More RV myths and legends
Debunking the bunk that you find on line
This week on the StressLess Camping RV Podcast, we set the record straight on some myths and misinformation we see out there on social media and in the real world. We have a gadget that is very handy - and could be yours! And we bring back a recipe that we use before every road trip.
Then we visit a Goofy USA destination in Arizona - The Thing
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
RV tire safety and maintenance tips
RV tire information with Ron from Goodyear
Our recommended tire pressure monitoring system
Tips on maintaining your slide room in your RV
When to replace the anode rod in your RV’s water heater
The AirGear EasyAIR remote tire pressure system
Official instructional videos from Lippert
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.
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 307
Tony
Welcome to the campsite. Yep. I'm Tony. I'm Peggy. We're two RV industry veterans who travel part time In this trailer.
Peggy
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips
Tony
Tricks.
Peggy
And discounts. And we are planning an adventure.
Tony
We are planning an adventure. We're gonna be leaving in a couple days. The day probably that you hear this, we'll be going to Flagstaff for the Overland Expo in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Peggy
I have wanted to go to this thing for years. Yes. And we're going.
Tony
Yeah. And then we'll be home for a few weeks and then we'll head back out and we're going on a trip to near Reno, Nevada and to Northern California to teach some RV basic training classes.
Peggy
Yeah. And if you've been like, oh, I really wanna attend one of those RV basic training classes, we do still have openings in Northern California.
Tony
We do. And if you wanna organize one
Peggy
Oh, yeah.
Tony
And put one together in your area, please reach out. Please give us a call. Give us a message, whatever, and we'll figure out how to get a group set up in your area so that we can come and teach for you.
Peggy
Absolutely. So hopefully, we'll see you there.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Unless you're on the East Coast and then we probably won't see you there.
Tony
Well, unless, you know, that's where we schedule a class. Yeah.
Peggy
Absolutely. This week, we're talking myths once again. We've done this once before and we keep seeing these RV myths and untruths and
Tony
Just kind of misinformation.
Peggy
Baloney.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
And we thought, well, let's let's talk about some of the things we've seen and read and heard and whether they're true or not. Yeah. Uh, one of those is I can't run my air conditioner on battery power.
Tony
That's right. And I don't care how many people like, we literally say, hey, we're running our air conditioner on battery power, and people respond, you can't do that. We're literally doing it.
Peggy
Yeah. Absolutely. Uh, now, of course, like anything, there are a lot of variables. Right? It's how much battery, what type of air conditioner, blah blah blah.
Peggy
But there are some people who can help you answer those questions and they happen to be ABC Outfitters, who did the power and lithium system on this trailer. Uh, they do power and lithium systems for a lot of class b RV manufacturers. They do them for Rockwood Flagstaff. Uh, a number of companies. ABC will work with you.
Peggy
They'll answer your questions. They'll ask you a bunch of questions. You know, what do you like to do? Where do you like to go? What are your expectations?
Peggy
And they can build a system that really fits your camping style from mild to wild. I think we're a little bit closer to wild, but the ones on Oh, I don't know. Some friends of ours are Yeah. Truly wild.
Tony
Yeah. Uh,
Peggy
so if that's a kind of high quality system you're looking for, the answers to your questions, no myths, give them a call
Tony
at (574) 333-3225.
Peggy
That's (574) 333-3225. Or on the show notes on every podcast page, we have links to videos and interviews with them and and a lot of other resources if you wanna just start there or just go directly to the source. What it's, of course, up to you.
Tony
Other ways, in addition to getting an upfit from ABC Upfitters, other ways to make your air conditioner work on battery power might be to have a generator to keep your battery full or actually generators you can plug directly your 30 amp in and run your air conditioner directly like that.
Peggy
Or 50.
Tony
Or 50. Sure.
Peggy
Bigger RV.
Tony
Right. You can also put an RV soft start on your air conditioner. We did that on our early well, I guess No.
Peggy
We did that on the first one. Yeah.
Tony
First one on this one.
Peggy
No. This one doesn't have any
Tony
Oh, that's right. This one doesn't have any.
Peggy
Reason is
Tony
There's also the option of putting in new technology air conditioners, which are very exciting.
