Takeaways from Overland Expo West - our adventure and thoughts
Overland Expo West - what we saw, what we learned, what we bought
This week on the StressLess Camping RV Podcast, we head to Overland Expo West. This is the first time we’ve attended this event and - wow. There are hundreds of vendors with all sorts of gear, rigs and gadgets for those who want to travel to faraway places.
We also review one of the RVs we saw there and, of course, share a gadget we had to have.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Our article about Overlanding vs. Boondocking vs. Moochdocking plus Brewdocking
Lion Energy Claw portable power stations
SeaSucker products
Creating an overlanding camper with our Flated Air Topper
Review of the Ember RV E-Series Spark 12RK
Our review of the Grand Design Lineage VT
Cruise N Comfort USA air conditioners
Slug Bug Ranch in Amarillo, Texas
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 308
Peggy
Welcome to the campground. Just kidding.
Tony
Well, actually, we're back home.
Peggy
We were gonna do this at the campground, but we came home early.
Tony
Yes. We did. Well, I'm Tony.
Peggy
I'm Peggy.
Tony
And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part time. In this Rockwood mini lite. Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips. Tricks. And discounts.
Peggy
So even though we're not in a campground, we're still in the camper because we like it out here. Yeah. Right. You can see our desert.
Tony
Yeah. There you go. Everybody's kind of getting ready for camping season and some of you, bravo.
Peggy
Mhmm.
Tony
You're already camping.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
But, uh, a lot of times at this time of year, you we get a lot of questions about, oh my air conditioner is not working or it's not working properly and it's just making noise. Well now's the time to go up on the roof and check how clean the air conditioner is if you haven't done so already. But also inside a lot of these air conditioners there's just a plastic or kind of foam divider that can get loose and if it gets loose basically the air conditioning is just air conditioning itself. We have a picture of what ours looks like inside. It's a Coleman Mach and you might also get some of that aluminum ducting tape and kind of reseal if you choose to drop the interior, uh piece on the air conditioner.
Tony
Uh, we also had Daryl Apt from the Wacko RV AC Silencer at one point come and replace our whole interior basically the the plastic part with his silencer and he went through and really taped up the inside of the air conditioner quite a bit. So, uh, something to think about. So if your air conditioner is not working properly perhaps it's not anything really bad. It's A
Peggy
little jiggly wiggly. Yeah. Maybe a little dirty because you know everything that has a filter, those filters get dirty. That's the whole point of having a filter so you can clean it and not destroy your whatever it's filtering.
Tony
Yeah. That's true. And we do have a story about, uh, the RVAC silencer and what Daryl did, uh, linked in our show notes down below.
Peggy
So we are we were visiting Overland Expo, and there are just all sorts of off grid RVs there.
Tony
It's it was just nuts, and some of these would not really work for Harvest Hosts because they aren't self contained, but for those that are they're perfectly suited for a Harvest Hosts membership.
Peggy
Because they could be off the grid. Let's hear more about Harvest Hosts. What do you think?
Tony
It's time to play Harvest Hosts, facts versus fantasy, where we talk about the latest updates to the Harvest Hosts program. Harvest Hosts is a service that matches you with over 5,000 locations in North America, where you get to stay in your self contained RV. These places offer all kinds of great experiences and range from restaurants to breweries, museums, farms, and so much more. Not only do you get a great and memorable overnight stay, but these places offer incredible experiences that you'll wanna share with your friends and social media. The places you stay have changed, and so we wanted to share the facts versus the fantasy about staying at Harvest Hosts.
Tony
Welcome our first contestant to Harvest Hosts, Fact or Fantasy? Welcome. Thank you. Okay. Here's your first question.
Peggy
How many nights can you stay at a Harvest Host?
Tony
Oh, yeah. I'm already here.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
One.
Peggy
Uh, no. Not true. What? Some hosts will actually allow you to stay up to four extra nights, and you can find these hosts on the Harvest Host website or the app where they will show you how many extra nights are available.
Tony
Wow. That's cool.
Peggy
Okay. The second question. Ready?
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
What kind of hookups are available at Harvest Host sites? Oh, I know. You don't have to raise your hand.
Tony
Oh. None.
Peggy
I am sorry, but that is also incorrect. What? Many hosts are now offering electrical and water hookups. Wow. Yeah.
Peggy
You can filter the Harvest Hosts map to find hosts that offer extra nights and electric and water. Hosts may charge you a fee to stay that extra night or to use electrical hookups, But these are just two of the ways that
Tony
you can support your host's business during your stay.
Peggy
They will keep 100% of the proceeds.
Tony
Well, it sounds like I'm a Harvest Host dunce, but now I know more.
