Episode 188 – RV Awnings Made Simple: Patio Awnings & Slide-Out Toppers (What to Buy, Why It Matters, and How the Big Brands Compare)

In staying on the road today we're going to discuss RV awnings Made Simple, RV patio awnings and slide out toppers, what to buy, why it matters and how the big brands compare. And in enjoying the RV life, how many RV apps do you really need and which ones are actually worth it.

And in money saving tips, we're going to discuss the mud flap fuel app for RVers, how to cut diesel costs on every trip. And then next stop, we're going to take an adventure. Dark sky stargazing. This is going to be a road trip with four destinations.

And in RV Envy, we're going to talk about RV inverters demystified. How to choose the right brand size and features without the headache.

Hey everybody, this is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast and your trusted source for tips and insights to embrace the RV lifestyle without worries. Let's talk everything RV and today is episode 188.

So let's jump into this bad boy and have a wonderful discussion about RV maintenance, destinations and whatever else. It's all rv, right? So, hey, welcome to the show, man. We're going to have a good show today. Got some great stuff to talk about.

RV inverters, RV awnings, these things are everyday things. They're evolving on the world stage right now. They're changing. Changes keep coming. Even we're surprised by them sometimes.

Heck, even the people that work at Dometic are surprised by some of the changes that come. Hey, Carefree and Lippert and everywhere else. Because it's on a need to know basis.

It seems like we're talking confidential stuff, you know, Ah, just messing with you. But that's how it seems like sometimes the sales people at these companies don't know anything. We find out long after the fact.

It's an odd little deal, but we try to stay up and keep everybody informed. We are working on this constantly. The questions from RVers really help us.

Like the people that come in our store, they ask questions, they get us looking into things, doing research on stuff that, hey, we haven't heard of that yet. Where'd you hear about that? Well, I was someplace and I heard about it, you know, and it's kind of interesting.

Like this is a brand new thing, it's not even out on the market yet. How come you know about it before us? So you see, sometimes you guys have the leading edge in this, in this RV world that we live in.

But nonetheless, we're going to keep you informed. We got the info and we're going to share it, that's for darn sure. Let's just jump right into this and we're going to talk about enjoying the RV life.

And the question is, how many RV apps do you really need and which ones are actually worth it? So do you know what I'm talking about when I say RV apps? Not an app. You don't need an app app.

So these are the apps that you'd put on your phone, your tablet, you download them from the Google Play store, iPhone store, Apple Store, whatever it's called, and you put them on your phone or your tablet so you can control things in your RV monitor thing. Ultimately, let's talk about it. The RV app st can become very time consuming.

You're going to be tapping on that app more than you are going to be traveling. And you could have 50 to 100 apps on your phone or tablet. Let's just call it device.

But you know, I'm coming from these apps sometimes really help out making life easier. Not just RVing, but life in general. I mean I have apps on my phone, non RV related, use them probably daily. And I'm sure you do too as well.

And there's basic apps that come with the phone and we're talking about the ones you're going to download that are RV specific. So we're going to tackle this subject today.

Today there's dozens of apps, could be hundreds, you could have them all, you could pay for some, get free ones. But is it really worth it? Is it going to make life easier? Probably not.

Because realistically as an RVer and in the RV landscape is what we're discussing today, you could probably get by with 8 to 12 apps. Specifically RV related. Yep, that's just 8 to 12. You don't need to have 50. You could possibly even have 6 to 8 that are just your core app.

The ones that, okay, these are the ones I'm using every trip.

And the rest of them could just be ones that are more RV specific, like running controllers in the RV that aren't as essential but they're great to have. It might be a tire pressure monitoring system that you're only going to use while you're traveling.

And on that subject, a lot of tire pressure monitoring systems, I shouldn't say a lot like tst, you can actually get a display that can sit on your dash. So you're not using an app on your phone. Me personally, I have the display on my dash and that's what I like.

I've got enough stuff on my phone when I'm Traveling. I don't want to have my phone bumbling around. Just easier for me. Everybody does it differently.

Some people might not want that minimalistic, one less thing, the better, right? I look at it the other way and you know when you're using apps, you're going to run down your battery or frequently quicker.

And depending on the age of your phone, that might be a big thing. Where newer phones, the batteries stay charged much longer, so you get more life out of it. You want to check it, though, it's up to you.

But we're going to talk about these really. There's kind of a rule that's not written anywhere. It's not a rule of thumb. If you break the rule, you're not going to go to jail.

You're not going to be sent to Alcatraz prison. Not Alcatraz prison, Everglades Prison in Florida. It's just not going to happen. It won't be sent to Alcatraz either. One app, one. One function.

Basically look at your apps as maybe like lanes on a highway that, you know, each app has a function and it stays in its lane and that's how you want it.

So if you have one app, you can really narrow it down because usually an app that does multiple things in a lot of cases isn't going to be as helpful. That app might get doubled up into other apps and then you got two or three of the same apps.

So you might have an app for routing, you know, a GPS type thing. So it's turn by turn. And you're gonna have it set for RV Aware.

The app knows that you're driving an rv, so it's gonna look out for low overpasses, things like that, to keep you aware so you don't destroy it because you went someplace you shouldn't. In that rv. You might have an app for campgrounds, for boondocking, something like that.

You might have a fuel app like the Mud Flap bat, which I highly recommend you get. In fact, I'm going to have a link in our description for this podcast.

If you use the link to sign up for Mud Flap, you get a $10 credit, 10 bucks right off the get go just for getting a free app. Wow, that's awesome, right? In fact, we're going to be talking about Mud Flap next.

So you could have a weather wrap, something to give you, you know, the weather play by play. You could have something for road conditions.

You could have a checklist and maintenance and app, an app that's letting you know how well you're Connected. It's going to cover different things. Make sure your, your phone's working.

I mean, there's different things that you can have, and those are just some of them. That's kind of your road trip toolkit, if you will. So you got some apps that you're going to use on every road trip.

But then you might have apps that just control devices in the rv. Some of those apps could be very simple ones. They're going to control the thermostat in the rv. They might control the generator.

They might work for the bms, the battery management system in L Batteries. Your inverter might have an app. Your converter could have an app. Your solar controller can have an app. See how it can go on and on.

Tire pressure monitoring system. So these apps are not like as specific where you got to use them during a trip, like your lithium batteries.

