Welcome to this week's RV podcast, episode four.
19. And in this episode,
we talk about storing your RV for the winter time.
Hello everybody, I'm Mike Wenling,
and this is my lifelong traveling companion and my bride, Jennifer,
who are coming to you this week from the beautiful Emerald Coast of Florida's
panhandle. Uh, the end of October. As we record this episode,
this is a glorious time to be here on the beach. And, uh,
we've got, uh, a conversation that has to do with the winter time.
Doesn't feel like winter in October and Florida,
but it's coming to most of the country,
and it's a time when most people put their RVs and stories,
and we're gonna hear all about that in this episode.
We're gonna change the format a little bit, um,
based on some feedback that we've had for many of you who've suggested, uh,
that we kind of hit the main topic first,
and then we'll pick up the news of the week and then your questions and
comments. Well,
this week we are going to continue a conversation that we really began last week
with Todd Henson. Todd is the, um, uh, certified, uh,
Master RV Tech and the director of Education for the National
RV Training Academy. Last week we talked about winterizing your rv,
and, uh, we asked him to come back this week so we could kind of follow up with,
once we've got it winterized, it's time to put it in storage.
And that's a pretty timely topic, I think.
It certainly is. It is that time of year, there's no denying it.
We gotta do this.
And, uh, with no further ado,
here is Todd Henson and let's talk about winter storage.
Joining us now for our second week of discussions about getting your RV
in, uh, winterized, which we talked about last week. Now,
the second part of that is where do you store and how do you store your rv, uh,
when you're not using it in the off season for a couple of months?
Todd Henson from the National RV Training Academy is back with us. And,
uh, Todd, uh, thank you for, um, uh,
agreeing to do two of these back to back for us. We sure appreciate it.
We got it winterize last week. We got it winterize last week,
and now we're gonna put it away. All right,
Where do we go from that when we talk about storage?
You go south.
, store it, warm weather. Yeah, I like.
That. I mean, I, that was one,
that was one method of winterization and storing we didn't talk about,
and that's to go south . Yeah. Yeah, if you can't do that. All right.
So, um, first and foremost, I'm, I'm from Texas, and so, you know,
we win a rice and then we store it in our yard. But, um,
let's go over a lot of the considerations. I mean,
we have a large investment sitting, you know, in the, uh, cold weather.
And the one thing we don't wanna do is just simply just, you know,
leave it out there. And in all cases, you know,
so let's look at some of the best preferences. So number one is, is,
if it's possible, is to store it indoors, right? Store it indoors.
The worst thing that we can do is leave this out in the field by itself, Okay?
But I know that in some cases we've got no option.
So how do we protect that investment? If you can't store it indoors,
I would recommend storing it even outside of trees. Okay?
I know some people would say, Well, if I sit it next to trees,
the problem with that is, is that, you know, most trees, of course,
they go into winterization mode as well,
and that's when we get a lot of foliage that drops. Um, and then of course,
we get limbs that drop. And guys, most of our roofs are,
are either some type of rubber men, uh, membrane or PVC membrane,
and they're following the objects are not desirable.
So I would recommend, you know, storing it in an open air, uh, situation.
Now, from there, what are some other things that we can do? Okay,
Now we know that these RVs, the tires are just sitting there. Um,
there's a couple things that I wanna look at. One is, of course,
if you can roll 'em up on, you know, some wooden blocks,
especially if it's gonna be on concrete,
go ahead and roll 'em up on wooden blocks. The second thing is,
is that as the, uh, air gets cooler and there's really not much going on,
the tires can deflate. So I'm gonna ask you to look at that, you know,
every once in a while, because we've had several situations, even with fema,
where we would store these, uh, and of course we had survivors living in them,
but the tires would, you know, begin to actually decrease their pressure, right?
Release of pressure, however you wanna say it, right? And the frame would frown.
And, you know,
our survivors couldn't get out the door because the frame was f fring .
So we wanna make sure that we're keeping an eye on it. So, uh,
what we wanna do is just, uh, make sure that, you know, we're,
we're checking on this every once in a while, uh,
checking the pressure of our tires, but also maintaining for,
or looking around for any signs of rodents, um, uh,
any other type of wild, uh, uh,
animals because they're looking for a place that's warm, right?
