RVRC LIVE! April 2020 (Part 2)

Welcome to our April go live part 2. This is the second one we're doing in the month of April here today. My name's Dave Solberg, Managing Editor of the RV Repair Club. And hopefully everybody is practicing their social distancing and sheltering at home. I've got my nitrile gloves which is pretty much standard for most RV owners.

Anyway, we're kind of prepared for that. I have my disinfectant sanitizer and my disinfecting wipes just in case. Angie is at least six feet away and that's a good thing. So before we get started I just wanted to bring out a little bit of sad news. On Friday the night, Gary Bunzar, the RV doctor which a lot of you have known for years, one of the probably most knowledgeable person in the RV industry passed away in Seattle in the hospital from the COVID-19 disease.

It was reported by Chuck Woodberry who is RVtravel.com editor and a very good friend of Gary's for many many years and a neighbor up in the Seattle area. And it was very sad. Gary produced many, many publications "RV Handbook for the Woodall's Group," a lot of trailer life motor home magazine. He had a running column in just about every publication that was out there and every club used his expertise and his knowledge. I never had the opportunity to work with him but I knew him, I talked with him many times, our careers kind of paralleled a little bit.

I would say he was way up here and I was down here, I'm the handyman and he was definitely a technician. And he was inducted into the RV Hall of Fame two years ago. So our thoughts and prayers go out to Gary's family, his friends, he will be dearly missed and I venture to say there never will be somebody that has the education, the knowledge that Gary has had over the years, and that it makes me sad to see that. So it's a serious condition out there. Make sure that you take the precautions that everybody is saying, wear the masks.

One of the funny things that my wife looked at me and said, "You've had that ugly mask on for years," and I'm like, "Wait a minute, this one oh okay." So anyway, with that, let's say we will get back to our questions. Here the first one says Roy Burnett we're going up one size in tires help the handling of the RV. And I never recommend going up in size, making a different type of a footprint in the RV than what's recommended. And I don't know if you're talking about motor homes or travel trailers, I'm assuming motor homes. You gotta remember, you've got a wheel well, that is going to be a certain specification.

You go up in size, you, we might have the issue of rubbing against the wheel-well itself. The biggest thing in my opinion is that you're going to, if you go up in size, you're gonna limit more of the space and it's gonna get hotter within that wheel well, so I would never recommend changing the recommended tire size to affect handling. Now, what you need to do is go in and check the suspension. You need to check again. You need to make model and year.

If it's a gas chassis, it's gonna have shocks and it's gonna have either leaf springs or an I-beam suspension if it's newer than I think probably 95 somewhere in that point. You need to check the leaf springs, all those components. Then there are some things after that like there's a safety plus and roadmaster has some enhancement stuff. We definitely need to check that. I guess the very first thing I would do is check the weight.

You know, we hit this all the time when we come in and talk about handling and tires and everything, take your RV to a cart scale and make sure you're not over gross vehicle, weight rating. It is also a good idea to get them weighed individually by the RV safety education foundation. And that is something that sometimes is a little hard to find. They only have about two or three teams around the country. But if you go to RV safety.com, you'll find out where they're at and you can get individual wheel position but know your weights, knowing those are the limitations.

Check your chassis before you start looking to change the tire size. The next saying, I have to replace a giant three piece fogged window I have the complete and he's got dollar signs five deep on this one. So he bought he bought the expensive one. I have two slave assistants, so he must be a father. My dad had four and we were called channel changers.

Any unusual suggestions I should consider before I start? Thanks, Tommy. Actually, it's pretty easy. I don't know what type of unit you've got but typically if you're replacing a fog unit then it's a dual pane window and the seal broke in it. You got the condensation inside.

It started etching and then it's fogged up. So we did a video on a travel trailer. It's a little different type of a window but it's basically the same process. You're gonna have the window frame on the outside and then you're have a frame on the inside that sandwiches the two together and you'll have butyl tape and maybe some silicone around the outside of it. You take all those screws out.

One of the things I would suggest is to do a good job taping all the way around that window because if you take those screws out and you pull that frame and normally it won't come out but it might fall out and burst and of course it's a windows no good anyway, so that doesn't matter, but heavier slaves outside making sure that that doesn't happen. You'll probably have to cut around the butyl tape and it's just a putty tape. So it might be a little difficult to get depending on how old and how long it's been setting but that should just pop right out of there, clean everything really, really well. Look for any type of moisture leaks in that system. If you're able to, a lot of times what we'll do on the bottom of the opening.

So you take your window out you got your sidewall here, sitting with exposed styrofoam. That's a good time to put some, weather seal in there. You know, there's some product you've gotta make sure it won't eat the styrofoam. You don't want to do the spray on stuff. Do you do not wanna use the flex seal that stuff will eat styrofoam, and just disintegrate it.

So find something that won't do it. It's just a roll on or put some eternal bond down in there. That's just a nice addition to keep moisture from going into the sidewall of your rig. Put it back in with the butyl tape around it. It's a putty tape and you'll probably have to trim it out once it squishes, "cause it'll peel out.

