Essential RV Extras: The Top Upgrades Real RVers Want!

0:00 Welcome to episode 5 15 of the RV podcast. And this week, we talk about essential RV extras, the top upgrades that real RVers want. Welcome, everybody. I'm Mike Wenland, and this is my lifelong traveling companion and my healthy bride, Jennifer. Me, I'm the puny one this week. I am not, feeling up to snuff. It's been a grandkid cold. Least that's what I'm blaming on. Every year, I get a cold at this time of the year. When school starts? When school starts. Couple weeks after school starts, the grandkids bring it home, and they get it gets me. But, so we've got a lot. Our main topic is is when I hope RV manufacturers listen to this podcast.

0:42 I don't think they do because very few RV manufacturers even RV, so they're not nearly as interested in it as you are, a real RVer. But I would hope that somebody in their industry would listen, particularly their marketing thing, to realize that all of the chinsing that we have seen over the last few years as the industry has tried to keep costs down and make it more attractive in times of inflation and high interest rates, they've cut off a lot of of things that people that are really important to think people, little things. Alright. Now you're calling it chinsing. They call it making the RVs more affordable. Chinsing. Come on. It's it's what it is. It's all somatic. Right? And I understand that that's what they have to do because they the industry is still in decline and sales are down.

1:32 You know, we're waiting to see if the interest rates are gonna go up. But in that process over the past couple of years since this this decline began, it has, it has seen a lot of things that you used to expect to find in an RV an extra, which means it cost you more money and time and you got to find it. So we're gonna talk about that. We had a really interesting conversation in our RV lifestyle community about it, and we got a long list. And these are the things that, if if I was if I was an RV manufacturer, I'd build one of those many of these things as I could put in it because it's not none of them are really in and out of itself except for a couple of little things, but most of them are not very expensive. So we're gonna talk all about that coming up, and it'll be a fun conversation. Just a couple seconds here. But we wanna, first of all, tell us, tell you all that, we are very much in celebration mode this week. We are so excited to share that RV Lifestyle won 2 separate campers choice awards, also known as the campies.

2:34 And, this is a contest that is sponsored by RVshare. One of the ones that we won is the best RV camping YouTube channel. That was pretty exciting. And then the second one was for the best RV and camping blog. Woo hoo. And what makes this extra exciting is that we won because of you. You nominated us. Yeah. You nominate nominated us and you voted for us, and we are so thankful. So thank you for giving us your trust and support, and thank you, RV Share. Now for those who didn't know, the RV lifestyle YouTube channel has over a 1000 videos. I think it's 1100 and something, on every RV topic imaginable. And if you have not already, please check us out and subscribe at youtube.com/rvlifestyle.

3:27 And our RV blog, rv lifestyle.com. It contains more than a dozen years of stories and so much information, offering everything from practical help to campground information, to RV inspiration, and more. So once again, thank you everyone. We are so honored to have these awards and thank, RV share for sponsoring the contest. And we got something else to celebrate. Yeah. We've got a new giveaway. We're giving away 2 to 2 lucky winners. Number 1 is 1st prize, a Waggle Pet Monitor Pro Plus, which keeps track of the temperature inside your rig and sends alerts via SMS, email, and in app notification when it exceeds your set threshold.

4:15 So if you have your dog you're going out to go through a museum or something, the dog's out there in the parking lot. They give you a little tag that says temperature inside is monitored remotely monitored and controlled. And, you will get an alert if you say, I I wanna know if that temperature gets up to 87 degrees. It'll send you a text alert, or you can just call it up yourself and see what the temperature is inside. It's a really hey. We've had 1 5, 6 years, and that's a must have. And the new one, is really great. This is their latest updated one, the Pet Monitor Pro from Wengle. We're gonna give away that. And then, what's the second prize? Well, the second prize is the RV Mini l AI cam that lets you monitor your pet virtually with its 360 degree camera.

5:04 And you can see that it, shows you, on your smartphone down at the bottom here, it shows you this is a smartphone, and it will show you, what's going on inside your camera. You can it's 303 160 degrees, so you can see it. It has two way audio, real time motion tracking, and, you can set that up for, you know, to let alert if there's motion inside the unit, if there's noise, excessive noise, if your dog's barking a whole bunch, you can listen. And, you can also talk to your dog, and you can say I'm not gonna my dog is sleeping over here. Yeah. We don't wanna upset him. Yeah. So but it's really handy, and we're giving that away to a second Twitter. So these are just great safety options for RV pet owners.

