RV Newbie: Tips & Must Have Gear for Beginners

welcome to KYT, this is our essential VR

newbie

video because we just acquired this new Airstream music for us in San Antonio, we've repositioned it here in Georgetown, Texas, at Trish's dad's house, yeah, and now we're about to prepare to leave. We headed back to Arizona about 1,200 miles on our first road trip, the first really big trip with this rig, and we're taking the opportunity to tour it. Yes with all the things we consider absolutely 100% essential before you can really go anywhere with your RV, right, these are not the ones you wish you had these, this is what you need before you pull out of your driveway, yeah , that's what we're going to cover in this video, we're going to talk about the new sewer hose and fittings. water filters and accessories electrical systems and TPMS tire pressure tire safety chalk leveling and then some of the tools you might need in your bag I remember when we first bought our rig we were walking through the store and thinking no.

I even know what these things are and then on top of that we bought two about too many things. Yeah, now we

have

n't made this video in about three years. We did an RV Newbie Basics video about three years ago and that video, surprisingly, is at 1.4 million views and I watched it again. I agree with everything we said, but now we

have

a lot more experience since then, we've been to the United States, Mexico, Canada, New Zealand, Alaska, yeah, so we just wanted to do a second one. editing yeah and really breaking it down and keeping things simple okay just a couple quick points before you even start your first ride we wanted to talk about mindset yeah because every time we've had a rush mindset the problems They have continued, that is the adventure. it starts immediately, it starts from the moment you get in the car, so sometimes we are very excited to have someone where we are, like hitting the car don't stop, don't go to the bathroom, don't eat snacks, instead reduce speed not only helps set it up correctly, making sure you have everything you need, but helps everyone on the trip have fun just remembering Trish is right that the memories you can make while you get there can be some some of the best laughs and some of the best memories, right?

You won't start when you arrive, okay, I'm going to deny, I'll walk into a bar, the bartender says, hey, we don't serve breakfast here often. I have to remind myself to slow down because okay, all the time Marc's favorite thing to do is leave before instructions. they're in or before anyone sees this already, no one's looking at the camera late, that's the case no one was in Seattle. I tried to disconnect. We had a Hensley hitch on a travel trailer. I tried to disconnect without even lowering the tab connector, isn't that necessary? Take some pressure off by lowering the stand, yes, when it comes to plugging, setting up and unplugging, have a checklist.

We've made a video about that that you can search. I'll link it right there and then do it. Just remember that I would tell myself that I have nowhere to be all day to get there properly, so you're in a good frame of mind to be ready to be in the moment because our meeting is actually pretty serious, So I want to be light-hearted about it, but you're bringing a gigantic team along the way. We want to make sure you set it up safely and are ready to have lots of fun. Yes, the second tip is mind. the fall and we've also made a video about this, but we just want to remind the community as a whole that when you go through a fall, you will eventually go through a fall, which is when reality doesn't meet your expectations right here.

This is the fall. I'll tell you it was fun for the first hour and now it's not, it's not fun anyway, something will happen. Your RV will at some point break and it will probably break when it is new because that is when it will break, but you. They start shaking and they start moving and that's when things break down and unfortunately the new RV R thinks that a new RV should be perfect as a car to go a hundred thousand miles and that's not the case when it breaks down or when something goes wrong. because oh my gosh it was hanging because someone else hit it or it was a little less than 14 feet just remember oh yeah I knew this was going to happen be aware of the depth grab some food but I gotta say you get closer to a higher discount and for me to come in and get a new tire and for you to make good food, that's me, no, I wake up the next day and I know your trip isn't ruined, no, you'll put that solution-based mindset and figure it out, okay, this is where I take out the duct tape and it gives me a little time to fix that broken awning.

I don't speak from experience. No, no, I try to tape the awning down. that I broke I think now we have an airtight seal, okay, go down to the bottom like this, yes, you are going to go through that dip, but your children or whoever is with you is watching how you react and, in fact, it may be an opportunity for this solution-based and show that maybe, if you travel with younger people, their problems happen all the time and you just put them enough. The join them sign came out of nowhere using we still have that Wi-Fi running strong just walk in and those will be the stories you tell tomorrow so I salute you just know that when you pass it will be okay so those are just a couple of things we wanted to make sure we talked about before we get into the whole process because this is kind of like a first trip video and those really are a couple.

I'm sure there are more, but those are a couple of things that are very important. Okay, you're ready to walk around the team. I'm sure you'd mind holding the camera. Absolutely good. Well, let's go. okay let's start with the sewer hose this is often from a new rv or seemingly the worst part but it's actually not that bad this airstream is like one of these sneaky stinky racks that are here and it's good to have and if your RV doesn't have one of these they are pretty easy to add, these are the sewer hoses that I really like, I think they are made by oh yeah RINO and I bought their premium versions before right?

