RV Mythbusters!

We take on common RV myths and misconceptions, sharing what we've learned from years on the road and separating fact from fiction for new and experienced RVers alike.

• Towing myths are often contentious but come down to knowing your specific numbers rather than general rules
• You don't necessarily need a dually to tow a fifth wheel—it depends on the weight and your truck's capabilities
• Half-ton trucks can safely tow travel trailers when properly matched and equipped
• Weighing your RV setup using CAT scales provides crucial real-world data about your actual weights
• Never leave your black tank open at full hookups unless you want to create a dreaded "poo pyramid"
• The ice cube black tank cleaning trick doesn't work—ice melts too quickly to provide meaningful cleaning
• New RVers don't need to buy every accessory before their first trip—focus on the essentials
• Campground WiFi is generally unreliable, and no booster can fix fundamentally poor internet
• For reliable connectivity, redundancy across multiple systems (cellular, Starlink, WiFi) is key

If you have questions about RV myths we didn't cover, reach out to us on Instagram or Facebook, and we'll consider them for a future myth-busting episode!

Transcript

Episode Introduction

Speaker 1 0:00

You remember that show the Mythbusters.

Speaker 2 0:02

Absolutely. I love that show.

Speaker 1 0:04

Why do you love it so much?

Speaker 2 0:05

Because I'm a science geek.

Speaker 1 0:07

Good, this is not scientific, but we're going to do it for RV Life. Welcome back to the RV Shenanigans podcast. I'm Ryan.

Speaker 2 0:27

I'm Lauren.

Speaker 1 0:28

And today we are going to bust the myths. Woohoo. What are the myths? There's so many.

Speaker 2 0:34

There really are a lot, and I would say some of them we even kind of bought into when we first started RVing.

Speaker 1 0:41

Yeah, myths, misconceptions, lies, flat out lies, flat out lies.

Speaker 2 0:46

No, everybody has a different experience, but you don't know what you don't know. So here we are.

Speaker 1 0:51

And with that we are going to dive headfirst right into it. I will say if you have a myth or a question that we don't get to in this, by all means let us know.

Speaker 2 1:02

You can follow us on Instagram, facebook, the places and send us a message there, and we'll be happy to maybe bring it up in a future Mythbusting episode, and I should preface this we are by no means experts in this field. We are just speaking to our experience and the things we've learned in our years on the road.

Speaker 1 1:20

Yeah, it's more of a do as we say, not as we do, situation. So, all right, you're ready. Yes, we're going to start with the most controversial.

Speaker 2 1:28

Oh goodness, there's so many towing myths.

Speaker 1 1:32

I know it's going to end up coming back to me quite a bit, but that's okay.

Speaker 2 1:35

It is. Oh, this is just one of those things that we could talk about all day and I feel like everybody we talk to would have a totally different input opinion.

Speaker 1 1:44

So if you have been on any RV Facebook group, there is going to be somebody in there that goes oh no, the tow police are here. And for that person. Then there's the opposite person of somebody trying to tow like a huge 45, 46 foot toy hauler, triple axle, 22,000 pounds with an F one 50.

Speaker 2 2:04

Yes, and this also just because you can doesn't mean you should. I feel like it's a big thing. A lot of people say, well, it came with the hitch. That doesn't mean you're okay to do it. There's a lot of safety that goes into it and there are so many numbers and I think if you're not familiar with the numbers, that you're not accurately speaking to the capabilities.

Speaker 1 2:30

Well, and in addition, to numbers there's also stability, like that's not something that you can tangibly put anything on.

Speaker 2 2:34

Right, and that's why I say, if you start with the number and then there's still factors after that.

Speaker 1 2:39

Yep, exactly. So we're going to dive right in the very first question.

Speaker 2 2:43

Oh, I thought that was it.

Speaker 1 2:44

No, it wasn't. Do you need a dually to tow a fifth wheel?

Speaker 2 2:50

In my opinion. No, you do not. As long as it is properly equipped to do so, you're not going to tow it with your Ford Ranger.