5:47 So to enter, all you have to do is go to rvlifestyle.com/sweepstakes. Rvlifestyle.com sweepstakes. You can enter as many times as you want. In fact, there's, I think, 14 different ways, and each one of those gives you, an entry in the contest. We will, announce the lucky winners on September 29th, 2 winners, and this, this will, run for for quite a while. We're pretty excited about it. And one other thing that we're interested in doing and we're excited about this has to do with our RV lifestyle community. Are you a member yet? You should be. Go to community.rvlifestyle.com. We are going to have meetup week, the week of September 27th to October 4th. And the RV lifestyle community is organizing the first of what we hope will be many regional meetups, and details can be found at the events tab at, community.rvlifestyle.com.

6:43 We have, volunteer hosts in 5 states so far. We'll probably have more who have offered to organize a meetup, a get together at a fun location near them so that, members of the community can gather, meet each other, hang out, and just have a great time. Many of them are restaurants. We're doing one, on the 27th at a really awesome winery, Brewhouse in, Paw Paw, Michigan right in the in the heart of Michigan's wine growing area. And each state is has a separate, event announcement, and, just go to, again, community.rvlifestyle.com. Click the event tab, find the one you want, and then RSVP.

7:26 But we have them in Southwest Michigan. Where else? And Tucson, Arizona, San Antonio, Texas. Fairfield, Iowa. And, North Central Ohio winery. Yeah. And I and I think we have a couple of others that we're we're talking to people about. So we think this is gonna be fun, and it's hard. We know that everybody all around the country would love to gather. I know that what we're doing, people are talking about actually coming in and camping nearby, so they can come hang out with us on, that Friday night, 27th. And I suspect the others will see the same thing. But the whole point of our RV lifestyle community, and you hear us talk about it every week, is making relationships, is connecting RVers at different stages of the RV journey with other people in the same stage, with the same type of RV, the teams, interest in camping.

8:17 We have so many activities and and, live streams. This, is being released on September 18th and the 19th, I'm doing the live stream in the community on the latest Internet. What's the latest in, mobile Internet? So many changes just in the past few months. Sheree and Chris from the mobile Internet, Resource Center will be our our guests, and that's coming up then. So it is gonna be a fun time. So, make sure you've joined, the community community at army lifestyle dot com. That's a lot of talking for doctor. Oh, it's good for you. Should we do the conversation of the week? I think it's time. Alright. The conversation of the week.

8:57 You know, it seems like today's RVs, they seem to come so bare bones, and basic things you think would be their art. And some things don't cost that much. But as, you know, manufacturers, they've tried to cut costs so that these would be more affordable these days of incredible ball inflation. Things are every, the price of everything is just, you know, going crazy and the high interest rates. And, you know, they started leading a lot out. So we recently asked our RV lifestyle community, what items they thought should be standard. And we have so many suggestions that we're gonna kinda go through a bunch of them, read you a couple of quotes, but we we noticed, that we bought a fairly high end, we have a fairly high end, 5th wheel in Montana, and it has a lot of extras in it, but still little things like, you know, hooks to, you know, hang up a robe or your clothes in the bathroom.

9:56 Yeah. I really would like some hooks in the bathroom. I I mean, we could put up some little command hooks, but I hate to put anything too big and substantial up. I guess it's harder it's it's harder for some people to find the right location on the wall where there's studs and support to put these big hooks on rather than just the little command strips. That's probably the thing that that, you know, we we see the most that we wish they would they would Yeah. I mean, I like a couple hooks in the bedroom, like for my robe or the clothes that I'm gonna pop on in the morning to hang them up there. So it's easier for me to get to in the daytime, and I'd like something, you know, kind of attractive. So I'd like a couple hooks in the bedroom, and I'd like some hooks definitely in the bathroom.

10:39 And I I did add a couple little sticky Command hooks in the skylight by the shower just, for like a wet bathing suit or something that's wet so it can drip into the shower pan rather than That's a great tip. Other other places. But I I think all of us can relate to to hooks and and towel bars. I'm thinking now instead of hooks, maybe I want a towel bar. Here's here's the thing. When we do, RV reviews, this tells me whether the RV manufacturer is even slightly in tune with the market. It's such a silly little thing. Ready? But it's USB, receptacles. Most of them are using USB, 2, the big USB a, you know, the big ones.

