September 18, 2025 • 30 mins
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!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You remember that show the Mythbusters.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Absolutely.
I love that show.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Why do you love it so much?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Because I'm a science geek.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Good, this is not scientific, but we're going to
do it for RV Life.
Welcome back to the RVShenanigans podcast.
I'm Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm Lauren.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And today we are going to bust the myths.
Woohoo.
What are the myths?
There's so many.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
There really are a lot, and I would say some of
them we even kind of bought intowhen we first started RVing.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, myths, misconceptions, lies, flat out
lies, flat out lies.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
No, everybody has a different experience, but you
don't know what you don't know.
So here we are.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And with that we are going to dive headfirst right
into it.
I will say if you have a mythor a question that we don't get
to in this, by all means let usknow.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You can follow us on Instagram, facebook, the places
and send us a message there, andwe'll be happy to maybe bring
it up in a future Mythbustingepisode, and I should preface
this we are by no means expertsin this field.
We are just speaking to ourexperience and the things we've
learned in our years on the road.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
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 withthe most controversial.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh goodness, there's so many towing myths.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I know it's going to end up coming back to me quite a
bit, but that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It is.
Oh, this is just one of thosethings that we could talk about
all day and I feel likeeverybody we talk to would have
a totally different inputopinion.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So if you have been on any RV Facebook group, there
is going to be somebody in therethat goes oh no, the tow police
are here.
And for that person.
Then there's the oppositeperson of somebody trying to tow
like a huge 45, 46 foot toyhauler, triple axle, 22,000
pounds with an F one 50.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
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, itcame with the hitch.
That doesn't mean you're okayto do it.
There's a lot of safety thatgoes into it and there are so
many numbers and I think ifyou're not familiar with the
numbers, that you're notaccurately speaking to the
(02:30):
capabilities.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well, and in addition , to numbers there's also
stability, like that's notsomething that you can tangibly
put anything on.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right, and that's why I say, if you start with the
number and then there's stillfactors after that.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yep, exactly.
So we're going to dive right inthe very first question.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Oh, I thought that was it.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
No, it wasn't.
Do you need a dually to tow afifth wheel?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
In my opinion.
No, you do not.
As long as it is properlyequipped to do so, you're not
going to tow it with your FordRanger.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, and I think it's safe to say too, the term
fifth wheel is a very broadencompassing thing.
There are some very smalllightweight um fifth wheels Like
there's some Alliance Avenuelines that are, I think, the
total it's like 28 feet totaland once it's hooked up it's
even shorter because some of thehangs over your bed.
That's a fifth wheel.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
They've really tried to make them a lot more
accessible.
I would say yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And so no, um, I will tell you something that you
have to pay a lot more attentionto in the fifth wheel world is
your payload capacity.
You should be doing that all thetime but, it's even more
prevalent when you're doing afifth wheel, because you're
getting more weight transfer.
Because, like on a bumper pullor a travel trailer, yes, you're
getting a percentage of the RVtransfer to the bumper,
(03:41):
obviously, but there's no upperdeck above your truck, and so
when you get a fifth wheel,that's just more weight, and so
you just have to pay attentionto that.
So do you need a dually?
No, should you?
Situational.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It just depends on your rig, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Again, it all comes back down to numbers.
What is it capable of towing?
What is it?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Safely.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Payload availability to put that weight in there.
And that is after you full tankof 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 (04:15):
I'm going to put out two things here on this topic.
One just because it goesdoesn't mean it stops.
That's also very true.
And in that, hills are a thingtoo.
So you kind of have to figureout 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.
(04:36):
Um, and then the second thing Iwas going to say is if you
haven't weighed the rig with thetow vehicle, the entire setup,
I think that that's a reallyimportant thing to do so that
you can speak properly to yournumbers.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So I was going to talk about that after this one,
because then it's a little bitmore encompassing.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So and I'll go in a little more detail of how we
weigh, because it's reallyactually 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, sois that myth busted?
Well um yes, but but also likewith a little nuance to it right
exactly so no, you don't haveto have a dually.
(05:18):
Yes, some should have a dually,but not all.
Fifth wheels require a dually.
All right, second one Half-tontrucks can't tow travel trailers
safely.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I say that that's false, because they absolutely
can tow travel trailers safely.
Again, this comes down to thelength of the trailer.
You have to worry about a lotmore with that, because you're
going to get some sway in things.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So travel trailers tow very differently than fifth
wheels.
If you've never towed either ofthose, we've towed so many
bumper pulls from utilitytrailers, horse trailers, our RV
, um, and we've towed a coupleof.
I've towed some gooseneck stuffwith our truck and then I've
also towed like flatbedgooseneck trailers, that kind of
stuff, and then we've alsotowed obviously our first fifth
(06:04):
wheel and then our AllianceValor toy hauler, which is a big
boy fifth wheel with that truck, and so they tow differently.
Fifth, wheel doesn't haveanywhere near as much sway as a
travel trailer does Because ofhow a travel trailer and how a
bumper pull pivots off of thepivot axis.
