Preventing RV fire disasters - RV podcast 353
There is no such thing as too much fire safety. That’s why we asked Chuck Thompson from eFire USA to join us for this week’s StressLess Camping RV podcast. EFire USA provides fire suppression systems like we have never seen before.
We got to check out a preproduction sample of a new RV, and Tony is reading a book that he shares with us.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
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 353
Tony - StressLess Camping (00:02)
There is no such thing as too much fire safety.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (00:06)
That is why we asked Chuck Thompson of eFire USA to join us for this week's stressless camping RV podcast.
Tony - StressLess Camping (00:14)
eFire USA provides fire suppression systems like we've never seen before.
And I'm reading a book that I bought right on Route 66 from the author.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (00:25)
We have this week's podcast along with notes and stories to go with the episode plus deals, discounts, helpful tips and more at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com.
Tony - StressLess Camping (00:36)
We sincerely appreciate your likes and shares and thank you for joining us for podcast 353, stressless camping.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (00:45)
stress-less camping.
Tony - StressLess Camping (00:48)
I'm Tony.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (00:49)
I'm Peggy.
Tony - StressLess Camping (00:51)
We're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (00:54)
in a Rockwood Mini Light.
Tony - StressLess Camping (00:56)
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips?
Peggy - StressLess Camping (00:59)
tricks.
Tony - StressLess Camping (01:00)
And discounts. What? In the what? Yeah, we're trying something new. I know it's crazy. Right. And we're trying something new with the recording process with mics, all kinds of stuff. So we're literally in two different rooms. I'm in my office.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (01:03)
What is happening? What's going on? We're trying something new. Yeah.
and I'm in my office. So things might look a little different. Things might sound a little different. And what I'm going to really ask, please, please, please, will you please give us some feedback? ⁓ Does it sound OK? Does it look OK? let us know if things aren't feeling as good as they usually do, because we're trying a whole bunch of new things at one time.
Tony - StressLess Camping (01:25)
Hehehehehe
Yeah.
Yeah!
Peggy - StressLess Camping (01:46)
So
if you don't like it, we're going to have to figure out which one of those things to go back to.
Tony - StressLess Camping (01:52)
And also let us know, are you an audio listener or are you watching us on video? Because that may make a difference for you as well.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (02:02)
In theory, audio listeners won't really notice a difference. But if you do, that's something also very important to us.
Tony - StressLess Camping (02:09)
we always appreciate your feedback. You guys are pretty awesome. So thank you in advance.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (02:17)
We also always really appreciate our sponsor, ABC Upfitters.
Tony - StressLess Camping (02:20)
are, that's right,
which provides outstanding custom tailored solar and lithium power systems to help you camp off the grid longer and more effectively, basically.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (02:36)
Yeah.
Tony - StressLess Camping (02:36)
depending on what your needs are, how you like to camp, the systems that ABC Upfitters works with you to design, they just work. But one of the nice things I know more than a few RVers who have gone back and actually upgraded their system because they're like, we didn't think this was going to work as well as it does. now that we've bitten off a little,
We want the whole enchilada. that, yeah, I know, right? So that's
Peggy - StressLess Camping (03:03)
yeah yummy
Tony - StressLess Camping (03:08)
something, if you would like a system that is no finger pointing, it all basically just works. The folks at ABC Upfitters are the ones to call. And how would you reach them?
Peggy - StressLess Camping (03:22)
You can call them at 574-333-3225.
Tony - StressLess Camping (03:27)
That's 574-333-3225. Of course, we have a link in our show notes at stresslesscamping.com.
Yeah, system that just works.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (03:39)
Okay, here's something else that we're absolutely gonna hope we never have to find out if it just works, but we're pretty sure it's gonna just work. We got to speak to Chuck Thompson with eFire USA, and this is a kind of a really new, different fire suppression system. So let's find out from Chuck what eFire is all about.
Tony - StressLess Camping (03:45)
my gosh.
StressLess Camping (04:01)
We're very pleased to welcome Chuck Thompson from eFire USA. This is a gadget that I don't think we can talk too much about. Actually a situation that we can't talk too much about fires in the RV. So Chuck, thank you for being here today to give us some more information and tell us about how you propose that we fight these fires.
