Building a Nomad Life

[Gemini1771]

Hi there!

My wife and I are looking to launch out of our tiny Seattle condo and into an RV sometime next year. We'll likely stick around the Seattle area for a couple of years then hit the road for the full time nomad life. Step 1 is finding our new home on wheels and a place to park for a couple of years.

We've watched a ton of amazing nomad life videos (thank you, Bob!!  ). There are so many options... decision paralysis has set in!! We're thinking a 25ft ish 5th wheel would be our best live/ work option, but sealing the deal is scary. We dream of fresh air, dirt roads, solar panels and composting toilets. Do we buy new? Do we buy used and update? Will a 5th wheel even take us where we want to go? Should we get a travel trailer or maybe even a class C?

We have no RV experience, so we're looking here for some advice from the pros. Your nomad wisdom is appreciated.

Best,
Ariel

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums Ariel! We've all gone through the process of choosing the right vehicle. It's a tough decision and everyone's wants and needs are different. Ask questions, watch the videos to see where people camp and how they travel with their choice of vehicle, and go to an RV show or lot to look at all of the options before making a decision. A fifth wheel or trailer will limit you a little but you can use the truck for exploring back roads and finding isolated camping spots. Buying used will save you a lot of money but check carefully for any signs of water damage.

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[Elbear1]

5th wheel is best IMO. Buy used first time around.

 

[DannyB1954]

Each type of RV is good ad a particular type of camping, so it all depends what you want to do. If State and Federal Parks are in your plan, many have length restrictions. With a long 5er, you may not be able to get in.
I would suggest not selling the condo for a while. Real Estate tends to go up in value, RV's always go down in value. If after the newness of travel wears off and you decide it is not for you, you have somewhere to go. I would also buy a used rig for this reason. Even new ones have problems, so get one that has already depreciated a great deal. Many are bought and never used, so you may find a nice one cheap. In the first 3 to 5 years you will lose maybe half of what you paid on a new one.

 

[ckelly78z]

Buy a good brand about 5 years old...most of the depreciation has been taken by the original owner (about half), and has the bugs worked out by then. I prefer bumper pull travel trailers, which allow you to use the truck bed, or a large SUV/van as a tow vehicle. With a class C, you will need to tow a car/motorcycle to keep from tearing down camp every time you want to use the vehicle.

I would start out with renting an RV, to see what all is involved with owning one, take it to a nice state park for a weekend, and get your toes wet.

 

[IGBT]

The RV of choice in Seattle seems to be a 1970 to 1980 model class C with a tarp for a roof.  Free parking right on the waterfront at Lake Union.

 

[maki2]

To the north and also to the south of Seattle there are a great many used and new RV dealers. Leave you wallet at home but go out and take a look at a bunch of them. That way you will have a baseline idea of what you like and don't like. That will quickly narrow down your list of choices and clear up some of the confusion.

First off to check, can you get in and out of the doors without any issue and is there enough head room.

Be sure you sit in all the seats and chairs and the dinette and linger in them for a while to see if you would want to spend the next few years sitting in them, try the drivers and passenger seats too. Try the bed. Go in the bathroom and see if you can actually fit into the shower. Pretend you are cooking a meal, opening cabinets and the fridge and putting out the ingrediants for a meal.

Both of you should get into the bed and figure out how difficult it will be to get in and out if one or both of you typically have to get up in the night to use the toilet. See if it will be a nightmare to change the sheets. Also is it wide enough and long enough and is the mattress good for both of you.

Figure out if there will be room for working on the computer or on hobbies if you do a lot of that.

See how good the angle for viewing the TV is and will the seating be comfortable for that.

In other words, go and play house in a bunch of RVs

 

[Elbear1]

See If you can find one with an upgraded toilet because standard units dont exactly accomidate a man fully. Theyre built for 9 year olds and women.

 

[jeanmarie]

Hi there!

My wife and I are looking to launch out of our tiny Seattle condo and into an RV sometime next year. We'll likely stick around the Seattle area for a couple of years then hit the road for the full time nomad life. Step 1 is finding our new home on wheels and a place to park for a couple of years.

We've watched a ton of amazing nomad life videos (thank you, Bob!!  ). There are so many options... decision paralysis has set in!! We're thinking a 25ft ish 5th wheel would be our best live/ work option, but sealing the deal is scary. We dream of fresh air, dirt roads, solar panels and composting toilets. Do we buy new? Do we buy used and update? Will a 5th wheel even take us where we want to go? Should we get a travel trailer or maybe even a class C?

We have no RV experience, so we're looking here for some advice from the pros. Your nomad wisdom is appreciated.

Best,
Ariel

Don't. Don't just buy all the Pollyanna propaganda, get rid of all your things and spend all your money on an RV. Start out right now, cheap and small. Start campng, weekends and vacations, in all weathers. Take trial runs, lots of trial runs, to figure out what you like and what you don't.  Buying the wrong rig can be a very expensive mistake that may be hard to remedy quickly (experience speaking, here).

Most likely, RV life will be harder, more limiting, and more challenging than you learned to expect from the videos you watched. You envision yourself set up by the side of a lake on a huge site, shielded from your neighbors by trees and waving ferns. The sun is shining. The fish are biting. There are campfires every night and you are enjoying all the comforts of home. Town is minutes away and a nice cafe is mere steps away. Rent is free or dirt cheap. 

What you actually get, especially if you have to keep working, is a tiny site on which you can't walk all the way around your RV without decapitating yourself on your neighbor's slide out. Rent and electric are as much or more than your apartment. Half the laundry machines are always broken and the park forbids you to use your own. Your neighbor on one side bangs his RV door and car door and turns on his loud truck engine at 5:00 am every morning to go to work. Your neighbors on the other side have screaming fights at midnight and the man's cigar smoke wafts into your bedroom window. There is definitely something wrong with a nearby sewer hookup. There are kids running and screaming and peeing in the pool all weekend. You get rained in for days and, in the northwest, smoked in for weeks from raging forest fires. Your awning is useless for shade because some idiot designed your slide to stick out right under it. The only businesses with 30 minutes of you are a junkyard, an auto parts store, and a furniture dealer.

If you are working, you will not run off to a peaceful BLM paradise and live there. You have to stay near work. If you are not working and want to boondock, how are yu going to like having to pack up and move a substantial distance every 2 weeks, unreliable internet, and having a 40 mile drive to the nearest store if you run out of coffee?

There are lots of good things about this lifestyle, but lots of bad, too. Nearly all who start out quit within a year, or maybe two. Slow down. Leave the internet alone and learn it by doung it. You may really be great at fulltiming. But maybe part timing would be even better for you. Maybe when you actually start doing it, you won't like it at all.