Peggy
If running your air conditioner more efficiently is the myth you wanna bust, it's certainly possible either by modifying your existing air conditioner, which is probably pretty common and relatively inexpensive, or my gosh, it's windy. Yeah. Speaking of air conditioning, we are getting air conditioned. Uh, so if you're watching this, hopefully you're not, like, having to take Dramamine. But anyway, uh, well, of course, you may have to take Dramamine any you never know.
Peggy
Uh, anyway, of course, there are ways to adapt existing AC units. But, boy, there are some new AC systems that are either on the market now or coming on the market Yeah. That are remarkably efficient and very quiet. Finally, RV air conditioning isn't stuck in the nineteen seventies anymore.
Tony
I feel like, you know, the last five years we've been we've been moving into the lithium battery technology. And for the next few years, we're gonna be moving into a new air conditioning technology. And by by the time that comes, there will be, like, no limit. Well, no. There's still those darn water tanks.
Peggy
That's true. Well, I mean, there is that Israeli company that figured out how to pull water out of the air, but the system takes a lot of battery power, a lot of energy, and it's not cheap. But it's it's out there.
Tony
You've still got wastewater to deal with. But anyway, that's really not one of the myths because that's for real. Yeah. But let's talk about some of the myths that we've seen. We see them in, you know, in Facebook.
Tony
We see them in forums. We see them at campgrounds. And some of the things that people unfortunately, sometimes people will legitimately need an answer to the question. And if you get 50% absolutely yes and 50% absolutely no, how do you know which one is right?
Peggy
Yeah. And it's it's really frustrating and sometimes even dangerous. So the first one I think we're gonna talk about is tires.
Tony
Okay. Good idea.
Peggy
Um, so we see a lot of people say, how much should I inflate my tire to? And we talked to Ron Heniger from Goodyear and we'll put a link to that podcast episode. But basically, all tires on tires on the sidewall says what's the most you can put most air you can put in the tire.
Tony
Mhmm.
Peggy
When you make an RV tire, any tire for that matter, you don't know exactly what uh, it's going on. Right? It could be this 5,600 pound mini light or it could be that same tire might go on a 4,500 pound trailer or a 6,000 whatever.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
So they put the most air you can put in the tire on the sidewall. But they all have a chart that says how much air you should put based on the weight of what that tire has to
Tony
carry. Mhmm.
Peggy
And there are placards on the side of travel trailers and fifth wheels in the door jams of motor homes. A lot of times by the driver, you know, by the cockpit, whatever. There's a placard that will tell you what the recommended inflation pressure is on the tires that came from the factory.
Tony
Specifically for the weight of your RV.
Peggy
Right. That's really the answer is look at the tire manufacturers recommendation. They all produce a chart. And this goes back to you should always know about what your RV weighs. And I recommend scaling it, you know, putting it on a scale and then you'll have a good idea of how much and people say, oh, should I inflate differently in winter and summer?
Peggy
Blah blah blah. No. The tires are designed to as there's friction rolling down the road to increase in pressure, and that's why there's that maximum inflation.
Tony
Just let me get make sure this is right. That maximum inflation is cold inflation. So you test the inflation, like, before you head out on the road. So it may not be a cold day. It might be a cold day.
Tony
That's not gonna really change it that much. Right. But
Peggy
you yeah. You measure it in the morning. Yeah.
Tony
You measure it in the morning. And then highly, highly recommend have some TPMS, some kind of tire pressure monitoring system that you can watch from the cab of the vehicle. And, yes, the inflation is gonna go up. The heat the temperature is gonna go up. You don't go and deflate your tires so that your hot inflation is the right number.
Tony
You do that. You you use the cold inflation. You test that before you start driving. Because as you drive down the road, things are gonna heat up. The pressure's gonna go up, and that's okay.
Tony
That's what they're designed to do.
Peggy
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. And also, another advantage of having a tire pressure monitoring system, especially one that measures the temperature, like this trailer has four tires on it.
Peggy
Mhmm. If we see three of them have fairly consistent temperatures and one is much higher, then that also is a good reason to have a TPMS.
Tony
Right.
