This week on the Rv podcast.
Rv
quality problems. Don't seem to be getting any
better and campground
infrastructure issues are straining the 20 24 camping
experience.
The brutal heat wave, gripping the west is
being blamed for at least 4 deaths move.
National and state parks. In Jen and Mike's
story time, we're gonna share how what's sounded
like a good marketing idea to us turned
out to be the most embarrassing thing that
we've ever done is rv ears. All this
plus the Rv news of the week and
your questions. Coming up in episode 05:06
of the Rv podcast.
Hello everybody. I'm Mike Wen lin and this
is my life long traveling companion and My
bride,
Jennifer.
How are you? I'm doing great. Yeah. This
gonna be a big week for us. It's
certainly is. Quick reminder that there is a
video version of the podcast. You can find
it on our Rv lifestyle Youtube channel. Just
go to Youtube dot com slash rv lifestyle.
And, of course, our audio versions available on
all of your favorite podcast apps.
As well as our blog, rv lifestyle dot
com slash podcast.
Check that out.
And a quick reminder, if you do us
a favor, if you listen to
on 1 of those apps, would you give
us a review for this podcast?
They really help us, get the
you Google to notice it and send the
podcast
notifications out to other people. So we love
those 5 star reviews that so many of
you have sent, and we'd love to have
you offer us 1 yourself?
So there you go. While, we are about
ready to hit the road.
And
we're looking forward to it, and I still
forgot a lot to do. Yeah. Big travel
week for us.
As this podcast is being released, we will
hit the road and eventually hook up with
a bunch of our Rv lifestyle followers,
we're gonna be making our way this week
to bar Harbor Maine.
And there, we will soon be part of
a near
month long Rv Caravan event tour of the
Canadian
maritime.
That has been an our bucket list for
I don't know how long and I can
hardly wait. And this was organized by fantasy
Rv tourists, and this is 1 of those
bucket
list road trips that
I think you've been talking about since we...
As soon as we have an Rv. Yeah.
It really has been on our list. This
is the last of the must do bucket
lists we have. And then we've got a
whole bunch of other ones we wanna do
after this.
We hope to share our adventures as often
as we can with videos and live feeds,
photos, social media updates.
Best way is to follow us through our
rv lifestyle community
at community dot rv lifestyle dot com. We
cannot
wait.
And, yes, we do have our new truck
and look for a Saturday video on our
Rv Lifestyle Youtube channel.
That shows the truck, what we've added
and how we're prepping for the Rv trip
that long long trip that we're gonna be
taken that and to be alerted to, when
we have new videos and make sure you
subscribe to our channel
and click the bell icon You can subscribe,
just go to Youtube dot com
slash
rv
lifestyle. But we have a lot to to
talk about this week, and it's a bit
of a change from us because let me
let me just tell us right off the
top. We are not negative
I was an investigated reported for most of
my life, and I did a lot of
bad news stories. In fact, they used to
call me bad news, Wen.
And when we started the Rv style on
the blog and the podcast in the Youtube
channel,
we have done our best to stay positive.
We are still very positive. Even though we're
going to talk about
kinda the gorilla in the Rv lifestyle room,
which is Rv
quality.
We feel we have to address it just
because we have heard so much.
This won't be a regular thing. We're gonna
talk honestly about it today.
And I wanna also point out
that there is not a Rv
manufacturer out there.
That wants to build a poor quality Rv.
We have been most of the factories.
These people work hard
they have, a, a dedicated,
skilled labor force,
but they're working
really hard. It's an industry that has ups
and downs. And when sales are down, there's
all sorts of efforts. To kinda get them
up. And 1 of the things that they
have been doing is
trying to remove a lot of the
extras in an Rv that make these prices
so high.
And as a result, sometimes the materials aren't
up to the same snuff as previous materials
in those Rv.
And it's started to catch up, I think
with some of them. We're gonna talk about
that today. This will not be a regular
recurrence, but we feel we we wanna address
that. And that's coming up a little bit
later in our conversation of the week.
Right now that I wanna ask you something.
Are you a mood stalker? Or a boom
locker or maybe you're struggling to keep your
Rv cool during these hot summer days. And
well, if you have a 50 amp motor
home a trailer or a fifth wheel with
2 air conditioners, but you often end up
in campsite sites with only 30 amp service,
let's face it not. Every campground has 50
Amp service.
