An awning is described as the canopy made of canvas, used to provide shelter to people or things from rain or sun. It is one of the most important items in the checklist of campers and is vital to the spirit of camping. These canopies not only facilitate by adding space, but also help in building the ambiance and mood of camping that make the entire experience a memorable one.

The fabric of the canvas is usually the acrylic, polyester or vinyl laminated etc. that is stretched tightly over a light framework of aluminum, iron or steel.First used by the ancient Egyptian and Syrian,awnings were termed as “woven mats”. When planning camping, it is important to manage it beforehand, which involves choosing the apt awning. When buying the camping tents ensure that it has rooms enough for everyone included in the group or family including the children.

When traveling along with family, umbrella shaped tents are usually preferred as they can be folded and stacked neatly and require very little space for storage. Because of the light weight framework, awnings are not a burden to carry and hence facilitate convenience and portability.

The best material in fabric to be chosen from is ‘nylon’, as it is water-proof. However, do not forget to check the seams of the tent to gauge the quality of the fabric and tents that you are investing in to buy for the camping trip. Another very important factor to be scrutinized while buying awnings is the ventilation of the tent. Ensure that the tent has apt windows and panel doors that allow proper ventilation by letting sufficient amount of air into the tents. Also, check if the windows have proper accessories to keep the insects from getting into the tents while they are open.

Another additional feature that might come handy when camping is the pop-up camping awning, which allows adding to the space to the tents by adding virtual rooms. These hassle free awnings can be folded along with the canvas materials while moving. With the many varieties of awnings available in the market, it is almost impossible to not find something that fits your preferences and budget.

Hamza Ejaz Writes Blogs about Awnings For Campers here http://www.awningsforcampers.org Find the best deals, reviews and information from his blog.

A quality RV sofa provides ultimate comfort to your passengers thus making your life on the road a lot more agreeable and easier. When furnishing your recreational vehicle, you need to consider a lot of factors before choosing the RV sofa. The perfect RV sofa is the one that is comfortable and suits the size, the layout and the decor of your RV.

It is the important piece of furniture in the RV as it serves as a primary seating for the passengers. The RV sofa comes in various sizes, style and prices. If not chosen with care, it will take up a lot of the interior space. So make measurements and have a fair idea of where you want it placed in your RV before buying the sofa.

Jackknife RV sofa beds, love seats, magic beds, convertible sofas are only some types among the wide range of sofas. You can choose the RV sofa depending on your RVing life style, the size of your RV, the number of passengers and your budget.

If you plan on going for a bumpy ride, you will need something like an easy bed that is constructed with a steel frame. This is because they can be bolted down to the floor in order to prevent it from getting thrown every which way when you are on a rocky mountain path or other rough surface.

If you do not have much room, then a good RV sofa choice for you may be a love seat. Of course, you can always get a love seat and sofa both, but if you want to save room, you can just get a love seat by itself. Some can even double for a small bed. Be sure to note measurements carefully when trying to decide what will and will not fit inside your RV.

Luxurious designer RV sofas are worth their every penny. They provide ultimate comfort and style in any RVs. You can customize the upholstery of the sofa to enhance the RV decor and add elegance to the RV interior. You can make your choice from the numerous designs and materials like leather, fabric or vinyl.

If you have enough money, you may want to consider a designer RV sofa. They are truly a premium choice, and provide superior seating, comfort, and quality. A good designer sofa will also have plenty of storage room underneath. You just need to bolt the sofa down though, in order to keep it from getting scratched up.

There are plenty more choices as well. Obviously, you need to shop and compare in order to find the best possible RV sofa bed. Always put durability, convenience, and comfort first and foremost. Try buying the most comfortable, yet durable sofa that you can afford.

If you are thinking about where you can get CLUB PRICES for an RV sofa, I have a special bit of advice for you. These prices are hard to find online, especially in these colors and styles. Looking for other RV accessories? Find everything from covers to chairs!

Frugal living in retirement brings up thoughts about doing without…eating dog food…and other unpleasant thoughts. It does not have to be like that at all.

