Getting ready for a whole new adventure, work
camping at Crescent Lake, plus our brand new
Keystone Hideout experience, what went right,
what went wrong, and how we're tackling stink
bug invasions. And as always, an RV News update
and pro tip you won't want to miss. Welcome to
the Restless Nomads, the ultimate RV show for
modern -day rubber tramps and weekend warriors
alike. Whether you're chasing sunsets full -time,
savoring seasonal escapes, or just hitting the
road for a quick weekend getaway, this is your
go -to show for tips, tricks, and tales from
the road. Join us as we dive into everything
RV, choosing the right rig. Surviving life on
wheels, and navigating the highs and lows of
life on the move. From towables to motor homes,
budget hacks to campsite secrets. We've got you
covered, so buckle up nomads, and let's hit the
road to adventure, one mile at a time. And welcome
back. Thanks for joining me. My name is Mike
Wood. I'm the station manager of Gold Country
Radio, where this broadcast originates, and a
member of the Restless Nomads, along with my
wife, Angela Wood, who's also a station manager
at Gold Country Radio. Check out the travel vlog
at therestlessnomads .com. That's therestlessnomads
.com. Let's get right into it. RV news this week.
There's a tire recall alert. Goodyear has announced
a recall on select endurance RV tires manufactured
in early 2023 due to potential sidewall failures.
If you bought new tires recently, check your
DOT code to make sure you're safe before your
next trip. Also, RV dealers pushing huge discounts
on 2024 models With 2025 units rolling in fast,
RV dealers nationwide are offering major markdowns
of remaining 2024 inventory. It's a great time
for buyers willing to pick up last year's models.
Expect savings of up to $10 ,000 or more on travel
trailers and fifth wheels. We took advantage
of that. Hey, we are prepping for Crescent Lake,
our work camping adventure coming up. This will
be our third. Job work camping. The first was
at Lava Lake in the Deschutes National Forest
up near Bend The second one was at Lake Cachise
near Seattle, Washington Cle Elam, if you know
the area and That was a lot of fun. Although
that was dry camping and after that summer we
decided that no more dry camping for an entire
summer for us So that's one of the very first
questions that we ask when interviewing potential
employers In this industry, it's just as much
them interviewing you as you are interviewing
them because you have to live in the site that
they provide for an entire season. So, one of
the biggest questions we have right off the bat
is, is there electricity? That's a deal breaker
if there is not. We just don't want to live on
a generator for months on end. Well, we're gearing
up for this brand new chapter going up to Crescent
Lake They do have electricity for the camp host
by the way a lot of prop preparation from organizing
our gear to making sure the rig is Ready, and
this is a brand new rig, so we're getting things
shook out and trying to get things fixed with
a new RV Obviously you're going to expect little
nit -noid things and some major things in our
case to go wrong and we're trying to get that
all fixed before we have to live in it all summer.
Also setting up workstations so that I can manage
the radio station remotely from an hour and a
half away. That's done over satellite and cell
networks and through a host of technology that
gets the signal to the programming computer here
in the studio and then sent up to the tower site.
It's really interesting if you're a radio nerd
or a computer nerd, but it's magic to everyone
else. Also some things that we're doing to prepare
the RV for some longer stays. So we just... put
in a big amazon order and one of those things
uh actually two of those things were designed
to make our puppies and us a little happier we
have two little dogs that we take with us one
is a maltese yorkie and the other is a chihuahua
yorkie both one's about 12 pounds the other one
is about five pounds but they like to scratch
things so we ordered a screen door protector
because the flimsy little screen door on an RV
is no match for any dog, even if they are only
five pounds. So that's coming in the mail and
I'll be installing that. And in case you didn't
know that that was available, it is. So get it
early and protect your screen from your pooch
before they destroy it because that can get costly
to replace it. Another thing we ordered, we have
a little playpen designed for babies that we
take along with us on short trips. And it's just
a little six foot in diameter circle that we
can put them outside so they can go to the bathroom
and so forth. We don't have to always take them
out on a leash, especially if we're in the middle
of cooking dinner or something and we can't go
on a walk. Although when we are camping, we walk
about three times a day and we average around
four miles or so at times while we're camping.