That means you can only run 1 ac.
Right?
Or do you Moo stock maybe at friends
and family houses where they only have a
20 amp service?
Jab
and find that maybe this little 2000 watt
generator that you brought along can't give you
enough power to run the Ac.
Well, listen up, There is a... Special device
called the soft start up that can solve
those problems for you. Soft start up is
the only plug and play Rv, air conditioners
soft start controller
that has been tested to start and run
2 air conditioning units
plus your appliances
on 30 amp service.
Now it works
right out of the box.
Soft start up, what it does is it
takes
milliseconds
to basically cut the amperage needed to start
multiple Rv air conditioning unit and appliances.
Now when they first start up because they
get a kick on the compressor everything, there's
a huge spike in
and soft start up,
minimizes that. They help regulate that. So you
can extend your Ac
compressors life it it controls the power in
your Rv,
gives you maximum efficiency.
All you do is plug it into the
power receptacle.
And then plug your power cord into it.
There's no climbing up in your Rv roof,
no opening up your Ac units to put
this in, no need to figure out the
wiring and the connections. You don't have to
pay a service center to install it.
Just go to soft start up dot com
slash rv lifestyle. And you can get the
details.
Soft start up dot com slash rv lifestyle,
and you'll save a whole bunch of money.
You can get this in time, To stay
cool during the summer camping trips. Again, check
it out yourself, soft start up dot com
slash rv lifestyle.
We should remind you of that you guys
have a question. Our email address, mike and
jen at rv lifestyle dot com. Send us
comments questions anything you hear today.
When we come back, we've got the social
media buzz with Wendy Boy, Stay with us.
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rv lifestyle.
Welcome back and Wendy Boy reports on the
hot issues most talked about this past week
on social media in our Rv lifestyle community
group. In our Rv lifestyle community, we sometimes
run polls. Now we may use these poles
for research or stories or just general enjoyment
of the group, and they're fun to read.
So this week, I have 2 polls I'd
like to share with you. The first poll
ran in our campground space, and we asked
what features do you prioritize when choosing a
campground.
The top answers were 50 percent said location,
20 percent said views in scenery?
15 percent said cost 9 percent set amenities,
including things like Wifi
And 4 percent set accessibility.
In the comments, people added to what they
chose, that Julie Fritz said feeling safe and
cleanliness are really important to her when choosing
a campground.
And Michael said he wants sewer at his
site.
Cost was an issue for several folks.
Laura said if she can spend the same
amount to have 7 days in a park
at State park versus 3 days in a
resort, she's gonna go for the state park.
It was fun to read everyone's comments. In
the general disc discussion space, we asked another
poll and this 1 said what is the
single most frustrating part of the Rv lifestyle.
41 percent said Rv quality is the issue,
34 percent said finding campground vacancies,
15 percent said the increasing cost of the
Rv lifestyle, and 8 percent said bad.
In this post comments areas, Jim was 1
of a few who said these random mechanical
shoes that happened despite doing all the maintenance
was particularly frustrating.
And woody anne Inca said that
unpredictable bad weather can also be a frustration.
And James said his major frustration is not
being able to rv as much as he
wants because of things that happen in light,
and I can absolutely see how that can
be frustrating.
Then over in our Rv lifestyle Facebook group,
justin recently published a photo of his beautiful
class a just covered with dead bugs and
he wrote. Driving through South Dakota after Sunset
proved to be a gross mistake.
This picture drew more than 525
comments
People could not believe all the dead bugs
splashed across his Rv. His windshield looked like
a jackson poly painting that Bo had used
splattered bugs instead of splattered paint.
Vanessa took 1 look at this windshield and
said that's insane, and I have to agree.
Many like Mary said Been there done that,
and it was amazing how many people had
similar pictures and similar experiences of just completely
bunk covered rigs.
Apparently, this kind of drive he happens too
often in the dakota, which is good to
know. We'll share a picture of this in
the show notes who for those who wanna
to see them sell.
And that's it for me this week. I'm
Wendy Boy, and I'll see you over in
the Rv lifestyle community or Facebook group.
We know the
We know the problem with those bugs in
South Dakota. We have experienced them as a
lot of you have as well. I think
we just... We just did 1 of our
story time. Mike and jen story time about
our first experience when we encountered the bug
out of South Dakota. So that's a very
real issue. It does get better. But no
at this time of year, you are gonna
encounter as all those people that Wendy talked
about did.