You should not have to put any silicone around that outside. Some people do the problem with that is that silicone is gonna start to attract dust and get dirty and really look bad. So if you do a good job with that butyl tape, you won't need the silicone. Hi Dave, how long will RV antifreeze be good in the water lines? Asking in case I don't get to go camping this year.

I don't know. I don't think they RV antifreeze has a life a shelf life, or a breakdown consistency like some of the other stuff in it. I do know of people that have put RV antifreeze in their rigs and let them set for three or four years. But just because of the situation of medical or whatever it happens to be somebody that was trying to sell it has put RV antifreeze in it and hasn't sold it for two or three years. That's happened.

So I wouldn't be afraid of anything happening with that. And let's hope you get to go back camping. From what I heard today and I have not verified this yet but I do believe that the national parks have opened back up today. Somebody told me that Trump had put out a decree to open up the, at least the nationals. I think the States are still probably going by governor of each individual States.

But I think we'll start to see some of this going out if we can get back to a real slow re-introduction into the open areas and keep our distancing and stuff and don't just bam into it, we'll be able to ease into this stuff. I also heard from a couple of our clients, I have a company I run called Easy Wash that has a pressure washer and fast food restaurants. And I've got several restaurants that have said that their dining area is going to be open April 28th and they can open a third of it. So they're just kind of doing it in slow progression. So I'm hoping that we aren't jumping into it too soon.

I have no idea, but my thought and prayer is that we are able to get back and go out and enjoy. We probably never will get back to normal but if we can get back to at least enjoying some of the RV and camping and things that we've done so. David, thank you for helping us as always well, you're welcome my pleasure. Before I begin my question I just want to pay homage and give condolence to the Bunzar family. Thank you very much.

Gary the RV doctor died recently and I with many others will truly miss him. My question is that my RV when I'm not hooked up to electricity, doesn't stay on long in spite of my solar panels, reaching 13 plus volts. Amps may be around three. I'm a novice. Is it my batteries?

Something else to look at, I have a 34 DS Nexus go super C. If you have lead acid batteries I would definitely say your batteries have sulfated. This is something that comes up just about every time we do a live event that if you don't have a multi-stage charger and an inverter in that system, those batteries as they drain down, sulfur will attack the plates and they'll get thicker and thicker and thicker and you need a multi-stage battery that's gonna break up that sulfation. That 13 plus volts coming off your solar panel is not enough to do that. It's gonna be 14 to 16 volts.

It breaks up the sulfur, boils the batteries basically and then goes into a neutralizing and an equalizing charge. So what I would recommend is to look at your solar panel the model that it is and get what that company see. If they have a controller that will do that multi-stage you might need a bigger add an extra panel to it. Or one of the options that you can do is go to Northern tool and to look for a product called battery minder not battery tinder, it's battery minder and this will throw high-impact waves into that battery and break up the sulfation and condition it without boiling it. They're big into the aviation industry.

Now they're getting into golf carts. They're getting a lot of resistance in the RV market because the RV battery companies wants you to buy new batteries in two to three years. And this will extend the life of your battery. They're claiming by 300 cycles which is that's three to four more years. So conditionals batteries.

That's definitely what I would look for. Or you're gonna need some type of a conditioner or multi-stage charger whether it's in your inverter or your solar panel. They're going down that fast and they're there. They're going to, that's gonna be a problem. How should I expect to take electric water heater?

How should I expect to take electric water heater to heat up. I'll probably how long I would say. Okay all right. So there is, nothing that I've seen printed will actually tell the expectancy of taking water to a hot point because there's a lot of variables in that. The first thing is is what was the water temperature that came into it?

If you brought it in from an outside source right away and it's down into the 45 degree temperature that's gonna take you a long time to get up to that 110 I think is where it's, most of them are set at. If it's something that have been sitting in your coach and it's warmed already to ambient temperature, that's gonna start out at the 70 to 75 range and all if it's a summer day outside as well. So typically what I've seen is the and I've not used the six gallon electric I've used the 10 gallon electric and it takes about 15 minutes on the electric side. It takes about 10 to 12 on the LP side because you've got flame that's just seems to run a little bit more efficient with that so I would say the best thing to do is kind of find out where your temperature ranges at. It's awfully hard to tell what's the temperature in your water tank and your water heater tank without tearing it apart.

But I would say a good rule of thumb is gonna be about 15 minutes at least. Any suggestions on steer tire brands own a 15 Fleetwood diesel pusher and seems Goodyear are costly. Are they worth it? Well, I'd take both Goodyear and Michelin. I see Toyo is coming into the market a little bit.

And the reason I like it those is both a Goodyear in the Michelin, our RV tires. They're not just a truck over the road tire. And what that means is they have a different tread pattern that's designed. So it's a little flatter. The tread is designed to dissipate heat a little better for your RV 'cause you've got an encapsulated into in the wheel well, it's got a better material with UV protection on the outside 'cause one of the biggest things with RV tires is dry rotting, weather checking.

We let them sit and bake to the sun unless we cover them up. So both Goodyear and Michelin have done a lot of research on what's causing tire failure. And in the early stages of my career I was at Winnebago and we saw a lot of tire failures out in the market and it was weight issues and it was weather checking issues and it was improper inflation. People didn't check their tires. So I know they're very expensive but if you take care of your tires you educate yourself and you understand them.

