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Full-Time RVing - Mistakes That Will
Kill Your Dream
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Your Full-Time RVing Dream - Mistakes That Will Stop It
Cold
What Mistakes? What could possible go wrong with with something as simple as
living and traveling full-time in an RV?
That’s a very good question, I’m glad you asked. Actually, there are quite a
few mistakes that can wreck your full-time rving dreams. None of this is meant to
discourage you. You need to know the bad along with the good.
This is the last chapter about the full-time rving lifestyle, and I saved this section for
last, because I didn’t want to start out negatively, but some of the following issues
will need to be addressed before you set out on your rving adventure. Not all of these
issues will apply to you. Perhaps all of them will be relevant to some degree. It’s
also highly likely that the list below does not cover problems that will be unique to you
as an individual.
Whatever your circumstances, this may be the most important chapter of all, because it may
save you a lot of grief. All of us start out viewing our prospective full-time RVing
experience through rose-colored glasses. I intend to knock those glasses off your nose and
possibly offend you. I'm not going to apologize for being truthful. Here we go:
Expecting the approval of family, friends and
acquaintances.
You have a dream. Open roads, clear skies, and freedom to experience new places, sights,
sounds and people. You finally work up the courage to announce your intention to launch
yourself into a completely new lifestyle. You’re eager to share your excitement over
your decision and, although you expect some reservations, you know that once you explain
your plans, your relatives and friends will be happy, supportive and envious of you.
Unless your relative or friend is, or has been a full-time RV’er, you may be met with
disbelief that you would ever entertain a notion so stupid and irresponsible. The
reactions may range from mild disbelief and disapproval to outright venomous attacks about
your mental stability. There will be a few envious souls who tell you to go for it,
because they would if they could.
For the most part you will hear the “What about”
question.
- What about your kids and grand children? You can’t be seriously thinking about
going off and leaving them. They might need you.
- What about your mom or dad? They’re getting old and won’t live much longer.
How could you be so selfish?
- What about your career or job? Are you just going to be some kind of irresponsible,
grubby gypsy roaming around aimlessly.
- What about your retirement? How do you expect to get a good pension if you don’t
stay put.
And on, and on the “what about” questions will go until soon you wake up and
say: “WHAT COULD I HAVE BEEN THINKING?” They’re right. What a stupid,
selfish, irresponsible idea. Don’t think this could happen to you?
If there is still a shred of hope left in you after your dream has been totally squashed
and cast as some lunatic scheme, read on.
First you have to understand that often many of these negative people could care less
about what you want. This may come as a shock to you. Your relatives and friends are
far more concerned about their needs and wants than they are about yours.
You’ll be told that they are just “looking out for your welfare”. The more
violently they are opposed to your decision, the less likely it has anything to do with
concern for your welfare. This is not to say that you should not listen to their advice.
Someone may raise a valuable point you had not thought about.
The truth is that most of your “disapproving” relatives and friends are not
comfortable with the RV'ing idea that you have fallen in love with, and prefer that you
keep on doing whatever it is you have been doing as long as it doesn’t make them
uncomfortable.
The fact that you are even considering the RV lifestyle indicates that you have a broader
view of life and your world. If you had a friend who suggested that they were going to go
bicycle across Europe for a year, and you know that life will run just fine while they are
away, would you immediately jump to crush their dream or would you lend your support?
Don't be harsh with the disapprovers, they have been shocked out of their comfort level.
Assuming that you are a responsible person, realize that the negative reactions you get
are not about you. Allow other people to suck the life out of your dreams and you
deserve what you get.
Go do what it is you want to do, they will eventually be on speaking terms again, and, if
not, this may not be a person you need in your life anyway. Hard-nosed attitude? Yes. Give
in and be a slave to someone else’s desires.
Stubborn attitude? Not if you feel you have the right to live your life on your own
terms. Choose life, but be certain, if you choose RV'ing, that you are being realistic
about what you are getting into.
Will and Alicia hanging out in New
Mexico.
Not being clear about your common goals if you
have a significant other.
You dream of faraway beaches, a bright canopy of stars over your campsite, towering
mountains, endless grass plains, historic places, networking with people across the
country who share your interests, and the list goes on and on. Your spouse loves puttering
around the house and garden, hanging out with her bridge club, golfing with his buddies.
You have a disaster waiting to happen.
