Episode 175 – Ensuring a Seamless RV Experience: Tips for Maintaining Your Slide Outs

Eric Stark

In staying on the road today, we're going to talk about keeping your RV slide out smooth and trouble free. And then enjoying the RV life. We're going to explore finding LP filling stations while on the road.

And then in our money saving tip segment, we're going to explore eating on the cheap in your rv. And then in the next stop, we're going to go to the amazing Moab, Utah. And then in shadows of the past, the towns that once were.

It's Cisco, Utah this time. And then an RV envy. We're going to talk about this brand of slide out seals called Flippin Seal.

This is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, your trusted source for tips and insights to embrace the RV lifestyle without worries. So let's talk everything RV today and this is episode 175, so let's dig right into it. So Alexis, you're sitting there at the big giant cup of coffee.

Are you ready to go today?

Alexis

I am now. I've chugged it a little bit, so.

Eric Stark

I'm good to go, man. Now a small cup of coffee.

Alexis

Yes, it is.

Eric Stark

Well, that's cool. So we're ready to go. You know what, I don't have much to say today as we get into this amazing. I know. Well, early.

It's like what, three in the morning now.

Alexis

Yes, it is.

Eric Stark

Yep, something like that. All right, so yeah, we're gonna just get right into this. There's always a rant, but I don't have any notes today, so we're good.

You know, maybe I'll come up with something, a surprise at the end.

Now, before we get into the meat of all this and get into enjoying the RV life, I just want to remind everybody, if you're looking at buying a new or used rv, check out wholesale warranties. If you go to the description of this podcast, there's a link there. You click on that link, you fill out the form and you get a free quote.

And then you can start talking to somebody there and they'll guide you through the process of getting the best RV extended warranty that you could possibly get and making the right choice and saving some cash. And it's all about saving money these days, but doing it wisely.

Alexis

Mm.

Eric Stark

You know, you don't want to save money and be stupid about it. So this is a stupid ice. Probably shouldn't say that word anymore.

Alexis

That's not PC.

Eric Stark

There goes my thing here now. Anyways, so you want to be smart about like the smart rver.

So check out that the link in the description of this podcast now that's going to bring us to rv. I mean, enjoying the RV life. Enjoy. And finding propane filling stations while on the road.

So Alexis, this must be a gigantic worldwide problem and you're gonna provide the solution, right?

Alexis

I am. I'm like Miss America.

Eric Stark

Wow.

Alexis

I'm like world peace and for everybody to find. LP fill up stations.

Eric Stark

Wow.

Alexis

You better not go there.

Eric Stark

Yeah, you know what, it might not work. YouTube might not like it.

Alexis

Okay, okay. I love it. Okay. This isn't Miss America. This is the smart rver. So let's talk. So I have this.

Eric Stark

Wait a minute. I'm the smart RVer.

Alexis

Oh, okay, okay, Okay, I gotcha. I thought we were talking to the audience.

Eric Stark

Okay, yeah, they're the smart RVers.

Alexis

Oh, okay. Yes, I gotcha now. Okay. Well, we want to be knowledgeable about our propane tanks, right?

So that's what we need to start with is knowing what we need before we go and fill up. So knowing your tank size, how much you use, monitoring the levels, all good things to do before you even, you know, go fill up.

And then one thing that can really help is I found online there's a ton of apps and tools for you to download that actually help you find fill up stations if you've not been somewhere before. So a couple of them are GasBuddy, Google Maps. Actually, if you put, if you plug that in, it'll tell you where Phillips stations are.

Allstays is a really good website. There's RV Life Trip wizard, we've talked about that before, and a couple others. But there's a lot of help for on the road. So don't be afraid.

If you've never been somewhere and you, you know, you need to fill up, you'll be able to find something. And usually too, if you're staying at an RV park, the owners there or, or the other, you know, RVers will know they'll help you out hopefully.

Unless they're really mean. So a few places you can just look if you're not going to use an app are truck stops. Sometimes they have them.

Hardware stores, U haul locations, farm and ranch stores, and sometimes even gas stations have propane fill ups. So those are just a few places you can kind of eye and see if they have anything for you to be able to fill up there.

