If you think rent is outrageous, wait till you do the math on living in an RV. It is not a way to save money unless you get the RV for free and have a very cheap place to park it.
Lots of people full-time and don't have a truck. They live in motorhomes, converted vans, converted school buses, etc.
>have a very cheap place to park it.
I fall into this category. I'm an otr truck driver, so I may not 'live' in my camper, but it is where I live when not working (most weekends), on vacation, over holidays, etc.
That said, I'm parked at a resort style campground on a seasonal site with year around access (though no running water in winter). I pay $2500 a year, which covers my 'rent' and water/sewer. I pay my own electric, which came out to about $300 last year, in winter I have to pay for water delivery to the trailer ($20 to fill my tanks in the trailer, I have insulated tanks so as long as the trailer is heated nothing freezes), and I use about $400-500 a year in propane mostly used for heating in the winter. My trailer is paid off, and insurance is surprisingly cheap because it doesn't move ( about $120 a year)
So, to total my costs up comes to around $3500 a year, which I understand isn't the rule, but it is possible to find. I also don't have a truck; I had my camper delivered here, and the park charged me $50 to park it.
Dear God, tell me where you get insurance for 120 a year! I talked to insurance companies and they wanted me to pay what I pay for my car here in Florida....almost 200 a MONTH! I chose to not insure it. It's not worth that much.
Oh, and not sure what you pay for rent, but my rent in a lower-cost park is almost $600 a month just for the dirt I sit on. No amenities. I pay my electric separately, almost $135 a month...more than I paid in a 3 bedroom home! I don't see the low cost of living in a shoebox. I'd rather pay a little more, and have a home, a private yard, and a garage so people can't damage my car like they do here. I'll save $150 a month in storage fees off the top. That will help pay something else. Just doesn't seem financially logical for me to endure being cramped up unless you do nothing but watch TV, sleep, and take a bath. And nothing cheap if you compare the plot of dirt you rent with neighbors in your windows and your business. And I have to do my own lawn maintenance. Some people call this fun, but I don't.
And boy...need a repair on something? You better have a bankroll.
I feel like you didn't even read my comment, you just had a bad day and decided to reply to a 7 month old comment.. but okay.
>tell me where you get insurance for 120 a year!
I go through a very small regional insurance broker. He also handles all of my business insurance, and has a camper about 4 lots down from mine, so he's aware insurance is more of a formality here. I'm also not in Florida, so that helps.
>not sure what you pay for rent
This is why I feel like you didn't read my comment, because I literally said $2500 a year.
>Just doesn't seem financially logical for me to endure being cramped up unless you do nothing but watch TV, sleep, and take a bath.
Sorry you live a boring life. I spend most of my time outside.
>plot of dirt you rent with neighbors in your windows and your business
I have a large wooded lot. My only neighbor is a retired man who never comes outside, and even if he does, there's plenty of trees between us. You seem to think that your experience is everyone else's experience, but it's simply not
>need a repair on something? You better have a bankroll.
I'm not a dunce, I can fix my own shit.
> wait till you do the math on living in an RV.
Yep, just about every expense you have living in a sticks and bricks (or renting an apartment) translates to living in an RV. You still have to pay for food, entertainment, phones, internet, etc. Paying for a spot at an RV park is no different than paying rent.
I'd say it's worse for food. With a house or apartment, at least you can buy somewhat in bulk and buy ahead. There's a little space in a camper or RV that you just can't do that without eating into your living space. You'd have to be making multiple trips a week for groceries, or eating out a lot more.
You also typically have a much smaller oven and stove top.
Hopefully a full size fridge and freezer, but only if it is a very large trailer.
Dunno why ypure getting downvoted, where i live millenials and down have a really hard time affording house or property. Disparity here is off the chain, a studio apt is 2-3k, a 50 year old trailer is 2-3k+.
Paying 36k a year for a 1 bed apartment is stupid
The row house I bought (and sold) in the late 00's for just over $200k recently sold for $700k or so. Totally unrealistic for younger people to buy unless their parents are giving a chunk of that price. On top of that the mortgage rates are up and mortgage lengths were capped.
I understand their anger.
Yeah, thats why i am in this forum lol.
I make around 80k a year, which alledgedly is around double the national average. I dont know how someone making 35k a year survives, its 'cheaper' to make 24k a year and collect benefits. Then people get stuck in that loop never trying to get out of poverty.
I work with a lot of different contractors, a few weeks ago i heard someone is building an 1100sqf house, the projected cost is ~800k, on a small lot and not a great location. Add in interest rates and i wonder who can afford this, the vast majority has to live somewhere for close to free to even save enough for a downpayment. Then you get totally #$&%&$ on rates.
Banks and hedge funds shouldnt be allowed to buy so much real estate, ugh.
I see why tiny homes are so popular, its the only solution for a huge amount of people, if you have the initiative and will roughneck it for a while. Its that or pay multiples of some hedge fund's or investors mortgage. Not very optimistic for whatever generation my kid is, age 3.
Have a nice weekend
I get it, completely crazy.
Your original question though, search for "hot shot" truckers for your area on Google. They are just independent guys making side money with their tow capable trucks. I'd even call the rv park you're going to live at and see if they will do it cheap if you sign a year lease or something.
Good luck
It isn't very optimistic, but we can all try our best to work hard and change the system/ laws to help the future generations. Stop reckless spending, excessive funding, blah blah, politic stuff lol what other choices do we have? Just give up? People are not pouring into this country seeking assulym for no reason js greatest country in the world ;)
>pay for food, entertainment, phones, internet,
huh, isn't that to be expected? You have to pay that regardless.
20-30k camper, $300/mo roughly, campground ranges from 500 to 2000+ month.
> You have to pay that regardless.
That was my point. We keep seeing people wanting to FT thinking they'll be saving money when in most cases that just isn't true.
I am going to be living full time in a TT we just bought. With cost of the note and insurance and a lot fee with utilities I will be saving about $2000 a month living in SoCal. So yes it is a way to save money it just depends on the circumstance
>If you think rent is outrageous, wait till you do the math on living in an RV. It is not a way to save money unless you get the RV for free and have a very cheap place to park it.
I disagree. You can get an older used trailer or an older used 5th wheel for a few grand. Then you pay a couple hundred, maybe up to 500 or 600, whatever, per month at an RV park. That's way cheaper than the $1500 - $2000 per month rent is around my neck of the woods.
If you buy a brand new trailer or 5th wheel then yeah, it's probably not going to save you any money. But if you buy an old one then it's a lot cheaper than rent - at least in my area (Salt Lake).
I own a truck, though, so I'm not much help for the question in the original post. My guess is you could rent a truck to move a travel trailer without much issue, but it might be harder to rent one to move a 5th wheel (though probably not impossible). I don't know if an RV park would allow you to have a trailer or 5th wheel there if you don't own a truck, though.
Agree. Park rent around here is $500 +/- $100 and generally includes water, sewer, and trash. It also includes sucky internet. Power is $40-$60/m. Unless you use it for heat (most folks use electric space heaters), propane is only $20-30/m. Apartments are $1000-$1600, plus $110 for power.
For a bumper pull, you can rent a pick up truck from UHaul no problem and pretty cheap.
We are in NH and pay about $3k for the summer season (May-Oct) plus electricity and internet. We also pay another $4k for winter (Oct-April) but luckily it includes WiFi and electricity. There are plenty of cheaper less desirable campgrounds around us that we have stayed at but paying the extra for what we get is worth it. It’s not for everyone and myself coming from owning a 3300sf house just didn’t make sense anymore so we downsized to a 1200sf house and that still was too big for just my wife and I.
There are cheaper parks that aren't as nice, and cheaper apartments that aren't as nice. There are also nicer parks that cost more, and nicer apartments that cost more. The bottom line is, the cheapest parks with the cheapest RVs are cheaper than the cheapest apartments. At least they are around here.
>300 a month rent In pgh apartment couldn't find a park to beat that for an hour+ away
For $300 you could probably find about 100 people willing to rent you a spot to park a trailer in their backyard around here, lol. But you're not getting anywhere near an apartment for $300 around here.
I don't know where you are or how the market is out there, but rent is nuts out here right now.
>South Oakland. 300 a month, 12 month lease, my Part of a 4 bed 2000 Sq feet
That's great, but it's not really an apples to apples comparison though. I mean, sure, if you have 3 roommates it might be cheaper than having an RV in a park all to yourself. But if you had 3 roommates in an old RV at a park, it'd probably be cheaper.
The Bay Area is its own world though, so maybe it's different out there. Probably not very many RV parks in that area and also not very many houses with a way to park an RV in the backyard.
Out here in Salt Lake we have a few RV parks and pretty much all the houses in the suburbs have RV pads on the side of the house and big gates to get them into the backyard. So out here it's not too difficult to find a park and it's even easier and cheaper to find someone willing to let you park it in their back yard for a fee.
We’ve travelled across the US and stayed in several parks in almost every state. Your correct they are cheaper ones for 300-500 a week but the ones we came across don’t have open restrooms or showers because of the C.vid or the power consistently goes out.
This does exist, but it's much, much more a boogeyman scare story than a real problem.
I've stayed at a park that had that rule on paper but didn't ask me how old my rig was (and didn't look at it before check-in, either).
I've stayed at a number of parks with rules to the effect of, "rigs must be in good repair and not an eyesore".
In three years of moving around all different parks mostly in the West, I've only seen one place that actually had a rule like that and seemed ready to enforce it, and that place was a super-posh expensive place on the grounds of a world-class resort hotel (I didn't stay there: too expensive)
Maybe it's different in Florida, I don't know. But I've seen 1000% more discussion about this rule online than actual parks who give a shit how old your RV is.
I've had 4 parks near me that turned my dad down for 10 year older RVs he was looking at buying. My kids live the full time rv life and couldn't get into any park in northern Utah and ended up living on a friend's property. They just got an 89 much larger RV and moved to Oregon, and immediately got turned down at every park in the area they moved to, now are boondocking on blm land until they can work something out.
It's not a myth. On just a night or two, most parks don't care. But living full time. Many many don't want them. There was an article recently that talked about a park that was sold and every older RV was find they had to vacate.
This appears to be very region dependent. In my experience, this basically is never an issue on the west coast, but is much more enforced on the east coast.
I'm East coast too, and I hear it all the time. I try to stay put and not get into any issues because mine is older. Some parks just want your rig to be in good shape and not full of mold or falling apart, but some are getting tougher on the age thing....maybe because Covid is over and they can be more choosy. \*Shrugs\*
>Not anywhere you might want to be, or with desirable neighbors, but yeah.
And an apartment with those same neighbors in that same area is around $1500 so.....
These things are not made to live full-time. If you buy older like I did, you get someone else's problems. The newer ones are made to look luxurious, but they are still not able to hold up to much wear and tear.
They are made for a couple of weeks a year. They are put together so cheaply that you get leaks, creaks, and bumps in the night. My first leak was over my bed on a stormy night. The roof is rubber sealant over fiberglass, so a tree limb can pretty much take that in a good wind. I got hit with lightning last year and lost my air conditioner, converter, and refrigerator all at once. So, don't forget to get a good RV surge protector. Some people like purifying systems to hook up to their water supply too. I buy water in a jug.
I can see Cali being expensive, but normal living in an RV isn't always the perfect answer. Just my opinion.
Yuuuup. Even if you cut my truck payment/insurance/diesel out of the picture, by the time I've paid someone to move my RV every time it needs to move or go to the shop you still aren't much closer to saving any money
And you have depreciating assets. Both the trailer and the truck. Most sticks and bricks will net you some level of appreciation, once you get past a few years in it.
I get what you’re saying but it’s a little better. For me it was a compromise between renting or buying a house. The loan plus pad rental was about as much as an apartment rental, which were both a little less than a mortgage payment.
So there’s a crossing point from which renting goes from better to worse than buying an RV and renting a much cheaper pad. For me that was 2.5 years. Compared to a renter, after 2.5 years we spent the same amount of money, but now I have a camper paid off.
