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On this episode of All About The Car, we visit Randy Worzalla at Greeneway RV in Wisconsin Rapids, WI. Randy shares details you should consider when purchasing a camper and tells a few fun stories along the way. Listen here or wherever you stream podcasts!
Campers Through the Years
What to Buy
When you are looking for a camper, there are many features to consider. The first step is deciding what kind of camper makes sense for you, your car or truck and your family’s needs. Are you looking at a pop-up camper, single axle travel trailer, double axle or fifth wheel? Do you need a toy hauler? What even is a toy hauler? Greeneway RV or your nearest RV dealer can help you figure out all these decisions.
Randy helps his customers narrow down their choices by asking the following questions:
If you are camping for several months out of the year, there may be some luxury features (like a washer and dryer) that are more important to you than if you were a weekend camper.
Are guests only camping with you less than 20% of the time you are in the great outdoors? You may not need to prioritize a bunk house section that will add unnecessary length and weight to your trailer. Cots, sleeping bags and convertible furniture may work just fine for a few short visits.
Planning to visit state parks? Some state parks do not allow soft- sided pop-up campers because of safety concerns.
Randy suggests making a list of “must have” and “would be nice” items before shopping. This will help narrow your search and ensure that whatever camper you buy is right for you!
On the Road
Now that you’ve got your dream trailer picked out, you’re ready to hit the road, right? Let’s consider a few things first. Does your vehicle have the towing capacity to haul the trailer and everything you’ve packed into it? If your towing capacity is 1500lbs and the trailer is 1500lbs, it’s too heavy! Gear and passenger weight need to be figured in. What kind of hitch will you use? There are many options that all have different benefits.
Are your vehicle and trailer tires appropriate for the way you will be traveling? Would mirror extenders or cameras help you to be more comfortable maneuvering your trailer?
An RV sales professional can make sure you are looking at trailer, hitch and accessory options that work best with your vehicle and your towing experience.
Service After the Sale
Greeneway RV doesn’t just want to sell you your dream camper, they want to help you ensure it lasts! They will even travel to help you out with service.
Are you camping on the other side of the country and in need of service? No problem! Greeneway is a part of the Route 66 RV Network. Route 66 is the largest network of independent RV dealers in North America. When you purchase from Greeneway RV, you get access to 140 dealer locations ready to provide service when and where you need it.
What Are You Waiting For?
Ready to take the leap and get your own travel trailer? Head to your nearest dealer and find your dream home away from home! Enjoy the journey!
Transcription
Rob:
Welcome to our podcast, all about the car, brought to you by Schierl Tire and Service. I'm your host Rob Hoffman, an auto service specialist with over 46 years of industry experience on the ride with me today, our regular guest Brian Call, a 42 year veteran of the automotive industry. Hello Brian.
Brian:
Hey Rob. It's great to be back, missed the last few.
Oh, good to see you here. Brian and Bill Schierl, a guy that logs a lot of miles behind the wheel in Wisconsin and always has a lot of great questions. Welcome back Bill.
Bill:
Thank you. Great to be on the road.
Also, joining us on the ride today is special guest, Randy Worzalla of the famed Greenway RV located just south of Wisconsin Rapids. Happy to have you with us today. Randy.
Randy:
Things going at one time.
By now you know I've always liked to go back in time and throw a little history on the subject. So what do you picture when I say travel trailer? It's safe to say that you probably don't imagine something that looks like a covered wagon, but that's exactly what happened and where it all began. Let's just go back 111 years. Yep. Here I go again. In 1910, early adventurers would actually secure a tent to a platform on a set of wheels to create the first tent trailers. At that time, most cars only reached 15 miles an hour, so they would even leave the tents up for the drive home. By 1915, hard sided travel trailers became unavailable. As trailer camping increased in popularity, there were some folks that even took it further. They would build their own camper trailer body to fit right on a Ford chassis. This way, when it was time to go camping, they would simply replace the car body with a custom camper body and off they went. It wasn't until the twenties that they started to resemble what they are today. Randy, would you think that camping is a lot simpler today than what I just explained?
I would say so. I think people back in even 60 years ago or even 40 years ago would say these people are glamping. Air conditioning. Are you kidding me?
Right. Right.
Well, we've gotten away from the tents, the popups, even though they still exist and we've gone into more into the hard shell campers, a little more comfort that way. A little more protection from the outside. Bears. Coyotes, fun stuff like that.
Yeah. As we walk through your showroom here at your great facility glamping came to mind. That word popped up.
Yes. Yes.
Because it looks pretty cushy. Really nice.
I got in and noticed the glamping. When you have the heated seat, the outside chair
And the power massage, you need to heat the seat...
Oh, I did not see one of the....
Oh my gosh.
When you get inside one of the campers, there's several name brands that do happen to have the power massage and you know, after a long strenuous day of camping, you need...
Right.
Fishing,
Hiking. You need to feel that massage and feel more comfortable.
I can appreciate that.
Who would ever wanna go home?
You would not. For sure.
I'd rather just be out at the campsite. Of course, towing is a whole different thing. We're talking about tow behind campers at this point and that's a whole different mindset. I mean, you're not just hopping in your vehicle backing out of the driveway and heading down the road. You've got something behind you so that requires a different frame of mind.
