Big Hypothetical - Full Timing?

finally03gt · 10-02-2015, 06:16 AM

We have made one short "test trip" with our new TT and apparently the bug has bitten DW badly. She has been following a FB page that is mostly Full Timers, and she likes the idea. We have about 4-5 years till empty nest. I work offshore, so I'm not tied to my work at any particular location, just gotta make it to Louisiana or an airport every 3-4 weeks. She is an RN and says 5-18 week travel nursing contracts are pretty available. This would give us the ability to continue working, while still fully enjoying our empty nest, because she would still have 3-4 days a week off, and I have 3-4 weeks at a time off.

We have a small house out of town that is nearly paid for, so mortgage would be minimal, if any, and we would still have a home base. What questions should I be asking, and what preparations should we be making if this is something we want to do? 5th, or Motorhome (I know alot of opinions here)? We expect to be able to put about $100-120K into this adventure. Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise, of course.

mike837go · 10-02-2015, 07:21 AM

Let the DW live in the cramped confines of an RV few more times BEFORE making a final decision.

A whole lot can happen in 4-5 years. And are you guaranteed of an empty nest? My sister didn't move out until she got married at 25.

One of my dreams is to live on the road too.

Would you REALLY need to keep the house? A box at a UPS store is a street address. Everything else is done electronically. Plenty of nationwide banks, Direct Deposit, ATMs....

$100K buys a whole lot of RV. But be careful of "bells and whistles". I spent under $15K for a complete 'portable house' that fits SWMBO and me rather nicely. It was built to the same standards with the same cabinetry and appliances as the luxury units. But without the granite countertops, wall-to-wall carpeting, slide outs, etc. that add weight and cost to an RV.

So, if DW is still willing and you are both in non-site specific work and the kids do find their own lives after graduation*.... Start planning now.

Otherwise, look into a reverse mortgage and the same view out the window every day.

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*The couple I bought my first trailer from, gave their house to one of the daughters and her husband, then moved to a warmer climate. You could rent the house to the kids that are still living there after graduation and go live your lives on the road.

finally03gt · 10-02-2015, 07:36 AM

Well, I'm a car nut (need a shop), and her mom needs some looking after financially. So, we will most likely always have a home base. I guess if the kids fail to launch, them and grandma can fight it out in a 3 BR 1000 sqft house. haha, that's the place out of town. The $100K would include TV, and she's eyeballing the King Ranch, so figure $60+ in truck. We've both had kids since our teens, and we're making the transition to spend money on us...haha. Selling our current home, and using the mortgage payment and finishing child support that is $60 per month less than my mortgage would free up 2x's my mortgage to put into our new home on wheels, and still leave us with the small place in the country.

Interested in this " I spent under $15K for a complete 'portable house' that fits SWMBO and me rather nicely." what is SWMBO by the way?

finally03gt · 10-02-2015, 07:38 AM

What size 5th or Motor home is practical for full time. As far as the TV, does a SRW 1 ton cut it, or need the Dually? DW and I were leaning toward 5th, so she could use the TV to get back and forth to work while at location. She really doesn't want to drive a dually around.

Like the title says, big hypothetical here, but I'd rather take some time sorting and planning then making some of the errors we did with the first TT.

mike837go · 10-02-2015, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by finally03gt

Interested in this " I spent under $15K for a complete 'portable house' that fits SWMBO and me rather nicely." what is SWMBO by the way?

She Who Must Be Obeyed

The current woman in my life was divorced years ago, her kids (and grandkids) are doing nicely, thank you.

I'm divorced over 10 years, the child support is over and only 12 payments left on the settlement.

So we are both in a position that we will not be marrying each other, even after 10 years together.

"Girlfriend" falls short and "Significant Other" has a homosexual connotation. Besides, she likes the title too.

-----------------

"Portable House" is an absolute euphemism for an RV. You can see in my signature the I own a Jayco 19RD; the smallest and cheapest of the hard-sided travel trailers. The MSRP for it was around $21K but we all know that's a joke. 30% off list is the normal final price.

The front queen-sized bed, complete (but cramped) kitchen, sitting area in the back and ~50gallon water tanks is the perfect fit for our extended weekend boondocking.

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What RV is right for you guys? That's for you to decide. Truck & trailer? (5'r) Motor Home & toad?

