're going to parks all the time, you can just hook it right up to your drain in the ground. So you don't have to add a gray tank.
But as soon as you want to dry camp and not have hookups, then you need a gray tank so that you can clear that
Water. Yeah. And also gray tanks, I think, I, I could be wrong, but it seems like a greater number of vintage trailers didn't have showers. So gray water was just out of the kitchen sink basically.
Yeah. The, depending on the size, some of the longer canham trailers, they, they get 30, 35 feet, like the long, long honeymoon. Right. Desi?
Yeah. Yeah. <laugh>,
This ball, that size trailer, they were more like a park style trailer. And back then those trailers did have showers and bathrooms and kitchens. But they were designed to be in a, in park. Yeah. And they had parks Yeah. Very specifically set up for these vintage trailers to where they would have a communal shower for some of them, communal bathroom for some of them. And if you, if you look at these vintage trailers, oftentimes they'll have a, a curbside door, like where your traditional awning would be, but then they'd have a back door on the street side back towards the bedroom.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, which is kind of an unusual feature. But that was set up for these park style communities that had communal showers and bathrooms. They would go out that door to the bathroom that was close by.
Oh, I thought that was so the boyfriend could escape when the husband, when
The husband came in the, the front door, the boyfriend ran out the back.
That's right. That is the popular.
Yeah. I've seen a bunch of Spartans with that door mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I always wondered why did they put a roadside door on a and so it's been a joke. Like, oh no, that's just, that's the boyfriend door <laugh>. Right,
Right. I love that. <laugh>.
In your world, do you find vintage trailers and refurbish them to sell? Or would people more likely bring you one that they've found? Or how does, you know, if you have got vintage trailer lust and contact you, what, uh, what's the typical situation?
The, the vast majority, 99.9% customers are bringing us a project. Something that they have found, something that they have owned, their grandparent owned or their neighbor sold them. And they're bringing it to us because they usually have tried a couple of things and they realize, okay, we need some help. We have some plans. And, and it's all on different levels if sometimes they just need us to make it safe. Other times they want us to completely empty the interior and start all over with new cabinetry, new flooring, new interior fixtures, appliances.
So there's a huge range of, of what we work on. I've bought, I'd say a couple dozen vintage trailers for myself. That was either something that I just loved the style and I wanted to have it, and then I would just move on to the next one later. Or it was just too good of a deal to pass up, or I just couldn't help myself.
You know, I, I <laugh> I just ha I had, maybe I haven't gotten crazy, but I've had maybe six or eight at one time. And then I realized, okay, this isn't helping me with my business because it's taking up space. And, and so then I start, uh, having my, my guys, my team work on them. Interesting. I started back in 2008 and that was when the market collapsed. And I didn't know that was gonna happen.
So I had just started, the market collapsed. Right. And I saw that the phones stopped ringing. So I bought two vintage trailers to keep my guys busy. I thought, okay, maybe I'll just flip some stuff. But as soon as I bought 'em, things turned around for me. It was about a two week period where things were slow. We immediately got busy again. And it took me, I think three years to get back to those two trailers that I had purchased, because we just got super busy after that.
Wow. And so I've, I've always had them as kind of a backup plan. If things get slower, we need something to work on. I've had other trailers ready to go that we're interested in. Currently we have a 1959 Airstream Pacer, which is pre Bambi. Really tiny one that's just sitting there. I've had it 15 years <laugh>. Wow. And now we're just starting to get after it and start making the, the changes. It's one of my, my last ones that I've held onto, we've had drivable tear drops, big trailers, little trailers.
I mean, uh, it's like a toy store. I just wanna try out all the toys. <laugh>, you were
25th. Yeah. Yeah. I totally understand that.
It's fun.
When we had the aristocrat, one of the issues was finding the proper components for the breaks. The springs apparently were hard to find. Do you have little, well, I guess contact you right? But <laugh>, do you have tricks somebody could use to find some of these parts that may be more challenging?
Absolutely. And when you say springs, are you talking about the springs is part of the break assembly or the
Return Springs? I think on the drum break.
Okay. Yep. On the vacuuming plate, those springs are still available in our area. And the West Coast six Robs is a company that is, uh, axle brake specialist. And so you can reach out to them and show them what you have. Two other things, you can just buy a spring kit on, uh, a break spring kit on Amazon. It'll come with, I don't know, 20, 25 different springs. And almost always one of them is the right one. They're all different shapes and sizes. That's another possibility.
