Full Time Soon


skirk55

New Member
My wife and I have been involved in the RV lifestyle for 34 years now and we are thinking about full time with work camp. Is working for campgrounds as good as I read. I operate all types of equipment and maintaining a campground sounds nice. Has anyone out there work camped with susses?
 

C Nash

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

Welcome to the forum skirk55. Some like it and some don't. I have done a little and really enjoyed it but had rather just enjoy the camping.
 

H2H1

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

same here Nash I like coming home to a stick house just as much as I love goin camping
 

DL Rupper

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

We hosted at a National park for 3 months and it was fun. However, having done it, we won't do it again. Just enjoying RVing is what it's all about for us. Being able to move about on a whim or it's too cold/hot time go somewhere else now is what "on the road" RVing is all about . Just my opinion. I worked long enough during my productive years. I do get bored easily so we move quite often.
 

skirk55

New Member
Re: Full Time Soon

I read that if you work 20 to 30 hrs you get lot rent free. I would like to go north for the summer and south for the winter. I am 54 years old and need to make an income to help with the expense of living.
 

H2H1

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

well that one way of doing it. Lee does it just about all year long
 

C Nash

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

Sam, it can really help with expense and most will still allow you enough free time to take in the local sights. Some you have to bid on such as the COE parks. Private and State parks will allow free sites and duties vary from one cg to another. There is a magazine think the name is workcamping or something like that which will give a lot of info. Others here that do that such as Kirk will probaby be here and give good advice because they are regular work campers. Not kin to Kirk are you :eek: :laugh:
 

skirk55

New Member
Re: Full Time Soon

The lifestyle has my wife and I looking. We have a large house and my kids are married and on there own. The taxes and upkeep is getting ridicules. We keep our trailer in Va. and we live in Pa. when we come home we miss out trailer and seem to loose interest in the house. My taxes are around $9000.00 per year vs lot rent $3000.00 this is just a start. This month we went to Main and we were so impressed with everything and on the way home we knew we need to make a change. My kids said go for it. We are looking at a long cold winter and $ 3500. 00 to heat the house this winter? This has us looking for a 38' 5th wheel and a way to keep warm.
 

DL Rupper

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

Hey skirk55, bear in mind that a lot of RV Parks now charge $500/month + electric or higher to sleep in your own bed. All you get is a RV space and water/sewer for your money. It cost us $1600 in diesel to go from Ohio to Washington this spring. When you are traveling your nightly cost for an RV Park will average about $30/night to sleep in your own bed. That's $900/month. :eek:
 

Kirk

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

skirk55,

How about a little different viewpoint? We sold our house and drove off in the motorhome on April 14, 2000 just to see if we would like this life. After 8 1/2 years we are still having the most wonderful time in our lives! We are work-campers, but we do the resident volunteer positions and have only been paid three times out of 24 different positions. Although we are not working for pay, we have averaged about $1300/year for RV sites over the past five years so it does have a significant impact on our financial condition. In addition to the site and utilities, we usually also have free use of laundry equipment and frequently other amenities. At times we have also been supplied with propane.

Like most people who have never been fulltimers, those trying to help thus far really don't grasp what this lifestyle really is, and we didn't either until we got into it. We do not go camping, this is our home. But unlike the other posts, if the lawn needs to be mowed, or watered and we don't wish to do so, we can drive to a place that doesn't need work. We have spent summers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and all of the way to Maine. Along the way we have traveled a great deal of Canada and most of the states in between.

If the weather gets too cold, we go where it is warm, spending our winters in Calif., Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, and on across to Florida. We have served as campground hosts only three times out of the 24 different stops. We have spent time on six different national wildlife refuges, three national parks, three state historic sites, four day use parks, a forestry center, an airfield for antique planes, and an arboretum, among others.

In addition to campground hosts, we have been tour guides, operated tractors, mowed an airstrip, lead desert hikes, done bird counts, cared for baby alligators, worked on bird banding, built two buildings, trained as a backhoe operator, done art work, performed computer research, answered phones, operated a ranger station, and many other experiences that most people can only dream of. We have learned more about birds, plants, and wildlife that we could have imagined.

