Exposing High Pressure RV Sales Tactics

0:00 This week on the RV podcast How to deal with high pressure RV dealers. We're gonna talk to a reputable dealer who's going to expose some of the unethical tactics. RV campgrounds in 6 states have been devastated by last week's hurricane. When prices are going up like they are right now, a lot of people are asking, how can anyone afford the RV lifestyle anymore? We have some advice from our social media buzz segment. All this plus the RV news of the week and your questions coming up in episode 517 of the RV podcast.

0:48 Hello, everybody. I am Mike Wendland and this is my lifelong traveling companion and my lovely bride, Jennifer. Hello, mister Michael. It is nice to be with you. It is nice to be with you, except it's a bit warm. Yes. Yes. We'll talk about that in a moment, but first, just to, just to reflect on, just the devastation that has, happened across, 6 states in the wake of hurricane Helene. In terms of RV campgrounds, a number of them have been destroyed. Many, many others have been severely damaged. Some are closed. There has been at least one death reported. It's just been a terrible tale of devastation, and this is, of course, in Florida, in Georgia, in the Carolinas, in Virginia.

1:37 Many of them, many of the parks are closed, and, electricity is out, trees are down, they're cleaning up the mess. No idea when electricity will be restored or, when they can reopen, but what a mess. What a terrible mess. Well, we are, on location coming to you from Loblolly Ridge. And Loblolly Ridge, named after all those Loblolly Pines, is our RV property, 5 acres that we have in middle Tennessee near the town of Linden. And, we're doing a lot of maintenance work. We're out here blowing and raking and, trimming and trying to get this property looking like it's not abandoned land. Well, it has been abandoned for the last 6 months. We were last here in April.

2:23 Right. And all I gotta say is if we stay away 12 months. The land's gonna reclaim it. It's gonna reclaim it because the I can't believe all the little baby Loblawis that are out there. Yeah. These Loblawis are beautiful pine trees, but they have a lot of needles and we've been cleaning those up. I can't believe it. Our kids, when they lived in Georgia, were buying bales of these pine needles You know, they're landscaping. We probably should put them in plastic. They they make a great mulch. Thanks to, our neighbor, Troy. He's a youtuber himself, Comet Troy, and, he has Harmony Ridge RV Park right next door to us. A small little RV place here that he, that he rents out spots to, you know, for campers.

3:07 And, Troy, came over and brush hogged. That's what they call it. They cleared off some of the weeds that had grown up along the edges of the driveway, and then we've got, we had to go buy some we had a weed whack trimmer, and, a blower, and we're we're doing a lot of that work. It's a good thing he came in. But there have been casualties. And I might have just turned around and left. No. It's been nice. You know? It's so nice and peaceful and quiet here. That's what we love about it. But there has been, some casualties, and I say has, one of them was me. Shortly after we, brought our Montana in, put it on the pad, I was about ready to unhook it, and all of a sudden, I was attacked.

3:52 Swarmed by what I thought at the time were fire ants. I'm not sure that fire ants are just red ants. I tend to think they're red ants because I survived, but man, they there's a couple they built nests in the rocks on the edge of that, that little pad, and I got whacked. And you have no compassion for their homes that you destroyed by? You're walking all over them. Not even a little bit. I I I went immediately. Well, I got bit so many times. I had ants in my pants. They literally were all over when I I started feeling these bites, and I, what? And I looked down, and they were all over my shoes. They were climbing up on my pants. And then it was as if they have some source of telepathy.

4:37 They, honestly, all bit me at once. I don't know how that happened, but it was like, holy cow. I did a couple of fancy moves going on out there. There. I was dancing now. Hands and you were carrying on, like, I couldn't believe. And I'm so glad that you were okay. Wow. Because I was afraid we might have to take you to the emergency room or something because I you had a too many bites to even come. Oh my gosh. And they immediately were swollen up and blistering, and, you can't see them. Oh, my goodness. They're there. If that'd been me, I'd probably still I'd probably be in a hospital someplace. They I'm up and down my legs. They were it was not good. Hey. My ankles, my they bit through my shoes or got inside and bit a couple of my toes.