It's not as good as this one, so this one is the least expensive. I think it is the best version. I like the clear elbow so you know what's going on and then in terms of gloves, this is something else. When you start, you consider that they are absolutely central, but there is also a way to do this. You can do it, you can take your time and you can do it in a very hygienic way. I've seen people with gloves holding their sewer hose, grab this drinking water, hit it. in your hoses, that's why they don't fill fresh water at the sewer stations and spin it around like that right in front of your eyes, which is a great way to get conjunctivitis, so even if you don't have gloves, there's a way to Do this very clean and you won't have any problems at the interview, just make sure you wash your hands.

Let's talk about some of the accessories that you'll need, so this guy here, just nine times out of ten, I'm not going to do it. use this, this is like what holds the stinky slinky, so it goes in every once in a while. I need to do it to get over the burn and get down but the reason I carry them and I want to carry the 10 feet Because it's the cheapest because some RV parks require you to use them and I don't want to spend three times as much to buy it on a small gift shop, so I just take a small ten footer with me.

I need, those are some of the things you're going to need for your sewer hose and set up well other quick points on a sewer hose and our last rig was a 44 foot toy hauler and there were two black tanks and you can buy one. Of these it was smart to get in and I found them to be very frustrating to use, what I would do is empty the back end through the hose, turn it all off and then I would connect that hose to the main black hose on my tank, hook that up and then Empty the black and that would eliminate all the gray instead of using the why and leaving them open.

I found that okay, let's say there's something called a poopsie and I had more poopsie handling two black tanks than one, so handling one hose and two black tanks and my experience was a more competent way to do it. Well, next on the list, fresh water hoses, filters and accessories, you know, when we started I thought that like the fresh water hoses, they should be white and gray tank hoses. It had to be gray and I would like it to be hard to keep them apart and I think I heard that once I made sure that your great water hose is gray, I thought, "Okay, how ridiculous, so this is a 50 foot hose." and 0 g".

Zero gravity hoses are fantastic because they don't really kink at all, even when it's cold they work that way, so what I do is operate with a 50ft 0g hose all the time; It's often more than necessary but it's not a problem to have extra because it doesn't bend and in situations like this where we are in someone's house I almost always need a 50 hose so what I do is use my 50 hose feet for the crushed water and then I use the 25 feet. for gray water and I haven't had any problems, but there are a couple of accessories that you may need, one is really essential, the only one is a water pressure reducer, now this one gives you the ability to see what the pressure is and adjust it.

So I set it to 62 psi, which is fine for this rig, but for your rig you'll want to check to make sure 60 is capable because it's not Peck on all your rig, sometimes they say it's spec. but accessories are not, so you may have to go down to 40 or 50, so check with your team, but this is not 100% essential. This is an update. This is a $40.00 water reducer. You can get a cheaper one that looks a bit. a little more like these and it's too much. I think it's like ten dollars and it's an inline pressure reducer, it just doesn't give you the capacity, it only goes up to a quarter of 50 psi, but you're looking to save money.

This is the The way to go okay so speaking of this this is an elbow and what I use it for is to connect it to the side of the RV because the pressure from the hose goes straight down instead of to the side of the RV and it sinks like this so you can It will be a little easier on your RV if you are installing it in your RV and it is plastic since most of them are constant in and out at each RV site it will wear out the thread which is the other good thing about this you can screw them on once and then this is metal this is metal you're going to get into this one it's permanently attached so that's a quick little tip right there now let's talk about the water filter system the easiest and cheap is to go with the blue one, I think it's like a camco water filter but it's a hundred micron, which is essentially a strainer.

You can go a step further and you can choose the green ones and they are better. I don't know how many microns they reach, but they are much lower. but I had problems with the flow when we tested it, so I prefer to go to 0.5 microns and then I can get it from a clear source. Now the reason I didn't use this with our big design push is because the big design push had a water flood like a Nautilus system built in and it already had a water filter that went up to 0.5 so it was redundant .

I didn't need it, but this airstream does not have a built-in water filter, so for this. I can use this water filter that I hooked up right here on the fountain that goes in here and then comes out here, so look for something like this. This is not sponsored content, but a clear source sent me this, but they are also offering a 10% discount. So everything we're talking about will be linked below. I think kit 10 will give you a 10% discount, but they even have a system that will go even below 0.5. I think it protects crazy things in the water, but for the most part if you're hooking up RV parks, 25 is enough, so I think that's all you need to know about water.

