Your RV Has Too Many Manuals. There’s a Better Way
Brad Thompson, the creator of the RV Keeper app
Brad Thompson, a full-time RVer from Oregon, joins us on the show to share his journey on the road, his favorite places to explore and camp and the RV maintenance problem that inspired his big idea.
An RV includes many systems and components, each with its own maintenance schedules, manuals, warranties, service records and quirks. For used RV owners, tracking down that information can be especially difficult. Even new RVs often come with a mountain of paperwork that can quickly become overwhelming.
Brad created RV Keeper to help RV owners organize important information in one place and stay on top of maintenance. We discuss the inspiration behind the app, the challenges it is designed to solve, and how better organization can make RV ownership less stressful.
This conversation also explores Brad’s experience with full-time RV living, his favorite Oregon destinations and the lessons he has learned from spending so much time on the road.
If you enjoy RV travel, camping, Oregon, full-time RV living or practical tools for becoming a more prepared RV owner, this episode is for you.
Listen now and join us on the road.
SHOW NOTES
RV Maintenance Made Easier: The App Helping RV Owners Keep Their Rigs on the Road
Owning an RV comes with freedom, adventure and, unfortunately, a long list of maintenance tasks that are easy to forget. In this episode of RV Out West, Brooks Smothers talks with full-time Oregon RVer and RVKeeper creator Brad Thompson about the realities of RV ownership, the Oregon destinations he loves, and the RV maintenance problem that inspired him to build a new app.
After seven years of full-time RV living, Brad knows firsthand how complicated RV maintenance can become. His 2011 Montana Mountaineer experienced everything from an RV tire blowout to roof damage and a failing bedroom slide, eventually leading him to ask a simple question: Why isn't there a maintenance plan specifically built around your exact RV?
The answer is RVKeeper, an RV maintenance app designed to research your specific year, make and model and create a customized maintenance plan based on the components likely installed in your rig.
In This Episode
Brooks and Brad talk about:
What it's really like living full-time in an RV
How Brad and his wife accidentally discovered the RV lifestyle
Traveling throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California
Brad's favorite Oregon RV destinations
Harris Beach State Park near Brookings
The remote beauty of Oregon's Owyhee Canyonlands and Owyhee Reservoir
Harris Park and camping along the Walla Walla River
The RV maintenance mistakes that nearly cost Brad thousands
Why RV tires can age out before they wear out
Why RV owners should regularly inspect their roofs
RV suspension and safety checks
The challenge of maintaining a used RV without its original manuals
Why generic RV maintenance checklists aren't enough
How RVKeeper creates a maintenance plan for your specific RV
How RVKeeper adapts when you modify or upgrade your RV
How manufacturer information is used to build maintenance recommendations
The free RVKeeper Essentials plan
RVKeeper Pro and additional maintenance tracking features
Why preventive RV maintenance can help keep you camping instead of dealing with expensive repairs
Brad's Favorite Oregon RV Destinations
Harris Beach State Park | Brookings, Oregon
One of Brad's favorite Oregon destinations is Harris Beach State Park in Brookings on the southern Oregon coast.
The park features dramatic coastal scenery, sandy beaches, rocky outcroppings, wildlife viewing and year-round camping. Brad recommends booking early, especially if you want one of the desirable campsites closer to the ocean.
Harris Beach State Park | Oregon State Parks
Owyhee Canyonlands & Owyhee Reservoir | Eastern Oregon
Brad's second favorite destination is the Owyhee Canyonlands in remote southeastern Oregon. Located south of Ontario near the Oregon-Idaho border, the area offers dramatic rock formations, hiking, kayaking, fishing and a sense of remoteness that's very different from Oregon's coast.
The Owyhee Reservoir stretches for roughly 52 miles and offers opportunities for boating, kayaking and fishing. Brad especially enjoys fishing for crappie from his kayak.
Owyhee Wild and Scenic River | Bureau of Land Management
Owyhee Dam Campground | Owyhee Irrigation District
Harris Park | Umatilla County, Oregon
Brad discovered Harris Park after wildfires forced him and his wife to evacuate multiple campgrounds. Located along the South Fork of the Walla Walla River near Milton-Freewater, Oregon, Harris Park became an unexpected oasis after several days of moving from campground to campground.
The Umatilla County park offers RV camping, tent sites, cabins, river access and a peaceful setting surrounded by greenery.
RV Maintenance Mistakes to Avoid
One of the biggest lessons Brad learned from owning an RV is that maintenance can't wait until something breaks.
His experiences included:
An RV tire blowout caused by aging tires
Damage to his RV roof
A bedroom slide mechanism separating because of deterioration
The difficulty of keeping track of maintenance without a comprehensive owner's manual
Brad's biggest RV maintenance advice is simple: check your tires, inspect your suspension, get on the roof and stay on top of your RV's safety systems.
Check Your RV Tire Date Codes
Brad emphasizes that RV tires can age out before they wear out. Good-looking tread doesn't necessarily mean an RV tire is safe.
Check the four-digit date code molded into the tire sidewall to determine when the tire was manufactured, and don't rely solely on tread depth when determining tire condition.