Chuck Thompson (04:24)
Well,
first, thank you for having me. I appreciate the opportunity and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about fire. It's sort of that thing that no one thinks is going to happen to them, no matter where you are.
And I've been around a lot of people, whether it's recreational vehicles, businesses. And the first line of comment is, I've got a fire extinguisher and it's not going to happen to me. And if you know us and you know us as a company, we are founded in innovation, new ways to fighting fire. And with the tagline, there is never enough fire protection. So that's what we're about. And it started with that little round ball.
which we brought. When I first saw it, I was like, wow, why didn't I think of that?
StressLess Camping (05:09)
which is pretty cool.
Chuck Thompson (05:17)
It is so simplistic, but it's also one thing that I will point out. It can be misleading because people say, think, I'll just chuck it into the fire. I'll just toss it into the fire. That's not what it's meant to be. In an emergency situation, we would tell you, can roll it or throw it into the fire, but it's really to be mounted in areas of concern. Everybody can identify them.
StressLess Camping (05:33)
Right.
Chuck Thompson (05:46)
Especially when you're on your mobile and you're living on the road, you know areas in your vehicles that need safety, added safety, and the balls are just that. Put them about one to two feet above an area where a fire could, we call them flash points, where it could start and it will put it out.
StressLess Camping (06:04)
So let's, for a lot of the people who listen to the podcast, they're just listening to the podcast and they don't see this, although we will put photos on the show notes, but tell us about the ball because when we got it, we looked at it we're like, wow, that's really different. And it is, it's a ball.
Chuck Thompson (06:24)
It is, and that's where you get the misleading part of it. The ball, the unique part about it, the innovation in it, is it activates only when it comes in contact with flame. So if flame hits it, it'll activate. It's got fuses on the side, and when the flame hits it, the fuses activate, agitates the powder inside it, which is mono ammonium phosphate, which is a dry chem.
like any dry chemical fire extinguisher, modified a little bit so it comes out a certain way so it extinguishes the fire.
When it hits the top, there's an igniter that activates the ball and it sounds a very loud bang that disperses the powder and the downward force over the area where it's been touched by flame. So in the actual area where it is, it will extinguish it at the source. And the beauty of it is when you hear that because there's no such thing as a false activation, you have an active fire that you as a person close or whatever should get people to safety.
Get your fire extinguisher. You're never going to hear me. Don't say get rid of your fire extinguisher. Get that and look, identify where it came from to make sure nothing is still cindering or burning because fires are tricky, very tricky. So it really is just a unique way of ⁓ fighting fires. It's got a 10 year shelf life. So you can just set it and forget it. There's no pressure gauges, no nozzles. You just leave it and it really gives you a peace of mind knowing that
If I'm gone or if you're out on a hike and you put it in your vehicle, put it in your home and it goes, come back, if something happens, it's going to stop it. Every fire starts from a small fire. This was created to stop the small fire from becoming a large fire.
StressLess Camping (08:14)
And that's something that we've talked about other systems and they require a professional installation. This you'd basically just put it near places where you think things will burn. And I think we all can figure out where those places are because they are relatively common in RVs.
Chuck Thompson (08:37)
Yep,
you look at, you're the best judge of that. I can give you suggestions, but I, everyone...
has a different arrangement, a different layout, may move things around, may put stuff, may have something that could be actively a flash point. You just put it there and there's, you're not calling me to come over with a drill and come over and go, I'll put it up for you. It's very simple. Two screws and it comes with a mounting bracket and your eyes is really all it takes.
StressLess Camping (08:59)
He
Yeah. And that mounting bracket is just, it's clever. It's like just a basket. So it's almost like basketball, except the ball doesn't fall out the bottom, fortunately.
Chuck Thompson (09:12)
Yeah.
The simplicity of the innovation is what is amazing. And what happened was the founder who created it.
was in a resort hotel and there was a fire. And no one knew how to use the fire extinguishers. The sprinklers didn't go off and he found a need to find that added extra thing and that's where the ball came from. And we brought it to the United States because the owner of our company has a large facility where he's a mill worker. He has a mill working facility, which is a lot of wood and a lot of equipment.
And you get, yes, and he couldn't, know, the old phrase that we all hear, what keeps you up at night, you know, he would sit there and say, what happens over in my finishing room if something starts and...
