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Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

New member

mesa48 · RV-Dreams Community Member

My wife found this site a couple of days ago so this is my first post. We have just started the conversation about becoming full timers about a year or so from now. We own a home in northern Calif. We already have a 05 Challenger 5th wheel 32TKB that we tow with a 2007 Chevy 2500HD Duramax 4WD. I installed air bags on the truck when we bought the 5th wheel to level it out when towing. I am not sure if a Challenger is suitable for fulltiming or not but we are very happy with it the way we use it now. So we are in the research mode right now. Do we sell our home or rent it out, should we look for a different RV and should we establish residence in a different state than Calif. It should be and exciting year looking at all the different options.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome Mike........you came to the right spot. and Im sure you will get alot of experienced answers to your questions.

Great bunch here each having a wealth of knowledge in there own journey.

WARNING: This site can become very addictive, extreme loss of sleep has been known to occur during research ........Also separation Anxiety from spouse and computer....Please use caution!!!!!........LOL

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

My free advice is if you can start full timing with the RV you already own you are ahead of most. At 32 feet your current Challenger should get you started. There is nothing like actually full timing to educate yourself in what you need, most find their actual full timing life and travel is different than they imagined it to be. Better to get started without spending a bunch of money on a new RV and realizing it is not the right one.

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to Dreamers. Just wanted to share one thought with you...the government will require you to have an address. When we sold our S&B and had no address we used our membership in Escapee's to establish a legal address in Texas. They have the directions on their website and it is very easy to do. Residency has multiple requirements so make sure you obtain professional assistance to ensure you cover your bases.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mike,

Welcome to the forums. The others are giving you good advice. There is nothing that says one has to have a certain size RV before going full-time. You have a good idea to stay with your current RV while you do the research. One thing to consider is to try to spend as much time in your RV as possible. Back many years ago, our 26-foot travel trailer and later a 26-foot fifth wheel were exceptional in size for the needs we had at the time. At that time, we generally spent only one week in them while on vacation.

Then, in 2009, we took our 26-foot fifth wheel on a two week trip to Colorado and discovered that anything over a week in it was getting uncomfortable, especially with regards to the furniture. That experience taught us that we certainly had to have something larger.

Now, having said all of that, I am jealous (to some degree) of where you live. I was stationed on a very small Army base near Petaluma, California back in the '60's. That was a great base to sightsee from, as we got to see a lot of beautiful country...Bodega Bay, Russian River, Fort Ross, Armstrong Redwood Forest, Napa Valley.....oh, and a number of neat attractions in San Francisco.

Welcome to the "family."

Terry

mesa48 · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thanks for all of the kind and wise responses. Terry we lived in the Santa Rosa area for 25yrs with last 7 years in a rural area outside of Sebastopol. One of our favorite places to camp is Doran beach on Bodega bay. We now live a little north east of Sacramento. Keep the comments coming folks we need all the help we can get.

rclvnv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hello & Welcome. As always, when I respond, I try not to repeat what has already been said, all of it spot on. Go with what you have, is tremendous advice. We are happy with what we F/T in, and it's been 18 months. Till June of '13, we travel each summer (+/- 6500 mi), then home base in the rig for the school year.We decided to maintain Nevada residence, and have the UPS store as our legal address, works fine for us. When we are enroute, they fwd our mail. We will continue this when we leave, we will always spend several months a year here. We operate a consult business, which is easily done from the road. The key is to see what works for you. Our needs include a mi-fi set up, others easily get by on the data plan on their phone. As I said the mail fwd works for us. It works for voting as well. Take a deep breath, and remember that you have the time, finally to try various options, to find what is best. Travel safe. Nice folks here,as you will see.

Richard