RV rentals - talking with Fireside RV rentals - RV podcast 360
RV rentals - talking with Fireside RV rentals - RV podcast 360
Have you ever wanted to rent an RV? Have you ever wanted to rent your RV? Is your RV just sitting there when it could be making money? What if you could rent other RVs as a business? This week we talk with Garr Russell from Fireside RV Rentals who works with local RV owners to rent RVs across the country.
We also have an overlanding RV that was introduced at Overland Expo that’s just incredible and we can’t wait to learn what you think.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Our guest came from Fireside RV Rental
Our guest, Garr Russell, is an author
Tony’s review of the 2027 Winnebago ARKA overloading RV
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 360
Peggy
Have you ever wanted to rent an RV?
Tony
Have you ever wanted to rent your RV?
Peggy
Is your RV just sitting there when it could be making money?
Tony
And what if you could rent other RVs as a business?
Peggy
Cool. This week we talk with Garr Russell from Fireside RV Rentals. He works with local RV owners to rent RVs across the country.
Tony
We also saw an overlanding RV at Overland Expo that ooh la la. And we can't wait to see what you have to say about this rig.
Peggy
Are you gonna try to rent one?
Tony
Uh. They're not available just yet.
Peggy
Oh, darn. But we have this week's podcast and the notes and stories that go with this episode, plus deals, discounts, helpful tips, and more at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com.
Tony
We really appreciate your likes and shares, telling all your friends, and thank you for joining us for podcast episode 360.
Peggy
Stressless Camping.
Tony
Stressless Camping.
Peggy
He's Tony.
Tony
And she's Peggy.
Peggy
And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time.
Tony
In a Rockwood Mini Lite.
Peggy
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips.
Tony
Tricks
Peggy
And discounts. It messes us up when we change roles.
Tony
Oh, not really. In theory, we're-
Peggy
It makes, it makes me laugh.
Tony
Okay, okay.
Peggy
It doesn't mean it messes us up.
Tony
That's great.
Peggy
But it makes me laugh.
Tony
That's even better. Well, I missed it.
Peggy
Mm.
Tony
Overland Expo was this last week.
Peggy
I was gonna say, where did you go? But I'm gonna say-
Tony
No, I didn't go
Peggy
... hey, where didn't you go this week?
Tony
I sat here and just worked on stuff. I had a bunch of stuff due, and I did not go to Overland Expo in Flagstaff, and I had passes, and I'm kicking myself 'cause a lot of my friends were there, like Jason from RV Miles, and Kenny from, uh, Beyond the Wheel podcast.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And Christopher from Ember RV, and...
Peggy
Decisions were made.
Tony
I know. It, this adulting is malarkey.
Peggy
Being grownups are terrible.
Tony
Yes. But if you've not been to Overland Expo, but you've been to RV shows, go to an Overland Expo if you at all can because, oh my gosh, it is just so well-run and so different. And as RVers, if you're just, you know, traditional RVer, then you'll find there's cool, cool, cool stuff there for you. If you're-
Peggy
If you're at all interested in overlanding, there's no end to the stuff you can learn there.
Tony
Oh my gosh.
Peggy
See there.
Tony
Or buy. You could-
Peggy
Yeah, and buy there
Tony
... you could spend yourself poor-
Peggy
Yeah
Tony
... going there.
Peggy
So we did get to go last year.
Tony
Yeah. And we're-
Peggy
It was great
Tony
... I'm going again next year.
Peggy
We went to Flagstaff. But, you know, they, um, have a whole series of Overland Expos all over the country. So in May is in Flagstaff. In June, they have one in Oregon. In August, they have one in Colorado, and it's, like, my mom's backyard.
Tony
Sure.
Peggy
So I really would like to go to that sometime.
Tony
Yeah, but we're gonna be in Indiana this year.
Peggy
Well, yeah. And then in October, there's one in Virginia. So-
Tony
V
Peggy
... if you're anywhere in the country, you can find an Overland Expo that's not terribly far away from you, and i- it's really worth going to at least once. You know, we're not, uh, uh, we love to be off grid. We have to make the distinction that we're not, like, really off road kind of campers.
Tony
Right
Peggy
Overland kind of campers. It was overwhelming, the overlanding opportunities that are there.
Tony
But there were also a lot of Class B vans, a lot of those overlanding, those, like, super-duper overlanding RVs-
Peggy
Mm-hmm
Tony
... which we'll talk about in a minute. Uh, and it was just, there's something about it. It's, and you can actually camp there if you, if you're lucky and get an early reservation. And the, uh, I've been told the community, 'cause last year we couldn't camp there, uh, I've been told the community of overlanding and overlanding people and all of that is also incredible.
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Tony
Oh, by the way, I wrote an article about Overland Expo that you can find on RV Business.
Peggy
Oh, okay.