Towing Myths: Duallies and Fifth Wheels

Speaker 1 2:57

Well, and I think it's safe to say too, the term fifth wheel is a very broad encompassing thing. There are some very small lightweight um fifth wheels Like there's some Alliance Avenue lines that are, I think, the total it's like 28 feet total and once it's hooked up it's even shorter because some of the hangs over your bed. That's a fifth wheel.

Speaker 2 3:16

They've really tried to make them a lot more accessible. I would say yeah.

Speaker 1 3:20

And so no, um, I will tell you something that you have to pay a lot more attention to in the fifth wheel world is your payload capacity.

Speaker 1 3:26

You should be doing that all the time but, it's even more prevalent when you're doing a fifth wheel, because you're getting more weight transfer. Because, like on a bumper pull or a travel trailer, yes, you're getting a percentage of the RV transfer to the bumper, obviously, but there's no upper deck above your truck, and so when you get a fifth wheel, that's just more weight, and so you just have to pay attention to that. So do you need a dually? No, should you? Situational.

Speaker 2 3:55

It just depends on your rig, absolutely.

Speaker 1 3:57

Again, it all comes back down to numbers. What is it capable of towing? What is it?

Speaker 2 4:01

Safely.

Speaker 1 4:02

Payload availability to put that weight in there. And that is after you full tank of gas. The dogs, whoever else's kids, I guess whoever else is going with you, are in the truck too. Not what the sticker says.

Speaker 2 4:15

I'm going to put out two things here on this topic. One just because it goes doesn't mean it stops. That's also very true.

Speaker 2 4:28

And in that, hills are a thing too. So you kind of have to figure out if you're completely maxed out and then you're on a hill, whether up or down, and you have to engage your vehicle. If you're already at max, you're probably unsafe. Um, and then the second thing I was going to say is if you haven't weighed the rig with the tow vehicle, the entire setup, I think that that's a really important thing to do so that you can speak properly to your numbers.

Speaker 1 4:52

So I was going to talk about that after this one, because then it's a little bit more encompassing.

Speaker 2 4:55

Well, there you go.

Speaker 1 4:56

So and I'll go in a little more detail of how we weigh, because it's really actually pretty simple and you get a reasonably accurate number, as accurate as a cat scale can be I agree so all right. Second one we didn't do it, so is that myth busted? Well um yes, but but also like with a little nuance to it right exactly so no, you don't have to have a dually. Yes, some should have a dually, but not all. Fifth wheels require a dually. All right, second one Half-ton trucks can't tow travel trailers safely.

Speaker 2 5:29

I say that that's false, because they absolutely can tow travel trailers safely. Again, this comes down to the length of the trailer. You have to worry about a lot more with that, because you're going to get some sway in things.

Speaker 1 5:42

So travel trailers tow very differently than fifth wheels. If you've never towed either of those, we've towed so many bumper pulls from utility trailers, horse trailers, our RV, um, and we've towed a couple of. I've towed some gooseneck stuff with our truck and then I've also towed like flatbed gooseneck trailers, that kind of stuff, and then we've also towed obviously our first fifth wheel and then our Alliance Valor toy hauler, which is a big boy fifth wheel with that truck, and so they tow differently.

Speaker 1 6:18

Fifth, wheel doesn't have anywhere near as much sway as a travel trailer does Because of how a travel trailer and how a bumper pull pivots off of the pivot axis. It is inherently more susceptible to sway when those types of things.

Speaker 2 6:29

Right, I was going to say I really feel like in the fifth wheels that we towed with the Dooley, that we were more susceptible to the up and down motion, whereas the travel trailers and bumper pulls are a lot more susceptible to the left and right motion, if you will.

Speaker 2 6:44

And and we will my truck, my F-150, has towed the horse trailer with some weight distribution and sway control on it, just because I do that for the horses and safety. Um, but technically speaking, my F-150 could tow our current Delta. It's not something that we really do because we have the dually and it's much better, Um, but I would say that no, that's busted because technically we could.

