The last couple of months in the Outlaw household have been a test of our faith. My mom passed away and a month later, my son got sick and passed away also. Our current locatin, our house, and even my job were 100% because of our son. He was special needs and required alot of care. San Antonio was the best location for him. I was sent to San Antonio becuse of the Military Exceptional Family Member Program, and retired from the Army here.

We bought our current house because the first floor had a huge master bedroom for him, with a big bathroom, and huge walk in closet for his supplies. We aren't tied to this location and I may be eligible to retire from my GS position. Gonna find out about that soon. I have my Army pension and VA disability already. Money is not really an issue and have a decent savings built up.

The wife wants to get an RV and go see the country. I'm not exactly opposed to the idea either. Since her dad lives with us, we need a two bed two full bath RV. I know we need at least an F350 dually. We have been looking at a few different models and the one I've seen that would work best is the Alliance Paradigm 395ds. It has a separate area for the kitchen, "living room" and still has a dining room table. It has  two separate suites, two full bathrooms, with washer and dryer hookups in the front bedroom.

I'm also considering a toy hauler that has a full bathroom in the back that we can convert into a real bedroom. I like the patio option on the toy haulers too. We have mini-weiner dogs that will travel with us. The patio would be a good option for them since they love to be outside. With the fence enclosure we wouldn't have to worry about them wandering off.

If anyone knows of an RV that would be better suited for our situation, I'm all ears. This plan is still a minimum of a couple of years off at the moment.

My condolances first, sorry for your loss.  Before you jump into full time you might want to try it out first.  Living in an RV full time and moving every couple weeks is way different than going out for a couple weeks and then returning home.  I like getting out but I also like getting back to a real house.  There are lots of choices and almost every brand will make very similar models so if you see a floor plan you like, look for the same thing in other brands.  Good luck with your search, and again sorry for your loss. Godspeed.

I'm sorry about your losses also. Since you have at least a couple of years before you will do, I would recommend getting on a couple of RV websites and reading what other full-timers have to say about it. I thought about doing it myself at one time, and may think about it again in a couple of years. At the very least, if you do sell your house to go full time I would put that money into a savings account of some kind and not touch it. That way you would have the money to hopefully buy another house if you decide to later. I'm sure you have already thought about that, though.

My wife wants to do this when we retire.
I'm not so big on it.

I pull a camper all over the damn place.  At Choke Canyon  State Park at the moment, but there is always a house to come home to after a week or so.

What I've been told about the truly full time lifestyle pretty much guarantees that I will never do it.

To give you an idea, when you go that big it limits your location choices.  The length limit were I'm staying right now is 24' for example. Any bigger will not fit on the pad.  

At the level you are considering, I'd look at one of the bus style RV's and pull a small car rather than finding a 5th wheel setup and truck.

OP,,I'd highly recommend that you NOT disallow a motorhome. I've had tents through trailers through motorhomes and as far as TRAVELING  the motorhome is by FAR the correct choice. I had a nice Ram Dually and a 40' Toy Hauler and I grew sick and tired of the "set up" and "take down" required for each stop. In the motorhome I can be completely set up in under five minutes. In addition when we arrive the MH is already cool as opposed to TRYING to cool down a 40 over I'd been hauling around all day. Having two full bedrooms may not be possible however our couch makes into a full sized bed and many if not all MH designs have two baths.

I have kinda halfway followed your story, but did not know about your son passing.
You have had a very tough few months. My condolences.

As far as full time RVing, it is tougher than it first appears from everyone I've spoke with that tried it.
Almost all said they grew tired of it after a certain period which varied from person to person.

While I'm sure you have no roots there and would like a different view and venue, it is something I think should be eased into instead of jumped into.

I really don't have any real suggestion, but best of luck on deciding.

My condolences on your loss.   I used to think it would be a great idea to sell everything, get an RV and just travel around and live in that.   I mentioned it to my Dad.  He pointed out that there were a lot of negatives:
cumbersome & hard to maneuver in tight areas
horrendous gas mileage
cost to park one each night can rival a motel room, and not nearly as nice
So I didn't do it and never forgot the good advice.

What is the longest you have lived out of a travel trailer to date?

