RV Road Notes is a small, independent site built around real camper van builds and real meals cooked out of a propane oven or a Dutch oven at a campsite. This page explains, in pl…
RV Road Notes is a small, independent site built around real camper van builds and real meals cooked out of a propane oven or a Dutch oven at a campsite. This page explains, in plain language, how the site is funded, when content is sponsored, when links earn a commission, and how we handle gear that companies send us to try. We believe readers deserve to know exactly where our recommendations come from, so consider this our full and honest accounting.
Running a site like this costs time and money — server hosting, recipe testing, tools, fuel for the van when we drive out to test an awning install or shoot a build step by step. To keep the lights on without charging readers anything, we use a mix of advertising, affiliate partnerships, and occasional sponsorships. None of that changes what we tell you about a product, a recipe, or a build technique. If something doesn't work well on the road, we say so.
Many posts on this site — especially the conversion guides and gear-heavy recipe posts — include links to products on retailer sites like Amazon or specialty outdoor and RV suppliers. If you click one of those links and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission. This costs you nothing extra; the price you pay is the same whether you use our link or not. We only link to products we've actually used, researched, or would genuinely recommend to a friend building out their own rig. For the full legal breakdown of how this works, see our Affiliate Disclaimer.
Occasionally a brand — say, a company making side awnings, propane ovens, insulation panels, or camp cookware — will pay us to write about their product or feature it in a build post. When this happens, we label the post clearly as sponsored, either in the introduction or with a visible disclosure near the top. Sponsorship never buys a good review. If we take on a paid post and the product doesn't hold up during testing, we either decline the partnership or write about it honestly, flaws included. Our approach to this is spelled out further in our Editorial Policy.
Brands sometimes send us gear, kitchen tools, or camper van components free of charge, hoping we'll feature them in a post. We accept some of these items when they're genuinely relevant to what we cover — a new Dutch oven, a side-awning kit, insulation samples for a Ford Econoline build, that kind of thing. Receiving a free product never guarantees coverage, and it never guarantees positive coverage. If a gifted item appears in a post, we note that it was provided free of charge. Our opinions on the item are ours alone, formed the same way they would be for anything we bought ourselves.
Every recipe, build guide, and gear roundup on RV Road Notes is written the way we'd want it written if we were the reader — with the failures included. If a foil packet recipe falls apart on the grill or a conversion step turns out harder than expected, we mention it. Advertisers, affiliate partners, and sponsors have no say in the content of our posts, the ratings we give, or the recommendations we make. You can read more about who's behind these decisions on our About Us page.
Like most content sites, we run display advertising through third-party ad networks. These ads are served automatically and are not hand-picked by us, though we do try to keep them relevant to camping and van life topics. Ad networks may use cookies to serve more relevant ads; details on that are in our Cookie Policy.
Some posts involve input from other van builders, campers, or cooks we've worked with on the road. When we collaborate with another creator or brand on a post, that relationship is disclosed within the article itself, and our general approach to these partnerships is outlined on our Collaboration page. Comments and reader submissions are also welcome, and we ask everyone to follow our Community Guidelines when sharing tips, photos, or feedback.
If you're ever unsure whether a specific post contains affiliate links, sponsored material, or gifted products, just ask. We're happy to clarify exactly how a piece of content came together. Reach out any time at [email protected], and we'll get back to you with a straight answer. For general inquiries, you can also visit our Contact page.
This Disclosure works alongside a few other documents that govern how the site operates, including our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and general Disclaimer. We update this page whenever our monetization methods or partnerships change, so it's worth checking back occasionally if you're curious about how a particular post came to be.