Okay, let's talk about surge protectors and electricity. For this, it's like we're in a trailer park. but this is where we are now and it's kind of convenient because this is my 50 amp cable that comes from the air spring air stream and it's typically called like a dog bone that goes from 50 amps to 110. This is a cable 50 feet. The same goes for the water hose when it comes to calling someone's house or striking a mood. They call it normally, you're going to have pigeon feet, so I carry a 50 footer and a 25 footer and between 75, 50 and 25. It looks like everything is ready and has the right ways to go from 50 to 30 to 110 or 5230 All of those adapters are not absolutely essential to begin with, but you will find that you need them and in fact, if you RV a lot eventually your 50 amp cable is not going to be enough and you will probably need an extension.

Is it the end of the world. No, you just swap places andyou do all that but if you really want to add some convenience you have a 15 amp or 30 amp cord. the amp extension would be pretty good okay let's talk about surge protectors so i have two here that were sent by techno RV . They are a great partner of ours because they provide a lot of education to the KYT community in their videos, so I had a surge. protector here, which is Eric with technology, says it provides full protection and then I have a more basic surge protector that protects against power surges, but I'm going to explain the difference, so this right here is about a hundred dollars, but a little over a hundred dollars and it analyzes what's going on in the panel before you plug it in so when you plug it into the panel it will give you the correct color code to indicate that that panel is giving you good current and if it is giving you good current. power, then you can go ahead and turn it off.

Turn off the power, plug it into your RV, and then turn it back on. This here essentially does that for you, so it won't send power to your RV if you suspect there's something wrong with the panel at any time, so let's say when you pull. to an RV park and you plug it in and everything is fine and then that RV park starts having problems and it detects those problems, it will cut power to your equipment, the reason why that is important is because if you have spikes in the current passing through a panel, those spikes could cause boards, like the circuit boards in your RV, to break.

I've had to replace circuit boards before, like the circuit port on a water heater. Things cost about $150, replace that plate, but if you had a big spike going through an RV park. and it affected your equipment, you're talking about air conditioning boards, your refrigerator boards, your water heater boards, your boiler, that's a lot of warts and at $200 each, you make $1,000 pretty quick, okay, tires. It is vitally important to understand a few things about this. I'm not going to go into everything related to tires, but there are a few things you should know before your first ride.

One of them is to have adequate shock absorbers. It's very easy to get cheap plastic ones that you put in your RV like this and then you forget about them, I mean, you leave, they disintegrate, so what's the point of having chalk if you can just run over them so that they are not much more expensive and made of rubber? and they actually weren't like that, um, it's absolutely critical to chalk your trailer before you log off, there are some really bad stories on a hill and you just get lost, like we said at the beginning, you think you're in a hurry or you get distracted and you forget to mark with chalk and you are on a rack and the trailer rolls away it is also very very important when you are leveling to mark with chalk on the side that is high and for that I use the anderson blocks, but they are those big leveling blocks of curved red bricks, so you roll them back up and up to six inches and then you put the little piece of the red triangle into the chocolate.

The advantage of this is not only that it's very easy to Level your equipment, but it acts a bit like a chunk when it's up there. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people who are up on four of these blocks, not with chalk, so to cut these blocks. that's for these guys, so you put them here, you open them up and it gives you stability. Some people use them for a little more stability on equipment because it prevents it from moving back and forth, but it's also good for chalk marking. When you're on a high, I highly recommend these are absolutely essential for your first trip.

No, these are, it's good to have canned an extra level of security level. Okay, tires, so these are good year endurance tires. Trailer tires vs. LT light truck tires have come a long way in the last three years, when we came into existence you couldn't get this tire on a 15 inch rim, essentially you couldn't get it e-rated for a tire. a 15 inch tire and as a result many towable RV owners opted for LT truck tires and you know trailer tires are just considered junk, now tires have come a long way and Esty tires provide a little of Stifler on the side walls. and they are better for towing in the sense that the rubber compound in the st tire is designed not to break down as quickly, so if you are going to put your RV on the side of the house for three to six months, the rubbers They will last longer than a light truck tire, so those are some of the advantages of a trailer tire over an LT tire, but that's up to you, there's nothing wrong with an LT tire as long as you know everything, so let's start first. let's just talk about tire safety in general, especially on a new platform, but before your ride it's very important when you're down here and you take off your chocks to look at the tire, look for cracks and then also this is the key part. look down here and for sure you have even worn out because here the shafts are bent or misaligned in some way, they will start to wear on the inside and the hard point or hum on the outside, but in our case it was the inside and it just doesn't I saw it for a long time so that's a sure way to get under and now let's talk about proper psi or how to inflate tires so if you look at the tire it will tell you. go to maximum cold, so maximum cold means the maximum amount of psi when the tire is cold in the morning, cold, that is, in the morning, but you also haven't driven it or towed it because when you tow it, this tire will will warm up.