Unless you’re ok with keeping a home base and limiting your freedom to drift where
you will, you risk relationship disaster if you try and force your significant other into
giving up their need to stay rooted. You must understand that we are not all structured
the same mentally. Some of us have a compelling need for roots: A place to call our own,
familiar friends and routines. These things are fundamental to the mental health of many
people. Other people are restless. Change and variety are ambrosia to their souls. Some of
us are somewhere in between.
If you are the rolling stone and your partner is a stump in the field, try to compromise
by going on occasional trips. There’s a lot to be said for maintaining the home base
and job. You may actually see and experience more by traveling occasionally, than if you
have to work while you pursue the full-time RV lifestyle. Just realize that there is no
amount of rationalizing with your companion that will change who they are.
Each of has our own specific set of needs and desires. Force us out of that comfort
level and there is a price to pay. We have seen it in our travels; The wife crazy to enjoy
the Florida beach, the husband refusing to come out of the trailer and get sunburned; The
husband dying to hike the Devil’s Backbone in Colorado, the wife withdrawn,
preferring to telephone friends back home. Don’t force this nightmare onto yourself.
If your spouse will not compromise then think about letting the full-timing idea go if the
relationship is otherwise loving and nurturing because there are other interests and
adventures in life.
If your companion is eager to hit the road, you have the adventure of a lifetime ahead of
you. Just remember though, all good things come to an end. Sooner or later one of you may
want to set down roots again. If all else is well, and it’s been a good trip with
good memories, there’s no need to fight it. On the other hand, there are still folks
in their 80s and 90s rolling down the highway in their RV, off to greener pastures for the
season. That may be your destiny.
Failing to structure yourself financially before you
hit the road.
It is the height of lunacy to embark on a full time RV lifestyle if you have a lot of
debt and no source of income. Yes, it can be done, but starting out new to the RV
lifestyle deep in debt is very risky and not likely to be very enjoyable. Somewhere along
the way, you may find yourself in debt because of vehicle replacement, medical bills or
other reasons, but that is a different matter altogether.
Unless you already have some financial resources to make RV, vehicle or other payments,
consider staying put until you are debt free. Jobs are not that difficult to find out
there, but as a transient your average wage may be much less than you’re used
to.
At a minimum, plan to have at least a couple month’s cash on hand while you are job
shopping when you arrive at your destination. It is advisable to have one or more credit
cards available with several thousand dollars credit limit. We actually got on the road in
1993 with no credit cards and while traveling built our credit to the point where we, if
we chose to, could buy a good condition used vehicle or RV with our cards. Not that
I’m suggesting that you do such a thing, but responsibly handling credit cards can
make your RV lifestyle flow smoothly and with far less stress. Just don’t fall into
the trap of delaying your job hunt as long as there is a balance on your card. You’ll
find that debt will choke off your options and leave you wondering why you decided to
travel in the first place.
Don’t have credit or cash resources? Don’t travel until you do, otherwise you
risk disaster. It won’t look good if you come crawling back asking to move in with
mom and dad, or your siblings while you get back on your feet.
If you don’t have plenty of resources, buy the best used RV and tow vehicle you can
afford. Get out of debt. Save your money. Sell all your junk and move to a cheaper, much
smaller place. The cheaper, smaller place can be your RV while you are getting the rest of
your affairs in order. Buy the RV first and have someone park it in an RV park while you
continue reducing your expenses and save for your on the road vehicle. You’re going
to discover that the fewer “things” that you have the better off you will be.
This is a lifestyle best lived traveling with a light load. If you are a compulsive
collector, make arrangements for someone you trust to store your items. Best of all, quit
spending the money collecting and get on the road sooner.
If you are new at this you may have stumbled across an “opportunity” to travel
around and sell things. You may have noticed that there were claims of “good
money” if you are willing to work hard. Go for it if you don’t have any debt and
enough cash resources to tide you over for a month or two while you try it out. Just be
aware that an extremely high percentage of commission only “opportunities” are
notorious financial death traps. Have extra cash to take care of you while you job shop if
the commission only thing goes up in flames.
One of the hard realities of the RV lifestyle for those of us without supplemental sources
of income, and non-tradesman skills, is that most of the better paying jobs will be found
in the larger cities. Unless you have specific tradesman skills or some going business to
support you on the road, your income may drop dramatically. This is actually ok if there
are two of you working and you have no debt. You can accumulate a surprisingly large
amount of savings in the RV lifestyle if you are debt free and are employed consistently.
