New From Georgia and I do mean NEW

[EelKat]

I recommend taking a few local trips your first year, say not more than 50miles from home (do this BEFORE selling your house if you are planning to sell your house - just in case, you discover fulltiming isn't for you - I've read several blogs/posts/etc by people who sold everything, than HATED fulltiming and had no home to go back to and so ended up stuck in an apartment they hated and wished they'd never seen an RV.)

Two reasons to stay close to home the first year:

#1, it helps you to get used to your RV. It'll take you a while to get used to driving it, plus if it has any problems, it'll be better that you discover them close to home, rather than in the middle of a desert 3,000miles away.

#2, this helps you to get used to actually living in such a tiny space (most people who give up fulltiming, do so, because they had not realized just how SMALL 40 - 100 square feet of total living space really is.) It can take a while to get used to, and the bigger your house is now, the harder it'll be for you to adjust to the RV.

Expense wise, it depends on the type of RV you get, the type of lifestyle you live (Are you going from WalMart to WalMart or from resort to resort? Do you eat at McDonalds or at 5 star resturants? Do you buy cloths from WalMart or Macy's?) and the places you want to visit (beach front resorts w/ pools and tennis courts can cost $75 a day for parking w/o hook ups, while a camp in the forest can be $15 a day with full hook ups). Big 40' Class A deisel pushers have difference expenses that 15' teardrop travel trailers or 40 year old box Winnebagos. Vintage RVs are harder to get parts for though cheap when found, but newer RVs can cost an arm and a leg for parts readily available. Retired couples have differant expences than a young couple, or a family with 4 kids, or a single woman with a dog and 2 cats. So it all depends on who you are, how you live, what you drive, where you go, and it's going to be different for every body. I know of one guy who lives in a van on $500 a year and another couple who live in a 46' Class A and complain that they are having a hard time getting by with their "low" income of only $200,000 a year (if they call that low, I'd like to see what they call high!)

Remember, plan, plan, plan...than expect to not follow your plans. I planned to buy a 30' Class A, and spent 3 years testing, trying out, and driving salesman batty, than I fell in love at first sight with a 1975 22' Class C and bought her on the spot without knowing anything about her (I never even started the engine and had no idea if she'd run and drive or if I'd have to tow her! LOL)

The best thing to do when starting out is to head to Craigslist and go look at and try out, every single RV regardless of age, shape, size, type, or price. Look at old, new, big, small, motorhomes, 5th wheels, travel trailers, Class As, Class Bs, Class Cs, 12', 15', 19' 22', 28', 31' 35' 38' 40' 42' 46'...everything. Figure out what floor plans you like, which ones you don't like, what you need what you don't need, what you love, what you hate, what you can't do without...than once you've figured out what you think is best for you, than you can go actually looking to buy and know what you are looking for.

hope that helps. Good luck!

[david2499]

Thank you for your comment ,you are so right and we have done that,we analyze just about everything we do and hope to have a great experience in the RVworld .David2499 &Linda

[barbaram]

Welcome David and Linda - you are braver than us. We are going to go regularly part time as soon as we can both retire.... as for the full time, will keep our regular home for awhile yet. We are new to this too, have camped a couple of times and love it. Wish we had done it sooner.