0:11

Welcome back to the RV Shenanigans podcast

0:13

. I'm Ryan .

0:14

I'm Lauren , and together we are Millers in Motion

0:17

. We are from North Texas and we are

0:19

enjoying a new season of life exploring

0:21

the United States in our Alliance . Valor

0:23

Toyholler , we

0:26

are coming to you with our first podcast

0:28

from 2024 . We are

0:30

in the Texas Hill Country enjoying

0:33

some beautiful scenery with some awesome friends

0:35

, and we are thrilled to have our first

0:37

guest of the year .

0:39

We do and we're going to bring them on here in just a little

0:41

bit , unless you're watching this on YouTube and you can obviously

0:43

see who they are already , because I'm lazy

0:45

and a bad editor and I just leave one camera view

0:47

the whole time . Also , if you

0:49

are going to be coming to the Florida RV Super Show

0:51

because you're going to be here in this right before that make

0:54

sure and come by the Alliance RV booth

0:56

. We're going to be doing some live podcast recordings

0:58

. We may have some guests with us . If

1:00

you're on YouTube , you know what I'm saying , talking

1:03

a little bit more about RV

1:05

, the RV industry , the lifestyle , pretty

1:07

much any and everything . So we'll be doing

1:09

that Wednesday through Saturday

1:11

of the show . So make sure and swing by and say

1:13

hi . We're going to take a quick ad

1:15

read break and we'll be right back with Phil and Stacy

1:18

from Today is Someday .

1:26

All right , like you said , we have Phil and Stacy

1:29

from Today is Someday , and we first

1:31

came across them when we were looking for our very

1:33

first RV and they were a wealth of information

1:35

. Then our paths crossed again with

1:38

the RV unplugged series .

1:40

Well , stacy was Phil . We just kind of , whatever

1:42

he did , we just did the opposite of , and normally we're pretty

1:44

solid , good plan especially with

1:46

directions , but that's okay

1:49

.

1:49

So , yes , we did come across them again

1:51

. We've gotten to know them and we really admire

1:53

them , not only in the content creator space

1:55

, but also for their charitable give , give

1:58

backs . So why don't you guys

2:00

introduce yourselves to our listeners ?

2:02

Hello everyone .

2:04

How's everyone doing ?

2:05

We are Phil and Stacy from Today is Someday and

2:08

we've been almost full time for

2:10

six years now and it has been

2:13

amazing . We have the same story

2:15

you've heard over and over .

2:16

We quit our jobs , sold all our stuff , bought

2:19

an RV and hit the road and

2:21

we have not looked back and we've

2:23

only just scratched the surface

2:25

on our travels , that's for sure . I mean

2:28

, we've been to a ton of places , but

2:30

we haven't been to a ton of places in the

2:32

same sense . So we're looking forward to 2024

2:35

as well .

2:35

I feel like the more you see , the more you realize you

2:37

didn't see absolutely that bucket

2:40

list .

2:40

We check off one . Three more things

2:42

get added .

2:43

That is so true and what kind of rig

2:45

do you guys travel in ?

2:47

We have a 2016

2:50

Tiffin Allegro Red 33AA

2:53

. It's a diesel pusher . She's

2:55

35 feet and her name is Ruby

2:57

and she is home .

2:59

So we get a lot of questions asking about

3:01

it . Does it feel like a house ? Does

3:03

it feel like a home ? And you know , when you go

3:05

on vacation and you're gone in the hotel

3:07

for two weeks and you come home you're like that

3:10

is our RV everywhere we go .

3:13

So today we are going to be talking about

3:16

the difference in drivable RVs

3:18

and towable RVs . Obviously , lauren and

3:20

I are new to our Alliance Valor

3:22

44 V14 previously in our

3:24

Grand Design Solitude 5th wheel Both

3:26

of those , obviously 5th wheel on the towable

3:29

side . I don't know all

3:31

that much , except for the things that translate

3:33

between the two , about motorhomes

3:35

or any drivable kind . We looked

3:37

at them briefly and realized that

3:39

we were going to be towable people right out of

3:42

the gates , so we wanted to bring you guys on

3:44

, simply because I don't know what I'm talking

3:46

about , and you guys have been years long enough

3:48

that hopefully you know what you're talking about .

3:50

Well , most of us know what we're talking

3:52

about .

3:53

I know what she tells me or

3:56

again the opposite of what you broke on accident

3:58

, yes , of course , and like you , we knew

4:00

out of the gates we were going to be motorhome

4:03

people , not towables and

4:05

we did look at them , but the

4:07

dream was always to drive

4:09

our RV .

4:11

So just for a quick clarification for everybody

4:13

else listening , if you're a first time buyer , maybe just

4:16

considering getting into an RV . What

4:18

we mean by drivable is going to be

4:20

anything from a class B , class B plus

4:22

, which is really a C , it's a

4:25

whole thing , just go with it . Class C

4:27

, class A's , and then there's two types of class

4:29

A's , being the diesel pusher version and

4:31

the gas version .

4:32

And don't forget the supersedes .

4:34

And supersedes . I forgot about those .

4:35

So if it has a steering wheel .

4:37

it is a drivable Engines come in handy

4:40

too , and that's it . Well you know , if it has a steering wheel

4:42

.

4:42

It's going to have an engine .

4:43

That is not necessarily true , you need to go

4:45

to more backwards places in .

4:47

Texas , that's right .

4:49

So on the towable side , obviously that's going

4:51

to be any RV that is towed behind

4:54

, hopefully behind a rig

4:56

or behind a truck , and so that's going

4:58

to be your travel trailers , tear drops , pop-up

5:01

campers , fifth wheels , whether

5:03

they be toy haulers or not , so

5:05

on and so forth .

5:06

So that's

5:09

a lot of that is that's a lot to digest

5:11

.

5:11

Quite a variety . So , it's very

5:13

confusing when you're just starting in the RV

5:16

space .

5:16

It really is , and that's why so much of

5:18

what we wanted to do with this podcast was

5:20

going into more detail , because we

5:22

have a little bit more time in YouTube videos

5:25

, and you guys know this . We know this because we all do the

5:27

same , similar things . At least , it's so hard

5:29

to get a bunch of information about a topic into

5:31

a video , because it's

5:33

you know 10 to 20 minutes , give or take

5:35

.

5:35

Youtube is bad and curious .

5:36

Yes , and so that's the big reason why we do the podcast

5:38

is because we take those topics and now deep dive

5:41

them Right Right .

5:41

But we can also bring in people who have more knowledge

5:43

than we do , so that we get accurate information

5:46

.

5:46

Exactly so . Let's start off

5:48

with kind of the differences

5:51

in the rigs that we

5:53

have essentially . So , obviously you

5:55

guys have a drivable RV . Do

5:57

you guys your towed vehicle or the vehicle that's

6:00

behind ? Regardless of what you're doing , you

6:02

guys happen to have the Jeep Correct . Do you

6:04

guys find that a necessity ?

6:06

for us ? Yeah , because otherwise

6:08

we'd be driving our 35 foot house around

6:10

right everywhere we went and we would be limited

6:12

where we could take her in Parker . So

6:15

we park in a campground or

6:17

out in the in the desert , somewhere BLM

6:20

land and then we detach

6:22

the Jeep and we use that to go explore .

6:24

So for us it is essential

6:26

to have a towed vehicle when now

6:28

, that being said , it is not required

6:30

to have a towed vehicle with the motor home , and

6:33

we know people who do not take

6:35

a towed . They totally

6:37

RV a little bit different from us . They either

6:39

have e-bikes . We know people

6:41

who get there and rent cars , and

6:43

we also know people who make sure

6:45

they stay close enough to public transportation

6:48

or Ubers or that kind of thing . And

6:50

so just to say that

6:52

just because you have a motor home doesn't mean you

6:54

have to RV the way we RV . There are

6:56

a lot of options out there for

6:58

you . And we also know people who who

7:01

drive behind a motor home , where

7:03

they don't actually ever attach the car and

7:05

it's not officially a towed because they don't

7:07

tow it . So there are a ton of options

7:10

out there .

7:10

So when you guys were first looking for an RV , did

7:12

you have a particular class or length

7:15

that you said , if we did this

7:17

small , if you even

7:19

considered it that small , that hey , we don't necessarily

7:21

have to have that towed vehicle , or was

7:23

it ? You just knew you were going to do it , because

7:25

you knew you were going to go bigger ?

7:27

automatically . We knew the size of the rig

7:29

we wanted to have .

7:30

We didn't really know , because Phil wanted one

7:32

size .

7:33

Well , I wanted another size

7:35

.

7:35

But we we did compromise to the 35

7:38

feet . But we also knew we were

7:40

going to be living in our RV full time and

7:42

we did not want to have to pack up our

7:44

RV to go to the store . So we always

7:46

knew we would have a tow car Right .

7:48

Gotcha . So as far

7:50

as the towable side for us

7:53

, obviously you have to have a tow vehicle , otherwise

7:55

you're going nowhere fast or it

7:57

just becomes a park model , or that I mean

7:59

, then that is the thing we didn't even talk about . So

8:01

I guess that's a good point is there are park models

8:03

and those types , things that are really aren't designed to be

8:05

on the road in any capacity . They're designed to move from

8:07

point of point B maybe a handful of times in a just

8:10

that yeah . So for us

8:12

we had to have the appropriate tow vehicle

8:14

and again that's such a wide gamut of everything

8:17

Like our big Valor . We have to have a

8:19

minimum a one ton

8:21

dually just for safety , support

8:24

, some side to side , for lateral motion as well as

8:26

payload capacity . So if you're looking

8:28

for an RV , that's probably one of the biggest differences

8:30

is do you want to drive if you're going

8:32

for a big toy haul or do you are K driving a dually

8:34

around ? as your daily

8:37

driver or having someone follow you and having

8:39

a second vehicle and something smaller , or would you rather

8:41

tow it behind a motorhome or get

8:43

something small enough where you're just driving around like a

8:45

van lifer ?

8:46

Right , and we did early on

8:49

. We did look at budgeting

8:51

for a truck and a

8:53

fifth wheel and at

8:55

the end of the day , the price for two

8:57

of those vehicles versus the

8:59

price of a motorhome when we were

9:01

looking , we're about the same and we're gonna . We're gonna

9:04

spend a lot of money , is my point . So

9:06

we just said we don't , we don't have a truck . It

9:08

made it easier for the motorhome because we

9:10

already had two cars that we could

9:13

try to tow , see which one worked

9:15

better and then go from there .

9:17

So what were kind of your day

9:19

one ? Essentials that you had to have

9:21

, no matter what , to make everything function

9:23

within reason the way you want , not the stuff

9:25

that made things more comfortable but made

9:27

things more safety related , or

9:30

just absolutely wouldn't

9:32

do it without it kind of a situation .

9:33

So let's let's , because we're talking about tow

9:36

cars , let's start with that what we need to

9:38

attach the car . So when

9:40

we were attaching the items we needed

9:42

, we needed the tow arms , we needed the brakes

9:44

. So there is a whole setup

9:47

to attach the car to safely tow behind

9:49

the motorhome .

9:50

And was that something you could do yourself , or did you have to have

9:52

somebody install that Well ?

9:53

some people can do it themselves . Yes

9:55

, we did not . We paid someone

9:57

to do it for us .

9:58

Yeah , and there's a bunch of different

10:01

options for equipment for tow vehicles

10:03

. We just happened to go with a particular

10:06

brand . We have the air

10:08

ride suspension on our RV , so

10:10

we went with a air

10:12

equipped braking system that tapped in

10:14

to our onboard air , which

10:17

makes braking our Jeep a lot easier

10:19

. So when the Jeep is attached

10:22

, I hit the RV , brakes there's . It

10:24

sends a signal back , it pushes

10:27

the actuator on the brake pedal

10:29

in the Jeep and it slows the Jeep down

10:31

. And in many states I

10:34

think all of them actually you have to have

10:36

a form of a brake system on your tow

10:38

vehicle and we've seen forums

10:41

after forums of discussions

10:43

of saying , well , I've done this for 20 years and I've never

10:45

had breaking system and I can tell

10:47

you , the first time you're involved in

10:50

an accident where

10:52

you're being questioned about something

10:55

, if it was your fault , the first thing they're gonna look at is your

10:57

RV , your towed where you would complain . So

11:00

for us it's not even about can

11:03

we do it without it . We want it to be as safe as possible

11:05

. So that's why we chose the system that

11:07

we did . And then , going back to

11:09

the safety essentials that we needed

11:11

for the RV , we had two

11:13

items , before we even had the RV

11:15

, that we knew that

11:18

we needed to have peace of mind

11:20

.

11:20

This is the good stuff .

11:21

Yes , so we knew we needed the

11:23

TPMS , the tire pressure monitoring system

11:26

, and the surge

11:29

protection or surge guard for

11:31

RV . So when it's plugged into the pedestal

11:33

we wanted to make sure that the pedestal

11:35

wasn't giving us bad power

11:38

or something happening to

11:40

the pedestal and shorting out our system

11:42

. We had those two items months

11:44

before . We knew what rig we

11:46

were gonna have . We knew we were gonna have a 50M RV

11:49

, just didn't know what type .

11:51

So , on the TPMS

11:53

, do most motorhomes come with like

11:55

what Ford truck would come with , where they

11:57

have like an in-rim TPMS as

12:00

well with the chassis , or do you have

12:02

to do an external one ?

12:02

no matter what , I know ours

12:04

did not . I don't know if there's some higher

12:07

models that do have it , but I don't know of any

12:09

RVs that do there are some that

12:11

are coming with them on board already , but

12:14

then again it doesn't .