StressLess Camping (09:54)
and lot of sawdust.
Chuck Thompson (10:09)
There's nothing in the room and then the sprinklers go off and I've lost everything. So that's where it came here and we took a liking to it. He got me involved. My background is sort of a brand building background and marketing industry strategist. I fell in love with it. And then I started learning more about fires and I was like, well, we need more. It's under looked.
StressLess Camping (10:35)
Yeah, so you mentioned, you know, if the sprinklers go off in a cabinet shop or whatever, everything is wood, so everything is ruined. So can you explain a little bit more about what's inside these fire extinguishers and how, you know, compare it to putting out a fire with water?
Chuck Thompson (10:57)
With not getting water damage. It's basically a dry chemical fire extinguisher. We don't refer to it as a extinguisher because that puts us in the category of fire extinguishers and we're not. I mean, that's where a lot of misinterpretations are. I'll get this versus a Kidde No, we want you to get both. And that's what we've always promoted. What's inside it is mono ammonium phosphate. It's a fertilizer. It's 90-96%, 90 % that it's got
StressLess Camping (11:10)
Okay.
Chuck Thompson (11:27)
some calcium and some mica in it at different degrees, which allows the dust to come out. And when it's dispersed with the powder, it's a finer mist and it'll extinguish.
I'll be honest with you, there are knockoffs that you can find for $30. They don't work. They come out in clumps because we have the patented powder that actually disperses it correctly. So it covers the area and extinguishes at the point. it is a dry chem as with anything. It is a corrosive chemical. You need to clean it up. But it can sit for a little while if you just need to clean it up as with anything. You want to do that with the fires anyway, because if you
have it you're gonna have to have you know someone look at it to make sure how it started and all that so you want to clean it up and I should yes vacuuming if it's an on a counter or what you know wipe it up use some water just to get it nice and clean
StressLess Camping (12:14)
And that would be just like vacuuming or whatever.
So that's another difference is it is possible to clean it up. If you douse everything with a big old sprinkler full of rancid old water, you pretty much lose everything whether it burns or not.
Chuck Thompson (12:27)
Yep.
Yeah, yeah, you're gonna have a lot. You're not
gonna have a lot. Yeah,
Fire's not fun anyway, but this is a lot more, this better than the water or sprinkler option, which is why you've seen such a widespread of foam and things like that in the sprinkler dispersion and why we actually got in to another line, which is more business related, which is our aerosol systems. But that's, you know, that's for more large buildings than RVs.
StressLess Camping (12:45)
And frankly...
Right and plus I've never seen an RV with sprinkler system in the ceiling. Don't say it they'll require it. Can you imagine?
Chuck Thompson (13:07)
No. Yeah. And that's a
check you don't want to write.
StressLess Camping (13:16)
And knowing how much the RV industry's plumbing leaks, can you imagine leaks in the ceiling? my gosh. ⁓
Chuck Thompson (13:22)
Yeah.
What kind
of a holding tank would you have to have too? That would be another hole.
StressLess Camping (13:27)
Yeah, that too.
my gosh, yeah. Well, ⁓
Chuck Thompson (13:35)
Oh, one thing I do want to mention is that before
StressLess Camping (13:35)
and something, ⁓ go ahead.
Chuck Thompson (13:37)
just, I guess I've forgotten the ball will not activate it by heat. A lot of people are, oh, what temperature? It won't. We put it in ovens and we froze it. It won't activate. It has to be touched by flame. So that is a very important piece of that. So if you leave it out in the sun and you're in your RV and you're out walking or you're out for the day and it gets to be, you let's say you just leave the windows open, it gets over 100, 200 degrees.
StressLess Camping (13:40)
That's okay.
Okay.
Chuck Thompson (14:05)
It's not gonna go off.
StressLess Camping (14:07)
And something that I think needs to be stressed, there's no wiring, there's no plumbing, it's fully self-contained. And basically, even someone like me can install it, because you're basically putting a ball by where you think things are gonna burn up. And you don't have to limit yourself to one. You could put one, if you have a ⁓ propane fridge, you could put it above that.
Chuck Thompson (14:22)
Yeah.
Yep.