Alicia's Brother Ron taking her for Harley ride in
Washington
This one is difficult – having an
unrealistic, predefined set of expectations of what RV living will be like. Thinking that
you are going to drive off into the sunset and life will be perfect.
Again, I am not trying to discourage you. You have a right to know the bad along
with the good, and I personally believe the good far outweighs the bad. What follows is
the naked truth. Everyone seems afraid to talk about it, but here is the dark side of the
RV lifestyle.
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. You’re going to be living in a tiny box.
That box is very often going to packed in like a sardine with other similar tiny boxes on
a gravel parking lot with a few obligatory trees scattered around. I’ve seen Wal-Mart
parking lots with more ambiance that many of the RV “campgrounds” I’ve
parked in.
And you will sometimes be close enough to the box next to you that you’ll know when
your neighbor breaks wind. And, when you plop down to rest with a cool lemonade under your
awning, people that look like aliens from another planet will make themselves at home
under your awning so you can listen to their one-sided conversation while their dog poops
on your outdoor carpet and tries to bite your ankles.
You hate country music, or opera, or whatever offends you, and you get to enjoy the
enhanced boom box version 20 feet away at maximum sound. It wouldn’t be so bad if you
weren’t getting dizzy looking at the garish colored clothing the neighbors are
sloshing their beer on.
A high percentage of RV parks feature an attached mobile home park for your enjoyment.
There's nothing like late-evening gunfire and high-speed police chases at the mobile home
park for good RV lifestyle entertainment. Not to mention the enjoyment of colorful
characters wandering into the RV area from the mobile homes while you speculate about
whose RV they will break into tonight.
And whatever you do, don't get caught washing your RV or tow vehicle against park rules
that state that you may not wash your rig or perform any vehicle repairs at the site.
However, all rigs and vehicles must be maintained in excellent condition or risk eviction.
Just so you know, it’s not that bad most of the time. But the reality is that if you
have a romantic version of what living in an RV is like, then that bubble is going to be
burst quickly. This is particularly true if you will have to earn your living while you
travel. If you have the resources and don't have to work, your RV experience can be closer
to the romanticized version of the lifestyle.
Most RV parks are not destination points. Many campgrounds do the very best they can to
make the environment pleasant and enjoyable, and a great many succeed quite well along
those lines. But, if you have to park and work to replenish the funds, it’s likely to
be a different story where you live.
Basically, an RV park is a commercial enterprise designed to produce as much revenue as
possible from the smallest possible space. As a result, you come to realize that for what
you are getting, an RV lot is a very expensive piece of real estate lacking amenities to
complement the price. That’s why you see so many RV’s parked overnight at
Wal-Mart. When you are in transit on interstates from one location to another, it is
difficult to justify paying $30 to $50 a night to park on a concrete (if you’re
lucky) or gravel lot. You are supplying the rig and use minimal water and electricity, and
you supply your own propane. You can actually stay in a motel room cheaper than renting
many overnight RV lots.
Long-term parking is often not much better. Monthly rates in “destination” areas
are commonly $300 at the very least, and usually much higher, plus electricity, and cable
for a spot you will sometimes have difficulty parking a 25ft rig in. The management
insists on making sure that your rig doesn’t look dumpy because their standards are
high and they don’t let riff raff into their park. Sometime later that evening your
jaw drops while you watch the rusted-out home-made “trailer” park next to you
and you hope their air conditioner, framed in with 2 by 4 unfinished studs, doesn’t
fall out of their back window.
Not being able to cope with uncertainty.
This topic almost goes without saying, but just in case, I thought I had better cover
it. If you do not handle uncertainty well, the RV lifestyle may not be for you. And,
if you have to work to pay your way, it can be even more stressful.
First, if you have a traffic phobia, then by all means stay home. People in cars do the
stupidest things to get around, or in front of an RV. Driving in metropolitan areas can be
extremely dangerous for RV'ers. Climbing steep grades, and going down sharp, curving
mountain passes with a few tons of RV behind you can be a true white-knuckle experience.
