Our experience with the Weigh Safe hitch
Is the Weigh Safe hitch truly legit? We find out.
Did you know that your tow vehicle actually carries a part of your trailer’s weight? So how do you know if you’re towing safely? This week we report on the Weigh Safe True Tow HD hitch we’ve been using that tells us if we’re in the safe zone. How good is the Weigh Safe hitch and how does it compare to the other hitches we’ve tried? We have those answers in this week’s podcast.
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Mentioned on this episode
Get your own WeighSafe weight distribution hitch and use the code stressless for your discount
Our visit to the candy shop in Hershey’s World of Chocolate
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 327
Peggy
Did you know that your tow vehicle actually carries some of your trailer's weight?
Tony
Do you know if you're towing safely?
Peggy
This week we are reporting on a hitch that we've been using that tells us if we're in the safe zone.
Tony
How good is the WaySafe hitch? And how does it compare to the other hitches that we've been using?
Peggy
We have those answers in this week's podcast and on our home on the web at StressLessCamping.com or YouTube or wherever you enjoy getting podcasts.
Tony
Towing safely that's StressLess Camping. I'm Tony.
Peggy
I'm Peggy.
Tony
Two RV industry veterans who travel part.
Peggy
Time in this Rockwood Mini Lite.
Tony
That we tow safely. Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks, and discounts.
Peggy
We are going to talk about towing safety, but first we're going to talk about something very, very sad. Some of you are seeing the end of the season, although I feel unseasonably warm.
Peggy
Yeah, maybe this is seasonably warm. I don't know. It's almost October and it's 70 something degrees and humid outside still. But those of you who are going to have to winterize at some point.
Tony
Did you know that one in three RVs is basically affected by rodents.
Tony
They chew wires, they cause damage, and they're just gross.
Peggy
Yeah, they're just gross. I think we have been super lucky. Well, not entirely lucky, because part of the reason that that we're super lucky is that we use Grandpa Gus Mouse Repellent. I spritz it on the tires, I spritz it kind of all under the trailer in a spray form, and then we get the pouches and we put those in the corners of the RV.
Peggy
And not only does that help repel mice and apparently spiders, but we don't care that much about spiders, but it also smells so good in here.
Tony
Yeah, it's what cinnamon and cloves or something like, it's a natural peppermint. And it's a natural product and you might say to yourself, self, why wouldn't I just use cinnamon and peppermint my own self? But what happens is the smell dissipates rather quickly and I don't know what they do with this Grandpa Gus stuff but the smell tends to last for a good long while, certainly while your RV may be in storage. And so we recommend it highly.
Tony
We use it ourselves and you can get it from the link in the show notes or with this QR code right here. There's a whole story about it in it party.
Peggy
So we have been on the road since August 1st. It is now the end of September somewhere, I don't know. And we have done a lot of miles and we have been testing out a new way safe Hitch.
Tony
Yes. One of the things I really like about it is it's got an integrated scale built right into the head. But why do you need a good weight distribution hitch? Well, think of your tow vehicle, that's your left hand, and your trailer, that's your right hand. And think about a wheelbarrow, right?
Tony
When you lift up the back of the wheelbarrow, the weight is transferred to the front wheel. And you want that because the steering on your vehicle, if you put a heavy load on the back of your tow vehicle, whatever that might be, it actually acts like a teeter-totter and lifts the weight off your steer axle on your vehicle. That's not good for a lot of reasons, one of which is you have less control, you have poorer braking performance. And in extremes, it can really affect your handling. It makes towing and driving with a trailer much more jittery and nervous.
Peggy
It makes your lights go higher and get in the driver's eyes coming at you. So they constantly are flashing you to turn your brights off when you don't have your brights on.
Tony
Yeah, it's just, Bad news. And so we have had now three different weight distribution hitches. And the newest one is this way safe hitch.
Tony
And the way safe hitch, basically the way it works is there's that little scale on the tongue. So you attach your your tow vehicle to your trailer and the little scale tells you how much weight is pushing down on the ball of the hitch. And then there's an app that comes with, well, that you download. It's a free app. And you have these calculations that it does.
Tony
So you tell it, you've already told it where your hitch is, how far it is from the different axles. All these parameters you put into this app one time, and then from there it tells you where to adjust the hitch so that you're towing optimally. And a lot of times you don't have to make an adjustment because nothing changed. But the fact that you can make an adjustment, I think, is a real advantage of this hitch. But let's back up a little bit.