And then it's always a good thing if you are planning like a longer route is to maybe check ahead of time and see where you can fill up because you don't want to get caught without propane and need it, it's really a good thing to plan ahead on that. And then always we talk about safety here. When you're handling propane, it's, it's important to be, to be really smart about it.

So always secure your tanks in an upright position during transport. Check for rust. You want to check for dents in them. Just do some maintenance just to make sure you and your family are safe with that.

What else do you have to say?

Eric Stark

Well, I was just going to say, you know, it's. Some of it's obvious, especially after been getting propane for your RV quite a while, you know, you know, right.

Holds and all that kind of stuff, you know, what you use. But getting out on the road sometimes is the real hassle. Trying to find it especially you get more remote areas.

So that's one of those apps and a little research ahead of times if you think you're gonna run out. Like Google, we've seen that works really well. Like that works for dump stations, all sorts.

Alexis

Exactly. Yeah.

Eric Stark

Divorce, lawyers, everything. But so knowing that in advance, it'll save some struggles.

Alexis

Yes.

Eric Stark

Because then you're driving around this little town trying to find it somewhere or big city, you know, becomes more of a hassle.

Alexis

Right.

Eric Stark

So just cuts out some of that wasted time.

Alexis

And some states have different regulations for propane. So you got to, you know, do your research and know what that is. Just make sure you're all good.

Eric Stark

Yeah, that's true. Some states you're not allowed to drive through a tunnel if it's X amount of feet long.

Alexis

Really?

Eric Stark

With propane, I mean, everybody does, but.

Alexis

Yeah. Interesting.

Eric Stark

Yeah. Laws. Yeah. Okay, but laws, who needs those?

Alexis

We don't care about those.

Eric Stark

All right, so that's good information there. And again that'll be on the website, the smartrver.com under Enjoying the RV lifestyle. Yeah, enjoying the RV lifestyle.

So it'll be there ready for your eyeballs to read and take in a little bit more. And it's. I. There's always more on the website too.

Alexis

There is.

Eric Stark

Bring out here.

Alexis

Yes.

Eric Stark

So that's always good to know. Now the money saving tip for this episode is eating well on the cheap. So that's using the RV kitchen or the kitchen in your rv.

And that's going to save you some money because, you know, it's food has become kind of a, I don't know, a thing where the prices have kind of crept. Not kind of crept up.

They've crept up quite a bit in the last year or two and it kind of sneaks into Your budget and you don't realize it, how much money you're spending on food. Especially like if you don't ever go to the grocery store. Like if your wife always goes to the grocery store and you never do.

You may be hear about her complaining, but you're. Yeah, whatever.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

Then you go one day to do a little shopping, all of a sudden, wait a minute, you know, this was a hundred bucks. Didn't even fill a bag.

Alexis

Why are eggs $9?

Eric Stark

Exactly. Gallon of milk $82.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

So those things sneak into the budget and all of a sudden you know, wow, this gets really expensive.

Alexis

Yes.

Eric Stark

And then eating out anymore has gotten really bad. It's like an omelet now is $40.

Alexis

I know.

Eric Stark

You know, we can save some money. Which saving money makes the RVing. Well, you can RV more. You can use your RV more, the more money you save. And it's a thing.

A nickel here, a quarter there. You know, it all adds up. All the roadside diners and the places you see, we could call those a budget buster.

Alexis

There we go. I like that.

Eric Stark

They're going to just ruin it. And then you had a tasty meal, but half an hour later you forgot about it.

Alexis

Right.

Eric Stark

The next time you drive through that tent, you go, wow, that's the place where we laid out 100 bucks for two of us.

Alexis

Right.

Eric Stark

Wow, that was a mistake. Food was good, but there's no point in breaking the bank when you don't have to.

Alexis

No.

Eric Stark

So it's meal planning. And you know, in an rv, sometimes it can be a little more difficult to plan a big meal or. Or make food in bulk, I should say.

That doesn't even sound attractive. Right. Food in bulk, cafeteria style. Big, giant 50 gallon tub of.

Alexis

I love it.

Eric Stark

Cigarette smoking, woman leaning over it, stirring it.

Alexis

You know, Mac and cheese with little ash in there.

Eric Stark

There you go. Ash and cheese.

Alexis

Cheese.

Eric Stark

Makes me name like a Hollywood couple. Ash and cheese and cheese.