Inspect Your RV Roof
Roof inspections can help identify deteriorating seals, tears and other problems before water intrusion causes expensive structural damage.
Brad admits he was initially reluctant to climb onto the roof of his RV, but eventually realized how important regular roof inspections are.
Don't Ignore Your RV Suspension
Brad also recommends inspecting the components responsible for keeping your RV moving safely down the road, including suspension components, hangers and leaf springs.
Check RV Safety Systems
Don't forget the basics, including propane alarms and other safety equipment. These small inspections can help identify problems before they become emergencies.
What Is RVKeeper?
RVKeeper is an RV maintenance app designed to build a maintenance plan around your specific RV rather than giving every RV owner the same generic checklist.
You enter your RV's year, make and model, and RVKeeper researches the rig and builds a maintenance plan based on the components it believes are installed.
The plan can then adapt as you identify components, replace equipment or make modifications to your RV.
Download RVKeeper
RVKeeper on the Apple App Store
Brad says the RVKeeper Essentials plan is free, while RVKeeper Pro provides additional features and broader maintenance tracking.
RV Maintenance Resources from RVKeeper
RVKeeper also publishes additional RV maintenance resources, including:
The RV Maintenance Checklist That Could Save You Thousands
The Complete RV Checklist: Pre-Trip, On-Site and Post-Trip
Olympic National Park & the America the Beautiful Access Pass
Early in the conversation, Brooks and Brad also discuss the America the Beautiful Interagency Access Pass and Brooks' recent visit to Olympic National Park, including Sol Duc Hot Springs and Hurricane Ridge.
The Access Pass is available free to qualifying U.S. citizens and permanent residents with a medically determined permanent disability. It provides free entrance at participating federal recreation sites and may provide discounts on certain expanded amenity fees, including some camping fees.
America the Beautiful Access Pass | National Park Service
Sol Duc Hot Springs | Olympic National Park
Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort Campground | Recreation.gov
Hurricane Ridge | Olympic National Park
Important: Eligibility for the Access Pass is based on the federal definition of permanent disability and required documentation. The transcript's statement that ADHD automatically qualifies should not be treated as an official eligibility determination. Check the National Park Service requirements before applying.
Bar Run Golf & RV Resort | Roseburg, Oregon
Brooks also previews next week's episode, which takes RV Out West to Bar Run Golf & RV Resort in Roseburg, Oregon.
Bar Run combines an RV resort, golf course, cottages, food and drink and a scenic setting along the South Umpqua River.
About Brad Thompson
Brad Thompson is a full-time RVer based in Oregon, an online high school English teacher and the creator of RVKeeper. He and his wife have lived in an RV full time for seven years and spend their summers traveling throughout the Pacific Northwest and the West.
His RVKeeper project grew out of his own experience trying to maintain a 2011 Montana Mountaineer and realizing that RV owners needed something more useful than generic maintenance checklists.
Mentioned in This Episode
RVKeeperRV maintenance app for customized RV maintenance planningrvkeeper.app
Harris Beach State ParkBrookings, OregonOregon State Parks
Owyhee Reservoir / Owyhee CanyonlandsEastern OregonOwyhee Wild and Scenic River | BLM
Owyhee Dam CampgroundOwyhee Irrigation District Campground
Harris ParkMilton-Freewater, OregonUmatilla County Harris Park
Olympic National ParkWashingtonNational Park Service
Sol Duc Hot SpringsOlympic National ParkNational Park Service | Sol Duc Hot Springs
Hurricane RidgeOlympic National ParkNational Park Service | Olympic National Park
Camper Alerts
Finding campsites at popular campgrounds doesn’t have to be frustrating.
Camper Alerts monitors sold-out campgrounds and notifies you the moment a campsite becomes available, helping you book those hard-to-get reservations before someone else does.
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The America the Beautiful Pass is an annual pass that provides access to more than 2,000 federal recreation sites across the country, making it a must-have for exploring many national parks, forests, and public lands in the Pacific Northwest while saving money on entrance fees. Buy pass from REI
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Coming Up Next Week
Next Monday, we’re taking you to a place that honestly caught us completely by surprise. We spent the Fourth of July at Bar Run RV Resort in Rosburg, Oregon, and it absolutely blew our socks off. Is this one of Oregon’s next must-visit RV destinations? Tune in on Monday and find out why we think you’re going to want this one on your list!