StressLess Camping (14:36)
if you have your water heater or under the engine compartment. Now one thing, if you have, I don't know if I wanna address this, but I'm gonna say it and we'll see. Like lithium batteries, this won't put those out. Yeah.
Chuck Thompson (14:50)
dangerous. Now
nothing, nothing will. That is another whole, you know, the excitement to run into electric stuff without really understanding what the battery is. It's very volatile, not frequent, but it's very volatile. We don't, we do, and I'm just taking it in another direction. We have as, as we build on our innovation.
About a year and a half ago. We brought a storage cabinet in a lithium battery storage cabinet Which has allows you to charge your batteries in the cabinet because it's fire rated and if something happens an alarm goes off and the batteries it it's sealed it's shut and you can wheel it out if something happens because the only thing you can do with lithium battery is to contain it and hope that it doesn't get the runaway and just push the cart in the vault into a field or something
StressLess Camping (15:33)
Hmm.
Chuck Thompson (15:43)
place or have the fire department push it someplace there but that's what that that is in recognition of a lot of people talk about cars this is in recognition when you think about it cars are one thing do you know how many workshops or your garages and everything else like that and you know I have lithium batteries for my drill my drilling all this stuff they get left around that starts it's gone again so it's
StressLess Camping (15:45)
Yeah. Well, the.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and
truthfully, I don't worry about the type of chemistry they put in RVs. ⁓ I don't know of any, I'm sure it's happened, but I don't know of any RV battery fires, but the amount of power you're shuttling around on wires, and some people don't wire very well, I think I would be more concerned about an electrical fire than anything, know, just like a short or whatever.
Chuck Thompson (16:27)
Yeah.
That's one of
the things we, the first places we tell anyone if they ask is search your electrical hookups, your electrical boxes, your exchanges, you know, you've got...
surge protectors, things like that. We had a lady come in and we were at a show. We don't usually sell at shows. And she was very interested because she saw what we've seen. And she came back on the second day and she said, Chuck, is there any way I could just buy some off of you? Because I and I said, well, what did you I mean, I knew you wanted it. What changed last last night? And she's well, I went into my house and I noticed in my garage, I've got like everything over all the refrigerator and all this stuff plugged into one wall outlet.
StressLess Camping (17:17)
⁓
Chuck Thompson (17:17)
So then I was like, okay, and then she said I went up to my son's room and he is a He plays guitar. He has a computer. He has a gaming system and She looked behind his gaming system and his computer or whatever all that together and his clothes were all over the surge protector covering it So she said I want four So I gave her a discount and she ⁓
But that's something you wouldn't think of and these that's what I'm saying. It takes like you said, I got a ball with two screws of ball bracket and you look around and you say, wow, that's something I need to help.
StressLess Camping (17:54)
Well, and if you think about RV electrical systems, as you're driving down the road, you're rattling the heck out of all these screwed in connections, hoping that whoever built the RV torqued everything to proper spec, which they probably didn't. And now it's coming loose and loose connections create heat and heat creates fire. So electrical fires are, I think it's actually the most common
Chuck Thompson (18:11)
different. ⁓
It's number one,
67%. It's number one across everything. Fun fact, want a fun fact? Every 23 seconds, a fire department in the United States is responding to a fire.
StressLess Camping (18:23)
Yeah, now for RVs, so...
Sure.
Wow. ⁓
Chuck Thompson (18:39)
and you just don't even realize it. When I've done longer presentations, I usually have a number in my head that tells me, right now, at this point in the presentation, I've done, there's a hundred fires been responded to. Because what we like to say that realities of fire, which is not always ⁓ known, I mean, even the reporting of fires, is two years after.
StressLess Camping (18:49)
⁓
Yeah.
Chuck Thompson (19:04)
So if you go to look it up, it's a delay in how they report it. So that's what people think of it, unfortunately. And that's what we're trying to do is bring the awareness of it up.
StressLess Camping (19:04)
Huh.
Interesting.
Now you had mentioned about selling the balls, where can you get them?
Chuck Thompson (19:23)
go to www.efireusa.com.
also tell you, always like, you know, funny stories that go with it. And one of the things I can bring up is people think things are fireproof. You ever heard that? Well, it's fireproof. Well, there's no such thing as fireproof because Mother Nature will always be around. Mechanical breakdowns, what brought it to my head is I hope the guy did the spec on doing the torque on all my things. If he missed, that's a mechanical breakdown. And then there's just the person that...