And they will chew their way in, uh, and get outside of the, um, uh,
cold weather. Now, to me, um, because people ask this all the time,
how can we prevent, you know, mice?
And if I could come up with a surefire way, I would be a gazillionaire. I think.
Um, we're on their property, we're on their turf, right?
Most of us we're on their turf. Um, the best that we can do is to,
you know, do whatever we can to try and stop them. But, you know,
all we can do was maybe limit what happens. Um, I have heard of lights,
I've heard of putting soap down. Um, and while some, you know,
there is some, um, I, I guess, uh,
good effects from that I've seen where it, it doesn't matter, right?
So the best thing that we could do is keep,
keep our eyes on it and try and mitigate it as much as possible, honestly. Um,
having a good, uh, feral cat.
, yes. Yeah. Come in as get a cat. And,
and there are so many different ways, and they all, everybody has a theory.
We'll put links to those, uh, along with the, in the show notes to this thing.
Uh, but checking it regularly, uh, so we, we have it stored.
A a big question that I get all the time is, uh,
particularly those in really cold climates where they get a lot of snow is yeah.
Should they put a cover over the rv.
Right? I, um, well, and to me, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say, you know,
I would like for it to be covered simply because, um, UV damage, right?
If I have it covered,
I don't get the UV damage that's going on top of that roof because now I've got
something at least blocking it or blocking much of it.
But I also know that that also causes, you know, some potential problems.
We can get, um, rain up under there. We can get, not rain, I'm sorry,
we can get air up under there if it's not set right, We get puddles. Um,
cuz of course now we're putting a fabric up there and sometimes when it rains,
you know, it'll puddle and now I've got water puddling,
whereas if I didn't have a cover, there wouldn't be a puddle factor, right?
So while there's some benefits to it,
there's also a lot of considerations and, um, you know,
having that puddle of water sitting up there, you know,
it isn't terrible until it freezes.
And now we've got a frozen block up there and it's just going to rip. Um, that,
so it, where, where one we're saving something too,
we, you know, there's just more consideration. So I'm going to see, uh,
on that as well. Um, that is a preference, uh, matter when it comes to that.
I like the idea of not putting UV damage up there on the roof,
because that's where most expensive parts are.
Yeah. The the other thing that covers that I hear all the time is, uh,
people have had really bad experience. They, they buy a is cover are good,
cover is expensive, you know, it's, it's, it's gotta be, uh, uh,
water resistant, but it also has to be breathable.
And they're just buying right? These blue tarps at the big box stores.
And that is, oh, no. Yeah, So, so I, I'm glad to hear say that. Yeah.
That's, I didn't imagine that whenever you asked the question.
Uh, I've been saying, don't you don't need one , but, uh, that's good.
There's a big color industry and they get mad at me when I say that, but I, I,
I'm glad to hear that. What about the, uh, so, so we get it on,
on wooden block, we get this tires on wood. If it's outside, um, you know,
we're going in looking for mice damage and all of that stuff.
What about the batteries? This is another one. Uh,
should people triple charge the batteries? Should they remove the batteries, uh,
turn them off? Should they keep it plugged in? If they have a hookup,
what kind of things should they do when they're RVs in stories or not being
used? All.
All those answers were yes.
. Oh, good. That would be.
Yeah. So a,
a lead asset gel or AGM battery is gonna self discharge its voltage roughly
one volt every 30 days. So the best thing that we can do is keep it, you know,
on charge. If you have access, uh, to, uh,
run power out to rv, the simplest thing you can do is just simply plug it in.
It doesn't, it does, it doesn't have to be the full, um, amperage.
In other words, if you have a 50 amp rv,
you don't have to plug it in to 50 amps providing that you don't turn anything
else on because the gen, I'm sorry, the, uh, converter that we have,
or the battery charger in the RV is a maintenance or a maintainer,
a battery maintainer. It's sometimes called a triple charge.
So the best thing that we can do is keep those batteries charged up.
