Going full-time - Jump right in or baby steps?

[jnealy]

DH and I are considering purchasing a MH and going full-time for a year or so. We have never owned a MH before. I want to just go for it, buy the RV, and hit the road. DH thinks we should do a "test run" first, suggesting that we get a used TT and do a 4-8 week trip to see how we like it. What are your opinions? Who jumped right in and who took baby steps? Any advice or pros/cons to doing it one way or the other? Thanks!

[jbprac]

When we first hit the road in our 5th wheel and truck, we didn't know we would be full timers. We had just moved back to the U.S. from living overseas. We had gotten rid of most of our "stuff" before we went overseas. So......we started traveling and just kept finding more reasons to keep it up. That was in late 1997. We have since changed to a MH, but are still on the road. The question of whether to "jump in" or give it a "test run" depends a lot on who you both are, and your level of understanding of what it all means. We were lucky because we both immediately loved FT, but we certainly were not sure when we started.

Good luck with your travels.

Jim

[tncruiser]

we had never owned an rv 2 yrs ago after heart surgery we jumped into a new 09 holiday rambler after a year and about 20 weeks out we jumped into our current "a" buy what you want "outta da gate" about 16 weeks so far this year and 12 more planned plus what ever we can squeeze in
brianj

[wa8yxm]

While not exactly baby steps I would recommend that you start by making a few trips. one or two weeks, That way you may find warrnty issues to deal with before you are w/o shelter.

Then try a couple of months.. This both adapts you to the RV style and finds more issues, should they exist.

Then you go full time, with a fully functional RV.

Worst thing is: Sold the house, and the RV needs to speed a week in the shop for a warranty issue.

[mick]

Funny, in 1982 after a heart attack, my doc said "let life go or it will let u go". I pouted for about a week. I was single. I sold my house and everything else. I bought a used MOHO and went to the lake.

I met a man who was fulltiming and he explained what it was about. I liked what I heard, but knew nothing .

Well I never looked back and I learned a lot shortly. As I suspect you will.

It is up to you whether you feel compelled to start a new way of life. It aint a vacation, but it aint work either.

[WheelingIt]

Hi there jnealy.

Lovely to see ya on iRV2. It's a great forum!

You already know my answer (we pretty much jumped right in with no prior RV experience), but I did want to add that what wa8yxm said also makes sense.

When you first buy a coach you'll run into issues that'll need to be fixed. Even new coaches have little things that need to be "worked out". After we bought the RV we took small weekend trips to work out all the equipment and wring out any technical bugs (and get them fixed!). Then when we moved in we spent a month close to our storage just to make sure we had the right stuff before moving off. It was well worth it. We did quite a good bit of last minute buying and storage in that month.

[jackrobinryan]

Is your DH proposing the used TT because you already have a reliable and adequate vehicle to tow af TT with? If so, I'd have to agree with the baby steps approach. A lot less depreciation if the lifestyle fits and you later move up to a bigger and different unit.

We went for the new 38'MH right out of the gate and expected to be almost fulltimers. Now the DW decides to keep working (hard to argue with that) and I am stuck with a big, nice MH that I use locally for volunteer workamping gigs with Habitat and other charity organizations.

I'm a big fan now of test drives, test trips and trying before buying....

( I would love to be on the road full time......)

safe travels

[njs42]

You can rent the kind of rig you see yourself in and take a few trips----we did a Class C----and we wound up in a Class A---knowing what we wanted.

[TXiceman]

I suggest getting a rental unit and trying it. You will soon find where you have likes and dislikes before you spend a large sum of money on something that will not work.

Ken

[ISSUES]

I was wondering the same thing. My heart and soul say's GO FOR IT. My mind on the other hand is worried about finding work. This work amping I keep reading about, is something I would like to know more about. Is it easy to get those type of job's being new to this type of lifestyle??? Wanting to be a young (35) Full timer myself. Please write my page so we can talk about how all this work's... and for baby step's or jumping in.... I'm in that parking lot myself

[Dog Folks]

t sounds as if your DH is not sure, so try a few "test" trips.

Unless BOTH partners agree and are "gung ho" to jump in, there is always a possibility that one person will not like the lifestyle.

[scgator]

We have been fulltime now, since July 2010; bought the RV and took a 3 day shake down run to Myrtle Beach, came back and stayed home for a week...........could not stand it, went to New Mexico for six weeks, and now home is where we park it. Road trips are our NEW favorite hobby. RV'ING IS FOR EVERYBODY !!!, some people just have a harder time letting go of the things in their life and miss WAY too many memories.....

[bsirby]

We had always camped in tents when the kids were growing up, and loved it. Now that we are older, we decided to buy an RV, looked at our options and chose a Class C. We took short trips to "learn" and boy did we learn...lol Looking back, it would have been foolish to start out with a big trip. After a couple years, we realized life is too short, it was time to retire and follow our dreams. So we sold everything, rented the house, loaded the cat and dog and off we went. No regrets! But everyone is different. I would suggest time to try it before you jump right in. We thought there would be a big adjustment from 1900 square feet to ?? (not many) square feet, but we are not having as many issues as I thought we would. Best of luck making your decision.

[Mody n Domy]

Several years ago a guy at work went out and bought a new Suburban and TT to take his wife and daughter camping. After 1 week of camping he came home and sold it, wife and daughter hated it. On the other hand my brother in law Bought a new 2008 MH and he and his wife set out to see America. After 2 months and 14,000 miles they didn't like it. So now he has a new MH with $10,000 in upgrades and tried to sell but could not. Along came us we were looking for a MH or 5er to retire in so we bought there MH. We will be full timing in Jan. of 2013 we hope, so it worked out for us.