Realities of Full Time RVing (video) - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Realities of Full Time RVing (video)

Rob_Fla · RV-Dreams Family Member

I will have to watch it sometime, need to find time to be able to sit and watch a 1 1/2 hour video.

Also need a good internet connection for a video this long.

Should be intersting video.

We have only been fulltime about a year and 1/2, so far we have no regrets.

We have weekend camped and done some short term camping for about 30 years so we had a little better idea of what we were getting into and the type of RV we could live in together fulltime.

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cherie.....Thank you , It is seen here everyday when people start out they think how blissful its going to be, only to find out that they cant accept the trade offs or there unlimited budget is starting to face limits.

I think everyone will gain some outlook by watching this.

Dog Folks · RV-Dreams Family Member

I get the impression that they find everything that is different in full time living vs. sticks and bricks are just intolerable. No doubt that those two should NOT full time. They are not prepared emotionally, financially, or physically.

Every challenge they met was a reason not to continue to full time.

I understand that this lifestyle is not for everyone, but as unsuccessful full timers, I find it ironic that they think they are the experts. Kind of like taking boxing lessons from a boxer that never won.

I respect their viewpoint but it is only one of many, and possibly, a very small minority veiw. I happen to disagree 100%.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dog Folks wrote:

I understand that this lifestyle is not for everyone, but as unsuccessful full timers, I find it ironic that they think they are the experts. Kind of like taking boxing lessons from a boxer that never won.

I respect their viewpoint but it is only one of many, and possibly, a very small minority veiw. I happen to disagree 100%.

Are you referring to Pace & Kyeli trying to present as 'experts'? If so, you may have mistaken their post - which was on their blog to their personal followers (and I'd say 98% of them have no interest in RVing themselves). I know them very closely, and I do not intuit they are trying to present as RVing experts, just merely sharing with their readership why they made the choice to call it quits.

- Cherie

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cherie (and Chris),

Haven't viewed the video yet but read the bullet points on the RV'ers website. I will watch it when time but this is GREAT information and perspective for those dreaming about the RV lifestyle and researching it. Good points to consider for all in case some people's expectations were like theirs.

Thanks again.

Sherry

Cindy T · RV-Dreams Family Member

Great job with the video! You answered many important questions that people should consider before jumping into this lifestyle.

janni · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cherie I think this is a great post! This lifestyle is definitely not for everyone. For this forum to be productive it should carry both positives and negatives. I haven't watched the video yet but will. Thanks for sharing.
My dream is still alive but has taken some unique turns. I should write a book.......

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

I haven't watched the video but I imagine that what's on it is true. Long time readers of this forum know that the full-timing lifestyle has not always been portrayed as perfect.

I myself have often said that this lifestyle is not for everyone and I know many of the other seasoned full-timers have said the same.

Each individual has to do their own research. There are no easy answers. There are times when everyone who takes the plunge wonders what in the world they've gotten themselves into. From experiance, there are times where it seems like everything goes wrong at the same time.

But, you know what? That happened when we owned houses too!!!

But, for the most part, there is a feeling of FREEDOM that you just can't get in a stix and brix. You have to make up your mind if you want to pay the price, (maintenance, breakdown, and related problems) or not.

As of November, we will not be full-timing any longer. After 12 years on the road, we have bought a home in Florida and have downsized our MH to a Class C. We'll live in the house in the winter and travel during the summer.

Do we regret full-timeing? Not on your life!!! We'd do it all over again.

Don't let anyone lead you to beleive that everything is peaches and cream. It's not!! There "ain't no 10's!!!!!!"

Oh, and we've already registered for the Fall Rally in Franklin, NC and I'm sure there will be other seasoned full-timers there too. Why not come an "Pick our brains", We'll be honest with you.

Jim

MelinWV · RV-Dreams Community Member

Chris and Cherie; Richard and I watched your video yesterday and afterwards had (yet another) long conversation about RVing. I think we've decided it's not really for us. It's kind of frustrating because it's something that we considered doing a few years ago and were looking forward to "going for it" next year. The thing is, for us, I just think the lifestyle would not work with our personalities and our potential for making a living. Other considerations: we've completely remodeled our house and it's almost paid off. I have a hard time just walking away from that (I finally get it fixed up the way I want and now I'm supposed to leave? No way!). My son and I both have major health problems (Daniel is a type 1 diabetic and I have rheumatoid arthritis) and we both have quarterly doctor's visits, bloodwork, and medications that must be refridgerated. Honestly, I think I was forcing myself to try this rather and justifying it rather than doing it out of pure desire. There are a LOT of wonderful things about full-timing that I can see, however, I think the drawbacks are just too much for us. At least at this time.

