Bates International RV Blog

August 5, 2008 – Las Vegas, Nevada joins destinations worldwide in recognition of World Tourism Day, an event held each year on September 27.  Sanctioned by the U.N. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the event provides an opportunity to look beyond borders and celebrate the unique opportunities created by travel and tourism.

In today’s dynamic global marketplace, RV rentals are a vital part of the Travel/Tourism industry.  Emerging from one of the strongest decades in recent history, the tremendous growth of the RV rental industry can be attributed to the “Baby Boomers’ ages (55-64).  Baby Boomers have an expected growth factor of 48% through 2010.  That’s more than 5 times the expected total population growth of 95.  The potential for RV rentals, as well as purchases, has never been higher.

“The desire to visit famous travel destinations brings millions of multinational tourists to America every year.  The rental of RV’s offers more freedom, control, and flexibility than any other travel option.” says Sandra Bate, President/CEO of Bates International Motor Home Rental Systems, Inc.  “International Tour Operators with their massive client databases are a vital force in the RV rental market.  The North American demographic profile of rental customers encompasses an expanding range of lifestyles.” says Bates.  Bates is an International Motor home rental franchise system; with locations throughout North America.  The company has its headquarters in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Travel and tourism benefit society in countless ways.  It is one of the United States’ largest industries, directly employing 7.5 million people and generating tax revenues of about $110 billion.  It ranks fifth among 20 major private industry sectors, according to the Travel Industry Association.  Travel expenditures within the U.S. total $740 billion.  The UNWTO estimates that international tourism arrivals reached close to 900 million in 2007, up 10 percent from 2006, according to the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries at the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Activities surrounding World Tourism Day in the United States are coordinated by the Travel Industry Association, a Washington-based trade association that represents the common interests and concerns of travel in America.

How do you respond when someone asks you, “What do you do?” If you’re like most people, when someone asks you that question you just wing it or improvise.  Yet, a carefully worded and well-delivered personal description of exactly what you do for a living is an opportunity to move relationships forward.

Know Your Personal Commercial

Stephan Schiffman, in his book Make It Happen Before Lunch (Mcgraw-Hill, 2000), offers three helpful points to consider when developing your personal commercial.

     1.  Is your personal commercial short enough to deliver comfortably in a social setting in 30 secondsor less?  (Be prepared to rewrite and revise your commercial until it sounds natural.)

     2.  Is your commercial casual enough to be delivered conversationally – not as a “hard sell” sales pitch?  (Remember, you’re talking only about that which you do, not about what you feel you could do for the person you’re talking to.)

     3.  Does your commercial focus specifically on how you add value to other people’s days?  (Think about the problems that would arise during the day if you didn’t do what you do, and ask yourself how people benefit from actions you undertake.)

Practice your personal commercial until you can recite it instantly upon being awakened from a deep sleep.  It has to come across naturally, seem spontaneous, and above all, be true, explaining exactly what you do during the day without apology or hesitation.

Your biography must be brief, casual and conversational and focus on what you personally do to add value…and it must be delivered with a smile.

Stephan Schiffman is president of D.E.I. Management Group.  For information, call 1-800-224-2140 or go to www.dei-sales.com.

Challenge Paperwork

The most precious asset we possess, not only in sales but also in life, is time.  Few would argue with that.  Or that one of the great squanderers of time is excessive or unnecessary paperwork.  Top-earning pros agree that periodically challenging paperwork cannot help but boost sales volume.  Here are key thoughts to take with you.

     1.  Letter, memo, report, whatever – if it’s delegable, palm it off.

     2.  If you’re not sure it’s worthwhile, eliminate it.  At least try it and see if it makes a difference.

     3.  Block out specific times of the day or week to do paperwork.  It gets done faster and more efficiently that way.

     4.  Be sure every chore you handle has a bottom-line goal.

     5.  Before composing a letter or memo, ask yourself, “Can it be done faster and cheaper by email?”

     6.  Assign a clerical person to screen incoming mail.

     7.  Separate routine from unusual correspondence.  Try to avoid reading mail more than once.

Think Big

Successful people believe in themselves.  They visualize themselves as being successful, and they never let failure or adversity stop them.  If you can see yourself accomplishing something, you can accomplish it!  Your actions, thoughts and even the way others perceive you is determined in large part by how you perceive yourself in your subconscious mind.  So before every sale, visualize yourself…

     1.  Hitting it off with the person that you are meeting.

     2.  Coming across as being knowledgeable and informative, and

     3.  Getting the sale!

Remember, you will rarely ever exceed your own expectations of yourself, so it is important that you visualize yourself achieving success.

