Fulltime Trailer

[Dot Liljenquist]

Istarted a spreadsheet about 18 months before retirement, listing our priorities: good schools, within an hour of big mountains or warm beaches, and a reasonable cost of living. I worked on the spreadsheet for weeks. Both Mark and I spent endless hours on the Internet looking at houses and weather and crime rates.

Other than that, neither of us had spent any time in an RV since we were kids. While Mark had towed several big boats and U-hauls, neither one of us had ever towed even a small camper, let alone a king-sized RV like those you see on the roads today.

We would, of course, visit the places we thought we might like to live. In between, we would catch up with family and friends and visit as many national parks, battlefields, monuments, museums, and other interesting sites as possible.

Mark had almost 120 days of terminal leave to kick us off. We took advantage of the free year of HHG storage provided by the military upon retirement and flew out of Germany in August of 2016 with four suitcases and our cat in his kennel.

My husband hated towing that behemoth of a fifth wheel, the kids hated sharing a room with bunk beds on either side, and I hated that everyone hated what I thought would be the adventure of a lifetime.

How much you want to spend doing a trip like this is entirely up to you. However, be aware that traveling full-time is not a way to save money. RV and vehicle payments, gas, campgrounds, admission prices at attractions, etc., add up quickly.

We were prepared with tools to help our RV survive the cold: a heated, enclosed underbelly on the trailer; heated hoses; space heaters, etc. We survived a low of 10 degrees one night just before Christmas in Green River, Utah, and on and off sub-freezing temperatures the rest of our trip. We even had about six inches of snow in South Dakota after Easter.

This was another big challenge. We chose Florida Virtual School, which is an online public school for Florida residents. We were worried about our ninth grader having the right credits for ninth grade, and about our own abilities to home school. But since it was the same curriculum as public school, it took almost the same time commitment per class each week.

Author Bio: Jan Wesner Childs is a journalist and wife of a 26-year Army Special Forces veteran. She has lived, worked and traveled around the world and the U.S. She is currently a freelance writer based in Florida, where she writes about anything and everything, including local schools, the space and tourism industry, and military spouse and family issues. She can be reached at janwc...@yahoo.com.

FT Tuthill is a great facility, highly recommend the local Segway tour and the Snow bowl Ski Lift tour Both a short distance from Ft Tuthill and Flagstaff has a lot of very good restaurants, one Mexican restaurant was featured on Diners Drive Ins and Dives. .

Hi, my name is Stephanie! Since my husband retired from the Army in 2015, we have been using our military benefits to fly Space-A on military aircraft and stay in military facilities all over the world . . . (read more) .

Honestly, if it's just you and truly small dogs ( under 20 pounds), I wouldn't rule out the smaller Elite I. Easier to tow, smaller space. Wider choices in tow vehicles because of the smaller footprint and weight. If you're primarily working remote, wardrobe isn't a huge issue , anyway..

We use the storage space under the bed for three big bins. Handles most seasonal wardrobe changes in three season camping. (We're rarely out for more than ten weeks, but really, same routine is likely. ) Truck bed carries overflow, with a cover.

Im also looking at how to manage storage in the tow vehicle- stable, organized, heavy stuff on bottom (batteries, water, canned goods, dog food) and then rest on mid/top level shelves (clothes, bedding, dog items, first aid, dry goods) and big lightweight things in the middle (outdoor carpet, dog crates, clamshell tent, etc.)

I haven't bought an Ollie yet, but have done quite a bit of trailering and rving. One thing to caution about is how much weight your tow vehicle will be able to carry when you're towing. It may not be as much as you'd hope for. For myself and my wife, I calculated that I'd have about 3-400 lbs of extra weight capacity in my truck after subtracting our weight, the trailer tongue weight, full tank of gas, cap weight, and the dog, etc. All the extra camping cargo can add up fast. YMMV with whatever tow vehicle you're using of course, so you should look closely at whatever vehicle you pick to make sure it has plenty of carrying capacity. I suspect a lot of folks tend to go with trucks because vans in general can't haul as much as a truck. Vans do offer the advantage of having better access to gear and 24/7 covering.