11:25 That is not the standard anymore. The standard is USB c c, not a. So, you know, if you have a halfway new smartphone, a new laptop, almost all of them, the universal standard in the tech industry is universal is USB C. And so even now in brand new RVs, they're putting in these old USBs. They must have bought a lot of them. And they're just I would. That's it. But it's such a pain. You go to charge and you don't nobody has a, you know, an an a connector anymore. I know somebody out there watching this. Oh, that's what I have. Then you're gonna be happy. But those of us who, have halfway new stuff, it's universal c, and it just shows it's a little touch. Also, there's never enough charges. They'll put a couple charges next to one side of the bed, but not on the other.

12:14 Little things like that that just show, I think almost a lack of respect for the for the RV er because it's just so easy. I mean, why should one person have be able to charge their cell phone next to the bed and not the other one? Most people have at least 2 people in the bed, right? You know, in the RV, if you got little kids, you might have like 65 of them. They all pump and a dog. But but those are those are just a couple of examples from ours. Now, here are the things that we just want to run through these this generated a ton of thoughtful communication in our community. And, why don't you read the first bunch, and then I'll pick up after you. So someone said a better latch on the screen door. Boy, that's true. They pop out all the time. Yeah. Better latches on the cupboards. Oh, that's a big one. Better latches on the cupboard. And they throw in make sure there's a good latch to close the refrigerator.

13:04 Keep it keep it shut when you're driving down the road. Better, towel holders. Paper towel. Paper towels. Yeah. Minnie said that. In the kitchen. Yeah. And some, they don't have a toilet paper holder. Many people said that. And, you know, I looked at that, you know, when we were looking through different rigs, and I thought, I wonder if that's because people want different styles or something. I think most people would just like a toilet paper holder that they can put up or the that the manufacturer is put up. Put it in manufacturer. Sometimes it's in the drawer, and then if look in the drawer if you don't have a paper towel holder, then ask them to install it before you take possession of your rig. Yep. A deeper medicine cabinet.

13:45 Oh, that makes all the difference in the world, the deeper medicine cabinet. And the same thing goes if they have a little indentation for you to hang up a coat, a jacket, dog leash, whatever. And when you first come in, make sure when you first come in, make sure that's deep enough so that everything doesn't fall out every time you walk past it because you brush it. This is a good one, a better shower head. Oh my goodness. That's huge. That is very big. Now I you can get a really nice shower head for not very much money at all. And to be able to advertise that even, and we have a deluxe, rain shower shower head. Man. Now you boondockers, exclusive boondockers, you're gonna just still be doing those Navy showers. A big shower head is a really nice, a better shower head. And then I think I already got on this one, towel rods. Many people said that. A lot of people said they want towel rods in the in the bathroom, please.

14:39 Shoe storage near the door. Many said they you need a place when you come in the door to put your shoes. I also want a hook to hang my coat and my gloves, my mittens, whatever, but a place to put those dirty shoes, you want to take your shoes off. You don't want to leave them outside. I know I have a pair of Crocs. I usually wear inside the RV and almost always, you know, I have those they're in the bedroom or they're in the living room next to the fireplace, and then that means I'm tracking in with all those yucky shoes Yep. Making a mess for you, and you always go, there's the vacuum. And so we just have to put some shoe storage there for at least 2 sets of shoes because most RVs have 2 people again, at least. What else? A factory installed GPS system. For you guys in motor homes. It's surprising how many of the of the less expensive entry level, motor homes out there don't really have a robust GPS system factory installed. That's still a problem. I love this one, a proper trash can. What's that? Well, he used to get very upset with me when I would take a plastic bag and put it over the headrest. You know, we were in a B. I just kinda, and then that meal's trash was in that bag, and then I could go toss it. But a proper trash can, it is nice to have a place to put your trash. And for those of you in towables, several people said sufficient sway control so they don't have to buy a bunch of extras.

16:06 Big big issue for people in towables. Another one, soft start built in so that you can run your 2 air conditioners on 30 amps as we can. We have soft startup that we use, which plugs in the receptacle box. I'll put a link to that, by the way, because that's really that's that's a great, great Christmas present for somebody thinking about But, build it in so we have more efficient use of, the power system in the RV. Soft start does so much to help with that. Tire pressure monitoring system, certainly in a motor home, but also and I think even more important in a towable because when a towable tire blows, chances are it is going to do major damage to the underside of your RV with cables and wires and all sorts of stuff. We've seen so many catastrophic damage done.

