Full time rv living

This is crazy....

So many negative people here.

I and my wife are fulltiming in our rig with our 2 kids and a dog.
Our kids are ages 2 and 4.

My kids are happy and don't care. When we talk about the house we are trying to build sometimes my 4 year old gets sad because she doesn't want to move out of the 5er.

We have been full time in our 5er for 17 months. We expected to have our house almost complete by now, but have had some wetland, tidal, critical area hurdles to cross.

The climate is not nearly as intense here as it is in Ohio.
We had a very cold winter this last winter. If I remember correctly we had 7 or 8 days in a row the warmest it got was 32F.
We had no freezing issues whatsoever. We had no skirting either.
I am not recommending to go without skirting, I am only stating we didn't have it.

The winter was fine, no hardships. We played in the snow, built snowmen.
We had a 6' Christmas tree in our living room and Christmas lights hung inside the 5er.

All was well and still is well...

The one thing I can agree with is that living in an RV is not exceptionally cheaper by any stretch.
Our 5er insurance is actually higher that our homeowners insurance was.
Our car insurance went up because we lost some discounts.

By living at your in-laws you will save your current mortgage or rent, but you will gain an RV payment.

When traveling through Oklahoma recently the park we stayed at had quite a few units that were obviously full-timers because they had massive (120 gallon?) propane bottles sitting in front. Oklahoma winters are easily as harsh as NE Ohio, probably moreso as the Lake keeps us pretty warm until it ices up which it hasn't been doing much in the last decade.

Check with local ordinances. But your plan is feasible. I would not recommend a trailer. 5th wheel will give you the best floor plans for long term family living. Insulate, and enclose underbelly. I used attic insulation, and rigid foam. Either run duct from heat into area, or use non-combustible heater. Skirt entire rv with straw, and plastic. There is a great post from a guy who lives in Esate Park about winter living in rv. Good luck.

Oh my goodness, the harshness. Talkalot111, RV.net is very anti-fulltiming families. They often spout the same myths that you'll hear time and again.

Instead, join the Fulltime Families group on Facebook. There you'll find many families who are fulltiming either stationary like you're talking about or travelers (like my family and me).

Run, don't walk, from RV.net if you want to fulltime with your kids.

"Teaching my kids to grow their food, hunt and fish, providing for the family."

There is teaching kids to grow food, hunt and fish...and there is depriving kids so you don't have to work. Should have lived these dreams, your dreams, prior to having children. Kids are "very excited?" Kids get excited when you tell them there is ice cream after dinner. Oh, by the way did you ASK your in-laws...really ASK them or just say "we are coming to live with you?"

I think some are being a little harsh here. They do plan to camp next to a house. If it gets to harsh they will go into the house. If they don't like it they can 86 the whole idea. Big deal. If it gets really cold and stays really cold it certainly will be quite a challenge. But I am sure they will keep the kids nice and warm one way or the other. I agree to go for it if it is purely for the challenge. I think it is a crazy idea if you think you can save money or be better off than renting a small house in extreme cold. But there will plenty of logistics the biggest being water plumbing and sewage. :)JMHO



JMHO

When you pee first thing in the morning you may one morning find your waste tanks frozen. You can tell by the sound of the falling pee.
I spent many mornings listening, that is my biggest fear.

The cold is the biggest enemy, and the heat.
My rigs thermostat reads 39 degrees Canadian right now, after 40 it just displays HI. Without the AC one could not last long.
Inside all winter, outside all summer mostly.

In winter were ok with a ceramic heater and our Big Buddy propane heater turning the furnace on here and there.
So many challenges to rv living. When I first started I had no idea, it just all arrived and I dealt with it.
Its been one of my favorite challenges ever.

I would go for it, especially if your next to a house providing power.
Remember tho to chip the ice off the inside windows, otherwise it'll drip on your pillow.

Talkalot111 wrote:

jarata1 wrote:
why would you do that to your kids

Our kids are actually very excited. They have been rv shopping with us and we told them they can help pick the one we get. We go camping in the summers for a month at a time out of a tent, I don't see any problem with this. Teaching my kids to grow their food, hunt and fish, providing for the family.

Of course they are excited, because they have no idea what it really means. It means sharing their personal space and having no privacy. It means having their friends talk behind their backs about how weird their living arrangements are. Growing your own food and hunting and fishing to feed the family was a great idea in the pre-industrial age. Today, people provide for their families by getting an education and earning a living. Those that have skills in raising crops do it on a farm and feed dozens to hundreds to thousands of families. The end of your dalliance with this scheme will end long before the beginning of the collapse of civilization you seem to be expecting and preparing for. It would be better to educate your children to survive in the modern world, not prepare to survive in a post apocalyptic one.

Love the idea of your family getting back to basics with a smaller home, home grown food. Something I wish we would have done.
Here in Minnesota I do see travel trailers set up in a couple mobile home parks used as year round living. Had a neighbor who's son and wife lived in theirs for 2 years in the back yard. Wasn't legal but the neighbors here aren't very nosey, they were tidy and quiet about it. They winterized it in the coldest months and used mom's water in the house. Used an electric heater plugged in for heat and did a nice skirting around the trailer. It was on older 70s unit nothing new or fancy, 20 foot range.

jarata1 wrote:
why would you do that to your kids

Our kids are actually very excited. They have been rv shopping with us and we told them they can help pick the one we get. We go camping in the summers for a month at a time out of a tent, I don't see any problem with this. Teaching my kids to grow their food, hunt and fish, providing for the family.