If you want to check them, you can before you go on a trip, maybe when you get to your destination. But you don't have to keep monitoring that app. I say that because apps can become hobbies.

These can come really become really bad habits where you're more focused on all this junk on your phone than enjoying the rv. That sounds crazy, but it happens. Look at kids, how addicted they are to their phones. We don't need that addiction. Let the kids have it.

Let younger people enjoy that addiction. We don't need it. It's a bad habit. These apps are very handy. I have one for my thermostat. It's a micro air thermostat. Absolutely love the thermostat.

It's got an app. I like the app and that's a controller app. And that's really the only one I have for my RV at this point in time.

I have tire pressure monitoring system, have some other things, but as far a controller, that's it. But you might have more than that.

If you have an inverter, you'll probably have an app, which I can see that sometimes apps have more functionality than you can get off the product itself. Even an inverter with a remote control panel where you can see it in the rv. Sometimes they have a few more, but an app might have more.

So there's nothing wrong with having app. You know, they're a part of life today, but you don't need 50 of them. You only need what you need, right? So think about that.

It's a very simple thing. Get rid of the ones you don't use if you don't use them twice or, you know, if you don't use them for two trips.

You probably don't need that app, just get rid of it. Don't download it unless you're sure you need it and think about it before you download it.

Or maybe you have to download to try it, but if it's not working out, just get rid of it. And there's a lot of apps out there and everybody's pushing their apps on people. They push, they vie for your business.

But then again, you know some of these apps are going to chew up the battery time in your phone, your device, especially if they're Bluetooth ones. Your phone's going to constantly be looking for that item on the Bluetooth, trying to stay connected. That's a battery drainer, man.

That causes battery insanity. Or you're just going to be constantly thinking about your battery. Who needs it? Enjoy the trip. See what I'm getting at here?

Get the apps that you need. Use the apps that you need. Anything you don't use for two trips in a row, get rid of it. Okay. Very cut and dry, right?

That's a simple blueprint to get the apps you need. As always, this article will be in full on our website, which is much more detail than what I'm sharing here.

This is getting you thinking, getting your brain ticking in this direction. So now that wraps up enjoying the RV lifestyle and it brings us to money saving tips.

As I said a minute ago, we're going to talk about the Mud Flap fuel app for RVers and how to cut diesel costs on every trip. And you do not have to use it just on trips.

If you have the app, you can use it anytime you're filling up your diesel pickup car, whatever it might be. But a lot of RVers have diesel motorhomes. They're towing their trailers with diesel pickups.

In fact, there's more diesel pickups on the road today than I think there are gasoline powered ones. So this app can be indispensable to you. And it's free. And like I said in the description, there'll be a link.

You follow that link, you'll get a $10 discount or a credit on your first when you sign up and download the app, bam. You got you're saving money right off the get go. You see how that is? Money saving tips. We're here to help.

The Mud Flap app will cut your expenses on every trip you make. It doesn't matter if you have a diesel pickup or I mean a class A motorhome or a diesel truck.

If you're using 60 to 100 gallons per trip or per fill up, that's 30 to 50 cents off per gallon in real money. That's just a savings. It's not like they put it in some account somewhere or you're storing up credits.

That's just money right off you see it at the pump. That's spectacular. So what is the Mud Flap app? It's a free mobile app that you download to your phone. We just talked about apps, right?

Well, this is an important one. It's going to give you discounts on diesel fuel at large truck stops. Is a nationwide network and they're still expanding it.

And these guys have done a great job expanding it. And right now you can go to like TA Travel America, Petro Speedway, plus thousands of other places where you can use the app.

And I'm going to tell you, in some areas it's stronger than others. This company is still in its, I'm not going to say infancy, but it's a younger company. They are growing by leaps and bounds. They're keeping up.

They're having a hard time keeping up with their growth because it just, people love it. Businesses are coming to them. Hey, we want to, you know, use your app or be able to promote your app. So it's, it's awesome.

And everything's handled within the app. It is so cool. You can get a receipt in the app. Isn't that nice? Here's the deal. You save money with it and that's what's important, how it works.

It works easy. It's brainless. How do you save money with it? Because you just, it's saving you money. When you use the app to buy fuel, it's going to save you money.

Now if you took 70 gallons of fuel and you were to save 40 cents a gallon per, you know, per gallon, I should say that's 28 bucks right there. Saving $28 on 70 gallons of fuel or. Yeah, $28, that's great. Now you do that 10 times, that's $280. That's a big savings.

You know, on a trip you can fill up. How many times? I know when I travel, you know, I drive a four wheel drive with a V10 in it. I don't get good mileage, so.

And it's not a diesel, so this app won't help me. But you know, saving $280 on 10 Phillips, that's a day I'd be saving a ton of money. I need to look for another app, don't I? Mud Flap gasoline app.

My point is, even if Money. If that's just part of your trip, okay, we're going to spend this much on fuel, we don't like it, but that's just the cost of doing business.

Still, $280, that's money that can go towards the trip. That's money to buy souvenirs. That's meals out. That's a couple new pairs of pants. I don't know, it's whatever. Or it's just money you can put away.

Put that $280 into a reserve account and put it towards maintenance for your RV. Why not? Then that 280 bucks is there and it turns into 560 so forth.

And pretty soon you got all this money stashed away in your RV or an account to pay for repairs on the rv. Now, one thing that's nice about the app too, and this is what we'd consider a pro tip. You know, you can plan your stops in the app in advance.

You don't have to do it as you're going. So you could have multiple stops.

You could have backup stops in case you get to a station to fuel up and it's super crowded or it's not what you thought it was and you can't pull in there, your rig's too big, you don't feel comfortable, then you have a backup and you just go to the backup station and get your fuel. Really nice, right? But it's only focused on diesel, so keep that in mind.

This is a diesel intense app, so it's going to find you savings on diesel fuel, not gasoline. So the bottom, bottom line is the Mud Flap fuel app is a quick win for diesel RV owners. It works extremely well.

It's going to find those stations for you. It's going to save you some money. So for diesel power RVs, the mud flap app is one of the easiest, lowest friction ways to save fuel to save cash.

Well, to save cash on your fuel without changing your travel style. And that's what's nice. You're not going out of the way now. You're just saving money. And you know what?

You might not find a station everywhere you're going because like I said, they're growing. But still, you can save a lot of money. And you can look at their, their locations. They're on their website. They got a map with all their locations.