Correct. You've got something pushing you a lot and several different things you need to make sure with with your towing vehicle is number one, you need to have a brake control. Something that's going to access the brakes on the camper itself. So when you are coming to a stop or unfortunately if a deer happens run in front of you when you hit the brakes in your vehicle, it helps that trailer stop behind you as well. So it's not pushing you into something you don't wanna go into. That's number one. Number two, the other thing you need to be concerned about is making sure your vehicle can tow what you're pulling. Most vehicles do have a maximum weight depending on if it's travel trailer or fifth wheel and you need to find out what that is before you purchase your camper.
I have a feeling we're gonna find out there's a lot more to this than meets the eye as we continue to talk here.
It's a simple science, but yes, it can be done
And it's what you know, right? It's what you guys do here.
Correct.
So how much weight do people put with their stuff into a camper that adds to that maximum weight?
Depending on the camper and how the person's going to be camping it. You've got people who are weekend warriors and they might take only like 50 to 150 pounds. You've got people who dry camp, so they're gonna be taking water along with them and when you do that you're adding 8.3 pounds per gallon of water. If you're taking 30 gallons, that adds up quickly.
Sure.
Some campers are designed where they can take as much as 1500 pounds. Some of the larger campers can take as much as 4,000 pounds.
That's a lot of weight.
But you also have people who are living in their campers. You've got people who are taking long trips across the country four to six months at a time. So they put in, we're talking about glamping?
Washers and dryers.
Wow.
Dishwashers, live in maid. No, that doesn't... So yeah, there's a lot of different things that could make up that weight. And again, it depends on what the frame is designed for. You're always going to have an empty weight of the camper. And what the maximum gross weight is for the camper itself, what the frame can handle. And then on top of that, of course you need to know what your vehicle you're towing with. Is it going to be able to handle, make sure I always recommend get something that's going to be within 10% of your max gross weight of the camper.
When you are towing, so an example would be if you've got a, a camper that has a maximum weight of 8,500 pounds, you wanna be in the area of about 9,600 pounds for towing. Give yourself a little bit of a buffer just to make sure.
You always forget something and add it in.
Exactly. Now there are some people who say, well I can go over that cuz they build those trucks nice and solid. But keep in mind that there are some federal laws and state laws and you're ever, ever in an accident, even if it wasn't your fault and you're towing something that's larger than we should be towing. You are at fault for 100% of it. So I wanna make sure that everybody's insurance policy stay down.
Is a heavy duty truck, let's say a pickup truck and a large camper required to go through a weigh station?
Not necessarily. It depends on the state and it also depends on the number of axles you have on the trailer. So if you've got a triple axle, it's highly recommended that you do because otherwise states might come by and say hello, we wanna talk to you. Nebraska is notorious for that. Even if it's a dual axle, they might pull you over because you're outta state. So a lot of people try to avoid Nebraska.,
Not just for that reason.
And speaking of single double triple axles, that means there's all kinds of different types of travel trailers out there. I mean, what are some of the different types that you have here that you're familiar with?
First of all, carry the Grand Design line. Grand design starts out with the Transcend, which is a, we call a stick and tin camper. What they have is aluminum siding on those campers. The Transcend where they're specialized in that they're 20% thicker in their aluminum. So it hands, it deals with nature a little better than the other companies. You also have their heating system in the camper. Your duct work rather than being in the floor, it's gonna be in the walls.
What that helps out with is that it keeps your floor nice and sturdy, number one. Number two, you don't have to worry about debris falling into your events where it gets...
Yeah.
Builds up over time and all of a sudden you're pulling out, you know, a little pet critter.
But so Transcend would be what we consider the entry level from Grand Design. In the Imagine line, they have the AIM series that just came out this year. That's a single axle and I would say it's probably the largest single axle style that's out there because their maximum weight is about 4,800 pounds.
On a single axle.
But the reason that is, is because they're as wide as the standard camper where most of your single axles are going to be narrower and more compact. So it gives you more of an open space. Then you have the dual axle units. The XLS series are gonna be the smaller campers, usually going up to about 6,500 to 7,000 pounds gross weight. And then above that is a Standard Imagine, which can go all the way up to 10,000 pounds gross weight.
That's a lot of weight...
That's the one with the dishwasher?
No.
No, no. That's still a pull behind.
That's still a pull behind. And the 3100 RD is one that sticks out in my head. The RD stands for rear den and the back area actually has two fold out sleeper sofas and the power massage chairs with the heat built in as well. And a little more comfort. A little fireplace helps out as well. There's a story about that as well. I'll get back to later. The next camper you have is going to be the Reflection line. Reflection line. When grand design started, they started with the solitude and the momentum and when people wanted to have something a little more economic, they went to the reflection and the reflection is still, even though they consider it more economic compared to the solitude, solitude is deluxe. The reflection is going to be a very comfortable camper. If you're looking at a camper, you wanna be in from one to three months at a time. The reflection is a camper for that. After the campers, you have the option going with a king size bed. I should point out that all of the grand design campers, the minimum bed is going to be a full size queen, 60 by 80. So you can even use the sheets you have at home for those campers.
