The basic idea with the WeBoost is that you install a special, high power antenna which allows your devices to connect to a stronger, more reliable signal. The information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnosis, treat, prevent or cure any disease. At the start, you may have lots of questions. You will encounter your own obstacles, your own mistakes, and your own wondrous surprises. I like to think we were the perfect team on this project. Written in clear simple language with lots of humor thrown in. Efficiency I tell you! Living as frugally as I can with my son and pets living the RV life on the road off grid. Where can I park my RV long term? In a way we felt as though we’d be taking time away from life or pressing the pause button while we went for an adventure. [Want to know what RV living costs? We love to stay out in wide open spaces, surrounded by nature rather than side by side other RV’s in an RV park. If you fit and there’s no restrictions, you can park on their property. Meet Three Women RVers Who Call the Road Their Home . Got a bunch of wood, but can’t get it lit? The Most Commonly Asked Questions About Full-Time Rving. Having another vehicle to explore the area in can be incredibly helpful. We renovated our entire RV. With proper preparation, you … I now prefer driving the motorhome because of the amazing view from behind the wheel. Sometimes we know we might not ever see them again and that can be difficult to explain to small kids. The real life perspective makes it even more helpful. Lindsay says: We recommend first getting an idea of how much it will cost you to RV based on your goals for choosing the lifestyle. And of course, we always miss our friends and family from home! Megan and Brandon say: The first recommendation is not to overthink it, and just do it! Having a fire or something happening to us while we are out and the dogs being stuck inside is my biggest fear so I take every precaution. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. The other challenge we face is that most National Parks have very strict rules on where you can bring your dogs. Whether you just want to learn a bit about traveling with a recreational vehicle or are curious about living in a motorhome full-time, we’ll go over the basics of RVing and answer common questions. I have limited space to collect things. Etc! Thank you for supporting To Wander Freely in this way. We try to get them out of the RV as much as possible so they don’t feel too cooped up. It’s SO NICE to not have stuff holding you back. There is so much to learn, so start slowly and figure out your goals. Nathalie and Louis (We are Cedar Stream) – on Instagram @cedar.stream, April & family – on Instagram @twinning_in_our_5thwheel, Gwen & C.J. Can you live in a travel trailer year round? Overall, it seems that this lifestyle offers the opportunity to live more affordably. We are parking for free as much as possible and budgeting $1,000 a month on average. Lindsay says: Anywhere and everywhere. I now prefer driving the motorhome because of the amazing view from behind the wheel. And know that the challenges you overcome will bring you a sense of great accomplishment and gratitude that you were brave enough to take it on in the first place. Megan and Brandon say: I don’t think there’s any secret thing you need to know before doing it. I also follow @RVFixerUpper @prvbsthirtyonegirl on Instagram and they are always posting DIY’s to help! However, if you’re living in it full-time your trailer you’re going to have a LOT of extra weight. If you want a giant new rig, only want to stay at RV resorts with all the amenities and move around once a week, it may not be less expensive than your life in a sticks & bricks. Others living full time on the road prefer more organized amenities and civilization: Jen & Dustin say: RV Parks or “resorts” with at least a 4 star rating, a dog park and full hookups. We typically don’t have problems staying connecting, but there have definitely been times where we were unable to stay at a certain spot because of the lack of signal – we find this to be common in National Parks. It seems it’s not as simple as rolling up and putting down stakes wherever you’d like. Mandy says: Anything you do for the first time is a little nerve racking. Just keep in mind that when converting to a house 15 amp plug, I would only recommend using it for charging your house batteries or refrigerator but not recommended for running your AC or microwave as it will be too much power. It helps if you have a truck you are confident in. Others live in RVs that are more stationary, so the kids are able to attend a traditional school. Nathalie and Louis say: We fully gutted our Airstream and did a frame up renovation. Dustin & Jen say: I wish I had known what the expenses were going to be. Then when we got to the interior after the building portion was complete, I took over with the paint, fixtures, electrical, decor and textiles. Other RVers had similar tips about research, which will help you figure out not only how to get started and which rig to choose from, but also will provide general useful RVing tips. We have to ensure we are hooked up to electricity to leave the air conditioning on. As for considerations of living in a smaller space with children: Ashley F. says: I did a ton of research so I wanted to create a space for the kids that allowed my husband and I to still have our privacy and be able to keep them content in their own room as well. The first time I drove a motorhome was the day we left the lot after paying for it. We’re constantly having to be aware of our budget and being careful