Tag Archives: "trailer tips"

sharing 5 Problem-solver tips for rv-travelers

I thought I might give you a list of 5 “problem solving” tips, items or techniques that we have learned in our years of RV camping.

Enjoy and please let us know what other “problem solvers” you have discovered! Please leave comments in the “leave a reply” field!

RUN AWAY PAPER TOWELS!

PROBLEM SOLVER #1: VIVA BRAND PAPER TOWELS

If you have had the problem of entering your RV after a trip and finding that as you “rolled down the road…so did your paper towels and they have literally unrolled themselves from one end of your RV kitchen to the other….VIVA brand solves your problem!

Viva brand do not unroll with road vibration and movement. In fact, they actually stick to the roll and require you to “peel” a towel off. They are admittedly a little more pricey but they have an excellent absorbency rate as well as they stay put! Worth it in our mind for sure!

MY CHAIR MAKES HOLES IN MY PATIO RUG!

PROBLEM SOLVER #2: FURNITURE GLIDES

Many of our RV park or boondock sites we have found have very soft or sandy surfaces where we put our patio carpet out on. We have a large 6 x 20 carpet we use, purchased from Camping World it is the plastic weave type which is great for durability (we still have a smaller one that is 6 yrs old and fine) and dries well without molding.

BUT, because of the “weave” we found that the leg ends of our camp chairs would penetrate through and cause a lot of stress on the plastic fibers.

We had some heavy furniture glide discs (hard plastic on one side, foam on other side) that can be bought at any hardware or big box store.

We store the discs in one of the side pockets in our chairs so they are always handy and have found they do the trick to prevent any potential ruining of our patio carpet. We have not found we need them on our little table simply because there is never enough weight on the table to cause the legs to poke through the carpet.

RUN AWAY MATTRESSES!

PROBLEM SOLVER # 3: ANTI-SKID RUG MAT

In our Class A motorhome and in our 1973 Avion we were constantly finding that our mattress would slide off the bed board and be askew when we were finished traveling for the day.

We purchased a package of the anti-skid area carpet pad at Lowes and cut it to fit just about 1 inch in from the perimeter of our mattress. There are different grades/qualities and we found this one did the best. Problem solved, the mattresses no longer move and this also provides a buffer zone of a waffle of air between your bed board foundation and your mattress which prolongs the life of the mattress and helps prevent mold and condensation on the bottom of the mattress.

REMOVING STICKERS, BUGS, TAR AND MARS ON THE ALUMINUM SKIN

PROBLEM SOLVER #4: THE BONE TOOL

We learned about this invaluable tool from fellow RV (Airstream) long time travelers. The bone tool is versatile, affordable and takes up no storage room. Especially on the aluminum skin, owners of Avions and Airstreams have to be very careful not to mar the skin by using anything that will scratch, discolor or eat away at the aluminum. We have found we use the bone tool to help get the rubber window glaze bead into place, scrape off old unwanted stickers from the aluminum and fend off extra stuck bugs and even tar from our rig. We have this tool linked to our shared Avion Amazon list on our blog under our LINKs page.

GOSH MY MESH FAN SCREENS ARE FILTHY!

PROBLEM SOLVER #5: PET HAIR ROLLER

We found on our 1973 Avion that a simple sticky tape pet hair/lint roller did a fabulous, quick (and no water necessary) job of cleaning off dust, grime, and dirt from our vent screens. No need to even take down the screen if in a pinch for time, or on a trip. BTW if your screen looks dingy we repainted ours with an ivory colored spray paint that said it was ok for fabrics. It worked great!

PetLovers Lint Rollers for Pet Hair Extra Sticky 6 Pack - Lint Remover for Clothes

Well that is our 5 tips for this time! Hope you found one or more of them helpful!

Be well, Be Healthy…..Enjoy your travels!

Please visit our online shop at www.MyAvionMarketplace.com for our uniquely designed, fun and useful Avion and AS themed clothing, gifts, trailer and household items. Lot of items are on amazing sales right now for the holidays!