Tony
Putting on the hitch, we did it ourselves. We actually didn't have to hire somebody.
Peggy
Yeah, that was nice. And we didn't have to cut the frame of our trailer.
Tony
Well, right.
Peggy
Which we have done in the past. And so so we received the hitch, you know, by mail or shipment, whatever. All the components were there, which is nice. All the components were nicely packaged. Things were well labeled.
Peggy
The instructions were pretty easy to read. I mean, there's. There's some steps to it, so it's not going to be like one, you know, one picture and you're done. It takes some doing, but it was not. Difficult.
Peggy
It was not confusing. I don't recall backing up and trying to reread any parts to get it right.
Tony
I was very pleased with how the packaging was. Everything came in beautifully. And then, as Peggy said, the instructions were very clear, was printed in color.
Tony
And also there's a QR code. So if you're. So Peggy actually read the, like, written instructions, and I watched the video, and the video really helped me understand. And the written instructions worked. So, you know, everybody's mind is different.
Tony
Yep. So that really helped us to get this done. Now, I was kind of losing sleep because I perceived, and a lot of times the reality of stuff is much less troublesome than the actual, the thinking of stuff is worse than the reality. Yeah. So I was like, oh, I have to do all this and that.
Tony
Truthfully, it was really actually easy. One of the things you will want is a torque wrench to adjust the torque of certain bolts because some of the bolts are like torque it to this spec. And we have an article about the Air Gear Tire Changing Kit, which we'll link here somewhere and also in the show notes. And that comes with a torque wrench. So another reason to have a torque wrench.
Tony
So then once you've got everything on, and it's like I say, you have a tape measure and a torque wrench, you're set. So everything goes on and that's where you put it. The app asks you a number of questions about what position the hitch is in, how far it is from the middle axle on your trailer, how far it is from the front of your truck, and things like that. So you just have to put all that in one time and then you put the trailer on the ball and it shows the weight of the ball or of the trailer on that. And that's why I always say the trailer, your truck or tow vehicle, carries about 15% of your trailer.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
So then you input that number into the app, whatever it shows on the scale, and it tells you how to adjust the hitch. Properly. And to do that again, you'll want a wrench. It comes with a wrench, but I like my fancy wrench.
Tony
But anyway, you loosen a nut and adjust a tightening screw on the top of the hitch, and now you are all adjusted properly. It actually sounds worse than it is. It's really not bad. And like I say, you may not have to adjust it much. I'm sorry.
Speaker 3
Right.
Peggy
No, that's okay. You may not have to adjust it much. You also, you don't have to go through. You don't necessarily have to.
Peggy
Through that process every time. Once you have it set, as long as your trailer doesn't change much, you're pretty set. Now, if you boondock for four days and so all of a sudden all your weight from your fresh water is now in your gray water and you've changed the weight distribution of your trailer itself, then you might have to change, make little adjustments to that hitch. But as long as your trailer doesn't make significant changes in what is on that ball, then you're not going to be making that adjustment every single time.
Speaker 3
Right.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And, and as, I mean, especially if you have a toy hauler, those can change the weight front to back of your trailer significantly.
Peggy
Oh, sure.
Tony
On our trailer, the freshwater tank happens to be behind the axle, which is unusual, and it's 54 gallons. So what is that?
Tony
Times eight, 400 and it's like 430 pounds of fresh water. That could really affect the tongue weight, right? Because again, it's like a teeter totter, as Jeff said. We have a quick video from Jeff Gaston from my RV school who helped us dial in the hitch. So essentially, once we had everything dialed in according to the instructions, one of our first stops was the Frog Rally and this is one of the reasons that we recommend going to these things.
Tony
But before we do that, I'm gonna ask Peggy to cut in a video of the first time we towed with this hitch. All right, we are in our first ride. So these are the initial impressions of the way safe hitch. What a difference. It's funny.
Tony
We really did like the other two hitches that were provided to us to try quite a bit. And now this one just. I'm at a stoplight. That's why I'm sitting like this. What a sense of balance with the truck.
Tony
I don't know how else to describe it. It just feels right so far. So good. The good or bad. News is that we are on our way from New Mexico to Texas.
Tony
So we'll definitely get to try the sway control portion because that highway is always, always windy. And some people think it's also the Indianapolis 500 and that they should go as fast as possible. So I'll give you more Impressions as we head down the road. But initial impression is very, very positive. I will say in my mind, knowing how many calculations and specifics this hitch required, I was a little apprehensive about the whole, you know, hooking it up and all, but the reality is it's just pretty straightforward.
