If you have a travel trailer one thing that easily gets neglected is the hitch system. Today I want to show you some basic things that you can do to help minimize wear and tear on your ball and trailer hitch. The main thing you want to do is keep the ball and the hitch of the trailer clean of debris especially grit and sand. As this can act like sandpaper and cause premature wear on the components.
What I do is put a small layer of grease on the ball itself and some up inside the receiver on the trailer. There are several grease options out there and some are better than others the main thing to make sure is before you hook up to remove any grit or grime from the ball and reapply a thin layer of grease if needed. Another thing you’ll want to do from time to time is oil your tongue Jack assembly. In this case, it’s a hand-crank Jack and has a whole way you apply a small amount of oil however many power jacks also have points to be oiled to help aid in lubrication and prevent premature failure of the worm gears inside. Also, I advise that you remove the hitch from your tow vehicle when not in use. As extended times left in the receiver can cause them to rust and become next to impossible to get apart. The hitch shaft itself is another area I would apply a light amount of grease. Again making sure that no grit or sand is stuck to the grease when you put them together as this is just as bad as putting a piece of sandpaper in there. It just gonna cause early where, of the components. Once again I would clean these thoroughly and reapply grease prior to mounting the hitch into the hitch receiver.
If you follow these few simple steps you can help eliminate early failure and possible problems on the road. So take the time and do some general hitch maintenance. Now I know everybody probably has a can of WD-40 lying around while this is a great lubricant to breaks free rusty and stuck components is a very poor product for lubricating the ball and hitch of your travel trailer long-term. Only use this type of product to free up rusty components and then apply the proper lubricant such as Greece and oil.
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Today I wanted to test out this Coleman folding camp stove/oven. My initial review out of the box is I like it, it’s a very simple to set up and it fits quite nicely on my Coleman camp stove. The real question is how well does it work and will it maintain temperature given the fact that it has sin metal walls. Of course, there is going to be significant heat loss because of that however can it maintain temperature long enough to cook it without burning up an excessive amount of fuel. I decided to bake a small cinnamon muffin/cake mix. The bake time for this particular item was 20 to 25 minutes. I also decided to do this test in the house on my propane stove mainly because I did not have enough propane in my bottle for the Coleman camp stove.
Now I know some will say that this is not a fair review and you could be right and maybe in the future, I will cook using this on my Coleman camp stove however it would definitely give us an idea as to whether this would hold the heat at a steady enough temperature to properly bake something. So I brought in the house set it up on my stove and prepared to test it out. It turns out that it had no problem maintaining the temperature at all. However, I did have to adjust the heat on the burner a few times but this is no different than what your automatic oven would do when it reached temperature and/or started to cool off the differences you would have to make these adjustments yourself. I found it quite easy to do and by the end, I was able to tune in the temperature to drastically minimize how many times I had to make adjustment in order to maintain the proper temperature.
So we baked our cinnamon cake and it came out fantastic and pretty much the appropriate time recommended on the packaging for the cake. At the end you see we tested the cake a few times and had to add a few minutes but in my opinion, this is no different than a regular oven. You would do the same thing before you pulled out a cake. Testing it and making sure it’s complete and adding time if necessary. In the end, I definitely recommend this product if you plan on doing any type of oven cooking or baking while traveling and don’t want to use your large RV oven and just want to spend more time outside. I did notice some distortion in the metal cover while using it however and never jeopardize the function or safety in my opinion and once the unit cooled it went back to its original shape.
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Tandem axle wheel locks anyone can make. Today I’m gonna show you a set of tandem trailer wheel locks that you can easily make to help stabilize your travel trailer. Now if you go camping in a travel trailer chances are you do have to stabilize jacks on board.