Tony
And I wrote an article about the RV I talked about in RV Travel. So of course, as always, links in the show notes. That's why we have them.
Peggy
So, you know, even if we don't do a whole lot of off-road, overlanding type stuff, as I said, we love to camp off grid and be places that, you know, we don't have hookups, and we accomplish that very smartly, thank you, with our-
Tony
Ooh
Peggy
... upfit from ABC Upfitters.
Tony
Yeah. ABC Upfitters, if you've never heard us before, install Mastervolt solar and lithium packages that are designed around the way you like to camp and just are remarkably well-integrated systems from one source, so there's no finger-pointing, there's no, "Oh, did I put the right wire?" Or any of that stuff. You just, you work with the team at ABC Upfitters, and they make a system for you or put together a system for you that just works.
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Tony
But the nice thing is, let's say you're like, "Oh, I just want to do this," and then you're like, "No, this is really addicting." "I wanna do more than this," their systems are upgradable too.
Peggy
Expandable, yeah.
Tony
In fact, a lot of what they're doing, there are a lot of RV manufacturers like Thor with their vans, Rockwood and Flagstaff, and several others that use these systems from the factory. That's how good they are. And some of those people are like, "Well, this is good, but I want gooder." And so they actually do a lot of upgrades to upfits as well. So anyway, if that's the kind of reliability and quality that you would like-Our friends at ABC Outfitters are right at there waiting on the phone.
Tony
I sound like a late night pitchman.
Peggy
Operators are standing by.
Tony
Operators are standing by.
Peggy
Give them a call at 574-333-3225.
Tony
That's-
Peggy
Long distance fees-
Tony
Yeah
Peggy
... may be required.
Tony
That's area code 574-333-3225.
Peggy
Or check out this QR link for more information on our website.
Tony
Yeah, or as always, in our show notes, there's, uh, links to stories and videos and resources about ABC Outfitters and all the things we go on about. And speaking of the things we go on about- ... this week, we had the privilege of having Garr Russell from Fireside RV Rentals, and I know a lot of people have reached out and said, "Well, what, you know, can I rent my RV or can I find a place that rents RVs?"
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Tony
And, or here's something, you're shopping for an RV, you want a number seven flibity bobbity, and you're like, "But I wanna try before I buy."
Peggy
Right.
Tony
Or, "I wanna know is a small trailer good enough for me?" Or how about, "Am I really a Class A?" But whatever.
Peggy
Yeah. Would I like being in a Class B van? Yeah.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Whatever question you might have, a solution might be to rent an RV, and Garrhas come up with a, what I think is a really great idea for helping out those people who want to rent an RV, helping out those people who want to rent out their RVs, and helping out those people who wanna build a business.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
So many people.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Let's hear from Gar. Today, we're very happy to welcome Garr Russell from Fireside RV Rentals. We've been really curious about RV rentals for a long time. We did rent an RV one time.
Tony
That was a while ago.
Peggy
We'll talk about that another time, but yeah, it was a long time ago, before we had an RV. But Gar, thank you for spending some time with us today and giving us some information about yourself and Fireside RV Rentals.
Garr Russell
Yeah. Yeah. You're welcome, guys. Good to jump on and chat with you, and we found out we already know someone in common. That's awesome.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Tell us a little bit about Fireside RV Rentals.
Garr Russell
Yeah. So basically, what Fireside RV Rentals is, we're an RV rental company. Uh, but what we do is we rent out other people's RVs on their behalf. So I'm sure you've seen it, you know your neighbor's RV sitting in the driveway, or you drive by a storage lot and it's just chuck full of hundreds of RVs. Uh, what we do is we take those RVs for the owners and we put them to work for them, but it's passive because we do everything for them. So we handle the maintenance and the cleaning and all the things. They get some passive income.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
Interesting.
Peggy
That absolutely answers a question that I w- had right off anyway, is where do you get the RVs? 'Cause I thought, is it, you know, do you have to own all these RVs that you rent out to people? So that is a great way to do it, is get ahold of your neighbor, like you said, other people's RVs, and take care of them for them, and then you have stock.
Garr Russell
I started renting my RV, and then I realized, man, this is a business, and I just felt like early in the business that the Lord said, "You know what? Rent other people's RVs for them. Don't go out and buy a bunch of RVs." And we learned that right during COVID, too, when several of our competitors went out of business that had these lots full of RVs, right? They had the payments and the insurance and the upkeep, all the things that owners already had naturally. So it was, it was really cool how it worked out.
Tony
Just so I understand, the way it works is, let's say I have an RV, and like most people, it goes out two or three times a year for my own use, but I'm paying for it all year round. I can work with Fireside RV Rentals and actually rent that RV out and potentially zero or zero out the cost of owning it.