5:18 So how many of you folks wanna camp out? Or a lot. We did our best to get rid of the ants. We did. We did. And that's the first time we've had them. That's the first time that it was, it was Hopefully, in the last. It was a you did send me to the local pharmacy, and we got some Benadryl, and that took care of any issue I had. Yeah. We took one. The ants, they're gone, or at least they've moved on. So that's where we are. Hey, before we get to our conversation of the week, which is which is a must listen, so stand by. We wanna talk you I tell you we have heard about another property development by the same people who who did this this. This is this, property we have, our Loblawley Ridge, is part of The Woodlands, which is a development that Tennessee Land and Lakes did. Do you realize it'll be 3 years that we've been here?

6:05 Can't believe it. 3 years in November. Yeah. And they're really robust, finally community of other RVers, and, people who bought here. So many of them building now, are around us. But anyway, that same company has a new development that they are going to be putting up for sale on October 19th 24, and we're going, this week to get our first look at it. It's called the retreat at Paris Landing, and it's up, a little northwest of here, up near the near the Kentucky border. It's at a place on the Tennessee River that is so wide they call it Kentucky Lakes, and, Kentucky Lake, the land of lakes, land between the lakes area, that's where it's known in, very popular resort area.

6:49 The state park there is a beautiful resort and a lodge. These are really nice large acreage, lots. 5 acres starts at 99900, and, they come with, special deeded lake access. We love that that lake. It's just it's gorgeous. It's part of the great loop, and, they're gonna be sold 1st come, 1st served starting October 19th. You can get information at rvlands.net. That's rvlands.net. And, it's geared for people who want peace and quiet, and privacy. That's kind of what we have here. Mhmm.

7:31 We we call this our little retreat, and it really has been, just in a wonderful area. We're going up to take a look at it, so we'll have some video on it later on. It's also close. There's there's, resorts and shopping and the marinas, and, you can put your RV on the property. What else? It's like here, it's your land, your way. You can build, you can put a barndominium up, a house, a second home, a cottage. It's kinda lake living up that way. I like the idea of the, shopping being close by and the big lake to enjoy. Yep. So we're gonna go up. We'll take some pictures and some video, and we'll we'll show it to you. But, we wanted to give you a heads up on it. People are always asking us, where can we get something like what you have?

8:16 October 19th is when it they have a one day sale, and it's first come first served, and, we'll let you know what we see when we see it. So we're looking forward to it. Alright. Time now for our RV, conversation of the week. We're gonna talk about high pressure dealers sales tactics about financing. Particularly about financing. Yeah. You know, we regularly hear from members of our Facebook group and listeners like you about the pressure they feel to finance their new RV from dealers. Even when they're paying cash, it's no secret that RV dealers and car dealers for that matter can make big money when you finance with them. But recently, we have heard some stories about financial pressure techniques that are over the top. And we've, put them on a computer, and we're gonna, kinda go over those with you right now.

9:09 But what typically happens is a person will see, the price on an RV or a travel trailer, and, they'll agree to buy it for that price. And everything looks great, they're all excited about it, and then they, they go in, and they sit down with the paperwork, and they get huge pressure to finance with the dealer, or the price goes up. Even though there was nothing on the ticket saying that the price was only for those who finance, we wanna read you some some letters. There's one from Tom. Okay. Tom says, I had a case where it all went south once the deal was made and deposit given. I put 2,000 down on an out the door 11,000 trailer. And when I was ready to pick it up, they showed me a balance of 13,600.

10:03 So get this, the trailer was 11,000, and he goes to pick it up, and they say, now you owe him 136. They raised the price because he was paying cash, and it was unbelievable. Now Sherry also had that happened. She wrote this on our RV lifestyle Facebook group. She said, they advertise the price. She loved the camper, but when the dealer told her she didn't finance it with them, she'd have to pay $3,000 more than the advertised price. But recently, a woman named Lori posted on our Facebook group, and her story took the cake. It really did. I've been looking for a 17 foot travel camper, 20 feet overall. The particular camper I was interested in was a Forest River Ozark. This camper was used, 2024.

10:50 The dealer played a numbers game. The general manager threw in a stabilizer hitch, sway bars, septic hose, out the door tax, title tags, and the above included on paper for 13,862. I said that was good. Then rather than stopping there, they literally were trying to push me to finance. And they came up with a 10.24% interest rate. I have excellent credit. Let me stop right there. The interest rate today on an RV, it sounded good credit, is a little over 6%. They wanted 10.24. She had excellent credit. Reasoning with me that they were giving me a great deal and financing was how they made their money, and they were giving me all the, tow parts for the trailer for free. The general manager said all he was asking was for me to make one huge payment on the loan with the cash I already had, and spread the payments out over the following 6 months, so we can make money.