12:16

so we have a TPMS for all of the tires

12:18

that are on the ground connected

12:20

to the rig . So we have six on the RV

12:22

and the four on the Jeep so I could monitor

12:25

them while we're towing .

12:26

Well , I think that's super important too , because if you didn't have

12:28

that on the Jeep even though you probably have

12:31

Gene typically has the internal where

12:33

it pops up on your screen , just like our Ford does . But

12:36

if you had a blowout back there , do you think you'd

12:38

even know if you didn't have TPMS ? No , you'd just be

12:40

dragging your Jeep by you , and we have friends that that's happened to

12:42

.

12:42

Really , we had our friend Al . He had a blowout

12:45

on his Jeep and he didn't know . Somebody

12:47

flagged him down and there's also

12:49

that's where the that is a cause

12:51

of fires . If you keep

12:54

the brake set on your towed vehicle and

12:56

you start driving away , that can cause a fire

12:58

. And even though you can't , the

13:00

TPMS won't prevent the fire . But as

13:03

that brake and that tire is heating

13:05

up and overheating , leading to the fire

13:07

, you will get notified . So those are just

13:09

the little things that we kind of wanted to be aware

13:11

of ahead of time .

13:13

Yeah , the TPMS . It's called a tire pressure monitoring

13:15

system , but it monitors

13:18

more than just your tire pressure , so it

13:20

will let you know if , if your

13:22

tire is getting too hot .

13:23

Right .

13:24

And it could be a multiple , a

13:26

multitude of issues going on a

13:28

hung brake , something stuck in the wheel , but

13:31

if your tire gets to a certain temperature

13:33

, it's going to lead to a blowout . So then

13:35

then you can , you can monitor it , you can

13:37

get the alarm pull over and take care of

13:39

it before you have a catastrophic event on the

13:41

side of the highway .

13:42

So I'd say , from the towable side

13:44

, just to kind of what you guys talked about , the TPMS

13:47

, as well as a surge guard of some

13:49

kind , whether it's progressive , huge

13:51

auto transformers something

13:54

that has an actual disconnect

13:56

. If they were to have bad power , preferably

13:59

something that can tell you what's going on so you can diagnose

14:01

it better . There are some that are

14:03

just more like surge protectors essentially , where it'll just cut

14:05

power and that's it and you don't really know

14:07

why . But those are very similar on the

14:09

towable side , cause it's the same

14:11

thing . Especially with the triple axle , we have

14:13

more . We probably will know

14:15

if we have a blowout if we didn't have a TPMS

14:18

a little easier than you guys would , with the exception of

14:20

, yeah , cause if one side goes out . You'll feel it

14:22

tugging the truck a little bit and just looking at your mirror , you

14:24

see pieces flying everywhere . We luckily

14:26

have not had one , mainly

14:29

because we've run with a TPMS . We bought

14:31

both of our TPMS's prior to the

14:33

coaches as well . Like as soon as we knew we

14:35

were switching out our previous coach for the Valor , we

14:38

knew we needed to buy a new one because the

14:40

way ours was installed in the previous we couldn't bring it with

14:42

us . So we bought one before

14:44

we ever got there . As far as , like , the

14:46

tow vehicle stuff , that's where

14:48

the biggest difference is gonna be between drivable

14:51

and towable , because obviously I'm

14:53

towing quite a bit more weight behind me . You

14:55

are the reverse of that . Your vehicle

14:57

is the biggest weight and then your Jeep is the light thing

15:00

, and so for us there's a couple of different ways

15:02

we can go about doing that . Now I'm gonna

15:04

talk about fifth wheels . Travel trailers is just a ball

15:06

on the bumper and you should probably

15:08

consider , in any capacity getting a weight

15:11

distribution and stabilizing bar . That's

15:13

gonna help with trailer sway , which , for travel trailers

15:15

, is the biggest thing . We

15:17

there are tons of people have made videos on it . We

15:19

don't . We have a horse trailer that we use one

15:21

on , but because it's not an RV , we don't necessarily

15:24

do a whole lot of that . But

15:26

as far as a fifth wheel , you can actually take your kingpin

15:29

, which is your traditional fifth wheel hitch pin

15:31

box , into a

15:33

hitch that you put in the bed of your truck . For

15:35

us , we use the B&W companion . It

15:38

locks in . There's no necessarily safety chains

15:40

involved with that , like that's . The other thing is sometimes

15:42

trailers have safety chains and sometimes don't

15:44

, and it's just the difference in what's required by law

15:47

and what's not .

15:48

So do you have a disconnect

15:50

cable or something that would apply brakes

15:52

? Say , there was a catastrophic event

15:54

with your hitch and it broke free

15:56

Right . That's scary as

15:58

hell , get out , but something that would lock it up .

16:00

There's two , exactly . There's a trailer

16:02

breakaway switch , essentially . So when you put

16:04

everything together and everything's locked or those jaws

16:06

are clamped , you tie down

16:09

, essentially a cable to somewhere other than the hitch

16:11

in the bed of your truck . For us , we just

16:13

clip it to one of the little bedside

16:15

clips in the truck . So if the trailer were ever to get too far

16:17

away so the hitch failed in some

16:19

capacity and it pulled away , it would pull

16:21

that and would lock up all of our brakes . Now

16:24

, as an additional security thing for us

16:26

, we upgraded from a drum brake system , which

16:28

is an electrical braking system using magnets that

16:30

essentially is just closed or not , there's really no in between

16:32

to a disc brake system , which

16:34

is what vehicles have essentially

16:36

. So you can apply pressure and more of it and

16:38

less of it and all those things , so we can actually

16:40

stop our entire coach just by braking the

16:42

RV . So from about 40

16:44

, 50 miles an hour . I can slow down and stop without

16:47

ever applying the brake in the truck . If I wanted to , shouldn't

16:49

, but can .

16:50

So what does that look like in the truck ? Like

16:52

what is it an arm , is it a button ? Like

16:55

is it a pedal , is it a trailer brake stuff ?

16:56

Yeah , yeah , so it's a combination of those

16:58

things . So you in those types of trucks and if you

17:00

have a heavy duty truck , they're probably gonna come and

17:02

pre-installed with it . But it's that little pincher

17:05

thing that nobody ever really knows what it is , with a

17:07

plus or minus above it . Oh , okay , and

17:09

so that pincher is your manual control

17:11

. For just the brakes in the back , the plus or

17:13

minus is called the gain , and so the gain

17:16

is how much pressure is applied back there

17:18

versus your foot on the pedal . So , when

17:20

I apply my foot on the pedal we

17:23

run . The signal runs all the way back to the brakes

17:25

and it at whatever I have the setting

17:27

at . So if I needed to break harder , like if it's not strong

17:29

enough for our weight or whatever , I can adjust how

17:31

much , and then it also applies that

17:34

back there . So it's typically a little less

17:36

than what's in the truck , because if you go too hard then

17:38

it's pulling the truck backwards .

17:39

Gotcha .

17:40

And then if you switch to a goose neck , which is gonna

17:42

be that ball that's in the middle , we're

17:45

just gonna open up the can of worms real fast here . Let's

17:47

do it with that band-aid off . This is a whole thing in towables

17:49

.

17:49

Whenever I see those on the road , they just look so

17:51

unsafe , like a bump and

17:53

it's coming off .

17:54

There's two things on towables . That's weird about them is

17:56

one there's hardly any that are

17:58

legitimately rated for our frames Because

18:01

of how they come down and attach . It puts

18:03

a pressure on the top deck of

18:05

the frame in a very different way . So frame

18:07

of the truck or frame of

18:09

the RV Frame of the RV , and

18:11

so when it applies pressure , it applies

18:14

torque differently and it can actually cause

18:16

flexing . Now there's a few out there that

18:18

are proven

18:20

through testing to , not one of them being the Gen Y

18:22

, which has a almost like hovering

18:25

system , so it almost acts like a torque

18:27

tension thing , and so it doesn't

18:29

apply quite the same way . It's actually what Brinkley's

18:31

using for their upgraded pin box

18:33

, just from their standard one . And

18:35

then you have the Reese Goose box

18:37

, which has like an airbag

18:40

system inside of it . But , they've spread

18:42

. That's really big and so it spreads out

18:44

so much that it kind of counteracts

18:46

a lot of the torquing and all that . But I can

18:48

tell you , with those I've

18:50

towed other Goose neck trailers and

18:52

it's literally just like what's on the ball

18:54

. It's on a ball and there's literally just a coupler

18:57

and if that coupler comes off that

18:59

trailer is gone . So by law in all

19:01

50 States you are required to have

19:03

safety chains in addition to trailer brakes to

19:06

that , because they come off all the time and

19:08

that's why , it's much like you don't

19:10

ever hear . How many times do you hear of the semi-driving

19:13

down the roads ? Trailer came disconnected somehow

19:15

. I don't think I ever have the coupler they

19:17

use is essentially the Kingpin

19:19

traditional fifth wheel , because if you ever look at

19:21

the back , it has that huge disc on the back of the truck

19:23

. They bring it in , slam it down the jaws close . If

19:26

you look in the back of ours we have the micro version and

19:29

so the Goose neck one . It's great because

19:31

you don't have that huge hitch in your truck but literally

19:33

everything's relying on a little wire and a pin to

19:35

stay closed at the bottom of that ball and

19:38

if it happens to come up it's gonna cause

19:40

a lot you just the probability of you

19:42

having a disconnect skyrockets on them . It's why

19:44

we don't like them .

19:44

Well , you get distracted putting that together and you forget

19:47

to put the pin in . That's a bad day

19:49

for you .

19:49

Yeah , that's bad and that can happen in

19:51

March too , because we have a safety pin that keeps the

19:53

handle shut , the jaws closed . If we forget

19:55

to do that , it's gone , but

19:57

at the same time , a lot of them like ours it

20:00

won't . Actually , I'll know

20:02

the second I if I did a pull

20:04

test .

20:04

I was gonna say that's where you'll know , or anything like that

20:06

, and so I'm- . So let's just throw it in here that

20:09

we both have checklists .

20:11

Oh yeah .

20:11

And just so you know . I know we're talking about differences

20:14

, but hopefully you guys listening , everyone

20:16

follows a checklist , no matter what kind of RV

20:18

they have .

20:19

You read my mind , or the situation

20:21

in your hooking or unhooking you may think it's like

20:23

oh , I'm , it doesn't matter , I

20:25

overnighted , I didn't unhook or anything

20:27

. Still go through it . You may just hit yes on

20:29

a lot of them real fast .

20:31

Absolutely , because you didn't do it .

20:32

But still visually inspect , and I say that we

20:35

check our running chassis every time

20:37

we stop . I just get in the habit of walking

20:39

through , just making sure you never know .

20:42

Yeah , I get out and check the toe , make

20:44

sure the arms , the cables I've lost cables

20:46

that have popped out going down the road

20:49

and they've been dragging and

20:51

they're filed off and I can't use them anymore . So

20:53

that leads to spares . So I keep

20:55

spares of all of that . So if if

20:57

any one piece of equipment on

20:59

my toe setup goes out now

21:01

, she's driving behind me because I can't tow it safely

21:04

.

21:04

And we all know he can't handle not me

21:06

not being upfront with him because he's directionally

21:09

challenged .

21:09

Back to the navigational issue .

21:11

In all fairness , there's evidence without

21:13

Stacy involved with you and I .

21:15

Absolutely Thanks to the guys at RV on plug

21:17

causing stress . That's another podcast for

21:20

another year .

21:21

Another year Decade .

21:24

But no , the checklist are a must and

21:27

you know the pull test that you were alluding

21:29

to , that's that

21:31

is a key step . I don't know how many times

21:34

we have seen a truck

21:36

pulling a fifth wheel with

21:39

the bed , semi bent

21:41

, crushed , tailgate crushed

21:43

because they did a pull test

21:45

and it fell , or they didn't do

21:47

the pull test and it fell Either

21:50

way yeah , it fell so

21:52

that for that side of the house , the

21:54

towable , it is imperative to do that .

21:56

And a pull test is essentially just barely raising

21:58

your jacks to where they're almost hovering . But you

22:01

, literally , you have like millimeters of space

22:03

, and so if you pull forward , your jacks are going to catch

22:05

it before it slams on your truck and damages

22:07

it .

22:07

Yeah .

22:08

And so I will also say that . And even

22:10

people that do pull tests , I still never see them

22:12

stick their head behind the tailgate and look , just

22:15

look . Visually you can see the jaws closed . Oh yeah

22:17

, just look , if you're closing the pins in , you're

22:19

90% of the way to success

22:21

. Do a quick pull test Now

22:23

. You're 100% . Roll wherever you want to roll , don't

22:26

touch it .

22:27

Now , technically , we do a pull test as well

22:29

. It's not really called a pull test , but we do

22:31

always visualize . We I

22:33

pull the RV forward . We visualize

22:36

the tires on our towed moving

22:38

, because the number one issue

22:40

with towed and the number one problem

22:43

or thing that's forgotten is removing

22:45

that emergency brake off the towed , which

22:47

can lead to a fire on your towed .

22:49

Well , I could also see two people accidentally

22:51

not putting in the four wheels

22:53

so that they move freely and actually being in park , or something

22:56

like that .