The best way to explain it is, you know, whatever your favorite, you know,
frozen drink is where you, your mixing your ice and your,
your liquid of choice, adult beverage, whatever, right?
And then you add whatever, you know, flavoring, you have,
you stick it in a blender, right? So you get it all blended up. Well,
it'll stay blended for a little bit,
but after a time when you turn that blender off, things begin to separate.
And that's what's going on inside the batteries. Uh,
because they have electrolytes in their kind of salt. If we don't use them,
the salt's gonna basically stratify and sit down
because we're not keeping it charged. We're not keeping the blender on.
So if you have power to it, yeah, go ahead and connect it to power.
If you don't have power, yes, if you can remove the batteries,
bring it to your home location and put a, a battery maintainer,
put it on a battery maintainer, that would be great.
What, what about lithium batteries? Lithium battery, any, they,
they supposedly are maintenance free. Is that true?
That is true. They have very little, uh, they have very little, uh,
electrolyte in them, and they don't off gas, so they are maintenance free.
There's not much we have to do. Hallelujah. Um, I know a lot of people will say,
Hey Todd, I do know that lithium, you know, the consideration is, of course,
when it gets really cold, well, when it gets really cold,
we don't wanna charge them. So lithium batteries,
when we get right around the freezing point, that's when lithium batteries,
the consideration is, is not to charge them heavily. So,
um, if you are winterizing and you don't have anything else on,
even with a lithium battery, you can leave it there, um,
in the RV with a small maintainer charge because it's gonna drop it
down to five amps anyway to charge it. So you're fine there.
If you want to take those back to, um, your, uh,
home place of residence or whatnot,
you can just simply set those and let them set. Um,
most manufacturers will say up to six months,
you don't have have to charge them back up. Right? Good.
It's ideal to keep 'em on a charge,
but lithium is a different chemistry altogether. You,
you don't have to keep 'em on.
A charge. Then the question about, uh,
everybody seems to be getting solar panels. Uh,
what concerns about those? What if snow can,
can they handle snow on top of them?
They're obviously not gonna be very effective in charging, but, uh,
do we have to do anything special with our,
with our solar panels when the RFS and storage?
Oh, so most solar panels, well, one,
they're gonna have a longer warranty on the solar panel than on your roof
. So your roof is supposedly 10 years. Come on. Uh, best at two.
Uh, but solar panels are good for about 25 years, uh, depending on, you know,
which ones you buy, they'll have even a rating for hail. And I tell you,
I'd much rather have a, a hail damage to a solar panel than on my rv.
Solar panel's a heck of a lot cheaper to replace. Um, they can handle snow,
right? Um, definitely can handle snow. The consideration is, is when you, um,
come back to de one arrive, she may wanna get up there and clean them.
They won't be very efficient. In other words,
if there's a 200 wat panel that you have, and if it's all dirty,
you may only see 60 or 70 watts. So we gotta get up there and clean them,
just like you would say your, um, windshield. Um,
and really one of the best things after you clean it, you know,
just with regular wind deck or whatnot, coming back with some, you know, some,
uh, what is that, Rex? Or something like that, where it gives a very thin film,
um, wax film, so that way when the water hits, it rolls off.
So treat it.
Just like windshield.
I I think the most valuable advice you gave is, um,
go South until it's warmed up.
So after that it was all downhill. It.
Was all downhill. Well, we have now winterized our rv.
We now know what to do with it and keeping it in storage. And, uh,
uh, two more great interviews, uh,
racked up with Todd Henson from the National RV Training Academy. Uh,
Todd, uh, we wanna give another pitch for the, uh, course that you guys make.
It's,
it's really one of the finest courses I've ever seen that teaches us all how
to maintain our RVs. Now,
I know a lot of people just go have their RVs winterized at a at a dealer,
and that's the easy way to do it. But, um, just as we wrap all this,
uh, just the importance of people being able to do their own maintenance, uh,
would you just address that a little bit, that it's not that complicated,
even I can do some of it .
So talk about why we need to know that.
Yeah, and I think what happens is, is we, we get deflated. We go in, you know,
brand new, the RV lifestyle. We think, well, we've worked on homes. We've,
we've done some stuff in the house. RV's not gonna be that much different.
