RV Education 101 April 2007 Newsletter

Mark's RV Tips by Video By providing this resource of free RV Instruction through short video tips, we hope to help new RVer’s learn important basics about their RV, in a visual medium. RV Education 101 hopes to make all of your RV experiences safe, fun and stress free.

Types of Fuel Cells In this three- part series, FunRoads.com will take a look at fuel cells, how they work, what they mean to RVers, and what Onan is doing in the area of fuel cells for the RV market. In our last two articles, we talked about fuel cells in the general sense--why the interest, how they work, how they relate to renewable energy, and the common types of fuel cells. In theory, almost any fuel cell could be made into a mobile power source. In practice, the phosphoric acid and molten carbonate technologies are too big and heavy, the direct methanol fuel cells too inefficient for applications requiring more power than portable electronic devices (such as laptop computers) and alkaline fuel cells prohibitively expensive. In this article, we will focus on two types of fuel cells most suitable for mobile power requirements for recreational vehicles (RVs)--Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells, and Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs).....Read More

The Experience Texas -- Get Outside!
Texas Outside provides over 1700 pages of exciting information on things to see and do in Texas including camping, boating, fishing, hunting, biking, hiking, music events, golfing, tubing, exploring Texas, and much more

Q & A by Mark Polk

Q: We always turn our refrigerator on several hours (6 to 8) prior to leaving on a trip, but it seems like when we put the food in it just before leaving, it loses its cooling capacity. This is how we were told to do it so I don’t understand why it does this.

A: It is probably due to one of three things. An RV refrigerator does not work like the one in your house. It works off of gravity. The freezer compartment has to cool down completely before it begins to cool the refrigerator. This process can take several hours as you mentioned. I would guess that either the refrigerator has not cooled sufficiently before you put the food in, or the food you are putting in was not already cold, which can quickly change the inside temperature of the refrigerator, or last but not least, you are putting to much food in and not leaving space around the food for air to circulate. Try this the next time you go on a trip, turn the refrigerator on 24 hours before leaving, put only cold food in it prior to leaving and only take a couple of days worth of food, leaving plenty of space for air to circulate. This should solve the problem.

The RV Insurance Corner: Learning About RV Insurance Through Stories and Examples

RV Education 101 feels that prevention is the best protection. We also feel that by adding some real life scenario's of insurance claims, we can help educate you and bring awareness regarding subjects that you may never have considered.

Scheduled Valuable Personal Property

Many RVers travel with expensive personal property such as jewelry, watches, electronics, and even sewing machines. Specialized RV insurance policies provide coverage for loss to personal belongings used in conjunction with the RV. Often, homeowners policies will not pay for personal belongings lost in a collision or stolen from a motor vehicle. Each piece of valuable personal property must be specifically scheduled on the policy. Many RV owners never think to schedule their personal property until they experience a loss and it is too late.

If unsure if you are covered, you may want to check with your insurance agent to see if you have this valuable coverage.

RV Customer Service All Stars Named Every year, Good Sam Club members choose which companies roll out the red carpet -- or, in this case, the welcome mat -- of good customer service. It's called the Welcome Mat Awards and for the Good Sam members it is an opportunity to express support and encouragement for companies that treated RVers right throughout 2006. See who made the list this years as the RV customer service all stars

Carbon Monoxide is Deadly! Four Sickened By Carbon Monoxide
NEVER, NEVER use your RV range burners or oven as a source of heat. I know I've said this a million times if I said it once. Here is real life story about what can happen, fortunately these individuals are still alive to talk about it.

This isn't your Typical Happy Camper Read what one guy uses his RV for. Hopefully you won't meet anybody like this at the campground you're staying at!

BUY NOW $14.95