RV winterization tips and tricks
We speak about winterizing your RV with Adam Douglas who is our go-to guy for winterizing tips. Should you use compressed air or RV antifreeze for winterization? Adam has the tips and insights.
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Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 280
Peggy Barthel
This week on the Stressless Camping RV podcast, we jump into the way back machine, travel back in time, and bring you a rerun of our interview with our friend, Adam Douglas.
Tony Barthel
Adam shares some great tricks, tips, and his helpful document for winterizing your RV.
Peggy Barthel
We have this week's podcast along with notes and stories to go with this episode and the discounts, deals, and helpful hints, and more at our home on the web at stressless camping.com. I almost said our home on the west.
Tony Barthel
Home on the west.
Tony Barthel
I'm Tony.
Peggy Barthel
Hi. I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And we're 2 RV industry veterans who travel part time
Peggy Barthel
In what is still considered a small trailer.
Tony Barthel
Or looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips
Peggy Barthel
Tricks.
Tony Barthel
And discounts.
Peggy Barthel
You know, it's getting colder. Yeah. Winter even seems to have come to Albuquerque. Not happy right now.
Tony Barthel
No. In fact, this morning, I had an appointment at 7:30 in the AM, and I had to scrape all the windows on the truck. It was completely frozen over. So Yikes. It happens here in Albuquerque.
Tony Barthel
Uh, a lot of people don't realize we're at 53100 feet
Tony Barthel
of elevation. So we're pretty high up there.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So we thought we'd talk a little bit about cold weather and your RV.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. In fact, we have had to winterize our own trailer. It's so funny because a week ago, we were in shorts and basically playing in the sun in Arizona.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We're gonna start by sharing an article that Tony forgot we even had. I did forgot it.
Tony Barthel
On the
Peggy Barthel
site, it's called how can I protect my RV from freezing temperatures?
Tony Barthel
It's in the links and all of the links will be in the show notes. And if you're looking at this on YouTube, down below is a link to those show notes. If you are listening on whatever podcast audio program that you enjoy, there's a link to the articles down below, and that'll get you the notes for this specific episode, but also access to all of the content that we produce.
Peggy Barthel
So Tony mentioned that we are playing in the sun in Arizona. We were at the Romp It UP music festival and RV rally that was hosted by the Border Hook Ups last week.
Tony Barthel
And the Border Hook Ups are full time RVers who are a musical duo
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Tony Barthel
And they travel all around a lot of times to RV events and perform live music. We're actually gonna talk to them for a future episode Mhmm. But I just have to take my hat off to them.
Peggy Barthel
Which?
Tony Barthel
They did a superb job in every way. There was so much music and there were so much things going on, but not so much that it was overwhelming. Right. So It was perfect. Dave and Jacqueline, you guys did a superb job.
Peggy Barthel
You rocked it. While we were there, though, we were staying at a fairgrounds, and we were all camping off grid.
Tony Barthel
There was no hookups for well, there were, uh, like, 2 or 3 sites
Peggy Barthel
we weren't in. With them. We didn't need them because we were there for 4 nights, and then we went to another location on our 5th night, but we were there for 4 nights. Uh, we were able to fill up our water when we got there, and power, we didn't need to worry about that because of our outfit from ABC Upfitters.
Tony Barthel
Our solar and lithium system, even though, you know, it's November and the sun is a wee bit low and all of that, it's still by mid afternoon every day, we're at a 100% state of charge on our system, and it was just something that we did not worry about
Tony Barthel
at all.
Peggy Barthel
Not a bit.
Tony Barthel
The system performed outstandingly. No complaints whatsoever. That's why when we pick up our new trailer Mhmm. What? It is not available with the factory power package, but still, we're literally going from the dealer to ABC Upfitters.
Peggy Barthel
Right. We're gonna drop it directly off and get an upfit, and if you would like something similar to that and you want to talk to ABC about an upfit in your own RV, you can give them a call at 574-333-3225.
Tony Barthel
Or there's a link in the show notes to their website. Something to know whether you're looking for a really big super capable system or just adding a little bit of power to what you already have in your RV, they're very good at listening and adapting what they do to your needs and predominantly are using master volt power system components, and you may not have heard of those unless you're in the marine industry Yeah. Where there is just no tolerance for failure, and so masterful is a real popular thing if you're putting a solar and lithium system on your boat.