It's a great way to get in shape and that's the
whole goal. We're being very conscientious about
how often we're walking the dogs and they absolutely
love it. But this little six foot in diameter
playpen that we have for the dogs works great.
It's lightweight. We take it with us for shorter
camping trips, you know up to a week long, but
we thought And we've seen other people do this
too. If we're gonna be in one spot for an entire
season, it would be nice to have a fence that
goes all the way around the passenger side of
the trailer, you know, maybe 12 feet out or so
and the length of the travel trailer. So we ordered
a fence kit for that. I think it was about 200
bucks and we'll set that up around the travel
trailer there right in the front so that instead
of having to wake up, put clothes on, put shoes
on and everything first thing in the morning
and get those dogs out to the playpen, we'll
be able to swing the door wide open and they
can go out there and go pee -pee after holding
it all night. They are eager to do that and it's
really not fun for them to sit there and watch
you laboriously put on your stockings and your
boots when they have to pee. So just think about
it from their perspective. It's beneficial for
them as well. All right. So like I said, we got
a brand new rig. We picked up a 2024 Keystone
Hideout. The model is a 22 ML SWE. It's a 28
foot travel trailer. It's the perfect size for
two people and two little dogs. It's last year's
model. So we saved a bunch of money because they're
trying to get rid of all those 2024s. They're
brand new, never been used, but they are making
room for the 2025 inventory coming in. So first
half of the year or so, it's a great idea to
look at these. Year prior models because you're
going to save a significant amount of money you
lose a little bit of negotiating power on that
Because they are so hugely discounted because
they're trying to move them but With all RVs
you have your headaches, you know used RVs. You
have no idea What has happened? where some moisture
might have gotten in and somebody did a really
great job repairing it and perhaps you missed
it. That's a huge concern, but new RVs come with
their own set of headaches. Now, of course, we're
on the one year manufacturer warranty and we're
using that for now, especially for things that
are expensive to fix. There's no reason for us
to shell out cash out of pocket to get those
things fixed. of the things that went bad right
from the get -go. In fact, we noticed it the
very first night that we picked it up in Kelso,
Washington, was that the fridge, it's a 12 -volt
Furion fridge, did not cool. It did not work.
And we troubleshot, you know, that we were troubleshooting
it, did hard resets on it and so forth, and it
would not work. So we were living out of a cooler.
On the drive back from Kelso, Washington. We
stopped in Eugene and then Made the drive back
here kind of split it up a little bit But we
were stuck waiting on warranty approval, which
is no fast Process the the rig stayed in the
shop now they did to be fair say that we could
take it and use it while We were awaiting the
approval and the parts to be shipped in But who
wants to use an RV without a fridge. That's the
whole reason I'm having an RV It's kind of like
being in a tent if you don't have all the luxuries.
So we left it at the shop and they Had to wait
it's not their fault that's not the shop's fault
that it takes so long for Keystone to approve
things on the manufacturers warranty but I'll
just say that There are some things the RV techs
Do not care about your rig quite as much as you
do so even after the Parts arrived and it was
approved for warranty work They got the fridge
working and we were tickled pink about that.
But we noticed after our most recent trip that
the fridge was hanging half out of the wall because
they didn't pay attention to detail and they
didn't remount the fridge back into the cabinet
where it belongs, the hole in the wall where
the fridge goes. There were just missing screws
and it actually damaged a little piece of trim
because that thing came sliding out and I thought
man We are lucky that that thing just didn't
come out all the way and then we have an 80 pound
100 pound fridge Bouncing around on the interior
of our travel trailer while we're rolling down
the road that would have done some major damage
so I'm a little bit ticked about that, but I
I have come to expect it and I know that as a
general rule of thumb the RV technicians that
are working on your rig do not care about your
rig nearly as much as you care about it. So this
is why I typically do things myself and of course
I'm not going to take the RV back up to the shop
to have them put screws in there. Primarily because
I'm like this is easy. I can do it in a couple
of seconds I wish that they would have caught
it after they did the the finished install But
they didn't all get the screws in there and get
it mounted properly Instead of having to go through
the rigmarole of towing it up to the shop and
waiting on them to do it You know another thing
that we had the converter was bad out the gate
to from Kelso The converter was no good so it
was not charging our house battery. We have a
lithium house battery and the converter auto
converts but it was failing to do that so the
shop also under warranty installed that converter
and that took some time for approval and then
also for the parts to be shipped in as well.
