Good post keep the threads coming. One point that needs to be kept in mind is that Fulltiming is a lifestyle. I commend everyone wheather they are still fulltiming or not. At least they gave it a whirl.
Good post Kirk. And I also agree with the above, I don't have regrets about trying it. I really would have appreciated more of the honest approach types of posts when I asked the same question 4 years ago. The best advice I have ever seen was from one who suggested why not try it for a year first before you sell everything load up and go, this advice really could have saved me money lol. Also you do need to know what you will be doing with yourself on a day to day basis. Any hobbies you can take? He's right...it's not a vacation. How will you occupy your time...be realistic with yourself. One more thing...maybe the rv lifestyle section would be better for this question, you may find more of us ex-full timers there.
American Tradition with Saturn SL2 toad
Husband of 29 years and our boys Poncho and Cisco
We should have a thread for fulltimers who have tried the S&B way and failed. You know fulltime for awhile and then go back to a S&B on the false assumption that you're "supposed" to live that way. But then that itch comes back, so you move to a new house and a couple years later back comes the itch till finally you give in and get back out here on the road where you belong.
I'll stick by the advice I always give those thinking about going fulltime.
1. Go away for 2 months. At the end of the two months head home. Are you looking forward to going home or wondering why you're heading home?
2. Gw away again, for 3 or 4 months this time. Same question at the end and -
a) if you can't wait to get home - keep the house and take extended vacations or snowbird. OR
b) if you don't want to go home put the house up for sale and give fulltiming a try.
To base the decision to sell your house and hit the road on "research" is silly. You need to get on the road and see if it agrees with you. That's not something you can find out from others experiences or ideas. At least stick your toe in the water to see the temprature before you dive in.
Wacky - you're absolutely right.
John Ewing
2007 Allegro Bus 42QRP ("TisIt")
2005 Sportster/HydraLift ("Dinky")
2002 Miata toad ("Mellow Yellow") www.jandse.com
FMCA 104106
What goes around comes around - always treat others the way you'd like them to treat you.
Some people don't have the option of keeping a home base AND stick their baby toe in the water, they have to just grab their nose and cannon ball in! So, researching is important to some. They can't just buy their way out of a "oops" decision.
My parents were full timers before the word was invented! LOL
They started their marriage out in one, and my moms ended as one. Is how I ended up moving to NC from NY when she got ill. But they also could do it with leaning on family to hold the home base together (care for house, mail, pay their bills, health care wasn't a issue, etc.)
They didn't have all the sissy fluff of services full timers of today have! Mail services, internet, etc
Horseplay wrote: I think this is the perfect place to discuss this! Why would you want to discuss with people that never have tried to live this lifestyle for advice? Did you just jump into it, without doing any research? Bet you listened hard to what people had challenges with and what has worked and what didn't....and why.
Actually, we did go right into fulltiming without the benefit of any forums. That was 13 years ago. It was our dream, not others. We used a lot of common sense, made mistakes and learned a great deal over the years. We didn't feel dependent on others to tell us what rig to FT in, where to go, whether to have diesel or gas, how much it would cost, how to keep a budget or what to use in our holding tanks. We did talk with FTers we met while camping and travelling and gleaned some information from them, but for the most part, we figured it out ourselves because it was a very strong dream of ours.
The FT Forum is a great place now to get much of that info. I have to agree with WTCCS tho. Many people fail at this lifestyle because they are expecting their lives to change dramatically. If they were bored or boring in their Stick/brick life, it can be almost assured they will be bored or boring in their FT life and then blame it on FTing.
If you go into this lifestyle looking for all the reasons to fail..... you will. I am continually amazed at the number of those who tried it, it didn't work for whatever reason, and they quit, but still hang out on the FT Forums. There must still be a little of the dream left in them.
WTTCS wrote: "People post/read here not just to hear the lifestyle cheerleading. Anyone with a imagination and loves camping can do that part. "
And that explains it all!!! Better than my posts.
I never did look good in a short skirt.
I will say though I don't mind cheering (bragging or whatever) of my lifestyle as it fits ME. As most know though I'll also post on the negative stuff too. The nitty gritty of it. There is no lifestyle that I'm aware of that doesn't have it challenges and pitfalls to go with the good. If there is please guide me to it! It would be dangerous for anyone to think that going full-time that all the worlds ails will go away along with life's general responsibilities. On vacations those things might take a "break", but in the full-time lifestyle they it don't.
Like most for me it started somewhat as a vacation and of course a lifestyle change. That last about a week lol. After that the real world set in.