Podcast Episode Transcript (EP212):
Your RV Has Too Many Manuals. There’s a Better Way
Brooks, Host We're talking about a tool that can change the way you manage your RV forever. Welcome to RV Out West. I'm your host, Brooks. My family of four is base camp is located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and our RV adventures radiate out from there. Please grab a mug of coffee and join us as we discuss our RVing around the American West. From sweet camping spots, gear and equipment to tips and tricks, we've got you covered. We are RV out west. Hey friends, I'm so glad you're here. We've got a great conversation coming up with a really innovative way to help you keep track of all the maintenance your specific make and model of RV could ever need, as well as it's a great solution to keep track and record. Once you've completed those tasks. We're also going to hear about some incredible destinations in Oregon that you will want to add to your list. I know for sure there was a couple of places I had never even heard of before, that I have added to my list. If you've been listening for a while or this is your very first episode, welcome! I'm really glad you're here and I truly appreciate you spending some of your time with me. It's hard to believe, but RV Out West has been going strong since our very first episode back in February of twenty twenty one. And here we are, more than two hundred episodes later, still talking about RVs, travel, the places we love, and the people who make this community so great. And honestly, I couldn't have done it without you. If you enjoy the show each week and want to help RV out West, keep rolling. I'd love to have your support for as little as three dollars a month. That's just seventy five cents an episode or about a dime a day. You can support the show quickly and easily by clicking the support link right there in your podcast description. It's such a small ask that really would mean so much to me, and your support would really help keep our RVing out west rolling right along. All right, let's get into this week's episode. I'm glad you're here. So let's hit the road. Joining me today is Brad Thompson, a full time arvier based in Oregon who has a real passion for the RV lifestyle and this community. Brad has spent a lot of time exploring Oregon, and he's got some great stories and favorite places to share, but he's also the designer and creator behind a brand new app called RV keeper. So we're going to talk about the places Brad loves to RV, what inspired him to build RV keeper and the problem? He saw that he thought he could solve for his fellow RVers. Brad, welcome to RV Out West. Thanks so much for joining us.
Brad, RV Keeper I am thrilled to be here. I can't wait to have our conversation.
Brooks, Host Why don't you go ahead and kind of introduce yourself? And what kind of things do you like to do when you're not working in an RV app?
Brad, RV Keeper When I'm not working on well, it's all I've been doing lately, it feels like. But I found out something interesting about myself this year that took me till age fifty five to be diagnosed as ADHD. And as soon as I got that diagnosis, I looked back at my career history and all the things I've done, and I went, aha! That's why I've had so many different jobs, so many different careers, so many different things that I've done. So, um, my, my background is really super diverse from, uh, you know, starting to, to learn to build websites when a website was a brand new thing and people didn't know what it was to being a letter carrier for a number of years to selling real estate for a number of years. And, uh, right now, I'm actually a high school English teacher and an online high school is my day job. But, uh, got into app development a while ago and just have really found that to be a passion and a lot of fun solving the problems I have through technology, and then finding that other people are finding those valuable as well.
Brooks, Host I will say now that you got ADHD, did you know get a note from your doctor and you can get yourself a national park access card for free, which gets you into all of the national parks for free. Everybody in your car for free, as well as you get fifty percent off camping fees in all the national parks. So like we just did Olympic, I went to the Sol Duc Hot Springs, paid fifty percent off for my camping. And then when we went to go into the hot springs, I showed my access card and I got a discount on going to the springs.
Brad, RV Keeper Changed my world.
Brooks, Host So it's one of the benefits. Yeah. So just Google access card through the National Parks Pass. It's for people with disabilities. And ADHD is considered one.
Brad, RV Keeper Yeah, well, we were just up in Olympic yesterday and paid our thirty dollars to go see the Hurricane Ridge, and I needed to know about it yesterday.
Brooks, Host Yeah. You wouldn't need. And you know what? Yeah, you do need a doctor's note, but just my chart your doc and get one. It was awesome.
Brad, RV Keeper I love.
Brooks, Host It. Yeah. So c ADHD. Well, go ahead and let's take us back to the beginning. Kind of how did Arvine become a part of your life? Brad.
Brad, RV Keeper Oh boy. So I had had it in the back of my mind for many, many years. I thought I was going to build a school at some point, and I had been thinking about it for years, to the point where I actually went to, to get like a foam board. And I built out my 3D model of what it was going to look like. And then one day I realized, I have no place to build this. I have no money to build it with. I have no tools to build this thing. What am I doing? And I kind of just put mobile living off to the to the side, put it on the back burner, thinking it just was never going to be a part of my life and got a new job at some point where we were moving down to Bandon, Oregon, southern kind of mid southern coast, could not find a place to rent anywhere for this new job. So I convinced my wife, who was very opposed to RV living, said, let's just let's buy an RV. It'll give us two or three months where we can just kind of sit tight in an RV while we're trying to find a place to actually live. We ended up loving living in an RV. The simplicity of it, the mobility of it, the freedom of it just really turned her, uh, opinion around one hundred and eighty degrees. In fact, I asked her the other day if we hit the lottery, are you going to go buy a great big house, or are you going to buy a really nice RV? And she says, I'm going to buy a really nice RV. And that's when I knew she's all in now. She she made the she made the change. So yeah, it was kind of. we kind of backed into the the RV living thing, but, uh, haven't looked back since.
Brooks, Host And so you guys are currently full time.
Brad, RV Keeper Mhm. Yep. Seven years now. Yeah.
Brooks, Host Seven years. And are you home based in Oregon still down on the Oregon coast, are you?
Brad, RV Keeper So as I mentioned, uh, my, my day job is teaching high school English online. And I teach for a school that's based in Oregon. So during the school year, we're kind of tied to Oregon or really close to it. But summertime is where we really put the wheels on the road and, uh, you know, and explore as far out as we can, which is, you know, uh, Washington, Idaho, California, kind of for the summers. And then we come back, we're moving all year long, but we just travel around Oregon during the school year.
