Year long family US history tour

I'm certain we're under 10,000 dry; trailer is aluminum skin, and inside materials are light weight and cheap. We don't haul toys, so loaded (water, clothes, food, propane full, residential fridge and washer/dryer) I bet we're still under 13,000. LT truck tires should be able to support that, but I like having the extra insurance the ST tires offer with higher weight capacity.

For sure, we have a lot of electrical issues to sort; garage 110 does not work, missing a CM detector, loose or broken switches and the list goes on. I'm spending the cash slowly over the years to get it all done right. I'm certian we're going to have to upgrade to a 50 amp service for the bigger fridge and W/D.

The small fridge is going away, and a cabinet in its place.

norfla71 wrote:
Already got our long term bill plan layed out to get out of debt in a couple of years; at some point just before leaving we're selling the house and living out of the RV on the local military reservation - need to get used to it before actually committing.

Before we do this, what is an absolute must do to get the trailer ready? I'm mostly talking about maintenance. What needs to be done once we hit the road, and at what time frames? I'm thinking that the tires are first, since they will be over 7 years at that point, and will be putting higher rated ST with aluminum or galvanized wheels. Brakes, bearings and alignment will be checked, but what about other systems?

Good plan to try to be debt free when starting this adventure. You never know when a transmission will need to be rebuilt ($2,000 - $5,000) or something else will come up that you need cash for.

Preventive maintenance is time consuming but extremely important if you are full timing. Little things like putting a torque wrench on your lug nuts and suspension bolts every week or so could save you thousands in the long run. Changing any filters on your unit and keeping the furnace clean.....the list goes on and on.

Since you mentioned tires first I will throw my 2 cents worth in about those. Prior to purchasing new tires you have to know how much weight those tires are actually carrying. It really has nothing to do with what the manufacturer says your unit weighs. You have to take you RV to a certified scale and find out how much weight those axles are carrying.

The brand new tires my unit came with were not rated for enough weight once we actually loaded everything in our FW. I needed G rated tires. Just stop by any truck stop and weigh, it usually costs $10.00.

While replacing the tires I would get a TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system). You can install the TPMS yourself and for under $350.00 you can see the pressure and temperature in all of your RV tires while going down the road. If one of your tires goes below a certain pressure an alarm will sound.

I would purchase three additional fire extinguishers. You can get medium sized decent quality ones for about $15 to $20 each. I would mount a second one inside your unit (it should have come with one), mount one in your basement storage area, and have one in your truck.

Test your smoke alarms and carbon-M detectors. If you think you need more inside the RV then add them, they are cheap. For sure mount one someplace in your basement storage.

I could fill a couple pages of stuff that I do to my FW on a regular basis. I just feel like the aforementioned tips are the main important safety measures.

Already got our long term bill plan layed out to get out of debt in a couple of years; at some point just before leaving we're selling the house and living out of the RV on the local military reservation - need to get used to it before actually committing.

Before we do this, what is an absolute must do to get the trailer ready? I'm mostly talking about maintenance. What needs to be done once we hit the road, and at what time frames? I'm thinking that the tires are first, since they will be over 7 years at that point, and will be putting higher rated ST with aluminum or galvanized wheels. Brakes, bearings and alignment will be checked, but what about other systems?

justinnerd wrote:
It's nice to find other families that are planning to fulltime for 1 year. We are about 3 weeks out from hitting the road with our 3 girls (ages: 4,7,8). We've been preparing for nearly 6 months now and still don't feel even close to ready.

A couple things we've learned so far:

1) Try to plan to bring as little as possible. We're not even close to having everything we want but are already over-weight with our rig. A good rule we've been trying to follow is: if you won't use it every month, it can't come on the trip.

2) Start networking now with other fulltime families. We've had a great deal of encouragement from others that have started on this journey. There are also a ton of blogs out there with great info. We're already planning to attend a fulltime families rally in March.

3) Don't overthink homeschooling. We've really struggled with this. We feel so inadequate to do it and have make the mistake in the past of going way overboard on curriculum.

Good luck with your preparations! Would love to hear more about your plans.

I think it is AWSOM that you guys and norfla71 are doing this with your children!!!!! What an experience for them!

I don't know which direction you are heading in, but Point Lookout SP, MD is always looking for camp hosts. You are required to work 20hrs/week and it's a pretty easy gig. Our kids LOVE it there - you are on a spit of land between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. About 1 1/2 hrs out of DC, Baltimore, Annapolis, and the eastern shore. PM me if you are interested in more info.

My wife's a teacher, so that parts easy.

I did find quite a few articles, but not much about doing this with small kids. A general concensus is pretty much what's already been said; take only what you'll need, then trim it down some more. I'm not overly concerned about being overweight; dry weight about 10,000 with generator, GVWR 14040. We don't haul toys, and have a lot of breathing room. What I don't like is clutter, and the more we have the more it will get scattered around.