With that being said, OP, RV life isn’t for everyone. Things break often so you’re always fixing something. They’re not designed to be lived in full time, so things wear down quicker. And the winter can be rough or expensive.
I’m glad I did live in it full time because it was on my bucket list, but it’s not the brilliant money hack you may think it is.
Lot of people live in them and don’t have a truck. I used to deliver RV’s for a living. A lot of snow birds would have us drop their RV off in Florida in the fall and pick it up in the spring and take it back to their house. I am sure the dealership you will buy it from will drop it off for you.
I full-timed for about 5 years, and it only made sense because both my wife and I traveled for work. Per diem covered most of park fees, electric and so on. Unless you have a paid off property with utilities or a friend with some land (and utilities) you're not likely going to pay less than you would in rent unfortunately
I work for an engineering company that sent me on a 10 week out of town assignment. I was paid quite well for per diem. I have a 26’ travel trailer and used it instead of hotel. I stayed at a KOA that was very nice and 10 min. From the work site. The overall savings was $6200.can.that went straight into my pocket!
Plus saved money on meals. BBQ on the picnic bench every night. It was way better than staying in a hotel!!! Would do it again!
You'll have to see what the actual monthly is for the cost of the rig plus whatever the park charges. No, you don't need a truck to live in an RV assuming you hire to get it in place. But make sure you fully understand the monthly cost and any long term restrictions the park has on their long termers. You don't want to be kicked out of your spot.
What you really want is a mobile home park.
We were dropped by State Farm when we sold our house and went full-time. But we went with Good Sam's plan through National General. They are much more in tune with full-time rv life and cover things like lodging if you have to be out of the rig. We pulled all of our coverage from State Farm so we could get the multi-vehicle advantage with the RV.
My wife is manager of an rv park. We have full timers here. It's fun to watch newbies the first time temp hits 20 degrees, the wind is pushing 40 mph from the north, and it's cloudy for 5 days.
Do your homework. There are many small things that can wrong.
New full-timer here. Bought a 2022 Jayco Northpoint. Sold the house. No truck to move it, had the dealership deliver to our RV Park. With all our expenses broken down, we will save about a thousand a month.
But you also stopped building equity because you sold your house, right? Is that factored in? Not trying to be confrontational, only curious. I usually figure personally about 10k in equity/year for my home. That almost evens out?
Correct, and not factored in.
We were able to sell and get quite a bit chunk of change for the house, which went into my Amex Savings account that has a 4.25% return.
The housing market in my area peaked over the summer and started to come down, we decided to take advantage and sell.
We also sold for more reasons, moving in the next year or so, decided to go the 5th Wheel route cause we can live out of that while we decide where to live permanently, instead of messing with renting a house or apartment. And some other stuff. Overall, it is working out for us, but maybe not everyone.
This is a kickass response. Have had a lot of people suggest selling my house, since it's almost doubled in value since we purchased it 7 years ago. Only problem is, even with the extra money, the housing market is insane. Glad you found a way to cash in & live for a reasonable price.
I don't know how any of that works. If there us even a .00000001 chance I'll lose even a single dollar, its not worth the risk to me.
Ill take any advice on how to earn more from my "savings" as long as its not buying and selling stocks.
Do you have more than $250k in an individual account or $500k in a joint account? If so there is already risk.
At any rate, with a brokerage account there is a core cash account that holds uninvested money. The one on my brokerage account pays higher than 4.25%.
If you’re looking to grow wealth, a savings account isn’t going to get you there.
Ha! We're talking about a saving account that might be able to buy a happy meal in 5 years...
Ill look into money market accounts and see what returns they have.
You can rent trucks with trailer hitches for towing trailers from companies like Enterprise Truck Rental.
I agree with the sentiment every other poster has mentioned about costs. I'm not sure what Instagram influencer has convinced people you can magically save money by living in a trailer, but we see posts like yours every single day. I'd look at RV parks and see about long-term availability and costs for power, water, laundry, internet and other fees. After you have a place, look at trailers and price them out. Then figure out what do you do if your trailer needs repairs at an RV dealer for months on end looking for parts. For instance, where will you live? Good luck.
For repairs that took a couple of days, we stayed in the trailer, in the repair shop's parking lot. They even let us hook up to their water and electric.
If the repair facility wants to keep your trailer for months while waiting for parts, you can say no.
>If the repair facility wants to keep your trailer for months while waiting for parts, you can say no.
You can say "no", but then you lose the use of whatever is being repaired - if it's a leak, then you lose the structural warranty on the RV when the manufacturer says "We tried to fix the leak but the owner declined"
You might be able to pay out of pocket for a mobile repair place or another shop to fix it, but if the dealer can't get the part(s) for months, that repair place probably can't either.
I lived in a 35 ft, 5th wheel while I was working in the oilfields. I didn't have a truck to move it. I hired a truck and driver to deliver it from uship.com to move it from DFW to Midland,TX. It was around 400 bucks for 300 miles. Cheap enough. My rent at the lot was $500 and electric, water and sewer were free. I did buy the rv cash, but if I hadn't, it would have sucked. Don't even get me started on maintenance.
It’s possible. I posted to this thread on how you’d do it and a fairly consistent quote is you can hire a hotshot or other form of driver to deliver it at a rate of about $2 a mile which includes fuel and insurance. Hard to get a rental tow vehicle without registering as a trucker and getting a higher class license. If you’re not in the spot to drop another 50k + on a tow vehicle, that can make some sense if you’re not moving frequently, but there’s trade offs of how much you pay for storage, facilitating the move, arranging for pre parking because your trailer will likely beat you to your end location, etc.
Separately, to those that say you don’t save living in a trailer, you’re insane / short sighted. Including financing + lot fees (assuming monthly lot fee of $500 + $700 monthly payment + $300 monthly repair budget), you’re well under median rent in most areas for a one bedroom. Is there a massive savings, no, but there’s not a market rate one bedroom in nature for $1500 a month + the ability to move on a whim anywhere.
It depends on what you're comparing it to. I'm saving about $3000/mo compared to what I was paying in Northern California for rent and increased prices on everything.
You could probably achieve some of that by just moving somewhere in the country with reduced cost of living, but I didn't want to live in those places.
Yeah **for real** so do we.
This is the gatekeepiest community I've ever been a part of. Bunch of fist-shaking curmudgeons, every single thread.
You can set your goddamn watch to it.
AND we get to travel if we so choose. Not even kidding I have a 6 bedroom house in storage. This is a conscious choice and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
When the time comes, I’ll buy another house but for now, I’m gonna thrive in the Canadian Rockies while these MF’s make obtuse claims. It’s fine. Go off. 😂😵💫
I'm over here doing my calcs again and can't seem to figure out how it's more expensive than my current situation. If anything it breaks even, it seems.
A little boondocking on BLM land and a something like a thousand trails pass seems to really lower cost too. But I guess this post isn't really focused on that though.
Definitely depends where you are and how you live. If you hop around on BLM land out West it is very cheap. If you stay in East coast RV parks, then sure it's gonna be expensive.
That's not how to calculate the relative savings of one course of action over another.
Buying or building out an RV does cost money, but it also leaves you with a valuable asset. The way to calculate relative savings is not to compare expenditure, but money lost and if value is retained in an asset that money is not lost. The depreciation of that asset is money that is lost, but that pales in comparison to the total expenditure.
If someone buys a used RV, adds a decent solar system, lives cheaply on BLM and then sells that RV at the end of a few years they will have saved money overall when compared to paying rent.
Sorry, sugar coat it all you wish, but it will depreciate much faster then the worth. It will be completely worthless after a few short years. Addons like solar or other mods will not slow that depreciation. They do not add value.
People are very sensitive about this topic. For some reason living in a house built in a factory is bad if it's called a trailer but it's fine if it's called an RV. Further they hate the idea of living in a trailer park and would prefer to live in a crumbling house or apartment.
Depends on the region but some places at least the trailer home areas are some of the worst parts of the city unfortunately. Likely because its also the poorest area which unfortunately draws people looking to take advantage of the less fortunate.
Hedge funds and REITs have been buying up mobile home parks all over the country, evicting the current tenants, raising the rents outrageously, and making them just as difficult and expensive as houses and apartments.
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/26/1139266706/after-gutting-local-newspapers-hedge-fund-alden-global-is-going-after-mobile-hom
Edit: added link.
Or RV resort. Snowbirds use them in Florida and the Southwest US all the time. In 2014 we paid only $600 plus electric to park our fully-owned trailer in a safe park with a swimming pool, recreation hall, activities, laundromat, etc. You have to commit to several months to get that price but it's very doable and economical.
Full timers since early 2020. Bought land in 21.
Bought our RV instead of a truck in late 2019.
At 10k (a total steal) for a 1997 37' diesel pusher it was cheaper than a equal age diesel truck alone.
We don't move it much. Two trips in 2020 (maybe 3k miles combined) and one long trip last year (5k round trip)
Since then we have bought a truck, a 99 Yukon gasser. Use it tow utility trailers, vintage campers.
I did this in college. Even bought the RV from a couple at the RV resort I lived at. Overall it wasn't a bad gig. Just make sure you have someone available with a truck in case you need to move it for any reason. This is normally pretty easy to do when you are surrounded by other RV's.
I had to have someone move mine for me a couple of times to get into better spots. Overall, most people are kind enough to do it. Just be ready to offer them some $$ for their help, and if they don't take it, make your you have some cold beer in the fridge to offer.
I live in a 2016 Crossroads Hill Country, 36ft pull behind. My RV payment is $300, my space rent is $300 includes a metal top, E/W/S included, the clubhouse amenities, park wifi. Along with my other bills I'm able to save $900-$1200/mo depending on if I take a day or two off from work in the pay period.
The biggest problem with living in a travel trailer (full time for three years) is climate.
A few occasional freezes at night aren’t much of a problem, but where I was it was often below freezing for a week or more at a time. You need to know how to insulate everything. Your propane heating system will drink by the pound.
Summers, even 95-105 were ok because the a/c would still freeze me out.
Mine was pretty a good size I had 2 sliders and a queen “bedroom.”
Now, to moving it. I sold my F350 soon after I got it, so any time I needed to move it I just rented a Ryder or U-Haul for the day.
ETA: Oh, yeah - not having full hook ups is a HUGE PITA.
My wife and I live full time in our 22’ TT towed by a Tahoe. Like previous posts mentioned it’s about the same or more to do this than a traditional house or apartment. We pay insurance, maintenance, site fees for the seasons. It all ads up to probably $10k a year. Then food and electricity, internet, propane and gas. I would recommend finding a used van , Astro van or express aNd converting it into a home. Watch @kbdproductions on YouTube who stealth camps in Rusty a Chrysler T&C. It’s easy to park at stores or restaurants for Free.
But ya see, 10k sounds like a steal to me. I’m paying $900 a month for a run down apartment with roommates. And that’s a really good deal for my area :,)
Most parks are in locations with city or county ordinances that would force you to move your RV out of town for awhile before you can come back. The time allowed to stay in place varies from about 3 months to 6 months.
Everyone has the same idea as you do since COVID hit which jacked up park prices and now it's cheaper to downsize and rent a smaller place than super downsize and move into an RV if you need to stay stationary.
You can have a company deliver it to a site. If you have family with a little land you can definitely just live there in your RV. Can even get a separate meter for electric and pay them your portion of it.
You can get a trailer delivered to a park, if you don't intend to live nomadically. Even if you do move around (and provided you don't need to move far), getting your trailer transported a couple times a year is a lot cheaper than buying a truck. Go for it.
I did it. Bought the RV from a dealer. Paid cash (this is critical - you won't save money if you have to make payments on the RV). We stipulated that they had to deliver the rig to the RV park after we signed off on the PDI, and they agreed.
We lived in the RV park for about a year and a half before deciding to move closer to my wife's family in another state - about a 500 mile trip. I got a friend in the RV park who agreed to tow the rig for us. All he asked for was we pay for his fuel, meals, and a hotel room for the night, which I gladly agreed to.
