- This week on the RV podcast,
- In the interview of the week segment tech,
talk about lithium batteries, how to replace your a GM
or your wet cell batteries, how to pair lithium with solar,
and what you need for cabling and, and inverter.
- Yellowstone National Park.
Just reopened for the new season.
And already there's been a turon incident, a tourist moron
who dangerously messed with the wildlife.
- And we introduced a new segment at the end
of the podcast this week, Mike
and Jen's story, time in which we share, uh, the tales
and lessons we've learned from our many years on the road.
This week we're gonna talk about the time we were robbed
- All this plus the RV News of the week.
And your questions coming up in episode 4 96
of the RV podcast.
- Hello everybody. I'm Mike Gwendolyn
and this is my lifelong traveling companion
and my bride Jennifer.
I wanna remind you that you can watch the video version, uh,
from, uh, our RV lifestyle YouTube channel.
And, uh, both the video
and audio version are also available on our RV
lifestyle blog.
And, uh, we have a new feature on the blog
with the, uh, audio version.
We now have closed captioning,
so you can actually get a full transcript
of everything we say on it,
and you can follow along in real time if you listen
to it@rvlifestyle.com.
And of course, we're available on all
of your favorite podcast apps as well.
And we invite you to subscribe if you have not already.
We hope that you are enjoying our RV podcast
and you find a lot of value in the content
that we have been producing almost 500 episodes now.
We try and create episodes that inform and entertain
and inspire our community of RV enthusiasts like yourself.
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Your feedback is incredibly valuable to us
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Your positive review not only motivates us
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So thank you for being a part of our podcast community
and we want you to know
how much we appreciate your ongoing support.
So there you go. And we're excited about a new segment
that we're gonna introduce this week.
Uh, Mike and Jen's story Time, no, you don't need a blankie,
, anything like that.
Um, but this comes from a lot of feedback that we've gotten,
uh, from our team and from you over the years.
Uh, we have a lot of stories, a lot of tales
that we've learned from the road
and, uh, things from our experience.
Uh, so we're gonna tell some stories, uh, try
and put 'em at the end of the podcast each week.
And, uh, when you go to rv lifestyle.com,
you can see we have different chapters
and different places where you can go
and you can jump right ahead to whatever segment
of this podcast you want to hear.
- So I'm wondering if anybody else is going camping.
This Mother's Day weekend,
we got the Montana Hike Country fifth Wheel
already sparkled and ready to go load up the refrigerator
and we are ready to launch.
- Yeah, I just turned on the refrigerator. Good job.
Nice and cold. 'cause I saw you put some stuff already in.
Maybe we're gonna actually be able to get the thing loaded
and not have to do it at the last minute.
Um, I also did, uh, I went out there with my, uh,
Milwaukee air compressor
and I, uh, set all the tires
to the proper cold temperature reading.
And, you know, this is something
that you should do in your RV before every trip,
but especially towards the start of the season.
Go check the air pressure in your RV tires, make sure
that they are set to
what the little sticker you have on your RV says is the
cold pressure setting.
And, uh, ours is 110 pounds per square inch.
And I set it all at 110.
They were pretty close to that, uh, even
after being in storage for, well,
we've only had it in storage for about three weeks, four,
5:00 PM But, uh, it's been pretty good.
- And I was really proud of you when you took everything out
of the storage areas and, uh, reorganized it
and weeded out a few things.
I I was very pleased about that.
And I went through our closets and looked over things
and thought, what do we need?
What do we don't need?
When you begin in springtime, it's time to wash everything
and get her ready to go.
- Yeah, I did that pass through section.
Mm-Hmm, , which I had just been kind
of like throwing stuff in.
Yeah. And it's easy to, I now have all my tools
and all the little things that you need, you know, like, uh,
adapters for the power, I got 'em all in a bin.
Uh, I've got, uh, everything kind of organized pretty well.
I got another chair
or two I wanna put in for your Mother's Day trips. Ah,
- Sounds good.
- You are gonna need a, a look at the sky chair. I hope
- So.
I hope I got a little time to look at the sky.
- So, listen, we are really excited by some
of the video content that we have planned.
We had, we've had almost a quarter million people watch the
series of Class B reviews that we did, uh,
with our friend Nick at Sunshine State
RVs a month or so ago.
I mean, that's a lot. A quarter million reviews, uh,
views on the views on our reviews, .
And, uh, so we're going
to follow your request and we're gonna do more.
Um, we're gonna do more
with Nick throughout the, uh, the year.
Uh, but we also, um, uh,
we'll announce all the details next week,
but we're going to be, uh, doing a series of reviews
on a very popular subsection of the class.
A market, small class a's under 30 feet.
So we're gonna review several of those, uh,
which is something you've asked us to do.
And then we are also going to be reviewing some class Cs,
uh, thanks to our friends at General rv, uh, which, uh,
we are anxious to try these all out
and learn about both of those through experience
and tell you about 'em as well.
And, um, we're gonna do some more Class Bs, uh, this very
weekend if you are watching this.
This is May 8th as this episode's being released.
And, uh, over on Saturday of this week,
we'll be releasing our very detailed, uh, review
of the Brinkley rv.
Frankly, we visited their campus,
their complex near Elkhart in, uh, Goshen,
Indiana last week.
And we toured one of their, uh, their leading,
uh, fifth wheel plants.
We tracked down an owner
and got some answer to a lot of rumors about 'em,
and we're really excited about this video.
Plus we did our review.
So, uh, if you've been curious about the Brinkley,
make sure you tune in Saturday.
So we have a lot to do.
Plus we got our gathering coming up in, uh,
just about a month now in Ship Siana.
That's gonna be fun. We're gonna do our gather grooving,
gather with the temptations.
So that's what we have been up to.
We should also tell people we
wanna get mail from 'em, right?
- We certainly do. So, uh, send us emails at Mike
and janet rv lifestyle.com.
- Yeah, comments, email, whatever you like.
And we put a site, a, a space on our, uh,
new RV lifestyle community@community.rvlifestyle.com,
where you can actually post questions that you would like us
to answer, uh, on the podcast.
And we will draw those questions right from there as well,
as well as the email that people send us.
So, alright, when we come back, we've got the social media
news, the buzz of the week.
So stay with us.
After countless nights on the road,
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We just heard about a land offering out west for
RVs in Arizona.
They're selling five acre RV ranches,
starting at only $49,900.
The company offering it is affiliated
with the people Jennifer
and I bought our Tennessee property from.
They do a great job. It looks amazing.
It is at high elevation, so you get cooler temperatures,
big mountain views, juniper trees, and green grasses.
And it is near everything.
The Grand Canyon Lake Havasu, Kingman,
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It's a perfect place
to have a home base to explore the west.