not to overspend while in new and exciting locations. We love finding rural spots and feeling so small and alone in this big, beautiful world. Different neighborhoods across the US will have different HOA zoning rules that dictate if/where you can park your RV and for how long. There’s something for everyone, even the glampers! If you're the new owner of a new or experienced Class B you are probably figuring out how to outfit it for travel. To lay out some of the pros and cons of the various options, check out the responses below. We got rid of it all before we went on the road. It’s something anyone can do! Lots of cities are very dog-friendly, which is great. We resealed all exterior compartments and corner trims. However that’s not as significant a limitation as you might think. We figured we’d last a year. Can you live in an RV legally? Is this an affordable lifestyle? Hailey and John say: We have a1991 Winnebago Micro warrior. We also reached out to friends and family to help with something they had experience with (we either paid them or fed them for their services haha). Even though we have yet to test it out my Toyota Sienna minivan is actually fully equipped to haul travel trailers smaller in size! We are parking for free as much as possible and budgeting $1,000 a month on average. Maybe one of the biggest mysteries about living on the road in an RV is where families park their rig. Many RV parks and campgrounds offer free WiFi when you stay with them. Ours is also equipped with an aluminum frame so it’s all weather which is nice as well. All in all, if we are in areas with cell phone reception, our internet is covered! Post was not sent - check your email addresses! Do you want to invest in a large vehicle capable of towing? Take the time to get specific and ask yourself the questions that might make you feel uneasy. One of the biggest considerations when it comes to motorhome living for beginners has to be budget. Jen and Dustin say: YES. I haven’t found anything just yet that I wish I knew but that may change one day. So we “moochdock” (park on family and friends property) as often as possible. Nathalie and Louis say: We have a 1969 Airstream Globetrotter. If we’re staying for longer periods, we just pay to store the RV somewhere and it’s not usually over $100 a month. That can be really tough on our four-year old, whose #1 priority in life is having friends to play with. If you’re wanting to travel and see as many places as you can, you’ll spend more money and you’ll need an RV that accommodates that well. What type of home on wheels you have is personal preference, so I can only speak for us and our opinions. This was something that was a priority for me as I don’t enjoy the décor of RVs. However, my job depends on phone reception and internet connection. At one particular campground, we had zero service and couldn’t even check our email from our phones, but after connecting the WeBoost, we were able to stream a movie!! Gwen & CJ say: We renovated nearly everything in our RV. Courtney says: It all depends entirely on how you travel and what types of places you are comfortable staying. Let’s get started with RV living for beginners…. I, Jen, do extensive research and read Google reviews, and utilize other websites to make sure we are going to a safe area. It’s 35 foot with one super slide. (so small….but not too small…haha) Think about your NEEDS, what does your life require you to bring? They make the travel even more fun for us and we love having them tag along. You can camp for free on BLM land for up to 14 days. What type of vehicle and RV do I need? ALL OF IT. We also find RV parks that have dog parks or dog walking stations which helps too! We put some things in storage but we’re going to end up selling it all. We have to work as a team when we are on the road, and she is a part of our decisions and day-to-day living. We only do monthly stays (way more affordable than daily or weekly rates) so obviously the park has to offer those as well. We apply real-life situations to her learning. Know that no two full-timers have the same journey. Sometimes we can go weeks without there being other kids for them to play with. My husband has a F-150 that hauls ours completely fine and could probably go a little larger in size too but if we ever switched to a 40+ FT he would need an F-250 for sure! Simple RV Upgrades; RV Park Reviews; Video of Camper Van Conversion: How Marty Converted a Ford Transit into an RV Camper Van ... Light and small, it is ideal for small living spaces, such as RVs. They get more exercise than they did when we lived in a house or apartment. If family or friends do not have either a 30amp/50amp plug you can always purchase a converter to plug in your RV. Camping for Couples: Essential Gear Guide & Tips for Two. luxury RVs. The second reason is if you’re looking at a bigger rig, driving it down to a coffee shop and maneuvering it through smaller parking lots can be a challenge. offer WiFi. We make it a priority to find friends for her to play with. We definitely didn’t know as much as we wish we would have about maintaining our home on wheels and that has resulted in some issues during the year that could have possibly been prevented. See more ideas about simple living, camper, camping. What kind? We have done this several times. We invested in a large metal dog crate to put on our RV pad with faux turf giving them a feel of a yard to be outside during the day and coming it to sleep at night. Does living in an RV full time cost as much as living in a traditional home? If you like first-hand advice, practical how-to guides, and forging your own path, then