They don't just keep this stuff laying around
the shop. They have to have it shipped in generally.
And understand that when you have warranty work
to be done under the manufactured warranty, there
really isn't a lot of incentive for them to pay
to repair these things after you have paid them
the money for the rig. It's all expense to them
at that point. So obviously, they're going to
take their time. So just know that about these
manufacturer warranties. So like I said, moral
of the story, no one cares about your rig as
much as you do. If you want something done right
on it, it's best to do it yourself. Also check
all the work that they do. If you do have other
folks doing the work, it's a good idea to just
check the work and make sure that it's done correctly.
Most of the little stuff when it comes to mounting
and and small issues as long as Let me let me
say it this way It does not take much to learn
how to do most of the maintenance and upgrades
and so forth on your RV The manufacturer warranty
does come in handy for expensive items like this
fridge that we had fixed would have cost $2 ,000
if we had bought a new one So obviously we don't
want to spend $2 ,000. We're going to use the
warranty, the manufacturer's warranty to have
it fixed. Now if it had been something minor
and small, I probably likely would have fixed
it myself right there in the campground because
of the time it takes to get it approved and wait
for parts to come in. So some things to think
about when you're balancing it out. And hey,
if you want to know, I'll spill the beans here.
The cost of our brand new 2024 travel trailer
was, I think we negotiated it down to $23 ,000.
So that's, and I think MSRP on a 2025 model is
around 40. So that'll give you an idea of the
steep discounts that you're gonna get if you
go with a year prior. Now, another problem that
we have encountered. with the brand new RV is
it sat on the lot in Kelso for a long long time
and no telling where it picked this problem up
but right off the bat when we went and picked
it up we noticed that there were stink bugs and
we would see a couple of dead ones here and there
and so forth and ever since we picked it up in
Kelso we've moved it three or four times now
and we still Occasionally, we'll find the random
stink bug. So there's probably a small invasion
of stink bugs. Now, fortunately, they don't bite.
They don't cause any real ruckus. So that's nice,
although my wife absolutely hates them. So what
are we going to be doing before we go to Crescent
Lake? We're going to remove all the clothing,
all the food, all the bedding, all the cushions,
everything else in there, and we're going to
bomb it. Pesticide fogger for indoor use bomb
the whole thing and once that's over and it's
ventilated we'll wipe down every surface and
Get everything safe again for us mop the floors
and so forth and it's important to know that
dogs can be Exposed to those chemicals too and
that's not good for them You don't want them
licking that stuff. So a real good wipe down
after you bomb an RV is a great idea Which brings
me to another topic on just pests in general
and we'll talk more about that right after this
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locally and beyond. All right. We're back from
the break and we were talking a little bit about
pests in the RV and that's no different in an
RV than it is in a home. Same things pretty much
apply. The only difference is that sometimes
depending on how often you move, you'll pick
up pests along the way and you'll drop off pests
along the way and that can be an issue. You want
to make sure that you're trying to protect other
locations. You know, if you pick up a critter
in one state and then move to another state that
previously did not have an issue, an RV can very
likely start an issue in that new state for that
pest. And we faced a few of these in our career
as RVers. Fortunately, in this one, we have not
had to deal with mice at all, but that is probably
the creepiest one that you have. In my opinion,
I hate the idea of little mammals running around
in an RV while we're asleep at night. When we
were at Lake Kachis, we experienced mice There
was just no preventing it everyone there seemed
to have a mouse or two and So we would set up
normal mousetraps and catch them some of the
other hosts were more humane I guess than we
were and they would catch them and then they
would drive them a couple miles into the woods
and release them We wanted those suckers dead
so we would trap them, but it was always Not
never fun to find the mice poop and the mice
pee and stuff in your drawers and you can see
where they were chewing on stuff But that's part
of our being that's something that you will have
to encounter now Here's a pro tip for you one
thing that we started doing years ago that has
helped in some some peace of mind as well as
deterring mice from coming into the rig in the
first place All the food that you have that's
not going in the fridge or the freezer should
be in Tupperware containers. If you put everything
in Tupperware containers then you can rest assured
that the mice won't be getting into those. Now
they need to have a secure lid on them and if
you do that it'll deter the mice from ever coming
in because there's really nothing for them to
eat. Also very important to clean up after every
meal. Make sure you're practicing good camp hygiene
in that way. And then get all that food, cereal,
everything that's not in a sealed can. You know,
if it's in a box or something like that, put
it in a Tupperware container and then put it
in your cabinets. And that's a great way to give
yourself some peace of mind that, hey, the mice
aren't going to get into the food and likely
keep the mice out in the first place. At least
that's the idea. Hopefully there will be fewer
of them that make the trip into your RV because
there's less to eat there. So hopefully they'll
move on to the next RV, right? So that is something.