Garr Russell
Yeah, you can rent it out yourself, you know, if you have the time to do it, or if you want it to be more passive where you don't have to deal with all the things of doing it, then uh, yeah, Fireside RV can do it for you. And we've got, uh, 70 locations around the country. We're actually celebrating our 10-year anniversary this year, uh, which is our 20-year wedding anniversary. And that's kinda part of the origin story-
Peggy
Oh
Garr Russell
... how Fireside started, which is a neat story.
Peggy
Oh, tell us that.
Tony
Oh, we'd love to hear that.
Garr Russell
So basically, for our 10-year wedding anniversary, I bought my bride, uh, a camper. I bought her a, a, a travel trailer for our anniversary. So at the time, we lived up in Michigan. I brought it to Grand Haven, Michigan, and set it up, and, and I thought, "This is it. This is like Husband of the Decade award," you know- ... I bought this nice camper. But what we discovered was a couple things. Uh, first was she was pregnant with number four, so we had a, a, a, a, a toddler, two that were, you know, five, seven years older, and it's the middle of summer.
Garr Russell
It's July in Grand Haven, Michigan, so it's super hot, humid, right, the sand, all the things, all the elements were against me. And here comes my wife outside of the camper, seven months pregnant, and she says, "Hey, I'm going home." And I thought, "Oh, dang it, what did I forget to pack?" And then I quickly realized, she's like, she ain't coming back.
Tony
Oh, no.
Garr Russell
She is hot. She's miserable. She's about to have a baby. Uh, this was not the ideal time for, uh, me to buy the camper, and that's literally what birthed Fireside, was my wife, wife about to birth a baby. That's funny, I've never said it that way before. That's what birthed Fireside was my wife was about to birth a baby. And, and so there I sit by myself as my wife's headed home to sit in the air conditioning, miserable, and I thought, "Okay, we own real estate. You know, we're entrepreneurs. I'm gonna rent this thing out. That's what I'm gonna do." And that, that's literally what started Fireside.
Tony
Wow. That's a great story. So now you've birthed both a human- ... and a business-
Garr Russell
Yeah
Tony
... at this, basically the same time.
Garr Russell
Yeah. Yeah, a human and a business was born at the same time, and, uh, fast-forward a couple months when Isabella, our number four, was born. She, uh, was born via C-section. I'm, I'm saying this to justify what I did next.
Tony
Mm.
Garr Russell
Uh, she was born via C-section, like all of our other babies, and I thought, "Okay, you know, it's very s- structured and organized, a C-section birth, right?" You know, like, you check in, here's your time, here's your date, here's the room, all the things. We go, we check into the room, Isabella's born. We go, you know, back to our room and everything. Well, I literally, I tell my wife, I'm like, "All right, hey, I'll be back in a minute." She's like, "Oh, okay, where are you going?" I was actually going to the dealership to buy three more RVs 'cause I thought-
Tony
Oh.
Garr Russell
... "This is the business. I'm all in." And literally, uh, you know, shortly after I did that is when I just felt that tug from the Lord like, "Use other people's assets. Use other people's RVs. Don't, don't go out and buy a bunch." And it, and it made sense in hindsight because it's a blessing to other people. It doesn't put a bunch of overhead on the business. And, uh, yeah, so here we are 10 years later and nearly 1,000 RVs under management across the nation.
Tony
Wow.
Garr Russell
And how was, how long was it before you told your wife that you were buying three new RVs on your baby's birthday?
Tony
It was, it was when I, she asked where I was going. Oh, okay.
Garr Russell
Yeah, I told her right then, "Yeah, I'm going to sign the paper on some more RVs."
Tony
Wow. Now, I know a lot of people bought RVs, especially during COVID, but just in general, have these long contracts, and really, they owe so much more than the RV is ever worth. So renting is a good way of resolving that situation, right?
Garr Russell
Yeah, exactly. You know, it's, it, it offsets the cost of ownership. Uh, and not only that, you get to depreciate your RV under the same federal tax code like you could a piece of real estate or equipment. Um, you get to, uh, you know, the earning potential obviously. You get to write off, you know, uh, the interest on the loan, the storage, the maintenance. So, right, you have the, the tax write-off. You have the ownership, uh, cost that you can write off, and then you have the earning potential.
Garr Russell
So it's great from three different angles. And I always say it's just, Andy, get to write off the guilt of, "Oh my gosh, we bought this RV that's sitting in our driveway, you know, 50 weeks a year." That right there is a, is, is a blessing in itself to have that off your conscience of, "Oh my gosh, this thing is just sitting around."
Tony
Well, it looks like there are two opportunities that you have. One is, "I'm the guy or girl who has this RV, and I work with a local franchisee to rent it out to people," or you could be a franchisee.
Garr Russell
Right. Yeah. We ha- we also have the franchise opportunity that, uh, we started that in 2022. Uh, we had a couple... We started with, like, a little business in a box and just mentoring and coaching. And then in '22, again, this is all God. He showed me in '22, he's like, "Hey, become a franchise. Uh, you're operating as one. Become one," and so we did. And yeah, it's, it's, it's awesome. You know, for those of y'all that don't know much about the franchise world, it's literally you're, you're buying a business in a box.