11:51 And, you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. Exact words. Well, by the end of the day, she was sent into the finance guy, and he showed her what he said was a great warranty package of $1895 for 3 years, and then he had another one. Yeah. GAP insurance of $1200. I said, no. I'll pay the cash and take my chances. They then told me the price would go up $3,000 if I paid cash because of all the extras they were throwing in. The finance guy told me the trailer already was depreciating 3,000, and that was a factor causing the high interest rate. Now, when she said no to, financing, in comes the general manager, and he reminds her that she agreed to finance it.

12:41 And he said, gave her this final push, to get him to sign off. She says this doesn't seem right. Well, our community that she posted this on certainly agreed, and, everybody first of all, called out this ridiculous interest rate of 10.24%. I mean, if you don't if you haven't done your homework, you don't know. You think that is a standard, and as I said, right now it's about 6%. So the trailer she thought she was gonna buy for 12,900 and something bucks ended up being almost $18,000. Well, she's not alone. That that post from Lori was followed by all these other people who had similar things happen. Jessica wrote, they did this to me, and then even pulled my credit for a loan application without my permission.

13:32 And knowing full well I was paying cash, definitely make sure they don't get your Social Security number or any purchase agreement. Ron wrote that every single company who offers you or pressures you to finance through them gets a percentage of the financing returned to them, sometimes adding 1,000 to their profit. That's the finance company's way of motivating the dealer to push their financing over, other finance companies like a credit union or a bank where you almost always get better loan, terms. The tactics seem they they all seem to do the same thing. Make a sweet deal upfront, get you hooked, get your hopes up, then pull, Ron says, pull the rug out from under you by guilting and securing you for their financing, horribly expensive, often worthless extended warranty deals, and false freebies.

14:23 So our our group had a number of suggestions. First one, they said, Shanda bought from private sellers, saved us about $5,000 on the exact camper we fell in love with at the dealer. Also, Alan said, no one is offended when you first off your first offer is 10% below the asking price. Now you wanna know what happened with Lori who wrote that long letter. The person that was, pressured to take a 10.24% finance offer with gap insurance. Well, here's what happened to her. She she found a private seller, one owner. The seller maintained the unit, kept records, was clean, gave Laurie her number to call if she ever had questions.

15:06 Great experience, and she said private is the way to go. So what a mess, and apparently it is happening more and more. One of the reasons why is RV sales have generally been down. There some sign that they may be coming up a little bit, but, it's been a tough time for dealers. And we wanna say right off the bat that we're not adverse to dealers making a profit. I mean, profit is what business is all about, but, high pressure is another thing. To find out what you should do, whether these are common and ethic and if there's if they're ethical or unethical, we have an RV dealer that, has agreed to talk to us about this, and I wanna first commend him for sticking his, his name and face as you'll hear in a couple minutes out there for the whole world, but, how ethical is this, and what should you do when you're buying an RV? And the dealer pulls that kind of a stunt with you. Not all RVers do that. Not all RV dealers do that.

16:10 Here's our interview. Alright. Our special guest joins us right now. He's an RV dealer of many, many years of experience. And, as you can see, he's, he's anonymous today. We've kind of obscured his face. However, one problem, the shirt he's wearing says, Sunshine State RVs. So Nick Schmidt, we might as well show what you look like. And I was trying to be if I'm going to give away any secrets that you asked me to give away, Mike, I don't want people to see who I am. Well, at least we got everybody's attention. All those who are just listening to the podcast, you gotta go look at the YouTube version, and you'll see Nick's that's a good disguise, but it was fun.

16:51 Yes. Serious question. Let me be upfront with this. Nick is not a sponsor. He's a friend, and he's been a friend of ours. And, Jennifer and I have known Nick now for over a decade, and, we recommend him when people privately ask us where they should go. We always recommend him. Nick is honest. He's a man of integrity, and, when I need a serious question answered about the RV industry, he's never held back. So here's the question, Nick. We have shared some information that people have been posting on Facebook about what they perceive to be a lot of high pressure by dealers who are urging them now to finance instead of paying cash, saying that, it's, it's really, that's how they make their money.