StressLess Camping (19:38)
yeah.
Chuck Thompson (19:54)
you know, forgot to turn something off. And you mentioned we had talked about the natural cast video we shot. And if you look at it where you see us, we're all in these great flame suits.
And I thought it was really cool and we had them. actually gave them to us. And I was like, this is cool. And I was standing next to the guy and I said, so we're saved. These are fireproof. And he looked at me and he goes, no, we got it. These are just to run away from these. These give you about 10 seconds. It's it's starts and you run. So that is start recognizing even something that's supposed to be.
StressLess Camping (20:25)
Yeah.
Chuck Thompson (20:29)
flame fireproof, is what they call it. It's really, I don't know what you call it. Fine running, fire running or something. Yeah.
StressLess Camping (20:36)
You can still melt. Well, and this is
what we've always been proponents of or talked about as in terms of RV fire. The worst situation would be an RV fire in the middle of the night when you're asleep. So you're disoriented, you're half asleep, you're perhaps not dressed well for whatever temperature it is outside, let's just say.
Chuck Thompson (21:01)
Hahaha
StressLess Camping (21:04)
And you just need to get out. And at that point, getting a fire extinguisher and putting out a fire is really unrealistic in an RV. And so our advice always is have a way to get to the door and get out. And so for that, the portable that you sent us, I have put right next to the bed.
because Tony is four inches from the door. He can get out fast. I have to... Yeah, basically. I have to get all the way around the bed to get to the door. so between the door and where I get out of bed, I've got that portable so that if a fire's in my path, I can just make myself a path and put that fire out to get to the door. Well, she also sleeps right on top of the water heater, so. Well, there's that.
Chuck Thompson (21:31)
So he'd just be waving in his fireproof suit.
Yeah, you've got, well,
yeah, that's, you know, that's to take as we advance from the fire, the ball itself, which is where we first started. We got into aerosol technology, looking for something that could be a alternative to sprinklers or things like that.
And that's when I mentioned we got into larger room coverage and things like that. We also discovered with that, that portable that portable uses aerosol technology, which is a different type of technology. is a, it is a mist that attacks the actual chemical reaction of the fire. So it cools it before it starts. So there's no foam. There's nothing after you'd spray it. There's no cleanup and it's non corrosive. So you don't have to do anything with that. And that is.
StressLess Camping (22:35)
Hmm.
Mmm.
Chuck Thompson (22:38)
is
the other beauty is it's pull that lever at the end and push the button. Oh, a lot of people don't, you know, don't realize that the fire extinguisher that what do they call pass, you pull the pin, you aim, you shoot and spray. So but a lot of people are going like this, and they don't have the pin out. And then they got this thing up and they pull the pin and all of a sudden it's going in the air.
StressLess Camping (23:00)
Yeah, very
few people have actually practiced using one. Certainly not like muscle memory. You know, you've used it so much. And again, if a fire happens, even if you're not sleep in the middle of the night, if you're frying some bacon and you cause a fire, it's still a panic situation. You're not going to pee. P is for pull. is for... Well, and here's another thing, people.
Chuck Thompson (23:21)
Yep.
Yeah. A is for aim.
StressLess Camping (23:29)
Yeah.
Chuck Thompson (23:29)
is for.
StressLess Camping (23:29)
The other thing
I think people don't realize, those little fire extinguishers that are by code right at the door of RVs, think about your spices as you're driving down the road, eventually you've got a little box of concrete. Well, your fire extinguisher is doing the same thing. And so, unless you... Yeah. It's at the door.
Chuck Thompson (23:49)
Yeah. Well, and it's usually at the door. If you're in your, what are you going to
do if, okay, it's at the door?
StressLess Camping (23:56)
Yeah, let me run from the bedroom to the door and back to the bedroom to try to put out fire. No.
Chuck Thompson (24:02)
So
again, aerosol, this is meant to be something that is additive and it's simple to use. one thing you have to understand, there are two types of aerosol. That's a classification issue within the world of fire extinguishers that they're working through.