17:03 And and a lot of that could be avoided if you had a a a good TPMS, tire pressure monitoring system. Make that standard. And boy, that rear view camera for driving. Oh, a camera. I mean, that's something that you really need when you're trying to back in. I mean, you run into a branch, you run into something, oh, you could have afforded that camera. I mean, I think you should like insist that there's always a rear view camera and you can driving at parking and everything. You can buy extras and do all these on your own, but it's always better if the manufacturer does the installation for you. So that's good. A place to hang keys. Never enough room to hang your keys.

17:45 People have commented on that. And towel, rods in the kitchen. They might put 1 in the bathroom, but not in the kitchen. And a place to put your broom and Swiffer. I've I've never had a place to put the broom. Yeah. We always well, you know what? We could keep it, but I it's Under the bed. Under the bed. But I don't Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's I I keep it in the bed. We we can kinda put them in our pass through outside our storage. Got the washer dryer. I could put things in there, but now I got the I got the washer. Yeah. Snap pads. Snap pads have made such a difference. We've had those on our rigs now for several years, both our class c motor homes and our towable 5th wheels. You know, snap pads go on the levelers and, they give it they spread it out a little bit, give you a little more stable platform to level the RV on. Snap pads would be very nice to have standard. And another big thing, it's a little more costly, but it's so nice to have a surge protector.

18:42 Yeah. You can do so much damage. And let's face it. A lot of the campgrounds that we visit are, old campgrounds. They haven't been upgraded in years, particularly state campgrounds around the country. It's not uncommon at all to find wires reversed, grounds missing, all sorts of things that, could just do serious damage to your RV and that surge protector or a battery management system that you plug in and then plug plug that in the receptacle and then plug your RV cord into that would really be a great another one is a minimum 200 watt inverter. I mean, 2,000 watt. 2,000 watt inverter, not a, standard ones on many RVs, still a 1,000 watt inverters.

19:28 You can't even run a little ceramic heater on that. Those are 1500 watts. So at least a 2,000 watt, inverter. We, we recommend, a 3000. And even if you, when you're buying your RV, if you could update it to that, you might not think you'll need it, but it's a difference between maybe like being able to use the microwave when you stop at a, at a rest area and you want a warm up lunch, but at least 2,000 let's stop putting 1,000 watt inverters in RVs. Those are so that's long before solar and all that stuff. And they're, and they're so cheap. So, and a lot of people don't know that that thousand isn't enough. And they'll say, yeah. There's got a thousand watt inverter, and they'll say and they say, wow. That sounds like good, but it's not enough. Sounds good, but it's not enough.

20:14 Yeah. Alright. Here's some comments that people made. If you're going to eliminate gas refrigerators, then full lithium solar package so you can, do 2 to 3 days of boondocking. That's what one of our and they got a lot of positive thumbs up on that comment. Another one, exterior ladders securely attached to access the roof. But an another member saw that and took it had some comments about He said that federal regulations recently changed increasing the weight bearing capacity of RV ladders so they cost more, And that's why so many new RVs don't have one at all. I think most of them, have like a 250 pound capacity.

20:59 And as the nation has struggled with the obesity issue, There's a lot of people who exceed that, so maybe I don't know I don't know if that's true if they did up it, but, that would make sense. Mhmm. I some more comments that people, left us about this question when we put it in the community that we think also fit well. Oh. Here's one from Bert. Oh, yeah. This is a good one. I wish all manufacturers omitted crappy mattresses. We all end up buying a quality replacement anyway. Why not shave those pennies off the price and put it in, better faucets and shower heads? Well, what does he want? Better faucets and shower heads or a better mattress? Well, he wants to buy his own mattress.

21:40 Okay. Alright. Well, then Yeah. Because the mattresses normally are not good. And if they are kinda good, usually after a few use uses, they're like, you know, 2 ravines. Yep. And, really, the the best upgrade you can make, I think, for Is a mattress. Is a better mattress. Right. The stuff that you get from the manufacturers are not They're really not. Not good. Here's one from Susan who said that, they're a month in in their RV lifestyle, and the amount of things they felt necessary to purchase is crazy. Why don't RVs come with all this stuff? Personalized door locks. And she says she guess she can understand that because they wanna have different combos. But, yes, we use RV lock, which is a combination lock.