17:41 They'll give, you know, the cash deal is off the table. Yeah. Apparently, this is more common than I realized even after all of our times. Talk about that for a minute. I know you don't do it that way. So, why do people do it that way? Yeah. No. And, Mike, thank you for the introduction. We are friends. And and I appreciate everything that you have done for me and us over the years. You know, it's been a great relationship. We are in Gainesville, Florida. All we sell are motorized class BRVs all the time. So every industry is a little different, when it comes to financing, when it comes to the dollar amounts that are being financed. But, you know, there is definitely profit that is made when when the customer walks in here, they buy an RV from us and they finance with us, and then they buy a warranty from us, and then they buy a Coke in our Coke machine. You know?

18:31 It's like every step along the way, there's there's a little bit of profit that is made for the dealer. And and, you know, what I tell people is shop your bank, shop our financing, and see which one's better. And then you make a choice for you personally because there is money made. And most of the time, Mike, and I'm not exaggerating, 90% of the time they go and shop their bank and they shop us. They they say, you know what? The rate at my bank might have been a half a point better, but I can go 20 year financing through your RV financing and less money down versus more money down and only 10 year financing through my bank. So people tend tend to use the financing that we offer, but there there is profit made for the dealership. Is it a ton? Is it more than the RV? A lot? No. But there's there's just like anything. I have to have a cert a separate employee in an office who is generating that paperwork and who is who is who is kinda, you know, organizing that deal between the customer and the bank. So I gotta be able to pay him. And so there there has to be some money made there to pay for the extra employee who's handling it. And then it's just, you know, I mean, we need profit to stay in business, Mike. Just like, you know, your sponsors of your channel that are great. And, you know, you you make a little money when people buy from them off of your code, and we make a little money when we recommend business to the bank. We make it from the bank.

19:56 And, you know, I I don't feel like it's passed on to the customer because the banks don't offer better financing than we do. But, the pressure to finance at the dealer rather than pay cash, That's what people seem to object to. Yeah. And and obviously, there's a lot of pressure. I mean, you get pressured into buying gap insurance that you don't need and buying tire and wheel protection, ceramic tints, and buying 10 year long extended warranties and buying you get pressured by everything. They they just want to sell, sell, sell. And I think it's dead wrong. Personally, I think it's dead wrong. You'll never hear an employee of Sunshine State RV is doing that.

20:37 Now I hear it all the time. People are like, oh, do you have a better price if we finance? I'm like, no. I wanna help you. If you need financing, I'll do it. If you pay cash, well, we'll do that. There's no difference. It's it's just wrong. You know, it's just something that dealers are using to make extra money on the customers. And they're trying to make as much money as they can, which, like I said, the profit's not bad. It's just, you know, it just has to and we gotta be reasonable about it. And if you're offering a service, people don't mind paying a profit. If you're trying to take advantage of somebody, that's that's where that's where it kinda gets a little hairy. So advice for people as they go to buy an RV, this is the time of year where everybody's picking out what they want and getting ready to they they're they're serious this time of year. What advice do you have when they get into there?

21:22 Shopping around? Oh, oh, so personally, if if I'm gonna go finance a car, I'm calling my bank. And I'm saying, hey. If I'm gonna finance this brand new car, what's my interest rate gonna be? And, what's down payment, whatever it is? And then if I wanna go to the car dealership, I say, hey. What you know, what's the interest rate you guys can offer me? It's 2% for my bank. Can you do 2% also? Great. I'll go through you or I'll go through them. I don't care, but I know what my rate is. My recommendation and I tell everybody that sits at my desk across from me for the last 20 years, I would tell them the same thing. Go try your bank. I would always call your bank first. Find out how long they're going to finance it. Will they go 20 years? Will they only go 15? Will they go 10? Find out what interest rate and what down payment?

22:03 Once you find those three things out, then you walk into the dealership and you say, Hey, I want this RV and I'm open to financing with you. And then you tell them, I want, let me know my payment. Let me know my down payment and how many years I'm gonna be making that payment for. And if there's any prepayment penalties would be a big question as well. So then you go go through those things, and then you you know what your banks can offer you. Then you find out what the RV dealerships can offer, and then you you you make a decision based upon what's best for you. A higher interest rate and lower down payment may be what you need to get the deal done. You know, higher more number of years and, you know, so everybody's in a different situation.

