In this video we are going to give you our top 10 tips that we have learned over the last
four years of RV life now these tips are great for both the new RVer and the seasoned RVer alike,
so regardless of where you are in your rv journey you're gonna want to see this 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! So before we get started we want to
say a huge THANK YOU to all of you that have jumped in and decided to support us on patreon.
Your support really helps to free us up to keep making these videos and
bring them to you week in and week out and we really couldn't do it without your support.
So a huge thank you. We also want to let you know that we're going to be starting some really fun
giveaways over the summer exclusively to our patreon members, so if you haven't joined the
fun over there you can check that out at gratefulglamper.com/patreon and we'll put
a link below as well. Now those of you that have been living RV life for more than a week probably
have some sort of story about something that went wrong or something that probably could have
been prevented with a little bit of knowledge & forethought so you'll have to drop a comment below
right now and let us know about those stories because we know there's plenty out there and
let's face it, all of these types of comments on these videos help the RV community to learn more
and be more educated we found that learning from the mistakes of others definitely beats having to
learn in the school of hard knocks yourself, so let's start digging into some of these tips right
away and hopefully you'll take something away from this video that just helps you in RV life
going forward and if you do please make sure you hit that subscribe button and give us a thumbs up
so tip number one for number two this was something we did not realize and we
thankfully figured it out before we had to learn the hard way and that is while you're
set up at a campsite keep your black tank closed in fact your black tank should always be closed
all of the time unless you're actively emptying it so we didn't realize that that was a thing
and we just thought once you're hooked up to sewer you can leave both of your valves open and
you don't want to do that you can and will end up with a poop pyramid not fun times so because
the majority of what goes into that black tank are liquids keep the valve closed it will help
to make sure that when you do empty it everything that's in there comes out and you're not left with
anything behind that's going to cause unpleasant odors or any other sort of unpleasantness
so tip number two use protection and we're not talking about this type of protection or any other
type of protection that might be coming to mind at the moment but when you're set up at a campsite
you want to protect your RV so two things that you need to protect your rig a surge protector to
protect from any sort of electrical issues at that pedestal that you plug into in a water pressure
regulator which will protect your rig from any spikes in water pressure or water pressure that's
just too high that can cause problems on the inside so we'll leave links below for both the
surge protector and the water pressure regulator that we use and you can also see more about those
particular items and some of our favorite other must-have accessories in the video up above
so tip number three have a pair of gloves handy in the compartment where you
disconnect and connect your sewer hose kind of gross to think about handling the poo pipe with
bare hands just do yourself a favor and either get some disposable gloves or gloves that you know are
for that specific purpose and keep them where you keep all of your stuff for your sewer connections
so tip number four do not count on campground wi-fi it's not going to serve you
so we learned very early on we need to just plan on bringing our own wi-fi devices with us so
we'll put a link above for the video that we've recently done on the mobile internet what we use
kind of what we feel like works best and won't cost you an arm and a leg but just take it from
us don't count on the fact that the campground wi-fi is going to really be helpful for anything
tip number five make sure you bring those awnings in if you leave the campground
or leave your rig do not count on the rain sensor or the wind sensor to bring them in
automatically we've had so many times where we've seen wind storms come out of absolutely
nowhere and take out awnings before the wind sensor is even really tripped in same with rain
so if you're going to leave the campground for the day just bring those awnings in before
that you leave and you know you won't ever come home to a collapsed folded-in blown-off awning
tip number six familiarize yourself with your rig specific owner's manual and know where your
fuses are located and how to check them we have paid some major stupid tax twice now in our time
of RVing by spending the money to call an RV person out or actually take our rig into an RV
repair facility to find out it was a blown fuse so familiarize yourself with that owner's manual
know where your fuse junction block is there's usually more than one if you have a drivable rig
so just get to know where those are and before that you call that RV
repair guy or if you have a problem check your fuses first
tip number seven walk around your RV before you leave that particular campsite and you should
also kind of just give a quick overview of the campsite before you pull into note where there's
maybe any trees or picnic tables or large rocks that could be a potential hazard when parking
and before you pull out do a walk around make sure that you didn't accidentally leave it hooked up
to the electricity or that you don't still have one of the leveling jacks that did not retract or
anything or trash or any left behind items that you may be missing the next time that
you pull into a campsite do yourself a favor do a quick walk around before that you pull out
and then again after you pull out make sure that you didn't leave anything behind
tip number eight if you have an RV with an onboard generator or even if you own an auxiliary
generator you want to run it every two to four weeks with a load on it now this just helps
keep your generator in good condition it helps to make sure that everything that's inside of
that generator is staying lubricated all of the moving parts are in good working order
there's nothing worse than being in a situation like boondocking or lot docking overnight going
to flip on that generator so that you can recharge batteries or have power to make a
pot of coffee the next morning only to find out something's wrong and it's not working correctly
so especially even if you're parked at an RV park run your generator every so often with a load
to keep it in good condition and to avoid having to troubleshoot on the fly
tip number nine use checklists there are so many different checklists that are out there
for so many different purposes we have a great packing checklist on packing up that RV and
you can find that at gratefulglamper.com forward slash checklist and we'll put a link below
but there's checklists for maintenance there's pre-departure checklists there's setup checklists
do yourself a favor avail yourself of resources out there in the form of checklists
to be able to just go through everything and that will help to make sure
that you didn't miss a crucial step in the process of going through RV life
so our final tip tip number 10 which is probably one of the most important tips and that is
don't forget the maintenance now there's lots of different maintenance the RVs need depending upon
what type of RV but things that need to happen on a weekly basis a monthly basis semi-annual
basis one of the biggest problems that people end up with with RVs are water leaks and these
are something that can be very easily prevented with the right preventative maintenance so make
sure that every once in a while you're getting up on that roof and you're checking it out make sure
that you haven't maybe snagged a hole in your roof with a branch or something that maybe you
just weren't aware of didn't see check all of the seals that go around things like the vent covers
in the shower skylight those seals around those areas do need to be replaced from time to time
depending upon things like humidity and how much sun that they've been exposed to they
deteriorate and they crack and they need to be resealed don't forget the maintenance on your RV
and you'll have enjoyment out of it for many many years to come let us know in the comments
below what are your top tips for RV life in RV living we love to be able to help others out in
the RV community and your feedback in the comments below help us to do just that and help us learn
from each other to avoid any crucial mistakes so make sure that you drop a comment below with
some of your top tips as well if you'd like to see more videos with other RV tips tricks
orgaRVzation perhaps you can check those out right over here and if you would like to see
more videos with places to travel and fun places that you want to go see while you're living RV
life you can check those out right over here until next time we will see you on the road