And it is right off Famous Route 66.
It's called Greenwood Ranches.
And this is the second and final section of the community.
We met the sales manager, really nice guy.
He bought a property for his RV
and he's building a container home on it.
Check out their website for a video tour
and showing availability.
It's pretty incredible.
Visit the website to get details
and set up a showing Arizona RV land.net.
That's Arizona rv land.net.
Welcome everybody. Time now for the social media buzz.
- And we've got Wendy Boyer
who reports on the hot issues most talked about this past
week on the social media
and our RV lifestyle community group.
So every week we get to learn something from Wendy. So
- What are they talking about this week?
- Hi everybody. Over in our RV lifestyle community general
discussion space.
Tim recently asked, if you're going on an extended RV trip,
how do you get your prescriptions filled?
So Tim's insurance only permits 90 day refills.
And you can imagine how tricky
that can be depending upon the length of your trip
and, uh, the length of your prescription.
So, lots of good tips for Tim here. Richard.
He shared some options if Tim's a veteran
and then Dennis, he suggested Walgreens or CVS.
And in fact, that's what Robin uses.
Um, she uses CVS and she said it's super easy.
They transfer your prescription
to wherever you are on the road
and then when you're home, it gets transferred
back no problem.
And Arvis said Walmart, pharmacies
and also another good option.
'cause let's face it, it seems like there's
Walmart's just about everywhere.
So some good tips there for Tim.
And then also in our community.
And we have a new space called Weather for our Vs.
And let's face it, this is a really big deal, um,
not only on travel days,
but if you're in a location
that's gonna be really hard hit by a storm.
It's just good to know this.
Um, so with all the crazy weather this country's been having
lately with tornadoes and flooding and hailstorms
and winds, this group's been really busy ever
since we created it.
Um, Chris has been great.
He's been sharing some real time alerts for folks out there.
And Brenda and Mark, they've shared some really helpful info
too, especially about strong winds.
And we even had a post from Chris, um, outta Texas.
There was a picture of this hand holding, three hail ball,
hail balls, I'm gonna call 'em.
And these hail things were so big he could,
the whoever was holding 'em could
only have three in his hand.
'cause these things were the size of baseballs.
I can only imagine the damage they would do.
So again, if you are conscious of the weather,
you really need to check that out, um,
in our, in our new community.
And then meanwhile over in our Facebook group,
things are busy as always.
Um, we had a post from Kay
and she wrote, I wanna make a list
of things we absolutely have to do when breaking camp.
We know to dump the tanks,
but what are things we dare not forget?
Um, so this was a great question.
You know, many recommended Kay create a list of
what she needs to do during the tear down, um, specific
for her rig and then keep it on her phone
or print it, laminate it and keep it in her rig.
But there were lots of things that were
advised from many people.
Um, so I wanna share a few of them with you.
Uh, many said, make sure, number one,
you clear all those small items from your tables
and countertops so they don't roll
and fall around when you travel.
Put down any antenna, close your roof vents,
rinse the sewer line, lock the fridge.
Many said this is so important.
Just one time of forgetting to do this
and seeing the mess
of all your fridge items spilled on the floor,
you'll never forget again.
So lock that fridge, drain your hose before putting it away.
Check your tire pressure before you hit the road.
Make sure your jacks are up, your awnings in.
And then if you use leveler pads,
make sure you don't leave those behind.
So, great suggestions.
Um, but what, what else should she know?
What else do you have out there for Kay to remember?
I love to hear it. And, uh, that's it for me this week.
I'm Wendy Boyer and I'll see you either at the RV lifestyle
community or Facebook group.
- Well, thank you very much Wendy.
And, uh, always fun to hear what everybody's talking about
and talk about they do on our every lifestyle
community and Facebook group.
Oh, I mean, there's
- Always good things,
but this week, the weather, which is, uh, something
that you need to know about when you're out there on the
road and getting prescriptions.
You know, not everybody has traveled that much
and they don't know how to get prescriptions.
And there was some really good advice.
And I gotta tell you, I never thought about Walmart
for my, uh, prescriptions.
I've thought about CVS
and Walgreens 'cause they're the two biggest
- Pharmacy.
That would be one of our stories. Our RV lifestyle stories.
Mike and Jen's story time.
We'll talk about prescriptions someday.
'cause you have certainly had
prescriptions filled across the country. Oh
- Yeah.
And uh, and then also the, um, making a list
of things that when you leave,
because we have, I mean, we have left
that vent up on the top and driven down the road.
I don't know how long
before we realize something's not right.
It doesn't sound quite right. Yes,
- We have - Have we and leading things on the counter that
not checking and 'cause it'll roll off
and Paul can testify to that
and so can tie his predecessor,
but being terrified by something rolling off the counter.
Yeah. So if you need a list of things
or if you can discipline yourself to take the time
to carefully walk through and look at everything,
because if it can fall, it will.
- Yep, - It will. So good advice.
- Alright, speaking of advice coming up in our interview
of the week, we're gonna talk to, uh, Jesse Assay.
He's with, uh, battle borne batteries.
And we're gonna learn about what's involved in replacing the
current batteries you have with lithium batteries, uh,
peeling, pairing it up with solar
and all the questions that you have.
And, uh, that's coming up right after this.
For campers in our veers.
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is vitally important.
And that's why Jennifer and I use
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The taste pure water filter reduces unpleasant tastes,
odors, lead chlorine, bacteria, sediment, and heavy metals,
and also controls bacteria and mold growth.
Our viewers should start the season with a new filter
and then replace it every 90 days or so.
Now, we can't emphasize enough
that waiting longer than three months can lead to bad taste,
odor and reduced water flow.
And it may also affect the removal of lead.
So replace it after about three months.
The CAM code Taste Pure Water filter is available at most
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Use our affiliate link at rv lifestyle.com/taste Pure.
That's RV lifestyle.com/taste. Pure.
Welcome back, everybody.
Time now for the RV interview of the week
- And lithium batteries.
That really is the now and the future.
More and more people are parking off grid
and, uh, they're just realizing what an asset they are.
- Yeah, it has really, I think, um,
revolutionized the boondocking movement.
And, uh, what's they're saying
that lead being like lead acid, bass, batteries,
lead is dead .
So, but a lot of people are very confused about lithium.
Number one, we wanna point out you don't need
to have lithium to ensure your rv, uh, is particularly
for those who are, uh, off grid, um, boondocking
and just don't, I can't hook up to, to, uh,
regular campground power.
But with more and more of us doing that,
because frankly, it's so hard to get into many RV parks, uh,
it is a topic that we get an awful lot of mail about.
Uh, how do you do it?
What do you do about the existing batteries?
We thought, uh, that it would be good
to hear from an expert.