Where a lot of campers that have the RV queen, which is 60 by 74 or even smaller. So comfort wise, grand design's got it built in. In the reflection they've got the travel trailer series is about six campers there. Then they've got the fifth wheel, they've got the 150 series, which are designed to be towed by a half ton truck. And I put a little or asterisk next to that, the 150 series being towed by a half ton trucks. Towable can be anywhere from 5,500 pounds up to 12,000 pounds depending on the model and design. So these campers are gonna be 9,000 pounds to 12,000 pounds gross weight. So you need to know what you're actually towing and then going to the solitude. Now these other mentions are deluxe. These are the ones people are living in going around the country four to six months at a time. And again, they do have ample space. When you're sitting in these campers for about five minutes, you forget you're in a camper. And on top of that you also have the momentum built the same way as the solitude. But the momentum is a toy hauler and grand designed for the toy hauler. How what they have both solitude and the momentums is that their frame is wider out. They don't use outriggers for their frames like every other company does. To try to get the wider size, they actually put their frames further out. They have more of an A style leveling system, which gives you better balance. And when you've got that, you can put more in the bed of the toy hauler. So if you've got a general toy hauler might give you up to 2,500 pounds you can put in the back of the garage.
So explain a toy hauler. What are you putting back in that? So you basically bringing your...
House or camper.
And your garage.
Right. And as you say, a garage. Yes. Your atv, your utv and some people will take their kayaks, whatever happens to fit depend on the size of the garage. You can have a eight foot long garage, you can have a 16 foot garage. And again, the way the grand design garage is built, if your cargo capacity for the camper is 4,500 pounds, which would be for generally a max for the camper, you could put actually 4,500 pounds on the floor of the garage. So all the weight goes in the garage and it would still be fine.
You can't do that in all campers.
You were talking about some of the aluminum design for the walls and things like that. What are you generally speaking the temperature that people, I mean it might be variable, but in general, how cold do these units usually go down to with a relative level of comfort?
Okay. You will see campers that have a mark on the, on the side of the camper that says this is an all-weather trailer. All-Weather trailer simply means that it extends your camping season into the winter season if necessary. And then into your spring season. So if you actually, where most people are camping, like mid-April to mid-October might be able to stretch it. Stretch it about a month in each direction. However, depending on how you set up your camper and there are people who will actually put their camper up on blocks and they will put skirting around it to help keep it warm underneath, insulated a little extra underneath and they'll live in their camper year round. You'll be using a lot of propane. Again, a trailer is not a house. So while it's insulated, it may not be solidly insulated. Keep that in mind. I will point out that in the grand design line, they don't have the padding that could actually sink down, which can actually leave areas where air could escape for more heat and where if your AC is in the summertime. So nice thing about that is that that gives them a longer period of insulation, more durability. And again, don't see a whole lot of people using trailers year round. But I remember when they had the big oil run in the Dakotas, there were a lot of people who were purchasing campers to take them out there and they are doing exactly that. They're skirting them and they'd get the large propane tanks because they're using a lot of propane through this small little furnace pumping 35,000 BTU and it's heating their camper for them for their place to live. So...
I was gonna ask is does the industry have any intention of going that way? And it heard you say no, not really. Cuz the vast majority of users don't camp year around. They shut it down for the...
The key word here is RV is recreational. Okay. So even when you're talking with the banks and your insurance company, they're looking at a camper that's recreational and people who have a tendency to live in their camper. Quotation mark, we call it extended camping.
So...
Okay.
Gotcha.
Yep.
We're taking an extended trip and I'm taking a business trip. I'm be going out here for several months.
That's fine.
Okay, got it.
Yes. You just can't live in it.
You know if I go back in time, and I always do and I apologize for this, but I remember the family hopping into the truck, international harvester truck pulling a pop-up camper and we get to the campsite, my dad's cranking everything out. All of a sudden we have this little mini house out there. Are pop-up campers still a thing today?
They are, they're not as popular as they used to be. As a matter of fact, we don't carry any here in stock. We can order them for customers if necessary. One thing we do have what's called the hybrid, which is going to be a fiberglass sided wall that has pop outs. And the pop outs allow you to have more sleeping space. And it also expands an area for sleeping. Keeps you more comfort because you do have a bathroom where a lot of the popups don't have that option.
You don't have to worry about folding up stoves and the like. That's all kind of put in place and you get a more accurate cooking area where it's not as dangerous.
So there's a better way now.
Yeah, I would say with the campers that are out there today it would be a little better. Yes.
Okay. Okay.
That having a bathroom was just never even a concept back in he day that you're referring to I think.
You're definitely waking up in the middle of the night in the dark and trying to find that...
And going over to... Yeah...
Wherever that was.
Why do you think the forest are so green?
Right. Exactly.
Fertilizer. So I'd like to talk a little bit more about choosing the right camper or as you might agree, as choosing the right vehicle to pull the camper you want. But let's talk a little bit about that. You talked a little bit about towing capacity already and gross trailer weight. How do you choose the size that's right for you and your family?
Well it's more than just the size. We ask our customers what is it you want to do on your camping trip? There are some people who wanna take the camper to a campsite where it just stays there if other people wanna travel from place to place. You've got people who just wanna do weekend excursions, going to visit grandma and you've got people who wanna take their grandkids. Well we ask all the hard questions then starting out with how often are you gonna be camping, what are you gonna be towing? Do you need to tow it or do you need somebody to move it for you? The other option what we're talking about the grandkids, is how often are the grandkids going to be with you. General rule is that if the kids are gonna be with you less than 20%, you do not need a bunk house like a lot of people think. The bunk house ends up being wasted space for you. Unless you're using it for storage, the kids aren't sleeping there and it's more excess weight that's being used. It's, and keep in mind that when you're towing it down the road, it's makes the camper longer as well. But if they are with you less than 20%, you can always take a cot, sleeping bag, whatever the case might be. And again, a lot of times they have the tables or the sleeper sofas that pull out. So there's still sleeping space for grandkids. So once we verify how many people are gonna be in the camper, grandkids are gonna be with you. Or again, if you're got a large family, where are you planing on camping? If you're going to be camping at the national park, let's say one kind of camper that sleeps, A lot of people are going to be the hybrids. You can get six to 10 people in a lot of these campers. But because of the soft sides, national parks won't allow them because they are a danger. If you have a bear that might be looking for food or something, it could be hazardous. So you have to find different options. And also keep in mind, if you're going to national parks, these national parks were built years ago. So having access to a large camper may be kind of difficult. Usually about a 30 foot camper is gonna be the max you can take. So you need to keep that in mind as well. Depending on how you're planning your travel. If you are doing mountain travel, if it's gonna be the two of you, you need to make sure you have something that's very secure. We've seen people who have taken large fifth wheels and they're great as long as you can control it. So the experience of the person who's driving the vehicle is important.