Peggy Barthel
So if you are interested in boondocking, going to the rallies where there aren't any hookups, going anywhere and camping where there aren't any hookups, and you don't know where to start, give ABC Upfitters a call.
Tony Barthel
It's a complicated subject that they make easy and Yes. Actually work.
Peggy Barthel
So this week, we are actually replaying an interview with our friend Adam Douglas, episode 71, which was just our 2nd November.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And we talked to Adam about winterizing. Now, a couple of things to note, because I'm not gonna cut them out. I'm just gonna play the interview the way it was because most of it is still very spot on. A couple things that I did notice is we lived in California then. We didn't understand what winterizing was.
Tony Barthel
Well, we understood it, but that's why we had Adam on because he did it.
Peggy Barthel
Right. We had never done it. We also had a different trailer.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And if we were recording this a month from now, we'd have to talk more about that. Right now, we're one one size up. We back then had a 19 05 Mini Lite and now we have a 220 5 Mini. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And who knows what's coming next?
Peggy Barthel
You don't know.
Tony Barthel
Well, I'm
Tony Barthel
sure some of
Tony Barthel
you do.
Tony Barthel
And another thing, there are a lot more tankless water heaters. When we recorded that the first time, Adam really didn't talk much about them because they weren't very common. But now they are quite common. So our tip for that is if you have a tankless water heater in your RV, check the manual. They're actually they can be simple to winterize, but it's good to know.
Tony Barthel
And as always with any of this, check the manual
Tony Barthel
Mhmm.
Tony Barthel
And understand the system so that you don't make a mistake. And there are dealers out there who are doing the winterization for free if you bought there, but there are some that are charging like a $100.
Peggy Barthel
It's really, really easy to pay a $100. Even we can do it. If we can do it, you can do it.
Tony Barthel
There's a lot of truth
Tony Barthel
to that.
Tony Barthel
Another thing is just because your RV is winterized does not mean that you can't camp in it. Right. We have an article, can you still use a winterized RV? And we'll put a link to that down in the old nudes of the shoe. But, yes, the answer is yes.
Tony Barthel
So we have some tips on how
Tony Barthel
to do that. We are here with our friend, Adam Douglas.
Peggy Barthel
Basically Poor, poor friend who has to winterize.
Tony Barthel
And he knows how to winterize your RV. Adam, welcome.
Peggy Barthel
Thank you for joining us, Adam.
Adam Douglas
Thanks for having me on.
Tony Barthel
It's a pleasure.
Adam Douglas
And, of
Tony Barthel
course, there are a lot of people right now as we record this in October, late October, nonetheless, and they are thinking of putting their RVs away for the winter, which is such a sad
Peggy Barthel
So sad.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. But that's okay.
Adam Douglas
Every year.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Every year.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. I was like starting to snow today, so it didn't help.
Tony Barthel
Oh, man. I just went outside, and it's actually still pretty nice. It'll get colder here, and it will get to freezing overnight, but
Peggy Barthel
But not yet.
Tony Barthel
Not till, like, January when we go camping and freeze our butts off.
Adam Douglas
How far away do you go for that?
Peggy Barthel
We go to Southern Arizona
Tony Barthel
so that
Peggy Barthel
we don't freeze our butts off.
Tony Barthel
That's why we go to Southern Arizona because Okay.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. I could handle that too.
Tony Barthel
I like short pants.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. I don't like winter. And when we lived in Southern California, we thought winter was cold. And then we moved to Northern California, and then now we think winter's cold. And then my nephew came from Colorado and said, uh, this is not cold.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. Right.
Peggy Barthel
But it's only 50.
Tony Barthel
It's funny. I'm writing an article about the best RVs for winter, and one of the better ones is built on the West Coast. Actually, 2 of the better ones. The Lance, which is built in Southern California, and then the Northwood, both of which like, the holding tank gate valves are heated.
Peggy Barthel
That's cool.
Tony Barthel
So what we were hoping for is to kinda talk tips about winterization and how to winterize your RV so that the next season, it's there and ready for you.
Adam Douglas
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And you actually created a spreadsheet or checklist for winterization as well, if I'm not mistaken.