So a while ago on our RV lifestyle community,
we do live streams there all the time
and usually bring in experts.
We had Jesse Asay, he's with battle borne batteries.
Um, battle borne is owned by, uh, uh, its parent company is,
uh, the company that really provides pretty much most
of the OEM batteries on the leading RV manufacturers.
They're, uh, a lot
of battle borne batteries under the name battle, uh,
dragonfly, uh, which is their, uh, is their parent company.
So, um, Jesse was on
and answered a lot of questions from the audience
and we thought we would, uh, put together some of that
for you as you perhaps are considering upgrading to lithium
for the new camping season.
So let's check in and get some of those questions answered.
One of the questions, and I got this from Betsy,
and Betsy said, I have a Class C
and she didn't tell me what brand it is.
She said, I was told that I can drop
and replace, uh, my old batteries with lithium batteries.
But what else do I need to consider, uh,
besides just swapping out batteries?
- Yeah, absolutely. Okay, good question.
We get that all the time.
Um, what do I need to switch over to lithium?
You know, there's a couple things to consider there.
Um, first off, do you have enough room
to do what you wanna do?
How big is your battery compartment?
Because if you want to, uh,
just swap out your batteries, it's a really easy process.
But if you wanna put in a whole new powering system and,
and, um, have a bunch of other stuff,
you're gonna need a bigger battery bank
and you wanna make sure you can fit it.
So number one, do I have the space to do what I wanna do?
Number two, um, are all the charging methods
that are currently charging your existing batteries,
are they compatible with lithium?
So, you know, if you have a, a converter in there,
you can check the model number
and see if it's a lithium version.
A converter's just a basic charger.
When you plug into that shore power,
it charges the batteries up.
If it's compatible, great, it's gonna work great
to charge the batteries and it'll have a little
lithium symbol on there.
They'll, they'll tout that on there for some
of those newer vehicles.
If not, we'd recommend swapping that out
with a compatible lithium charger.
Um, and that's a fairly easy thing
to do depending on your model, you can always call us up
and say, Hey, this is the model number of my converter.
Is this gonna work? And we'll walk you through it.
Um, if you have other charging methods, like, uh,
inverter chargers are very common.
You know, a lot of 'em will have a lithium mode,
a lithium battery type.
Uh, if not, there's some custom settings.
You just go in and put the parameters
of our batteries in there, which is really easy.
It's right on the stickers on all of our batteries.
This is how they like to be charged. This is the, the range.
Um, and those are really the basics.
Does it fit, will it charge? Well,
- We, and and really this is, you know, it's, it, it,
it can easily be a DIY project if you have
some familiarity with it.
But a mobile RV techs
and just a call to you guys,
if somebody just calls battle borne batteries
and says, Hey, this is what I have, this is what I want,
will you guys walk them through that process and,
and help 'em make sure they have the system they need?
- Absolutely. We do that all day long.
We've got 10 guys on the phones out here, uh, doing
that exact same thing.
Uh, if you need a, a consult to say, Hey, I've got this kind
of vehicle, um, what do I need to switch over?
We will go over that with you. Or you can take it to any
of the, the dealers that are familiar, uh,
installers around the country.
There's a lot of of people that are really good at,
- Uh, - Putting systems in.
- Here's a question that came, uh, just came in.
It's in the chat room from Suzanne Weiss
and she says she's looking to upgrade to a new camper
that is prepped for lithium,
but she worries about what temperatures do I need
to worry about in keeping them warm.
And she knows that it gets very cold in
Nebraska in the wintertime.
- Yeah, good question as well.
Yeah, that's, that's a, a big thing.
Uh, a big topic of conversation when it comes to lithium.
You know, what about the whole temperature and everything?
Um, lithium batteries work way better in cold temperatures
than any kind of lead acid style battery.
You know, even down negative four degrees fahrenheit's
totally fine to use our batteries
that work really, really well.
Um, the, the thing that, um, is the limiting factor
is the charging when it gets down
to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit inside the battery, uh,
it will not take a charge.
There's a thermal protection in there.
Lithium batteries don't do well in charging in cold weather.
Using 'em. It works great if you do need to, uh, run your,
your system, uh, and,
and charge during those cold temperatures.
We have a heated version of the battery,
which will always keep it above that temperature
and always allow you to use your system, uh, flawlessly.
- A question from Ron. He said he's heard
so much about different sizes of lithium batteries
and, uh, the question is, he says is, uh,
how much do I need, uh,
if I wanna just run my air conditioner through the night?
Which is a big ask 'cause just
because people don't realize
how much an air conditioner takes. Yeah,
- Yeah.
Air conditioners are a huge power consumer
and probably the largest in your rv.
Um, so what you need, uh, is gonna be based on what you want
to use the temperature outside.
In general, if somebody calls us up
and says, Hey, I wanna run an air
conditioner, what do I need?
The minimum requirement is about three
of our 100 amp hour batteries and a 3000 watt inverter.
Uh, that's the, the minimums to make that work.
Now, how much time runtime you get outta that, again,
is gonna vary depending on the temperature
outside temperature inside, you know, and, and everything.
But in general, you can get half hour, 45 minutes,
sometimes a little bit more per 100 amps of battery.
You have to run an air conditioner.
- So, um, Jack Partain on the chat room asks,
what makes your batteries better than some
of your competitors cheaper products?
- Oh yeah, another great question.
Um, we could make a pretty darn cheap battery,
but to compete with that,
but we don't wanna make that, um, that style of battery
because it's not as good.
Honestly. You know, there's a lot of manufacturers out there
that are calling themselves lithium battery manufacturers
that just import a battery directly from China without
knowing anything about the technology or how to build it.
And when it arrives, they slap their sticker on it
and ship it out and,
and they're doing nothing really to, um, know how
that chemistry works, to know how to set it up
for, for customers.
Um, if you call in for support,
you probably are not gonna get your questions answered,
and you're probably not gonna get a real warranty either.
Uh, it's really easy
to make your battery look good at an affordable price.
Uh, it's another thing for it to work properly to use, uh,
components internally that are safe and,
and that will last the duration, uh, the lifetime
of your, your system.
So yeah, there, there's a lot of different battery companies
that have come up in the last like 10 years or so.
Uh, we've been around doing it for a lot longer.
Uh, we actually build them right here.
I can walk 20 feet out into the warehouse
and help 'em build batteries.
Um, and you talk to live customer service agents that know
what they're talking about and
can help you with your system.
The support is really big over here, so we wanna,
we wanna stress that, um, you get what you pay for.
If you get a really cheap
and expensive battery, you're probably gonna have everything
else involved with it.
Um, a little unsatisfactory as well.