Tony
Nothing complicated. And it just, the packaging and the hitch itself, everything is just first rate. The instructions, I like that there was printed instructions which Peggy can decipher. I cannot really read things and get anything out of them, which is odd considering that I'm a writer, right?
Speaker 3
But.
Tony
Peggy read the instructions and it made sense to her. I like that there was a QR code on the hitch that was a video, and that made it easy breezy for me. So, so far, first impression, this thing is fantastic. And don't let the calculations and all that dissuade you from this hitch. It it helps the hitch be better suited for the circumstance.
Tony
And once you get it dialed in, it's just dialed in. And, boy, is it feeling good. So. All right, we're heading to the highway, and we'll keep testing, and I'll keep recording because there's nothing better than a fat old guy driving a truck because this is. I'm telling you, this is that.
Tony
What is it? I don't know. I don't know. So now that you know why you need weight distribution, another helpful thing is sway control, right? Because essentially you're pulling a barn down the road.
Tony
It's a big box that's slab-sided and so wind passing trucks, especially cattle trucks, for whatever reason. And those guys, they like They go full bore and that's, I think they have two speeds, floor it and don't go. And those trucks tend to cause, at least for us, a lot of sway when we're going on the opposite direction on a two-lane road. And I noticed that I have been very, very, very pleased with the hitches ability to control sway. So weight distribution, it's, I don't think there's a better hitch for that.
Tony
Sway control, it was really, really good.
Peggy
So Tony mentioned that we had gone to the Frog Rally and we love to go to rallies for many, many reasons, but almost always there's someone there that will weigh your whole RV setup. Now, we have had it done by a couple different people, but our friend Jeff Gaston from my RV school was at the Frog Rally in Elkhart in August, or a Goshen, but anyway. And the great thing about doing it that way is you could drive to a CAT scale and you can get the overall weight. But the way that these guys do it is they have a scale that each one of your tires drives onto.
Peggy
And so it's not only by overall weight, it's not only side to side, but it's every axle. So if your front is heavier than your back or your side is heavier than one side, He can tell you that so you can make adjustments. You know, maybe you have to shift some of your gear to the other side because one side's super heavy, things like that. But we like having that done. And then Jeff had weighed everything and then given us some recommendations for how we might adjust our hitch a little bit.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
So we drove around the corner, did those adjustments, came back and got in line again, and he reweighed us. With those adjustments to tell us, to show us how those adjustments changed our measurements.
Tony
And he was very pleased with how well this hitch handled weight distribution. He thought it was just really, really, really well done.
Tony
And Jeff weighs a lot of RVs. A lot. And as Peggy said, each wheel gets like they have a scale that's like a giant bathroom scale. And he puts all these numbers in and we'll put a link in the show notes to the paper that he gave us about the weights of our truck and such. It's really a good thing to know that you are either really in good shape or you need to make a change because it really can affect towing and know that it's possible if you're way out of range and you have some sort of a incident on the road, some law enforcement agencies have the option to weigh your stuff.
Tony
And if you're way out of weight, it's not a good thing. And so Jeff had this to say about our weight distribution hitch.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
Okay, so we're comparing the numbers before and after.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
We had the conversation of adjusting your hitch. You adjusted the hitch. Now you're 9,300 pounds on the truck, 4,480 on the front axle. And before you were 9,370 with 4,350 on the front axle. Okay, so we lighten that up.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
The rear axle, you were 5,020 pounds. Now after adjusting the hitch, your 4820 pounds on the rear.
Tony
So some of the weight is on the front axle, some is on the trailer axle. Correct.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
So now we're going to look at that.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
The gross vehicle weight of your trailer got lighter as well because we transferred weight to the truck.
Tony
Interesting.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
So now your trailer is 6210 when before it was 60, 6300 pounds.
Tony
Interesting.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
So we transferred weight front and to the rear.
Tony
Yeah, that's fascinating.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
So after checking the hitch weight after you made the adjustments, you've lightened your hitch weight up by 200 pounds. Now everything is happy.
Peggy
Yay.
Jeff Gaston - My RV School
We like happy.
Peggy
Yeah, I like happy.
Tony
So why did we go with the way safe hitch instead of we had a BMW Continuum in the past and we had the Easylift TR3 in the past.
Peggy
I know I can answer the Continuum one really well, really quickly. We really did like that very, very much.
Tony
Yeah, that was also a very good hitch.