Peggy
Alright. That was a lot of fun. But, actually, we are big fans of Harvest Hosts, and Tony does know the answers to those questions.
Tony
I I actually do. We've had all kinds of great experiences at Harvest Hosts, uh, including farms where we got to meet alpacas and pigs and cows. And horses and the fluffiest bunnies you'll ever see.
Peggy
And and fainting goats.
Tony
Yeah. We met those too. Uh, well, I really like that a lot of the Harvest Host locations are breweries, which means great beer, great food, great atmosphere, and, well, you're at a brewery. In fact, we've camped with friends at several of these breweries.
Peggy
Indeed.
Tony
So that's another fun aspect of Harvest Hosts.
Peggy
Yeah. There's also wineries, golf courses, museums, incredible historic places. We have got to eat apple cider donuts, and we even got to sleep one time on an airport runway.
Tony
Yeah. So there's so many great experiences. There are over 5,000 locations in North America already, and they're always adding more.
Peggy
That way, it's a great alternative to expensive campgrounds, crowded campgrounds, or, you know, noisy, sketchy parking lots.
Tony
Yeah. There's not gonna be that midnight knock at the door telling you to get out. It's a secure reservation made through the Harvest Hosts app or website, and you can rest assured that you got a great place to stay. You can find a discount to Harvest Hosts at our home on the web, along with an interview with Joel Holland from Harvest Hosts.
Peggy
With more hosts offering more features and our discount, this is the perfect time to join Harvest Hosts.
Tony
See you there. Alright. So we are back from that silly game show ad that we did. We really I don't know we like that ad, but we're silly, so there you go. So we went to Overland Expo West, and Overland Expo is a number of these trade shows, for lack of a better description, about overlanding.
Tony
And some of you might go, what in the wide wide world of sports is overlanding?
Peggy
Okay. So I used to think it was boondocking. And in a way, it is boondocking, but it's kind of it's kind of boondocking on steroids maybe. We talk a lot about boondocking and over, you know, overnighting at Harvest Hosts and things like that. And I think one of the big takeaways I took from this weekend was kind of a different definition for boondocking versus overlanding, and my short answer is, boondocking is off the grid, overlanding is off the road.
Tony
Well, the definition is described as finding adventure by traveling into unpopulated and more natural environments in a vehicle that is designed to be able to support its occupants or riders.
Peggy
Both on trail and while being in that environment. Yeah. So like I said, it's a lot of people boondock. And a lot of people actually maybe that's where the fear of boondocking comes from, is they think they have to overland in order to boondock. Right.
Tony
And I mean, you can boondock at a parking lot, at a winery, brewery There's no I mean you can If you could take 10 steps and get to the road that's okay. It's just boondocking by our definition is camping using the services in your RV.
Peggy
Yeah. Not being hooked up to any kind of services.
Tony
And then there's tent camping, which is a different enchilada service.
Peggy
Which is certainly over landing because you could if you have a tent and the right vehicle, you could go anywhere. Right? You don't have to worry about towing something that can make the clearance and all that behind it. It's just
Tony
Right. Go. Yep. So about Overland Expo West, I think they estimated like 30,000 people, and there were something like 400 vendors. It was enormous.
Peggy
It was enormous.
Tony
There were I think two fifty classes workshops and presentations. There were there's probably 20 to 25 food trucks.
Peggy
Yeah. There were a lot of food trucks, a couple coffee carts, some really yummy cookies.
Tony
Yeah. There was also an app, which we didn't really like all that much.
Peggy
It wasn't the best app ever. Now I'll I will say the FRVA app when they have events, their app is is real a lot more use of user friendly, I feel, than this one was. Uh, one of the things that this app provided but didn't seem to quite make the mark was it listed all the classes and seminars, but it last listed them all in one long list. So on Sunday, if I wanted to find a seminar, I had to start at Thursday and work my way all the way down to the bottom and there were a lot of them.
Tony
Yeah. As we said, like almost 250 presentations.
Peggy
So I had to scroll scroll scroll down to find it. Also the map was not, like, really interactive. It was like
Tony
Oh, it says it was just
Peggy
a Like a PDF kind of.
Tony
Well, it was an image of the map.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
So then you would have to okay. You go to Booth AU 26 whatever. You would have to zoom pinch and zoom and scroll around. Well, by now, you're like, what was I looking for again? Right.
Tony
So, yeah. The app was but that's okay. Yeah. It can be.
Peggy
I don't know that this is true, but it feels like what a wonderful app it would be if I could look for a vendor alphabetically or by search, and it said they're in a 26 and I could press it and it would and actually it looked like the the booth number actually looked like something that you could touch and go to, but that was not really a function. So that would have been fantastic if it just, you know, flipped right to that part of the map so I would have some idea of where I was supposed to be looking.
