A lot of people are seeing the "Signs" these days. Lots of our friends and relatives are looking at downsizing either by moving into smaller cheaper housing, buying more fuel efficient transport or looking into fulltiming.

I would suggest a test.... borrow an RV or rent an RV and spend a month at a nearby RV park with your son to see if you can stand it. The real test is during inclement weather for a week or so where you have to stay inside.

Or maybe a better solution would be to make sure you've done everything you can to drum up more business. What were some of the things you did at the beginning to build the business.

I recently sent out a simple e-mail to my clisents indicating we had some time coming up and were looking for additional work. Now I'm back to having a full schedule of work for my team with a two month reserve of work. If I hadn't sent out the e-mail I would have been struggling to keep my team busy like I had been doing for the last couple of months. This is the second time an e-mail like that worked, so I'm going to send one out every few months just to keep the jobs coming in.

Thanks for the warm welcome and feedback. My business has been online since 1996 and is advertiser driven. With the recent downturn in the economy...while some have increased advertising, most in my particular industry have cut back and many have gone out of business completely.

Your points about renting and RV and inclement weather are great ideas! Here in Idaho, the winters can get mighty cold. What concerns should I have regarding full time RVing in the winter? Again I would likely be at one park throughout the winter (it's not located in the mountains but is in town)

Thanks again! I really enjoy all the info. and people on this site :)

Dan

Dan

It can be done my son used our 5th wheel  Nov- Jan in Idaho Falls which gets cold than Boise for long period of time.

Get some industrial heat tape not the cheap stuff at home Depot. We got ours at electrical supply company. We used Pyrex for water line and wrap with insulation. Also wrap waste line with heat tape, put waste line inside 4" abs pipe and wrap with insulation. And put some skirting around the bottom, plywood works, we had no problems even at -18 for week and half

 

Dan,

First and foremost, I must caution that you NOT depend entirely on the word of ANY salesman.  It is important that you be the one to do the legwork in regards to finding out what is going to be the best RV for you.  Do your own research into the feasibility of each and every unit you are interested in as to whether it will be a good full-time model.

This is in NO WAY a message to say that the Cougar would be a bad choice.  I suggest that you look for an owner's association online that would have a forum where you could read about the experiences of actual owners of those brands/models.  Now, having said that, keep in mind that forums will have a number of posts from people looking for a solution for a problem they are having.

Because of that, you may get the impression that the model/brand of interest is a bad unit.  That is not necessarily the case.  Every unit will have problems.

When exploring on owner's forums, I had the stock question to ask of those members that owned the brand of interest at the time.  That question is, "Given that you were in the market to purchase a new RV, would you again buy the brand you currently have?"

Good luck with all of your research.

Terry

As always, you've been given wise counsel,by those already responding.Just to add a few specifics,based on my own experience.

We've been self-employed all of our working lives.Our core business was sold to a large corp. in 2000,and I continue to do consulting work in that industry,around the country.Assignments are uneven,as I provide expert testimony in legally contested matters.Added to that,and to level things out a bit, we bought a school-based business,which while strong in 2000,has suffered from budget cuts,dramatically. It is our plan to end that in June,as no reform of school funding seems at hand, and students have noticibly less to spend.We are concentrating on trying to build the "expert" business,since it can be done from the road,as I am doing now, 1300 miles away from the "office",where we have our base (we are F/T). Part of our decision to F/T was based on economics,and we live in an area where cold is not an issue. Good,safe,gated RV park rentals in our area start @ $600/mo+electric, 1/4 of what it cost to live in the S&B.I've been advised to look at Mobile Parks who will take RV's but so far,none in my area.

Before buying our current RV, we spent two years looking. What we chose was a result of that search,based on utility, price,features, and "gut". Did we make the right choice,who knows ?, but I must echo the comment that no salesperson can give you all the info you need to process, unless they happen to live in what they are touting (not likely).Insulation and exterior finish were considerations for me for the opposite of your concern, mine was heat and sun exposure. Like most things in life, it's about finding balance.

 Another thing to share. A friend,recently learning we were going F/T, told me that when he was 12 years old, he and his father lived in an RV together and traveled the US for a whole year. He didn't remember too much about where they went,but has never forgotten the time they had together.Since he's at least my age (64), that memory has lasted quite some time!.The loving dog will make it even better. Ours have adjusted to the RV quite well,and they travel well,too. We've now just compleated 5000 mi of our 6300 mile summer visit to our children,and back. If we hadn't sold the house,we'd have had to cancel the visits.

Put your mind to this as you would any major life decision,and you'll make the right choices. There are times I get a little queezy and ask "did I do the right thing"?, but in my heart, I know I did. I'm sure not getting any younger,

Richard

Thanks for the great feedback. I have been looking on Craigslist and was curious if there is a service for checking used RVs? Similar to taking a used car to a mechanic to have it checked out before purchasing.

Thanks!
Dan