I have fulltime remote job, and I want to boondock fulltime...

[I_did_that]

Good point...didn't mean to snub the OP's idea there. If it's a hobby, a dream, sure, it can be done if there's a will. There's liquid-fuel generators and huge battery/generators and solar, and water storage, and everything to make it happen if one wants to live the boondock life. We've taken the easy path

One caveat about Starlink, although it has gotten better, obstructions (trees, buildings, mountains, etc) will cause service to drop intermittently. That doesn't work well for video calls or hosted applications like Citrix, so the area will need to be nearly obstruction-free. We've found that to be harder than it sounds. This is why we carry cellular as a backup, although, there obviously needs to be good service in order for that to work.

That's what I've been doing for the past 2 years--working fulltime and staying at private campgrounds. The thing is that the scenery at private campground simply cannot compete with state campgrounds. I went to Sugarite State Park here in NM, and wow it is pretty and serene

 

[I_did_that]

All, thank you so much for the feedback and tips. Some of you suggested battery banks / Solar as an option. The cost of both is still astronomical. For example, a battery bank like Jackery and solar panel combo will run you $2k, and the runtime they provide is pretty low (like 1hr, and you have to re-charge it which will take all day via solar) I do plan on buying an RV with the Solar / inverter / generator built it, but that'll be for a while

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

I went to Sugarite State Park here in NM

Wondering, since this is a remote work thread, if Sugarite has cell service or wifi? Sometimes reports of connectivity from internet review sites is absent or inaccurate and the best report is from someone that's been there recently. Seems most campgrounds I've been to here in NM have no cell service and often no OTA TV to be had. (OK for me, not so much for remote work.)

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[jymbee]

I quit two years ago because I got tired of what i called stupid student questions.

Not to hijack the thread, but care to share some examples?

 

[SMR]

Not to hijack the thread, but care to share some examples?

This would make a great post.

 

[Onyrlef]

My job was advertised as remote job when I applied for it (I'm in tech). I've never been in the office of my Company, nor have I met anyone in my Company face-to-face. This could change tomorrow if my Company demands we come back to the office

If the Commercial Real Estate industrial complex is successful you will get called back. They're pushing hard to get people back into office spaces.

 

[JudyJB]

Put in new area under Shade Tree.

 

[Yorick]

@I_did_that , you noted that this was the plan for the "Summer". So, you're probably already in the midst of your plan. However, I still want to add something that might be useful to someone else in the future which I'm disappointed was not brought up by others.

The key is power draw. You need to calculate the total starting power draw in wattage of all appliances you plan to use simultaneously at the peak usage hours. This determines the total wattage you need your generator to provide. That gives you your power draw requirements. Take that to the RV shop or store where you plan to buy the generator or online service.

 

[Ohiosnowbird]

FWIW, our Onan generator quit a few weeks back (at 1152 hours) and we still haven’t figured out why, we recently hung a new control panel $$$, didn’t work. (We’ve been boondocking in the front yard since June to learn how our new coach works.) We‘re also are living off grid in a late 1700’s log cabin so we know a little about living remote. Back to the failed generator on the RV, there’s and off-grider’s saying, have 2 of everything. Solar is a great idea for power storage, having 2 generators especially, if you’re working full time in tech is too. We use (2) Honda EU7000iS Super Quiet 7000 Watt Portable Industrial Inverter Generator w/ Co-Minder Detection to power everything electric in the cabin and barns, and now one is dedicated to the RV until we figure out what’s wrong with the brand new Onan.

 

[Kirk]

Last seen Jun 5, 2023

 

[Ohiosnowbird]

Last seen Jun 5, 2023

So is replying to these threads a waste of time? Is it worth it to others? I want to contribute but I also don’t want to waste my time either. It seems I spent time recently on these kinds of topics...

 

[jymbee]

So is replying to these threads a waste of time? Is it worth it to others? I want to contribute but I also don’t want to waste my time either. It seems I spent time recently on these kinds of topics...

There's no statute of limitations on threads.

Often a reply to an old thread, even a very old thread, is relevant and useful to those viewing.

 

[jackiemac]

So is replying to these threads a waste of time? Is it worth it to others? I want to contribute but I also don’t want to waste my time either. It seems I spent time recently on these kinds of topics...