A couple of things I'm looking at adding are full skirts for more storage and keeping the tanks warm in the winter (also placing work lights underneath for colder snaps), outdoor kitchen (smaller grille and portable sink) as we want to be outside on nicer days, and a patio enclosure for bug infested areas (like Lake Seminole in GA; nasty gnats).

We will stay in as many parks as possible, and work camp when able. I've stayed in some places for $12/night, rarely over 20 (FQRV and Camp Gulf being the exceptions). More research is needed, but $1,000/month target (total of food, fuel and camp fees) seems reasonable.

One area I forgot to mention is the truck; being a quad cab, there's not a lot of room, and the kids aren't getting smaller. We'll be driving out 1 tank and setting up shop wherever it takes us.

Regarding budget... if staying weekly we plan on $30 per day or $900 per month. Some months we go over others under. Going to "popular" areas can get more expensive.

It's nice to find other families that are planning to fulltime for 1 year. We are about 3 weeks out from hitting the road with our 3 girls (ages: 4,7,8). We've been preparing for nearly 6 months now and still don't feel even close to ready.

A couple things we've learned so far:

1) Try to plan to bring as little as possible. We're not even close to having everything we want but are already over-weight with our rig. A good rule we've been trying to follow is: if you won't use it every month, it can't come on the trip.

2) Start networking now with other fulltime families. We've had a great deal of encouragement from others that have started on this journey. There are also a ton of blogs out there with great info. We're already planning to attend a fulltime families rally in March.

3) Don't overthink homeschooling. We've really struggled with this. We feel so inadequate to do it and have make the mistake in the past of going way overboard on curriculum.

Good luck with your preparations! Would love to hear more about your plans.

Just another quick comment or two while you are in the "brainstorming" phase of this adventure.

I don't buy into taking 3 weeks of underwear and socks for 4 people to avoid laundry every week. My opinion is that your are avoiding an initial expenditure but at the end of the year will pay a lot more. All the extra weight in clothing will use more fuel plus take up valuable space. If you do laundry once every couple of weeks for 4 people it will still cost you about $20 or more plus a full day. The Splendid washer and dryer would probably take up less room that all that extra clothing and weigh about the same.

You are correct about changing over your clothing from a storage. We do that to a certain degree. Living in an RV with limited space is not like being in a house, you have to get out of that mindset and be very conservative on how much clothing you drag along. Of course your problem is compounded in this area because you are traveling with 4 people instead of 2 like most full timers.

For road side assistance issues, I am probably in the minority. My full timers insurance package offers added roadside assistance for around $6.00 a month extra. The extended warranty on my F350 also has it included. I don't purchase extra roadside assistance packages and never have. I am very picky about keeping the proper rated tires on my RV and my TV, keeping them properly inflated, and taking care of the rest of my maintenance. So far I have never needed any type of roadside maintenance.

Just do your research on roadside assistance and don't pay too much for something you may never need. There are a lot of choices out there.

Good luck.

donn0128 wrote:
Keep your clothes to one to one and a half seasons. Make your travel plans coincide with the weather. Washer/dryer? Definitely a yes! Doing a load a day takes no time at all. Start a load and go do what you want. Come home, clothes are done and ready for putting away. This allows you to limit clothes needed,IE more room. Remember, you will need room for school supplies, books etc. Not to mention a place for the kids to work. If you really want to understand how little space you will have available, pack yourselves, kids and yoir clothes into 350 SQFT and try living in that space for a month. Overpacking especially clothes is the absolute worst thing you could do. Clothes can take up a lot of space in a big hurry. And you only have XXX amount of available space inside an RV.

We lived for about 6 months in a 28'(224sqft) Starcraft BH TT without a slide; this was back when my kids were just babbies, so you can imagine how much of their******was everywhere.

There is actually a ton of space (loft bed instead of in the garage), U dinette with a ton of outside accessible storage, full size master closet and the entire 10' garage to play with (planning on a wardrobe closet and bunk beds back there). The loft is about 8x8, so another 64sqft of storage there. This is the one positive about owning a toy hauler and not owning toys. Even with sticking a fridge, beds and wardrobe in there, there will still be room for a W/D with space left over. The dinette will be their desk.

Since we're going to store whatever we want to keep in a chosen local, we may also keep a stash of clothes there, as well (we have family near Jacksonville with some property). We will need to visit periodically, so that may just be the answer. Since I contract overseas with the military so much, I have a ton of all weather gear, and have learned through my travels what works pretty much all year; If I can only get the old lady onboard and convince her she doesn't need 14 outfits for "just in case"

Last thing is insurance and road side assistance; we'll be getting the Good Sam package before hitting the road. Any other recommendations?