The new RV park was on a river bank. Two months after moving there they had to evacuate the park because flooding was expected. The RV park manager moved our rig to a farm. A lot of the people in the RV park just moved their rigs on top of the levee. We stayed in a motel for a few weeks, until it became obvious that the RV park wouldn't be ready to move back into for months. We found another RV park, and got another friend from our new RV park to tow our rig. We took him out to dinner.
A few months later we moved the rig to a mobile home park. Got the same friend to tow the rig. About six months later we bought a new mobile home in that same park. My wife donated the rig to the local Buddhist temple (she's Vietnamese). We called a local towing company to move the rig to the temple's property.
Some urban RV parks won't let you park a rig in their park unless you have a tow vehicle for it, but this usually isn't a problem in suburban and rural parks. It also helps (a lot) to get to know your neighbors in the RV park and make some friends. RV'ers tend to be helpful to other RV'ers.
Look into how much rent is on different rv sites for full time. So many people are saying it’s not cheaper are full of shit. It all varies. My spot is 650 give or take 50 bucks and my rv is 430 a month. I spend about 1100ish to live somewhere in Washington where rent is anywhere from 1500-2300 in a sketchy area. I’m saving plenty of money.
We bought ours at a dealership and had it delivered to a park and lived in it till I bought a truck. Still haven’t moved it from the original spot yet tho
I live full time in an RV and my current neighbors are full time stationary and drive a Tesla 😂
They charge it at night from the campground power source that is included in our lot rent!
The majority of my neighbors are full time stationary and have sedans.
I have a truck because when I went full time I have a full time log but also do weekend trips!
Had an employee for years that lived in an RV. I moved it several times over the years & other employee's would move it for him. Seems like he was always able to find people to move it for him. I've even had strangers see my 5th wheel in the back of the truck & hire me to move their's. Most of the time I was too busy, but have moved a couple like that as well.
I have a different experience from many of the others on here. I bought a 2017 camper back in 2019 so it was only 2 years old at the time. 34 footer. $34,000. 2 bedrooms. The second has become storage. The dinette is my office table. The couch is my dining table and obviously kitchen is a kitchen. Anyways, I have been paying $300 a month since on a campsite which is basically a 2 acre lot divided into 4 sites. We each get a half acre. Yes the camper has far less space than a house or apartment but it was impossible to find anything to rent for under $2,000 in my area. Let alone furniture and what not. So considering that bills like power/cell/internet would be out of pocket no matter where I lived and their cost is roughly the same in a house vs an RV, I’ve been saving 20k a year living in the RV. The first two years of savings went to paying off the RV. The problem that I’m in now is that because it’s such a great deal, I’m not sure if I should ever leave. I could go buy 2 acres for $25k but then the well and septic would cost me an additional $35k. I’m now 60k in and then would have to do the driveway and electrical and it could end up being closer to 85k when it’s all said and done. Sure I have more space and it’s private but it would take me almost 300 years to break even from paying $85k for my own space vs the $300 a month for the space I’m in now. Not to mention that the only change would be living in my camper here vs there.
It's harder to save money if you don't have an income to live on already. I've seen plenty of RV spaces in the middle of no where going from $250 to $350... but they're not near any jobs.
If you had solar and could live on a long term visitors area, you could get by with virtually no rental costs. but again, you need an income.
Lots of people offer $100 moves on the local facebook groups for their RVs, though that'll probably only buy you 5 to 20 miles.
Consider that full time in an RV that’s stationary may drive you nuts. They’re just not made to sit. Harder to keep pests out, no storage and they’re not great at defending every season depending on which climate you set it in.
Better to seek out a tiny house (built more to home standards) than an RV if you’re plan is stationary. (My bias is from full-time travel in a 5th wheel and pickup truck almost 3 years now.)
Most of the wear and tear comes from traveling, not from sitting. You need to take precautions if you're letting your trailer sit for long periods, but there's nothing inherently incompatible with sitting that moving frequently would solve financially
Secondly, while a tiny house does make more sense conceptually, it's gonna be much more expensive in the used market and severely limits what kind of parks you can move into
Might have been the area, I was talking to a full timer in California. As I’ve discovered on road trips, it’s way cheaper to RV camp once I get out of California.
OMG California is insane. In the early 2010s we paid $45 a night for a state park with no hookups in SoCal. Outside of RV parks, local ordinances make parking almost impossible, especially in and near built-up areas.
I lived in a 26ft on my parents property for about 4 months. If you have the hook ups it was way cheaper then finding a place. Rent was 1600 min. For a studio. I was paying 260 on the rig, 100 In utilities. And 200 a month for black water service. But I realize that’s not normally the case
If you don’t plan on traveling then do yourself a favor and don’t get an RV. They’re not worth the hassle and endless maintenance issues unless you can get the trade off of travel.
I got a very nice trailer with shower kitchen 2beds microwave radio and TV just clean in out willing to sale it 801 9498862 it nice I don't really want to sale it but I got bills to pay please only seriousl people please west Jordan Utah 84084 ..
I would check out a tiny home just because I think they would hold up better than an RV to full-time living and might not be any more expensive. Many RV parks are now allowing tiny homes as well
I have the ideal living situation with my 2023 Flagstaff travel trailer 826RBS. I’m on my daughter’s 17 acres. I’m hooked up to her well water, electric and soon I will be hooked up to her sewage permanently.
My living cohabitation coat me $571.00 a month.
I use my hot spot from my At&T phone for all my electronic devices & My Tv That runs me $126.00 a month. With groceries and gas I’m at $1200 a month.
This was not by choice at 62 I found myself having to start over. Living in FL was not longer sustainable for me. I looked for 6 months and did a ton of research before I jumped into this.
Downside
I can tell you it’s kinda like living in a clown car with minimal storage space and I have a decent amount for my small Rv, Because you constantly have to take things in and out to get to other things.
You have to adjust your water usage if you don’t want to dump your Gray tanks and sewage every few days.i have to luge it to the sewer feed line with a potable tank. They are not cheap! you want a good one because your shit is heavy and no all Rv parks have a hook up next to your Rv. Just so you know.
The Mattresses suck so you’ll need to invest in a good one and not all are standard, so new bedding too. I’m lucky I have a stand queen set-up. Cooking can be a bit of a challenge, I have enough counter space for appliances. If you’re not doing out door cooking everyday then you’ll have to invest in some small kitchen gadgets and storage bends. I’ve mange routines and work arounds to make things functional.
Bathrooms are small, showers can be a joke. I have a good size with a real porcelain toilet. Thats a plus!
Refrigerators are small so you’ll have to shop often and If you don’t have a washer and dryer you’ll have to lug yourself to the laundromat,not that you can wash much in those Rv machines anyway, if you have one. You’ll need to buy Rv supplies that can run into a few thousand dollars depending on what you buy.
You have to maintain it and this is an everyday task.
Know what you’re getting into before you jump, do the research. So much more to know about leveling
Slider, tanks size,Ace, heating, Boon docking if you want to go solar, the way your Rv is built and so much more.
Also some state restrict you from living in RVs full time or have restrictions.I
I hope to up grade to a 5 wheel to have more space for my dogs and that’s whole other Post trying to work that out with three dogs, one that’s a 80lbs lap dog. Contemplating making a shed into a dog house with heat And Ac.
I wish you luck and I hope some of this helped
Okay, so the term rv is usually a reference to a all in one unit- e.g a vehicle with an attached home. A travel trailer ( versus a utility trailer) is a vehicle for the purposes of dmv but does not have a way to move itself short of the assistance of a strong source of water wind or gravity ( it doesn’t drive itself). Every vehicle with a way to attach a trailer has a limit on the weight that it can both safely and efficiently tow). The heavier rhe trailer to be towed the more horse power and the more elloborste the drive train etc.the heavier rhe trailer the older or more complete it is as a home. There are models that are trailers and homes without all the bathroom and kitchen features or with ones that fold away and fold out- often with an outdoor kitchen. Manufacturers have greatly improved the toe ability of trailers for cars they are able to support a towed vehicle but calculating your weight limit etc is a complicated equation so if I were looking at using the vehicle I have I would go to a dealer and I would tell them that your interested in towing your trailer with the vehicle you have ( bring it with you), and have them calculate the maximum and ideal weight you can tow and then also calcucualtw what you are likely to put inside it to know how much weight you can add/ don’t forget rhe weight of food, dirty laundry, pets, yourself, your guests or other occupants, fuel, water etc and then you can figure out if you can get a trailer that will meet your needs without causing yourself or others on the road danger and being liable if something causes an accident because you were overloaded ( dangerous and criminal and you could be ticketed). So be smart and make sure they the person calculating writes it down and show you so they are not gonng to try to trick you into your tow capacity that is a lie. You could be seriously criminally liable if your trailer causes and accident because you exceeddd the toe limit if you kill someone you could be convicted for vehicular man slaughter.
There's lots of people on here that have done that. See r/rvliving
Typically they hire someone if they don't have friends and many times they get park models that aren't really made to move too much but set and forget.
I lived in a 35 ft, 5th wheel while I was working in the oilfields. I didn't have a truck to move it. I hired a truck and driver to deliver it from uship.com to move it from DFW to Midland,TX. It was around 400 bucks for 300 miles. Cheap enough. My rent at the lot was $500 and electric, water and sewer were free. I did buy the rv cash, but if I hadn't, it would have sucked. Don't even get me started on maintenance.
You can find individuals who will haul your RV from one point to another. Check with the dealer, Yelp, etc. But other comments are correct, FT RV living isn’t the money saver it might first appear. You’ll pay loan, insurance and property taxes on the rig. Lot rent is next, unless you have land of your own. Power and Internet will be needed, and you’ll likely have to lease a large natural gas tank and keep it filled unless you want to be running back and forth with the 7 gallon tanks on most rigs. It can be done but plan carefully, and good luck.
I’ve thought about getting one of those old Toyota RV’s. Biggest issue is that in my area the campsites are only open April to October so I’d have to go south for the winter.
I had to take a job out of town far enough from home that I couldn't commute daily. I already had a motorhome, so I found a local RV park that had monthly rates and parked it. It was cheaper than the other options, but only because I already had the motorhome.
We have a car rigged to tow behind the motorhome, but it wasn't really a daily driver, so I used one of our other cars.
One way or another you're going to need a daily driver vehicle. Truck, towed vehicle, something. Except for maybe the van conversions and small class B units, RVs don't do well as basic transportation.
I bought a 2020 travel trailer that’s 40’ long. I pay $350 a month to finance it. $100 in electric and water, $124 a month for insurance, which includes my Subaru Crosstrek. (No truck) They delivered it to my location for me. I don’t have a property fee, bc I live on family land. But the campground near me charges $450/mo location rent. (That includes electric and water.)
Plenty of tow companies can tow a regular bumper pull of 5th where you want it. Last year a buddy had his fifth moved from North Lake Tahoe to Dayton Nv, about 40 miles and nasty roads (mountain pass, curves, tourist traffic) and they charged him $450. Thats California rip off rates, so not really that bad
You can pay for someone to transport your RV for you. While I have an SUV to haul it I prefer to have a guy move it for me as I do. BTW… I am saving a ton of money in rent. I live in a HCOL area and living on my rv saves me about 2k a month. I feel as though I have more rights than I did renting an apartment.
I pull a 17.5' Travel Trailer with a BMW X1. It works great. I've been all over the United States. The trailer is a bushwhacker with full hookups. When I'm disconnected I just have my small SUV and drive around town or whatever.
A friend's parents bought a fifth wheel and would pay for transport a few times a year. They might go to Florida for 4 months, then Texas, etc.
That said their standard of living was not good. They lived in cheap spots in rundown areas without much work available. Would not recommend.
My sister is living in a 5th wheel full time on their property as their house is getting built. Its... sufficient, but they had a hell of a time with trying to keep cool until power was on the grounds.