Tony
I mean, you don't go there for the app. Right? Well, right. But, uh, in a trade show that big, it
Peggy
It was so huge.
Tony
How tall.
Peggy
Yeah. It was kind of it we I think we kinda walked around more than we needed to because we couldn't really figure out how how to logically get through the places that we wanted to get through.
Tony
And obviously, if many people have gone multiple times. We had a night at the campground. They had it was really an awesome place. I I really liked this campground.
Peggy
Yeah, the campground was great.
Tony
Now you can camp at Overland Expo, but not with a trailer as long as ours. Right. There were people there who had been multiple times and just really embraced the Overlanding world, so I could see going back. But, um, um, if you've been to an RV show, typically that's where mostly dealers come and show off RVs for you to buy, and they're packed so tightly, right? Yeah.
Tony
Not this. There were of course there were RVs, but this was just this sprawling, as I said, 400 exhibitors. It was it was enormous.
Peggy
It really wasn't dealerships. It was it was like every, uh, manufacturer kind of. Because a lot, um, you know, a majority of RVs that are going to be good off road vehicles are like teardrop style. Uh, there were, I don't know how many rooftop tent styles.
Tony
Oh my gosh.
Peggy
And so every, every manufacturer like four wheel pickup truck campers, you know, the pop up campers, the whatever brand teardrop, each brand was its own booth rather than a dealership trying to
Tony
Right.
Peggy
Compare all the different brands.
Tony
Yeah. Yeah. There were more manufacturers there. There were dealers too, but, uh, but the booths, even with the RVs, like Grand Design themselves were there with their new, uh, lineage Class B, and they've done a good job with it, but and we're getting ahead of ourselves. Um, another thing there were there was tons of ways of making whatever you drive, including motorcycles, more able to drive off road.
Tony
So suspensions, tires, wheels I mean like Ryken was there, Firestone was there just anything you can do to make your vehicle more capable, there were 10 booths for that. Right? Right. Jeeps, uh, Land Cruisers, Land Rovers, pickups, all of that stuff was there. So what kind of oh.
Tony
What kind of overlanding stuff?
Peggy
Yeah. There was also a bunch of gadgets. There were fancy sleeping bags. There were a few different vendors that made off grid shower solutions and shower tents.
Tony
Yeah. Uh, there were off grid toilet solutions. Yes. Composting toilets, uh, there was just folding wooden toilets.
Peggy
Folding wooden toilet, like seats basically that you can put on a bucket or put over a ammo can. Right. Yeah. Or whatever.
Tony
So the can would be an ammo can.
Peggy
Those were pretty cool. Yeah. There were straps and ropes and, you know, climbing gear. There were ropes, I swear, bigger around than my calf.
Tony
Oh, yeah. There were, like, ship quality ropes. Right? You could tie up your ocean liner.
Peggy
They were crazy big.
Tony
There was a lot of recovery gear too, of course, because if you're going over in fact, uh, off topic, one of the seminar one of the seminars I noticed was how stuck am I?
Peggy
Oh, though that's right. Yeah. And were we there or were we somewhere where we just watched a video of someone rescuing an SUV of some sort that was on a dirt road and they didn't really fall off the road. The road kind of crumbled below them. Yeah.
Peggy
And that SUV was like halfway in the ditch and watching them decide how to rescue that thing was probably nothing to do with Overland Expo. It just struck my memory, like, all the equipment and then the the the thinking that had to go into, like, pulling someone out of a weird situation. Yeah. It's it
Tony
it was impressive. There were also a number of propane powered fire pits including the tripod torch
Peggy
Yeah. That
Tony
we saw at Quartzsite. Exactly. And something I didn't write in the notes, uh, there were cooking demonstrations at some of these propane powered fire pit booths. So they also had cooking demonstrations there too.
Peggy
Oh man, we could have had a free lunch. Yeah. Yeah.
Tony
That's something we feel that we just kinda scratch the surface.
Peggy
We really do.
Tony
There is so much like it was so like, oh my gosh, that we we don't feel that we covered half of it.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
So that means we got to go back.
Peggy
That means we have to go back. There was a cup there was a small I thought it would be huge, but it was pretty small, the kind of indoor booths Yeah. For the smaller kind of, I don't know, whatever indoor booth type of things. But there was a company that sold this fire starter putty. And Yeah.
Peggy
He even had it he had a hunk of the putty soaking in water. He said it was soaking there all day. He took it out of the water and squeezed it and ripped it, and it looked kind of fibrous.
Tony
Yeah. It was fiber. Yeah.
