shoebox303 wrote:
My wife and I and our two kids (7 and 10) are preparing to move into a full time RV situation and hoping to draw on the incredible knowledge you all possess to be as educated as possible through the process. Here's what we know:
1. We want a Class A that will pull our 2 door Jeep Wrangler.
2. We have one year to plan.
Here's what we don't know. Actually, we don't know what we don't know, I guess. But we'd love advice on things like:
1. Recommended bunkhouse brands/models of Class A's.
2. Speaking of brands, there are probably at least 5 brands with the same floorplan. Are some brands known for their quality or lack thereof? Or better at service for fulltimers that are moving around?
3. Setting up our domicile state. This is imporant, right? Does it matter where we set up residency?
4. What are the things you wish you would have known before you pulled anchor and drove away for the first time as a Full-timer?
Thanks, everyone. Looking forward to this discussion!
While I love RV.net for some things, asking about fulltiming as a family is often met with criticism, inaccuracies, misguided suggestions, and (sadly) downright mean-ness.
The reference to
Fulltime Families above by 2gypsies is a good one. If you're a Facebook user, the Facebook group is really helpful. At 20,000 members, it can often become overwhelming. That's where a membership to Fulltime Families becomes worth it- with your $45/year membership, you get access to a more focused "Members" group. To me, this is one of the places that FTF really shines.
We have friends who fulltime in class A motorhomes. Some have bunkhouse models where the kids sleep in bunks. Others literally make up the sofa nightly for the kids to sleep on.
As Merrykalia mentioned, my family recently bought a new rig. Durin the shopping process, we explored motorhomes. None ever worked for
my family's requirements- a real room for the kids to have as their own space and for their room to has some distance from mine (there are times that Momma and Daddy want some
privacy :B ).
The closest we ever found was a 2016 model by Newmar, the 4312:
But even that, I wasn't crazy about the idea of the kids having to walk through my room. Though it did have the 1/2 bath which was another requirement for me.
--
#1 & 2: I can't help with brands. I didn't look that deeply into motorhomes.
#3. For domicile, the most important aspects are:
- residency requirements
- tax friendliness
- homeschool laws
- cost of insurance
Generally speaking, you'll see Florida, Texas, and South Dakota as the 3 main players as they have fairly lax residency requirements and no state income tax. Texas is the most homeschool friendly (don't ask, don't tell) but Florida has "private online schools" that are used as umbrellas to get around the need for reviews and whatnot. The cost of insurance was a surprise as I was coming out of the Baltimore/DC metro region and expected my rates to go down; they didn't.
#4. Vacationing is nothing like fulltiming. You can't afford to keep vacationing if you want to last on the road. Even going on 5-6 week trips, it isn't the same as fulltiming.
But, most importantly:
It's ok to not be 100% happy all of the time. It might be rough starting out. We had a terrible first 3 months. After that, we connected with Fulltime Families and found our "tribe". Our home family & friends weren't UN-supportive, but they definitely weren't supportive (how could they be? They had no idea what life on the road is like).
I wrote more here:
https://www.facebook.com/LearnToRV/photos/a.1000018590065561.1073741828.998647740202646/1637490752985005/Hope that helps. Feel free to reach out to me if you need.
