Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Landia,
Speaker 1: our production of I Heart Radio. We sold are oft
Speaker 1: in Chicago, moved into an r V in our job
Speaker 1: in the country full time with a dog, Finn, exploring
Speaker 1: American's national parks. Welcome back to Boon Docking with Brad.
Speaker 1: Today we're going to go over the essentials. What does
Speaker 1: this mean? The essentials the things that don't come with
Speaker 1: your r V that you thought probably should have. UM,
Speaker 1: that's what I thought at least, but they don't. UM.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna be talking about things like sewer hoses,
Speaker 1: water hoses, dump poses, you know, all the different kinds
Speaker 1: of tanks and things like that. But first thing you
Speaker 1: probably have to start off with because you really want
Speaker 1: to protect your asset, which is that r V. Is
Speaker 1: when you um hook up, you're hooking up into thirty
Speaker 1: amp or fifty amp electrical ports on the outside. There
Speaker 1: are specific surge protectors for thirty AM and pick ups
Speaker 1: that you want to use us because this will protect
Speaker 1: your RV from having a surge into the r V
Speaker 1: park just in case there electrical isn't great. You want
Speaker 1: to protect your asset or otherwise it'll just be sitting
Speaker 1: and they're getting warranty work done or you'll have a
Speaker 1: big bill if you don't have a warranty and you
Speaker 1: don't want that one on the road. So this little
Speaker 1: fifty eight tool really makes a difference. But going from there, UM,
Speaker 1: I thought that water hoses and dump poses would come
Speaker 1: with us. But I guess it's good that they didn't
Speaker 1: sell me a used dump pose, right, because that's just weird.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's already bad enough when you have to
Speaker 1: deal with the dumps, uh and those tanks and everything
Speaker 1: like that. Uh. So these dump poses basically hook up
Speaker 1: to your r V and what it is is you
Speaker 1: have two tanks that come from your r V. You
Speaker 1: have your Black tank and you have your Great tank,
Speaker 1: and then they going onto one hose and that hose
Speaker 1: goes into the ground where you dump your stuff. Every
Speaker 1: r V park, almost every r V park has full
Speaker 1: hook ups, but there's some that don't, so you might
Speaker 1: have to use a dump station and things like that.
Speaker 1: But we'll talk about that in another episode, UM as
Speaker 1: we dive more into this RV living and what that
Speaker 1: actually entails. So basically, you have your black tank and
Speaker 1: your Great tank. When you get those sewer hoses, you
Speaker 1: cook them all up. It's all good. You're gonna pull
Speaker 1: your black tank first because this is your bodily fluids.
Speaker 1: This is more of like these um, you know, feces
Speaker 1: and things like that, and so you want to dump
Speaker 1: those first, so that way, when that hose it goes
Speaker 1: through that hose and into this the ground. You know,
Speaker 1: you take care of that first. Then you dump your
Speaker 1: great tank, which is like your washwater, your shower water,
Speaker 1: things like that. It's more clean. It's called gray because
Speaker 1: there actually is like a grace tint to it, because
Speaker 1: you know, there's dirt that you're washing off and it's
Speaker 1: going through your systems. But you do this in this
Speaker 1: order because that water will then go through that hose
Speaker 1: and it will kind of clean it out for you,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to spend a lot of time,
Speaker 1: um cleaning out that hose at the end to something
Speaker 1: that Matt does not do. Ah, he will not do it,
Speaker 1: And that is absolutely fine because I don't blame him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: not my area of expert. But that's why you're going
Speaker 1: over boondocking with Brad with me. I'm learning from boon
Speaker 1: docking with Matt, right, Yeah, I know, maybe this was
Speaker 1: just more subconsciously a lesson for you so you could
Speaker 1: help me out more. That's not gonna happen, I know,
Speaker 1: but that's absolutely fine. UM. So basically, once you're done
Speaker 1: with that, you're gonna want to make sure you always
Speaker 1: close your black and your great tanks after you're done dumping. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's because otherwise it will be like the Santa
Speaker 1: Fe issue, which we're gonna talk on of the next
Speaker 1: boon docking with brand and that we keep on teasing
Speaker 1: you with because it gets nasty. Water hoses, Um, you're
Speaker 1: actually gonna want to You're gonna want one to hook
Speaker 1: up to your r V to put feed water into
Speaker 1: your r V, and then you're gonna want in a
Speaker 1: day after for that one that will go into your
Speaker 1: boon docking tank. So basically you have an extra tank
Speaker 1: where you can put water in there if you want.
