10 Quick RVing Tips & Tricks from Long-Term Full-Timers (12 years this month!) 

RVwithTito We don't even want to know how you discovered that little gem. Poor Melissa?

RVwithTito Don't drive over speed bumps while someone is on the toilet. L M A O

+RVwithTito Like I always tell my wife "Sorry honey, I can't control the road or the terrain" Then I get the "sideways" look. LOL

I'll hook it up with the cheeseburgers ol ran bobdany

Great tip. Thanks!

GENIUS, but does the dish soap effect the fiberglass like it does a regular clear coat on a car?

GizmoBee1702 We use "no skid" between our plates, too (and underneath anything that can slide around). Thanks for adding that one!

Tinker Bell Huh? ;-)

Tinker Bell Sorry Tinker. I was kidding around, pretending I had Alzheimers. lol Not funny, I know, and I didn't mean to be cryptic. I also don't expect you to have read all the comments here, and yours is appreciated, but to reiterate my reply to an early commenter further down this video that stated the same thing you did: "Thanks for the feedback and input. Someone made the same comment on our website a few days ago, so we’ve been reading all about cooking with food in contact with aluminum… baked potatoes, grilling etc. What appears to be a very reasoned and succinct summary of the articles we’ve found is the following from the George Mateljan Foundation, which promotes health and a healthier world: “We do not recommend cooking or storing food in aluminum foil - even though there is no strong scientific evidence showing these practices to be harmful to your health. We have three reasons for making this recommendation. First, even though research studies don’t show the food use of aluminum foil to be harmful, they clearly show migration of small amounts of aluminum from the foil into the food. For example, in one study conducted in Italy about 2-6 milligrams of aluminum was found to move over into food from aluminum foils, cookware, and utensils. Even if this amount has not been show to pose health harm, we don’t like our food containing a potentially problematic metal that wasn’t naturally supposed to be there. Second, we believe that the jury is still out on aluminum with respect to chronic long-term health problems. (We’re talking here about exposure to aluminum from all sources, including the environment, certain workplace settings, personal care products, etc.) Potential connections have been found between certain cancers and aluminum exposure, and also between aluminum exposure and Alzheimer’s disease. Infertility connections have also been found. We don’t see any reason to add potential exposure through the use of aluminum foil with food. Finally, we don’t like the consequences of aluminum foil manufacturing for our planet. Aluminum remains on the federal government’s list of priority toxins for the United States, and its mining, manufacture, and post-use disposal pose significant problems for our environment. From our perspective, while aluminum foil is definitely lightweight, flexible, and convenient, these upsides don’t come close to outweighing the downsides here.” Based on everything else we’ve read, this sounds pretty rational. As a cancer survivor, and a generally health-conscious person, I stopped using aluminum-based antiperspirant years ago (it was male breast cancer, and the underarms seemed a little to close to home on that one)! But I honestly never thought about the possibility of aluminum from foil being able to leach into foods, since unlike an antiperspirant it doesn’t seem to be in a form that would allow it to migrate into other substances… like skin or food. I appreciate your input and will continue reading, and looking into alternatives… possibly a stainless steel griddle, which I have read about some people using. We might even say the heck with aluminum foil altogether and let the top of the grill get greasy! Although it's a cast iron grill, so maybe that's bad too! lol We’ve added an annotation to the video that says “NOTE: Some people recommend not cooking on foil” to bring the topic to people’s attention. By the way, I’m also not a big fan of too much grilling over charcoal fires for the same reason: potential exposure to carcinogens. Thanks again for the input!"

Tinker Bell No worries and no apology needed. You're absolutely right... if I'm going to keep making videos, I've got to keep Alzheimer's at bay. lol Congrats on your upcoming new RV! See ya on the road. :)

dstubby82 Thanks! That qualifies as Tip #11! :)

+roberto abrams Love the silicone tip! Thanks Roberto!

roberto abrams q

So great to hear Greg! Thanks. :)

+Janet Folkerts 9 out of 10 is a great batting average for us when providing information. Thanks for sharing, Janet!

caj1397 We love How It's Made, so we'll take that as a great compliment. Thanks! :)

Abunai One Thanks for the new tips! We can only imagine how difficult it is trying to keep an RV clean right now in SoCal with all the water issues. We use a pressure washer to dramatically reduce water usage, but I'm sure that even that is too much for CA these days.

Thanks so much for the kind words! Makes it all worthwhile. 😊

RVgeeks it always amazes me what you guys share on RU-vid and the videos are very informative

Craig Potter Thanks Craig!

Great idea!