-Luisa

Be Safe with LP Lines INSIDE your Avion!

Hey there,

This is a quick post based on the punch list of things we are going to prep our new to us 1987 Avion, 32S but this post applies to probably all Avions!

Under your stove you have a terrific drop down cabinet  with a lot of good storage space.  In our 1973 we used this for storing oversized trays, or some cast iron cookware and a plastic dish tub for stuff.

HOWEVER—this is also where LP lines typically come through on ALL AVIONS in the back corner (normally) of this cupboard which can pose a safety issue.  You NEVER want these lines to be pinched, or worse, punctured by stuff that you may have stored in that storage bin.

When you roll down the road, it has been recorded that your interior stuff sustains essentially an earthquake (cannot remember the degree magnitude right now, but is significant) so it behooves  you to batten down the hatches, and to be sure that anything you have in this convenient under stove storage area cannot shift and pinch, poke or puncture those precious LP lines!

Today, on our 1987 Kevin created a wooden “safety cage” that created a safe space for those LP lines. This project took a few minutes to do, a board, a power drill with screw driver bit and a few screws.  Safety is the word of the day.

Please check out this storage cabinet, and protect those LP lines! (yes, that is the original 33 year old linoleum!)

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Be well, hope to meet you on the road or at a Silver Avion Fellowship Rally soon!

Sincerely,

Kevin & Luisa Sherman

1987 Avion, 32S (our forever Avion) & a 1973 Avion, 28′ LaGrande (currently for sale)

Queensbury NY

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Elbow Grease!!…Removing winter skirt clips

May 2020….one month into ownership of our 1987 32S Avion. When we bought this Avion the former owner had been using it as his mobile residence while on construction jobs.  Some of those jobs entailed camping over winter months.  Understandably he had chosen to install winter RV skirting around the bottom of the rig to the ground to lessen wind and weather intrusion.

In the photo below…You can see all the (we figure over 100) plastic black “clips” that were glued on about every 6″ onto the aluminum skin perimeter of the Avion.  In truth it was an initial turn off to see all of them because we had a genuine concern that they might leave a “forever mar or mark” on the skin–or quite honestly not come off.  The owner assured us the “glue” used was safe for aluminum and that with some good ol fashioned elbow grease they would “pop” off.  He was right!

Finally our Adirondack spring 2020 began to settle in and it has been comfortable enough to work outdoors in our RV storage garage, Kevin went to work coming up with the perfect recipe and steps to remove these little buggers.  (LOL…although this Avion has additional upgrades like specially installed heated pads around its tanks, etc. we really plan to chase 70 degrees once we retire…no need for winter skirting for us–anyone need about 150 winter skirt clips??  let us know!)

Kevin’s tools to remove!

  • WD 40 (we used pourable from container, not spray on)
  • Bone Tool (find on our  Links page in our Amazon item guide link
  • GoJo brand textured disposable wipes
  • Heat gun (a hairdryer could be used in a pinch too)
  • Small plastic tray or bowl and foam 1-2″ brush

Steps to removal (video also posted at bottom)

  1. Break/snap off all clips using a plastic scraper.  (do not use metal scrapers on an Avion! You will cut into the anodized finish and also possibly cut into the aluminum skin)
  2. Apply WD40 using a foam brush to any remaining glue on Avion skin.  Let sit overnight.
  3. Work on section by section may be easier.
  4. Use textured wipe and bone tool to remove glue.
  5. Use heat gun if glue is not coming off with wipe or bone tool.  Shoot heat for about 10 seconds.  Adjust accordingly- might need a second time with heat gun.
  6. Wipe area down once glue spot is removed.  Continue on to the next one!

Finished!!  NO sign they were ever there! (note, yes, we know she needs a bath)  This project took Kevin about 2 days (about 8 hours total, taking his time)

Kevin does a video of steps to remove the clip glue spots- click here

2020-05-17 13.47.03

Hope this post helps anyone who needs to remove winter skirt clips like we had!

Be well, hope to meet you on the road or at a rally!

Kevin & Luisa Sherman

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