↓ Episode 135 – The Best Tire Blow Out System Made – RV-De-Fender

INTRO

Zach Patterson from RV Defender is going to explain today why he has the best RV product ever Invented that's right ever invented It's the best and he's going to do that in our staying on the road section of the show. Then we're going to get into our enjoying the RV life and talk about living the e-bike lifestyle. So, we've talked about before we're going to talk about e-bikes being so cool and then we're going to visit Mount Sneffles, Colorado in the Next Stop, and then we're going to wrap up the show with RV Envy.

And in the RV Envy episode, we're going to talk about refrigerator door panels. And there's a new type of door panel that is hitting the market, and these things are cool. And I must say that because I'm the inventor of them. Not the RV door panel, but this new idea. So, this is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVerPodcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down.

So, this is episode number 135. So, let's get into it. Welcome to the show, Alexis.

Thanks, Eric. And how are you today?

Alexis- I am happy to be here and I'm ready to talk and tell us about everything there is to know about enjoying the RV life and the next stop where we have got to go. It's going to be great.

Eric- So, before we get into enjoying the RV life, I want to let everybody know that. SunPro Manufacturing has come out with a windshield cover that's 100 percent block out for a Freightliner M2 and Freightliner S2RV chassis, every year. It's available now. It's on the website, so check it out. This thing is awesome for the ones that want 100 percent privacy, no light coming in.

This is the one for you. That's exciting. It's very cool. We've been trying to work on this for a while. We finally got it wrapped up. Nice. Nice that we do because we own SunPro Manufacturing. Yeah.

RV LIFESTYLE

So, uh, here we go. Let's get into enjoying the RV life and talking about e-bikes. All right. How can you enjoy the e bike lifestyle?

Eric- So, Alexis, we sell e-bikes here. Did you know that?

Alexis- Uh, yes, I did. We do. And they're amazing.

Eric- They are amazing. Yeah. How can you enjoy the e bike lifestyle with an RV?

Alexis- Well, around here, we have so many awesome customers that come in and they, they see our e-bikes, but honestly, anywhere you are, Montana's kind of rural, but people still go for them, but in the cities, you can do it anywhere. Um, and on here, it recommends a bike shop, but we sell them. So, who knows where you can get an e-bike if it's awesome and a quiet cat gives good deals?

Eric- So, if you're in, if you're in the market, do your research because you want to know what you're going in for.

Alexis- So, what would you recommend, Eric?

Eric- Well, I recommend everybody buy one period though. You know, e-bikes are nice. They're handy, they're unique. But you do have to have the desire to ride it. Yeah. You know, just buying it because you can, and to park it in a corner, that's a waste of money. It is. But, you know, if you can ride one, or if you're going to ride one, and you want one, they're a great way to go. You know, if you're not near us, you can probably test-ride one at some store. I mean, we have a demo bike here. So, you can ride on it and get a feel for it because they're not what you think.

If you've never ridden one, you must ride one. You do. Once you ride one, you're going to become addicted to it more than likely. You can take them just about anywhere. You can get commuter bikes for the city, motocross bikes, or bikes for kids. You can get adult bikes. We sell more of the. Uh, mountain bike-style ones here are more for hunting and going on the dirt roads and things like that.

Alexis- Although you could ride them anywhere, that's kind of what their design is. But they're very cool and everybody should have one as far as I'm concerned if you need one.

Eric- Now you have to remember that they are heavier than our typical bike, and a little harder to transport. So, you must keep that in mind before you buy one. You know, how are you going to get it to point A and point B if you're not riding it, just things to consider, especially since you're an RVer. You know, putting it on the back of your trailer might present some challenges if you don't have the right type of rack for it. Right. Yeah. They were very expensive.

You don't want to just bounce off and land on the highway. So where are you getting over by a semi? Once it hits the pavement, that sucks. So, remember they come in all sorts, and you can get all sorts of accessories for them. And one thing I'm going to say, if you do buy one, do not buy an aftermarket cheap battery.

They are an absolute fire hazard. So, if you buy whatever brand you buy, make sure you get the accessories from that manufacturer. We sell Quiet Kat bikes, and we don't sell any aftermarket parts for battery-type things, chargers, or batteries. And Quiet Kat always has specials or almost always has specials on their website.