22:56

And just now you're dragging it because then you're going to burn

22:58

up your transmission and other things too . So yeah

23:01

, I mean it's for us . You know , we've been

23:03

towing that Jeep behind us for

23:05

for almost

23:07

five years because we didn't get it . We didn't have it right away

23:09

, and we still go

23:12

through our checklist on that as

23:14

if it was day one , because it's . I

23:16

mean , it's a few steps , but it's a few steps

23:18

. If you missed one could lead

23:20

to a huge issue down the road .

23:22

Your biggest catastrophe ? Yeah , your big believers of the checklist

23:25

as well ? Yeah , absolutely .

23:26

And Stacy's thing is and she

23:28

tells people all the time use your checklist

23:30

. And it doesn't matter how far you get in your checklist

23:32

. If you get interrupted during

23:35

your whatever you're doing setting up , breaking

23:38

down if you get interrupted you

23:40

go back to item one , yep , and you

23:42

start over . Now you

23:44

know you've been talking to

23:46

somebody for 20 minutes or you had to deal with a little

23:48

, or Phil's been talking to someone Giving

23:51

them RV advice , but you

23:53

always start back over because you may have missed something

23:56

. you know . Human , the human error

23:58

factor is always high

24:00

.

24:01

No , it really is , and that's . It's amazing

24:03

, just taking a few seconds to do a checklist and

24:05

the disregard time , the dollars you

24:07

will save in repairs .

24:09

Absolutely yes , more Look at it as an

24:11

investment .

24:12

You're time for some cash .

24:14

Okay . So now that we're hooked up , yes

24:16

, so this is probably where

24:19

a lot of the real big differences start

24:21

between the two , besides the fact that you have an

24:23

engine and our engine is an Artow vehicle . But

24:26

let's talk a little bit about some of our travel day

24:28

differences . So when

24:30

you guys , you're hooked up , you're rolling , you

24:32

go , what does that kind of look like for

24:34

you guys ? And not so much the navigation

24:36

side of it , but really just kind of when

24:39

you're driving , how do you guys operate the rig

24:41

? Is it ? Do you ? Can you really just

24:44

get up and get a sandwich when you want , or can you ? Yes , so

24:46

let's I mean let's talk about the basic stuff is

24:48

drinks , refrigerator

24:50

, bathrooms .

24:52

I'm using my wifi sitting

24:54

there in my front seat as I'm editing videos

24:57

or checking email , and

25:00

pretty much everything with

25:02

RV we can use . I should say I

25:04

can use cause Phil's in the driver's seat , but you

25:07

know I can get to the bathroom , I can get to our bedroom

25:09

, with us closed up and driving down the road , so

25:11

it really makes it easy for us to travel . I

25:14

don't have to pack a bag to go in

25:16

the truck of either snacks

25:18

or computer or whatever

25:20

we need . I literally just have

25:22

to sit in the passenger seat and I can grab

25:24

whatever we need .

25:25

And the only real time that we have to stop

25:27

is when I have to go to the bathroom .

25:29

Or if we need fuel , and that's pretty much it .

25:32

Those are the only times we stop . We can I

25:34

can eat lunch driving cause she'll go

25:36

get a sandwich or a snack or whatever , and

25:38

we just keep going . And if we do have

25:41

to stop for the bathroom or to get

25:43

something to eat , we just pull over , I

25:45

hop out , get what I need to eat and

25:47

we hop back in the seat and we say out , meaning pop

25:49

out of the seat .

25:51

I mean , if you're thinking of a fifth wheel , you're thinking y'all are

25:54

your truck . You have to pop out of the truck and get into your

25:56

RV .

25:56

Right , you have to get out you have to go back , you have to open

25:58

the door , you gotta open a slide . You got there's

26:00

moving parts that you have

26:02

, that we don't have , and that was one of the things that

26:04

we looked at in the beginning . We

26:07

wanted to be able to do that .

26:08

Look , phil wanted me to present him

26:10

with a sandwich riding down

26:12

the road and to refill his drinks

26:14

, because I can't argue and say

26:16

, no , get it yourself While he's driving down the road

26:18

.

26:18

But to say also on a platter with

26:21

like angels saying in the background Killing the

26:23

grapes who doesn't like a good sandwich

26:25

while they're driving down the road . I mean , it's one of those

26:27

things that we can do Y'all

26:30

can't do that . And we get a lot of

26:32

that from folks that have fifth

26:34

wheels and travel trailers that , like I wish

26:36

I could do that .

26:38

Well , and it's even a level above that too , and

26:40

I will say some of that , what

26:42

you're talking about , you guys can do in your rig . Now

26:44

, if a lot of motor homes I've noticed

26:46

, typically the

26:49

fridge is normally never blocked , but

26:51

I'm sure there's a scenario every once in a while

26:53

where that may be a thing , where , when your slides

26:55

are in .

26:55

There's a few models .

26:56

Yeah , and so if you do happen to have one of those models , sorry

26:58

, get your sandwich out before

27:01

you get going . That's right , but like

27:03

for us that because we

27:05

have to stop , I mean it's a

27:07

whole thing . I mean the stop for us is a minimum

27:09

of 30 minutes because you

27:11

have to stop , you have to park , you have to

27:13

get out and we have the dog component

27:15

. So do we get the dogs out ? Do we don't get the dogs

27:17

out ? And then do we have to pop a slide

27:20

out ? We have to put stairs down . It's

27:22

one of the things I probably dislike most

27:24

about towables , cause I like to

27:26

sit and book it and we just physically

27:28

can't because of all of those

27:31

things you just said .

27:32

But you know what we can do . We

27:35

can back into a parking space .

27:37

You've got us in there .

27:39

And let's break that down really quick . Cause a lot of

27:41

people won't understand Right . Yes

27:43

, a motor home can go and reverse . If

27:46

you have a dolly , you can reverse

27:49

your motor home and park it . But if

27:51

you have tow arms and you

27:53

have a flat towed , if you back

27:55

up you are at risk for bending

27:57

your tow arms and damaging your

27:59

whole setup .

28:00

And we know there's people out there that do it

28:02

and they do it like a champ . They've been doing it for

28:04

20 years . Good on you . Our

28:07

tow setup cost us close

28:09

to $5,000 . We're trying to play by

28:11

the book today , right and for me

28:13

it's an investment in our time and

28:16

our equipment . So

28:18

I've backed up straight . Maybe

28:20

two , three feet .

28:22

Once or twice , and that's about it . And

28:24

it took you 45 minutes to go those two or three

28:26

feet . We're not doing this . We're not doing this .

28:28

And then I immediately fixed whatever

28:31

situation I was in , and then I got out and checked

28:33

to make sure everything was still attached

28:35

and working and not bent .

28:36

But I mean , there's frozen cons to

28:38

it , but we cannot if we're hooked up

28:41

, which is something I would love to be able

28:43

to do , whereas , like if we happen to pull

28:45

into like a cracker barrel or something for the night , we

28:47

actually park very similar to well , if you know

28:49

how to parallel park , there's an

28:51

argument to be made that most people don't or want

28:53

to , but we actually pull up past where we're

28:55

going and then back into the site because I can

28:57

actually do it more efficiently where you guys have to pull

28:59

in nose first .

29:00

Yeah , we have to . And for us , if we're

29:02

stopping somewhere overnight , we

29:05

always put the

29:08

driver's side to the curb , so we don't need

29:10

to have our passenger slide

29:12

, our kitchen slide , we don't need to pull it out . So

29:14

if we're at curb side , we can put

29:16

that slide out over the curb and

29:19

the grass and we're not in impeding traffic . We

29:21

can open our bedroom slide one side of

29:23

it over the curb . So we're mindful

29:25

of that and we know that those two slides

29:27

and sometimes we don't even move the front slide

29:29

out , we just do the bedroom slide .

29:32

And that's very similar for the towable side as

29:34

well . It's probably a hand

29:36

toss of which way you park , based on your coach

29:38

and what your needs are . Like for us . We're the opposite

29:40

of what you guys do . We do passenger

29:43

side , but that's cause our door side's on there and we have

29:45

stairs that come out , and so that's the number

29:47

one . Oopsie , I ran over it thing

29:49

. And then that's also the slide . If we can get

29:51

that slide even just a few feet out it's

29:53

not a Schwintech or anything , so it can go a little bit out

29:55

and not have to do anything . We can now get

29:57

into the fridge , full access to everything inside

30:01

the non-toy hauler space , the living space of our coach

30:03

, and so that's the slide that we

30:05

always put out . The downside is that also means that our

30:07

bedroom slide's not going out . Unfortunately , we have

30:09

to have that one , so we do . The

30:11

person on the other side of the coach me gets

30:14

to barrel , roll into bed and then scooch up

30:16

.

30:16

Yes , but I think something important here is

30:19

that some of the motor homes come with that tilt-a-bed

30:21

, so if they can't put , that

30:23

bedroom slide out .

30:25

They actually can't lay down . Yeah

30:27

, and that's a problem as well , for

30:29

sure .

30:30

So , just since we're already talking about

30:32

it we already mentioned fuel and all those things

30:34

how far ? I mean ? I know this is a super loaded

30:36

question , but roughly , how

30:38

big is your fuel tank ? How far can you

30:40

go ? All that stuff ?

30:41

We have a 100 gallon diesel fuel tank and we can

30:43

go I don't know close

30:46

to 900 miles , roughly Our

30:49

fuel mileage and you ask anybody

30:51

that owns a diesel pusher . If you're calculating

30:53

your mileage and fuel cost

30:55

in the diesel pusher you're doing it wrong . But

30:58

we average about 9.3

31:00

. Gallon or miles

31:02

to the gallon . That's towing the Jeep as well . So

31:05

the we got a 360 Cummins engine

31:07

in there and she's a workhorse .

31:09

So that's probably another one of those massive differences

31:11

between the two is you guys can really sit down

31:13

and just roll if you want to , for an extended period of time

31:16

, assuming you're not running generator that's also pulling

31:18

fuel from that same reserve right right . So

31:20

whereas us , if you have a standard Truck

31:23

of some kind , you have between 40 and 50 gallons of

31:25

on board and you're getting worse fuel

31:27

mileage because it's not really designed To do that

31:29

all the time even though it can doesn't mean it's

31:31

not engineered that way necessarily . So you

31:33

know , we're getting closer to seven to eight miles

31:36

a gallon with much less of a range

31:38

, and so we have to stop for fuel more frequently

31:40

. So inherently towables move

31:42

slower Right .

31:44

Well , on the flip side , we only

31:46

we fuel up at about a half a tank

31:48

all the time because

31:50

the way the Fuel tank

31:53

is designed to feed the generator if

31:55

need be . I don't want to go below

31:57

a half a tank because I know when I

31:59

get below A quarter of a tank the generator

32:02

won't work . Oh , okay , it has to have a quarter

32:04

of a tank for the generator work .

32:05

So I have some sort of safety feature so that you

32:07

have reserve fuel to drive .

32:10

So our half a tank fill

32:12

up leaves me a quarter tank buffer

32:14

got you . So when I get to

32:17

a half a tank I'm asking Stacy to find a

32:19

spot . So that we can pull in before

32:21

we get there , because you know

32:23

Inevitably you're gonna have an issue on the side of

32:25

the road on a Sunday , always in the middle of

32:27

the Texas heat there's gonna be nobody to

32:29

come help you . We're gonna need

32:31

the generator for the ACs Right

32:33

or to power anything , and we need to

32:35

have that buffer . So that's something when we

32:37

were first looking at the RV or

32:39

buying it , we didn't know . We nobody

32:42

talked about that , nobody ever said this

32:44

is an important thing you need to be mindful of it's something

32:46

we learned over time .

32:47

Is there a way to expand your fuel

32:49

tank in any way , or you just stuck with it , because

32:55

that's a thing I don't know that we have space like

32:57

where you know to expand the tank , so

32:59

everything's puzzled in the total side , like

33:01

if I wanted to think about a toolbox . I

33:04

could get a gravity feed into our main fuel tank

33:06

and expanded by upwards of 80 gallons in

33:08

addition to so I could get up To a

33:10

hundred gallons . But now you're talking about worrying

33:12

about GVWR .

33:13

I know that's going through my head , yeah anytime

33:15

you feel liquid .

33:16

I'm just doing math , like alright .

33:21

It's crazy when you start doing a math on that .

33:23

Yeah , and I will say we're not gonna dive into

33:25

all that . And

33:28

it's overly complicated . I would say y'all's

33:30

friend , chad , probably did one of the best

33:32

explained videos of it , so I'll just link

33:34

that because he made sense of it

33:36

and I'm still struggling to make sense

33:38

of it in my head . So I know we're good

33:40

, but if you asked me to do it for somebody else , I probably

33:43

wouldn't be numbers games important for so

33:45

many reasons .

33:46

So the other thing I wanted to say about fuel is

33:48

that , towing the vehicle , we can actually

33:50

prepare the day before we can go fuel

33:52

up with Just our truck

33:54

and not have to worry about taking the RV through

33:56

a fuel up , whereas you guys unfortunately

33:58

don't quite get that option , even though you can go

34:00

further on each fill right and

34:03

we also have to go

34:05

to a truck stop , like we do not fit in

34:07

regular gas stations where if you guys detached

34:09

and took the truck , you could go to just

34:11

a regular gas station and not a truck

34:13

stop and we don't , because we like saving

34:15

money .

34:16

Yes because we both , we everybody and you

34:18

should always use an open roads car .

34:21

Yes , because diesel engine

34:23

of any sort , yes .