Alexis

Nice.

Eric Stark

All right, so back to reality here. So sometimes if you plan ahead, you can bring food with you at least maybe for the first day or two if you're gonna be gone for just a weekend.

It makes it real simple. I know. We always like to make something for the first day so that way we don't have to really mess with it.

And then once we, you know, the next day we start getting into the cooking mode or doing whatever or have something as a backup that can be part of a meal or a meal by itself if need be.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

So planning ahead. And you know, when you go out on the road, sometimes grocery stores, you're paying a lot more for the food. You don't realize how expensive it can be.

You go out of town. I was a man. Whoa, that's really bad.

So buying what you can at home and cutting out those trips to the stores, especially like a convenience store, a campground store, you know, loaf of bread, $18.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

And also in these. A lot of these towns, you can find a local farmers market, if they have one quite often you can get the fresh produce and fresh other things.

Now, you can also blow a lot of money there if they have a lot of knickknacks for sale. So you got to be careful going with a mission, you know?

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

But you can save some money there and get better quality produce. So that's a good way to do it. Now, another option would be. This takes us back a few episodes. You can get an insta pot or instant pot.

Just made me think of that Shorts about that.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

Okay.

So the instant pot and so you can make food in bulk, you know, the one pot wonders or, you know, if it's not an instant pot, you know, a slow cooker, crock pot type thing.

Alexis

Same thing. Yeah.

Eric Stark

You could make it at home or you could actually make it in the rv. Not that big of a deal. Especially if you're an RV park where you have 110 volts. You let that baby cook all day, right?

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

And then that can be a few meals, depending on what you make, how good you cook. You might eat it one time and that's it. But it tastes good. Then you can use it for recycle it, repurpose for lunch and dinner for the next day.

Doing that saves some money. It actually makes it easier to. You're cooking one time and then you're just heating up after that. So that's kind of a double whammy there.

You get a couple things out of it that you maybe weren't even thinking about. So it's getting creative and just looking at your. Your budget. What. Where you can cut corners on meals.

I couldn't even imagine traveling with kids today, a family of like five going to like, even McDonald's. It has to be 100 bucks.

Alexis

Oh, yeah.

Eric Stark

You know, and it's just garbage food. It's horrible. Another thing, too would be bottled water. Get a filter type system like one of those Britas. Then you can save on buying bottled water.

Alexis

That's a good one.

Eric Stark

Yeah, that adds up. Then you can just refill reusable.

Alexis

That's what we do.

Eric Stark

There we go. Now we've, we've helped you save a ton of money, so now you can enjoy that RV a little bit more.

Alexis

You're welcome.

Eric Stark

And this full article will be on the website, the smartrverier.com under money saving tips. Now that brings us to staying on the road, keeping your RV slide out smooth and trouble free.

So we're gonna break this topic up into several different sections, if you will, to make it a little bit easier. So we'll go through them one by one. But, you know, slide outs haven't always been around.

Alexis

Mm.

Eric Stark

Now, some younger RVers, newer RVers, they might think they've been here forever. Kind of like young people think cell phones have been around since the beginning of time. Well, slide outs used to be called tip outs.

In fact, some people still call them tip outs today. They do. So that was a room that you literally got in there manually, push it over. It had a lever or something and you push it out.

They were pretty cheesy, but they gave you some extra space. Yeah, those things were bad. But hey, it was the beginning of something new.

Alexis

Exactly.

Eric Stark

And today we have the modern slide out that, you know, a push of a button, it goes out, usually push of a button and sometimes comes back in. So they've, they've given you some space. But hey, like everything else that involves technology, it eliminates one. Well, it wasn't a problem.

You know, you didn't have as much space in an rv. That really wasn't a problem.

It's just our desire to have more, you know, more, more, more technology came along and created the, the automatic slide rooms that now give us one more thing to work on, to spend money on. But hey, that extra time, extra space is worth it. Right? But you know, you've probably is.

If you've been RVing for any length of time, you've probably experienced where, you know, you get ready to go or put your slide out out, and it doesn't go out. You get ready to leave the trip and you go to bring it back in, it doesn't come in.

You know, there's all these little issues that can come up, but you want to keep that slide out working. And sometimes preventative maintenance can be such a huge factor in this.

