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Vol. 55 No. 2 268-44 Crawford Crescent, Campbellville, ON L0P 1B0 Publications Mail Agreement # 43638025 Campground Campground www.rvlifemag.com $14.95 Plus: RV FISHING: TIPS AND TRICKS TOWING TECH EXCITING DESTINATIONS OVER 160,000 CANADIAN CAMPSITES COAST TO COAST! CAMPING ACCESSORIES GUIDE SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION DirectoryDirectory Guide for TENTERS RV’ERS HIKERS 2026 RV Cover 55-2 CG KOA B.indd 1RV Cover 55-2 CG KOA B.indd 12026-07-02 9:38 AM2026-07-02 9:38 AMWhether you’re chasing sunsets, planning cross-country road trips, or fi nding the perfect weekend getaway rig — your dream RV is just a few clicks away. RVC Navigator is your go-to RV search platform, connecting you with real-time listings from trusted dealers across the country. • Browse travel trailers, fi fth wheels, tent-trailers, motorhomes and more… • Filter by location, brand, type, or budget • Share your favourites with friends and family. YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE BEGINS HERE. rvc-navigator.com Power by Imagine by Find the RV that fi ts your lifestyle — and hit the road with confi dence.Find the RV that fi ts your lifestyle — and hit the road with confi dence.Find the RV that fi ts your lifestyle — and hit the road with confi dence. marketing marketing MARKETING RV Care CG.indd 1RV Care CG.indd 12025-12-15 4:30 PM2025-12-15 4:30 PM3 12 VOLUME 55 NUMBER 2 | RV LIFESTYLE RV Lifestyle Magazine archives are open for your viewing pleasure – check them out at www.rvlifemag.com Click on MAGAZINES, and use the password RVLFREE2017. Watch our road test videos at our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube. com/rvlifestylemagazine ON THE COVER Cover photo by KOA. Vol. 55 No. 2 268-44 Crawford Crescent, Campbellville, ON L0P 1B0 Publications Mail Agreement # 43638025 Campground Campground www.rvlifemag.com $14.95 Plus: RV FISHING: TIPS AND TRICKS TOWING TECH EXCITING DESTINATIONS OVER 160,000 CANADIAN CAMPSITES COAST TO COAST! CAMPING ACCESSORIES GUIDE SPECIAL ANNUAL EDITION DirectoryDirectory Guide for TENTERS RV’ERS HIKERS2026 RV Cover 55-2 CG KOA B.indd 1RV Cover 55-2 CG KOA B.indd 12026-07-02 9:38 AM2026-07-02 9:38 AM SUBSCRIBERS: e-mail editor@rvlifemag.com for FREE access to the latest digital edition! DEPARTMENTS 6 HITCH HINTS by Andy Thomson Setting Your Torsion Bars. 12 CAMPING WITH THE COLES By Ben and Cheryl Coles Exploring Ontario’s Boreal Route by RV. 18 THE COOKING LADIES By Lamont Mackay and Phyllis Hinz The Unique and the Extraordinary in the Eastern Townships. 42 FISHING TIPS Patrick Campeau discusses What are the Best Lures. FEATURES 22 CAMPSITE TIPS Making the most of your camping adventures… Contents CANADIAN CAMPGROUND DIRECTORY USING YOUR DIRECTORY LISTINGS D1 ALBERTA D2 BRITISH COLUMBIA D15 MANITOBA D33 NEW BRUNSWICK D39 NEWFOUNDLAND D43 NORTHWEST TERRITORIES D46 NOVA SCOTIA D47 ONTARIO D51 PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND D73 QUEBEC D75 SASKATCHEWAN D92 YUKON TERRITORIES D102 CAMPGROUND UPDATE FORM D104 25 OFF THE BEATEN PATH TO HARBOUR BRETON James Stoness leaves the well-travelled routes and explore the more remote areas of Newfoundland. 32 SPICY FOODS KEY TO LONG NIGHT DRIVING SURVIVAL! A Special Feature from our friends at the International Drivers Association. 34 GIANT HOGWEED Do Not Touch This Plant! 36 RV PRODUCTS Check out these cool camping accessories, available at your local RV dealer… RV55-2.indd 3RV55-2.indd 32026-07-02 10:42 AM2026-07-02 10:42 AM4 RV LIFESTYLE | VOLUME 55 NUMBER 2 As we embark on our 55th summer of touring the RV roads to adventure, Canadian families are facing another challenge – geopolitics have once again caused a spike in the price of fuel, which soared more than 80 cents per litre from March through May 2026. This isn’t our first rodeo – we have seen fuel prices impacting our travel budgets several times over the last half-century – and there are several ways to approach your vacation planning to adapt to this economic challenge. Most RV rigs, whether they are motorized or towable configurations, consume from 15 to 30 litres per 100 km. On a trip from Montreal to Winnipeg, about 4,600 km return, at a fuel efficiency of 20 L / 100 km, that’s $184 more fuel than it would have cost before the price increase… are you willing to cancel the family’s summer vacation for $184 more in fuel? I don’t think so! If this fuel increase is a major problem, why not do what we do – cut your trip from 2,000 km to 1,000 km, and your fuel cost increase will be less