22:43 This this conversation on our social media that started this with somebody who, wanted to pay cash for an RV that they picked out on the lot, and the dealer made a really good deal on it. And when the dealer said you gotta finance it or the deal's off the table, This person is saying, what do I do? Dealer says, I can finance it. He gets his commission, then I can make one big payoff at the end. They just felt sleazy with that. And to the vast majority of the people on the they felt it too. Our recommendation is I wanna see let's go someplace else. That's not how we do business. Yeah. I mean, how how are they gonna treat you the the whole rest of the time that you own the van? Or the I say, VINX. That's all we do. The whole rest of the time you own the RV, how are they gonna treat you? You know, they're gonna treat you to where they wanna squeeze every nickel and dime out of you like they try to do when you're buying it.

23:36 You know, what other fees are they sneaking in there? You know, it's like if they're so money hungry and profit driven, are they sneaking other fees and you don't know? Is there a prepayment penalty they're not telling you about? So then you go make that one payment and you're like, oh, there's a $5,000 prepayment penalty. You know? I you you never really know because if they're if they're doing that to to try to convince you to give them some extra profit, you there's I mean, you never know what what else they're doing, if that makes sense. Great. Great. I would personally, I would go somewhere else. I would say, hey. If I get this deal in one place, I can definitely get another, and my cash has to be good somewhere. Well, Nick, thank you so much for giving us the sanity of this thing. Thank you for the way you do business and not being afraid to, somewhat call out some of these other people in this industry that aren't as as, ethical.

24:28 And and, it helps us to make wise decisions, and it, convinces Jennifer and I why we've always been right in saying, if you're gonna buy a class b, go talk to Nick Schmidt in Gainesville, Florida at Sunshine State RVs. Hey, brother. Good to talk to you. Thank you very much. And there again, if anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out to us. You know, Mike can let you know how to get a hold of us, but but we're happy to help any way we can. And we can give you a free plug. Sunshinestatervs.com. Thank you, Nick. That's it. Well, Nick Schmidt is a good guy. We thank you, Nick, for taking the box off your head. That was fun. And, and sharing your insight. Bottom line, don't just walk out of the dealer if they start doing that. I mean, high pressure tactics like that, there's no place in today's marketplace for that. None. Get out of there.

25:18 Right? Yeah. No matter what you're buying. Yep. Alright. We'll be right back after this. One of the most exciting developments for RVs is happening out west in Arizona. Western Land and Ranches is selling 5 acre high elevation ranches just off the famous Route 66, the birthplace of the American road trip. And these are beautiful secluded tracks of land surrounded by majestic mountain ranges with sweeping valley views. The high elevation is a unique microclimate as well, giving you cooler temperatures, green grasses, and tree cover, making it unique for desert property. The community is in the center of it all, close to the best of the west, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Lake Havasu, Lake Mead, Lake Mohave, the Colorado River, Flagstaff, Sedona, and Historic Williams.

26:10 If you're tired of crowded RV parks and paying high fees for sites, well, ownership might be right for you. This incredible collection of mountain top properties called Greenwood Ranches hit the market, and it's selling out fast. There is no HOA. You can build a house, a cabin, outbuildings, or just RV. It's your property, your way, 100% ownership. Visit the website to get details and set up a showing, arizona rvland.net. That's arizona rvland.net. Now it's time for the social media buzz with Wendy Boyer, and Wendy reports on the hot issues most talked about this past week on social media and our RV lifestyle community group. So, Wendy, what do we got this week? Hi, everybody.

26:57 Over in our RV life style communities, brands and model space, we had a recent question from Bunkie and Renee who are thinking of selling everything and going full time in an RV, and so they asked the group for advice. Lots of good tips here. Thomas and Heather said they're doing research on this right now, and they've come to the conclusion there's not one plan for everyone because individual circumstances are different. But they said the number one piece of advice for them would be don't go in debt. Buy a rig that you can buy without a loan, and then just learn how to do maintenance and basic repairs yourself. Michael's piece of advice was do not sell your house or sell everything because it might not be what you think it is, and it's hard to get that house after you sell it. And then one of our full timers, he said before you buy a rig, think first what you want out of this because that's gonna guide you on what type of rig, and then adjust your mind so that you know no matter how much you plan, there's gonna be surprises and adjustments that you didn't ex anticipate, so be ready to kinda roll with it. So so many good, tidbits in this thread.

