A New Life

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Njaco

The Pop-Tart Whisperer
22,459
2,441
Feb 19, 2007
Fla-eee-dah!
For the last year or so, my life has not gone exactly as I thought it would or planned and as a side effect, I haven't been on here in awhile. I'm still around causing trouble though. Well, with my money situation getting much better in a about a month and the Pre-wife starting to rise up from her medical issues, we have decided to follow a shared dream of ours. We have talked about this over the years and now may be the best time to start.

We have decided to buy an RV [Recreational Vehicle] and become full-time RVers.

We are in the planning stages, need to find and buy a vehicle and all the other things that come with shedding one life for another like downsizing our current home, getting rid of extra crap we have collected. The last 2 weeks we have been teaching ourselves about all the tips and tricks about RVing and it looks do-able.

The bad news is that I may invade some of your hometowns and set up shop! We are looking at a time frame of about 18 months before we unchain ourselves. We are very excited!
 
Oh hell yeah. It may also be an opportunity to mend some fences. I'm so excited. We are going to set up a "business" plan so we have a goal and how to reach it. But from what I have been researching, there are tons of support and options to help anybody live "off the grid" and enjoy. We don't have much time left and I worked all my life. Now That I have a pension and somewhat secure, I'm going on the road!!
 
Njaco said:
We have decided to buy an RV [Recreational Vehicle] and become full-time RVers.
Click to expand...
Chris that is absolutely fantastic to hear. Suggestions: Buy BIG. This is going to be your full-time home and space is going to be at a premium. 38 feet of RV may seem like a lot but it gets very tiny very fast. I started with a 30 footer and learned a lot very quickly. Our second is a 38 footer and we have spent a lot of time and trips in it and it is getting smaller every year.
#2. Get as many SLIDES as you can. They really open up your living area. IMHO I would get 4 as the very minimum. We have two front and back and as a result one side of the bed is very difficult to get to trying to make up the bed.
#3. Get 50 Amp service with plenty of adapters. 30 Amp will only run one air conditioner at a time and RVs can soak up a lot of heat as insulation is thin. I had to re-wire ours with the rear air on a separate 110V extension cord so both front and rear can run during the hot day time.
#4. Get a unit with a washer and dryer
#5. Get hydraulic self levelers. Manual hydraulics are OK but take some fiddling. Units without levelers are a GIANT PIA backing onto blocks is the pits.
#6. Possibly change your residency state. The are about 5 that only require a PO Box. A few do not charge sale tax on RVs THEN when you go to register in your state the SOBs charge the sales tax the first state did not. There are also a few states that do not tax retirement income. Check it out
I have others if you need any advice
 
Well let me know if you hit up the dirty south down here in Louisiana. We have the National WW2 Museum, and lots of Civil War battlefields. Pensacola is close by as well.
 
Mike, I may be asking you ALOT of questions in the future. Just so you know, we have been looking at Class C RVs - 30-35 ft range. Still trying to understand grey and black water, etc. Boondocking sounds great and right up my alley! :0
 
mikewint said:
Didn't realize you had moved south. As I recall you were in Ill-Noise for a bit and then I thought you'd moved to the west coast.
So we're just about neighbors
Click to expand...

I never lived in Illinois...

I lived in Iowa for 5 years, but worked across the Mississippi over in Illinois.

I took a job in Aviation Safety and QA with a rotary wing operator down here back in Juky of last year.
 
Njaco said:
Class C RVs
Click to expand...
Don't do it. Class C's are too lightly built and are always overloaded. You have to consider the weight of the unit itself PLUS your holding tanks Black, (you can conserve volume here) and Grey (which fills VERY quickly and you can't dump on the ground) and Fresh Water (our 100 gallon is 850 lbs all by itself it lasts about a week) not every campground has sewers and picking up and moving to the dump station every few days is another PIA. All campgrounds have potable water, some right at your campsite but remember what goes in must go out and that's where your holding tanks matter.
GO Class A, this is your full-time home
 
Njaco said:
Not sure I can drive a Class A, Mike and I may not have enough money for one.
Click to expand...
They are very easy to drive, a bit scary at first but you'll have a LOT more problems with an overloaded Class C, not to mention the wear and tear on a drive-train never meant for the load being placed on it. Class C's are for short trip weekend campers. Look for a good used model in a state that does not charge sales tax. We bought ours in Fla and drove it back home to Ill-noise. It had been purchased new by a retiree who promptly died 6 mo later and his wife just wanted to be rid of it. We paid less than half the new price and it only had 2,000 miles on it
 
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