Peggy
And I think that's intentional. So when you pull this putty apart, it has fibers, and those fibers catch flame faster. And then he said that that little chunk of putty, you know, one inch whatever cube of putty would burn for about seven minutes, which should be enough time to get a real fire started. Right?
Tony
Yeah. So this company also sold lighters and such. I I don't know. I thought it was kind of fascinating how, you know, like if let's say you're rafting and your fire starter gets wet, well in the case of this putty, it doesn't matter.
Peggy
It doesn't matter. So all their stuff was fire fireproof. It probably was fireproof, but it was also waterproof. It's always good to have a fireproof lighter.
Tony
Yeah, right?
Peggy
It doesn't explode in your hand.
Tony
Another thing we saw a lot of was portable power stations. Yeah. A lot of these overlanding rigs, rather than having installed systems, take advantage of portable power stations. The one that I think might have been my favorite came from Ecoflow because they have a DC to DC charger and the way this thing works is you hook it to the alternator of your vehicle permanently. It's not a temporary thing.
Tony
So you hook it to the alternator and then it has connections where you can charge their portable power stations and their portable power stations were had pretty impressive specs anyway, but this thing I think they said the their larger one that they showed there on the table could go to 80% state of charge in like an hour or something. So as you're driving down the road or off the road Yeah. You can charge up your portable power station and have that there.
Peggy
Hey. Should we do this out of order and have our gadget report right now? Yeah. Let's do that. Because one of the portable power station companies, uh, Lion Energy was there.
Peggy
Yeah. And we, you know, we are fans of Lion Energy and we when we were in Court side actually in January, we bought two new Lion Prowlers and they're pretty portable. But one thing that the Prowler didn't give me was the ability to hold and charge my phone at the well you could with a cable. Uh, the Prowler has the magnetic, um, you know, charging capability that you can just set your phone on it.
Tony
No. That one's not magnetic. That one is induction charger. So I think Androids will work on it too.
Peggy
Okay. So this time they've come out with this one's unopened so I'm
Tony
Oh, it's brand new, brand new.
Peggy
So I'm I'm fiddling a little. So now Lion Energy has come out with something that's well boxed. Something that I can't get the tape off of, uh, it's called the Lion Claw. And the great thing about the Lion Claw is well one of the great things is its size. It's also got the magnetic charging capability.
Tony
Now this one is specifically MagSafe, uh, which is an Apple technology for Apple.
Peggy
So this one's a so you can use this USB c to charge, you know, those inferior phones. Oh. And if you have an iPhone
Tony
I mean, it's true,
Peggy
but Oh. This USB c also has, uh, you know, there's a charging cable. So that's how you charge this little gadget. Dave from Lion Energy told me me that this would charge my phone three times.
Tony
Well check it out.
Peggy
This is what I was gonna do. Oh. So what I do love is it's got that MagSafe and it just snaps right on there and I can still hold my phone and use it while it's charging. Yeah. So that was a good I think a good, um, new addition to Lion Energy.
Peggy
This is gonna be and you know, I mean I could carry it in my pocket. I can easily stick it in my backpack. It's very lightweight, and it works just that easily.
Tony
You can charge it just by plugging it into the wall, but you can also charge it with these solar panels.
Peggy
Yeah, these Lion Energy solar panels that we got.
Tony
So it's a 10 watt panel. Oh look, it's activating. It's like, oh, I'm out of the drawer. So the Prowler that we got in quartzite and the Lion Claw both can charge with these
Peggy
10 watt solar panels. Yeah.
Tony
10 watt solar panels.
Peggy
And is that with the USB c? Yes. Yes.
Tony
No, it's an a.
Peggy
Oh, so My word. Old fashioned. So it's kind of a double gadget report because I mean the the real the lion claw is the new thing that we just got, But I don't think that we've talked about those solar panels before when we bought the Prowlers. So now we have two Prowlers, which I'll show some pictures of and which are, you know, more power and they work overnight. They charge my watch and my phone, um, with a, you know, a desks desk, uh, nightstand type charger that I have.
Peggy
But this is also very, very, very handy for just carrying around. Like you can still use your phone, take your pictures, you know, write your texts, whatever.
Tony
Scroll around Facebook. Look at the Stressless Camping RV.
Peggy
Look at the Stressless Camping RV website.
Tony
So yeah. More gadgets that we saw. There's a company that sends me all these press releases called SeaSucker. SeaSucker.
Peggy
S e a. Yeah. Like ocean.
Tony
Right. Because they make a lot of boat stuff, but they make these suction cups. Yeah. And they had, uh, like a tray table, a paper towel roll, a toilet roll.