It is inherently moresusceptible to sway when those
(06:29):
types of things.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Right, I was going to say I really feel like in the
fifth wheels that we towed withthe Dooley, that we were more
susceptible to the up and downmotion, whereas the travel
trailers and bumper pulls are alot more susceptible to the left
and right motion, if you will.
And and we will my truck, myF-150, has towed the horse
trailer with some weightdistribution and sway control on
(06:51):
it, just because I do that forthe horses and safety.
Um, but technically speaking,my F-150 could tow our current
Delta.
It's not something that wereally do because we have the
dually and it's much better, Um,but I would say that no, that's
busted because technically wecould.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And I agree it is busted.
I will tell you.
You know we talked a lot aboutthe trailers right there.
The truck is the other portionof that equation.
So, like Lauren's truck, forinstance, is literally as high
in F-150 land at least years of2022.
So in the in her 2022 FordF-150, it is the highest payload
(07:28):
Right.
It's the highest gear ratio.
It's the highest tow capacity.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It has a different engine than most of the F-150s
that are out there.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
She actually has the V8, not the V6 turbo.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And we searched nationwide for this truck.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
And it popped up right around the corner.
Thank goodness, that made thateasy um, so can you just go buy
a stock fleet f-150 and towsomething heavy?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
no, I mean again it comes back to it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So you know, know your weights, know your numbers,
understand what you can andcan't do.
And another caveat don't trustsales guys oh no those are the
worst, so it's not necessarilytheir fault.
They may think that they knowwhat they're talking about, but
I guarantee you most of them arejust trying to sell the rig,
and I don't mean that rude.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I don't mean that mean.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
But at the end of the day, if you find out you have
to also buy a truck, are youmore or less likely to buy the
rig that day?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And I will say this too, not in an ugly way, but if
anything happens and you go backto that sales guy and say you
told me it could, they're goingto say, no, it's your job to
check the numbers and do thatresearch for yourself, Right?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And so it just like in the first question with do
you have to use a duly?
This is the opposite end ofthat but, just know your numbers
.
If you know your numbers andthey all work out, then great,
give it a try Now.
Yeah, we, we.
You kind of touched on thisjust a little bit, but you know
there is the, are the numbersenough?
(08:50):
And I'll tell you there are alsothings you can do on the bumper
pull side, like wastedistribution, sway control, all
of that stuff.
So that is designed to helpdistribute the weight.
Hey, like the name says, andhelp control the sway, which
means if you're right on thatline, like so, for instance,
Lauren, she would, her payloadis enough and her tow capacity
(09:11):
is enough that she could do ourtrailer with a little bit of
water, not a lot on board, butbecause she's near the upper end
of that number for the Delta,for the.
Delta for our travel trailer.
She is more susceptible to swayRight, and so, because of that,
now, sway can be solved by alot of different things.
One option is sway control.
That's not always the rightoption, right, um?
(09:34):
proper loading too, if you loadit's huge yeah, if you put, I
think the rule is you need toput 60 of the weight forward of
the axles and then what happensis and there's a couple of
videos out there wheresomebody's got like a little
trailer set up on like atreadmill- I I know and they
move the little weights aroundon the flatbed.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I told you.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I was a science geek and they put it on the back
because what happens is you gettoo much weight on the back and
the momentum it can't recoverRight, whereas you put it on the
front the truck can kind ofmitigate it a little a lot
actually and so proper weightdistribution's huge, and then
you can supplement that byweight distribution hits us.
Now here's the fun part.
So my truck is a Ford F-350Dually that is capable of towing
(10:13):
most large fifth wheels,including our 21,000-pound Uber
Bertha and our Valor that we nolonger have, and it did great
fine no problems at all, yeah.
So she could probably do alittle bit more, but I don't
know why I want to push her alot more.
No we don't, so do I have to.
This is a bonus myth buster ina big super duty truck where I
(10:34):
am so beyond the numbers ofwhat's needed to tow what's
called overtoeing, by the waywhich is a thing which, on on
top of the Delta or a traveltrailer, 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 theright term.
But I've had people come up tome in campgrounds and going I
can't believe you don't tow thata weight distribution hitch.
It's an F three, 50 dually anda 6,000 pound bumper pull that's
not even 30 feet long, Like Idon't need one Again.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The tow police are everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right.
And so again, just understandyour setup and if you have
questions, consult somebody thatlegitimately knows.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
And if you guys want a really painful math lesson on
what we mean every time we sayreference the numbers, we can do
that, but you're going to haveto 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 aremore than willing to talk about
these kinds of things.
But at the end of the day andwe talked about weighing your
rig versus your truck andknowing your numbers it's it's
your responsibility to run itthrough a cat scale.
Take it the most accurate wayis called a four point way.
(11:53):
They actually do the weight ina bunch of different places.
They move plates around on allyour tires.
They know the pressure on eachof those tires.
