Tag Archives: Verizon Phone

Emergency Power & Emergency Air Pump

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When you dash off for a weekend camping vacation, most of us just don’t sweat the details.  I know, I don’t and that is what gets us all into trouble.  Last camping season,  the wife, grand kids, and I headed out for just such a weekend.  It was early in the season and when we got to the campsite we were the only ones around.

So far so good.  We had a great time exploring the Spring outdoors and when we were ready to go the truck would not start.  Normally that would not be a problem because, we would have lots of fellow campers around us to help out.  Not this time.  There also was the time we were on our way to Branson MO to meet relatives, when one of the trailer tires decided to blow and the spare was nearly flat.  Forgot to air up the spare tire at the beginning of camping season.  Hey it happens.  Short term memory fading as I get older.

All of this drove home the point that Murphy is always with us and bad thing happen to good people as well.  So what is the solution?  One of these, 12Volt Emergency Power & Tire Pump

What this thing does is provide emergency power to start your truck not all of the units that look like this one will start a V8 or larger engine, as well as an air station to pump-up just about anything that needs air.  You can use a standard AC extension cord as the power cord to charge the unit up.  You can even leave it plugged in for a continuous charge and not damage the unit.  Oh, it does have a DC output jack that may be used for 12volt stuff.  Also it has a built-in tire pump that will pump up most TT and 5th wheel tires.  Again many of these combo units can not pump up a RVs tires before the cows come home.  As always be sure you check your rigs tire pressure when the tire is cold not when it has been run on the road for several hours.

NOTE: To find out more about the care and feeding of your RV tires please see the first entry of this Blog located on the bottom of the blog.

But I hear you say that you needed something that had AC power like the 110volts that comes out of the power pedestal that your RV is plugged into.  Fear not, because you can use one of these, 110volt and USB Dual Power Inverter

110volt and USB Dual Power Inverter

The 300W DC-AC Power Inverter with USB charging ports is designed for most major brand notebook computers, digital portables devices like, video camcorder, digital camera, iPhone, Galaxy phones and computers, iPod, cell phone, PSP handheld Game, DVD player & etc.

You may want to pick-up the battery hook-up cable just in case.  It looks like this, 12volt Battery Clip-on Accessory Socket

This device allows you to hook-up to any 12volt battery or any device that has 12volt battery clamps, such as the 12Volt Emergency Power & Tire Pump.

Some of us will like a bit more AC power than the little power converter above can provide, if that is the case you might want to consider this, 1000watt Power Converter

This more powerful converter can power notebook computers, TVs, fans ,refrigerators, game machines, DVDs, lights, musical instruments.  And can be powered by the 12Volt Emergency Power & Tire Pump above.  So if you need 110volt power at the picnic table or anywhere while camping, there are ways to get it that will help keep your family safe and make camping fun.

Don’t forget that you can use Emergency Power at home when the lights go out to recharge your cell phones and provide power for lights.

Until Next Time

Can You Hear Me Know – Breaker Breaker 19

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For this post I would like to discuss keeping in touch with the family while camping.  Many people in the good old days, used string and two soup cans or a CB walkie talkie to keep in touch with family members during camping.  Most of the campers in the olden time and even RVers today, nothing was or is used to stay in touch.  While some may believe that at cell phone is good enough, and it maybe  traveling down the interstate, in a campground in the wilderness or at the nearby lake you may find that the good old cell phone does not work, even a little.   You may find that the carrier you have is the wrong carrier for good service in the area that you are in, and that the other guy would have been a better choice.  What ever the case, today we have very small radios called FRS/GMRS that will last a long time on batteries, give you several miles of range, be quite and can even be set up for “selective call” so only your family members will hear you when you call them in for lunch or are backing up the rig.  RVers who are backpackers take note, these little radios can have weather radios and GPS built-in as well.

Let’s take a look at a few [shown below] and discuss their features and benefits in more detail.

Shown above are some Basic FRS radios.  They come as a pair when you buy them and have the following feature set.  The units come with rechargeable batteries, two belt clips, charging cable, AC adapter and have a range of 20 miles over flat and open terrain.  They offer a 12hr battery life.  As you can see the unit does not offer a lot of features but it works and could be used when backing the RV into that tight site, right next to the lake.

Above is shown a step-up model of an FRS/GMRS radio.  It can run on alkaline batteries for up to 10hrs or 8hrs on rechargeable batteries.  This model from Motorola includes 11 weather channels, 22 talk channels and each channel has 121 privacy codes, (selective call)  for privacy.  Range is 23 miles over flat and open terrain.  It comes with belt clips and 1 dual drop-in charger to charge the pair of radios at the same time to save you time.  Use one as a base station at the RV and give the other one to who ever you want to keep track of.  Additional units can be purchased so everyone who needs one has one.  This unit would be great for a fisherman to keep in touch while out in the boat on the lake.

 Calling all Backpacking RVers out there.  Here is an FRS/GMRS radio that has a built-in GPS or a GPS that has a built-in FRS/GMRS radio.  This unit is not low cost, but it does show that just about any need for communications while RVing can be met with a FRS/GMRS radio.  For the fun of it here are some of the features of this radio.  The radio has a 2.6-inch color touchscreen that is glove friendly.  A high sensitivity GPS receiver, a rugged waterproof case. Runs 18hrs on a set of batteries, and has a list of accessories as long as your arm.

