Hey, smart RVers.

Today in Money saving tips, we're going to answer the question, how do I know if my RV water pump is not working?

And then enjoying the RV life, we're going to Talk about the 10 creative RV hacks that can make life on the road easier and more enjoyable.

And then in money saving tips, how heat line heating, cable can save money and reduce headaches.

And in the next stop, we're going to highlight the 10 winter destinations for RVers or snowbirds.

And then in RV envy, we're going to talk about the Hughes Power Watchdog Power center, the 50 and 30amp models.

This is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your trusted source for tips and insights to embrace the RV lifestyle without worries.

So let's talk everything RV today is episode 187.

So let's just dig right in.

So welcome back, everybody.

We've got some good stuff to talk about today.

And as always, you know, the RV industry has its highs, it has its lows, it has its goods, it has its bads.

But at the end of the day, we have to really just consider that we have an RV and we should enjoy it.

You know, I hear a lot of complaints.

I mean, day in, day out, people complaining about dealerships, service centers about their RV, the quality of it.

You know, it's a given.

RVs are a house going down the road, experiencing an earthquake, you know, whatever magnitude earthquake it is, but it's a lot.

And so they're going to need repairs, they're going to need maintenance.

You go into wintertime, they're going to have to be winterized.

But heck, depending on where you live, you might have to winterize your home, get it ready for winter.

I know here in Montana, there are certain things we do before winter hits, get them done.

It's not just rv.

It's our house, it's our property, whatever it might be.

So the RV sometimes is a scapegoat for, I guess, getting kicked for all the problems we have in life.

And yes, some RVs have more problems than others.

You know what, it's part of life.

We enjoy them.

Some of the things we have to do, it's just maintenance.

It's getting ready for the next trip.

Enjoy the rv.

Enjoy the RV lifestyle.

Let's not worry about all the little things.

I mean, if you got major problems with it, that's one thing.

But you know what, if you do get rid of it, get another one, Move on, right?

Life is good with an rv.

That's all I'm trying to Say.

So let's just dig right into our show today.

First off, I do want to mention wholesale warranties.

You know, wholesale warranties sells the RV extended warranties.

Whether you're buying a new rv, a used rv, go to wholesale warranties first, tell them what you're up to, and they will help you get an RV extended warranty, if that's what you want.

They are very transparent.

You're going to know what you're getting into before you ever give them a dime or sign on the dotted line.

And that's important because a lot of places when you go to get an extended warranty, they're going to tell you everything you want to hear.

Your RV is covered.

Oh, we got it covered from top to bottom.

You got the platinum package, the platinum, gold, diamond, whatever package.

And then reality sinks in when you have your first claim and wow, it's not covered, or it's a lot more than you thought or a lot more difficult than you thought.

Not with wholesale warranties.

They make it easy, and you know what you're getting into.

And I know this from experience, talking to people who buy extended warranties not from wholesale warranties, but other companies and how miserable they are and how they hate the warranty and they feel it was a waste of money.

So use the link in this description and check out wholesale warranties before you buy an rv.

And remember, new, reused.

They'll help you.

They got you covered, right?

We could say that it's an extended warranty kind of insurance.

Insurance coverage.

They got you covered.

Oh, boy.

Too early for the jokes, right?

Well, it's early for me.

Probably not for you guys.

So now that's going to bring us to enjoying the RV life.

You know, there's always so many things that we could talk about for enjoying the RV life.

I mean, gosh, you know, campsites, how you set it up, the way you make your RV, your home.

Do you keep your RV very sterile and minimalist, or do you have it with all your comfy stuff?

Everybody has a different flavor on this.

But enjoying the RV life, there's always things we can do, little hacks to make it easier, keep less stuff on the counters, less things floating around the RV in our way.

Right?

Because we're in a smaller space, and sometimes all the little things add up to a big problem.

And maybe that's why we don't like RVing sometimes because we're not organized or not organized enough, or maybe we don't care.

Everybody does it different.

But we do have 10 hacks here.

Today.

So let's discuss these.

Now.

The first one, I found this one on the Internet.

I thought it was kind of interesting.

They recommend getting condiment packages from, you know, all your local restaurants wherever you go.

And they have condiment packages.

Load up your pockets in your purses with them.

I'm not too keen on that, you know, because what they are is, you know, it makes it easier because you got all these condiment packages and you can throw them in your RV rather than having full size bottles.

It'll say ketchup, mustard, things like that.

We buy, we, if we take those packages, they're not going to have any value to us.

We're not going to take care of them at the end of the year, we'll just throw them all away.

It doesn't matter.

You're not paying for them.

And I, you know, I know people do it and I'm not really, I'm not here as the packet police, that's for darn sure.

But what I was thinking of is just getting smaller bottles.

You can get small bottles and you determine the size or, you know, little squeeze containers, whatever works for you.

Tupperware containers, little tiny ones.

And put the ketchup, the mustard and the things like that that you want to use on your trip in the littler containers.

That way it doesn't take up as much space in the cabinets or the refrigerator.

And let's face it, those little packets are messy.

They're kind of a hassle and you don't get everything out.

So they're very wasteful.

And it's not always the flavor you want.