And so we're going to talk about slide out maintenance for the next couple minutes here.

We'll try to go through this quickly because I know you guys are the smart RVers and your maintenance experts, your gurus, but we still got to cover it. So, you know, it's it's like I was just saying where you hit those buttons and. Or the button and it doesn't come in, doesn't come out.

You know, you're.

You just get to your campground, you've been driving all day, and man, you just want to get in there and kind of get that RV put together so you can just chill out. Now, long drive, you know, you ran off a cliff, ran over a dog, all sorts of stuff. And you hit the button and the slide room doesn't move. Ah, man.

All right, so you go that you have two slide rooms. You hit the other button. Well, it goes out. Okay. Half the battle's won now, but you still got that other one. Now what is that? Is that a button?

Is the switch bad? Is a fuse blown?

Alexis

It's karma for hitting the dog.

Eric Stark

There you go, payback. Is that, you know, a problem you can solve right there? Is that a problem you could have prevented? And the same goes true for bringing it back in.

Let's say it did go out when you hit the switch, and then it's time to leave. You've been there for three days. You're sick and tired of the campground where you're at.

You know, all the dogs are bothering you because you killed one of their brethren. And so it's time to go. You hit that switch and that room doesn't come in. Oh, man. Now what? You know, just get a chainsaw and cut it off.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

You know, you have your spouse out there pushing on it. Push harder, push harder as you're hitting the switch.

You know, so sometimes a little bit of preventive maintenance can save, you know, hundreds of dollars in repair or even thousands. So we call that tlc, I think, Tender Loving Care. Taking care of that slide room like it's a little baby.

So that preventative maintenance is very important. And it's always neglected. Well, always. My wife tells me not to say always because when I do that, it's exaggeration.

A lot of times it's exactly, it's. It's neglected, just like everything else. You know, we're going to talk about in another episode about maintenance.

And it's a lot of things that are just neglected. Let me look at your house. How many things you neglect?

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

How many things you walk by? Mana.

Alexis

Right, right.

Eric Stark

Okay. So first off, to really be able to maintain your slide out system, it's good to know what type you have. You know, not all slides are equal.

One of the thing that we've talk about here in our store and on the show is that when you're in your RV and you're looking at a light, let's say on the ceiling, and maybe this is your first or second RV and it happens to be the same light in your second rv, but in your first rv you might think that every RV has the same lights in it. And it's not that way. You know, RVs have a zillion different lights in them. Just like slide rooms, they're different.

So don't assume your slide is the same as every other slide. There's difference. If you bought a new rv, more than likely the slide room mechanism would be different. If not anything else.

It might be the same brand but different components. So they're not, you know, one, one motor doesn't fit all if you will.

So understanding that whether your slide room is electric or hydraulic is important.

These little things will help you in your maintenance where if it's hydraulic, you know you're going to want to check the hydraulic fluid, know what type of fluid goes in there. It's generally transm fluid. But knowing that before you need it and having some on hand is half the battle sometimes.

Because I know, I've seen that we're out installing awnings and you got to bring the slide room out or in and it doesn't work. And the guy's, you know, panicking now, he doesn't know what fluid goes in there, doesn't have anything. It turns into kind of a three ring circus.

As patient as I am. Yeah, you know, that gets old quick. So having it figured out beforehand and then it could be 12 volt but knowing where the motors are at the fuse is.

Do you have a control box for it?

You know, most of the modern ones have a circuit board, if you will, or the buttons that you press, they're part of a little panel, a display that knowing that is it replaceable? Having a bead on this stuff in advance saves some problems and a little bit of understanding this stuff.

If you can get the schematics or the instructions from the manufacturer of the RV or the slide out system so you know, what's, how this stuff works. And it doesn't mean you're going to be out there in the field on a camp trip, you know, tearing apart your rv, fixing it.

But it gives you a clue like if you hit the button, nothing happens. Okay, is there a fuse someplace? That's probably the easiest thing to check. Yeah, so just having an understanding of it, that's it's important.

It's like I say that about your entire rv, you know, if you just take it, you know, compartmentalize it or segment it, slide outs, the slide rooms, your leveling jacks, you know, they're all different systems, but they all require something.

But knowing about them in advance, having those manuals on your phone or printing them out in a binder, whatever works for you, it definitely pays off.