Peggy
But the shape of the tongue of the frame of Rockwood Mini Lights is it's built in such a way that the waist, the sorry, the B&W hitch has a kind of a piston and the frame got in the way and we actually cut a notch in our frame when we installed the Continuum on our 2205. Rockwood was not so excited that we did that and they kind of requested that we not use that hitch on any future trailers.
Tony
If you don't know, we actually partner with Rockwood. We are their brand ambassadors for MiniLite.
Peggy
So they pay attention to what we do.
Tony
Yeah, we get to work with them. We get to make suggestions on changes. It's a good situation and when they found out we notched the frame they were not pleased. It does not I don't believe it has affected the frame on that trailer because it was just a cross member under the propane tank. Anyway so when we got this new trailer the 2506 we're like okay we should probably shop for another hitch.
Tony
Now I was pleased with the ease lift hitch, I thought that did a good job.
Peggy
However, we had that from before we had the B&W hitch. Right.
Tony
However, that's also the hitch that when we got rear ended, we were using that hitch and we started to tow this, we were using that same hitch and it finally showed signs that, yeah, that rear ending was not, didn't leave the hitch unscathed.
Peggy
It was kind of getting tired and, the bolt holes were getting bigger and wearing out.
Peggy
So we knew that rather than it was still working, but rather than continue to put too much stress on something that was ready to stop and retire, we decided we better let it retire.
Tony
Yeah, so that's not a fault of the TR3. That's a fault of the lady who wasn't looking and rear-ended us. Other things I really like about this hitch you can make adjustments based on knowledge. So you know what your tongue weight is, you have that free app, and you can actually make adjustments based on that so you know you're towing correctly and safely.
Tony
The quality of all the parts on this hitch are very top notch. And I know WaySafe has started to build these overseas. So I was a little concerned about that. The quality of everything seems really, really good. And what's the third thing we really like about this hitch?
Peggy
One thing I really, really like about this hitch, assuming that we're in a straight line and we're not turning at all, we can open the tailgate on our truck. On our truck.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
With this. So it doesn't always matter, but on those couple of occasions that we really needed to get into the back of the truck, like I said, as long as we were in a straight line, it doesn't work so good if we're kind of turned a little bit.
Tony
Correct.
Peggy
But we can open the tailgate and like I said, it's not always a big deal, but sometimes that's a big deal.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
Yeah, you always want something. The more you can't do it, the more you want something.
Peggy
Correct. Yeah.
Tony
So that's the bottom line on the performance of this hitch. I mean, when an expert in the field says, yeah, this thing is working great. That makes a big difference to me.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
A few things we have changed on the hitch.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
So there were a couple things. I, I got really spoiled with a, a previous hitch, I think it was, that had the kind of a pen.
Peggy
I don't know what they're. Oh, they're called Clevis pins. Clevis pins. I always call them clever pins.
Tony
They might be that.
Peggy
And then it has kind of a.
Tony
Kind of. It's like a d-shaped d-shaped so there's like an axle and then a.
Speaker 3
A.
Peggy
A retainer thing.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
Well, I got really in love with these retainer things, whatever they're really called, that has a little bump out at the top so it's easy to get a hold of and pull it out. Because if I have to reach down and grab the edge of one of those clips, I'm always, like, snagging a nail and. Not like my nails are beautiful, but breaking them hurts. It's not breaking nail because they're pretty.
Peggy
It's breaking a nail because it's painful. So we did get some clevis pens that have that little thumb notch on them for where we attach the bars to the trucks part of the hitch. We also got, you know, at the back of the bars where they're attached to the trailer's tongue. There's like an L and then it usually has a cotter pin. And cotter pins are usually a total pain in the rear end because they don't want to go in and it's hard to get them in and out.
Peggy
So we found some L brackets that have a built in kind of retainer clip.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
And they just, it just kind of snaps down and that keeps the L bracket in place.
Tony
And we found a plastic bearing piece in there too, because the way the way safe sway control works is it's friction on the head of the hitch rather than friction on that the bar bracket that comes down. So that's one of the reasons it doesn't go as you're going around a corner.
Tony
So we put a little plastic kind of pad in there.
Peggy
Like a nylon insert. Yeah, kind of. It cuts down on the wear. Before we put those on, it was already.
Peggy
There was quite a bit of wear. And so those black painted bars already have some bare spots that will eventually rust if we don't take care of it, which we won't. Yeah, I mean, I know us. We know us.
Tony
Anyway, bottom line, these way safe hitches, I think, are a really good product, I think.