Look at the videos we've had go to RV safety.com and you will see 30 years of research and expertise on tires and the type and the brands and you know how to take care of them. So I would say go with an RV tire. Don't just go with the less expensive tire because you will not be happy with that. Okay, what is the best tire pressure monitoring system? And there's a lot of them out there.

I personally like the TST system trucks system technologies, we've put them on. They came in and did a sponsor video. They also gave me a set to put on and try. I put a set on a trailer. It's been two years I think now ago it'll be three years in October.

It was at the Pomona show he helped us with some seminars on tire pressures, monitors and various things. And I put this on a trailer that we run out here and we probably have about 180,000 miles on that trailer. Now I know the trucks we're on our second truck that the first one hit right at about 130, some thousand. And we got another truck. So, and it has ran.

They performed flawlessly. And this is a trailer that goes into construction areas. It isn't always on nice even interstate roads all the time. So it does get beat up a little bit. And they had performed very very well and very accurate too.

And we have pretty much eliminated tire failures on the road by knowing the pressure, the temperature all that stuff that's happening with it. They've got two different models, the less expensive model, the both the screw onto the valve stem the less expensive one does not allow you to add air if you need to, you have to take that off to add air to it. They do have one that's a passer that's a little more money but in my opinion whatever brand you get, there's other good ones at the dealership. If your dealer doesn't carry it I would talk to them about that. I did talk to some people out in California at the RV show in October and Charlotte as well that were carrying a couple other brands and asked them why they went with that brand and it was because they have a local representative that gives, the warranty is right there, If they have any problems that, that means a lot too.

So I would check with your dealership if they don't have the TST because TST is all over the country, but you know, there are some other ones out there that do well as well. We'll jump back up here. So Williams, William Hoffman, is there a live video feed and yes there is and he sees it now. Hi, William. I'm sorry.

Bigger budget we'll get some talent. That's what I've always said. Okay so Earnest. Are men trot? Well, that's interesting.

I just have a Dave, that's a boring one. I have also heard there is some product that provide protection from UV for tires. All the tire manufacturers do not have any recommendation for UV protection for tires. I see it out there. STP has stuff.

And you know, there's a lot of tire products on the market and all the manufacturers say soap and water mild detergent soap like a dawn dish soap and wipe it off, cover it, leave it. Don't put anything on it. Now I have just recently thadford through their ProtectAll right here, just brought out a product that's called an all surface care. And if I remember correctly, this one is a UV blocker and it's good for aluminum chrome rubber as well on this. So the only thing and I have seen three to three protectant we used to use that all the time at Winnebago on the tires and never saw it do any damage.

Most of the other stuff is gonna actually enhance the weather checking of it and start to deteriorate the tire. So I would say this stuff again it's not been proven by the tire manufacturers and you know but we have put it on several different units over a year old and it seems to perform very, very well three of three protected. The best thing you can do, those cover those tires. When they're rolling down the road, they're fine when you stop somewhere for more than a day at a time cover the tire. Whether it's just with a piece of cardboard.

One of the things I saw that was kind of interesting couple of years ago at the Louisville show before they closed that down, there was a manufacturer that had an honor remote control shade. So right over the wheel well, you would take your remote and this would come down and cover the tire. And I thought that's a little overkill but it got me thinking that, it'd be easy to make a tire cover instead of one you have to try and crawl around the tire and get on the tire itself and get dirty. If I just put some snaps up on the floor level above that wheel well and then put the reverse snaps on a piece of vinyl or even even a high density shade material, you can get the stuff like you see at tennis courts in places that are blocking and you'd get a 100% block on some of that stuff and just make your own little shade cover that you can pop in there. You can roll it up, throw it in easy to store.

So it's something I had always thought would be kind of interesting to see if there's a market for it but cover the tires that's the best thing you can do. Do you need a battery minder on each battery? We have 3.2 for the chassis and one for the engine. We have three, two for the chassis and one for the engine. Thank you, good help to all of you and that you too.

I appreciate that. And everybody else stay safe out there. You would need one for each different type of battery. So your two batteries are deep cycle house batteries. You would need one for that and then you would need one for your engine battery.

And because your engine battery is not connected to those. Now you don't need two for your two batteries 'cause they're gonna be hooked together. So it just one for that one and one for the engine battery. Now the nice thing about battery minors I've got different levels of the products. And so the one for the chassis you can buy the very inexpensive one.

It's just a single mounted plugs in, got alligator clips and it it's 3995 and I've seen it on sale for 1995. I bought six of them. We have a skid loader and a bunch of products around here, as well as RVs that we rent from a guy that has all the toys and never has a battery that's good, but you can put that on the engine battery and then you probably need to go up a little bit higher with the two batteries for the bigger model it's gonna cost you around 8995 for that one. So you would have to have two sets. Okay, professional trucker we met said to let most air out of the tire and then you can see cracking in the tread which might not show oops, keeps jumping, right.