They use low quality ketchup, mayonnaise, everything else mustard.

So now you can get your favorite in the little containers and bring them with you.

And you know what, it'll save space.

So if you get creative that way, yes, that's a good way to go.

Now number two, if you bring fruits or vegetables with you on your trip, get those lightweight, reusable mesh bags.

You can get them at dollar stores, places like that, where you can hang your fruit.

You can actually put them on hooks on the wall, hooks on the backs of the door.

There's different types of hooks you can put on the wall without putting holes in.

I think command is a brand.

So now your fruits off the counter, it's hanging up, it's out of the way.

And it actually is better for the fruit or vegetables because now it's breathing all the way around.

Got good circulation.

So that's a good way to go there.

Another thing you can do is when you're, you know, running your water in the sink to get the hot water, you could have a dish pan in the sink that's going to collect that water.

You know, you get the cold until it gets hot.

You want hot water so you're running through gallons.

So this is more so if you're dry camping than if you're at a park.

You can get that water and actually save it rather than let it go to waste and just fill up the holding tank and do nothing.

If you put it in a dish pan, something of that, to that effect, even a one gallon jug, hold it right at the faucet, you fill it up.

A jug, you can put a cap on.

Dish pan is kind of iffy.

You know, it's like when you winterize your rv, save the antifreeze bottles and you can put the water in there.

But anyway, you can use that water to flush the toilet with to clean something outside.

So it's not filling up the holding tank, it's not going to waste.

And I say that's pretty much if you're dry camping, RV park, it's not going to be as important of a thing.

So it can just keep you out a little bit longer in camping.

And if you're, you know, dry camping and your water's tight and all that, you might not be worried about the hot water anyways.

But just in case, now another thing you can do is get a shoe rack.

RVs don't necessarily have pantries, but there might be places in the rv, a clothes closet, someplace where you could hang a shoe rack.

And you know, you can organize things.

You know, I'm talking about the cloth ones or their material and they're a little more flexible.

They hang on the backs of doors.

And so you can put those things in different places, put your shoes in them, you can put other things in them.

It's just organizing things.

It doesn't have to be a shoe rack.

You can get organizers that hang on doors and such.

So again, it's your rv, you know where you can put this kind of stuff.

It's just thinking outside the box a little bit.

I mean you can put spices in it, toiletries, snacks, whatever you want to do.

And another tip, I like this one.

Carrying a can of compressed air.

You, you know what I'm talking about, the cans of compressed air that you can get for cleaning out a computer, the keyboard and the back of the computer.

Well, you can use those in your RV for tight to reach places.

You can squirt some air in there or keeping your water heater, your refrigerator, the burners of them cleaned out a furnace.

You'd have to take it out to do that.

Unless you have access to the backside, you can clean out part of it, but not all of it.

So a can of compressed air, she can get those pretty inexpensive anymore and they're readily available.

And if, you know, you really want to go hog wild, you can get like a 20 ounce can of compressed air that's refillable or CO2, like for paintball guns.

In fact, I saw someone online the other day, they're like no $9.95 now they're coming to the end of their expiration date.

Those types of bottles have expiration dates and they have to be recertified every five years.

But 995, that's pretty darn cheap.

Carry a can of compressed air, you never know how handy that can come in or handy it could be.

Now another little trick you could do if you have a ball mount.

So you're pulling a trailer and you could use this for utility trailers wherever you have a ball mount and like a 2 inch or 2 and 516 ball.

You know, a lot of times people buy the plastic covers that go over them and so those are getting a little harder to find.

You could take a water bottle, any type of bottle, and cut it and take the bottom of it and just turn it upside down and put it right over the ball.

And that way you're not going to get the grease on everything.

It stays in that container.

And heck, when you're all done, you can just throw that container away, you know, or recycle it out.

Every once in a while maybe it starts getting a little nasty, a little more grease on the outside because that's the reason why you do this.

So you're not getting grease on your clothes when you walk by the ball or if you put the ball mount someplace for storage, leans over, it's not getting grease on something.

So that's a cheap little trick.

And by the way, I've talked about grease and go a little bit.

I'll put a link in the description here about grease and go.

These handy little containers look like chewing back chewing tobacco containers like skull or something, has a little one dose of grease in it.

You flip it over, put it on your ball, move it around and you throw that in the way so your hands stay clean.

See how it goes.

Keep your hands clean, keep everything clean when it comes to that ball mount and the, and the ball.

Another thing you can do is take navy showers.

Yeah, that's right.

Go into the shower and pretend you're in the navy.

No, all of this is turning the water off when you're not, when you don't need it, when you're taking the shower.

It saves water so you're not wasting as much.

It's not going down the drain.

Again, this is more for that dry camping, off the grid type stuff.

And here's a handy tip too.

Putting glow in the dark or reflective type tape on your steps.

It doesn't mean you have to wrap your steps.

I'm talking about the steps going into the rv because a lot of them are black or they're darker.

You put rugs on and they become almost invisible.

But having some tape on there, grip tape that's multicolored, like it's yellow and black.

Camco sells that.

That way it's more visible at night.

You're less likely to trip on it or fall off of it.

You know, we don't want that to happen.

You can get battery powered lights.