Aerosol can if you see aerosol you very often. Oh, that's aerosol. It's a can like a spray can and it comes out in the foam We're not that we are the condensed aerosol potassium based Crystal that attaches it doesn't there's no residue At all. So when you see in the video you guys have seen or he's spraying that's it and it just and within 20 minutes it calms the It comes it's calm to the touch
StressLess Camping (24:47)
Okay. Very cool.
Chuck Thompson (24:47)
And
another quick side light story, I like to tell side light stories, but ⁓ the owner of the company who owns the mill working, when we brought this over, he wanted to try it because he heard so much. It's seen it. He'd seen it work. He'd seen videos. You know, we, we contracted the person. We become very friendly. They do a lot of our work. So he decided I'm going to light my spray room up. He went into his finishing room.
StressLess Camping (24:52)
Mm-hmm
Hahaha
Chuck Thompson (25:12)
And we're all like, you sure? And he's like, no, I've got to do it. So we went in and put a half X generator in there for the large room. And he lit it on fire. Closed the door, the look on his face. And within 10 minutes, we opened it. It was out. It was out. Nothing there. You didn't have to clean anything up.
StressLess Camping (25:23)
Yeah
Wow.
Chuck Thompson (25:30)
So that's the kind of confidence you have, you know, with these products. And I'll tell you right now, even with these products, you'll get about this close and we'll never get the fireproof, but any little bit helps, especially in something as valuable as you guys have when you're traveling. I mean, that is, that's your home.
StressLess Camping (25:44)
Yeah, any.
any advantage we can put in our court, especially with fire, because your RV is made out of kindling. anything you can do to get out safe is, is well worth doing to us. So, well, Chuck, it has been a pleasure meeting you and we think you've got a great product and we're going to share with our audience and have them check it out. If they have any questions.
Chuck Thompson (26:05)
Yeah.
Bye!
Thank you very much.
StressLess Camping (26:18)
They can reach directly out to you and we'll put a link to how to do so.
Chuck Thompson (26:21)
Well, I also would like to,
I don't know if we can do it here if I'm allowed to, we would like to give you guys a for your listeners a 20 % discount, we need to set up a code and you guys can let me know what you want it to be. can, it would just be whatever you want it to be 20 % come to our, to our website. So I don't know if you, if you want to let me know on the side or you want to give me something now I'll do it. Okay.
StressLess Camping (26:42)
Well, let's use stress less. Stress less
20. Why not? Yeah.
Chuck Thompson (26:50)
Okay, that's what it will. I'll get that active tomorrow and and you guys can all We want to make sure that people are aware of a fire and you know, I greatly appreciate you guys for you know, staying in touch because I was traveling you were traveling and we never lost sight of we never lost sight of each other, which is you know, a lot of people you are definitely not the ones that forgot about fire because a lot of people do and
StressLess Camping (26:53)
Sounds good. And we'll put that in the show notes.
No.
No. Yeah, we think fire safety is really important. Yes, for
sure.
Chuck Thompson (27:17)
I wish more, you I always people hear me and never enough fire protection. I'm always like give fire seat at the table when people are planning what they're doing, whether it's their travels, their home, their businesses, anything, pulling their boat out, doing this, you know, in the springtime, you're getting everything ready to go out again, make sure everything and check it every year. So there's no maintenance on the ball, so I'm not coming to check it, but still just make sure it's straight up. And yeah, that type of thing.
StressLess Camping (27:30)
Yep
Yep.
But still make sure it's still there. Yeah, did it? Well, and that is one
thing we I actually put ours in our sticks and bricks by the water heater and furnace in one cabinet But because it's just a ball kind of loosely sitting in a basket It's not a bad idea to make sure it's always facing upright Yeah
Chuck Thompson (28:02)
You want the arrow, the arrow has to be up. You'll see the arrow is the top, the igniter has to be on top
because that's where the force comes down and puts it out there. And remember, no matter if you hear it.
Always make sure everyone's safe and then you should just, if you can, take a secondary tool and go and look in the area to make sure there's nothing. Because like I said, fires can just reignite. There's a reason why firemen after fire at houses have an overwatch for 24 hours because it it regoes. And it can be costly if something happens, but it's a start.
StressLess Camping (28:32)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chuck Thompson (28:40)
We think the innovation thing is needed in this because it's been too long and it's just a fire extinguisher and sprinklers. I think we're breaking ground in a lot of new stuff.
