RV Shenanigans! Podcast from Millers in Motion
The RV Shenanigans podcast is your go-to audio adventure for all things RV travel! Hosted by Ryan & Lauren Miller of Millers in Motion, this podcast dives into the ups, downs, and downright hilarious moments of life on the road. From navigating epic road trips and campsite mishaps to discussing RV gear, maintenance tips, and travel inspiration, RV Shenanigans brings a mix of expert advice and laugh-out-loud stories. Whether you’re a seasoned RVer or just dreaming of hitting the road, this podcast delivers relatable tales, helpful tips, and plenty of good vibes to fuel your wanderlust. Tune in, buckle up, and get ready to keep the wheels rolling and the adventures coming!
RV Shenanigans! Podcast from Millers in Motion
RV Travel Tales & Tech Tips: Mishaps, Dreams, and Connectivity Adventures - From the United Rally
Ever found yourself in a sticky situation with no GPS and a black tank disaster in the middle of nowhere? We have, and we're sharing it all with fellow RV enthusiasts and the colorful characters from Life in the Slow Lane, Let's Turn it Up World, and more! Recorded live at the 2025 United Rally, this episode is a rollercoaster of side-splitting stories and unfiltered truths about life on the road. From the maddening moments of unexpected rig damage to the joyous chaos of navigating Alaska's rugged landscapes, our guests spill their wildest travel calamities and the lessons learned along the way.
Dreaming of bucket list adventures? Our panelists reveal their travel aspirations, including attending the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, exploring Utah’s majestic national parks, and even dreaming up a men's trip down the Amazon River—sanitation concerns and all. We discuss the newly passed Explore Act, which opens up national parks for content creators, making it easier than ever to share genuine travel experiences. Whether it’s a two-week Antarctic expedition or a cozy work-camping gig at Crater Lake National Park, these stories will inspire your wanderlust and perhaps even your YouTube journey.
Technology aficionados, rejoice! We've got you covered with insights on essential RV travel tech. From reliable connectivity with Starlink to practical vehicle modifications for those ambitious Alaskan roads, our conversation is packed with tips to enhance your travel experience. Dive into discussions about innovative cooling systems like the Furion Cube and explore the benefits of independent suspension upgrades. This episode wraps up with a heartfelt thank you to our panelists and listeners, inviting you to join the RV Shenanigans community for more laughter, learning, and adventures from the open road.
This week's episode was recorded live and in person at the 2025 United Rally. Boy, did we have fun. But before we get too deep into it, let's jump into this week's RV Shenanigans podcast. Welcome back to the RV Shenanigans podcast. My name is Ryan and, along with my wife Lauren, we are Millers in Motion. We're excited to bring you this episode today because we were able to record this episode, as well as next week's episode, as one of the panels. So this panel was comprised of the Airstreamer Life in the Slow Lane. Let's Turn it Up World Sweet Travels, our Everyday Getaway Over the Hill Adventures and Switch it Up.
Speaker 1:If you did attend the United Rally, you already know what's going to happen, but you can relive some of that fun and excitement that we shared talking all things this week. We also talk a little bit about YouTube. We talk a lot about Alaska and how some of these different YouTube channels travel. In addition, we had some great questions from the audience. So please enjoy this live recorded episode from the United Rally. All right, so we have a couple of little kind of basic topics we're going to cover In this answer some questions. If you have some YouTube questions, we can hit those as well, but I'm going to open this whole thing up as just an open question, so whoever wants to answer this, feel free to jump in. What was the absolute worst non-documented travel incident you had with your RV Means? It has not hit a YouTube channel, instagram, nothing. I guess I need to unmute him.
Speaker 2:I think I'll let Dave.
Speaker 4:Hallelujah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 5:Hallelujah, hallelujah. Okay, oh sure she gives us one to me, let's see. So the worst undocumented event in rv um, yeah, this one. We rented an RV it was actually a Winnebago View and when we picked it up we were assured that we were the first ones in this one. No one had been in it. And so we're excited.
Speaker 5:And, for those who know, we have a cassette toilet in our rig, and so this is one of the first times we've really had a black tank.
Speaker 5:So I was excited to kind of give a, give the black tank a try, said no one except me, but anyway, so we uh, we're in it for a while, and then I had to empty it, and so I, uh, we're at, uh, an rv park, and when I inside, I noticed that it seemed like the valve wasn't completely in all the way you know the normal valve, and it was in like maybe two thirds of the way.
Speaker 5:So I thought, oh, maybe this is just how far it goes, this is how far it goes, and that was just a huge mistake. And so I wasn't really thinking too much about it. I assumed it was actually in all the way, because, hey, no one else had been in this thing. And so I went down and I unscrewed the bottom cap, yeah, and, as you could imagine, I had someone else's poop all over me very quickly and I got to tell you, yeah, I mean, skunks smell bad, but I smelled worse and if I showered I still smelled. It took a long time to get that out of me and unfortunately, tanya, we couldn't really snuggle up that night. Get in the front, get in the front of the rig. So yeah, we didn't film that, but that was definitely a fun event.
Speaker 1:Anybody else got one.
Speaker 7:But were you wearing gloves? Anybody else got one, but were you wearing gloves?
Speaker 1:You got it. One more click Now.
Speaker 8:Hey, there you go. So, since we're talking about crappy subjects, this is undocumented. And so we were at Bolsa Chica Beach in California, and this is the first time in our trailer that this would be our pull, our bumper pull. It was the first time I was going to do the black tank and I was so nervous because I didn't want to be like that RV movie where the poop went spraying all over the like a volcano. So I wanted to make sure that when I hit the dump station that nobody was there. So if in case, anything were to happen, I would be the clear.
Speaker 8:But so we get up to the dump station. I'm all fancy doing it all real quick, like I know what. I'm all fancy doing it all real quick like I know what I'm doing Pull out my sewer hose, get it all connected, and then I do the big pull and then nothing happens. And I go what on earth, why is it not coming out? And I'm going honey, I just don't know. So I go, and I'm going to go check the hose.
Speaker 8:So I decided to disconnect the hose, come to find out that I forgot to take out the new plugs in the sewer hose. So, being the fact that it was a new RV and it was just our poop that was in there, and well, actually I call it Chocolate Squirrel. So we got introduced to Chocolate Squirrel pretty quick and so, like I said, undocumented. But what I would say is that the Velterra gate valve is a must in every situation. So make sure, even if you're renting it, bring it in your suitcase or whatever, and just bring it with you, because inevitably you're going to meet chocolate squirrel. All right, that's it.
Speaker 1:Anybody else got one.
Speaker 9:Yeah, I think I have one for you. A couple of months ago, anna and I were in Branson, missouri, and we have a tendency to trust our GPS a little too much. We have the Garmin GPS, a lot of us have it. You know, you put in your length, your weight, your height, and it's supposed to keep you on the right street. Well, for the most part they get it right. But what we have learned is when you get into the community that you're going to, they seldom get it right. Turn right, turn left. It'll tell you to turn right and your destination is on the left. You can clearly see it. Well, anyways, we're driving through town, bumping along, and I'm telling Nana I said you know what, this just doesn't look right. I don't like where we're at. It tells me to turn right. I look right. That's kind of like a residential area, not where a campground should be. So I look at her, she looks at me and we say what do you think? She says we'll make the turn. So I make the turn. We get halfway down the street. Now I know we're in trouble, because now I'm supposed to turn left and this is like the streets of San Francisco, I mean, we're going up and down to the point where the back of the trailer is starting to drag when I hit the bottom and need to go back up. So now I'm looking for a way out. I can't turn left and I can't turn right on all these other streets and need to go back up. So now I'm looking for a way out. I can't turn left and I can't turn right on all these other streets. Every other street is a one-way street, which even makes it worse. So we're heading down this street and I see an out on the left and I want to turn left but I can't because the angle of the street and the turn is so sharp that I told her I think the trailer would tip over if I hang a left here I really do and maybe if I go really, really fast no, no, let's not do that.
Speaker 9:So I back out of the turn and I got it straight and I continue to drive down this street the only street that I can be on and I see an out up in front of us. So I keep driving to it and I'm driving to it and the streets are getting smaller and smaller and now I have cars parked on both sides. I have about three feet on the driver's side, about three feet on the passenger's side, and I say, oh, there's that cross street, I can get down there and I can turn out and get out of this thing, right. Nope, it's a dead end. It's a dead end and the GPS says go straight. So you know, when you're out on the road you need a couple of GPSs besides the Garmin. So we run, what is that other one? Now we're running, uh, at google. Yeah, we use a couple of them now, uh, so that that doesn't happen to us.