It doesn't take much, just so you know the steps are there and just light it up a little bit or just make it visible so you're not tripping over it.

Another thing you can do is keep clothes pins or chip clips or you can buy clips, can use them for, well, bags of chips obviously.

But if you're trying to organize some wires or you're working on something, you need it out of the way.

Maybe you're working on a window, a drapery keeps getting in your way.

You can clip it to the side.

Wiring, water lines, you can use them for that.

Temporary, permanent, whatever you want to do.

Nice little things to have around.

You don't have to have a bunch of them, just a few of them and they can come in handy.

Now the greatest hack of all, we come to the end of the list here.

And by the way, all these will be on our website, the smartrver.com under enjoying the RV life.

So the greatest hack of all is not to try untested or gimmicky hacks.

For example, you know, you can find all these little recipes for making holding tank chemicals.

And I've looked at some of them and they're just crazy.

They make no sense.

They're not going to work, they're not going to do a thing.

And someone tried it once and it worked for them.

Now they're sold on it.

There's no testing, there's no experience.

And I'm not saying everyone is bad, but be cautious.

Of that, you know, a lot of products that we have to pay for or we willingly pay for, they're tested, they're proven that they work.

And I'm just going to stick on the holding tank.

Chemicals companies that make those don't just make it and throw it out there and say it works, they test it.

Whereas, you know, somebody might try something and it worked for them one time, maybe it worked twice, just in their particular situation or set of circumstances.

It doesn't mean it's good.

Hey, this worked for me, it's got to work for you.

That's not the case in holding tanks.

Well, holding tanks, fresh water tanks, it doesn't matter.

Putting things on the side of the rv, I read some things about that.

It defeats the purpose sometimes of actually maintaining things properly.

So just be cautious.

I'm not saying they're all bad.

You know, just think about it before you do it.

Does it really make sense?

Okay, now that's going to bring us to the money saving tip portion of the show.

So again, this stuff will all be on the website.

Everything we talk about is on the website anymore.

So, heat line heating cable.

So back, oh, this time last year, actually it was a little bit later.

We got on this a little bit late.

But it's episode 172.

There'll be a link to it in the description.

We talked about heat line heating cable and we had an interview with Matthew from Heat Line.

So heat line heating cable, it's a Canadian company, but they make cables for heating water lines and such.

And in RVs it can be critical.

When you're in cold climates, you don't want your water lines to freeze, you don't want certain things to freeze.

And what's so cool about this cable is you can have it in your rv and let's say part of it is sticking outside, part of it's in the rv, it adjusts, it knows how to work in both climates at the same time.

It's pretty smart.

It's like smart cable.

I just coined that term here by the way, smart cable.

Okay, so heat line heating cable, it's, it's a little more expensive than just buying heat tape.

But heat tape doesn't work in all applications and heat tape is very limited.

It's not that smart.

And in most RV applications it doesn't work well, it'll have a tendency to melt pipes, melt plastic.

The heat line cable doesn't do that.

You know, if not anything else, just check it out.

Go to their website.

I will put a link in the description, but it's Heat Line, Heating, Cable, Canadian company, they ship to the U.S. they got very reasonable rates.

Their products a little more expensive, as I said, than tape, but it's a great alternative.

And you can just put it on and leave it there and be done with it.

And they'll make it to different sizes.

I don't know the exact size, but it's all kind of custom.

So check that out.

If you're in that, in one of these areas where that'll.

That makes sense.

Even if something freezes, you know, maybe just during January, February.

I know when I was in Arizona, you know, January and February, you'd always have to wrap our pipes outside because they would freeze.

And we're in the Yuma area, so things do get cold.

All right, everybody, just a reminder to subscribe to our channel, share it with others.

And you know, if you're watching this on YouTube, just let it run.

Let the algorithm see that you're watching it.

I know it sounds cheesy, right?

Just let it run.

We want YouTube to pick up it so it gets into more searches so people can see the podcast.

Back to all of our YouTube stuff.

If you start watching it, just let it run.

Don't click out of it too soon.

It really helps us out.

Let's get to staying on the road.

You know, this is always my favorite part of the show.

It's kind of hard sometimes, you know, all these different segments and I got my favorites, but I like them all.

Otherwise we wouldn't be doing it right.

And hopefully you guys like them all.

So staying on the road.

There's a lot of things to staying on the road.

You know, we have a never ending supply of content to talk about here.

But if you do have something you want to share with me or you'd like me to do a deep dive on it, just let me know.

I'll be glad to do it.

You know, there's a lot of things out there on RVs and we're just slowly working our way through them and we're trying not to be repetitive and going back and talking about things again, at least not within the same 12 month span.

Although I was looking the other day and we haven't actually gone back and doubled up on anything really.

We're just bringing out new things constantly.

Kudos for us and kudos for you guys.

You keep on learning.

This is like a university.

Well, yeah, it's like university, but not today's universities.

There's a goal.

More like a technical school.

Right?

All right.

Anyway, getting a little sidetracked there.

So when it comes to your RV water pump, and this is something that everybody's going to experience, sooner or later, your pump is going to start acting goofy.

It's not going to be working properly or it won't work at all.

You might just lose your water and have nothing.

