Unfortunately, this is a common occurrence when parking under trees — especially when camping in beautiful places where tree maintenance is non-existent . Seems like it’s only a matter of time before an RV gets hit with a big branch or even a tree that has fallen down. I know; it happened to me a few years back in the middle of the night. Quite an awakening!

Sealant would not be my first choice; just trying to keep it from sinking down through the hole and into the insulation alone would be a challenge. Go online and pick up a product called Eternabond tape. This repair tape, which looks like rubber roof material, comes in different colors (the most common is white) and is sold in different widths and lengths. I used Eternabond to seal the seams where the front and rear caps meet the rubber roof on my fifth wheel and it’s been on there for 12 years — and is still in perfect condition.

here’s probably no better way of spending a vacation than with family and friends and an RV — unless the RV runs into problems. If you don’t know your way around your rig mechanically, even relatively small snafus can bring outings to a premature end or, worse still, cancel long-anticipated travel plans. Learning about the myriad systems included in an RV — from plumbing and electrical to the operation of slideouts — is critical to not only making repairs on the road but also extending the life of your travel trailer, fifth wheel, motorhome or truck camper.

Acquiring that much-needed education, though, can be a years-long process of frustration and skinned knuckles. But it doesn’t have to be.

Staging hands-on technical seminars is nothing new to Lippert. For much of the past decade, the Elkhart, Ind.-based company has taken a leadership role among those RV suppliers that had undertaken the task of educating service technicians on maintaining and repairing components produced by each firm. For Lippert, this is particularly critical as the largest supplier in the RV industry continues to expand both organically and through acquisitions to nearly three dozen brands.

ow many times have you been traveling hour after hour and needed to make a stop to pop into the bathroom or got up in the middle of the night — only to discover that the water pump switch in the other room was not “On” when you needed to flush the toilet? If you’re human, the answer is, “too many times.” There’s no question that this has happened to all of us at one time, leading to vows to find a solution.

Fortunately, a number of manufacturers have installed a secondary water pump switch in the bathroom and maybe another in the utility center located in one of the exterior compartments. Unfortunately, like owners of most older RVs, the person holding the title to this trailer did not have a bathroom switch — and after multiple grumblings while using “the facilities” with the pump turned off, the owner was desperate to install a secondary switch in the bathroom. So, we set about installing one.

I found a matching switch to the others used in the trailer on Amazon ($9.99 — search for an American Technology Components Single SPST On-Off Switch with Bezel). So, we had the switch; now we had to make sure we could use it.

hade is important to many campers. Just ask RV park operators who constantly hear, “Are there shade trees on or adjacent to the site?” when travelers are looking to book a site. That’s why awnings are so popular — if the campsite isn’t shaded with trees, you can bring along your own shelter from the sun.

Not all awnings are created equal, however. While summertime weather — prime camping season — is somewhat more predictable, the wind can still be a menace, causing substantial damage to the awning fabric and hardware if left out during a hard blow. Leaving the awning open while away from camp can present a whole new set of problems if the wind comes up unexpectedly. In my 50 years of working on RVs, I can’t even count the number of customers who came into my shop with awnings that did not fare well during a windstorm that came up unexpectedly while they were out hiking or boating. Returning to the camp and seeing a shredded awning and mangled hardware, along with a surprising amount of collateral damage, is always disheartening. Insurance will typically cover the repairs, but there’s still a deductible and the prospect of a ruined trip — or, at the very least, experiencing a lot of difficulty jury-rigging the leftover parts in order to get back on the road and to a service center.

t’s no surprise that a lot of the innovation happening in the RV arena is coming from its supplier base.

You just don’t hear about these products as often as you should. In 2018, the industry’s premier trade publication, RVBusiness, introduced its RISE Awards to highlight the inroads made by industry component suppliers on both the manufacturer (OEM) and aftermarket levels. The award’s name is an acronym for “Recognizing Innovation and Supplier Excellence.”

“We felt the innovations by supplier companies needed to be recognized and honored for helping to move the industry forward,” said the magazine’s editors at the time. “You could argue that it’s the components in an RV that drive innovation just as much as — if not more than — anything else.”

hile contemporary RVers are fueling the drive by RV manufacturers and suppliers to equip new models with ever-more “residential-style” products and appliances, there is one big difference between an RV and a more traditional “brick-and-mortar” home: the social meeting places have changed.

At home, the kitchen oftentimes becomes the de facto gathering place as friends and family congregate to talk while meals are being prepared. While camping, the galley assumes a more utilitarian focus, used for meal prep while most of us tend to congregate outdoors.

That said, RVers nonetheless want the same quality and functionality they enjoy with their kitchen appliances when they go on the road.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, the future of kitchen design is “hands-free and smartphone-activated” — in other words, kitchen appliances are going digital.

trailer or fifth wheel underbelly is a wonderful addition. It conceals the “spaghetti bowl” of wires, tubing and tanks, and offers a smooth — and aesthetically pleasant — finish to the underside of the chassis. It also allows for ducted heating from the furnace as part of a factory-offered cold weather package. All-in-all, you wouldn’t want a trailer without a one-piece belly pan — until it becomes necessary to make a plumbing or wiring repair. Then it becomes a nightmare.

Removing the entire belly pan to access a dump valve, for example, is a lot of work — and the chances of replacing it to factory conditions are slim. Then, there’s the mystery of where everything is located without having precise blueprints, which typically is just fantasy. It would be nice if the factory provided strategic access panels — or at least marked the location of the holding tanks and dump valves — but that doesn’t happen. So, mechanics and do-it-yourselfers simply make blind guesses and hope for the best.

etting up a vehicle properly for flat-towing behind a motorhome seems so simple. Slide the ball mount into the receiver on the coach, connect the tow bar to the ball mount and the vehicle you’re towing, plug in the lights and off you go.

If it were only that easy.

Safety on the open road should be the Number One priority of every person behind the wheel of an RV because the lives of the loved ones riding along are literally in the driver’s hands. That may sound melodramatic, but it’s true. Hook up a towed vehicle behind the motorhome and you add yet another element to those safety concerns.

If you want to flat-tow (all four wheels on the ground) a “dinghy” safely and confidently behind your motorhome, going the cheapest route on the tow setup probably isn’t in your best interest — especially if you plan on towing the vehicle for thousands of miles over varying road and weather conditions. According to the expert installers at Bish’s RV in Meridian, Idaho, a flat-tow setup requires an investment of between $3,500-$5,500 — depending on the vehicle, tow-bar and braking products used and whether you do it yourself or have a pro do the work. Yet many RV owners concentrate on price first, with safety and quality of product second. However, when it comes to towing a vehicle behind any motorhome, price should always play a secondary role.