Peggy
They had like a a bar. It it was a two suction cups with I think three holes for holding your booze bottles, and then like five or six red solo cup holes or whatever. So it was like an actual bar that was suctioned onto the side of the car, the vehicle.
Tony
Yeah. And it'll suction on these things, uh, they suction onto the side of RVs or vehicles or whatever. They make a huge selection of these things.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
And another thing, we must have seen 200 varieties of rooftop tents.
Peggy
I'm sure. Yeah. They absolutely there were little ones, there were big ones, there were rooftops on top of teardrops. Yeah. Teardrop rooftops, tent mounts and ladders, and just rooftop galore.
Tony
Yeah. Apparently, you cannot be an overlander without going on the roof of your vehicle. I guess. It seems the way it is.
Peggy
Yeah. So that just takes me out because going up and down a ladder at any time, but especially in the middle of the night to use the potty, Not my style.
Speaker 3
All the
Tony
things I could say. We also got to meet Ryan of Flated.
Peggy
That's right.
Tony
We interviewed him in podcast two thirty seven.
Peggy
We did. We interviewed him, so we got to finally actually meet him in person, which was fun.
Tony
That was cool. We saw our buddy Christopher Barth from Ember. Yep. I really enjoy spending time with him because he is he and I will just talk and talk about
Peggy
all these stuff. And, of course, we're always drawn to the Lion Energy booth. Yeah.
Tony
Because
Peggy
every it seems like every time we catch up with them, they have come up with something new that we must have.
Tony
Yeah. Yeah. By the way, we have a link where you can get your own Lion stuff.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Air conditioning.
Peggy
Yeah, so just because you go off road doesn't mean you don't want to be comfortable, right?
Tony
That's always the question people ask us. How long can you run your RV air conditioner on battery power? Or people always say, how long can you run it on solar power? Will you really run it on battery?
Peggy
Right. And a lot of people say you cannot run your air conditioner on battery power. Those people need to catch up to the 2,000 and twenties. I was gonna say the two thousands, but really it's pretty it's it every day of the 2,000, I think it's become better and better.
Tony
It it really is. So many of us are used to those traditional RV air conditioners that just are loud and inefficient.
Peggy
Right. And
Tony
as somebody told me who's an RV supplier, it's because the RV industry will price shop first. Sure. But not all. For example, Grand Design had their new Lineage Class B, which we kind of mentioned earlier. It has a mini split system with the outside portion kind of shoved up under the van.
Tony
Wow. I have written a review of this, which we'll put links to, but it turns out one of the questions that the readers of that review asked is well what happens with this thing because it's in the back under the van, right?
Peggy
Yeah. Isn't it getting dirty and muddy and yucky?
Tony
Yeah. They said it can be completely submerged and be fine. Um, another thing that this and it's 20,000 btu, typical RV air conditioner is 15, although there are a lot of thirteen, five and eleven thousand btu units. So it's much more capable unit and it's just really quiet and really efficient. Uh, they also showed off something we've seen at Quartzsite.
Tony
This is the first time I've seen an RV manufacturer doing it. A solar awning where the awning unwraps and it's 720 watts of additional solar.
Peggy
Nice. Also, remember Tony said we talked to Christopher Barth at Ember. Ember uses Furion chill cube in most or all of their
Tony
In some of their
Peggy
some of their travel trailers, and so we got to stand under the almost completely silent Fury on Chill Cube and be cool while we were standing there in the Ember talking to him.
Tony
Well, what impressed me about this, and our friend Brian got one for his fifth wheel.
Peggy
Yep.
Tony
Uh, what impresses me is how efficient and quiet this thing is and for two days Christopher was running the Fury on Chill Cube on a single it's a Battle Born February amp hour battery called the Game Changer. Uh, they ran it for two days without any of that battery reserves going down, and finally the third day it was pretty cloudy, and they got as low as 93% state of charge.
Peggy
93? Oh no. I know. That's
Tony
about half the size of the battery in this trailer.
Peggy
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony
Uh, there was
Peggy
That's not that much battery.
Tony
Yeah. There was also a company called Pruisin Comfort USA that had AC systems that worked on twelve, twenty four, and 48 volts, and they were quiet.
Peggy
And they also had a vintage trailer, which of course was my, you know, like,
Tony
oh. Dometic, who makes a lot of RV products all over the world, uh, they were there with a new integrated system of battery, solar, air, and vent fan.
Peggy
Mhmm.
Tony
And it's designed to work either individually or as a package, but again it you can run these systems on battery power. So it's a 48 volt rooftop air conditioner and a Go Power solar and battery system. Yeah. Dometic bought Go Power.