Alright. Our Rv conversation of the week will
be coming up. Right after this.
Jennifer and I bought some land near Nashville,
Tennessee a while back. We got tired crowded
expensive campground and worrying about reservations.
Tennessee is a gorgeous state with friendly people,
and it has been such a pleasure. The
same developer has some new property near us
close to the Natchez trace and Buffalo River,
called the reserve at High forest.
Big properties, 5 to 41 acres, you can
build a house a cabin or Rv year
round. Prices started at only 89900
dollars.
Your property, your way, 100 percent ownership. The
scenery in this part of Tennessee is breathtaking.
And the property is gorgeous,
garden, landscape.
Bring your pets, build what you want. There's
high speed fiber optic internet, and it is
so private. A great place to make your
home base ready whenever you wanted.
5 to 41 acre properties from 89900
dollars.
There's even great financing.
Check out the site and a video tour
at rv lands dot net. That's rv lands
dot net.
Welcome back. Time now for our Rv
conversation of the week. Earlier,
You heard Wendy report in our social media
buzz that in our Facebook group, 41
percent of the people
said that the Rv quality issues were the
most frustrating
part of the Rv lifestyle this year. So
we wanted to investigate, so we posted a
question
and our Rv lifestyle community, asking our members
to tell us how frequently
those quality issues occurred. Now the results
were dismal.
Get this 52 percent of our community respondents
said something
broke or went wrong in their Rv
half the time
or even more frequently that they took it
out.
Did you catch that?
That means that every other time they take
their Rv on a trip.
Something breaks.
That 15 percent said something breaks every
time. They take their Rv someplace.
Again, that's over half I respond to reported
something breaking
in at least every other trip.
Is there any other product where such results
would be tolerated? I don't know.
That granted, Rv are very complicated things, and
we've been saying for a long time You
know, when you drive 1 it's like having
your house shaken by a 4
earthquake for
hours on end. I mean, something's
gonna shake loose or break or crack.
But here have some specific answers to our
question about what goes wrong.
Here's 1 from Brenda and Mark.
Brendan Marc 8, we headed out for our
trip out to Nevada, and we didn't even
get 200 miles in our brand new
suspension broke.
Luckily, we knew the area, we got off
the street onto a lowe's parking lot,
spent 3 days there. Till we were able
to find someone who could come and fix
it. Now, here's another. This woman and her
disabled army veteran husband
30 years of service
finally acted on the lifelong long dream, sold
the house and bought a new 20 23
Forest River Arctic Wolff.
38 10 sweet. Fifth wheel.
They are out about 4 months
at 06/21/2024
had a cable snap
in the bunk coast. They called a mobile
tech to fix. And while the text is
there, he notices the whole kitchen slide was
not attached correctly.
They get it into the dealer for service
on 07/02/2024,
and it is now July twelfth, and it
when she
Being fixed.
With them at a hotel and eating out
all the time and costing them a fortune.
Now, Forrest River told them they will only
reverse reverse,
reimburse them about 75 dollars of the 400
it cost to have the cable replace.
This person is ready to give up the
dream.
Brian
shared this. He says, I'm a 25 year
old Army disabled that sold house and division
about a 20 22
keystone raptor. It's a a Toy haul took
it out on our first trip.
Wife is taking a shower,
water pouring into the bathroom.
They put the shower tracks in backwards.
Then on our bedroom slide, the angle under
the slide was bent,
waters coming in the bedroom.
Than the level checks were not working properly.
Listen to what Kimberly wrote about her 23
forest river
Wild grand lodge.
It's been a problem. It's been problem after
problem. Furnace motor broke, wrong thermostat.
Made the furnace circus
circuit board fry,
weak shower floor that caused the leak under
the shower and a leaky gray take.
Hole in the gutter caused a drip constantly
on the slider door and leaked out of
track and down hallways.
The aw pulled the gutter off, and they
found out it was only fastened with a
few temporary screws and never fully fastened.
Alright. She goes on. She says, A leak
in the bedroom and a big leak through
of the cubby under the bed causes a
bunch of mold,
and the bed is on a slide and
was messed up kept ripping the floor when
they retracted it, the toilet poet pipe broke
when sitting on it.