Everybody go to our website, the smartrverier.com or look in the description of this podcast and you will find a link to the Mud Flap fuel app. And like I said, you can save 10 bucks instantly just by downloading the app.

Now let's get into staying on the road and we are going to talk about RV awning. And we're going to make RV awning simple.

Patio awnings slide out toppers slide out awnings, what to buy, why it matters, and how the big brands compare. So I have been doing awnings for a billion years. Well, maybe not a billion. But you know what? I have something here in my hand if you're on.

If you're just listening to the podcast, you can't see it. And on the video it just looks like a big X. But right down here in the bottom you see an A and E. This is part of an extrusion.

They probably were 20ft long when they originally made these. They cut them down in these little bite sized pieces. It holds roller tubes for Dometic awnings. A and E Domatic. Bought A and E years ago.

Somewhere in the 90s, I believe. Maybe. Yeah, I think the 90s. I've been around a long time. You don't find these floating around anywhere.

In fact, I just got this one back from the powder coat shop. I spent some money, had it powder coated, two colors. Looks absolutely awesome. Yeah, that's right. I wasted my money on that.

But you know what, it looks really cool. Everybody loves it. Everybody seen it so far. Like, oh, that's awesome. What is it? But you know what? We're having fun, right? That's what it's all about.

We enjoy the RV lifestyle here at Highway 93, RV and the smart every year, podcast all the time. It's like we're always on a trip because we're dealing with RVers all day, every day. So, hey, what a life, right?

So here, let's get back to RV awnings. I've been doing awnings for a long time. I've installed thousands of fabrics. I've repaired thousands of awnings. Installed thousands of awnings.

I know the brands. I know what's good, what's bad. Sometimes I know more about the brands than the people that work for the companies that sell the brands.

Isn't that interesting? Find out the little details, the things that matter. That's enough about me and my expertise. Let's talk about you guys and how we can help.

So RV awnings do more than look good. They're not just eye candy, right? They have a function they set up or you set them up. They expand your living space. Protects the RV from the sun.

It keeps you cooler. Keeps the RV cooler. You can sit out there with sun shining, with light rain, not heavy rains. I say that, you know, cautiously. Don't say.

Well, Eric at the Smart rver podcast said I can leave my awning out in the rain. Eric never said that. Eric usually says roll your awnings up when it's raining just to avoid any problems.

Because a downpour, all of a sudden you leave your RV and the awnings down and the rain fills up on it, starts to puddle, destroys your awning. Eric didn't say that. Okay, awnings are pretty cool. They, they help you enjoy your RV much better.

But there's brands, several different brands out there. There's manual, there's electric. And we're going to talk about this today. Let's get into this a little bit more in depth here.

Why do RVs need awnings? And I talked about patio awnings, how, you know, they can lower the temperature inside, keep the sun off the rv.

It acts as an extended living space, which is really nice. Like if you go to Arizona, Florida, places like that, where people set up long term in the wintertime, those awnings become houses out there.

I mean, they add on so much stuff. It's amazing how many days it takes some of them to set up, days to tear down.

They've got plants, they've got lights, they've got refrigerators, they've got a microwave. They got everything under the sun because they're out underneath that awning all the time.

They're out there more than they are in the rv, which makes sense because it's roomier. You can see what's happening in the park around you or wherever you're at.

If you're at the beach, the ocean, the river, you can enjoy that much more because you got that visual and you'll, you'll meet people. You know, it's just a whole different vibe.

And it's actually pretty cool, you know, I mean, you go out for a weekend, you're not going to do that, but still, it expands your living space. You put out that awning, you bring out your chairs, your patio rug. You have some things out there.

It's much more comfortable rather than being stuck inside the rv. Sunny out, it's drizzling out. You got a nice place to be. Stretch them legs out. Now Slide out Topper fabrics. Everybody calls them slide out toppers.

Slide out awnings. Toppers came from Dometic originally. Slide out toppers. They have what they call their slide out awnings.

They keep debris and water and Stuff off the top of the slide room, that's their function, part of it that's built into it. But it's not really a sales pitch. Part of the sales pitches, it keeps water.

Like if your slide out seals are getting a little old, not in greatest shape, your slide room's older, it's not going in and out the way it should. Not squared when it's in out. That slide out awning is going to help keep some water from leaking into it.

In some cases, people take off their slide out awning fabrics, you know, it tears and they haven't got around to replacing it. It starts raining, they see how bad their seals are because they get leaks everywhere.

So that slide out fabric was totally protecting the inside of their rv. And that's great. Fixing those seals is even more important though, because if they're leaking water, they're leaking air.

So you're losing cool air, you're losing warm air, whatever it might be. So slide out awning fabrics or slide out toppers are basically preventative maintenance.

Solve problems before they happen or they reduce what can happen. So that's good. It'll save you money. They might cost a few hundred or $500, $600 to have them installed, $700, you know, they save a ton of money.

And replacing seals prematurely gets expensive. And it's hard to find seals on side rooms sometimes. Think of it that way, it's money saved even though you have to pay it up front.

Sometimes that's so hard to do. Especially like a slide out on in fabric, you don't get to use it.

And I've said this type of thing before where if it's like a new camera, you get to use it. A slide out on to look at like with your neighbor going, hey, ain't that cool looking? Oh yeah, that's cool looking. I got a cool looking one too.

Looks just like yours now. Oops, sorry about that. That was my A and E thing here. I just bumped it. Let's get into replacement here.

When you're replacing your awning, let's say you've damaged it, you're caught in the wind, somebody sideswiped your rv, whatever happened.

And it's time where the arms have to be replaced, the roller tube, the arms, everything's going to come off the side of the RV and you're going to put up the all all new. Do you have to go back with the same brand?

In fact, on the Solera Lippert's website they insist that their awnings are multi brand compatible. You know what do they mean by that? Is that the length of the arms. I know like Dometic has arm extenders. I think Solera does too to make them longer.

I remember installing the Solera 18 volt awnings arms on a Dometic awning. Or it kept the existing roller tube and you put on new arms. Well, the footprint of the arms changed.

The rear arm was now in a different spot, is off by a couple inches. So there's more holes in the side of the rv. Now in some cases that's not the end of the world because they're up at the top.

As long as there's not holes on the side where the arm was mounted, it's just at the top. It's not the end of the world. You know, you can deal with that.