Tony
You know, it's as good or better than any hitch we've used thus far. And I think we have a discount on them, too. I think we talked them out of a discount. So we'll put a link to that in the show notes. I think the, the discount code is stress less.
Tony
So I have to tell you, if you hear, like, a little bit of background noise.
Peggy
Oh, yeah, we forgot to mention that.
Tony
We are actually, last week we talked about the air conditioner that we put into the trailer. It's running right now, believe it or not. We normally would never record with the AC running, so we're trying that this week.
Tony
And we're also on battery power. Yeah, we are running the AC on our Master Volt battery system because we can.
Peggy
Yeah, not because we have to. We're actually at a park with hookups, but because we can run without. Without being hooked up and run on battery and because we are still in kind of the testing phase, like how long can we get away with doing that and, you know, under what conditions?
Peggy
And so when we have the opportunity, we go ahead and turn off the power and use the battery and then monitor, you know, how the battery reacts to running the air conditioner.
Tony
Yeah, and that's something that's impressive to me is that I never think, oh, I'm gonna break this system or, or overextended or anything. Our whole battery and lithium system are all from Master Volt. They're all installed by ABC Upfitters, and it's just a system that's incredibly reliable and works. And yes, there are cheaper systems out there, but I like the fact that I don't have to worry about tinkering with a solar system to make it work.
Tony
If I want to run the air conditioner, I just do. If I want to run anything in the RV, I just do. And it's just a good system that's stress less.
Peggy
We have talked with Bill a couple of times about how he uses his system from ABC. And now we can welcome our friends Tony and Tina.
Tony
Yes.
Peggy
I miss you already, guys. We spent a lot of time in.
Tony
The past month with Tony and Tina.
Peggy
And I really enjoyed that.
Peggy
And they just in the last couple days picked up their new Rockwood and have the ABC system and got some that ABC to do a couple of tweaks including putting the DC to DC charge controller.
Tony
We pulled into this RV park. We were at the RV miles gathering right now.
Peggy
Yeah right now we're sneaking in on an RV miles gathering.
Tony
And there's another couple who came up to us as soon as they saw us pull in.
Tony
They're like oh we got a system from ABC Upfitters too.
Peggy
So they bought a mini light with a system at 2205 with the ABC system because that's what we had and we liked it so much.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
So, you know, if you want to be a happy customer and have a system that just works, but one that's their system is different than the factory system that comes with a 2205 if you choose that option. So if you would like a system that's customized for how you use it, you can give the folks at ABC Upfitters a call, and that's the same number for tech support.
Tony
574-333-3225.
Peggy
That's 574-333-3225. They always answer the phone. And if you are not a phone call person and you want to look for answers first, use the link in the show notes or this QR code. I hope it fits right here because we've referred to the QR code being right here a bunch of times.
Peggy
And that will take you to more information that we have about ABC Upfitters.
Tony
Yeah, they're good people doing good work. And you know what? It just works.
Peggy
Imagine if you really, really, really, really, really like Hershey's chocolate products and you wanted to go to a store that has everything you've ever seen made by Hershey and maybe even some things that you've never seen made by Hershey.
Tony
That's the candy store at Hershey's world of chocolate. But even more than the candy store, which is over the top.
Peggy
Huge. Huge.
Tony
You can even take a free ride in a kiss that explains how Hershey's kisses are made. So it's like, like you're going through.
Peggy
It's kind of a factory tour. Yeah, but it's, you don't have to walk, which is nice, and it's a. Digitized and there's like talking candy bars and stuff that explain to you how-.
Tony
Yeah, and there's all these- the chocolate.
Peggy
Is processed and made, yeah.
Tony
How many chocolate beans it takes to make a Hershey's candy bar and all the- it's, I mean, it's, you know, entertaining. You no longer are touring the factory itself. You're now touring a fake tour.
Peggy
A fake tour.
Peggy
A fake tour.
Tony
But it's kind of neat this ride because there's a little screen and there's a lady that explains, you know, how they make the chocolate and blah, blah, blah. And what the heck, it's free. What's not free is the mountain of, well actually at the end they gave us Hershey bars. Little teeny Hershey bars.
Peggy
Yeah, little Hershey bars as you walk out of that ride. So you did get one free Hershey bar. There was a lady walking around offering free samples of a caramel.
Tony
Yeah, it was a salted caramel thing.
Peggy
Salted caramel thing?