They can tell you what tirepressure to run to optimize for
that weight so that you get thesmoothest ride.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And that's pretty intense.
You're not going to find thatat 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 peoplethat do it, but if they're there
and they're doing it like onyour way in, do it.
It's not as expensive as youwould 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 sothat's one way, the Ryan and
Lauren way.
What we've done is a CAT scale.
Now it does take two trips to gothrough it, so typically what I
do is I will go to a Lubs andI'll go ahead and fuel up with
(12:43):
DEF and gas before I get readyfor a trip, and if it's a time
that I want to weigh both thosethings and just double check on
my weights, as soon as I'm donewith that, I will actually go
around and I'll jump on the catscale.
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, mostof 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 therest of my drive axle rear tires
of the truck.
Now, the next time that I runthrough a gas station because
I'm not going to need to goright back there with the RV,
obviously so the next time westop at a Lov's to fuel up, I'll
make sure I'm fuel deft back towhere I was capacity-wise and
(13:42):
then I'll loop back around withthe 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 apphandy dandy app yeah you just
fill out.
So just download it before youget there, because there's some
things you got to fill out thefirst time and upload some
credit card information, allthat.
But when you pull back throughyou're going to get.
You can then compare your driveaxles, what you want to compare
to unloaded and loaded, andthen you just reverse engineer
(14:09):
that math and now you know yourtrue pin weight on a travel day,
and so you know what payloadyou're putting onto that truck.
Second part of that is now youactually know the weights too of
your axles.
Now they can't differentiatelike a four point between the
axles, so you just have to kindof do the math.
That's why it's important tolevel as you drive, not tow with
like your nose up or nose down,because that puts pressure on
(14:31):
your back or front axle morethan the other, and so level is
even pressure between the two.
So anyway, hey, it's a bigsoapbox.
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 thetow police ask away good luck.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Good luck if you encounter the tow police.
How many times have we had toshut down like conversations and
topics on our facebook.
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 thenwe've had some own threads that
we've had to close it downbecause and it's not we're not
going to take it away and by farmost of them are about towing.
Yeah, almost all of them.
People get heated over it andat the end of the day, maybe
they're right, maybe they're not.
They don't know your setup.
Nobody knows your setup, exceptfor 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 Ayou're going to bring up the
whole Ford versus GM versus RamDodge, whoever owns that.
Now, that whole thing, itdoesn't matter, just know your
numbers.
So ask how to do the mathinstead of asking what truck.
At the end of the day, pick thetruck you like and or you think
(15:45):
is going to last you thelongest and you're getting the
best deal on.
But if, if the numbers don'twork, it doesn't work for you.
If the numbers work, big thumbsup, 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 onLauren'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 placefor 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 nottrue.
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 thenyou 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 inpublic.
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 toleave that closed.
I'm sorry, leave that closed.
Wow, you just confusedeverybody, sorry.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You want to leave that closed, closed and I would
argue you want to have a prettysolid amount of water in there
before you ever use it.
So when you that's true Aredone Like so, if we like, for
instance, we have a 40 gallonblack tank in our, our Alliance
Delta right now I put 12 to 15gallons 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 sizeof the tank and the shape of the
tank sometimes, and so you mayhave 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 thewhole.
Should you have a bacteria likea 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 goodjob if you use the appropriate
amount and not short it.
But with that you want to leavethat water in there.
I would say the gray tanks.
You also would leave themclosed unless you're doing a
(18:05):
high load.
You don't have to leave themclosed, just know if you get a
sewer smell in your RV, it'sbecause 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 doesa P-trap.
You could also, if you have,like I forget what those little
accordion looking things arecalled, but the sewer line
holder that makes it graduallygo down, so water and stuff
(18:25):
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 arefull timers, they may, you know,
they may do a load or two oflaundry a day and take a shower
and wash all their dishes, andso 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 fivepeople 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 maybemaybe you're against showering.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I don't know.
I'm not judging um, but I'm apro 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 saferuntil it's too full uh full, but
it'll burp at you and you'llknow pretty quickly, or it'll
back up in the shower too andyou'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 theblack 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 Iwould, 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 sizewhich is being incredibly,
that's a very large ice cube.
I'm trying to be generous here.
How long if you took a regularice cube that's about a normal
size ice cube and you dropped itinto a cup of water?
Add warm water?
You're not magically making thetank cold, right?
How long does it last?
(20:02):
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 startsbouncing around.
What does ice do if you throwit 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 tankcleaners 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 theygot 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'snot, it's a no-go on that one
so.
I would say get a tanktreatment and let that slosh
around.
You got a better shot at that.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
That is true, yeah.
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 waslooking around to see what are
some myths and I don't know.
You need to buy every accessoryat Camping World before your
first trip.
And I don't know why I saidcamping world.
You need to buy every accessorybefore your first trip.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Because I think that that's what a lot of people do,
because they want to feelprepared, yeah, right.
And so they're like well, if Ihave all the things, then I can
fix anything that goes wrong.