than $100 for the trip. This year, with many Canadians deciding to explore our country, destination campgrounds from sea to sea to sea are offering more comfort and convenience than ever before. Many of the campgrounds locate near tourism attractions are offering free shuttle service to the nearby town to let campers leave their vehicles at the campsite – this reduces fuel and parking costs and provides an excellent opportunity to get to know your fellow campers… it’s a “win – win” from every perspective. If you are planning to travel to the USA to celebrate the 250th Anniversary, we have a fascinating series of destination features on the website at www.rvlifemag.com – take a look at the website, and search for Discover USA 250 to read the articles. If this is your first encounter with RV Lifestyle Magazine, we thank you for sharing your leisure time with us. If you picked up this copy on the newsstand, you may access the FREE digital edition archive of issues – email Norm at nrosen@rvlifemag.com and request your password for the digital edition archive. The summer of 2026 is going to be an exciting time for camping and RV enthusiasts across North America. Take a few hours to plan your trips and watch for our road test teams at events and RV friendly festivals throughout the summer. Safe travels! LET’S GO CAMPING! TMTM TM TM VOLUME 55 NUMBER 2 Publisher: WILLIAM E. TAYLOR bill@rvlifemag.com Group Publisher: MELANIE TAYLOR-WALLIS melanie@rvlifemag.com Editorial Director: NORM ROSEN nrosen@rvlifemag.com Art/Production Manager: GISELLE BANSAL Design: TAMARA TAYLOR Contributing Writers: PHYLLIS HINZ JAMES STONESS ANDY THOMSON Advertising Sales: info@rvlifemag.com 1-800-354-9145 EXECUTIVE OFFICES: TORONTO: 268 - 44 Crawford Crescent, Campbellville, Ontario L0P 1B0 Tel: 905-844-8218 Fax: 905-844-5032 MONTREAL: Tel: 514-856-0788 Fax: 514-856-0790 VANCOUVER: Bob and Carole Taylor, 1745 Rufus Drive North Vancouver, BC V7J 3L8 ADMINISTRATION: President/CEO: WILLIAM E. TAYLOR Group Publisher: MELANIE TAYLOR-WALLIS VP/Special Projects: NORM ROSEN Advertising Sales: TODD TAYLOR Accounting: NANCY MUELLER Camping Canada’s RV Lifestyle Magazine is published seven times a year by Camping Canada Magazine Ltd. Reproduction of any material appearing in this magazine in any form is forbidden without prior consent of the publisher. Subscription rates: Canada 1 year (6 issues) $35+tax: 2 years (12 issues) $50+tax. U.S. subscrip- tions:1 year (6 issues) $50 US. Single copies are $9.95 for regular issues, and $14.95 for the annual RV Buyer’s Guide and the annual Campground Directory issues. Subscription inquiries 1-800-354-9145 Advertising rates available on request. Editorial contributions must be accompanied by return postage and will be handled with reasonable care. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return of safety of artwork, photographs, or manuscripts. Camping Canada Magazine reserves the right to refuse any and all advertising and disclaims all respon- sibilities for claims or statements of facts made by its advertisers or independent columnists. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #43638025 Undeliverables to: 268 - 44 Crawford Crescent, Campbellville, Ontario L0P 1B0 MONTREAL, QUEBEC © 2026 CAMPING CANADA MAGAZINE PRINTED IN CANADA Publisher’s MESSAGE William E. Taylor, Publisher @ RVLifestyleMagazine @rvlifestylemagazine FOLLOW RV LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE: RV55-2.indd 4RV55-2.indd 42026-07-02 9:40 AM2026-07-02 9:40 AMPleasure way.indd 1Pleasure way.indd 12026-04-08 2:07 PM2026-04-08 2:07 PMRV LIFESTYLE | VOLUME 55 NUMBER 2 www.rvlifemag.com 6 For RV owners, one of the most important factors in safe and enjoyable towing is the proper adjustment of the torsion bars that distribute the weight between the trailer and the tow vehicle. When properly setup, the torsion bars will lever some of the weight of the trailer onto the front wheels of the tow vehicle, which helps to level the tow vehicle/trailer combination and enhances steering, braking, and stability of the rig. In previous articles we discussed how to set your torsion bars properly. Here is a quick summary of the process. 1. To set the torsion bars you need to park on a level cement pad. You want the trailer and tow vehicle in a straight line, disconnected, with the coupler ready to drop on the ball. 2. With the tow vehicle in position, but disconnected from the trailer, use some masking tape and measure the height from the ground to the four corners of the tow vehicle. Mark the tape with these measurements, for example 22 inches, or whatever is appropriate for your tow vehicle. 