Garr Russell
You're buying all the systems and the processes and the software and the community and all the different things. And what we've learned over the years really is the, the biggest piece of it is community and the power of partnership. You know, 'cause you can learn any business, right? You can walk through and do the hard things and, and make some mistakes, and you know, it just costs you, you know, with your time and energy and some money out of your bank account. Then eventually, you figure it out, right? But the community of, you know, like-minded people doing business together, uh, it's just, it's, it's awesome.
Garr Russell
Like, tonight, we have what's called our fireside chats. We get on tonight at 8:00 PM. I'll come on. I'll do, like, an entrepreneurial style teaching. Then we do a Q&A, and just all the things we do where we're doing life together. It's just, it's really cool. That's great. It's great that you can do your kind of team meetings virtually, you know, fireside meeting, but virtually, because as RVers, you don't need a franchise that's all in one town anyway, so you've got to be spread all over the place, and having meetings is, has to be virtual.
Tony
Yeah. Yeah, we've got locations all around the country, so. We do, uh, have a in-person retreat every year in November-
Garr Russell
Ooh
Tony
... here in Okeechobee. The largest KOA in the country is here in Okeechobee.
Garr Russell
Huh.
Tony
It just so happens. That's actually how we ended up in Okeechobee, as snowbirds from Michigan.
Garr Russell
Oh.
Tony
You know, we were looking for somewhere nice and warm. I wanted a hot tub. That's, you know, one of my things. I like a hot tub that I can sit in, and we wanted somewhere that's kid-friendly. You know, full-time RVers with kids get that. Some of the RV parks you go to as, as snowbirds, you're like, you pull in there with kids, and you get a bunch of, uh, you know, people looking at you like, "Hey, this is a, you know, adult-only park. What are you doing here?" But anyway, so that's how we ended up here in Okeechobee, and, and we do our reunion here once a year. It, it's, yeah, it's a blast. So I think as an RV owner, the big, scary reason why, you know, you have this asset sitting out in the driveway or in storage or wherever it is, and the big, scary thing is, oh, what if someone trashes it?
Tony
Or what if somebody, you know, gets hurt, and insurance. So tell me how you guys manage that because I think that's the biggest pain point, right?
Garr Russell
Yeah, that's definitely, uh, one of the concerns that RV owners have. You know, we say one of two things.First of all, if you're emotionally attached to your RV, you know, which is fine, you can be, right? Like, especially people that are avid RVers, then don't do it. Because, you know, heck, you know, j- just as RVers and I know, you can turn around too quickly in your RV and all of a sudden you're like, "Oh, man, I just ripped a door off," or, "I just-
Tony
Yeah.
Garr Russell
... you know, put a dent in my wall." You know, they're not built, you know, super high quality. Um, and then second is, yeah, damage happens, uh, but that's what insurance and deposits and contracts and driver verifications and all that stuff are for. So all those things are in place. You know, the common thing really that happens a lot, right? Awning gets ripped off. Renters don't realize, like, "Hey, winds are picking up."
Peggy
Mm.
Garr Russell
You know, put the awning in. A renter thinks, "Oh, it's starting to rain. Put the awning out. You know, we need to-
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Yeah.
Garr Russell
... stop the rain." You know, it's like, no, it's not made for that. It's really, I don't even know what the point of an awning is on RVs, like.
Tony
I don't either.
Garr Russell
Pull it in. Pull it in. But, so yeah, we, we definitely tell them, "Hey, that kind of stuff is gonna happen. We have things in place for it. Or if you're emot- emotionally attached, just don't do it. It's, it's not worth you stressing about it to make a couple hundred bucks, uh, you know, for sure."
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And do you find certain types of RV tend to be more popular, or is it kinda more like, oh, in the Southwest it's this, and in Florida it's that?
Garr Russell
Not necessarily. It's more, uh, floor plans really. You know, you might m- have some onesie-twosies where you get into a certain area where somebody wants a 19-foot tow behind because they're gonna g- go up into the mountains and do this and that, and they want to navigate around, or they want, like, a 25-foot drivable or under 'cause they're gonna go into national parks and stuff like that.
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Garr Russell
But for the most part it really comes down to the floor plan, right? It's, it's, it's families on their summer camping trips, and they got two to four kids, so they want a bunk house. Or the opposite side of it, it's somebody that's going to Talladega or Bonnaroo or-
Tony
Oh, yeah
Garr Russell
... you know, some sort of race or festival, and they want a big Class A. They don't even wanna drive it. They want it delivered and set up and- ... you know, complete, you know, uh, roll out the red carpet for them. And then you also, too, this is why, you know, in my book, My Wheel Estate Story, I call it wheel estate because, you know, we work with insurance companies, so, right? Somebody's house gets flooded, you know, an insurance company's gonna pay a couple thousand bucks a month for an RV to sit on the side of that person's house while it gets rebuilt. Or, right, you wanna get, you know, medical transportation.