Then you're kind of like, oh, now what?

What do we do?

Do we have to take it to the dealer?

Does someone, a professional, have to diagnosis?

Absolutely not.

Now, some RV water pumps can be a real pain to get to.

They can be someplace where it's hard to get any tools in there.

You know, you're reaching over it, trying to get to the screws, maybe holding the base.

There's four screws that hold it to the floor.

And sometimes it can be hard to get to two of them, one of them, all four of them.

If that's the case, you don't want to deal with it.

Yeah, just take it to a service center, let them fix it.

We're not going to hold that against you, that's for sure.

Because I get it.

Especially if you're out on the road, it might become a real nightmare.

But at least knowing how to diagnose it can save you some time, some headache.

And maybe you don't have to take it in after you diagnose it and say, hey, it's not the water pump, it's something else.

And maybe you can fix that something else.

Maybe you bought one of our handy dandy water kits, water repair emergency kits from our website, sunpromfg.com Then you're gold.

And your family's like, man, you're a hero, dad, you're awesome.

You took care of this.

You're a hero, mom.

You solved this problem and your vacation keeps going on.

If your water pump's acting funny, you have to diagnose it.

You have to make sure it is the water pump.

So there's some pretty basic things, right?

Like making sure the water tank isn't empty.

And that sounds crazy, but heck, I've seen it.

We've experienced it.

Or it only has like one gallon in it.

Person just put in enough or they thought was enough to test the water pump.

They never thought about putting in more.

They just assume the pump's not working.

So you want to put enough water in the tank so that pump's going to pick it up.

So it might be 5 gallons.

If you're just, you know, if you don't want to fill the tank, put in five gallons, make sure there's enough water in there, I guess, is what I'm saying.

When you're testing your pump, you want to make sure you're not hooked up to city water.

That'll be a little confusing because your water will be working.

So make sure you're not hooked up to city water.

You just want to be on the pump, make sure there's water in the tank.

That keeps it pretty straightforward.

Right.

Then you're going to have to be able to turn that water pump on to start the diagnosis.

I say that because you'd be amazed how many people don't really know where their water pump switch is.

Sounds crazy, right?

But you have to know where the switch is to start diagnosing.

All right, so there's signs of a malfunctioning water pump.

It might be no water flow.

So that would be a very obvious sign.

You turn, hit the faucet, nothing comes out.

Oh, something's wrong here.

So it could be the pump's not primed.

The pump might not be able to build up pressure.

So that could be a sign.

So you got something wrong there.

If you have low or inconsistent water pressure, you know, the water is only trickling out of the faucets, very low pressure, or it comes out, but it's just not that same flow it had the last time you were out in your rv.

So the pump could just be struggling.

And you know, those things sometimes can very basic.

Could be a clogged filter, it could be air in the lines, or it could just be the pump is getting old, wearing out.

And when I say getting old, that pump doesn't really have to be that old.

You know, I've seen water pumps like sureflow water pumps that are green.

Puts them back like to the 80s if I'm not mistaken.

I've seen pumps that are three years old, they're just out of warranty, they fail.

So there's no real timeline.

But typically pumps are going to last for years.

You know, I'm going to say five years plus, but they can wear out prematurely.

So don't always make it something else.

It could just flat out be the water pump is bad.

A clogged filter, air in the lines, a worn out pump, that could be it.

But we're going to get into this a little bit more.

So we're just kind of going through some of the things here, the problems.

So the pump runs continuously.

Are you experiencing that?

That pump is just always on, you know, just even if it's a very low faint, it's just constantly running, so it should shut off after you turn the faucet off.

That pump might run for a few seconds, maybe 10 seconds.

It's going to build pressure back up, and then it's going to stop.

Keeps running.

There could be a leak someplace.

There could be a tiny little leak, and it's just putting water.

You know, it's leaking out water.

So that pump can't ever build up pressure.

It could be a faulty valve in the pump as well.

So if there's no leaks, then it would point to the pump.

Now, is your pump making unusual noises?

And I'm saying unusual noises.

This isn't.

Oh, my.

Pumps always making noise?

No, water pumps always make noise.

That's part of a water pump.

And believe me, if you're glad they make noise, because if they never made any noise, you'd never know if that pump's on.

Your pump could be running, pumping water.

You have a small leak and you never know it because that pump doesn't make any noise.

Heck, you'd almost think they built that into the pump, right?

I think they did.

You want to hear your water pump, so don't complain about the noise unless it gets really loud.

It's a different type of noise.

Something's changed.

Yeah, you hear things.

Oh, that sounds different.

Like a mechanic.

You'll listen to an engine.

Oh, there's something wrong with that engine because he can hear it.

So a water pump is the same way.

We get used to it in our sewing department.

When I'm out there quite a bit, I can tell there's something going on with a sewing machine just by listening, and so can our sewers.

Hey, this machine sounds different.

So it's time to look into it.

You know, a noise could be the pump is just going bad.

It's just time to replace it.

Sometimes there could be air trapped in the water line.

It just can't get it out.

The mounting screws could be loose that hold the pump to the floor of the RV or wherever it's mounted.

And also, rigid water lines going to a water pump can help or can make noise.

So you don't want rigid water lines like the PEX lines going right to an RV water pump.