Speaker 1: If you know that you're gonna be on the lamp
Speaker 1: for a few days around the road for a few days,
Speaker 1: boon docking overnight without any hookups, you're gonna make sure
Speaker 1: you have water in there so you can still use it. UM.
Speaker 1: But the second hose is your cleaning hose. And so
Speaker 1: that is the hose that you're gonna want to use
Speaker 1: to clean out your sewer hose. And that's because when
Speaker 1: you're doing these different activities, you don't want what you're
Speaker 1: drinking out to clean up your feces. Every r V liver,
Speaker 1: every r V traveler will know that this is super important, UM,
Speaker 1: and we all talk about it when I'm going to
Speaker 1: When I was in Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta UM last year,
Speaker 1: I was talking to people about dump tanks and great
Speaker 1: tanks for like days because it was just you know,
Speaker 1: there's ways to make sure that there's proper hygiene when
Speaker 1: doing this, like always wearing gloves when for you're working
Speaker 1: with your black and gray tanks because you don't want
Speaker 1: those to get on your hands and things like that. Right,
Speaker 1: I mean pieces seem madd He was just like right
Speaker 1: and like just yeah, um, when you buy your r
Speaker 1: V at the beginning, you're not gonna have any betting,
Speaker 1: any towels, um, some window coverings or r vs don't
Speaker 1: come with window coverings, uh, and things like that. So
Speaker 1: the things that you think are really basic you need
Speaker 1: to look for when you're buying r VY. Do they
Speaker 1: come with this? Do I want someone else's use sheets
Speaker 1: if you're buying it used, you know, where do you
Speaker 1: find these things? Because ours is a queen size short
Speaker 1: with a flip up. Our bed takes specific sheets and
Speaker 1: bettings that you can't find at Walmart. You know, you
Speaker 1: have to actually order these from Amazon or go to
Speaker 1: camping World and find these different objects and things because
Speaker 1: of the way that they're sized for an RV. Something
Speaker 1: that Matt always throws in my face his DVD collection. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what happened. When we first got on the road, I
Speaker 1: was like, we don't need it. We'll have Netflix, we'll
Speaker 1: have Hulu, we'll have Disney Plus. Well Disney plustn't exists then,
Speaker 1: but now it does. So like what, um, what happened? Well?
Speaker 1: I had a large DVD collection when we're in Chicago
Speaker 1: because we have the space, and it was something I
Speaker 1: amassed over years, and I just I was attached to it.
Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of movies I have that
Speaker 1: I haven't watched in years and probably never even feel
Speaker 1: like watching. But it's just something that I'm connected to.
Speaker 1: And so when we downsized and how to like really
Speaker 1: getting like minimize our possessions, I put a good amount
Speaker 1: of those DVDs in storage and then only brought like
Speaker 1: I don't know, a small amount I could fit in
Speaker 1: a binder or something into the r V with us.
Speaker 1: And then when you're back at the storage facility at
Speaker 1: one line over the summer or something, I asked you, like,
Speaker 1: could you go to this storage place and like get
Speaker 1: the rest of my DVDs because I need them, And
Speaker 1: they found a box and I brought that one back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that was that was like one. I didn't realize
Speaker 1: there was like three boxes full of DVDs and so, UM,
Speaker 1: I keep on getting lambasted over that every week and
Speaker 1: he goes to look for a different DVD they he had,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't have it, and I understand it, but
Speaker 1: this thing has These DVDs have really coming clutch. There's
Speaker 1: multiple times where we just have bad internet and so
Speaker 1: we watch a DVD and it's been great, or even
Speaker 1: we have great internet, but we just want to watch
Speaker 1: a DVD because it's not on one of those channels
Speaker 1: or those streaming services, which leads me into mobile hotspots
Speaker 1: and WiFi. Man, what a disaster. Um. We bought a
Speaker 1: Verizon hot spot and we use that and it works
Speaker 1: sometimes to be honest barely honestly, our team mobile like
Speaker 1: tethering from our phone from my iPad work better. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm actually halfway a tempted to get one
Speaker 1: of those team mobile sync up and drives because I
Speaker 1: think that that also offers tethering and that might even
Speaker 1: offer better tethering or mobile WiFi. But basically it kind
Speaker 1: of comes into this thing where you're gonna realize that
Speaker 1: really quickly you're gonna need multiple access to internet, especially
Speaker 1: if you are are you living and you're working from
Speaker 1: the road. R V parks sometimes offer WiFi. Uh. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's great, sometimes it's down the dumps uh. And then
Speaker 1: sometimes you have to pay for it, and you can
Speaker 1: pay for different levels like you know, basic and then
Speaker 1: Premium and then streaming levels and everything. But it gets
Speaker 1: really expensive really quick. So you're just gonna want to
Speaker 1: make sure you have some things on the road with
Speaker 1: you that makes sense. UM WiFi for us is just
Speaker 1: the biggest thing we're actually looking into going to camping
Speaker 1: World and grabbing one of those mobile UM there are
Speaker 1: these mobile hotspot and WiFi extenders, so basically it'll extend
Speaker 1: your service and they're like UM plus installation so it's
Speaker 1: probably like five bucks, but it might be one of
Speaker 1: those things that actually just boost all of our signals
Speaker 1: to where we don't have to worry about that. So,
Speaker 1: you know, there's just a lot of different options out
Speaker 1: there when it comes to WiFi specifically UM and even
Speaker 1: the different versions of mobile hotspots there are. Uh so
Speaker 1: tethering from your phone might work um for us. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it does, sometimes it doesn't. So it's just all spotty
Speaker 1: and different depending where we're at. And we're in natural parks,
Speaker 1: we really don't care because we're out there to see nature,
Speaker 1: and you know, we'll watch a DVD because it's fun.