And it's a lot of nuance, right?
There's things that just don't operate the same as it does in the house.
And because of those little nuances, a lot of us, you know,
we just totally don't know what to do, you know, with the rv. And so, you know,
having this course, our, you know, the course that we, uh,
put together was to help you pass all those nuances.
Because most of this stuff, once it's fully explained, you're like, I got this.
You know, this is now not that hard. And that's, that's our whole goal,
is to make the RV lifestyle, you know, the RV is achieve what they're really,
you know, what their goal is. And that's to, you know, go experience life.
Not to worry about why isn't this working, or what do I need to do here?
That's a lot of stress that you don't need. And it's not because, you know,
you're, you're not smart enough.
It's just simply because that hasn't been explained to you.
So that's what we're actually covering in that home study course.
Well, we will, we will suggest that and put some links to it. And, uh,
we'll have you back in a couple of months. We'll be having you back, uh,
how to get our RV outta winterization and, uh, how to, uh,
get it outta storage. So Todd Henson, great.
Thank you so much for making the time with us today.
Thank you for having me. Well.
If you enjoy Todd's instructions,
he makes available a home study course that teaches you how to
maintain and service your rv. And, uh, it's a great resource,
one that we recommend. Uh, we'll put a link on the screen and, uh,
for those of you watching on YouTube and in the show notes that you'll
find@rvlifestyle.com, uh, will we come back in a minute?
We're gonna talk about, uh, the RV news of the week,
and we wanna urge you to stick around to the questions time,
because we're gonna talk about putting an RV in in storage,
and then what do you do about the tires?
And that will be an interesting discussion, uh,
a little bit later on the podcast. Right now.
Let's take a quick break and come back then with your comments and questions.
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Welcome back. And now it's time for the RV News of the.
Week. You know, and I hate to have us be known as the bad news, uh, bearers,
bearers, get it. Um, but, uh, we kind of are, uh,
we've got lots of paths to share. A couple of stories at least. Uh, the,
the first is of a looming crisis.
Diesel supplies in the US are at their lowest levels now since
1993. And, and this is causing a lot of worry, uh,
among all of the experts for a lot of reasons.
It's causing a lot of concern in the RV world because, uh,
many of us have diesel powered tow vehicles, uh,
or diesel powered motor homes. And, uh,
the US now has only a 25 day supply of diesel
fuel. And, um, that's the lowest it's been in, in a long time.
Um, in the northeast, this is the time of year.
Many people are stocking up with diesel oil,
which they used to heat their house.
We're coming up to the Christmas shopping season.
Yeah, this time of year. Normally we need more.
Fuel. We need more fuel. We've got trucks on the road delivering, uh,
supplies. Everybody's still trying to, uh, to catch up with the, uh,
with the, uh, supply chain issues that are out there. The trucks are,
are just working as hard as they can. They are all fueled by diesel.
So our, uh, railroad cars, uh, railroad, uh,
engines are almost all diesel these days. And, uh, it's, it's,
it's crazy out there. Um, so there's a lot of concern going into the winter,
and there's a lot of reasons for this.
Mostly there reasons are being blamed on some other complicated
market training trading practices. Um,
and if I can simplify it greatly, it means that traders, uh,
will pay more for prop deliveries rather than worrying
about a future delivery in which right now the trend is that diesel prices are
going up. So, uh,
they're ordering as much as they can right now that's reducing the supply.
And uh, they, uh, they figured that they're gonna save money. Cuz uh,
the bedding is all that diesel prices are gonna be very high,
just like fuel prices are going up and up and.
Up. Well, that makes a lot of sense.
It does to try to get it right now before it goes up anymore,
cuz it's going up so crazy.
But it's cutting down those reserves. And then adding to that is, uh, uh,
there's been a steady decline on the east coast of refining capacity
over the last several years, uh,
that has made that area particularly reliant on overseas sources.
Uh, and that usually comes across the Atlantic from Europe and Russia.
And the Ukraine war, as you know, has, uh, put a stop to that.
So it is pretty grim for, uh, the trucking industry.
And of course the RVers, uh,
RV industry and RVers who run with diesel are watching this very closely. So,
um, uh, it's, it's frightening.