And the, the third option is, I suggest going to or finding your local auto parts store that has some guys that have been around a while. And, and I realize now I'm one of those guys, I'm not the young guy anymore, but I always say the old timers, you gotta find some old timers that don't use the computer, that look at the book, that look at your part, and then they go in the back room cuz they know what that thing is without the year make and model. They just know by experience what it is.
That's the way to find those parts. And, and personally, I have those guys in my life that help me find things when, when we can't. That's the key.
And so it sounds like you're a camper yourself. So we, we have questions that we always ask our guests and the Sure. The first one is, what is your favorite camping memory?
Um, mm-hmm. Can I share it too?
Yeah,
Yeah. All right. So one of my more recent memories is my, our children and my wife and I were traveling up to Oregon on the coast. I think we're, we were either in Oregon or we were just upper part of California. I'm trying to remember what river we were crossing, but we were on highway one, and we go across this bridge and everyone had pulled over, not specifically on the bridge, but before the bridge. After the bridge, everyone was standing on the bridge looking over the side.
And, you know, when you're traveling along, you're not in a big hurry, you're just kind of looking for things to do and see. And so we pulled over and there was, there was some llamas, or I can't remember what the other name of those animals are. Alpacas. Alpacas. Thank you. It could have been either one. I can't tell the difference. <laugh>.
So I thought maybe they were looking at those, and those are interesting. You don't see those every day. But then we went back over to the bridge to see what was going on. And there was a mother whale and her baby under the bridge swimming up the river just a little bit, and then coming back. And then they were just circling underneath the bridge back and forth. And everyone was just watching it. I mean, it was literally like maybe 20, 30 feet below us, this giant, well, and it's little tiny inf I'm not sure what they're called, baby.
Just swimming around. And it was, it was an incredible experience to, to see that happen. So close up. And then, and then the highway patrol came and kind of got everyone to move along. And it ended up being on the news that the little baby, well was confused, I guess, and wasn't leaving that area.
And so the, oh, they were just saying the mother was trying to get it to, you know, go back out to sea or what have you. But that was a, a really memorable thing for our family. And, and to, you know, that that's what we're camping for, right. Is we want to be in nature. Yeah. Yes. And see, create memories. Yeah. So, you know, when I was young, we took way more trips when I was young than we have since I'm an adult. And, and since I've owned my business, sometimes I don't want to go camping.
I don't wanna see the RVs on the weekend <laugh>. Right. And I, I just want to go somewhere where I don't have to do anything with the rv, and I don't have to, this sounds bad, but when we go camping in the rv, I'll hear the neighbors talk about what's going on with their rv or my wife.
My wife will hear what's going on, and she would wanna volunteer me if I don't volunteer myself to go help somebody. And then all of a sudden I've lost my, my camping trip, I'm helping somebody, and then something else comes up and then they find out we do solar. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and everyone just starts talking. And I'm, I'm happy to help everybody, but it doesn't fill the need I have in my cup to <laugh>. Just enjoy myself. Yeah. To get away. Yeah. Yeah. But when I was young, my parents, my dad had four to five weeks vacation, which was a lot back then. And yeah, we would go, as I said to, to Canada, I saw Wolverine, a Wolverine in Canada one time.
I've, oh, I've been very close to face-to-face with many bears, <laugh> in many experiences. But one of my absolute favorites is Yosemite and Yellowstone.
I mean, those are two national highlights that everyone should see. Those are incredible places where you see nature right up front, incredible majestic areas. I can't ever not want to go back to Yellowstone. Every time I think about going, every time I think about taking a trip, I want to go to Yosemite and Hike Half Dome. I love those key places. But it's really the, the little moments, right? It's the little details of where you see something that happens that changes our perspective on who we are and our place in the bigger picture.
That we're pretty insignificant when it comes down to these other creatures that are around us when we're out there. It's pretty powerful. Yeah.
Yeah. Conversely, do you have a worst camping memory?
Worst camping memory? <laugh>,
I like when people have to think about this. Yeah.
<laugh>. Okay. I, I, we had a trip where a few bad things happen. Not terrible things, but challenges. And, and usually, you know, there's always gonna be something you, you've got kids, you've got your whole, you know, life tied up in this little vehicle, and you're hoping you're not gonna forget anything. You're hoping nothing's gonna bad gonna happen. But <laugh>, we left on our trip. We were heading down to Ensenada, my wife and kids. And we stopped at a rest stop to use the bathroom or take a break, I don't remember.