Adam Douglas
It's a Google Doc, and it just kinda came about where there was enough people in the Facebook groups that kept asking how to winterize the trailer. And after I got tired of posting the same comments over and over again, typing, typing, typing, then I just decided to make this doc, and I can easily edit it on the fly. If someone says, hey, you forgot about this part or that part, or I really didn't understand what you meant, I can just go right in and change it, and I just share it with everybody.
Peggy Barthel
That's really great. That's a great idea to just be able to share that link instead of having to retype it every single time.
Tony Barthel
And we're gonna put a link to that in our show notes so you can find it there. But I guess to start with, what are the things we should be watching out for and what are some basic steps for making our RV winter ready?
Adam Douglas
Probably the main thing is people recommend using air compressor to blow air through the lines to clear out the water, but a lot of times it won't clear out all the water, and water will find its own level. It'll sink and go into one of the valves, and it'll end up cracking, and you won't find out about it until you're on your next camping trip in the spring.
Peggy Barthel
Which is not a good time to find a crack. No.
Adam Douglas
No. Not at all. So like doing the antifreeze method, it's a sure thing. Soon as you see the pink antifreeze coming out of faucets, you know you're done. Pretty foolproof.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And, of course, the big thing is not automotive antifreeze, but there is actually RV specific antifreeze, which Yeah. Will not hoist you, which is a plus. Yeah. That's Depending on your insurance.
Adam Douglas
That's correct. Yeah. You can usually get it, uh, about $2 at the store. I'll buy it at Menards or Home Depot or wherever, Walmart, and they have different, uh, temperatures. You can get a negative 50, negative 75, even a negative 100, But for an RV, negative 50 is just fine.
Tony Barthel
I can't even imagine living where it gets that cold. Right? But I know a lot of our listeners do. So
Adam Douglas
One thing about it, the negative 50 is actually the burst protection. So there's the temperature where it'll turn into slush, and that one's okay. But then the negative fifty is, like, the burst protection.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Adam Douglas
You mainly have to worry about it in boats. So you don't wanna end up running a $7,000 engine because of antifreeze.
Peggy Barthel
So Right.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's true. One of the things I remember when I worked at the RV dealership, we used to sell a lot of toilet valves when spring came around and people's toilets wouldn't stop running.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. That's the valve that sits lowest in the trailer. So that's where all the water's gonna collect.
Tony Barthel
And I think a lot of people forget about that. So let's say it's my first time winterizing because it would be. It would be. What would I do?
Adam Douglas
Well, first, you'd wanna look for the water heater bypass valves, and that'll be inside the trailer, could be inside a cabinet, it might be hidden by a little false panel, like a wood panel that you just have to take off. And I always recommend leaving those off if they're inside the cabinet anyway because you wouldn't be able to see a leak if those panels were there.
Tony Barthel
So you
Adam Douglas
can just leave those off for the future. But now with the bypass valves on the water heater, you might have a 1 valve, 2 valve, 3 valve setup, it just depends on yours. But they're easy, you just turn it 90 degrees, you know, each one of them, and you're pretty much done. And then that'll stop any antifreeze from going into the water heater and filling that up. Because if you have a 6 gallon or a 10 gallon water heater, you're just wasting it.
Peggy Barthel
Your goal is to get all the water out of the water heater, then you don't need to antifreeze it.
Tony Barthel
And how you do that depends on the water heater. I really like the Trumas that have this, like, spout that comes down and pours out, but most of us have either a Suburban or Atwood, and there's a big nut at the bottom of that on the Suburbans that is attached to the anode rod, which this is a great time to check that because you're gonna be removing it.
Peggy Barthel
So is it sort of the same as a low point drain?
Tony Barthel
No. Okay. Not quite. That's a different enchilada.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, boy.
Adam Douglas
Which initially, I do actually open up the low point valves just to get a lot of the water out of the lines. Right. Is there a way to do it first?
Tony Barthel
RVs have what are called low point drains, which is what you said, which in theory is where you open those drains and the water comes out and there is no or at least a lot less water.
Peggy Barthel
In the freshwater system.
Tony Barthel
Right. And I assume you open a valve, like a faucet up above to let air go down when you open those low point drains, so it doesn't create a water lock.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. The kitchen's used at the Right. Right.
Peggy Barthel
But we kinda got ahead of him, and he was talking about the water heater. Right. And we we we, as usual, hijacked your conversation.
Adam Douglas
That's fine.