While these are fantastic and make a big difference in keeping your camper still while you move around there are additional steps you can take to help stabilize your rig even more. For example, using some sort of tandem wheel jacks or locks. You can pick up a set of these from anywhere from $25 and up. However, you can make them yourself for little or nothing just the cost of a few pieces of hardware. There are several options available out there on the market the kind I made in this particular video go-between your wheels and clamp down from the top and the bottom locking your wheels still. Also, you will notice that mine are different than most of the other ones you see out there of this style and that is one of my blocks are much longer than the other. The reason for this is I found that it is much more of a stable system with the longer block clamping down much higher on the tires and at a wider point they are a much more stable product.
There are several ways you can make these and I’ve tried different options and I found that this set up works the best as far as the homemade versions. I do not have experience with commercial wheel jacks however I’m sure they work very well and I would definitely recommend them if you don’t have the means to make your own. Not only will they help stabilize your rig when you are parked and camping but when you store your travel trailer you can use it to help make sure that it does not move around. They are particularly useful if you are parked on even ground where there is a chance your rig could roll. They also make it more difficult for someone to hook onto your travel trailer and pulled away quickly they would have to first take the time to remove the lock from your tandem axle. Now if you’re any lightweight travel trailer with a single axle then I would still use basic wheel chocks to help minimize movement. In the end, I definitely recommend some sort of wheel locks to help stabilize and minimize the movement of your rig while camping whether you buy a pair or make them yourself take the time to do your research and have some on hand for when you need them.
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Ozark Trail camp toaster review. Today we are going to test out a very lightweight portable toaster that is used over your camp stove. We do a lot of camping and I do like toast so I thought this could be an alternative to an electric toaster. So I set it up on my Coleman grill just as instructed. After several minutes of having toast on the toaster and seemed to be more drying out the bread then it was doing any actual toasting. I’m sure the bread was on there between five and 10 minutes was little or no results on the side of the stove that it was instructed to be placed on. Finally, I decided to move it to the right side of the stove with a regular burner is an after a couple of minutes we finally had some toasting action take place. However, it did not at all toast evenly or come out anything like the picture which I did not expect however by the time the toast was actually toasted we burned through way more propane than necessary and the toast itself was dry and hard.
In the video, you hear me talking about just placing the bread right on the grill like you would a hamburger bun and this worked far better than using this toaster gadget from Ozark Trail. Now, of course, I may have used it improperly and many of you may own one and have had better results than me if so please add some comments in the comment section to help out anybody else that may be considering purchasing one of these toaster gadgets. This particular one was made by Ozark Trail however there are many companies that make the same or very similar products to use on camp stoves or even campfires to make toast. In the end, I think you’re far better to either bring an actual toaster if you have an RV and power or just put your bread over an open fire or on your grill surface directly to toasted.
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Today we are going to review Coleman cook stove. I first start off by showing you a much newer version of the Coleman cook stove however they have several different styles available. But the main part of the video is talking about my Coleman cook stove that we have had for over 15 years.
I believe that we are qualified to give this a true review seeing how long we have owned it and how much we have used it. We’ve gone camping every year, for the most part, most of my life and for the last 15 years, this camp stove has been part of almost all of those trips. I believe it’s one of Coleman’s basic camp stoves that has a grill area on the left with a burner to the right which can be used to boil water and cook many different meals. I like that setup, sometimes we do like to cook vegetables or corn on the cob in a pot off to the right all while cooking hamburgers on the grill surface.
Now, this thing has been put through its paces and as I say in the video bounced around the back of a car the trunk of a car as well as several compartments on many different campers or RVs. In the end, it does show it’s where and has a few broken parts which I point out in the video however every time we take it out to use it it works flawlessly and I still use it to this day. So if you are in the market for a simple camp stove I highly recommend Coleman camp stoves. While I was not impressed with their travel trailers there camp stoves seem to be very durable and hold up to the test of time.
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Today we are testing a no-wipe tire foam cleaner and treatment.