Which might not show up when the tire is fully inflated. What do you think? I don't wanna argue with a professional trucker but all the research that I've seen from the RV repair club from, the tire manufacturers said you're supposed to visually inspect that when it's filled up. And to me, that kind of makes sense because if I let the air out the tire shrinks and if I got any weather checking, those cracks are gonna just get smaller and smaller they're gonna come together. The more air I give in the more the material pulls apart and that's gonna show me more of that now maybe in the tread.

So you can see the tread a little better but that's not where you're gonna be concerned about. You're gonna be concerned about the sidewall of that tire. So I have never heard that myself. I am always been a firm believer as RV safety has and as Michelin Goodyear and all the other tire manufacturers inspect those at proper inflation so. 2000 keeps jumping on me here.

So I have a 2015 Fleetwood with Aqua Hot System. I liked the concept, however H Aqua hot recommends annual service. Our first one was almost $800. Is this the normal cost? Well, you know what they're doing is they wanna make sure that you go in and have somebody qualified, certified that goes through that system.

And then you're gonna pay $150 an hour for them to do that. And so that's, I don't know if it's quite that common that that much money for it. I would say from what I've heard you can do it in about two to three hours and it's not something you can't do yourself. I'm not sure what's all involved in the hot Aqua hot system. I haven't gotten into that yet.

It is one of the things we have on our plan. We just haven't been able to get production time here recently. And we have not been able to get a unit that has that in it. Winnebago now is putting some of theirs in that, we're 20 miles away from Winnebago so sometimes it's hard to get some of the bigger rigs that are out around in the country without a huge travel and production costs. But I would recommend that you get in touch with Aqua-Hot or even look at your service manual or your owner's manual and just see what is involved in that.

I would believe it's flushing the system. 'Cause you know what happens in the water system is most people don't realize you're running hard water through that it's campgrounds. And so that hard water has calcium and Rustin lime. And so I would imagine it's just a series of getting all that stuff, cleaned out and making sure that nothing is plugging any screens or filters. And then, because there really isn't a whole lot in that system that would need to be lubricated or anything like that.

You're running a glycerin base through it. And so I would check and see if you can do it yourself but the reason Aqua-Hot is requiring that is that they wanna guarantee that it's taken care of by somebody. So if all of a sudden you come back and say, hey this isn't working well that's because you didn't do this or this or this and a lot of them they do that to kind of protect themselves from service work. What is a recommendation is the best way to protect a toad while traveling? There's a lot of different products out there.

My folks used just the front bra on the top of theirs. They went to Alaska. They didn't have any problems with the windshield but they did have the rock guards on the back behind the wheels to keep some of that stuff from kicking up. Most of the people that I've seen have used the big deflector that comes right up off of the hitch and right up in front of the unit itself so that nothing flies up there. So there's a variety of different ways you can do that.

I would recommend looking at roadmaster, blue ox and just see what kind of product that they have. I know there's, some stuff that they've recommended as well. Guess I'm confused on the water heater, six gallon in Indiana just put garden tap water into the camper to flush and try out new hot rod I installed and it took two hours to get warmer to hot water. Two hours is quite a long time. So this must be the same question.

Yep okay. So this was the same guy that asked how long it should take. And two hours is not anything I've ever seen. So I would imagine I would try it again just see how long it takes, because you probably if it's taking that long, you've probably have a week heat element. When it's running on electric it's gonna run a small little disc that heats up and gets that water to the temperature.

You need it. A lot of times they'll have two in there to run those up that certain temperature. And if it's taken that long, I would also try it on the LP side, see how long that takes to get up there. So if anybody else out here has a six gallon electric, maybe post in here to ask the question and just, tell us what you're seeing. But two hours is a long time to wait in my opinion.

I think you got something going wrong with that system. Excuse me. Okay look at that. You didn't see, I saw I'm still not used to that. I'm gonna do the hand sanitizer.

I think they tell you got like 12 layers of skin in the human body and I'm down to two on my hands. I'm pretty sure this is, I do this a lot. I had another funny thing. I have my granddaughter lives in Austin, Texas. She works for Oracle and they're working from home now.

She just moved down there a year ago, has got this job and talk to her the other day, see how she's doing. And she's sheltering at home. She's working from home and she's you said "Grandpa, you know, this last year before this I was busy I was working, I was working a lot." And she said, "Now that I'm working from home, I realized I don't have any hobbies." So when she's not working, she's like, huh I have no hobbies. So I guess it makes people realize that, oh yes. All right.

So any recommends on a backup camera for a travel trailer? I'm a pretty much a big fan of the Lippert components, incorporated LCI products. They got a Furion based product that is is really performing well. I mean, there's some other ones out in the market that are a little bit cheaper in it but I just think that the bouncing around stuff that you get out you wanna good camera that's gonna hold up. And so Lippert and the furrion system is some one of the ones I recommend.

Yeah so if you're hooked up to shore power, do you need do you still need a battery minder? Well and we're talking two different things. The battery reminders is a conditioner that's gonna break up sulfation. So if you're hooked up to electricity and you don't have a multistage charger or something that will condition your batteries, they're gonna sulfate. Even if you just keep them charged because what happens is your typical converter is either a standalone like this one here in your distribution center.

So you got all your stuff here. This is your converter, which is a battery charger. That's what it's doing. When your battery hit 10.6, this kicks on at 13.6 charges of batteries until they get to 12.6 and then shuts off. That doesn't condition your battery.