Tony Barthel
Well, one of the thing like ours, we have to take the dinette kind of half apart to get to those water heater bypass valves. And I think ours has 3 valves. I now I don't remember because I looked at it once.
Adam Douglas
Seems like on the mini lights, they went to the 2 valves in late 2019 or early 2020, which those are models, and they usually overlap the years anyway. So
Tony Barthel
Ours is, uh, 2017, I
Peggy Barthel
think. 17 or 16.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Something like that. So, anyway, so now you've got your water heater bypass valves turned so that the water heater is bypassed. You've opened the drain on it, and all the water's run out, and that's a good chance to inspect the condition of the water in the tank itself. What's next?
Adam Douglas
Well, one option is to actually flush out the water heater, and you can do that with a water heater flush wand. And in the guide, I actually have a link to that.
Tony Barthel
Okay. That's a good idea. You get all those little rocks and schmutz out of the water heater, which is
Peggy Barthel
hunks of hard water and stuff that have dried up in there.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. Yeah. And debris.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Debris and such. Okay. So now our water heater is clean and has been bypassed. What's next?
Adam Douglas
Then you wanna go find the water pump valve, which that'll be inside the cabinet by the water pump, and you'll wanna turn that 90 degrees at the same way.
Tony Barthel
Okay.
Adam Douglas
Then some trailers will have a port on the outside of the trailer, and that'll connect to the water pump where you can just suck the antifreeze right out of the jug. Some trailers have a hose next to the pump that you just insert into the antifreeze jug, but if you don't have one of these, you can always buy one and Camco makes it for $15 or you can make your own. It's pretty easy, but that just speeds things up.
Tony Barthel
And unlike in a car where you mix some antifreeze and some water, in this case, it's pure antifreeze.
Adam Douglas
It's premixed. Yes.
Tony Barthel
Okay.
Adam Douglas
There's some alcohol and some water and other chemicals and stuff.
Peggy Barthel
So do you have to put is it a volume of antifreeze that is like enough to pump like the water flows through the faucets?
Adam Douglas
I usually buy 3 to 4 jugs or 3 to 4 gallons.
Peggy Barthel
Gallons. Okay.
Adam Douglas
That'll be plenty. Usually, I I have some extra, but then, you know, it's just nice to have around. Especially in Michigan where it's gonna freeze every year.
Peggy Barthel
So Right.
Adam Douglas
Might as well have extra.
Peggy Barthel
You're not gonna waste it.
Tony Barthel
And then you'd use the actual pump on your RV to suck that out of the chugs, if I'm not mistaken. Correct?
Adam Douglas
Yes. And there's no reason to put it inside your fresh tank. You don't have to do that. It's just gonna waste it.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, okay.
Tony Barthel
Essentially, what you're doing is filling up the
Peggy Barthel
Oh, I remember that valve, because one time I accidentally hooked the fresh water up to it, couldn't figure out why it didn't have any water. Now I know where you're talking about.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Our trailer, right next to the fresh water inlet, the city water Jared is the The
Peggy Barthel
antifreeze inlet. Jared: The antifreeze inlet.
Tony Barthel
Jared: Which looks exactly the same, except it says antifreeze inlet.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, it does say antifreeze inlet, but when you're already drinking I mean, when you're nervous about setting up by yourself, you might get cold.
Adam Douglas
That's why I always recommend what if new people come to the site and they don't know anything about their trailer, I always say open all the cabinets, look inside everything, find all the valves because you don't wanna do this while you're camping.
Tony Barthel
No. You
Adam Douglas
might as well do it at home.
Tony Barthel
So then, you're basically sucking antifreeze into the system, and you open, I assume, the faucet or, you know, valve furthest from wherever that pump is to get the antifreeze through the system?
Adam Douglas
Correct. Which some trailers have the water filter, so that's going to be full of water. So if yours has it, you want to take off that water filter housing, empty the water, and you want to pour some of the antifreeze inside it, and that'll get things going. Because that could be a liter or so of antifreeze, so you might as well just pour it inside the water filter housing and then screw that back on.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Adam Douglas
Just save a little bit of it.
Tony Barthel
Okay. That's that's a good point.