Thanks so much Glenn! 😊

Congratulations Michael! Best of luck with your new rig. :)

Congrats on going full-time! Hope you love it, and boondocking, as much as we do. :)

Get yourself a composting toilet. You'll never go back to water plus it saves carrying and dumping. IMHO Natures Head is fully and ridiculously expensive. Here in the UK there are nicely styled pro unit for around $400

Hi Bert! Great to hear from you after connecting in Quartzsite. Thanks for the nice comment. We do try to keep our rig looking as good as we can considering it's now nearly 12 years old. This video might be just what you were looking for: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AA15MOt9wEA.html

Allen Hare Thanks so much Allen! Happy camping to you too. :)

RV Round Table Thanks RV Round Table! Much appreciated.

sanshinron Thanks for the feedback and input. Someone made the same comment on our website a few days ago, so we’ve been reading all about cooking with food in contact with aluminum… baked potatoes, grilling etc. What appears to be a very reasoned and succinct summary of the articles we’ve found is the following from the George Mateljan Foundation, which promotes health and a healthier world: “We do not recommend cooking or storing food in aluminum foil - even though there is no strong scientific evidence showing these practices to be harmful to your health. We have three reasons for making this recommendation. First, even though research studies don’t show the food use of aluminum foil to be harmful, they clearly show migration of small amounts of aluminum from the foil into the food. For example, in one study conducted in Italy about 2-6 milligrams of aluminum was found to move over into food from aluminum foils, cookware, and utensils. Even if this amount has not been show to pose health harm, we don’t like our food containing a potentially problematic metal that wasn’t naturally supposed to be there. Second, we believe that the jury is still out on aluminum with respect to chronic long-term health problems. (We’re talking here about exposure to aluminum from all sources, including the environment, certain workplace settings, personal care products, etc.) Potential connections have been found between certain cancers and aluminum exposure, and also between aluminum exposure and Alzheimer’s disease. Infertility connections have also been found. We don’t see any reason to add potential exposure through the use of aluminum foil with food. Finally, we don’t like the consequences of aluminum foil manufacturing for our planet. Aluminum remains on the federal government’s list of priority toxins for the United States, and its mining, manufacture, and post-use disposal pose significant problems for our environment. From our perspective, while aluminum foil is definitely lightweight, flexible, and convenient, these upsides don’t come close to outweighing the downsides here.” Based on everything else we’ve read, this sounds pretty rational. As a cancer survivor, and a generally health-conscious person, I stopped using aluminum-based antiperspirant years ago (it was male breast cancer, and the underarms seemed a little to close to home on that one)! But I honestly never thought about the possibility of aluminum from foil being able to leach into foods, since unlike an antiperspirant it doesn’t seem to be in a form that would allow it to migrate into other substances… like skin or food. I appreciate your input and will continue reading, and looking into alternatives… possibly a stainless steel griddle, which I have read about some people using. We might even say the heck with aluminum foil altogether and let the top of the grill get greasy! Although it's a cast iron grill, so maybe that's bad too! lol We’ve added an annotation to the video that says “NOTE: Some people recommend not cooking on foil” to bring the topic to people’s attention. By the way, I’m also not a big fan of too much grilling over charcoal fires for the same reason: potential exposure to carcinogens. Thanks again for the input!

RVgeeks Yeah from what I understand aluminium is more reactive than other metals and when it gets into your body it will bond with other nasty stuff. I have a hard water where I live and I've noticed that when I use an aluminium pot it will get residue on the pot walls (calcification?) quite fast. On the other hand I believe in moderation and trying to remove things so common as aluminium completely seems like goint overboard to me, so I still use it for example to wrap cold meat and let it marinade in the fridge. I just don't use it whenever heat is involved. It's not even that aluminium is bad, it's that plastic coating that's the worst. I've used to smoke weed (I don't anymore) and we did little aluminium "bowls" to hold the weed so that we didn't have to clean the bong. Usually we would hold the aluminium over the lighter until we saw a black smoke to make sure we don't inhale it, but one time someone forgot to do that and I took a hit of that plastic foil coating straight into my lungs. That was the nastiest thing I've ever put in my body and honestly the mere thought of grilling meat on it makes me wanna puke... Ok, so that's my story and I hope it scares you away from grilling on alumiunium foil :D

@@sanshinron I remember smoking weed on aluminum foil too😂

Thanks DJ! Will do. :)

Hi Kathleen, and congratulations on your new-to-you RV! We don't have a "10-most" mistakes video, but we do have a video about a newbie mistake we made that's one of our favorites: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IsiXaMEneaY.html

Hi Samantha! The video we've done that is most relevant to actually buying an RV might not be exactly what you're looking for, but might help if you haven't already purchased one: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uKYjE1YPVU8.html

+Christine Lowery (BEACHCRICKET) Awesome! It's great out here. :)

Hi Annette! Until we get a chance to create the playlist, here's the mirror video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ldekjpYQ7Qw.html And just in case you want to watch the one on turns/off-tracking again, here's the link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-y5MSGqfh8z0.html Enjoy, safe travels, and thanks for watching!