27:56 And also, a similar question in our general discussion space was from Albert. He's also thinking of going full time and buying a rig, and so he asked the group, is there anyone who could recommend a good couples rig? He wanted a travel trailer under 30 feet, and he got a lot of suggestions. There were several people who suggested Airstream, said they're made well, lightweight, have everything you need. There was also a recommendation from Dallas and Donna. They've been full time for 5 years, and they have a 2020 Lance. It's 25 feet. They said from hitch Schlatter, that's how long it is, large 45, gallon tanks, and they were able to camp with no problem in 8 degrees minus 8 degrees that is that's really good. And, Gary, it sounds like he's been really happy with his grand design. Imagine, Everything you need, he he said. So lots of threads there if you're looking for a couple's trailer. And then over in our RV lifestyle Facebook group, we had a post that really got people talking. We're we're talking, like, over 700 comments last I checked, and it was from Shelby.

28:55 Now Shelby said she's lucky enough that she can retire early. She's thinking about going full time, but she doesn't know if it's in her budget. She asked how does everyone afford this lifestyle? I usually spend a 100 to $200 a night at a campground That's just not doable all the time. Do you have any tips for me? And as you can imagine, a 100 to $200 a night as a camping charge got a lot of people saying, woah, you know, where are you camping? That's really expensive. And it turns out she's camping in the southeast part of the country. She said she's been in Gatlinburg, Tennessee about a 150 a night, Myrtle Beach State Park about a 100 a night, Mountains, North Carolina about a 150 a night and up, cheapest ever was West Virginia at 50 a night.

29:41 So a lot of people said that's how much it costs to camp in certain parts of the country. We heard from Kristen. She said Delaware and Maryland had a lot of campgrounds that were just purchased by Sun Outdoors, and they once Sun Outdoors bought them, they raised the rates like crazy. Peak season is about $200 a night to camp. Other places, California, which, you know, California does tend to cost a little more, 80 to $200 a night, usually about a 150 a night, someone said. In Florida, Britney said she considers herself lucky if she's only charged a 100 a night for a campground. She's about a 150 to a 170 is kinda normal there. So, you know, a lot of these have to be resorts, but those are some high costs.

30:25 So the advice people had was camp in less expensive spots, you know, find other places in the country that don't cost as much, or maybe don't choose those resorts. People recommended work camping, they recommended state parks, BLM Land, National Forest, Corps of Engineer campgrounds, those are gorgeous and super reasonably priced, and perhaps the most important piece of advice was to change your thinking. If you're gonna be retired and doing this full time, it's no longer a vacation, so that $100 that might be okay to spend and splurge on a vacation, if this is your life every day, that's not gonna be okay. So you need to change your thinking to a full time thinking, and, then everything else will flow into place.

31:06 So great great tips there. And that's it for me. I'm Wendy Boyer, and I'll see you over in the RV lifestyle community or Facebook group. You know, unfortunately, everything's going up, and the price of a camping space goes up. And I think it was good advice. Get out of the mindset that you're on vacation and realize you're looking for bargains, and you gotta make your money stretch. Yeah. I mean, we just we rented a spot on the way down here, and, it was, I think, $60 a night. And I picked and it said, pick your spot, and I picked my spot, they had a lot of openings, and then I got a flag from the saying, okay, we'll guarantee you the spot if you pay us $20 more.

31:46 Well, then why did you have me pick a site if you won't guarantee it to me? I did not add $20 more, and and I did get my original site, but I was constantly told we can change your site anytime we want. I think that is terribly unethical, and every campground is doing it now, not every, but a whole bunch of them are. And, I almost canceled it and went with some place else, but I did get my site, but still $60 for an overnight. That's a lot. Yeah. That extra 20 to guarantee it. I I don't think anybody likes that. No. You know, we can't Campgrounds do because they get more money. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So anyway, not only RV dealers have some issues, campgrounds have some issues. And, so remember, you have the power to say yes or no or to go elsewhere. I'm so glad you didn't cancel that campground because they had pickleball courts, they had a nice doggy fenced in area, They had exercise equipment.