The current economic mess is causing all of us to rethink our plans for the future, especially those retired or thinking about retirement. We have seen big hits to our investment accounts…some are saying “I can’t afford to retire now”…really?

Have you considered lifestyles that are cheaper but also fun?  I am talking about hitting the road in an RV as your retirement lifestyle…you will have lots of company.

Not all are suited for this mobile lifestyle. After all you don’t see many RV’s towing snow blowers or riding lawnmowers. These machines are for those that life on the road just may not work. Hopefully you can do without using those 2 implements when you retire.

The primary cost saving in the RV life vs. having a home…are those costs associated with home up keep. Mortgage payments, taxes, home insurance, utilities, home maintenance are obvious costs, but how about the ancillary costs like: country club dues, gym dues, entertainment costs, clothing costs (suits and work dresses) and other expenses you have when you are trying to earn a living.

These costs are replaced by park rental, which includes your utilities, reduced clothing costs, and fishing licenses.

Most are trained to think they will spend the same after retirement as they do while working. This does not have to be the case. It is very doable to spend 25% or less of what you spend living in a house vs. living on the road full time as a retirement lifestyle.

One of my favorite RV quotes came from a fellow I met at Yellowstone, he said” I don’t care what type of house I have as long as it has a steering wheel in the living room”. That pretty well sums up the freedom that living in an RV gives the retiree.

It offers not only freedom location wise but freedom from many of the expenses associated with home ownership.

Frugal living in retirement, living in an RV, is not only cheaper than a house it is a lot of fun.

Think you just can’t retire now…think again, hit the road and experience freedom from boredom and cold weather…enjoy.

Gary Pierce is the webmaster of http://www.frugal-retirement-living.com he retired early at 49, he is still retired at 63. He has experience in lifestyles that are both fulfilling and frugal. Living in an RV. It is 2009 and many are wondering if they can ever retire. Don’t give up until you check out this website. Enjoy.

Back in the days of slant sixes and turbo-fire V8s, one of the easiest ways to distinguish a luxury car from its less-expensive counterpart was to check out the dashboard. The more lights, the more expensive the vehicle. At the other end of the price scale were vehicles like the Ford Falcon, whose cost-conscious design called for a single light bulb in the dash to illuminate both left- and right-hand turn-signal indicators.

As years passed, discerning motorists came to realize that the “idiot lights” on the dashboard weren’t all they were cracked up to be. All too often, by the time a light indicated a problem, it was too late for the driver to take corrective measures. In effect, these lights didn’t tell the driver what was happening so much as what had already happened. Hence, the birth of a new trend: the more posh a vehicle was, the more dashboard gauges it had.

Unfortunately, OEM gauges-when they’re present-tend to be marvels of ambiguity. Constrained by both cost and styling considerations, they rarely have enough graduations or accuracy to give you more than vague clues about what’s going on under the hood. How hot is your engine running? If the answer is “two-thirds of the way between the yellow and red bars,” you might want to rethink your gauges.

For this reason, aftermarket gauges are one of the most popular upgrades on tow vehicles and motorhomes, not only to supplement factory-installed devices but to supplant them entirely.

Watch the Needle
Many gauges are offered in both mechanical and electrical versions, and the distinction between the two is important. While most mechanical gauges directly convert temperature or pressure to the physical movement of a needle on a dial face, electrical gauges first convert it to a voltage or current before converting it yet again to the needle’s physical movement. This last conversion step is typically accomplished either by electrically heating a piece of metal that expands and contracts to move the needle or by using an electromagnet that pulls the needle against an opposing clock spring.

Getting accurate, consistent needle movement with these two techniques is difficult, and this typically makes electrical gauges less accurate than their mechanical counterparts. Also, mechanical gauges tend to respond quicker to changes in pressure or temperature and are unaffected by voltage fluctuations in the vehicle’s electrical system.