Speaker 9:So now I'm stuck at the end of this street with nowhere to go, but back in a sixty three foot long rig that weighs forty,000 pounds. So take a deep breath and start backing up. Right, I backed up. How far? Okay, I don't want to exaggerate, anna, tell them how far did I back up? At least a quarter mile. So I backed up on this street a quarter of a mile before I could find a place that I wanted to turn out. But before that happened, people are getting mad at me that live on both sides because they can't get out of their driveways. Not only can they not get out of their driveways, but they can't even get off the street because they're in front of me.
Speaker 4:There was a lady trying to pull out. She was screaming at us because she couldn't get her car out. We're trying to pull out and she was screaming at us because she couldn't get her car out. We're trying to back up.
Speaker 9:So I got people on both sides mad at me because I'm there, I got a guy behind me that doesn't want to back up and I have to go back to him and explain to him why he has to back up. So we finally worked it out. Anyways, after backing up a quarter of a mile and finally making that turn and getting out of there, we took a deep breath and said Well, we were out of gas at that point.
Speaker 9:You know it just keeps getting better. I forgot about that, you know, Because we go rolling into town and I tell Ann, I said we can make it to our camp spot, this is no problem. But when you get lost and you're on these streets and you're going up and down and you use more fuel and I don't know where my fuel pickup is, Is it in the front of the tank, the back of the tank? Am I going to run out of gas going up and down these hills? So, anyways, we get out of there and then I get back on the main street. Now I need gas. Where do you get gas? In a 63-foot-long rig in Branson, Missouri. There's no place to go. So I find a parking lot, I drop the trailer, I go to a gas station, I put in 50 gallons, I come back and hook up the trailer and we finally make it to our spot. What about Two or three hours late?
Speaker 4:Yeah, about a couple hours later and he wouldn't let me film any of this. I tried, ladies and gentlemen, he would not let me.
Speaker 9:Well, you know, sometimes it's. I mean, it would have been great. I can just see it. Right now she sets the camera off on one of the side streets and you see this rig backing up. I can just picture it. I know it would have been great, but at the time it just didn't feel right. So that's our little horror story for now.
Speaker 1:Anybody else got one.
Speaker 7:I'll give one. Todd and Sheila are real familiar with this one please tell me it's about Todd.
Speaker 10:It is perfect no, no, it's not. We shared that.
Speaker 7:This was his story to tell so we're at the Tampa RV show together. We're parked at the fairgrounds and if any of you have been to fairground parking, your sewer can be over there and your water's over there and your electric's behind you. So we had a great time with Todd and Sheila at the show. Kelly and I are going to mad dash to court site as soon as the show is over. So I told Kelly. I said let's go out and let's dump the tanks and get everything flushed out so we can leave early. Okay, so I pull my sewer hose out, hook it up. I'm 10 foot short. This is not a crap story, by the way. So I told Kel. I said all right, let's go ahead and hook up and pull forward so the sewer hose can reach. We'll just get this all taken care of.
Speaker 7:So she comes out. She's a great spotter, by the way. She comes out, I get hooked up back into the hitch, pull up the jacks. 10 feet, that's all I got to go 10 feet. I pull the truck forward, crash. Guess what we forgot to do? The tug test. The nose of our brand-new fifth wheel comes down and hits the truck. About the same time as I heard the crash, todd's running out of his rig. What the heck happened. You remember that, not document.
Speaker 3:In fact, I wouldn't even document that for six weeks I was so embarrassed it was heartbreaking and that is why most of our videos, when we're back and you know we're hooking up, I always say don't forget the tug test, don't do what we did. Check it every time, even if it's ten feet.
Speaker 7:And what did I say? Never going back to Tampa.
Speaker 10:The funny part is that Jason, who's running around with a camera right now, was sitting in the rig. We're sitting in the rig and next door it was the loudest thing and I saw Kelly's face and how just distraught and the thing about being in YouTube, like we do carry cameras around, like you just shared, like that there's sometimes you don't want to film, and it would have been a million view video. It would have been because people would have wanted, like they would want, to see it. And I looked at Jim and and I said none of us are shooting video because out of respect to being in that moment that it was hurt, like it hurt like our hearts to see their rig damaged and and to know that it was going to be okay and and stuff. So we joke about it now because it's easy, but I could see Kelly's face and how like it really hurt it was. It was a hurtful moment and so yeah, yeah it was.
Speaker 3:It was devastating, yeah, especially with its brand new and everything. We were so excited and and then we had to get the tape out and tape the sucker, because there was a big hole and it was wet you know the weather and and, and then we had to. Then we had to go through a snowstorm to get to elk city, oklahoma, which is why we always say stay south of i-10, don't go north of i-10, because you hit the snow. And we had one excuse, my language, one hell of a snowstorm, ice storm. And we had our friends with us and we said don't follow us. But they did, thank goodness. But always do a tug test, please, don't forget it. It's so important because you just never know when that sucker's going to come down and make it.
Speaker 1:I feel like we've talked a lot about destruction and poop A lot. That's part of it. It is part of it exactly. So, with that being said, I do have a question specifically for Chris and Katrina because you guys went to this place that can literally destroy a rig if you do it wrong and if you don't mind, because you guys did it in a way that I think people is becoming more common now as far as, like, the getting it. You talk about Alaska yes, I was trying to let you talk about it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you guys took measures a Step further than just retrofitting your RV to make it okay to go.
Speaker 12:You guys, full-on, just said yeah, for those of you who don't know, we have a 39 foot class a diesel pusher and we decided to go to alaska. We were invited from by our, some friends of ours. Well, I'd heard all the horror stories. You know what could happen. We decided to get a smaller rig. So we got a class c. Uh, winnebago trend no slides, nothing, we figured. We figured, without the slides, no jacks, we're cutting back on the chances something could go wrong. So we took the smaller rig and we went up to Alaska and actually it was fantastic and we really had no problems, no issues. A few dinks and dents here and there.
Speaker 13:Except when the heat went out. We had no heat up there for a while.
Speaker 4:In. Alaska. I don't think that was a big deal.
Speaker 5:That wasn't a big deal, it was all good.
Speaker 12:It was fine. You know it was fine, it was okay. But no, and actually now that we've been up there and we experienced it and we met others, folks who drove up there in your larger Class A diesel pushers, your fifth wheels we realized that in hindsight we could have taken the Class A up there if we wanted to. It would have been a find. I don't think it's as bad as a lot of folks make it out to be, and I think a lot of it comes down to just taking your time and you're going to be okay. But the one thing that was nice about taking the small rig was we just had the ability to go anywhere and we could just pull over at all these great, fantastic spots and boondock. So that worked out. In hindsight I think it worked out and ended up being a better thing, because it would have been a little bit more difficult to find those sweet boondocking spots with a larger rig. But yeah, it worked out great.
Speaker 1:Did you hit any spots where you said, ooh, there's no way with the Class A, or even with the little one, where you just said you know what? That's too far for us.
Speaker 12:Not that I can remember Anything you can remember.
Speaker 13:I think some of the boondocking spots would have been tight for the larger rig. And again, we were also very fortunate because the couple that we traveled with he was at RV Tech, so we he fixed anything so y'all cheated. You see that it worked out. It worked out fine. He happened to have a board when our heat went out. I mean it was yes, so yeah, I mean.
Speaker 12:I think, once again, I think it's nice to take the smaller rig up there. But if you have a larger rig and you're thinking about it and you're you have, you're hesitant because it's a larger rig, it can be done. It can be done.
Speaker 1:So I just randomly, because there's two specific couples on here that I would imagine probably wouldn't want to take their rig for slightly different reasons. So I want to know from Todd Sheila and Airstream would you guys consider taking your current setups to Alaska, because I can imagine potentially getting any damage on the Airstream? Sounds terrifying. And well, todd, you guys are huge, potentially getting any damage on the airstream sounds terrifying and well, todd, you guys are huge. What do you think?
Speaker 14:right. Actually I think I think we would take the airstream up there without any issue. Might want to put the three-inch lift kit on it, but actually I think our setup right now we would be fine. We've been in some pretty dicey situations with it and some mountain stuff and actually the worst was going through Shreveport, louisiana, kind of on the way here, but that was probably the worst. So, yeah, we would take the airstream up there for sure.
Speaker 12:I mean, we were at one campground and a fellow had a prevo up there no problems, no issues. And we would talk to some of the other rvers that had the larger rigs and we asked them you guys experience, have any problems? And almost every one of them said no problems at all, as long as you get. When you get to the bad, just slow down and take it easy. Another thing to keep in mind is a lot of times the traffic coming the other way, especially the truckers, don't care, so they're just blowing through.