And the fact of the matter isit probably complicates it more
than anything, and so you needsome basics, which we can link
to some videos to help youunderstand 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, butwe bought a lot.
We bought a lot.
There's quite a few things thatsat in our pass-through storage
of our first rig and justaccumulated space and dust.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And none of these things are particularly cheap,
Like they're inexpensive eachone, 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 starterkit.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, you're going to need sewer hoses.
You're going to need some waterhoses.
Yeah, you're going to need awater 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 BlueTechnology, love them.
You don't know if you're goingto need a water filter or not,
especially if you're notfull-timing.
We don't drink the water out ofour rig stuff and all in our
water softener and that's great,but we drink bottled water well
, and for those that aretraveling more often, more
(22:29):
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 theValor, we did drink the water.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Now we also bypassed the tank alot in that.
So I don't know why.
I just have a little aboutdrinking 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 thatthe 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 likedo you have to have starlink to
go camping?
Of course not, no, do you haveto have.
Should you use a starlinkbetter 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 lotof things that go into whether
or not you like.
A cell booster will helppromote 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 thesignal 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 connectand go and go fast right so you
don't have to come into a routersomewhere.
Let's say the campground, right,well, the campground's got this
router and then it gets pushedout to transponders.
I don't even know what, thelittle thing, the thing that
pushes the wi-fi out, wi-firouters, I guess.
(24:44):
Okay, so that gets pushed out.
Now there's cloud and I'mstanding in line with 100 of
your friends, 100 RVs.
Insert the number of sites andpeople in the campground you're
currently in and we're alltrying to use the internet.
Right, so I could have fullbars.
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.
Oh yes, in 4k, preferably umvideos on youtube um, you're not
like, have you ever tried toget 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 wayto go about that.
I have only been to two parks.
One of them I used it, one ofthem I didn't use it that had
(25:35):
good internet.
Three, sorry three.
Camp Fimfo in Waco hadphenomenal wireless internet
News to me.
Our hotspot was better, somehowOkay, and so we used that.
And when I say good, good, likeit was getting 200 down, our
hotspot was getting 5.
For some weird reason,typically it gets 20.
Um, the other two one of themwas by Texas Motor Speedway.
(25:59):
Oh, okay, and that was when wehad our very, very first rig
that had a very robust internetsystem.
Well, they both really did, butthis one had an even more one
that you could hardline intothat one.
So they actually had ethernetports at each pedestal.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
So you didn't have to use Wi-Fi.
Maybe something to look out forin the amenities.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And there was another one that had that, but I
couldn't figure it out, and thatwas Disney's Fort wilderness.
We were only there for onenight, 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 cellbooster isn't going to help you
with wifi, it's going to helpyou with cell signal.
So if you're in the kind of outin the sticks a little bit and
(26:43):
you need, to boost your signal,right, sure, but then you get in
the directional versusomni-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 ofstate parks, national parks,
that sort of thing, and our celldoes not work well there.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And so, right down the street, we did a video, a
fulling video at Cleburne statepark, and I didn't even think
about it because it'spractically in downtown Fort
Worth, right, you're not thatfar outside of town?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
You're really not.
And there's just no cell towerclose enough to get you
signaling there, and I think thesame thing happened to us in
the Smokies.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Inside.
Smoky Mountain National Parkyes, If you stay along the
parkway or in either side inNorth 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 upthe frickin' 90 grade.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I don't remember the name, whatever that hike was
with the little observationtower and the Smokies.
Yeah, it didn't work there, andso if you're relying on
campground Wi-Fi and your cellphone, 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 tocamp?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
No, I don't think that you do.
I think there are some peoplethat 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 justsaid, though, if you're a
full-time family and you'reliving and working and all those
things, I understand.
Chad from Changing Lanes has acouple of internet videos that
are phenomenal.
Yeah, if you're working and youhave to have internet, you're
going to spend some money onsystems.
Yeah, you sure can.
Providers, Because the onlytrue rock solid internet on the
(28:23):
road is redundancy, becausewhere Starlink doesn't work,
cell may.
Where cell doesn't work, maybeCapground does, but needs a
booster Right.
So there's just too manydifferent 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 liketo have cell of some sort, just
as a safety measure, if there'san 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 itand you've probably heard this,
but they signed a deal withStarlink.
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 somepoint.
But right now it's like anemergency 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 andmore advanced.
A lot of them are adding cellservice technology, and so, like
our AT&T phones have that.
So problem is, though, if youhave one bar service, it doesn't
activate over, so you almosthave to kill it off, but leave
your SOS on.
And then you hope your SOS comesup and that gives you like a
little satellite insignia withbars that means you're on the
(29:30):
satellite, so like if you havean iPhone.
I think 16 is the first onethat did that, which is what we
have, and that's we won't have anew one for a while because
they're expensive.
So, all right, did we hit amyth that you are curious about,
did we not?
If we didn't let us know, causethere 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 thecomments.
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.
You remember that show the Mythbusters.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Absolutely.