Even so, electrical gauges have several important advantages. First, they’re usually easier to install, simply because electrical wiring is easier to route through tight spaces than the copper or plastic capillary tubing used in most mechanical gauges. Second, in the case of oil or fuel pressure, they don’t bring engine fluids inside the vehicle. (For safety reasons, mechanical fuel-pressure gauges usually require the use of a fuel-to-inert-fluid isolator, which must be mounted outside living areas.) Finally, while most mechanical temperature gauges are permanently attached to their sending units by a specific length of tubing, electrical gauges can be located any desired distance away from their senders-a particular advantage in rear-engine motorhome applications.

For these reasons, many folks prefer electrics over mechanicals-or at least some mixture of both. Fortunately, gauge manufacturers often sell mechanical and electrical versions with identical appearances, making it easy to mix and match without sacrificing aesthetics.

Recently, digital gauges have become available in the aftermarket. Most of these designs use the same basic type of sending units as their electric counterparts but convert the sender’s electrical signal to digital data that’s shown on
a liquid-crystal display (LCD). This approach provides most of the advantages of electric gauges, without the loss of accuracy associated with converting an electrical signal to mechanical movement of a needle on a dial face. Some digital gauges still retain a mechanical dial but use the data to drive a stepper motor that precisely controls the needle’s deflection-an approach that combines the accuracy of digital circuitry with the visual appeal of “real” dials.

Gauge resolution is another important consideration. Inexpensive gauges tend to be marked with few graduations, sometimes with a few color bars in lieu of any actual numbers. Better-quality gauges will be marked every few degrees of temperature, every few pounds of pressure and so on. Most top-quality gauges also display their readings over a wide-sweeping meter face, making it easier to read actual numbers at a glance. Naturally, gauge size also plays an important role in resolution: readings are easier to see on a larger gauge, and a large gauge face provides room for the manufacturer to include more graduations.

One’s Never Enough
Aftermarket gauges tend to be installed in pairs or groups. After all, engine and drivetrain performance can be monitored in a host of ways, from rpm to temperature to fuel pressure, so consumers eager to get a full picture often don’t settle for one. After all, the installation of one gauge presents a convenient opportunity to install several others at the same time.

However, on many vehicles, finding sufficient dashboard space for mounting several gauges can be difficult. Aftermarket gauge manufacturers have partially solved this problem by offering “pods” or “pillars” that replace the vehicle’s original windshield pillar cover on the driver’s side, thereby allowing two or three gauges to be mounted in this location. Aside from providing excellent visibility, pillar mounting avoids any cutting or drilling in the dashboard itself. Gauge pods and pillars are available for most current pickups and SUVs, as well as some passenger cars.

A few manufacturers also offer instrument-cluster upgrades for certain vehicles. Basically, these packages allow you to pull the entire set of factory-installed gauges out of the dashboard as a single unit and replace them with an enhanced gauge suite that retains the original unit’s mounting footprint and aesthetics.

Multi-Function Monitors
Most modern engines employ at least one computer to control engine operation. These little brains rely on sensors that measure things like coolant temperature, fuel pressure, camshaft position and absolute manifold pressure. Many vehicles have a second computer to control various transmission functions, with sensors to measure fluid temperature, tail-shaft speed and line pressure, among other things. Typically, the readings are available on the vehicle’s data bus, which transfers data from the computer to peripherals.

Today’s sophisticated gauges allow RVers to use this wealth of data to display a wide variety of functions. Indeed, many monitors are capable of using several pieces of basic data to display more complex information. Need to know your rig’s instantaneous or average fuel economy? Some monitors compute fuel-injector duration and vehicle speed to determine these figures for you. With the help of the aforementioned LCD screens, most models can either display several functions simultaneously or quickly switch between functions at the push of a button.

Since the monitor requires only a few connections to the vehicle’s data bus (with no new sensors or senders to install inside the engine compartment), installation is quick and straightforward. In some cases, this also allows the monitor to be removed and relocated to another vehicle at trade-in time, leaving the old vehicle unscarred by its removal.

Moving a heavy RV down the road puts big demands on the engine and drivetrain and requires extra driver diligence in maintaining proper temperatures, pressures and fluid levels. In this regard, a comprehensive suite of accurate, reliable gauges (or a monitor with similar capabilities) is cheap insurance against unexpected mechanical breakdowns, trip delays and repair expenses.

