Greetings from yet another newbie...

[Mikec94]

...who comes to you bearing many questions. But before I ask them I see I have much reading to do both in the Library and the forums.

Anyway, my name is Mike. Though I currently do my camping in a tent, I am not unfamiliar with RV'ing. My family had a "park bound" travel trailer in a seasonal site in NY State. So i do have some experience with trailers, but not a lot of towing time.

What brings me here is a long term plan to become a full timer upon my retirement (16 years and counting down...told it was long term). I am leaning towards a Travel Trailer for that purpose, on the small side since at least right now it will only be me living the dream.

What I'll be looking for here and nudging out of everyone is your thoughts on full time RVing - things related to equipment choice and all the things I need to square away and plan for once I move onto the road full time.

Is 16 years enough time to get it set up?

Thanks, Mike Caton
Long Island NY

 

[Wendy]

Hi Mike. Welcome to the forum. Plenty of full-timers here who can answer your questions. Me and my Mike are working toward hitting the road as fulltimers next summer. My suggestions would be to buy, rent or borrow an RV and start now doing weekends and vacations. And keep your possessions to a minimum....our biggest problem right now is getting rid of all our 'stuff' so we can go fulltiming.

Enjoy

 

[Ron]

Howdy Mike,

Welcome to the RV Forum. Lots of fulltimers here.  Please look around the forum,  join in on any of the on going discussions, start new discussions, or ask questions.  Thanks for joining us.

 

[fredethomas]

16 years to plan for full-timing is overkill.  We did it in less than 3 months, and had never before gone camping, or owned an RV.  Just jumped in with both feet and never looked back.  Found out how dumb we were the first few months, but that did not deter us.  Just kept wetting the appetite for more.  Found the forum, back when it was still young and we grew with it and the experience of the others we found here.  They have now become fast friends and we are still enjoying the lifestyle after over 10 years full-timing, but now part-timing it.  We found out what we needed as we went along.  Started with a 15 year old 27 ft gas MH.  After 6 mos and a whole continent away, decided to upgrade to a 34 footer, still gas.  18 months later went up to a diesel with a slide and have been totally happy with it for almost 8 years now.  We haven't found anything with a floor plan or as well put together as what we have, so have no reason to upgrade.  Just took us a few years to figure it all out, and couldn't do that without trying out a few others first.  It's once you live in it that gives you better ideas of what works and what doesn't. 

Anyway, not to worry.  You'll do just fine whenever you decide to retire.  You may be surprised and do it even sooner, once you see how much fun we all have doing it.  Ah!!!!  The freedom of it all!!!!        Daisy

 

[Ned]

In 16 years so much can change that the decisions we make today may be entirely different then.  In the meantime, why not get an RV and enjoy it on your vacations and even weekends?  Doing this will give you a much better idea of what you would need in a fulltime RV when the time comes.

Back in 1996, we had talked about going fulltime but really didn't have a time frame.  In Jan-Feb 1997, events conspired to help us make the decision, so in April we bought our fulltime motorhome and left the real property world behind in May.  We're still in that 1997 Endeavor LE and have no thoughts about settling down anytime soon.

Although it may seem very premature, when you enter the fulltime lifestyle you should start thinking about your exit strategy.  What will you do if you can no longer fulltime for some reason, or find that you don't like the lifestyle?  We don't have a specific exit strategy yet, but we have to be thinking about it.  Fortunately, we are both still enjoying the lifestyle.

 

[Mikec94]

Hi and thank you for the greeting, still busy reading and digesting past threads. This is a great site, just want to say thank you for what is obviously a lot of hard work on many peoples part.

As far as far as my future retirement plans go - I don't think I'll be waiting that long (16 years) for the first venture in RVing, in fact since I've started looking at whats available, I've found that there are units in my reach. So now I have to decide what to try and which way to go for the interim RV.

Mike

PS apropos of nothing in particular - Did you know that Sept 19th is International Talk Like A Pirate Day?

 

[woodartist]

Well Mike, technology changes fast and you really can't keep up with it. Heck, in 16 years you might be drving a space craft ;D We just jumped into the lifestyle after realizing that we liked to travel and it would be easier to bring the "house" with us, than a few vacations a year. If you buy used, you might want to consider the desert SW for the purchase. Reason is that the prices might be a little cheaper, pickings better, and most importantly there isn't the road salt problem you have back in the NE.

Yep, knew about the pirate day...aaarrrhhhh