- And that leads me to a question that came in, uh,
by email from Jim who said, uh, what, uh, it used to be
that you made a hundred amp uh, battery.
He said, what are the different sizes of
battle borne batteries
and what are the specific needs that, uh, an RV would have
to have to, uh, to have 'em fit? That makes sense. Yeah.
- Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of, uh,
battery styles out there.
You know, the most common is probably a group 27, 100 amp
hour battery, and that's
what ours mimics the shape and size.
It's very similar. Um,
you also have a hundred amp hour battery
that is in the form factor
or the shape of the six volt batteries that are out there.
They're, uh, a little more narrow and taller,
and our GC two battery is very similar to that.
So those are the two 100 amp hour batteries.
Uh, we also have smaller batteries if you have some,
some application where you, you don't need as much power.
You know, fishing boats are a really good example.
Trolling motors. We've got some group 24, um,
75 amp hour batteries,
and even a smaller capacity, 50 amp hour.
Um, you've got your big 270 amp hour battery.
Our GC three, the game changer,
and those are kind of, uh, tall, narrow, long batteries
that fit great against the sides of the compartments
of vans and RVs.
Uh, they have a 300 amp discharge rate.
Um, those are the, the primary sizes
that we, we offer right now.
- Uh, Maryanne says, I used to hear that, uh, it was
that lithium batteries had a fire danger
and I see many of them underneath an RV bed
or near where people are sleeping.
Is that safe now?
- Good question again. Yeah, we have a lot
of customers ask about the safety
and, you know, lithium, um, has been in the news a lot.
I mean, it used to be the old Samsung phones would be
blowing up in people's pockets.
Yep. And you know, that, that's one of the reasons, um,
why we stress the quality and,
and the um, uh, the safety of our batteries.
Our entire pack is UL rated, um, our battery pack.
And, and that lends to the safety aspect.
Um, they're certified to travel in the air
all over the world.
Um, lots of customers are sleeping on top
of these batteries in their different applications.
There's no off-gassing, there's no terminal corrosion,
there's no gas that comes out that's gonna be harmful.
Uh, they can go in sealed compartments
or vintage compartments.
Um, lithium iron phosphate, LFP, uh,
as you hear it, uh, is one
of the safest chemistries within that lithium blanket.
And the way that we build the batteries, uh,
we have 120 individual cells, uh, that are steel encased
inside each 100 amp hour battery.
And, um, that is one of the safest ways, uh,
to build a battery with those types of cells.
They have an air gap in between them, uh, in the internal
makings, and that makes it, uh, extremely safe.
Not like these other cheaper battery companies
that just take these lithium blocks, these prismatic cells,
uh, and just slap 'em together to
where it can be thermally dangerous.
So, yeah. Long, long answer, short question.
Uh, they're very safe.
Many, many people using 'em in sleeping on top of them.
- Um, Ronald Jeca in the chat room,
what is the life expectancy of a battery,
lithium battery in normal use?
- Yeah. Um, it, it's hard to,
to tell people exact,
to get a feel for how long they're gonna last.
Um, you have easily 5,000
cycles that you run through the battery.
To give you some perspective of that.
If you were to discharge your battery down completely empty,
our batteries, which you can do not like a lead acid battery
or some of the other cheaper lithiums, um,
run all the way down to empty all the way back up to full.
And you did that every single day for the next 10 years,
you've used up 3,650 cycles.
After that, you would have probably 85%
of the original capacity on the batteries.
This is a very long life battery.
Um, you get, we say
around 15 years plus if you treat it the right way.
Um, the life expectancy is, is dependent on
how many cycles you use and how often you use it.
So it can be a very long time.
- So it's likely the
however long you're gonna keep that rv that battery's likely
to be, to be still good.
Um, here's a question that we get different, uh, questions.
I'm got a couple emails on it,
but Frank, uh, posts this in the chat room.
He says, can I leave a charged lithium battery in my RV over
the winter where it drops
below freezing regularly in the Chicago area
when I'm not using the rv?
- Absolutely, yeah. One of the great things about, uh,
battle warn batteries is you can charge it up to full
before you put it in storage,
disconnect it from all the, the loads.
If there's no power coming in or anything like, or going out
or anything like that, they can sit
for a year without needing a trickle charger,
without needing any kind of charge.
Which is great because, uh, the old standard lead acids,
you know, you leave it sitting there for a month
and you, your batteries are pretty much toast
and they're not gonna perform very well next season.
So at least 50% full, we say, you know, get it up
to full disconnect everything.
You have a very long life,
you don't have to worry about the cold.
Um, they can be in, you know, negative 10, negative 15, uh,
until it, it haws out.
It's not gonna do anything to the batteries,
but discharge a tiny bit.
- Now, one of the questions that, uh, I wanted to come back
to that you kind of alluded to.
You talked about, um, a a,
a lead acid-based battery and a lithium battery.
And how, uh, many times that lithium could be drained down
to nothing and still recharge.
Uh, explain what happens to a lead acid battery every time
when use, when you use it all up, how much damage does
that do to a, to a lead battery?
- Yeah. When you discharge, uh, a lead acid battery
of any type, uh, wet cell gel, a GM, any of those,
um, past 50%, it has, uh, a damaging effect internally
and, um, shortens the, the duration of the, the lifespan.
So if you were to bring 'em down to empty,
which in inevitably most RVers do, it takes
that cycle estimation of maybe, maybe
around 500 cycles if you're lucky.
And, and it will cut it down dramatically the first time you
go under 50%
or especially the first time you really
kill all the power in it.
So it, uh, has a very negative effect, uh,
with lead acid batteries bringing 'em down.
- Um, Matthew says, talk about parasitic drain.
Is that something we need
to worry about on lithium batteries?
He knows you do. He explained that how, uh,
he had a parasitic drain
and it kept draining his lead batteries.
And that's one of the reasons he went to lithium.
But now he's still worried
that there might be a parasitic drain.
How about parasitic drain in lithium batteries?
- Yeah, there's always some kind of, um, stationary load,
uh, on an rv.
You know, you've got carbon monoxide sensors,
you've got LP sensors, you've got maybe a back load stereo,
uh, and, and they're always trickling a little bit
of power outta that battery, it seems like.
And eventually, no matter what type of battery it is,
if you leave it long enough without anything coming in
and a little going out, it's gonna, it's gonna drain
that battery down to where it's empty.
Happens a lot faster with, uh, lead acid batteries.
But the thing we always tell people is, you know, look at
that switch that's in there.
Usually there's a battery switch that you can cut off.
Uh, the problem with those when they're installed
by the manufacturers is a lot
of 'em will have devices routed around that switch.
You know, uh, they're a safety device, right?
So they can ride 'em around that, that battery switch
and still pull power out of the battery unknowingly.