If you want the security of knowing where your next meal is coming from, the RV lifestyle
may not be for you. Rv’ers move around. That’s what we do. That usually also
precludes having a steady, reliable job and source of ready cash. Sometimes, the job does
not come quickly. Sometimes, and more often than you would think, the employer is a
scumbag and you wind up quitting well before you are ready.
Take a job that depends on commissions and the odds of getting screwed out of your
earnings are exceptionally high. If you thought that most crooks are confined to the
non-working population, think again. Changing jobs frequently will give you the
opportunity to meet employers who will steal your earnings in a heartbeat. Ask questions
of the employer, especially if there are incentives, bonuses or commissions involved.
There’s a really good chance that there is a “company policy” they failed
to disclose to you.
You never know what kind of nutcase you are going to have for a neighbor. At best some of
your neighbors will be boorish pests. The good part is that you can always hook up your RV
and move.
Underestimating the costs of the RV lifestyle.
Contrary to popular belief, the RV'ing lifestyle is not cheap. In our romanticized
version, we examine only the monetary costs of moving around in the RV. Usually, those
actual costs, though not large, are more than most want to admit, but there are other
costs as well.
Your expenses will be different from anyone else. For some, a thousand or so a month
covers all expenses. For other people, it takes a few thousand at a minimum each month for
living expenses. Whatever the case, the RV lifestyle can be more expensive than you would
expect.
Some of the costs will be psychological and some will be lost opportunities. You have to
give up certain possibilities in your life to pursue the full-time RV lifestyle. Is
traveling to see new places really worth the loss of other important goals or needs in
your life? Although there is a great deal of freedom in the RV lifestyle, by its nature,
you may be restricted or completely cut off from other interests. If you have to work to
enjoy full-time RV'ing, then you will not be nearly as free as you would think, and others
in the lifestyle would lead you to believe. There are just some things you cannot fully
experience or accomplish if you RV full-time. Is it really worth the cost?
Maintenance is one of the unavoidable features of RV living. Your RV and vehicle are
mechanical devices. Mechanical devices wear out, break and malfunction, it always seems,
at the worst possible time. The reason equipment malfunctions at the worst possible time
is our unrealistic expectation that we spend our money for the object of our desire and
expect it to operate flawlessly for an indefinite period with no maintenance.
Buy an inexpensive set of tools and learn how to fix and repair minor problems. Otherwise,
you’ll be shelling out for a trip charge and $45 to $90 hourly, plus parts, for an RV
technician to come visit. You are not likely going to be earning $45 to $90 hourly,
so learn to do minor repairs and preventative maintenance.
Plan and save for major repairs. Virtually every major replacement for an RV will be far
more costly than its standard household counterpart. Your refrigerator, air conditioner,
electrical converter, water heater, brake system, electrical system, and plumbing system
will eventually malfunction or die. Propane tanks have to be re-inspected for safety
every few years. Tires wear out and furniture and fixtures get broken. Plan on a steady
stream of minor repairs. If you were living in a house, these things would not surprise
you. Condense your living space to 300 square feet, or less, and you can see that
you’ll be putting your RV through intensive wear and tear.
When you tow your RV, your tow vehicle is put under tremendous stresses, so don't be
stingy with preventative maintenance like oil changes, transmission fluid, tires, shocks,
belts and hoses. Otherwise, don't be upset when your rig lets you down when you need it
the most.
All of this costs money. Campground operators, service stations, repairmen and other
vendors are in business to make the most profit possible from you. They will not give away
their goods and services cheaply. If you have to work for the RV lifestyle, obtaining the
money costs you a portion of your life. You may very well have to exchange major blocks of
your time for far less earnings per hour than you would hope. You may have to forsake
other meaningful life goals for the Rv'ing experience. Make sure that you aren't wasting
your life energy.
Conclusion
I hope the information in this book has been useful. Alicia and I have thoroughly
enjoyed the full-time RV'ing experience. It has enriched our lives in so many ways and we
have made so many new friends that we encourage you to go for it if the RV lifestyle is
something you truly desire.
We have lived the dream. We feel sorry for those who want to, but cannot, because of
circumstances, or lack of courage. If you survived the last chapter of this book with your
dream intact, find a way, find the courage, and you will not have to look back on the
years of your life with regret for a dream lost, and you'll count your life well spent. If
you discover through these pages that the dream was not for you, you'll have not wasted
your efforts on a mirage.
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