Cruising Through Maintenance, Navigation and RVLife

This Month’s Episode Features a Conversation with Patrick Buchanon of RV Life

In this month’s episode, you will hear from a seasoned RVer and someone who works in the industry. Patrick has been a part of the RV Life team for over four years—including the last three years of industry growth. Patrick is the Director of Partnerships with RV Life. This role keeps him incredibly busy connecting with influencers, content creators, meeting people at trade shows, being part of the advertising world, and of course encouraging RVers.

Why Do You Think the RV World Flourished While the Rest of the World Was Standing Still?

When the rest of the world was stuck inside—not even allowed to go to restaurants—people were feeling that they needed to get out. When people started seeing those with RVs heading out on family trips, it seemed to spark a new generation of RVers to head out too. 

The issue is many of these people were first timers and weren’t prepared. We were seeing new RVers heading out and then trying to learn on the road. The good thing is that it's possible, but the difficult thing is helping them find good information.  Patrick and Jeremy go back and forth about some funny stories, and offer some tips on how to navigate these things. RV Life put out over 1,000 articles last year to help address this need for good content.

What is RV Life? And Who Does It Serve?

RV Life is a community of multiple resources. With all of them geared towards the RVer. The roots are in their forums—these existed before the boom of social media. It creates a place for RVers to come to ask questions, get answers, and contribute to the well-being of one another’s RV journey.  Once social media came on the scene, the forums have actually seen an uptick in usage. It seems that social media has become an advertiser for the places with experts and like-minded humans traveling. So RV Life has seen a surge in their forum’s functions. With RV Life forums, these are solid places to get real answers that don’t disappear, aren’t politicized, and are just helpful pieces. RV Life Pro is a product that is geared toward planning and navigating trips in an RV.  To recap, there are forums, blogs & articles, and RV Life Pro—the software—that help plan and navigate your trips.

What Tips Do You Have for on the Road Repairs?

Patrick makes the claim that an RV is a home, a truck, and a boat all put together. He goes on to express the way people tend to get overwhelmed by the necessary repairs, but offers some encouragement.  If you watch the full podcast, you’ll hear him talk about how to simplify the repair process and what three you must stay on top of.

What is RV Life Pro? And Who Is It For?

RV Life Pro exists to help everyone plan incredible RV journeys. They help you navigate and plan every aspect of your trip and offer suggestions along the way. You’ll want this product before you find yourself in a bad way. Jeremy and Patrick share some scenarios that might make you think before choosing google for your next route planner.

**What Is the Best Way to Stay Connected? **

There are so many ways to stay connected on the road. But the best advice is to have multiple options for connectivity. For example Patrick and his wife have AT&T with hotspots, but they went out and got a Verizon HotSpot too. This allows them to have access to more towers.  On top of that, there is often connectivity from campgrounds with their WiFi. And while they aren’t fully dependable options, they are getting better for brief email checks during non-peak times.  One of the most popular options is Starlink. However, the issue here is the consistent increase in price. Patrick seems to believe it is due to the quick adoption of RVers to the platform, and this is causing a backlog of production and pushing the price up. Either way, Patrick believes this is the future.

**How Can People Connect With RV LIFE? **

One of the best places to start connecting with RV Life and their community is at irv2.com. Here you will find all of their forums. This will provide great groundwork for understanding  the RV Life, learn where you can go for good, timely information, and lay a solid foundation for the hobby.  From there, you will be introduced to all of the other products. For one of the best campground search tools on the market, go to campgrounds.rvlife.com. And to become a road trip pro, you can check out their planning software at RVLife.com.

About Patrick:

Patrick Buchanan is the Director of Partnerships with RV LIFE, entering his 9th year as an avid RVer.

He and his wife and their pack of Dachshunds enjoy taking their diesel pusher out for some R&R, and to occasionally visit the kids and grandkids. You might run into him in the DFW area where he makes his home, or at the larger RV shows in Hershey and Tampa.