As a fellow amateur mechanic, I'd stay away from a motor home since the coach builder often doesn't consider serviceability a priority. Wouldn't DW just love a oil change taking place in the living room?

finally03gt · 10-02-2015, 08:53 AM

In the living room, classic. We really are leaning toward the 5'r since the TV could be used as transportation and to pull my other trailers, like utility and car hauler. We will have a truck anyway is what I'm saying. So why not go big and use it to pull the 5'r rather than have another power train to care for? BUT, that being said, not sure it the motor home offers any specific advantages?

If we plan to spend 60-80% of our year in it, we want some creature comforts. We don't really want a bunk house, but the ability to have a loft and a pull out couch to accommodate a visiting grand baby and family is nice.

mike837go · 10-02-2015, 09:01 AM

The only advantage I know of for a motor home is access to the stuff while underway. (Keep in mind I prejudiced towards trailers)

That can be a great thing when you need a cool drink or snack while cruising down the interstate. And there is no possible way to leave your sunglasses in the trailer.

Looks like your needs are towards a 5'r. Especially if you are keeping a good solid TV for other uses.

We agree that being able to unhitch and drive around without the house is a good thing.

Grumpy · 10-02-2015, 09:34 AM

When we bought our MH we figured we would be in it 3/4 weeks at a time. Well that changed to 3/4 months when DW retired from teaching. The MH still worked, but the PINNACLE sure makes it a lot nicer.

finally03gt · 10-03-2015, 08:38 AM

Roam Sweet Roam. love it! Well thanks for the input. I think we are leaning toward the 5'r. What are you guys pulling 35-40' 5'rs with?

Walker · 10-03-2015, 11:18 AM

A dually is better suited for 5th's, especially one large enough for full timing in.

finally03gt · 10-03-2015, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walker

A dually is better suited for 5th's, especially one large enough for full timing in.

Been looking at Ford's tow guide. Looks like the 1 ton single wheel has the ratings, but I suspect a dually is more stable. DW will use the TV as a daily driver often and really would rather a SRW, However, we really got behind the 8 ball on our first TT purchase given our TV. I don't want to repeat that mistake, so if enough of you guys chime in, maybe I can win her over to the Dually idea. Got plenty of time to plan though.

ctbailey · 10-04-2015, 11:58 PM

Take a look into the MDT classification. Or maybe even a converted class 8 tractor for full timing. There are some nice tractors out there with only 1.5 million miles on em.

rgolding · 10-05-2015, 06:03 AM

The bride is also on a Facebook full timer site. I've let her alone with this and the bug has bitten her quite seriously. We've spent most of our adult life sailing and cruisng on sailboats, when time permitted. Work of running a marina kind of bit in to our desire to be near the business and she finally wouldn't even go to the boat. In 2010, we thought we'd give camping a try. Through the following years, we went from a 19 footer to a 25 footer to an Arctic Fox 30U. We have been staying almost full time in the 30U since March of 2014. As retirement approached and then got here, we have spent more and more time in the trailer and the house is now just used for storage or if we are home for the Holidays and the trailer stays in Florida. Plan is to build a retirement duplex in a retirement community, for a place to eventually anchor. But current reality is that we are going to take possession of a new Seneca within the next couple of days and let the adventure continue. Someone said that Life is what happens while you plan the future. We'll see.

finally03gt · 10-05-2015, 06:17 AM

WOW, ok guys tell me what I'm missing here. DW and I are debating SRW vs. DRW F-350's But this discussion just went to converted semi's. So, I jumped over to ford.com to 2015 tow guide. The 5'rs we have looked at are in the 37-40' range, and are 12,000-14000# dry with a gross rating of 16,000-17,000#. Using 20% pin weight of 3400# plus 500# for the DW and I and a bit of gear in the truck for a total of 3900# payload, and a 17,000# tow capacity (5th/goose).
The tow guides show a F350 SRW at a 16,100 trailer and 23,500 GCVWR and the DRW at 23,500-24,600 trailer and 32,100 GCVWR. At this point I know the SRW is cutting it reallllyy close, and can start building a case for DRW. But the F350 DRW seems to have numbers high enough to leave plenty of safety margin with 17,000 trailer. Going one step further, a F350 King Ranch DRW shows a trailer of 24,100 and payload of 6,120. So if the Trailer max gross is 17,000 and even 25% of it at 4,250 is on the pin/truck. I'm still under payload by 1,870. Maxing payload of 6,120 with a 17,000# 5'r puts me at 23,120 plus truck. But of that pay load, up to 4,250 is pin weight, so it should not be counted twice in the trailer and payload categories. At the end of the day, the trailer only weighs 17,000, and if I have 1,800 in cargo and passengers, I'm putting 18,800 behind/on the truck. So as long as the truck is under 13,000# I'm still under GCVWR.