Check the date of the last post and decide.

Several posts that brought this back on the view lists were spam and have been deleted. This happens quite a lot.

As jymbee says your comments may still be useful.

 

[DutchmenSport]

Here's one for the "work from home" skeptics?

I retired 2 years ago after working from home exclusively the last 2 1/2 years of my employment. My wife has been working from home exclusively for the last 5 years. She's returned to the actual stick-n-brick building only once and that was to swap out for a new key board for her computer.

During the covid year, both of our companies had the most success and the highest profits ever in the course of either's history. And both companies have histories that go back over 30 years.

It was during this same time, we decided to take "work" on the road. So, basically, for the last 5 years, we've been on-the-road, returning home just long enough to take care of filing taxes, voting, doctor visits, and pet vet visits, and routine maintenance on the camper and the truck.

We ended up using Visible as our primary internet service and we also purchased a WeBoost cell phone booster that works well with both the Visible (Verison) and AT&T phones. Never had an issue connecting to work.

My wife and I both were in Information Technology (Tech), as software testers for our respective companies. We were both well trained in software development and software testing methods. Agile was the latest software development innovation that changed the way we did things. It was a strange learning curve for those of us who grew up on the "waterfall" method.

But, both our companies had the right sense of mind to realize that being "in person" was not necessary and even in an "Agile" environment, Teams Meetings served the same purpose. Besides, no one STILL wants to come into a closed up room and breathe everyone else's germs, get sick and die!

So, for all the "work from home" nay-sayers, (I can BOLDLY say this now since I'm completely, officially retired now).... you are full of wet noodles still believe working in office is necessary. The thing that management cannot do when folks work-from-home is walk around the floor looking over everyone's shoulder and making it appear that their job is vital, when in realty, middle management is actually clueless what's really going on when we work.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Whether a physical office environment is necessary or even beneficial depends a lot on what the job is and how self-contained the various tasks are. And maybe how self-motivated the worker is.

 

[NY_Dutch]

One of our daughters does medical insurance billing, working from home since COVID hit. Her supervisor started to call people back to the office as the pandemic wound down, but quickly learned that the work from home workers were more productive than the office workers. Now almost the entire staff works from home, and the office has been downsized into a smaller facility. She's only a weekender/vacationer RV'er at this point, but she did do a successful RV test week last summer using only her unlimited cell service for Internet. She hopes to do more of that next summer.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I recall my time as an IT manager and my function had almost zero to do with overseeing an individual's work. They were all professionals and I assigned a task and gave a schedule and that was pretty much it. Any follow-up would be a change in schedule or the task description and that can easily be done remotely. The rest of my job was to make sure they got paid appropriately and rewarded for exceptional performance. Meetings were primarily an aid to communication where multiple people were cooperating and needed to be on the same page. That sort of thing can be done virtually as well.

As a footnote, it didn't take long for me to figure out that managing others was not my cup of tea, nor did I find being a "boss" to be rewarding.

 

[jymbee]

Back in the old days as an IT consultant, I tried to get clients (typically large insurance companies) to embrace a work at home model for certain projects. But no matter how hard I tried to convince them that could work and actually offer a number of advantages, they were of the mind set that if you weren't physically there, you weren't working.

Took a long time but years later one of the fist issues that was brought up when scoping out a new project was "Can this be set up to allow for remote workers??"

 

[Tulecreeper]

The work-from-home is a specific demographic of jobs. Jobs where you are required to be on the phone a lot, or sit at a desk - even if that desk is in your home office. I have never had a job like that, and neither has my wife nor most of the people we know. Cops don't sit a desk unless they're injured, nurses (my wife) never sit a desk, and neither do roofers, heavy equipment operators, or ranchers. These kinds of people have been my orbit of friends and acquaintances all my life.

 

[Ray-IN]

The work from home trend is swinging the other way now. More companies are requiring workers to return to the office.
I called my Ins. company last week, the man I was talking to was hard to understand and hear because his small dog was barking very loudly. When he had to transfer me to a different dept. I commented perhaps I could hear the new person if he didn't also have a barking dog.
Sudden and long silence was the next thing I heard.