34:24

Yeah , for two reasons one . The

34:27

savings you don't have you

34:29

. So if you don't have one , you can still go through

34:31

the commercial lanes for the most part . Yeah , but you're

34:33

gonna play the in and out game . Yeah , because

34:35

you have to pre authorize , because it only at the pump

34:37

, only takes a commercial card . Well , the open roads

34:39

card serves as that for you . Instead

34:42

of having to go in , authorize , come back out

34:44

. Go back and get your receipt , come back out and , god

34:46

forbid , someone need to use the restroom .

34:47

Yes , whereas it's faster

34:50

, it's easier , you're going to save

34:52

money and I have a whole blog on

34:54

how it works . So if you guys can

34:57

go to our website and look at our blogs and you'll see it there

34:59

. But I'm telling you we've saved some

35:01

serious money since we've been

35:03

using it , and if you don't

35:05

have a diesel , you can also find these kind

35:07

of savings for a regular fuel card .

35:09

So everybody should be saving on their

35:11

gas and their diesel and something we didn't

35:13

know when refueling the rig

35:15

was , we would go to say , a

35:17

Valero , just a regular Valero

35:19

gas station to get diesel , because

35:22

in Texas there's diesel every gas station

35:24

, fuel stations . These diesel the

35:26

pumps , the nozzles are different . Yes , they

35:28

are , you know so it took me longer

35:30

to fill up at the local Valero In our neighborhood

35:33

when we before we started full-timing then

35:35

much longer yeah , as opposed to going to a truck

35:37

stop where the nozzles are much bigger the

35:40

bigger flow , yeah , the volume that that's being

35:42

pumped in to these big rigs . It's

35:44

no time is money .

35:46

They have to get going so I also know some motorhomes

35:48

have dual fuel sides . We do and

35:50

so if you guys were legitimately in a pension

35:52

had to get out , and there was the rare occasion there wasn't

35:55

a trucker in front of you waiting to get his receipt , or shower

35:57

or whatever they seem to do in there for hours on end

35:59

. You could and

36:01

they do this for the semis because they have three

36:03

to five hundred gallons of fuel capacity . They

36:06

can pump simultaneously from both

36:08

sides . So if you guys were just in a massive

36:10

time crunch , you couldn't do that , as we could if we're in

36:12

a massive time crunch .

36:13

We're doing something wrong . But

36:17

one other thing I do want to point out that is a

36:19

difference between the two . When we're fueling

36:22

is the fact that we need death , and not

36:24

only well , we both need death . But when we get

36:26

deaf , our tanks are separated from our

36:28

fuel tanks , so we do

36:30

have to move the RV forward

36:32

after we're done filling up with the diesel

36:35

in order to put in the death , so it is kind of a two-step

36:37

process during the times that we need death

36:39

.

36:39

I call that the trucker tease . You're like , we're moving .

36:44

Again , it's something we didn't know about when

36:46

we were doing our homework . Right , you know , we were so fixated

36:48

on the floor plan , and you know sure length

36:50

, that we didn't think of things like death

36:52

Right and death for those that are going

36:55

. What is death ?

36:56

You know what is here . What does hearing have to do with ?

36:59

it is diesel exhaust fluid and it's

37:01

a . It's a fluid that you have to have for

37:03

our particular year and engine

37:06

. It's required . So we have

37:08

to move the rig up and when we fill

37:10

up we're only putting in Four

37:12

gallons .

37:13

I was about to ask how big is that reserve for you ?

37:15

It's a 13 gallon tank . Okay , but because

37:17

of all the death scares with the sensors

37:19

and the headers , the

37:22

best advice we found was keep it topped

37:24

off . Yeah , so the minute I I

37:26

get down a quarter of a tank , I'm

37:29

filling it up .

37:29

So what , not down to a quarter tank

37:31

for those early things ?

37:33

So when I get to three quarters , yes , but

37:35

well , it's hard because we have four green lights .

37:37

Yeah , it's not actual numbers numbers , it's

37:39

four green lights .

37:40

So when one green light goes away , when the

37:42

tick drops . I'm putting . I'm putting more

37:44

deaf in the tank , so it's about two and a half

37:46

to maybe four gallons , depending on where I'm at and

37:48

deaf is not exclusive to the bigger , like

37:51

common style engines R4 to F 350

37:53

, which is a 2019 , also requires death

37:55

.

37:55

There is a certain year where our

37:57

style of truck right that it didn't

38:00

have it before and it has it after . I believe

38:02

it's somewhere around 2005 to 2008

38:04

right , it's a federal regulation . Yes

38:06

, and we do the exact

38:08

same thing . The biggest difference we have an eight gallon

38:10

reserve , so we're almost the size of you guys

38:13

but , our truck . Obviously

38:15

we don't have the fuel capacity so it lasts us a little

38:17

longer . We typically will get a

38:19

few long .

38:21

I will get close to almost 800 miles

38:23

before we really have to put anything in and

38:25

we could probably go a while

38:27

before we needed it , but we we had

38:29

a deaf scare where we were on the side of the road

38:31

and thought we were gonna be out yeah

38:33

and once , once your deaf shuts

38:36

down or D rates , yep . Essentially

38:38

, you can only go five miles an hour

38:40

.

38:40

It's a safety built in we got some friends

38:43

that I'd happen to and on the side

38:45

on the side of the interstate right going five miles

38:47

an hour is not recommended .

38:48

And you don't want to be told no so you

38:51

know , we just the advice was , keep it

38:53

topped off .

38:54

We've kept it topped off and we haven't had an issue

38:56

since so one other thing the open roads

38:58

car does work on death at the At the pump

39:00

. It's really rare to find death on a pump

39:02

unless you're in the commercial truck lanes or at a

39:04

Bucky's .

39:05

And let's clarify yes , you don't get

39:07

a discount on that , but you can use it .

39:08

Yes , yes , so at least you're not having to fiddle with that

39:10

huge plastic thing . It is cheaper

39:12

already inherently because it's coming from a pump

39:15

versus a container . Yes , so it is

39:17

. The price per gallon versus the containers

39:19

is cheaper , so you kind of are saving . It's

39:21

just not an actual discount .

39:23

Yeah , and we don't bless you . We , I

39:25

mean we have . Initially , when we first started RVing

39:28

, we bought the boxes because everybody's like

39:30

you're gonna run , you're not gonna be able to find

39:32

it and you're gonna need it . It's scarce , it's this

39:34

, is that , and we and

39:37

six years later , we , you

39:40

know , six months after we started we've never purchased

39:42

again unless we were in that area that

39:44

we needed to that's what I was gonna say .

39:46

If you're planning an Alaskan trip or something

39:48

like that , it probably would be your better interest yet

39:50

to grab a couple of boxes to have , just in

39:52

case it expires to yes

39:54

, it's a long expression , but it can

39:57

expire , so don't buy it when I use

39:59

it .

39:59

It could have been sitting on the shelf for a while to check

40:02

that day , always look before you purchase , just like your bread .

40:04

Yes , Just like your bread

40:06

.

40:08

So is there anything you guys do in particular

40:11

that's special for the motorhome , for

40:13

like routing and all that stuff , as

40:15

far as like actual transit ?

40:19

Fill is not allowed to navigate .

40:21

Put the be back shortly .

40:23

Sign on my face , because now it's on her and

40:25

yes , there is , and I believe , I'm

40:27

pretty sure that we are very Similar in what we

40:29

do , because with RVing

40:31

it is the question is do

40:33

you fit in a regular parking spot ? If

40:35

the answer is no , you should have

40:38

special RV safe GPS

40:40

. Yes , if you're

40:42

, if the RV you are driving is

40:44

higher up than a conversion van

40:47

, you should be using special

40:49

RV safe GPS and I would

40:51

even argue that you should

40:53

have that specialty , but also with

40:55

a form of redundancy . Don't ask

40:57

me how I know that Well

40:59

our redundancy is not only

41:01

do we okay , so let's , let's backtrack

41:03

a little bit , what do ? We use . We , yes

41:05

, our motorhome does have in dash

41:08

RV safe GPS , but I can

41:10

tell you it is a serious pain

41:12

to update . So that has

41:14

gone by the wayside for us because when we purchased

41:16

our RV , it was already out of date .

41:18

So the RV safe GPS

41:20

is One that

41:22

you can put your RV's Specifications

41:26

in , height being one of them , weight

41:28

being a second one , and link and I

41:30

will say everything we're talking about at this moment

41:33

applies to both .

41:34

Yeah , this is not .

41:35

This is the one area where it's actually very similar

41:37

, but it's a super important topic and it's a

41:39

big safety issue and propane

41:41

A lot of them absolutely

41:44

Know if you have propane for those there

41:46

are some roads in the US that you can't

41:48

go down . You have propane on board for

41:50

whatever reason . Depend on the kind right .

41:52

So we do have , as I was

41:54

saying , the in-dash , but that we don't use . So

41:56

we purchased a Garmin

41:59

RV safe GPS . It has all the

42:01

stats in Phil was talking about and

42:03

there are so other options for

42:05

you . That is not the only way to get RV

42:07

safe travel . You can also use

42:09

things like RV trip wizard . It's an app

42:11

. There's something called Coal Pilot

42:14

, which is also an app . So there are a ton of options

42:16

out there for you to be safe . Do not

42:18

use ways , do not use . Google

42:21

, because they don't know how long you are

42:23

, and ultimately you're gonna end up in a situation

42:26

it's gonna have you do a u-turn , it's gonna

42:28

have you go , possibly in a tunnel

42:30

you won't fit in .

42:33

Waited for you because how tall are you , your coach

42:35

? We're 13 even and we're

42:37

13 8 yeah . And so , trust

42:39

me , you come up on some of those bridges and there's

42:41

no , you're not using an RV safe GPS

42:43

and there doesn't happen to be that that

42:46

measurement in the yellow square that they put on

42:48

should put on all of them , but they don't

42:50

. You start to get real concerned

42:53

, real fast , as you're rolling that thing going 65 miles

42:55

now add fresh black top

42:57

With no sign .

42:59

Yes , how many inches did they

43:01

put on there ?

43:01

and how much room did they just take away ? Right

43:03

, because now you're on a new road and they haven't

43:06

adjusted .

43:06

You know , the Parker factor is there .

43:08

So for us . I keep on

43:10

the dash . Mm-hmm as a . You

43:13

know , as a note all the

43:15

time how tall we are right , how

43:17

heavy we are , and it's right there . So

43:19

I'm always reminded of our specifications

43:22

as we're driving down the road .

43:23

So when you're stressing yeah , you

43:25

don't forget .

43:26

Just happens to be on the floor on the flip down thing

43:28

.

43:29

I have a little .

43:29

I've written down right there .

43:30

We came across a bridge one time . Using

43:33

our RV Specific GPS

43:36

, we rounded this corner and

43:38

it's a weight limit 12

43:40

tons .

43:42

No , it was . I thought it was six tons , so it's

43:44

12,000 pounds . Anyway , both of us

43:46

looked at each other and we're like , what's

43:48

it done ? What's it done ?

43:49

Oh my gosh , we're yelling at at

43:52

Alexa , alexa . What is

43:54

12 times what it ? I mean , we're because

43:56

we're , we needed to know in a pinch and

43:59

we stopped in our tracks because we

44:01

were too heavy , or I should say Ruby

44:03

was too heavy to cross the bridge .

44:05

Yeah , and I do want to say that

44:07

every RV safe GPS

44:09

will make a mistake . Oh there's no

44:11

such thing as perfect routing , but

44:13

there is the safest possible routing

44:15

. So one of our backups that we always

44:18

have on board is we have an old

44:20

school trucker Atlas the book

44:22

, you can buy the paper and we

44:24

have used it a couple times to verify

44:26

if we're gonna hit an

44:28

unsafe bridge or tunnel , because we all

44:30

know the Northeast has ton of those . And

44:33

I also Use it to reroute us because

44:35

for some reason we were going

44:37

somewhere and it was taking us a two-hour

44:39

route that I knew wasn't necessary . So

44:42

I did go through the trucker Atlas and I

44:44

found a way for us to get there

44:46

that saved us two hours . So there might

44:48

be times where you might want to pull it out it , like

44:51

I said , it's just a backup , a safety

44:53

issue .

44:53

Well , and I think we we were talking about this not

44:55

long ago Stacy , you and I , we do

44:57

very similar things . We both route

44:59

plan using the RV trip wizard from . Rv

45:02

life and then I take

45:04

that and put inserted into

45:06

a pre-planned route in my Garmin . Right

45:08

and I just cross-referenced the two before I commit

45:10

to it , and if they're the same , I normally

45:12

that's my kind of double confirmation , I'm

45:15

good . If they're different , I start to question

45:17

why a lot more , and that's when I'll start to dive

45:19

in a little bit deeper to it .

45:20

I'm just gonna say that we both have larger

45:22

vehicles and if we are close enough to

45:24

the bridge to read , that yellow

45:27

sign where ? The . Too

45:29

late , chances of you stopping are

45:31

slim to none .

45:32

I don't know , my disc brakes are pretty cool .

45:34

The chances of you Calculating and

45:36

then thinking about it and stopping

45:38

are non-existent .

45:40

And if you , if you happen to hit

45:42

one of those , you're the top of your rigs

45:44

and look like my haircut ?

45:45

Yes , and if you don't , if you're listening to this because

45:47

it is an audio podcast , it's very

45:49

flat .

45:50

Yes , it's a flat top and we've seen those

45:52

and we've seen the horror stories about people AC

45:54

shaved off and yeah . People

45:56

driving through a bridge that they shouldn't have

45:58

or an intersection had a low .