But my point is not every brand of awning is going to go in the exact same place as the awning that you had. Regardless what the manufacturers say. Real life experience out in the field is going to dictate something different.

And it might not be off by much where you can cover the holes, but you might be drilling some new holes.

Like in a power awning, the arms that attach to the side of the rv, you know, they have a channel that goes down the RV and depending on where they put those holes or the, the rivets or the bolts when they installed it at the factory, it might not be the same on a new awning. They could be up or down 3 or 4 inches. Now the old holes are covered, it's not that. Right. And the old holes would be sealed.

Hopefully your, the installer would do that, would have enough scent. But it's not always going to be that way.

So what we like to do here at our store, Highway 93 RV, we like to go back with the same brand and style of awning if possible. If the customer is happy with it, they don't want to upgrade to something different or downgrade, we go back with the same thing.

It works out real nice that way. You don't have to worry about a thing. I mean, you don't have to worry about a thing. It's very nice.

And if you're having an awning installed, you know, that's sometimes easier when they tell you, yeah, we're just going to go back with the Dometic, we're going to go back with a Carefree with the traveler arms. It makes it easier. There's no guesswork. You're not worried about it. The technicians can just install it, no surprises.

And I'm not saying you have to do that, though. If you have a manual awning and you tear it up and you want to go electric, then you go electric.

And the manual awning will have brackets at the bottom of the arms, which I think it doesn't matter. You just leave the brackets there or take them off, put on your new arms, you move on.

And the new arms might not mount in the same place, but you know, you got a power awning and it's an upgrade.

Now, running the power to the switch or to the awning from the switch might be a little different story because that's all done on the inside and that's doable. It's always doable.

And if you absolutely refuse or don't want to do that, or the shops where you at don't want to do it, Solera makes an 18 volt conversion kit where you use your old roller tube or you can buy a new roller tube, but you can convert that on into 18 volts and it's battery powered, so there are no wires. Solera had some problems with batteries for a while. In fact, I steered away from those awning awnings completely.

But supposedly they have fixed the problem and their batteries are good to go. It's a great idea. I mean, I love it. The 18 volt and what else is cool? They won't tell you this. So is anybody watching? Listening here?

Okay, no spies in the room here. Everybody in the studio is cool. All right. The motors that come on Carefree and Solera awnings, for their power awnings, they're 12 to 24 volts.

An 18 volt awning by Solara, their 18 volt battery. That motor will take 12 volts up to 24 volts.

So if you get a Solara awning with the battery in it, after maybe a season, you think, yeah, it's okay, but it's really not what I want. I always forget to charge it. Or that little switch on the bottom of the arm, I broken that three times right now. Or by now.

And I mean, it's a cheesy switch. I don't know why they do that. It's just hokey fanoke. You're gonna break it. I mean, I guarantee you're gonna break it sooner or later.

And it's kind of a specialized switch, so maybe you decide you don't want to do that. Well, that awning can just be converted to 12 volts. Just run a wire from inside from a switch. You have to install a switch and run wire, of course.

But my point is it'll work off a 12 volt, not a big deal. The motor will work off 12 to 24 volts. That's carefree and Celera and their motors are unique to themselves.

A carefree motor will interchange with the Solera, but the Solara has a little nut on it that you can use to bring the awning in and out if, if you lose power, switch, brakes, wire breaks, something like that. It's a safety mechanism. So carefrees are done a different way. These are some of the ins and outs on the awnings and replacements.

What you can and can't do or should do. But you're not confined to the same awning. If you absolutely hate the brand of awning you have, you're like, man, I hate this awning.

I don't ever want this brand again. And you can go to something else. You're not going to go to jail for it, I guarantee it. And it won't be a problem.

You just have to buy the right replacement one.

If you're going from a Carefree to Dometic, you just want to make sure if there's any holes on the side of the RV from a power awning, that the new arms will cover them. Holes. And the holes can be sealed. Don't worry about that.

And when they're covered by an arm and they're sealed properly, it's not going to ruin the side of your rv. You shouldn't experience leaks. Not a big deal.

And you don't have to go with the same brand of awning as your air conditioner or your furnace, it doesn't matter. Go with what works for you. And some places will tell you that. Well, you got a Dometic air conditioner.

Don't you want to stay within the same ecosystem? Who cares? Just put on what you want. What's going to be your favorite flavor? Right? I think we've covered that.

Now, in the United States, there's four major brands of awnings. Dometic is. I'm going to say the first brand they're on. I don't know. Dometic and Carefree. I don't know when Dometic or an A and E started.

Both brands are absolutely awesome. Carefree and Dometic, their manual awnings, man, they are rugged, durable, they're strong, they hold up.

You know, I have like rebuilt awnings like Dometic Awnings, for example. There's one I remember in Arizona, this awning, the arms were chrome. Chrome was very rare. It wasn't a very popular thing.

And this guy had chrome arms, chrome caps on the roller, on the torsion assembly. Like, wow. And my helper calling, he's like, what is this? This is just an old Dometic awning, steel roller tube. A bunch of parts were broken.

We just used new parts. We didn't have to worry about it. That's what was so cool. We got that awning working again, like brand new.

And at that time, it was probably 30 years old, easy. That's amazing. No, it was probably 40 years old. I don't know. It was old. And same with Carefree awnings. We have revived old manual Carefree awnings.

It's with new parts, not finding used parts with new parts. Now, I'm not saying every awning Carefree and Dometic makes last forever. Some of them, they do away with.

Both companies have had some duds and they just kind of slowly, quietly phase them out, get rid of them. And unfortunately, you might be stuck with one of those or will be stuck with one. You buy an rv, it'll have one on there. You know what?

These arms were so thin down, cheapened. It is just a piece of junk. The brackets on the side of the RV broke all the time that held the arms in place.

But, you know, you can replace those arms and torsion assemblies and just go with 8,500 arms. Not a big deal. I mean, it's kind of expensive buying the torsion assemblies and arms separately. But you save the roller tube and the fabric.

And I've done a video on that. Now I'm getting a little sidetracked here. I'm just going in the history of Dometic and different things.

My point is, Dometic and Carefree are really good brands. Been around a long time now. Solera is a relatively new player on the block.

Their slide out awnings, when they originally came out, interestingly enough, came out the same time. Dometic was transitioning to a new style of slide out awning. And Solera slide out awnings look just like Dometic's old style or original one.