You want flexible lines that reduces noise, and it helps quite a bit.

You know, pumps rattle.

They vibrate, and those PEX lines are going to rattle and vibrate, and they're going to hit things, slap things.

It could even be in the wall of the rv, and you don't want that.

So if you have rigid lines and the pumps quiet I'd say leave it.

But if you have rigid lines and you think you can quiet that pump down some more, then add on some flex lines.

You can just add them right into the system.

It shouldn't be a real huge deal.

Now, is the pump cycling on and off?

Is it, you know, you know, going on and off like that?

Well, I'm a good water pump, right?

That's going to be my next job.

Voiceover FOR WATER, the water pump industry.

If you're sitting there, there's no water running, you know, you're looking at your wife, she's looking at you, and you hear your pump making noise.

Hey, we're right here.

That pumps making noise.

Well, something's wrong.

You got a leak somewhere.

The pump could be going bad, so you have to investigate that and leaks.

Get a flashlight.

Don't just look under cabinets, always use a flashlight because that light will reflect off of drops of water and you can see it much easier.

And sometimes the drops can be very tricky.

They can be behind a line, not very visible.

You get in there and you look.

Go to all the obvious places where you know you have water lines.

That's part of learning your RV as well.

Now, what if the water pump doesn't turn on at all?

You know, you hit the switch and you don't hear anything.

I'm going to say 99.9% of the time you're going to hear that pump come on.

It's going to fill up the water lines or pressurize.

Even if it's just been off for a little while, you hit that switch, it'll always build up some pressure.

If you hit the switch, nothing happens.

So it could be no power going to the water pump.

So that means the switch could be bad.

It could be a blown fuse, be a bad connection.

And this is where having a voltmeter comes into play.

Guys, I've talked about voltmeters and hopefully you all have one.

Test lights are okay for some applications, but a voltmeter and you know, multimeter is going to have ohms, volts, 12 volt, 110 volts.

It could be an amp meter as well.

You don't have to learn how to use all the functionality on it, but if you just learn volts, whether it's 12 or 110, because an RV has 110 outlets in it, I recommend just getting a little deal.

You can plug into the outlets and test your outlets to make sure they're on rather than using the voltmeter.

Those are easier.

The voltmeter is a little bit harder.

Get a little sidetracked here, but get a voltmeter.

You can get really cheap ones, but they are really cheap.

Or you can get like a 35, $40 one.

You know, maybe it's more than you want to spend, but you can use it at home.

You can use it on a lot of stuff.

Wherever I travel, I bring a voltmeter with me.

You know, even if I don't pull my RV and I'm just out over landing, something like that, I got a voltmeter with me.

You get used to using it.

So you can check for power to switch.

You can check your fuses.

If you have a new rv, look in the fuse panel, and generally a light will come on with the fuses blown.

You can check for voltage at the water pump.

If you got voltage going to the water pump, to the red wire, that's the positive.

Sometimes you'll find a fuse there as well.

But if there's not and you got voltage, the pump is bad.

If it doesn't come on, you got a bad pump.

And I know there's some people that will dig into these water pumps and repair them.

They'll replace parts, and that's great.

If that's your cup of tea.

I don't necessarily recommend that.

I think just replacing the pump generally when they start having problems, maybe it's a pressure switch, maybe a diaphragm's tearing.

The pump's got some life on it, some years on it, start out fresh.

And I've talked to sureflow in the past, Pretty much frowned on rebuilding water pumps.

Gee, I can't imagine why.

Right.

They want to sell new pumps.

Well, that's not necessarily it.

Because getting them rebuilt, right, it takes patience.

You have to put it back together, make sure everything's nice and clean.

And a lot of people fail at that.

We don't even sell repair parts anymore, only because they were always returned.

80% of the time the parts would get returned, the person would buy a new pump.

Oh, these didn't fix my pump.

I'm just going to get a new one.

You know, it was this ongoing thing.

If it's in the budget, just buy a new pump when you have to.

When the pump fails, when there's a problem with it that, you know, it's the pump, you know, a bad power switch doesn't mean you replace the pump, you replace the power switch.

And by the way, if you got switch power going to the switch but not coming out of it on the pump side of the switch, then that switch would be bad, so you'd replace it.

Pretty simple in theory, anyways.

And the switches generally are in the kitchen.

The bathroom sometimes are on the range hoods.

I mean, you should know where your switch is at, hopefully.

And now what if your water pump is spitting, it's spurting water.

It's, you know, you get.

Or it runs a little bit, you get good water, then air or, you know, spitting, spurting.

Well, that could just be air is mixed in with the water.

Water.

So it's not necessarily a problem with the pump.

It could just mean that there's air getting sucked into the system in a fitting someplace.

Generally, you'd think there'd be a leak, but sometimes there isn't.

Sometimes it's the pickup tube going into the tank or where the water is getting drawn from the tank.

I shouldn't say pickup tube, but those can be problems.

And some RVs almost have some of those things built into it.

Problems like that.

Or if you have one of those.

Oh, man, I just.

A Nautilus control center in your rv where you have all these levers and stuff and a couple switches, and you turn your pump on and you turn this lever here, turn that lever there.