3. Now that we know how the tow vehicle sits without the trailer, we want to determine the change in position when the trailer is connected. 4. Connect the trailer and do up the torsion bars. Take note of the change in height at each corner of the tow vehicle, and mark this on the masking tape. 5. You will find that the tow vehicle will have been pushed down by the weight of the trailer. For example, the rear measurement may now be 20” instead of 22” but the front may have come up to 22.5”. In this case, you need to go up to the next link in the torsion bar adjustment chain (adding tension to the torsion bars) and measure again. 6. You may find that the next link puts you into the opposite position, where the front is pushed down 1” and the back stays even at the 22” mark. This means that the torsion bars are transferring too much weight forward. 7. If this is the case you need a partial link. To do that, overlap two chain links and slide a ½” bolt through them. A ½” bolt is 1/3 of a link of adjustment so in some cases you will need 2 bolts to achieve the correct transfer. 8. When properly adjusted, the torsion bars will put enough weight on all four wheels to lower the corners of the tow vehicle from the “22 inch” starting point to between 21 ¼” and 21 ½” front and rear. 9. If you are setting up a new hitch, the torsion bars will wear in quite quickly. You will likely need to add a third of a link after 200-500 miles. You will need another third of a link after another 500-1000 miles. You will probably feel the difference in the steering response of the tow vehicle as the new torsion bars “wear in”. It is fine to experiment by adding or subtracting 1/3 of a link at a time, and you should notice the difference in steering feel right away if it was the right or wrong change to make. HITCH HINTS BY ANDY THOMSON SETTING YOUR TORSION BARS MYSTERIES OF THE SAE J2807 TOW RATING STANDARD Hitch Hints 55-2.indd 6Hitch Hints 55-2.indd 62026-07-02 9:44 AM2026-07-02 9:44 AMLife® Aviva Lifestyle® Insurance RV CS-25-12424_RV Magazine Ad_outline.indd 1CS-25-12424_RV Magazine Ad_outline.indd 12025-12-01 4:58 PM2025-12-01 4:58 PMRV LIFESTYLE | VOLUME 55 NUMBER 2 www.rvlifemag.com 8 10. If you can’t get the weight to transfer to the front wheels without your torsion bars meeting the trailer frame, then you don’t have enough reward angle on your ball mount, or the torsion bars are too light, you may have a hitch receiver that is too weak, or all of the above. This is how we have configured hitches for the past 45 years. Because of these articles and internet searches, people with towing stability problems regularly seek us out. This is how we wind up helping them most of the time. A couple of hundred times every year we reconfigure a problem hitch to these new settings. The difference is usually quite dramatic and customers are quite pleased. The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) has been working on a tow rating standard that they can use to better determine a vehicle’s tow rating. The standard will be better than nothing, but it will still have many issues, the main one being that it is dependent on weight alone. The issue that concerns me most is that the SAE have come out with a recommendation on how to adjust torsion bars that in my experience is quite flawed. Most vehicle manufacturers use enclosed cargo trailers with test weights inside for tow testing. This gives the cargo trailers a low center of gravity, and most of them use torsion axle suspensions. Connect a tall RV trailer with a slide-out, leaf springs and no shocks, and those handling tests are no longer meaningful. In a crosswind a tall RV trailer will behave much worse than a cargo trailer, however the SAE did no testing on crosswind effects and really how could they? However, most loss-of-control trailer accidents are the result of sudden wind changes. The next barrier to effective testing is another SAE standard that we discussed in previous issues. Many of the vehicles being tested have hitch receivers that are too weak to transfer weight properly. If you cannot set up the hitch optimally how can you perform a good handling test? And most of the testing appears to be done with little or no rearward angle on the ball mount so the weight transfer on the tow vehicles is wrong. Without angle on the slight bit off line. In the SAE test they kept breaking the back end loose, which is to be expected since their hitch set up was unloading the inside rear tire and overloading the outside