So Randy really, it sounds like a part of your job for yourself and your team here is to really help your customers identify what they envision, what their plan. Oh, perfect. Love it.
So yeah, we we have to try to find out where the comfort zone is for the customer as well. Because some people, you know, may not be too concerned about having an outside kitchen. Some people must have an outside kitchen. Very often we see people who say, I need an outside kitchen. I need sleeping for six people. I need to have a, a queen size bed needs to be in a separate room. But the camper can be no longer than 30 feet long.
That's not...
Good luck.
Yeah. That's not all gonna fit.
The... What we try to do again is, is try to get the feel for what the customer's needs are, fill those needs. And then we also have 'em make a list if it, if it comes down to, well I can't make up my mind about this or that one. So make a list of things that are items that you need that you must have. Things that you want and things that would be great to have but I can live without.
Very similar to buying a home or any other really other large purchase of your...
Exactly.
Family.
And prioritization is key.
I have seen people come in here and say, we've narrowed it down to two campers. Let's go take a look at them. And they leave here they say we've narrowed it down to five campers. So there are a lot of different options that are out there in in the trailers. We mentioned the sleeper sofas, the theater seats, some with the power massage and heat, some not the tables that break down into sleepers as well. That's generally across the board. Most of 'em have that unless you happen to have tables and chairs, you're not gonna get that if that's the case. But generally what I see are people who are either A looking for all of the deluxe amenities or people who are looking for open space. Doesn't mean you can't get both. It just might mean that if you're getting the open space, you might have to limit the amount of amenities you're going to get.
Makes sense.
Well as with every, all about the car podcast, we always break away and hit a Wisconsin destination. And this time we're gonna take a road trip to of course we're gonna take our camper from Greenway Campers to Peninsula State Park. And that's up in beautiful Door County, Wisconsin. That's a little tip up in the northeast part of the state that I frequent quite a bit and lot of nice scenery up there in the Peninsula State Park. So you're guaranteed a good experience in a state park in my opinion. There's a lot of things you can do up there. Well for one thing they've got 468 campsite and those do fill up.
I was gonna say making a reservation at any campsite going forward is really a critical thing. I assume you run into that if somebody says, oh we're gonna start to camp this summer. And if they haven't thought forward about making reservations to be able to achieve this goal, it can run into a problem.
Many cases a full year.
You gotta think ahead. Yeah.
Well I know a lot of people end up parking at the Walmart.
Yeah. Done that. Been there
Yeah. Many other campers at the Walmart. So you're kind of a little community in itself. You just don't tell too many people about it. But yeah, definitely a way you can get around it. A lot of things to do up there at the Peninsula State Park, there's the Eagle Bluff lighthouse, which is always neat to see. Also there's a walkway now where you can see out over the peninsula area and the bay. Northern Sky Theater. Of course camping. That's what we're doing. Biking, boating, canoeing, kayaking, fishing, golfing, hiking, you name it.
And let's not miss the restaurants and the shopping.
Oh yeah.
And the drinking.
Oh yeah, there's some drinks coming along with that.
Very good options are up there from distilleries to breweries to fantastic food to great stores. The arts you already mentioned. But it is just a really wonderful part of our state.
It really is. And if you haven't been there to all of our listeners, you gotta get up there. Even if it's just for a day... Well 2 day trip, get up there. A lot of nice hotel accommodations as well. But this time we've got our camper.
Right. I mean if you really wanna go, you can go all the way up to the north cross over to Washington Island and go to the lavender isle.
Yes.
Where they grow lavender. Which is actually pretty amazing. So...
That is amazing. It actually smells and looks like lavender in the field.
Where they farm that.
So back to central Wisconsin. We're ready to hit the road. I think we figured out what kind of camper we're gonna buy are gonna take thanks to Randy here at Greenway Campers and RV.
Gonna be a pop-up toy hauler, isn't it?
Yeah. I'm thinking do you have that combination? I'll look at it.
So now we're talking about towing and there's a little bit to consider when you're hooking up. Like it said in the beginning, it's not just a hook and go, there's a a different mindset here. So you really gotta start thinking about that vehicle that you're pulling it with. That's gotta be up to speed. And I think people kind of refer to you as well when it comes to the tow vehicle. Do you like to see those?