I love that show.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Why do you love it so much?
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Because I'm a science geek.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Good, this is not scientific, but we're going to
do it for RV Life.
Welcome back to the RVShenanigans podcast.
I'm Ryan.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I'm Lauren.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
And today we are going to bust the myths.
Woohoo.
What are the myths?
There's so many.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
There really are a lot, and I would say some of
them we even kind of bought intowhen we first started RVing.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Yeah, myths, misconceptions, lies, flat out
lies, flat out lies.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
No, everybody has a different experience, but you
don't know what you don't know.
So here we are.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And with that we are going to dive headfirst right
into it.
I will say if you have a mythor a question that we don't get
to in this, by all means let usknow.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
You can follow us on Instagram, facebook, the places
and send us a message there, andwe'll be happy to maybe bring
it up in a future Mythbustingepisode, and I should preface
this we are by no means expertsin this field.
We are just speaking to ourexperience and the things we've
learned in our years on the road.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
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 withthe most controversial.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Oh goodness, there's so many towing myths.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I know it's going to end up coming back to me quite a
bit, but that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It is.
Oh, this is just one of thosethings that we could talk about
all day and I feel likeeverybody we talk to would have
a totally different inputopinion.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
So if you have been on any RV Facebook group, there
is going to be somebody in therethat goes oh no, the tow police
are here.
And for that person.
Then there's the oppositeperson of somebody trying to tow
like a huge 45, 46 foot toyhauler, triple axle, 22,000
pounds with an F one 50.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
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, itcame with the hitch.
That doesn't mean you're okayto do it.
There's a lot of safety thatgoes into it and there are so
many numbers and I think ifyou're not familiar with the
numbers, that you're notaccurately speaking to the
(02:30):
capabilities.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Well, and in addition , to numbers there's also
stability, like that's notsomething that you can tangibly
put anything on.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Right, and that's why I say, if you start with the
number and then there's stillfactors after that.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Yep, exactly.
So we're going to dive right inthe very first question.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Oh, I thought that was it.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
No, it wasn't.
Do you need a dually to tow afifth wheel?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
In my opinion.
No, you do not.
As long as it is properlyequipped to do so, you're not
going to tow it with your FordRanger.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, and I think it's safe to say too, the term
fifth wheel is a very broadencompassing thing.
There are some very smalllightweight um fifth wheels Like
there's some Alliance Avenuelines that are, I think, the
total it's like 28 feet totaland once it's hooked up it's
even shorter because some of thehangs over your bed.
That's a fifth wheel.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
They've really tried to make them a lot more
accessible.
I would say yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
And so no, um, I will tell you something that you
have to pay a lot more attentionto in the fifth wheel world is
your payload capacity.
You should be doing that all thetime but, it's even more
prevalent when you're doing afifth wheel, because you're
getting more weight transfer.
Because, like on a bumper pullor a travel trailer, yes, you're
getting a percentage of the RVtransfer to the bumper,
(03:41):
obviously, but there's no upperdeck above your truck, and so
when you get a fifth wheel,that's just more weight, and so
you just have to pay attentionto that.
So do you need a dually?
No, should you?
Situational.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
It just depends on your rig, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Again, it all comes back down to numbers.
What is it capable of towing?
What is it?
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Safely.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Payload availability to put that weight in there.
And that is after you full tankof 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 (04:15):
I'm going to put out two things here on this topic.
One just because it goesdoesn't mean it stops.
That's also very true.
And in that, hills are a thingtoo.
So you kind of have to figureout 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.
(04:36):
Um, and then the second thing Iwas going to say is if you
haven't weighed the rig with thetow vehicle, the entire setup,
I think that that's a reallyimportant thing to do so that
you can speak properly to yournumbers.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
So I was going to talk about that after this one,
because then it's a little bitmore encompassing.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Well, there you go.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So and I'll go in a little more detail of how we
weigh, because it's reallyactually 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, sois that myth busted?
Well um yes, but but also likewith a little nuance to it right
exactly so no, you don't haveto have a dually.
(05:18):
Yes, some should have a dually,but not all.
Fifth wheels require a dually.
All right, second one Half-tontrucks can't tow travel trailers
safely.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
I say that that's false, because they absolutely
can tow travel trailers safely.
Again, this comes down to thelength of the trailer.
You have to worry about a lotmore with that, because you're
going to get some sway in things.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So travel trailers tow very differently than fifth
wheels.
If you've never towed either ofthose, we've towed so many
bumper pulls from utilitytrailers, horse trailers, our RV
, um, and we've towed a coupleof.
I've towed some gooseneck stuffwith our truck and then I've
also towed like flatbedgooseneck trailers, that kind of
stuff, and then we've alsotowed obviously our first fifth
(06:04):
wheel and then our AllianceValor toy hauler, which is a big
boy fifth wheel with that truck, and so they tow differently.
Fifth, wheel doesn't haveanywhere near as much sway as a
travel trailer does Because ofhow a travel trailer and how a
bumper pull pivots off of thepivot axis.