Adam Douglas
When you're ready to start drawing the antifreeze through the lines, you just wanna slowly go to each faucet. So you can go to the kitchen sink, turn on the hot, wait for the pink canterfreeze to start flowing, turn it off, and then do the cold side too. And then one nice thing is while you're doing that, you'll actually be filling the p traps at the same time.
Tony Barthel
Interesting. Yeah. That's a good point. I hadn't thought about that.
Adam Douglas
The p traps will hold the water, you know, inside the shower, inside the sink, so you wanna get that in there too. And then just go from one fixture to the next, the kitchen, bathroom, the shower, the toilet. You wanna hold that down for about 5 seconds, and then that'll put antifreeze down into the black tank.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Adam Douglas
If you have a outdoor kitchen or the outside shower, you wanna do those too.
Tony Barthel
I wonder how many people forget that because I wouldn't have thought
Adam Douglas
of that.
Peggy Barthel
Shower. Yeah. And that's Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Closest to the outside. So that's
Peggy Barthel
Probably gets the coldest.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Might do.
Peggy Barthel
So at this point, you've got antifreeze in everything except the tanks, right? Because you've bypassed both the freshwater tank and the water heater tank. So you've got air antifreeze in the whole rest of that system.
Adam Douglas
Yep. In all the lines.
Tony Barthel
That's the goal I know. As you said, some people put an air fitting on their trailers or RVs and just blow out air. But, yeah, that there's still condensation. Or is this basically replaces all the water in your RV's water system so that doesn't freeze.
Adam Douglas
Yep. The antifreeze just pushes the water out. And as soon as you see the pink antifreeze, you're done.
Peggy Barthel
But if you only use air, then that doesn't take care of the drains and the p traps. Am I right? Because you're just blowing from the inlet to the faucets. You're not blowing from the faucets through the drains.
Adam Douglas
Yep. So if you were using the air compressor, you would just wanna pour the antifreeze directly from the gallon jug into the sinks and the toilet and the shower.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Tony Barthel
So then you are safe. Any other steps we need to be aware of?
Adam Douglas
Some of them is that it has a black tank flush. Sometimes people will actually blow the line with an air compressor. That way, that'll empty out some of the water.
Peggy Barthel
And that is not connected to the rest of this system so that when you pump the antifreeze, it's not gonna go through that black water flush. Right?
Adam Douglas
Technically, it does have a vacuum breaker that shouldn't be holding any water, but that's one optional step if you wanna do that. Right.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's better to be safe than sorry, and we have a story about that vacuum breaker and the black tank flush resulting in a saggy floor. So
Adam Douglas
I didn't read about that.
Tony Barthel
Oh, it just makes me so mad, but
Adam Douglas
One thing I always tell people is do whatever helps you sleep at night, you know, and antifreeze, that's one way I can just say, hey, I know it's done right, and just makes it easier.
Tony Barthel
Makes sense. That sounds good.
Adam Douglas
Some trailers will have a residential fridge, and that may have an ice maker, and you could forget about the water line that goes into that to make the ice.
Peggy Barthel
Wow. Yeah.
Adam Douglas
You wanna check the manufacturer steps on doing that.
Tony Barthel
Okay.
Adam Douglas
My trailer doesn't have one.
Peggy Barthel
So Because that's not on a faucet, so it'd be hard to pump that water through to the ice maker or through the ice maker system. It's not through the same pump
Tony Barthel
system. Yeah. They're gonna have a recommendation. So the best thing is to know if you have a residential refrigerator, which is another reason I don't like them. But with an ice maker, that's another complication.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
Well, that sounds good. So it sounds a lot more simple than I had had in my mind. I had that, oh, this is gonna be really complicated. But I guess probably 2 thirds of the nation's doing it, and it it's not as bad as I thought.
Adam Douglas
Right. Yeah. And I hear a lot of people spending, you know, a couple $100 to have this done by somebody else. Right. You can do it for under $10.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Yeah. It's not even any special tools, nothing. It's pretty straightforward.
Peggy Barthel
So I don't know if we wanna completely talk about de winterizing, but let's say you've winterized and then you have a warm spell and you decide to take a real quick camping trip, you would just turn the water on and flush your system and get all the pink stuff out and then redo it? Okay.
Adam Douglas
Yes. You can do that. Um, now if you're gonna be drinking the water or cooking with it, you'll obviously wanna sanitize it with bleach water. And I actually have a guide for that too. So we could probably link that.