That does nothing. Now you might have this in one location and then your your converter in another location almost looks something like this, this inverter here, we see a lot of Magna Diane Haddam, parallax progressive dynamics, when a bagels started doing that because that this is kind of noisy and the fan goes. And so a lot of times this was in the kitchen or in the bedroom. And all of a sudden, when the batteries get to a certain point, even when you're plugged in your batteries are going to drain down because you're gonna be using lights. You're gonna be using the refrigerator, still takes 12 volt.

Even if you're on 120 volt electricity, it takes 12 volt to run the control panels and the gas valves and different things. And so that battery is gonna run down and this will kick on even when you're plugged into electric and it'll and sometimes get very hot. So some manufacturers took the converter separate and put it down in the basement or in places where it wouldn't be quite so noisy. So yes, even if you plugged into electric all the time, you wanna get either a conditioning converter or a battery reminder and that will condition your batteries, break up that sulfation. Now it's not quite as critical if in the end, we'll get back to the, this is only for the lead acid batteries.

If you have absorbed glass mat, it's not quite as critical. You'll still get a little bit of sulfation but very very minimal to that. And that's why they're becoming more popular. There are a lot less maintenance. Okay.

So if you're. I have my Fleetwood in a self-contained storage with 120 volts provided, I lower my amps to 15 amps but I keep the plugged in full-time. Is there an issue with letting it remain on 120 volts when it's not in use? Again, there's not an issue with it staying on 120 volts because you probably have everything else off on the inside of it. So you're not really risking any type of shorts or stuff like that.

And you probably just doing it to charge your batteries. But again, if you have that standard charger, you're gonna get sulfation. So you would wanna put a battery reminder on that or get a multi-stage charger like a charge wizard from progressive dynamics or somebody else. A water heater does not have an anode rod. Should I add one?

No, if your water heater there's two different types of water heaters. One is a suburban and one is an Atwood. And I keep forgetting which one it is but suburban, one of them has an anode rod. And what that is, it's just a magnesium rod in there that acts it's sacrificial, all the bacteria and the chemicals in your water attack that rod. And they eat that rod up.

And so that is because they have a different type of a tank. Now the other manufacturer has a stainless steel tank and so that is gonna keep that bacteria from eating any of the tank itself. So if yours does not have an anode rod, it didn't come with one it's not supposed to. So the other ones will have one. And you can tell if you've got a plastic plug in it, it does not have one.

You got a metal plug in it, chances are that is that the anode rod, style. Steve wormwood just jumped on me. Okay, living in the RV can I put my batteries on battery minder when the RV is plugged into 30 amp for living? Yes you can. Do I need to unhook the batteries first?

No you do not. So you can put them on and it just senses exactly what you're doing. One of the things I would do is if you're gonna get the right size battery minder, then just go to your distribution panel like this. And find out which one of these circuit breakers is for your converter and just shut it off. 'Cause if you've got a battery minder that's large enough to take care of your batteries it will do all the conditioning you want.

You don't want this thing turning on and trying to boil your batteries and lose some of that electrolyte. So just turn that converter off, put a new one in. I had a guy that worked for me. He had a fifth wheel, his converter went completely out and he looked at buying a new one and it was several hundred dollars, almost $500. And he's said, isn't there another alternative I said yep just click that off go get a battery minder for 8995 on sale.

And he's been using it now for probably four or five years and just loves it. And he's amazed at how his batteries are lasting very, very well. Well while in long-term storage, how often, how long should you exercise the generator engines and slides? So the generators need to be exercised once a month under load for about 30 minutes. And that's gonna get all the seals mostly the gasoline ones but even the diesel's you should do it periodically because that gets the seals lubricated and so forth.

But the gas one, the biggest thing is varnish that gasoline sitting in that it's refined cheaper and it's gonna varnish faster and it's gonna clog up in your carburetor and your the intakes and stuff like that. So they all recommend unknowns about the only one now that's in the business but start at once a month, underload for 30 minutes. And that means going in and taking in the wintertime take a couple of the ceramic heaters just make sure you don't plug them into the same circuit. You know, you've got outlets around and a lot of those outlets are on the same circuit breaker. You don't, you can't put too many of those in that you'll trip the breaker but just get it under load.

And I know a guy that goes in there once a month and he fires up the generator and he lets it run. And he turns the refrigerator on and a couple of these heaters and he watches a movie. So when he's done after that, he watches an hour movie but he doesn't for an hour, once a month almost did it. Okay got this little tickle. Talking like this too much without water.

My step does not come out of my RV even though the button is enabled it's sometimes comes out and sometimes it does not come out. What do you think class C motor home. usually when that happens, it's the switch. I'm not sure what year you have, but you'll have there's two different switches. When the door opens up, there's either a magnetic switch that has two pieces that come in and out, or you've got the little plunger style and the plunger style gets pushed in, the problem with the plunger style one is that it actually gets pushed a little bit sideways first before it gets pushed in.