Sometimes those levers, those are valves, they can be sucking air.

And, you know, we've had some grand designs in here with those problems, and grand design wasn't aware of the problem, and they were telling people other things.

And it was the Nautilus control panel, at least one of the valves.

And those things are a spaghetti factory on the backside.

So if you ever tackle one, make sure you take some pictures of it so you know how everything goes.

Because all those water lines have to go back the exact same way, otherwise you'll never really get it back together.

They can be kind of a challenge, but it's very doable.

It's just, you got to have patience.

Air can come from a lot of different places.

In an rv, it's generally not a huge problem, but maybe you're experiencing that before, you know, you just buy a new pump, check things out, the things we've gone through here, they can all help you.

Also, there's other little points here, and here's a common one.

Because most water pumps have a strainer on it on the fresh water side, the inlet side, and those strainers can get clogged up with stuff.

You know, you can get mold in them.

You can get just gooey stuff.

You can get debris, things that were in the tank.

And yes, things from the tank can come out much later on in life for some reason.

And you want to make sure it's clean because I mean, I've seen them where just a little tiny piece of plastic or two pieces of plastic were in there.

You think it wouldn't make a difference.

Made all the difference in the world how that pump performed.

It totally screwed it up.

It was sucking air is up to spitting out water.

So make sure that's clean.

It's got a clear cap on it.

Generally you just drop the cap down, pull the little filter or the screen out and clean them off, put it back.

But inspect it first.

Make sure, you know, to look into it.

So if there is something in there, you know, you found a problem, but it might not solve the problem.

It might just be part of the problem.

It might make it a little bit better.

You could have air in the system as well, you know, so you want to open the faucets, get all that air out.

You know, that pumps because sometimes it'll make noise.

You hear lines slapping and stuff, get all that out.

And you know, that can be a problem as well.

But it's not a permanent problem.

It's just getting the air out of the systems.

Now here's another one.

My water pump doesn't work.

No water comes out anywhere.

We hear this one in the spring quite often or early summer, they're going out for the first trip.

You know, my water, my RV works great.

Last year I went going to take it out and now I don't have any water.

Well, you probably have a winterizing valve on the tank on the hot water heater.

This in a different position.

It's in the closed position so it's not letting water through.

Or it could be someplace else in the rv.

Learn where the valves are in your RV for winterizing and that's going to save you some headache.

Make sure they're turned the other way.

Turn to the on position.

So your, your water is flowing through your rv.

Now, you know, city water versus pump water.

I, you know, I should explain this the beginning, but when you're hooked up to city water, you got the hose going to the side of the rv.

That's a whole different animal.

You can still get air in the lines and stuff until you run it all out or bleed it out.

But the water pump is running off the fresh water tank inside the RV and it's its own animal.

So that's what we just discussed.

So if you have any of those problems, this will all be on our website, the smartrver.com and like always, you can call me 406-961-8688.

I'm listening to the phones.

Are they ringing?

They're ringing off the hook.

Not.

Just kidding.

So you can call us.

I mean, you can call your local service center, too.

Most places are pretty friendly.

Well, service centers, not dealerships.

Dealerships are a little harder to get information out of.

Find your favorite service center, become friends with someone there, get to know them and shop there.

It can be.

It can be an invaluable asset.

And I know here where we're at, people love us because we're very helpful.

Now I'm do it yourself centered.

So that's my life.

I do everything myself that I can now occasionally have to pay people.

And I don't mind doing that because I just look at.

I've saved a zillion dollars throughout my lifetime.

Heck, I mean, I've remodeled homes, I've rebuilt cars, RVs.

Do everything myself.

It doesn't matter.

So occasionally, though, I have to call a professional.

It's beyond my pay grade or I don't have time to do it, whatever it might be, you know, but you can do a lot of stuff yourself.

And that's the point of this whole podcast, is to help you guys keep your RV on the road.

And even if you can't do it yourself, you're smarter, you know more about your rv.

You know when to call in a professional or when to pack up a trip.

It's beyond repair now.

We gotta go home, family, you know, you.

You're not doing it because of a blown fuse or a leaky fitting.

You're able to take care of that stuff or you know how to work around it, what to do.

Well, this leaking fitting isn't that bad.

We're not going home.

We can just put some water, a container underneath here, a rag, something soak up that water so it's not getting anywhere else.

This.

So we can get through the weekend on this.

Don't worry, family.

We're staying, you know.

So you're the smart rver again.

All these articles are on our website now, everybody.

That brings us to the next stop.

And we're going to talk about the top 10 winter RV destinations for snowbirds or RVers who are travel in the wintertime.

You don't necessarily have to be a snowbird.

You can just be an RVer who wants to get out for two, three weeks, a month, whatever it might be.

Last episode 186 I talked about Southern Yuma.

So we're going to.

There's some places in here that fall into that category, we're not going to go into great detail.

In fact, we're not going to go into great detail on any of them.

Just going to throw the names out, couple points, and you can make your decisions where you want to go.

And, you know, some people just go to Florida.

It doesn't matter.

That's where they're going.

Some people are only going to go to Texas.

Some people are only going to go to Arizona.

Some people are only going to go to Southern California.