You know the expression “good things come in small packages.”  The same sentiment can apply to small businesses too.  Entrepreneurs don’t have to set their sights on building a mega-million-dollar business to enjoy a highly satisfying and lucrative entrepreneurial career.

Financially speaking, research has shown that small-business owners enjoy an average net worth that is three times that of their salaried counterparts.  Business owners also tend to out-perform salaried employees in terms of higher annual incomes, savings, and stock portfolios.

Parents, college career counselors, and students should also take note that women are more likely to achieve $100,000-plus annual incomes faster through business ownership than average professional careers in law or medicine.

Even though business ownership offers considerable potential for financial reward, entrepreneurs still talk to me about their overriding desire to control their work destiny.  They don’t want to work 18-hour days or feel chained to inflexible schedules that conflict with family and leisure interests.  Their attraction to business ownership is more about creative pursuits and career flexibility than monetary gain.

The International Franchise Association has officially launched the first phase of an integrated awareness campaign designed to educate Beltway opinion leaders about the importance of franchising to the U.S. economy.

The franchising industry has seen record growth in recent years.  A new economic analysis released last month shows that franchising expanded by more than 18 percent from 2001 to 2005, adding more than 140,000 new businesses and 1.2 million new jobs to the nation’s economy.  Direct economic output of franchises grew by more than 40 percent to $880 billion during the five-year span.

“The growth we have seen in the franchising industry is expected to continue, even during the current economic downturn,” said Matthew Shay, IFA president and CEO.  “As policymakers address laws that impact the small business community, such as immigration and health care, we want them to consider the impact that potential reforms would have on franchised businesses’ ability to contribute so significantly to the economy in the future.”

A key component of the campaign is print and online advertising to educate opinion leaders about the franchise model, the product support and training it provides and the many diverse options and opportunities for people to own their own business through franchising.

The testimonial ad series will introduce actual franchises and franchisors and feature the campaign’s theme:  Franchising: Building Local Businesses, One Opportunity at a Time.  The brand was developed through extensive opinion leader testing to communicate how franchising helps build businesses comprised of local owners who support communities all across the country.

The first ad that appeared in Roll Call and National Journal features Dunkin’ Brands CEO Jon Luther and Duke Carvalho, who owns 14 stores in the greater Boston are.  With the headline, “America Runs on Dunkin’.  Dunkin’ Brands Runs on Franchising,” the ad calls to action support for franchising and the dream of business ownership.

A new Web site, www.buildingopportunity.com, was developed to support the campaign and provides additional information about the economic impact of franchising, including access to the “Economic Impact o Franchised Business” report, which can be searched by congressional district.  In addition, the Web site includes a copy of the Dunkin’ Brands advertisement.

We humans have an insatiable desire for meaning in our lives. We crave purpose, to be part of something that is larger than ourselves, to leave something for posterity. It’s a basic human trait.

Employment as we’ve implemented it customarily achieves quite the opposite. It not only doesn’t add to our life’s meaning, it detracts from it. It gets in the way of living a meaningful life.

What a calamity! It almost makes me weep for the lost potential in the world.

Why is it that the baby boomers can’t wait to retire at 55, even though they’ll likely live for 25 or more years afterwards? If work was meaningful to them, they wouldn’t quit. Many of these early retirees are going into another career that makes them feel more useful. Highly paid technologists are entering the fray of education, becoming low-paid teachers. Retirees volunteer at church or school, Habitat for Humanity, or Greenpeace. Doing so gives them purpose.

For some unfathomable reason we’ve concluded that we must first waste thirty or forty years of our lives before we find a sense of importance. A career is just an exercise in marking time. It is this feeling of meaninglessness that vexes me most—the thinking that work and life are separate. If we found our work meaningful, we wouldn’t feel that way, and all this ‘work-life balance’ nonsense would disappear, and good riddance.