Peggy
I can't remember now, but I know I wished that I could have disguises with me so I could go back and get three or four of them. They're so good. But I didn't want to buy like 50 of them in a bag. So, you know, I just dealt with the free samples that I could get my hands on. But we, but there are things at the Hershey store that you can, you know, chocolates and, and candy and things that you can't get like anywhere else.
Peggy
You can only buy them at that store.
Tony
Yeah, we bought, what was that Reese's peanut butter pie?
Peggy
Yeah, peanut butter pie Reese's, like the mini Reese's cups.
Tony
And pretzels with peanut butter in them, Reese's peanut butter, peanut butter in them. And they have exclusive flavors of products based on Hershey's products that you can only get there apparently.
Peggy
They have like giant kisses that are probably like, I guess melted down, it'd be like a half gallon of chocolate, I think. It's a giant kiss. I'll show you a picture of that.
Peggy
And, yeah, just like, oh, there's, if you've ever been to, like, a Jelly Belly Factory or M M's Factory, they have, like, those.
Tony
Oh, the wall of candy.
Peggy
Yeah. Kind of like a gumball dispenser. And you could take a bag and you could put, you know, a whole bag of this, or you could mix and match your bag so that you could buy a bag of whatever flavors of little chocolate bars that you like.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
And there's rows and rows and aisles and aisles of all kinds of stuff, including, you know. The normal stuff. There's a ton of Reese's of all sizes and all of that. You could also dress in clothing that kind of reflects your love of various Hershey products, including.
Tony
I was looking at the Reese's, like, sweatpants. Yeah, but they also had Reese's underwear.
Peggy
His underwear.
Tony
So I thought about those for a brief moment.
Peggy
Oh, but I'm pumped.
Peggy
You can buy, you know, souvenirs and. All kinds of chocolate. And then they have other experiences, not only the ride, that's the, what'd you call it? A fake tree.
Tony
Yeah, the fake tree.
Peggy
There are a couple of other ticketed places that you can go in and you can design your own candy bar.
Tony
We didn't do that. We didn't do that. We saw it, but we didn't do it.
Peggy
There's an area that's like a bakery case.
Tony
Oh my gosh.
Peggy
And so you could buy like chocolate baked things.
Tony
The baked things, like some of them, they all are kind of a twist on Hershey's products. So some are just with kisses in, some are Reese's type where it's peanut butter chocolate. So the bakery kind of plays on the Hershey product anyway.
Tony
But the thing that was very tempting that I did not do was the stuff your cup Reese's thing.
Peggy
Yeah, like you can make your own Hershey, I'm sorry, you can make your own Reese's cup, but not like the mini. And not like the normal size and not like the king size. These cups were like a pie plate.
Tony
Yeah, they put deeper, like a double.
Peggy
Like a deep dish pie plate that you could have filled with all sorts of peanut butter and other things. And as tempting as that was, that is just, it was, it was crazy amount of races. You know, when we are supposedly trying to lose weight. That is just not something that we needed.
Tony
By the way, we didn't.
Peggy
We did not lose weight. We haven't lost weight since we left home.
Tony
Yeah. Well, that's because of places like the. The Hershey candy experience or whatever.
Peggy
Right. Yeah.
Tony
It was. It was good. And we did buy stuff and we enjoyed ourselves, and it's.
Tony
Oh, it's free to go in unless you buy anything, of course.
Peggy
Well, sure.
Tony
So it's free to go into this candy store.
Peggy
And the tour is free.
Tony
The tour is free.
Tony
The samples are free. The just overwhelming, oh my gosh, is free.
Peggy
That's free. It is like an all-day experience to go to a store. Like who would have thought going to a store was an all-day experience?
Tony
Yeah, they had Legos too, I believe.
Peggy
So you know what this really is? It's Goofy USA.
Peggy
Okay, we talked a lot about chocolate. We've talked about towing things. You know, we've been to a couple of pretty significant new RV events in the last few weeks. Is there anything that you'd like to tell us about?
Tony
I mean, especially when you think about the fact that we have been at where all the new RVs are announced and we really haven't talked about what anything we saw.
Tony
So I'm just going to mention briefly because we'll have reviews coming out. There were three examples of electric RVs that we saw over the past. And these are motorhomes. One of them is from Thor and it's a Jayco product. Well, Noah, now it's going to be an Integra.
Tony
But anyway, it's based on this Harbinger chassis, which we drove last year, and they finally brought it to Market. It's, it's a pretty significant. We do have a full article about it at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com. But it's electric drive. You can charge it in a campground and it's got its own little gasoline engine on board.