rear. This combination of events led them to recommend a strange way of adjusting a weight distribution hitch. Instead of setting the hitch to push the tow vehicle down the same amount front and rear they use another method. Measure the height of the front of the tow vehicle. Drop the trailer on the ball without torsion bars. Measure again. Let’s say the front raises 2” then they want you to set the torsion bars so the front raises 50% from its solo position or in this case 1” higher than its solo position. This results in a considerable unloading of the steering axle. If you set your combination up this way it will be quite unstable at highway speeds especially when there is truck turbulence or crosswinds. In theory, it would have a little more traction decelerating into low speed sharp turns. I have never seen an accident that was at all serious on a low speed sharp turn but there have been plenty due to loss of control at highway speed. After the SAE came out with this I thought that possibly we’ve been wrong for 40 years. I tried setting up some combinations with their method and none of them were what I would consider stable at highway speeds. In fact, most of the 200 trailers a year that we fix for people come in close to the SAE spec, usually due to a combination of weak HITCH HINTS BY ANDY THOMSON ball mount when turning, weight is taken off the front wheels and inside rear wheel and all dumped on the outside rear wheel. Last but not least, the testing was done with the ball positioned well behind the bumper, and no effort was made to reduce overhang. The bottom line is that they never tested a truly dialed-in hitch system. The next concern with J2807 is the handling tests themselves. One involves a test where travelling at highway speed, the steering wheel is snapped 180 degrees and immediately snapped back to the straight ahead position. The problem with this test is that there is no correction for steering gear ratio or wheelbase. In a vehicle with a short wheelbase and a quick steering ratio this is a very violent maneuver, whereas in a long wheelbase vehicle with a slow steering gear it’s relatively relaxed. The second SAE handling test is a steady state circle around the skid pad. As the G force increases, the tow vehicle will start to go outside the circle, and either the back end will break loose (oversteer) or the front tires will plow (understeer). Car companies like understeer. Now my own testing of this is takes place on a delightful exit ramp with a downhill decreasing radius turn. What I find with my combinations is that the front end will almost always start to plow first, but if you overcorrect (which is the tendency) then the back end will come around. If you just let it drift a little, it pretty smoothly continues around the ramp drifting a Our tests include slalom runs where we evaluate the stability of the rigs in simulated driving conditions. Hitch Hints 55-2.indd 8Hitch Hints 55-2.indd 82026-07-02 9:45 AM2026-07-02 9:45 AM R R RV SURGE PROTECTOR hughesautoformers.com FREE BLUETOOTH APP PATENTED Bluetooth connectiv- ity allows an RV owner to monitor live campground power condi- tions on their smartphone using the free easy-to-use mobile app. ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTION! OF POWER SURGES © 2023 Hughes Autoformers, LLC ALWAYS WATCHING. ALWAYS ALERT. RV Owners never know when trouble may spike. Unpredictable lightning and/or poorly wired campgrounds are always a risk. The best way to protect your assets is with a Power Watchdog. It’s the least expensive security investment you will ever make, and it will be your RV’s best friend! • Surge/spike protection, voltage booster, and line circuit analyzer functions. Plug it in, read the LED lights – all green means you are good, and your Power Watchdog is protecting your family and your valuable RV electronics. • No other surge protector offers a combination of a replaceable surge module and a wireless app/data function. • Power Watchdogs have an industry high Joule rating. • ETL Certified to Canadian and UL Standards. • Limited Lifetime Warranty applies to Canada and USA. • All Power Watchdog surge protectors are RV WHISPER compatible (also exclusive) and allows a customer to remotely monitor their RV’s power (from miles away). It’s perfect for pet owners or people with RVs in storage. • PWD units are less expensive than direct competitors but come with more features. 8.125x10.875_Hughes_RVDealerNews-CAN_NOV2022_AD#1.indd 18.125x10.875_Hughes_RVLifestyle-CAN_JAN 2023_AD#1.indd 111/10/22 4:04 PM11/10/22 4:04 PMNext >