Now, all that being said, we have another plan! We love travel and there's no reason we still can't do so. Especially since our house will be paid off, our little chick will graduate high school, and I will be licensed and able to work independently - and all these things will be happening in the next 12 to 18 months! Since Richard can work from anywhere, we've been eyeballing condos. You can rent them relatively cheap in the wintertime along the Gulf Coast and out west. We're thinking this will be our means of getting out there and especially getting away from the cold in the winter months. By not buying, we can stay in several different areas over the course of a few months and then when the tourists take over in the summer months we go home for a while. Who knows, eventually I could see us buying a much smaller, much cheaper RV and doing some part-timing. So you see, one door closes, another one opens!

Thanks for the video! It was a nice dose of reality and I really think we needed that. You may have just saved us from making a very costly mistake. I really didn't expect us to change our minds so abruptly, but this says to me that it may have been more of a fantasy for us than a potential lifestyle! thanks again.

Mel

JayKim-no regrets · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you guys!

I just finished watching the whole 1.5 hours...just set up the PC, got my recliner situated a cup of coffee and I sat all comfy to watch your no nonsense, down to earth explanation of the good/bad points of full-timing!

Interesting to hear that your average monthly fuel/campground costs last year averaged around $750. We had figured close to that for us too, we are not planning on moving around too much, we will hopefully be able to pay monthly park costs, the nightly costs are just too high for us. Luckily, we will have Jays military retirement check, but we will still need to be frugal in order to save for unexpected costs.

We have been living as static FT'ers for almost 7 months now, we hope to be on the move by early next year, we cannot wait. We don't expect it to be a full-time vacation, we are looking forward to volunteering or even workcamping to save up some "fun money" but after your video we will be careful as to what we take on:)

Thank you again, appreciate your hard work!
huggs Kim and Jay x

Dog Folks · RV-Dreams Family Member

Technomadia wrote:
Dog Folks wrote:

I understand that this lifestyle is not for everyone, but as unsuccessful full timers, I find it ironic that they think they are the experts. Kind of like taking boxing lessons from a boxer that never won.

I respect their viewpoint but it is only one of many, and possibly, a very small minority veiw. I happen to disagree 100%.

Are you referring to Pace & Kyeli trying to present as 'experts'? If so, you may have mistaken their post - which was on their blog to their personal followers (and I'd say 98% of them have no interest in RVing themselves). I know them very closely, and I do not intuit they are trying to present as RVing experts, just merely sharing with their readership why they made the choice to call it quits.

- Cherie
I do not know them so I will defer to your superior knowledge of them, as people. It was just my impression and a perfect example of jumping to a conclusion on my part. I aplogize.
In a way I am sad it did not work for them. Many other couples have jumped in without any research and then failed. I wish them good luck with what ever the future may bring them.

James and Cindy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cherie and Chris, watched the video Sun. afternoon. It was a perfect day for a video, pouring rain. I want to thank you for going to the trouble and spending your time to help newbies to this lifestyle. It was very informative. I also started looking at your past posts. You have been added to my list of favorites.

Thanks, James

bigboomer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cherie,

Thank you for posting about the video. It will be on my list during some free time. The sad truth is that this lifestyle is not for everyone and a lot of folks think this is one big vacation. Sue and I have been researching this lifestyle since 1997 and still do not and will not know everything there is about it. Plain and simple, it is about searching deep inside and asking yourself what you want out of life and how to achieve it. Full time RVing is not for the weak at heart or for those that think that you just hook up and go. We are blessed on many fronts (health, financial, etc.) but most important we share our "RV-Dreams" and when we finally made the decision to pull the trigger, there was no looking back. There will always be the need for compromise. Like everything in life, the more you educated yourself the more you will be able to make reasonable decisions and even then "stuff" happens and you need to be able to either change direction or take a step back to assess where you need to go next. The biggest thing we have learned about our new "lifestyle" is to take one day at a time. I have this passage over my monitor "Therefore don't be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Each day's own evil is sufficient." - Matthew 6:34

We will say a prayer for your father and for your comfort.

Les and Sue

-- Edited by bigboomer on Tuesday 12th of March 2013 08:44:02 AM

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

I just wanted to sincerely thank you to those of you have taken the time to view the video and for leaving comments letting us know it's appreciated.

Incidentally, I posted this same post on 'another forum' and felt we got lashed out at for the length of the video (by folks who didn't view it, no less). Which just reminds me how much more welcoming and supportive this community is. Which is why I'll always favor spending my time here.

- Cherie

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'll be getting the "ticket" for the Tengo system here so I can watch the video. It sounds interesting. Hopefully it works on the bandwidth I'll have available. :)

One comment based on the posts here....