Peggy
It could be an indicator that there's a bad bearing, a bad tire, loose tire. Oh my gosh. We've seen more tires. Well, Rich talked about a tire literally flying off his trailer.
Tony
Yes. So So another part of kind of tire maintenance, we weren't really talking about this, but, you know, get that tire changing kit, get that lug, uh, torque wrench, and make sure that your lugs are torqued properly. You have to check that kind of right after you get the rig and then, you know, there's some recommendations, you know, and I always think 10, a hundred, every thousand. That's kind of how I think of it. Check it after 10 miles, check it after a hundred miles, check after a thousand, and then go every thousand if things have gone have kind of settled in.
Peggy
That torque wrench from Air Gear is something we recommend for a lot of reasons. Yes. I use it to put the anode rod back in the water heater, which we'll get to.
Tony
Which we're coming up next.
Peggy
We're coming up to. Uh, I use it to check the torque on the lug nuts on the trailer and on the truck. Yep. Uh, I've put on hitches and they say the bolts are supposed to be this much torque, well, I know because I have a torque wrench.
Tony
Right.
Peggy
Also, on tires, people say, well, how long should RV tires last? Typically, RV tires age out before they wear out.
Tony
Right.
Peggy
The common recommendation is about five years from date of manufacture.
Tony
So whether you've gone a hundred miles in that five years or whether you've worn them out and gone thousands of thousands of miles, It's as Tony said, it's not just about how much wear is on the tire. You know, you could do that penny test and see if there's enough tread left. But after years and years of even not use, just sitting sitting in the sun, just, you know, just sitting around, they age out. They wear out. The rubber dries and even if you haven't put a lot of miles on them, it might be time to change your tires.
Peggy
Yeah. So we have an article, eight RV Tire Tips, and it shows how to figure out when your tires were manufactured. There are some who say that you could go as many as seven years. We like five, but we don't have a diesel pusher where you're gonna spend $7,000 on tires. By the way, no, you can get a tire discount through the FRVA.
Peggy
Oh. That's right. But anyway, cheap plug there. But when you replace the tires, typically about 5 years. And so five years from data manufacturing.
Peggy
Here's an interesting thing.
Tony
Oh, right.
Peggy
We've seen where, especially at the dealership, a trailer would come in and they're obvious well, not obviously. There are four tires on it. And three of the tires were relatively recently manufactured. Another one had been sitting somewhere in their warehouse for a year.
Tony
Right. So again, it's not about how many miles you've put on your RV. It's about how long ago that tire was manufactured.
Peggy
Mhmm.
Tony
Even if it's sitting in a warehouse, it's wearing out. It's aging.
Peggy
Yep. This is something that frustrates us. We saw a blog post from we won't mention their names, but a a very large RV retailer. And they said when your RV anode rod is down to 75%, replace it.
Tony
That is way too quick. That is way too soon. Now I have heard I've seen a lot of people say, I just change it every year regardless. Okay. If that works for you.
Tony
And they're not super expensive, but on the other hand, why throw away something that's still perfectly usable? I think maybe that, uh, supply that company that wrote that article meant to say replace it well, actually they probably wanna sell more anode rods. Yeah. And they probably meant what they said. But I think a better rule of thumb is when it's used up 75%, when it's about at 25% of its original size, that's when you wanna think about changing it.
Peggy
The big question is, well, how long should it last?
Tony
Well, what kind of water are you putting through it? How often do you use it? If you are in a place where there's a really high mineral content in your water, your anode rod is gonna its job is to kind of soak up those minerals, sacrifice itself, get eaten away by those minerals so that that doesn't do that to your actual water heater walls or water heater element. Right? And so if you only camp where there's really high mineral content in the water, it might use a couple a year.
Tony
Who knows? If you have really great water quality where you are or what water you use
Peggy
Or maybe you have a filter.
Tony
Or maybe you have a filter. Maybe you don't use your water heater very often. It might last a couple, two, three, five years. Yeah. It just really depends on how much it gets used.
Tony
And its job is, as I said, to sacrifice itself. So if you if you have that anode rod and it is sacrificing itself and you check it, yeah, you wanna flush your water heater once in a while, at least when you winterize or at the end of a season. And if you don't have a season, then just pick a time to do that. Yeah. Yeah.