So it almost looked like they just bought the mold, the rights from dometic. Not 100% sure on that. The Solera power awnings, their arms look just like the Dometic power awning arms. There were subtle differences.

Some people didn't catch it and found themselves in a bit of a bind trying to use them, but there were subtle differences, but they had the same look. So Solera makes good awnings, though, don't get me wrong.

Now I don't really care for their fabrics anymore because they went to welded seams and welding, when it's done right and in the right application, I think is great. But Solera did it on their roller tube, and that one's just a turn off to me. They saved money. They don't hem the edges anymore. I don't like that.

But they still make good hardware. Just their fabric to me is not good. But they're okay. They're not the end of the world bad. Valerium is the newest child on the block.

Valerium is owned by Ericcel, which is like Suburban is a brand that Ericcel owns. So that's a very familiar brand. Suburban's made great products for a long time.

Valerium has only been around a few years and they're, you know, I don't even know where they're at in the original, like on new RVs, if they're on new RVs or if they're just trying to still find their way into it. I'm sure they're getting on some brands now looking at Valerium.

If you go to their website, especially if you have a Solera power awning and you go to Valerium's website, those awnings look identical other than branding on the power heads. And I remember seeing one at a trade show a while back and I Said something how identical it looked to the Lippert or the Solera awning.

And the salesman for Valerium, Suburban Air, Excel, whatever you want to call it, did not like that. It was kind of an interesting little interchange. And I wasn't really badmouthing. I was just saying it looks just like a Solera.

So they might be buying Solara, rebranding it, or who knows? It's kind of weird. The Lippert looked like Dometic and the Valerian looks like Lippert. Who knows, right?

There is one thing I'm going to say is absolutely awesome that Valerian makes. It's their power switch or a velocity switch for their awnings, for in and out. It's an add on. It's a hundred bucks. This thing is unbelievable.

I put it on my RV and my. I forget the numbers now I got it written down. I got to do a video. I've been swearing I'm going to do a video and I haven't.

It changes how fast the awning goes in and out. I mean, it's like twice as fast in, twice as fast out. Going out is not as big of a deal.

But coming in, when an awning drags, coming in, especially if it's windy, you want to get that sucker in, or it's raining and you're afraid it's going to just start pouring down rain or whatever it is you need to get your awning in and you're just sitting there like, you know, gosh, should I go out, put a turkey in the oven. It's going to take that long. Well, that velocity switch, boom. It's in there half the time. It is sweet. Or better. Absolutely love it.

So if you've got 100 bucks you want to spend on an awning switch to extend and retract your awning, go buy a Valerian velocity switch. Amazing. Now, by the way, I don't get any money for selling that. It's just what I do. Right? Giving you guys a good tip here.

Why these four brands of awning? You know, why these, why am I talking about these for. For one thing, they're used by the OEMs, the original equipment manufacturer.

Now, I did tell you, valerium. I don't know who's using them, but I'm sure somebody is. They're owned by Air XL.

They sell a lot of stuff to the OEMs and they're in the national distribution network. So that means all the distributors that sell to RV stores around the country carry them. It doesn't mean all the stores do, but they have access.

So if you need a valerian awning, they can get it. You need a valerian fabric, so forth. I think you get the picture here. Now what's important about these four brands are, is their availability.

Now if we look at some of the other brands on the rv, the RV market, whether it's just a fabric or a complete awning, if it's not Dometic, Carefree of Colorado Solera or valerium, you're going to have a hard time getting parts in most cases and you're going to be buying a lower quality product that is going to be made cheaper, it's going to be made with less material. So the arms could be weaker, the motors could be weaker, the plastic could be lamer. You know, plastic is lame anyways, right? Is lamer or worse.

It's not going to be as good. It's not going to have the UV inhibitors that it's going to need because they don't care. It's a low grade awning, low grade materials.

And I don't think we realize, or some of us or consumers realize sometimes how bad quality can get.

When you go to the Jungle website and you buy a circuit board and it's $17 and your local RV store has it for 129, don't you think there's something wrong there? Do you really think the store is paying like $17 and selling for $129? Absolutely not.

The store is paying a lot closer to the 129 for it than they are the 17. Do you think the distributors that selling the store that part is paying $17 for it? Absolutely not.

Their cost is probably 20 to 30% higher than what they paid. So the dip. So the dealer is going to pay a little bit more than they mark it up. It's distribution, it's two step distribution the way it works.

And you find the same size awning that you think has the same options and it's $1,200. There's something wrong with that pitch. And I'm telling you this, not you know, for one thing I'm in the industry and I know how it works.

I mean I've been in other industries, I know how things work and I've been in all sides this, I've been a manufact I've been a distributor, I've been in parts service. I've seen it all. I know people, I've never worked at a dealership where they sell RVs, but I know how that process works.

I know people who have done it, they've explained it to me. And there's a difference. There's always a difference. So when you buy the low quality, low price stuff, like I've said, it's self inflicted inflation.

I wonder if I can get like Webster's to take that term and give me credit for it or Wikipedia or something. Self inflicted inflation. You save money up front, but you lose money down the road. Right, right. Don't buy the cheaper awnings.

And I've seen some that are dirt cheap. Man, I just. Unbelievable. In fact, we don't even install complete awnings if they're not one of the four major brands. Because of the problems.

There's no warranty that we can do for the customer. Then if there's a problem and it goes bad, you know, the motor quits a day after the installation. It becomes our problem.

And the company doesn't exist because it's a jungle company. It makes it really difficult. And if you can track them down, will they really warranty it? Will they take care of it?

Are their fabrics going to last as long? I've seen fabrics, these low quality fabrics, 150 bucks. I've seen where they've lasted a year. I've heard customers complain about it.

They don't come with the beads in it. They tell you it comes with the poly cords. You know, it slides in the awning rail, but you got to put it into the fabric.

And how they put it in the fabric sometimes is absolutely mind boggling. Buy the good quality stuff, don't skimp. You're not going to save any money. Okay, now I beat that drum a lot. I'm sorry.

I see it so often and I know on the jungle website they sell things that you can't do just find in stores sometimes. I get it. But on these purchases, if you want to last, buy something good now. Electric awning versus manual awning, there's pros and cons to both.

I mean, some people that have power awnings absolutely hate them and wish they had a manual awning. And some people with manual awnings absolutely hate them and wish they had a power awning. Are we ever happy? Probably not. So the pros of electricon.