Anyone that thinks "fulltiming" is like a vacation is going to be disappointed. It should NOT be like a vacation. It should be like "life". Just in a different location than a house. If one is expecting no problems then they will be sorely disappointed. Life is full of problems - from small annoying ones, to large catastrophic ones. Fulltiming is no different.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Jack.. I don't think you'll particularly learn anything new in the video, as you could have added to the conversation yourself :) But we appreciate you taking the time & bandwidth to check it out.

I think you'll see that we concentrate heavily on the lifestyle trade-offs for the decisions made with full timing... focusing on the 'it's not a full time vacation' aspects. I know you commented elsewhere that it's also not all about costs.. which the video definitely isn't just about (although we do try to dispel the assumption we hear often that living in a RV can be cheap & rent free all the time. Well, yes - there are ways to reduce the rent, but there are trade-offs in lifestyle, location and upfront setup costs.)

- Cherie

Jake62 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cherie,

Watched the video this morning & had several good take-aways. Tell Chris thanks too, even though you had to keep him on script :)

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Greetings all.. if you enjoyed the video we shared above, we'd like to let you know that we're hosting another one tomorrow evening - and you're welcome to join us. We host our video chats 'live' where our viewers can interact with us, and then we archive them for viewing later by others.

Topic: The Secret Nomadic Recipe

Date: Wednesday, April 24

Time: 9PM EST / 6PM PST

Location: Live broadcast on our UStream Channel (click to join)

Description:

Ever suspected that veteran nomads are holding out on sharing the secret for hitting on the road?

Do you sell the house first then buy the RV?
How much money do you need saved up first? Do you have to be debt free?
Do you need your mobile income sources lined up, or do you leap and trust it'll all work out?
What is the perfect RV setup for full timing?
Is it ok to keep a storage unit?

In this video chat, will expose the secret that we've been hiding all along - the recipe to becoming a nomad!

(We'll also be sharing our secret recipe for making our Chocolate Mandarin Orange Guacamole - yum!).

We'll 'present' for about 20-30 minutes, and then we'll be happy to answer any questions our viewers might have about mobile lifestyles, technology, RVs, entrepreneurship or worshipping cats. So.. have questions for us? Bring them on!

We'll have the chat archived on our YouTube Channel later. And if you'd like to be notified via e-mail when we schedule future chats, you can join our mailing list here.

WestWardHo · RV-Dreams Family Member

We loved the video. We look at life as a vacation as we are retired but we don't anticipate it to be touble free. There are troubles in all of life but its how you deal with them. In no way is this an incitement of the couple who decided the RV lifestyle is not for them. We ALL have to examine our individual needs and more importantly expectations to decide if its fir us!

Thanks again for your video, Cherie & Chris.

Sherry & Jesse

-- Edited by WestWardHo on Wednesday 24th of April 2013 07:46:02 PM

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

I can heartily concur with Jack; it isn't a vacation. That's one of the things that Connie and I like best. When you're traveling for vacation you feel like you have to go, go, go in order to get the most for your expended vacation time and cash. This means that you're frequently tired when you get back home and need a vacation from your vacation.

Doing it fulltime has several huge advantages for us. First is the fact that we've got our stuff…bed, kitchen, recliners, etc instead of living out of hotel rooms. Second is the ability to not have to go and do something fun every day. For instance; we've been here in Denton Texas for 7 days now and have only gone out and did what we would consider "fun stuff" on two days; a couple of nice hikes. The other days Connie works a bit, we got some groceries, I'll have to run some laundry tomorrow or the next day, and the other everyday tasks of just living.

Forgot the biggest advantages though…no house so no grass to cut, leaves to blow or snow to shovel and the fact that we can largely stay where it's warm. It's been cool this week in Denton but not cold enough to even turn on the furnace; the fireplace in our rig keeps us nice and toasty.

Best of all is we're doing it for less money than when we lived in the S&B…between our two pensions and Connie's part time job for the college back in VA we're living on around 3500-4000 a month and not spending any of our "retirement" money so far. Our parking (and electricity for the winter months) bills are averaging between 900 and 1000 a month total so far and we could easily have cut that down if we needed to; but we don't so we didn't. We're liking the lifestyle quite nicely and look forward to many years of doing it.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

I wish we could participate in your video chat today (April 24, 2013), but we are with family and that means we are busy. Have fun and I will watch the video some time after you post it, when I will have the bandwidth.

janieD · RV-Dreams Family Member

I agree with the point that several others have made about this being life, not a vacation. Its actually the part we enjoy the most. When you vacation you fell like you have to go,go,go and see it all in a short time, because we can stay longer or in many cases come back, we do it at our own pace. We have been many places now that we certainly didn't see or do it all but enjoyed what we did see and do. No lifestyle is without some maintenance and drawbacks, ours on the road are sometimes just a little different that S&Bs but people investigating this lifestyle do need to be realistic. Sometimes maybe its ok to go out and try it and then hang up the keys, at least they know they tried something different and now know where they want to be.