46:00

Whatever it happens

46:02

and you know it not

46:04

to say it won't happen to us , but

46:06

we've taken the steps to mitigate

46:08

it , you know that's much as possible , right

46:10

and then another thing we do for routing and

46:12

I'm pretty sure you guys do the same thing because

46:14

we were talking about it If you're

46:16

doing wherever we're doing an overnight and we

46:18

overnight all different types of places

46:20

, from Crackle barrel to harvest

46:22

hose , boondockers Welcome , we do

46:25

all of those . And Elks

46:27

Lodge we're remember where we're an elks

46:29

member , so we I will always

46:31

look at the parking lot of the

46:33

place we are going to land in to make sure

46:35

we have a safe place to enter and exit

46:37

right . I mean , sometimes we go to Walmart

46:39

, h , eb you know the grocery stores and

46:41

we want to know that we can get in and out

46:43

without having to unhook Back up

46:46

, without getting trapped and doing

46:48

a you know a 30-point turn . So

46:50

a good way to do it it's just to go in and

46:52

do the Google map and drive

46:55

the route and make sure you're

46:57

gonna be okay .

46:58

The other thing , too , is we know , if

47:00

we're taking up multiple parking

47:02

spaces , how many parking

47:05

spots we need to successfully

47:07

park if that's how you know , you're a true RVer

47:09

. You know how many parking spots exactly

47:11

so when we're looking at that satellite view of

47:13

the parking lot and we're Counting how many spaces

47:16

before there's an island , you know

47:18

, oh , we can't park there . We can't park there again

47:20

. These are things that nobody tells

47:22

you about a project and you just have to find

47:24

out the the hard way and if there's a

47:26

tree on that .

47:29

Just be aware . We all know the satellite view

47:31

is not always up to date , so there's

47:33

a chance that there's a tree planted that wasn't

47:35

there in your view .

47:37

Yeah , but those are the steps that we'd additional

47:39

steps that we take anytime we're moving

47:41

, because you just never know when you Get

47:43

in a pickle . And , yes , it takes

47:45

less than five minutes to unhook the Jeep

47:48

to move if we have to , but

47:50

it's a pain .

47:51

Why do we want to do that ? We can avoid it .

47:53

Especially if you're trying to get in and out fast .

47:55

I think it's simplest possible .

47:56

So , okay , we are gonna take a quick break

47:58

and we will be right back . Okay

48:07

, we are back with Phil and Stacy talking

48:09

all things motorhomes , drive-ables

48:12

versus Toe-able things

48:14

, and I'm trying to get my chair to stop squeaking against

48:16

my counter very hard .

48:18

You can't focus until that's done .

48:20

No , it's one of those things . So , okay , this

48:23

might be one of our longest podcast , which is not

48:25

shocking , based on yesterday . I mean , we sat around

48:28

, talked about five hours .

48:30

But this is good stuff it is . This is stuff

48:33

that we found on our own

48:35

or by accident .

48:36

I learned the hard way .

48:37

Yeah , you know this is stuff

48:39

that we would have loved to have found

48:41

in Our homework stage , in

48:44

our research stage , in the very beginning .

48:45

We will also say Phil has ulterior

48:47

motives . He's trying to get out of hike .

48:52

Bill is going hiking . It's day one of

48:54

the year . We have to start the year right .

48:55

Yeah , we took a break and nobody got up to go get a

48:57

drink at the bathroom . We talked about hiking

48:59

and I was like let's just keep talking .

49:01

We fix Stacy's mic .

49:02

I'm also gonna say that Phil took the shortcut getting

49:05

here . He didn't even take the long way around , he

49:07

walked through the yard my

49:09

goal this year is to conserve energy .

49:12

That's been your goal the last five years . What

49:14

are you talking ?

49:14

about , and this is what happens when you get a bunch

49:16

of full-time RVers . You know they don't see each other very often

49:19

. We just sit around and talk , yeah . So

49:22

okay , we've gone through all

49:24

kinds of different stuff . As far as in

49:26

transit , the difference is when we're sitting down

49:28

, kind of more stationary . But let's

49:31

dive into a little bit about kind of the setup

49:33

and tear down differences , because I I know

49:35

they're not necessarily Different . As far as the

49:37

checklist things we were talking about earlier in the episode

49:39

, if for some reason you skipped ahead to this ad Read

49:42

section , go back and listen to that part

49:44

. This will make a lot more sense , right ? But

49:46

I feel like and I could be completely

49:49

wrong , but I feel like you guys can probably

49:51

get up and go a lot faster than we can .

49:53

I think so too . Yeah , we've timed it , I think

49:55

we've . We got up , put everything

49:57

that we had out , stowed it Jack's

50:00

up slides in 20 minutes . We were

50:02

gone Wow .

50:03

Wow , even attaching the toad , yes .

50:05

I will say timing yourself and trying to go

50:07

fast , not the best idea .

50:09

But so I mean we .

50:11

There have been a couple of occasions where it was necessary

50:13

, right yeah , and it wasn't us just

50:15

sitting around saying , hey , let's see how fast we can do it . It

50:18

was we've got to move , and we've got to move

50:20

now , right ? So we

50:22

, we did it .

50:23

So what does that process ? Let's

50:25

just go through a setup process For

50:28

when you get to a campground , of like kind of what you do

50:30

, and then I'll just chime in with towable as you guys go

50:32

.

50:33

So I can say that it's it . It's

50:36

going to depend on how much stuff you want

50:38

to set up , and I do want to preface

50:40

this that we don't pull out anything for outside

50:43

unless we plan to use it .

50:44

So let's just talk about the coach itself functionality

50:47

.

50:47

So as far as camping chairs fire , yeah , we're

50:49

not talking about any of that . No sunshades .

50:51

That's all personal preference , we're talking about

50:53

functioning as an RV without

50:55

having to use boondocking essentials

50:58

, that kind of thing .

50:58

So if we are in a pull through um

51:01

, let's just start by saying we don't always take our toad

51:03

off . If we're only going to be there for a nine or two , we're

51:05

not going anywhere , so we'll pull straight in

51:07

. We can hit a button

51:09

and that button will self level us . And

51:12

when I say level , it will not only

51:14

level us , but when the um , the

51:16

jacks come down , they also help to stabilize

51:19

the coach , to prevent , like when you're

51:21

walking the habit it's shaking rock

51:23

back and forth . So that is most

51:25

of the time , if we're in a level spot , it

51:27

hit a button and it does it all for us

51:30

. And then I hit four buttons

51:32

. We have four slides , the slides come

51:34

out and we are pretty much set up

51:36

, except for a few decor items

51:38

.

51:38

And do you do that from the inside of your RV or do you get

51:40

outside ?

51:41

Everything is inside , unless we're detaching the

51:44

um toad idea . All that inside

51:46

.

51:46

And while she's doing that , I'm outside and

51:49

I'm testing the pedestal with my surge

51:51

guard , my surge protector . I don't plug

51:53

anything in until I test that . Then I

51:55

plug it in , set up the water sewer

51:57

, um , and she does it . If there's

51:59

no trees or obstructions around us , she's

52:02

goes . She just opens all the slides

52:04

. If there's trees or something close , then

52:06

I'll go and watch and then I'll finish . But

52:09

we can . We can come in

52:11

jacked down slides out , plugged in

52:13

in 10 , 15 minutes

52:15

.

52:15

How .

52:16

So here's the biggest oxybord . That's almost

52:18

exactly the same for us , but completely different .

52:21

Okay .

52:22

Yeah , there you go , so it's . It's very

52:24

similar . I mean there's sometimes when we're just overnighting

52:26

somewhere , uh , that we don't unhook

52:28

necessarily and that we'll still put

52:30

our our jacks down just for stabilization

52:33

, get off the truck , that kind of thing . Now I will

52:35

say we are probably more likely to

52:37

unhook than you guys are

52:39

, because you could , hypothetically , if you guys were good

52:41

for two or three days and there was , you weren't going to go anywhere

52:43

. You just kind of focus and get work done , whatever . You

52:45

don't actually have to unhook your toe .

52:47

No .

52:47

I were waiting until you needed it and then unhook it .

52:49

And we've done that many times , and there's no consequence

52:51

on your toad for that , correct ?

52:53

I don't have . If we're going to be somewhere for longer

52:55

than one night , I'll typically always

52:57

unhook , no matter what . Um , because it

53:00

does have some wear and tear on my truck . Um

53:02

, from that perspective , even if I do get it all the way up

53:04

, it's still attached to the , the pin box

53:06

and the hitch and everything else . So , um

53:08

, but it's . It's kind of the same thing

53:10

. I think one of the interesting things too is how

53:12

level does you have to start for

53:14

your level or to actually work and be correct

53:17

?

53:17

So our rig , when we hit , when Stacy

53:19

hits the auto level button , we

53:21

dump air . So we the rig

53:23

lowers to the ground right

53:26

away because you guys have an airbag suspension system

53:28

.

53:28

Correct , okay .

53:29

And then from there it goes to the

53:31

lowest side first , or

53:33

slope side first , to level us out

53:35

. Okay , so it raises up , right

53:37

?

53:37

So then I don't know what grade like

53:40

I , I don't know , our grade before we can't

53:42

level .

53:42

Right .

53:42

And we do have quite a few tricks that

53:45

we do to help us level , um

53:47

, if our auto leveling

53:49

, uh , if it's too steep for our auto level , okay

53:51

.

53:52

Yeah , so I remember , and

53:54

I'm going to talk about Mike and Susan , rv blogger

53:56

. If you haven't checked them out , they're great , they were

53:58

amazing . They were team Phil

54:00

. Yes , they were .

54:01

We will hold that against them and I remember

54:03

him and I otherwise known as the only

54:05

occupants of Black Deck Island .

54:07

I will point out them longer than me . That

54:10

was true story . They like

54:12

when we were talking about when we both got back into the game

54:14

. He had to be

54:17

very level to begin with just to get his level . Is that

54:19

kind of a difference in gassers versus

54:21

diesels because of the air suspension system ?

54:24

The only reason we have to be level

54:26

to deploy slides , so our

54:29

front slides . Well , if we're

54:31

not level , the front slides won't come out .

54:33

They're hydraulic or even close yeah .

54:35

Our back slides are Schwintek , they're electric

54:37

. And he was talking come out at any

54:39

any degree .

54:40

So he was talking about , though like to get his

54:42

auto level to work . He has to start fairly

54:45

level already , no , not I .

54:47

Well , now we have two separate brands and two separate

54:49

RVs . So there are always differences

54:52

in motor homes and the manufacturer he has the

54:54

gassers , so he's got more of a leaf suspension system

54:56

. Yes .

54:56

If you're type of worries , you guys have the air . So that's why I didn't

54:58

know if you guys knew the difference being drivable , he could very

55:00

well have a completely different level system Sure

55:02

.

55:03

We have the HWH leveling and

55:05

I can say we can be extremely

55:07

unlevel to deploy the jacks and have

55:10

been . The worst was at the balloon fiesta . I think

55:12

that was like literally I had to

55:14

have steps built to hit

55:16

my stairs to get in .

55:17

We were so high up so we could be

55:19

very unlevel . The back was almost on the

55:21

ground .

55:22

Oh , the front was so high up that's deployed . That's how sloped

55:24

we were . But there are

55:26

let's just say there are a lot of tricks we do

55:29

me driving up on blocks

55:31

. There are a lot of things we do and

55:33

but I can tell you we never , ever

55:36

, level with

55:38

our wheels off the ground . If

55:40

you see that I know this is a big

55:43

controversial thing because

55:45

it is , and if you read your manual , it

55:48

will flat out tell you not to do

55:50

it . Because if something fails

55:52

with those jacks , your RV is

55:54

going to move and it can roll and

55:56

there might be an issue with brakes . You

55:59

are at risk for some serious damage

56:01

and our injury .

56:02

Yeah , you're putting excessive weight

56:05

and pressure on your suspension .

56:06

And that's not what it's built for , and at

56:08

the end of the day , too , you're losing two points of contact

56:11

to the ground .

56:12

Exactly .

56:12

You're actually losing stability by doing that

56:14

. Disregard all the safety hazards stuff

56:16

, you're automatically less stable because

56:18

you losing points of contact , and that's

56:21

where you could .

56:22

your RV could move and your jack

56:24

could bend .

56:25

We've seen people with bent jacks because

56:27

of that very issue and I will say that's a

56:29

thing in the Tobel as well , because

56:31

with us being nose

56:33

heavy and I don't know how this is

56:35

for motorhomes , but like we prefer

56:37

, if we're going to be high on one side , we prefer

56:39

to be nose down because we're more

56:41

stable that way . Right , we spend

56:44

more time from the midsection of the coach forward

56:46

and , given we're a toy hauler , we don't . I mean , I

56:48

work in the back , but we don't do a ton back there

56:50

.

56:50

Right .

56:51

And so we're . We live in the front half for the

56:53

most part . But you'll

56:55

see sometimes where you get a side slope and

56:57

you'll see a toy hauler or any fifth wheel or

56:59

travel trailer and their tires are off the ground on one

57:02

side and every time we walk past

57:04

it it's like a bus into a cold sweat .

57:06

Yes , yeah , same thing Me too . Oh my gosh . And

57:08

now you , we've seen them like two feet off the ground

57:10

. Oh yeah , it scares the ground .

57:12

And we've had side slope where we've had to put

57:14

wood under one side

57:16

of the rig , either the tires or the jack

57:19

, or both Right , so you know we've

57:21

. We've brought the the ground up

57:23

to the jacks , if you

57:25

will , so that they don't have to go down

57:27

as far .

57:27

They're not free .

