I need a reality check

ncrowley wrote:
You will really want and need a toad. You will not want to unhook the RV and take it every time you need to go shopping or sightseeing or just about anything else. You can get something inexpensive like a used Honda Fit.

I am also a programmer and I work remotely and you will be fine with a very large data plan. However, you will need to carefully check to make sure you will have a good cell signal. There are areas where you have a signal but the speed s very slow, or where there is no signal at all. The other thing that happens is you are at a large park and everyone is using their cell phone for internet and the towers are saturated.

I have found very few RV parks with good wifi. They advertise that they have wifi but then you try to use it and with the slow speed and drop outs, you cannot get anything done.

I do not full time but I spend a decent amount of time on trips in the RV.

Interesting, thank you. I am planning to get a small motorcycle and get a hitch carrier for it - I'd really rather plan to avoid having a toad as I think it would limit my mobility. I've backed up short trailers with long wheelbase vehicles before, it is not fun at all. That being said I do see how relying on a motorcycle might be impractical - but I do want to try it and see if it will work for me. Worst case, I can sell the bike and buy a cheap economy car.

I'm not really worried about internet speed for work, aside from the occasional skype meeting my bandwidth requirements are quite low for what I do. As I said I would like an unlimited plan just for browsing and personal use - do you know of any providers that still offer one?

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:


Netflix, streaming video don't really fit into the mobile RV lifestyle.

Yes, many of the better RV parks offer WiFi - and almost everyone will have a warning that streaming video/ movies is not allowed.

Look at the logistics and costs.

Many RV parks are located where high speed broadband is not available. If the park has one 2 MPS DSL type line, 20 rigs simply cannot watch streaming video.

Where the parks have access to 20 meg or higher speeds, they have to pay commercial rates for internet access. And the rates are based on the number of sites in the RV park.

The folks who have streaming video in RV parks, usually are monthly (long term) customers, who pay for a separate phone line and DSL service.

Thanks for this insight, I hadn't really considered that. I'm definitely a techie so being without electronic entertainment might be rough for me...but it wouldn't be a bad thing at all for me to learn to do without it.