So give us a detailed budget? What do you believe your living expenses other than rent are currently? RVnet is littered with threads of folks who have not done the basic math.
If you wish to move from time to time then the rental of a site will be a daily expense and may run 30 per night.
I can see buying a travel trailer for moving around frequently, but not for being in the same place for two or more years. The economics aren't right.
In many areas, the rents for long-term stays at RV parks are comparable to local rents for apartments in the lower cost areas of town, or even rents for older small houses in declining neighborhoods.
Rents in trailer parks might be lower than rents in RV parks, but at the trailer park a rental mobile home, or your own used mobile home, would be a better home, likely less expensive to heat and cool, and possibly less expensive to buy, with all the repossessed manufactured housing now on the market.
when I say move from time to time, I will always know several months in advanced, I am not talking about moving every other month but 6 months to 2 years in any one location most likely.
but I am not worried about the basic costs, just things that might pop up, like what are high dollar items that break out of the blue on a TT, i.e. I read that a fridge going out can set me back a easy grand somewhere on this forum. hidden costs of ownership, the basic costs of renting/ leasing a space at a park, the basic cost of the TT, I got figured out. I am figuring 300-600 a month for the park (cause that is what I researched out in the area I will be staying) under 200 a month for the rv, under 200 a month for utilities, with all those at the high end I am still under what I pay for utilities and rent at my current place.
I am not sure on ins costs of the rv, but I have been seeing 200 for a 6 month premium a bit on the forums. so that is not a big deal.
most maintenance will be parts only, but I do not know what parts are the ones to break often. (new question)
also I wanted to know about the different insulation, will a "4 seasons" TT be good for mild winters? how does it do with sound insulation? (in original post)
tbh how did we stray so far from my original questions the basic costs I have a grasp of, I am worried about hidden costs, insulation, internet (which has been address for the most part already) parks policy on late night leaving and arriving by private car (which has also been addressed) all in my original post also.
not to nitpick, why are people being so down on someone that wants to get in to a different lifestyle? I am not a child, I have had the CPL stuff planed for the last several years and in the last 6 months found a college that does the CPL as a degree program. also I only said save money, which does not mean I am to broke to spend money. I am just kinda confused by the general reception I am getting about this. like I asked in the last post, if there is some HUGE deal breaker I am missing please tell me vs telling me not to bother doing what I want to do... I am not trying to be rude, or anything along those lines, but I am completely thrown by the responses I have been getting so far...
Thanks
Bob
* This post was
edited 06/20/12 05:13pm by bob stone *
tatest wrote: I can see buying a travel trailer for moving around frequently, but not for being in the same place for two or more years. The economics aren't right.
In many areas, the rents for long-term stays at RV parks are comparable to local rents for apartments in the lower cost areas of town, or even rents for older small houses in declining neighborhoods.
Rents in trailer parks might be lower than rents in RV parks, but at the trailer park a rental mobile home, or your own used mobile home, would be a better home, likely less expensive to heat and cool, and possibly less expensive to buy, with all the repossessed manufactured housing now on the market.
2 years is my max expected length of stay at any given area. like I said in my first post, I like to travel, I find I am much more productive when I first get to a new area.
I am not fond of manufactured homes, that can work, but for the MINIMAL savings I might get buying one of them over buying TT that I can easily bring with me when I move (and I will move) I don't see the point for them. they will be miserable to sell, miserable to move if I decided to do that, and I am sick and tired of renting where I live.
Well, bob, I don't quite know what to make of you.
In some ways you seem quite mature, and in others fairly juvenile.
So, I'll just relate personal experience and let it go at that.
A few years back, we decided that DW being a travel nurse would be a good idea. we had the choice, accept a company paid apartment or use the RV and get paid per diem (which, of course, was non-taxable at that time).
the contracts required moving every 13 weeks, although a contract could be renewed for another 13 weeks, which we did occasionally. Even with the non-taxable per diem, and the travel pay, and the tax deductions, in the long run using the company provided apartment would have been better. Back then, I never paid more than $400 per month for a space.
We spent two Montana winters in an RV, one in a Class A, and one in a fifth wheel. Yes, it CAN be done, with relative comfort.
As for aviation, I spent many years working on fire bombers (yes, I was an A&P), and I met a LOT of "junior" pilots. They spent a lot of time flying "bank planes", hauling cancelled checks around for next to nothing, to build time. That is no longer an option, by the way, the cancelled checks are not returned to the issuing bank anymore. In the fire bombers, we had two types of pilots, newbies wanting to build time as a co-pilot, and old semi-retired hands who flew for the joy of doing dangerous flying in antique aircraft.