So, am I missing something? Certainly better to know sooner rather than later if I am. School me gentlemen, and ladies.

rgolding · 10-05-2015, 07:34 AM

Yep, not great to be near the maximum, but its done all the time.

finally03gt · 10-05-2015, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rgolding

Yep, not great to be near the maximum.....

I agree, especially for full timing. The Single wheel is definitely close, depending on trailer, maybe over. But looks like the Dually would still be about 4-5K# under GCVWR? Is my lack of experience screwing with my math?

djtho1 · 10-05-2015, 09:32 AM

I am going to ask you to put some of the brakes on with purchases here. To give some perspective as to why I say that, I will tell you that I am a travel physical therapist and my family of six live in our fifth wheel. We enjoy the lifestyle but it has taught us a few lessons along the way, so I will speak to some of these and give you my .02.

What you are describing is very doable. I would pay off the house before I did it if it was me, because it makes things simpler. Keeping the home base can be done or not; it just takes some more planning if you are.

I would not buy anything new to start this. I would do at least one, probably two assignments in your current rig and see how it goes before I bought something. The campers you are describing will not fit into most state and national parks, so it can be limiting.

Start looking at equipment purchases and "stuff" now as if you were fulltiming. If you have a big computer, for instance, start looking at laptops. Again, I would make it work with what you have for a bit before looking at upgrades to TV or camper.

As I said, this is very doable and fun. Since you have a home base, I would keep it small to start, do a couple of travel assignments, and have fun with it to start, and then decide what to do. Personally, if it was the two of us instead of the six of us, we would have a motorhome and tow a small toyota truck or something, but that is our choice. Feel free to PM me if you want.

finally03gt · 10-05-2015, 09:48 AM

Djtho1, thanks for the input,

I'll keep it in the forum, in case the info is beneficial to someone else.
I suggested that we use the current TT to experiment. DW feels that a 26' with no slides will not give an accurate idea of what living in one is like. She spent a good bit of her early life living a nomadic life in a TT with a not so sane step-father. So it wouldn't be her first time to live in a TT. I'm pretty flexible. But, I will continue to encourage the idea of experimenting with what we have.

The home we are in now will be sold, and we'll use whatever equity to move forward. We do plan to pay off the small house before we begin this adventure and as mentioned, it will make a nice home base. It is about 3 miles from an Escapees park coincidentally. But having both homes, we could transition for the big house to the small, or straight to RV. Transitioning to the small house is more likely, and will give us the time to iron out some wrinkles.

I like the idea of acquiring RV lifestyle compatible "stuff" now. Makes the transition smooth. In the last year we bought 2 pretty nice vehicle, so I think we are done with any major purchases for a while, and now the focus is on debt eradication.

Now, on the idea of new TV and TT. We just purchased our first ever new vehicle. I turn ALOT of wrenches keeping older stuff on the road in my house, and have to admit it's nice to have warranty, and just pay for oil changes. I know it's more expensive, but part of the appeal of this life style is fewer "chores" I've been raising kids since I was 19, and my wife started at 16. Our idea is to make up for lost time..haha. I'm comfortable with vehicle purchases and what's a good used compromise and what isn't. But I don't have the first clue about buying a used RV. It's a big investment to end up with a "lemon" Any input or info on buying used?

Griswald One · 10-05-2015, 10:09 AM

You posted an interest in reasons to consider the MH vs TT... My perspective is from one who just made the switch. My number one reason was to get rid of the truck.... I found financial benefits in it for me, but I also appreciated no longer having to commute in an overly large vehicle. I was doing 45 minutes each way 250 days a year. The gas was killing me. I am guessing from what you are describiing your wife will end up driving the tow vehicle back and forth to nursing contracts. I suspect that will mean significant drive time from camping facilities to work. So my question would be will she be comfortable driving a dually back and forth to work and parking it in hospital lots which are not exactly famous for overly large parking spaces.

I am teased by freinds about needing to turn my "Man Card" in along with the truck... but my little Chevy Sonic gets me anywhere I need to be and at about 1/3 of the cost. And driving my Ford E450 around to campsites replenishes all the Testosterone I need.

finally03gt · 10-05-2015, 11:05 AM

I hear you on that, and that is the debate in our home. For now DW likes the living space and layouts of a 5'r better, and the MH is pricey, even when factoring in a TV. I will always have a utility vehicle of some sort around the home base. We haven't eliminated MH, but most signs point to a 5'r. She was pretty quick to dismiss converted semi's and Class 6 MDT's.. haha.

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