Once
because the cut in the pe tubing was
too short, and it had too much pressure
on it, and it caused meth in the
bathroom,
the tongue jack broke when they tried to
hook it up and take it in for
repairs.
She says Lord knows what else I'm forgetting,
but, yeah,
it's a damn mess.
Then there's Loretta. Here's what she said.
Loretta said they pulled into a park began
selling their water tank, and then the tank
collapsed
through the floor of their 20 18 Forest
River Fifth wheel.
She shared a picture in the comments of
this poll
Don said their forest River did that in
their driveway.
Wendy said this happened to them too with
a brand new Pam. So many people said
this happened to them. Some with empty tanks.
It was amazing.
Look, we we could go on and on.
Those are just a sample of what we
heard last week.
I I have to tell you this that
in our 12 years of doing this Irb
lifestyle, we have never heard more complaints
about Rv quality across all the different brands.
And we haven't even mentioned
the issue of frame flex,
which particularly affects big fifth wheels and toy
haul. That is a huge mess.
There are Rv recalls every month.
And
just to give you a sample of what's
out there, here's this month.
Recall notices are going out sometime this month
for 3157
Brink, Rv 23 to 24 model z, fifth
wheels.
And their new model z air travel trailers.
This is Brink, which is supposed to be
like the the best of all of the
Rv manufacturers out there these days.
The 12 volt system in those brink may
be incorrectly wired, which could result
in overheating.
Recall notices are being mailed to owners of
a hundred and 26 forest river, 20 24
25 cross trail motor homes.
The back on the ladder
receiver may not have been installed,
which can cause the ladder to fall off.
On the highway, that could be lights threatening.
And then 1 more,
573
Forest River 24 25
Salem and Wild travel trailers,
they're being recalled because they may not have
a secondary
emergency
exit install.
Now, that's this month,
just the latest, and you noticed those are
all
new models. These aren't going back to the
Covid year.
Every month, there are new recalls of Rv
similar to these.
I said this earlier that we work really
hard on this podcast not to be negative.
So
dev boarding the conversation of the month of
this topic is not our usual.
This quality issue from our perspective has been
steadily
increasing
since those Covid years.
You know, there was such a demand for
Rv by people,
whose only vacation options, you know, during those
Covid lock ins were to camp out.
All the manufacturers did everything they could to
crank out new models to meet that demand
as fast as they could. They heard literally
off the street.
And let's face at a lot of inexperienced
workers we're assembling Rv.
Since then, things have settled down, Demand for
Rv has dropped draft stick,
new sales are down,
and you would think then that the little
more time and not quite such a rush
that things would be improving.
But that doesn't seem to be. And so
that's why we're talking about this.
So if you're thinking about getting a new
Rv,
new or used We have this advice, hire
a certified Rv inspector.
Yeah. It costs a lot. Over a thousand
dollars for a detailed 1.
But since rv are the second most expensive
thing,
most people buy after a house. And given
the quality issues people continue to experience that
in action is extremely important. Have a pro
look it over
very carefully.
An independent inspector
not connected to the dealership. And you can
find 1, just go to their national Association,
which is n nr VIA
dot org slash
locate.
In nr v a's National Rv inspectors Association.
But go to NRVIA
dot org slash locate. You can plug in
where you are, and they'll show you
independent
Rv inspectors near you.
But what if the dealer won't let you
bring 1 in?
We've heard from some who say they wanted
to bring in an inspector, but the dealership
wouldn't let them.
Well, if that's the case, it tells you
something doesn't it. Don't buy there. Go to
another dealer.
Now,
tonya again all this stuff
because
An Rv is more than just a vehicle
or
a a camper.
It... For so many, it is a dream.
So many people have worked all of their
lives for this time to go out in
that Rv to enjoy their retirement
or to
get together with their families and and bond
together out there and and
it's a mess when something breaks
almost half the time.
So that's a report on quality.
You may have a different take on it.
You may think that's alright, and we'll share
some of those reports, but
I'm not gonna make this a weekly habit.
There are some Harvey influencers. That's all they
do is tell you about how bad some
of the Rv are. We won't do that.
But we are raising this issue. It is
not getting better from our perspective, and I'd
like to know your thoughts too.
By quality, get an inspector.