Speaker 1: And of course you have to get your basics, your
Speaker 1: cleaning supplies, your kitchen and organizational items, your toilet trees. Um.
Speaker 1: And that actually brings me to r V friendly toilet paper.
Speaker 1: Don't use Sharman. I'm sorry, Sharmon, but that stuff will
Speaker 1: clog up your r V so quick. Um. I remember
Speaker 1: that's what I tried to use, you know, Sharmon soft.
Speaker 1: I was so excited and it just clogged it up.
Speaker 1: So we had to pay someone to come out hundred
Speaker 1: fifty bucks to back flush our r V tank to
Speaker 1: get all of the like cluttered up toilet paper out,
Speaker 1: so get used to not using the good stuff. Um
Speaker 1: in the r V. You're definitely need to find your
Speaker 1: r V friendly toilet paper because you don't want to
Speaker 1: make a hund fifty mistake because again, that's your resources,
Speaker 1: that's your money that you're traveling. We could have went
Speaker 1: out to dinner a couple of times multiple times with that,
Speaker 1: but we had to spend it on back flushing r V.
Speaker 1: So don't make the same mistake as we did. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of brands of like r V friendly toilet paper,
Speaker 1: and honestly you can find these at like Camping Worlds.
Speaker 1: A lot of campsites actually carry our V friendly toilet
Speaker 1: paper in the little mini camp store because they know
Speaker 1: that's so important to your r V system. So you
Speaker 1: can when you're traveling through our V parks in different
Speaker 1: places walmarts, you can actually find a lot of places
Speaker 1: that have friendly r V toilet paper all along the road.
Speaker 1: And the last thing I really want to bring up
Speaker 1: our trailer hitches because they're so important when you're driving
Speaker 1: down the road. So for us we me nowadays just
Speaker 1: have our Class S motor home and our scooter, but
Speaker 1: there's a specific thing that we have to put our
Speaker 1: scooter on. You know, we have this motorcycle hitch, so
Speaker 1: it just goes right into our hitch. And then there's
Speaker 1: a ramp that we can put our scooter up in
Speaker 1: and then we use tie downs straps to tie down
Speaker 1: our scooter. So that's one option of a trailer hitch.
Speaker 1: Another trailer hitches their ball hitch, and those are the
Speaker 1: ones that you're gonna trailers use. UM. They you know,
Speaker 1: you just drop the trailer on it, you lock it in,
Speaker 1: you use your latches, and you can take off, you know,
Speaker 1: plugging your electricals. That way, there's break lights on your trailer.
Speaker 1: But then there's the fifth wheels like we talked about
Speaker 1: in the last boon decking with Brad, which are in
Speaker 1: the middle of your truck. So this wouldn't be for
Speaker 1: an RV. No, this is not for our r V,
Speaker 1: but this is to go into a truck. UM. So
Speaker 1: there's many different options for trailer hitches. UM. And our
Speaker 1: saving grace this year was definitely the load bar sway
Speaker 1: bar combo. UM. This this load bar sway bar combo
Speaker 1: was like bucks, but it just it saves your rear
Speaker 1: when you're driving eighty miles an hour down the road
Speaker 1: in your RV with the trailer behind it, and then
Speaker 1: you get a big, huge gust to win like we
Speaker 1: did in Texas. I mean, I still had to pull
Speaker 1: over because it didn't feel safe, but I know for
Speaker 1: sure that this load bar sway bar combo really helped.