We mostly work for money, but money does not give anyone purpose, nor does it motivate nearly to the level of its reputation. We think it does, but the people we think get meaning from money actually get it from power and social status. A raise can get someone to change jobs, but the motivation afterwards is minimal.  Yes, people will work hard for money, but they will not set aside their egos.
Quite the opposite, in fact. No one goes into work excited about making another paycheck; does anyone sound excited when they say, “Another day, another dollar?” No. People get excited about what they feel they will accomplish, about making a difference.

People are emotional creatures. We make decisions based on emotion and rationalize them afterward with facts. Yet we act like work is rational, and based on rational decisions. Nonsense.

In order for work to be meaningful, a company has to stand for something, some principal that has emotional content. I call this the Cause, and Guy Kawasaki of Macintosh fame calls it the Dream.

Let me illustrate with some examples.

Whole Foods was founded in 1978 with $45,000 in capital. In 2005, it had sales of roughly $4.6 billion, profits of $160 million, and a market cap of $8 billion. Whole Food’s motto: Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet.

You’ll notice the motto doesn’t say “A Whole Lotta Moola.” Whole Food’s culture is built around being part of a whole: the food they sell, promoting healthy living, helping those less fortunate, and the profits they make, are inseparable. Their Cause is contained in their name. Many people work there because of that and love what they do, though the day-to-day tasks differ little from those of a Smith’s employee.

The foundation on which Thomas Watson, Jr. built IBM, and the Cause that made it the great company it was under his direction, was “respect for the individual.”

In a 1961 progress report to employees, Watson, Jr. said, “I feel strongly that there are some priceless ingredients in this business which we will never change—things such as our concern for the individual, our sense of fair play and our belief in services. For our fine reputation as a company is based on nothing more and nothing less—than respect for the individual, integrity and personal values of our people. You are, in fact, the IBM Company.” There is no mention of computers, technology or profit.

Defining a Cause is a difficult exercise, an emotional exercise. It all starts with the founder, the heart and soul of the company. What is your cause? Why did you start this business? Typically you’ll find that it isn’t about money, it’s about something else. In my case, I became an entrepreneur to create a grown-up working culture, where we were all adults, rather than the culture from which I came that treated employees like children.

A Cause doesn’t have to have anything to do with the product or service the company provides. It could be creating a family-friendly workplace or helping employees grow as individuals. The Cause is found where your passion lies.

And if you’re not a founder you need to find your own Cause, and find a company that is aligned with that Cause. Or create change from within.

Whatever you do, don’t sit at work and wait for meaning until you turn 55 or 60.
What a waste of a life.

We are commonly asked, “Who can do my market research for me?” It’s very tempting for scientists and engineers with little or no exposure to an industry to want someone else to do their market research. But should they?  You are the best source of that information. While you may be able to discern competitive product and benefits shortcomings, the interview process may also enable you to better understand important operational and economic aspects of an industry; this information may allow you to design a better product. As this is still your business, though, be sure to absorb all that you can to make the best decisions for your company.

Let’s make some assumptions before we address the question. First, we assume that you are a technical person with little business experience in your chosen or probable industry. Second, we assume that you are just embarking on your new venture. Third, we assume that you are operating on a shoestring. Lastly, we assume that, until you get capital or other funding, you are either the sole employee or perhaps you have one or two part-time technical people for the moment. These are very normal assumptions, by the way.

Given the assumptions, you cannot afford to pay a consultant to research the industry for you, to buy a market research report, or to allocate an employee in your company to do the research. Aside from the cost issues, however, there are compelling reasons for doing your own research. First and foremost, you need industry knowledge. You also need to validate product ideas. And, without much industry experience, you need to develop contacts in your field.

Industry knowledge is critical not only from the standpoint of starting and growing a successful business but also for obtaining venture capital. You need to research the market size, trends, and competition among other things. Yes, if you had the resources you could get someone else to do this, but you may miss out on some nuances that would impact your product that others may not see.  Figuring out things on your own is better for learning than just reading someone else’s reports. (If you don’t know where to look for information, get to know the reference librarians at your local university or large public library.)  Besides, if you are seeking any kind of funding, you need to be able to talk very intelligently about your industry and market opportunities; regurgitating an outsourced report is probably not the best knowledge solution. Some of the specifics that you will want to pay attention to are identifying movers and shakers, operational issues that impact, or are impacted by, your product, and trends and issues.