We would like to see them if possible before they purchase their campers. We can make sure that they're capable of towing what they're looking at. Once that's been decided, then it's a matter of finding the correct hitch. Obviously if you are going with a travel trailer, they have what's called weight distributions. There are different manufacturers. They've got the style, they have the chain link style on the, what they call the saddles. They also have the L bracket saddle. Usually the L bracket saddle is set up. So you have a built-in sway control. You've got a two point or a four point sway control. And generally what I look at is if someone's gonna be driving around the state of Wisconsin, maybe into the upper peninsula, parts of Minnesota, Northern Illinois going with a two point sway control for them is gonna be enough. If you're going to be doing more interstate travel, if you're gonna be doing more hill travel, it's a good idea to have a four point sway control. Nothing's gonna take out arrow, all this sway control or all its way that's out there. But it will help you control your camper better if you've got more sway leverage on it. And when it goes to fifth wheels, you do have different kind of hitches. And to keep in mind that there are different kinds of beds. So you've got an eight foot bed generally now what they call a standard bed is a six and a half foot. Back when I started out was I considered to be a short bed.
And now they've got five foot eight beds. And I mentioned before the reflection 150 series. They have a special kind of kingpin on it where you take out two bolts and allows the kingpin itself to swivel. What that does is allows the trucks that have a five foot eight bed to be able to make a 90 degree turn where you normally wouldn't be able to do that without taking out the window in the back of the truck.
And also you have what are called slider hitches. So that's available as well for the five foot eight and the six and a half foot beds to keep that camper away from the back window of the truck. So, and again, you have to also have to verify again a person's comfort level because you're willing to spend only a few dollars. You can get a manual style locking hitch or you can get one that automatically locks if you're willing to spend the extra bucks. It actually is worth it, in my opinion, to get something that's when you're backing up to it. When the jaw is closed on the pin, it's latched. You just have to go back and wiggle. Yep. It's locked good. Rather than trying to jam it in all the time.
And then it comes loose and the sides of their bed are smashed.
We did have one call wasn't a customer of ours, but they called us because we were closest to them. They were kind of panicking. They had a toy hauler that was quite loaded and they were on a hill and their camper all of a sudden came loose from...
Oh...
Their fifth wheel hitch.
Oh.
And we were able to send a truck out there and able to lock up the trailer so it wouldn't go down the hill.
The key part on a hill.
And if and got them out from underneath it and was able to get the camper here and do the necessary repairs.
But it can be kind of scary. So it's very important to have the proper equipment.
Do you oftentimes do service calls like that out in the field? Or is that just kind of like an anomaly that happened?
Well this was actually an emergency. And actually at that time when it happened, it kind of opened our eyes to the fact that we may have to be available for that. So very much like your company where you've got the emergency vehicles and also do the mobile service, we also have a mobile service van that covers a good chunk of the state.
Oh, okay.
So depending on where our customers happen to be. Now we do have customers that are way up north where we just can't get to them in a day's time. So unfortunately we do find other dealerships or even independent RV repair facilities who might be able to go and assist them.
So if I buy a vehicle, I have a bet that you have a package that I can additionally purchase for those types of services.
Generally, actually, if you are going to be taking your camper, let's say to it's gonna be permanently parked somewhere, that would be the case. Then we actually give you one time visit included in the package. There is not unfortunately the RV industry by rule for warranty, they consider because the RV's on wheels, it needs to come into a dealership to be repaired. However, if you're willing to pay for the service to go out to your vehicle, we can still go out there and do the warranty work as necessary. And what we try to do is verify number one, is it an emergency, somebody that's keeping you from camping versus this is an annoyance. I can deal with it for a few months until we have like four or five people in the area that need to have repairs and we can get all done at the same time and we can split up the service call.
Unaware of that industry existed
Yeah, I did not know.
It makes total sense.
And one thing, we are a member of Route 66. Now, unlike the auto industry, the RV industry is quite testy. I know what I mean by that is that if a dealership did not sell you a camper, they don't feel they have to service you. We don't feel that way. We feel that if a customer comes here looking for service, whether they bought the camper here or not, it's because they need the service. And we know that if we help them, they might be a customer in the future. So that that makes sense.
That makes sense. Good business sense.
So it just so happened that about 15 years ago or so, there was a group of people who decided that that would obviously make sense in the RV industry. So they started Route 66, whereas about 160 dealerships across the country that if you did not buy the camper there, they still have to treat you as if they did. And if you had break down someplace, route 66 would call ahead, here's the closest route 66 dealership, get the camper there. They have to get it diagnosed within 24 hours. Where most of the dealerships would just turn in and say, Nope, sorry, have a nice day. And at least this way they can find out what the problem is, get it diagnosed, get the repair done hopefully and get back on the road.
Wow, that sounds great. Of course we always gotta look out for that tow vehicle too. I mean you, you've got us all set up now with that correct hitch, anti-sway and all this, but we really gotta look at the tires on that tow vehicle that I'm assuming that pickup. We're gonna talk about a pickup truck here cuz we're talking about a bigger trailer camper. So we gotta look at the tires, air pressure, make sure that you've got everything on that truck to take care of the truck or car. In some cases the jacks a spare tire for that as well. Not only that, but you're looking at everything behind that truck as well. So you're looking at the tires on the camper. I mean you're really, there's a lot to do before you hit the road. And one thing I've always seen a lot of jokes out there about this where people don't secure their things inside the camper too and... And you get to the campsite and some settling occurred.
As they say. So you gotta look at all those things too and and I'm sure you've heard stories and seen that happen and...
Oh yes. One of the scariest things are when you had what's called a rear kitchen camper, an RK, because that puts all of your dishes on the back wall of the camper. So if you picture yourself when you were back in school and you're riding that school bus and there's the backup, everybody be back...
cross talk:
<Cross talk>.
A little more movement back there.
Yeah. for some reason dishes don't handle that very well. But...