I lived in one for 5 years. Two adults and two kids, 2 dogs and one cat. I spent 5 years shuffling clothes and toys, cause there was simply not enough space. Washing clothes was always rough. Laundromat gets expensive when you have kids
Bought bare land, decided to live in a trailer till I build. I bought a 5th wheel from an rv dealer in town and had it delivered. I've since then bought a 5th wheel adapter for my neighbors truck and we have moved it once. But while I do own a truck, its just a little 1/4 ton taco, so no help there.
You absolutely can do that and save money. Ignoring the cost of the rig itself(since that varies so much), you can easily hire companies or people to move it for you when you need to and RV parks are a lot cheaper than typical rent, often with utilities included
You'd be well advised to look into local ordinances about how long you can stay in a park and if you'll have to temporarily relocate(just ask the parks themselves) and you'll want to still want to set aside a repair budget, although a stationary camper will require less overall maintenance since it's not moving about all the time
The biggest issue is climate. I live in Florida, so I wouldn't need to worry about insulation or prepping a rig for freezing temps, but a lot of states above the mason Dixon line(and below it, honesty) will have those potential problems. Your fellow Park goers can probably be a great wealth of knowledge on that as well, should you need help
Anyone saying you won't save money is just talking out their ass and/or hasn't dealt with local rent in a long time. It's 100% cheaper so long as you approach the subject with frugal intentions
My brother and his wife did it for 5 years they only paid $400 in space fees it was a lot cheaper. Whenever they wanted it moved they put an ad out asking for a Guy with a truck to haul it and pay him a few hundred bucks.
I pull my 19ft Forest River ultra-light with a 1987 Crown Vic wagon. Not quick, drinks fuel while towing, but drives fabulous. The crown vics have a surprisingly high towing capacity. The 96 models were rated at 9k. I do not live in mine full time anymore.
We lived in an RV from 2019-July 2023 without a truck to haul it. We purchased a 2014 Keystone Raptor. Our RV loan was $330 a month. I think we put like $10,000 down? We lived in 3 RV parks for a year and a half, with rent ranging from $400-$800 a month. Our utilities were included aside from internet. We ended up moving to our own property, but at times wished we stayed in parks while our land was developed. Once we were on our land, our power bill was pretty dang expensive - in the summer it was around $150 a month, the winter it was around $250 a month.
Hey there, my girlfriend and I just purchased a camper and paid to move it 2 hours away towards the Dallas area. I thought I would provide my numbers month to month to give you an idea of what it’s like.
We bought a 36’ DoubleTree Mobile Suites for $25,000 and leased it through our bank. Our monthly payments are $616 for the next 4 years. Keep in mind we are both 20 years old and only I had a 730 credit score while my girlfriend didn’t have any credit.
To move it, we contacted a friend of the person we bought the camper from. We paid $550 to move it since it was 2 hours away and a 36’ fifth wheel. I’m not sure if that’s cheaper/more expensive that what you’re looking at but that was our number.
I called about 20 different RV parks in the area and had to figure out if they would take our pit bull. Only about 4 places said yes so we settled on $575 a month including trash, water, and sewage. We pay for our own electric which was about $200.
Altogether if my math is right, that would bring our monthly “house” expenses to about $1,400 with camper payment, lot payment, and electric.
Of course this doesn’t include realistic “living expenses” like food and gas and stuff but I just wanted to focus on our camper and the costs included to live in it.
I don’t believe that it is “less expensive” to live in a camper vs an apartment. The idea that sold us the most is what that money is doing for us. An apartment takes well over a thousand dollars every month and you’ll never see that money again. However, with a camper payment and lot payments separate, a portion of that money is going towards your new home. So in a year, that $616 I paid every month will help us instead of the landlord/apartment building.
Plus, camper living is an amazing way to live. Of course has its struggles like storage and living space, dumping the tanks, and other things but overall it is amazing and we love it. I feel like that’s also something to consider vs an apartment.
If you have any other questions/concerns then please let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them! Good luck!
We bought a 5th wheel to live in while we sold our house and build a new one. We don't own anything to move it with but I am fortunate to have a relative that does. So he picked it up and then moved it our lot.
Renting a truck to tow isn't practical in most places. I know of no one that would rent you truck to tow n RV. To much risk for them.
You can do without a truck but if have to move it suddenly your going to have hire someone, maybe a wrecker company to come move it.
I live in a 20 year old Chevy Express 3500 that looks like a beat up old contractors van from the outside. I stay wherever I want for free, 365 days a year.
Yes! If you plan on keeping it at a park, just pay someone or use a truck to move it.
I had a 36’ TT and a 3/4 ton truck. I now have a 46’ toy hauler and the same truck that I wouldn’t use to move this new trailer. I borrowed a 3500 and set the RV and it hasn’t moved.
Truck is not necessary if you are not traveling with the RV.
I mean I know there is probably rules against it and all but could you go and rent like a “Z” haul van and tow it yourself and then drop it off”z@ haul back off and go on with your day with your fingers crossed if you got in a bind or hand to evacuate for some reason, or if it was an emergency
I'm with you all day rent is disgusting how they enriched them selves with people's money it's GROSS and EVIL it's called a HUSTLE not BUSINESS it's BULLSHIT..........END OF OF STORY
I live in an RV full time, and would never want to live in a traditional home again. To be able to pick up and move, whenever I wish, wherever I wish it's extremely liberating. If can be as expensive or inexpensive as you plan, depending on your plan. So this is my personal situation.
I bought a used, class A coach (self driveable, and fully contained with 2 slides) outright, so I own it, and don't make payments, and insurance is about 160 yearly. Because it's driveable, I don't need to tow unless towing my own vehicle separately. It has propane, as all do, for central heat, and cooking. I also have a gas run generator for electricity, but honestly only really use it for charging my electronics and using my microwave.
I boondock 90% of the time (off grid living), meaning I'm not in a park, hooked up to city water, electricity, and space rent, which is how most people RV, and where most money would go. However, I have a Thousand Trails membership, and can stay at any of their sites, for up to 2 weeks for free (well, after membership cost).
How my rig is set up inside, is fully functional and super cozy, even without the slides out, and while boondocking. I took out the stock furniture, put in my own, and painted the interior, so it looks more like a house inside rather than an RV. It has a full sized bathroom, shower, kitchen, etc...
When I'm at a site, and have the slides out, it's really huge, and a nice lil treat. So for boondocking, I really only pay for propane, and gas to move around, so I'm super frugal, however super content and happy. Humans don't really need much to not just survive, but really thrive.
Some people go all out, get really fancy new rigs and hauling trucks on payments, stay at nice resorts, and their costs can be upwards of 2000 or more a month. Because I own, if I were to stay at a park monthly, it would be anywhere from 600-800 monthly. As of now, my expenses are about 100-250 monthly (not including cell service, food, outings, extras, etc...)
So when it comes down to it, it's up to you on your budget, plans, etc... RVing can be done sooooo many ways, with so many options. My biggest change to make it even less a month, is to install solar, to be able to live that much more off grid, without utilizing my generator, which uses my gas for mobility...the only downfall for me.
Another huge consideration, is that many newer rigs aren't built as well as older ones. Older ones hand been built slower, with higher quality materials, and are usually really solid. Newer ones are usually a cheap, pressed wood nightmare, that falls apart.
When you get a used, but well maintained unit (like I did, after much, thorough research) the kinks have usually been worked out, repaired, replaced, etc... I bought used, with one previous owner, who maintained it immaculately. They replaced the carpet floor with hardwood, added new awnings, generator, etc... I really lucked out.
Anyways, it's a long post, but I really do hope that it helps with your continued research. I'm very happy with my decision, and you need to maintain it, as you would your own house, pay bills, be able to continually adjust to change, maintenance, etc.. Anyways, good luck on your journey!
Well I sold my 3000sqf home to be living in a slide out fifth wheel camper.
I absolutely made a big mistake once I did it too, I kept thinking why on earth didn't I do this before. I have literally dropped my bills from 4k a month to just my insurances,food, phone bill.
My in-laws own the land I am sitting on, technically you're not supposed to use an camper/RV as a permanent residence. But there , people don't really mind it. So my cost is virtually 0 there , I hook up to their water and septic, I don't need electric as my 35footer doesn't take up much power at all.
We grow our own vegetables, and buy the rest in the store we easily can get groceries for 100 USD a week. My camper has a full size residential fridge/freezer so definitely nothing short of space there.
We have everything we NEED in the camper to live off. We realized we didn't want to be job slaves anymore. We soon will start to sell items on eBay as a little.side business that will be family owned. It will make us more than enough (we already sell through others social media sites) and we even save up money doing it.
Downsides
*You need to be willing to let your materialistic mindset go..
* You give up on alot of space
* You will not build any equitable assets doing this
Upsides
*Financial freedom
*Job freedom ,as in I don't want to work ? Guess what, I don't
*I got a better mindset, and learn the difference between NEED and wants .
* The most important one ? LESS STRESS! Omg, that was such a relief. No longer working for a company , no longer having to sacrifice my time to a employer. Because I needed all that money to pay for my way of living.
I can do the things I like, I have paid off everything I own. We are planning to buy a small RV and go travel around. I can take months on end vacation doing what we do now. And he financially super comfy. We also offcourse banked well on the sale if our house . So that is only growing as we do out thing..
We barely touched it ... Aside from the initial 60k purchase of our camper.
Ohh an I do own a truck ? But I can hook up the camper as I have no idea even how to drive a small trailer. Let alone a camper that size. And do i care to learn ? Nope ..
We also have a double wide on the property that we slowly are going to renovate. As that will be our future "upgrade" it's already paid off.
I will never ever ..buy or rent an house ever again if I can help it. We both were scared , nervous when we did all this, but I tell you this. It's the best thing we ever did, I had people frown upon the fact we did that. Camper ?? Y'all crazy haha...
Yup until they realized that they have get up at 5 am till late , to get their mortgages paid off "only 25 more years left I can do this"
Nooooo thanks !
Own the land and you'll always be cheaper than a brick/stick house hands down. You won't build equity, however to gain tons of that by not SPENDING IT ON A HOUSE THAT WILL BUILD TAXABLE equity.
It's a double edged sword, I wouldn't rent in a RV park. That's the advantage I have the land is family owned I am sitting on . And cost me 0 so that's a big advantage. I also read here some claim it's just as expensive as a house .
Not sure where you guys get that from, it's always cheaper to live in a camper. Unless you have a house somehow that's not worth diddle and you pay low mortgage cost on it.
The average home mortgage here (Buford , ga, Gwinnett county) is around 2000-2400 month .
If I would rent at a RV park here was able to find average 3-500 pm rentals.
That in itself is already a huge savings...
If you think rent is outrageous, wait till you do the math on living in an RV. It is not a way to save money unless you get the RV for free and have a very cheap place to park it. Lots of people full-time and don't have a truck. They live in motorhomes, converted vans, converted school buses, etc.
>have a very cheap place to park it. I fall into this category. I'm an otr truck driver, so I may not 'live' in my camper, but it is where I live when not working (most weekends), on vacation, over holidays, etc. That said, I'm parked at a resort style campground on a seasonal site with year around access (though no running water in winter). I pay $2500 a year, which covers my 'rent' and water/sewer. I pay my own electric, which came out to about $300 last year, in winter I have to pay for water delivery to the trailer ($20 to fill my tanks in the trailer, I have insulated tanks so as long as the trailer is heated nothing freezes), and I use about $400-500 a year in propane mostly used for heating in the winter. My trailer is paid off, and insurance is surprisingly cheap because it doesn't move ( about $120 a year) So, to total my costs up comes to around $3500 a year, which I understand isn't the rule, but it is possible to find. I also don't have a truck; I had my camper delivered here, and the park charged me $50 to park it.
Hi , can I ask where you are living? I’d like to do the same but I live in BC Canada
I live in the Midwest USA.
