Safety, not just for RVers

As I mentioned in my last post, safety is the topic for today.

Without a doubt, the seminars that made the most impact on me concerned fire safety.  These two seminars were presented at the RV 101 Boot Camp and again during the Escapade and I attended them all.

They are presented by a former fireman and full-time RVer named Mac McCoy. He pulls no punches and is quite blunt about fire facts and what we must do to preserve our own safety.

Sure he addressed this information for those in an RV, but so much of it applies to our ‘sticks and bricks’ homes as well. In this post, I’m going to keep to that topic as I believe that most who read this are not RVers.

Early warning is a key part of surviving a fire. How can you react if you don’t know there’s something to react to? 

I learned that most of us have the wrong kind of smoke alarm in our homes. The wrong kind is the one that sounds an alarm only for a flaming fire and we need to know about smoldering fires as well. A smoldering fire can fill the home with deadly smoke fumes without setting off the smoke alarm! 

The one we need is a dual smoke detector that uses BOTH PHOTOELECTRIC AND IONIZATION SENSORS to detect both flaming and smoldering fires.

Please look right now to see what you have. Odds are you’ll have the one(s) that detect flaming fires only. When you go to the store to buy the right one(s), (which you’ll do right now, won’t you?), note that there are a lot of displays of the ionization-only smoke detectors still available on the shelves! 

This is one of the first things that stuck out as something that applies to everyone, not just RVers. I never knew this. 

So make extra sure you get the Photoelectric and Ionization Dual Smoke detectors. When I say dual here, I don’t mean both smoke and carbon monoxide! Kidde and First Alert are popular brands. Check your local ordinances to see where they should be installed in your home. 

Drive carefully. I’ll wait until you get back. : )

Hi there. So the second thing that really got to me involves the fire extinguisher. Those rated B and C are basically baking soda and a propellant. They make a mess but don’t hurt anything. 

An ABC fire extinguisher contains Monoammonium Phosphate, which is more corrosive than other dry chemical agents. The issue with these is that once the fire is out, you’ll likely have to replace whatever the powder touched. 

The propellants in fire extinguishers push out product at about 40 miles an hour. That’s so you don’t need to be close to the fire to apply the material but it also means that the material will likely get all over the place. 

You need to check fire extinguishers regularly to make sure they will work. Things can happen to make them less effective such as the dial that shows whether it’s good can have been installed incorrectly, or the lever could get pushed by mistake and release the propellant, which renders the extinguisher useless, etc. 

You can learn a lot about fire extinguishers online and there are likely YouTube videos on how to check them. You can also go to macthefireguy.com for information. He focuses on RVers but again, much of the information he provides applies to anyone.

Mac the Fire Guy also promotes a foam fire extinguisher and I immediately changed out all of mine for the foam ones because I was so impressed with how much better they are. And, the foam doesn’t hurt anything, including people and pets, so if my couch were to catch fire, that’s all I would have to replace because my fire extinguisher won’t spray corrosive chemicals all over the place.

I don’t know if foam fire extinguishers are commonly available in stores as they are a bit more expensive than the powder versions. I can give you the information on the ones I purchased if you like and that information is also contained in the link macthefireguy.com

Fire safety is an intense topic, I know. I’m guilty of not being prepared enough or practicing an escape plan with Evan when we were living in an apartment, house or condo. Mac, the seminar presenter, is very good at conveying a sense of urgency. For example, he points out that we have only 20 seconds to escape a 40’ RV that catches fire. 

Twenty seconds.
 
There’s not a whole lot of time for anyone to get out of a home fire either, right?

It’s not something one does casually, especially as adrenalin is likely flowing at an alarming rate. Those of us in earthquake country have learned that it’s important to train your adrenalin to react properly.

Because I am doing all this now, I feel justified in encouraging you and your family, including your pets, to put a plan in place. 

And practice, practice, practice.

Triumph on the Road

The title might have you thinking that I decided to downsize into a very small car after all that I learned at RV 101 and the Escapade in Tucson but that is not the case. I’ve just driven a lot of miles over the past six weeks in both the car and the RV and overall, the experience has been triumphant! The telling of just how triumphant will likely take more than one post.

Of course, those of you who happened to catch my Facebook post about my ‘parking at Wal-Mart’ adventure might think I’m stretching things a bit, but even that experience worked out quite well. 

