Homeless vet on a search to find a real home.

[nateg]

Good day to anyone who may be reading this, I am new to the rv world recently I was able to get a small loan for a pop up or tow behind and im looking for as much advice as possible before i set out in the world. I am a 25 yr old homeless vet with a yr old puppy named lily im leaving out mass to cali to find warmer weather for now until I figure out what im actually doing. I have a 98 jeep Cherokee sport I am going to be using for this adventure. I work at home for a call center ( kinda funny with the homelessness thing) my current living situation has come to and end forcing me back into the world just this time with a mobile home at least which I will be forever grateful for. If anyone knows of good routes to get to ca or even other places I can go any suggestion will be appreciated, I have a hotspot for internet when its absolutely needed for work but really do need some sort of wifi access to do my job.

[nateg]

Its coming up for jsut about 5000pd tow capacity if im reading the info right

[ryanw821]

nateg wrote:
My tow hitch itself says it can carry 3000pd, I have seen a few tow behinds that may work having a bathroom would be a plus if I can find one in my range.

You can't go by hitch rating alone, you will run out of carrying capacity before you run out of hitch capacity. Check the tag in the drivers door for carrying capacity.

With 3000# tow rating that will eliminate any hard side I am aware of (other than tear-drop), ours is on the light side at 2500# unloaded for a hard side, water and gear will push 1000# easy, putting you over weight.

There are a great many pop-ups that can come in 2500# loaded though, so you can probably pull most of them.

Maybe an A-Liner or Trail-Manor would be nice fit, they are hard-pop-ups, best of both worlds, not sure your price range though, they are spendy for their size, but light and easy to tow.

[nateg]

My tow hitch itself says it can carry 3000pd, I have seen a few tow behinds that may work having a bathroom would be a plus if I can find one in my range.

[nateg]

I know I need a career but when the last three years have been trying to survive that's a hard option, call centers were a lucky job I happened to stumble upon. I tried going to school for IT draining my va school fund at a place that didn't care about me at all, eventually I had to drop out because i was not able to do the work with my living situation.

[ryanw821]

Do you know the tow rating on your Jeep? I know most people will tell you not to tow anything more than a pop-up behind a Jeep, and for the most part they are right, but there are some small hard-sided trailers that MIGHT fit the bill too. Check the tag in the drivers door for the "carrying capacity" of your Jeep, and owners manual should list a "towing capacity" too, those two numbers can help give us an idea if you are limited to a pop-up, or if there might be some hard-side campers in your weight class.

You can see by my signature photo in my above post, I tow a hard-side with my Liberty, which is similarly sized to your Cherokee, so it is possible, you just need to know the weight limits. We are under our weight limits, but not by much, it can tow it, but we will someday get a better tow vehicle that is not pushed to its (safe) limits.

[nateg]

Oh no I don't want to buy a house there, they have homeless shelters that allow you to stay with a puppy I just want to be in an area come worst case everything I own breaks I would have another method of survival. Personally the idea of wandering the us to find some place that would be nice to live seems like a good shot but more so a drive through to see whats out there I haven't been many places so the world is a very unknown place to me, id like to think somewhere out there I can find a place that's right.

[kcmoedoe]

You are 25 years old. You need a job that will eventually lead to a career. Working from home sounds like a good deal until you realize that without face to face interactions with supervisors and management you are at an extreme disadvantage for career advancement.
As for home ownership, doesn't matter how good your credit score is, without an income you will not be getting a home loan. And if you did, why buy a home at 25 and have a foreclosure on your credit history at 26? Do not go into debt without the ability to easily repay that debt.

[mockturtle]

Trying to buy a house in California is probably a long shot, at best.

[nateg]

I am 20 thirty points on my credit from getting a home loan through the va so this is just until I can get my credit there having the loan out would help me boost it until I found someplace I belong that tip about workamps is defiantly a good idea I never thought about something like that.

[nateg]

I just want something with a bed that i know no matter what happens I can call it home, friend of mine is seeing if I can just put it in there yard for awhile which would be cool but if all else fails I just wanna leave this state too many bad memories I got no family left. I just don't know if anyone ever done this before and having a back up plan would put my mind at ease. Thank you for your response.

[ryanw821]

Forddude11 wrote:
Well... You got a puppy... A hot spot... A job...and a cell phone ( to do the job) you should not be homeless for long..I would suggest that you don't travel to Cali... Stay and get your feet planted in one place.... Try to call somewhere home...oh... And thank you for your service

Ditto.

If you like the idea of living out of a camper, you could try to find somewhere to "workamp", where you do some work at the campground in exchange for a campsite, like selling firewood, cleaning up, handy man work, etc... Might even find a campground that has wifi that would let you do that 😉

[mockturtle]

Nate, welcome to the forum. I found your post a bit confusing. By a 'real home' do you mean a 'stick and brick' type of home? I ask this because my motorhome is my 'real home'. 🙂 Or are you looking for somewhere to permanently park your RV and work from? Obviously, California is not the cheapest state to live in.

[Forddude11]

Well... You got a puppy... A hot spot... A job...and a cell phone ( to do the job) you should not be homeless for long..I would suggest that you don't travel to Cali... Stay and get your feet planted in one place.... Try to call somewhere home...oh... And thank you for your service