Now another thing that many RVers have done and
there are mixed reviews on the efficacy of this
is they'll put a rope light on the perimeter
of their RV on the ground. The idea is that mice
do not like light so that they won't cross that
rope light and make it into the RV. Some people
say it works great. Other people say not so much.
Another thing that people do is they put Irish
Springs soap bars in cabinets and counters and
things like that. We've done this. Never really
noticed that it worked all that great. The traditional
Irish Springs cheap soap. In fact, I remember
one year when we had a Winnebago Motorhome, we
found an Irish Spring soap bar that had teeth
marks in it where a mouse was chewing on it,
which told me it probably didn't work all that
great. Now, keep in mind that if you use something
like Decon, that's mouse poison, they eat a little
bit of that and then they go off and they die.
That can be dangerous if a pet gets a hold of
it because that mouse consumed poison and if
the pet handles or consumes that mouse, then
you've got a real problem on your hands. And
also just having poison on the ground level of
anything, you really have to be concerned about
your pets, especially dogs and cats, you know,
obviously that are going to be curious and they'll
be exploring things. So just keep that in mind
There's some different You could Google how to
control mice and RVs and so forth and you'll
get a hundred million different opinions and
different answers. We've always done the you
know, try to make sure that all the holes are
sealed up so that mice can't get in now, of course,
that's really difficult if you've got something
like a slide out where There's natural gaps It's
just dang near impossible. So best thing to do
is just for your peace of mind to know that no
mice can get into your food Also dog food same
thing put it in Tupperwares as well as human
food Anything that's not in a sealed can or doesn't
belong in the fridge something like that Put
it all on Tupperware containers and then put
those in the cabinet and then bonus is that it's
easier to find stuff if you do that you can pull
out smaller Tupperware containers one at a time
and locate what you're trying to get, easier
than trying to knock a bunch of stuff over in
the cabinet to find whatever you're after. Well,
we've been racking up the miles lately with our
new Keystone Hideout. We went up to Kelso, like
I said, where we picked up the RV. And we had
them install the weight distribution system,
my weight distribution system that I had with
a former travel trailer. It's an equalizer. Love
that brand. Not getting paid by them, by the
way. It's just a really great brand for sway
control and weight distribution. It does not
require that you disconnect it for backing up.
And it's got that Kind of foreign one it uses
friction to control spay sway rather and then
also operates as a weight control or weight distribution
system as well but That RV tech there in Kelso
Washington installed it and now I'm looking at
the setup sitting in front of my house and noticing
quite a bit of sag in the rear of the truck and
thinking that maybe they didn't get that quite
right. So I might have to go out there with a
torque wrench and raise the hangers on it to
try to get more weight off of the back of the
rear axle. I'm sorry, the rear axle and then
transfer some more of that onto the front axle.
Also got to be kind of careful with that too,
because the A -frames are only rated for a certain
amount of weight as well. So that's something
to think about. You've probably, if you are an
avid RVer, you've probably seen posts where people's
A -frames on their trailers just broke. And that
is most commonly due to way overloading. the
weight distribution, putting way too much weight
on that A -frame when there shouldn't be. So
I'm going to test the waters and see if I can
get the sag out of the truck. It does not drive
quite like I want it to. I noticed some lack
of steering authority. Basically, my steering
is a little sloppy. That's an aviation term.