you’ll love Gary Collins’ first guidebook in The Simple Life, a liberating life adventure series. (Our Little Green Adventure) – on Instagram @littlegreenadventure, Mandy (Wilson Grand Adventures) – on Instagram @wilsongrandadventures, Lindsay (Follow Your Detour )- on Instagram @follow_your_detour, Mars, Ash, & Everly (Fite Travels) – on Instagram @fitetravels, Hailey & John (Wander Winnie) – on Instagram @wander_winnie, Megan & Brandon (Our Wild Road) – on Instagram @ourwildroad, Courtney (Out of Office Family) – on Instagram @outofofficefamily. What do you wish you’d known before embarking on the RVing lifestyle? This works great for us because we find that between these two carriers, we can normally get a decent signal. While you can certainly buy a motorhome or camper that is brand new and outfitted with all the bells and whistles you desire, that is a costly endeavor. Our RV was old and everything was original. RVing with dogs seems to be a great thing, but certainly must present its fair share of obstacles. We GUTTED our RV and spent 8 months repairing and rebuilding. This model had the criteria we were looking for in buying a motorhome; lots of storage, layout that we could convert an area into bunks for our two kids, engine strong enough to tow a Chevy Traverse weighing 4,900 pounds, a layout we could renovate and call home. There are many questions, such as how a whole family can fit in an RV, how do the kids attend school when living in an RV, and more. There’s honestly nowhere you can’t drive an RV…well except overseas! Where Do You Even Start When it Comes to RV Living? We bring to you our findings: the wisdom of some full time RVers who have been doing this from a couple months to a couple years. This presents a challenge when we want to explore and the weather is hot during the summer. We’re total beginners (and we’re assuming if you’re reading this you likely are, too), so we started at the basics. Being only 21’ long we are just a little bigger than a normal parking space, PLUS we won’t miss out on any beautiful roads because of ‘length restrictions.’. We have everything we need in our camper. Lindsay says: Absolutely! We like to mix it up and it really depends on the destination and what it offers. doityourselfrv.com. We can usually bring them along on our adventures since we love to hike and walk around downtown and sit on patios. Ash, Mars, and Everly say: In particular, finding other families on the road is difficult. But overall, we’ve never had any issues! I know living in an RV will present its challenges and expenses but in our case it’s substantially less and does save us quite a bit of money. We did research on the cost of RV parks—but only for certain regions. By DoItYourselfRV Builds, Popular. I sewed curtains and seat cushions. Ashley H. says: So far the RV parks are all equipped with wifi but if we ever choose to boondock we will want to invest in something to help us with internet. We offer new and used motorhomes, fifth wheels, trailers and more. Hailey and John say: YES. However, the WiFi can be pretty spotty at most parks, especially when the park is full. We took about six weeks to focus on creating a vision for our lives, and it has paid off in so many ways. While we want to feel settled and have a home, we also know how much we love to travel, to drift…to not stay in one place. Choose a rig and go from there. Finally, let’s break it down with some helpful full time RV living tips. RV Living for Beginners. We have found incredible hidden gems, ones we never would have sought out, had our dog not made us think outside the box. The only things still there from the original design are the cabinets (with a fresh coat of paint), the toilet & shower, and the cab. It’s one thing to live on the road full time, but how do you manage to earn an income? Although I will admit, the perks of homeschooling are becoming more & more appealing. Read our disclosure page for full details. New or old, comes with the RV life. Two Drifters is the place where love meets adventure. As you begin your research, you’ll probably spend a lot of time getting inspired by other RVers. In the last few years, we Two Drifters have started thinking about our future. What is the best motorhome to live in full time? Many RV parks and campgrounds offer free WiFi when you stay with them. In late 2008 we sold our house, sold or donated the bulk of our possessions (YAY! It’s given us motivation and purpose and passion. Check out our "how to" videos along with our recipes and product reviews. This post may contain affiliate links. Regularly review what you took last time - if you haven't used it in a few trips - leave it at home. Lindsay says: How sustainable it is! They make the travel even more fun for us and we love having them tag along. Our closet is about two feet wide- and we have to share it between us. dog is VERY social, and meeting new dogs and people everywhere we go has been a huge plus of fulltime RV living. And of course, we always miss our friends and family from home! If it doesn’t have a dog park, we try and find out if there are grassy areas dogs are allowed on. There are pet monitors that are super helpful and allow you to watch your dog from a camera in the RV and your cell phone. Second thing is to think about BUDGET. We also love the fact that we don’t have to pull over to grab snacks! initial shock of being so high off the ground, how wide and long a 35′ motorhome is and how to operate it, it really isn’t difficult to drive. Simply RV is a RV dealership located in Inman, SC. We recently got a WeBoost to improve the strength and speed of our cellular data and we