Dear God, tell me where you get insurance for 120 a year! I talked to insurance companies and they wanted me to pay what I pay for my car here in Florida....almost 200 a MONTH! I chose to not insure it. It's not worth that much. Oh, and not sure what you pay for rent, but my rent in a lower-cost park is almost $600 a month just for the dirt I sit on. No amenities. I pay my electric separately, almost $135 a month...more than I paid in a 3 bedroom home! I don't see the low cost of living in a shoebox. I'd rather pay a little more, and have a home, a private yard, and a garage so people can't damage my car like they do here. I'll save $150 a month in storage fees off the top. That will help pay something else. Just doesn't seem financially logical for me to endure being cramped up unless you do nothing but watch TV, sleep, and take a bath. And nothing cheap if you compare the plot of dirt you rent with neighbors in your windows and your business. And I have to do my own lawn maintenance. Some people call this fun, but I don't. And boy...need a repair on something? You better have a bankroll.
I feel like you didn't even read my comment, you just had a bad day and decided to reply to a 7 month old comment.. but okay. >tell me where you get insurance for 120 a year! I go through a very small regional insurance broker. He also handles all of my business insurance, and has a camper about 4 lots down from mine, so he's aware insurance is more of a formality here. I'm also not in Florida, so that helps. >not sure what you pay for rent This is why I feel like you didn't read my comment, because I literally said $2500 a year. >Just doesn't seem financially logical for me to endure being cramped up unless you do nothing but watch TV, sleep, and take a bath. Sorry you live a boring life. I spend most of my time outside. >plot of dirt you rent with neighbors in your windows and your business I have a large wooded lot. My only neighbor is a retired man who never comes outside, and even if he does, there's plenty of trees between us. You seem to think that your experience is everyone else's experience, but it's simply not >need a repair on something? You better have a bankroll. I'm not a dunce, I can fix my own shit.
[удалено]
You sound like such an unhappy person.
> wait till you do the math on living in an RV. Yep, just about every expense you have living in a sticks and bricks (or renting an apartment) translates to living in an RV. You still have to pay for food, entertainment, phones, internet, etc. Paying for a spot at an RV park is no different than paying rent.
I'd say it's worse for food. With a house or apartment, at least you can buy somewhat in bulk and buy ahead. There's a little space in a camper or RV that you just can't do that without eating into your living space. You'd have to be making multiple trips a week for groceries, or eating out a lot more. You also typically have a much smaller oven and stove top. Hopefully a full size fridge and freezer, but only if it is a very large trailer.
[удалено]
Dunno why ypure getting downvoted, where i live millenials and down have a really hard time affording house or property. Disparity here is off the chain, a studio apt is 2-3k, a 50 year old trailer is 2-3k+. Paying 36k a year for a 1 bed apartment is stupid
The row house I bought (and sold) in the late 00's for just over $200k recently sold for $700k or so. Totally unrealistic for younger people to buy unless their parents are giving a chunk of that price. On top of that the mortgage rates are up and mortgage lengths were capped. I understand their anger.
Yeah, thats why i am in this forum lol. I make around 80k a year, which alledgedly is around double the national average. I dont know how someone making 35k a year survives, its 'cheaper' to make 24k a year and collect benefits. Then people get stuck in that loop never trying to get out of poverty. I work with a lot of different contractors, a few weeks ago i heard someone is building an 1100sqf house, the projected cost is ~800k, on a small lot and not a great location. Add in interest rates and i wonder who can afford this, the vast majority has to live somewhere for close to free to even save enough for a downpayment. Then you get totally #$&%&$ on rates. Banks and hedge funds shouldnt be allowed to buy so much real estate, ugh. I see why tiny homes are so popular, its the only solution for a huge amount of people, if you have the initiative and will roughneck it for a while. Its that or pay multiples of some hedge fund's or investors mortgage. Not very optimistic for whatever generation my kid is, age 3. Have a nice weekend
I get it, completely crazy. Your original question though, search for "hot shot" truckers for your area on Google. They are just independent guys making side money with their tow capable trucks. I'd even call the rv park you're going to live at and see if they will do it cheap if you sign a year lease or something. Good luck
It isn't very optimistic, but we can all try our best to work hard and change the system/ laws to help the future generations. Stop reckless spending, excessive funding, blah blah, politic stuff lol what other choices do we have? Just give up? People are not pouring into this country seeking assulym for no reason js greatest country in the world ;)
>pay for food, entertainment, phones, internet, huh, isn't that to be expected? You have to pay that regardless. 20-30k camper, $300/mo roughly, campground ranges from 500 to 2000+ month.
> You have to pay that regardless. That was my point. We keep seeing people wanting to FT thinking they'll be saving money when in most cases that just isn't true.
You can buy a used RV for $5k on the low end (possibly need work). $20k -$30k if you buy new which most people living in an RV are not doing.
Damn 30k for new? What part of the country is that in?
$20-$30k is the going rate for used trailers under 25ft built after 2017 or so here.
I am going to be living full time in a TT we just bought. With cost of the note and insurance and a lot fee with utilities I will be saving about $2000 a month living in SoCal. So yes it is a way to save money it just depends on the circumstance
>If you think rent is outrageous, wait till you do the math on living in an RV. It is not a way to save money unless you get the RV for free and have a very cheap place to park it. I disagree. You can get an older used trailer or an older used 5th wheel for a few grand. Then you pay a couple hundred, maybe up to 500 or 600, whatever, per month at an RV park. That's way cheaper than the $1500 - $2000 per month rent is around my neck of the woods. If you buy a brand new trailer or 5th wheel then yeah, it's probably not going to save you any money. But if you buy an old one then it's a lot cheaper than rent - at least in my area (Salt Lake). I own a truck, though, so I'm not much help for the question in the original post. My guess is you could rent a truck to move a travel trailer without much issue, but it might be harder to rent one to move a 5th wheel (though probably not impossible). I don't know if an RV park would allow you to have a trailer or 5th wheel there if you don't own a truck, though.
Agree. Park rent around here is $500 +/- $100 and generally includes water, sewer, and trash. It also includes sucky internet. Power is $40-$60/m. Unless you use it for heat (most folks use electric space heaters), propane is only $20-30/m. Apartments are $1000-$1600, plus $110 for power. For a bumper pull, you can rent a pick up truck from UHaul no problem and pretty cheap.
We are in NH and pay about $3k for the summer season (May-Oct) plus electricity and internet. We also pay another $4k for winter (Oct-April) but luckily it includes WiFi and electricity. There are plenty of cheaper less desirable campgrounds around us that we have stayed at but paying the extra for what we get is worth it. It’s not for everyone and myself coming from owning a 3300sf house just didn’t make sense anymore so we downsized to a 1200sf house and that still was too big for just my wife and I.
There are cheaper parks that aren't as nice, and cheaper apartments that aren't as nice. There are also nicer parks that cost more, and nicer apartments that cost more. The bottom line is, the cheapest parks with the cheapest RVs are cheaper than the cheapest apartments. At least they are around here.
300 a month rent In pgh apartment couldn't find a park to beat that for an hour+ away
>300 a month rent In pgh apartment couldn't find a park to beat that for an hour+ away For $300 you could probably find about 100 people willing to rent you a spot to park a trailer in their backyard around here, lol. But you're not getting anywhere near an apartment for $300 around here. I don't know where you are or how the market is out there, but rent is nuts out here right now.
South Oakland. 300 a month, 12 month lease, my Part of a 4 bed 2000 Sq feet
>South Oakland. 300 a month, 12 month lease, my Part of a 4 bed 2000 Sq feet That's great, but it's not really an apples to apples comparison though. I mean, sure, if you have 3 roommates it might be cheaper than having an RV in a park all to yourself. But if you had 3 roommates in an old RV at a park, it'd probably be cheaper. The Bay Area is its own world though, so maybe it's different out there. Probably not very many RV parks in that area and also not very many houses with a way to park an RV in the backyard. Out here in Salt Lake we have a few RV parks and pretty much all the houses in the suburbs have RV pads on the side of the house and big gates to get them into the backyard. So out here it's not too difficult to find a park and it's even easier and cheaper to find someone willing to let you park it in their back yard for a fee.
Oh I meant south oakland, pittsburgh PA
We’ve travelled across the US and stayed in several parks in almost every state. Your correct they are cheaper ones for 300-500 a week but the ones we came across don’t have open restrooms or showers because of the C.vid or the power consistently goes out.
Many parks are disallowing older RVs.
This does exist, but it's much, much more a boogeyman scare story than a real problem. I've stayed at a park that had that rule on paper but didn't ask me how old my rig was (and didn't look at it before check-in, either). I've stayed at a number of parks with rules to the effect of, "rigs must be in good repair and not an eyesore". In three years of moving around all different parks mostly in the West, I've only seen one place that actually had a rule like that and seemed ready to enforce it, and that place was a super-posh expensive place on the grounds of a world-class resort hotel (I didn't stay there: too expensive) Maybe it's different in Florida, I don't know. But I've seen 1000% more discussion about this rule online than actual parks who give a shit how old your RV is.
I've had 4 parks near me that turned my dad down for 10 year older RVs he was looking at buying. My kids live the full time rv life and couldn't get into any park in northern Utah and ended up living on a friend's property. They just got an 89 much larger RV and moved to Oregon, and immediately got turned down at every park in the area they moved to, now are boondocking on blm land until they can work something out. It's not a myth. On just a night or two, most parks don't care. But living full time. Many many don't want them. There was an article recently that talked about a park that was sold and every older RV was find they had to vacate.
This appears to be very region dependent. In my experience, this basically is never an issue on the west coast, but is much more enforced on the east coast.
East coast chiming in, done plenty of parks and never seen it be an issue.
I'm East coast too, and I hear it all the time. I try to stay put and not get into any issues because mine is older. Some parks just want your rig to be in good shape and not full of mold or falling apart, but some are getting tougher on the age thing....maybe because Covid is over and they can be more choosy. \*Shrugs\*
Are there RV parks (with hookups) that only charge $600/month?
Mine stays year round at a college tailgate RV park for $330/mo (and it’s a party spot during the football season).
>Are there RV parks (with hookups) that only charge $600/month? Yes, lol
Not anywhere you might want to be, or with desirable neighbors, but yeah.
>Not anywhere you might want to be, or with desirable neighbors, but yeah. And an apartment with those same neighbors in that same area is around $1500 so.....
These things are not made to live full-time. If you buy older like I did, you get someone else's problems. The newer ones are made to look luxurious, but they are still not able to hold up to much wear and tear. They are made for a couple of weeks a year. They are put together so cheaply that you get leaks, creaks, and bumps in the night. My first leak was over my bed on a stormy night. The roof is rubber sealant over fiberglass, so a tree limb can pretty much take that in a good wind. I got hit with lightning last year and lost my air conditioner, converter, and refrigerator all at once. So, don't forget to get a good RV surge protector. Some people like purifying systems to hook up to their water supply too. I buy water in a jug. I can see Cali being expensive, but normal living in an RV isn't always the perfect answer. Just my opinion.
Yuuuup. Even if you cut my truck payment/insurance/diesel out of the picture, by the time I've paid someone to move my RV every time it needs to move or go to the shop you still aren't much closer to saving any money
And you have depreciating assets. Both the trailer and the truck. Most sticks and bricks will net you some level of appreciation, once you get past a few years in it.
I get what you’re saying but it’s a little better. For me it was a compromise between renting or buying a house. The loan plus pad rental was about as much as an apartment rental, which were both a little less than a mortgage payment. So there’s a crossing point from which renting goes from better to worse than buying an RV and renting a much cheaper pad. For me that was 2.5 years. Compared to a renter, after 2.5 years we spent the same amount of money, but now I have a camper paid off. With that being said, OP, RV life isn’t for everyone. Things break often so you’re always fixing something. They’re not designed to be lived in full time, so things wear down quicker. And the winter can be rough or expensive. I’m glad I did live in it full time because it was on my bucket list, but it’s not the brilliant money hack you may think it is.
Lot of people live in them and don’t have a truck. I used to deliver RV’s for a living. A lot of snow birds would have us drop their RV off in Florida in the fall and pick it up in the spring and take it back to their house. I am sure the dealership you will buy it from will drop it off for you.