That's our conversation of the week. You can
reach us at Mike and Jen.
At rv lifestyle dot com. We'll be right
back with the Rv news of the week.
Jennifer and I took trip to Las Vegas
and Arizona to look at wind acres, a
brand new Rv property being offered by Western
land and ranches.
They're selling off 1 and 2 acre parcels
starting at only 14900
dollars. Now these are big. An acre is
the size of a football field. The properties
are on a plateau with big Valley views,
and the location is amazing. Next to Lake
Mead national recreation area.
We had a blast. There are so many
places to explore near the property, the Grand
Canyon. We took a boat ride on the
Colorado river below Hoover dam.
Boulder city was a fun little town.
That's right off route 66,
and, of course, we had to enjoy some
nightlife in Las Vegas.
It's a lifetime supply of fun things to
do when you own a camp at wind
acres.
The properties are now available.
This is 100
percent ownership. So there's no reservations needed when
you wanna hang out time limits or crowded
parks that you have to go through, you
can share your property, you can rent it.
Whatever you wanna do.
For more information. Visit
Arizona ranch sales dot com, or call 822232
land
Welcome back to the Rv news of the
week. Here's a disgusting sign of our thought
and selfish culture
ranges it. Usa yosemite National Park had to
remind visitors to keep it clean and classy
out there.
By disposing of soil toilet paper properly.
I know this is repulsive.
Apparently, wait many visitors need to go while
I exploring
and this beautiful beautiful park. And when they
do, they leave their used toilet paper behind,
and let's just say it is a disgusting
site to behold.
Yosemite National Parks Services
Instagram page posted this.
Sharing a few pictures of dirty toilet paper
laying
about what would otherwise be a stunning and
stealthy.
And while many people do bury the toilet
paper, it doesn't stay hidden for long. Rain,
erosion, and animals
are all responsible for removing the soil,
leaving used toilet paper piles exposed
before it can decompose. And toilet paper typically
takes 1 to 3 years to decompose the
solution. Rangers are urging everyone to pack it
out.
Okay. So that was your yosemite, but now
let's talk about Yellowstone. And what is it
about Yellowstone National Park.
Last week told you about a shootout the
part.
And this week, Yellowstone was in the news
again after 5 people
drove into a hundred and 5 degree geyser
inadvertently.
Now the good news is that all 5
successfully got out of their car and their
own before being driven by ambulance to a
nearby hospital,
for some non life threatening injuries.
Their car sup 9 feet into a very
acidic,
hot
water
before being successfully lifted out and removed.
And this all happened in the semi
centennial geyser thermal features, near roaring mountain between,
Mammoth Springs and Norris Junction.
It's not clear how this happened.
But, pictures do show a fairly steep slope
from the road to the geyser.
And we're glad that all the passengers are
gonna be okay.
Last week at Yellowstone. There was a shootout
out. You may remember we talked about it
here. The shootout out, it turned out was
a yellowstone
employee, and he was from Florida working at
the park for the summer, and he held
a woman against her will
and was intending
officials say a July fourth massacre
before that he was killed.
And
let's hope that this week,
Yellowstone
can have 0
incidents.
Alright. We'll keep talking about national parks. Now
let's talk about them in regards to a
heat wave. Yeah. The massive heat wave gripping
the west is killing tourists.
In Utah, Canyon lance National Park, a 52
2 year old father and his 23 year
old daughter from Wisconsin,
were found dead after they got lost while
hiking and ran out of water in triple
digit temperatures.
That was Friday.
On Saturday, a similar incident happened at Snow
Canyon State Park, a multi
agency team, a first responders.
Arrived and rescued the 2 people who were
overcome by heat exhaustion.
But then, a pass reported that a third
person was unconscious
nearby.
First responders found the individual, a 30 year
old female
and determined that she was deceased.
You'd think people would have the
common sense to avoid hiking in such conditions,
but it death Valleys National park. There's been
a surge of visitors
anxious to have southeast taken next to the
giant
thermometer side the parks visitor station. Temperatures in
death valley have been in the hundred and
twenties,
reaching as high as a hundred and 29
degrees.
It is so hot. People are urged not
to hike after 10AM,
bring lots of water and travel
prepared to survive.
But people keep coming and dying.