couldn’t be more happy with it. There will be times in the first few months of your adventure that you may take a step back and wonder what the heck you were thinking. We love to camp in our RV. As part of our transition to RV living, we had to learn about RV maintenance, how to renovate a RV, how to anticipate our needs on the road, how to make sure we could work from the road, and much more. Other than furniture, virtu… Can I live in an RV full time? As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The biggest difference in our RV was made by removing the valances and just painting nearly everything white. This was our first RV so it was a different learning curve. The Basics of RV Living: This portion contains all you need to know for life on the road. If not, you won’t be able to plug in. Many RVers prefer a more off-the-grid lifestyle. Mostly because you can’t just drive on auto—you have to be aware of everything going on around you, make sure your tires are at the correct pressure, your trailer is hitched correctly, and constantly be watching the weather. we wanted to know for the future what the challenges of full time RV living with pets might be. Youtube and the Toyota Motorhome facebook groups have been our main sources of info. These folks are doing this unique lifestyle in a variety of ways: some are living in a camper van, others are living in a motorhome, some have kids, some have pets, but all are pretty much living on the road full time. We also love that on travel days, we have access to our kitchen and bathroom…actually, our whole house. Our house is perfect for us and I’m thrilled with how it turned out. We can fit almost anywhere, including parking downtown in busy cities! Lindsay says: We miss being plugged into and involved in a community. There are tons of ways to save money on the road like free parking, cooking in, utilizing RV memberships, traveling less often to save on gas, etc. If it is just a quick visit I think parking it in the driveway may be doable but for longer visits we will most likely leave it parked at the RV campground and drive our vehicle to physically stay in their home. In fact, we just had an excellent illustration of this when we unpacked our van, over the space of half a day, into a one bedroom apartment, about 600 square feet in size. One of the benefits of having a truly mobile home is that you can more easily visit family and friends. There are so many other benefits to the lifestyle other than just the adventure. Most day to day tasks can be handled using our hotspots and a cell phone booster. Let’s start with the obvious. The Globetrotter model was created for traveling the world, even in places with rough road conditions. We’re always tempted to go explore the destination we’re in and procrastinate on work. Decided I wanted to try the RV lifestyle. Full time RV living: have you ever considered it? C.J.’s family lives in a suburban area outside of Dallas and we are only allowed to street park there between Thanksgiving and New Years Day. We serve the areas of Greenville, … Whether you have a Big RV, a Small RV, a 5th Wheeler, or a Travel Trailer, make your next trip a whole lot more tasty with some fun new RV Recipes!! But once you get an idea of your goals (traveling vs downsizing and saving money vs) and you get a budget together, you can then determine what RV is a good fit for those goals and the travel style that’s a good fit as well. But it’s definitely a process to transition into the lifestyle. Currently, we are homeschooling her. We did NOT want to finance a vehicle…we were trying to escape being tied down to debt by living on the road! At one particular campground, we had zero service and couldn’t even check our email from our phones, but after connecting the WeBoost, we were able to stream a movie!! On super hot days, we don’t leave the pets in the RV alone. RV Basics 101 – Getting Started. Ashley H. says: I say if living small, being debt free, traveling the world or any other reason is something someone wants to do then go for it. Living in a van has made life a lot simpler. We gutted the kitchen and bathroom and put in new counters, faucets and backsplashes. We love this because we get to camp in the coolest places, our little house fits places other trailers don’t. CJ & Gwen say: Being web designers, having internet connection is incredibly important. We also have three small children that are all in car seats so we opted out of buying a motor home because we didn’t want to have to figure out the car seat situation while traveling. This is something Nathan and I definitely wonder about. The entire thing including all cabinets has been repainted + new vinyl flooring installed. RV living forces you to not accumulate crap. Dustin and Jen say: Dustin would say yes! Instead, you might opt for an older model of travel trailer and do a bit of DIY RV renovation like many of our contributors did. Our dog is VERY social, and meeting new dogs and people everywhere we go has been a huge plus of fulltime RV living. Amy is happily married to her husband Nathan, and when not working on their sites, Amy & Nathan can be found cuddling, reading, and enjoying delicious lattes. For RV living for beginners… plus of fulltime RV living: this lifestyle isn ’ t see us back... It full-time your trailer you ’ d like I was happy with recipes!, wow does one get WiFi a family member ’ s the best small RVs sale. Getting super technical, you ’ d known before embarking on the road we have yet test. Businesses who offer WiFi love finding rural spots and feeling so small and alone in way... 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