Alexis

Right.

Eric Stark

So you can be a little more armed and kind of intimidate the tech a little bit. Like, hey, I know what I'm talking about here. Then they're not as inclined to, you know, over billiard, another word for that.

But I'm not going to use it today.

Alexis

Okay.

Eric Stark

It'd be nice. All right. So routine maintenance, this is important. It's really very practical to get in the routine maintenance mode.

I mean, it's an rv, so there's a lot of maintenance already associated with it. Some of it's annual, some of it's biannual. But, you know, slide out maintenance should just be kind of a several times a year type of thing.

That's going to help you avoid those oh moments now those moments become memories. Good or bad is up to you.

Alexis

Usually bad.

Eric Stark

So one of the things to really focus on would be keeping the mechanisms clean, you know, or the. Yeah, the mechanisms. It depends on your slide room. Some of them have aluminum tracks on the wall of the slide out on the outside.

Some of them have everything underneath. Some of them have cables. But keeping the roof clean of all the debris that can build up there and wash it if you can.

Because you know what happens when you bring that room. And if there's stuff up there, it goes inside, it wears out those seals, and it ends up inside. But it can actually keep it from not sealing properly.

So that's a problem right there. And if you get enough of it, it could actually jam up the slide out.

Yeah, it might go in and out, but it gets to a certain point where it kind of sticks. And, you know, I see that a lot. Slide room sticking. It's like, I'm afraid, even hit the switches sometimes, but clean the roof of the slide out.

So that's one of the things. And then, you know, the sides of it just treat it like it's a car, I guess. You know, wash it, take care of it. You're not going to wax it?

Well, you might wax the sides if it's fiberglass, but you're going to use your rubber roof coating on it. Some of them are hard to get to because the length of them.

Alexis

Right.

Eric Stark

But you know, a brush and some ingenuity will make that happen. Any moving parts on the slide out should be lubricated. So that would be the mechanisms.

If it has the aluminum tracks on the side, those definitely are a teflon type thing because you don't want to put grease on those. Those are very exposed underneath. And I say that because, you know you're just going to get. Get the grease on you. It'll be a mess.

Alexis

Right.

Eric Stark

Spray silicone is much more friendly because it doesn't attract dirt, doesn't build up like grease wood. And there's products made for lubricating slide out mechanism.

And so underneath you have gears, you have rods, you have shafts, you have wheels, you have stuff. All that needs to be lubricated. Think about that and clean them off.

And it's probably best to give them a nice cleaning at least once a year to get any dirt and, you know, crud that builds up there, stuff from the road and everything, keep it nice and clean. And even if it works, you're thinking, well, that's not a lot of dirt, but it's crunching, it's slowly ruining the gears.

It gets inside the motors because it does pick it up. It's amazing how dirt gets everywhere when we don't think it really should.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

So it works its way into the motors, ruins the motor. If you got power gear motors, well, you could be looking at a thousand bucks easy just for a motor. So you want to avoid that.

So that's the mechanism, the things that help keeping that slide out in and out. Now, the seals around it are very important. They last for years.

But when it's time to replace those, if you have to do it prematurely, they can be very expensive. Some slide rooms have to come completely out of the RV to do it. And those seals are important because they keep water out, they keep air out.

You know, we just had one in our shop the other day. And you know, the slide rooms halfway in and out, man, it's just broad daylight looking through there.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

Like, so they need. That trailer needed a lot of stuff. Yeah. 5 gallons of gas and a match I think would be the better solution for that.

It was just neglected that that Trailer was actually the epitome of neglect. Everything we did to it was just maintenance because it had been neglected. All the problems were from just flat out neglect.

Alexis

Right.

Eric Stark

Regular maintenance. So that maintenance pays off to do it yourself. It pays off the shop when they have to do it for you.

So you want to save that money so you can go on more RV trips.

So the seals you want to use, the dressing, whatever you want to call it, I can't think of the word right now, but you spray it on, it cleans the als. Something like 303 works on that.

Or you can buy something more specifically for it, a rubber conditioner, which, you know, most RV stores carry that type of stuff.

303 works really well, but the conditioners are made more for it specifically, so they'll have different agents or additives in there that will perform better.