Like at our store, we match whatever their website is, period. Or we beat it. It depends on what's going on at the time of year. Yeah. Most stores work that way, but Quiet Kat's a great brand. So, check them out and enjoy that e-biking in the RV lifestyle. All right, now we're going to get to staying on the road.

STAYING ON THE ROAD (Zach Patterson Interview)

Eric- So as promised, we have Zach Patterson, the owner of the best new RV product on the market today. He's on the phone interviewing with us. And the product is RV Defender. It's a tire blowout system. And by the way, this product if I don't mention this now, I might forget it later. This is a Smart RV seal of an approval-type product.

So, it's going to get that stamp of approval because we like it so much. Now, Zach, can you give us a little background about yourself?

Zach- Yeah, of course. Uh, born and raised here in Northern Utah. You have a beautiful wife, you have two children, uh, I've been an avid RVer my entire life. Grew up, in the scene. We've had motorhomes, we've had trailers, we've had it all, we've done it all. Right now, I've got a, uh, a pretty good-sized fifth-wheel toy hauler. Me and my family enjoy going to the mountains, and the fountains. We do a lot of rolling feet out of Moab and southern Utah. Um, with our UTVs, that's a great life.

Eric- All right. So, Zach has an RV. So, this product is something he came up with while driving down the road, watching the trailer, flinging tire all over the side of it. So, because he has an RV, this product has a little more, um, I guess bite you might say, because it's, uh, personal to him. He's like, it goes deep in the matter.

Zach- It's, uh, um, so to be perfectly honest with you, there's, there's. Three founders, I, uh, a gentleman named Greg Bowen, and one other gentleman named Todd Smith. Greg Bowen happens to be my uncle, and uh, you know, with us being lifelong RVers, that's a family, he was always a part of that, and uh... Years ago, you know, 10, 15 years ago, my father had a blowout on a travel trailer he had.

It was a Fury toy hauler, and it totaled the trailer. I mean, it, the tire went through the floor. It made a mess out of things, you know. Thousands, about tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of repair. Fighting with insurance companies, fighting with shops, kind of getting it all figured out. And ultimately, they just wrote it off and cut him a check and kind of got screwed on the deal.

Um, my uncle, Greg, he looked at it and he's like, there's got to be a better way to stop doing this. I mean, you can't, this is a problem. And he came up with the original idea of essentially just, you know, building a traditional Fender-type system without having it inside the wheel well of a trailer to the chassis like you would on a standard utility trailer.

Eric- So, he got into it, started looking at it, and realized that to build a system for that, there would be hundreds if not thousands of different part numbers. Because you got slide mechanisms, you got body marks, you got... line, but there are all sorts of different variables that prevent them from running to a trailer traditionally.

Zach- So, he, uh, got with his buddy, Todd, who is a brilliant engineer, um, they went to RV dealerships and just kind of crawled underneath, you know, as many as they can get their hands on, and they realized that the common denominator was they all have the same axle. So that just seems like the easiest point, to build the product off.

So, they got busy building the product. They kind of built a, uh, Greg calls it an abomination. But I was a very crude, uh, you know, first draft of what we're trying to do. Um, they went to the hardware store and found some parts that could work. Pull it together. And, um, you know, that was, that was the, the original, the original go, um, Greg brought it to me, uh, because at that point I had a, the travel trailer that they were, you know, designed to sit on and he wanted it to a test online.

And he, he, uh, brought it to me and I looked at it like, dude, that isn't going to work. Like, I liked the idea, but it's not going to work. So, I had, uh, access to a Plasma table, and so we kind of got, did these, you know, draw some different designs and do some different things that were going to work. Ended up building a, uh, a prototype that's fairly like what our production model looks like now.

You know, there's been some minor changes and some details for polishing and getting it and whatnot. So, we did a blowout test on it, and it worked exactly as we planned. So, that was the birth of RV Defender.

Eric- All right. So, I know I said it's a tire blowout system, but, if you didn't catch that while you were listening, Zach got into some great details there, but it's a tire blowout system that's going to protect your RV if it has a blowout.

Now, Zach, what vehicles is this going to work on, or what type?