Conducting interviews for validating a product idea, especially if it might change current industry processes, is essential. Industry insiders will expect you to talk on their level, and if you’ve done your own basic research, you will be able to. You could outsource product validations with appropriate resources, but what happens if the interviewee asks a technical or operational question?

Establishing contacts in your field is another essential of getting to know your industry and becoming successful. By talking with industry people when doing your research, you will be building your Rolodex in addition to gaining market knowledge. This will give you a leg up when you are seeking beta test customers, advice or your first sales. As a MasterCard commercial might say, “Knowing people who can help my business: priceless.”

Think of all of this as a control issue. This is your business, or potential business. Do you want others telling you their version of the industry direction, or would you rather come up with your own conclusions and find the best fit for your product?

You may make mistakes, but outside resources are just as likely to make them as you. Besides, mistakes can be a good learning experience that can strengthen you and your company.

You can control your part of the world up to a point. At the point at which the world (or your company or your company’s revenues) gets bigger, you can start relinquishing some control in various operational areas, and market research is no different that any other functions. You probably will be continuing to monitor money carefully at this point, and with limited resources, one of the best solutions for primary research is to look at your local university’s MBA or undergraduate market research classes; they are often looking for real world projects. Keep in mind that you will need to provide the professor and the class adequate guidance and support on the issue that you need addressed and the goals of the research; this will help ensure that the work is done to your satisfaction. If you aren’t close to a university, look for non-profit business and economic development organizations for assistance or referrals to low-cost providers. You may have money to purchase a market research report for your industry at this point; just be sure to look at the contents to ensure it’s what you need before buying. Also, solicit information from your salespeople; you’ll find field feedback most useful.

Down the road, with some sales firmly in hand and a small but growing staff, you can add market research to the job function of hired employees or pay for custom market research.

A vacation may seem like a frivolous thing to contemplate in the face of a slowing economy, high food and gas prices, job insecurities and a falling dollar.  But your continued health and productivity may depend upon your getting away from work periodically, and employers grappling with rapidly rising health-care costs are starting to embrace the idea as well, public-health experts and benefits consultants say.

“There definitely is a trend towards employers understanding the relationship between stress and health, and that taking time to recharge, relax, does have a benefit to burnout,” said Carol Sladek, principal in the work/life consulting practice of Hewitt Associates in Lincolnshire, Ill.  “We do see some of our clients moving in the direction of trying to encourage their employees to use their time off and use it in larger increments.”

That may be tough sell this year, even though workers asked to do more with fewer resources may need their vacation time more than ever.  Fearful of appearing unneeded or uncommitted, employees may be more inclined to schedule a few long weekends or limit their vacations to no more than a week.  The portion of Americans planning to take a vacation this year dropped to 33% from 40% who said they took one last year, according to a survey of 1,000 adults released earlier this month from travel-insurance provider Access America.

On the spectrum of U.S. workers’ efforts to secure paid time off, vacation historically has taken a backseat to sick days and leave for medical reasons and family care giving.  But it’s rising as a benefit that Americans want to protect, said John de Graaf, executive director of Take Back your Time, a Seattle-based nonprofit that addresses overwork and time poverty.

“We feel vacation time or the lack of it affects many Americans, and in many ways has a negative impact on our health,” he said, noting that the U.S. spends 16% of its gross domestic product on health care but fares relatively poorly in international comparisons of life expectancy, infant mortality, chronic illness and obesity.

There is little research on whether taking vacations affects personal health, and how the duration and kind of respite may factor in.  The frequency of annual vacations was associated with a reduced risk of death in middle-aged men at high risk of heart disease, according to a study published in the journal psychosomatic medicine in 2000.  A 2005 study of 1,500 women aged 25 to 75 published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal suggests that failing to take a break at least once a year brings psychological health risks.

The majority of the women studied, 34%, reported taking a vacation once a year, while 23% said they took one twice a year.  Another 23% reported getting away every two to five years.  Almost one in five, 19%, said they only took a vacation once every six years or less often.

The risk of depression, as measured by a standard industry test, increased as the frequency of vacation-taking declined, said Cathy McCarty, senior research scientist at the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wis. 

Last year, about 84% of U.S. employers offered paid vacations, and 63% rolled sick, vacation and personal days into a single paid-time-off plan, according to the most recent research from the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va.  Even those with generous time off don’t always take it.  Only 14% of U.S. employees take a vacation of at least two weeks, according to a 2004 study from the Families and Work institute in New York.

