We RVed Full-time for 8 Years; Here Are 10 Things We Learned

This article was first published in this blog in January 2013. Then I developed it for Travel Awaits last May 2023 .  I used that article to update this blog today.

At 60 I met an American businessman who took me RVing right after our wedding. Crossing North America six times reaching 49 American states, nine Canadian provinces, and six Mexican states, we lived in it full-time for eight years. Here are the top ten lessons we learned. I have added three notes at the end.

1.   Follow the sun; maximize the fun.                     

It’s a moving home; no need to shiver in the cold or sizzle in the sun.  Some say with full-time RVing, you can readily change your neighbors in case an issue comes up! True, but the real benefit is when it’s the weather that you can’t stand. Spend summers up north and winters down south!

Once I had to go back to Seattle in November for the US Commission on Immigration Services. Their letter scheduling an appointment reached our previous campground after we had already left so it didn’t get to me in time. Unfortunately, the new date they gave us came with a white Thanksgiving. Our RV got buried in snow, our water system almost froze, and we almost ran out of electricity. No, we didn’t do that again.

2. Triple the fun: plan and document.

Aside from enjoying the destination, planning the exploration with anticipation doubles the fun. And documenting to relive it later triples it!

I get pushback about planning from those who espouse spontaneity. But you see, I don’t mean planning to the smallest detail. Plan just enough to implement Lesson #1. Besides, not planning may result in inefficient routes. With the high price of gasoline (and electric charging stations still sparse for eventual eRVs), thoughtful planning is essential.

Documenting, on the other hand, allows you to enjoy the memories more completely and to share them with others. I started a blog the year after we began RVing. I didn’t know the blog would be my jumping point for my first travel book. Now to start each day in our seventies, we read one of 600+ blogposts or the chapters of my travel books.

3. Explore an area thoroughly.

Don’t leave an area before you get to know it. You wouldn’t want to have to come back and spend more on fuel. Lesson #2 will help do this. In the beginning, we stayed in a place for three or four days. It was at a frantic pace to cover as many new places as we could. Then we would find out that we missed this or that landmark.

We upgraded from a 24-ft. Class B to a 37.5 ft Class A RV (please see this for the different types of RVing, RVs, and campgrounds) bought into a nationwide network of campgrounds, and stayed in an area for two to three weeks. It was enough time to immerse ourselves in the local life. Slow travel set in.

4. Choose an RV for basic needs.

Your RV must meet the same basic needs you require from a home. It must not have “wants” that make your RV unnecessarily bigger, heavier, and more costly to run. That eliminates a bathtub, outright! But I also decided I did not need a dresser or desk. Our unit came with a microwave/convection oven combo, a compact dishwasher, and a mini stack-up washer/dryer.

5. Include Healthcare in Your Plan.

This was the biggest lesson we learned. If we were given the chance to do it all over again, we would make sure to spend a couple of months a year at a central location to see regular doctors and do annual consultations and tests.

My husband’s sister still lives in their hometown, Pittsburg, Kansas. It could have been an ideal location, and their doctors would have been great for us, too. When our health issues compounded, we were compelled to do that and got a lot done, including cataract surgery.

But preventive medicine is much better.

6. Always travel light.

Travel light in an RV? How is that possible, you ask? The RV is already very heavy, even when it is empty! To me that meant traveling light is even more important. Because you are always moving, travel with the barest minimum. To achieve this, I developed a few rules: storing only a week’s worth of food, throwing away a piece of clothing whenever we bought a new one, keeping service for only four, and using disposable sets for bigger groups, etc.

7. Become a member of a network.

We soon found out that camping fees, after fuel, are a big part of total expenses. If you camp for a major part of the year, become a member of a good campground network (we chose Thousand Trails) to get the best rates. Over the eight years, ours came to about $10 a day.  What is more, the task of looking for suitable campgrounds is eliminated.

8. Take advantage of work and payback opportunities

With plenty of time on our hands, we look for ways to make good use of our extra hours. Many of those we met on the road took advantage of seasonal job opportunities, like at Amazon’s fulfillment centers, those listed on workamper.com, or those odd jobs at the campground. For payback opportunities, I liked Habitat for Humanity whose Care-a-Vanners program provides a campsite while you volunteer.

9. Use nationwide services but buy locally.

For larger maintenance jobs and higher-priced durable goods, it is best to use nationwide chains that guarantee the quality of their service or product anywhere in the country. When we had a roof leak repaired in Spokane, Washington, we didn’t have enough time for the work to dry (had to leave for a family reunion at Glacier National Park). When the roof still leaked a little in Illinois, the local Camping World fixed the issue.

For simpler jobs and consumable goods, it is good to contribute to the local economy. Besides, farmers’ markets sell the season’s best produce and the community’s best crafts.

10. Stay connected.

Perhaps the hardest part of full-time RVing is being far from your loved ones. Technology helps to bridge the gap.  But one reason we upgraded to bigger unit is so they could visit us. They did and occasionally, we even became neighbors. Camping in their driveways is the trick!

Here are three other tips that didn’t make it to my top ten, but we found important for our circumstances.

1. Don’t trade your home for a vehicle, in case you need to stay put again. Choose an RV that you can afford to pay for in cash, so you don’t have to sell your home or incur new debt. If you can, rent out your home(s) to finance your RVing (like we did).

2. Buy a used RV; just make sure it’s a good reliable brand (we got a Newmar). Let others take that first-year depreciation hit. This made our cost of RVing even lower (together with Note #1 and lesson #7) than staying in a rented apartment. The savings helped us buy a new home and timeshares for a new traveling lifestyle.

3. Use mail forwarding services in low-tax states such as South and North Dakota or Montana, etc. Initially, we used a family member’s address because we were told mailed-in voting was limited to those with actual homes. But after a letter got to us late (see lesson #1), we shifted to a mail forwarder.

If you are serious about full-time living in an RV, these 10 lessons (and three notes) will help you.  These and more are in my book Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream, a travel book of our RVing years. It will give you a feel for this cruising lifestyle. You may also get a good late-in-life immigration and love story.