22:23 And it's so much better than having to fumble around with the keys. Mhmm. And it just does a great job. If you have your keys with you or not. And, and she also says a surge protector, a water pressure regulator, snap pads, backup cameras. She said all that should be standard. Hoses for this. Hoses for that. We were given the tour of our new rig. Where did it end? The store. That's where the very helpful store manager that took us up and down every aisle and showed us all the must have things that could wait $780 later, and there's still so much more we felt compelled to buy. That's that's kind of scandalous. And you're all excited because it's a brand new RV and you want all this stuff, but that's a lot of money. And I think, you know, those great big RV dealers, massive ones, you know, there's there's 2 big ones in the country, 2 big chains. There's several, really. That they're big stores.

23:17 That's where they make a lot of their money. And so they'll sell their RV, and they're delighted as barrel bones because then they're gonna take you over their retail end. And, and in your excitement about the rig, you're gonna spend way more than you would if you had a chance to go home and even search on Amazon to buy it. You know, you really need some time to sit in something before you buy it Yep. And look at over good. Like this next one, Walter says, a bathroom sink faucet that you can actually fit your hands under. I mean, you just presume you can fit your hands under there. So now you've heard that. If you're ever gonna buy an RV, make sure you can put your hands under there to wash, and make sure you can lean forward and not hit your head. And when I When you brush your teeth what I call the spit test. When we do a review, you'll always see me. I'll go up to the RV and the counters the the sink is underneath, and I'll put my head as if I was brushing my teeth.

24:04 Many times, the the the sinks are so tiny, and they're trying to conserve space that you can't spit unless you put your head right in the sink. That's gross, isn't it? But it's a you know, it's important. Alright. Claude says better instructions in layman's words for a regular person to understand how things work. Amen on that, Claude. Yeah. And Karen said, most RVUs travel with at least one other person. So 2 hooks, 2 towel racks, a place by the door inside for 2 pairs of shoes, equal amounts of drawers for clothing for 2 people, and an outside compartment that will hold 2 reasonably sized camping chairs.

24:47 Very good. Patty, not so much an accessory, but maybe a full schematic of the RV electrical and plumbing lines. Yeah. I would add something else to that too. She says it would help us to diagnose problems and possibly fix them without having to take them into a dealer. Example, a few years ago, I had a leak in the bay. I couldn't find the issue. I took it to 2 dealers, neither knew anything about the rig, and one wanted to take off my entire bathroom. The leak turned out to be the connector at the water pump with the panel in the hallway. A guy at our RV park we were staying at for 2 months knew where to look, fixed it on the spot. We rely too much on the dealers technicians to know every RV they come across, and they don't, as you just said. Excellent.

25:31 We just had a case in point too. One of the wires in my little seven way connector, at the pin box on our 5th wheel, came off. And I took the box off, and I said, well, I can fix that. But I didn't have a direct I didn't have a schematic. Now, fortunately, I have a Montana from Keystone, and I called my everybody who buys from them, you get a dealer wrapped in there. I called them and they said, oh, here, here you go. And it showed me right where I hooked them up. But that would be nice to have in your material. So you can open up your little manual, your owner's manual right then. Well, that was a lot of stuff. And we missed. What do you guys think we missed? Oh, I'm sure there's a whole bunch out there that we missed. Well, we can do a part 2 in this a little later on. Send us the things that we missed in that list.

26:17 And, our email address is mikeandjen@rvlifestyle.com. Okay. This part of the podcast is brought to you by Greenwood Ranches in Arizona, and I wanna tell you a little bit about them. Greenwood Ranches, is a development, that sells large RV acreage from 49.9 for 5 acres. They will owner finance for prequalified buyers, and these parcels are being sold off Saturday, September 28, 2024. So if you're listening or watching this podcast after September 28th 24, you can go to their website, and they may still have some stuff available. But but the last time they did this, they sold them very, very quickly.

26:58 This sale they're doing on Saturday, 28th, starts at 8 AM. Greenwood Ranches is about an hour and a half or so south of, of, Las Vegas right off Route 66. Space is limited. You have to have an appointment to attend because I'll take you out. You'll actually look at the property and walk it. You can build. You can RV. You can recreate. You can then use it as an investment. It will eventually go up as more people find these awesome properties. It's in a great climate for the desert. They're at about 4200 feet, so a little higher elevation, not quite as as hot in the summertime. There's lots of vegetation. We just did a tour of it not long ago. You can see it on our YouTube channel. These are level, parcels, endless mountain views.