We'll have a question about that from one of our readers who's worried about
fuel. Um, not just diesel, but gas as well. But this is a big issue.
It.
Is a big issue.
A lot more. Yeah.
What else? And, uh, well, the next story.
Have you ever been out there taking a hike? And, you know,
you run across all those piles. People pile stone upon stone,
and I don't know how you feel about that, but in Texas they have, uh,
the state park officials are asking people to please stop doing that.
When you pile up all those stones, you're ruining the natural habitat for, uh,
a lot of little creatures that, uh, live underneath those stones.
You're just messing up nature and a lot of these little creatures that become
vulnerable to predator. So stop doing that. Texas is saying,
Please don't do that. And.
I think we've heard about this from other states too.
Yeah, there's other states that are, um, saying, asking you to do this.
Stop doing this. I don't know why this craze started.
I guess people somehow want to be significant and pile stones on top of each
other, I guess you're either one camp or the other.
You either like that and you do those piles of stones or else you're like me and
think, leave it the way you found it.
The whole thing with camping is leave no trace that you were there.
And that violates that right off the top that.
Violates that. So I'm not a big fan of, uh,
piling stones up on one on top of another.
So Texas state officials now.
Saying, Thank you, Texas.
Don't do that. Other states saying the same thing.
The Texas being very vocal about it these days. And speaking of Texas, um,
a woman there this past week was gored by, uh, a bison.
This happened at Caprock Canyon State Park in Texas last week. Um,
she actually posted a video of the whole thing on social.
Okay, now, who was, uh, videoing this?
Uh, somebody else was taking it obviously, cuz she was, uh,
she was trying to pass this bison slowly on foot. She got too close,
the bison charged her,
and it literally tossed her up into a thorny bush. Um,
she was able to call for help.
A helicopter had to come and take her to a hospital. Uh,
she had a three inch puncture wound in her back. Uh, authorities of course,
recommend that people stay at least 50 yards away from bison and
people constantly violate that and they're being tossed and bored.
Um, we'll put a link to a story about that on the show notes. But, um, you know,
stay away from bison.
I just don't understand this. It's hard for me to figure it out. But we've got,
uh, another story here. This is a sad story of Michigan.
There was a 40 year old Missouri man who, uh,
died while camping from carbon monoxide.
And it's good that reminder for all of us,
make sure that your heater is working properly.
Don't just presume and have that monitor to let you know if you're in a bad
situation. So this 40 year old man from Missouri and his two dogs,
they both died.
And this happened at a campground in, uh, Iam County, uh, near the, uh,
capital of Lansing in Michigan last week. Um,
we were camping with all of our, uh,
RV lifestyle fans and supporters last week in Tennessee.
And that cold snap came through and everybody's propane was on.
And you always worry about that at the start of the season. Mm-hmm.
. Uh, now our folks all did a really good job.
They all check their propane, but, um,
lots of people don't use it much during the summer.
It's important that you check it regularly. Uh,
we hear about carbon monoxide because of faulty propane.
We hear about fires because of it. Uh,
we know that bees hornets love to make nests. They love the smell of it.
Spiders do you, you really need, even if it's a new rv,
check it regularly.
Just open that little propane area up and make sure that there's no gunk in
there. Um, propane carbon monoxide, fire dangers,
they're always present when you use propane.
Now that's not saying propane's dangerous. It isn't,
but it is dangerous not to have it well maintained. How's that? Yes. All right.
Uh, alright. We've got some comments and some questions that when we come back.
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Visit camping world.com. Welcome back everybody.
Now time for Reader feedback and your RV questions of the week.
Okay.
So our first feedback comes from Raymond from Big Sky Country of
Montana. Good morning and Happy RV recently,
the question was asked about keeping eggs from cracking while camping.
Here is my tip. We've been doing this for at least 30 years.
We crack our eggs open and put them into a container and then place them in the
refrigerator or into a cooler.
We have even done multiple containers depending on our meal plan.
A full dozen for the breakfast casserole, three eggs in a container for a cake.