57:28

Oh , we've done that Start leveling , and then we put

57:30

wood under the tires to fill in the

57:32

gaps . So there , we always carry

57:35

12 by 12 pieces of wood

57:37

with us so that we can play Tetris

57:39

under the rig .

57:40

Well , we say 12 by 12 , but it has been

57:42

cut . It's not 12 foot long , no , we have 12

57:45

by 12 . Squares .

57:46

Squares .

57:47

Squares , yeah , squares that

57:49

we stack and play with . Yeah , that we keep and our

57:51

building blocks .

57:51

It does take up space , but it's it's

57:54

good to have it when you need it , and we've used

57:56

it a lot .

57:57

Well , and I'll say that we also carry

57:59

a couple of stacks of just your basic camco

58:01

.

58:01

I call them adult Legos , but the blocks so

58:04

you can crush them as as a motorhome . Well , yeah

58:06

, you guys will crush them in our driveway . Crush them quite

58:08

as bad .

58:08

But that we also used to carry

58:10

. So instead of having two of

58:13

the or a bunch of the 12 by 12 blocks

58:15

you guys have , I just got some

58:17

two by sixes that were and I

58:19

cut to the length- of our because our tires are all in a

58:21

row , obviously , and so if I

58:23

can get one tire up , it's just way easier to get them all on

58:26

one .

58:26

Yes .

58:26

In fact I used to have an RVM plug . I typically

58:29

always use them on grass because one of the downsides

58:31

for Tobles and we're so heavy is if

58:33

it gets soft at all rain or anything we

58:35

sink and I can't get out .

58:36

We will too , right yeah .

58:38

And so we have to be towed out . It's

58:41

not fun .

58:42

That sounds less fun than even with me , because

58:45

at least I have hooks and stuff on the front of my truck .

58:47

Yes , we can clamp too easily , but these are the

58:49

things that nobody tells you to keep in your truck because you don't

58:51

need them till you need them Right

58:53

, like the adult .

58:54

Legos you were talking about . I

58:57

thought I needed them and in our driveway

58:59

we I used them under my jackpads

59:01

because I just had the jackpad , the middle

59:03

pad . I didn't want to scarring up the

59:05

driveway as we were getting ready to sell the house

59:07

, so I put these Legos under there

59:09

and I didn't know what I was doing I

59:11

was very new at this whole

59:14

leveling game and I brought it down and

59:17

it wasn't centered and I crushed two of

59:19

them because it was off centered and the pressure

59:21

literally just flattened it .

59:23

Well , that's a good point about the weight difference

59:25

too . You know , on soft ground or this

59:27

or that , yeah , and we've lost

59:29

some .

59:30

We've lost a couple before because it was heavy and was

59:32

soft and I didn't care because the beyonds

59:34

they're not that expensive .

59:35

Right .

59:35

And so I used them to more stabilize the ground

59:38

than anything else , I will say and we had

59:40

this conversation yesterday we both have

59:42

snap pads on our coaches obviously probably

59:44

very different sizes . But

59:46

I've said a couple of times we have an early on

59:49

video on our channel where we were in Gulfport , mississippi

59:51

, and we were super on level and I straight up said multiple

59:53

times that those snap pads saved

59:56

our rear end , because otherwise there's

59:58

a very there's a couple scenarios where we could have very easily

1:00:00

slipped off . It was just the middle foot .

1:00:02

Yeah .

1:00:02

And so that , in addition to all these

1:00:04

things , helps spread out . Now , we don't always put everything

1:00:07

, anything down if it's on grass , because

1:00:09

those snap pads act as that first layer and

1:00:11

it helps distribute that weight so much better .

1:00:13

Yeah , yeah , now going to the setup

1:00:15

. I don't remember if you said how

1:00:17

long it takes you like , if you quickly

1:00:20

like , if you have to do it fast your start to finish

1:00:23

, ready to go Set up .

1:00:24

we can probably do an about . I'm

1:00:28

not going to include my office because

1:00:30

that's a whole thing takes a little bit of work in there

1:00:32

, but we're probably closer to 30 to

1:00:34

45 minutes . You say I think at a minimum

1:00:36

, okay yeah 30 would be the quick

1:00:38

side of that , and 45 if we're kind of

1:00:40

taking our time . Got you Not in a hurry ?

1:00:42

And a complication with the dogs that you know

1:00:44

. I can't really help him get into a site sometimes

1:00:47

if the dogs are being rowdy or this or that , and

1:00:49

so that plays a little bit of a role in

1:00:51

making sure they're out of the picture and both of us

1:00:53

can do what we need to do yeah .

1:00:55

Yeah that would be . It's like kids , you know , you gotta

1:00:58

add a little extra stress to it and

1:01:01

hair it's amazing

1:01:03

.

1:01:03

When you pull the slides in that way , you find .

1:01:05

Always .

1:01:07

The take down is the exact

1:01:09

same for us , though it just

1:01:11

. It's just the reverse .

1:01:12

In reverse Right .

1:01:13

Because and that I will say the only thing the

1:01:15

catcher when we're hooking up is , I know , like

1:01:17

when you guys put the toad on , you want to be reasonably

1:01:19

flat , right , right . And so for us

1:01:22

, anytime that the nose is high , like we

1:01:24

currently are , it adds

1:01:26

a whole other level of complication getting

1:01:28

it on the pin , because the head

1:01:30

of our hitch in the bed of the truck has to flex

1:01:33

and it doesn't love

1:01:35

backwards . Yeah , it's the one angle

1:01:37

it doesn't like , and so it's always a little

1:01:39

bit of a bigger pain . And I will say , neither

1:01:42

of us mentioned this in the safety section

1:01:44

and I just realized we probably should have wheel

1:01:46

chocks .

1:01:48

Oh , yeah , yeah .

1:01:49

You should use wheel chocks . I will never . I

1:01:51

don't care where I am , what I am , what's going

1:01:53

on . I will always use a high

1:01:55

end industrial size wheel chock on both

1:01:58

sides . And when we had the

1:02:00

dual axle I , like the driver's side

1:02:02

, always put on the front tire but I put it on the reverse

1:02:04

tire in case that axle were to fail . I still had one side , so

1:02:07

at least it's just going in a circle .

1:02:08

Yes , right .

1:02:09

And not rolling into somebody or something else . On

1:02:12

our triple axle we have independent

1:02:14

suspensions so they're not connected through the center anymore . So

1:02:17

I do the center tire that way . If we were to break free

1:02:19

or in that tire something happened , I have

1:02:21

a tire on both sides of the chalk that will still hit it . Yeah , and

1:02:24

I'm assuming you guys use wheel chocks , no .

1:02:25

No , we did . We did when we

1:02:27

first started . We did when we first

1:02:30

started because I thought I needed them

1:02:32

and I had these little bit

1:02:34

of yellow plastic .

1:02:35

Oh well , that's not a wheel chock .

1:02:37

And I was like I was putting them out

1:02:39

and then you know we'd walk around the park and I'm like

1:02:41

we're the only motorhome that has wheel

1:02:43

chocks .

1:02:45

Is it just not a thing for motorhomes ? Not ?

1:02:46

a thing .

1:02:47

Because you have a parking brake or because okay

1:02:49

.

1:02:50

From what ? From what we've you know , been told in red

1:02:52

and , and you know just forms we've been

1:02:54

in , but I soon got rid of wine .

1:02:56

Just an extra thing you're carrying around .

1:02:57

It was taking up space , and then I was not

1:03:00

even using them .

1:03:01

So you look at us learning stuff yeah .

1:03:03

So you're ready for your random RV .

1:03:05

Fun fact that I don't know if you know or don't know

1:03:07

, we may not know .

1:03:08

Those little yellow chocks . They

1:03:10

expire what they expire . The

1:03:12

plastic actually fails over time . They

1:03:14

have . Because it's that type of

1:03:16

plastic , they're required to put an expiration date on it

1:03:18

.

1:03:20

I guess the heat probably breaks down the plastic .

1:03:22

That's why I'm sorry . So ours expired then

1:03:24

. Yeah , we got rid of them because they expired yeah , expired yeah .

1:03:27

So like ours , we purposely bought the

1:03:30

metal rubber .

1:03:32

So we have a high end rubber gray , Almost like

1:03:34

the what the ?

1:03:35

aviation industry uses we actually

1:03:37

, because I lose things . Instead of

1:03:39

having two chocks , I have two chocks on a rope , just

1:03:41

like you would use , like airplanes use .

1:03:42

I'm saving that long , but

1:03:46

it's .

1:03:46

It actually makes it so the are . The trailers

1:03:49

like to shift a little bit as you're coming up and

1:03:51

off jacks , yeah , and so typically ours

1:03:53

likes to roll back just a few inches , just enough

1:03:55

to not be able to get that shock out , Of course . Well

1:03:57

, with the rope I can kind of give it a little yank and

1:04:00

typically I can get it out , especially on concrete

1:04:02

and that kind of stuff . So Interesting .

1:04:03

It's a good point .

1:04:05

So as far as the rest of ours , when

1:04:07

we leave it's , I do

1:04:09

feel like it takes us not

1:04:11

, I mean , I don't know , significantly longer than you guys

1:04:13

, but enough to where , if we were in a pinch , you

1:04:16

beat us .

1:04:17

Well , that I would say , the longest thing for us

1:04:19

is . I mean , we could have everything

1:04:21

packed away , we could have the jacks

1:04:24

up the slides in ready

1:04:26

to go and we're still waiting to

1:04:28

air up . Okay , because the reverse

1:04:31

when we start the engine and bring the jacks

1:04:33

in , then then it airs up to ride

1:04:35

height . So sometimes

1:04:37

if it's colder , it takes a little bit longer to get

1:04:39

to ride height , so we have to be

1:04:41

mindful of that before we can pull out .

1:04:43

And it doesn't take that long . No , but if we're

1:04:46

in a hurry , we need to start the RV sooner

1:04:48

.

1:04:48

So is that normally early on in the checklist on

1:04:50

your tear down ?

1:04:51

Well , I mean typically when we start

1:04:53

it . Obviously we start it whenever

1:04:55

we are closing in the slides , instead

1:04:58

of using the pedestal to close the slides

1:05:00

. So we'll start it there , and by the time we get all

1:05:02

four of them closed , phil attaches

1:05:05

the car and we do a walk around . We're good

1:05:07

, we're at ride height .

1:05:08

Yeah , I

1:05:10

can't think . Is there really anything that we haven't

1:05:12

hit ? I'm looking at Lauren . No , she's got the master

1:05:14

list .

1:05:15

The rest of the setup and the tear down . I

1:05:17

think is pretty similar . Everybody needs poop

1:05:19

pose Everybody needs water hose that sort

1:05:21

of stuff , and so I think the rest of it's pretty similar

1:05:23

.

1:05:24

I think the only thing I would add is the larger

1:05:26

your RV , the longer it's going to take , absolutely . If

1:05:28

you have a small little van . It's not going to take

1:05:30

you long . You're not going to have as much stuff . There's not going to

1:05:32

be as much to do . Well , the bigger you are

1:05:35

, the more stuff , the more

1:05:37

work it is .

1:05:37

And if you're a van lifer or looking to get in the van life

1:05:39

or we're talking about leveling systems , all

1:05:42

that you may not even have them Right , right , most

1:05:44

. Of those don't even come with them . Because it's such a need , just

1:05:46

move a little bit , it's not necessary yeah , we've got

1:05:48

friends that start two days

1:05:50

prior . What it's a travel day

1:05:52

.

1:05:53

They start packing up , they start tearing down stuff

1:05:55

and I'm just like how often do they move ?

1:05:58

Not often like we do , so that's why we're moving a

1:06:00

lot .

1:06:01

But it's just , it's crazy when you hear oh

1:06:03

, we can't go do anything .

1:06:04

My 72 hour checklist .

1:06:06

I've got to start my tear down . I'm like we're

1:06:08

leaving three days from now .

1:06:10

We just got here , but there's some that

1:06:12

, but they'll sit for three weeks to a month , whereas

1:06:14

we , if we sit for seven days , that's a long

1:06:16

time for us what you told me one time if

1:06:19

you start to know where you're turning without

1:06:21

using Google Maps , you're there too long . Not

1:06:23

Google Maps , jared let's , I

1:06:25

mean it's for the car .

1:06:26

It doesn't really matter , it's Phil he

1:06:28

doesn't use the map .

1:06:29

If you can get around without using GPS

1:06:31

. You're there too long . Yeah , there you go . It's time to move

1:06:33

on .

1:06:34

My chair made another noise . I'm just making sure that

1:06:36

people know it's not me .

1:06:37

Yeah , yeah , yeah .

1:06:39

So , ooh , we're still doing that , I'm moving forward , that

1:06:42

I lost my train of thought with that . So let's

1:06:45

talk about working from home

1:06:47

.

1:06:48

So let's , I'm gonna jump right in because I

1:06:50

have found you know , we did a whole thing with Chad

1:06:52

and Tara when we did a compare and contrast

1:06:54

and this was the biggest difference is

1:06:57

the ability to work remotely

1:06:59

in your RV . And , as

1:07:01

you guys all know , with motor homes you don't have

1:07:03

a separate room , a separate office . So

1:07:06

I work at our dinner table , which means

1:07:08

my computer is always there . So

1:07:10

I never get to step away from work , even

1:07:13

if I sit down , no matter , it

1:07:15

stares me in the face . But not only

1:07:17

that if I'm making a phone call , phil's also

1:07:20

working right beside me in the same room

1:07:22

and his chair . So there is no separation

1:07:25

. We don't escape the office , we don't escape

1:07:27

each other . So that is a

1:07:29

big difference with a motor

1:07:31

home as opposed to a fifth

1:07:33

wheel , especially if you're

1:07:35

a tow hauler .