It's one button. You press it in, you press it out, it's great. If you're by yourself, you want to just set up your campsite quicker.

For taller RVs where that awning is up much higher, that electric awning can be really nice. And you can put wind and rain sensors on a motion sensor so it comes in by itself when it detects the wind speed is too high.

Those things are kind of nice, you know. Carefree has one like that. Dometic does Solera, I think, think might valerium. I'm not even sure valerium is still too new. I don't.

Don't really see them, but you know, they're out there. But anyway, power awnings definitely have their place. You know, I'm kind of torn.

I like the convenience of a power awning, but I like the durability of a manual awning. There are some cons to power awnings and there's more to break. The motors go bad. Control boards, if they have one, Wiring a switch can go bad.

They're good arms, but they have their weaknesses. Like if that fabric gets really tweaked out of shape and it's out of shape for too long, those arms might never come back.

If you hit an arm and it moves the awning, let's say you hit the front arm really bad and you tear it up. The rear arm is tweaked a little bit, but it goes back into shape. It might not really work properly, but there's.

Their front arms have a tendency of popping out at the bottom over time. These are power awnings. These are some of the things that go with it. Manual awnings, well, we'll get to that in a sec.

The cons too is if your battery goes low, the awning is not going to work properly or it won't work at all. They can be heavier in some cases and they cost more, that's for sure. Power awnings all have a safety mechanism.

How to bring them in, retract them in case of emergency. If your battery dies, you need to bring the awning in or something goes wrong with it. Dometic. Well, actually, Solaris is the best.

You just get a cordless drill and you put it on top there. A little plug on the cap. You put the cordless drill on there and it just sucks. That bad boy in Dometic has an allen wrench or an allen screw.

You loosen that up and the awning should work. But no one knows about it. No one knows you have to have a strap in the roller too. No one knows that. I don't even know if people at Dometic know that.

I'm just kidding. Dometic and then carefreeze, you have to jump some wires on the back. The last I've seen, which is okay.

If your battery's dead, that becomes a problem. You got to get some auxiliary power. It's getting up there. You can get behind it. Okay. Solaire is just the best for that.

So there's pros and cons to the power awnings. And you might look at like, yeah, you know what, I'll always be able to get my awning in. I'll figure it out.

If I have to cut the fabric off, that's what I'll do. Now manual awnings, I've never heard of one where someone couldn't retract it. I mean, sometimes I've heard them rolling it up manually.

Wow, what a hassle that is. But they, they work very well. They're spring assisted springs on both ends inside the roller assembly. They work nice.

They're just kind of that bulletproof, robust type of product. They're very serviceable with basic tools. It doesn't take any real expertise. Sometimes aligning them can be a little bit of a chore.

You have to kind of get that in your head. But most people can figure that at least enough to make it work.

The cons to them, there's a little bit of a technique sometimes for bringing them in and out, depending on your rv, like that strap to pull them out. It really needs to stay in the middle. And I see people like to bring it up to the front where the lever is.

Bad move it throws the awning out of alignment, then creates another products you have to bring in manually. So you can't just like walk away from it. Expect your awning to go in. So that's the cons.

The pros are they're lower cost, less money to buy to replace, and they're durable, they're very rugged. They're kind of the best of both worlds in a way. It's up to you though.

And depending what your RV came with, if it came with a power awning, eh, I'd be inclined to just leave it like my RV has a power awning. I know manual awnings are better, but I just leave it on there, what the heck. And I know how to work on them. You guys do too. We're the smart RVers.

You have a volt meter, you have basic tools, you're good to go. Besides that, you can always call me if you're stuck someplace and I will walk you through it.

The brands, the awnings, they all have their differences. Some people are just die hard carefree of Colorado owners. Some people are die hard Dometic.

I have a preference towards dometic awnings, but I like carefree fabrics. You know, carefree does make a good product. They're a good company. Lippert I think is, you know, the Solera side of it is a good company.

I just really don't like their fabrics anymore. That's my complaint there. And valerium, they're kind of like Lippert. So it's, eh, whatever. So take your pick guys, but pick what you need.

Don't get caught up in, I don't know, gimmicky sales tricks. Buy what's in your budget and what will work on your rv.

If you're replacing your RV or your awning, you know, the whole thing, then go back with what you know will fit right. If you're going with the fabric, make a good decision. Don't buy cheap quality fabrics. You will regret it.

So basically, if you're going to do it, pick the style you want. Do you want power or electric? You know, do you need electric or manual work for you? I said power and electric. I meant power and manual.

If power is what you need, go with power. If manual work, and that's what you want to do because you don't use your awning that much, it doesn't matter. Then stick with manual.

Can you get support? Can you get parts from the brand of awning you want? Now that's a major thing. Now Dometic and Carefree parts are very accessible.

Solara is growing quickly and eventually Valerium. Well, because they're American brands, they stores can get these parts easier. So they're more inclined to carry them.

They're going to be on more RVs where the off brands, low quality stuff, you're on your own basically.

So keep in mind though, when you have an awning, regardless what brand it is, besides slide out awnings, you leave those out pretty much all the time because they're designed to cover that slide room and they can withstand the wind, rain, whatever. Bring that awning in when it's windy, if it's high winds, bring it in, clean it and dry it. Don't roll it up wet. Wet awnings stay wet.

They don't dry and they'll get mold in it. Mold ruins the fabric quicker. Water does keep it dry. Inspect your arms, everything you can see on the outside, and wash it with soap and water.

And if you feel you need to lubricate it, use a hundred percent silicone. Do not use any type of WD40 or a lubricant like, it will attract dirt, dust and make it worse.

Generally soap and water or even a wash wax, you know, liquid wash wax. That will work great on the arms and just dry them out.

The mechanisms where they slide and move, keep them clean and they'll always work like a new awning. That I can promise you. Now, on the website, we're going to have more information about this. We're going to have a frequently asked questions section.

There's a ton of information.

We get tons of phone calls from people, service centers, mobile techs, consumers, trying to figure out their awning situation. What's available, what isn't available. How come I got this from this company and you're telling me you're awning? This is what you'd sell me.

That's better. How come yours will work and theirs won't? You know, we get it all the time. We know awnings and we stay on top of it.

In fact, I was talking to someone at Dometic the other day and they're like, really? Our fabrics are like that? No way. Yep. How long you been working at Dometic? I've been here over 10 years. You know, we knew more than they did.