Speaker 1 7:07

And I agree it is busted. I will tell you. You know we talked a lot about the trailers right there. The truck is the other portion of that equation. So, like Lauren's truck, for instance, is literally as high in F-150 land at least years of 2022. So in the in her 2022 Ford F-150, it is the highest payload Right. It's the highest gear ratio. It's the highest tow capacity.

Speaker 2 7:32

It has a different engine than most of the F-150s that are out there.

Speaker 1 7:37

She actually has the V8, not the V6 turbo.

Speaker 2 7:39

And we searched nationwide for this truck.

Speaker 1 7:43

And it popped up right around the corner. Thank goodness, that made that easy um, so can you just go buy a stock fleet f-150 and tow something heavy?

Speaker 2 7:52

no, I mean again it comes back to it.

Speaker 1 7:54

So you know, know your weights, know your numbers, understand what you can and can't do. And another caveat don't trust sales guys oh no those are the worst, so it's not necessarily their fault. They may think that they know what they're talking about, but I guarantee you most of them are just trying to sell the rig, and I don't mean that rude.

Speaker 2 8:12

I don't mean that mean.

Speaker 1 8:13

But at the end of the day, if you find out you have to also buy a truck, are you more or less likely to buy the rig that day?

Speaker 2 8:19

And I will say this too, not in an ugly way, but if anything happens and you go back to that sales guy and say you told me it could, they're going to say, no, it's your job to check the numbers and do that research for yourself, Right?

Speaker 1 8:30

And so it just like in the first question with do you have to use a duly? This is the opposite end of that but, just know your numbers. If you know your numbers and they all work out, then great, give it a try Now. Yeah, we, we. You kind of touched on this just a little bit, but you know there is the, are the numbers enough?

Speaker 1 8:50

And I'll tell you there are also things you can do on the bumper pull side, like waste distribution, sway control, all of that stuff. So that is designed to help distribute the weight. Hey, like the name says, and help control the sway, which means if you're right on that line, like so, for instance, Lauren, she would, her payload is enough and her tow capacity is enough that she could do our trailer with a little bit of water, not a lot on board, but because she's near the upper end of that number for the Delta, for the.

Speaker 1 9:20

Delta for our travel trailer. She is more susceptible to sway Right, and so, because of that, now, sway can be solved by a lot of different things. One option is sway control. That's not always the right option, right, um?

Speaker 1 9:34

proper loading too, if you load it's huge yeah, if you put, I think the rule is you need to put 60 of the weight forward of the axles and then what happens is and there's a couple of videos out there where somebody's got like a little trailer set up on like a treadmill- I I know and they move the little weights around on the flatbed.

Speaker 2 9:51

I told you.

Speaker 1 9:51

I was a science geek and they put it on the back because what happens is you get too much weight on the back and the momentum it can't recover Right, whereas you put it on the front the truck can kind of mitigate it a little a lot actually and so proper weight distribution's huge, and then you can supplement that by weight distribution hits us. Now here's the fun part. So my truck is a Ford F-350 Dually that is capable of towing most large fifth wheels, including our 21,000-pound Uber Bertha and our Valor that we no longer have, and it did great fine no problems at all, yeah.

Speaker 1 10:24

So she could probably do a little bit more, but I don't know why I want to push her a lot more. No we don't, so do I have to. This is a bonus myth buster in a big super duty truck where I am so beyond the numbers of what's needed to tow what's called overtoeing, by the way which is a thing which, on on top of the Delta or a travel trailer, do I have to have weight distribution?

Speaker 2 10:46

No, because it could actually cause damage in the other way. Because? Again? To the trailer to the trailer, because you're overtowing. Yes.

Speaker 1 10:53

Because I have so much truck and I have been talked at. I don't yell, that's not the right term. But I've had people come up to me in campgrounds and going I can't believe you don't tow that a weight distribution hitch. It's an F three, 50 dually and a 6,000 pound bumper pull that's not even 30 feet long, Like I don't need one Again.

Speaker 2 11:14

The tow police are everywhere.