So a lot of times that gets broken, it gets bad contacts. I would take that magnet out and just clean it up really good. Check it to make sure you're getting a contact coming back and forth and then what you can also do is open it up, open the door up and check to see what kind of voltage you're getting at the motor itself. So you could have loose wires at the motors but magnets usually the culprit on that it's a switch it's right inside the door, down at the bottom. So as you open your door, it makes contact tells you to open and close it.

Yeah, let's see. I think that we hit the, Angie is looking at me like wood. C motor home okay. How many people do we have here tonight? 109 viewers.

110 now. I thought we just had, no, no, no. Okay so here one just came in Earnest again, thank you. Going back to the 120 volt during storage do I leave my refrigerator on full-time? I wouldn't leave your refrigerator on full time.

There's no moving parts in the refrigerator. You just got a vessel with, it's got water, hydrogen, ammonia and sodium chromate in it. And it's just as well, leave that unplugged. Don't let it run at all. It's not like something that, nothing in there gets lubricated.

Nothing needs to be run in that system. So I wouldn't do that. You run the risk of pulling voltage in that, when in most storage facilities you're not gonna have 30 amps. And so when you start getting down into the 20 and the 15 amp, the less you have on that system is better. So I would shut everything off except for the converter.

And just let it sit there. Were you talking diesel or gas? Oh, you know what, and so, Tom, thanks for bringing this up. When we talked about exercise, the generator but the engines and slides that's another issue. And I didn't cover that one.

Thank you. I was talking gas generator is more important than the diesel still. They recommend starting it up every two months just to kind of lubricate all the seals and everything in it. That's not gonna varnish like the gasoline generator will but as far as engine and the slide rooms, all the engine companies that I've talked to don't recommend going in and starting up the engine they do recommend keeping a full tank of gas just so you don't get any condensation and moisture in that gas tank that fuel tank which will eventually make its way to your field filter and plug that stuff up. So I would do that.

I as far as the slide rooms I would leave the slide rooms alone. I would hit them with a good protectant like this or the slide room protectant on the rubber seals, just so they don't stick. And then be very careful when you're bringing it out and you bring it back, just kind of make sure none of that stuff is tearing apart and coming apart easily. And then you lubricated at the beginning or condition it, not lubricated condition, all the seals around the room itself. And there's very little maintenance on those slide rooms.

Most of them don't want you to do anything on the rams themselves other than cleaning them. There are a few points on some of the gear driven ones. You can put a little oil on the outside of the gears where the shaft is running the opinion, I guess it's called in it and cleaning some of those but there's not a whole lot of maintenance to do with that. So, but I would make sure that, that you conditioned those really well before you and bring the slide room down. You don't want them sitting out exposed so moisture can get in or anything like that.

I don't know if I got something here that might be. Somebody answered another asked another question but I can't get down to it. So what am I, if I pull this down, no, alright. What's my problem here? Okay did that help?

No, it did not help. I got one down the bottom from Elizabeth that I cannot see. So maybe Sam back there. There we go. There live.

There we go. Now it came up. Thank you for your wonderful help. I'm glad I got to see that one. She didn't ask another one.

Is there anything I can do for little cracks on the outside of my rig? I have a lot of little web cracks. We call the spider cracks and what's that is is your fiberglass is having a little bit of of degradation just from ultraviolet. I would say the best thing that you could do at this point right now is to clean it off really well. I would probably, depending on how bad they are you might wanna take some bar keepers friend which is a real, kind of a fine pumice and just kind of sand or buff that down a little bit get some of that oxidation off of it and then treat it really good with a McGuire's carnauba wax.

The sidewall material on your coach is probably it's fiberglass but it's probably Kim light or crane. The same company bought the other one out and they recommend the McGuire's wax with carnauba and UV protection into it. That's what's happening with it. It's just more, more kind of cosmetic until it gets to the point where you start seeing some de lamination or big cracking areas. Those really need to be addressed.

But I think just some wax at this point if they're small little fiber spider cracks would be fine. But a used RV, the anode threaded nozzle is corroded. Is it possible to run a and again, how come I can't get to the bottom of these questions what's with this? There we go. Is it possible to run a tap into the nozzle to clean the threads?

If so, any idea what the thread spec is? It is, you can put that in. I do not the thread spec off the top of my head but that should be in your owner's manual, if not a service manual and you'll have either suburban or own Atwood. So I would recommend finding a which one you have posted on the website. We do have technicians that have access if you can't find it, they'll come back and research that for you and get that thread size you should be able to tap that out fairly easy.

That's a fairly common problem, especially with used units that have sat for a long period of time and or units that people have never taken that plug out and it gets hot and cold and hot cold. And it just almost seems to weld into place. AC I have a 2005 Fleetwood Providence and the door awning does not work, what could be the average problem and what is the approximate cost to repair? Well, it's there could be a variety of different things. You know, the very first thing you have to look at is I'm sure that runs off of 12 volt power.

And most of the time Fleetwood would run those off the house batteries. And you have a few somewhere in that system. So I would check the fuse. I would check voltage to that awning itself. Then the switch, if you've got power, going to all those three places, then you're basically looking at the motor up in the top of that roller motor that brings it out.