Speaker 1:Especially on gravel roads. They kick stuff up at you, absolutely. Yeah, todd Sheila, would you guys take the big mama up there?
Speaker 15:Absolutely not. Would you guys take the big mama up there? Absolutely not. No, I think we could do a rig swap with Dave and Tanya and then they can stay in Emerald City in our big rig and we'll take your Echo and go.
Speaker 2:And we'll never come back.
Speaker 1:I would actually really. I think that could be a great video. Let Dave drive it.
Speaker 10:I just want to see that Rig swap. Yeah, yeah, let Dave drive it. I just want to see that Rig swap.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rig swap yeah, but the wives have to drive.
Speaker 10:You'll hide it. Yeah, the thing is, I've watched a number of your videos like people going to Alaska. It's like we don't have any desire to make the drive. I know it sounds goofy for RV life, but we have the desire to probably fly up, rent something and then go tour around and then fly back because that journey going up and and stuff, I I guess. And there's another thing that we don't know and I don't know jim, you might know this, but I don't know. We've been told, once you cross the, the canadian border, that we're in. We're a non-commercial cdl driver. I'm a non-commercial class a and I think, once you go into canada, and I don't know, I think you have to have an air endorsement, which means no, you don't. Well, when we pull up, would they not question like, wait a minute, this looks like a semi. No, you don't think so. Have you done it? So they didn't question whether you had okay, well then, we're still not doing it, we're.
Speaker 12:I was looking for an excuse you know I I can understand somebody not wanting to make the drive, but if you enjoy that part of rv life, if you do drive, I'm telling you all the drive is memorable and God speaks to you when you make that drive and you see what. You see I'm telling you I'm serious and it's a beautiful drive. I'm glad I did it. I would never do it again. I would fly into Alaska and do a cruise. But as far as the drive, I'm glad I did it because it's some great memories.
Speaker 10:You crossed it off your bucket list, right.
Speaker 7:So Kelly and I have made that trip 13 times. The roads in New Mexico are worse than the Alcan.
Speaker 2:I think if you can drive on Route 40 here you can do Alaska.
Speaker 12:Don't let all the negative stuff prevent you from going up there, because it's not as bad as people make it out to be. To Alaska. Don't let all the negative stuff prevent you from going up there, because it's not as bad as people make it out to be.
Speaker 1:So, just by show of hands out in the audience, who has been up to Alaska in their RV and who hasn't? Okay, so, just Sorry, who has been up to Alaska? Let's start with that one. Okay, so, not as many. Who wants to go to Alaska in their rig? Who has a rig now that they would take to Alaska? What are you waiting on? Yeah, we're here.
Speaker 10:Talk to no Sticks, no Bricks. They're doing a 2026 caravan. They can only take 10 people or so.
Speaker 1:When's the Fairbanks huddle?
Speaker 10:Yeah, no.
Speaker 15:I'm curious on the other direction. I'm a more. I like the heat. How many people have been to Baja?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. Has anybody up here been to Baja? You guys can't.
Speaker 10:Another rig swap situation in it.
Speaker 15:That's another rig swap situation, isn't it? But that's more of an issue for the person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so does anybody, just for the audience, be thinking of questions? Because we're getting to that point where this is about to open up, so we want you to come up here and ask these guys some questions too. But does anybody have any bucket list destinations that they are absolutely like got to do in the next, let's say, handful of years?
Speaker 2:well, we did. A one I thought was really enjoyable for us is we did a month in japan in an rv and we started in the northern islands, did a little winter camping and went through tokyo and a bunch of different spots and we've done done Iceland in a camper van around the.
Speaker 2:Golden Circle and Ring Road, so we hit a lot of places and one of the biggest things with us is we've always been nimble boondockers, which is why we have the size rig that we have. We've always loved winter camping and I'm sure a lot of you guys have seen those videos. We like it, so we don't mind the cold, we don't mind the cold, we don't mind the challenge. And I think the biggest thing is you have to feel really comfortable with the rig that you're in, regardless of what anybody says or does. You have to be comfortable both of you, the women and the men, because if something happens to him, you want to make sure you know how to drive that thing yourself and not have to learn how to drive it quickly in a rough situation. At least just have a familiarity, but yeah, if anybody out there wanted to do it.
Speaker 1:Do you have any like quick tips as far as like renting or just the process of actually doing that? For just going international and renting an rv and doing that like just the big stuff, like oh, I didn't know that that'll be coming up in the uh seminar, so make sure you join everybody attending um.
Speaker 2:We'll see you then.
Speaker 15:Thank, you good job, plug Good job.
Speaker 1:Does anybody else have any bucket lists?
Speaker 12:Yeah, it would be the Albuquerque Balloon Festival, it would be the five in Utah, the five parks, and it would be the Bourbon Trail, which, yeah, I'm so giddy up Going to the Bourbon Trail. I could do that, but then there was. I think that's pretty much. Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the bourbon trail could do that. I think that's pretty much it. I don't know if the bourbon trail could handle you being Mike. Anybody else bucket list stuff Is that in an RV or no? Well, if you have a non-RV one, go for it.
Speaker 10:I said RV, but do you have a non-RV bucket list? You have a microphone too. I have a big bucket thing outside the office too.
Speaker 1:Use the mic yes.
Speaker 10:I have a big bucket list of things outside the RV. I like weird things and Sheila's like I'm not doing that one, so like one. There's this place. That's the furthest north point in America, which is towards the North Pole. So you fly up and then you have to take a truck and go stand on a glacier in the middle of nowhere to hit the pole. I want to see the actual North Pole. She doesn't want to do that one.
Speaker 1:Just to meet Santa Claus right.
Speaker 10:That's all you want to do it for. Just to meet Santa Claus, right? That's all you want to do it for. And then, if anyone's interested, I want to take, like I've done, this trip on the Amazon River, where you get on a boat and you live on the boat on the Amazon River on the top deck. Sheila's like I'm not doing that, so it might be a man's trip. So if anyone wants to go on an Amazon trip with me, you can do that.
Speaker 15:The reason why I'm not going Cold, no, no, no, no, no, no. Where they take a shower.
Speaker 10:On the Amazon.
Speaker 15:In the Amazon. Yeah, is the same water that you flush your black tank stuff in, and it just recirculates. That seems no, thank you.
Speaker 10:It's a man strip if you want to swim.
Speaker 2:Well, for ladies, I actually did something I thought was really cool. I did two weeks in Antarctica. So you fly into Ushuaia, Argentina, you do the Drake's Passage and then you come out, you take the Zodiacs and it's an amazing experience. It's cold, but the summer times are nothing different than the winter times here. You know 30 degrees, whatever, 20-something degrees, and as long as you're prepared for it, I think the experiences and being able to see the penguins and learn about the wildlife and I'm an official ambassador because I got a stamp over there so I'm feeling pretty good. Thank you very much. So that's a bucket.
Speaker 1:Does that mean diplomatic community here now or no? You're dealing with time does anybody else have any bucket list stuff?
Speaker 14:I guess non-rv is a thing now too yeah, we were just talking about and one of our bucket lists for a long time has been the pacific northwest and um. So we're and in fact we just got confirmed yesterday and today one of the things I don't know if you this life is not less expensive than living in a sticks and bricks, and we figured that out, um pretty quick. So we've decided to do quite a bit of work, camping and actually that's to fulfill our dream of the pacific northwest. We just got hired in to be one of the people working at Crater Lake National Park, so we're going to be there actually pretty much this whole summer, so that'll fill that in for us.
Speaker 2:And now, everyone, I think you can, if you're going to film in those places, you're able to film in those places again. So welcome back to National Park Filming.
Speaker 14:Yeah, the Explore Act passed. That was a big thing because I do photography work too and professional photography work and have a channel on that and that's been a big thing with me about the national parks and we've been avoiding national parks. And now with the Explore Act being passed, now that frees it up for small creators, as long as you're not a movie studio under six Sorry, todd and Sheila 're not a movie studio Under six. Sorry, todd and Sheila.
Speaker 1:Sheila, were you gonna say something?
Speaker 15:I was just gonna. I didn't know you were gonna be there. We have a. We're bringing a huddle to the Crater Lake this summer, so we'll come and see you. Great.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna ask one more question, but do me a favor, if you have questions, if you want to start thinking about maybe coming up to the mic as they kind of wrap up mine. We're going to start transitioning, so we want to make sure that these guys can answer any questions you guys have as well. With all these bucket list trips and stuff we're talking about, is there anything in the RV itself, besides buying a new one, that you would like to have, like tech or anything else that happens to be in the RV that you think is crucial for the trip? Like, was there anything for Alaska besides a new RV that you're like we need to have this?