Everything about proper tire maintenance has to do with how you handle and reduce heat. That's all about when your tire is overinflated. What happens is you run in the center of your tire right here and you generate heat in the center of the tiger. but what's even worse is running low pressure and then the tire tends to sink into the sidewalls which creates even more heat and then the heat happens here at the edges, like this, that's often what causes a blowout, or if you are overloaded with that tire. or it is under inflated and generates heat, so the best way to inflate a tire is to create the proper flat tread of a tire in order to do this, you need to know how much weight is in each tire, most people have not been to a cat scale or better yet a real tire scale so they know how much weight is in this tire because maybe the refrigerator or something heavy is in this particular tire so if you know how much is in this tire then you can go to the manufacturers. load the inflation chart and you can say for this weight or you can see for this weight how much this tire needs to be inflated and then you can inflate it correctly if you don't know how much weight is in the tire then absolutely one hundred percent max cold is the way to go .

Here you have a myth. Many people think that, let's say, for this tire. I think the maximum cold is 80 psi for a rated tire. Many people see if they install TPMS system, which we do. Let's talk about this: You see the pressure in this tire is going to 81 82 83 84 and you think, Oh my God, I'm exceeding the maximum that could pass through this tire, no, it's a maximum of 80 psi. The cold tire can go over 80 psi when it's hot, so I don't think a lot of people overinflate their tires because they live in Arizona and it's very hot, so they underinflate them to give themselves room or cushion before they max out. , that's a myth if you don't know how much I weigh. it's in the tire, you go max cold and it can exceed psi above that so I hope that helps Now speaking of managing tire pressure and heat a TPMS system is not essential but it is a recommendation really strong and we have used three. and this is the best one we found, also provided by tech-noir B, it's a color screen, what I really like about it, it sits on our dashboard and rotates through all the tires, which is really cool.

Tech has created a video on how to code. So what you do is you put these little caps on here and then you have a booster with just a 12 volt booster that we're going to put on the front of the RV so it transmits the signal from the tire to the booster to the cab the truck what this does is which gives us our psi at all times and it means we don't have to go out every morning and check the psi because I can see as soon as I was in the truck but it also detects small leaks so as we're driving down the road we can detect that, hey , this thing is slowly losing pressure and then we're going to stop and fix it before it explodes.

Some of these things are expensive, but let me tell you. We have had three blowouts, a blowout destroys the deck, can break electrical wires, can damage the chassis under the RV and is often much more expensive than simply replacing the tires with proper rear tires, so talking about tigers yes this is a D. and E rated tire, my recommendation is to just go and get the Goodyear resistance, this is not sponsored in any way, we enjoy getting good tires at a discount, they do a great job, I think it is a great peace of mind in D and E. of people want to switch to a G rated tire but don't have an E rated tire.

The thing to keep in mind is that the G rated tire has 14 plies and 110 psi if you inflate a tire to 110 psi. on a tire they can only go to 80 you will break the tire so you won't be able to go up the full rating unless you take a look at your RAM or manage the air in that tire and I have heard in the saloon that you can actually lower You can reduce the inflation on a G rated tire to reach the rim and you will be fine and we did, but I don't recommend it.

I think you should do your own research when it comes to all this, there are plenty of blogs you can talk to to manufacture. I'm just sharing information that we learned about tires and I hope it was helpful to you, it was a lot of information, so any time I do a technical video, we have a link so we can go. make updates and fixes and provide more information so tires and tire safety keep calm, they said forward bar tires go there and we will do the updates and fixes, disclaimers and all that is fine so I think we've covered it all.

Talking about air tools is really important, but it's not, it's not essential why it's not essential because a lot of people who get started with travel trailers have a D rated tire that only goes up to 65 and you can get air at a gas station. up to 65 psi but you can't go over 65 their pumps don't go over 65 so if you're in that situation having your own air as a fire pump this is pretty good when we started RVing we had about a half hour after leaving the gate was when I realized that RVs don't come with a lug nut wrench and that the lug nuts on a trailer are different than the lug nuts on a truck, so if you don't know and don't I don't have one of these that you call Good Sam or Coach net or whoever you use, so the first critical tool is to have a four-way right in terms of the things that I carry here, I would say in terms of tools that you might need.