Brooks, Host And that is the benefit of that teacher schedule. My wife is a middle school counselor. And so I'm the one who's got the nine to five gig. And so in the summer, I'm like, you're right, we should take off for the next eight weeks. Oh wait.
Brad, RV Keeper I can't. Yeah. Fortunately, she, uh, we both managed to transition our jobs into full, fully online. And so, you know, she she can work from wherever we are. And, and, uh. Yeah.
Brooks, Host That's fantastic. Well, since we are a podcast all about the Pacific Northwest, what places around the PNW have really grabbed you?
Brad, RV Keeper Yeah. So it's surprisingly almost everywhere. There's, there's always something that we love in a place that we visit that we're excited to go back to again, even if it's a little town where it doesn't seem like there's not much there. There's always maybe that restaurant we found that is like, oh, I can't wait to go back here so we can go have those burritos or whatever it is. So yeah, in any place, there's something that keeps drawing us back. And there's definitely some highlights that we that we love, love going to. I've got probably three that are on my kind of top five list that I'd love to talk about if you wanted to hear about them.
Brooks, Host Absolutely. Please tell me all about it.
Brad, RV Keeper Well, the first one is really well known, so I'll start with that one. It's Harris Beach down in Brookings. It sits right on the coast, the maybe the most gorgeous part of the Oregon coastline. It's a state park down there and we just love it. I think a lot of people have probably been through Harris Beach. Or if you haven't, definitely check that out. Try to book really, really early because the good spots right along the ocean go fast. And otherwise you're kind of tucked way back in in the smaller spots. But that one we love just for the sheer beauty of it.
Brooks, Host Okay. Well, um, destination number two.
Brad, RV Keeper So destination number two is a little bit of sentimentality for me. And that probably gives it a little more beauty than, than, than, uh, maybe other people might see, but I, I'm going to take that back. It's actually in the Owyhee Canyonlands in eastern Oregon. If you go about an hour south of Ontario, Oregon, right on the border, you're going to get past Nyssa and Adrian, and you're going to go out, out, out, out, out into the really remote, uh, eastern Oregon, um, wildlands. Uh, it's called Canyonlands out there. And, uh, they're actually working on making that a national monument. Uh, there's a big push right now to do that, but, uh, up there is the Owyhee Reservoir, and there's a couple of RV campgrounds that sit out on the RV or on the Owyhee Reservoir. They are a trick to get out to, um, some very narrow, winding roads, a really cool tunnel that you get to go through to get out there. But boy, once you're out there, the beauty of just the rock formations, of the remoteness of the, the fishing. I love to get out there on my kayak and just catch crappie. and some of the best crappie fishing I think in the whole state, if not the whole northwest. So um, love it, love it, love it out there for just that. You know, we spend most of our time on the coast. And so to get that g difference between the wet green coastal life and suddenly be out there just in the rugged, dry, beautiful rock formations is really incredible. So we love that.
Brooks, Host That sounds amazing. I have never been I've never actually even heard of it. So I'm adding this to my list. That sounds incredible.
Brad, RV Keeper I think it is one of Oregon's best kept secrets. Not many people know about it, but once you get out there, it is huge. The the reservoir itself is fifty two miles long. It's the longest reservoir in the state of Oregon. It's fairly narrow, but it goes back fifty two miles from where the dam is. And the campgrounds are just incredible hiking and mountain biking and kayaking. And I bring everything with you. It is. It is remote. You know, you won't have a cell signal. You won't have restaurants, shopping, anything for, you know, an hour away.
Brooks, Host Real quick, you had mentioned going through that tunnel. And I meant to ask you, what is the length of your trailer? Are you in a travel trailer, a big fifth wheel? What kind of what's. Yeah.
Brad, RV Keeper So we're in a fifth wheel. It's thirty four feet. So it's not a monster. You know, we can get around some of those tight, tight turns and things like that. But yeah, we're in a we're in a twenty eleven, uh, Montana mountaineer, which we love and is really the inspiration behind the, the RV keeper app that we built because I want to keep this RV that I built it so I could keep mine alive and in great shape for many, many years.
Brooks, Host So and we'll get to that in a little bit, but also then let's go back and tell me what is destination number three for you?
Brad, RV Keeper Destination number three, I think of it as just an absolute oasis. And it was actually one of the times we were up at the Owyhee Reservoir, where a forest fire, a range fire and a forest up there. But a range fire drove us out. Uh, they evacuated the park, so we went to another state park that was close. And before we got to that one, another fire had started and they evacuated that park. So we went and now it's the middle of the night and we're just trying to find a place to go. So we found a little county park stayed there. And literally the next morning another fire had started near enough to that one that they evacuated that park. And we thought after three strikes, you're out of being chased around by fires for two days. Yeah. We thought, let's go someplace green. So we just headed up north, like we were going up to Pendleton. And, uh, my wife was on the phone trying to find a place for us to stay, and she found this little park called Harris Ranch that is a Umatilla County park about fifteen miles outside of Milton-freewater, and it's this tiny little park, but it is just absolutely gorgeous. And it sits tucked right down on the Walla Walla River, and it's just green. It's like a park everywhere. And the people were so friendly and nice, and it was just a wonderful little oasis for us, running away from fires to find this little magical place. Now, some of that probably felt magical because we just literally, you know, run for our lives out of away from some forest fires. But we're actually going back next summer. And I can't wait to to see if it still feels the same, uh, the same, you know, Oasis like it was then, but I'm sure it will. I've looked at pictures since then and, and I can't wait to go back. So yeah, that's fun.