Speaker 1 11:14

Right. And so again, just understand your setup and if you have questions, consult somebody that legitimately knows.

Speaker 2 11:21

And if you guys want a really painful math lesson on what we mean every time we say reference the numbers, we can do that, but you're going to have to let us know if you really want that.

Speaker 1 11:31

Because she volunteered. Lauren can do that. No, and and yeah, we, we are more than willing to talk about these kinds of things. But at the end of the day and we talked about weighing your rig versus your truck and knowing your numbers it's it's your responsibility to run it through a cat scale. Take it the most accurate way is called a four point way. They actually do the weight in a bunch of different places. They move plates around on all your tires. They know the pressure on each of those tires. They can tell you what tire pressure to run to optimize for that weight so that you get the smoothest ride.

Speaker 2 12:00

And that's pretty intense. You're not going to find that at your average cat scale.

Speaker 1 12:03

No, but if you do, if you happen to be going to like a manufacturer or OEM rally, they typically will have them there. Waysafe is one of them. There's a couple other people that do it, but if they're there and they're doing it like on your way in, do it. It's not as expensive as you would think it might be $100 to $150.

Speaker 2 12:21

Yeah, I think we looked at it once.

Speaker 1 12:22

Now it takes them a little bit to do the math, but they'll tell you what you can, should, shouldn't be, or what you wish you were doing, and so that's one way, the Ryan and Lauren way. What we've done is a CAT scale.

Speaker 1 12:34

Now it does take two trips to go through it, so typically what I do is I will go to a Lubs and I'll go ahead and fuel up with DEF and gas before I get ready for a trip, and if it's a time that I want to weigh both those things and just double check on my weights, as soon as I'm done with that, I will actually go around and I'll jump on the cat scale.

Speaker 2 12:54

While you're nice and full.

Speaker 1 12:55

With just my truck, and so, with that being said, I am missing things in that truck.

Speaker 2 13:01

Me the dogs yeah.

Speaker 1 13:02

Typically I allot for about 300 pounds of gear, people, dog Unfortunately, most of his dog. Almost 200 pounds of dog.

Speaker 2 13:12

That's true.

Speaker 1 13:20

And so I'll add that to a mostly about 50%, because that's going to be the backseat, mostly about 50%, 60% to my steer axle front and then the rest of my drive axle rear tires of the truck. Now, the next time that I run through a gas station because I'm not going to need to go right back there with the RV, obviously so the next time we stop at a Lov's to fuel up, I'll make sure I'm fuel deft back to where I was capacity-wise and then I'll loop back around with the RV this time and go back to the Catscale.

Speaker 2 13:45

And it doesn't take long. It really does.

Speaker 1 13:47

Cat scale takes like a minute, minute and a half if you download the cat scale app handy dandy app yeah you just fill out.

Speaker 1 13:52

So just download it before you get there, because there's some things you got to fill out the first time and upload some credit card information, all that. But when you pull back through you're going to get. You can then compare your drive axles, what you want to compare to unloaded and loaded, and then you just reverse engineer that math and now you know your true pin weight on a travel day, and so you know what payload you're putting onto that truck. Second part of that is now you actually know the weights too of your axles. Now they can't differentiate like a four point between the axles, so you just have to kind of do the math. That's why it's important to level as you drive, not tow with like your nose up or nose down, because that puts pressure on your back or front axle more than the other, and so level is even pressure between the two. So anyway, hey, it's a big soapbox.

Speaker 2 14:40

It's a big topic. I told you guys, all right.

Speaker 1 14:43

So if you have questions, ask away, good luck. Good luck If you encounter the tow police ask away good luck.

Speaker 2 14:52

Good luck if you encounter the tow police. How many times have we had to shut down like conversations and topics on our facebook.

Weighing Your RV Setup Properly

Speaker 1 14:55

We're we're the admins of the 44 v14 group for alliance as well we created, since we were the first ones that had one, yeah, um, and then we've had some own threads that we've had to close it down because and it's not we're not going to take it away and by far most of them are about towing. Yeah, almost all of them. People get heated over it and at the end of the day, maybe they're right, maybe they're not. They don't know your setup. Nobody knows your setup, except for you.

