Full time
- Thread starter Donfini2
- Start date
Full time RV living? Yeah, for roughly 2 decades. My biggest challenge was getting rid of crap I really didn't need but was keeping "just in case". If you still need to make money while full timing, don't be afraid. I never went hungry or ran out of gas. There is actually a fairly large community of full timers, and a surprising number of young and attractive women though the vast majority are retirees. Is there something specific you want to know? Obviously I did it in vans, 2 of them over 20 years.
I lived in a camper for a few years, after I lost my house and while I was building the one I live in now. It was a fifth wheel type camper. The first couple years, the camper was in my in-laws back yard with water and electrical hookup, and the last couple years it was on my property with no water or electric hookups. So, both types of camper living. A lot of it depends on which type you'll be doing. If you have hookups, life is a LOT easier.
Off grid, the biggest challenges were keeping warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and keeping water in the tank. The tank only held 30 gallons and that doesn't last long with a few people living in the camper. I did have a water faucet near the camper due to my spectacular planning (LOL) but I had to move the generator to the well to fill that tank up every day and it was a PITA, dragging that generator over the terrain. If we did laundry, I had to fill the tank more than once in a day. I kept the washing machine outside, and we dried laundry on a line.
At one point there were 4 of us. When there's that many people living in a small space, it's vital to keep good relations and not fly off the handle at small annoyances. Obviously.
In the summer it was swelteringly hot inside. We did have AC, but we didn't have a lot of money for gas so we didn't run the generator that often. The wife and I would alternate between working together outside in the 100 degree sun, and sitting inside drinking Koolaid while still sweating as we took breaks. Small electric fans helped, powered by the camper batteries.
It was the opposite in the winter. At that time it was just my teenage son and I and I don't know if the women could have handled it. Maybe. We had a small woodstove in the camper - I went overboard on setting things up so that it wouldn't catch the rest of the camper on fire because a stove in a camper is a really bad idea! During the coldest times, it was nice and toasty by the stove, and freezing everywhere else in the camper. All the water lines in the camper froze up right away, so we had to start bringing water in four 5 gallon containers. We kept 3 containers outside and one inside by the stove. To take showers we had to drive once a week to the inlaws' house. Yep, once a week. Sometimes less often, depending on how long our water lasted. The water was also for the livestock.
The stove was too small to hold a fire all night unless I added wood a few times (and I didn't because it was too cold to get out of bed), so it was burned out by morning. By then the dogs' water bowl was frozen solid, as was the water in the toilet bowl. So I kept the water for making coffee in the fridge so that it wouldn't freeze.
At that time, the son and I were building the cabin. We wanted to make sure we didn't have to spend another winter in a camper so we were motivated. We'd start a fire in the morning, get warmed up and drink coffee, then go out and work all day. The first thing I did every day was get on the tractor and plow a path to the cabin because we got a ton of snow that year. At the cabin sight, we had to be careful setting down tools because they'd get buried in the falling snow and be lost. We'd take breaks to go to the camper and keep the fire going. We did this through the whole winter except the couple days it went to 30 below zero. Those days I said the hell with it, and we stayed in the camper.
As you can guess, I am REALLY glad to be out of that camper!
Off grid, the biggest challenges were keeping warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and keeping water in the tank. The tank only held 30 gallons and that doesn't last long with a few people living in the camper. I did have a water faucet near the camper due to my spectacular planning (LOL) but I had to move the generator to the well to fill that tank up every day and it was a PITA, dragging that generator over the terrain. If we did laundry, I had to fill the tank more than once in a day. I kept the washing machine outside, and we dried laundry on a line.
At one point there were 4 of us. When there's that many people living in a small space, it's vital to keep good relations and not fly off the handle at small annoyances. Obviously.
In the summer it was swelteringly hot inside. We did have AC, but we didn't have a lot of money for gas so we didn't run the generator that often. The wife and I would alternate between working together outside in the 100 degree sun, and sitting inside drinking Koolaid while still sweating as we took breaks. Small electric fans helped, powered by the camper batteries.
It was the opposite in the winter. At that time it was just my teenage son and I and I don't know if the women could have handled it. Maybe. We had a small woodstove in the camper - I went overboard on setting things up so that it wouldn't catch the rest of the camper on fire because a stove in a camper is a really bad idea! During the coldest times, it was nice and toasty by the stove, and freezing everywhere else in the camper. All the water lines in the camper froze up right away, so we had to start bringing water in four 5 gallon containers. We kept 3 containers outside and one inside by the stove. To take showers we had to drive once a week to the inlaws' house. Yep, once a week. Sometimes less often, depending on how long our water lasted. The water was also for the livestock.
The stove was too small to hold a fire all night unless I added wood a few times (and I didn't because it was too cold to get out of bed), so it was burned out by morning. By then the dogs' water bowl was frozen solid, as was the water in the toilet bowl. So I kept the water for making coffee in the fridge so that it wouldn't freeze.
At that time, the son and I were building the cabin. We wanted to make sure we didn't have to spend another winter in a camper so we were motivated. We'd start a fire in the morning, get warmed up and drink coffee, then go out and work all day. The first thing I did every day was get on the tractor and plow a path to the cabin because we got a ton of snow that year. At the cabin sight, we had to be careful setting down tools because they'd get buried in the falling snow and be lost. We'd take breaks to go to the camper and keep the fire going. We did this through the whole winter except the couple days it went to 30 below zero. Those days I said the hell with it, and we stayed in the camper.
As you can guess, I am REALLY glad to be out of that camper!