Paid vacation time is a wellness issue that’s as important as careful eating and regular exercise for workers’ health, said Joe Robinson, a work/life balance consultant and author of “Work to Live” in Santa Monica, Calif.

“To be healthy and do a sustainable job in a 24/7 world, you’ve got to have a richer component to your life” than just working all the time, Mr. Robinson said.  “You’ve got to understand the role that input plays in your output.

Anyone raising kids in recent years knows that this generation is vastly different from any before.  Today’s young people are techno-savvy, collaborative, diverse, positive, and self-directed.  They’re also argumentative, opinionated, immature, spoiled, and have very short attention spans.  In short, they are just like every generation that came before in one respect:  they have their advantages and their disadvantages.“Millennials” is the word used to describe the up-and-coming generation of employees who are already entering our dealerships.  The youngest members of this generation are only 9 years old, but the oldest are 26, so they are gradually making their presence felt.  This is a big generation, the second largest in history, after the baby boomers.  They’re our future managers and business leaders, so we had better learn to work with them to everyone’s advantage.

Changing Policies

This isn’t going to be easy.  The processes we have in place are all coming into question.  I recently talked to a dealer who has a company-wide ban on visible tattoos.  He is unable to find a single job applicant for a sales position who meets this criterion.  We discussed his expectations.  Is his policy out of line with current thinking?  After a lot of discussion, we settled on amending his policy to prohibit visible “objectionable’ tattoos.

Employees are also questioning prohibitions against visible body piercings.  Between tongue studs, earrings, nose studs, and eyebrow rings, the millennials are a pierced generation.  If your dealership has policies against visible piercings (other than earring for women), you might want to re-think it.

Voicing Their Opinions

Another dealer I consult is having difficulty with his annual performance reviews.  While past generations have seemingly been happy to sign off on their managers’ opinions, millennials have their own take on things.  A performance review with a millennial is likely to be a two-way conversation, with the manager’s performance receiving as much feedback as the employee’s.  Given what we know about this generation, this isn’t too surprising.  Many of them come from families that were largely democracies, with the children having equal votes with the parents.  From the time these employees can remember, they made decisions about where they wanted to go on vacation and what looked good on the menu.  Almost every family can relate a story about a child who derailed a parent’s promotion when he or she refused to move to another city.  These young people have opinions and are used to having their opinions hear.  It’s no wonder that they expect that to carry over to the workplace.

Different Views

These are just a few of the areas where we are seeing friction develop as the millennial generation is absorbed into the workplace.  Almost all areas of the dealership will feel effects from the millennial generation.  Hiring is bound to become difficult if we try to enforce outdated policies for new hires.  Technology that we have been satisfied with seems archaic to today’s 20-year-olds.  Training that worked on baby boomers isn’t exciting enough for millenials, who are used to watching TV while texting their friends and listening to their iPods.

Changing Reward Policies

The ways in which we typically reward employees doesn’t impress them, either.  Boomers were happy with a year-end bonus they could focus on, knowing the payoff would be there in the end.  Millennials don’ even know if they’ll be with the company at the end of the year.  Short-term bonuses work best.  In fact, some of the companies with the very best records of working with millennials pay daily performance bonuses.  Many of the rewards that millennials find most alluring are not monetary at all.  A recent survey of 20-something workers found that time off to work for worthy causes was valued above a raise in hourly wages.  Fortunately, we have found many ways to reward members of all the generations that don’t deplete the bottom line.  Sometimes it’s a matter of timing, as with the example given here.  Sometimes, it is a matter of finding rewards that appeal to individuals.  Sometimes it’s a matter of giving people meaningful choices.  I’ve only scratched the surface of this subject.

Our challenge as employers is to create a workplace that satisfies all four of the generations in our workforce today.  Our dealerships need to be places where employees of every generation feel challenged to excel, find the means to reach his or her goals, and feel personally fulfilled.  This is an attainable goal, but it’s going to require a change in mindset for many of us, and some soul searching as well.  It’s important to remember that we have an obligation to future generations, just as past generations had an obligation to us.  With some training and introspection, I’m sure we’ll meet the challenge.