Speaker 2 15:17

That's right, so be safe out there, y'all.

Speaker 1 15:18

I would say don't worry about, okay, back on my soapbox.

Speaker 2 15:23

Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 15:25

Stop asking what vehicle you should tow with. Oh, for real, because nobody A you're going to bring up the whole Ford versus GM versus Ram Dodge, whoever owns that. Now, that whole thing, it doesn't matter, just know your numbers. So ask how to do the math instead of asking what truck. At the end of the day, pick the truck you like and or you think is going to last you the longest and you're getting the best deal on. But if, if the numbers don't work, it doesn't work for you. If the numbers work, big thumbs up, go for it. So okay. So box back off again. Can put that one away.

Speaker 2 15:56

We can tuck that one away.

Speaker 1 15:58

So all those towing myths are busted, but also not just no, towing is a yeah, that's it All right. Next segment we're moving on Lauren's favorite black tank myths.

Speaker 2 16:11

This is probably the topic that I don't know anything about, honestly. I will tell you.

Speaker 1 16:15

I don't know why, but I put the shenanigan zone next to this. It's the most opportune place for bad things to happen.

Speaker 2 16:24

Pooptastrophes. As I said previously, All right, myth one All right.

Speaker 1 16:28

You should leave your black tank open at full site hookups.

Speaker 2 16:32

In other words, like your house. Even I know that that's not true. You should leave it closed.

Speaker 1 16:39

And why should you leave it closed?

Speaker 2 16:41

Because otherwise the solid things fall and the liquid things run off, and then you get the poo pyramid, the dreaded poo pyramid Sorry. I'm going to go poo pyramid. I'm going to make a shirt now. Please don't. I'm not going to claim you in public. If you do, you don't anyway. Now it's true, all right.

Speaker 1 17:01

So, yeah, definitely don't do that. You want to leave that open.

Speaker 2 17:04

I would argue no, you want to leave that open. I would argue no, you want to leave that closed. I'm sorry, leave that closed. Wow, you just confused everybody, sorry.

Speaker 1 17:09

You want to leave that closed, closed and I would argue you want to have a pretty solid amount of water in there before you ever use it. So when you that's true Are done Like so, if we like, for instance, we have a 40 gallon black tank in our, our Alliance Delta right now I put 12 to 15 gallons of water after I'm done flushing in there.

Speaker 2 17:32

Now it's in storage, so there's zero in there, and it has to do with, like, the size of the tank and the shape of the tank sometimes, and so you may have to kind of figure that one out.

Speaker 1 17:35

The idea is that a it's a holding tank. I'm not going to get into the whole. Should you have a bacteria like a septic tank in there to help?

Speaker 2 17:41

stuff, should you not yeah?

Speaker 1 17:43

I don't care as long as it doesn't stink. That's all I care about. We use liquefied. I like liquefied. It seems to do a really good job if you use the appropriate amount and not short it. But with that you want to leave that water in there. I would say the gray tanks. You also would leave them closed unless you're doing a high load.

Speaker 1 18:06

You don't have to leave them closed, just know if you get a sewer smell in your RV, it's because you left them open. So if you're going to do that, put what's called a P-trap in your sewer line. Mooride makes a thing that does a P-trap. You could also, if you have, like I forget what those little accordion looking things are called, but the sewer line holder that makes it gradually go down, so water and stuff doesn't just sit in there.

Speaker 2 18:26

I'm going to say that's a little bit of a caveat, because some people who are full timers, they may, you know, they may do a load or two of laundry a day and take a shower and wash all their dishes, and so for them it doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Speaker 1 18:39

And that's why I would tell you like yes, I understand.

Speaker 2 18:41

If you're going to have a high use day, open it up't worry, if you got five people in that rv and everybody's showering, yeah, we're gonna open that up if you're gonna have a low use day, or you're a solo rv or you just don't use that much water maybe maybe you're against showering.