27:45 The 5 acres is a 180 times larger than a typical RV site. So this is awesome. It's located, an easy drive to everything you wanna see. The Grand Canyon, Vegas, Hoover Dam, the Colorado River, Sedona, Flagstaff. This is 100% ownership. No HOA. Super low taxes under a $100 a year. Electric is available. Of course, solar is what everybody seems to really love using out there. And there's nearby shopping and historic Kingman. There's hospitals, a VA clinic. The properties have county maintained road frontage. You can landscape your property, the way you want it to do.

28:26 Fence and family, plan it now, retire it later, build if you want, get information, and a virtual tour of the property at arizonarvland.net.arizonarvland.net. Alright. Back to the podcast. Yes. And now we have Wendy Boyer, and she reports on the hot issues most talked about this past week on social media and our RV lifestyle community group. It's Wendy with the social media buzz. Hi, everybody. Over in our RV lifestyle communities, tweaks, and DIY space, we recently asked the group, what is the most impactful modification you've made to your RV and why?

29:09 Well, this was a gem of information. So many ideas that were just excellent in the dozens and dozens shared. I gotta share a couple with you. One was from Bert. He said, without a doubt, it was their lithium battery bank, 3,000 watts with inverter and solar panels. Now when they wanna go camp, dry camp in the middle of nowhere, the only thing holding them back for how long they stay is their fresh and wastewater tank capacity. Peter, he said he and his wife bought SumoShox for their Sprinter chassis, and it has made such a difference. Their ride is so much smoother. And then Julie said the big thing for her was just adding more towel hooks. She said the RV's travel trippers never seem to have enough hooks for her family's towel needs.

29:52 Isn't that the truth? So again, lots of gems in this one. Then also in our community, in the amateur radio space, we have a question from Michelle. Now Michelle's neighbor just gave them a Sirius radio, and it came with a remote and said get a subscription. You can get this anywhere. So she asked the group, is this something that we need to get? Is it true you can get this reception anywhere? And it led to an interesting discussion. Richard, he said that he has this SiriusXM system, and he has it play in his RV and car. And absolutely, it's he gets it anywhere. It's satellite operated, so you do get good reception. It was a conversation about besides radio, you can get the news so you're up on what's going on. You can get weather reports, podcasts, things like that.

30:38 And then Marty and Karen pointed out that if she does get this account, she doesn't have to just use the radio. She could listen to it on her phone or maybe through something like Apple Pay Apple Play, listen to it in her RV and car as well. So great discussion. And then over in our Facebook group, always stuff going on there. And we had a recent post from Ella that got people talking. Now Ella and her kids have been out on this epic summer camping trip. Sounds like they've been on the road for several months. When she wrote a post, she was mentally preparing to come home, and it sounds like she wasn't really looking forward to coming home because she asked the group for those who camp for long stretches, how do you readjust to normal life? She said last year, they also did a real full summer of camping being gone for a long period of time, and that adjustment back to normal life was really hard, and she doesn't want to fall into a funk, and so she just asked for some tips. And it turns out there were so many people who feel the same way. You know, you spend so much time dreaming of this epic RV trip. You plan. You go do it, and then you're back home, and it's just kind of sad sometimes. So how do you get through that? Great suggestions.

31:49 Several people said, you know, get into a routine at home, yes, but then carve out time to go sit in your RV. You know, make it your happy place. Go in your driveway. Just sit there for periods of time and enjoy it. A few other people suggested she and her kids do a weekend camping trip, just a short one here and there, if she can swing it before it gets too cold. And my favorite piece of advice was from Becky. Becky said start planning your next summer camping trip right away. She said she used to feel the same way, and she found what was best was just to start planning that next adventure immediately. It gives you something to look forward to and just helps you with that adjustment. So great tips there, and, great tips in all the communities really.

32:33 And I'm Wendy Boyer, and I'll see you next time, or I'll see you over in the RV lifestyle community and Facebook group. Alright, Wendy. Man, those are 3 hot topics. I thought it was cute, the question about how you adjust to coming home after you've been all summer having fun out there, and you wanna know how can we adjust better. Prepare ahead of time before you get home and go, sigh, what do we have to look forward to? And that was such a good suggestion to start planning what you're gonna do next year. I thought that was a good way to solve that problem. Yep. Alright. Take a quick break, and when we come back, it's time for your RV questions of the week.