But we get ready to go. And I didn't see our oldest son. I said, where's Jackson? And uh, they said, he is in the bathroom. And I thought he was in the bathroom in the rv. And so we, we take off. Not a big deal. I mean, if you have a drivable rv, sometimes you use the bathroom while you're driving along.
And, uh, so I thought he was in there, but after a while I was like, where's Jackson? And uh, and then we find out, he actually, I think he was, when he was young teenager, he called us on the cell phone saying, Hey, you left me here at the stop <laugh>. And I was like, no way. I thought he was in the bathroom, but it was on Highway five, it was on Highway five, and there's like hardly any exits for a long time on five. And so it was at least 15 miles before the next exit to be able to turn around and come back.
And our son was there at the rest. Stop, you know, fear in our minds. The rest of the kids were afraid for him. We get back and he's up in a tree. He had climbed up a tree. Not high, but high enough.
That was his little spot to feel safe, <laugh> and entertained. I guess that was a scary moment. And then right after that, we pick them up, the tire blew, I had a, oh, a set of tires that were at least maybe a year old. Not even old tires. So the tire blew. And then that was a whole fiasco of getting the spare tire put on, go down the road, gotta find a new tire for the spare. You know, it was just kind of an unfolding event. And then we lost, then they got lost at the amusement park.
We went to the big rollers at Magic Mountain, and two of our kids were lost for a while. And so it was just kind of all these events that were, that were rough. Not necessarily camping, but it was a, a camping trip. Right,
Right. Oh man. <laugh>
<laugh>. It's too bad we didn't meet Adam when we still had the aristocrat. We might still have the Aristocrat
<laugh>. Yeah. It became,
It just became, it was, we were the typical like, oh, we're gonna buy this and we're gonna fix it up and it's gonna be great. And then we realized we didn't have the skills at the time. Yeah. You know, we didn't have what it took to get it done. So we have a friend that bought it and is doing great things with it, but
Oh yeah. It's a lot.
Yeah. That thing, it was interesting.
It was finally, I think we finally learned our lesson though. Like we're maybe we're not gonna
Maybe
Buy a project again. We're Yeah. The next time we're ready to buy something, it's gonna be something that you've already fixed and we're just gonna buy it from you ready to go <laugh>.
Yeah. Or just bring it to your and drop it off at your front door and go call us
When, call us when it's good
<laugh>. Right. You mentioned, you know, that you jumped into it and that's common. Everyone's excited to get into it. You decorate a little bit, you fix a couple of things. Yep. And, and that's where I find a lot of enjoyment is I like doing the systems, but I love seeing what my customers do with the creative designs and themes. You know, it's fun to see people's personalities come out through this little project. It's not the same as our home. It's hard to make your home look like a 1950s diner, but you can do it in a little trailer.
Right. All the paint and details, it's, it's fun to see those things.
Yeah. And then you go to the vintage trailer rallies and you found your people. I mean, it's Right.
Yeah. It's incredible. We have many customers that they're theme or oriented, I'm not sure that's the right word, but they are, yes. They buy a 1950s trailer and then they buy all the things that go in that trailer from the 1950s thermos and Yeah. Light fixtures. But then they'll get the clothes and they'll dress up like it's 1950s uhhuh and all the stuff happens
<laugh>. And sometimes I even see 'em hauling a, with a period. Correct. Car or
Truck. Yeah. Yeah. That's my dream gr car. That's my dream right there.
It's amazing.
Well, Adam, thank you so much for your time and for what you do. And who knows, maybe one day our paths will cross in the real world. Yeah. And
I hope so,
Because we still have vintage RV lust. I absolutely. I also have a Total Jones for an all gmc, I would love to get a 23 foot GMC
GMC Drivable. Yeah. Yeah. I had one of those really fun drives. Great. I, I sold it. Now I actually have an fmc, which was like, oh
Man, a
Competitor. That's my RV right now. Oh
Yeah. With a Chrysler four 40 in the back end. Yep. That yep. Yeah,
The FMCs rear engine Rear wheel drive. The GMC was front engine, front wheel drive. Yeah. I had 'em both at the same time years ago. And it was a thing back in the seventies that they, they competed in advertising and commercials and so I always wanted to have them both do like a drag race or whatever to, to, oh,
There you go.