Now, I'm not saying that's always the case, but they were surprised at what I was telling them. So we beat that dead horse. Now go to the website, more information like, like always, the full article. Now let's go to the next stop.

Now, this one is pretty darn cool. Dark sky, stargazing. Road trips. Yeah, that's right. Road trips, plural.

So it's going to be four must see destinations and now the next stops for the next. I don't know how many episodes yet? But it's going to be probably, I don't know, eight of them, maybe six of them.

We're going to have little bit different next stops.

It's not going to be the same kind of next stops we've been doing because typically we talk about these destinations like, you know, going to Arizona and then we did Arizona in the wintertime, going to Southern Arizona. Then we did last episode187 was about the states you'd go the places during the wintertime.

Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico. So we're gonna go to different places that are more. They're different. They're places to see in the wintertime. Like what we're going to talk about.

Now, these must see four destinations for stargazing. Basically, these are the types of places you can park the rv, you can park the car, you can turn off the lights and let the stars do the talking.

Right. And why are we doing this now? Because winter is different. Stargazing.

It gets darker early, the air is crisp, it's dry, there's not as much wind, there's fewer people. And actually the stars, you can see more of them longer. So now's the time. So we have some target destinations here.

We're going to go from west to east. Capitol Reef, Utah, Great Basin, Nevada, Chaco, New Mexico, and Big Bend, Texas. So what we're looking at here is something that's totally different.

Now, some of you might be stargazers. You might be thinking, yeah, he's on to something and now he's off by a mile.

No, it's just something different, especially if you live near one of these places or you're just looking something to do this winter time. Maybe you want to take the rv. Maybe you just want to go get a, you know, an Airbnb, whatever and go look at the sky park.

I mean, I've lived in places where you like here in Montana, you can see the stars at night. It's amazing. Like when the aurora is doing stuff, I mean, you look up like, man, it's incredible. It's really interesting.

Now, Capitol Reef, Utah, that's where we're going to start. That's an official international dark sky park. Have you ever heard of that? An official dark sky park. It has what they call near pristine skies.

So you can pull off on a scenic road there before sunset.

You can get yourself kind of set in, comfortable, get yourself, if you're in a car, get yourself unpacked, you know, do what you're going to do in an rv, the same thing. But remember to let your eyes adjust to everything.

And sometimes using red flashlights or headlamps, it's better for darkness to see certain things and you're not as visible. But red headlamps or flashlights, you can get them online. They're definitely out there. And then also let your eyes adjust to the darkness.

You have to let them maybe 20 to 30 minutes. So don't just like jump out of your car and look up or your rv and it's not going to work like that. Let your eyes adjust. Capitol Reef, Utah.

That's our starting point. Now we're going to go Great Basin, Nevada. So that's going to be west of Capitol Reese.

Great Basin, as they say, is the home to the darkest skies in the lower 48. Can see the Orion, Galaxy, Pleiades, the glitter of it, and the Andromeda. There's things you can see there because it's so dark.

And you can take phones, you can actually, I mean, phones, photographs, pictures. You can use a phone with that if your phone has the right app. We talked about apps, right? There are phone apps that work very well.

Even the app on your phone might work very well for it. I've taken some pictures of the night skies with a iPhone. They came out pretty good.

Not as good as using a regular camera, especially one designed for doing that, but they came out good. Great Basin has regular astronomy programming and helpful tours and things to help you enjoy those dark skies at night.

The Great Basin in Nevada might be a place to go. Put that on your list. And now we're going to head south or southeast to Chaco, New Mexico. Now, Chaco, New Mexico is kind of a unique place.

Again, it has the dark skies now it's got more that ancient feel to it, because a lot of places in New Mexico do, because the Indian culture and the ancient Indians and it's just a unique place. And the Chaco culture has used the stars and the skies to align their homes and do certain things. So it just has a different vibe to it.

But there is something you need to be careful of.

A lot of the approaches to the areas where you go watch stars, dirt roads, and when it's wet, it can become nasty, muddy, soupy, and you don't want to get stuck. So keep that in mind. If you have an RV over 35ft, you're probably not going to want to go perusing those roads.

Even over 30ft, you might find yourself regretting that. But their night skies are awesome. In the National Park Service and Recreation.gov have documented them, how great they are. Another place to go.

We're going to finish this up going to Big Bend, Texas. There you have an RV park, gold tier dark sky RV park or a park. I said RV park. Whenever I see park I always saw an RV in front of it.

So it's in the greater Big Bend International Dark Sky Reserve. All these words. So it's the world's largest dark sky reserves. It's huge. It's got the dark skies.

It has one of the darkest skies in the national park system in the United States. So you can camp in your rv, you can step outside of it, let your eyes adjust and you can see the Milky Way. You can see all sorts of stuff.

The sky's the limit. I've been waiting all day to say that. These places you can go to their websites.

We'll have again the information on our website with much more information, greater detail. You know, they're great places to go and some of the future ones like a 189, we got some great suggestions too.

So we've got a whole bunch of these we've stacked up and now we're going to share them in, you know, bits like this for the the winter time.

But now if you're going to do this, there's some gear you're going to want to need like the red headlamps or red flashlights, you know, want camping chairs, which you probably already have. A star chart, whether it's electronic or paper. Paper might be better because the light of your device might mess things up a little bit.

Binoculars, you don't want any white light around you, including your phone screens. Something hot, you know, enjoy it. Snuggle up and watch the sky, right.

I remember as a kid we used to hang out in this park and there's a swing set and I was pretty young and be sit on top of it. It's like one of those movies with the kids interrupt they're talking about our lives in the future.

All these great things we're going to be doing and our accomplishments and looking at the stars. Stand by Me is a movie I'm thinking of with the kids. You know, real philosophical stuff for like an 8 year old. But you know, it's pretty cool.

You sit there and look at the skies and it's just amazing what you can see. Especially if you're just numb to reality around you. Just pay attention to it, you know, it's great. More information will be on our website.

Like I said. So it's basically four parks One sky. And it's the same stars all of civilization has seen from ancient times to current.

So now it's your time turn to check it out and enjoy it. Now that brings us to RV envy.

We're going to talk about RV inverters and we're going to demystify, I guess the secrecy around them or the unknown because we hear it all the time, people trying to choose them, the prices, it's confusing the brand, the features, and it becomes a headache. So we want to remove the headache. So we're like your Bayer aspirin. We're going to help you get rid of that headache.