Peggy Barthel
To get that through all the lines.
Tony Barthel
I wrote a review of a sanitizer device. So we can put a link to that little sanitizer device too. It's basically a little container that holds bleach. It's a total first world device.
Peggy Barthel
So would that device be used to de winterize? You can use that same device to put your chlorinated water through your winterizing system or no?
Tony Barthel
I do not know.
Peggy Barthel
Because that would definitely flush all the lines that you winterized.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's true. It would.
Adam Douglas
Yes. Because that device went right into the fresh tank fill hose.
Tony Barthel
Right? Basically, you know, you apply city water to one end and then just regular garden hose to the other or, you know, freshwater hose, a shorty. The idea is to put it into your freshwater tank so it flushes that, but I suppose you could use it for this too.
Peggy Barthel
Because you wanna make sure you get all that
Tony Barthel
Pink stuff out.
Peggy Barthel
Freeze out.
Tony Barthel
I know there are some people who camp with the trailer winterized and just simply don't use any water.
Peggy Barthel
So it's just a hard tent.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. Basically,
Tony Barthel
it's a hard tent with a heater in it.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, good point. You do get you do get heat and a mattress.
Tony Barthel
You get a mattress,
Tony Barthel
you get a heat, you get a refrigerator. Although, you may not need one. You could just Right. Leave your food outside. I mean, the bears are asleep right now Right.
Tony Barthel
Or will be. Right. You can use
Adam Douglas
the trailer any way you want.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I'm sure people I mean, Janine Pettit from Girl Camper has talked about using her trailer winterized.
Peggy Barthel
I suppose you could even use the toilet because you're not worried about ingesting that antifreeze.
Adam Douglas
I should hope not,
Tony Barthel
but you gotta Well, no.
Peggy Barthel
I mean, if if you plan to use the water for drinking, for cooking, you would have to make sure you flush it completely out, but if you just flush the toilet and then you there was still some antifreeze in the system, that wouldn't be a problem. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I guess not. No. It'd just be pink water.
Adam Douglas
Right. Or you could just use a gallon jug of water and pour that down the toilet too. So Right. Either way.
Tony Barthel
Right. Yeah. There's lots of options. Well, this is great, and now we've solved some people's problems. So that is awesome.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Thank you.
Tony Barthel
So we really appreciate you making the time to come and sit in the cold with us, as it were.
Adam Douglas
Thank you.
Peggy Barthel
We appreciate your time and your expertise
Tony Barthel
Absolutely.
Peggy Barthel
In this and so many other places.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Adam has really shared a lot of great information and is quite a resource for people. So thank you for all the time that you provide. Yes.
Adam Douglas
Oh, thank you. And thank you, everybody, because I just enjoy helping people, and I learned at the same time. There's a lot of things I just don't know. So, you know, I pick it up, I learn, and I can share all that information with other people.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Adam Douglas
Yeah. I enjoy it.
Tony Barthel
I wish more people were like you and take the time with people and answer their questions instead of providing snarky answers.
Peggy Barthel
Well, sometimes he does that too. Oh, yeah.
Tony Barthel
I mean, there is that.
Peggy Barthel
But we all know it's in good fun.
Adam Douglas
Absolutely. Of course. Yes. I have, uh, quite the dry humor. So
Tony Barthel
Alright, Adam. Well, thank you very much for your time, and, uh, we will see you out there on the forums.
Peggy Barthel
Remember that time we followed our GPS and ended up at the top of a cliff overlooking the campground?
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I had to back the trailer down a mountain road.
Peggy Barthel
Remember the time we went on that twisty windy road and hit our awning on a tree?
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I do. But now those kinds of things aren't gonna happen anymore, thanks to RV Trip Wizard.
Peggy Barthel
Right. RV Trip Wizard lets you plan your journeys before you go and then use their app on your phone or tablet to safely navigate that journey.
Tony Barthel
You can set parameters such as how far you wanna travel in a day, how many miles you can go between fuel stops, and even read reviews of the campgrounds and places you wanna go to. It all takes into account the size of your RV and more.
Peggy Barthel
Then you can rest assured that your phone isn't gonna lead you into trouble.
Tony Barthel
If you have an RV, you need RV Trip Wizard. Check it out on your discounts and deals page on stressless camping.com, where you can also listen to our interview with RV Trip Wizard and learn about the whole RV life suite.