But I could never get 'em both working at the same time to, to do anything. <laugh>. Alright Adam, well we'll let you Adam. We'll thank you
So much for your
Time. Thank you very much.
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you.
You guys travel safe?
Yeah. Okay. You too,
<laugh>. Take
Care. Take care. So to help you do some of those upgrades that Adam talked about, we wanted to remind you that on our deals and discounts page, we have discounts for a lot of companies that might be able to help you make these upgrades such as techno, RV
Lion Energy,
RV Soft
Start where Safe G ps
Air
Gear Vintage Trailer Supply.
And also we have a link to our Amazon page. Now that's not going to maybe specifically give you discounts, but it doesn't cost you any more to use that link. And it gives us a penny every time you shop. So it's a helpful link for us in a convenient place for you.
Yeah. So if you shop on Amazon and come on, I've seen those boxes. Boxes.
Who doesn't
<laugh>?
If you go to our Discounts and Deals page and click over from there, the link we have to Amazon, it actually sends us a wee teeny bit of the sale without costing you Ascent more. So it kind of helps support the podcast by doing something you are probably doing already. Right.
So we are in Alabama, we've been in Georgia, but on the way here, we stopped in Pigeon Forge slash Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Yeah. And did some sight seeing and played tourists. We got to go to Dollywood. That Pigeon Forge. Gatlinburg. K O a is pretty nice. Yeah, I liked it.
I did too. They have a lazy river
And apparently the water is heated now. The people who went in it say it's not heated nearly as much as the hot tub we were sitting in. And that's what I was hoping. But <laugh>, apparently it's, it's heated. The kids loved it. Kids were playing in it all evening, even though I was freezing, even in the hot tub. <laugh>,
I don't have to tell you, it's been a rather chilly winterish thing.
It's been crazy here. Well, here, I mean everywhere. <laugh>, right. Everywhere we've gone, it's been colder than we thought it would be. But anyway, Gatlinburg is a fun little town to wander around. We did get some super advice. We took whatever bus, the red bus I think took us up the hill and then we got off at the top of the hill instead of riding back down and we walked down the hill.
That was a good bit of
Advice. That was a great tip that the bus driver gave us.
And Gatlinburg is a very touristy town and that's not said as a negative thing at all. There's just a ton of shops and restaurants and all kinds of stuff
And adventures like, like things you can do. There's like a bunch of miniature golf and there's the ride up to the top of the hill and there's that crazy bridge that spans <laugh>. Tony was dying to go on that.
Oh yeah. <laugh> nothing like hanging over a giant canyon <laugh> and there's like lift type of deals to go up. It's kind of a neat thing to go to. I mean, Gatlinburg is definitely worth a stop on your journey if you are anywhere in the area. We really enjoyed all the shops we bought. There's a
Oh boy
Moonshine shop. We bought so much moonshine. Yeah. I mean it lit literally. It's like, I think the rest of our lives worth of moonshine. We got so much, they gave us a cooler
<laugh>, a cooler and a four pack of, what were those called? Like Moonshine? Ritas?
Yeah, moonshine Arita.
<laugh> Margaritas
Made with Moonshine. Was that fond of those? But, but the moonshine was fine. Yeah.
So <laugh> Tony said, do you think we have a problem? And I said, no. This is about two weeks later. No, I think if we had a problem, all the booze would be gone. Right. <laugh>.
Yeah. But there, I mean, you look at Gatlinburg, there's the sky lift if you want to go up, there's Ober Gatlinburg, which is like a cable car thing, whatever, where they hang from a cable. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you go up and, and walk around. There's an aquarium. There's
A Margaritaville
There. Yeah. I was just, well
It's a resort. Yeah.
There's Margaritaville Resort and we went to the Land Shark Bar, which I thought was gonna be like a Margaritaville and kind of,
It was not Margaritaville. No, it's the Land Shark bar. And we didn't go into the Margaritaville Resort because we didn't realize what it was. You know, I think it's kind of a resort, like when you go into one of the hotels in Vegas, it has the bar and the restaurant and the shops and the everything. But we didn't know. We thought it was just a hotel, so. Right. We missed that.