Zach- Uh, they're designed to fit on any global RVs, uh, travel trailers, mid-wheel, toy haulers, whatever, with anything from a 3, 500-pound axle up to an 8, 000-pound axle.

Eric- Okay. So, if you own a trailer, fifth wheel, toy hauler, or travel trailer, this product is for you listening to this today, you might not be sold on this, but I'm going to tell you, you got to go to Zach's website, RVDefender.com, has more information. There are some great pictures so you can visualize this product. Um, yeah, this is one of these products that I've been excited about. And that's why we're talking to Zach today. And he knows this thing inside and out. As you've heard, he's, you know, one of the original guys that helped build it, put it together.

So, he's, uh, he's been up and down with this thing, trying to get it to work and work right. And he's nailed it, man. This thing is very cool. Now, Zach, is this something that. You would recommend a service center do this, or can I, you know, a hands-on do-it-yourselfer, RVer, take care of this, installing them?

Zach- What I always tell people is they are, I wouldn't say they're easy to install, but they're not hard either. Um, you don't need any specialty tools. There's no cutting or grinding or welding or nothing like that. They do bolt-on, but they do take, take about an hour a piece to install. And you, you have some, uh, uh, some basic hand tools, you know, wrenches and a hammer and whatnot. But, uh, to get the branding cap off lease.

But if you're not comfortable with it, use the, uh, go to a service center. But they were designed for the DIYer.

Eric- Okay. That's very cool. So, you know, you're handy, you can install one of these. If you can repack your wheel bearings, you should be able to do this. Exactly. And I mentioned that because Zach does that drum have to come off and the, uh, the wheel bearings out and all that stuff.

Zach- It does. Yes, sir. The, uh, pull the drum off, set it aside. There's, uh, the same bolt that the bolt, the brake, uh, shoe mounting for it or bat mounting bracket to the axle. That's where it is the same position or same point of contact that we use to mount our Vita Bender. So, if you can access those bolts, you can install our Vita Bender.

Eric- All right. So, there you go. So basically, you must repack your wheel bearings. So, you want to keep in mind that when you do this project, that's the time to have grease seals ready, grease ready, to repack the bearings, and if you find a bad bearing, then of course, replace it. Do what you need accordingly. So that's going to be a project that's going to be within this project. If you're doing it, or if you take it to a service center, you want to make sure that they repack the bearings and check the brakes and all that good stuff since they're in there, you know, they might just say, ah, we put on the fenders.

We didn't look at anything else. Cause I hate to say it. Sometimes service centers do that kind of stuff, especially currently where customer service is going by the wayside.

You know, and that's one of, that's another thing too, Zach, are you guys available to help people with problems and answer questions?

Zach- Oh, absolutely. I pride myself on being available. I've got my personal cell phone number on our website. Um, if you want to call me anytime, I will try to make myself as available as possible.

Eric- There you go. And I know it works because I've called him many different times. The first time I called him, he answered his phone. I was shocked. I'm like, no one answers her phone anymore because I saw the number on his website, and I've called him to ask why he's eating dinner, and he dropped what he's doing to help me.

So yeah, he'll answer the phone. He's all right.

Zach- Thank you. Thank you. That is the goal right there. Yeah.

Eric- So, um, now, is there anything? Did this, the RV defender, any problems that would create for an RV, or does it solve a problem, does it create a problem that someone would have to be aware of?

Zach- In all fairness, we do have to get very specific measurements, uh, on your trailer to make sure these are going to fit. Now, these are designed to fit the axle, not necessarily the trailer itself. Uh, unfortunately, there's no such thing as a database that provides the information that we need, you know, letting us know that there's x amount of room here.

Eric- Why am I out of room there?

Zach- So, we do ask you to fill out a kind of a statement tool, or at least, you know, give me a call and we'll have a very detailed conversation on whether these will fit. Some vehicles just will not fit on, and there's nothing we can do about that. But kind of based on our calculations, they fit on about 90 percent of the trailers out there that have weave springs and drum brakes.

Eric- Right, okay, and... Are you working on anything for disc brakes? I know there are not a lot of trailers out there with disc brakes, but is that something in the future?

Zach- It is. Yeah, I've built a prototype now. Um, I have not had a chance to do some road testing on it, but I do know that it fits in the mouth the same way as the current version. Uh, it uses the same L brackets, and the same Fender arch assembly itself. Uh, it's a matter of, uh. Um, it's making a backing for it, the clearances around the caliper.