This particular one is by armor all and you can just spray it on and let it sit. On the packages says roughly 8 to 12 minutes for it to do its cleaning and treatment and no wiping is necessary. However, it was over 45 minutes and it was still wet spots on the tire. The other issue is if you not wiping it where is the dirt going, yes the tire looks much better in the end but it seems to me the moisture is evaporating leaving some dirt residue behind. In the end, I do like to look at the tire and it does appear to have applied some sort of protected coating. Not sure how effective it is over the long-term but time will tell.
The procedure for this was pretty straightforward one clean off any heavy dirt or grime from the tire. If you use water then allow the tire to completely dry. After that then you can apply the spray foam to let it do the finishing touches for you. As far as ease-of-use I like this product very much. The question is where did the dirt go and how will hold up long-term. Only time will tell.
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Today, we are putting two windshield treatments to the test rain X original versus rain clear by glass science. The first thing you need to do is make sure the window is clean and we did that in the previous video so don’t forget to check that out. Once the windshield is thoroughly cleaned you want to apply the product as instructed on the packaging which we did and in this case we put rain X original on the passenger side and rain clear on the driver side.
Instructions are very similar the one difference being rain X needs to be allowed to dry and then wiped off where rain clear you just continue buffing it into the windshield until it is clear. Once we applied the product and removed it as instructed we then put it to the test with a garden hose in this video it might be a little difficult to see but there was a clear winner. And that was the rain clear gel. The water shed off of the window much faster, giving you a clearer vision through the windshield. Rain X, however, did do a great job it just did not shed the water as quickly leaving lots of droplets behind which was distorting the vision.
The other difference I noticed was in the instructions and rain clear gel says it should be applied every few months where rain X did not give an indication of how often to apply it which to me means it may last longer as it is applied more like a wax. Only time will tell which one holds up longer but for our test here today rain clear gel definitely would be my choice. At any rate when you’re driving especially if you towing a camper or driving a big rig such as this bus you want to make sure you have a clear vision through your windshield to make sure you know where you’re going and you can see the road ahead.
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Today we are going to super clean this windshield and prepare it for future brain treatment. The first thing you want to do is get the heavy big stuff off by spraying the windshield with window cleaner and wiping them clean with either paper towel or newspaper. After that, you want to give it a thorough cleaning with window cleaner and 0000 steel wool. This would be a super fine steel will and it will do a great job getting off stuck bug particles and other debris sticking to your windshield.
It’s a relatively easy process but often not done when people clean the windshield however if done properly you’ll build to see more clearly for a longer period of time between cleanings. When you head out on a trip or anywhere for that matter it’s very important to have a clean windshield in this process will make that possible.
Now the steel wool is a secret for getting the windshield superclean however another commonly overlooked item is the windshield wipers themselves. Most people don’t bother doing anything with them however they are going back and forth over a dirty windshield and bugs and other residues are sticking to them as well, so it’s important to take the time to clean the blades of the windshield wipers. This will ensure proper contact between the wiper blades and the windshield surface which in turn will do a much better job wiping away rain and water and give you a much better vision through your windshield.
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Today we are talking about trailer hitch sizes and what they can carry as far as capacity. If you towing just a small utility trailer you can get by with a class one hitch this size can tow trailers up to 2000 pounds. If you need to go a little bit bigger a class two hitch carry trailers from 2001 pound to 3500 pounds. This is most likely still a little too small for most travel trailers except for possibly the smallest are pod or teardrop style travel trailers.
Now the class III hitch can tow trailers from 3501 pounds to 5000 pounds this is the particular hitch you are looking at in this video. It can handle up to 5000 pounds and that is also the towing capacity of this car as well. That’s another thing you need to keep in mind, the towing capacity of your tow vehicle as well as the weight of your travel trailer.
If things get bigger you’ll certainly need to move into a larger tow vehicle as well as going up in size in hitch classes, for example, a class for hitch can carry trailers from 5001 pounds to 10,000 pounds. Most likely at this point, you are into a truck or a very large SUV. In the last, one we will talk about today is the class V hitch and that’s for trailers from 10,001 pounds to 14,000 pounds.