Speaker 13:We should have had heated floors. I'm just saying, it's cold.
Speaker 15:You can't boondock with heated floors, why it runs too much power.
Speaker 1:Or you get more power.
Speaker 12:You have to run the generator. I would say Starlink. In my experience Starlink To be able to just pull over in spots where there's no cell and just fire up to Starlink and you're good to go. Does anybody?
Speaker 1:have Go ahead Sorry.
Speaker 4:Okay, we were prepping for our Alaska trip this summer and in doing so, one of the things that we needed to do was raise the bottom of our RV, because it did sit quite low to the ground and we were worried about those frosties. So he took the rig in to have the jacks lifted and he had the more right independent suspension drop so that it would allow more ground clearance.
Speaker 1:so that was something that we had had to do and have done in order to prep for that trip so that actually brings a good point, because is there anything that you wish you have for when you travel around the country on your rigs, for the actual travel side of it, like if you have a trailer, like an independent suspension, or if you have a motor home air ride more stuff? I don't know much about motorhomes. Does anybody have anything?
Speaker 7:by the way, I'm coming to questions soon, so somebody wants to come up here yeah, I would like to see the production companies that make production coaches not custom but production put in mini splits.
Speaker 10:That would be less energy, more comfort, less power. Okay, I need to address the mini split situation. We love the mini splits on AC mode, the mini splits. To give you an idea, we have 30.3 kilowatts on solar, so it's eight. 300 amp hour lithium batteries. Okay, running heat? No bueno, give you an idea, we can run the ACs on mini splits for like three days, no problem, keep it cool.
Speaker 10:You fire up the heater on a mini split and seven hours dead. So they consume more energy, I believe, on the side when you're using them, on the heat capacity, and they run non-stop. And so, sheila, there's been times where she's like I don't know if I like this, it just feels cold. And so I think, if you're going to go that route the aqua hot system and you're trying to get away from using a lot of the propane and stuff aqua hot, running a diesel, and then that running that whole heating system might be a better way for the heat component, and then running, you know, then you're always trying to run little. You know heaters, electrical heaters. Well, that just sucks more juice as well. So we do have heated floors in a certain part of it, but when we set it up, I just don't know if the mini split. Sorry, long answer, but I don't know if the mini split works great for heat. That's just been thought process.
Speaker 15:Ac is absolutely lights out it's quiet, less space on the roof, like there's a lot of value there, less energy and for days I bet it's more than three days that we could go, but the heat I'm not sure we love that solution.
Speaker 10:Just a different perspective. We didn't know that until we put it in.
Speaker 1:Has any of you all looked at possibly doing the Furion Cube, which is kind of like that in-between with the variable compressor? Okay, well, we had it on our coach we just sold. So, if you have questions, not really my panel, but so it was actually great. So it's a variable compressor, so it's designed like a mini-split but it's roof-mounted in more of a traditional RV sense and so what it does is the fan fan. I think they said they rated the fan to run consistently for like 15 years or something like that sales sheet stuff. So who actually knows? Um, but for us, because we had a pretty robust solar system on on the rig it, it did a great job, it actually cooled. So if they make the equivalent over to like the coleman's, it essentially was about an 18k per unit. We had all three of them. Now we didn't. We had to do non ducted because at the time we were testing it they didn't have a ducted, which they do now.
Speaker 1:We tested it in August in Texas. It was 105 degrees outside and when we, right before we put them on, we had reflectics in all of our windows the things we do, right, reflectics in all the windows. We had a toy hauler, so the ramp door was up. We did everything to keep Pete out the best we could and we would get to about 82 in the rig give or take at the kind of prime of the day if you're full sun. So fast forward. A few weeks later we have those on.
Speaker 1:I decided to put the ramp door down. It was 101 outside. I put the ramp door down, took all the reflectics out and put all the ACs at about 60 degrees and I left for four hours, took the dog somewhere, just wanted to come back. It was 65 degrees in the rig when I got back. So they push more like that traditional 20 degrees from outside thing that the Coleman's have. It definitely pushes more and it keeps it cold. And the power consumption, at least from the RV side. Now this is all through that Victron Servo GX, so don't go exactly on the numbers, but at max consumption at least what I thought it was blowing, it only used about 900 watts. Now it can't control heat at all, but we left our thermostat from the AirXL one so that it would control our furnace.
Speaker 15:I was just going to say regarding the heat pump, though, we were in Kansas City. It is 19 degrees or whatever it's doing fine here, it's in that minute.
Speaker 9:I was talking to a RV tech and a builder Actually it was Lux.
Speaker 9:We were talking to them about some options and what to do and how to build one, and there was something that came up on the mini splits that I had never thought of and that's that the mini splits are traditionally designed to be in your home, not in an RV.
Speaker 9:An RV is bouncing down the road, it's an earthquake going down the road and it never stops shaking and the mini splits, from what I have been told, and the mini splits from what I have been told, are not built to absorb the harmonics as it's bouncing down the road in an RV and that they were having problems with that and warranty problems with that, and it was hard to get people out to work on them because the people that were working on the mini splits didn't want to go to work on a trailer that had the mini split because they didn't understand it and it was just something that was different. So I don't know if they've started designing mini splits for RVs. I think it's a great idea. I would love to see it, I would love to have it, anna and I have talked about it, but I think there's a little extra work that needs to go in it to make it more reliable and more suitable for the vibration of the RV travel.
Speaker 1:Well, and Todd, where do you guys have yours mounted? Is it like on a sidewall somewhere?
Speaker 10:Well, the problem is we're custom, so it's not apples to oranges, right, they do now make a mini split that can sit towards the front, or they can do adaptive. They do have that now. Ours is actually New Horizon mounts it on the side so it ducks out. That's what they do for a spacecraft as well. So it's easy when you're doing custom stuff. But to retrofit into a current um, drv or whatever they do have now kits that can work. It's just it's pros and cons, anything we're doing in the RV space, right. So I don't know if it's the end-all to be-all for everything, but it does. It's so much better and efficient for AC stuff.
Speaker 7:So the latest rumor we heard was that Lippert is currently working. Yeah, yeah, but the latest we heard is that Lppert is actually working on a set right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we heard that as well. It's kind of in conjunction with the cube and then that matt. Yeah, it's a whole thing. So does anybody have any questions for the panel?
Speaker 10:really, there you go let's do it, go there's. There's a microphone Right over there. Step on up.
Speaker 14:Hello. Okay, so I have an appointment set for more. I had to do independent suspension.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 14:And just curious how many of you up there have had that done and pros and cons.
Speaker 9:Well, after we got our rig, it had the standard Dexter 7,000-pound axles. We have a Grand Design 376 THS it's the big momentum toy hauler and it had the Dexter 7,000-pound axles and within a year I was breaking all the wet bolts. I broke the leaf spring twice. The third axle is just a killer on a toy hauler. You're at low speeds and you're making a turn or you're backing up, the tires don't really roll, they just drag. So you're always breaking stuff back there and it was just a constant problem. So I called Moride right away and I made an appointment to take it in because I really didn't see that we really had a realistic option. The trailer was just bouncing down the road. It was terrible and it took what? 14 months to get it in there. To get it done that was their backup was 14 months. That was a couple of years ago and it's just win-win. I just couldn't be happier with it.
Speaker 9:You hear all the stories. You know I left something sitting on the counter, right, you think it's a commercial, but you know we've really had stuff like that happen. The trailer just floats down the road. It makes a tremendous difference, along with the air ride hitch. That's the reason that we think that we've done so well with our momentum. And what? Yeah, we haven't had any problems that you hear about. You hear about all the horror stories with FrameFlex and all that.
Speaker 9:Anna and I have been very fortunate, but we've also made a significant investment in trying to get away from that and I also try to keep from doing stupid stuff. It doesn't always work. Like I said, I had to back up a quarter of a mile, but I try not to drive it in and out of holes. You know stuff like that and of course, that always helps. The trailers can only take so much, but the MORryde straight up all day long. I wouldn't even hesitate. They're worth the money. If you're going to stay in your rig, you're going to live in it, you're going to travel the country. It's just win-win. I can't imagine a downside to that.
Speaker 1:Did anybody else have it? I know some of you are in drivables.
Speaker 7:Yeah, we've had it in both our DRVs and I wouldn't be without it. Similar story we were on a travel day stop. Kelly went back to use the bathroom and there's her cup of coffee from that morning still sitting on the bathroom counter. Not, still didn't spill. Yeah, we wouldn't be without it.