It is inherently moresusceptible to sway when those
(06:29):
types of things.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Right, I was going to say I really feel like in the
fifth wheels that we towed withthe Dooley, that we were more
susceptible to the up and downmotion, whereas the travel
trailers and bumper pulls are alot more susceptible to the left
and right motion, if you will.
And and we will my truck, myF-150, has towed the horse
trailer with some weightdistribution and sway control on
(06:51):
it, just because I do that forthe horses and safety.
Um, but technically speaking,my F-150 could tow our current
Delta.
It's not something that wereally do because we have the
dually and it's much better, Um,but I would say that no, that's
busted because technically wecould.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
And I agree it is busted.
I will tell you.
You know we talked a lot aboutthe trailers right there.
The truck is the other portionof that equation.
So, like Lauren's truck, forinstance, is literally as high
in F-150 land at least years of2022.
So in the in her 2022 FordF-150, it is the highest payload
(07:28):
Right.
It's the highest gear ratio.
It's the highest tow capacity.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It has a different engine than most of the F-150s
that are out there.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
She actually has the V8, not the V6 turbo.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
And we searched nationwide for this truck.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
And it popped up right around the corner.
Thank goodness, that made thateasy um, so can you just go buy
a stock fleet f-150 and towsomething heavy?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
no, I mean again it comes back to it.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
So you know, know your weights, know your numbers,
understand what you can andcan't do.
And another caveat don't trustsales guys oh no those are the
worst, so it's not necessarilytheir fault.
They may think that they knowwhat they're talking about, but
I guarantee you most of them arejust trying to sell the rig,
and I don't mean that rude.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I don't mean that mean.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
But at the end of the day, if you find out you have
to also buy a truck, are youmore or less likely to buy the
rig that day?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
And I will say this too, not in an ugly way, but if
anything happens and you go backto that sales guy and say you
told me it could, they're goingto say, no, it's your job to
check the numbers and do thatresearch for yourself, Right?
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And so it just like in the first question with do
you have to use a duly?
This is the opposite end ofthat but, just know your numbers
.
If you know your numbers andthey all work out, then great,
give it a try Now.
Yeah, we, we.
You kind of touched on thisjust a little bit, but you know
there is the, are the numbersenough?
(08:50):
And I'll tell you there are alsothings you can do on the bumper
pull side, like wastedistribution, sway control, all
of that stuff.
So that is designed to helpdistribute the weight.
Hey, like the name says, andhelp control the sway, which
means if you're right on thatline, like so, for instance,
Lauren, she would, her payloadis enough and her tow capacity
(09:11):
is enough that she could do ourtrailer with a little bit of
water, not a lot on board, butbecause she's near the upper end
of that number for the Delta,for the.
Delta for our travel trailer.
She is more susceptible to swayRight, and so, because of that,
now, sway can be solved by alot of different things.
One option is sway control.
That's not always the rightoption, right, um?
(09:34):
proper loading too, if you loadit's huge yeah, if you put, I
think the rule is you need toput 60 of the weight forward of
the axles and then what happensis and there's a couple of
videos out there wheresomebody's got like a little
trailer set up on like atreadmill- I I know and they
move the little weights aroundon the flatbed.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
I told you.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I was a science geek and they put it on the back
because what happens is you gettoo much weight on the back and
the momentum it can't recoverRight, whereas you put it on the
front the truck can kind ofmitigate it a little a lot
actually and so proper weightdistribution's huge, and then
you can supplement that byweight distribution hits us.
Now here's the fun part.
So my truck is a Ford F-350Dually that is capable of towing
(10:13):
most large fifth wheels,including our 21,000-pound Uber
Bertha and our Valor that we nolonger have, and it did great
fine no problems at all, yeah.
So she could probably do alittle bit more, but I don't
know why I want to push her alot more.
No we don't, so do I have to.
This is a bonus myth buster ina big super duty truck where I
(10:34):
am so beyond the numbers ofwhat's needed to tow what's
called overtoeing, by the waywhich is a thing which, on on
top of the Delta or a traveltrailer, 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 theright term.
But I've had people come up tome in campgrounds and going I
can't believe you don't tow thata weight distribution hitch.
It's an F three, 50 dually anda 6,000 pound bumper pull that's
not even 30 feet long, Like Idon't need one Again.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
The tow police are everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Right.
And so again, just understandyour setup and if you have
questions, consult somebody thatlegitimately knows.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
And if you guys want a really painful math lesson on
what we mean every time we sayreference the numbers, we can do
that, but you're going to haveto 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 aremore than willing to talk about
these kinds of things.
But at the end of the day andwe talked about weighing your
rig versus your truck andknowing your numbers it's it's
your responsibility to run itthrough a cat scale.
Take it the most accurate wayis called a four point way.
(11:53):
They actually do the weight ina bunch of different places.
They move plates around on allyour tires.
They know the pressure on eachof those tires.