Speaker 1: Now with this, what this load bar sway bar combo
Speaker 1: does is it takes the load off of your rear
Speaker 1: wheels and it puts them more towards your front wheels,
Speaker 1: making it more even. And that's what a load bar does.
Speaker 1: The sway bar what that does is it hooks up
Speaker 1: to your trailer and it makes sure your trailer doesn't
Speaker 1: sway back and forth or fish tail, so while you're
Speaker 1: driving your you have complete control over your vehicle. One
Speaker 1: thing that I learned is because I was pulling so
Speaker 1: much weight in our trailer this year, is that we
Speaker 1: needed to get front shocks that could hold up better too.
Speaker 1: So we actually blew out like our shocks on this
Speaker 1: year and so we um had to get those replaced.
Speaker 1: That wasn't it was a cheap upgrade, but basically now
Speaker 1: it's ready for that next time we ever have to
Speaker 1: pull trailer behind us. So there's a lot of little
Speaker 1: technicalities when you're towing behind um a trailer like we were.
Speaker 1: I mean, this one had it was probably a full
Speaker 1: capacity between the weight of our ur V itself because
Speaker 1: you have to factor that into towing power for your engine,
Speaker 1: your specific engine, your chassis. UM it was like nine
Speaker 1: thousand pounds, and I remember there was a point where
Speaker 1: between what our housing was or r V itself and
Speaker 1: the trailer behind us, because you have to factor in
Speaker 1: the weight of the trailer itself. Even the toebar hitch
Speaker 1: was like a hundred pounds U. The load bar sway
Speaker 1: bar combo is a hundred pounds UM, and then the
Speaker 1: weight so we had like two pallets of syrup, which
Speaker 1: was another like five or five thousand pounds. So basically
Speaker 1: we had seven thousand pounds when I was done calculating
Speaker 1: it UH and eight thousand pound toe limit. And that's
Speaker 1: good because you don't want to push to your limit
Speaker 1: the whole time. But we were only driving for like
Speaker 1: twenty hours with that, and then we dropped off one
Speaker 1: old palette and kept on going out north when we
Speaker 1: were heading to Las Vegas UM last year. So there's
Speaker 1: definitely a lot of different instances, and you really need
Speaker 1: to make sure that you understand what your limits are
Speaker 1: for your vehicle and what they need. So just because
Speaker 1: you have a Class SEE doesn't mean you can tow
Speaker 1: whatever you want because it doesn't have the correct amount
Speaker 1: of power to actually pull those behind. So then that
Speaker 1: leads you into maybe upgrading to that Class A diesel
Speaker 1: um or Class A gas. You know, you could do that,
Speaker 1: but it's always better have diesel. It's definitely a better pusher.
Speaker 1: It's better for when you're going through the Blue Ridge
Speaker 1: Mountains in the Great Smoky Mountains, or if you're going
Speaker 1: through the passes over Breckon Ridge and Veil. You know,
Speaker 1: you definitely want that diesel pusher because otherwise you're gonna
Speaker 1: be going up these at like forty miles an hour
Speaker 1: and it's gonna like drive you and everybody around you crazy.
Speaker 1: So knowing your limits and how to tow and where
Speaker 1: you're going is so important when traveling. But I guess
Speaker 1: that's something that will have to cover in a future
Speaker 1: episode of Boon Docking with Brad and Uh. Today, I
Speaker 1: was really happy to be able to take you through
Speaker 1: the essentials that you need for RV living and just
Speaker 1: go a little bit more into understanding your r V specifically, uh,
Speaker 1: understanding your need and what it is that drives these
Speaker 1: beautiful homes across this country. You've been listening to park Landia,
Speaker 1: a show about national parks. Parklandia is a production of
Speaker 1: by Heart Radio, created by Matt Carouac, Brad Carouac and
Speaker 1: Christopher hasiotis producer and edited by Mike John's. Our executive
Speaker 1: producer is Christopher hasiotis our researcher. It's jeff Lyn Shields.
Speaker 1: A special things goes out to Gabrielle Collins, Cristal Waters
Speaker 1: and the rest of the Parklandia crew and Hey listeners,
Speaker 1: if you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. It helps other people like you find our show.
Speaker 1: You can keep up with us on social media as well.
Speaker 1: Check out our photos from our travels on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Parklandia pod and join in on the conversation and our
Speaker 1: Facebook group Parklandia Rangers. From our podcasts my Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows, and as always, thank you
Speaker 1: for listening. BA