The Full-time RVers Teachers Lounge 5-16-2016, er, 2019

[scrapbookbuzz]

Hello and welcome to the Lounge!

Anyone here on the boards live full-time in an RV and mobile? Hubby and I have kicked around the idea. And now that my job that i moved for hasn't worked
out, I like the idea even more. 🚐

If you live in an RV right now, what's the best thing you like about it? Least? Here: I can imagine there are many of both!

If you haven't/don't live full time in a rig, have you done any extensive travel in one? Where did you go?

Along the same lines,has anyone done a massive reduction in their household goods? What did you learn from that? Here: working on reducing. Books are hard to let go of! Yes, there's Kindle and Nook, but I really like my hard copies! 😎📚

Talk to me!

Edited May 16, 2019 by scrapbookbuzz

[Pawz4me]

We've owned an RV for about twelve years. For ten years, when the boys were younger, we traveled in a 35' Class A. Once they were grown DH and I downsized to a van type Class B. Our longest trips have been about three weeks. I don't really enjoy traveling at all (I'm a homebody) but having our own RV, being able to take the pooch along and to sleep in my own bed every night, makes it tolerable for me. But still . . . I think a month or so is the longest I could (relatively easily) handle living in an RV. 

[prairiewindmomma]

I had to double take, scrapbook buzz.  It's 2019. Title post says 2016. (It sure still feels like it should only be 2016, though!)

[Moonhawk]

Hi Scrap, I've missed a few lounges, glad I made it on time today! Well kinda on tie at least 🙂

 Still working towards the RV life; we are moving again, and again to a solid house in the ground, but hoping it's the last stop before going mobile. Each move we are shedding more stuff so that's good. The main things now that we have and wouldn't fit in an RV are too many school books and too many clothes for kids. We are going to have to still do a major cull for the RV, but at least we've shed most of our unnecessary stuff. 

Oddly enough the thing I'm having the most trouble giving up is my Speed Queen, LOL. 

But, the RV still looks like a distant dream and so we'll just have to see what happens!

Edited May 16, 2019 by Moonhawk

[scrapbookbuzz]

4 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

I had to double take, scrapbook buzz.  It's 2019. Title post says 2016. (It sure still feels like it should only be 2016, though!)

Must not have had my coffee yet! LOL But wait, I think I did. Maybe I need MORE??

[City Mouse]

The longest trip we ever did was for 4 weeks in a 26ft travel trailer. We went from Houston to Maine visiting friends and relatives and many sights along the way. Parts of the trip were great, and Parts were not so good. The kids were too little to remember it, but I have some fond memories. If I was on my own, I would like to be full time mobile for several years and travel all over. My DH is not interested in full timing, so we will compromise with long trips, or I will take long trips without him.  😀

I now have a job that is compatible with extended traveling, and I have picked out the travel trailer that I want. My youngest will graduate from high school this time next year, then the serious planning will start. 

Edited May 17, 2019 by City Mouse

[Ottakee]

Wish @Kinsa was here to comment.  She did this for quite a while with her family.

[Ausmumof3]

We did an eight week caravan trip and are coming up for a four week one shortly. 

What I love

 Cleaning - it’s small enough you can virtually clean the whole thing with a baby wipe

decluttering - you quickly learn to pare back to essentials

your own germs when you travel not a random motel rooms

outdoor living - you tend to spend way more time out doing stuff when your indoor space is smaller 

laundry - kind of a love hate thing actually.  If you manage to snag a quiet time you can use all machines and get the whole family wash done in the van parks in about an hour.  But the machines tend to be rough so we don’t take precious clothes now.  And you always have to have coins.  And if you pick a busy day it’s a nightmare securing a machine.

what I hate

cooking - cooking with gas in a tiny space with timber behind just feels unsafe.  Especially when we do a quick stop and don’t level up and the kids move around.  We’ve worked around this by getting and outdoor gas bbq which dh uses for most meals

stuff moving - when you travel stuff bounces around.  It’s hard to keep curtain rods up and pinned, last time the microwave fell out of its bracket and I don’t know if it’s still working

mould - if anything links or gets damp you need to go nuts cleaning airing and drying or mould seems to grow easily

Toileting- no indoor toilet/shower for us and tmi but the first few nights we go away I always need to go a million times just because my brain knows that it’s a total pain.

im not sure how much of that will be relevant if you are in a fixed location and also how much is Aus specific.  I do recommend going for one with an indoor toilet at least if at all possible.  That is my biggest gripe with the van is dh likes to do random roadside stops sometimes but I am a huge fan of actual plumbing or something that resembles it.  

[prairiewindmomma]

I had dreams a few years ago of traveling full time. We fairly seriously investigated the possibilities. Ultimately, the depreciation, maintenance and parking/hookup/gas costs all turned us away from traveling as a larger family.  It’s much cheaper and more comfortable to travel by car and Air BnB long term. It makes for a more comfortable base and we all need room to sprawl into our separate places for a bit.

[Mama Geek]

We are in one fairly long term right now, but not moving around.  They are cheaply made and have problems frequently.  We just had 2 floors in slideouts replaced and have read that if a camper is more than about 6 years old they are all going to have that problem.  We have damage due to a nasty hour long hail storm where we wondered how on earth were we going to get to the concrete structure if a tornado comes by during the hail storm (the hail was a fair amount larger than golf balls and every camper in the local area had damage).  Some people actually had the hail come through their roof.  The air conditioners are loud, we have a floor that needs replaced in the bathroom, and furniture that needs replaced.  We have had to replace the inverter, we bought a good mattress and a full size refrigerator to have in the toy hauler.  We bought ours when it was 7 years old, but have talked to people who have recently bought new ones that were "luxury" and they still were slapped together and needed major work within a year of purchasing them.  They require a lot of maintenance.  

That being said it has given us a better quality of life than living long term in an extended stay hotel and more flexibility than having to sign a lease on an apartment.  

[scrapbookbuzz]

Thank you all for your input. I would like to do it for at least one year with the family. I think it would be a great learning experience and get us OUTsidE more. I think by the time we can do it, ds will be ready for US History so we'll make our destinations fit the education. B-)