Article written by:

Joel Donaldson

Good Sam Club Highways

June 2009

Article courtesy of Good Sam Club Highways Magazine, RV Engine Gauges.

Recreational Vehicle (or RV for short) owners are in a unique position to take advantage of solar power. The twelve volt (12V) power system used in most RVs can be easily modified to accommodate solar augmentation. The question facing RV owners looking to purchase solar panels is usually this. How much solar power should I be buying for my RV? What you purchase depends on many factors, a few of which are covered here.

The first thing you want to consider when considering solar power is what you want to accomplish with it. Do you want your RV to be completely independent, able to stay in a location for weeks at a time without requiring a power charge or generator? Or are you simply looking to get extra battery life out of your RV? Complete self sufficiency is a great option for those with enough surface area to accomplish it.

In order to figure out how many solar panels you would need to be completely self powered, you need to be able to provide an accurate usage estimate. For instance if you do not need to heat or cool your RV, you don’t run a microwave, and you drive every other day your solar power needs will be minimal. However if you want to camp in a single spot for over a week without turning on a generator, you need to run a space heater at night, and you leave a light on at night; you will need significantly more in the way of solar power.

To calculate your power usage, it is easiest to use a worksheet. There are several worksheets available online. The sheet will list the approximate amperage for various RV appliances. You multiply the number by the amount of time that appliance would spend running in a typical day, which will yield an answer in the form of amp/hours. A typical 80 watt RV solar kit will provide a panel that can produce 25-35 amp/hours of power. To figure your actual solar needs, give yourself a 10-15% buffer for efficiency loss in the storage system, and purchase enough panels to provide the necessary power.

If you’re a seasoned RV owner, you understand that space is at a premium in an RV. It is no different when it comes to solar power, you will need to carefully consider your installation options. Angled panels will provide better power production than panels that lie flat on your roof. An angled panel on the top corners of your vehicle will raise your vehicle’s profile, this is important to take into consideration when navigating an RV.

Regardless of whether you decide to provide a boost in battery life with a few solar panels or become a completely self sufficient power generating environment; an RV solar kit is an investment that will pay itself off over time. Leaving the generator off while camped will be more peaceful, and better for the environment to boot. If you plan well, solar panels will reward you with headache free power for years.

Anne Clarke writes numerous articles for Web sites on gardening, parenting, fashion, and home decor. Her background also includes teaching, gardening, and fashion. For more of her useful articles on solar power, visit Solar RV Kits, supplier of solar kits for your RV, marine vehicle, or home.

A water pump is usually used to create and maintain a certain amount of water pressure. This is important because there are times when taking a shower or flushing a toilet with a minimal amount of water just isn’t enough. Imagine if you took a shower and only had a trickle of water come out of the shower head. This would not only be frustrating, but most likely cold in the winter time.

A water pump is good for regulating this, and in most RV cases, the water pump is used whether on the road our at an RV park. In many cases the RV park where a person is staying may not have the type of pressure that is conducive for a good shower.

Not all water pumps are created equal, and in many cases depending on whether you have a water pump which runs on AC or DC power, you will be able to use batteries, or a generator to pull power from later on when you are not at a camp site or RV park.

An issue that a lot of people have after buying a new pump is the noise. Water pumps are rated on noise level, but much of this can be reduced depending on the way it was mounted. If a pump is not properly mounted, it can keep you up during the night.

Whether you have a 5th wheel, some other type of travel trailer, or a traditional RV, almost all the water pumps fit and work in much of the same way. Time should be taken to look at additional options which will help you decide the type or water pump and output you may want for your RV or Motor Home.

PL Garcia keeps up with the latest RV parts including the 12 volt water pump and AC pumps. He also helps trouble shoot issues you might have with water pumps in washing machines and other appliances.