Speaker 1 18:53

I don't know. I'm not judging um, but I'm a pro shower. I do like two or three a day, but you, you're better off leaving it closed than open. It's always a little safer until it's too full uh full, but it'll burp at you and you'll know pretty quickly, or it'll back up in the shower too and you'll know real fast to stop and go out and get it.

Speaker 2 19:12

That is true.

Speaker 1 19:13

All right. Number two a bag of ice in the black tank will clean while you drive.

Speaker 2 19:18

All right, I've heard a lot of people talk about this and maybe this is my ignorance. I'm going to say no, like I would, I, I and I don't know the way to prove this, or not. Like we need cameras inside to. Somebody did figure this out, did they okay?

Speaker 1 19:32

yeah, but they used like dog food or something.

Speaker 2 19:34

They didn't use poo poo right, well, and it depends like do you have a poo pyramid? Because it's not gonna do that, so okay one.

Speaker 1 19:41

The question's gonna be is like, how big is an ice cube on the biggest side? We'll call it golf ball size which is being incredibly, that's a very large ice cube. I'm trying to be generous here. How long if you took a regular ice cube that's about a normal size ice cube and you dropped it into a cup of water? Add warm water? You're not magically making the tank cold, right? How long does it last? I don't know, Not long.

Speaker 2 20:04

No.

Speaker 1 20:04

Less than 30 seconds typically. Yeah, so, and then it starts bouncing around. What does ice do if you throw it against the wall? Not hard, just toss.

Speaker 2 20:12

Yeah, it starts to break.

Speaker 1 20:13

It becomes brittle Ice, doesn't do anything.

Speaker 2 20:17

But you know what does do something? Getting the professional tank cleaners out to do it, yeah, that actually is Very true.

Speaker 1 20:24

Even in a like we didn't have our rig very long. I was like, oh my yes, and they got onto us. But we also know them.

Speaker 2 20:32

We learned a lot, and I think it's important to learn as you go. So yep, all right.

Speaker 1 20:36

So that's a classic. But I would say, no, that one's not, it's a no-go on that one so. I would say get a tank treatment and let that slosh around. You got a better shot at that.

Speaker 2 20:45

That is true, yeah.

Gear and Internet Myths Debunked

Speaker 1 20:47

All right. Moving on. Moving on Gear and gadget myths.

Speaker 2 20:51

Oh boy, this is your department, huh.

Speaker 1 20:53

Yeah, we'll see and I don't know. So this one came up when I was looking around to see what are some myths and I don't know. You need to buy every accessory at Camping World before your first trip. And I don't know why I said camping world. You need to buy every accessory before your first trip.

Speaker 2 21:09

Because I think that that's what a lot of people do, because they want to feel prepared, yeah, right. And so they're like well, if I have all the things, then I can fix anything that goes wrong. And the fact of the matter is it probably complicates it more than anything, and so you need some basics, which we can link to some videos to help you understand what basics may be useful. But buying all the things, no, it's going to make it worse.

Speaker 1 21:33

So we were one of those people. We bought a lot. We didn't buy all of them, but we bought a lot. We bought a lot. There's quite a few things that sat in our pass-through storage of our first rig and just accumulated space and dust.

Speaker 2 21:44

And none of these things are particularly cheap, Like they're inexpensive each one, but cumulatively yeah, $50 here, $25 there $100.

Speaker 1 21:51

here You're spending some money, right, and so no, you don't need to buy everything. Now there are some. If you've never RV'd before, there's actually like and I would call it like an RV starter kit.

Speaker 2 22:00

Yeah, you're going to need sewer hoses. You're going to need some water hoses. Yeah, you're going to need a water hose, but again you don't know a quick connector.

Speaker 1 22:08

If you've never done it before, you're going to find a quick connector that you like. We use the ones from Blue Technology, love them. You don't know if you're going to need a water filter or not, especially if you're not full-timing. We don't drink the water out of our rig stuff and all in our water softener and that's great, but we drink bottled water well, and for those that are traveling more often, more frequently than than we are, absolutely yes.