Garr Russell
That was huge during COVID. Uh, y- you know, d- there's all these onesie-twosie scenarios too that you just wouldn't think. Uh, but really, it's a house on wheels, right? So there's, there's all these different applications.
Tony
Huh. So tell us more about the book. I, somehow I missed that.
Peggy
Yeah.
Garr Russell
Yeah. I, I actually have five books that I've authored. I've got-
Tony
Oh, wow.
Peggy
Oh
Garr Russell
... I've got, yeah, I have two from a previous business that I had for about a decade. Uh, and then I have, uh, My Wheel Estate Story, and that's basically, that's a book about my entrepreneurial journey, and it's for entrepreneurs. So it's called, uh, My Wheel Estate Story: Filled With Faith, Failure, Fun Times, uh, My Journey From Fifth Grade Until Now. And it starts with my-
Peggy
Oh, wow
Garr Russell
... first business adventure of the lawn care business, right? Wheel estate. Uh, a lawnmower is on wheels. You know, up to RV rentals, and it's just me sharing my journey. Uh, it's an encouragement for entrepreneurs, and then also I speak to those who might think they want to be an entrepreneur, but they're not sure. Like, "Okay, am I an entrepreneur? Do I have what it takes?" You know, I call them wantrepreneurs. And there's a little bit, uh, like a quiz in there, like, "Hey, you're probably an entrepreneur if," right?
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Garr Russell
You know, you're, you're always telling your spouse while you're driving down the road, "You know what would be a better way to do this?" Or, "You know, when we were cooking dinner last night, I thought, man, I wish I had a gadget that did this or that." You know, just when you're constantly have those kind of thoughts and ideas, then most likely you're probably an entrepreneur in the making. You just, uh, y- you never thought, like, "Okay, what can I actually do to step into my entrepreneurial journey?" So that's what that book's all about.
Peggy
Nice.
Tony
That's really awesome.
Peggy
Okay, so I feel like we missed a tiny little step here. "My wife said, 'I hate RVing.' We're full-timers."
Garr Russell
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there was-
Peggy
There's something, there was a step missing in there.
Garr Russell
Yeah. Yeah. It was basically it was pregnant, miserable, right? Pregnant, miserable, hot. She was like, "I'm going home." In the moment, I thought, "Oh, my gosh. My wife doesn't like this."
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Garr Russell
But in hindsight, right, she had the baby, and we started renting RVs, and there I am. You know, I bought a couple. I'm renting my friend's RVs. You know, we went camping again and absolutely fell in love with it. Yeah, we became f- full-time RVers for five years. We ran our RV rental business in the summer, and then we'd travel around during the winter. And then as the business grew, we added a staff, and, uh, we ended up becoming full-time RVers.
Tony
That's good that she sorta came around.
Peggy
Yeah.
Garr Russell
It is. We, we actually, uh, we so love RVing. We got back into a house about three years ago, and our oldest is getting ready to head off to California in February to, uh, uh, a college called YWAM. And then our second oldest will be 16 in December. So in a couple years, we always say we'll be back in an RV once the two oldest are kinda headed off and starting to do their thing. We'll be back off on the next adventure with the youngers.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
So being sort of on the business side of RVs has not turned you off on the fun side of RVs then?
Garr Russell
No, not at all. We, we love RVing. We literally just went, yeah, for the weekend, we went up to Busch Gardens, and we had the things that happen for RVers, right? The generator stopped working, and it's, here we are in Florida, it's 90-something degrees. So everybody's in the back of the RV sweating, and then the AC in the dash went out, like, shortly after that.
Peggy
Ooh.
Tony
Oh, gosh.
Garr Russell
And then I hit a bump and it came back on. I hit a bump and it went off. And, and, right, all the things, you know, that happens. You know, that's, that's one of the things that renters don't understand about RVing, right? We get it as RVers. Like, you're always tinkering on something. It's like-
Peggy
Mm-hmm
Garr Russell
... it's, there's always something that, a short or this or that, or something starts working or stops working and-We get that it's all part of the journey, but, but no, we absolutely still love RVing. We're gonna be hitting the road next month and going up to Michigan, uh, in the RV for a, for a little road trip.
Peggy
Nice.
Tony
Awesome. So how would somebody learn more about the franchising? Because I know a lot of people who are like, "Oh, I'd love to be in the RV rental business."
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
But you're right, it's, there's a lot of insights and tips and tricks, and just franchising seems like it would take that pain point away.