Tony
I went in, looked around, it's pretty neat. The one thing is why is there propane aboard this thing? What in the wide, wide world of sports were they thinking? Because you've got gas for the gasoline engine, you've got a ton of electric reserves. They didn't put solar panels on it either.
Tony
I understand the thinking, they don't want you to think you're getting more range. With the solar panels, but still. Then Coachman, which is part of the Forest River family, introduced their all-electric motorhome, which they call a Class B, and it's based. GM owns this brand called BrightDrop. And essentially what those are, are delivery vans, right?
Tony
They make these delivery, these all-electric delivery vans. So this Coachman is based on the bright drop, and it's got some neat features, including a back window that goes clear or opaque with the push of a button. That was kind of neat. They promise, like, 250 to 275 mile range with the, with theirs. The Thor, they think it's about 500 with the range extender, which means basically they're running the gas engine.
Tony
It's about 150 miles on electric only, and then the rest on running the gas engine. And then we saw this RV, oh gosh, what was that thing called? Do you remember? Anyway, we saw this all electric, we saw this RV designed by Pininfarina, which is an Italian company. And this thing was designed in Italy and is prototyped in California.
Tony
And it's so different from anything I've seen before in terms of the build quality. Like it's got an eight foot slide extension, eight foot slide.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And it looked like bridge girders under that thing. We have a little bit of video, but we will have a full story.
Tony
And we have an interview with the head of sales from them.
Peggy
It's called AC future.
Tony
AC future. And theirs, they claim, is going to be available as electric. Gas or diesel.
Tony
So you get a choice of one of the three. Different.
Peggy
Yeah, I like the, I don't know if I'd like using it, but what was interesting to me is it's not just a regular slide. There's a big slide on the driver's side and then a big slide out the back.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
But they're not slides like these are inserted in a little bit smaller around than the size of the RV itself. These actually have the floor folds up and then the walls like fold in on themselves.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
And so everything is kind of up against the outer wall instead of being an actual slide mechanism.
Tony
It's definitely different.
Tony
Yeah, as Peggy said, I forgot about this, that when it's closed up for travel, it's actually not a big vehicle. It's tall, but it's not long or wide, but then you get an eight foot wide slide on the roadside and the back extends out too. So you cannot use the bed when the slide is in.
Peggy
You can't get to it at all. Like you can't even accidentally stand on the slide room while it's in because it's not the same as a slide room.
Peggy
It's more like a origami.
Tony
Yeah, okay, I would buy that.
Peggy
That's how one of the guys said it. It's like origami folding. You fold this up, you flip the, you know, you fold these in on themselves, you put this the other part up.
Peggy
So yeah, yeah, really interesting, but you know, not not at all accessible on the road.
Tony
But this model that they had there, I think they said they had a million miles on it. Was that number?
Peggy
Yeah, they had quite a few miles. They've been like kind of testing it for like three years.
Tony
It looked good. I mean, it had some road rash on it, but what wouldn't after a million miles? So the fact that it actually ran for that long was impressive.
Peggy
So hopefully if we have a chance, because it's very, very busy week for us, we will get that video out with the interview with the designer.
Tony
No, he was the head of sales.
Peggy
Sales for that. But if not this week, check it next week. We'll try to remind you. It will get out eventually and then you can learn more about it from our commercial sales guy.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
All right. So every week we ask you a question of the week and you have weighed in. You know what? My. So last week's question was, what do you say, slide or no slide in your next RV?
Tony
Did you get any takeaway from that?
Peggy
It's very divided.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
There's nobody who doesn't care. Yeah.
Peggy
I mean, there's probably some people who don't care. They probably didn't care to answer. There are people who are like, I could not live without the room that my slide provides and people who are like, I wish I could have something without a slide because as Tony, this is Tony's opinion, it's going to break. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. But most of those people didn't say, now some did, I will admit, some people said, I've had problems with slides and therefore I don't want them anymore.
Peggy
A lot of people just said, I know there can be problems with slides. I've never really heard of one specifically, but I don't want them. So I don't know. I'm in the more space category and Tony's in the no slide category.
Tony
Well, simpler is better to me.
Tony
But it seemed divided by how often you use your RV. If you're like a weekend warrior or casual user, those people were like, yeah, I don't want to slide. And the full-timers, I think, are almost 100%. Oh, yeah, I got it.
Peggy
Yeah, because if you're a full-timer, you don't move as often, so you don't worry about the slide going in and out as often, maybe.