32:43 Yep. I liked it. It was a nice camper. It was a I just don't like No. We don't like that. Pay us $20 more, and we'll give you the spot that we ask you to reserve. Okay? Alright. Hey. We'll be right back with 2 questions of the week to answer coming up. 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.

33:24 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. 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. Alright. From Gary, is it true that if your RV is older than 10 years old that you, can't park it in a lot of parks? We get this question a lot, and it is true.

34:14 In our experiences, it's it's it's a rule they all have, many of them have, most of them have probably, but, it's only in there because if you come in and your RV is a real piece of junk, they can then cite that and send you packing. If the RV is well maintained, it looks good. If it has a lot of obvious defects, it's rusty, and it looks like it's on its last legs, the parks have have that rule, and they can exclude those kind of rigs that they think would, you know, reflect poorly on the on the park. Yeah. Especially when everybody leaves reviews, and somebody says, oh, I went there, and there was really a piece of, you know, junk park next to me, and I won't go back there. Now we were at, a, a KOA Mhmm. In Canada this this summer.

35:04 And, we went for a walk, and it and there was one there were a bunch of older RVs. They obviously, you know, supplemented the overnight fees by long term rentals. It was kind of at the back end of the of the campground, but it was just a mess. There was a ratty old sofa out in front, looked like the tires were flat. It was just junky. It was so bad I took a picture of it, And then, and obviously people saw me taking the picture. And the next the next day we walked around, it was they cleaned it out. Was gone. Sofa was gone, and they had cleaned it up a lot a little bit. Oh. They cleaned up the lot a lot. There we go. We have heard some parks that say, hey, send us a photo if your RV is older than 10 years, and you can you can understand. You don't want junky stuff in there, so send them a picture. That's okay.

35:55 Another thing that we've have encountered back in our class b days is that some resorts Resorts. Notice that RV resorts don't allow class b vans or camper vans, no matter what condition they're in. They only want class a's, or upgraded 5th wheels, or super c's, you know. Yeah. We camped at a place that was pretty upscale, and they we were in a little b then, and they put us by the trash. Well, what was funny is they they reached out to us, and they said, hey, come do a story on our spot. And we were in that area, Naples, Florida, and we said, okay. So we came in, and then they all kinda they saw us, and their little noses were going, and, you have a class b.

36:38 Yeah. Well, we're a class a resort. Well, why did you invite us here then? Well, they conferred, and they put us right in the back next to the trash bins. And that was fine. It was okay, but I love to tell you that story. It's kinda fun. You know? It happens to everybody, I guess. Yep. But generally speaking, at most campgrounds, if your RV is well maintained, if it's clean, in good mechanical condition, you should be fine even if it's over 10 years, but they do have that rule. Alright. 2nd question, this one is for you, Jennifer, and, Megan says, Jennifer, what do you use for a vacuum cleaner when you're RV? It always looks so clean and sparkling, and I've heard you talk about vacuuming it before and after trips. Well, we use a shark cordless vacuum we bought from Amazon. In fact, we liked it so much, we've bought 2 of them.

37:29 It's a full height vacuum that can easily be turned into a handheld one. Yep. I love that little vacuum. I mean, it isn't the world's powerful vacuum, but it more than does what I want it to do. It's, great for vacuuming up sand and dirt and mud and bow hair. And the unit we have is is the shark pet cordless stick vacuum. I'll put a I'll put a link to it in the show notes, for this episode, and you find that at rv lifestyle.com/podcast. And it has several attachment. And as I recall, we paid something like a $130 for it. Yeah. I think so. You know, it's ironic because we do have that, and we also have in this Montana, we have a central vacuum system, and we've never used it.

38:13 We've never used it. We probably should. All the accessories are underneath the bed in storage. We we really should just to see how it works. But I just keep the upright out Yep. In the corner Yeah. Because we have many occasions to use it, you know, with the dog and Yep. With these 2 people that camp in it that don't take their shoes off. You know, there's both of us. You know, there's reason just get it out quick and vacuum. Yep. Alright. That is the podcast, for this episode. We would love to hear from you. Your comments on any of the items we discussed today, your questions that we you would like us to answer. We, appreciate you guys so much for being here. Thank you for watching. Happy trails.