Now, if you have a slide room, you want to make sure if you're dry camping, that your batteries are fully charged, not only when you get there, but when you leave. So you can bring it in and out. So that's something to pay very close attention to.

And if your slide room is making noises when it goes in, goes out, it's catching, rubbing, bumping, drops off a little bit. Those things aren't always normal, and they can be the sign of a potential problem.

So you want to make sure that you're looking at that and correcting that. And if it's out of your skill set, just take it to a trusted repair center and let them look at it.

You don't want this thing to fail on you when you're out camping. And they do, you know. And not all slide rooms are the easiest thing to get back in.

Even when they're designed for a manual override, they can become a nightmare, like some of the ones with cables. It's almost a joke what they give you to bring that thing in, if you can even get to the motor if it fails on you and what you have to do to do that.

So you almost have to build something in advance to make sure you can work around that. So that was slide rooms with cables. Other ones are supposed to have cranks. Most RVers never know where their crank is.

They can't find it, don't know what it looks like. So get this stuff ironed out in advance. So listen, look and make repairs as needed.

If it's beyond your skill set, like I said, take it in and don't let it drag on and get worse and worse and worse. Sometimes a small little problem can turn Into a very big problem. Ruin a trip, cost you more money. Destroy flooring.

It could be a mechanism, now that's tearing something else up. Be the smart rver. This stuff isn't rocket science, but it does take maintenance. And now there are some do it yourself fixes as well.

You know, when something goes wrong, you can jump in and fix it. Like maybe if it's not moving, you hit that switch. The slide out doesn't move. Is it the battery? You know, we touched on that a little bit. Is it dead?

Is it weak? Can you start up the RV or the tow vehicle and get it plugged in?

Or a generator and get some 12 volt juice pumping back into that baby and bring it in? If it's hydraulic, is it low on fluid? So those are some simple little things. You know, a fuse, a bad circuit breaker could be another issue.

If you know where they're at and kind of know how to do it. It seems like a lot of RVers kind of figure out the slide out thing to a degree.

You know, they get to a point where it's got to be this and quite often they're right. Most RVers have a pretty good beat on this. I guess if you're bringing in your slide room or taking it out, Is it stuck part way?

Did it just like stop or did it kind of grind to a hole? So that could be something stuck in the tracks, Debris, dirt. You know, maybe your, your RV is really unlevel and it's just throwing it off.

It can't handle that. I mean, generally that isn't a problem, but it can be. Check those things out, check for debris and stuff.

Move your rv if you've already leveled it, maybe adjust your jacks again, you know, do something and try to do it.

And if you absolutely can't figure it out, then hopefully you have a manual override and you can bring it in and, and get it taken care of or, or extend it the rest of the way if you're confident that you'll be able to get it back in. And then when you get under or back home, you get it fixed.

Now if it's, you know, catching, making those noises like I brought out earlier, you know something's wrong and you want to take care of that. Especially if it's like a motor or gear, if it's a little out of whack and it starts making noise, it might be salvageable.

You can adjust that or clean it out. Maybe the motor is actually loose and it's causing a problem.

And if you Catch that early enough, you can avoid buying a new motor or a gear set, but generally it's the motor. Well, the gear is in the motor. It's all a package deal. You can't buy one without the other. So that costs a fortune.

If it's like I said, it was power gear. Other ones become sometimes more difficult, like some of the Schwintek ones on a lot of the RVs, those are now owned by Lippert.

They're just selling a new kit for it. It's an upgrade, a retrofit kit, because the other ones had built in problems. So now the problems are supposedly, you know, resolved.

Alexis

Wow.

Eric Stark

So if you have to, you know, do something to get you through a trip, but when you get home, take care of that. Don't let it go. It's always better to take care of this stuff when you can at home rather than try to.

I'm going to wait until I get on my trip and do it. You get busy with other things. You're on vacation, man. Take care of at home before you ever get out.

And if all these other things aren't working for you and you absolutely can't figure it out, take it into a shop and let them fix it. If there's a problem with it, sometimes you just have to raise that white flag and surrender and pay the money.

Or if you're just starting out, like, you know, I haven't done anything with my slide out, I'm going to take it into a shop and see what they would charge to kind of get me squared up. Clean it all up, do those slide seals, the mechanisms, and then from there on out, I'm going to maintain it. You probably don't need to do that.