33:14 When we're asked what's the most important modification we made to our RV, it's an easy answer. Battle Born Batteries. Battle Born Batteries are quality, safe, reliable lithium batteries that allow us to stay out there off the grid longer. Lithium batteries charge faster. They charge fuller. They're longer lasting. They're maintenance free. And battle born batteries are protected by a 10 year guarantee. Now in our case, they just dropped into the existing AGM batteries that we have, and they'll probably be the same on your rig too. Battle Born battery experts can get those in your rig just like they did with ours.

33:56 They can also match you up with the right cabling, the inverter, the charger, the solar controller, everything. Jennifer and I swear by our Battle Born Batteries. They allow us to boondock off the grid. Check them out. Go to rvlifestyle.com/lithium. Rvlifestyle.com/lithium. Welcome back, everybody. Time now for the RV questions of the week. Okay. The first question is, when I'm on city water at a campground, the water pressure coming out of our faucets in our shower is fine. But when we're boondocking and I'm using the fresh water tank, it is not much more than an annoying drizzle.

34:38 Everything was fine until a month ago or so. Any ideas on how to fix this? That was from Jim. Well, Jim, it's probably the strainer on your water pump, and this is one of the few DIY jobs even I could do. So your situation, if it was all working great, and it's basically when you're boondocking and working off the freshwater tank with the water pump, it sounds like a textbook case of the strainer being filled up with, calcified minerals and just gunk. And to clean it, the hardest part is you gotta find where your water pump is. Okay? And then you just simply look at the water. You can you can figure out where the lines are coming in and, make sure that the water supply going to the RV is turned off, and, that, you've got this thing shut down.

35:31 Open a faucet in the RV to relieve any water pressure that's in there, then disconnect the water line going to the strainer. You'll see right where that is. The strainer's little round thing right on the top. On most water pumps, you simply grasp the front section of the strainer, push it in slightly, and turn it counterclockwise, and it'll separate the section of the strainer that's screwed into the pump. So, you don't need to take out the entire strainer. Just take out that little screen, and you'll be amazed what's in there. So just have a paper towel or something and pound it on the floor, get all that stuff out and, you know, rinse it out a little bit, put it back in, reassemble, in the opposite order, and, make sure there's water in your freshwater holding tank. Turn the pump on. They get everything pressurized again. Check for leaks. And I bet that's what your issue is. And I hope that solves it for you because we had that problem, and that was the answer to what we had going on. Now if if it was even when you're on city water, the first thing I would say to you is, all of all the faucets also have a strainer at the usually at the at the end that comes out, you know, and that sometimes clogs up. But if that was causing your issues, it would be even when you had city water. So, it doesn't hurt to take those off and look at them and make sure you don't have pieces of calcified stuff in there as well. But, clean out that strainer. I'd recommend everybody do that once a year, at the beginning, or the end of the season. I do it at the end of the season, and then you don't have to worry about it when you de winterize or start using it again in the spring.

37:02 Okay. Now we've got a question from Mark. Are we supposed to tip the people who guide you to your spot at a campground? My wife says we should. I say no. I say no too. What do you say? I say let's not start tipping somebody else. I right now we gotta tip everybody in the world. Oh my gosh. Fast food people. I mean, you know, we spend a fortune at these fast food, they need to pay their people better. Don't make your customers pay more already on everything else you've already raised the price on. If it's above and beyond service, fine. I find most of the places that guide you in are on the rather expensive side of campgrounds, so I've become particularly resentful thinking that I would have to to tip them already because I'm paying 75 to a $100 at a KOA, oftentimes. You know, sometimes they're cheaper, but, no. Don't you don't tip those people. Now if the guy stops and he helps you get unstuck or if you don't know how to back in and he spends a lot of time or she, oftentimes, it's a it's a woman, and they can whip that baby in back into your spot easy. If they do a lot of work, then offer them something. But just to just to drive you in a cart and say, there's your spot, No. You do not tip them. So we tip enough, don't you think? I think so too. But boy, do I love it when they guide you, and they've they've got extra set of eyes to make sure that, you're pulling in fine because they've been guiding a lot of people, and they know where the hiccups are. Yep.

38:32 Alright. You got a comment or a question? Anything we said, you can reach us mikeandjen@rvlifestyle.com. Mikeandjen@r Thank you guys so much for watching and we will see you down the road. Happy trails.