ThePewterPalace Our Love Affair with Avions

As many of you know we decided to spend this winter (2024-25) hopping around the big state of Texas and staying at several different campgrounds including our Thousand Trails member RV Campgrounds. Today, 3/14/25 while we are in the midst of a high wind alert and high fire red flag alert I thought it was a great time to do this post due to the positive responses we got from my facebook post the other day! We are anticipating winds of 23-35 MPH sustained and gusts to 50MPH over the course of 12 PM to 7 PM today. Thankfully no precipitation or hail!

PRO: It has been a great choice, saving us lots of $$, giving us the ability to scope out some really neat places to visit and meet or have reunions with RV friends along the way.

CON: It has also brought us some weather related challenges from 18 degrees to violent wind and rain storms. They have been few and far between but none the less, living as we do in our 1987 Avion- we must do certain preparatory things when storms are expected of 20+ MPH and above-either sustained or gusts). Obviously the extent to which we prep varies based on the anticipated MPH of the winds and for how long the winds are expected to last, if we are at all in a protected area or not. ***These are all variables YOU will need to take into account for your needs and comfort zone, none of our rules are hard and fast***

For the purpose of this blog post, we are using our scenario on March 14, 2025 when we were camped at Thousand Trails Lake Texoma at site F101 (photo below) which was an end site, on a rise, no trees overhead or really close by, FHU site, hard packed gravel base site.

**When we backed in, we also made sure we were back far enough that our truck, still hitched, was clear of the roadway. Not all campsites are long enough to do this. We have been in plenty of campgrounds where our truck was IN the road while backing in and we had to unhitch and park our truck broadside across the front of our trailer to get it off the roadway and safely park it. You will understand why in point one below!

HIGH WIND RV/TRAILER PREP CHECK LIST:

• HITCH YOUR TRUCK TO YOUR TRAILER- This provides added weight and stabilization. Plus if you ever did have to vacate, you would be able to leave much quicker. * always do this if you are in fire/flood alert areas regardless of winds!
• FILL YOUR FRESH WATER TANK-Water weighs 8.3 lbs per gallon. Filling this tank, which is at one of the lowest centers of gravity in your trailer helps weigh your RV down. (We stayed hooked to city water during this storm, but knew if power went out, we could still use our stored water in the fresh tank)
• (OPTIONAL): half fill your black and grey tanks– is a good option if the storm is fairly fast moving but has high wind and or gust potentials. Again added weigh helps keep your RV grounded.
• STORE AWAY ALL OUTDOOR FURNITURE, PATIO RUGS, DOOR MATS, GRILLS, HANGING LAMPS, FLAGS, ETC– any of these things not only can blow away or break under wind, but they also could potentially become a projectile headed right for one of your (or your neighbors) RV windows! I simply lowered the tent poles that hold our solar fairy light strands. Our patio mats were already secured with those long rug nails and round metal discs that come with mats or can be purchased at camping stores.
• FLIP OVER ANY PICNIC TABLES- yes, even the heavy ones. A friend told us he has seen big heavy ones flipped by wind! We also flipped ours over and laid it on top of our already secured down patio mat outside our door.
• CLOSE ALL ROCK GUARDS-We have really secure latches we put on ours (not original ones which were not great) and zip tie down the guard to the plate that is attached to the body of trailer for added security.
• DOUBLE CHECK THAT YOUR RV STABILIZERS ARE DOWN AND SNUG
• STRAP DOWN OR REMOVE ANY LOOSE OBJECTS FROM TRUCK BEDS OR ROOF RACKS AND STOW INSIDE THE VEHICLE
• STOW AWAY SEWER SLINKY HOSE UNTIL AFTER STORM PASSES-close your discharge valves
• PULL DOWN BLINDS, SHADES AND CLOSE CURTAINS AS POSSIBLE-important especially if in a wooded area where flying branches, or bad hail could be an issue.
• CLOSE ROOF VENTS-especially if you do not have the max-air style roof top covers. Be sure roof vents are snug and closed.
• SECURE ALL EXTERIOR AWNINGS, INSTALL TRAVEL LATCHES, OR AT MINIMUM PUT VELCRO BUCKLE STRAPS AROUND AWNING ARMS TO HOLD THEM MORE SECURE-we know of folks who have had awnings pulled up and opened just from wind when they have been camped. We installed ZipDee travel locks on all our window awnings and we use 3 velcro buckle straps on each of our patio awning vertical arms along with the roller bar lock and traditional “wheelie” locks on the ZipDee’s.
• ** STARLINK** We do have a Starlink antenna. We wanted to try to maintain excellent signal to get any alerts on phone and tv so we used our large screw-style ground stakes and ratchet strapped our step platform to the ground, then we used 5 zip ties to strap the kickstand of the antenna to the step base. We also moved the Starlink so we could easily see it from our windows in case a quick rescue was needed.
• Below you will see our stake down set up for starlink and also our finished “pre winds” prep with truck hitched up, table flipped, all furnishings removed, rock guards secured just as we were doing our final button up!