Here’s a recap in case you missed it:

The latest lesson: Get the Wal-Mart app!
In my drive to Tucson for the Escapade and RV 101, I planned to park one night at a truck stop and one at a regular campground (CG) to prep the rig for nine days of boon docking. But all the truck stops seemed to be on the wrong side of the road and it was getting late so I asked Siri to find a Wal-Mart, which she did. Upon arrival, I went in and asked at Customer Service if it was ok to park. She wasn't sure so she found someone to ask. I was told it was fine as long as I parked at the perimeter of the parking lot and not in the actual spaces. No problem.
Just as I'm about to nod off, there's a knock at the door and I can see the flashing yellow light from the security truck. She tells me 'no overnight parking'. When I tell her I got permission, she radios the manager who tells her no, I must move. She sends me to another local business and when I get there, I realize it's still in the same big parking lot! And there's a sign stating overnight parking is prohibited.
So I called the police department and a nice officer gave me directions to an intersection with several truck stops. So I am now in an Iron Skillet truck stop. Before settling down, I phone to make sure it's ok to park. I finally find a spot between two big rigs, both of which had their generators or refrigeration units on so loud that I thought something was still running on my rig! But it was ok. Worked like white noise so I wasn't jumping up at each little sound and I slept thru both of them leaving.
That's my lesson for the day!

The day after the Wal-Mart adventure, I arrived at the Prince of Tucson RV Park. Doesn’t that sound awesome? While it was a very nice, clean, orderly park, the real reason it has such an elegant name is because it’s on Prince Road. Ha-ha! As planned, I took on a full tank of fresh water, emptied all the other tanks and did all my housework in anticipation of being without services for nine days. Just before arriving at the location for RV 101, I went to Costco and filled up on gas and propane. Now I know the propane tank is 25 gallons but holds about 17 gallons of propane. Do you know why it’s not completely filled? It’s because the propane doesn’t burn, the fumes do! 

So now I’ve arrived at the Pima County Fairgrounds south of Tucson and have a spot in a line of RVs of every kind. There is a lot of space between each rig, which seemed odd to me at first, but I found out it’s because we can all run our generators between the hours of 6 am and 11 pm and you don’t want to be too close to those fumes. Also, there’s room for fire trucks, should the need arise. (It didn’t.)

My first class started just before noon and provided an overview of all the systems on my rig: electrical, tires, engine, plumbing, etc. In the plumbing section, it was mentioned that if you heard your water pump, which I have to have on because I’m not hooked up, make a short groaning sound, that means you have a leak. Guess what I was hearing from my water pump? You got it! So now, in between all the workshops, I’m trying to figure out what could be leaking. 

I didn’t find it until Tuesday morning after I heard a drip sound only when my head was on my pillow. Sure enough, the leak was a loose pipe fitting on a hose that ran under the bed behind a wooden box that was screwed to the wall. I had no idea there were three hoses in that box! My neighbor was able to fix the leak and I propped open the bed and took every sodden thing out, including the carpet. 

Thankfully, I didn’t lose much of importance and everything dried very quickly in the low humidity in Tucson. Now everything under the bed is in a plastic bin of some sort. The hoses that were concealed by the screwed on wooden box? They are now behind a clear plastic box that I can, and do, check often. 

The generator, which up until now had been humming along beautifully, allowing me to make coffee in the morning and hot tea at night, stopped working. Again my neighbor stepped up and we tried to determine the problem to no avail. A vendor at the Escapade had a tech crew on site so they were wonderful in diagnosing and fixing the problem. All in all, I had my own Escapade right at my rig! Even the social aspect came into play as many people stopped by to see what was up. And, as expected, I learned a lot!

On Friday I had my rig weighed while it was hooked up. Knowing the weight, and distribution of that weight, is important for safe handling and, especially, braking. In order to do that, I had to complete a form to capture all the weights that apply to both the motor home and the car such as the axle capacities, how much the vehicle weighs, how much it can carry, the tire sizes, load range and age, etc. 

I learned that my four back tires were eight years old. Tire recommendations for RVs are that they should be replaced by the time they reach the age of seven, even if the tread is still beautiful. That’s because tires are weakened and damaged by the ozone in the air as well as heat. So an old tire is subject to a blow out, and that adventure is one I’d much prefer not to have! 

I also learned that my rig was 1000 pounds overweight! The best thing I can say about that is that it was distributed evenly! But as mentioned before, that is a real safety issue, especially on old tires and especially in a sudden stop! 

During the weigh-in, I was told that many times RV manufacturers add heavier-than-necessary design elements such as wood, counters, fabrics and so on that make the rig look wonderful but leave little leeway to allow the owner to pack much more than a toothbrush and a bathing suit! For the occasional vacationer, that’s not much of a problem. 

But I’m a full-timer and I need many of the same things I needed while in the condo. So I’ve been very busy reducing the weight on the rig and tracking what comes and goes and how much it weighs. So far I’ve reduced the weight by half and there’s more to be done. 

I’ve also installed new tires with a higher load range. At this point I’m inquiring as to how they make a difference in how much weight I can safely have on board but in the meantime, I’m still aiming to reduce another 500 pounds. 

Better safe than sorry. 

And ‘safe’ is the topic of the next edition.