When our bathroom door stays put, our stove is perfectly level, too. :)

smacdiesel We don't use a softener, but we're planning to research them for use this winter in the desert SW, where the water is pretty awful! We've put up with the water down there for years, and it's time to look into improving it. Stay tuned for a video about that before next winter (hopefully). Please let us know which one you got and how you like it.

We’ve never bothered with a water softener, but when we wash the RV in the Desert SW, we do have to wash, rinse, and squeegee in sections to make sure we don’t let the hard water dry on the rig. As long as you keep it wet, it’s no problem. Having two people washing, rinsing and keeping wet until ready to squeegee a section, makes it pretty easy, although it can be challenging in direct sun!

We’d recommend buying the necessities at first, and filling in with things you “think” you need as you go. You can indeed dry camp / boondock with an all-electric rig, but it will either require large battery and solar panel banks, or running the generator more often... probably daily.

+joe krigbaum Try wetting a dryer sheet and slowly rub the bug residue until it comes off. Best trick we've found. Please let us know if it works for you! 😊

Hi Dale! We don’t actually use a water softener. When we’re in the desert, we keep about 4 or 5 1-gallon water bottles handy, and refill them for a quarter or so at those water machines, and use that for drinking purposes. For washing the RV, the trick is to wash the shady side only, keep it wet, then squeegee it off quickly, before it dries (helps to have two people). Then have lunch while the sun clears from the other side and wash it next! Washing in the sun, or letting the water dry, are the biggest problems.

+Scott Wall We just spent a few days with the Wynns, and we can attest first hand that Nikki is indeed a doll. :) In other news, an extra hose is a great idea!

Who is the bald dudes?

+Randy Bobandy RV Geeks.com Great information from great folks who simply share knowledge without drama or sales pitch. Best part..seeing videos of places I camped in my 76 Surfer van 30 years ago.

+Scott Wall They're not bald ahah Peter is pretty much bald I guess but that's sweet. Yeah I used to have/still have but don't use a 1974 RanDell fifth wheel. went everywhere in that thing.

+Randy Bobandy I lived in a 1976 Chevy van for many years, well...sort of as I stayed with girlfirends etc...knowing that rent is a major drain. Great lifesytle. House paid off, soon to retire. Currently looking for Bluebird, Monaco or Foretravel Diesel for retirement travel. Bird Wanderlodge was first choice, now rethinking that due to the quality of the Geek coach.

Every TV is different, Paula. Usually you go into the setup menus and tell it to auto-search for available channels.

My goodness, that takes me back! We did the same with our kids when we camped and drove from CA to WA one summer. We would have dinner, bathe the kids, put them in clean clothes for the next day, and load 'em into the car when it was time to roll on....(usually 4am or so) Our first stop was breakfast, and the day's driving was DONE by 2pm....so we'd stop and have plenty of time to set up camp and give the children time to run and play. And time for me to get a head start on dinner! If we could stop somewhere near water, swimming was a great way to help us all unwind. Happy Trails!!

We got those covers 12 years ago when we first bought the RV. They no longer make them, and they're getting pretty old. Luckily, we've heard about a new kind of tire cover that should be available soon, and we'll of course be reporting on that as soon as we find out more. ;-)

Did you get your new wheel covers yet?

Not yet, but we’re hopeful they’ll be available soon. They’re supposedly different than other covers and we’re holding out to see details when they’re ready. We’ll be sure to keep everyone posted as soon as we know more.

BTU is a measure of heat output, typically used in the rating of air-conditioners and heaters.

@@RVgeeks BTU stands for British Thermal Unit ...its the amount of energy requireded to raise one pound of water one degree in temperature.

That's part of the adjustable water pressure regulator: amzn.to/2EGaCOJ

On Amazon: amzn.to/2ISeBJ5

Many thanks. We're just purchasing our first RV. Never even driven one and only got to ride in it yesterday. We found an unbelievable deal on a 45ft 2003 model that I just couldn't walk away from. We've got a LOT to learn and your videos have been extremely helpful. I've already bookmarks about 10 of them to be able to review. Many thanks for producing and posting them. You ones on wheel tracking and adjusting/using the mirrors are the best around.

Congratulations on your new-to-you rig! How awesome! So glad you liked our driving videos. They were the ones I was going to suggest to help you get started! Safe Travels.

Hi Joe. It’s called “Locally Sourced” by Jason Farnham and I think it was either from the RU-vid creator library or iMovie. Been so long I can’t remember which!

@@RVgeeks Thanks. Amazed you found the time to a recent comment on a 3+ year old video. You guys rock!