Keep in mind that class one and two hitches are just weight carrying hitches and class 3, 4 and five are weight distributing hitches. They are mounted on the vehicle differently and more securely to the frame. Another thing to keep in mind the manufacturer of the hitch will give you the exact capacity for their particular hitch as they do vary slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer so this is something to keep in mind. But as a general rule of thumb, this is the approximate capacity of each of these weight classes. Remember before you tow anything to make sure you know the total capacity of your tow vehicle as well as the gross vehicle weight rating, you’ll also need this information from the travel trailer as well so you can get the proper equipment for your particular situation.
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Here are 12 items I consider emergency response items you should have with you whether your camping with a car and travel trailer class CRV a big rig or anything else for that matter.
The first one on the list is a cell phone if you end up in a situation where you need to get a hold of somebody obviously this is something that you should have. Along with the cell phone make sure you have up-to-date contact numbers as well as while traveling in new areas make sure you find out the numbers to local emergency facilities.
Another very important item on the emergency list is a fire extinguisher even if you’re traveling in a car it’s good to have a small version with you just in case and the bigger the rig the more you should have. I would have one located at least at each entrance to your RV and a kitchen version in your cooking area.
Now unfortunately from time to time, we do lose our keys, for this reason, it’s a great idea to have a spare set with you, there is always a way you can hide them on your rig so when they’re needed they are there. Now I’ve mentioned this next item and other videos but that is some sort of roadside flares triangles or lighted safety beacons that you could put out if you happen to have a breakdown on the side of the road this will make it much easier for oncoming traffic to see you or to know if you are broke down around the corner or over a hill.
Smoke detector and carbon monoxide detectors should already be in your RV if you buy a new one however check to make sure they are you working properly and if you are converting a bus such as the one we make sure you include them in the build process hopefully we never hear them go off but they could very well save your life. I shouldn’t even have to mention this but I will because there have been times where I’ve handed out Band-Aids while traveling and that is a first-aid kit make sure it’s up to date and has the proper items for the areas you’re traveling in such as snakebite items and things along that nature was a large gash but just need to remove a splinter from firewood.
Before you head out on your next trip you want to make sure you don’t have any gas leaks you can pick up a fancy combustible fuel detector such as the one I’m showing you in this video or you can mix up some dish soap and water use that to spray the connections in different areas around your propane system to check for leaks. You can also buy a leak detector in a spray bottle to help with this. It’s a good idea to make sure everything is tight and secure and are no leaks before you head out.
You also need a small toolkit and again I’ve mentioned this in previous videos nothing fancy here just basic wrenches and a small socket set but to be sure to include screwdriver pliers and a small hammer you never know when you need to make a small repair or fix something that has come loose on your rig remember these things are shaking rattling and bouncing around as you travel across the country. Sometimes we travel in the dark or we need to move before sunrise so good flashlight is a must-have again this is something I would have multiple of on my rig just in case you’re in a situation where you need to see and you either don’t have power for whatever reason or good disconnecting in the dark we can also help protect you from tripping over things as you move around your campsite or camper.
Now if you forget and leave your radio on or some other device you are using that’s connected to your vehicle battery you could run that thing dead so a good set of jumper cables is good to have with you so you can get help from another motorist to get a jump start better yet have a booster pack with you such as the one I show you here these things are fantastic to keep them charged and ready to go so when you need him you have them.
Another thing to check and I also consider an emergency item is a spare tire if you have a flat that is an emergency situation without a good spare you’re stuck until somebody comes along so make sure before you head out your spare tire is in good order and still holding air. Also, make sure you have the proper tools to change the tire including a Jack. Now my case of the bus is a good chance I’ll be using a roadside service for this task if it were to happen but many of you traveling much smaller rigs and a spare tire is a great item to have with you. So that is 12 but I realized it was one other item that I consider an emergency response item and that is duct tape you can use this for so many different things definitely have some with you when traveling in an RV or camper.
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