Hello folks!

I'm with the "Do It" crowd. I've got a son about your age and told him the same thing as he ponders his future. At this time he doesn't have a girl friend though. It's more fun to travel with someone with the same sense of adventure. There is nothing holding you down at this time, and believe me, once you have a job, children, mortgage, loans, etc. you will be limited as to what options you have with life. Granted, issues with health can come up and there are other things that can disrupt plans, but you're young and the percentage of you or your girl friend having serious health issues is minimal. You can still adjust to any other issues you might face. In addition, you will learn a lot about yourself and your partner as well as life in general by going out there and living it.

Many of us retired folk have said that life is backwards - we should be able to get out and experience the world when we were young and then settle down when older. Thankfully my wife and I are healthy and active in our early 60's and with retirement it has brought us the ability to travel and do other things we want to do within financial reason.

BTW, look for a Chevrolet if you can. I say this with humor. When I was young Chevy had a commercial jingle sung by Dinah Shore. The clicky below has a little background on the "See the USA in your Chevrolet" jingle.

http://www.vintagechevrolet.org/articles/VCO_2001019_dinahshore.htm

Oh yeah, we're seeing the USA in our Chevrolet now. Enjoy your travels.

Since your thoughts are for full-timing for a fairly short term, I say "Do it"! You wouldn't be alone out there. However, rethink the Class B. Everything is very small in them, especially the storage space, holding tanks and bathroom facilities. It would get old after a time. Consider a Class C and I'm assuming you're planning on towing a car which would be very helpful for both of you working. There are many blogs out there of young full-timers so search them out. Best of luck! We've been full-timing for 16 years.

I think your plan sounds great -go for it.

If you don't, you may look back someday and regret missing the experience while you were free to do it. I took off for two months in Europe on the cheap when I was 21 and had the time of my life. A great experience that has stayed with me for decades and shaped the course of my life in some ways.

My two brothers still talk about their cross country adventures in a VW van in the 1970s after their Vietnam days.

A B can give you a lot of freedom and mobility since it combines car with sleeping quarters. The trick will be finding a reliable one at a decent price. Work for a while, save some cash for emergencies, and get some major medical coverage. Then hit the road.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!!

I will not pretend to give you advice on your choice. I "RV'd "full time in a 10 year old potato chip truck in 1970/71. Had a porta potty,a hammock a wood stove and a 55 gallon drum for water.
Granted times were much much different then but it was an adventure I wouldn't trade for anything.
I would dismiss the B offhand. some of them have no practical cargo capacity at all.
If you are at all handy have you considerd a used rental or service van? Rv's appear complicated,but if you consider each system seperatly the only problem is design and placement of the components.
I don't believe you could touch a DEPENDABLE Class c for less than $20,000.
If you are up for the work and a less polished machine,you could probably accomplish your goal for much less.

Do it! We fulltimed for a year when we were in our early twenties. We had a wonderful time, saw more of the country than any of our friends or family and learned a lot about ourselves and what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives.

For all the people worrying - this kind of decision is not something that is permanent. Going back to a "normal" life is possible just a little bit hard after tasting the freedom of fulltiming.

This question pops up on here from time to time. No offense intended, but usually from folks about your age. Here's a few items you need to consider before you start.
Unless you're independently wealthy, you're going to have to get a job, and after you build a work history of short stays in one place doing entry level jobs, that becomes more difficult. The nationwide unemployment rate is currently 7.6%, so employers have some flexibility in who gets hired. And they can hire entry level people for minimum wage and zero benefits right off the streets.
If you find such a job, where are you going to park? Do you plan to drive your home to work every day? What about utilities, like electric, water and sewer? At some point you're going to have to reload water, dump tanks and at least re-charge batteries. That means an RV park for at least a night. Every three or four days. And you'll need to consider traveling down south in winter and north in summer because that's the only way you can control the temps inside the RV without hookups. And what's your GF going to do all day in the parking lot while you're working? Class Bs get really small, and the scenery in the parking lot isn't very exciting.
Please think this over.

