Safety is number one at the top of our mind as we're out there living the rv life and it should
be something that you're concerned with too in this video we're going to talk about RV safety
and some do's and don'ts so stay tuned we are Charity, Ben, Dakota and Trinity we decided we
didn't want to wait for a life of adventure so in 2017 we bought our first rv and set off to live a
life of travel in the usa we've visited over 38 states in three years and have many more to go
follow along to learn all the best places to see rv and travel tips and much more
after four plus years of living rv life we've run into some things and into a few scenarios
that could have been a potential safety hazard if we weren't equipped with what
we are equipped with so in this video we wanted to talk with you about our top safety gadgets
that we carry with us and also some must do preventative things that can help make sure that
you don't put yourself into a potential safety issue while you're out there living rv life.
So one thing that we recently have actually purchased when it comes to safety are some road
flares now we have driven at night we've driven during the day and we've come around a plenty
turn or two and seen a vehicle disabled in the road or seen an rv pulled off on the side of the
road with a flat tire and when you're driving at night and you can't see that that's a pretty big
potential safety issue so we recently got these safety flares from hokena online they were nice
enough to provide us a set of these for a giveaway over in our patreon group but these are actually
led flares so they can be re-used and they're way brighter than the traditional flares that
are like the sticks that you break but then you have to dispose of them when you're done so we
are pretty happy with getting these because this is definitely going to be nice if we ever need it
which we definitely hope that we don't but we have them in case we need them and we'll put a link for
these in the description below they come in a nice case so very easy to store away in your rv
Now no safety video would be complete without talking about fire extinguishers now we'll put
a link above to a video where we actually came around the corner at night and there was a car
fully engulfed in flames and we pulled over on the side of the road wanted to call for help but two
to see if there was anything we could do to help with fire extinguishers we have seen this multiple
times now in our four plus years of living the rv light where a car has been on the side of the road
on fire plus the fact that if a fire starts in your rv you don't have a lot of time so not
only do we carry a fire extinguisher we carry multiples of these now we store these kind of
in different areas some in the front some in the middle of the rig and some in the back of the rig
we'll put a link in the description below to fire extinguishers on amazon but the other thing
to remember with a fire extinguisher is you want something that's larger capacity a lot of rvs when
you purchase it if you purchase it new they come with a fire extinguisher but it's pretty small and
you want something with larger capacity if for any reason you would ever need to use it having some
of these on board is an absolute must so another thing that your rv actually comes equipped with
if you have any sort of propane appliances whether you have a propane stove or a fridge that runs on
electric in propane is a propane detector now here's the important thing that you need to
know these are rated for 10 years if you have a rig that is 10 years or older and you have not
replaced that you are at a potential risk for a malfunction of that device you can pull it out of
wherever it's mounted to look at the date code on the back and see if it is beyond its useful
life if it is you need to replace it you can order them on amazon you can find them at most camping
supply type stores they're pretty universal so just look at what type of unit you have and then
replace it with one that is up to date and make sure that yours is not expired
Another absolute must when it comes to rv safety is a tire pressure monitoring system
now we use this one from TST and here's the important thing people usually think about the
tire pressures on their rv but not always on their tow vehicle if they're towing a vehicle behind
most new vehicles have some sort of tire pressure monitor built in but it doesn't
tell you when you're driving your rv what it is so this is constantly monitoring the
tire pressures on all six of our rv tires and those of the tires on our jeep but it's
also monitoring the temperature of the tires so this actually has built-in settings you
can choose it to alarm if you go over or under a certain pressure or over or under a certain tire
temp this is actually alarmed on us quite frequently this summer in colder climates
because the tires when they're colder will drop in air pressure and need air added into them in
a colder climate so this is a great potential blowout avoidance tool we'll put a link for this
particular one in the description below because we can say this is tried and true we've been using
it for over two years i've had zero issues with it and it does its job very accurately
Another must-have is a good quality roadside service so you can check out the link above for
our recent breakdown story which was not fun we used good sam for our roadside service for that
particular instance we've since found out we also have roadside through our insurance with
no cap which that's important to remember and no so check with your insurance on that but
make sure you're covered if you need roadside on any type of rv whether it be a fifth wheel travel
trailer or drivable motorhome it's expensive people and you do not want to incur a 900
tow bill like a friend of ours recently did for an eight mile tow on a class a motorhome because
he didn't have roadside assistance do yourself a favor make sure you have coverage through your
insurance or get a standalone roadside assistance policy if your insurance doesn't cover you
Now here are some things that you want to keep in mind from a safety perspective as you're driving
these aren't necessarily products that you need to have these are just things you need to know
to be safe while you're going down the road know your height and your weight of your rv we actually
have a label that we made that we put right on the dash where we know our height so if we're coming
up to a bridge that looks iffy we can see what the clearance is and we know exactly how high we are
if we're going to clear that bridge okay we've heard horror stories you guys of people taking
off their roof ac's of people damaging their roofs going underneath of a bridge or overpass that they
didn't have the clearance on because they didn't know exactly how high that they were you don't
want to make that same mistake have something that has your height written on it right where you can
see it as you're driving to avoid any potential issues from there it's also very important to
know your weight and what your rv is rated for we have talked to so many rv owners that are
overweight with their travel trailers and their fifth wheels and they have to constantly make sure
that they're not bringing too much in that's going to put them over weight with our particular rig
it's built in 2004 it's a class a diesel pusher we could put a ton in it and not be overweight but we
do still check our weight at a cat scale every so often just to be on the safe side and to make sure
that we are not overweight and we haven't been yet we'll keep making sure we monitor that but
that's something you absolutely need to be aware of especially if you were towing a travel trailer
Speaking of towing make sure that you understand weight distribution and how that works
you want most of the weight towards the front of your vehicle and not towards the back
of that tow vehicle there's tons of videos out there about weight distribution and how just
the whole physics of that work but needless to say if your weight distribution's off you're
at a potential for an accident make sure that you understand weight distribution
how that it works with your particular setup and that you have the weight distributed in such a way
that you're not creating a potential issue for a rollover accident as you're going down the road
The last thing we wanted to make sure that we let you guys know about when it comes to rv safety
is speed guys it's about enjoying the journey there is no rush to get there
all tires have an actual speed rating check the sidewall they actually have a rating for speed
make sure you're not exceeding that you do not want to have a blowout or a potential tire issue
just because you decided to be Mario Andretti take your time observe the speed limit but if
your tires rated for less than the speed limit we go 65 all the time just because for us that's
where our optimum fuel economy is and we're not going to be exceeding any sort of speed rating
by keeping it right there and we just take it slow and enjoy the journey and know that we're
doing so in a safe manner so educate yourself and make sure that you're doing the right thing when
it comes to how fast that you're driving your rv or towing your rv so you're gonna have to
let me know in the comments below what are some safety recommendations that you have that you've
discovered as you've been living rv life let us know below it also lets others in the rv community
know too as they go through the comments and read them too we'd love to hear what you're doing from
a safety perspective or maybe some experiences that you've had in the past that led you
to make a change in your rv safety plan turn this on and it has all these modes i'm trying to turn
it off that's like half that's a little flashlight okay now it's off i could put it back in the bag
there's a fly on the lens let me work doubts me not even a term potential blowout avoidance tool
i'm gonna i'm gonna coin a new phrase potential blowout avoidance tool right here if you've got
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