And that, that is something that's on the horizon.

Eric- Okay. That's cool. So not, there's a lot of breaks out there, but people add them or have trailers with brakes and this thing is great or, you know, disc brakes. So, one thing, you know, full disclosure here, I have a set of these. Um, now when Zach and I first started talking about it, my trailer was set up one way.

And then when I got them, I changed it and set it up another way with the axles. I removed the replaceable axles and leaf springs. And so, I went through the entire installation process and got down to the last bit and just hoping these things would fit because I wasn't sure, and they wouldn't. Now it wasn't Zach's fault or RV Defender's fault.

This was my fault because I changed what I had told him originally. And that's where those measurements come in. They're very important. Um, I went with bigger wheels, and bigger axles and it just changed it. So, what I'm going to do is now when I get some time, I'm going to make them fit. I think I've got a pretty good plan of what I can do, what I can get away with here.

So, Zach says these measurements are important.

Zach- They are important, but remember, they're not difficult measurements. These things are basic to get. Um, these things will help you get an idea of what's going on in your RV and why you need this so much. Cause you'd be looking at your tires, your wheels, your fenders, and you can see how poorly the fenders, well that I shouldn't call it a fender, that boxes that cover your tires, how poorly they're made and how great this thing would be there's no, well, well, many trailers, there's, there's no protection whatsoever. But the tires are looking at the bottom of the woods for, yeah, you know, some of them have galvanized metal, some of them have plastic, but it's just paper. When the tire shreds, it just shreds right through it, you know?

Eric- So now, you know, protecting the RV if someone were inside that RV for whatever reason, which you know, slim chance of that, but, or something in there, like an ATV. You know it could tear through that wheel well and cause damage to more than just the outside of the RV but the inside of the RV like if it was a toy hauler and you got your ATV sitting right next to it, you know, tied down.

Zach- Well, even more so than a lot of times of the refrigerators right there. A lot of times right there, you know, you've got gas lines around right there. So, if the tire goes through the floor and that propane line, that's a bad day for everybody. Right. Real bad day. And you know, these fenders don't think in your mind that the RV Defender is just a fender and it's been modified like he went to the store and bought a fender to make this thing work. These things are a hundred percent custom-made. They're powder-coated. They've got a super durable finish because of that. They're heavy-duty. There's a lot of thought that goes into it. While I was putting them on my train, I thought there were all sorts of things that could make this thing not work. And I'm thinking, man, these guys went through a lot to make it work.

Eric- The engineering side of it is phenomenal. And, you know, after not being able to get them on now, I'm determined to get them on. Cause these things are just so awesome. They've got to go on my trailer period. You know, that's just how I feel about it. And the quality is just unbelievable. And, you know, it's, I highly recommend that this is one of the products I've gotten excited about.

There's not a lot of products that come through the RV industry anymore that are really like, you know, earth-shattering, but this is one of those products. These guys should be proud of what they've done and what they've developed here. So, it's, you know, it's just one of these things you must have.

Zach- And if you're an RVer, you know about, or you know how I feel about, you know, maintenance, taking care of your RV, but also tires. Tires can't be trusted, you know, they blow out at random. They could be a tire that's two years old and it's going to blow out. And when it blows out, it causes thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.

And then you're stuck on the side of the road, trying to fix this stuff. And with the RV defender, man, you become the hero. You get out of the RV and your truck and look at the trail. Yeah, a little bit of damage tore up the plastic fender a little bit, but man, we're good to go. I'm going to throw my spare and we're going to keep going on our trip.

The holding tanks are intact. Everything's intact. Well, we're good. You get, you get the nail on the head right there. It's your spare tire and you're carrying a spare tire. The only reason you're carrying a spare tire is because you already know the tire is going to blow out.

Eric- Hey, isn't that one of the most profound things you've heard in a long time?

You carry a spare tire because you know, you're going to have a blowout. It's so real, you know, you think of it, you don’t carry a spare refrigerator. You don't carry a spare, anything else, you know, you know, the tire is going to go, so you're carrying a spare with you. And it's ironic because I always recommend carrying two spares.