Speaker 2 22:32

Um, I think that a water filtration system is oh yeah is very useful.

Speaker 1 22:37

I don't know that we would have it if we didn't full-time first right, I agree, I agree with you on that and I love the system. It works great.

Speaker 2 22:44

The hoses are amazing there's nothing I dislike about it, and when we lived in the Valor, we did drink the water.

Speaker 1 22:49

Oh yeah, absolutely. Now we also bypassed the tank a lot in that. So I don't know why. I just have a little about drinking out of the tank. It bothers me a little bit.

Speaker 2 22:59

Add to Ryan's pet peeve list. Okay, it's getting longer.

Speaker 1 23:03

So anyway, moving on, wi-fi boosters will always fix campground internet.

Speaker 2 23:09

Okay, I'm going to say this Campground internet sucks.

Speaker 1 23:14

It is by definition internet, and that is where that ends.

Speaker 2 23:17

And that is where that ends, and that is all that I know about internet is that the campground internet always sucks.

Speaker 1 23:23

There are a lot.

Speaker 2 23:32

There's probably more myths about internet than there are about towing.

Speaker 1 23:34

To be completely honest with you, you think well, the problem is that internet, it changes so frequently oh, that's true. And the ability to and so like do you have to have starlink to go camping? Of course not, no, do you have to have. Should you use a starlink better than a cell or a like a hotspot situational?

Speaker 2 23:47

do you have a?

Speaker 1 23:47

cell booster. Are you in a good coverage area, are you not? I mean, starling's pretty good, but if you're in the middle of the woods it's pretty useless, right? And so you know there's a lot of things that go into whether or not you like. A cell booster will help promote campground wifi.

Speaker 2 24:04

Right Um, your best bet is do not rely on it.

Speaker 1 24:08

So, and I, what I would tell you too, is that, no matter how much you boost the signal Now, if there is the you got to remember, here's my, here's my timeline.

Speaker 2 24:19

You ready? All right, here we go. So Lauren's the internet.

Speaker 1 24:22

I'm the user.

Speaker 2 24:23

Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 24:23

There's the space between us. We want to make those connect and go and go fast right so you don't have to come into a router somewhere.

Speaker 1 24:31

Let's say the campground, right, well, the campground's got this router and then it gets pushed out to transponders. I don't even know what, the little thing, the thing that pushes the wi-fi out, wi-fi routers, I guess. Okay, so that gets pushed out. Now there's cloud and I'm standing in line with 100 of your friends, 100 RVs. Insert the number of sites and people in the campground you're currently in and we're all trying to use the internet. Right, so I could have full bars. Best signal ever. They're on fiber. Everything's great. If it was just me.

Speaker 2 25:10

I be getting a you know 800 bags down, but when a hundred?

Speaker 1 25:13

people are trying to stream something.

Speaker 1 25:14

Oh yes, in 4k, preferably um videos on youtube um, you're not like, have you ever tried to get on the like three people on a tv in your own household? It freaks out the internet. Imagine a hundred people. So there is almost no good way to go about that. I have only been to two parks. One of them I used it, one of them I didn't use it that had good internet. Three, sorry three. Camp Fimfo in Waco had phenomenal wireless internet News to me. Our hotspot was better, somehow Okay, and so we used that. And when I say good, good, like it was getting 200 down, our hotspot was getting 5. For some weird reason, typically it gets 20. Um, the other two one of them was by Texas Motor Speedway.

Speaker 1 25:59

Oh, okay, and that was when we had our very, very first rig that had a very robust internet system. Well, they both really did, but this one had an even more one that you could hardline into that one. So they actually had ethernet ports at each pedestal.

Speaker 2 26:11

So you didn't have to use Wi-Fi. Maybe something to look out for in the amenities.

Speaker 1 26:14

And there was another one that had that, but I couldn't figure it out, and that was Disney's Fort wilderness. We were only there for one night, I didn't care.