You can probably just do it yourself. But hey, whatever works. You know that it'll give you that extra confidence. So it's about saving money but not being ridiculous about it.

You try to save too much money and you end up spending more money.

Alexis

Right, Exactly.

Eric Stark

That's something I've learned in life. You start trying to save money and man, that just cost me twice as much because I didn't do it right. I tried too hard. Right.

So since we're all part of the smart rver family, we're going to Work at this together and we'll keep these pointers and tips coming. And also, you can see this entire article on our website, the smartrver.com. there's much more to it than what I said. Here, check that out.

It's actually a better read than me talking about it as well. It's like a novel, a mystery novel. The Mysterious slide out. So again, check it out on the website.

Now that you've got your slide outs all dialed in the first place you're going to want to go is to Moab, Utah.

Alexis

Yes.

Eric Stark

And Alexis is going to tell us why you want to go to Moab. Wow. It's like the moon there, right?

Alexis

Yeah, it is.

Eric Stark

Like going to the moon or Mars, kind of. Maybe Elon Musk there.

Alexis

Well, Elon, there you go.

Eric Stark

So lay it on us, Alexis.

Alexis

Okay. Today we're delving into the desert diaries. That's what I call this. We're gonna go to Moab, Utah.

Like Eric said, a desert gem where history, adventure and jaw dropping, jaw dropping landscapes collide. That was a mouthful. So this place is nestled in the American Southwest.

Little background on Moab. So Moab is a magnet for over 2 million visitors a year. You might ask why? And it's for two reasons. The Arches and the Canyonlands.

So these national parks flaunt rock formations that are just incredible. Adventure junkies also like to hit the Slickrock trail for epic mountain biking. That's a big thing there. The Colorado river rapids.

Or you can check out Hell's revenge in a 4x4. That's pretty cool. You need to Google pictures if you haven't seen that. And then Moab has got a lot of charm too.

They have a lot of art festivals during the summer. Neapolitan pizza at the Anteca Forma. That's incredible. That got really good reviews. I looked that up because I love pizza.

And then you can also schedule stargazing under a dark sky certified night. This is cool. It's a guided trip that you go out in the dark and it's just incredible. There's no stargazing like it.

So pretty neat things you can do there. Of course, there's a lot of rv RV parks as well. Those are listed in the article. I'll let you look at that later.

But from Native American petroglyphs to uranium stained past, Moab blends frontier grit with modern allure. So this is your next stop. This is your assignment. Smart RVers check out Moab and maybe put it on your list of places to go.

Eric Stark

Yeah, it's interesting. I never really thought of it more than anything. More than four wheeling and mountain biking.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

Uranium. All the history there.

Alexis

I know there's a lot.

Eric Stark

Now, I have been to restaurants. Right. I know. I've seen this on the menu. Would you call it Hell's? What?

Alexis

Hell's Revenge.

Eric Stark

Hell's Revenge. Yeah.

Alexis

Yeah. Big thing there.

Eric Stark

Yeah, It's Mexican food place, I think in San Pedro, California is right on the menu. Hell's Revenge.

Alexis

But that was spicy.

Eric Stark

I didn't try it.

Alexis

That's good. You would have regretted it.

Eric Stark

And they didn't have a bathroom there.

Alexis

Oh, yikes. Nope.

Eric Stark

So that's pretty interesting. It is a very popular place.

Alexis

Very. Yes.

Eric Stark

And I wouldn't let the. The. The off roading and the mountain biking intimidate you from not going because maybe you're not into that, but it's worth seeing.

It's a gorgeous area.

Alexis

Oh, yeah.

Eric Stark

So many other places in Utah could.

Alexis

Just walk around it, you know.

Eric Stark

So it's definitely worth going to and seeing.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

Checking out. So that's high on our list. And so there's more on the website as well. Go to the next stop. There's the full article. Everything there. The full banana.

Maps, the whole nine yards.

Alexis

That's right.

Eric Stark

That's right. Maps and everything else you need.

Alexis

I like that. The full banana. That's funny.

Eric Stark

Full banana. All right, so now this is going to bring us to the next part of the show, Shadows of the Past. And so let's take a look at this.

