Must Have Apps
So since I can’t sleep. Par for the course lately – I am gonna talk a bit about a few of my fav apps. We all have some! Unique as a finger print…. well I have a 128GB iPhone and a plethora of them. Probably half of them dedicated towards RV life..
So what effects us on the road ? Well, gas prices, overnight options, route planning….. there are a trillion factors I’ll stop there. Each RV owner and operator out there in the world has his or her system. They have a few thousand miles under their butts and a few tricks up their sleeves. I am an IT professional so let me share some highlights of mine :
Windy (windy.com) and I’m mentioning this first because I literally had a tornado (EF1 tiny) hit the RV Park I stayed at last year as soon as I got out on the Road. Got that one right out of the way. They say lighting never strikes twice! good deal… So but it made me think alright, I have a high end coach now with including slides: NINE awnings, potentially extended at any given time. The Main awning likely also has party lights and or a screen room attached to the damned thing so I mean this is easily a 20-30 min task to bring them all in. Well what do you do when a wind storm kicks up out of no where ? The Windy App does nothing but forecast Wind at a given location. It could care less about much else and its very good at the one single thing it does. So it became added to my plethora. The Windy.com login ( this is all free ) you can set location based alerts, or on the APP, where it will email you should the forecasted wind exceed your preset threshold in a given geographical location. I then figured out the email address associated with my cell phone (txt message) you can find yours with a google search like this : https://20somethingfinance.com/how-to-send-text-messages-sms-via-email-for-free/ so now when I go to an area I set a new location. in my case if the forecasted winds will exceed 35mph, im gonna get a text message sometimes DAYS in advance. like today. with the latest hurricane headed inland.. I now know to go roll in my awnings thurs, Fri, Sat this week.
This thing here, I don’t actually know what this app is. Or much about it. The device I ordered on Amazon came with a QR Code that gave me the app, I will share the link. This one is not free because you are purchasing an actual device. This device monitors ambient temperature and has the capability to check in over wifi every 30 min. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBCTQ3L/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_QLAyFbX8MTZBX so whats the deal ? well, I have a cat and a dog. I often leave them in the camper in the hot sun in the middle of a field at some RV park, and we all know RV park power can be hit or miss. The hotter it gets, the more amps everyones AC units draw, the more power problems the park experiences. Your own breakers too, or a failure of the AC unit….. When the windows are up and your parked, may as well be a dog and a cat in a locked car at Walmart. So I have this device. it sends me push notifications on my cell should the coach temp exceed in my case 84F…. Im gonna get an alert. So i could be miles away from the camper, but im gonna know that the temp inside the coach has crossed that threshold.
Overnight Parking !!! This is a thing for us right? you know if your really good and time it right you can ship crap off walmart.com to the particular store and then arrive a day or two later too… So Over Night Parking at Walmart….. This is a thing! It’s ten times safer, quieter and more pleasant than the truck stops. But not all Walmart’s allow it ! well in the old days you’d have to call the store manager at each one.. Today in 2020 we have other plans. It’s called ” ONP Wallmart ” incidentally some Home Depots, and Cracker Barrels allow ONP as well. https://www.allstays.com/apps/walmart.htm
GASS BUDDY. OMG. Do you NOT know about this ? https://www.gasbuddy.com/ ok so in addition to showing you every Gas Station on the planet and their current fuel rates, its able to be sorted by Diesel and truck stops. This is freaking epic to me, as I plan my routes. I look at each states average fuel price decide where and when to stop and then find a truck stop that I can get into that sells Diesel. usually its a Pilot or Loves. I often look at them on Google earth as well to know what to expect in the parking lot. I cannot back up while towing a truck 4 wheels down. I can only go forward. I plan my travels one stop at a time and this app is crucial.
RVlife. https://rvlife.com/ arguably the MOST important app on my phone. This one offers a paid and free version, I only use the free version, but it rates and reviews RV parks. I do not have time to google a place and look at possible RV parks many of which have stoneage websites that may or may not even be listed in google and or make 50 phone calls every time I drive from one place to the next. This app is freaking incredible. it shares other peoples reviews from RV parks all over the country, the lot rent rates they paid, what ever they had to type – and you dont need to google and figure out park websites or contact info, its all in one place.. My most critical app.
MAIL. how the heck you gonna get your mail ? well I found this to be the cheapest way : https://www.rvmail.com/ I try my damndest to make everything I possibly freaking can paperless billing, but every now and then something goes out via paper form. this is my answer to that. I get an email and i go login and there is a PDF digital copy of what ever useless letter some idiot decided to mail to me.
Weather is CRITICAL to an RV owner. Not just wind but area flooding and other various hazards. https://www.weatherbug.com/ weatherbug beats them all. Most accurate forecasts, the hurricane and tropical storm tracker, the Lighting tracker (spark) is probably my most fav feature of all. sadly it does not do future forecast radar like the weather.com app but I find that to be sketchy at best anyway… I do have them both.
… I will add to this list later its 230am here and I think im tired enough to go to bed now 🙂