Zach- Well, that kind of puts my four angles further. Yeah. You just can't trust the tires, man.

Well, any tire can blow out the best tire in the market if a pothole, you got, uh, some road debris. I mean, maybe it was just a bad nomination on the tire itself, you know, any tire can blow out and the trailers just simply are not built to take that hit. And so, we came up with a solution and we think we solved the problem.

Eric- And you know, Zach brings out some good points there about trailer tires. They're not designed to take the hit and they're not, they're not like a truck tire, you know, your pickup truck that you tow your trailer with. They can take a lot more abuse than a trailer tire can and trailer tires.

Generally, you know, they tear on the inside. So, it's not always visible unless the tread starts to separate, which you see on older tires. I mean, I would say 80 percent of the trailers, 70 percent of the trailers that come into my shop need tires, you know, that's how neglected tires are, and a neglected tire will blow out, but even a brand-new tire, you hit a pothole just right, and that's it, it's going to be.

You know, maybe a couple hundred miles before it starts to come apart or sooner, you know? So, yeah, it's a real problem. So, they always come apart at high speed when they're generating heat, and that's what, that's what's going to build, make the most damage.

Eric- Yeah. And you know, Zach, on your website, RVDefender.com, you have a little chart on there about some of the things RV Defender does.

Zach- It's going to protect structural damage. It’s going to contain the tires and all the debris from the tire. It's going to protect, you know, the, um, the underside of the, you know, it's called a wheel. Well, when, you know, you define it, it's not a wheel. Well, but that keeps all the rocks and stuff, road debris from hitting underneath there and eventually just destroying that and water and everything else.

So, it's a, it works to help protect that entire area. Even when you're not experiencing a blowout, it's just always there.

Eric- It's funny you say that, uh, I recently got a text message from a customer who sold his car to me earlier this spring, and he had a 4,000-mile trip this last summer, and uh, he was going through, I believe, Arizona, somewhere, uh, and they barely put down some new, new car on, in new asphalt on the road, and um, It was still, you know, it made a mess of his truck, but you got into this trailer and there was, the trailer was completely cool.

It was the RV defender that acted as giant mudflaps and that car got torn up underneath the trailer. Yeah. See, that's awesome. You know, that might not happen all that often as you travel, but you're run over rocks and dirt and stones and nails and things that fly up and cause damage to the underside.

Zach- That's one of the things about installing my thing man.

Eric- And so now a lot of people have, well, I do I've tried a tire pressure monitoring system, which is by truck systems technology, by the way, the best one on the market, but, um, now that's not going to help me. I mean it, right? It's just there. It helps me in some ways, but it's not going to help me with a blowout.

Well, we, you know, we, um, we encourage people to use TPMS sensors. We encourage people to get the best tires they can get their hands on. You know, we don't, we don't want to be a competition to, uh, the TPMS system. We want to be an ally for it. We want, we want to work together with them. Um, TPMS sensors are awesome.

Almost everybody has them on in their truck or car. They are great on trailers. But the reality is... I mean, if you're driving down the road, you instantly lose air pressure, you know, you're 65 miles an hour, that tires blown in the 10 seconds or 15 or 30 seconds, whatever it takes to be pulled over to the side of the road, the damage done like you can't, it's not going to stop it.

Zach- So. Right. Again, not a bad mouth, they worked phenomenally for like a slow week scenario, air pressure, you know, slightly over time. Great. I'll notify you. You probably dodged a bullet with that, but they don't work in every application and we're just trying to fill the gap that those, that those, that system leaves.

Eric- Right. You said something earlier about tires, you know, they heat up and that's where a lot of problems come in. Even TPS. Uh, systems, a lot of them will tell you the temperature of the tires, but they have an alarm that goes off probably usually when it's too late, if you have it set to tie high, then if the tire is heating up, you're going to have to stop and kind of figure out what's happening.

And if there's not something visible, you might just get back in and start driving and then, you know, 10 miles down the road, that tire can just blow out against or blow out, you know, and then there you are. So, it's really hard to gauge that. And that's where this comes in because it takes. You know, there's an unknown there, but it protects you from that unknown, you know, whether it's going to happen now or 50 miles from now or a thousand miles from now, that's it's there for you. That's the reality of it. If you just don't know, there's no weight.