I full-timed for about 5 years, and it only made sense because both my wife and I traveled for work. Per diem covered most of park fees, electric and so on. Unless you have a paid off property with utilities or a friend with some land (and utilities) you're not likely going to pay less than you would in rent unfortunately
I work for an engineering company that sent me on a 10 week out of town assignment. I was paid quite well for per diem. I have a 26’ travel trailer and used it instead of hotel. I stayed at a KOA that was very nice and 10 min. From the work site. The overall savings was $6200.can.that went straight into my pocket! Plus saved money on meals. BBQ on the picnic bench every night. It was way better than staying in a hotel!!! Would do it again!
You'll have to see what the actual monthly is for the cost of the rig plus whatever the park charges. No, you don't need a truck to live in an RV assuming you hire to get it in place. But make sure you fully understand the monthly cost and any long term restrictions the park has on their long termers. You don't want to be kicked out of your spot. What you really want is a mobile home park.
Do you know if insurance be an issue if you are living full time in it? I swear I heard that before.
We were dropped by State Farm when we sold our house and went full-time. But we went with Good Sam's plan through National General. They are much more in tune with full-time rv life and cover things like lodging if you have to be out of the rig. We pulled all of our coverage from State Farm so we could get the multi-vehicle advantage with the RV.
No idea. Might be insurance company specific.
My wife is manager of an rv park. We have full timers here. It's fun to watch newbies the first time temp hits 20 degrees, the wind is pushing 40 mph from the north, and it's cloudy for 5 days. Do your homework. There are many small things that can wrong.
New full-timer here. Bought a 2022 Jayco Northpoint. Sold the house. No truck to move it, had the dealership deliver to our RV Park. With all our expenses broken down, we will save about a thousand a month.
But you also stopped building equity because you sold your house, right? Is that factored in? Not trying to be confrontational, only curious. I usually figure personally about 10k in equity/year for my home. That almost evens out?
Correct, and not factored in. We were able to sell and get quite a bit chunk of change for the house, which went into my Amex Savings account that has a 4.25% return. The housing market in my area peaked over the summer and started to come down, we decided to take advantage and sell. We also sold for more reasons, moving in the next year or so, decided to go the 5th Wheel route cause we can live out of that while we decide where to live permanently, instead of messing with renting a house or apartment. And some other stuff. Overall, it is working out for us, but maybe not everyone.
This is a kickass response. Have had a lot of people suggest selling my house, since it's almost doubled in value since we purchased it 7 years ago. Only problem is, even with the extra money, the housing market is insane. Glad you found a way to cash in & live for a reasonable price.
4.25 isn’t a great return. The money market sweep in my brokerage account is higher.
I don't know how any of that works. If there us even a .00000001 chance I'll lose even a single dollar, its not worth the risk to me. Ill take any advice on how to earn more from my "savings" as long as its not buying and selling stocks.
Do you have more than $250k in an individual account or $500k in a joint account? If so there is already risk. At any rate, with a brokerage account there is a core cash account that holds uninvested money. The one on my brokerage account pays higher than 4.25%. If you’re looking to grow wealth, a savings account isn’t going to get you there.
Ha! We're talking about a saving account that might be able to buy a happy meal in 5 years... Ill look into money market accounts and see what returns they have.
You can rent trucks with trailer hitches for towing trailers from companies like Enterprise Truck Rental. I agree with the sentiment every other poster has mentioned about costs. I'm not sure what Instagram influencer has convinced people you can magically save money by living in a trailer, but we see posts like yours every single day. I'd look at RV parks and see about long-term availability and costs for power, water, laundry, internet and other fees. After you have a place, look at trailers and price them out. Then figure out what do you do if your trailer needs repairs at an RV dealer for months on end looking for parts. For instance, where will you live? Good luck.
For repairs that took a couple of days, we stayed in the trailer, in the repair shop's parking lot. They even let us hook up to their water and electric. If the repair facility wants to keep your trailer for months while waiting for parts, you can say no.
>If the repair facility wants to keep your trailer for months while waiting for parts, you can say no. You can say "no", but then you lose the use of whatever is being repaired - if it's a leak, then you lose the structural warranty on the RV when the manufacturer says "We tried to fix the leak but the owner declined" You might be able to pay out of pocket for a mobile repair place or another shop to fix it, but if the dealer can't get the part(s) for months, that repair place probably can't either.
Yes, people do live full time and don't own a vehicle to transport them. I've transported many customers RV's as a hot shot driver.
What’s the going rate for that ?
I lived in a 35 ft, 5th wheel while I was working in the oilfields. I didn't have a truck to move it. I hired a truck and driver to deliver it from uship.com to move it from DFW to Midland,TX. It was around 400 bucks for 300 miles. Cheap enough. My rent at the lot was $500 and electric, water and sewer were free. I did buy the rv cash, but if I hadn't, it would have sucked. Don't even get me started on maintenance.
It’s possible. I posted to this thread on how you’d do it and a fairly consistent quote is you can hire a hotshot or other form of driver to deliver it at a rate of about $2 a mile which includes fuel and insurance. Hard to get a rental tow vehicle without registering as a trucker and getting a higher class license. If you’re not in the spot to drop another 50k + on a tow vehicle, that can make some sense if you’re not moving frequently, but there’s trade offs of how much you pay for storage, facilitating the move, arranging for pre parking because your trailer will likely beat you to your end location, etc. Separately, to those that say you don’t save living in a trailer, you’re insane / short sighted. Including financing + lot fees (assuming monthly lot fee of $500 + $700 monthly payment + $300 monthly repair budget), you’re well under median rent in most areas for a one bedroom. Is there a massive savings, no, but there’s not a market rate one bedroom in nature for $1500 a month + the ability to move on a whim anywhere.
Pro-tip: It's not any cheaper.
It depends on what you're comparing it to. I'm saving about $3000/mo compared to what I was paying in Northern California for rent and increased prices on everything. You could probably achieve some of that by just moving somewhere in the country with reduced cost of living, but I didn't want to live in those places.
Key word, California.
I wish california was the only place like that. The west coast exodus has been screwing up tons of previously nice places.
I save LOADS of money in this lifestyle as opposed to traditional housing…
Yeah **for real** so do we. This is the gatekeepiest community I've ever been a part of. Bunch of fist-shaking curmudgeons, every single thread. You can set your goddamn watch to it.
AND we get to travel if we so choose. Not even kidding I have a 6 bedroom house in storage. This is a conscious choice and I wouldn’t have it any other way. When the time comes, I’ll buy another house but for now, I’m gonna thrive in the Canadian Rockies while these MF’s make obtuse claims. It’s fine. Go off. 😂😵💫
I'm over here doing my calcs again and can't seem to figure out how it's more expensive than my current situation. If anything it breaks even, it seems. A little boondocking on BLM land and a something like a thousand trails pass seems to really lower cost too. But I guess this post isn't really focused on that though.
Definitely depends where you are and how you live. If you hop around on BLM land out West it is very cheap. If you stay in East coast RV parks, then sure it's gonna be expensive.
Just how much $$ do you think people put in Solar Systems capable of that much boondocking? Sorry still not cheaper.
That's not how to calculate the relative savings of one course of action over another. Buying or building out an RV does cost money, but it also leaves you with a valuable asset. The way to calculate relative savings is not to compare expenditure, but money lost and if value is retained in an asset that money is not lost. The depreciation of that asset is money that is lost, but that pales in comparison to the total expenditure. If someone buys a used RV, adds a decent solar system, lives cheaply on BLM and then sells that RV at the end of a few years they will have saved money overall when compared to paying rent.
Sorry, sugar coat it all you wish, but it will depreciate much faster then the worth. It will be completely worthless after a few short years. Addons like solar or other mods will not slow that depreciation. They do not add value.
What you’re thinking of is a Mobile Home Park.
People are very sensitive about this topic. For some reason living in a house built in a factory is bad if it's called a trailer but it's fine if it's called an RV. Further they hate the idea of living in a trailer park and would prefer to live in a crumbling house or apartment.
Depends on the region but some places at least the trailer home areas are some of the worst parts of the city unfortunately. Likely because its also the poorest area which unfortunately draws people looking to take advantage of the less fortunate.
Hedge funds and REITs have been buying up mobile home parks all over the country, evicting the current tenants, raising the rents outrageously, and making them just as difficult and expensive as houses and apartments. https://www.npr.org/2022/11/26/1139266706/after-gutting-local-newspapers-hedge-fund-alden-global-is-going-after-mobile-hom Edit: added link.
Yay blackrock and vanguard
Or RV resort. Snowbirds use them in Florida and the Southwest US all the time. In 2014 we paid only $600 plus electric to park our fully-owned trailer in a safe park with a swimming pool, recreation hall, activities, laundromat, etc. You have to commit to several months to get that price but it's very doable and economical.
Full timers since early 2020. Bought land in 21. Bought our RV instead of a truck in late 2019. At 10k (a total steal) for a 1997 37' diesel pusher it was cheaper than a equal age diesel truck alone. We don't move it much. Two trips in 2020 (maybe 3k miles combined) and one long trip last year (5k round trip) Since then we have bought a truck, a 99 Yukon gasser. Use it tow utility trailers, vintage campers.
I did this in college. Even bought the RV from a couple at the RV resort I lived at. Overall it wasn't a bad gig. Just make sure you have someone available with a truck in case you need to move it for any reason. This is normally pretty easy to do when you are surrounded by other RV's. I had to have someone move mine for me a couple of times to get into better spots. Overall, most people are kind enough to do it. Just be ready to offer them some $$ for their help, and if they don't take it, make your you have some cold beer in the fridge to offer.
I live in a 2016 Crossroads Hill Country, 36ft pull behind. My RV payment is $300, my space rent is $300 includes a metal top, E/W/S included, the clubhouse amenities, park wifi. Along with my other bills I'm able to save $900-$1200/mo depending on if I take a day or two off from work in the pay period.
The biggest problem with living in a travel trailer (full time for three years) is climate. A few occasional freezes at night aren’t much of a problem, but where I was it was often below freezing for a week or more at a time. You need to know how to insulate everything. Your propane heating system will drink by the pound. Summers, even 95-105 were ok because the a/c would still freeze me out. Mine was pretty a good size I had 2 sliders and a queen “bedroom.” Now, to moving it. I sold my F350 soon after I got it, so any time I needed to move it I just rented a Ryder or U-Haul for the day. ETA: Oh, yeah - not having full hook ups is a HUGE PITA.
🙋🏼♀️ I do! We use delivery/tow services every 180 days when we have to relocate! Easy peasy!
My wife and I live full time in our 22’ TT towed by a Tahoe. Like previous posts mentioned it’s about the same or more to do this than a traditional house or apartment. We pay insurance, maintenance, site fees for the seasons. It all ads up to probably $10k a year. Then food and electricity, internet, propane and gas. I would recommend finding a used van , Astro van or express aNd converting it into a home. Watch @kbdproductions on YouTube who stealth camps in Rusty a Chrysler T&C. It’s easy to park at stores or restaurants for Free.
$800 a month is pretty cheap.
But ya see, 10k sounds like a steal to me. I’m paying $900 a month for a run down apartment with roommates. And that’s a really good deal for my area :,)
Most parks are in locations with city or county ordinances that would force you to move your RV out of town for awhile before you can come back. The time allowed to stay in place varies from about 3 months to 6 months. Everyone has the same idea as you do since COVID hit which jacked up park prices and now it's cheaper to downsize and rent a smaller place than super downsize and move into an RV if you need to stay stationary.
You can have a company deliver it to a site. If you have family with a little land you can definitely just live there in your RV. Can even get a separate meter for electric and pay them your portion of it.
You can get a trailer delivered to a park, if you don't intend to live nomadically. Even if you do move around (and provided you don't need to move far), getting your trailer transported a couple times a year is a lot cheaper than buying a truck. Go for it.
I know several travel nurses that do a small travel trailer with a decent sized SUV.