Brooks, Host And that whole Pendleton area too is just super cool and wonderful. There's just so many great places. There's a cool winery there that we went to and had great wine and yeah, it's a great. That whole area is cool and Umatilla is great. There's great fishing on the Umatilla River too. So yeah.
Brad, RV Keeper We didn't get a chance to go fishing there. It's like the South Fork, maybe the the Walla Walla. So it's not huge. You know, it's not a big raging river. It feels more like a, a big creek, uh, to me, but there might be some fish in there to catch.
Brooks, Host Yeah. Well, at some point and you kind of already touched on this, you realized that owning an RV comes with a surprising large amount of stuff you're supposed to remember.
Brad, RV Keeper It does.
Brooks, Host When did that initially really hit you? And I'm not necessarily talking about maintenance yet. I'm just saying.
Brad, RV Keeper Yeah, yeah. I think we started living in denial. We'd heard a lot of good things about Montana Mountaineers and rugged and well built. And so I thought, oh, good, we're just going to live in this thing and not have to worry about anything. And, um, and, uh, we found out pretty darn quick that that's not the case. You know, when blowing a tire out and tearing it off the fender, going down the road when I should have known to be looking at tire codes. And how old are these tires, even though they hadn't gone down the road very much and had a lot of tread on them. You know, I didn't I didn't know this stuff. And I thought, you know, it's not leaking in here currently, so I don't need to get up on the roof and look at anything. If it starts leaking, I'll get up there and check it out. And by the time I finally got up there, I had a nice little tear along the front of the roof that would have very quickly started ballooning up. Uh, going down the road. If you've ever seen an RV going down with that big balloon on the top, that was almost us. And, uh, it didn't take too many of those like, oh boy moments for me to say, okay, I, I gotta figure out how to take care of this thing. This is home now. Like I've, I gotta figure out how to, how to take care of this thing.
Brooks, Host Well. All right, so it's confession time. Welcome to my confessional.
Brad, RV Keeper All right.
Brooks, Host What's the maintenance item that you've personally forgotten or almost forgotten, that made you think there has to be a better way to keep track of this?
Brad, RV Keeper It was the the bedroom slide out that we got ready to move one day. And all of a sudden the bed wasn't. The slide out wasn't coming in, but my whole slide mechanism came breaking out underneath the bed. The slide mechanism moved in, but nothing else did. The slide didn't because it had so rotted that it disconnected from the slide, and I had no idea it was coming, no idea it was happening. I looked at my slide seals before, but just kind of walking around, going there, there, you know, there, there. And it was really that, that, that finally got me saying, okay, there's, I see old RVs, you know, way older than ours out on the road, still looking great. Somebody knows. You know, I need to figure out what this is all about. And what I discovered was kind of shocking. See, we bought ours used. So we didn't come with any manual. I assumed at that point, you know, well, if we bought this new, they would have given me this big, thick twenty eleven Montana Manual for my model that doesn't exist in the RV world. You know, you get a stack of manuals, one for your fridge and one for your furnace and one for, you know, all of these different components. You get all these manuals if you're lucky enough to get those. And then you're like, what do I like? Where do I start? How do I put these into any kind of, you know, organization that I can actually keep up on this stuff, let alone have the time to go in and dig out all the little pieces of maintenance that I should be doing. So that was really where the inspiration came from to say, okay, there's got to be a way to pull all of that together for a specific RV. Like because my RV is way different than every single RV that's around us right now. You can't give me a generic plan and have it fit my RV.
Brooks, Host Before you started looking for a solution, because I'm sure you probably went looking first before you were. Oh, absolutely. Were you using notes or spreadsheets? I'm in a joke and say your memory, like, what were you, you know, when you were when you were performing your maintenance at the time, kind of how were you keeping track of that originally?
Brad, RV Keeper It was like, I think based on what I see in Facebook groups and things like that, it was like everybody else when something broke, you worried about it. Um, and so I was just literally living my life like, what's going to break next and listening for things and just kind of being more aware of what's going on. Um, I tried so many things. I tried apps, I tried spreadsheets that people had had online. I tried, you know, actually getting out, you know, going and researching all of my different owners owner's manuals and starting to try to take notes on all that stuff, and it just was so overwhelming. Every time I tried to find a solution for it that, uh, that I would find that I'd shut off, I'd go back into denial, like, ah, I'm sure everything will be fine now, so I'm just not going to worry about it for a while.