Yeah, this is a very cool product. So, you know, I'm going to highly recommend you go to RV Defender.com. Check it out. Some pictures of it show it on trailers. So, you can get the visualization of this without seeing it.

It's hard to wrap your head around this. On how it works. Even if you see it by itself, you really must see it in the trailer. And there's a lot of pictures on the website. The website was just redone. Very nice website. It has all sorts of other information, data points that, you know, you might be interested in, but if you're not interested in the fine-tuning of the data, then you're just good information here to help you decide whether this product is for you or not.

So, I would say, uh, go to RVDefender.com, and Zach, what's the number everybody can reach you at?

Zach- Um, my number is #801- 603-7575

All right. There you go. Say that one more time. Just in case.

Zach- #801- 603- 7575.

Eric- All right. There you go. And that's his number. So, when you call, you're going to be talking to Zach, the owner of the company. And that's cool. So, you're going to get the best service possible. He has, he's going to have the answer to every question you could come up with for this product. Um, heck, you can probably make up questions. He'll be able to answer it. He knows it inside and out. And I've talked to him several times, you know, and I've, we've got a set.

And like I said, we want to make them work. This product is awesome. And it's, and it has the smart RV or seal of approval. So, you know, like I said, go to the website and check it out. So, Zach has been awesome having you on the podcast today. Hopefully, um, you'll get a lot of input from this and, um, RVers reaching out for a product like this, cause everybody needs it.

Whether it's in their budget or not might be a different story, but you must check it out and talk to Zach and see if he has a set for you. Anything you'd like to add? One last second here, Zach.

Zach- I think we covered it all. I appreciate the opportunity to do this podcast with you. Thank you.

Eric- All right, perfect.

So that's going to bring us to the end of Staying on the Road. So that was great hearing about RV Defenders, but now let's talk about the next stop. So, Alexis, where are we going to today?

NEXT STOP

Alexis- Well, this place is unique in the name of Mount Sneffles, Colorado. I just really like saying it. So, there's a lot to do there. Um, it's near a national park and it's just beautiful. So obviously you can go hiking. Um, there are so many different hikes. There are scenic drives. If you just like to drive, if you're a wildflower, uh, viewer, there is a ton there, there's a Yankee boy basin, um, and they're known for their vibrant. Wildflower bloom.

So, I'd say probably springtime, or it says midsummer would be the time to go camping and there are hot springs. Um, we're just talking about e-bikes. There they have places to go mountain biking so you can take your bike there. There are just endless things to do.

Eric- Yeah, there are a lot. Another one of these lists that goes a mile long.

Alexis- It does. There's camping. There's eating. There's jeeping off-roading. A bunch of stuff. That's right.

Eric- I wonder if you can get the sniffles at Snuffles. So that looks like a pretty awesome place to go. Plenty of places to eat, I'm going to say. Always. You know it. We must always cover this though because we think about it when we go somewhere.

Alexis-There's True Grit. Cafe in Ridgway, there's the Montagna Distillers in Crested Butte, and there's sushi if you like sushi, and in Crested Butte. So, lots of places.

Eric- Yeah, there are always good places, and food is part of the package, man. You must have good food.

Alexis- Yeah, there are a ton of RV parks nearby too. There's an amphitheater campground. There's Ridgway, the Ridgway State Park. Um, 5J RV Park in Montrose. Red Mountain RV Park in Silverton. I mean, just endless places to stay. So you have to go if you have an RV. Just go to Mount Sneffles.

Eric- Yeah, definitely. There's a lot to do there. There's a whole lot to do there. So that'll keep you busy for a week or two. So that's cool. So hopefully that whips your appetite, gets you to look at a map and maybe Mount Sneffles isn't where you're going to go, but someplace near, you're going to see something else on the map.

Hey, let's go here instead. You know, whatever you do, we're just trying to throw things out there, get you thinking about different places to go. Every time we do one of these, we always talk about where we want to go. I had a place to go, you know, or it reminds me of this place we talked about. It's all about getting around and moving around.

And um, sometimes RVs seem to. Only go in one direction, your favorite place, and that's it. Time to bust it out and find a new favorite place, right? Go on an adventure. If you're in Colorado, you got it right there in your backyard. Yeah. So now if you want to see more places where you can go with vivid photography and great articles, check out RV Destinations Magazine.