Peggy
So I've said this a few times, but I think over the last few years, we've seen lithium really start to shine and really kind of take over the battery world. And with lithium batteries, it's possible to even run the inefficient RV air conditioners. Right? And now, I I don't know that we're done seeing, uh, conditions to to, uh, lithium, but now we're also starting to see air conditioners changing. So between getting really good lithium systems and really good air conditioning systems, game changing.
Peggy
Yeah. Like that word is not something I throw around a lot, but
Tony
It's
Peggy
I think that that will be game changing
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
In the next few years. Okay. So what about some of the RVs we saw? There were very many permutations of mini overlanding trailers.
Tony
Yeah. Sort of square drops. The number and scope and style of these trailers was incredible. Incredible.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Uh, we also saw a few that we had written reviews of in the past including the Escape Pod Joker too.
Peggy
So we got to kinda crawl around on those and actually see them in for real in real life. There were also a lot of like the really high end expedition rigs, those like big kind of army tank looking Yeah. RVs.
Tony
Yeah. Like you're going on on a safari to Africa. That's what you bring. Right? Yeah.
Tony
But we also saw trailers with air suspensions and a lot of extreme components and including the Palomino pauses and things like that. So we saw a video while we were having lunch of Palomino Pauses off road and I was like, oh my gosh.
Peggy
Yeah. There were a number of vintage overlanding rigs including some Pinsgauer's and Land Cruisers and a Chevy Blazer square body camper. It was just fun to see. It was kind of, you know, there was like a whole DIY section. Right?
Peggy
So these things that they're certainly not new, they're certainly not built as RVs. Yeah. But the people have said, well, wait a minute. I could turn my blazer into an RV.
Tony
Right. Well And so they did. Well, there was a whole seminar series of how I built my overlanding rigs, so I I don't know. These might have been part of that too. Yeah.
Tony
Yeah. And these were
Peggy
But those were I I'm sorry. Those are just always really interesting because those people build exactly what they want. You know, no matter how and I'm gonna use our own selves as an example. This mini lite, Rockwood mini lite twenty five zero six f k front kitchen. It's perfect for us.
Peggy
Right? It's exactly what we need in an RV for long term traveling with separate bedroom and separate kitchen.
Tony
And recording podcasts.
Peggy
And recording podcasts. But there's probably something that we would have done a little bit differently. Right? And that's always I don't know that there is a perfect RV for a perfect per you know, like, there's always gonna be something. There's always gonna be something that you would change.
Peggy
Well, if you build it yourself, you make that change before you ever build it. Right? So those things are built absolutely perfect for the person that built them. And so if you go into someone else's, you know, homemade or DIY RV and say, well, why didn't you put a blah blah blah? I couldn't live without a blah blah blah, and they say, I don't need a blah blah blah.
Tony
Right. Right?
Peggy
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony
Yeah. Another thing we saw was the pebble flow and I have a review of that thing too. Um, it's the first time I've seen in person. It's smaller than I thought, uh, but one of the things that it has the outside windows and the bathroom have this electrically operated electronically operated
Peggy
Something.
Tony
Yeah. Basically you flip a switch and the wall goes from being see through glass to translucent.
Peggy
Right. So in the in the whole entire bathroom is a glass wall until you push the button and then it's a translucent wall. And the outside windows like shaded themselves. Yeah. You know, whatever.
Peggy
So that they, you know, they're a lot of RV windows are that dark shaded so that you can't see in. And, um, of course if you're inside where it's light and you're you've got all your lights on inside and people are outside in the dark, they can see in. Right? But not the opposite. If they're outside in the light and you're inside changing your clothes, you're pretty well hidden.
Peggy
And that Pebble Flow kind of gave that option. Right? It could just be clear, see through, let all the light and and stuff through, or it could be shaded so that you couldn't see through it.
Tony
Pebble Flow has kind of its calling card is that it's it is available with an electric drive system, so it can you can use an app on your tablet and park the thing disconnected from your tow vehicle, but it also uses those electric motors to overcome the losses, like the aerodynamic losses of the trailer. But that's an option, I think that that model is like $140,000 or something.
Peggy
So that helps with your gas mileage?
Tony
Yeah, it apparently doesn't have any reduction of fuel mileage at all.
Peggy
That'd be so interesting to see. Yeah.
Tony
But it was kind of small. It was smaller than I
Peggy
anticipated. Okay.
Tony
Yeah. I mean just based on, you know, I had this vision looking at it in person, and it was smaller than I thought.
Peggy
What do we think we missed out on?
Tony
There were not, to my knowledge, any people there who would build a solar system And that was surprising.
Peggy
Yeah. It was. I think that ABC Upfitters would be a perfect fit for an expo. Yeah. Vert Overland Expo.