While most of us will want a lower cost unit you need not suffer with little to no features.  Range, number of channels, the privacy feature (selective call), and battery life are the important ones to watch out for.

Safety and peace of mind make the weekend RV get away fun and exciting for the whole family and the ability to stay in touch with all members of the camping party does that for me and my family.





Until next time.  Over and Out?

Is Your Pet Safe in Your RV When You’re Gone?

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This has been a major question with RVers traveling with their pets.  For some it was a reason not to go to a museum or sight-see some special area because there was no way to know. We have all read the horror stories of an RVer coming home to find their pet in a fight for its life or dead because of overheating in a hot RV.  Or worse yet did the power at the RV  park go off and come back on and reset everything, so that the air conditioning or heating system is not set to the right temperature?
With modern technology it should be simple and affordable to know if your pet is safe, while you are out enjoying the sights near where you are camping.  Lets look at some things that may work for you.
1. You will need an Android Smartphone that you will leave in the RV full time.  I would suggest a low cost  pay as you go Verizon phone.  The reason for Verizon is that, a Verizon Phone will work in more places than any of  the other Wireless Phone Companies. And for an RVer who is moving all the time you never know where you will be.

  • The phone needs to have bluetooth
  • Temperature Monitoring Feature (SamSung Galaxy 3 for example)
  • The phone must be rechargeable
  • You need to have both the AC and DC charger for the phone
The Verizon Moto G Prepaid Phone is an Android Smartphone that has most of the features you need.
Verizon Moto G Prepaid Phone

You will need to locate the phone where you get the best signal from Verizon and that is also near an AC power outlet.  You will also need to download from the Google Play Store an Application called
“Temperature Surveillance” located here Temp Surveillance .  The way this system works is the phone monitors your RV with your Android Smartphone. The day to day phone you normally carry with you will get an text message (SMS) if the RV  gets too hot, too cold or if a power failure occurs. The text message you will receive will  contain information about the RVs temperature and if there is a power failure or not in the RV.  All you have to do is tell the App the temperature limits high, low, and the telephone number where you want to receive the text alarms. Then just leave the RV Android phone plugged into the AC  in the space you want to monitor and you are done.

Positive: Simplest and cheapest method to monitor RV Temperature.
Negative: May not work with all cheap smartphones.
2. You will still need the Verizon phone above.  However for those smartphones that can not use the Temp Surveillance App here is another choice. The Elertus™ sensor monitors and sends alerts to your phone the instant an important door is opened/closed, a light is turned on/off, if temperature or humidity levels hit critical trigger points, or if the sensor is moved. In this case the Verizon RV Smartphone will have to be used as a Hotspot.  The Elertus will call your daily carried phone and report what the problem is.  This gives you time to get back to the RV and correct the problem.
 Some of the features of the Elertus are listed below.
  • 100% wireless, place it anywhere
  • No fees or subscriptions!
  • connects via wifi
  • temperature (-20°F to 150°F)
  • humidity (0 – 100%)
  • movement (accelerometer)
  • door sensor (open/close)
  • light sensor (on/off)
  • connection loss (wifi)
  • battery (0 – 100%)
  • free mobile app
  • access from anywhere
  • manage multiple sensors (ten per account)
  • alerts multiple users

To get more information on the Elertus system go here Elertus System of Remote Sensing

Here again the sensor sends information to you about the temperature in the RV and if power has failed.
3.  Another system (we are getting pricey folks) is Temperature Alert .  This unit would use the RV Wireless Phone as a HotSpot and send you text messages about the temperatures in your RV.
Temperature Alert Wi-Fi

The system does work well, but for some of us, it is a bit pricey.
The above unit is Temperature Alert Wi-Fi here is the Temperature Alert Cellular version of the same unit.

Temperature Alert Cellular

There are two more systems coming online later this fall
4.  The Wimoto THR001 Thermo Bluetooth Smart Thermometer Sensor.  This sensor will send the temperature information by Bluetooth to a device that will post the information to the Web using your RV Phone as a HotSpot.  Some of the features are listed below the picture.  This unit will be available later this Summer or early next Fall.

Wimoto THR001 Thermo Bluetooth Smart Thermometer Sensor

Some of the features are listed below;

  • Both infrared non-contact and needle probe thermometer in one. Infrared range 0 to 212 Fahrenheit. Probe range is -50 to 500 Fahrenheit.
  • Relays information to Bluetooth 4.0 SMART Ready devices such as iPhone 4S/5/5C/5S and certain Android phones and tablets with up to 100ft range
  • Acts as a datalogger when no smartphone or tablet in range and records information periodically for up to a month at a time.
  • Runs for 1-3 years on a single battery (user changeable) and weather resistant
  • Integrates with Wimoto Cloud Cube for real-time, always-on updates via the Internet

The thermometer sensor will send its information to the Wimoto Cloud Cube which will send the information to the internet and then be passed on to your everyday carried Smartphone.

Here is what the company said about the Cloud Cube; “Connects Wimoto Bluetooth SMART sensors to the Wimoto cloud service via Wifi. Extends the range of Wimoto sensors so that can be accessed from anywhere you have Internet connectivity.”  Here is a link to the Wimoto Cloud Cube that will be available late Summer 2014 or early Fall 2014.These are some of the best ideas currently available or that will be available soon.  It is important for all pet owners to enjoy RVing and that can be difficult when you are afraid to leave your pet behind in your Rig and strike out for adventure.

How hot is it in your Rig?  Now you will know.

Until next time.