Brooks, Host We've talked about what it's like living the RV life around Oregon, the places that grabbed Brad's attention, and the lessons that come along with owning an RV. Because here's the thing. You don't want to wait until something breaks to start thinking about maintenance, but how do you actually keep track of everything your RV needs? And what happens when you buy a used rig and there's no manuals, no history, and nobody to tell you what's been done? And even when you buy a new one, you quickly discover that your RV doesn't come with a manual. It comes with a library. Coming up. After the break, we're going to hear all about Brad's innovative solution, Thoughtfully designed to help you keep your rig longer. Stay with us. I'm Brooks, and you're listening to RV Out West. First, a word from our longtime sponsor and friend over at camper alerts dot com. Sold out campgrounds used to mean one thing. Game over. Not anymore. Camper alerts dot com keeps watch on the most in-demand, hardest to get into campgrounds out there, the ones that are booked solid for months, and the moment a site opens up, you get the alert. No constant checking, no lock based refreshes, just real time access to cancellations and openings before they disappear again. The dream spot everyone is fighting for. Yeah, you just got it. Say goodbye to campgrounds, because fall doesn't have to mean finished. Visit camper alerts dot com and set your alert today. Welcome back to RV Out West. Let's get right back into our conversation with Brad Thompson. Brad is a full time Rver, a passionate advocate for the RV community and the guy behind RV keepers. Before the break, we were talking about the realities of RV ownership, and now we're going to dig a little deeper into what it takes to actually keep your rig on the road, and why Brad decided to build something to help our RVers do just that. Let's get back at it. Was there ever kind of a aha, epiphany moment where you're like, wait a minute. Nobody's actually solved this problem.
Brad, RV Keeper There was, and it seemed really shocking at the time, like, how can this not be a thing already? I've learned the hard way how incredibly complex it is to create what I've created. You take literally. You know, every RV is dramatically different than every other RV on the road. But what I found and what I kind of knew is that even the same model of RV is going to come off the showroom floor different than his partners, you know, on, on the, on the factory floor. If they run out of suburban, uh, water heaters that usually go in these things, they're not going to stop production. They're going to start throwing Atwood's in there. Right? So, so that's why they don't give you a lot of great information about your RV when you get it, because a lot of times they don't know. I mean, they know what went into it, but they haven't documented it. Um, you know, you can't find wiring diagrams for RVs because it's kind of whoever was working that day in the, in the factory wire likes to wire it this way. And Joe, who works tomorrow does a little bit differently. So it's a, it was a really complex, super fun brain teaser to figure out how to get all of this information together and then specify it for different RVs.
Brooks, Host So then how did you decide what information could actually be trusted? As you started building out.
Brad, RV Keeper That was a huge part of it. Because if you know, if you spend any time online, in Facebook groups or any kind of groups for RVs, you could say the most benign thing about an RV that you think one hundred percent of people would agree with, and you're going to get people telling you the exact opposite. You know, I think I should, you know, check my tires before I leave every day. I could post that on a Facebook group, right? I'm always going to check my tires. Oh, I haven't checked my tires in ten years. And it's right. So there's, there's so many different opinions on everything that, that I had to go back to the manufacturers. Like if it wasn't a manufacturer source that said, this is the way you need to take care of this component, then I wasn't going to rely on it for the information in this app. So so it's, it all goes back to the thousands of manufacturers of different components out there and digging out that information.
Brooks, Host Let's go ahead and introduce RV keeper. Why don't you tell us a little bit as we lead into talking about the app? Tell me that moment that RV keeper went from an idea to you saying, you know what, I'm gonna build this. What did that look like?
Brad, RV Keeper Yeah, it, it wasn't the first app that I built. I started with some really, you know, far simpler apps. Uh, when I was first starting to figure out how to build apps and, uh, had a little bit of success with those and really kind of proved to myself, okay, I can, I can do this. I can figure out the kind of the technological side of doing this. And, uh, it was really when I went out and looked at what the other options were out there that I thought, okay, this is a real opportunity to get people a tool that I think can really, really help them. Um, and, uh, you know, some of the technology that's come on lately has made it more possible to create, uh, to create something like this where before it would have been, you know, literal research through manuals, you know, technology has moved enough that it's easier to tap into that information and bring it all together now.
Brooks, Host Well, for somebody who hasn't used it. Yeah. Please explain RV keeper in the simplest terms possible. And what does it actually do for an RV owner?
