Gary RV Roamer said:
Agree with all of the above. Personal lifestyles have widely differing monetary needs, but $25k is really tight if you expect to travel widely and do things. RV living is rarely inexpensive. You can hold down costs by parking in one place long term (and probably a inelegant place at that), but that's not what you say you want to do (nor would I). Travel means paying daily rates in RV parks plus significant fuel costs.
Whether $50k is a practical budget for a rig again depends on what rig you find acceptable for your needs. Anything beyond 'small" is going to require a substantial pick-up truck to haul it and those don't come cheap. Most will need a diesel 3/4 ton or one-ton truck for safe and comfortable towing and those get really pricey, even 10 year old ones. I think you can get a decent fulltiming rig for $50k, but probably not a lot less than that.
I can't guess what you really mean by "stashing stuff from your condo", but it's probably not going to happen. Storage space is tight in any RV, even the largest. A really big trailer is typically only about 300 sq ft, and a bed, bath, galley and living space have to fit in that. Most condos are triple or quadruple that.
And Moebius is right on about about independent software work. If you already have a software job, or at least some existing clients who come to you for upgrades and new stuff, you can probably continue that on the road. If you are hoping to move up from personal coding to professional, it's going to be tough. And figure on $120-$150 per month for cellular internet service. I use 200-300 MB per day and I no longer do any professional software development or consulting work.
you need to get out and visit a lot of RVs to develop a feel for what is available and the size & type that will meet your expectations. Then we can have a bit more meaningful discussion about acquisition costs.
That's my aim over the next couple months, research and view RVs and trucks. I've been happy living in cramped quarters before, so I'm not particularly worried on that specific account, but I've never lived with the other quirks and limitations of RVs.
Regarding trucks, I don't really know them, here's the sort of truck I've been eying strictly on research: http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/cto/5692656359.html . Am I on the right track? Are there towing features I need to look that aren't standard for large-ish diesel pick-ups like this? If I could get a good truck for <20,000 that would leave me a ceiling of around 30,000 for the trailer itself, and there's at least lots to pick from in that range; I was initially looking well cheaper than 30k since this is a first effort.
Regarding 'stuff', it's the profusion of excess stuff I've accumulated over the last decade of having lots of house space. A lot of nice-ish things bought to fill the place out or to justify the effort I was putting into work, some sentimental things accumulated through childhood. I'm in the process of divesting myself of stuff, I've donated most of my books, am craigslisting the electronics I never use, donating excess household stuffs. I'm still gonna have some left over, accumulated things that are useful and worth not discarding or selling, and some of it won't be useful in a RV. So, I'll have boxed up stuff, and it would be nice if I could put it in a truck bed with a cover over it, or the storage area of a toy hauler. It's not necessary though, I could ship such things if need be.
Of course, that presumes a truck without a 5th wheel mount in the bed. If a 5th wheel were the way to go I wouldn't have that space. Speaking of which, how big a deal is getting the receptacle for a 5th wheel mounted on a truck?
Anchors said:
I agree with most of what's been said, but I want to offer the following:
1) You don't want to be in NE during the winter, not just because of the cold, but because you'll be subjecting your house to salt and snow and slush every now and then, and as us New Englanders know, car engines last longer around here than car frames, body, wires, fuel lines, etc. Once you expose your RV to salted roads, the rot will begin. It's only a matter of time. My plan is to be up here (Vermont) NOW which is when it's best, then cruise out of here right after colors (early October).
2) If you are alone (meaning unmarried, no kids) then you can do 25K a year living if you boondock in National Parks, etc, for most of the year, only staying in RV Parks about 25% of the time. I can email you a detailed spreadsheet (.xls) with projected expenses and income needs (as well as asset monitoring section) if you want.
3) I would invest in solar panels and lithium ion batteries so you can provide power to your income-producing devices without running your generator and ruining the peace and quiet of where you are parked or boondocking.
4) This all assumes that you ALREADY know you have a source of income from coding.
5) Sell everything. Don't chicken out and keep things in storage. You may want to buy a piece of land in a state you like for the future, but chuck the condo and other property if you want simplicity. There's no reason a single person can't code out of a 26 or 30 foot Class C, or a 28 or 30 foot fifth wheel. Buy do a lot of shopping and buy quality that will last. You can make this work if you listen to the insights of all the folks on this forum and the internet. Visit Youtube and type in full time RV. You'll be amazed at what's out there.
1. Serious problems, but I'll be seeing family over the holidays one way or another. How much do you think I could mitigate this issue by avoiding
travel in New England during the winter, just getting in and out for the holiday season on clear days ? Do you think the corrosion issues are bad enough that it'd be worth parking the RV somewhere to the south and driving up north?
2. Yup, it's just me, and that sounds like the sort of thing I would benefit from tremendously. My name at gmx.com will work, just made it.
3. Agreed, on multiple counts. Not only for the benefits, but because the other thing I've debated doing next is a small scale solar installation. Electricity prices are crazy back east; I'd like to have some practical experience utilizing a solar/inverter/battery system. One of the things I've been looking at on RVs is the roofs, how practical mounting some serious solar would be given the layout of skylights and vents. Though I also wonder if a deployable of some sort would make more sense.
4. I'm willing to live off savings for a year or three in the interest of doing something genuinely interesting with myself and not letting my ass get any more chair shaped... or my mind any more office-shaped.
5. In spirit that's what I'm going for, but there's also an issue of pragmatism. Re-selling, I'm not going to get value on a lot of these things, and there's stuff like art that has little monetary value but which I would like to keep. But yeah, I aim to ditch as much of my stuff as I can manage.
Sun2Retire said:
There's also workcamping. Free spot with hookups with plenty of time left to code
What sort of terms do people do workcamping on?