Tony
We pretty much camp all year long, but we still have to winterize on occasion. And so we choose that time in the late fall or when we're gonna have a break of a couple months. And Tony will flush out the water heater, check the anode rod, and, you know, then we decide if it's time to put in a new one or if we've got some percentage left.
Peggy
Again, we have an article on Stressless Camping about the anode rod. By the way, I I do have a way to insert the anode rod.
Tony
It's kind of an art form. Yeah. It can be very frustrating.
Peggy
I have described jobs as having various levels of bad words. Putting the anode rod in is one. It can be a two or three bad word job. And so now what I've learned is I take those blue paper towels that, you know, the windshield towels that I tend to always have, Shove one into the socket and then shove the anode rod. Well then it's in really really well and of course you put your Teflon tape around the threads and you can put it in that way and I always start manually but then I use my air gear tire changing torque wrench to torque that down and it's also about 40 pounds.
Peggy
So that's what works for me. And it has become a job that actually does not have any bad words. It's not At least not the not
Tony
the usual ones. Not usually any swear words left in that job anymore. No.
Peggy
So that's my tip.
Tony
Which is nice.
Peggy
Yeah. I'll make a zippy tip about that.
Tony
Now when you're shopping for a new anode rod, and we do carry a backup anode rod because what if we're in really bad water quality and it's time to change it out? Can you tell? Without removing it? No. No.
Tony
Okay. So No. But that's okay because we like I said, we take it out. We flush it. We winterize once in a while.
Tony
Um, so get a backup, but make sure you get the right size because there are different ones. And, you know, they're not very expensive, so don't cheap out because then you're gonna be replacing them constantly. And all that means is more shopping. Yay. But but more junk in the landfill.
Tony
Right? So you might as well just buy the best and cry only once Yeah. As Tony says.
Peggy
Also, you know, a lot of you are like, wait, I don't have an anode rod in my water heater. You're right. A lot of the new tankless ones don't. So
Tony
And some brands of
Peggy
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I wish. There used to be Atwood water heaters that had a stainless steel tank. I really wish those were still wrong.
Peggy
But anyway, they're not and that's the way it is.
Tony
Yep. Okay. What's the next myth that we see quite often?
Peggy
What should I use to lubricate my slide mechanism?
Tony
Well, sometimes the answer is nothing. Yeah. And do you mean mechanism or do you mean seals? There are several different kinds of slide mechanisms. Yeah.
Tony
They all require different amounts of maintenance, different types of maintenance, different types of lubrication. Different Or no lubrication. Different Yeah. Uh, they very much require being used properly. So this isn't really a podcast about slides, but for the most part, don't put it out halfway and put it back in and get, you know, there's some that sort of count cycles.
Tony
And if you reverse and it loses count, then things are gonna get all wacky and out of shape.
Peggy
Back to the lubrication. Mhmm. So many people will recommend a generic like they'll go, oh, I use this all the time. And different slide mechanisms need different lubrication if at all. So a lot of these systems are made by Lippert, which is a huge RV component manufacturer.
Peggy
And they have a really good series on YouTube of slide room mechanism maintenance. And they recommend how to lubricate the different mechanisms and what to use and all of that. But a lot of times the recommendation is don't put anything on there. So rather than go to Facebook and find a lot of wrong answers that could actually wear out your slide mechanism or cause you problems. And you know it'll always be when you're in a hurry to pack up and you can't bring the slide in.
Peggy
Yeah. Go to Lippert's YouTube channel or if you have like a b a l slide, go there and look at what they specifically recommend. While you're there, look at how to manually override your slide.
Tony
Yes.
Peggy
Because if you do have a problem, you will wanna know how to fix it. And chances are if it's if it won't come in and you're late, it'll also be in a campground that has no WiFi. Yeah. I almost guarantee it.
Tony
For sure.
Peggy
So learn these things before you need these things. Oh, that should be our slogan.
Tony
Learn these things before you need these things?
