Working on the road

I have thought of some of these things lately, and have been in sales and marketing most of my life.
My first idea would be to get some type of very professional vinyl graphics for my RV, showing the type of services offered. You may however, get bothered at all hours of the day or night at your campsite. ( kind of like when you were employed full time as a plumber)
If you don't like that, you would need a toad, or just your towing vehicle to be wrapped or advertised, and then later you could cover it, or hide it from site.
If you are traveling about, some type of social media contact page may help ( I am not really sure about Facebook) letting people know where you might be in advance.
If the camping site that you are staying ( for a while) may have a newsletter or website with advertising available, that you could contact about an ad offering services.
I have other ideas that I will post another time. Good luck!

Welcome to the forum.

I have no experience in what you are proposing. However, in my opinion, when people need a plumber they need one ASAP.
If they call and you are in another state, they may not call again.

On the other hand, if you give them quality work at reasonable prices they may schedule projects and modifications around your schedule.

I hope you are successful. Enjoy your new life style.

As a master plumber, you should have no problems finding work in RV parks. If you go that route, you should also be prepared to do lots of other things (weedeating, painting, site escort, etc). You'll probably make more than minimum wage, but not much more. You may have a better shot at choice locations.

If you just want to be a traveling plumber, I wouldn't think that would work too well. Aside from initial availability, who wants a plumber who may be gone in 2 weeks when/if the repair breaks? You could also run into problems with local licensing.

You'd probably be able to work for contractors on new commercial or residential development projects. Might even end up with a place to park on the job site.

I had a friend who was an asphalt paver. He would travel from job site to job site and stay in his RV. He would contact large project contractors in an area he wanted to visit and try to sign on for the duration of a project. He was rarely without work.

the bear II wrote:
You'd probably be able to work for contractors on new commercial or residential development projects. Might even end up with a place to park on the job site.

I had a friend who was an asphalt paver. He would travel from job site to job site and stay in his RV. He would contact large project contractors in an area he wanted to visit and try to sign on for the duration of a project. He was rarely without work.

This would be my response as well. Thanks for saving me the time to flesh it out. I wouldn't think being a plumber, working on rigs in an RV park would be pleasant or profitable. Way too many campers would think you should really just fix it because you are a good neighbor. And how welcome would you feel in a park after you presented someone with a totally legitimate bill for $300 and then that customer started telling everyone in the park how they got charged $300 to fix a leaky faucet by the resident plumber? At a shop or as a contractor, you don't live with your customers.

If you are a Plumbers & Pipefitters Union member in good standing with your previous Local you go to the Local hall in any large city.

Thanks to all for your opinions. I was leaning towards contractors in whatever area we were in, we plan or taking our time and staying in one area for several months.

If you are planning on being a snow bird in southwest Fla. you might have a decent chance of finding work. The housing market is heating up. Do a Google search and check out contractors. There is a shortage of skilled trades.

We work for Xanterra Parks & Resorts in Yellowstone, and it seems they are always needing plumbers. If you want to spend a summer in Yellowstone, it might be worth checking out. Xanterra's webpage is www.yellowstonejobs.com There are worse places to spend the summer! :)

DRM/JIP-CYS2 wrote:
...I'm a master plumbing in 3 states and wonder how marketable my trade will be on the road...

Having your own bussiness might involve licenses, permits, etc. Checking with the local union hall was mentioned. You might also see if the unions have a website like this one for electrical workers.