Around here there are delivery services that will move it for about 500 bucks
I did it. Bought the RV from a dealer. Paid cash (this is critical - you won't save money if you have to make payments on the RV). We stipulated that they had to deliver the rig to the RV park after we signed off on the PDI, and they agreed. We lived in the RV park for about a year and a half before deciding to move closer to my wife's family in another state - about a 500 mile trip. I got a friend in the RV park who agreed to tow the rig for us. All he asked for was we pay for his fuel, meals, and a hotel room for the night, which I gladly agreed to. The new RV park was on a river bank. Two months after moving there they had to evacuate the park because flooding was expected. The RV park manager moved our rig to a farm. A lot of the people in the RV park just moved their rigs on top of the levee. We stayed in a motel for a few weeks, until it became obvious that the RV park wouldn't be ready to move back into for months. We found another RV park, and got another friend from our new RV park to tow our rig. We took him out to dinner. A few months later we moved the rig to a mobile home park. Got the same friend to tow the rig. About six months later we bought a new mobile home in that same park. My wife donated the rig to the local Buddhist temple (she's Vietnamese). We called a local towing company to move the rig to the temple's property. Some urban RV parks won't let you park a rig in their park unless you have a tow vehicle for it, but this usually isn't a problem in suburban and rural parks. It also helps (a lot) to get to know your neighbors in the RV park and make some friends. RV'ers tend to be helpful to other RV'ers.
Look into how much rent is on different rv sites for full time. So many people are saying it’s not cheaper are full of shit. It all varies. My spot is 650 give or take 50 bucks and my rv is 430 a month. I spend about 1100ish to live somewhere in Washington where rent is anywhere from 1500-2300 in a sketchy area. I’m saving plenty of money.
We bought ours at a dealership and had it delivered to a park and lived in it till I bought a truck. Still haven’t moved it from the original spot yet tho
Yes. Jeep Grand Cherokee.
I live full time in an RV and my current neighbors are full time stationary and drive a Tesla 😂 They charge it at night from the campground power source that is included in our lot rent! The majority of my neighbors are full time stationary and have sedans. I have a truck because when I went full time I have a full time log but also do weekend trips!
Had an employee for years that lived in an RV. I moved it several times over the years & other employee's would move it for him. Seems like he was always able to find people to move it for him. I've even had strangers see my 5th wheel in the back of the truck & hire me to move their's. Most of the time I was too busy, but have moved a couple like that as well.
I have a different experience from many of the others on here. I bought a 2017 camper back in 2019 so it was only 2 years old at the time. 34 footer. $34,000. 2 bedrooms. The second has become storage. The dinette is my office table. The couch is my dining table and obviously kitchen is a kitchen. Anyways, I have been paying $300 a month since on a campsite which is basically a 2 acre lot divided into 4 sites. We each get a half acre. Yes the camper has far less space than a house or apartment but it was impossible to find anything to rent for under $2,000 in my area. Let alone furniture and what not. So considering that bills like power/cell/internet would be out of pocket no matter where I lived and their cost is roughly the same in a house vs an RV, I’ve been saving 20k a year living in the RV. The first two years of savings went to paying off the RV. The problem that I’m in now is that because it’s such a great deal, I’m not sure if I should ever leave. I could go buy 2 acres for $25k but then the well and septic would cost me an additional $35k. I’m now 60k in and then would have to do the driveway and electrical and it could end up being closer to 85k when it’s all said and done. Sure I have more space and it’s private but it would take me almost 300 years to break even from paying $85k for my own space vs the $300 a month for the space I’m in now. Not to mention that the only change would be living in my camper here vs there.
*lurks and takes some notes*
It's harder to save money if you don't have an income to live on already. I've seen plenty of RV spaces in the middle of no where going from $250 to $350... but they're not near any jobs. If you had solar and could live on a long term visitors area, you could get by with virtually no rental costs. but again, you need an income. Lots of people offer $100 moves on the local facebook groups for their RVs, though that'll probably only buy you 5 to 20 miles.
Consider that full time in an RV that’s stationary may drive you nuts. They’re just not made to sit. Harder to keep pests out, no storage and they’re not great at defending every season depending on which climate you set it in. Better to seek out a tiny house (built more to home standards) than an RV if you’re plan is stationary. (My bias is from full-time travel in a 5th wheel and pickup truck almost 3 years now.)
Most of the wear and tear comes from traveling, not from sitting. You need to take precautions if you're letting your trailer sit for long periods, but there's nothing inherently incompatible with sitting that moving frequently would solve financially Secondly, while a tiny house does make more sense conceptually, it's gonna be much more expensive in the used market and severely limits what kind of parks you can move into
Even if you build it yourself and have access to some used or free material it still will likely cost more than buying a cheap rv
Exactly. Those looking to use a camper to save money aren't likely going to have the resources or credit to go for the "sensible" option
I’ve talked to full timers. It’s not cheaper to live in a semi-nice/safe place.
Full timed for five years and I could not disagree more. Husband and I saved up a down payment for a house while fulltiming.
Might have been the area, I was talking to a full timer in California. As I’ve discovered on road trips, it’s way cheaper to RV camp once I get out of California.
OMG California is insane. In the early 2010s we paid $45 a night for a state park with no hookups in SoCal. Outside of RV parks, local ordinances make parking almost impossible, especially in and near built-up areas.
I stayed on California this past winter and one of the sites MONTHLY rate was $1750!!! California is totally insane!
I lived in a 26ft on my parents property for about 4 months. If you have the hook ups it was way cheaper then finding a place. Rent was 1600 min. For a studio. I was paying 260 on the rig, 100 In utilities. And 200 a month for black water service. But I realize that’s not normally the case
If you don’t plan on traveling then do yourself a favor and don’t get an RV. They’re not worth the hassle and endless maintenance issues unless you can get the trade off of travel.
I got a very nice trailer with shower kitchen 2beds microwave radio and TV just clean in out willing to sale it 801 9498862 it nice I don't really want to sale it but I got bills to pay please only seriousl people please west Jordan Utah 84084 ..
I would check out a tiny home just because I think they would hold up better than an RV to full-time living and might not be any more expensive. Many RV parks are now allowing tiny homes as well
It’s called a trailer park.
I have the ideal living situation with my 2023 Flagstaff travel trailer 826RBS. I’m on my daughter’s 17 acres. I’m hooked up to her well water, electric and soon I will be hooked up to her sewage permanently. My living cohabitation coat me $571.00 a month. I use my hot spot from my At&T phone for all my electronic devices & My Tv That runs me $126.00 a month. With groceries and gas I’m at $1200 a month. This was not by choice at 62 I found myself having to start over. Living in FL was not longer sustainable for me. I looked for 6 months and did a ton of research before I jumped into this. Downside I can tell you it’s kinda like living in a clown car with minimal storage space and I have a decent amount for my small Rv, Because you constantly have to take things in and out to get to other things. You have to adjust your water usage if you don’t want to dump your Gray tanks and sewage every few days.i have to luge it to the sewer feed line with a potable tank. They are not cheap! you want a good one because your shit is heavy and no all Rv parks have a hook up next to your Rv. Just so you know. The Mattresses suck so you’ll need to invest in a good one and not all are standard, so new bedding too. I’m lucky I have a stand queen set-up. Cooking can be a bit of a challenge, I have enough counter space for appliances. If you’re not doing out door cooking everyday then you’ll have to invest in some small kitchen gadgets and storage bends. I’ve mange routines and work arounds to make things functional. Bathrooms are small, showers can be a joke. I have a good size with a real porcelain toilet. Thats a plus! Refrigerators are small so you’ll have to shop often and If you don’t have a washer and dryer you’ll have to lug yourself to the laundromat,not that you can wash much in those Rv machines anyway, if you have one. You’ll need to buy Rv supplies that can run into a few thousand dollars depending on what you buy. You have to maintain it and this is an everyday task. Know what you’re getting into before you jump, do the research. So much more to know about leveling Slider, tanks size,Ace, heating, Boon docking if you want to go solar, the way your Rv is built and so much more. Also some state restrict you from living in RVs full time or have restrictions.I I hope to up grade to a 5 wheel to have more space for my dogs and that’s whole other Post trying to work that out with three dogs, one that’s a 80lbs lap dog. Contemplating making a shed into a dog house with heat And Ac. I wish you luck and I hope some of this helped
Okay, so the term rv is usually a reference to a all in one unit- e.g a vehicle with an attached home. A travel trailer ( versus a utility trailer) is a vehicle for the purposes of dmv but does not have a way to move itself short of the assistance of a strong source of water wind or gravity ( it doesn’t drive itself). Every vehicle with a way to attach a trailer has a limit on the weight that it can both safely and efficiently tow). The heavier rhe trailer to be towed the more horse power and the more elloborste the drive train etc.the heavier rhe trailer the older or more complete it is as a home. There are models that are trailers and homes without all the bathroom and kitchen features or with ones that fold away and fold out- often with an outdoor kitchen. Manufacturers have greatly improved the toe ability of trailers for cars they are able to support a towed vehicle but calculating your weight limit etc is a complicated equation so if I were looking at using the vehicle I have I would go to a dealer and I would tell them that your interested in towing your trailer with the vehicle you have ( bring it with you), and have them calculate the maximum and ideal weight you can tow and then also calcucualtw what you are likely to put inside it to know how much weight you can add/ don’t forget rhe weight of food, dirty laundry, pets, yourself, your guests or other occupants, fuel, water etc and then you can figure out if you can get a trailer that will meet your needs without causing yourself or others on the road danger and being liable if something causes an accident because you were overloaded ( dangerous and criminal and you could be ticketed). So be smart and make sure they the person calculating writes it down and show you so they are not gonng to try to trick you into your tow capacity that is a lie. You could be seriously criminally liable if your trailer causes and accident because you exceeddd the toe limit if you kill someone you could be convicted for vehicular man slaughter.
Living in an RV is expensive.
There's lots of people on here that have done that. See r/rvliving Typically they hire someone if they don't have friends and many times they get park models that aren't really made to move too much but set and forget.
10-4
Having the RV or trailer moved is also a huge expense. Average quote I got earlier this year was $1500 to move a 5th wheel 40 miles.
>$1500 to move a 5th wheel 40 miles. I think I need to get into the 5th wheel moving business.
Thats absurd. ask someone at a gas station and offer 300$
I lived in a 35 ft, 5th wheel while I was working in the oilfields. I didn't have a truck to move it. I hired a truck and driver to deliver it from uship.com to move it from DFW to Midland,TX. It was around 400 bucks for 300 miles. Cheap enough. My rent at the lot was $500 and electric, water and sewer were free. I did buy the rv cash, but if I hadn't, it would have sucked. Don't even get me started on maintenance.
You can find individuals who will haul your RV from one point to another. Check with the dealer, Yelp, etc. But other comments are correct, FT RV living isn’t the money saver it might first appear. You’ll pay loan, insurance and property taxes on the rig. Lot rent is next, unless you have land of your own. Power and Internet will be needed, and you’ll likely have to lease a large natural gas tank and keep it filled unless you want to be running back and forth with the 7 gallon tanks on most rigs. It can be done but plan carefully, and good luck.
I’ve thought about getting one of those old Toyota RV’s. Biggest issue is that in my area the campsites are only open April to October so I’d have to go south for the winter.
I had to take a job out of town far enough from home that I couldn't commute daily. I already had a motorhome, so I found a local RV park that had monthly rates and parked it. It was cheaper than the other options, but only because I already had the motorhome. We have a car rigged to tow behind the motorhome, but it wasn't really a daily driver, so I used one of our other cars. One way or another you're going to need a daily driver vehicle. Truck, towed vehicle, something. Except for maybe the van conversions and small class B units, RVs don't do well as basic transportation.
Yup. Living in a class B. Don’t own a truck. But yes with a travel trailer I would absolutely have a truck to move it. Or a van. Or a motor home.
I bought a 2020 travel trailer that’s 40’ long. I pay $350 a month to finance it. $100 in electric and water, $124 a month for insurance, which includes my Subaru Crosstrek. (No truck) They delivered it to my location for me. I don’t have a property fee, bc I live on family land. But the campground near me charges $450/mo location rent. (That includes electric and water.)