And the Dutch oven. Hope this helps. It sure works for us. And Raymond,
thank you for saying that you love our podcast. So I have never thought of.
That. So you just crack the eggs and put it in a container.
Yeah. When I first read this, I thought, how do you separate 'em?
Kind of guess at how how much the egg white egg yolks are kind of easy to tell,
but it makes sense.
Maybe it just stir it all.
Together. No, if you're gonna make like a cake and you need two or three eggs,
you'd put that in one container. And like you said,
for a breakfast casserole where you need a dozen eggs,
you'd crack those and put those in another container. So you,
you'd have a few containers with eggs in.
There you go. Uh, thank you Randy.
You don't have to worry about 'em cracking on the road.
We love getting your comments, uh,
anything you heard today and we love getting your questions.
And the best way to reach us is through our personal email,
which is mike and jen rv lifestyle.com. All right,
we got a couple of questions that we wanna do. You wanna do the first question?
All.
Right, first question. Uh, we are looking into purchasing a van,
but we're if, uh, gas will disappear,
How do you feel about this?
We are 68 and we have one chance for a van.
My husband has some health problems and we wanna enjoy camping while we can.
But worried spending all this money and not having any gas available.
What do you think as to gas availability during the next
five years? That's a tough question cuz nobody knows the future.
Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. I can't believe that we wouldn't have.
Guests. Yeah.
I mean, I mean it might be pricey.
As much as we talk about, uh, electric vehicles. Uh,
and they are awesome. Um, they really are. But you know,
we're not ready yet to get away to do away with gas.
I don't know what they're gonna do in California. That's California. But, um,
I don't see gas being unavailable. Uh, you know,
a lot of it is depending on, uh, who's in charge. the government,
no matter what I say, I will be attacked by either the right or the left.
Uh, one will blame it all on Trump. The other will blame it all on Biden.
But the fact of the matter is, is uh,
gas prices are incredibly high now it looks like they're going to continue to be
high. As we reported earlier,
diesel prices are high and there's that potential diesel shortage.
All that's to say,
we still are planning to do a lot of RV traveling and we don't foresee a time
when gas will be unavailable. It will be expensive.
But I guess my best advice that I would say is, uh, you know,
this is your shot. You know, you have been working for this, get your van, uh,
they're looking for a class B van and, uh,
go out there and enjoy it as best you can.
I think that there will always be gas available, but the country has to have it.
They have to have it. They can't survive without.
It. There will always be a reason not to do something.
And you're saying that you're 68 years old and your husband has some health
issues. So if you're gonna do it,
I'd say you better get doing it because like you say,
this might be your last chance if you live cautiously.
I, I mean I heard a lot of people say the same thing during covid, you know?
Yeah. Everybody lost a year. So almost everybody, we,
we continued to travel but, uh, not as much. Uh,
but it was a lost year. And then I heard people last year say, Well,
we're gonna not go anywhere this year either. I don't have another year to lose,
so I'm gonna keep traveling and if gas prices get high,
I'll try and cut back elsewhere. One of the reasons we bought land,
our own land and, uh, Tennessee and now in Michigan.
So we always have a place to go.
And it's not necessarily across the country if gas prices get prohibitively
high, but we have a place that we can go on camp.
I think there's lots of ways that we'll be able to get around all this stuff and
still be able to enjoy the rv. We just have to adjust. So, um.
Get it. And, and you never know, you know, your husband,
I don't know what's going on, but you just never know and you gotta take a.
Chance. You do. Uh, alright, another question that came in. Um,
this is from Jeff and he says we're gonna be putting a fifth wheel on a
permanent cement campsite by our daughter's house in South Georgia on the fifth
wheel once on the permanent site.
We do not plan on moving that camper for one or two years.
So I need to know,
should we raise the fifth wheel so the tires are off the ground and then cover
them to take better care of them?
I will be blocking up the camper on all four corners and the middle of the
camper, uh, where the structure will allow it to be the most stable.
If the tires wear and tear is a problem, uh, uh,
we would would wanna move it one or two years down the road,
but we wanna make sure it's okay. Until then,
your thoughts and insight would be appreciated.