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Yeah. Or as I say in our RV Basic Training Camp, okay, your homework during lunch is to go and figure out what kind of slide mechanism you have and find the page on Lippert that helps you learn about it.
Peggy
Yep. Absolutely. We'll put a link to their channel on our show notes.
Tony
Yes.
Peggy
And we did have someone go, well, where are these show notes? On our website, stressascamping.com, there are several tabs at the top and one is podcast. And each podcast is a number. Uh, this is three zero seven.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
And so there'll be show notes there with links and all of that. We've been doing that for all 307 episodes. So, uh, if you go back and find another episode you really like, there'll be notes that are relevant to that too. Yep. It's how we roll.
Peggy
Oh. Speaking of rolls, what do I need to put on the seals on my slide room? There is not a universal answer to that either. For example, we talked to Rockwood who made all four of our RVs Mhmm. And asked them what specific things they recommend for the seals on our slide.
Peggy
And we got that recommendation and so we know. Um, but some they have specific recommendations that they that they recommend. Some they don't recommend putting anything on. So it really depends on what the seals are made out of. What the walls are made out of.
Peggy
There's no one answer to this and so again look at the RV's manufacturer and reach out to them.
Tony
And again, if you use the wrong thing, you're gonna you could wear out your seal. You could, like, disintegrate the seal with the wrong kind of stuff on it.
Peggy
Yeah. You could cause damage to the walls of the RV. Yeah. So you know who I wouldn't? I this is sad to say.
Peggy
You know who I wouldn't reach out to? Your dealer. I mean Unfortunately. It's so unfortunate. We have seen so many myths coming from RV dealers.
Peggy
And we'll get into some of those too. There's no real information path from manufacturer to dealer. Uh, other than the salesman from the manufacturer coming around once in a while. And so, I've heard more bad advice from RV dealers. And it's truly unfortunate, but that's why we say reach out to the ultimate source, the manufacturer of the RV or the part.
Tony
Right. I mean, Facebook is great. Facebook is a great place to be social and to see pictures of your grandkids and and to even have discussions about things. But just I'm we're just trying to make sure that you understand that not everyone who answers a question on Facebook knows the right answer.
Peggy
And a lot of times Right.
Tony
And that's scary.
Peggy
Yeah. The people who answer most emphatically Yeah. Are the ones who are the most incorrect.
Tony
Correct. Yeah. Okay. So you talked about the seals for the slide. What about all the other seals?
Tony
What about all those seals on the roof? Is there what what one product do I use?
Peggy
There's again not one product. Um, there are several manuf let's say rubber roofs on RVs, although they're not really rubber, but rubber roofs. There are several manufacturers of those materials and different materials. And the sealant you use around the outside of wherever there's a hole, like where the air conditioner is and the vents for the tanks and all that stuff. The sealant that you use around there varies based not only on what the roof material is, but also where it is on the roof.
Peggy
So if it's a sloped roof, it might be a different material than on a flat part of the roof.
Tony
Right. Like on the sloped roof or for instance, if you wanna reseal a window, you're not gonna use that self leveling stuff because its whole job is to go to the lowest point.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
And it'll probably the ground if you're sealing a window.
Peggy
So again, um, some of the one of the best manufacturers out there in terms of providing sealant, recommendations is Winnebago. They're so good about it. I wish everybody would do it like that. But again, reach out to the RV manufacturer and find out what is the wall material. What where is the the hole as it were?
Peggy
Like, the seal here on this water heater on our RV might be different material than you'd use on your RV or another. So again, don't trust the people in Facebook groups. It's sad to say or read it. I've been on Reddit a lot lately. It's just I I would reach out to the manufacturer.
Peggy
I guess this episode is reach out to your RVs manufacturer.
Tony
Right. Use social groups for social things. Yeah. Not for learning. Yeah.
Tony
Here's a question that gets asked a lot and then, uh, there's there's not one answer, but what RV gets the best mileage?
Peggy
When you look at the shape of a passenger car, like, let's just I don't know. A Toyota Camry. Right? People all say, oh, the shape of all new cars, you know, in the fifties, they all look different.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
They didn't care about aerodynamics in the fifties.
Tony
Now they all look the same. Right?