You go to their website, RV Destinations Magazine. com. It's a subscription magazine. But it is worth every penny you spend on it. I guarantee it, it is awesome. And one thing I forgot to mention earlier is to check out our coffee. Well, we have all sorts of stuff happening here. Yep. So, it's on our website.

It's called Camper's Coffee. It's a whole bean, three-blend type coffee. We have snowed in. We have cowboy coffee, and we have four Oh six, three flavors. And Alexis, how good are they?

Alexis- Oh my Gosh, I'm addicted.

Eric- See, there you go. These coffees are awesome. Everybody loves them. Yes. Just unique flavors and perfect for RVing.

RV ENVY

Good. Winter, summer, it doesn't matter. Alright, now that's going to bring us to RV Envy. Today we're going to talk about refrigerator door panels. Yeah, that seems bland. Refrigerator door panels, your refrigerator comes, well, it doesn't come with them. They're put at the time you buy your new refrigerator.

You know, if you don't know that, RV refrigerators do not come with door panels. You must buy them. You buy a new refrigerator, you know, they're going to ask you what kind of panels you want. The choices are a lot slimmer today than they used to be. And your RV might have wood panels in it that match the RV, the cabinets, or the walls or something.

And that's cool. You know, they look great. You just might want to leave them. Don't want to do anything with it. But you might have a newer RV and the panels might just be black, like Dometic refrigerators come with these black panels and almost look like a chalkboard, although they're not, and they're very expensive.

They sell retail for around 300. It's just ridiculous for what the price is. You know, I mean, no one's going to buy those unless they give them to you a dollar or something. So, we have a solution, and this changes it dramatically. So, this will be on the website, and it's on SmartRVPartsCenter.com and it is panels that we get made for you.

They're an eighth of an inch thick, and you can get them with dry erase on them, so you could have the refrigerator section as a dry eraser board with a nice border on it, or an image somewhere. You could leave notes for everybody. And then the lower section could be your favorite picture, family, or a place you've been.

It doesn't matter, or you could have it, whatever you could have a white background with a nice border, you know, blue background. These things are all custom-made with your artwork. So that's the key though, your artwork. We can help some, but we don't get into all the artwork because that just would raise the prices too much.

So, if you have a favorite picture or something you think that would be cool to replace your RV refrigerator panels, the door panels. We have the solution for you. So, these will be on TheSmartRVPartCenter. com, as I mentioned. So, you're going to want to check them out. Very awesome. We're going to have some pictures there of existing ones.

These things are cool, so you can custom-make them anyway. If you have grandkids you haven't seen in a while, you put a nice picture of them on there to remind you. So cute. Or if you're a parent and you have kids, you can put your kids up there to remind you to never have kids again, if I ever, you know, circle the lines or no, I'm just kidding.

So, you can have some fun with it, you know, and personalize your RV. And you can make it very personal that way. All right, Alexis, do you have anything to add to these door panels? I have nothing.

I want one though. They're pretty darn cool. If you have questions, go to TheSmartRVPartsCenter.com and you can use the ‘Contact Us’ page or call us.

Our number is 406-961-8688. And how you want to get ahold of us. No problem. We can help with this. All right. So now one more reminder is to go to YouTube and check out TheSmartRVer channel. We have plenty of videos there to help our viewers with their problems. Answer questions. These aren't like these.

Long drawn-out how-to videos that you're pulling your hair out at the end. These are short, sweet, to the point explaining how things work on an RV. Um, parts, accessories, things you want to buy, things you don't want to buy. Just cutting through all the garbage that you find on the internet or. Or hopefully, we are, we think we are, so that's our goal.

So that's going to bring us to the end of the show today. And this is, uh, oh, wait a minute. Next week we have episode number 136. We're going to be talking about RV furnace maintenance there. So, if we're Thinking about doing some furnace work on your RV or want to, or just want to learn a bit more.

OUTRO

Check you out in two weeks, episode number 136. Awesome. So, this is Eric Stark, and I want to thank you guys for listening today and sharing this podcast with your friends and family. So, it's been great hanging out with you. So, if I don't see you on the road, let's connect at TheSmartRVer. com.