As Ducky As It Gets Advertising

You may have noticed a few banners on my blog pages and pictures and/or text links on products.   My husband works full time outside the home but I can not, so to help with our budget I am doing affiliate advertising on my blog.  I don’t go crazy on ads and tend to advertise products we use or have used ourselves.  I've even created a small Amazon.com store to make looking for some products easier.  There are a few things under miscellaneous that I don't own but thought they were either cute or useful. If you like the items you see please consider purchasing through my store. I get a small "finders fee" for driving business to Amazon it isn't a lot but it is better than nothing at all.

Click the duck picture to enter my store and thanks for visiting!

Pets and RVs

Can you travel with your pets?  You bet!  A lot of RV’ers do travel with pets!  Dogs, Cats, Iguana?  Doesn’t really matter what type of pet it is as long as you can easily move it between your TV (Tow Vehicle) and your RV.  A fish aquarium might be a tad difficult since the RV bounces around when towing and the water would most likely splash out.  Speaking of bouncing around, it is best not to leave pets in the RV while in motion unless you have a Motorhome.  For a trailer it is like a moving earthquake inside which is why you must move things off counters and protect breakables before setting off on your next adventure.

We have 2 cats and a dog.  Our 2 cats have been traveling with us for the 2 years we have been full-timing.  Our dog is new, we just got her a couple months ago so she hasn’t been on any trips yet.  We have put her in the truck so she gets used to riding in it but she seems to prefer the van, I guess being that high up and moving is a bit unnerving to her.  One of our cats does just fine traveling, Kato has been traveling with us since he was a kitten and he is almost 6 years old now.  The other one does fine too with the exception that he will throw up in the truck if we feed him before we pull out.  We are not sure how the dog will do on a long drive, so far she has only been in the van or truck for drives under 30 minutes.

Do you need to modify your RV for your pets?  Yes and no.  It mostly depends on your pet type and the layout of your RV.  For instance, with cats we have to have a litter box and a place to put it.  For us the best place is in the closet that has our washer hookups, it is a louvered bi-door in which we can leave 1 side open for their access plus keeps it out of direct site.  Cats like to get up high once in a while so if you can accommodate that it would keep them happy.  We have a set of cabinets against one wall that is about 18” from the ceiling, both cats can jump up there and sometimes one or the other will take a nap up there.  It is Punkin’s favorite spot when we go to bed.

                                   

In the two pictures above on the left is our cabinets with the gap, Kato (our black kitty) is already up there.  Punkin (the orange kitty) is only 6 months old in this picture and he wanted to be up there with Kato.  It took a couple of tries but he did make it up there which took us by surprise as we thought he was too little to jump that high.

A couple of months ago we got rid of our couch as we didn’t like it and it took up too much room.  Since we really don’t have overnight visitors often we didn’t see the point in keeping it especially since we could just pick up an air bed if we really needed the extra bed.  Now that the couch is gone we have an open area to put the dog kennel and cat scratching post.  At some point in the future John will build a cat tree that incorporates the dog kennel.

               

Note the requisite boxes in the picture above.  If there is a box our cats will be in it, a box is the best cat trap in the world.  And just so no one thinks we have an imaginary dog, here is a picture of her too.  I call her my Mini-Lab as she is a Lab mix breed and a bit on the small side at 30 lbs.



We got Alley from the Montgomery Humane Society.  If you are looking for a pet I highly recommend going to shelters, there are a lot of pets needing a good home.  If we had the space and could afford it I would have more pets.

Kato came to us via a neighbor's sister whose Siamese had a litter and soon as they were weaned she was trying to get rid of them.  Kato was the only black kitty in the litter.

Punkin choose us, he was a little community kitty that kept wanting to play with the kids in the area.  He would follow pretty much anyone and he decided he wanted to stay with us. He was 5 months old when he made that decision and he is 2 years old now.  This is his favorite pose, he likes to throw himself on the floor in front of you as you are walking forcing you to step over him, Mr. Drama King.

Why you need good tires

Tires can make or break an RV.  It is important to keep the tires inflated to the recommended pressure and check for wear and bulges before heading out on a trip.  When driving be careful to not run over things that could potentially damage the tires, that includes running over or rubbing on curbs. Also watch your speed, trailer tires are not rated to go over 65 mph  in fact most are only rated to 55 mph.  Last week we saw a trailer come in to the RV dealer we live behind that had blown one of their tires.  Here are a few pictures of the tire and the damage it did to the trailer.





When John took these pictures he checked for the manufacturer and the date on the tires.  He noted the tires were 6 years old and were Goodyear Marathon tires which are notorious for tread separation and catastrophic blow outs.  The tires were the original tires that came with the trailer.  So keep an eye on your tires and buy new ones every 5 years, you paid a lot for your RV don't put cheap tires on it!  Sure you have insurance but don't forget the deductible is paid first.  There are people that will buy used tires for things such as farm/ranch trucks and trailers which could help offset the price of new tires.

Where did we buy a truck?

 

Online where else?  We had our choices of 5’ers down to a couple and both were the same size and weight so we were looking for a used 1 ton, crew cab, dually.  That particular style of pickup isn’t exactly popular in the north and we couldn’t find any at local dealers.  The advent of the internet has been great in connecting people from all over the world and all over the US of A.  It did take us some time a month or two to find a truck that would fit our criteria on Ebay and be affordable. 

Buying a large and expensive item over the internet was different than buying at a local dealer.  Once we agreed on the truck we needed to get it checked for any issues.  As the truck was located in Houston, TX we had to find a way to inspect it.  With more and more vehicles being sold over the internet a need for inspections cropped up and so did businesses to fill that need.  One such company is Alliance Inspection Management, LLC.  It is always a good idea to have a used vehicle checked before you sign on the dotted line.

The inspection came back with a good report, we liked the truck and it’s unique bumpers so we bought it.  After that it was just putting down a deposit, arranging to get a cashier’s check from our bank and then traveling to get our new truck!  John flew down, did the finishing paperwork and drove the truck home.

We are looking at trucks now for my mother as she is also getting a 5’er to do some exploring herself.