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Garr Russell
Yeah, it definitely does. You know, the SBA says that 50% of first-time businesses fail, that 80% of people who start a business and it failed, they never try again. They're like, "Okay, I tried it, doesn't work," you know, and they go back to building somebody else's business. And, uh, and that's the cool thing about the franchise world is, is that percentage is more than cut in half in regards to the failure rate. So it is true, literally you could cut a check and it's like you're handed a college certificate, but your college professor goes with you, right?
Garr Russell
And, and continues to coach you and lead you and guide you and help you. I did a video about that last year. I'm like, "You know, you could start a franchise, or you could get like a, a..." Nowadays, not even a bachelor's degree, pay the same amount, and your college professor doesn't leave with you once he gives you a certificate. That's the beauty of a franchise, right? Your, the community stays with you and continues to support you and all the things. Um, so yeah, if somebody is interested in learning more about it, uh, you could go to garrussell.com, my main website that has all my books you can download for free, and, and you can learn about our franchise opportunity on there, or firesidervrentalfranchise.com.
Peggy
We're gonna pop the surprise question. If enough people listen to us, they don't, it, they won't be surprised anymore, but we would like to hear, if you would share, your worst RVing or camping story. Just the worst experience you've had.
Garr Russell
Worst experience. You know, as soon as you asked that, I thought of something to do with my RV, but it was probably the worst experience for the person that was working on my RV. But, uh, that was my initial thought. Well, no, here's another one, and it's still related to the same thing, which is the black tank. Um-
Peggy
Mm
Garr Russell
... I, so this was in regards to RV rentals, not in regards to RVing. Is that okay?
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Sure. Sure.
Tony
Perfect.
Garr Russell
Okay. So this was actually unit number two in my rental fleet, which it was my best friend Jeremy's camper, and they had a big, beautiful, um, oh, I forget the name of it now. It has the horse on it as their logo. Something-
Peggy
Hmm
Garr Russell
... Range maybe, or-
Tony
Oh, oh, Open Range.
Peggy
Oh, yeah. Open Range.
Garr Russell
Open Range. Yeah, it is. This big, beautiful two-bedroom Open Range, t- t- two bathroom. And so it comes back from a rental, and I'm flushing out the black tank. Well, remember when I said it had two bathrooms on it? I thought I was flushing one bathroom. I was flushing another.
Peggy
Oh.
Garr Russell
So what I had done is I had hooked up to the flush valve, right? So it's blowing in all this water, and I pulled the other valve for the other bathroom.
Peggy
Oh.
Garr Russell
So for 10, 15 minutes, all it's doing is pressurizing the-
Peggy
Oh
Garr Russell
... the, the one that I thought was flushing because I pulled the other handle. So I go to go and, you know, "Oh, let me press on the pedal and, and, you know, do an old visual inspection to see what's going on in there." And, and yeah, I'm sure you can fill in the blanks on the rest of the story.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Oh my goodness.
Garr Russell
I pressed that pedal down, and oh my gosh, I was caked, the bathroom was ca- everywhere is-
Tony
Oh
Garr Russell
... you know, stuff.
Tony
Yeah. Talk about old face soap.
Garr Russell
And, uh, yeah, so I'd say that's probably the, the initial memory that popped up.
Peggy
Oh my gosh.
Garr Russell
And I, I got to share the other side of that, too, that, um, this was, uh, in my RV that I had set up at a, a campground up in Michigan. I just had set, it set up for months. Well, somebody had just built such a pyramid in there, I could not get it to flush out.
Peggy
Hmm.
Garr Russell
So I had, uh, a company come up, and he's like, "Oh, yeah, I've actually, you know, I d- we don't normally do campers, but, you know, I've got this backpack system here, and I'm gonna do it." The exact same thing happened to him. He basically pressurized the system with his backpack thing, and-
Tony
Oh
Garr Russell
... he went in to, "All right, yeah, let's go ahead and let it flush out now," and he, same exact thing happened to him. He got, he got blasted with the stuff now.
Peggy
Gosh.
Tony
I've never heard that story before.
Peggy
Wow.
Tony
I've heard a lot of black tank overflow stories. But that's a new one, so congrats.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
I'd give you a, a little award if I had some.
Garr Russell
Yeah. The, the poo emoji award or whatever.
Peggy
So I like when, I like when these worst stories turn out to be something you can laugh at later.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
And I think that's why I ask it, because even your worst experience didn't stop you from RVing or camping.
Tony
Right.
Peggy
Right? So, but let's end on a high note, and why don't you tell us your absolute best camping memory?
Garr Russell
I've got, uh, I've got two that's a tie. Probably, uh, uh, and I, this is the cool thing about it. I don't even remember the campground we were at. I don't remember. All I remember is that our RV was backed up to this little stream, and me and the kids just sat in this stream for hours and built these little rafts.
Peggy
Hmm.