Peggy
Yeah. They all look the same because it takes a certain shape to cut through the wind. Have you seen anybody do anything aerodynamic with an RV? It's a barn. You're towing a barn down the road.
Peggy
So no matter what RV you have it's gonna get terrible gas mileage. Right. Because you're it's not so much the weight of the RV that matters when you're going up and down hills. It's cutting through the wind which we have plenty of today.
Tony
Right.
Peggy
And that's where you're sucking gas. So if you want to improve gas mileage slow down because there's just less wind to cut through. Yeah. It's it's that simple. But if you're shopping fuel mileage for an RV, don't waste your time.
Tony
Yeah. If you I mean, the general answer kind of is nine to 12 miles per gallon.
Peggy
Yeah. And that's a gasser.
Tony
If that's the biggest concern to you, then you need to really consider
Peggy
A pop up.
Tony
Whether yeah. Whether you want a big RV. Now a teardrop or a pop up, those really low profile and the teardrops are more aerodynamically shaped, those are gonna give you a lot better gas mileage, but they're also gonna be very small and, you know, a little harder to fit your family of five into.
Peggy
Yeah. That's for sure.
Tony
Okay. So here's one I like to see. All RVs are made so cheaply that I got a leak in my roof.
Peggy
Oh, boy. You know, if you look at your warranty, the seals around any breach in the opening that's on the roof, on the walls, that has zero warranty because it's considered a wear and maintenance item. Sad to say, that's up to you to inspect regularly and most of the recommendation is every ninety days. And one of the tricks that we use is as you know, I am the laziest person that you might know. And so what I do is regularly, I go up with the actually, with the stand that we're using to record this right now.
Tony
Camera.
Peggy
And I take the camera and I record around the roof, and that way I can zoom in and all that. And look at all the seals. And I also that also gives me a record of inspection. So if there is a leak, the RV company can't say, well, you never inspected
Tony
it. Right.
Peggy
Which is what a lot of them will do.
Tony
Right.
Peggy
And so I have those those videos that I took of all the seals, and I also am doing my inspection. So that's just one way of doing it. Now, of course, the most ideal is to go up on the roof and look at it yourself. And you're just looking for signs of wear or damage or anything like that.
Tony
So Yeah. Little holes in the seal or something
Peggy
like that. Yeah. Yeah.
Tony
Here's a good one. I was RV shopping, and the dealer at the RV place that I went to said that my RAV four could tow this Mini Lite 22 twenty five zero six f k.
Peggy
You know, towing is purely a numbers game. There's no you could look at three of the same let's pick f one fifty. Three f one fifty sit next to each other on a dealer's lot And one might have significantly more towing or cargo handling capability than the other because trucks are so configurable that some might be optimized for cargo carrying. Some might be optimized for a bunch of luxury features. Again, there's no real good source of information.
Peggy
They can tell you, oh, yeah, you could tow that. No problem. You know what? Know your numbers. It's purely a numbers game.
Peggy
We have a spreadsheet on our website that you can plug your actual numbers in, and you can get your specific numbers from either the truck you have, the tow vehicle you have, or if you're shopping, it's right there in the door. Uh, and and know the specific numbers. And really you're going to be more concerned with cargo carrying. Because you're whatever you're towing with carries about 15% of the weight of this thing. And so, this thing's three tons.
Peggy
Well, 15% of the weight is what? 900 pounds or so. Wait. Is that right? 10% would be, uh, three tons of 6,600.
Peggy
Yeah. 900 pounds. I had to take off my shoes to figure that out.
Tony
You've probably seen like Ironman competitions or something where like a guy will strap a a harness and then tow something like a big travel trailer or whatever. Once you get it rolling, yeah, almost a person can just drag can pull a travel trailer. It's not only about what can you pull. Right? There's what can the transmission handle?
Tony
How much cargo capacity? Can it stop? Right? Can it go uphill?
Peggy
You never see
Tony
What is the cooling system inside the car? Dragging things with their bodies up hills.
Peggy
Yeah. That's true. Or trying to stop it when someone cuts you off on the freeway. Right.