That's why we recommend using like plastic dishes rather than glass.
There we go.
And just be a little bit further ahead of...
Bottles of wine are busted on the floor when you get there.
Yeah, you set them on the ground.
Boxes. Yeah, there you go.
But yeah, and again, making sure everything is secure and there are a lot of things are happen to have some straps that are included as well, but there are different accessories you can purchase to make things lockable a little better. Most of your compartment doors and your storage cabinets, they have catches on them. So they're going to be secure first of all, but also make sure that they are secure. If you've got one that feels like it's a little loose or you've got screw coming loose, get it adjusted. Don't waste time and have to pay the cost later.
One thing as we are walking around the showroom solar that how popular...
Is that amenity on campers?
Well, our dear fan covid made it kind of a necessity. The solar panels not necessarily campers, but solar panels had been out for quite some time, which were used by the trucking industry for a long time. Having the larger also 12 volt batteries when they're in transit from one place to another. If they have a refrigerator in there, they need to keep power to it even when the vehicle's not running and then keeping the battery charged. They have a solar unit on top. They started doing that in campers, I would say probably around 2010, 2012. And what they had mostly was place a port on the side of the camp where you could plug in a portable solar panel, usually about 80 to a hundred watts that it was just supposed to be designed to be a trickle charge for the battery. About 2017, 2018, they started coming out with 12 volt refrigerators for the RVs. They had a 12 volt refrigerators. Again, I mentioned before for truckers, they're much smaller, but they came out with the bigger ones. But a lot of these manufacturers who wanted to buy these, these refrigerators were doing it because of the price cost cuts. And they weren't thinking ahead and saying, okay, you no longer have the backup of propane, which we had in the combo units. And now you have to deal with a battery. If you have no, if let's say you're at a campsite, you're plugged into 110, you're away from your camper, the power goes out, trip the circuit breaker, whatever the case might be, now you're relying completely on your battery. If that battery drains, you no longer have refrigeration. And if you're gone for longer than a day from your campsite, you come back and all the food has spoiled. So that's not good. And unfortunately a lot of the manufacturers were not thinking about that when they started putting these refrigerators in. As a matter of fact, grand design is one of the companies that said we will not put 12 volt refrigerators in because there's no way to properly back it up. Then Covid hit and demand for campers went through the roof manufacturers for gas, electric refrigerators could not keep up. And then they started producing refrigerators that were failing and then the parts that they had to replace those bad parts also failed. Well the manufacturer, the campers had to decide, do we wait until they straighten out the situation with these refrigerators or do we go to a 12 volt refrigerator? Okay, let's go to 12 volts, otherwise we're gonna have tens of thousands of campers waiting to be delivered. So they changed over the 12 volt refrigerators, but now they said, okay, we need to have a backup plan. So the manufacturers grand design, one of them decided to go with solar panels on the roof and generally the smallest ones were 165 watt. And now you get all the campers there getting up to 300 watts on the roof. And some of them even have inverters to help use one tent power inside the camper, not just where the refrigerator. So they've moved forward a lot with the solar panels. We actually got involved because we saw the demand almost immediately and we knew that people were gonna be coming up short. So we started picking up the lithium style batteries and then we started picking up more solar panels and then setting up customers with their vehicles, not just their campers, but we've had vans in here. We've customized people's vehicles where they can actually plug their vehicle or their camper into their home and run their home if there's a power outage.
Interesting.
That is cool.
That is one thing I wouldn't have thought of.
Yeah, Matt Furky, our owner, he's the guru behind that. And actually we were recognized in 2022 by the RVIA for doing that and being actually about a step ahead of the curve. So...
That is neat.
I'm glad I asked that question. That was very interesting.
Now Randy, you've helped me identify what kind of camper I need and you made sure that I'm matched with the vehicle that I'm pulling it with. Now it's all up to me. I gotta get out on the road and going down the road with a camper, big tall sided camper in the wind and curves and backing no drive through fast food. Of course. What do I need to know and how is this gonna go? This is a different deal.
Okay. Obviously you're gonna have a lot of blind spots, so you need to try to eliminate those blind spots. One way to do that is to get an extension for the rear mirrors. And another way is a lot of the newer campers actually have a mount on the back for putting a camera in place.
Ah.
And you can use that with a wireless monitor inside the truck. Unfortunately, the truck manufacturers have not gotten together yet with the RV accessory people. It would be nice where a lot of the trucks that they already have the built-in cameras on the trucks to be able to share that with a camera on the back of the camper. Unfortunately, only way you can do that is to put a wired one in and that can cause a little bit of chaos as far as getting put in place and making sure you don't have a wire that's gonna be charged someplace for could damage. And all of a sudden you lose what you're trying to see. But with the cameras in the back, when you put your driver's lights on, it turns the camera on. Okay. So you can always see what's behind you. And you also, again, if you get the larger campers, you can get the cameras that have the side marker set up as well so you can see everything around you.
So I would imagine those campers really help when you're backing into that campsite. Then you can see what's behind you. You don't have to have all your spotters back there drinking beer?
You don't have to worry about Emma back there saying, keep coming, keep coming. Wait, no, maybe you should go forward. Yeah.
Yeah. There's a lot of yelling going on when that's happening and I think some marriages fail at that point.
One nice thing too, I know with some of the larger campers and people are scared to death and thinking about, I'm never gonna be able to back this up. But when you have a mirror or a mirrors and also the camera back there, they also have, when you're in reverse, they have lights that come on and some of the campers where lights up the whole back area so you can see everything at night. You don't have to worry about again.