You also wanna try, do you hear anything? Does it try to do anything, a little bit of a humming or a grinding that kind of wants to start. A lot of times what happens in some of those and other components too is if the electric things say, well, they don't work. My batteries are good. Well, you don't know that your batteries are actually at 12.6 volts and these things, when they start they take some good start power.

So if your battery is sulfated and it's just a little bit on the low side it goes to start and it doesn't have it. It's got this overhead system and it just won't it just kind of does a stop and a reset. So check your voltage to those components make sure you've got 12.6 going to that. And you know, if you don't and at the time you're doing it, don't check your battery. So, yep.

I got 12.6 now because it could have charged up in the meantime and you wanna do it right when it doesn't work, what what am I getting there and if that's the case then you've got a motor cost on that motor is, I would be guessing. I'm not sure. I know you can buy the whole thing for probably about three, $300. So you might be able to replace just the motor on it. Okay Ernest says, "Thanks for the lifetime was not aware of this webcast.

I will definitely be tuned in future. And that is something that I brought up today to Tn marketing's a group that hosts and several of the communities, they put it out on the Facebook page. And the comment I had today is that I get the spam emails like everybody else does. I signed up for the free stuff just to see what was going up. And it's like, every day I get another one, oh open this and, oh, you have won this and, oh you got $2 for this and I was like wow okay.

But I know what I'm getting. And, and then when we do these live events, the only thing I see is now work an hour from now we're going live with that. So we'll try to get a little more information out there on when these are happening. I'd like to see a little more participation in the questions out there. And it's I appreciate everybody that's come out because you know, this is one of the fun parts of my, actually my life.

I think I was like, how sad? No, but I've enjoyed since 1983, I started Winnebago and I was in owner relations, answering questions there. I went on the road, training dealers, working shows and answering questions. And it's hard to find some of these answers and sometimes it's expensive for some of these things to do and hopefully we can help provide information that makes it more enjoyable for your RV adventure but less breaks downs. And I've been out there, I've had them and frustrations with them.

So it gives me a great sense of pride when I can help somebody reduce those or fix stuff in seminars. I get it all the time out there. People come up and just they like the information. So thank you for that. Are there old crank up TV antenna?

We call them bat wings Steve. What is a good replacement for that. There's several really good videos online that show the different several different things that we've put on those. The first thing you can do, you can take and add what's called a wing man. So when you're that one comes up and you've got your that's what we call it bat wing.

There is a wing man and it's just an extender that goes off to the side because you bet wing will still work with the digital signal out there. It just doesn't go as far as some of the new stuff does. And so this second antenna coming off the side will help in that. You can take the whole head off that thing and put a razar, R-A-Z-A-R I believe it's spelled. And it's kind of a big flat thing that goes right on the same one still has to go up and down but it gets about twice the distance.

It's a lot less expensive than putting on a whole new antenna. I think it runs right at about 80, $90. Very easy to put on what I do like is it's two-sided so it's flat. So I don't have to be specifically at one spot or another. The other option is to take the whole thing off and just put one of the stationary razars up on the roof and stuff to turn it around.

That's a little more expensive. It's very easy to do. You just take the you got the cocking up on the top. You're gonna have to cut all that around, take the screws out of it. You're gonna have to take the crank plate off the bottom with the screws and the pin on the side of that, pull all that stuff down.

And that new, the new antenna is a permanently mounted antenna. It just sits up with a kind of a triangular top on it. And you've got the dale at the bottom you turn around but there's no cranking up and down. You just leave it permanently mounted fits in the exact same spot. We put one on a fifth wheel and it was very easy.

Other than the fact it was 110 degrees outside. And I don't do well in heat on top of a motor home, which the video shows but it was amazing what we got for reception in that unit. We got about two channels prior to that. And she was pulling channels from 90 miles away. It got about six and we don't have very many, in our area up here we've got three, six and 10.

That's pretty much it but I was state aims. We're pulling a channel from down there too. Where are we at? We've got nine minutes. So we still got time and we got more.

Earnest again on, where did it go, providence. We have one, the end caps were sticking on the awnings not coming out. The end caps were sticking on the awning, not coming out. So I'm not sure, if you're. I'm not sure what the awnings, if it's on the slide awnings not coming out or the end cap sticking on the awning of the, your major awning.

If you have a providence, I would venture to say that that should have an electric awning coming out. The weather, what's it called a weather head not the Weatherhead, the awning it but I'm not sure what the caps are sticking on the awning that you're talking about. I guess one of the things I would recommend if you can take some, a picture of it, post it on the Facebook or other social media and give us a little more information. Is it a nanny? Is it a carefree?

Is it a Lippert? And is it electric? And what model is it? And I'm not sure what the end encaps, there's not really end caps on those that I'm familiar with. So, sorry, I can't be of assistance on that one.

Had a problem with my awning not opening. Replaced the fuse and they kept blowing the fuse removed the fuse holder and the awning works fine. Is there a problem not having the fuse? There is a problem not having the fuse because that fuse is a safety link in there that somewhere you're getting too voltage coming through that wire. Something is holding it up.