Tony
They would do very well. They use all Master Bolt parts, and the nice thing is, of course, if you're off the grid, way out in the backwoods or whatever, or where these Masterbuilt parts originated out at sea. Yeah. They are reliable, they all work together, they all communicate with one another, and ABC works with you to customize the system for the way you camp. So they ask you a lot of questions and find out what your needs are, and then build a custom system using master bolt parts for those needs.
Peggy
So if that interests you and you didn't see them at Overland Expo, give them a call ABC Outfitters at (574) 333-3225.
Tony
That's (574) 333-3225. Or use the link in
Peggy
our show notes or this QR code covering our faces right now. And check out ABC Upfitters.
Tony
Absolutely. Hey, do we have a Goofy USA this week?
Peggy
We have a Goofy USA this week and for you video watchers, you're gonna go and find it on a different video As you know, we are gonna go to the Slug Bug Ranch Yeah. In Amarillo, Texas.
Tony
So the Slug Bug Ranch, we visited it the first time we drove through Amarillo.
Peggy
Well, right. We actually we visited it in 2021 when it was in Conway or Panhandle depending on which kind of map you like to look at. Yeah. It was What what is it? Well, you know do you know what the Cadillac Ranch is?
Peggy
Yeah. Yeah. So the Slug Bug Ranch is like the Cadillac Ranch, but with Volkswagen Beetles. And if you don't know what the Cadillac Ranch is, it is a bunch of cars. Well, we're just gonna
Tony
go straight to Slug
Peggy
Bug Ranch. The Slug Bug Ranch was, in its original location, uh, I don't remember if it was five or seven cars painted, uh, let's see. I always forget I always get mixed up. Uh, trunk down, which is front down on a Volkswagen.
Tony
Yeah, on Volkswagen. At least on an old Beetle because the engines are sticking up in the air.
Peggy
Yeah. The engines are always in the air even on the Cadillacs. Right? No.
Tony
No. On the Cadillacs they're buried nose down with the engines in the ground.
Peggy
That's right. Okay. So anyway, Slug Bug Ranch, they were originally buried, uh, you know, face down, nose down, trunk down, and they Swell. Frunk, frunk down, and they, um, the owner was like concerned because it was hard to upkeep and they weren't getting a lot of attention. It was
Tony
starting to get a little beat up.
Peggy
It was a little run down and beat up. So they actually moved it in 2023, I think it was, to Amarillo. And where it is now is right at the entrance to the, um, the Big Texan Steak Ranch. No. I'm sorry.
Peggy
The Big Texan RV Ranch.
Tony
Right. Yeah.
Peggy
The Big Texan Steak Ranch is the steakhouse where we where we always stop to eat lunch or dinner, but at then there's a an RV park, the Big Texan, and so it's right at the entrance to that. And so they moved those Volkswagens. They have more Volkswagens now. They're still frunked down with the engines in the air, But then they added to that, uh, the that campground will take you to the steakhouse in a limousine with big giant, uh, horns, you know those big bull horns or whatever that they strap on the front of Cadillacs. So they are the limos, I think the retired limos from taking people back and forth to the RV park, and they are trunk down.
Peggy
So those horns are up in the air on, uh, half a dozen or so of the limos.
Tony
And they've done a really good job of putting this all together. It's clean and neat, but they do encourage you to bring a spray can of
Peggy
Right. So and just like at Cadillac Ranch, you know, people are encouraged to spray the cars. Now there are signs that say spray the cars. Don't spray the sidewalks and the signs and all the other things, which are unfortunately spray painted all over. You know, people just can't follow rules.
Tony
I know. I know. How do you give someone a spray can?
Peggy
Yeah. It's still pretty fun to check them out, kind of, you know, look inside because the windows are gone and stuff, but some of them have like a sort of a roll cage. It almost seems like you could crawl in and strap yourself in, but
Tony
they Don't.
Peggy
Now they have the windows covered up with with, um, bars and stuff.
Tony
Yeah. It's just it's your typical roadside attraction, a bunch of cars buried in the ground, pointing up that you can spray paint. And you could also we have stayed at the Big Texan RV Ranch and taken a limo to the Big Texan Steak Ranch.
Peggy
Yep.
Tony
We have never tried to eat the 72 ounce steak. Nor will I. Nor will we. But it sure is fun to watch other people
Peggy
do. It sure is fun.
Tony
So
Peggy
so check out the Slug Bug Ranch next time you drive through Amarillo. It you know, you could be there for thirty, forty, you know, less than an hour. It's not a long stop. There's a decent amount of parking there, so you can just wander around. Maybe take a rattle can and spray your name on one.