Tony
So Yes. So there's just so many factors in. We see this question over and over and over multiple times every day. I see someone ask on Facebook, what are you using to tow your Mini Light twenty five zero six f k? It doesn't matter.
Peggy
Yeah. It really does.
Tony
It doesn't matter what you're using, what we're using, what he's using. What matters is if the numbers match up. Everyone and and again, you've got those people who say, well, I've been using it like this for ten years and I haven't had any problem. Well, until you do.
Peggy
Yeah. My grandma smoked for twenty years until it finally gave her cancer. So.
Tony
So it's not a matter it's not a comparison. It's not what do you do. This is one of those things you can ask somebody how do you organize your cupboards. That's nice information to get some ideas. How do you tow your Mini Lite twenty five zero six f k?
Tony
That is a numbers game. That is not an opinion, not a not a popularity contest. That is important to really be scientific about it.
Peggy
Yep. So anyhow, we have a resource that you can use at our home on the web at stressescamping.com. Alright. So now that we've got our myths busted, we hope. If you have a spare tire under your RV or in a place that's difficult to get to, our friends at Air Gear made a gadget and it's basically just an extension.
Peggy
And you put it on the Schrader valve on the spare tire and run it out to a place that's convenient for you to check the air pressure on your RV, on your truck, on whatever. And it's it's a great inexpensive way to do that. And here's the good thing. We're given one of those away Yeah. Throughout the month of May.
Peggy
Hey.
Tony
Hey, that was it?
Peggy
So if you are not already signed up for our email newsletter, or if you are and you reply with put me in the contest,
Tony
Uh-huh.
Peggy
You'll be in. You don't have to buy anything. Just sign up for our weekly newsletter. Or if you're already signed up, just reply with I would like to be in the contest, and one person is going to win the Air Gear Easy Air tire inflation thing. And let's say if you have a tire pressure monitoring system as you really should.
Peggy
You're like, well, how do I do that with this? Oh, easy. You just put the the sending unit on the end of the Air Gear Easy Air tire inflation gadget. So, it's a neat gadget. Uh, it's if your tire is hard to get to, it's one you're absolutely gonna want.
Peggy
You can buy your own, but you might win one. And so, that's our gadget of the week. It's the Air Gear Easy Air Tire Inflation remote thingamajig.
Tony
I think that's how it literally says in the notes. The thingy. We said earlier that we are getting ready for a trip this weekend, a short trip and then a longer trip in June. And usually, every time we get ready to go on a trip, we make egg bites. And they are super convenient for for snacks, really.
Tony
But for a morning that you wanna just get up and get back on the road and you don't wanna take a lot of time, you don't wanna cook, we have the egg bites that we can just take, eat them cold, or pop them in the microwave.
Peggy
Which we can run on battery power.
Tony
Which we can run on battery power. It's been a few years since I shared that recipe. It's been on our website all that time, but just kind of jump back a little bit and remind you about the egg bite recipe. And, uh, as soon as we're done recording, I'm gonna go in and make some egg bites for this weekend's trip.
Peggy
For this week's Goofy USA, we're going to the desert. If you're on Highway 10 between Tucson, Arizona and El Paso, Texas, you can't miss the signs. The thing. For hundreds of miles across three states, the signs with their drippy typeface and eerie message ask you if you've seen the thing.
Tony
What is it?
Peggy
Well, that's the mystery, isn't it? The signs are inviting and mysterious and go on for hundreds of miles. You can't miss them and that's by design. The thing has been part of the desert landscape since the nineteen sixties and now has a home between Benson And Wilcox, Arizona in the town of Dragoon.
Tony
Uh, calling it a town is a little bit of a stretch.
Peggy
So my first visit to this roadside tourist attraction was many years ago when it was little more than a collection of stuff in sheds. That stuff had been owned by Thomas Sprinkley Prince, who purchased the thing itself and built a tourist attraction around it. And it worked. The signs for Miles brought in the visitors who got to see just what the thing was and is, but also had the opportunity to patronize the gift shop and get a burger or an ice cream cone.
Tony
Eventually, the filling station chain, Bolin's, bought the attraction and continued the tradition of hyping it up along Highway 10.