Yeah. And as, uh, if you don't know, I'm a kind of a big Jimmy Buffett fan, so I'm like, Ooh, Margaritaville. And then I specifically hustled to the Land Shark Bar to be there at five o'clock. Cuz you know, I've been to the Margaritaville's where at five o'clock they make a huge big deal. Nothing. They play the song.
Maybe, maybe in Margaritaville,
But maybe, but not at Land Sharks. So Not at Land Shark,
Just so you know, in case you're looking for the Margaritaville experience. Yeah.
Don't go there,
Find it at Land Shark.
Right. Although they had a good margarita, so there you go. Yeah. And also we went into Dollywood.
We did. And that was super fun. And thank you Rose for that. It was great to get to give you a couple of hugs. I'm sorry we didn't get to spend more time, but we always say next time, next time we'll spend more time in town. <laugh>. Yeah.
Dollywood is, if you don't know, it's an amusement park owned by Dolly Parton. And apparently she was on site the day we were there, but as we've said, it's a little chilly and it was a little too chilly for Dolly to come see everybody, but Oh well we also, it's kind of a, a southern setting, so it's kind of stylized as a southern town mm-hmm. Where there's a mm-hmm. Like a carnival. And of course a lot of thrill rides. There's a big steam train that sort of is a, is a ride rather than transportation.
Transportation, yeah. Yeah. It's a neat signature place there in Tennessee. Yeah. So one of the things people go to Dollywood specifically for apparently is the cinnamon bread.
Oh
My.
That is, gosh.
Yeah. It's, it's pretty fantastic. But
It's really butter and cinnamon pretty
Much
With, with bread being the secondary ingredient. <laugh>. Yeah,
Pretty much. Yeah. You even get some cinnamon topping. But our neighbor at the F M C A convention reminded us of the Omnia oven.
So you could make your own cinnamon bread.
Right. So Brad Boondocks exclusively and his RV came with an electric convection oven to bake, you would have to use a generator. So he actually uses this omnia oven and it's a stove top oven. So you could put it on the stove top of your RV or, or at home. What it looks like to me is a bunt pan.
Yeah. But like with an extra bottom layer. So there's a layer that you put on the stove top that kind of captures the heat and then the, the bunt pan sits inside that and there's maybe about an inch gap. So it helps the heat circulate through the, under the bottom and then up through the tube in the bunt. And then he also got the extra baking dish pan part that's non-stick. So he just was able to stack that right into the baking pan.
There's a few Facebook groups for these Omnia ovens and I've seen a number of YouTube videos and people are making pizza, cinnamon rolls, cornbread, which Brad made. He made cornbread. Cornbread. Yep. Meatloaf and entire dinners including pork tenderloin and potatoes right on the stove top. So it's kind of a, a nifty deal if you are not somebody who uses your RV oven. It's small enough to be something you'd logically bring with you in an rv.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And it seems to work well.
Yeah. So for those of you who don't have or don't use or don't like your RV oven, but you still wish you could have fresh cornbread for dinner, there's your answer. Yeah.
<laugh>. There you go. I'm looking at you. Ingle.
<laugh> <laugh> Ingle uses his oven like crazy though. Yes
He
Does. Yes he does.
<laugh>.
So would you use your Omnia oven in your RV of the week?
Well, you could, but it does come with a proper oven Alliance RV is a relative newcomer to the market. They're an independent company that before they built their first rv, they surveyed over 3000 RVers and asked, what do you like? What don't you like? And their very first RV came out of those surveys, but they've been on a tear lately. And now they have a smaller rv, a fifth wheel, the Alliance 22 ml.
And one of the things they call it the Alliance Avenue All Access 22 ml. Thank you Alliance for not using the word half ton in the name. Oh yeah. Oh. But anyway, Alliance signature features include things like 80 inch high slide boxes, big windows. They use all color keyed wiring, so color keyed and labeled. So the Wire on One Alliance does the same thing. You know, red Wire does the same thing on this one as another one, which as somebody who managed the warranty department of an RV dealer, boy does that make a difference In a, you tend to have fewer problems because they're more intentional about the wiring.
But also if you do have a problem, it really makes it easy to diagnose and repair. They also put a shutoff for every plumbing fixture. So let's say you find the kitchen faucet stops working or leaks, you can specifically shut off that fixture without having to shut your entire RV off. And that's really a good thing. They use no floor ducts for the furnace. They make extra heavy sections of the frame where the suspension is attached.