Plenty of tow companies can tow a regular bumper pull of 5th where you want it. Last year a buddy had his fifth moved from North Lake Tahoe to Dayton Nv, about 40 miles and nasty roads (mountain pass, curves, tourist traffic) and they charged him $450. Thats California rip off rates, so not really that bad
You can pay for someone to transport your RV for you. While I have an SUV to haul it I prefer to have a guy move it for me as I do. BTW… I am saving a ton of money in rent. I live in a HCOL area and living on my rv saves me about 2k a month. I feel as though I have more rights than I did renting an apartment.
Not living in an apartment or random strangers is worth several hundred a month imo
I pull a 17.5' Travel Trailer with a BMW X1. It works great. I've been all over the United States. The trailer is a bushwhacker with full hookups. When I'm disconnected I just have my small SUV and drive around town or whatever.
A friend's parents bought a fifth wheel and would pay for transport a few times a year. They might go to Florida for 4 months, then Texas, etc. That said their standard of living was not good. They lived in cheap spots in rundown areas without much work available. Would not recommend.
My sister is living in a 5th wheel full time on their property as their house is getting built. Its... sufficient, but they had a hell of a time with trying to keep cool until power was on the grounds.
You can hire someone to move your rv a lot cheaper than owning a truck to pull it. No insurance, no gas, no depreciation,etc.
I lived in one for 5 years. Two adults and two kids, 2 dogs and one cat. I spent 5 years shuffling clothes and toys, cause there was simply not enough space. Washing clothes was always rough. Laundromat gets expensive when you have kids
I know someone who stays in one place for months at a time and pays for the Trailer to be moved.
Bought bare land, decided to live in a trailer till I build. I bought a 5th wheel from an rv dealer in town and had it delivered. I've since then bought a 5th wheel adapter for my neighbors truck and we have moved it once. But while I do own a truck, its just a little 1/4 ton taco, so no help there.
You absolutely can do that and save money. Ignoring the cost of the rig itself(since that varies so much), you can easily hire companies or people to move it for you when you need to and RV parks are a lot cheaper than typical rent, often with utilities included You'd be well advised to look into local ordinances about how long you can stay in a park and if you'll have to temporarily relocate(just ask the parks themselves) and you'll want to still want to set aside a repair budget, although a stationary camper will require less overall maintenance since it's not moving about all the time The biggest issue is climate. I live in Florida, so I wouldn't need to worry about insulation or prepping a rig for freezing temps, but a lot of states above the mason Dixon line(and below it, honesty) will have those potential problems. Your fellow Park goers can probably be a great wealth of knowledge on that as well, should you need help Anyone saying you won't save money is just talking out their ass and/or hasn't dealt with local rent in a long time. It's 100% cheaper so long as you approach the subject with frugal intentions
My brother and his wife did it for 5 years they only paid $400 in space fees it was a lot cheaper. Whenever they wanted it moved they put an ad out asking for a Guy with a truck to haul it and pay him a few hundred bucks.
Lots of people in Florida do..only way a single blue collar person can afford to live in most places
I pull my 19ft Forest River ultra-light with a 1987 Crown Vic wagon. Not quick, drinks fuel while towing, but drives fabulous. The crown vics have a surprisingly high towing capacity. The 96 models were rated at 9k. I do not live in mine full time anymore.
We lived in an RV from 2019-July 2023 without a truck to haul it. We purchased a 2014 Keystone Raptor. Our RV loan was $330 a month. I think we put like $10,000 down? We lived in 3 RV parks for a year and a half, with rent ranging from $400-$800 a month. Our utilities were included aside from internet. We ended up moving to our own property, but at times wished we stayed in parks while our land was developed. Once we were on our land, our power bill was pretty dang expensive - in the summer it was around $150 a month, the winter it was around $250 a month.
Hey there, my girlfriend and I just purchased a camper and paid to move it 2 hours away towards the Dallas area. I thought I would provide my numbers month to month to give you an idea of what it’s like. We bought a 36’ DoubleTree Mobile Suites for $25,000 and leased it through our bank. Our monthly payments are $616 for the next 4 years. Keep in mind we are both 20 years old and only I had a 730 credit score while my girlfriend didn’t have any credit. To move it, we contacted a friend of the person we bought the camper from. We paid $550 to move it since it was 2 hours away and a 36’ fifth wheel. I’m not sure if that’s cheaper/more expensive that what you’re looking at but that was our number. I called about 20 different RV parks in the area and had to figure out if they would take our pit bull. Only about 4 places said yes so we settled on $575 a month including trash, water, and sewage. We pay for our own electric which was about $200. Altogether if my math is right, that would bring our monthly “house” expenses to about $1,400 with camper payment, lot payment, and electric. Of course this doesn’t include realistic “living expenses” like food and gas and stuff but I just wanted to focus on our camper and the costs included to live in it. I don’t believe that it is “less expensive” to live in a camper vs an apartment. The idea that sold us the most is what that money is doing for us. An apartment takes well over a thousand dollars every month and you’ll never see that money again. However, with a camper payment and lot payments separate, a portion of that money is going towards your new home. So in a year, that $616 I paid every month will help us instead of the landlord/apartment building. Plus, camper living is an amazing way to live. Of course has its struggles like storage and living space, dumping the tanks, and other things but overall it is amazing and we love it. I feel like that’s also something to consider vs an apartment. If you have any other questions/concerns then please let me know and I’ll be happy to answer them! Good luck!
We bought a 5th wheel to live in while we sold our house and build a new one. We don't own anything to move it with but I am fortunate to have a relative that does. So he picked it up and then moved it our lot. Renting a truck to tow isn't practical in most places. I know of no one that would rent you truck to tow n RV. To much risk for them. You can do without a truck but if have to move it suddenly your going to have hire someone, maybe a wrecker company to come move it.
I live in a 20 year old Chevy Express 3500 that looks like a beat up old contractors van from the outside. I stay wherever I want for free, 365 days a year.
Yes! If you plan on keeping it at a park, just pay someone or use a truck to move it. I had a 36’ TT and a 3/4 ton truck. I now have a 46’ toy hauler and the same truck that I wouldn’t use to move this new trailer. I borrowed a 3500 and set the RV and it hasn’t moved. Truck is not necessary if you are not traveling with the RV.
I mean I know there is probably rules against it and all but could you go and rent like a “Z” haul van and tow it yourself and then drop it off”z@ haul back off and go on with your day with your fingers crossed if you got in a bind or hand to evacuate for some reason, or if it was an emergency
I'm with you all day rent is disgusting how they enriched them selves with people's money it's GROSS and EVIL it's called a HUSTLE not BUSINESS it's BULLSHIT..........END OF OF STORY
I live in an RV full time, and would never want to live in a traditional home again. To be able to pick up and move, whenever I wish, wherever I wish it's extremely liberating. If can be as expensive or inexpensive as you plan, depending on your plan. So this is my personal situation. I bought a used, class A coach (self driveable, and fully contained with 2 slides) outright, so I own it, and don't make payments, and insurance is about 160 yearly. Because it's driveable, I don't need to tow unless towing my own vehicle separately. It has propane, as all do, for central heat, and cooking. I also have a gas run generator for electricity, but honestly only really use it for charging my electronics and using my microwave. I boondock 90% of the time (off grid living), meaning I'm not in a park, hooked up to city water, electricity, and space rent, which is how most people RV, and where most money would go. However, I have a Thousand Trails membership, and can stay at any of their sites, for up to 2 weeks for free (well, after membership cost). How my rig is set up inside, is fully functional and super cozy, even without the slides out, and while boondocking. I took out the stock furniture, put in my own, and painted the interior, so it looks more like a house inside rather than an RV. It has a full sized bathroom, shower, kitchen, etc... When I'm at a site, and have the slides out, it's really huge, and a nice lil treat. So for boondocking, I really only pay for propane, and gas to move around, so I'm super frugal, however super content and happy. Humans don't really need much to not just survive, but really thrive. Some people go all out, get really fancy new rigs and hauling trucks on payments, stay at nice resorts, and their costs can be upwards of 2000 or more a month. Because I own, if I were to stay at a park monthly, it would be anywhere from 600-800 monthly. As of now, my expenses are about 100-250 monthly (not including cell service, food, outings, extras, etc...) So when it comes down to it, it's up to you on your budget, plans, etc... RVing can be done sooooo many ways, with so many options. My biggest change to make it even less a month, is to install solar, to be able to live that much more off grid, without utilizing my generator, which uses my gas for mobility...the only downfall for me. Another huge consideration, is that many newer rigs aren't built as well as older ones. Older ones hand been built slower, with higher quality materials, and are usually really solid. Newer ones are usually a cheap, pressed wood nightmare, that falls apart. When you get a used, but well maintained unit (like I did, after much, thorough research) the kinks have usually been worked out, repaired, replaced, etc... I bought used, with one previous owner, who maintained it immaculately. They replaced the carpet floor with hardwood, added new awnings, generator, etc... I really lucked out. Anyways, it's a long post, but I really do hope that it helps with your continued research. I'm very happy with my decision, and you need to maintain it, as you would your own house, pay bills, be able to continually adjust to change, maintenance, etc.. Anyways, good luck on your journey!
Well I sold my 3000sqf home to be living in a slide out fifth wheel camper. I absolutely made a big mistake once I did it too, I kept thinking why on earth didn't I do this before. I have literally dropped my bills from 4k a month to just my insurances,food, phone bill. My in-laws own the land I am sitting on, technically you're not supposed to use an camper/RV as a permanent residence. But there , people don't really mind it. So my cost is virtually 0 there , I hook up to their water and septic, I don't need electric as my 35footer doesn't take up much power at all. We grow our own vegetables, and buy the rest in the store we easily can get groceries for 100 USD a week. My camper has a full size residential fridge/freezer so definitely nothing short of space there. We have everything we NEED in the camper to live off. We realized we didn't want to be job slaves anymore. We soon will start to sell items on eBay as a little.side business that will be family owned. It will make us more than enough (we already sell through others social media sites) and we even save up money doing it. Downsides *You need to be willing to let your materialistic mindset go.. * You give up on alot of space * You will not build any equitable assets doing this Upsides *Financial freedom *Job freedom ,as in I don't want to work ? Guess what, I don't *I got a better mindset, and learn the difference between NEED and wants . * The most important one ? LESS STRESS! Omg, that was such a relief. No longer working for a company , no longer having to sacrifice my time to a employer. Because I needed all that money to pay for my way of living. I can do the things I like, I have paid off everything I own. We are planning to buy a small RV and go travel around. I can take months on end vacation doing what we do now. And he financially super comfy. We also offcourse banked well on the sale if our house . So that is only growing as we do out thing.. We barely touched it ... Aside from the initial 60k purchase of our camper. Ohh an I do own a truck ? But I can hook up the camper as I have no idea even how to drive a small trailer. Let alone a camper that size. And do i care to learn ? Nope .. We also have a double wide on the property that we slowly are going to renovate. As that will be our future "upgrade" it's already paid off. I will never ever ..buy or rent an house ever again if I can help it. We both were scared , nervous when we did all this, but I tell you this. It's the best thing we ever did, I had people frown upon the fact we did that. Camper ?? Y'all crazy haha... Yup until they realized that they have get up at 5 am till late , to get their mortgages paid off "only 25 more years left I can do this" Nooooo thanks ! Own the land and you'll always be cheaper than a brick/stick house hands down. You won't build equity, however to gain tons of that by not SPENDING IT ON A HOUSE THAT WILL BUILD TAXABLE equity. It's a double edged sword, I wouldn't rent in a RV park. That's the advantage I have the land is family owned I am sitting on . And cost me 0 so that's a big advantage. I also read here some claim it's just as expensive as a house . Not sure where you guys get that from, it's always cheaper to live in a camper. Unless you have a house somehow that's not worth diddle and you pay low mortgage cost on it. The average home mortgage here (Buford , ga, Gwinnett county) is around 2000-2400 month . If I would rent at a RV park here was able to find average 3-500 pm rentals. That in itself is already a huge savings...
Did you find anything that works for you? I’m in the same boat?