So some of these other places might not mean a thing to you.

But heck, do something different this year.

Go to a different place.

Now, again, that was episode 186.

I'll have a link in the description as well.

So if you want to hear about Southern Yuma or Southern Arizona, you know Yuma, that area, by all means you can listen to that episode again.

All right, so basically, you know, in the wintertime, a lot of RVers, they don't want to stay where they're at because it's getting cold.

Maybe snow, more rain than normal.

They don't want to deal with it.

It's like, you know, let's close up the house and get out of here.

Let's head south, man.

And so that's what they do.

They go to different places.

Arizona is one of the more popular places.

You can call it the Southwest, we can call it the desert.

But Arizona is a great place to go.

You have Court Site or that general area.

You have Yuma, the general area, Tucson, the general area, Phoenix, Apache Junction, Casa Grande, you have different places to go.

And just about anywhere you go, if it's not Flagstaff, because that's up in higher elevation, you're going to be good for the wintertime there.

It's going to be nice, warm.

You'll have some chilly mornings, but it's warm during the day.

You know, one thing I remember is we'd be out working on an rv and it's, you know, seven in the morning, and by eight o' clock you're taking off your jacket, you're sweating because the sun came out, the frost has melted, and like, wow, now it's hot.

That's Arizona.

So Arizona is a great place.

Now, let's not forget about Southern California, like the Palm Springs area, Coachella Valley as an RV mecca as well, because the temperatures there are so nice and they don't get a lot of rain in that area.

You know, it's very interesting.

You can be in Palm Springs or that general area.

Look to the north you can see LA or Riverside County.

San Bernardino county, covered in clouds, is raining like crazy.

It doesn't come into that area, it just stays out of that valley.

So it's a great place to rv.

You got the Salton Sea out there, the dunes, you got tons of stuff.

All sorts of places to explore in Southern California as well.

Anza, Borrego, I can't think of the other national park there right on the tip of my tongue.

Seems like it starts with the P. Joshua Tree.

Yeah, you know, you got a lot of places out there.

It's a very interesting place too.

You know, just drive around and look at stuff.

You can go to the Mojave Desert, you're not far from LA and all that stuff.

If you want to go see people, you know, passed out on the sidewalks in la, you can do that.

Or you can go to the beaches, enjoy some nice Mexican food, you can do it all.

You can go snow skiing, you can go the ocean, you can rent a boat, go out on the water, do something different.

See, Southern California has all this stuff pretty close by.

And San Diego too.

We don't want to leave out San Diego.

That's another RV Mecca as well.

It doesn't get as many RVers, probably because it's not as open as other areas.

But San Diego, Chula Vista, a lot of those areas, that general area.

So you definitely want to check that out.

If Arizona, California is not your cup of tea, you might say, you know what, I'd rather go to the Gulf coast, maybe I'd rather go to Florida.

I don't want to go to Arizona or California.

Then you can go to South Texas, go to the Rio Grande Valley, you can experience different things in Texas.

You have South Padre island, you got beaches, you got the border towns.

Border towns are always cool when they're safe.

They're so unique.

There's a lot of places to go in the United States that we don't really think about.

Can travel around too.

You can say a month here, a month there, a week here, a week there, whatever your schedule allows for.

But South Texas, nice in the wintertime, very popular.

And then you also have Alabama, Florida, you got the Florida Panhandle.

A lot of people go there.

You got beaches, you got seafood, you got everything that's ocean coast, that's your cup of tea.

Then head that way, you can find those sugar white beaches, as some they're sometimes called, and the fresh seafood and a very laid back pace.

Now you have central Florida, I mean, you got all of Florida.

I just meant talking about the panhandle there.

You got all of Florida you can visit different things.

You got.

Well, it's just Florida.

You got inland, you got the coastlines, you got the Everglades.

You got all sorts of stuff you can do there.

The Everglades Prison.

I mean, it's just never ending.

What you can do in Florida, you can go to jail for the weekend out on the Everglades.

Prison.

Maybe not.

Let's not go that far, okay?

We want you to get back to your rv.

We don't want you stuck in jail.

Florida Keys, another cool place.

The point is, there's a lot of places to go.

Now, I'm going to throw in this bonus place.

This is a freebie.

I'm not going to charge you a dime for this one.

Las Vegas, Nevada.

That's right.

Las Vegas, Nevada.

It's pretty nice there in the wintertime.

You don't have to stay in Vegas.

You don't have to stay on the Strip in Vegas.

There's a lot of things to do around Vegas.

You got Lake Mead, you got ski resorts, you got the desert.

You got Mojave Desert.

I can't think of the name of it.

Now, where Scotty's castle is at.

Oh, Death Valley.

Gosh.

So Death Valley, Even if you're in Southern California, you can visit those.

I mean, if you're in Arizona, you can.

So those are great places.

Oh, another freebie, too, is New Mexico.

There's some awesome spots in New Mexico in the wintertime as well.

New Mexico is not as popular for RV getaways in the wintertime, but there are some spots there.

So sometimes it's just looking out, maybe southern Louisiana, you find a cool place there you want to go.

So it's all about chasing the sun, wherever that sun is, and you want that warmth.

You can take your RV there.