They use a double Adel floor laminate instead of wood. And they use double adel wall laminates. And just, there's so many reasons why I really like these Alliance fifth wheels. So if you're in the market for a fifth wheel, they've finally begun to build smaller fifth wheels. If you're shopping fifth wheels, please check out an alliance. They're not as widely distributed as some, but really do some key features that make a giant difference.
So that's the RV of the week. And I have the full story at Stressless camping on our honest RV review section
Last week on our question of the week, I asked, what is something special that you do only while you're in camp and you guys, great job on answering. I'm just gonna, I'm just really gonna go through and read them. I've read them all, but I'm gonna read them again quickly and maybe just do highlight words. Johnny Cash, <laugh> Coffee Club, hand pies, homemade ice cream. Shannon says, I relax at a different level than anywhere else. And Tom said a similar thing.
I unplug myself, not just my phone, but myself. And those are great answers. That's what I wanna hear is that you just go and get away. Brian reads a book, mark Fry's Bacon because they don't do that in the house. <laugh>, shut down, slow down, leave the world behind. Brenda Plays, sorry. Lay in a hammock and read. Oh and day drink. <laugh>.
Mana. I'm looking at you <laugh>. Who's looking at me?
Yeah. Drink Fireball. Sit by a fire. Laci watches. Welcome to Moose Port. Every time she sets up the camper. So that's awesome. Roasting marshmallows. Making s'mores, turning off the alarms, living without worry and stress.
Hey, that's stress Less.
Yeah, stress less. There's another vote for pie irons relaxing and some mores. Jerry says we sit outside more because we camp in places where it's a relief from the weather at home. <laugh> making s'mores and sleeping in. Sharon has a tradition of making taco salads on the first night of a trip. Always. And Marilyn says, it's more like what I don't do. I do the same things as at home, but I enjoy them more because I don't have as many chores. And that I think is the whole idea, right?
<laugh>? Yeah. That's getting away and getting Stressless and going camping. So if you aren't doing all these things and you aren't having enough fun while you're camping, come and check out this list. Make it a checklist and do <laugh> all the things on the list. Not all at once because that would be stressful. <laugh>, right?
Yeah. And we don't want that. That's, that's the opposite of what we're shooting
For. Exactly. So thank you all for answering and this week
We are looking for some guidance or direction. Yeah. We are curious how we can serve you better on the Stressless Camping podcast. So are there people that you would like to hear from or topics that you would are particularly interested in? That is the question of the week. What would you like to see or hear? I guess you can't really see it. What would you like to hear from us at the Stresses Camping podcast? Who would you like to hear from or what type of topics?
That kind of stuff. And of course as always you can answer those questions at our fun and friendly Stressless Camping podcast Facebook group.
And did you remember that we do a once a week newsletter and did you know that it's free?
And you can sign up on any page of the Stressless camping website, just visits stresses camping.com. And first time you're there there'll be a popup, but that goes away. So you can go to the bottom of any page and there's a newsletter signup and know that of course we protect your information and only send one email a week. We're too lazy to do more than
That. Right. And those emails have links to stories and videos and podcasts and things that we think will help you get the most out of your RV experience.
Yep. Also, you can find the show notes and links and all that important stuff for this episode, which is
Number 1 95.
That's correct. On the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com. And
While you're on stresses camping.com, absolutely check out the deals and discounts page for the best deals that you need on your stresses camping adventure.
Yeah. And if you've got a great deal for our audience, let us know. And of course, we're also in all the social places. You can start@stressescamping.com, upper right hand corner of the website. You can click and or tap and jump off to all the social places that we are.
If you don't wanna miss a future episode of The Stresses Camping podcast, it's free to subscribe on any podcast catcher. And we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
And of course, you know, a review will help others find this podcast. And, uh, more people we have listening to better guests and better we can serve
You. Thank you to those of you who have written reviews and left reviews on those podcast apps. They really, really do help us to know if we're doing a good job. And it helps that app to know if they should kind of put us higher up on the list. Yeah. So more people can find us
Like the hokey pokey. That's what it's all about. <laugh>, we appreciate your being here with us once again this week, uh, was great meeting so many of you at the F M C A convention this week in Perry, Georgia. Thank you for just being part of our little virtual family here, Owen, most of all, happy, happy camping.
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless camping Adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.