Speaker 10:Quick question on that, just me With the MoRide. Nobody talks about this element and I'm just curious. There is an alignment You're supposed to do an alignment. Is that once a year, twice a year? I mean, if people are going to do that, that is a component nobody addresses. So is that something that's a requirement for MoRide? So is that something that's a requirement for MoRide?
Speaker 7:It's not a requirement, but a lot of it depends on how you drive, how you corner, how much you back up, how tight you are. We have had ours. We typically have ours aligned once every couple years, there you go.
Speaker 1:I was going to say we had it on our Valor 2, and it's just like anything else. Look at your tire tread, because what will happen is you'll see it start to wear in a different spot and with the independent suspension it could be an alignment thing. We have them check it. We'll have them check it. We don't have the rig anymore, but when we went up there for the 12 months, you're supposed to maintain it every 12 months, so we just had them check it anyway, and then they'd say, say, oh, you're good or no, we need to fix something.
Speaker 10:Just saying, if you're going to do that, I just want to bring that to attention because nobody ever really talks about that and I've heard all great things, but it is something for maintenance. Come on, Paul.
Speaker 7:And it's a $400 to $500 build to have it aligned, but it's money well worth it, money well spent.
Speaker 1:Otherwise you're replacing tires, and I think it's also important to note too that the alignment on a trailer, because they have to hang this huge contraption off your fifth wheel pin, you can't just take it down to your local truck stop. They can do it, but I don't know how much I would actually. It's just different, and so there's only so many people that more right of authorized obviously them. So oh hi, good.
Speaker 6:All right, switching gears a little bit here. All you people have been in YouTube for a little while now. For somebody who just wants to start out and do simple videos, not grand productions, what is a good video editing bit of software that doesn't break your bank?
Speaker 1:Just real quick. I feel like he called out Jason real quick with that grand editing thing, because he's right there.
Speaker 12:DaVinci Resolve has a free version and it's very good and my niece does. She's into film and everything and she was the one who told me go ahead and get DaVinci. So DaVinci Resolve has a really good free version. Give you everything you need.
Speaker 4:We use CapCut and again, they also have a free version. I find it very user-friendly. I'm old school, I don't know a whole lot about computers and I was able to pretty much master it within, I'd say, about three months. So CapCut.
Speaker 2:I'd say too, maybe depending on what type of computer you're using, if you're an Apple person, even the basic iMovie is a really efficient one to get started, and some of their Pre-templates can get you going in minutes just loading your information into iMovie, which is super simple, and you can always make insignificant changes, and you can get it rolling in minutes and you can almost do it right from your phone nowadays.
Speaker 8:You know, paul, if you have an HP, they have movies on there, a program that you can play with to get started movies on there, a program that you can play with to get started Before I was fired in editing, it worked really well for me. It was simple to use Because it was free and it's already on your computer. Like she said, if you've got a Mac, do the iMovie, but if you have an HP or a regular, just go ahead and use what they have just to start before your wife fires you. But we use Filmora now. It was cheap and it works for us and we've been using it ever since and we've been using it now for four years.
Speaker 8:Filmora, yeah, I think they're at 14 right now and the hack with that is don't keep on upgrading it Once you're happy with what you're using. Maybe 10, 11, 12. We're at 13 now. We like 13. And we're not upgrading anymore and we're staying with it. So because once you learn the type of editing programming that you're using, you're probably going to stay with it, of course, until your wife fires you, and then you'll go to another one. So there you go.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 19:I also would second, besides iPhone, ipad and and the Mac, when you come to iMovie, and then on top of that there's also Fusion, if you want to go a little bit more powerful on the iPad. One other comment on a previous topic on MORIDE. I had MORIDE done, definitely agree, fantastic. But if you have them, move your Kodiak existing disc brakes over within 2,000 miles. I had a backing plate come off and spin and stuck me in Salt Lake City with a vice crap. Oh, by the way, anyone ever have a broken brake line, your immediate, immediate fix is a pair of vice grips to get you home. But anyway, if anyone's moving existing brakes, definitely make those Very nice people in Elkhart double-check that damn it.
Speaker 19:Everything is actually tight. I mean I love it now that I had to tear it apart and fix it when I got home, but it also I herniated a disc dealing with that emergency repair in Salt Lake City. So my question really is to you, todd, relative to your heat pump, because on our Coleman's we don't have heat strips. I'm just wondering if you have a heat strip in your heat pump and if you can see if that's being activated. And that's why you're actually killing your battery so quickly because you're trying to run it at 19 degrees. The heat pump's not efficient enough and therefore it's firing up basically a coil inside there to actually try to heat you. Do you actually have any setting on the nut?
Speaker 10:that you know I'm not smart enough to answer that question. We've had this RV eight months and it does things that I've never thought of doing, like if you looked at our water filtration system you'd be like what is going on there? So I don't know, but it is something I want to talk to spacecraft about when we go down to see them on this weekend, because I was like this doesn't make sense to me so my theory is it has a heat strip because it's probably a residential system and that's the backup when you get really cold yeah my mom in west virginia.
Speaker 10:It is a residential system yeah because, if you walk up to it, not only do we have three different units, there's a unit downstairs that monitors the temperature of the battery and it heats and cools to make sure the batteries are at the prime temperature. So it does way more than I probably even comprehend.
Speaker 19:It mostly has a heat strip, but you can definitely ask them about that, because it doesn't want a residential person to have frozen pipes. Yes, great, Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 9:Jerry, one of the other things the gentleman mentioned changing his brakes over from, maybe, drum to disc, something that I've seen happen and it's a little heads up for everybody out there. If you have drum brakes and you change over to the disc brakes or the kodiaks, a thing you need to be careful for is that spare tire, because you're going to be out on the road and you're going to have a flat and you changed the inner offset of the braking system when you went from drum to disc and now all at once, that spare tire that's sitting under there it doesn't have the same offset as the tires that's on your trailer. So pull that spare tire off there, try to bolt it on that new system you have and make sure it works before you need it.
Speaker 16:Don't ask me how I know uh, when you guys publish and do your Tuesday, thursday, sunday, thank you for allowing us to sit in front of the TV Because you guys do them all at the same time. But how about active start, soft start for the air conditioners, anything on that? I know some people are saying they catch on fire and have issues so soft start.
Speaker 9:We have three soft starts on all three air conditioners and we're really happy with it. We can run 30 amps on two ACs all day long and they'll do just fine. We can't do anything else. We are, you know, don't. Don't try to turn on the TV or a lamp or go into the kitchen and try and get anything done. It's just not going to happen. But the soft starts, they can be a lifesaver on 30 amps if you want to run your ACs.
Speaker 9:We can run two out of the three. We have to switch our refrigerator over to propane, but you know that's a small price to pay for the AC on 30 amps.
Speaker 1:Does anybody else got? Oh, there we go.
Speaker 10:Make it a good one, all right.
Speaker 18:Which came first? The chicken, Chicken, Chicken. That's right, it's the chicken, no doubt. Oh my gosh, Chicken. I was waiting for that one. I promise you that was not planned. I walked into that. That's right, it's the chicken, no doubt. Oh my gosh. I promise you that was not planned. I walked into that.
Speaker 1:You're amazing, Sheila. Do you want to? Come. You're amazing. No, those guys that's scary.
Speaker 18:I'm scared now. So my question is I don't know if anybody has a real answer to this, but with Wi-Fi and connectivity, is Starlink the thing? Is there something coming? I know there's some other options, but what are your thoughts about that?
Speaker 4:We have Starlink and we just absolutely love it. Before we used to always use the hotspots on our phones and that got us by fairly well hotspots and on our phones, and that got us by fairly well. But when you need more reliable connectivity, the starling just was lightning fast and always connected and you can have a whole bunch of devices connected to it and it just never slows down. That's yeah they. They have a few different sizes. Also they have a little small one that you can actually take backpacking. So our opinion is we just absolutely love Starlink and it's very reliable for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have Starlink and we tend to have all of them. I think it's just because of what we do and because we are a small number, we do a lot of overnights and so trying to hook up Starlink in a parking lot or things that nature just doesn't seem realistic. So we we have all of them. But yes, starlink is great. The Starlink mini, we have that too, and what we were like about that one is it's. It's always changing, so it may eventually replace all the hot spots that we have. But we've tested, like throughout the country, which ones work best. And at one point we had Verizon and it was amazing. But then another area of Verizon sucks and it's like AT&T works best, and then another area AT&T sucks and then T-Mobile. So you're kind of going around and when we first got introduced to Sterling, so we're kind of grandfathered into the original one, so we have access to change our address anywhere and we don't get oh gee, baby.