It's a topic others may not have thought of,
but with all the talk about owning your own property and keeping your RV on
site, we think it's a good question to ask. So what's best for camper and tires,
especially if it's on a concrete.
Pad. I think that is an excellent question.
People are always asking us about leaving their vehicle, What about those.
Tires? You know, it's like, wow. It's like almost everything these days.
No matter what I say,
I'm opening a can of wos because everybody has their own pet theory.
But I'll give you mine cuz you asked for mine. And, uh, uh,
one thing I think you're gonna do,
you were talking about supporting it on four corners, and that would be with,
uh, jack stands, I'm assuming that's what you're talking about. Uh,
instead of relying strictly on your leveling jacks, that's important, uh,
your leveling jacks, you can put them down and what you would do, uh,
without overly complicating is you'd make 'em up high.
So the wheels are just barely off the ground.
Put the jackstands near the wheels on the frame, then bring those hydraulic,
uh, levelers down. So they're still down giving support, but not all of it.
Um, other people will, um,
go through about every 30 days and they will, um, rotate the tires.
They'll get them,
they'll kick them up a little bit so they can do it and then they'll rotate
them. Um,
the reason why they don't wanna have a have it what they call flat topped,
where there's a flat indentation in the tire from sitting too long,
I'm told by many others that usually that flat top, uh,
resolves itself as to drive down a little bit and the air inside starts
circulating. Uh, check the pressure on your tires,
make sure they're always at the adjusted cold setting for them.
You wanna get the tires off the cement, the hot cement,
particularly in South Georgia, it's very hot, very hot. Um,
simplest thing is put 'em on a thin piece of plywood or those flat little,
uh, Lego blocks that you can get. Put the tires on those. Uh,
I would not take all of the weight off the tires, but I would take, uh,
so the tires are not supporting all of it. Um,
some people like these, uh, I dunno if you've seen them. These, uh,
Anderson levelers, they're kind of like a curve thing.
And you could put your RV on that and then put the levelers down,
then put your jacks on it. Um, what other things? Um,
I think that the big thing is, uh, uh,
if you're gonna leave it there for a long time, putting the,
putting it on those, those jacks, those, uh, those leveling jacks.
Not the leveling levelers, the automatic levelers, but leveling jacks and, uh,
rotating it, getting it up every, some people do it every 30 days,
some people do it every 180 days,
but just rotate the tire so it's not sitting in one spot. Uh,
there's controversy over that. Some people say the flat tops, as I said,
will disappear, but, uh, why not do it? Right? And one last thing.
Cover those tires, uh, to protect them from UV damage.
You can get tire covers at any RV store. Camping World has 'em and, uh,
other, other, uh, big General RVs stores have them. And you can find those, uh,
tire covers. So, so that's not, we're gonna actually talk in a,
in a future episode in just a, a week or two. We'll, we'll,
we'll talk a whole bunch more about tires.
We've been getting a lot of question about tires, things like China bombs,
those tires that are, uh, kind of, uh,
entry level tires that many RV makers put on their RVs. They're made in China.
There's been a lot of anecdotal reports and problems with them. Uh,
we'll report all of that. You hear a lot of noise in the background. We're at a,
uh, at the, on the water, this is the, the sound between Chatta, Heche Bay,
Chuck Tache Bay, the Gulf of Mexico. And we're at the, uh,
Adventure Marine Docks here, uh, in, um,
in Florida as we record this. So those are our questions.
We would love to get your questions and your comments. Again,
our email is Mike and jen@rvlifestyle.com. So, um,
I feel a little guilty being in this beautiful weather and talking about
winterizing and all those folks back north as November approaches now. Um,
worried about cold and winterizing. Well.
I think they're having some pretty beautiful weather up north too.
And it's fall, It's beautiful in the north.
It is, it is. Um, so we're, um, delighted to be with you from Florida.
I think we're gonna go enjoy the sun and another spectacular sunset.
I do like rubbing it in . For those of you in bad weather, uh,
please let us hear from you, your comments, your questions. Uh,
you can catch this, a transcript of our interview with Todd and, uh,
all the information we shared in the show notes for this
episode@rvlifestyle.com. Until next week, we'll see you down the road.
Happy trails.