UK Caravan parks are preparing themselves for what they hope will be a sizzling summer as holiday makers favour holidays at home instead of going abroad Caravan Park owners are experiencing higher than average bookings for their summer season and many attribute this to the credit crunch. It appears the cost of foreign travel has now made the british holidaymaker opt to remain in the UK to save their money. Sales of caravans had also increased. Dennis Smith, who owns Hillhead Caravan Park at Kintore, Aberdeenshire with 120 vehicle storage area said an increasing number of families were buying caravans and storing them on his site which has now a waiting list of up to a month which is a 30% rise in figures from last year. He said “I would say people have decided hat caravan holidays are cheaper and less stressful than going abroad, many of them want to try the freedom of caravaning”

He added that the credit crunch however has not prevented people form buying the largest caravans available rather than buy a cheaper second hand one and regularly upgrade. Aboyne Loch Caravan Park on Deeside said that young couples and groups of young people were choosing to camp and the warden reported that more people were choosing to book their caravans in for the whole season. In Burnside Caravan Park at Fochabers, the season has already started as high numbers of visitors look for somewhere to park their touring caravans. A spokesman said “It is just the cost of going abroad, people are getting fed up and are preparing to stay at home”. He predicted that the number of foreign visitors would also rise.

“It is more favourable to them now with their exchange rate, for the last couple of years it was not cost effective for them but now it’s equalised “This positive effect however is not being felt elsewhere in the industry; John Campbell who sells static caravans at Thurso said that sales had dropped dramatically since the start of the recession. “We don’t have lots of sites up here for static caravans” he said, “We sell to people building houses who put the caravans on the site but we have hardly sold anything since December”.

Caravan Insurance
Income Protection Insurance

My dream RV rental vacation starts at the Van Nuys El Monte RV Rental Station. Especially when the snow flies outside my window, my minds eye turns to memories of the Central Valley and of the Eastern Slope areas of California. The unique visual fusion of deserts and mountains found there is incomparable anywhere in the world. Connecting some of the most beautiful parks in the U.S., Bodie Historical Park, Yosemite, Sequoia/Kings Canyon, the off-the-beaten path highways define these wonderful places as a dream RV vacation.

Old California is preserved in the small communities between Los Angeles and San Francisco; towns like Mariposa, Placerville, Bishop, Lee Vining, Lone Pine. Towns and places that call my name when the temperature falls to icy proportions in my new home. The amazing vistas that can only be enjoyed from the tops of mountains or from desert floors seem to extend endlessly to the horizon. And an RV is the very best way to dawdle from place-to-place, unhurried in the comfort of “your own living room”, but with the freedom to explore the rocky heights and desert vistas along the way.

Yes, I left my heart when I left California, not in San Francisco, but rather, in the quiet, majestic deserts, mountains, and down-slopes of rural California. I now find that when I am able to leisurely make my way through these marvelous places on a driving get-away, I am reminded of the true meaning of a vacation. To escape, not just from or to places, but to a truly relaxed frame of mind, away from the daily details of life.

George Palmer
Palmyra, NY
My dream RV rental vacation starts at the Van Nuys / San Fernando Valley – RV rentals serving Van Nuys & San Fernando Valley, http://www.elmonterv.com/rv-rentals-van-nuys/rl-25.aspx

When the temperature gets hot out, your RV refrigerator can struggle to keep it’s temperature cool enough to avoid food spoilage and to keep your beer at the perfect drinking chilliness. There are several factors that contribute to refrigerator efficiency, such as the sun beating down on the refrigerator side of your RV, or a dirty gas burner creating a poor heating flame. Even the levelness of your RV can cause inefficiency over time. One of the simplest and most effective mods that can be made is to improve the ventilation at the back of the refrigerator by using a fan to direct air up and out of the refrigerator vent column.

An RV refrigerator is not like a residential unit. It uses a heat absorption system rather than an electric compressor, condenser, and evaporator, as a residential refrigerator does. Heat absorption requires removing the heat from the absorption unit via chemicals and air circulation. This is accomplished by convection or draft. A narrow space behind the refrigerator allows cooler air to be drawn in to the space at the bottom of the unit. The air rises and passes over the heat absorption unit fins, and out of the vent on the roof above the unit.