Peggy Barthel
Now that's stressless camping. We sure do love Trip Wizard and I wanted to let you know that currently they are offering a holiday sale. You get 30% off your 1st year. You'll use a different code than what you find on our website. You're gonna use the code holiday h h.
Tony Barthel
So Holiday.
Peggy Barthel
We'll put that in the show notes. If you would like to get 30% off your 1st year, you can use that link. Or if you only wanna get the regular percentage that we offer on our website, you can just go ahead and use that link. It's all good. So while we were at Romp It Up, the music
Tony Barthel
festival, we got a chance to visit 2 little towns in Arizona, Sonoita
Tony Barthel
and Patagonia.
Peggy Barthel
They're just 2 little cute towns. They're very far south, south of Tucson. We were staying at the fairgrounds that are located in Senoita. And then for a day, we just drove and wandered around and checked out the little town of Patagonia also, had a coffee at the Coffee Club.
Tony Barthel
Yes, we did.
Peggy Barthel
They are both cute little, you know, small walking towns, really easy to walk. Patagonia has a lot of train stuff. They have a caboose. They have a beautiful train station. It's just a nice little walking town.
Peggy Barthel
In Senoita, we got on a wine tasting tour. Yeah. That was part of the rally.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. They brought those big old tour buses and took us to
Tony Barthel
5
Tony Barthel
5 5 wineries.
Peggy Barthel
I think. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
That was fun.
Peggy Barthel
That was really fun. And then as if we hadn't had enough wine tasting, we met friends at the Copper Brothel Brewery that same night.
Tony Barthel
The friends from Airstream Life or Air Gear.
Peggy Barthel
Air Gear.
Tony Barthel
We met them and had dinner and some beers, and that was fun too. And, you know, these small little towns, there's these real highlights like that Copper Brothel or at Patagonia. Just just walking the streets and all it's very artsy. And so a neat little town to visit and lots of boondocking, and there's RV parks too.
Peggy Barthel
And it's way far south. So if you're looking for somewhere to escape the winter and not have to winterize, that's an idea. That's true. We have talked before about our Lectric e bikes, Lectric brand.
Tony Barthel
Right. It's like e lectric without
Tony Barthel
the e.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. You put the e before bike instead of before electric. You know, we have talked about them before, and we have written some articles about them. But I just wanna thank my bike because I have done something to mess up my knee, and it hurts if I do too much walking. It hurts if I go in and out of the trailer too much.
Peggy Barthel
I'm getting old, guys, but whatever. Anyway Well,
Tony Barthel
what we suspect is when we were at open house Yeah. We went in and out so many RVs.
Peggy Barthel
I think I just took way too many steps in a short amount of time and so, anyway, I was kind of concerned about the location where we were camping versus where all the fun stuff was happening, but we had taken our bikes, we got them out, and I found that, you know, the great thing about Lectric is it's got a, like, a motorcycle throttle on the handlebar. So all I had to do was put the pedals so that my right leg was extended all the way, my left leg was bent, use the handlebar, and I rode the bike into all these different events.
Tony Barthel
She was effectively using it like an electric motorcycle. I was. What I I
Tony Barthel
like about electric electric bikes
Tony Barthel
is that going from a stop, they're they're not light because you have this big old battery and all that. And I use it to accelerate from a dead stop, and then from there, I'm just pedaling the bike normally. Although, I do put pedal assist because I like to go as fast as I can. Right. So you the neat thing is you can dial in up to there's 5 different levels of pedal assist, so you can change that.
Peggy Barthel
And there's 7 different
Tony Barthel
gears. Mhmm. And there's just the throttle, so you could just ride it around like an electric motorcycle.
Peggy Barthel
Or you could just turn it all the assist off and just pedal it like a bicycle. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So kind of a neat flexible thing. We store them in totes in the back of our truck Mhmm. So they're pretty handy.
Peggy Barthel
So if you happen to have gone back when I referenced episode 71 and listened to the entire episode and then listened to Adam twice, which maybe that helps, you know, get all that stuff stuck in your head. But, anyway, in episode 71, we talked a lot about s'mores and different Yeah. Different recipes for s'mores. I just found it funny because we went back and listened to the old episode. The day after, I ate my first s'more in, like, I don't know how many years.