So as I pull out the another page of the book I have from Grandpappy Popeye, it's got an interesting little read here. This one's kind of short, but let's just get right into it. All right, so we're going to look at Cisco, Utah.

It's a dusty speck in the desert that seen better days. And so much of the desert has seen better days, I think. But picture this.

Steam locomotives chug through, filling up for the town's wells while cattle ranchers and sheepherders turned this remote outpost into a bustling hub. By the early 20th century, Cisco's got saloons, a hotel, and even a post office. Small but thriving in its own rugged way. Then the twist.

Today, it's got murals, a skate park, and an artist residency. Proof that even in the silence of the desert, a new story can emerge. Cisco's a shadow of the past, but it's still whispering to those who listen.

Now, that sounds pretty cool. Yeah, I like that.

Alexis

That was good.

Eric Stark

I wouldn't mind going there.

Alexis

Me neither.

Eric Stark

That's interesting, because we have another one coming up in a couple episodes about one person owning a town.

Alexis

Very cool.

Eric Stark

And, you know, I think it's always cool when someone buys a town. Yeah, I'd like to buy a town.

Alexis

Wouldn't that be neat?

Eric Stark

It would be. I don't know what I'd do with it, but it'd be fun.

Alexis

But you could just say you own a town, right?

Eric Stark

Probably all sorts of legal things you need to know, and if you don't know them, you're probably in all sorts of trouble.

Alexis

Yeah, that's true.

Eric Stark

Yeah. Might have a government agency coming after you.

Alexis

Yeah.

Eric Stark

All right, so that will also be in the. On the website as well, in the smart rver in shadows of the past.

Alexis

Yes, sir.

Eric Stark

On the website. Yeah. Yeah, you're correct.

Alexis

It is.

Eric Stark

All right, so now that brings us to RV envy. And we're going to talk about flipping Seal. Now, that's quite the name, right?

Alexis

It sounds funny. You gotta get your flipping seal.

Eric Stark

That's right. Some people work that way, right? Flipping this, flipping that. So this is a flipping seal. So Flip and Seal is owned by Jagger Unitech.

In fact, there's gonna be a link to their website in the description of this podcast. So Flip and Seal makes all these different seals for slide outs.

And you know what's interesting is they make ones that aren't like what everybody else has. They're. They're different. I think they're for a lot of newer RVs, and new RVs don't always need new seals, but from time to time, they do tear.

But they also have seals that fit older ones. They have this great selection. So in the world of RVs and slide rooms, there's not just one seal that fits all.

Sometimes you need a selection of four or five different companies to find the one that works on your rv. And sometimes you never find an exact replacement. So you have to find something that's close.

Now, someone came in our store the other day, is actually a mobile tech and he had a seal that looked pretty odd. It happened. It turned out flippin seal had it.

And they actually sent us a display box of all their seals so we could hold it right up to the old one or compare it to a picture. Makes life easier. So if you have an RV and you need some seals, well, check out flip and seal. They might be able to solve or be heroes for the day.

Solve your problem. So again, the link will be on our website. Now that's bringing us to the end of the show.

And I just want to give everybody one final reminder here about wholesale warranties. Go to the link in the description, follow it, get a free quote, talk to them and save some money and get the best RV extended warranty on the planet.

So our next episode is going to be 176. So we're gaining traction here. We're almost at the 200 mark. I don't know what that means though. Like, do we get anything? Surprised we get an award.

Alexis

You get a flipping seal.

Eric Stark

I already got one.

Alexis

Oh, okay.

Eric Stark

That sucks. So just as a little tidbit to throw out there too.

If you have a power tongue jack, make sure you have a cover on it to protect the electronics, especially a lot of the newer ones, they have touch pads on them and all these little things, they get destroyed in the sun and the elements. So get a cover for it and keep that baby covered. Even if you just throw a towel over it. Something keep the sun off it at the bare minimum.

But having a nice cover for it works great. You know they're under 20 bucks. Most RV stores have them. So cover that tongue jack.

Even if you have a manual one, it's good to keep the water and dirt and stuff out of those gears that makes problems. And they feel kind of like a slide room.

Alexis

Exactly.

Eric Stark

So I think we've come to the end of the show. So this is Eric stark with the smart rver podcast, your go to guide for smarter RVing and unforgettable adventures on the open road.