They can tell you what tirepressure to run to optimize for
that weight so that you get thesmoothest ride.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And that's pretty intense.
You're not going to find thatat 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 peoplethat do it, but if they're there
and they're doing it like onyour way in, do it.
It's not as expensive as youwould 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 sothat's one way, the Ryan and
Lauren way.
What we've done is a CAT scale.
Now it does take two trips to gothrough it, so typically what I
do is I will go to a Lubs andI'll go ahead and fuel up with
(12:43):
DEF and gas before I get readyfor a trip, and if it's a time
that I want to weigh both thosethings and just double check on
my weights, as soon as I'm donewith that, I will actually go
around and I'll jump on the catscale.
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, mostof 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 therest of my drive axle rear tires
of the truck.
Now, the next time that I runthrough a gas station because
I'm not going to need to goright back there with the RV,
obviously so the next time westop at a Lov's to fuel up, I'll
make sure I'm fuel deft back towhere I was capacity-wise and
(13:42):
then I'll loop back around withthe 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 apphandy dandy app yeah you just
fill out.
So just download it before youget there, because there's some
things you got to fill out thefirst time and upload some
credit card information, allthat.
But when you pull back throughyou're going to get.
You can then compare your driveaxles, what you want to compare
to unloaded and loaded, andthen you just reverse engineer
(14:09):
that math and now you know yourtrue pin weight on a travel day,
and so you know what payloadyou're putting onto that truck.
Second part of that is now youactually know the weights too of
your axles.
Now they can't differentiatelike a four point between the
axles, so you just have to kindof do the math.
That's why it's important tolevel as you drive, not tow with
like your nose up or nose down,because that puts pressure on
(14:31):
your back or front axle morethan the other, and so level is
even pressure between the two.
So anyway, hey, it's a bigsoapbox.
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 thetow police ask away good luck.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Good luck if you encounter the tow police.
How many times have we had toshut down like conversations and
topics on our facebook.
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 thenwe've had some own threads that
we've had to close it downbecause and it's not we're not
going to take it away and by farmost of them are about towing.
Yeah, almost all of them.
People get heated over it andat the end of the day, maybe
they're right, maybe they're not.
They don't know your setup.
Nobody knows your setup, exceptfor 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 Ayou're going to bring up the
whole Ford versus GM versus RamDodge, whoever owns that.
Now, that whole thing, itdoesn't matter, just know your
numbers.
So ask how to do the mathinstead of asking what truck.
At the end of the day, pick thetruck you like and or you think
(15:45):
is going to last you thelongest and you're getting the
best deal on.
But if, if the numbers don'twork, it doesn't work for you.
If the numbers work, big thumbsup, 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 onLauren'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 placefor 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 nottrue.
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 thenyou 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 inpublic.
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 toleave that closed.
I'm sorry, leave that closed.
Wow, you just confusedeverybody, sorry.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
You want to leave that closed, closed and I would
argue you want to have a prettysolid amount of water in there
before you ever use it.
So when you that's true Aredone Like so, if we like, for
instance, we have a 40 gallonblack tank in our, our Alliance
Delta right now I put 12 to 15gallons 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 sizeof the tank and the shape of the
tank sometimes, and so you mayhave 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 thewhole.
Should you have a bacteria likea 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 goodjob if you use the appropriate
amount and not short it.
But with that you want to leavethat water in there.
I would say the gray tanks.
You also would leave themclosed unless you're doing a
(18:05):
high load.
You don't have to leave themclosed, just know if you get a
sewer smell in your RV, it'sbecause 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 doesa P-trap.
You could also, if you have,like I forget what those little
accordion looking things arecalled, but the sewer line
holder that makes it graduallygo down, so water and stuff
(18:25):
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 arefull timers, they may, you know,
they may do a load or two oflaundry a day and take a shower
and wash all their dishes, andso 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 fivepeople 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 maybemaybe you're against showering.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I don't know.
I'm not judging um, but I'm apro 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 saferuntil it's too full uh full, but
it'll burp at you and you'llknow pretty quickly, or it'll
back up in the shower too andyou'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 theblack 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 Iwould, 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 sizewhich is being incredibly,
that's a very large ice cube.
I'm trying to be generous here.
How long if you took a regularice cube that's about a normal
size ice cube and you dropped itinto a cup of water?
Add warm water?
You're not magically making thetank cold, right?
How long does it last?
(20:02):
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 startsbouncing around.
What does ice do if you throwit 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 tankcleaners 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 theygot 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'snot, it's a no-go on that one
so.
I would say get a tanktreatment and let that slosh
around.
You got a better shot at that.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
That is true, yeah.
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 waslooking around to see what are
some myths and I don't know.
You need to buy every accessoryat Camping World before your
first trip.
And I don't know why I saidcamping world.
You need to buy every accessorybefore your first trip.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Because I think that that's what a lot of people do,
because they want to feelprepared, yeah, right.
And so they're like well, if Ihave all the things, then I can
fix anything that goes wrong.