So if you get a lithium battery, one of ours, uh,
if you get any type of battery for that matter, check
and see when you cut that switch off
or when you disconnect, there's any power coming out
of the system, always check for parasitic load.
- And it's always there, uh, on pretty much all of them, uh,
which is, uh, which is pretty tough.
Um, what about maintenance?
Uh, this is a question from Judy.
She says, I'm a solo rvr
and, uh, I, I read the stuff about how I'm supposed to care
for my lead acid batteries.
What about lithium batteries?
What do I have to know about maintaining them?
- Lithium batteries are, are great.
I mean, battle worm batteries, a any kind of maintenance is,
is basically, um, don't let the battery
go empty and stay empty for long periods of time.
Um, there's, there's, uh, I mean, there's,
there's so little maintenance.
I guess the other thing, uh, would be, uh,
to make sure that you charge it regularly.
You know, if you never get our batteries full,
then it has a tendency not
to balance out at that top end of the charge.
So don't let it get empty for a very long ti period of time.
You know, always recharge it when it goes empty,
even though it's not gonna damage it to use all the power
and get a full and complete charge on a regular
basis when you're using it.
That's the maintenance. There's no water to put in.
Um, there's no terminal corrosion to scrub off.
There's no having a maintainer,
a trickle charger, uh, in storage.
It really has simplified, uh, the use of,
of storing batteries.
- Um, in terms of, of weight, uh, compared to lead acid,
how do lithium batteries stack up?
- Yeah, if you look at comparison one to one, uh,
our batteries are 31 pounds in that a hundred amp
and a similar capacity battery is probably 80 pounds,
you know, but if you think about it, uh,
if you compare a 100 amp hour battle born to 200 amps
of lead acid like an ag GM,
the same power equivalent is there, right?
You, you can only use 50% of this one,
you use a hundred percent of this, one a hundred amps out
of this, a hundred amps out of that.
And if you look at two of those batteries, the AGMs or,
or the lead acids side by side, um, that's 150 pounds
or so worth of lead, easily, easily,
or a hundred amps worth of usable energy versus 31 pounds
for a hundred amps of usable energy.
So it's quite a big lighter,
- Which, which gives you a big benefit
because that gives you more carrying
capacity in your rv. Yeah,
- Tom, weight everything.
- Yeah. Uh, Chuck Gunn in the chat room asks, uh,
what is involved with changing out a dual a GM setup
to go to lithium?
- Yeah, if you have, uh, two a GM batteries, um, you know,
get the amperage capacity,
it's probably close to a hundred amps.
And, uh, look at, if you have a, a big inverter in there
or a small inverter,
and in a lot of cases you can use almost half
of the capacity you have now, uh, in lithium, theoretically,
if, if you're gonna use 200 amps, just like we went over,
you can use 100 amps with, uh, the battle warrants
because that capacity is all usable.
When we say, Hey, here's your a hundred amp hour battery,
you can actually pull out a hundred amps when you get a,
a lead acid or a GM
or gel, anything like that, they say,
here's your a hundred amp hour battery, don't go below 50%.
So, you know, it's, it's as easy as that.
But, um, in regards to like, let's, I mentioned an inverter.
Uh, there's a kind of a rule of thumb.
If you have a thousand watt inverter,
you wanna go at least a hundred amps worth
of lithium capacity.
If you have a 2000 watt inverter, you want, uh,
at least two batteries if you have a 3000, you know,
so it goes on and on.
So if you have two batteries now, uh, the AGMs
and you wanna switch over to one of ours
and you have a 2000 watt inverter,
you really do need a robust battery bank.
Uh, and I would say, uh, two
of our 100 amps you would need in that situation.
- Uh, mark asks, uh, do I have to change the cabling
between my inverter and my batteries if I add lithium?
- Uh, it, it depends on if they,
- You didn't gimme any data about
how big his inverter is or any of that. So
- In, in general, you know, one out to two odd cable,
maybe even more up to four ott,
if you have somewhere in there, um,
it doesn't need to be replaced.
But, um, another generality is for an inverter,
um, that's about seven foot or more away from the batteries.
Uh, if it's like a 2000
or a 3000 watt use at least two T cable,
sometimes even up to four ott.
And if you are switching to lithium, uh,
remember the corrosion, uh, the, uh, on the terminals
and everything, it could be inside the wires too.
So if you're gonna switch to lithium
and you have the opportunity, switch out the wires too,
unless they look perfect to you.
Yeah. Um, but in general, two OTT to four OTT is
what you want to use for inverters, unless it's real small.
- Uh, thanks so much for being our guest and
- Gotcha.
Thank you very much, you guys. It was a pleasure being here.
I hope you get, hope to talk
to you guys again soon. Bye-Bye.
- I don't ever see us, uh, having an RV
that does not have lithium batteries.
Um, because even when we spend the night,
like in a Cracker Barrel or, uh, at a Walmart
or, uh, at a harvest host,
many times there's no commercial power there.
So it's really nice to have those lithium batteries
and you can run your coffee maker and things like that.
You know, you have to be a little careful about
how you use energy always.
But, uh, they sure make it easy.
It doesn't take long for us to get spoiled, does it?
No, it really doesn't. It really doesn't.
So, uh, if you enjoy that interview,
we have regular interviews like that all the time,
of course, here on the podcast, but also in the RV
lifestyle community.
Uh, just join us if you haven't,
community dot rv lifestyle.com.
And, um, we wanna thank Jesse
and the team at Battle born for, uh, uh, all
of their help and advice.
Alright, the RV News of the week, it's coming up.
Right after this. Jennifer
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That's rv lands.net. Welcome back, everybody.
Time now for the RV News of the week.
And what's our first story? Well,
- Uh, didn't take long.
Yellowstone National Park, uh, hasn't even fully opened
for the 2024 season.
And already a turon that slang for a tourist
who was also a moron was injured by a bison.
So what did this guy do?
Well, this guy, he encountered a herd
of bison on West Entrance Road near the, uh,
seven mile bridge, got out of his vehicle
and kicked one in the leg.
- Wait, he actually kicked the bison in the leg. Yep.
A bison, which weighs what, 2000 pounds? Yeah,
- They're big.
Must have been in the road.
And he wanted to drive through one
- .
I don't think the animal took that kindly.
- Uh, no. The, the animal then mildly injured.
The man, the man's lucky he's alive.
That injury earned this guy the dubious distinction
of being the first human injured by, um, bison
and Yellowstone for 2024.
And thankfully someone saw this happen and,
and it happened in late April,
and they told the Ranger, who arrested this guy in a,
in the town of West Yellowstone,
and his injuries, like for him, they, they were mild,
but the, uh, 40-year-old man from Idaho has now been cited
for being under the influence of alcohol.
