Full-Time RVing - Mistakes That Will Kill Your Dream
Your Full-Time RVing Dream - Mistakes That Will Stop It Cold
What Mistakes? What could possible go wrong with something as simple as living and traveling full-time
in an RV?
That’s a very good question and 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 disapprover's, 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 A 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 than 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 ankle.
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 interstate's 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
minimum, and usually much, much higher, plus electricity, and cable for a spot you will sometimes have
difficulty parking a 25ft rig in.
Often when you call ahead for a reservation, RV park management insists on making sure that your rig isn't
more than 10 years old and 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 may also preclude 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 scum bag and you wind up quitting well before you are ready.
Take a job that depends on commissions only 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 before you
accepted their "High Paying Sales Job".
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 tend to want to 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 as 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 paying a
mobile RV repairman for a trip charge plus $45 to $90 hourly, plus parts marked up at 200% to 300% profit
margin. 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 online guide 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 this 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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