Questions for Full Timers

Hello Magilla.

How often do you travel? I work-camp for a living, so it's not rapid-travel like those who are retired. I'll usually do 3 or so big re-positioning trips in a year (1,000+ miles) to get from job to job where I'll do a lot of traveling and overnighting, then nothing for months.

How long do you tend to stay put? Usually my work-camping gigs last 3-5 months. When I'm in "travel mode' sight-seeing between gigs, 1-3 nights depending on what there is to see in the area.

How do you get your mail? Mail forwarding from My Dakota Address (my domicile state is currently South Dakota).

How do you acquire a campsite for months on end? Most work-camping jobs give you a free or reduced RV site as part of the job perks. I pay little in camping fees in a year.

What does a site cost per month? Free (working Amazon.com and most volunteer jobs) to $200/month (Yellowstone National Park this summer - I'm going to be working at a gift shop) when work-camping.

What are the things you miss about having a brink and mortar house? I was an apartment dweller before I hit the road. I like having a real shower, and therefor have not once used the shower in my RV, haha. I always shower at the campground I'm staying in for unlimited water and more space.

What advice do you have for a person thinking about becoming a full timer? Take your time. Do a lot of fact-finding and research before you buy your first RV. From these questions, I think you're being pretty smart about it.

Hope this helps. :)

moved from class A forum

You need a permanent place to die when that time comes, I would hate to pass in my rig.

Start getting rid of stuff NOW. Question things that you buy for your home. Do I really need this? Will it still be around in 15 years? Trust me the kids don't want it!!!! The more you control now the easier it will be then. We planned for years to fulltime and ended up with a big dumpster of STUFF. We started the downsizing about 10 years to late!! You are right to start planning early. The getting ready is as much of a journey as fulltiming is but the end result is priceless. Good Luck and stay true to your plan.

I'm not a big fan of my house. It suits our basic needs and is affordable. I wont have any problems leaving it behind. For my wife that may be a different story. I guess we will have to wait and see.


At one point I thought about buying a crappy single wide home in Florida and then having it taken away. I would then own the land that had power, septic and water all right there for me. I thought I would use that as our home base and travel from there. Again, I guess we will have to wait and see.

MagillaGorilla wrote:
Parts of the fulltiming life sound great. If you don't like where you are, you can just move along. The lack of space forces you to keep things simple. Never having to shovel snow again could not sound any better after this winter. Seeing the country, one neighborhood at a time, sounds very appealing.

Also meeting people along the way sounds fun. When my wife and I vacation we love to do what we call "exploring". We go someplace that we haven't been before and we check it out. We don't stick to tourist spots. We also go off the beaten path to see the uncommon sights. We don't go to dangerous spots and do stupid stuff but we do explore.

We have been doing this on motorcycles, mopeds, cars, collectivos and any other form of transportation we can find. Some of our favorite places in the world were places we would have never found if it were not for a little internet research and some time exploring. We always end up meeting the nicest people in our travels too.

Imagine, if you will, being in Daytona for bike week, being in Sturgis, being in Myrtle Beach, being in Vegas and everywhere in between all without ever leaving your home. Sounds great to me.

All true! Unless you have a very strong connection to your present house and hometown it's sounds like fulltiming would suit you perfectly. And remember, it's not a one way trip. You can always change your mind and go back to a sticks and bricks.

Parts of the fulltiming life sound great. If you don't like where you are, you can just move along. The lack of space forces you to keep things simple. Never having to shovel snow again could not sound any better after this winter. Seeing the country, one neighborhood at a time, sounds very appealing.

Also meeting people along the way sounds fun. When my wife and I vacation we love to do what we call "exploring". We go someplace that we haven't been before and we check it out. We don't stick to tourist spots. We also go off the beaten path to see the uncommon sights. We don't go to dangerous spots and do stupid stuff but we do explore.

We have been doing this on motorcycles, mopeds, cars, collectivos and any other form of transportation we can find. Some of our favorite places in the world were places we would have never found if it were not for a little internet research and some time exploring. We always end up meeting the nicest people in our travels too.

Imagine, if you will, being in Daytona for bike week, being in Sturgis, being in Myrtle Beach, being in Vegas and everywhere in between all without ever leaving your home. Sounds great to me.

MagillaGorilla wrote:
My God people I am just talking in general, I am not asking for money. I am simply interested in how things work. That's all. Have you ever been interested in something so you read about it?

I don't need to be told to try it for a weekend or a trip. Ive been doing that for 40 years. I am simply interested in the lifestyle and looking to see how it works.

Thanks for the thread. Any Question can meet similar warm reception:B

I suspected I wanted to full time when I went tent camping in 1981.

30 years later it looks similar, but I am most certain I have it easier than they did.

We travel every 1 to 2 weeks get a mail service to send us snail mail 1 to 2 times a month when we know where we will be for a while and handle most things on line or with phone calls

We knew that we wanted to fulltime for at least 15 years before we did so I don't think that you're planning too far ahead. Read as many fulltimers blogs as you can - http://www.hitchitch.com/links.html. Each fulltime lifestyle is unique but you'll get an idea of what you might like to do and see, how much you'll want to travel, where you might want to stay. It sounds like you'll be snowbirds without a permanent house in the north but a you'll still be returning north each year to the same region. There are fulltimers who do just that.

We started fulltiming over 20 years ago and I really don't think much has changed. The internet and cell phones have made everything easier. Gas is a lot more expensive. Campgrounds have gone up in price but overall not as much as other things. More people are camping so parks are busier.

DutchmenSport's advice is excellent.

Answers to some of your questions:

MagillaGorilla wrote:
Someday in the distant future (15-20 years) the wife and I think we want to go full time in a MH.

We have a few questions for the full times out there.

How often do you travel? We're unusual because we travel to lot, about 15,000 miles a year and we travel slowly, maybe 50 - 100 miles at a time.


How long do you tend to stay put? We stay from a day to a week, rarely more than two weeks.

How do you get your mail? We use a friend's house as our mailing address. They forward our mail to us about 4 times a year..

How do you acquire a campsite for months on end? We don't.

What does a site cost per month? We boondock a lot and stay at public campgrounds so it's very inexpensive.

What are the things you miss about having a brink and mortar house? Nothing.


What advice do you have for a person thinking about becoming a full timer? Don't wait until you're old. If possible retire young or at least cut down on the hours that you work. Enjoy life!

MagillaGorilla wrote:
There were a few good posts to my questions. Thank you so much for that. It was very educating to say the least.

I don't think I could think what I was going to be doing in 20 yrs. We were able to retire early in 1996. Traveled the world and thought motorhoming might be fun so we started the process in 2004 with a rental. Rented in 2005 and 2006. Ordered our first motorhome in 2007.... traveled all around and will continue with the new motorhome.

After flying around for at least 20 yrs., it's not fun anymore. You can't beat the motorhome lifestyle. We've done cruises to Europe a couple of times and will still do it in the future. But, there is still more to see in the USA and Canada!

We wouldn't want to full-time ourselves, but part-timing works perfectly.

MM.