Thanks to the life we lead, we have more friends than we have ever had and in so many places. On several occasions we have made friends while volunteering with them such that we kept in contact and a few years down the road we arrange to share a new work-camping experience in a completely different state. There is a freedom that comes with the adjustment to this vagabond lifestyle that can not be experienced in many other ways.

Did you ever watch the birds as the migrate north in spring and south in fall, wishing that you had the freedom to do as they do and to go not only where you like the weather, but to pick anywhere that offers good weather, even if or perhaps because you have never been there before? Well it just so happens that we have found a way to do just as those birds and we have discovered the reason that birds nearly always sing!

Let me invite you to visit the website who's URL is found in my signature as it tells the story of our past eight years and has a page with pictures and job description of each place where we have worked. There is a major down side to all of this. The problem is that the old saying "Time flies when you are having fun" has proven to be so true and the past 8 1/2 years has gone by in a blur. In a life as great as this, birthdays do seem to come much more rapidly and we often wonder where the time has gone?

I will also invite you to send me a private message and I will be happy to share my email address with you and also point you to some excellent places to learn more about this lifestyle, as well as finding people who are fulltimers and work-campers, both of the volunteer type and those who work paid positions.
 

skirk55

New Member
Re: Full Time Soon

That is what my wife and I want to do! You have the life we have always looked to one bay be doing.
 

Paul235

New Member
Re: Full Time Soon

So, Kirk how long have you had this problem holding on to a job for more than a few months? Only kidding guys. Been to your website and it shows a lot of time and effort went into it. It actually looks better and is more well organized than most commercial sites. It sure looks like you've had one heck of a good time. I totally agree that a lot of folks don't understand that the concept of full timing is not just an extended camping trip. How often do you have to reassess the weight of your rig? I can imagine its a constant job not to accumulate "stuff" like we tend to do in stick houses.
 

DL Rupper

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

Hey Paul, I guess I lost/missed the part about full-timing not being an extended camping trip. My experience of camping out has lasted 13 years. I agree there are a lot of challenges to staying on the road full-time, but it's a lot of fun to not worry about working.

The biggest problem is that too many people have this romanticized idea of full-timing and when they get on the road they are disappointed, not really ready or scared and want a stick house for security. We talked to a lady in the laundry room yesterday and she admitted full-timing scared her and she wanted a house again to go back to after snow birding during the winter.

Full-timing is an unbelievable, exciting experience, but you need a certain mind set to succeed.

Bottom Line: RV'ers need to really plan ahead and make sure they are really ready to full-time before they sell the big ol house and get themselves in a bind after they buy a great big diesel pusher with the house profits and then are forced to stay in an RV. Iv' e seen a lot of unhappy people out here on the road. They just don't have any money left to go back to NORMAL living.
 

utmtman

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

I really dont want to work but cannot afford to full time yet on my dollar so the vip jobs help by giving us a camp site with full hookups and some money besides. Told wife more year, than we try to make it without the work. If I dont have any more problems with my rv than all will be well. But if I have to pay to get more repairs in the next year than I may have to go another year. Got two new problems to see about fixing. Hopefully I wont have to pay but my deductible for repairs. We shall see come January.
 

Paul235

New Member
Re: Full Time Soon

I also have been getting the MH in good shape to be able to depend on it for quite a while. I'm getting very close to retiring and would like not to have to work while traveling but who knows. If I have to, I will. A military pension and a union pension is not high living but will help. I guess that's why I've become a little paranoid about all the synthetic lubricants in my coach. I can see how much they can have a huge impact on the longevity of things mechanical. I've seen the light for sure and really enjoy sharing what I've seen with my own eyes without being totally annoying. I guess if you're going to be involved with anything, be passionate!
 