Nice.
Where's the garbage can? I can see it. It's right there.
So fifth wheel and tow behind pull so much different. Do you teach people how to drive each one of those?
Oh, good question.
Do we teach teach them? No.
But how would they learn how to do that then instead of trial and error.
Hook up and go man.
It's expensive lessons.
We generally try to find out what the customer's towing history is and see if they've had any towing history. And we try to start them small and we, a lot of people who dream, they wanna have that big fifth wheel, but it isn't necessarily practical.
Yeah the the tow behind is so different than a fifth wheel.
Oh yes. One nice thing about the fifth wheel is you have better control when you have the weights sitting in the bed of the truck rather than at the back on a ball.
But again, it depends on the person, what kind of experience they've had. Most of the people were sitting looking for campers are people who've had some sort of towing experience, even if it was with towing a small boat, taking a pontoon someplace or their little fishing canoe, whatever the case might be.
That they got some idea utility trailers. So they have some feel for what to look for behind them. Okay. Yep. Now you can see their visual. I actually had a customer that purchased a camper and we went through the show through and we do a very detailed show through, at least at last, at least 90 minutes, where they're talking about how the camper function, what to look for and make sure you understand everything great, everything's understood. And then the paperwork was all done with this customer and the customer backed their vehicle up and they hooked up this fifth wheel and it's beautiful. They're all set to go. They checked the brake system. Yep. It works great. I don't know, this camper just just too big for me.
Oh my gosh. Yeah.
And so we said, yep, well it hasn't left our curb yet. It's still a new camper. You can back out if necessary. And it's...
Again, we appreciate that they were being honest.
Last thing we wanted was to have them on the road saying, Hey, they sold me this camper and it's too big for me.
It's intimidating.
Right. It can be. And for some people, one of the things they come in for, their vehicle may be able to tow a camper that's 10,000 pounds, but they look at the length of it and they go, there's no way I'm not gonna touch that camper.
Speaker 4:
60 feet long.
Mm-hmm.
It seems that way. It may only be 32 feet long, but it looks like it's 60 feet.
Plus you gotta deal with windy conditions, you get out in the Western states where it's just whipping out there and you've got some hills and mountain climbs. I'm...
Nebraska.
In Nebraska. Yes.
There's the wind in Nebraska
And very important as well. You know, we mentioned the weight distribution and that helping control the sway. But like I said, nothing is ever gonna take all its way away. We do troubleshoot with people also over the phone. If you're in a situation where it's windy, obviously if it's high gale winds, we don't want you traveling. Especially you've never been through that. But obviously if it's windy you can feel where the campers starting to be pushed over, slow down. That's actually giving you a warning. You, you might be going too too fast or the weather may be changing faster than you're expecting and just be aware of your surroundings. So again, most of the campers are designed when you're towing behind a truck that is going to flow properly. You have proper wind going around it. But if you get hit by a wind coming from the side, you have semis maybe passing you, maybe something you're not used to. There's the reason why they got the speed limits. Stay at them or below when you're towing because it gives you better control.
Makes total sense.
So I got a question about tires. What's your recommendation for covering them to help prevent the cracking? Does that help?
With the RV campers? Definitely. Because a lot of times the campers are sitting for quite a long time and you are going to have one side possibly facing south and it's gonna get more of the sunlight over time of course you're gonna get cracking. And the RV tires are designed to flex more, especially because their axles are so close when you have a dual axle unit. So you see those tires flexing. People are like, gee, how did that tire stay on that bead? Well it does because the side wall is designed to flex, but that side wall is dried out and it's cracking. That flexing is could also cause it to pop. So yes, definitely if you have a camper that can be sitting for someplace for a long period of time, even if it's over winter and you have an area especially that's facing to the south, get it covered. I know they've got the tire conditioners. I don't recommend that because if you're doing the tire conditioners, you have to make sure you do it all the time. If you don't, it will dry out faster.
So do you have covers here for that then what Brian was mentioning?
We had carried covers here, but because there's such a wide variety of sizes.
Ah yes.
We'd take up a lot of space in the showroom. So we ended up shrinking it down and we basically do it now by order. So if customer gives us the sizes, the tire, we can order it. Even it's with Monday. We can have them here on Thursday. So...
Now Randy, you've been at this a long time. I gotta believe you've got some stories you can share with us. You got a couple more?
Oh I have fun ones.
Well, let's see. We used to joke about the person who went camping and got a squirrel caught up in his awning, but it was a manual awning. So the awning went back faster than he expected and the squirrel happened to hop and get caught. It wasn't really pretty.
Oh wow.
And that's another thing you have to be concerned about. Back when I started to, I mean I've only been in the industry for 13 years, but so much has changed in the last 13 years. And when I came in, your standard awning was a manual awning. Your werespring load loaded on both sides.
Yep. You had to ratchet it gently and carefully so it wouldn't let go and all of a sudden snap back on you and you had to make sure the pivot was in the right place. Now it's electric. Put a lever, it's standard.
Hit a button, you're done.