When you have rudder authority, it means that
you It's harder to move the rudders, but the
rudder operates more efficiently, essentially.
And I notice that my steering is looser because
my front tires do not have as much weight on
them as they do when I'm not towing. So I'm going
to look at the weight distribution. I'm also
going to look into the possibility of installing
some airbags, which are just basically shocks.
That you can inflate on the rear axle to take
some of that Some of that sag out of it now I've
been told that that won't likely affect the ride
And from what I see they're about a thousand
dollars. They're not cheap to install those shocks
And then more if you add a compressor system
to where you don't have to have an external compressor
So I'm definitely going to try to fix the problem
in its root cause With the weight distribution
and see if I can get that weight distributed
a little more equally before we Investigate the
whole airbag thing. Hey, if you've ever used
the airbags Let me know send me an email goldcountryradio
.org or drop us a message on the restless nomads
comm If you have any experience with effective
pest control whether it be mice or bugs, or if
you've used the airbags to help take the sag
out of the rear suspension of your truck, let
me know. Now we're pulling our 7 ,500 pound trailer
empty, that is, with a Ford F -150 EcoBoost,
and the tow rating on it is 9 ,600 pounds. We're
well under that. So I know that it's capable,
although I don't think that we would have the
same issues with a heavier duty suspension of
like a three quarter ton or a one ton truck.
So that might be in our future. We may be looking
eventually when money is appropriate at getting
a full size truck down the road. All right. So
let's get into the pro tip. And this is something
that's really Near and dear to my heart and I've
never had an incident because I am religious
about this always double check your RV Travel
setup when you're breaking camp and you get everything
hooked up You want to make sure whether it's
a motor home or a travel trailer doesn't matter.
There are some things that need to happen, right?
Your water needs to be disconnected. Your power
needs to be disconnected. All latches, doors,
bay doors and so forth need to be closed. Sewer
disconnected obviously is a big one. Cable TV
disconnected. You name it. Those things. Making
sure that the RV is ready to travel. One of the
biggest things that you need to be doing is know
when to chock and unchock your RV. You know,
there will come a time at some point in the process
that you need to remove the chocks, otherwise
you're gonna jump chocks when you get ready to
pull out there, and that's not gonna be comfortable
at all. So, check your tires. Make sure that
there's no uneven wear. Check your tire pressures.
That is something that you should do. every single
time you get ready to pull out. And even maybe
100, 150 miles down the road, it's a good idea
to stop and check your tire pressures again,
just to make sure that you are good to go. Now
they do have aftermarket TPMS, that's tire pressure
monitoring system components that you can install
a little sensor on the valve stem and be able
to monitor those remotely, whether it's on your
phone or on another device. in the truck or in
the motorhome. And those are super nice because
as long as you check it manually with a tire
gauge enough times to begin to trust those numbers,
then you won't have to get out and check with
a tire gauge every single time. Although it is
still important to put eyes on the tires to make
sure there's no uneven wear. Another big one
people forget is their steps. You want to make
sure that you have your steps in before you set
off. Make sure that all the lights are working.
That's a great idea as well. Tongue jack up in
the case of trailers. There are so many things.
Breakaway cables and safety chains installed.
It's just a good idea to develop a routine and
I probably walk around the entire coupled trailer
and truck. three times before I set out just
making sure that I haven't missed anything and
I point to each and every thing to make sure
that I have it all right. Same goes for a motorhome,
do the same thing. All right guys, well that
does it for this week's Restless Nomads. We're
super excited about going up to Crescent Lake
and spending the season up there work camping.
Check us out again on therestlessnomads .com.
more episodes, blogs, and community stories there.
Share your RV buying stories or your battle with
stink bugs with us, if you like, and also tell
us about your weight distribution woes and if
you've ever used those airbags. Alright guys,
have a wonderful week. We'll see you next time
here on the Restless Nomads Radio Show. FIRE!