Customers that need and want to be different dominate this new economy.  They have money; their basic needs covered, and are at the center of the most consumer dominated society that has ever existed.  It’s a weird world where toddlers have cell phones, your personal chef lives in India, and marriages exist in cyberspace.  Four major factors drive this new consumer world:

  A.      Affluence/Aging/Re-Immigrantization

The number of millionaires has doubled since 1995.  The number of affluent households is the highest in history and the number of households living in poverty is the lowest.  More disposable income exists now than before, and the amount of money necessary to cover basic needs is the lowest, thus the demand for different products and services will expand as well as the quality level of all products and services.  Every 6.8 seconds someone in America and Canada turns 50 and will continue to do so until the middle of the next decade.  The Silver Tsunami is the term used to define this rapid aging of the population.  Furthermore, the population has shifted such that one in every eight Americans and one in five Canadians is non-native born.  It’s a world dominated by:

• Aging Populations
• Older/Younger
• Single Headed households
• Work/Living Needs (Yogurt Clusters)
• Market of One

  B.  Brands

Knowledge is doubling every 17 months. Twelve new products come to the marketplace every second as well as 100 new services and 100,000 new webpages.  The choices that customers face are limitless, but their time is limited, therefore consumers will increasingly make product and service decisions based on brand names, trademarks, and reputations.  The factors are:

• More Leisure Time-Leisure Choice
• Working Vacations (vocations)

  C.  Convenience

Increasingly, consumer choice involves the convenience of products and services.  McDonald’s and Southwest Airlines raised consumer expectations.  Consumers know that they can get a consistent product or service delivered quickly and inexpensively, they expect no less from every provider.  However, what is convenient to one person is not to another.  You must differentiate each customer.  The guiding forces are:

• Mass Customization
• Just-In-Time Service
•  On-Site Manufacturing

  D.    Digital/Wireless

The top item desired by teenagers today is a cell phone while college students want iPods.  A cell phone is not just a cell phone; it’s also their personal digital assistant.  The buss phrase just three years ago was B2B-Business to Business, but now the phrase is L2M-Life to Mobile.  It’s a world ruled by:

• Bluetooth/801.11 (WiFi)
• WiMax
• IM (Instant Message)
• RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification)
• Text language

The Impact on RV Dealers

What does all of this mean for the RV dealer of the 21^st century?  Yesterday’s customer might want an RV for retirement recreation, while tomorrow’s customer might want a mobile office/home with broadband WiFi capabilities, that is green, multifuel with a near zero carbon footprint.  Oh, and by the way, three people, in their 30s with dogs, fractionally own the vehicle.  Far fetched?  Not really.

The successful dealer of the 21^st Century is customer focused, flexible, and willing to adapt to the changing world.  My father’s generation was happy to have a folding camper trailer to keep out the rain.  My generation wants consistent 72 degrees and a microwave.  Just as dealers have adapted to these changes, tomorrow’s dealers will change equally as well.

By Dr. Lowell Catlett

With summertime upon us keeping a “cold one” in the refrigerator is one of those blessings of having an RV. When we camped as kids, one never could be sure if the stuff in the “ice box” was going to be cold-or whether the ice had melted down.  Not so with the reliable RV refrigerator.

Nevertheless, RV refrigerators are a special breed of cat:  Unlike the refrigerator “back home,” they don’t use mechanical pumps to move coolant; it’s all handled by heat and gravity.  When they don’t keep their cool, for many it becomes a major mystery.  We’ll cover a few tips that will help you keep your RV reefer happy- and your favorite beverage (and all else that’s supposed to be cold) plenty cold.

Operating Tips

Following a few simple tips can make life with RV coolers a lot better.

Always pre-cool your refrigerator before packing the food in.  Turn it on 24 hours before you plan to head out on your journey.  When you pack, always put COLD food in the unit – it won’t like warm food.  That’s especially true for large items.  Stuffing in a six pack of room-temperature cola is sure to lead to disappointment.

Leave plenty of room around the food inside your refrigerator compartment.  A good flow of air is critical.  Some RVers have found an after-market device that really helps to keep the breeze blowing inside their RV refrigerator.  For about $15 you can buy a FridgeCool unit.  A little plastic brick, the FidgeCool is a portable, battery-operated fan unit that keeps the airflow in the reefer compartment moving. It really can make a difference. 