And you know, it was just about seven years ago or so where they came out and they had a variety and they, even the same company could have four or five different varieties. So if they had a problem with an arm and you ordered another arm, well that didn't fit. Now you need another arm. And it had to be specific. So they finally got that little more universal. You've seen situations where even jack's up in front used to be all manual crank. Okay, now they've got the power one. The fun thing, we still have campers that have the manual stabilizers and it's important for customers to understand the difference between stabilizing a camper and leveling a camper. When you are leveling a camper, generally if you've got an unlevel ground, it's a good idea from left to right to put boards underneath the tires on one side to lift it up. Okay. If your ground is unlevel and you take your stabilizer jacks and try to crank them to the ground and then try to lift the camper, what happens is all that weight ends up on those little legs. They're supposed to stabilize your camper and if it's on a hill, it's going to bend in the direction that the hill is going. And now you've just destroyed your jack.
So you're gonna be sleeping on the opposite side of the bed.
I'm afraid so. What the manufacturers have come out with is a couple different things. Number one, they do have the power stabilizers, which you don't have to crank anymore. They also, of course cuz of cordless drills, you can get a bit that will fit on with the manual ones and bring them down a lot faster. But they've also gone as far as to put on. Now I know that the more deluxe fifth wheels had this for quite some time the power leveling system. And you can now get that on just about every fifth wheel that's out there.
And now you can even get them on some of the travel trailers where you push a button, you hold the button down the legs, come down, actually lift the camp, rough ground up to 10,000 pounds on a travel trailer and you're done in about 35 seconds.
And it's leveling it automatically.
So the eggs stay in the middle of the pan and not go to the side.
Yes. Oh my God.
So yeah, that's, that's one of the major changes we've seen.
One of the funniest stories was a service advisor here. First we had a customer who came in and said, I need to get an estimate for repair on the side of my camper. Okay. He showed us the side of this camper. He's got this big hole on the side. Okay. What happened here? Well one of my neighbors was drinking a little too heavy and he said, Hey guys, let me see if I can jump my snowmibile over this camper.
He didn't make it
Literally. Or didn't make it?
No, he made, he had, he had to pay the bill <laugh>.
He was still alive.
I think he would've bought the camper if that was mine.
And we also had a customer who came through, they had actually purchased the camper somewhere else and it was a large more deluxe camper. And their insurance company told 'em to stop here, to have us do an estimate on the repair. They had bought the camper in LaCrosse and they took their nine year old granddaughter for her first camping trip. That night they had tornado warnings and they got hit by a storm. They came here, I walked around the camper, could not see any problems on the camper. So I climbed the ladder, get up on the roof, looking at the roof, and it appears to be okay, but there's a little bit of a shadow right near my feet. So I looked down and here is a gap about the size of a grapefruit that's pivoted into the roof. It's actually pitted in there. And I start looking at the roof and I find 31 of these. And what happened was they had grapefruit size hail.
That hit the camper. This is a camper that was purchased literally days before and the insurance company totaled the camper. Now most of your fiberglas is gonna handle that with no problem. The roof though, is going to be wood. Usually it's gonna be half inch or five eight or three quarter inch plywood that they have wrapped on the, on the top. And that happens to get hammered too hard. Well, in this case it was, I do remember one time a storm went through and a customer had a tree fall on their trailer, went through their roof. But the customer themselves were shocked by the quality of the wall. The wall actually held the tree up. So yeah, I mean the campers are built well, but you know, mother nature has a tendency to wanna fight back.
Mother nature can win.
Absolutely.
One of the most strange things, we had a customer who came in and said they couldn't figure out why the aluminum siding on one side of the camper was popping off. And so I was taking a peek at that and I thought, kind of strange, it's just on the top, it's popping. And see that no matter how much tucking you do is always gonna keep on popping out. So I thought I'd take a peak down below and I found that the frame was actually bent, kind of curved from front to rear. And they were above at the same point. But there was this big lope. So I asked the customer if the camper was in any kind of storm. They said, not that they knew of. I said, okay, cuz it looks to me like this camper could have been wrapped around a tree. And they said, well that makes sense now because the campers seemed to be at a 90 degree angle from where we left it. So it did wrap around a tree.
So they had to total that camper because the frame was bent.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Again, sometimes it isn't just mother nature, who's the issue. We had a customer who purchased a camper from us. We showed 'em all the deluxe things about it. So we hoped that they paid attention. And that was on a Friday or Saturday. On a Monday they came in, they were very angry, demanded to get their money back for their camper because we sold 'em a piece of garbage. They had tried filling their water tank and they had water gushing all over the place. Now that's a terrible thing. So the other service advisor that was here went out to the camper. He wanted to take a look and he pokes up a hose in the shop, brings it out, and he's gonna connect it to the water system. The customer says, no, not there. Over there towards the back. That's not the water tank, sir. That's your black tank flush. But what had happened was, and the black tank flush on the camper, how they're designed is that when you're at a a dump station, you dump your black tank and because your gate valve is open, you can now put a water hose to the black tank flush, which basically pressurizes inside the tank and flushes it out and does a pressure wash inside.Well, obviously he didn't have a gate valve open and he thought he was filling the fresh water tank and he was actually building pressure up inside his black tank and causing black tank to explode. The good news for it was it was a brand new camper, so it's never been used. So his camper was not a total loss. It turned out it was an insurance claim and he had to replace his black tank. But he did ask us not to tell his wife.
She came in and she thanked us for our understanding and just looked at him and shook her head.
Well, Randy, a huge thanks to you and Greenway RV for joining us i Schierl Tires all about the car podcast.
Oh, our pleasure.
And for all of our listeners out there, enjoy the journey. We hope to have you ride along next time on all About the Car. To listen to previous episodes, find additional resources, or to simply send us a message, head to all about the car podcast dot com. We'll see you next time.
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