Brad, RV Keeper Excellent. So it basically what it'll do is, is when you first open the app, you're just going to put in what, what do you have? Right? So I put in twenty eleven, Montana Mountaineer and I put in my model number. And it will go through a research phase to all of this. So much information that I've compiled into this thing, and it's going to research your exact model, and it's going to make its best guess about what you have in that unit. And it's going to also include like options that have made it may have come with off the factory floor and it is going to generate for you within about two or three minutes, a complete comprehensive plan for literally every component that you have in your RV. And it's going to try to match that with what kind you have, right? Do you have that suburban water heater that has the anode rod, or do you have the Atwood that doesn't have an anode rod? Right. It's going to it's going to make its best guess on what you have in there with some pretty good accuracy. Then once you start actually using the plan, it's basically going to put a comprehensive plan out there. You can tell it what days you want to work on the RV. So maybe it's Saturday. This is my maintenance day. So I'm going to say, yep, put everything on a Saturday and give me, you know, about, you know, five, six tasks a day and just make sure that I'm on my maintenance. So it builds out this plan where it's going to send you a little ping on a Saturday morning and say, here's what you've got to do. These five things. Here's kind of how to do it. Here's some resources for how to do it if you're not familiar with it. And as you work through those tasks, it is customizing itself to your RV, right? So if it's not sure whether you have that suburban or that Atwood, your first task might be identify what kind of water heater you have, and it's going to tell you what to look for and how to tell which one you have. And then it's going to instantly change that plan over to what you actually have in your in your unit. The other thing that I'm really excited about with is that, you know, I live in a twenty eleven RV. It is not the same RV that came off the showroom floor, however many years ago. I've changed stuff. I've added stuff. I've swapped stuff out. And so it was really important to me to build in that customization where you can say, okay, you think I have this, but I actually put this other thing in here, like my fridge. I pulled out the old propane electric one and put a residential one in there. The app doesn't know that at first, but it sure does. Once I start completing tasks and it learns, oh, okay, you've got a residential, so let's go pull up that plan and put that in.
Brooks, Host Wow, that is really incredible that it's intuitive as a piece of tech like that to incorporate as you make mods or changes or swaps or updates. That's really, really cool.
Brad, RV Keeper Yeah. And you can even add things that are related to your RV trip. Like, you know, some people will add their, um, their e-bikes, you know, because that's the RV with their e-bikes. And so they want to add an e-bike.
Brooks, Host Or a generator.
Brad, RV Keeper Or a generator. Absolutely. You know, an optional generator solar, you know, anything you want. I've got my, my little pop up gazebo that I like to put outside when we've got space on there just to remind me to, you know, check those parts and keep it alive.
Brooks, Host You know, one of the things that caught my attention is that this, like I said, isn't just an RV checklist, that it builds a plan around the specific RV that you want or that I own. Why was that distinction so important to you? To go through all of the gazillions of extra steps it took to, you know, prep for your launch?
Brad, RV Keeper That's why I love the name RV keeper, right? If you think your RV is a keeper, this is how you keep it alive. And it can feel super overwhelming at first. When you first see that plan and you've got hundreds of tasks to do, it can be like, uh, I, I, this is why I've been ignoring maintenance for so long and living in denial. But as you start working through it, you realize how many of those are very simple. Like, look at this, like go out and look at this specific thing and make sure it still looks okay. So it's just giving you those inspections that you can do along the way before the leak starts or before the tire blows off, or, you know, any one of the myriad things that can happen to an RV.
Brooks, Host Walk me through what happens when I download RV keeper and I tell it what I own. What's happening behind the scenes.
Brad, RV Keeper There is some AI involved. I've told you that I'm a high school English teacher. I have incredibly mixed feelings about AI and and what it's doing in our world. So I've been really, really careful to make sure that you're not ever getting tasks or, or anything like that as written that are written by AI. But what I, the way I have used AI is to go out and help me find those authoritative, manufactured sources out there and built just a massive library of all these components across all different years, across all the makes that I can get in there. And so what it's doing is it's indexing against all this tons and tons of The information that I've been able, been able to pull in from manufacturers and tie and tying that together with what you likely have in your RV. Yeah. So when you first start, you start on the essentials plan, which is free for everybody, everywhere, all the time, forever. And that sets up the things that are most likely to cause expensive repairs. Right. So you're going to get your tires. You're going to get your roof covered in there. You're going to get all of your safety checks and stuff in there. You're going to get free and get that free today for the rest of your life. If you are excited about it and you're like, boy, I'd sure like to have these other components covered by it. It's a pretty small monthly fee that we do for RV Keeper Pro, and it gives you everything, like everything that's on your rig, the ability to add more components or to switch out anything that you've got and even to build things. We've got a feature in there that if there's something that's not in the app, you can tell me what it is and it's going to email me right through the app saying, this is the rig that I have. This is what I have in it. And within a day or two, I can build out the maintenance for that and add it directly to your plan with the without you having to do anything.
Brooks, Host That's so cool. Brad. That's really cool that you do that.
Brad, RV Keeper Yeah. Yeah. I love the RV community so much and I love, I love seeing people in old RVs. I just, I, I mean, I love, I love the new ones. They're nice and fancy, but there's something about an old RV still going down the road and still, you know, making people smile and get out there living the life that I just want to help them keep these things alive.
Brooks, Host I couldn't agree more. Well, Brad, if you had to tell a listener, if you do nothing else, pay attention to these five things.
Brad, RV Keeper Oh my.
Brooks, Host Goodness. What would they be?