And it's like always, you know, we do the deep dive research.

If we don't already know that, you know, what we do deep dives on, even when we know the subject, we still dig into it more because we learn more and then we can explain it better. Sometimes we know stuff, how it works, but explaining is different. Like working on an RV versus talking about it. Totally different.

The question sometimes is how come your inverter that you're selling me is fifteen hundred dollars and I can get one online from this company and it's only $500. I've already beat that horse, right? It's the quality. What's the difference? It's the quality.

So we get asked that question and you try to go through and explain to them. And sometimes, well, that's what this inverter has. Well, this inverter has a transfer switch. This inverter does this, this inverter does that.

And you know, it seems like a lot of the lower price inverters boast more features, but I don't think the features are always necessities. They're just features. There are things like to hook you to buy it and they probably don't even work for as long as the inverter.

Maybe will they die off. Like this feature stops working, that light quits blinking.

And maybe it's not fundamental for the, the function of the inverter, it still inverts, creates the 110 volts that you need. So the quality is going to dictate or the, well, the price, I guess the more expensive they are better. And that sounds crazy, right?

You know, we're always told, don't buy it just because it's the most expensive, but in this case the more expensive, I'm not saying the most expensive, but more expensive ones are usually better. Now I just talked to Go Power yesterday and I talked to someone there in their technical department.

And he explained to me that verter is actually going out the door. It's being replaced by a lesser priced one, lower priced one to be more competitive with Xantrex and some of the other brands out there, victron.

That thing is one of the ones that, you know, you drive your motorhome off a 400 foot cliff, besides the propane tank, that inverter is going to be the only thing left. You'll be dead, but your converter or inverter will still be working. So heck, you can leave it to your kids, right?

They're coming out with a less expensive model, but it's going to be more in line with the Victron or some of the Xantrex or whatever brand you have. But it's going to be a quality inverter.

Just these things are expensive to make and when they make them right, it takes money and you know, money takes research and development. So there's a lot that goes into it. So when you're buying, let's say a Victron inverter, a multiplus, you're spending some good money for it.

The part number is the part number. And Victron makes great products. So when you're looking at this, don't always just look at the price. I've gotten really sidetracked on this.

I don't know what happened here. So now let's just look at the inverters. You can get a simple DC to AC inverter.

That's all it's going to do is just turn DC into AC or 12 volts, 110 volt and then you're going to, you know, sometimes just plug an appliance into it. You might wire it into your RV to one or two outlets. It's pretty basic, so it's not going to charge your batteries.

It's not going to be a transfer switch. When you plug into shore power it turns off. It's not going to do any of that basic.

Then you can get an inverter charger that's going to charge your batteries, your 12 volt batteries. When you're plugged into shore power, it's going to have a built in transfer switch.

So when you plug into shore power, it automatically turns off and goes to shore power. So you're not doing both and blowing out your system or the RV park. Then there's hybrid inverters.

They can kind of blend the, the inverter power along with shore power, give it a little extra boost or generator if you're having problems. Those are not nearly as common RVs, but they are out there. And then also 50amp RVs. With a 50amp service you need to buy a split phase inverter.

You can't buy just a basic DC to AC or a basic inverter like a 30amp service, different animal. So if you have a 50amp RV and you want to be able to power up all 50amps, you know, both breakers keep it original.

Basically like plugging into shore power, you need a split phase inverter, otherwise you're only gonna be powering up 1/2 of the or giving it half the power I guess you might say. It's not the way to go. It's not going to be like plugging into 50amps, that's for sure. So you can do it, but it's not the coolest way to do it.

So get a split phase inverter and some people will tell you no, you just got to buy two inverters and run and split the power to each one. That's not the right way to do. Well, you can do it that way, but that's not the best way. Split phase inverter.

There's pure sine wave, modified sine wave. Forgot what the other word was. Pure sine waves, like the gold standard modified sine wave. I don't even think there's a lot of use for them today.

I mean there's an application form, but the power that comes out of a pure sine wave is more like what's going to power your, your laptop. Your cpap. It's a better, cleaner electricity. The sine wave is different. It's much better. Just go with that.

Unless you really want to power everything up. It depends on what you're doing, whether you want to power a few outlets or the entire rv, run your microwave on it.

Air conditioner is a different animal because of the batteries that's required to do that. The storage of 12 volts to convert to 110. But it's very doable.

24 volts is another option for inverters converting, you know that's get converted down to 12 to charge your batteries. But it can be done. When you're buying your inverter, don't just well I want an inverter. What do you want to do? I don't know.

Think about why you want an inverter. You might even realize you don't need an inverter. You just want to run your microwave for 20 minutes a day to warm up up a couple meals.

Why do you want 110 volts for a cup of coffee? To blow dry your hair to power up the entire rv.

So no matter what you do, you can just run the microwave, you can blow dry your hair, turn on the coffee maker, you can do whatever it is you want to do. Just like you're plugged into shore power, then that's great.

Then figure out your appliances, what kind of wattage they use and then determine the inverter you need. And you want to go a little bit bigger. You know, don't just buy if you why I'm going to use, you know everything at the same time.

And don't buy the wrong one thinking it's going to work. Do your research. Talk to people that understand inverters where they can walk you through it so you buy the right stuff to begin with.

The right inverter, does it have a remote dis you can control it from inside the rv. What kind of draw is it using when it's just idling, not doing anything? Is it going to kill my batteries?

And I'm not plugged into shore power and I don't have solar, which hopefully you do have solar. I would recommend that if you don't choose the right one. I know this article, you know, we're selling it as this is going to help you.

I'm just going through some bullet points here on our website. We got the full banana. So check out the website, the smartrver.com. we got a complete article there.

I'm kind of cut a little bit short here because we were going over. I'm trying to get these podcasts reduced in time but man, I just can't shut up, can I just yak, yak, yak, yak.

So hey everybody, as a reminder, we're coming to the end here of the show. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Spotify, go to our YouTube channel, watch our YouTube video. Subscribe there like us. Do all the good stuff, stuff.

Build us up, sell us or share us with your friends. Let everybody know about us. We got a great channel. You guys are great support for what we're doing here.

We truly appreciate you tuning in and listening to our shows and watching them on YouTube. We've come to the end here, everybody. This is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast.

Your go to guide for smarter RVing and unforgettable adventures on the open road.