A group of German motorcycles who decided to
visit death valley last week were overcome by
the heat and 1 rider died there. That's
4 heat deaths in a week out there,
all could have been avoided.
Well, up in Canada, that heat wave is
having an effect as well. Canadian campground grounds
are struggling.
There was a big story out in Canada
last week related to the heat,
in which the president of the Canadian
camping and Rv
Association set campground grounds
in many areas have been experiencing
brown outs on their property because
every single Rv is running
1 or 2 air conditioners, and they're already
at capacity for electricity draw.
The problem he said is that consumers are
are accustomed now to a level of service
that park infrastructure cannot handle.
It's same thing in the Us, most campground
grounds are old,
the infrastructure was laid down when people were
happy to have a ke lantern for lights
and maybe a 20 amp service, so they
could, plug in for,
a couple of light accessories.
So Campground is you know, as Ar got
better and better,
they increase their capacity to 30 amp service,
that was really, like, 20 years ago, most
of them added
30 amp service,
but then they had to bring in 50
amp service. About a dozen years ago as
Rv years got... Rv got bigger,
and a mini came with 2 Ac units,
and then microwaves,
demand has just continued to increase,
but the cost of upgrading for those campground
balances is astronomical.
And it's frankly just beyond the reach for
many campground, and many, you know, small county
parks, government parks, state parks.
And that's 1 reason why camping is becoming
more expensive.
It's another reason why big corporations are, you
know, Buying up mom and pop campground grounds
are investing lots of money in the infrastructure,
but they're charging big bucks
and making these campground grounds, not campground grounds,
but
resorts and gl places.
But this growing problem of campground
infrastructure,
in
is not gonna go away anytime soon.
Alright. That's our news of the week. When
we come back the Rv question of the
week, and we also have Mike and jen
story time. So stay with us. When we're
asked what's the most important
modification we made to our Rv, it's an
easy answer. Battle borne batteries. Battle borne batteries
are quality safe, reliable lithium batteries that allow
us to stay out there off the grid
longer.
Lithium batteries charge faster. They charge fuller they're
longer lasting their maintenance free, and battle borne
batteries are protected by a 10 year guarantee.
Now in our case, they just dropped into
the existing Ag batteries that we have and
they'll probably be the same on your rig
too. Valve battery experts can get those in
your rig just like they did. With ours.
They can also match you up with the
right cabling, the inverter, the charger the solar
controller everything.
Jennifer I swear by our with battle born
batteries. They allow us to boo doc off
the grid, check out. Go to rv lifestyle
dot com slash lithium. Rv lifestyle dot com.
Slash lithium.
Alright. Welcome back time now for the Rv
question of the week. And the... This 1,
here it is. It's I'm gonna have you
answered it because it's it's in your
wheelhouse. Just finishing up washing your latest podcast.
You mentioned that along with sandwiches, jen sometimes
prepares your dinner meal before you leave,
what are some of the meals that you
prepare ahead of time this question comes from
Janet.
Okay, Janet. When I make my regular food
at home, and I know we're going out
of town
I will make extra of whatever I'm fixing
and freeze it. And that way, it's all
set to go.
And
you know, it seems like a problem but
lettuce us that goes bad on you. Super
of course isn't gonna go bad. You can
make soup, whatever kind of soup you like
and stew.
Turkey stew, chicken stew, beef stew, whatever you
wanna make,
chile, lasagna, whatever you normally eat,
when you're cooking, just make more, make it.
So you have, like, 3 servings. When there's
only 2 of you, you can you can
easily get me 3 maybe 4
servings, and you just freeze some, put it
away,
and
it's handy to have even when you're home,
just whip something out.
But,
Whatever you're making at home, make extra,
it and take it with you. Like, we're
leaving for this big trip this week and,
you know, we're...
Den make an extra, and we put it
in a freezer.
We go in and turn on the Rv
freezer a couple of days before we go.
It's nice and cold, and you just put
those frozen and dinners in there, and you
don't have to think.
Sometimes you... We bring along a slow cooker,
it's And Yes. You can actually, you're driving,
you can just plug that in, assuming you
have an inverter in your Rv in the
room, you can plug in a slow cooker,
and it will cook as you're driving
during the day,
smells delicious, you know. And then when you
set up camp for the night, you got
meal ready and fresh,
cook
for salads,
especially in the summer, you know, local produce
is always available, and it's kinda fun to
shop for local produce and have that.
