Archive for June, 2009

1. Have a partner that you get along with … well. That is love, care about their well-being, enjoy mutual activities and can tolerate their idiosyncrasies.
2. Join the Escapees Club, or club(s) of your choice, and/or an online forum to get a feel for what it’s all about.
3. Decide how much you want to travel versus how much you want to spend weeks or months in one place.
4. Find the RV you like and think you can spend a lot of time in.
5. Try a couple weeks, then a month or so of living/traveling/camping in your RV before you sell your stick house and dump your lifetime accumulation of possessions.

If you get through the first five steps successfully it’s time to get serious.

6. Find a place for your ‘base’ … a town with relatives/friends/health care connections, etc. Choose a mail service to receive all your mail/packages and hold them or forward them as directed by you when you have an address. Of course they charge but it is a time consuming service. Friends/relatives may offer but it gets old soon.
7. Choose a cellular phone service. Disconnect your landline service. Make sure your computer is updated and has WiFi.
8. Sort and eliminate stuff you have collected over the years. At least 75% of it. Do NOT rent a storage unit …after a year or so you won’t even remember what’s in it. If you want to remember some stuff… photograph it and put it on the screen saver or roll-over of your computer.
9. Have an estate sale. Donate what isn’t sold to a charity thrift store. Sell your stick house.
10. Tell your friends and relatives that you love them, you will miss them, you will communicate by phone, computer, skype or snail mail. Tell them you will send them photos and travel logs about the good times you are having and things you are seeing. Tell them to please step back because you’d hate to run over their feet with your RV. Then head down the road to the freedom of a new-to-you lifestyle.

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Take the Full Time RVer Aptitude Test It’s mostly just for fun but it will help you decide if full time RVing is right for you.
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Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a Year for the Cost of Staying Home Have you always dreamed of taking an extended long trip but didn’t know how to make it happen? Have you thought “if only I knew where to start” the planning process? “Live Your Road Trip Dream: Travel for a year for the cost of staying home” (Second Edition) will take you from “dreaming” to “living” your perfect road trip dream.
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Support Your RV Lifestyle! An Insider’s Guide to Working on the Road, 2nd Edition gives you tips, tools and resources to live where you want, when you want. With key points on topics like writing an RV resume, networking, and how to negotiate for better compensation, it is the ultimate handbook for those who are thinking about working or volunteering as they travel in their RV.
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RV Living in the 21st Century: The Essential Reference Guide for ALL RVers For anyone considering or experiencing the RV lifestyle, this book is a wide-ranging tour of things you need to know. Peggi McDonald, a Canadian with extensive (20 years on the road) RV knowledge; been there, done that. She shares the kind of information and advice that enable people to build their competence and confidence as part-time or full-time RVers. Fran and I are proud to have Peggi as our friend.
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Let RV Freedom Now guide you through those all-important decisions so that when you drive off into your new life on the road. You’ll do so knowing that you did everything right. It could take you years and countless hassles to figure out the right combinations to make your new full time RVing lifestyle as joyous and stress-free as dreamed it would be.
Click Here!

Our current fifth wheel, as well as our previous one, is wired for 30 amp service. For the most part that’s adequate for our needs. But it didn’t take us too long to learn that 30 amp service has it’s limitations. Especially in the summer when we need the air conditioner.

There are several appliances on most RVs that few RVing newbies consider, the 1500 watt roof air conditioner which draws around 12 amps, the heating element in the refrigerator draws about the same when it’s on electric as does the electric heating element in the water heater.

Most larger RVs are wired with two circuits, usually one circuit down each side, with a 20 amp breaker protecting each circuit. Any two of the appliances above running on a circuit will likely trip a 20 amp breaker. For example, if you have the air conditioner on and decide to use the microwave on that same circuit, you will likely trip the breaker.

Keep in mind that though you are able to run up to 20 amps on a circuit you will have to limit usage to 10 amps on the other circuit since the RV itself is protected by a 30 amp circuit breaker. Fortunately, RV manufacturers generally balance amperage requirements between circuits. For example, they may place the air conditioner on a circuit with a string of outlets while the other circuit will have the refrigerator and water heater and kitchen outlets.

To get a better handle on what your appliance load is, check the owners manuals you have or the stickers on the appliances to see the watts or amps they have listed. Watts divided by volts gives amps used. Shore power is 120 volts (or thereabouts) so a 700 Watt microwave is drawing about 6amps. It takes a little math, but it is simple math.

You may trip a breaker a few times until you learn what combination of appliances you can run at the same time but it’s not rocket science and you’ll soon learn how to live within the limitations.