And the fact of the matter isit probably complicates it more
than anything, and so you needsome basics, which we can link
to some videos to help youunderstand 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, butwe bought a lot.
We bought a lot.
There's quite a few things thatsat in our pass-through storage
of our first rig and justaccumulated space and dust.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And none of these things are particularly cheap,
Like they're inexpensive eachone, 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 starterkit.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, you're going to need sewer hoses.
You're going to need some waterhoses.
Yeah, you're going to need awater 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 BlueTechnology, love them.
You don't know if you're goingto need a water filter or not,
especially if you're notfull-timing.
We don't drink the water out ofour rig stuff and all in our
water softener and that's great,but we drink bottled water well
, and for those that aretraveling more often, more
(22:29):
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 theValor, we did drink the water.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Now we also bypassed the tank alot in that.
So I don't know why.
I just have a little aboutdrinking 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 thatthe 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 likedo you have to have starlink to
go camping?
Of course not, no, do you haveto have.
Should you use a starlinkbetter 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 lotof things that go into whether
or not you like.
A cell booster will helppromote 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 thesignal 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 connectand go and go fast right so you
don't have to come into a routersomewhere.
Let's say the campground, right,well, the campground's got this
router and then it gets pushedout to transponders.
I don't even know what, thelittle thing, the thing that
pushes the wi-fi out, wi-firouters, I guess.
(24:44):
Okay, so that gets pushed out.
Now there's cloud and I'mstanding in line with 100 of
your friends, 100 RVs.
Insert the number of sites andpeople in the campground you're
currently in and we're alltrying to use the internet.
Right, so I could have fullbars.
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.
Oh yes, in 4k, preferably umvideos on youtube um, you're not
like, have you ever tried toget 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 wayto go about that.
I have only been to two parks.
One of them I used it, one ofthem I didn't use it that had
(25:35):
good internet.
Three, sorry three.
Camp Fimfo in Waco hadphenomenal wireless internet
News to me.
Our hotspot was better, somehowOkay, and so we used that.
And when I say good, good, likeit was getting 200 down, our
hotspot was getting 5.
For some weird reason,typically it gets 20.
Um, the other two one of themwas by Texas Motor Speedway.
(25:59):
Oh, okay, and that was when wehad our very, very first rig
that had a very robust internetsystem.
Well, they both really did, butthis one had an even more one
that you could hardline intothat one.
So they actually had ethernetports at each pedestal.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
So you didn't have to use Wi-Fi.
Maybe something to look out forin the amenities.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And there was another one that had that, but I
couldn't figure it out, and thatwas Disney's Fort wilderness.
We were only there for onenight, 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 cellbooster isn't going to help you
with wifi, it's going to helpyou with cell signal.
So if you're in the kind of outin the sticks a little bit and
(26:43):
you need, to boost your signal,right, sure, but then you get in
the directional versusomni-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 ofstate parks, national parks,
that sort of thing, and our celldoes not work well there.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
And so, right down the street, we did a video, a
fulling video at Cleburne statepark, and I didn't even think
about it because it'spractically in downtown Fort
Worth, right, you're not thatfar outside of town?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
You're really not.
And there's just no cell towerclose enough to get you
signaling there, and I think thesame thing happened to us in
the Smokies.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Inside.
Smoky Mountain National Parkyes, If you stay along the
parkway or in either side inNorth 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 upthe frickin' 90 grade.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
I don't remember the name, whatever that hike was
with the little observationtower and the Smokies.
Yeah, it didn't work there, andso if you're relying on
campground Wi-Fi and your cellphone, 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 tocamp?
Speaker 2 (27:52):
No, I don't think that you do.
I think there are some peoplethat 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 justsaid, though, if you're a
full-time family and you'reliving and working and all those
things, I understand.
Chad from Changing Lanes has acouple of internet videos that
are phenomenal.
Yeah, if you're working and youhave to have internet, you're
going to spend some money onsystems.
Yeah, you sure can.
Providers, Because the onlytrue rock solid internet on the
(28:23):
road is redundancy, becausewhere Starlink doesn't work,
cell may.
Where cell doesn't work, maybeCapground does, but needs a
booster Right.
So there's just too manydifferent 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 liketo have cell of some sort, just
as a safety measure, if there'san 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 itand you've probably heard this,
but they signed a deal withStarlink.
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 somepoint.
But right now it's like anemergency 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 andmore advanced.
A lot of them are adding cellservice technology, and so, like
our AT&T phones have that.
So problem is, though, if youhave one bar service, it doesn't
activate over, so you almosthave to kill it off, but leave
your SOS on.
And then you hope your SOS comesup and that gives you like a
little satellite insignia withbars that means you're on the
(29:30):
satellite, so like if you havean iPhone.
I think 16 is the first onethat did that, which is what we
have, and that's we won't have anew one for a while because
they're expensive.
So, all right, did we hit amyth that you are curious about,
did we not?
If we didn't let us know, causethere 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 thecomments.
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.
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