Peggy
Bollins had bigger plans and the simple roadside collection in a number of sheds eventually grew to a whole experience in 02/2018 where visitors pay to walk through the tales of history and what if? Today the attraction is so much more than it was and while the thing is ultimately, well, the thing, there are dioramas and displays that explore the possibility of aliens landing and if there was influence on the disappearance of the dinosaurs.
Tony
While you have to experience it for yourself, we don't wanna reveal what the thing actually is. Do know that the thing was created by Homer Tate who was famous for producing sideshow items. Based in Phoenix, Tate produced a variety of curiosities that found their way into roadside attractions.
Peggy
The thing has appeared in a number of books and was once featured in a television special with Jane Pauley. It's also referenced in the 1992 song, The Church of Logic, Sin and Love by the men. It's also featured prominently in the 1999 film, Hallmark's Pickup.
Tony
It's everywhere. It's the thing. Of course, there's also a Dairy Queen, so you can satisfy your hunger as well as your curiosity and even fill your gas tank.
Peggy
What the thing ultimately is is a true example of roadside Americana. A tourist trap or a kitschy bit of interesting stuff to see along America's highways. In fact it it truly is
Tony
Goofy USA. We won't make it as far into Arizona as to see our goofy USA destination from this week. Nope. But we'll probably see
Peggy
a bunch of road signs.
Tony
When we go to flag Staff. But if you wanna check out our video about our Goofy USA destination, the thing, you know, we're not gonna be putting that in our videos anymore. So go check it out on our YouTube channel, The Thing. Okay. So some time ago, we had a question of the week and that was to show us your favorite national park or place.
Tony
And thank you all for the pictures and the ideas and, you know, I've been taking notes. And if you say why you liked it and it sounds like something we would like, I've been taking notes about that.
Peggy
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Go ahead.
Tony
Okay.
Peggy
I I just so we started collecting, finally. And this was Robert Morales', you know, traveling Robert's idea. We are building our own personal map of places that you have recommended or that we wanna see. Yep. So, uh, maybe we'll talk about how we did that.
Peggy
We're using Apple Maps, but it's really easy on Google Maps. So there you go.
Tony
So this week, our question of the week is
Peggy
If your RV could talk, what would it say about your last adventure?
Tony
Yikes. I don't know. Well
Peggy
Oh, I know. What? You left me out under a tornado.
Tony
You wouldn't hit, and then we didn't get to.
Peggy
Yeah. And I was out in the cold.
Tony
Hopefully your RV has really good things to say about all your trips. But you know what? If it's funny now, even if it wasn't funny then, tell the story. Yeah. Why not?
Peggy
Yeah. And you can answer that at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group. Uh, you can get there from a link on stresslesscamping.com, which is also where you can sign up for our once a week newsletter with all kinds of information that you might need and myths you might bust.
Tony
And contests.
Peggy
Yeah. And contests. That's where you'll sign up for the tire air gear Thingy. Yeah.
Tony
Uh, if you do sign up for that newsletter, please know that we just use it once a week to send you a newsletter. We don't sell it. We don't give it away. We don't spam you. We don't write more than once because we don't have time.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
So just sign up and we'll remind you every Thursday morning that there's a podcast to listen to.
Peggy
That's the whole idea. Right? You can find the show notes for this episode three zero seven at our home on the web at stressescamping.com. Look for the podcast tile and, uh, this is episode three zero seven.
Tony
You can also look for our favorite what's it called? Our favorite products and services tile, and that's where you will find the products that we know and love and some of the beef and have discounts.
Peggy
Of course, we're in all the social places, but again, you can start at stresslesscamping.com and get to those with links on just about any page. And if you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast.
Tony
It's free. What?
Peggy
Yeah. Free to subscribe on any podcast service or you can check it out on stressescamping.com.
Tony
We are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Peggy
And don't forget if you're watching on YouTube or whatever, like and share and subscribe. All that YouTube stuff. Stuff. Thank you for being here once again this week. Uh, we hope you are out camping because the weather's getting pretty good even though it's windy here.
Peggy
It's a
Tony
little windy right now.
Peggy
Yeah. And with that,
Tony
stress less camping.
Mark Ferrell
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next stress less 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.