You can enjoy it.

And one of the cool things, too, is you're the smart RVer, so you can keep your RV going.

Working, man.

That's awesome, right?

It's a great feeling to know you can do that.

You know, RV is just an awesome thing, and it can test your skill set.

See how ready you are for any adventure.

All right, now that's going to bring us to RV envy.

We have the Hughes Power Center.

It's the 30amp and 50amp, and these are available on our website.

There's a limited supply.

Hughes has been running out of these things because they did a remodel of it.

They used to just have the voltage booster.

Now it has the surge protection built into it.

It's got all sorts of stuff.

If there's a power surge, that sucker shuts down.

It covers low voltage, which is very important.

Low voltage destroys appliances, especially if you're going to be someplace long term and their voltage is low.

You might leave there without an appliance working like your microwave.

O oh, it's not working anymore.

Low voltage is bad news now.

Hughes Autoformers and by the way, I'll have links to it on our website so you can see them.

And like I said, and they're limited right now and I'm not saying that to like so we sell out because we don't have a lot either.

We got a few and that's it.

We've been trying to stock up but we had just haven't been able to get our hands on enough to do anything.

Even Hughes is out of them.

Our suppliers are out of them right now.

But these things work really nice.

I should have had one sitting here.

So those that are watching on YouTube can see it.

But like I said, they're on our website and I we will do a video on them.

It's just a matter of time.

But if you want voltage protection, you want surge protection, you want a product that's going to last.

Hughes, you know, now they're called Power Watchdog.

I really wish they would change their name back to Hughes.

It's going to take me years to get that name out of my mind.

Hughes Autoformers, that's just embedded in my mind.

So Power Watchdog, formerly known as Hughes.

It's kind of like Twitter, right?

Formerly known or X Formerly known as Twitter.

People are going to be saying that for 20 years to come.

Power Watchdog, formerly known as Hughes Autoformers make these and they make quality products.

Anything Hughes makes, it's good.

It might not be the part for you, but they make great products.

So if you want something to protect your RV from low voltage surge protection, the Hughes power centers.

Excuse me, the Power Watchdog power centers made by.

Used to be made by Hughes.

They're stupendous.

They get the stupendous rating.

They definitely get the smart RV or seal of approval hands down.

And even if you don't want to buy one, you can check them out.

They're not exactly the on the low end of the price scale for things you add to your rv.

And one thing I do know, we buy things sometimes and it's not our, it's not something we can like touch and hold like a power center.

You Plug it into your.

Into the shore power.

Your RV plugs into it.

It's outside, it's out of sight.

You know, you can't go over and touch it.

You can't ride it.

You can't, you know, take it to your friend's house.

It's one of those things just doesn't work that way.

So we're always.

Sometimes we're not as excited about buying things like that.

Now if it's like a new, you know, iPad or iPhone.

Oh, yeah, we want to show that off.

Look at my new app, you know, But a power center, you know, not exciting.

It's like buying a water pump, right?

You get it all nice and clean, you install it, everything looks good, and you shut the door and you never look at it again until it starts having a problem.

Not as exciting.

Put that aside and just look at the benefit will bring your RV for surge protection.

Voltage boost and, you know, detects high power over voltage, low voltage, but it boosts it up.

So there you go, guys.

Check out the Hughes Power Center 30 and 50amp sunpro mfg.com or you can go to the power Center, Hughes Power center or Hughes Watch, Power Watchdog website and you can check them out there.

Either way, you know, we have them to sell, but that's it.

Hughes isn't paying me to talk about them.

That's for darn sure.

Maybe someday they will.

Hopefully.

Hopefully someone will pay me to talk about their stuff.

All right, everybody, so we're coming to the end of the show now.

One final shout out to share our podcast with others.

Share our YouTube.

And remember what I said.

If you're at one YouTube, please let the videos run to the end if you can.

Even if you walk away, just let it run.

I know it sounds horrible, but it picks up the algorithm or the algorithms pick it up and others will see it.

It comes up into the queue a little bit more.

I probably shouldn't even be saying this because it will be on YouTube and, you know, they might.

Oh, what's this guy doing?

He's trying to promote his brand.

Oh, my gosh.

We can't have that.

They're going to unsubscribe your.

Shut down that video.

Hopefully not.

YouTube's a good channel for us.

We like YouTube now.

It doesn't mean I like all the YouTube videos.

There's a lot of stuff out there, guys, that is just bad, bad, bad.

You know, we hear it all the time.

People come to the store.

This is what I saw on YouTube.

This is what they told me to do and it's like, no, that's not what you do.

That's horrible.

That might be something that worked for somebody and that's what you have to do when you're watching these videos, make sure it'll work for you.

All right, that's enough.

All right, everybody.

So I hope you have enjoyed the show today.

Some good information for you and like always, you can contact us, you can call us 406-961-8688.

Tell me what you think.

You can text us at that number as well.

You can go to the smartrver.com use the contact us page and tell us anything you want.

Share with us your experiences, your adventures, what you're doing out there and if you there's things you'd like to hear about.

Like I said, we'll deep dive just about anything RV related.

So this is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your go to guide for smarter RVing and unforgettable adventures on the open road.

So we will see you next time everybody.