StressLess Camping (28:50)
Yeah,
we like it. fantastic. Well, thank you again, Chuck. And we will share that discount code with our audience and hopefully keep people fire safe. There you go. Thank you. You bet. Thank you.
Chuck Thompson (28:56)
Yep.
Yeah, stress less 20. I love it. Thank you very much. Okay, bye bye.
Tony - StressLess Camping (29:08)
Talk about a hot topic, man.
That's some great information. And speaking of hot topics, we wanted you to know that we have a hot deal for you from Airgear. a lot of people are starting the camping season and you might be tired of that stinky old hose that you're using. And we've said this Airgear hose has been with us for three RVs now.
It's just a great product. And we have a discount code for the Airgear water hose and more information. And that's again, linked at the show notes at stressescamping.com. We also have, let's be honest, as you start the camping season, you're going to want to be able to change the tires in your RV. And we have a discount. ⁓ yeah. So we have a discount on the Airgear tire changing kit.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (29:39)
Yeah.
or at very least check them.
Tony - StressLess Camping (30:09)
at stresslesscamping.com. So great products that Airgear actually uses their products and we use their products and like them. And through the end of April, we've got some savings for you on either or both of these really terrific things.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (30:27)
And how are we gonna find out about those savings?
Tony - StressLess Camping (30:30)
Well, again, they're at the show notes at at stressless camping.com. is podcast episode 353 or, uh, yeah, that's where they are. There's no, or there's iron or in the mountains, but that's about it.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (30:40)
No or, just do with that. ⁓
That's probably not going to work out for us. All right.
Tony - StressLess Camping (30:51)
Yeah. And they, these discounts
are through the end of April.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (30:57)
Okay, well, ⁓ those of you who know Tony very well know that he's not a big fan of books. Now, I'm not saying he doesn't read. He sometimes reads. He doesn't like the holding of a book. But in this case, he made an exception.
Tony - StressLess Camping (31:12)
No.
I made a few recently, which is just weird. But I bought this book. Angel Delgadillo is considered the angel of Route 66. He really brought back the Route 66 after he lives in Seligman, Arizona. And if you haven't heard, he was really instrumental in getting Route 66 recognized.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (31:20)
That's true.
Tony - StressLess Camping (31:46)
from end to end, so not just in Arizona. Well, he wrote a book. Now, that's pretty cool for anybody. Angel is 98 and wrote this book. My Life On and For Route 66, The Road to Happiness. Angel is a really cool guy and I can hear his voice as I'm reading this and.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (31:58)
Bye.
Absolutely.
Tony - StressLess Camping (32:10)
And you can buy this, you know, through, ⁓ angels gift shop in Seligman. if you happen to be on route 66, I believe they will also, ⁓ you can buy it, you know, over the computer. ⁓ and I, it might be available on Amazon. I don't know, but we'll put links in the show note, but I got a signed copy. So that's, that's pretty cool. And I believe you can get these mail order, you know,
from their shop signs as well. ⁓ Angel is, and now Angel in his, you know, as I said, he's almost as as Route 66. ⁓ He is now building birdhouses. So he's been a carpenter for a lot of his life. And it's an interesting story. anyway, I...
Peggy - StressLess Camping (32:54)
That's right. He's 99 and Route 66 is 100. Yeah.
Tony - StressLess Camping (33:07)
I've enjoyed. I'm only about halfway through.
But there you go.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (33:15)
Okay. Well, while Tony's been reading, I've been working. No, I'm kidding. We save our reading time for after our work is done, but I have been working on updating the calendar and I found some RV shows in April that I couldn't have last year at all. So I don't know if these are all shows that are new to April or if I somehow slept through last April.
Tony - StressLess Camping (33:28)
boy.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (33:45)
which is very good possibility. But anyway, the ⁓ calendar is updated again, so go check it out. And if you're looking for show in April, there's actually some there now.
Tony - StressLess Camping (34:00)
And as always, if you know of an RV show that's not in the calendar, let us know and we'll get it right there. The calendar is a huge traffic source, stressiscamping.com. But no worries, it's a 20 lane road, so there's plenty of room for everybody on that traffic. highway. Super highway.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (34:05)
For sure.