Speaker 2:Oh gee, but it actually allows us to be able to do that. But the difficult part for that is we can't stop it. So when you have the mini and the newer versions which are great, if you're not going to be using it, I think they smartened up where you're not going to pay that extra $150 a month. When you're not using it, you can pause it and then turn it on when you need it. And the fact that they're making them more nimble, where you can put them in backpacks or you can just pop it outside with a magnet that attaches to your rig.
Speaker 2:These cases it can replace it and I agree with you, it's probably one of the best pieces. Um, we've seen them all other ones that say they, they're comparable, but the ones that are comparable that are using, um, each other system, sort of like uh, what do you call it piggybacking exactly? Um, it still has the same issue. If it's not necessarily working in a certain area, or if you do things like the national parks and you're so deep in, there isn't one to piggyback off of. So that's it.
Speaker 1:For those of you that went up to Alaska, how was your connectivity with Starlink on the way up?
Speaker 12:Almost every place we stopped we had no issues. And we don't have the built-in system on the rig yet, but anywhere I had it set up to where it was always connected to the router. Yeah, and we don't have the built-in system on the rig yet, but anywhere I had it set up to where it was always connected to the router. I had the wire run into the cable, into the side compartment, and what I would do is I would just grab the dish, put it out, point it in the right direction, connect the other end and I had it powered through the Bluetti power station instead of the house batteries and 99% of the time had no issues, no problems. I swear by it. I think it's easy and simple to use and it's very reliable.
Speaker 5:So it's just something that I'm comfortable with. One advantage actually of Starlink Mini versus the traditional Starlink is really the power usage. If you have a smaller camper van, not as much power and you do a lot of boondocking, starlink Mini takes up quite a bit less, almost like half the amount of the power that the regular Starlink takes.
Speaker 2:That's something that we're kind of interested in really checking out as well. They're always adding more and more satellites, so it's getting faster, it's getting better, you know. So we've seen the discouraging where we're like, wow, there's only five starlings and then there's like 300 and we're all kind of trying to write off the same starlings when they're hovering over us. But I mean the satellites. But they're constantly pumping in new satellites up there. I mean, if you get into a dark sky, you love looking at stars, like we do. You see that trail that looks like a centipede of starlings flying by, which we initially thought was aliens. But yeah, it is.
Speaker 10:It is the Earth's flat.
Speaker 1:Oh, good night. Look, shayla, do not give him the mic.
Speaker 2:Liar no, I'm kidding, but they're always adding, so I think it just makes a really great useful device for everyone and it's super affordable.
Speaker 1:So, real quick, just because we're recording this, I'm going to repeat the question Did you have any issues? I don't know, I forgot what he asked.
Speaker 12:We didn't have. The only issue I have with my Star League is the motor went bad, but they replaced it like that and they delivered it to a location for me to pick up. But we had it. Not only did we have it, but the couple we went with had it as well and they didn't say anything. It worked just fine. They didn't say anything, it worked just fine. No issues at all. Yeah, that's true, and we kind of just came out one day. Jacob came over and said do you notice the dishes facing in the other direction? I was like no, I didn't notice. It went over there and shorn up because you're so used to pointing it to the north, and it did adjust to the south.
Speaker 20:So yeah, but other than that, it worked great. I have a question for everyone how many women up here drive and then out here? How many women out here drive and those?
Speaker 4:that don't drive. What's your reason why you haven't driven? Or have you thought about any training? I don't drive because it scares me. The truck is huge, the rig is huge and I'm not, and it's just too big for me. It intimidates me far too much. I don't drive because it scares my husband.
Speaker 1:Chris, would you like to elaborate on your feelings on that?
Speaker 12:Oh no, oh no, no no. Captain Kirk is not comfortable letting her pilot the starship.
Speaker 13:It's not happening but he does enjoy when I chauffeur him around otherwise in the jeep. That's the trade off.
Speaker 12:Yes, that's true when we get to our location, you do all the driving don't look at.
Speaker 3:He loves to drive so I let him try. I've, bob, tailed it once down the road and back back to the end and I think I cried but I, I will.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry, because I was scared, because I couldn't, you know. I mean, it's a semi, it's not a jeep or a car. And so he's like you're doing, fine, keep going, like I'm going to hit something. It's our friend's place, so I didn't want to break a fence. But I am just like Anna and I'm I'm scared, so I don't. I really have no desire and I know one day he keeps telling me he's going to throw himself down on the ground while we're driving and then I'm going to have to do it, of course not in a busy area. But I'm like don't you ever do that to me. But I know I can if I have to. I know how to start it, I know, you know all the stuff, but I have no desire. It's big.
Speaker 12:No, no, no. I will say this, though that's a mistake, because you really should. Both of you should drive, and we ran into a situation about two years ago and I had to have my gallbladder removed. In the middle of the night she rushed me to the hospital. They flew me over to Colorado Springs six hours away and we were a day or two from our reservation at the campground ending and we were going to go to Uray and if I was in the hospital, so she was going to have to drive. Thankfully we were able to extend our stay at that campground and thankfully we had friends in Town who offered to drive to rig. So really, to be honest with you, she, I do need to let her get behind the wheel because if you ever get in that situation, you want your partner to be able to help you out and drive that rig and know how to handle it.
Speaker 2:And we always say that it's really, really important and I in particular we've noticed over the course of several years there's a lot more folks that have been embracing boondocking, which is why they're adding tons of solar and extra batteries to be able to do more of that off-grid lifestyle. And I think that's where you're really going to have to make sure your spouse knows what they're doing, because if you're in a situation out there and we've heard stories the best thing is you don't want to have to drive wives in situations where you're forced to and you're uncomfortable and you're nervous, so always know. So, yes, get on the ground, husbands Move out the way, get on the ground and ladies pick up the wheel, because you know what we can do this.
Speaker 21:I don't drive it. I've driven, but not the fifth wheel driven the class a in the past, bumper pole in the past, not you know, just one stretch or whatever. But I think I'm better at navigating and telling them where to go she does tell me where to go all the time you know, one thing
Speaker 11:is, I'm sorry, go ahead okay, I am working up to it. I have. I have backed our camper into a site. We did a video on it and he made me look a lot better than it really happened. It took quite a few tries but I did it Once and done and I've driven like in campgrounds. So I have driven it. I'm working up to the road.
Speaker 9:You know one thing that we found that's really important while we're all out there on the road in traveling, for the most part we know what state we're in.
Speaker 9:Maybe we, maybe we even know what highway we're on, but we'd always we don't always know exactly where we're at, and I think it's really important for everybody to learn how to they call it drop a pin. You go onto your phone, you can drop your pin. That's your location, you know latitude, longitude, all of that, and then you can go for help and you can call somebody and you can tell them where you're at and you can send them that location. So, while you're out on the road, if you want to be safe and you know, dot all the I's and cross all the T's, it's really important to learn how to take the time to do stuff like that. So I would really suggest that the people that are out there, that are traveling the country, and you get out into these real remote places, learn how to drop a pin and then you can call somebody. If you have something like a starlink and you know you can get out to them and or they can get out to you. That I think that's an important, an important deal.
Speaker 11:Could be an easy or hard question, depending, but what has been your favorite spot, location, drive, whatever.
Speaker 8:I've got to say we just came back from Vancouver Island and we took our fifth wheel on Vancouver Island. I think we were just about the biggest thing on there. But I will tell you, we've been to Hawaii, we've been to Mexico, we've been to the sub-Caribbean Pacific side. The most beautiful beaches you will ever see is in Vancouver Island and it was absolutely incredible. And if you want to do a bucket list, that would be one, because you will be really surprised on how warm it is actually during the summer. We were there during the fall and they were surfing and doing all that and the kids run around in bikinis while we were dressed up like we were in the.
Speaker 8:Arctic, but absolutely it is a tropical island, believe it or not, with a rainforest. It's absolutely beautiful. I'm sorry, okay, let's not get technical. I've seen the beach, okay, so I've been there, we've been to Kauai, we've been to the Big Island, so we we just comparing, and so I wouldn't take my rig into Mexico either. So that's only the cop in me. So, but there you go.
Speaker 2:I definitely enjoyed Iceland. I think that's a bucket list trip you guys had all experienced. It's really easy to navigate, the GPSs are easy, the people are wonderful, the food's delicious. It depends on what time of the year, of course, you want to go, but summer times are great just as well. The greenery, the waterfalls, and there's a Costco in Reykjavik, yep. So for first, stop, stock it up, and it's a big van life community, or you know over there some you don't have to cook on your knees so you can actually stand in a few. But those are really great bucket lists and I even think, if you can do it and you're not afraid of it, japan is wonderful.