Some refrigerator installations actually prevent this convection action to work. In a typical RV installation, a dead air space can exist directly above the refrigerator. This space can trap warm air and drastically reduce the draft effect. This reduction in draft is why you should do the refrigerator cooling fan mod. While not a cure all for a poor refrigerator installation, a fan can dramatically improve refrigerator cooling performance.

There are several fan types that can be used for this mod. It is recommended that you use one of the permanent-mount types as the battery-powered kind can require frequent replacement of the batteries, especially if you forget to turn the fan off when not using it. Some use computer fans that are 3 to 4″ in diameter. These require little power and move a surprising amount of air.

A thermostatically-controlled fan however, is the best way to install a refrigerator ventilation fan. These are permanently mounted and have a thermostat that provides power to the fan when the ambient air temperature reaches some set point. Different temperature set points are available with the most common switching at 80°F. A switch can also be wired in to the fan’s power supply so that you have control over when the fan is on.

There is some debate as to where the most effective place to install the vent fan. Camco, for example, has a solar powered fan and refrigerator roof vent combination. This puts the fan at the top of the vent stack, pulling air through the lower vent and up through the roof vent. Still others mount the fan at the bottom of the vent stack, right at the lower vent. This position pushes air up through the stack. Both have been found to work equally as well so the choice is your on which way to go. Either way, using a vent fan will ensure a cold beer on a hot day.

Tip: Try to park your RV where the refrigerator side of the RV will be in the shade as much as possible. This will help reduce temperatures inside the refrigerator vent column dramatically. If shade is unavailable and your refrigerator is on the curb side, use the awning to provide shade.

Copyright 2009 by Mark Corgan, owner of ModMyRV.com
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The beauty of having an RV is the freedom to go just about anywhere you can drive it. The beauty of selling solar power RV products is that they allow those freedom seekers to have the convenience of power just about anywhere the sun shines! That includes the boondocks where people venture to avoid overcrowded campgrounds. Today, with consumers demanding ecologically safe products, staying nearer to home for travel, and cutting expenses on all fronts, the RV accessory market is ready for solar power products and their advantages.

Solar meets all those requirements: it does no harm to the environment (just soaks up the sunshine), it saves the wild environment from the destruction of invasive power lines, it allows RV users to stay closer to home but access more remote territory because they can carry their power source with them, and finally, it saves money. You don’t have to pay for electric use, ever.

On the money front, some solar equipment does have a heavier front end expense than traditional equipment, but the running expenses are virtually zero. You can power anything with solar that you can with traditional power sources. Solar batteries are designed in smaller sizes for the RV market.

Kits for solar RV power are sold in a variety of sizes, up to 110 watts. They are easy to install. Systems can be made more powerful with optional expansion modules. Complete basic smaller starter systems are priced from about $600 to about $1100, according to power levels. More complex systems for larger RV use list price up to $10,000. Typical kits may include, as needed, solar panels, inverters, fusing, charge controllers, wiring, switches, mounting kits and instructions.

Higher wattage means faster charging of batteries. It also means more sales for the person selling solar power RV products including storage batteries. More panels also means more sales of wiring, and charge controllers. Over time, people usually settle on what they need, but once used to the convenience of solar power, they remain loyal customers. Portable solar panels offer convenience because you can move them from a shady spot into the sunny areas if needed. They also are attractive to nearby campers, and help spread the word about solar RV power.

Selling solar power RV products is extending into a large consumer market with smaller size availability, another good opportunity. Solar power accessories come in very small sizes, like 5 watt foldable solar panels, which can power items like GPS, cell phones, fish finders and other personal electronics. The 5, 10 and 20 watt unbreakable solar thin flexible panels are becoming popular, even seen on fishing kayaks and on backpacks. Average solar panel life is expected to be twenty-five years, with some estimates upwards to forty years. Even then they should still produce 80% of their capacity.

Bringing solar power to the boondocks has finally come of age in the RV market. It’s time to get on board the solar power beam and diversify your RV solar product line-up.

Edward Dean is an accomplished website developer and author. To learn more about solar-power-rv-products visit RV Franchising for current articles and discussions.