Garr Russell
You know, tied little sticks with leaves and, and all the things. And that honestly was one of my... It, which is funny, right? Because we literally traveled the country. So we did some amazing things that people have on their, literally their bucket list, and one, and one of my top memories is, is just sitting at this campground. I can't remember where in the world it was.
Peggy
Just sitting in a creek.
Garr Russell
Just be- being in a creek with my littles, yeah.
Peggy
Very cool.
Tony
Yeah. But that's, that's a great-You know, that's what camping's all about is the memories and that kind of thing, so.
Garr Russell
Oh, so true. So true.
Tony
Gar, we sure appreciate you carving out some time for us and, and I, I think a lot of the people who follow this are very interested in this type of thing where they, they've probably had the idea of renting in their mind, or maybe they're like, "How do I make this camper make sense?" Or perhaps even wanna start or work with you on a franchise. So I think, uh, this is definitely something people will very much be interested in.
Peggy
Yeah.
Garr Russell
Awesome. Well, thanks. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks for having me on.
Peggy
Thank you.
Tony
It's been a pleasure, and thank you. I know a lot of you are planning your summer adventures. Have you checked the torque on your lug nuts lately?
Peggy
Ooh, that is a really good question. This is a good thing to do periodically anyway. Um, I think this is my, like, in my brain kind of rule. If you have a brand-new, absolutely brand-new, uh, tires or they just got put on or whatever, check those lug nuts after 10 miles. Check 'em again after 100 miles, and then check them every 1,000 miles. That's really rounding off.
Tony
Well, but we also got that advice from Dexter Axle, so.
Peggy
Right, right, and I think it's, you know, it's, it doesn't have to... You don't have to pull over off the side of the freeway because- ... you got to 1,000. But maintain some kind of a schedule that, that, that you can remember, and I can remember it 'cause it's all tens, and you don't wanna skip that step.
Tony
You really do, especially travel trailers, but any RV. And so we are big fans of the Air Gear tire changing kit because it comes with a good torque wrench and tools to change the tires on your RV, whether that's travel trailer or whatever. Uh, it's just a good tool to have. I use it for the torque wrench. I use it for our water heater anode rod. I used it to install our hitch. So it's just a good thing to have as part of your RV toolbox arsenal.
Peggy
And in worst, worst case scenario, something does happen and you have to change a tire on the side of the freeway, this kit comes with, like, a safety vest-
Tony
Yeah
Peggy
... and, you know, some other things, so.
Tony
Well, and a tire pressure gauge.
Peggy
Yeah, yeah.
Tony
Yeah. So anyway, we have a link to that in the show notes, and I strongly recommend, uh, that everybody have one of these, and it's good to get good stuff that's designed for RVers.
Peggy
Yep. So earlier, you mentioned, uh, all those overlanding RVs and how there's something new that came out that you are pretty excited about.
Tony
Very excited, and I would actually buy this, uh, if, you know, if I had been born rich instead of so good-looking. Oh, my gosh. A lot of you just basically threw your phones out the window.
Peggy
Threw your phone.
Tony
Oh, my gosh. It's called the Winnebago Arca. Now, Winnebago is not necessarily a company that you associate with these incredible overlanding RVs, right? Winnebago is travel trailers and, and a lot of Class B vans. They're really strong in that field. And what they've done is they've taken a Ram 5500 platform and plussed it, as Walt Disney would have said.
Peggy
Hmm.
Tony
Uh, they put these giant 41-inch tires on it and a lot of very capable off-road functionality and built an RV on the back of this thing that is just a very, very capable off-road vehicle, but really well thought through. For example, uh, they're using a split-style air conditioner. So there's no air conditioner on the roof. They're using this air filtration system that takes out some of the humidity if that's, you know, if you're where it's humid.
Peggy
Hmm.
Tony
The back is all reconfigurable, so it starts as a U-shaped dinette. You could take out sections, use it for cargo carrying. The shower, a lot of these smaller... So it's a big rig, but a small rig at the same time, right? It's, it's a beefy truck, but it's not, like, a 40-foot Class A.
Peggy
Sure.
Tony
So it's, a lot of these, uh, overlanding-specific RVs, the bathroom is seriously a compromise.
Peggy
If there is one.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
A lot of overlanding, and I think this is what overwhelmed me, is a lot of overlanding is put a tent on your roof, and that's what the Overland Expo-
Tony
Oh, my gosh
Peggy
... loves.
Tony
The, the, the number of rooftop tents you'll see at Overlanding Expo. As I was talking to Jason Epperson from RVMiles, and we're like, "How do all these r- uh, rooftop tent companies stay around?" It's ludicrous how many there are, so.
Peggy
But anyway, so.
Tony
But yeah. Oh, and speaking of the roof, the roof on this is a single sheet of fiberglass, basically, and there are very few holes punched in it. Where there's holes, there's kind of a, um, a little bump-out type of thing so the water runs down. There's no air conditioner on the roof.