Peggy
And if you're living in this small of a space full time, you want all the extra inches you can get.
Tony
So anyway, you can weigh in on that question on our fun and friendly Stress Less Campers Facebook group. And we also have a new question for you, which I can't wait to read your answers.
Peggy
This week we're asking for our question of the week. What is your funniest campsite parking story?
Tony
Oh, I can't wait to read those.
Peggy
I'm not asking this because we have a recent one.
Speaker 3
One.
Peggy
We don't. I'm sure we'll come up with one.
Peggy
I I don't actually have an answer on the top of my head, but we were at a RV content creators event a couple weeks ago, and we got these cards. I happened to find one. We got these cards in our little goodie bags or welcome cups, and everyone had a question, and it was an icebreaker, so you can go up and talk to another content creator. And if you wanted to start a conversation, you didn't know what to say, you could ask these questions. So I actually saved all the ones I could find.
Peggy
So when we don't have an idea for a question of the week, I can dig into that.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
This is not the one. This I just found on the floor.
Tony
Anyway, you can ask that at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group.
Tony
Yeah, you can answer that.
Peggy
But you can also ask whatever you want.
Tony
Yeah, absolutely.
Peggy
Oh, also in that group, I did this week add two new events. One event is for our Quartzsite Meetup, which is about the last week of January for about a week.
Peggy
And the other event, it's a little awkward on Facebook, they only let events be two weeks long. But we are, after the Quartzsite Meetup, we will go to Santa Monica, California and start following Route 66.
Tony
Yeah, you could get your kicks.
Peggy
Yeah, and so that is an event in the Stressless Campers Facebook group. And more stuff will be added there.
Peggy
Probably other ways that we'll be adding and talking and planning. But I just wanted to let you know if you've been waiting to RSVP to one of those two events, now you can.
Tony
Now you can. We did tell you last week about a new calendar we put on our website. You access it through the newsletter, but it's the places where we are.
Tony
So if you do want to meet up for a beer or just a chat, then, you know, hopefully it helps you find us because that would be great. Again, you find that out in our once a week fun and friendly email newsletter. You can sign up at any page on the website just about. And no, of course, we always protect your information and we only sell, oh, sell. We only send one email a week because we are lazy.
Peggy
You will see the, you will see the link for the current episode. You will see a link for that kind of secret calendar that tells you where we are. And you'll also see any other, you know, things that we think are important in the RV world this week.
Speaker 3
Yep.
Tony
You will also get links to our favorite RV products and services, including this way safe hitch, some of which, like the way safe hitch, have discounts.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
So that's a good thing.
Peggy
And then after you've looked at all those things on our website and you can't get enough stressless camping, you can jump off to all the social places that we are using the links on our website.
Tony
Yep.
Peggy
If you are listening by audio and you don't want to miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping Podcast, it's free to subscribe on any podcast app.
Peggy
We're saving you a seat around our virtual dinette table.
Tony
Yep. And if you're watching us on YouTube, we really appreciate your likes and subscribe and, you know, you hit that Bell. Notify all that YouTube nonsense, all that stuff. And of course, you also can share those episodes.
Tony
We really appreciate that.
Peggy
And you can share off the website too.
Tony
Yeah, absolutely. Yep.
Peggy
Click that URL and go share it on Facebook.
Peggy
Someone actually asked permission this morning. We hereby give you permission to share anything.
Tony
We hereby beg you to share.
Peggy
Beg you to share anything you find. Don't take credit for it.
Peggy
Share it as our team.
Tony
Oh, I don't care. Do, but whatever. Sharing really does help. So with that, we appreciate your being here once again in episode 327 that we're recording from the RV miles gathering.
Peggy
So let's go back and gather.
Tony
Yeah and keep traveling those RV miles. Yeah, because those RV miles are stressless camping.
Speaker 5
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.
Speaker 5
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.
Tony
Toilet paper I can borrow? Oh, sure, sure, sure.
Peggy
Jason's here.
Peggy
He just busted us at the RV miles Homecoming, recording the Stress Less Camping podcast.
Tony
So if you're not a listener to RV Miles... What are you thinking? Yeah, what are you thinking? So RV Miles is a podcast that we really love and they also do great news roundups. They have parkography, all of that.
Tony
So anyway, we have the good fortune of being friends with these wonderful people. They do a great job so don't miss out. We have the good fortune of being friends with you guys so thanks for dropping by.
Peggy
Good to see you guys.
Jason Epperson
You too.
Tony
Thanks Jason.