Yes.
It's a super highway.
could you take your RV of the week on the super highway?
Tony - StressLess Camping (34:28)
Yeah, I guess you can.
Uh, but we did is I got to go with, uh, several other writers with RV trader. write RV articles for them too. And we got to see pre-productions of the Winnebago thrive 22 MBH. And there's, we'll have a link again in the show notes to the full article about this, but there are a few things that Winnebago is doing that really impressed me. One of those is.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (34:29)
Yeah.
Tony - StressLess Camping (34:58)
All the holes that are in the sides of RVs or in cabinets inside typically are hand cut. And these, if you watch RVs being built, it's a little bit scary because these guys with routers will just walk up to the side of an RV and it's like bang and then and they drill out a window or a baggage door or whatever. And they're actually pretty good at it, but sometimes
Not so much, they'll miss stuff. Well, Winnebago with these thrives and the Micro Mini are actually using computer cutting machines to cut out the holes. And the level of precision, and that's the holes for the bugs, for the baggage doors, all of that, marker lights. The precision of this cutting was remarkable to me. I was really...
When I walked into this
Peggy - StressLess Camping (35:58)
Well, last week we asked you our question of the week was, you, do you stay at Love's RV stops? And a lot of people answered and I appreciate the answers. And I think a lot of ⁓ kind of the consensus is if you've stayed or maybe if the reason you haven't stayed, they're very, very convenient. They're not very, very cheap. So the cost is a little hard to take.
Tony - StressLess Camping (36:22)
No, in fact,
In fact, yeah, I also took that and I wrote an article at RV travel.com about it. And there are, there were something like 40 comments on that article, a lot of which were like, Ooh, it's kind of pricey. So we'll put a link to that in the, at the stressless camping podcast, Facebook group to, to the article on RV travel. So interesting. What's our question?
Peggy - StressLess Camping (36:29)
you
You mean the
stressless campers Facebook group.
Tony - StressLess Camping (36:56)
Yeah, that one!
Peggy - StressLess Camping (36:58)
Last week you called it a Facebook page and this week you called it the wrong name. Anyway, that is...
Tony - StressLess Camping (37:03)
That blah blah social media. Hello
social media-ers.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (37:09)
This week I was curious, what is the shortest distance that you have driven to go on a camping trip? I have to actually look at a map and figure out what ours is. went, Tony will know what this means, we went from our home in Kelseyville to Clear Lake State Park, which was, I'm gonna say under 10 miles, but I'll look it up and answer my own question in the, that's not the shortest?
Tony - StressLess Camping (37:30)
Not the shortest.
We camped in our own backyard several times.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (37:37)
Well, yeah, I said the shortest distance you've driven. Not the shortest distance you've walked. ⁓
Tony - StressLess Camping (37:38)
Hahaha! ⁓
Okay.
That's also when Coyotes
ate my shoes.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (37:54)
Well, that is true. So you can answer that question. Ask your own questions. Tell stories about coyotes eating your shoes at our fun and friendly Stressed StressLess Campers Facebook group.
Tony - StressLess Camping (38:11)
Yeah, and where can I find a link to that?
Peggy - StressLess Camping (38:15)
right there in the show notes with all the other links. Yeah. ⁓
Tony - StressLess Camping (38:19)
That's amazing.
Well, don't forget to like share and subscribe. We really appreciate your reviews on Apple podcasts and also on Spotify and all the places you like to get podcasts. We really appreciate your being here with us. We're at 353 episodes, never having missed one.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (38:36)
Yes.
That's right. Don't forget also that you can sign up for our once a week newsletter with deals, discounts, and links and stories to your inbox every Thursday morning. and that helps make your adventures stress-less camping.
Tony - StressLess Camping (39:03)
stressless cam?
man, this is, it's hard with the delay.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (39:09)
It's very difficult with the delay.
Tony - StressLess Camping (39:11)
Let's try,
let's try that line one more time just to see, just keep going and I'll weigh in.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (39:21)
Links to your inbox to make your RV adventures stressless camping.
Tony - StressLess Camping (39:25)
StressLess camping.
Ooh, that worked, I think. All right, let's see how this works.
Peggy - StressLess Camping (39:30)
I don't know, see.