I think that's the key to this story. , oh geez.
To the degree that, uh, he could injure himself,
disorderly conduct, and approaching and disturbing wildlife
and the man driving the vehicle, he was
also facing a charge.
And, uh, last year you did a fun
- Yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead.
I, I let's do it again. Last,
- Uh, last year, do it - Again.
- What? - Pick it up. Last year.
- Last year we interviewed a Yellowstone Ranger about this
growing problem of tourist doing really
stupid and dangerous things.
Oh, at this beloved national park?
- Yeah. She had some really wild stories,
but this guy, uh, alcohol, I mean, uh, yeah,
so he's the first tour on.
I'm sure there will be more.
There probably have been more since this story happened.
Um, they are really cracking down on it.
The, uh, courts out there are really heavily finding these
people and taking all sorts of action
and I applaud them for that.
But, uh, the, uh,
the turan got caught and let's hope they all do.
- You know, when I first started reading the story,
I started thinking that maybe somebody had a buddy
shooting a video of it and they wanted it to go viral,
that they, uh, thought this would be fun to
hit or kick or do something.
He drunk animal. But it ends up it was just somebody under
the influence of alcohol.
But, um, I always feel badly when the animal get put down.
I feel badly if the guy got killed,
but, you know, you just don't do this.
But alcohol tour rots
and I'm, I'm sure they, the bison must have been in the road
and he was trying to drive through
or something, I don't know.
But because they do that, I mean,
they sit down in the middle of the road or who knows
- The guy.
Other guy's motive the guy, the guy is a moron.
- I mean, well, it, - Yeah, come on.
Well, you don't have to be nice to people that are morons
that probably will result in
that bison getting put down. I want the bison
- Doesn't get put down.
- Um, life and burgers.
I can't tell where it is 'cause he moved off, I'm sure.
But this guy and I, uh, I hope they throw the book at him.
Alright. Um, here's another story for you.
Uh, doesn't it drive you crazy when you're told
that a campground is completely booked?
Um, but maybe you're in the area.
So you drive through and you observe site
after site that is empty and the reason it's empty is
because people booked it and just didn't show up.
Or maybe you're trying to book that, um, dream trip
to a popular park.
You go online and uh, uh, to book and minutes
after reservations are open,
but you find everything is already taken
and you can't get a spot.
Well, the camping at the dirt recently announced
that less than half of campers, 42.7% used all
of the reservations that they made last year in 23.
And the report found that it was four times more difficult
to get a camping reservation in 23 than it was in
2019 when they started.
Now most of those, uh, had a change of plans, uh,
and, uh, most people do cancel their re reservations,
but almost 15% are no shows.
And that's what the results were from 2323.
And it's that later number that really gets a lot
of RVers mad.
Uh, a lot of campers really get frustrated by this
because somebody could be enjoying that camping spot
and to not cancel is the epitome of being selfish.
Now we understand emergencies happen,
but often it seems that that's not the case.
We told you several months back about a new law in
California that penalizes those
who don't cancel their reservations
and even bans them from making future reservations if there
are no show three times or more.
And we think there needs to be more policies like
that around the country.
Uh, nohow, if you're not gonna show call up
and cancel, please do that just
for your other campers. Right? Well, I think
- It's tough when they close at five.
- Yeah, yeah, that's true.
In State Park Park, that's a problem. And, and many parks.
Yep. So maybe, you know, you can't make it and you call
and nobody answers the phone because Yeah.
You know, know, uh, that's true. I, I, I forgot about that.
Yeah, but still.
- But give it your best shot.
- Yeah. Uh, alright. What's happening after that?
- Okay. Are you ready to wake up at three in the morning
and go outside and look at the sky?
You thinking about it? No. . Okay.
So be well get ready.
A spectacular meteorite show is, is happening this week,
and as many to 10 to 30 meteors are gonna be zipping
through the sky at rates of about 148,000 miles per
hour. There
- Goes one - Sort.
And the only bad thing is, like I said, the best time
to see this is around 3:00 AM
- So would you tell me the next morning
how it is when you get out there?
- I'm the one who can't get up in the middle of the night.
If I'm sleeping, I'm sleeping. I'm like a bear hydrated. You
- Did that in Alaska.
The most spectacular Northern Lights I
kept trying to get you outta bed.
Oh yeah. You just kept telling me to go away ,
- You know?
Right. Hey, let sleeping bears lie. Yeah.
But, so if you can set your alarm clock,
you can wake yourself up, you can get out there.
You're going to, and you're in a dark spot
where there's not a lot of light pollution,
it's gonna be totally worth it.
It's a et aqua meteorite.
They show that happens every April
or May when the earth crosses the orbital path of,
uh, Haley's Comet.
And what we see are flashing
through the sky are small grains of rock
and dust shed by the comet
as it strikes our planet's atmosphere.
- Now this year's show is expected to be the best in years.
Um, the peak was Monday, May 6th,
but, uh, it's supposed to be all week long.
It's supposed to be really spectacular.
And you can see this thing through, um, the 27th.
- Yeah, the 27th of May.
- So you're gonna get up at 3:00 AM
- If we set our alarm, there's a pretty good chance
that maybe I can get up.
Oh, we gotta, the hardest thing is weather. Yeah.
You know, I mean, you gotta have clear sky.
Yeah. If you're gonna see this.
- Well, we have pretty clear skies here in southwest
Michigan on our 10 acres.
So, all right. Uh, one last story for you today.
And, uh, it has to do about grizzly bears helicoptering,
uh, grizzly bears.
As a matter of fact, um, it's a lot
of controversy about this story.
Uh, if you're heading to Washington State's North Cascade
Mountain Range, you ought to be advised now that, uh,
an animal not spotted there.
Since 1996, the grizzly bear is being airdropped in
to, uh, establish a population in that area.
Federal government, ,
they recently decided they're gonna transplant grizzly bears
back to the North Cascades mountain range,
despite local residents concerns about safety
and harm, the livestock
and fruit orchards, bears do like fruit,
but the National Park Service and the US Fish
and Wildlife Service, they said they're gonna release three
to seven bears a year,
helicoptering them into the Cascade's most remote areas.
They wanna have 25 bears transported over
the next five to 10 years.
And a population of 200 grizzlies in 60 to a hundred years.
Now, as this plan is not being well received, uh,
Washington representative Dan Newhouse called it outrageous.
He accused the federal government
of totally disregarding local residents
and very valid safety concerns.
Grizzlies were once prevalent in the area,
and the federal government says they're necessary
to restore the ecosystem to full health.
I'm not sure where we, where I come down on this.
- Well, I'm sure they were prevalent in the area
before people moved in. Yeah.