We, also hit the road without benefit of the forums. We did a whole lot of research.
We knew it was for us when at the beginning of a three week trip we were dreading going home....just wanted to keep driving
Two years later, we were official fulltimers
Dianne
Donnelly, ID
DataStorm
HAM WB6N (Terry)
2005 Teton 39' Frontier Grand
2003 Freightliner FL60
Life Member Good Sam
Escapees
Geocache..."RVcachers" RV net Blog
Horseplay wrote: Some people don't have the option of keeping a home base AND stick their baby toe in the water, they have to just grab their nose and cannon ball in! So, researching is important to some. They can't just buy their way out of a "oops" decision.
My parents were full timers before the word was invented! LOL
They started their marriage out in one, and my moms ended as one. Is how I ended up moving to NC from NY when she got ill. But they also could do it with leaning on family to hold the home base together (care for house, mail, pay their bills, health care wasn't a issue, etc.)
They didn't have all the sissy fluff of services full timers of today have! Mail services, internet, etc
Same here with mine.
The reason I suggested moving the post or asking it somewhere else is the original post is not getting answered for them. It's just turning into what the poster said they've already read, so I thought maybe rv lifestyle would have more folks like me to help them out. I really am glad the full time lifestyle fits for you guys...really I am and.. no I was not looking to fail..I honestly thought my folks lifestyle would work well for us. But the "try it what's not to like?" is very expensive and why not use the resources available and do the research ahead of time...this is the "information age."
Horseplay wrote: Some people don't have the option of keeping a home base AND stick their baby toe in the water, they have to just grab their nose and cannon ball in! So, researching is important to some. They can't just buy their way out of a "oops" decision.
My parents were full timers before the word was invented! LOL
They started their marriage out in one, and my moms ended as one. Is how I ended up moving to NC from NY when she got ill. But they also could do it with leaning on family to hold the home base together (care for house, mail, pay their bills, health care wasn't a issue, etc.)
They didn't have all the sissy fluff of services full timers of today have! Mail services, internet, etc
That's true. I never said it was easy making the transition. All I said was, it's a choice. This life has costs, too. So if you can afford to do this, you could probably also afford to do something else. Millions of people don't own an RV OR a SB at all, and would think you have a lot if you own either one at all. They keep sucking up oxygen and making babies, so I think we can assume it's survivable?
My folks did like yours, but as a military family. What I saw was the park model give way to a TT. The same TT we full-timed in become a weekender thing, then became a full-time thing again. Same box. Those were people who owned a TT but never thought of it as camping. They would go tent camping to do that, thinking owning a TT at all was a 'sissy' thing. Relying on family was a big maybe, because they might be a couple thousand miles away. Letters were written. A long distance call was an event that usually meant a birth or a death - or that somebody far away was way more drink than they thunk, lol. (Always that one aunt.)
Maybe there aren't a whole lot of people around who ever lived it that way, so it seems less flexible or more romantic to them. But if I learned it as a mere rug rat, then anyone could learn it. It's not a should or shouldn't. It's a yes or no.
It's definitely not the money thing. How could we say that? There are people who do it because they have lots of cash, and people who do it because they don't have lots of cash. One side says it's all falling apart due to hard times, the other says the streets are filled with urban campers. One says it's a magnificent adventure, the other says it's a national tragedy - just don't park in my hood. You think either one sees much further than their own windshield? I sure as heck don't! A guy says he wants to fulltime - and...it doesn't mean anything, because we have almost NO clue what he thinks that means. And since he hasn't actually done it yet, he has no way of deciding what the answers mean, either.
OP - you wanna fill in the blanks a little? What is that picture you have in your head? What is it YOU are worried you would dislike or not be able to handle?
Hey guys, I hooked into this thread because hubby and I are seriously thinking about taking the plunge. We are rid of house, farm, kids and now renting a condo. We are now researching what type of rig we want to do this with.
I was born with a gypsy soul. Hubby travels all the time for business anyhow. I feel stuck at home looking at the same darn back yard (ugly where we are renting) and we jokingly call me "the keeper of the stuff" and I don't want to be!
I am the one that would be taking care of the traveling home! Hooking up with him in his territory from Maryland to FL but often has to fly all over the states. It would be to his advantage on the road to not have to keep treking back to the NC east coast home base other than our children live here.
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The nitty gritty of it. There is no lifestyle that I'm aware of that doesn't have it challenges and pitfalls to go with the good. If there is please guide me to it!
