What Does Every RVer need? An RV!

01-12-2015

Author: Blog Editor in

When making the decision to become a Full Time RVer there are lots of things to consider. First and foremost you need to determine what type of RV you want to live in. This is a critical decision because you are going to move from a spacious house to a lot smaller environment. The good news is that today’s RV’s have lots of room and storage available. You can spend from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars on your rig. It all comes down to what your financial situation is and what you want to do while being a full time RVer. So let’s take a moment and look at both of these situations a little closer.

Types of RV’s

When deciding to go full time on the road usually the choice is to purchase a Class A motorhome. Class A’s are the larger motorhomes that you can drive down the road. These rigs come in both Gas and Diesel, with and without slides, again it all comes down to what you can afford and what you want to accomplish while on the road. With Class A motorhomes you will usually pull a vehicle behind giving you transportation when you are parked. The second popular choice it to purchase a 5th wheel or pull behind trailer. 5th wheel trailers really are like pulling mini houses behind your truck, they come with and without slides and offer a variety of floor plans to suite your individual needs. One advantage to the 5th wheel or trailer is when you park and drop the trailer your truck is your transportation.

When Vicki and I decided to go full time we decided to go with a Class A Motorhome. For us it was a good choice because we travel with our 3 Pugs and in the motorhome when we travel the dogs have plenty of room. We also like traveling in a Class A because going down the road is a lot more convenient for us. We don’t have to stop for bathroom breaks unless it’s the driver that needs the break and if you want a snack or a cup of coffee you can get this while traveling.
Once Vicki and I decided that a Class A was going to be our home we needed to figure out how much we could afford to spend. In our situation at the time we made the decision that living on the road we did not want to have a payment so whatever we purchased we would pay cash for. This did limit our choices but trust me you can get great deals from private sellers. In our case we set a budget of $7,000.00 to get a motorhome. After selling off everything in the house and what we had put back this would give us enough to get a motorhome and hopefully give us some extra “Travel” money when we hit the road.

Our First Motorhome

We went to a few dealers and looked at what they had in the way of used motorhomes, the choices were very limited because of what we were wanting to spend. We also looked at Craigslist and that is where we found our first motorhome. I cannot stress enough that Craigslist is a great resource for finding a good motorhome you just have to really spend some time to look and do your due diligence when going to look at it, (we will talk more about this in a later blog entry).
We found a 40 foot Fleetwood Bounder RV no slides and the asking price was $7,500.00. When we went and looked at it she was in “rough” shape on the outside but mechanically she seemed sound. I’m mechanically inclined so investing some time I thought we could make it work. We made an offer and when it was all said and done we ended up paying $5,000.00 for our first motorhome.
After purchasing our Fleetwood we put about $1,500.00 into fixing some of the issues that she had to get her road ready. This included doing a tune up, Oil Change and fixing up some of the mechanical issues on the inside in addition we gave the generator a tune up and oil change too. There was a lot of time spent on doing some re-wiring because of some chewed wires. Keep in mind that when working on the inside of a motorhome everything is going to be a lot tighter quarters and can be challenging at times. If you are mechanically inclined you really can find good deals if you are willing to invest some time and money.

Photo Credit: RV Trader

Matt and Vicki Hulbert are full time RVers who decided to begin a life on the road and enjoy the Rving lifestyle while still in their mid-40’s. With no real savings, no retirement to speak of and only a dream they took the plunge into this way of life. They like to consider their selves “21st Century Gypsies”, they figure it out as they go. It has not always been an easy road but they are living proof that with a dream, good work ethic and a little luck you too can achieve this wonderful lifestyle. Follow the adventures of Matt, Vicki and their 3 Pugs, see where their adventure takes them next. If you are one of those individuals or couples that are sitting there right now saying “one day” then maybe Matt and Vicki can help you find out that “ONE DAY” is TODAY and you too can start living the dream!