Brad, RV Keeper Tires, tires tires, tires, tires. Especially if you're traveling a lot. That's that's the first one. I think the biggest thing that a lot of people, a shocking amount of people don't know. Is that tire code printed on the side of your tire, a little four digit code on there that tells you when it was made? That's the biggest mistake I made. And honestly, it could have killed us when we blew that tire out the first time because I didn't know about it. So don't look at your tires and say the tread looks good. They must have years left in them and head on down the road, because if they could be dry rotting inside, they can be doing all sorts of things. Tires age out on RVs. They don't wear out on RVs. So that would be the first one is check those tire codes, see how old tires are. Suspension is another one that's big. The hangers, you know, just breaking off or the. I've seen the leaf springs just snap in half. All of that stuff. Just get your eyes on anything that makes it move down the road and then get on your roof. If you're going to own an RV, you either got to be willing. And I'm a big guy. I was scared for a lot, a lot of years, not a lot of years, a lot of months. When we first got our RV to get my big guy body up there on the roof and check things out. But I'm so glad I did. And now it's it's nothing. I don't even worry about it. So be bold and get up there on that roof and check things, check things out up there. And then the safety stuff, you know, make sure your propane alarm is, uh, got batteries in it and tested a lot. Um, you know, all that kind of stuff, all that kind of stuff that the essential plan starts you off with.
Brooks, Host Okay. And that makes a lot of sense. So thank you. You know, at the end of the day, RV keeper isn't really just about maintenance. It's about preventing problems. Yeah. Why is that distinction important to you?
Brad, RV Keeper It breaks my heart a little bit when I am on these Facebook groups, and they're dominated by people saying, why is my RV leaking? You know, why is Why is this happening? This thing broke. What happened? And it's important to me to help people learn how to take care of these things so that we're so that we're camping, right? So that we're traveling, so that we're enjoying that life, that we've worked so hard and that continue to work so hard to make happen. That it's not all about, oh, what is, what is the next thing that's going to break and cost me money and maybe pull me off the road? It's really about that. Like, you know, RV keeper, how do we keep these things alive? How do we keep feeling confident when we get behind the wheel that we're ready to go down the road to the next place? You know, just that that feeling of peace is what we're looking for.
Brooks, Host That is why we all do it. It's making memories with family, with friends, to seeing North America, to traveling, to having that home away from home. Whether you're a weekender like myself, a full timer like yourself. It's also just sharing campfires and meeting new people along the way too.
Brad, RV Keeper So, and going to that great burrito place, it's in the next town.
Brooks, Host I know I'm going to get that name in that burrito place now too. You might have to. You know.
Brad, RV Keeper I'm happy to share it.
Brooks, Host Where can people learn more about you? Follow along on you and your wife's adventures, as well as learn about RV keeper and follow along on RV keeper. Tell us about how they can go find and learn more.
Brad, RV Keeper Yeah, absolutely. The best way is just RV keeper dot app. It's not a dot com, it's a dot app. So RV keeper dot app is going to tell you all about it. There's a little page on there that is kind of our story and I think I maybe have we're not, we're not big on social media stuff. I'm on Facebook and things like that. So I'm going to go over there. Thanks for the reminder. I'm going to go to that story page on the RV keeper app, and I'll add some of those connections there so that people can reach out. But there's, um, my direct email is all over the, is all over the app as well. So if you ever want to pop in there, it's just Brad at rv Keeper dot app. I would love to hear from you, especially if you're using the app and have some suggestions. Or even if you're not using the app and have some suggestions for what would be cool. I would love to hear about that. And one of these days, I'm going to get serious about an Instagram or something like that and and let people know where we are and what we're doing. My family's been after us for years to do that, so I need to do it.
Brooks, Host I'm assuming then that the app is available in both, uh, Apple as well as in Android stores.
Brad, RV Keeper Yep. It's in both. Yeah.
Brooks, Host Well, Brad, thank you so much for taking the time to join us here on RV out West. It has been a real pleasure speaking with you.
Brad, RV Keeper Well, and I love the work that you're doing. Keep it up. We always love to listen.
Brooks, Host Hey, thanks, I appreciate it. All right, my friends, the conversation doesn't have to end here. If anything, we talked about makes you crave more information. Head over to RV Outwest dot com and take a moment to check out the show notes. We've got links to everything we mentioned so you can dive deeper and explore more. If you enjoyed this episode, I'd love for you to help keep RV out west rolling for as little as three dollars a month. You can become a supporter of the show. That's just a dime a day, and it helps make these conversations, stories, and adventures possible. Just click the support link right there. In this episode description. And there's another simple way you can help out. Think of two people in your life who love RVing, travel and exploring the West and send them this episode. Tell them about RV out west and invite them to come along for the ride. Every supporter, every share, every rating, and every new listener helps this community grow. And I'm incredibly grateful to have you here along for the journey. Next Monday, we're taking you to a place that honestly caught us completely by surprise. We spent the Fourth of July at Bar Run RV Resort in Roseburg, Oregon, and it absolutely blew our socks off. Is this one of Oregon's next must visit RV destinations? Tune in on Monday and find out why we think you're going to want this one on your list. Smash that follow button in your podcast app so you never miss an episode and tune in next Monday. Thanks so much for listening to RV Out West. Join us again next week. Please like and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you choose to get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. I sure would appreciate it if you left a rating or a review of this show. Special thanks to Scott Holmes Music for providing us the intro song. We Are One RV Out West can be found on Instagram and Facebook, where you can interact with us and follow along on our RV adventures around the Pacific Northwest. So get out there, explore, and go see what's beyond the horizon.
