RV TODAY RVT 002 Apr/May 2022

I was 46 years old the first time I hooked up an RV and hit the road. I had no experience, no one influenced me to do it, and I had zero clue what I was doing. I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I’ve also had some of the greatest experiences. My only regret is not starting earlier. Fast forward almost five years and I have now lived and worked in 48 states and probably logged more than 70,000 miles traveling. Though I’ve done more RVing than most people do in 20 years, even with all this experience, I’m still no expert. I’m just a guy who fell in love with the lifestyle and freedom that comes with owning an RV, and I want to spread that…

Improved Roof Seals While not the most fun project, it is very rewarding to enhance the roof seals on your RV. Anyone who has had a roof leak can tell you trying to find and patch a leak during a torrential downpour is an absolutely terrible experience. Get ahead of the potential problem by adding an easy-to-apply roof tape to all of your roof seals for extra peace of mind. Durable Storage Bins Keeping your camping gear organized and easily accessible makes your camping adventures so much more enjoyable. Find durable storage bins that maximize the storage lockers under your RV, and try to find bins that aren’t so big they get too heavy to lift when full. Label your bins so you know what’s in each one, and try…

QUESTION: If you are an “occasional camper,” going out for weekends or small trips here and there, do you drain your black and gray tanks between trips? If you are a part-time or weekend camper, you should absolutely empty and flush your black tanks after each trip. Emptying and flushing/cleaning your black tank will prevent odor buildup that may occur if you leave the tank full while the RV is in storage for an unknown period of time. - Thomas and Melissa Baity, RVing for 8 years @homeonthehitchrv It depends on how long it will be between trips. If it will be a month or more, I add water until it's three-fourths full and dump it. If it will only be a couple of weeks, I add a little extra…

Try a backcountry or walk-in campsite. Some campgrounds offer walk-in sites that provide space for a tent with a picnic table and a fire pit. Many walk-in sites aren’t far from the parking area at all, so if you’re really set on camping, but can’t find anything for your RV, you could pack up the tent and a cooler for the weekend. Roughing it builds character, right? Use a reservation website. KOA.com, goodsam.com, and campspot.com all allow you to book campsites from one reservation system rather than searching individual campground websites. From tent or RV sites to a room in a lodge or your own cabin, the reservation system pulls inventory from thousands of destinations to match your query. Be flexible on destination. Fellow RVers in your community are a great resource for finding…

We are from the beautiful state of Washington, a couple of hours north of Seattle, where winters are often gloomy, wet, and dark. Sunshine in the winter is a rare occurrence. Just like many people from cold, northern climates, for their health and sanity, some people from our area become snowbirds, traveling to warmer destinations for the winter season. Winters are rough for people like me with seasonal affective disorder—the short days and constant lack of sunlight can wear you down quickly. So when the opportunity to become a snowbird arose, I jumped at the chance. Many folks from the Pacific Northwest migrate to Arizona or Palm Springs, which feels natural! So when we purchased Betty Jo (the Airstream), we assumed we would join the flock in Arizona. Being new…

Something funny happens when I tell people I love to camp. They raise their eyebrows, they get a little sparkle in their eyes, and you can almost see the images streaming through their mind. As soon as the word “camp” comes out of my mouth, the person on the other side of the conversation is imagining sleeping in a hammock off the side of a cliff, or backpacking for weeks along the Appalachian Trail. While I’m sure those experiences are spectacular, they’re not the type of adventure my family seeks. When I almost apologetically explain that we camp in our RV—an RV we don’t even live in full time—that’s when the disappointment sets in. RVing isn’t a real adventure, is it? It’s just traveling with a home on wheels to…