Keep the cold air inside the refrigerator and the warm air outside.  Here’s where the door gasket comes in.  A worn door gasket can spell real problems – the reefer cooling unit will be working overtime, trying to keep up with an unnecessary load.  George can help.  George who?  George Washington!

Open the reefer door and stick a dollar bill against the door frame edge, with the bill partly hanging out of the colored box.  Close the door and pull on the bill.  If George makes an escape without resistance, the door gasket isn’t up to snuff and should be replaced. 

Food particles and other gunk stuck on the door gasket or the doorframe can give a false impression on the gasket check.  Be sure to clean the gasket and doorframe with soapy water (and an ending rinse) before trying this trick.  Be sure to make George work all the way around the doorframe to ensure 100 percent gasket cooperation.

Keep‘er level, too:  Unlike the home refrigerator driven by a motor and pump, the RV absorption style refrigerator is very much sensitive to gravity.  An off-killer refrigerator is not only inefficient, the effects of operating an RV refrigerator off-level will accumulate and eventually KILL your refrigerator’s cooling unit.  Can you say “hundreds of dollars to replace”?  Use a round level inside the refrigerator and keep at least a half a bubble inside the center of the bull’s eye.

You’ll have a little topside work to do, too.  At roof level, check out the roof vent.  RV reefers pump heat out.  All that heat has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is up, through a roof vent.  RV reefers pup heat out.  All that heat has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is up, through a roof vent directly above the reefer.  Birds have been known to build nest in roof vents, and obstructions like that will really cut down on cooling efficiency.

As with real estate, “location, location, location” is an RV refrigerator mantra.  Is the weather hot? Try to park with the wall area behind your reefer in the shade so your system will have to cope with much less “cooling load.”

Troubleshooting Your Cool

While RV refrigerator problems can go beyond what the average do-it-yourself-RVer can diagnose, there are some things you can check out when things don’t stay cool. 

First, if the refrigerator cools on gas but doesn’t work on electric, or vice versa, there’s usually nothing wrong with the cooling unit.  That’s a good thing, because in the whole system, the cooling unit is the most expensive part.

If the system isn’t cooling well enough on gas or electric, check out a few things.  Is the unit level?  Remember; keep at least half the bubble in the ring.  Is the thermostat set high enough?  Is the door gasket tight?

How about a layer of ice on the fins inside the box?  A layer of ice can raise Cain with keeping the box cool.  Shut the refrigerator off, carefully melt the ice off.  DON’T take a heat gun after it!  We’ve found that directing a flow of air from a fan will often melt the ice quickly and safely.

No cooling on electric?  Make sure you have sufficient electric power at your campsite.  Blown fuse?  Pulled plug?  Open the back door (from the outside of the RV) and make sure the refrigerator’s electric plug is actually plugged in.  Some don’t have a plug, but are hard-wired to a terminal block. 

No cooling on gas?  First make sure you have propane in your tanks.  It sounds silly, but you’d be surprised how many RVers simply forget to check this out.

Got gas?  It could be the burner unit is obstructed.  You’ll need to open the back door on the outside of your RV.  Take a good look at the gas burner (at the bottom of a vertical cylindrical stack).  You’ll likely have to remove a cover plate to access this burner, and when it’s off, you’ll be looking to make sure crud from the chimney stack hasn’t fallen down onto the burner, obstructing it or even causing the burner to not light.

Crud on the burner?  Blow the junk of the burner with a puff of air (a can of “computer dust off” works great) or carefully brush it off with a paintbrush.  Be sure to SHUT OFF the reefer first!

Take a good whiff.  If you smell an odor of ammonia, then you’ve got problems.  Ammonia is a key ingredient in the solution that your RV refrigerator circulates to transfer heat and cold.  If the cooling unit develops a leak – and the older your refrigerator is, the move likely it is to develop one – you’ll often smell ammonia.  There’s no “home fix” for a leaking cooling unit.  Either the cooling unit or the whole refrigerator will have to be replaced.  Those kinds of decisions can be a tough call.  However, if your RV reefer is several years old, the argument is often made it’s cheaper in the long haul to replace the whole fridge because you’ll have the advantage of a new refrigerator warranty.  Crunch the numbers carefully, you might be better off with a cooling unit replacement, depending on how long you plan on keeping the RV.

In any case, take care of your RV reefer, and you’ll enjoy those refreshing beverages – and all else in the cool food arena – a lot longer.