- And, and people were overhunting grizzlies for their fur,
and that's why it disappeared.
But, but if I lived there
and I relied on something like an apple orchard from my
livelihood, um, I don't think I'd be very happy.
Uh, the North casts are on the Canadian border.
They're just stunning.
Uh, we are just amazing how, uh, beautiful
that National Park is up there.
By the way, it's one of the least visited. Um, but, um,
- Well, I'm wondering why grizzly bears from Canada don't
come south into Washington state. Well,
- There you have really tight border control Canada.
Uh, they don't have the identification,
- They don't have proper ID to get into the,
it seems like they would go back and forth. Well,
- That whole region is gone, so there's none anywhere
around there in Canada or in the us.
Uh, they've been gone and, uh, now they're,
the US is gonna put them back.
So they'll be going over the Canadian border.
- So Canada doesn't have them.
Yes, they're, I mean, but not,
not anywhere near the, not near the border.
- Not near the Cascades. Every day they're going into now.
Okay. Okay.
- I just wonder how you're gonna keep the
bears in the states
- a wall, a tight border wall.
- Well, they might put up a wall for that . No, they
- Don't.
You know, I don't think
Canada's particularly worried about it.
I don't think they're not. Don't. They're worried either.
But anyway, helicoptering grizzly bears. Okay.
We'll see how that works out.
We'll watch it and let you know. Alright, well we come back.
The RV questions of the week.
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Welcome back time now for the RV question of the week.
And, uh, just a quick reminder,
we love getting your questions.
You can send 'em to us at our private email, Mike
and jen@rvlifestyle.com
or on our new RV lifestyle
community@community.rvlifestyle.com.
There's a space there called, uh,
podcast questions and comments.
And you can, uh, post your questions there
and we'll answer 'em and you probably can get some extra
answers from, uh, other members of the community
so they'll be answered in detail.
What's our question this week? Okay,
- This is a question that I have been thinking about a lot
'cause we're considering getting a washer
and dryer, which is best, the washer
and dryer being separate or all in one.
And that question was from Joe.
- Well, um, I can tell you that, uh,
we are about to order one.
Um, we're pretty sure we're gonna get one.
And it will be, uh, an all-in-one or a combo unit.
Uh, and our check
around is people seem to be very happy with that.
It does a great job. But you gotta follow the instruction
manual, which many people fail to read.
Um, it takes up the reason you wanna cut,
it takes up less room
and it weighs less than two separate units.
Um, but what happens is, uh, it is smaller loads,
so you have to, you can't do big load loads
you basically put in your dirty dry clothes
and then it runs through its cycle and it wrenches them
and then it dries them.
And then you take out clean, dry clothes.
And it may take a lot longer than your,
your normal, uh, washer dryer.
But, uh, everybody who tells me that they've had a combo,
and when I check with our dealer,
that's what they recommend too.
You do have to use the right kind
of detergent on the instructions,
and you don't wanna overload the unit.
You can't expect it to handle the same loads
as a typical home unit.
Um, most people who have problems end up overloading it.
So, um, I talked to one guy, uh,
and he did as many as he said that he
and his wife do as many as five loads in a day.
Um, but it, you know, uh, the combo unit seems
to be the best choice unless you have lots of room
and can, you know, wanna have all
that extra weight from two separate units.
But, um, we're gonna get a combo unit
and, uh, it's expensive.
The units themselves are 15 to 1800 bucks.
I saw some online, uh, on Amazon
for a little over a thousand.
But, um, the brand we're gonna get is probably, um,
gonna be a little bit more than that.
And then of course there's installation.
You want that thing to be vented, so they have to cut a hole
through the side of your RV and set in a vent
and fix that all up.
And then, uh, uh, it's all prepped.
So basically you just run it in, put it in,
hook up the water and set your vent for outside.
But, um, we're pretty, pretty sure that much though.
Pretty sure we're gonna do that. And I'm so
- Glad that Joe asked that question
because my logic said two different units.
You should have a washer, you should have a
dryer, two separate things.
And then I wondered about the power
that you would need to operate.
- You'd be more, it is more of everything if
- Yeah, more of everything.
- And obviously two separate ones are more efficient.
But we're talking about an RV here, so, uh, and,
and you'll hear naysayers
and you'll hear different comments on it.
So you can do your own research, Joe.
But since you ask us, that's what we're leading towards.
And proof is in the pudding of what we're gonna do.
And we're gonna do the combo unit.
Uh, I think I'll let you know,
and I think we're gonna do it fairly soon.
So that's pretty good. Hey, are you ready for some stories?
Get your blankies now and your milk and your cookies.
Mike and Jen's RV Storytimes coming up after this.
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Welcome back. It's time for a brand new section,
a new segment that we'll be hopefully doing every week
unless you tell us you don't like it.
Mike and Jen's RV story time.
- Yeah. So our first story we're gonna tell you about is
when we were robbed,
and it happened just across the, uh, the, uh,
Mississippi River from St.
Louis in Collinsville, Illinois.
Yeah, we stopped to get some dinner at about six 15 in the
evening at a restaurant in a busy
shopping mall off Interstate 55.
And it was a pretty upscale mall too, at lots
of well-known stores and restaurants and lots of traffic.
- We thought it was perfectly safe.
We were there, um, doing a story, uh, kind
of a documentary little trip of Route 66.
That was our plans. We started right at the beginning
of Route 66 in Chicago,
and we had had an absolutely fabulous day.
We shot lots of video, lots of photos.
I had bought new camera gear that that just before we went,
and we were really, uh, stopped for dinner
and it was kind of almost a celebration dinner, um,
because we'd had such a great day. Yeah. Didn't
- We, weren't we trying to look
for the world's biggest ketchup bottle?
- Yes. That's why we had stopped in Collinsville.
They supposedly . Yes. Yeah,
- We were on a, - We were looking for the world
- Care - .
We never did see it. Well, we got
so disillusioned that Well,
- We were up all night trying to Yeah.
Through the mess. So
- He, so what happened was this, uh, we had our dog,
not Bo but at that time,
- His predecessor, - Ty, Ty, same Norwegian, Alcon.
They looked alike. Ty was in the rv,
was the Class B van we had at the time.
And we'd gone in to eat and it was a very quick dinner.
We were no more than 25 minutes. Yeah.
- It was one of those buffets.
So you could just in and out really quick.
- Yeah. And so what happened is at least two thieves
somehow gained entry to our camper van
and in exactly seven minutes, and we know this, uh,
because we have video, uh, of this,
they took more than $12,000 worth
of electronic gear from our rig, including all
of our video and still cameras.
Uh, most of the mobile podcasting studio gear
I had taken for the trip.
Um, and, and most importantly, irreplaceably, uh, all
of the video and the photos we had shot from Route 66.