So your amp draw or your voltage I shouldn't say voltage, your amp draw in that. So those are safety devices designed to, keep that from burning that rest of that system up. So either your motor starting to get weak and it's drawing too much or something else is happening in there. What I would highly recommend. And you might have the wrong fuse in there, which is I know I've seen some people, if you didn't buy it originally, somebody had a problem they touch something, they blew the fuse and they went, oh that fuse is big enough.

Or they are not big enough, they put a smaller fuse in 'cause that's all they had. But I would check, first of all, look at what the recommendation is in your owner's manual. And then I would get that checked out and see what kind of amp draw you're getting in that 'cause I really think you wanna keep that fuse in there. Otherwise you're in burn something up. How do I check the transmission fluid?

And that one depends on the chassis model and make most of them today, the gas chassis are Ford right now. So that dipstick is right up in the front. You wanna run it until you get into good operating condition, pull the stick out, clean it off, put it back in and check it with that. The Chevrolet was the same way, except the older ones. They were almost impossible.

You almost had to take the doghouse off to get to those but that would have been prior to 95 I think it was when workhorse bought them out and they were starting to bring them up into the front. And the diesel's are typically going to be in the back Freightliner and Cummins. And I'm not sure exactly where they put those at. It kind of depends on the model of the chassis. That you should be able to go into your chassis manual which is gonna be separate from your owner's manual and be able to find somewhere in one of the chapters on maintenance, checking the transmission fluid, you should have a stick that you're able to do that.

Are you familiar with CB radios? Not since 1976, when I got one for my graduation and my dad took it and used it and I never saw it again. I am not. I have just purchased. Do the antennas still require RF tuning to the radio?

That I do not know. That is a very good question. And I would say that if you could post that on our website, we'll have some experts that have CB radios out there that can help us with that. But that's a very good question. I'll look into it.

What is the, I have a 2017 Integra. The steps do not stay in the extended position intermittently while I'm parked, they will stay extended for weeks then all of a sudden they start retracting every time I opened the door. That to me sounds like you've got a defective switch in that system because when you turn that switch off on your entrance door coming in, that's supposed to disable that whole thing. So somewhere I would check, first of all I'd probably replace that switch and see if it does it again. If it continues to do it then, then that's something you probably have an override.

One of the things that a lot of these are supposed to have is anytime you start the engine, the steps are supposed to come in as an automatic safety feature, that if you left them out then you don't smash them on the curb when you go. And I would say about 50% of those with that on don't work. Just something in the wiring and the relay and everything. And most people just don't get it fixed. But that could be the second thing is that that relay is causing it, sending a signal saying, hey your door's open and your engine starting so it could pull it in.

What is the best GPS for a motor home? I've used quite a few different ones. You know, the Magellan has been a very good one. Garment is probably my favorite that I've used. It seems to me, it seems to have better updating finding some of the newer, anytime you get into construction and new roads that are put into places sometimes it looks like you're driving out in the middle of a cornfield on their GPS.

And the garments seems to be kind of the most update. It's easy to, for me anyway, it's easy for me to hook it up to a computer and just to update all the new stuff in it. I can put my height and my weight and propane and stuff on there. So it will keep me from going into certain areas. It can keep me away from tolls.

I don't know. I that's my personal preference but I know a lot of people use the Magellan's and others. So anybody out there that'd be a good question to post on the website and just get some feedback from the group out there and see, what do you guys like? What do you see? What is the best way to get an owner's manual for use 2016 gray Wolf limited?

And I'm not positive if I think Gray Wolf is that still Jayco and Jayco was bought out by forest river. And you should still be able to get a hold of the manufacturer. And I mean, 2016 is fairly new. So I would think you should be able to get in touch with them and be able to get a copy of that. I don't know if you'll be able to get a hard copy but you can get a PDF file sent to you that's probably just as good.

You can print it out or print out just the pages that you, are important to you. If not, then I would get a hold of a dealer that sells the gray Wolf product or did and see if they have a copy of it. Most of those guys keep a file that too. So you should be able to get that. And she says, wrap it up a little guess, 54 says, okay, Tom, just one more thing Tom said he used the garmin 770 R-V-T-R-K.

So it's RV and truck one. That's a great one to use. And guess 50 48 said, thanks for all your help. Everyone stay safe. And I agree with that.

Everybody stay safe, wash your hands keep your social distancing, wear your mask. I was a little reluctant to start doing that. And we went to, we've got Menards out here. It's kind of like a cheaper home Depot. And there was 10,000 people in there getting their stimulus checks and they were not practicing their social distancing.

And they looked like they were not practicing good hygiene. And I walked right back out and went and got my mask and my nitrate gloves and my sanitizer. And I stayed as far away from everybody as I could. I had one piece I had to get and I say hey there it is. You don't have to do anything, but I feel that stay safe and hopefully we'll get out of this fairly soon.

We'll get back, look and see. I bet those national parks. One of the things I did wanna say is check out the blog coming on a site, because we talked about being able to do virtual camping. There are some great sites on the Koa campground views.com. The national parks have virtual videos and three sixties of the parks and places all over the country that you can literally build your own campfire or pop one up on your TV set make some s'mores a little bit of Bailey's on them.

It goes really well. And, but have a great time. Thanks for joining us. I really appreciate it. Stay safe out there.

And again, our thoughts and prayers out to the Bunzar family.