2oldman wrote:

bluefox009 wrote:
But I assure you, I have researched and thought this through.

Have you thought this through with respect to when you're in your 50s and beyond?

Have you given yourself a timeline on this? 5 years, 10? Or just, indefinite? I know things sound exciting and rosy right now, and for sure you'll never be any younger or in better health, but there's this thing called old age that happens to everyone.

I see too many people (like musicians) who have "lived for today" and now in their 60s they have nothing, no money, no pensions, no Social security (many of them didn't even bother to pay taxes) and worse, bad health (they didn't bother to visit the dentist too often either). It's going to be a rough road for them for the next 20-30 years, and all for what? Because they just didn't bother to think about retirement. I bet they do now.

Many (maybe most) of us old guys on here have worked our entire lives to be able to do what you're doing now. And it's expensive, very expensive. So please, do your travels and have fun, but don't do it for too long.

I really do appreciate the insight and I have thought through things. As far as a timeline I am not totally sure yet, we were thinking maybe 1-2 years and see how things go.

With "old age" I am pretty sure my generation won't have much of a social security option ( so I'll be working through that age anyway) and most jobs that I've had don't even have a retirement plan. I am doing online classes for some things that are road friendly and plan to save money back when possible. From there we will see, but it isn't likely the RVing will be for the rest of our lives. Just enough time to enjoy things now.

bluefox009 wrote:
But I assure you, I have researched and thought this through.

Have you thought this through with respect to when you're in your 50s and beyond?

Have you given yourself a timeline on this? 5 years, 10? Or just, indefinite? I know things sound exciting and rosy right now, and for sure you'll never be any younger or in better health, but there's this thing called old age that happens to everyone.

I see too many people (like musicians) who have "lived for today" and now in their 60s they have nothing, no money, no pensions, no Social security (many of them didn't even bother to pay taxes) and worse, bad health (they didn't bother to visit the dentist too often either). It's going to be a rough road for them for the next 20-30 years, and all for what? Because they just didn't bother to think about retirement. I bet they do now.

Many (maybe most) of us old guys on here have worked our entire lives to be able to do what you're doing now. And it's expensive, very expensive. So please, do your travels and have fun, but don't do it for too long.

2oldman wrote:
At 29 why would you be doing this?

My question is why not? It isn't to be sarcastic or sassy, but I have nothing tying me down right now. My GF and I don't have a mortgage, long term leases, very much debt at all or anything that would keep us from trying this lifestyle. Me personally, I am tired of getting bored with the life I am living and want to try something new out. My gf feels the same and as long as we can save up some starting money and do workcamping or other jobs along the way then there is nothing to stop us. I want to be able to experience things, see the country and just generally be part of something I feel is truly awesome.

Everything I have read from people who do this is that they wanted to start earlier...so why not now. We don't want kids and don't really care to have a house, it isn't a needed thing with us.

I do thank you for asking because I know too many younger folks who jump into things without thinking it through. But I assure you, I have researched and thought this through.

bsinmich and mlts22

I have not settled at all on one specific class of RV. I plan on looking at all of them and getting a better idea of what is going to be needed for the two of us. Once we have a good amount saved up then we will do the heavy shopping and narrow down things at that point.

Were I recommending a full time rig, I'd probably go with a class A rig over a C because there is more room inside, and usually more available space in the outside basement storage. Unless the class C has a fiberglass nose cap which protects the seams from water, it likely has water damage.

Of course, class As have their tradeoffs, such as finding a place that will service them, but nothing is perfect. The advantage of an "A" is that gassers on the Ford chassis give you a lot of bang for buck in the used market.

Just be wise and watch stuff that can cause leaks. If you are looking at used rigs, and you see bubbles, discoloration, mold, or other issues, run. You can get a drivetrain rebuilt for less than it costs to rip out the interior and replace rotted items.