But
eating out is just not healthy. No. Eating
out, you'd never know for sure what you're
gonna get. Other than too much salt, and
you don't know when they made it.
Yeah. It's not always fresh food. Alright. That's
the question of the week. You've got 1
for us. You can just write us at
Mike and Chen at rv lifestyle dot com.
Now it's time for Mike and Jen.
Story time. And we're gonna talk this week
about the dumbest thing we ever did with
an Rv,
and that was getting
a complete
custom
wrap on it. And we'll put a photo
of it in the show notes for this
episode at rv lifestyle dot com slash podcast
This happened about maybe
5 years ago,
A marketing friend, the Rv industry suggested the
idea of a wrap to us.
They thought it was a good idea. Yeah.
And she assured us that was going to
be tasteful done. And then it would,
promote our brand.
We even know we had a brand.
But they sent us some artwork,
and we arranged for a local shop.
To do the wrap.
Meet the Wen that set on the side
windows
on the back windows.
My Youtube channel was listed.
And so was the... A huge car
drawing of the 2 of us in involved
bow.
Was it eye?
Oh, it was painful. It was so obnoxious.
I mean, I couldn't... It was embarrassing.
It it did get my sister. Really big
laugh. We pulled up and she even took
a picture of the van because she thought
it was so funny. Oh, I mean, even
right away, since as we drove home from
the shop that did the wrapping.
We were very aware of it.
Everybody's really looking at us, and I mean,
it wasn't just, you know, It was, like,
but they were really looking and and it
was kinda creepy.
Because,
we'd... As we... We're driving the same. We
realized we're not regular our views anymore. We
were like this Spectacle. Rolling prospect spec tactical
this promotion, and there was no escaping.
And our first big trip was
a couple days after we got it, and
we we drove up to the Up in
Michigan, the upper for our winter camp out,
and we brought it into the camp guy
to remember Oh, everybody had a good laugh.
We gave everybody
big big glass. They were pointing and sn.
I mean, this thing screamed. Look at me.
Look at me
it was indeed
attention grabbing.
And then after the weekend, as we drove
back home,
we were,
curious, did this make any difference because it
had our our web address on it. So
we checked the web traffic I have to
see if our
mobile billboard it brought us any
anymore web views. And they're good seem to
be a slight
increase. In our traffic. Well, uptick in traffic.
Mh.
But then there were some emails.
There were some emails. Mh.
1 was from a campground owner who said
we would not be allowed to camp on
their campground
with that vehicle wrap because it was clearly
a commercial vehicle.
And a giant advertisement. And then we had
that echoed by a guy who ran an
insurance agency and he said that our Rv
could now be considered a business vehicle
and thus subject to higher insurance rates
Others contacted us to say we were making
ourselves a target to thieves and stalker. They
figured that... Oh, hey. They must have a
bunch of equipment in there.
But then we heard from a traveler who
passed this us on I 75.
And as best as I can remember,
this is what that letter said. It said
something like, I looked up your website after
seeing your camper,
not to watch your videos, but to get
your emails, so I could tell you that
I found your vehicle wrap,
offensive,
self serving
and very pride.
So
and, you know, it really it really hit
home. He said that there's enough advertising pollution
on our highways.
That we were only adding to it. And
then a member he signed it off and
he says count us not as fans,
Well, it was pretty humiliating. It was humiliating,
and it was humbling,
and it really was pride. To put all
that stuff out there. I had no idea
Be so obnoxious.
Yeah. We thought it was pretty obnoxious.
So needless to say
the wrap came right down, and
and it was just not us.
And now
we travel anonymously. There's really nothing on our
vehicle to identify as as ours
so much for
mobile marketing,
and,
that was our most embarrassing thing that we've
ever done.
We didn't know we even had a brand
that we needed to label like that.
Oh, well. So much for our brand this
week. Got questions or comments, we'd love to
hear from you, Mike and jen at rv
lifestyle dot com follow us at the community,
Rv lifestyle, the community dot rv dot dot
com. We'll be updating you as we head
the east and then up into the Maritime
and it Brunswick of Nova scotia,
we cannot wait. And We'll be sharing all
that with you and hopefully come to you
next week from somewhere in the Canadian manner
times. Thanks for watching. Happy trails.