Speaker 2 26:21

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 1 26:22

And so do you need, can and can a cell booster actually promote that? You can make it a little better. But for starters, a cell booster isn't going to help you with wifi, it's going to help you with cell signal. So if you're in the kind of out in the sticks a little bit and you need, to boost your signal, right, sure, but then you get in the directional versus omni-directional.

Speaker 2 26:45

No, we don't, let's just say it's a rabbit hole.

Speaker 1 26:46

You can go down pretty extensively.

Speaker 2 26:48

There is and I'm going to throw this out there that we've been to a lot of state parks, national parks, that sort of thing, and our cell does not work well there.

Speaker 1 26:57

And so, right down the street, we did a video, a fulling video at Cleburne state park, and I didn't even think about it because it's practically in downtown Fort Worth, right, you're not that far outside of town?

Speaker 2 27:06

You're really not. And there's just no cell tower close enough to get you signaling there, and I think the same thing happened to us in the Smokies.

Speaker 1 27:14

Inside. Smoky Mountain National Park yes, If you stay along the parkway or in either side in North Carolina or in Tennessee, you were fine. But yeah, if you got in there, like when we did what's the hike we did, that was straight up the frickin' 90 grade.

Speaker 2 27:31

I don't remember the name, whatever that hike was with the little observation tower and the Smokies. Yeah, it didn't work there, and so if you're relying on campground Wi-Fi and your cell phone, you may be a little bit SOL simply out of luck.

Speaker 1 27:45

Sure, that's what we're going to call it, I would argue. Do you have to have internet to camp?

Speaker 2 27:52

No, I don't think that you do. I think there are some people that can quite enjoy the quiet.

Speaker 1 27:57

So who are those people?

Speaker 2 27:58

Not you.

Speaker 1 28:00

I downloaded music. It's fine. The other side, like you just said, though, if you're a full-time family and you're living and working and all those things, I understand. Chad from Changing Lanes has a couple of internet videos that are phenomenal. Yeah, if you're working and you have to have internet, you're going to spend some money on systems.

Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up

Speaker 1 28:18

Yeah, you sure can. Providers, Because the only true rock solid internet on the road is redundancy, because where Starlink doesn't work, cell may. Where cell doesn't work, maybe Capground does, but needs a booster Right. So there's just too many different options.

Speaker 2 28:34

And where Verizon works, AT&T doesn't, and vice versa, all that stuff. And for me I would always like to have cell of some sort, just as a safety measure, if there's an emergency or anything like that.

Speaker 1 28:42

So I am actually considering moving us from AT&T to T-Mobile because of that, because they signed a deal and I don't know the specifics of it and you've probably heard this, but they signed a deal with Starlink. And so when you are off cell, it costs more, but you still have satellite connectivity.

Speaker 2 29:01

Ah, okay.

Speaker 1 29:02

And so it allows you to, and I'm sure they'll come up with data packages at some point. But right now it's like an emergency only situation.

Speaker 2 29:08

That's nice.

Speaker 1 29:09

And a lot of them are starting to add. Phones are getting more and more advanced. A lot of them are adding cell service technology, and so, like our AT&T phones have that. So problem is, though, if you have one bar service, it doesn't activate over, so you almost have to kill it off, but leave your SOS on.

Speaker 1 29:25

And then you hope your SOS comes up and that gives you like a little satellite insignia with bars that means you're on the satellite, so like if you have an iPhone. I think 16 is the first one that did that, which is what we have, and that's we won't have a new one for a while because they're expensive. So, all right, did we hit a myth that you are curious about, did we not? If we didn't let us know, cause there are plenty, I'm sure we could do this again, or 12 times.

Speaker 2 29:50

Did we hit a nerve?

Speaker 1 29:51

more importantly, All the toe police out there. I'm sorry. I love you all.

Speaker 2 29:57

I love you all, I love everybody.

Speaker 1 29:59

It's a good day. Please don't be mean in the comments.

Speaker 2 30:02

Yeah, please, please be nice, Please be courteous.

Speaker 1 30:05

With that, we will see you next week. Bye-bye.