Tony
Yeah, but if you spray paint the sidewalk, they may have a beef with you.
Peggy
Oh, no. Thought we were gonna get away without a pun. No way, ma'am.
Tony
Well, this week's RV of the week is one we we've been missing because we haven't seen as many in person lately.
Peggy
That's true.
Tony
But we saw the Ember RV Spark 12 RK. And this is a square drop trailer.
Peggy
Well, so obviously we saw it at Overland Expo.
Tony
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We saw it at Overland Expo, and there will be a separate review and video.
Tony
It's a square drop trailer and it's a little unremarkable in that field with the exception of a lot of the teardrop square drops that we saw were like $40.50, $60,000. This has an MSRP of under 18. Wow! Yeah, it's very affordable. A lot of features included including water heater, uh, a furnace, it has a water system.
Tony
It does not have a gray or black water system though. A fairly large bedroom as far as teardrops go.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Um, a lot of what some, you know, teardrops have as options were included with this. It's got a torsion axle suspension, so if you're looking to get one of these teardrops, I think Ember has done a great job with their 12 r ks. Very affordable, nicely designed, and fairly capable at a price I mean if you consider typical RV discounts this thing is very affordable.
Peggy
Yeah. Definitely. Well, we're kind of back on track with the question of the week. We had kinda gotten out of the habit on that, but last week it was our question was, what would your RV say about your last adventure? We've got we've had some really fun answers.
Peggy
I appreciate you guys answering. They're fun to read. Um, and, uh, by the way, Tom and Marilyn? Full timing, I like it. I like it.
Tony
Yeah. So this week, we spent, uh, getting to and from Overland Expo. We spent some time on Route 66 again. And there was some posts on on a Facebook group where there were it was specific to Winslow, Arizona and people were not happy with the new stuff that was kind of a tribute to Route 66. And so our question this week is Route 66, retro or revised?
Tony
What would you prefer and why?
Peggy
Would you prefer that they turn everything back and make it look like it came from the nineteen thirties, which has a huge appeal to me. Right? The neon and the old, you know.
Tony
Oh, there's The
Peggy
individual building, old motels and stuff like that. I love a lot of that stuff. But honestly, if you're if you want to build something that is a tribute to old Route 66, but it's very very modern, I'm all over that as well.
Tony
Well, and that's what we wanna hear from you. Uh, there are some new I know of two new Route 66 neon parks.
Peggy
Oh, okay.
Tony
Where one is all recreations of signs and one is re you know, basically fixed up old signs. So Mhmm. So anyway, you can answer that at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group. Yep. We want to remind you until May 31, you can still enter to win the Air Gear EasyAir remote tire inflation gadget.
Peggy
That's right.
Tony
But
Peggy
you have to be signed up for our weekly email newsletter, and you have to respond to that newsletter with something that says, hey, I want to win. We have told you before we don't send more than one newsletter because we're not organized enough.
Tony
Nor more than one a week.
Peggy
I'm sorry, more than one a week because we're not that organized. Also, um, keeping track of people commenting on YouTube and everywhere else in the universe is very, uh, hard for us to manage. If you respond to the newsletter, we make sure it gets in the folder of people who have responded to the newsletter.
Tony
And then
Peggy
Otherwise, I can't guarantee that your name is gonna end up in the list.
Tony
The whole objective is to sign up for the newsletter. Right. So that's what that's why we're giving this away. So you will find show notes for this episode, number three zero eight on the podcast page at stressescamping.com. You can also sign up for the newsletter there if you have not yet.
Tony
Uh, any page just about orstressescamping.com/contact.
Peggy
You can also go to the website stressescamping.com and check out our favorite RV products and services page where you're gonna find our favorite RV products and services.
Tony
Wow. Imagine that.
Peggy
And a lot of those favorite products and services have discounts, so you'll wanna check those out.
Tony
Yeah. Of course. We're in all the social places, but you can start at stresslesscamping.com and from there jump off to all the places that we all enjoy wasting time on the Internet.
Peggy
If you are a listener and not a watcher, and you don't wanna miss future episodes of the Stressless Camping podcast, Please know that it will always be free to subscribe on any podcast. Well, unless that podcast app decides to charge, but we will not charge you. But we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Tony
Yeah. And if you're on YouTube watch this, uh, please do a thumbs up and maybe share and you can subscribe too. And and your comments are always appreciated
Peggy
as well. Yes. Definitely. Thank you for joining us this week. We hope to see you out there on the road.
Peggy
Not off the road because we don't really go there unless you want to give us a ride in your jeep or something.
Tony
Well, we do have a four wheel drive truck.
Peggy
Well, we do. But until we see you again, stressless camping.
Mark Ferrell
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!