Peggy
You were talking about the bathroom.
Tony
Yeah. So the bathroom is kind of in the middle of this, and it's, when you're using the shower, you can actually change clothes in there. There's a wooden seat that, uh, serves another purpose. The toilet is a cartridge toilet, which some of you are like, "Eh," but it's neat because it's in a cabinet and pulls out. So it's, it's not there when you don't need it.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
And it's there when you do.
Peggy
Okay.
Tony
Uh, and it doesn't get all wet because it's in the same space as the rest of the bathroom, but-Uh, it's just-
Peggy
The inside of the cabinet
Tony
... it's so well-
Peggy
Yeah
Tony
... done. It, there's just so much I like about this. The upper bunk, you know, it's like a, think of a pickup camper, right, where there's the section over the cab, but this is all in one. So that consists of two mattresses, and you can either zipper 'em together and make a queen size or unzip 'em and make two twins, or there are these nightstand bolster things and you can put those between the mattresses and now you have a king size mattress.
Peggy
Mm.
Tony
So it's, it's really well-designed. There's a lot of, the walls, if, for on laminated RVs, when you have that alum- you know, there's these aluminum studs in there. When they touch the outside wall, it's a big thermal loss. So what they've done is the walls are two inches thick and no aluminum touches the outside wall. So again, just a lot of things they've thought of where it's like, "Wow, you guys really nailed it." They're, inside it's kind of a blank slate-ish, but there's metal backers so you can add things, 'cause overlanders are always modifying these rigs.
Peggy
Sure.
Tony
The storage is, like, overhead cabinets, but they're not cabinets. They're like soft totes that just attach up there with magnetic closures.
Peggy
Huh.
Tony
It's, and the cabinets that are cabinets are aluminum powder coated. So just, I want one. But $331,000, which sounds like a lot of money, 'cause it is, but compared to some of these not even as well thought out overlanding rigs, they're half a million to a million bucks.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Full story linked in the show notes, and, uh, if you're watching this on video, Peggy will add some video of this thing, but oh my gosh, I like it. Oh, towing capacity, 15,000 pounds. We could tow our trailer-
Peggy
Oh, my
Tony
... with this overlanding RV.
Peggy
We could have ho- separate homes.
Tony
We could.
Peggy
I don't want separate homes.
Tony
No.
Peggy
'Cause then we'd need more pots and pans.
Tony
Okay.
Peggy
That's the only reason.
Tony
Well.
Peggy
Okay. Well, last week's question of the week, we asked you, "Will you kind of camp differently this year in some way? If you're an RV camper, will you tent camp? If you're a boond- you know, if you're a boondocker, will you only, will you go to a s- a hookup space?" I don't know. Not that many people said they were going to.
Tony
No.
Peggy
But now I kind of have this idea that if you are, maybe you're a tent camper and you're like, "Nope, there's nothing else I can do 'cause I don't have an RV," well, maybe now you could consider renting an RV-
Tony
Yeah
Peggy
... from Fireside RV Rentals and try something different this year.
Tony
Yeah, sounds like fun.
Peggy
So the question for this week, hmm, I guess I already kinda said this. Have you ever rented an RV? We had an experience.
Tony
Yeah, this was from a little local company, and we, we rented-
Peggy
And that was over 10 years ago.
Tony
Yeah. Oh, it was almost 15, I think. I think.
Peggy
Well.
Tony
But anyway, it doesn't matter.
Peggy
Maybe so. Maybe so.
Tony
But, but we, yeah, we rented an RV, and it was, uh, right after Burning Man, and it had gone to Burning Man. And it was, it was pretty rough.
Peggy
Mm-hmm.
Tony
So I don't think that's the experience you'll have from Fireside.
Peggy
I don't think so.
Tony
But-
Peggy
I hope not
Tony
... check it out.
Peggy
Well, of course, you know you can answer last week's question, you can answer this week's question, you can ask your own questions, you can tell your RVing stories, tell your rental stories, tell your tent camping stories, whatever you want. Just come over to our Facebook group and have some fun.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Have some conversations. Get to know some people.
Tony
Yeah, there's a bunch of cool folks there. It's really, it's pretty awesome. Well, with that, don't forget to like, share, and subscribe, naturally. We really appreciate your being here. This is our podcast episode 360.
Peggy
Whoosh.
Tony
A little small block Chrysler engine there. But 360 of the Stressless Camping RV Podcast.
Peggy
Oh, and don't forget to sign up for our once-a-week newsletter if you haven't already signed up. You can do that on any page of the website, and it's free, it's easy, and it's once a week.
Tony
Yeah, that's it. Well, with that, we appreciate your being here, as we said. Thank you so much, and most of all, stressless camping.
Peggy
Stressless camping.
Tony
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next stress-less camping adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us, too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure, and we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.