Speaker 2:We were actually really surprised at the RV community over there. We have a series on it if you're interested in checking it out. But we did try to learn and try to showcase. You know you don't have to be afraid to take things across the seas as well too, but those are great opportunities to look into as well and it's super easy to navigate. A lot of them speak English and if you go into certain areas where they don't, there are the translators that are super efficient. Nowadays you could even do it right from your phone. We've had conversations with folks in Japanese, where I'm speaking in English and it spits out Japanese and they speak Japanese and it spits out English, and I was like, wow, this is great. So those are great opportunities to not miss as well. And no, you can't take your own rigs over there.
Speaker 1:Anybody else got one.
Speaker 3:I'm not good at this. My favorite place was Washington DC. It was a huge bucket list for me. Growing up, you see it on TV, you learn about it in school but being there and seeing all of the museums, the young people that are starting their careers and in their little, their outfits and their satchels and their oh it's just, it was just the coolest thing for me and I want to go back, hopefully when it's not so crazy, but sorry, but I know, I know it is there's, there's always things going on there, but, um, it was just seeing all the monuments and statues and, oh, my gosh, it was just. It was my, my happy place there.
Speaker 15:Daniel, we've had, I think we've been super fortunate. Let's just talking about the united states. Right, we've been. We've been in elta 49. We're still missing hawaii. Hopefully he'll take me on an anniversary trip or something well, but I would say probably some places that in the united states that I think are must check out, they're like shockers to me is the UP in Michigan, like stunning, fantastic, beautiful spot, the upstate New York, another beautiful spot, and I think the northwest side of Arkansas is overlooked and underrated. So those would be three spots that I would recommend you check out here in the United States, other than our national parks, obviously.
Speaker 1:Anybody else got one, by the way, I've moved, guys. I'm over here.
Speaker 12:That's what happens when you give me wireless mics, I just thought of a Door County, wisconsin If you could never go up there. Unbelievable Just beauty. It was fantastic. So that's another area that you could check out.
Speaker 1:And cheese and beer. Okay, we had a question over here. By the way, if you have a question, you just don't want to go up to the mic. If you wave your hand at me, I'll come to you now.
Speaker 8:Thanks, ryan, not to be a Debbie Downer, but we always hear about the great places. Where would you?
Speaker 15:stay away from San Francisco. That just was very disheartening. We went through there and I was so excited to see the Golden Gate Bridge, but that city has just. It just isn't. It's very sad to me and it didn't. I did not feel safe and that's the only place that we've been in the United States that I was uneasy. I did not feel safe in the downtown of San Francisco. I know there's some northern Californians here, um, but you feel the same way. All right, it's been like that for 50 years.
Speaker 1:It was sad. Was that unsafe with your RV or just unsafe across the board?
Speaker 15:I would just say across the board. I mean, we did a hop-on, hop-off bus tour and it was like, oh, this is great, but we're not getting off the bus to go tour anything. We just looked at it from the bus.
Speaker 1:Because sometimes that could be either or you might not love where the RV is and you maybe don't want to leave it there, and then also just the actual unsafe feeling.
Speaker 10:Personally, we usually always drive into places, so we always stay outside of the big cities and then drive in. So yeah, that would probably be, and it is sad because it has a lot of beauty and a lot of charm. But it is the first time in all of our travels and all the places that we felt completely uneasy. Now she's drugged me everywhere. If you watched her videos and I don't like big cities and, believe it or not, I guess a big surprise was a lot of you probably wouldn't go to Portland. A lot of you probably wouldn't go to Portland. But honestly, after being downtown and hanging around and doing all the things, I actually really liked being downtown Portland after a while. So that was a surprise because I was, I didn't know. But San Francisco would go up there and that's just it.
Speaker 8:Don't get me started on states, but in general, I think another one that wasn't, and we don't like being negative on our channel, so we don't mention the negativity. But Visalia KOA, you probably shouldn't even say that, but stay away, because when they tell you to lock everything up because things are stolen, that is probably a good sign and that's supposed to be the gateway to Yosemite. So and we never put that on our channel because we just don't want to be negative. But yeah, even on the law enforcement side of myself, I was uneasy there.
Speaker 1:Anybody else got one, so if nobody has a question.
Speaker 1:Right now I kind of have a follow-up. I will come to you right in a second Jill. Do you guys have any tips for, like you know how you get that feeling in your gut you shouldn't leave your RV there, or security minus weird dinosaurs running around your RV, videos and those types of things. But do you have any kind of tips for, like, when you're traveling in a place, things that you kind of look for on the security level or pay attention to so you know to go or stay, kind of a thing?
Speaker 2:We actually had a situation as an overnighter staying in a casino parking lot and you know we thought it was busy, dave looked up reviews and we thought it was perfectly fine. And so I always go with the gut instinct, feeling you know there's, and being up here, you guys know we get lots of comments from folks that will tell you to stay away from things or don't do things, or they have their bikes stolen or there's an uptick in this type of crime, and so we have our bikes on the back. So right away when we were off and we were filming and it was like an abandoned amusement park and we loved that kind of stuff, so it was awesome. And I just got this feeling. I turned around and I saw this old Explorer just slowly rolling by. So always go with your gut. So I just turned around and started filming just nonchalantly oh, look at that tree over there filmed the Explorer, you know, just to have a record of it.
Speaker 2:And then at night a situation happened that just really set off some red flags and then I decided I don't know what made me do it, maybe God said get the heck out of there. And I saw the same Ford Explorer hours later and it's nighttime, slowly perusing the back of the RV, I'm trying to wrap up dinner. Lo and behold, it comes back and there's a white sprinter van that was with it, tinted out. And I'm watching where they parked, and they parked next to each other. No one got out. We got out Up there Very quickly, so we left and as soon as we hit the highway. So the moral of the story is just know your surroundings, no matter what. Go with your gut instinct. Trust the gut, no matter what, even if it's gas, trust the gut.
Speaker 1:Anybody else got one. We only have a few more minutes. We have time for a couple more questions. We got one right up there.
Speaker 17:Hi everyone, how are you? I watch all your channels except for two. I'm kind of a YouTube junkie. You can ask my wife. That's why she's not here, because she's not a big YouTube fan. But anyway, she loves us, right? She loves you guys, she really does, and those guys, and those guys and those guys. But for someone that's interested in starting a YouTube channel, how do you guys, how did you get over the fear of holding a camera and you know filming all the stuff that you do? How did you get over that initial fear, or did you ever get over that initial fear?
Speaker 1:Real quick, todd. Did you ever have that fear?
Speaker 15:Todd never had that fear.
Speaker 1:Okay, sorry.
Speaker 15:Todd's always had a camera in his face or in our family or whatever, as soon as it was a thing. But I think for me, what changed for me was to start to when I started meeting the community and started meeting you all and realize there's somebody on the other side. So just have the conversation like I'm talking to new friends right like now I'm talking to people that I know sharing my heart, sharing our story, trying to help somebody. I think so just stop looking at it as a camera and just think that I'm sharing this. You're sharing your journey with people who might not be able to get out and go on that journey. They can see the world through your eyes or they can see things and experience things. So it's not about you as the youtuber or about you being on camera. It's about what value you can bring the person on the other side I 100 agree exactly what you say.
Speaker 21:It's just about, yeah, you're talking to that person on the other side, and but editing is a beautiful thing too. So you know what you don't have to. You don't worry about it. If you say something, you watch it back and then you go, oh well, maybe I shouldn't have said that, or oh, that didn't come out right, you know what. So that maybe gives you a little freedom. When you're talking to the camera. You don't have to worry because it's not live tv, right. So you can go back and you can edit and you can kind of, you know, make it come out right or fix it or cut out the ums and the uhs and all that.
Speaker 2:So so editing is a beautiful thing I think the biggest thing is also time.
Speaker 2:It's going to take you.
Speaker 2:You know, once you put it in your face the first time and even if you're speaking to people, I feel like it's you got to find yourself within that as well and be true to yourself and just put your heart into it.
Speaker 2:And even if you don't get it right the first few times and we all have cringy-ass videos sorry, there's a lot of cringy videos where we first started and that's how I feel but those are some of the ones I felt like, wow, we were cringy, but it was cool you can look back at that and see where you are today, at this moment and you had that. If you're looking at starting a youtube channel, a lot of folks initially may have started just for family and friends, but they changed that game for all of us. So if you're looking at it, you might be looking at in a different light as well, right, but just still never lose yourself in that and just be your authentic self and then just keep watching it back and the moment you don't do this, then you know you got it we we call it humble beginnings and I think every single one of us and for purpose, we leave our humble beginnings on our channel.