In fact, we scrapped our whole plans
to do the Route 66 story
because we just, we were
so demoralized we weren't gonna go all the way back
to Chicago and do it again.
- Oh, - So you heard us say we had video of it
and we did, uh, I have a dash cam always in my group.
It's motion activated and this thing motion activated.
And there was this guy, uh, sitting out in front
and he clearly had some device in his hands,
some electronic type device.
And he was looking in the, trying to look in the front
of our, of our van through the windshield.
And then he walked off to the side
and then you heard the door open and he
and an accomplish came in.
Now my camera was just focused out,
'cause it was a dash cam,
but we heard the conversation of he
and his buddy as they quickly
and efficiently ransacked our small little camper van.
That was the most irritating part, is listening to them
- Talk.
Well, there was a good part to it too,
because we were worried that maybe they had were,
would be mean to our dog.
Uh, our dog did not bark.
He was, uh, gonna be a show dog.
And I don't know how they did it to him,
but he did not bark .
He didn't, he was in training to be a show
dog, but his teeth weren't good. And he
- Was, he was quite - Friendly.
Yeah. He just was, he just watched him.
In fact, they said he was a good dog. Yeah.
They, he, he just sat on the sofa
and watched him go through everything.
But he was very,
our dog was very upset when I opened up the door.
'cause all this stuff started falling off just on the floor.
And he looked at me like, I didn't do it.
Mom, let me outta here
- On the, on the video version of this, we'll post a couple
of photos that show you what we're talking about
and you can see the guy that caught it.
So we called the police
and uh, they said that, um, um, they suspected
that this was a gang from East St.
Louis right across the, uh, the, um, the river from us.
And he said, well, was was your vehicle locked?
And yes, it was. I remembered distinctly
'cause we were leaving and Jennifer says, did you lock it?
And I remember hitting that keypad and I looked
and I saw the, the door lock go down on the camper van.
Well, police later said
that they think these guys had some sort
of a electronic device.
Uh, and there were a bunch of those out there now
that can override, or they copied these guys were close by.
They copy the, the frequency of the code
and they're able to somehow open these locks.
And we weren't the only theft.
There was a guy telling a U-Haul who stopped for dinner,
and he had parked just a few spaces, uh, down from us.
And he was also hit, they smashed out a window to get entry
to his vehicle, and they also took a computer there.
So, um, it was a mess.
But, uh, we left
and, uh, they had all my computer, they had your computer,
they had our iPads.
Um, they had a bag
where you had written down passwords for stuff.
Um, and so, uh, what do you do?
So we immediately realized that, um,
these guys had even more potential to harm us through, uh,
all the personal information that was on those computers.
Now the good news is I have Apple computers
and I had everything encrypted, and that's important.
And I also have an ability on the Apple computer.
And this is one of the lessons, if you have a Mac,
I don't know if Windows will do this as well,
but the Macs allow me, I can remotely wipe clean
my inf information
and I can also activate a find my Mac, uh, feature.
We never did find it. We never saw him activate it.
But I did go eventually and,
and wipe everything clean that evening.
- Oh, you were up all night. - I went to a, a Best Buy
and bought a new computer, uh, on the spot.
And we literally in that parking lot
and, uh, I think until probably four in the morning,
I spend all my time going back to all
of our bank records, changing passwords.
It was a mess. Um, so
what do you learn from such a thing as that?
First thing is it can happen anywhere.
- Yeah. Don't think you're safe. Yeah.
Because you're in a spot that,
I mean, there was so much traffic.
I just can't believe that it happened. Yeah.
- And it did, um, take some precaution on any
of your devices to, uh, be able to find out where they are.
Um, I don't know how you do it with the Windows machines,
but I know with Macs you can, you can, you can find my map.
It'll show you on a map.
You can send a feature a note to it,
and again, you can remote, uh, wipe it,
which is really important.
Uh, so people wanna know about insurance.
And the insurance was a mess too,
because there was no breakage.
These guys somehow bypassed my, my locks
and whatever they used open it.
They got in my insurance company, uh,
on the rv, denied my claim.
And it was, we went back and forth.
And since then I've had agents say,
you should have fought it
because, uh, you know, the, you've got video evidence,
you got the police talking about it.
But they were very firm with me on the, on the phone, uh,
saying, Nope, we're not gonna, we're not gonna honor it
because there's no break-in you.
You didn't take proper security.
Well, we had, but how do you prove that? You know?
So they got into it.
Uh, it ended up, my homeowner's insurance covered it
with no questions.
So I've stayed
with my same homeowner's insurance ever
since. Uh, so you're gonna
- Tell 'em what's which company? Uh,
- I don't, because they'll be asking, I don't,
I don't remember where the, uh, state,
I don't remember the insurance company
that denied the claim,
but State Farm is my own insurance company, uh,
which did honor the claim.
Um, it's, it's part of my home coverage.
So it was covered and it was just stuff. It's just stuff.
But, uh, and it gave us a story.
I guess I could think of that. Mm.
But uh, so what are the lessons?
Always try and park where you can see the vehicle.
I mean, if we could've eaten and looked out the window
and seen somebody wandering around our vehicle,
we would've been right out there as it was.
We probably only missed them by a couple of minutes. Yeah.
But to think that they did hours
and seven minutes, that's how long it was, is
as I gave the police got all my video
and pictures, seven minutes inside,
and then they still had time to break into a a U-Haul
and get a computer out of that.
- I remember the one little funny thing, the officer
that came, it just so happened
he worked with the canine unit. He
- Was the canine - Unit.
Yeah. And, uh, Ty was sitting down,
was laying on the ground, and he looked at Ty
and he said, you didn't do your job.
And Ty just looked up at and wagged his tail.
, I guess Ty could tell he was a dog person. .
Yeah. You know, Ty liked him,
but he, the way he said, you didn't do your job,
but, uh, the dog didn't bark.
- Anyway, lock your vehicles. Double check they're locked.
And understand that stuff happens.
And if, uh, and, and it's only stuff, it can be replaced.
It's not the end of the world. You
- Have to lock things.
- Okay. That's, uh, our, uh, Mike
and Jen's story for this week.
Yep. So what, what do you guys think?
Listen, you want us to hear more
stories? We've got all sorts of stories.
- I don't wanna go through that
kind of stuff again. Yeah. ,
- We don't wanna go through tomorrow.
That's, that's the worst
stuff that ever happened to us on the road.
Uh, except you getting sick.
That'll be another story some other day.
We'll talk about that. Mm-Hmm, .
Um, so let us know.
Our email address is Mike and jen@rvlifestyle.com.
That's the podcast for this week. Love you guys.
Thank you so much for watching.
- Happy Trails.