IMO, if you want a good, fairly high-paying job right out of school, you should be taking nursing courses to get your BSN. THEN you can sign up with a travel company and go all over the country and maybe even the world!
Aviation is a long, tough, row to hoe, whether in the cockpit or up to your elbows in grease and oil.
Good luck.
CM1, USN (RET)
2002 Fleetwood Southwind 32V, Ford V10
Toad: 2006 Jeep Rubicon LJ
Other toad: '06 PT Cruiser, Kar Kaddy dolly
Toy: 1977 Dodge W100 CC SWB, 3/4 ton axles & springs
"When seconds count, help is only minutes away!"
in living in a rv trailer I don't know what I am doing, but everone here keeps giving me advice on my choice to get a CPL, I have my gi bill and since the flight school is done as a degree program I am going to spend 0 dollars getting it. In fact since it is full time College I get paid for housing allowance.
I know being a pilot starting out is tough. I also know I have 0 need to rely on my CPL to make a living.
I want advice on things I need to know about living in an TT. Not advice telling me to flush my dream down the toilet cause it can be "tough" to do. I have extensively looked in to flying, I know what to expect. I wish I never mentioned it here cause then people might have just looked at my questions, the fact that I am getting a cpl was ment to be part of my introduction.
Looking at it that way, can you please tell me where I was being juvenile? I was being kinda hostile I admit since pritty much everone on this rv forum has advice on my dream being a wast of time, I have been hostile since everone assumes that asking questions means I am not sure what I want to do, and I am being impatient since everone on this rv forum ignore my questions to instead put me down and keep going on about my choices in Life. So let's start over.
I am a 35 year old vet, I would like some information about living full time in a TT, I am financially solvent, and have a job. I want to live in a TT to save some cash but mostly cause I am tired of renting places and being stuck in one area till my lease is up, it is also becuase I love to travel!
I have stayed in a TT for over a month before, and I have a basic idea about what to expect living wise, I am single and don't mind not having a large place, in fact I like the I closed feeling I got when staying in a TT before.
What tips and advice might you all have for me? 3 big concerns I have is noise isolation, detailing with 10 deg weather during winter, and Internet access at sites.
Hey Mower, do you remember the last young man that was going to tour the country in a motorhome that he didn't yet own or have any money to buy one, working in bars (even though he had no experience)and living in the parking lot with no hookups? He, too, asked for suggestions and then rejected them.
When I was in High School, a buddy of mine and I were going to build a catamaran and paddle the length of the Mississippi from its headwaters in Minnesota to New Orleans during summer vacation. 2,300 miles. No idea how to build one, no experience even in a canoe, no money, no idea how we were going to get it to Minnesota or get home from New Orleans. Remember the old saying, "Vast Projects often begin with Half - Vast Ideas".
Retired and visiting as much of this beautiful country as I can.
bob, I have lived full-time in a 19 foot TT (by myself), and we lived full time in a 27 foot Class A, a 32 foot class A, and a 32 foot triple slide fifth wheel.
Yes, it CAN be done, and you CAN live in an RV in the winter, even if it isn't a "4 season" rig.
The main thing I can tell you is THINK! THINK about what you want to do, and how you can go about doing it.
If you have specific questions, perhaps I can help you. However, I am not going to sit here and write a book about how to live in a TT. Most of it isn't all that difficult anyway.
I can tell you this much:
1. Forget about hoses for winter water service. Make your water line out of hard copper tubing, heat taped and wrapped with insulation. Yes, you will probably have to make a new one every time you move.
2. It is probably not necessary to insulate and heat your sewer line. I never did, and had no problems with it freezing even in sub-zero temperatures.
3. You CAN leave the grey water dump valve open all the time, but do NOT leave the black water dump valve open! Open the black water valve ONLY when the black tank is 2/3 or more full, then close it again.
4. Ventilate your trailer. Moisture is your enemy. Just breathing and cooking will put enough moisture into the air inside the trailer to cause problems with condensation. There are only two possible cures, a dehumidifier or ventilation.
That is a brief overview of some things you need to be aware of when living in a TT. Again, THINK!
If you have specific questions, I will attempt to help.
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the basic costs I have a grasp of, I am worried about hidden costs, insulation, internet (which has been address for the most part already) parks policy on late night leaving and arriving by private car (which has also been addressed) all in my original post also.