Speaker 8:So if you were to go back to our first it's humble beginnings Just pick up the camera and just do it, and just put your face in it and just do it. 95% of everything we film is on a GoPro or a DJI. They're very cheap and they've got great cameras. Now Just pick it up and just do it.
Speaker 12:Yeah, at least for me. You know my personal story. Going through that, seeing how other people dealt with that and the same thing with our daughter, I drew inspiration from those people thinking you know if they can do what they had to do to get through that, putting that camera on and just talking to that camera seemed like an easy task. And I also think the more you do it just keep doing it over and over and then it just becomes natural you just take that camera out, you just start talking so real quick.
Speaker 1:Sorry, we only have about five minutes left. Sorry, I'm over here now. I keep moving on y'all, so we're going to go a little more rapid fire. So if you want to finish that off, and then I've got one question over to my right, we're going to come back to you and then I've got one back here.
Speaker 9:So if you didn't get a question, I was going to say just be yourself. You know we're all up here doing the exact same thing, but we all do it differently. We all have different things to offer. You need to find your strong point and stay with it, and I think you'll probably do really well.
Speaker 22:A bit of a how-to question If you guys could talk about what kind of a rig you're using. Are you using iPhones? If so, what kind of a rig you're using? You're using iphones? If so, what kind of a holder or mount? Then, approximately how many hours of video do you shoot per one hour or half hour video, and how many hours of editing do you take to get to do one, because it varies a lot.
Speaker 4:thank you well for me. I use uh, primarily severalPros, and in addition to that, when I'm in a pinch I'll use my iPhone, which shoots quite well, and we also use a drone and a what's that camera? A Nikon, A Nikon a bigger camera. But as far as editing, I spend a whole lot of time on editing I mean probably more than I should and I understand it's about an hour's worth of editing for every minute you get out of it. That's been my experience.
Speaker 2:It's also the style of channel or video you're doing. If you're a how-to type channel, it might flow a little bit more fluidly than, say, if you're a storytelling style channel, where it might require you to use a lot of things or drones or four different cameras and it takes a lot of time to edit those. So it's if you're a talking head style video or if you're, you know, a podcast video style. They're all different versions of what that means. So, whatever your niche would be, that would be where you kind of start to understand the difference between, say, you know hours worth of time for a twenty-minute video versus twenty minutes of time for you know an hour video. If it just depends on your style of editing and what you're trying to do with your channel, yeah, I agree, that's true okay, oh Todd, oh boy, I'm just coming from the beyond.
Speaker 1:Now you're gonna say something.
Speaker 10:I don't see you. I feel like I'm talking to. Why are you sitting? This is your, because.
Speaker 1:I've talking to. Why are you sitting? This is your, you're sitting. I've been standing this whole time. You've been sitting. Don't give me Okay.
Speaker 10:I just didn't see you, so I was smiling at Jason because we had this conversation a long time ago. I think the rule of thumb is exactly what she said. It's usually an hour editing for like one minute. If you're doing something fancy, if you, you're doing something fancy if you watch our videos, you're not fancy, I'm not fancy. And I want to say this to give you encouragement general video when you watch our videos I edit is five hours from start to beginning from. That's why we did three videos a week, because I looked at it as I want to tell the story and how is the? So I'm chopping stuff out and I'll throw music on at the end and they're not great videos. And you guys have told us you're too shaky. Why don't you get this? Or the audio sucks. You played your music and I'm like the video's done. We're going on to a new story now. So I say that to encourage you. If you're going to start, just start. I don't care if it's your cell phone, I don't care if it's a GoPro, I don't care if you shoot an hour video and don't edit it, just upload it. People Upload it, share your story and let people decide and then, along the way you develop your style. So just I say that to encourage.
Speaker 10:I started doing videos probably longer than anyone on this stage and I can say that comfortably. 15 years I did a thousand videos that most of you don't even know about, that have 40 to 50 views on, and I did it because I wanted to share the story and now I can look back and laugh at how stupid I was. But it'll also. I do it for legacy. Your grandkids and your grandkids' grandkids can see who you were, what you did, and we have the benefit now to share a life-size story for all of our generations to see. And that's why you shoot the video. You don't do it for the strangers all the time. You do it for legacy. I want my grandkids grandkids to see where we were, what we did and how we did it, and that's the most important part.
Speaker 4:That is the most important part I have to add, they're giving my grandkids something to laugh about the future. There you go okay.
Speaker 1:So these are going to be kind of quick.
Speaker 5:We have two more questions and we are officially at time, so we're going to go through kind of quick okay, this might be a subject for a future seminar, but, uh, what are your guys feelings about carrying firearms and around as part of your safety security?
Speaker 8:I carry every single weapon I possibly can carry, and so I think you have to realize you are in your home and you need to protect your home. So I am a true believer that a concealed weapon permit is for the outside of your home. I'm a believer that when you are in your home, you protect your home with whatever firearm you need. So you should be rolling with your firearm. As far as the law is concerned is how you have it in your vehicle is a different story. In most places the ammunition has to be a detached from the weapon and the weapon needs to be locked in your vehicle, in your home. You carry it whatever way you want to carry it, but be safe. Make sure that you always uh, if you're thinking about getting a firearm in your rig, make sure you do a course, a safety gun course, mandatory. We don't want a bunch of people out there pointing guns at people you don't even know how to use it, and if you're going to point it at something, make sure you're going to destroy it. So that is the best advice I can give you.
Speaker 8:All states have different laws. Trust me, in California, where I was a deputy sheriff, the way I treat my. You know, carry in California now is a heck of a lot different than how I would carry in Arizona. How you would carry in New York may be a heck of a lot different on how you would carry in Montana. So make sure you know the laws in your state because there are some people that just don't believe you should have a gun. But remember you are in your home. Car is a different story. As a law enforcement officer, I cherish people who care. Good people who carry guns. Does that make sense? So good people should have guns. Bad people should not have guns.
Speaker 1:Perfect, all right.
Speaker 13:My question is outside of YouTube how many of you all still work a full-time job and what's your challenges on the road?
Speaker 4:I work a full-time job, sort of.
Speaker 9:Kind of sort of I do work a full-time job, sort of Kind of sort of.
Speaker 4:I do work a full-time job and when I'm not at the office, I'm working either at home or I'm working in the rig and I multitask. I throw a load of laundry in while I'm editing. That's how I do it. I just try to find the time and squeeze in what I can where I can we're retired, so other than editing, we're, we got.
Speaker 9:We got a pretty good so um, we do a lot of work from the road. We're up quite late at night sometimes trying to take care of things at work, and it's hard to balance travel and fun at the same time, because the people that we're traveling with a lot of them they just have tomorrow and all day today, and we don't always have that. Sometimes we get back to the rig and we have dinner. Well, then we have to jump on the computer for an hour or two and then we get up in the morning and we found out that everybody answered us. Now we got another hour or two. So you know, it's kind of hard to balance the fun and the work when you're traveling with friends that only understand fun.
Speaker 14:So I mentioned earlier I don't know if you were here that we do some work camping on the road. We are both retired, we have my Social Security and some IRA money and we figured out that that's not enough to sustain the lifestyle. So we started doing some campground hosting in Michigan, which was our home state, and that worked out really good for us for month stays very little requirements to do, in fact. Here we're actually volunteering at Karchner Caverns State Park here and we're doing its wonderful place and a wonderful place to be. So we're there for four months and that kind of helps supplement. Then we don't have any direct living expenses as far as campgrounds or anything. And then from here, as I mentioned, we're going to Crater Lake in Oregon and we'll be there for the whole summer and again almost free not free site for us in exchange for work, but they're going to pay us as well, so we can prime the pump up a little bit and maybe take the next year off. There you go.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, before you jump up and stretch your legs, do me a favor quick restroom breaks. And then the health insurance seminar got it right, is going to start here in just a few minutes. So you got a few minutes and then come on back. But before you leave, thank you so much for your questions and let's give a round of applause for our panel for hanging out.
Speaker 2:Thank you, guys just keep it going one more time round. Applause for ryan, because that is not easy.
Speaker 1:Hopefully you enjoyed listening to the panel that we did live. Obviously, there were some breaks and some stuff in there and not everybody knows how to talk into a microphone as well as people that talk into microphones all day do, and so there were some breaks there, but hopefully you had some entertainment and a little bit of knowledge out of that panel. Thank you so much for listening to the RV Shenanigans podcast and if you do like the podcast, do us a huge favor. Follow on your favorite podcast platform whether that be actually on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, any of those different things and do us a favor and share the podcast. Thank you guys so much and we will chat with you next week.