TIPS FOR YOUR PERSONAL SAFETY:

• CHARGE ALL CELL PHONES, CORDLESS RADIOS, FLASHLIGHTS, HEADLAMPS to max capacity. Have rechargable batteries ready to use, or fresh battery spares.
• BE SURE TO HAVE EMERGENCY ALERTS SET TO “ON” WITH YOUR CELL PHONES
• KNOW YOUR EVACUATION ROUTE & CLOSEST BUILDING FOR SHELTER. Some campgrounds will have this information in your check in materials, many wont. Be sure you know what COUNTY YOU ARE IN, what your address and site # is. Put this on a note on the inside of your door and on your refrigerator.
• IF STORM IS AT NIGHT HOURS- it is suggested to sleep in clothing, have shoes/boots ready at bedside to put on and keep a flashlight and your cell phone by your bedside.
• HAVE A “GO BAG” PACKED AND NEAR THE DOOR or in a quick n’ easy to reach spot- a “go bag” includes a change of clothing, sweatshirt, pair of socks, rain or winter outerwear, RX medications for a few days, basic toiletries, a flashlight, toilet paper, list of your regular medications/ allergies, significant medical history, and small first aid kit. EACH PERSON should have a “go bag” ready, honestly at all times because you never know when an emergency may hit and you have to leave your RV in a split second.

OTHER TIPS AND RESOURCES WE USE TO MONITOR WEATHER:

CELL PHONE APPS ** NOTE!!! be sure you change the location in the app to meet your current location! (I am guilty of forgetting this sometimes!)

• TheWeatherChannel, a “must have” app. You can monitor by hour, by radar, by day of week for any location you type in the search bar. Special wind, tornado alerts, fire alerts will also show up here. It is the most comprehensive especially if you input your direct town location or GPS coordinates.
• Windy (free and paid versions available, we use the free version)
• NOAA
• Local TV Channel Apps
• Special Cell Phone Alert Settings: In Alaska or earthquake active areas check to be sure you have these alerts activated on the settings in your cell phone. In summer 2023 we got alerts for earthquake when we were in Anchorage (yes, we felt it and the trailer was rocking!) and a Tsunami Alert when in Seward–these sure got our Attention quick!

ALEXA/GOOGLE MONITORS: We have an Alexa Echo Show on our kitchen table. We make sure to change her settings to our new location every time we move. This way we get local weather, local alerts, etc. in real time. We can verbally ask her any time of day (as long as internet is available) what the weather is, if any alerts, etc. but she will also interrupt with alerts too as long as you have it set for that. Here is a SAMPLE that I played on our Alexa.

WAGGLE MONITOR (OR SIMILAR TEMP/CAMERA MONITORING SYSTEMS) We installed a Waggle monitor once we got Nutmeg in 2023. We have the temperature alert monitor which, when we are away from the RV, sends internal RV temp info to our cell phones by email and text. We also have a remote camera which is positioned so that we can see outside our front door as well as her dog bed area. This allows us, even if away from the RV to see if foul weather has come in. If you are interested in this equipment, contact us and we can give you a discount code.

CAMPGROUND ALERTS- some campgrounds will use an internal texting alert system if there are bad weather conditions coming. We do not count on this, ever! Some campgrounds may also send around a Ranger to knock on doors if severe weather is coming- we have had this happen once or twice, but again, don’t count on this. Only YOU are responsible for YOU, your family and your possessions.

HAIL: We did not go into what to do in case of hail in this article. Many have published varying recommendations for what to do if hail is predicted and you have enough time to proactively react :

**For us, if we get enough forewarning that hail is predicted for our area–more times that not, we would hitch up and drive to a far away from the storm location. Hail is so damaging to RVs and especially to our Silver Beauties!

**If leaving the area all together is not possible, then towing your Avion to inside a car wash, under a highway underpass, a local covered garage or other such storage is certainly preferable. Hail storms are typically very fast moving.

**You could even call local RV/Boat storage places, explain your situation and ask if they would let you rent a covered storage spot for a few days if they have space.

** even moving within the campground to a heavily wooded site may help deflect some of the most damage from hail- but then one has to worry about falling branches too- so this option may be a toss up!

We sincerely hope our ideas may help you to better fair through wind and storms. If you have other suggestions PLEASE LIST them in the comments so others can glean from your experience and knowledge!

Wishing you safe travels and we hope to meet along the journey some day!

Kevin, Luise and Nutmeg