Peggy Barthel
I don't love marshmallows.
Tony Barthel
No. She's not a marshmallow person.
Peggy Barthel
But our friends had all the stuff to make s'mores. And what I want to try to, uh, recreate now, I had forgotten about this the time that we had to use the microwave to make our s'mores. And I said in that episode that microwaving a marshmallow makes the texture something I actually liked.
Tony Barthel
So you're more of a no it's texture more than taste. Correct. Okay.
Peggy Barthel
It's texture. I there's too much air. There's too much air in a marshmallow.
Tony Barthel
Well, they stay puffed.
Peggy Barthel
Well, sure. So I don't know if the microwave just pushes out the air. I don't know. But, anyway, if you love s'mores and you didn't go listen to episode 71 and you wanna hear some kinda hints and tips about making them different, go check it out.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. This week, we reviewed the Rockwood OT wait. Rockwood tent 190 OTG.
Peggy Barthel
Woo. OTG stands for off the ground, and that's a whole line of little small trailers made by Rockwood.
Tony Barthel
And Flagstaff.
Peggy Barthel
And Flagstaff. Yep. And so the OTG tent 190 or tent 190 OTG or whatever order it is. Rockwood tent
Tony Barthel
190 OTG is how it's specifically Okay.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We did do a review of that with video.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That one does have a video a little bit.
Peggy Barthel
And so if you wanna go check it out, it's just a super cute I think, really for the person who's ready to get 2 steps, I said one step, but 2 steps off the ground and then still be very much tent camping.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Because it's it's a very simple trailer, but that also means it's very inexpensive and light
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
And can be towed by a lot of smaller vehicles including it it depends, you know, I always say know your numbers. But the math looks like it works out for things like Subaru Outbacks, Jeeps, that kind of thing. So something to check it
Peggy Barthel
out. Yeah. Well, we've kind of lost control of this over the last few weeks, but we do have a question for this week. So we'll get we'll go make a good fresh start. And our question for this week is, do you use your outdoor shower?
Peggy Barthel
We were listening to a podcast recently and they were talking about if they use them or how they use them and when they use them, and it just got me wondering. Like, I maintain that ours never got unwinterized from when we picked it up 2 years ago. Probably not exactly true, but we just don't really use it. So it just made me wonder, do you use yours?
Tony Barthel
It's funny because we used to use it more in the first trailer, and we used it with an outdoor kitchen that we still have that has not gone with us. So anyway, yeah, what do you do you use the outdoor shower and for what? Well, you can answer that question at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
You can also sign up for our once a week free newsletter where we offer you links to stories and videos and podcasts and things that we think will help you get the most of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
And know that we only send one email a week. You'll also find the show notes for this episode, episode 270 no. 280. Episode 280 on the podcast page of stressless camping.com. And you know what else is there?
Tony Barthel
Our discounts and deals Yeah, Buzzy. On the things you'll need need for your stressless camping adventure. And, you know, with the holidays and Black Friday and all of those things coming up, might be a good place to look.
Peggy Barthel
Yes, indeed. If you're doing your shopping for the RV'er in your life, give it a look. And, of course, we are on on all of the social places, so once you've seen everything there is to see at stresslesscamping.com, you can jump off to those ones I don't list, Facebook at all.
Tony Barthel
Well, and I just updated all that list too. So Okay. I hope it's easier to find. Great. That's that's the goal.
Tony Barthel
Well, you know, if you don't wanna miss a future episode of The Stressless Camping podcast, it is free to subscribe on any podcast app if you like audio podcasts or over on YouTube, you can subscribe to our podcast there. So wherever you like to find us, we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Peggy Barthel
Please remember that a review helps others find this podcast. That's your gift to us. We don't need a Black Friday gift. What we need is your reviews, your sharing, anything that you see that we post or write on our website. If you would share that and tell other people about us and tell people, Oh, Stressless Camping just answered the question about winterizing, why don't you check it out?
Peggy Barthel
That is so, so, so helpful to us and we love it very, very much.
Tony Barthel
Yeah And then commenting down below if you are watching on YouTube, comments or likes, those kind of things. All that stuff helps. It's free for you, but it's amazing how effective it is at at spreading the world. Spreading the world at spreading the word.
Peggy Barthel
Well, that is what we have for you this week. We appreciate you being here, and until next week, stressless camping.