1:07:36

Well , I was gonna say so that's on

1:07:38

the towable side . That's a load of question , because most travel

1:07:40

trailers aren't gonna have that separation

1:07:43

because of the size Our last

1:07:45

, you guys saw our last coach .

1:07:46

Well , I don't know if you saw the inside of it . I did .

1:07:49

Okay , we didn't really have that same

1:07:51

separation there because the living room kitchen

1:07:53

was all one big flow and so we

1:07:56

actually had a very I had a very

1:07:58

similar setup that you have in your motor

1:08:00

home . The only difference was we were elevated on

1:08:02

more of like a table bar thing , but

1:08:04

we did the same thing when it was dinner time or we needed it , just slid

1:08:07

out of the way . The big

1:08:09

reason why we switched to a tow hauler was for

1:08:11

that separation , so that we could

1:08:13

close a door and Lauren could be on a work call

1:08:15

in the living room , because when she does work from

1:08:17

here at the moment , which is gonna be more and more and

1:08:19

more she sets up at the dining

1:08:21

room table right . And

1:08:24

then I did a complete conversion in

1:08:26

our toy hauler space because it's guaranteed

1:08:28

I work almost every day from here somehow , and

1:08:30

it's amazing how , just getting off the

1:08:33

laptop off of your lap and sitting at

1:08:35

a desk with a screen , how much more productive

1:08:37

you are especially when it comes to video editing

1:08:39

and some of the stuff we do that's so

1:08:41

in depth .

1:08:42

So I completely converted that area

1:08:44

for me and Shetha Dorf , and you have quite a bit of room

1:08:46

back there too . You've got more room than just

1:08:48

the table that you had before , so

1:08:50

you have that your own storage that stays

1:08:52

away from the dogs , and we can

1:08:54

move the dogs outside of his space so they're

1:08:56

not a distraction . There's not dog hair in

1:08:58

the electrical equipment and there's not noise

1:09:00

in the background for your calls .

1:09:02

Right , exactly , and we can do stuff like this now

1:09:04

because we can shut a door and now the dogs are staring

1:09:06

at us , not anymore . They've realized we're not

1:09:08

going anywhere . So but we can do this now

1:09:10

and actually have people over and close the door and stick them

1:09:13

out there and throw their dog beds out there with their water

1:09:15

, and we can actually have our space to ourselves . So

1:09:17

and that's a big reason why we

1:09:19

selected a fifth wheel on a toy hauler is , I

1:09:21

do feel like we get more floor

1:09:23

space .

1:09:24

I know it might not feel that bigger .

1:09:26

Sometimes that's feel is such a big thing in an

1:09:28

RV because , like Well

1:09:30

, and it's your priority , Like you

1:09:32

say , you feel like it's bigger .

1:09:34

That's because what you chose

1:09:36

has the space that you need . So

1:09:38

, whatever , your priority is the way you're gonna

1:09:40

RV , the way you're gonna live in your RV . That's what

1:09:42

you have to look for .

1:09:43

So does this valor , knowing

1:09:45

that you guys have seen the solitude feel bigger or smaller

1:09:47

to you .

1:09:48

Bigger .

1:09:49

It does feel bigger .

1:09:49

I agree .

1:09:50

Not to me , see , I think it feels smaller .

1:09:52

So to me it feels bigger because the

1:09:54

living space is bigger . Now I'm not cooking

1:09:56

in your kitchen . Your last place had a

1:09:58

bigger kitchen and less living area .

1:10:01

And that's why I think it's . This is smaller

1:10:03

because the other one , when you walked in , you were in the

1:10:05

living room but then it was open to

1:10:08

the kitchen and it was so much . I mean it was just

1:10:10

a bigger , more open

1:10:12

space . That I first

1:10:15

thing I said when I walked in here was like this is a little

1:10:17

smaller .

1:10:18

But I feel like we sat at the bar there , whereas

1:10:20

this is more of a living room

1:10:22

. Right , I like about it , but

1:10:24

you didn't have that .

1:10:27

So that now you open that door and

1:10:29

you look through there .

1:10:31

now it looks bigger and just so you

1:10:33

know that I know for those of you listening

1:10:35

you can't see .

1:10:36

That is the garage , the Toy .

1:10:38

Holders part Over

1:10:40

there to the right .

1:10:41

Well , and another thing that we always liked the idea

1:10:43

of is the patio , and

1:10:45

so we dropped that . Like we were in Tennessee for about

1:10:47

a week and a half and we had a , we were

1:10:49

right on the Little Pigeon River with our site , so

1:10:51

we dropped it and every morning we sat with our other coffee

1:10:53

dogs sat out there , and you could watch the creek go by .

1:10:55

And that gives you more living space

1:10:58

.

1:10:58

Exactly , it does not in dirt Right

1:11:00

.

1:11:00

And yeah , exactly , you can step off the ground , the

1:11:02

dogs can get out , you get the fresh air . I

1:11:05

mean there are pros and cons for sure For

1:11:07

both . Oh yeah .

1:11:08

I think the most important thing is if you're looking

1:11:10

to buy your first or change

1:11:13

into something else , because whatever you have isn't

1:11:15

working for you , you have to make

1:11:17

your priority list and write out

1:11:19

what do you plan to do in your RV , like

1:11:22

how are you gonna live ? Is this , you

1:11:24

know , only two weeks out of the year , so it

1:11:26

doesn't matter ? Are you gonna live in it ? Are you working

1:11:28

? Do you have kids who needs their

1:11:30

own space ? Do you need space for a 125

1:11:33

pound dog ? Like ? Everything is

1:11:35

relative . So make your list of what

1:11:37

your needs are , how you're gonna live in it .

1:11:39

And in priority .

1:11:40

Yes , because you know , just like a house , you

1:11:43

don't get your whole wish list . So you

1:11:45

have to prioritize what is most important

1:11:47

when you go through and

1:11:49

start looking at RVs

1:11:51

.

1:11:51

And we never even

1:11:53

thought about us having to work

1:11:56

in the rig Because we never

1:11:58

.

1:11:58

Okay , let's rephrase that . Well , we didn't expect Bill

1:12:00

never thought about it . I did because

1:12:03

I knew I would be doing something .

1:12:04

Well , we didn't expect the channel to do what it

1:12:06

eventually did . Well , that's you know , she was

1:12:08

still going to do something on the nursing

1:12:10

side from the road , so she was going to have to work

1:12:12

in the rig .

1:12:14

But we didn't expect that's just for sanity's sake .

1:12:16

That the level of work we were doing , and

1:12:18

now that the channel has turned into a full blown

1:12:21

we got to work 24 seven

1:12:23

now and we're having a ton of

1:12:25

fun doing it but those we didn't think about

1:12:27

that aspect of our full

1:12:30

time life in the beginning .

1:12:32

So , phil , how

1:12:34

much do you legitimately work ? I'm guessing

1:12:36

, since Stacy takes the desk area , that

1:12:38

most of the office work and that kind

1:12:40

of stuff falls on her . Or is that 50

1:12:43

50 with you guys ?

1:12:43

No , most of the the channel work .

1:12:45

It's 99 one . No , just kidding .

1:12:47

Most of she does most of the editing . Most

1:12:49

of the the picture

1:12:52

editing in

1:12:54

Canva she's making . You know , she's

1:12:56

like just recently she's just she's gone through

1:12:58

and she's made a ton of reels , she's capturing

1:13:01

certain pictures and whatnot

1:13:03

. So I put in it's

1:13:06

not near as much as she does , Because I don't

1:13:08

know I can't do .

1:13:08

The video Phil is in charge of social media Social

1:13:10

media For his comments and posting and he helps

1:13:12

with emails and stuff .

1:13:13

So I only asked because I wanted to make sure I

1:13:15

was asking the right person . But is there something

1:13:17

from like a working from the road

1:13:19

that is your absolute have to have

1:13:21

an RV that maybe you don't have or do have

1:13:24

now ? That's like if we were

1:13:26

to switch rigs . This absolutely has to be this way .

1:13:31

For me . I'm so flexible . It usually

1:13:33

, no , I think . Now that I have

1:13:35

it , I have a huge monitor .

1:13:37

What size is the monitor ? That's what I was gonna say is

1:13:39

I don't think I can do it without the monitor .

1:13:40

I don't know how big it is , I can't go back down it

1:13:42

is because now when I go , when we're

1:13:44

on the road 27 , 30 some months yeah .

1:13:46

I'm traveling , I'm working just on my computer

1:13:48

now my laptop and my lap . When we're driving . It's

1:13:50

like I don't know if I can work with

1:13:53

one screen . I need like three screens .

1:13:55

Squinting cause you can't see anything .

1:13:56

now , all of a sudden , but I think the key for

1:13:58

us to be able to work without

1:14:00

a hitch in our setup is

1:14:02

our internet .

1:14:03

We bring our internet with us .

1:14:05

So we have a Peplink

1:14:07

router , slash modem and

1:14:10

a cell carrier that

1:14:12

we use for our internet , so we go everywhere we go

1:14:14

and plus our backup plan . Yeah , we have

1:14:16

a Starlink . That's our backup

1:14:18

. It saved us in Canada . But having the

1:14:20

ability to not have to worry about pulling

1:14:23

into a park , and using park wifi

1:14:25

to work or upload download

1:14:27

. It's almost non-existent .

1:14:29

I was about to say you mean the myth of park wifi . Yeah , it is

1:14:31

the wifi exists the internet , portion of it

1:14:33

? Question .

1:14:33

Right , and there's certain rules in campgrounds

1:14:35

that I want you to upload . Download

1:14:38

whatever . It's the exact opposite of what we

1:14:40

all do , Right and because of the nature

1:14:42

of what we do , we need a lot of bandwidth

1:14:45

. We need so having the ability and

1:14:47

to be able to do that while driving down the road . Now

1:14:49

we did the same thing when we first started with

1:14:52

a hotspot little hockey puck , and

1:14:54

when we got three megs down

1:14:56

and two megs up , we were whoo-hoo

1:14:58

. We were high-fiving because we didn't

1:15:01

know what we'd do . Emails .

1:15:02

Yes . But I do

1:15:04

have to say as far as switching RVs

1:15:06

, I would absolutely love your

1:15:08

office , Love it . I could spread

1:15:10

out , I could do my thing , but

1:15:12

I gotta tell you I will not trade your

1:15:14

space for your setup and breakdown

1:15:17

because literally when

1:15:20

we travel my office , all

1:15:22

I do is put a blanket on our kitchen table and

1:15:24

flatten the monitor and I'm done

1:15:26

.

1:15:26

Yeah , that is my breakdown . I can

1:15:29

do two versions of that . I can either flatten

1:15:31

it kind of like what you're saying .

1:15:32

I use a pillow , one of the ones that are worn off

1:15:34

here and I will bungee it down because it's the

1:15:36

back of the rig , a weed bungee , just so it doesn't , yeah , rattle

1:15:39

around .

1:15:39

I can do that , or I can completely remove it and

1:15:41

stick it in the autumn , and it just depends on how lazy

1:15:44

I'm being there .

1:15:44

Well , and I think that's the whole point of this is that there are so

1:15:46

many similarities and so many differences

1:15:48

and we're actually doing similar

1:15:50

things , it's just in different ways

1:15:53

and in spaces that work for us .

1:15:54

So there's no wrong answer and that's the answer

1:15:56

the space that works for you . And when

1:15:59

you hear people say what's the perfect RV

1:16:01

, it's the perfect . Rv

1:16:03

for you . That's the perfect

1:16:05

RV .

1:16:05

It's the one that fits you , and that's , I mean , the

1:16:07

number one question we get with this RV is and

1:16:10

especially , we started an owner's group for this one specifically

1:16:12

because it is the largest RV alliance has

1:16:14

ever made .

1:16:15

Wow .

1:16:16

And so size is a

1:16:18

concern , go ahead and say it , it doesn't matter .

1:16:21

It doesn't matter .

1:16:21

Yes , I tried to pass it , but it fell right

1:16:23

back .

1:16:24

I knew it was coming .

1:16:26

But no , that's the biggest concern when anybody

1:16:28

is looking at the questions we've got , because

1:16:32

we were the first consumer to have the product by

1:16:35

months , Wow . So the

1:16:37

biggest question we got is are you okay finding

1:16:40

campgrounds ? It's like , well , if you can fit a 45

1:16:42

foot coach in , you can fit us .

1:16:44

And that question does kind of make me a little crazy

1:16:46

, because we get it a lot

1:16:48

. We even get it in our crew , where they're like oh

1:16:50

, is that campground , can I go ?

1:16:52

Can I go ?

1:16:53

And I gotta tell you the majority

1:16:55

of campgrounds I'm not talking national

1:16:57

park and state park , but I'm saying private

1:17:00

campgrounds will accommodate all RVs

1:17:02

because they want everybody's money If they're

1:17:04

setting up that campground unless it's no old campground

1:17:06

but the majority you can get into . Also

1:17:09

, most state parks and national parks big

1:17:12

rigs can get into . There's

1:17:14

just not a lot of those spaces .

1:17:16

They do fill up quickly and you have to be specific

1:17:18

when you're making those searches . You have to look

1:17:20

for things that are 45 plus and

1:17:22

even harvest hose . Like sometimes that's an

1:17:24

issue is because they just don't have the room

1:17:26

and so you just slide that slider over to

1:17:28

45 plus .