I would say this, whatever makes you feel comfortable with your degree of handling and I think it's important to carry it like a socket wrench. I have reduced my tools. I have a pipe wrench that fits in here and I and you know I have wrenches because they are very useful for RV pipes and things that come loose, that dry lube explodes like wd-40, but like a dry lube So that it does not attract more fat, it is essential, you know, a PSI. in case you don't have a TPMS system one of these comes in handy like this one definitely anything electrical like this because with an RV you end up doing some electrical things in fact one of these comes in pretty handy look I'm not a electrician so I personally don't need this but what you will find when you are in an RV is if you try to troubleshoot a 7 way pin on your trailer and call someone who will often be asked.

If you have one of these, you can give them certain readings. Many of the tools I have are not for me, they are for people who are in an RV park and are extremely useful, maybe even for car or RV mechanics. They don't have their tools with them so I let them use my tools to fix my equipment for free, it's a good deal so obviously you know jumper cables and lights and straps and gloves and stuff like that but I would say that's some of the essential tools to bring I feel like I'm forgetting something, you know, I have big wrenches and super big socket wrenches, like 3/4 inch.

I think the name is one of thosebig socket wrenches and I made the videos a long time ago and people gave me grief for saying that I'm suggesting that people have to carry too many tools on the road like they've never had to change a crossbow, ok, under the tape, We have another 4 years. I know at least 5 people have changed and had to change, at least get it on the road. I'm not suggesting that if you're not handy or if you're old, you're going to crawl around on an aerial platform and change the blade. What I'm suggesting is that if you're going to take a trip to Alaska or be in the middle of nowhere and something happens to your rig and you need some great tools, chances are someone will come and help you and know exactly what to do. is extremely high, but the probability that that person doesn't have the right tools to do it is also very high, so I like to have some of the tools.

I want to go crazy. I don't think this was a bomb and this and a stop. .the torque is excessive and I feel like it gives us enough independence where we are self-sufficient. I'll add one more thing that I just remembered that we keep on the truck at all times and that we think is essential to get started. Wait, this first aid kit got $150, which is more than we spent when we started, but we've had things in here like burn kits and tourniquets and things that if there was an accident or the world about an accident or something like that.

It happened to you that it is quite necessary to have it here, so I would say that in terms of tools, basic everyday tools, your first aid kit and then larger items that make you feel a little more comfortable on the trail, okay, so that's our first trip RV essential material for

newbie

s I didn't feel overwhelming yeah I think you did a good job. I think there is a lot to know. I think there is a lot to know. I tried. You know tire things are a bit complicated. I'm feeling a little overwhelming, so what we did on our Amazon page was we created a category like a first trip, like an RV essentials category, there and then there's everything that we talk about like that, It's a simple thing to say, "Okay, I know." I'm going to need more once I start, but at least I can get it, at least I know I have what I need for the first trip, well at least we can leave the driveway, yeah, you know, yeah, and be able to empty the sewer properly , plug it in if you have water and your tires aren't going to explode, well, hopefully.

Wow, that's fine and you will be very good at changing them and it will be a splash and you will know that everything will be fine. Your trip will not be ruined. You'll get through it and have a story to tell on the third tire. We had a change. I was timing everyone before. I never did a great job and we actually had 11 minutes. 11 minutes. I remember it, but it was good. was good, so we have big plans for this Airstream and we're going to share our 2020 route here momentarily. We have another video on how we do grout planning and things like that and we're going to art.

I'll share it with Right now our plan is to get to the northeast and it's a great route for 2020. I think we'll be on the road for another six or seven months mm-hm and then there will also be a video to update this truck that I can't wait for Trisha to get her sixty-gallon fuel tank back. You know, like I said, there are a couple of blogs and there are some discounts with our partners, so take advantage of that and we'll see you next Sunday, same time, same place, good idea. Hello.What happened? I don't forget anything, you didn't forget anything.

I just want to keep in mind that you're an RVer now, okay, so for Christmas you probably don't need new blankets or gift cards for certain places, you need tools, so you know. Your family, hey, I'm into our beer and I have my eyes on this, that's true, everyone could pitch in because they're expensive but they're worth their weight. I'll tell you when you really have peace of mind when listening to your tires. Anyway, remember that you are now in our beer and you want fun tools and although some of them are expensive, it is worth it and you may know that your family members can pitch in or if you are retired you are going on a trip. the kids want to give you a housewarming gift your new house buh-bam your new house yeah thanks for that message Trish okay let's talk about toys oh my knees are you kidding me? okay, okay, put that down, you meet someone, it's so much fun.

Can I put it on this ladder for $5.99? It looks like 99 or less.