skirk55

New Member
Re: Full Time Soon

I don't want to move all around just spend the summer in Virginia or Maine and the winter in Florida or Texas for the winter. I would like to work at a campground and make enough for food and gas. I do not want to have to hit the savings for day to day living expenses. We plan to take a vacation when we travel between states. The RV will be home for us and we will make a life at campgrounds where we feel at home and if we don't care for it we will find a place the will fit our needs. The RV lifestyle is in our blood and we look forward to the new life without a house over our head. It seems we work for taxes and upkeep. Very little has been spent on our RV. Look at the cost of a home and maintenance VS the trailer we keep on a seasonal site. $3000.00 for everything from March to November. The upkeep on the RV is washing it. Paint the frame. Treat the roof. That is it and we have been parked for about 8 years. The house new windows 13 total. New floors. Landscape. Patio replacement. New roof on the house. Total over $16000.00 and this was just less than four years. This has my wife and I thinking why are we just working and on the weekend rebuild the house? We have been on the road with an RV and this was the best time of our lives. RV people are friendly and always ready to help one and other out. The beat people you will meet have RV'S. There are times when you have a hard time even with an RV but there is less chance of that that with a house. We are doing our homewokr and getting close to making the move now. This has been a good place for information.
 

DL Rupper

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

The full-time lifestyle is great wheather or not you workamp or keep moving. Luckily we have been able to get by without working, but we don't live high on the hog either. 2 more payments left on the truck and we will be able to buy more fuel. :laugh:

I just felt that I should point out that you really need to do your homework before you jump. Too many people out here are miserable because they don't have a stick house to go back to. We will just rent a condo or apt when our RVing days are over.
 

C Nash

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

kirk, I have a problem with you saying "Like most people who have never been fulltimers, those trying to help thus far really don't grasp what this lifestyle really is". When you said this only DL, Hollis and myself had posted. While you may have years of experience I think what DL has to offer is valid as he seems to also have a few years but may differ a little from your type of fulltiming. I can't answer for Hollis. While my experience has been far less than yours and I did not sell our home. I think skirk needs to hear all our experiences with fulltiming. We have wanted to fulltime for a long time and when i retired in 2002 it was time but we had to cut it short because we came back to care for Betty's 100 year young Mother. Think goodness we had kept our home. We were blessed to be able to do this. After we lost her we let our daughter have the house but then we had to be close to my Mother who was living alone but still able to do so with us checking in on her twice a day. No campgrounds near so we moved into a trailer that is on the old home place so we could care for mother. Now Mother is gone and we are still involved in getting her house sold and everything in order. My point is I think skirk needs to hear all aspects of fulltiming and yours is great but there are other viewpoints as well. I would not trade our last hours with our parents for all the fulltiming in the world. We will be back on the road when the time comes but I will keep the trailer we are now in because we do not know what life has in store for us and we will always have a place to come back to. Just another viewpoint and I appriciate everyones opinion even if they are not fulltimers. :)
 

skirk55

New Member
Re: Full Time Soon

This is a big change in our lives. I want to read everything and know just what people have experienced good and not so good this helps us make the best decision. I have read books but I do not know who wrote them. For all I know the book may just be a persons pipe dream. When I read the post to a question here I feel like I know the person. I seem to get the best answers here and it is a big help. This weekend we were in our RV and we did not want to go home. We have a nice house and the maintenance is too much. Not just the money but the work also and then we realized we spend 80% of out time in three rooms.That leaves 6 rooms we never use. Plus the outside work. It seems in an RV we spend more time together. This I like more than anything. The golf cart we use to go around the campground is something we just look forward to do. It is a simple life and most people would be board but we just love it. Our best friends are people we met over the years camping. RV people just seem to be nicer people but we have ran into the couple of trailer bums. But they are far and few. There is nothing better than sitting around a fire with people you have just met from all over the USA and Canada swapping trailer stories. This is why we are looking into full timing it!
 

DL Rupper

Senior Member
Re: Full Time Soon

Hey skirk55, try to find a full-time RVing book written by the Mueller's (name probably not spelled right). That was the book I read before full-timing and it was good. It is a bit dated, but has very good info.
 
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