1:17:29

Yes , they're just not as many . So if you

1:17:31

want the size , if you wanna go bigger , if

1:17:33

that's your thing , don't let the

1:17:35

campgrounds keep you from doing that .

1:17:37

Right , you just have to be more intentional . Yes , 100%

1:17:40

.

1:17:40

And something else we found too is , as

1:17:42

we stated earlier , we're 35 feet long . We

1:17:45

can fit into a 30 foot long

1:17:48

RV site if there's nothing

1:17:50

behind us , right right , because we have

1:17:52

from the back tires to the back of the RV . We

1:17:54

have this overhang so we can hang

1:17:57

over or out of the

1:17:59

site as long as there's no boulders or trees

1:18:01

behind us . So if we're looking

1:18:03

to go somewhere and we find a 30 foot site , we'll

1:18:06

go back to the old Google Earth and see the street view

1:18:08

and we'll go , especially if you can

1:18:10

pick your site . We'll bring

1:18:12

it right in , and if there's nothing there , we

1:18:14

know we can fit in a 30 foot site .

1:18:16

Well , and there's a fun feature on Google Maps with that too

1:18:18

, where you can actually measure the distance and you can

1:18:20

get because sometimes they say 45 , but

1:18:22

really it's like 42 or 48 . Because

1:18:25

they've said 40 , like even the sites we're in now . They

1:18:27

said they're all 45 .

1:18:30

Really .

1:18:30

This isn't . This is 45 . I do

1:18:32

think this is 45 , but I so

1:18:34

. The thing is , when we're hooked up , we're 63 and a half

1:18:36

.

1:18:37

Right , yeah .

1:18:37

And so just because the rig fits doesn't mean I'm having

1:18:40

to somewhere to put the truck , and then I have to get creative with

1:18:42

where I'm jamming my truck .

1:18:43

Yeah , no , that is true .

1:18:44

But there's some sites here that

1:18:46

are easily 80 feet and

1:18:49

so it's very when campgrounds

1:18:51

are put and stuff together , they keep it very standardized

1:18:53

.

1:18:53

It's very subjective .

1:18:54

And you just have to know your rig . You have

1:18:56

to know what your limitations are . You have

1:18:58

to know how to use the internet to

1:19:01

get creative with your you know , looking ahead

1:19:03

, so that when you get there it's not a shock

1:19:06

.

1:19:06

You don't want any surprises when you're towing

1:19:08

and driving something this big .

1:19:10

And the big yeah Was I saying . The smaller you are , the more

1:19:12

you can handle it . The bigger you are the less you are flexible

1:19:15

.

1:19:15

The last thing you want to do , after driving six hours

1:19:17

, seven hours , is get to a campground and then figure

1:19:19

out oh crap , I don't even fit .

1:19:21

Yeah , I'm not leveling . I got to go hunt down a campus

1:19:23

at a yeah , walmart , here we come , you

1:19:26

know so I

1:19:29

want to kind of shift just a little bit Um . Is

1:19:31

there what ? What do you think the

1:19:33

life expectancy of your coach actually is ?

1:19:35

I know that's a super loaded question based on maintenance , but

1:19:38

assuming you keep up with all the regular

1:19:40

maintenance , the ways that , in your case , Tiffin

1:19:42

tells you you should , I

1:19:44

mean , and we do and we have , just so

1:19:46

you know , we do have a maintenance

1:19:49

spreadsheet filled went through every

1:19:51

manual for RV when we moved in

1:19:53

and he , according to

1:19:55

what the manual says , that's when we

1:19:57

go through and do whatever checks , maintenance

1:19:59

, whatever and for us , for

1:20:02

RV , I can tell you right now we

1:20:04

will be driving it into the ground . And

1:20:06

when I say that I'm easy 20

1:20:08

years yeah .

1:20:09

If not more , absolutely , if not longer

1:20:11

.

1:20:12

If I can keep fill from buying the shiny new

1:20:14

things which he likes to do . But for me

1:20:16

it's paid for . We

1:20:18

are going to drive the crap out of it .

1:20:19

Yeah , and staying on top

1:20:22

of things . You know , I was once told

1:20:24

long ago , if you take care of your

1:20:26

stuff , it'll take care of you , and

1:20:28

we stay on top of things . I mean , there's things

1:20:30

that pop up that are out of your control .

1:20:32

Normal wear and care of them upfront

1:20:34

.

1:20:34

Even the littlest issue , take

1:20:37

care of it , because eventually it'll turn into a big

1:20:39

issue . So for us , we'll stay on top

1:20:41

of it . We'll follow the the guidelines

1:20:44

or recommendations from Freightliner and

1:20:47

what Tiffin says and we'll

1:20:49

go from there . But I'm pretty sure we can get 20

1:20:51

plus out of that thing Now diesel engines are made

1:20:53

to go forever .

1:20:55

That's not going to ask is do you feel ?

1:20:56

like there's a difference when you're talking about the different classes

1:20:59

of driveables . Oh , absolutely . Oh

1:21:01

, I'm sure , because you know it's

1:21:03

like a Ford pickup truck versus

1:21:06

a diesel engine .

1:21:07

So it is going to be dependent upon the

1:21:09

one you purchase . But for us , and

1:21:11

the way ours is made and the engine that we have

1:21:14

, it is a work course and it's made to go

1:21:16

many , many miles .

1:21:17

And something we didn't tell

1:21:19

you is the difference between a gas

1:21:22

motorhome and a diesel

1:21:24

motorhome is the diesel motorhome

1:21:26

engine is in the rear of the RV , so

1:21:29

we can't hear ours , I mean it's

1:21:31

not very loud . There are many times when we

1:21:33

were already running that I've restarted the

1:21:35

rig because I couldn't hear it , and that's

1:21:38

one of the differences , for us too , is the ride

1:21:40

we didn't .

1:21:41

I know we . We've been talking forever and

1:21:43

we can keep going forever . But there is

1:21:45

a bit of a difference . In a in the pickup

1:21:47

truck like , you guys drive as far as the

1:21:49

, how smooth the ride is and how loud the right and a

1:21:51

gas motorhome .

1:21:52

You're sitting on top of your

1:21:55

engine . So now you've got noise , you've got heat

1:21:57

, you've got all that in front of you . And

1:21:59

again , during our research , people were

1:22:01

telling us we couldn't even hold a conversation

1:22:04

in the driver passenger seat

1:22:06

because the engine was so loud . And

1:22:08

I was like , no , we , we're

1:22:10

gonna be full time and traveling in this , we've

1:22:12

got to be able to talk , you know , and it's

1:22:15

, it's again those things that you just

1:22:17

don't think about until it's too late

1:22:19

and there is a longevity difference

1:22:21

in a gas motorhome and the diesel

1:22:23

motor , just like in the Ford trucks .

1:22:25

Yes , my diesel is gonna last longer

1:22:27

than an F 150 with a star yeah

1:22:29

because that's crazy , because on the towable

1:22:31

side everybody kind of

1:22:34

has , especially , and I will say there's a difference

1:22:36

in full timing and part timing or weekend warring

1:22:38

this , any timing it's , we're talking

1:22:40

in terms of like actual time , like

1:22:42

years , months , whatever , yeah , reality

1:22:45

of its hours on engine .

1:22:46

Yes and how ?

1:22:47

many times those tires are going to roll your tires go

1:22:49

bad . But let's be honest . Tires can last

1:22:51

you a long time if you're not rolling them very often

1:22:53

and you're storing it correctly .

1:22:55

Yeah , but I will tell you , the life expectancy

1:22:57

of our rig would probably be cut in half

1:22:59

if we were part timers .

1:23:01

This is gonna sit . Oh , there's

1:23:03

more wear and tear when you don't use it

1:23:05

the longer you sit , the more critters find

1:23:08

your house and make makes

1:23:10

it their house .

1:23:11

So then you have wiring cabling

1:23:13

that starts to deteriorate .

1:23:15

You have engines that are

1:23:17

not going through .

1:23:18

So there's , there's and I'm a probably

1:23:21

, you know , over emphasizing maybe half the life

1:23:23

, but it is going to decrease the life of

1:23:25

it because the longer it sits , especially

1:23:28

in this Texas , he sure it'll

1:23:30

wear it down .

1:23:30

So engines need to

1:23:32

be used to say anything mechanical designed

1:23:35

to be working , not sitting , just like

1:23:37

tires that are meant to be moving .

1:23:38

Absolutely . And I don't know how many

1:23:40

times people have looked at an older rig

1:23:43

. It's 12 years old but it only has

1:23:45

4000 miles on it and I'm like

1:23:47

run , yeah , you know , because

1:23:49

of the issues you can't see the

1:23:51

wiring , the piping . And

1:23:53

later on , you know , we've heard the stories that

1:23:56

somebody's system or component

1:23:58

wasn't working and they , you know

1:24:00

, backtracked it and it was half gone because

1:24:02

something had eaten at it or it just deteriorated

1:24:05

altogether .

1:24:06

Now , what's the longevity you think for your

1:24:08

RV , as far

1:24:10

as it being a fifth wheel or a towable ?

1:24:13

I'm gonna let Lauren take this one and avoid it .

1:24:16

Not 20 years , no

1:24:19

. So in the towable world , for some reason , there

1:24:21

seems to be the standard of like

1:24:23

at a five year mark . It's almost like the seven

1:24:25

year itch right . And

1:24:27

so people , whenever they say , oh

1:24:30

, I don't want something that old , I

1:24:32

mean they're talking more close to that timeline

1:24:34

than they are ?

1:24:35

That's not really to me , that's . We've had

1:24:37

ours for five years .

1:24:38

Yeah that we would be time to flip , I

1:24:40

just can't imagine doing that . No , I do think too

1:24:42

that they are built differently .

1:24:44

Yes .

1:24:45

Yeah , obviously , we're it's

1:24:47

not your grandpa's faith wheel ?

1:24:49

No , yeah , well , and the same thing is going to go

1:24:51

into it , how we take care of it how we keep up with all

1:24:53

these systems and things like that . How hard are

1:24:55

we on it on the road ?

1:24:56

And the other thing too , is us flipping out a fifth wheel

1:24:58

versus , like what you guys have , a motorhome . There's

1:25:01

a different financial because the truck doesn't

1:25:03

go , the truck stays the same . Right , and so

1:25:05

, to flip out , we're talking about potentially hundreds

1:25:07

of thousand dollars difference between what you

1:25:09

guys are doing what we're doing , yeah , and so it's

1:25:12

not as big of a sticker shock for us . So I think

1:25:14

if people are more inclined to

1:25:16

flip it out , because the because it's less expensive .

1:25:18

Yeah , that's what I was going to say is how much of it is new

1:25:21

shiny versus it actually

1:25:23

doesn't work . I think in that toable

1:25:25

world there's a lot more . I want the new shiny

1:25:27

.

1:25:27

Yeah , it's the same in the motorhome world . I

1:25:29

mean , we've seen people on their

1:25:31

fourth , fifth , sixth RV and they get

1:25:33

a new one every two years . I

1:25:35

just can't keep up with that . I mean we

1:25:38

have it now . Stacy called it our home in

1:25:40

the beginning and it truly is our home . The

1:25:42

first six months of it , it was the

1:25:44

RV , right , the RV . We got to

1:25:46

go back to the RV at the six month

1:25:49

mark . Then we started saying we

1:25:51

need to go home . We got to get back to the house , right

1:25:53

. So there's a , there's a change there with it . But if

1:25:55

you take care of it and you've done some upgrades to

1:25:57

yours , that will you'll get a few

1:26:00

more years out of . I

1:26:02

would think .

1:26:03

I will say , just for a little clarification , if you're

1:26:05

listening or watching , we are talking about

1:26:07

a factory issue , greg , and

1:26:09

if you do want to last longer , there are some upgrades

1:26:11

you can do to make not only a feel more like

1:26:13

a home , whether it's an aesthetical thing or

1:26:16

adding on different comfort things for us . That

1:26:18

was the independent suspension . Is that a word ? Come

1:26:20

what ?

1:26:22

A statical . A statical . I like that you learn new words , commit

1:26:24

and build past and hope no one calls you out on

1:26:26

it .

1:26:27

Well , I got stuck . I was like wait , is

1:26:29

that a word ?

1:26:30

But you're absolutely spot on Welcome to my

1:26:32

life .

1:26:33

You're spot on with that .

1:26:35

I'm a creative too , so you know

1:26:37

who knows what word Right , so

1:26:39

reappear .

1:26:39

But yeah , like I don't . You know , we kind of had

1:26:42

a number in our head is like we hope to get to this

1:26:44

and everything is to get to this , and it

1:26:47

was that five to seven year mark . And now

1:26:49

some of that too is we like change and

1:26:52

whether I mean we can use the channel's excuse

1:26:54

that we want to do something else and all that

1:26:56

, and we've told you guys , like we don't know what that

1:26:58

next wrinkles be . I'm not going to worry about it for about five

1:27:00

more years , but you know

1:27:02

, we like the idea of moving into a toble

1:27:05

, not just to share the differences in real

1:27:07

time but drivable drivable , I

1:27:09

would say toble . Yeah not bad . It's

1:27:12

creatively toble , it is

1:27:14

.

1:27:14

So Miller's emotional going to shake it up a little bit

1:27:16

, get a little more experience and different

1:27:19

types of RV stuff in the future

1:27:21

.

1:27:21

And I do think with us that's always . I know you guys

1:27:23

are starting to travel a lot more internationally

1:27:26

and for us it's always been about what we're