We've been dreaming of RV living for a while, but came to the conclusion that none of the stick builts do what we need. The bigfoot trailers look like they might be a better match from a floorplan standpoint, but having grown up on boats I like the fiberglass inner hull of the oliver as well. The frame construction is also far ahead of anything else I have seen.

We're in our 30s with a 35lbs dog. My job lets me travel throughout most of the year and commute by plane, but in the winter -- I'll probably have to hunker down in Philadelphia-Newark-Long Island area. So not nearly as cold as some places - generally not consecutive days where no above freezing temperatures are seen - but still subject to cold snaps and plenty of snow. Ideally, we'd pull into a winter hole up site in December and skirt the outside and maybe tape off the windows with insulation. Then come March, we'd leave and start seeking new places to visit across the country until the next December. Several of the areas of land and campsites I've looked at for winter time have flat rate 50A hookups available.

They wintered out west or in Florida. Not New Jersey. And, since they moved up from a Tab, they already had a feel for (very) small space living. They now split their time between a vintage bus, and a boat.

We've lived happily, traveling, in our small Elite for 90 days or so. Then, frankly, I'm ready to go home. I miss our daughter, my neighbors and friends, etc. But, I'm a lot older, and very settled in my neighborhood... We've still seen a lot in our travels.

Yes, unfortunately. The only thing worse than living in snow is trying to fly into the NYC area when it snows - especially Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have an idea of small living as I lived on a 32' sailboat which got old pretty fast due to: no iPads, TVs, or electricity, and you can't even go out for a walk unless we anchored, buoyed, or the rare treat of docking someplace. Our goal is to live in it a few years, then park it on a pad someplace (my vote is Poconos) and live in it while we build our forever home. Once that is up, we'll use it for travel/vacation. My wife is (un)lucky in that I am gone for work a lot -- so it is often just her and the dog.

As I said before, all things are possible. But, dealing with snowy gear almost requires a vestibule, for full timing, or a shed. You do have more space in a II, than our Elite. Certainly as much room as many tiny homes, with much more portability. But, it does require a flexible attitude.

You have the experience of the 32' boat. As sailboaters, I'd say that's really good experience in small space living. But, easier to get out and about from a campsite, than on the hook. The tow vehicle opens up lots of opportunities.

For the first few winters we will probably just have the trailer and our hookups - which is still a world away from being 4 days from your next boat stop and running out of milk, or breaking your glasses (and the eye place at that next stop is now closed). After a 2-3 years we'll probably start by building a little shed/house for laundry and some of my bigger tools and probably a trailer port/garage for the RV to help keep it nice and comfortable.

With a few exceptions, I think your list is possible. Much of what you're looking to do has either been discussed to some degree here, or has already been done on other trailers. Primarily, it will be a question of money, time, and your ability to do the work yourself. Also money, and in addition to that, some more money.

Electrical - fairly easy, so long as you're familiar with 12 volt electrical. You'll have to replace the charger obviously - the existing one is easy to bypass. I don't know if you'll have to replace the breaker panel or not, but that shouldn't be difficult. If you're running that much electrical, then you'll probably want to install your own 3,000w or higher inverter, and possibly look at upgrading the batteries to lithium. Look here to see how I swapped out mine, which I left at 30A, but which is only a swapped connector away from being 50A. I need to update that info since I've remounted everything and added a few bits - what you see in the photos has a few sketchy things going on.

A/C and heat - this is more difficult. A few of us have looked at mini splits, but no one has come up with a place to mount either the condenser or air handler. Of course there are 12 volt systems out there but not much here in the US. Most of us have found that a small Vornado portable heater is sufficient to keep the interior warm, at least once you take the chill off with the furnace. For heating between the hulls, a 12 volt marine compartment heater like this is probably the way to go. I believe at least one owner has installed one of these, and it's on my list as well. Running the furnace fan while using the electric heater will draw air into the rear curbside compartment to help keep the plumbing there warm. The heat strip on the A/C is mostly useless, IMO, and only works with the A/C fan on, which is silly loud. Having said all that, I think the last time this was discussed here was two years ago, so no doubt there are newer and different products out there.

3a8082e126