When I was growing up, we lived in a mobile home, travel trailer, and other locations. My dad is an electrician and went where the work was. When we got older, I started middle school 7th grade, he bought himself a fifth wheel and used that to go to different job sites all over the country. My mom and brothers stayed behind so we could have a more stable home life. Plus we were turning semi-feral when we were getting older. kind of nerve wracking in a small 40ft trailer. I kind of miss the travel, but I was a young child, and my experience has been tempered by time. I always helped my dad with the setup and teardown, so it's not a big deal to me.

We went and looked at RVs today for a few hours. We looked at the 395DS I mentioned above, and also a Solitude 391DL. We also looked at a few toy haulers with a full bathroom in the back with washer/dryer hookups in the 'garage'. My FIL likes the Solitude the best. I'm okay with either model. If we got a toy hauler, the rear would have to be converted to a dedicated bedroom with a hallway to to one side to access the patio without going through his bedroom. The salesman mentioned a Momentum 399 with a patio option on the right side. They didn't have one in stock since they're very popular and cannot keep them in stock.

Since two beds/two baths is a must have, we have crossed off motorhomes entirely from the list. They just do not make them from my exhaustive searches and I'm just not a fan of motorhomes.

I'm sure you understand why I'm asking. I have pulled our trailer just under 23k miles in the last 10 months. We have always had a place to go home to, the longest we were out was 6 weeks continuously.

We enjoy it, I'm not sure I could do it full time though.

Read on rv.net for a few months. The full timer forum is good resource.

My folks full timed in several different towed RVs for 6 years until Mom couldn't with ALS and they moved into assisted living. After she passed, Dad moved back into the RV at age 81. He had to repair some water damaged floor in the slide but it was nice. I helped him get to Bandera near OP that fall and he had to bring it home solo that April because of WuFlu. He came into a good deal on a 36 ft diesel pusher Monarch. Not as much room but nice no less. I've helped him move between Nebraska and Bandera three years and I stayed two weeks to two months with him. We took it to Oshkosh for the air show in 2021. It's not a bad life. Lots of great people that quickly treat each other as family. The park in Bandera didn't have a stay limit so he didn't have to change parks like some do. Towed RVs seemed to last longer in TX but  miles will put lots of wear on it. The Class A is more durable but he got it 20 years old only 26k miles.

My condolences on your loss.

I would check out campground prices in the areas you plan on visiting. Many folks think camping or rv-ing is cheap, but spending $50-70 or more a night adds up fast.

Those prices will add up fast. Even factoring the higher price of $70 a day, it's still cheaper than the current mortgage we carry on our house. We can handle that easily since most RV parks include electricity and water. I figure we can stay at one place a few weeks, move on to the next location.

I have land here in Texas that will be our base for legal reasons. My dad currently lives there in his small house. All I need to do is get 50amp service hooked up. My dad is a master electrician so it's childs play for him. We already have a sewage tank there.

My dad is getting up there in age and he lives pretty far out of town, so I'd like to move closer to keep an eye on him. My FIL and him get along pretty well, they talk about old cars and old man stuff.

We're gonna go ahead and upgrade the solar and have a generator installed for reasons so is we lose power, my dad can hook up or stay in the RV with us. My FIL called dibs on the current RV we already have. He said he wants his own space if we're not traveling or he doesn't feel like going that trip.

Just something to keep in mind, but Housing Prices have continued to rise (Just not as fast as in the Crazy COVID times) and any RV will typically be a depreciating asset (Vs. an appreciating asset in real value that you can also gain tax advantages with a home).  

I've known people to get out of their old house and then later not be able to get back into a new house after the prices increased.

I'm sure you are working through a number of different scenarios - but the tax advantages & growth in savings (equity) from a "home" are definitely something to consider before jumping off to "life on the road".

Best of Luck in whatever you do!

Bigger_Hammer

That is something we've considered as well. We could rent out the house too. We currently have a 2.25% rate on the house and we owe roughly $158k on it. We could make a fairly modest montly income if we do rent rent it out. A house in our neighborhood just sold for $519k. It's a smaller house, on a smaller lot and isn't as nice as ours. Our house is 3300sqft and we just don't need that much space anymore.

My dad us getting up in age and won't be with us much longer. Same with the wife's dad. My dad's house in reality, I own it. The wife and I think it's the perfect size for the both of us. We will build a pole barn there to park the RV under so it's not getting a beat down by the weather.

Pay close attention to the expenses that you'll be paying. Sites, hookups, pump outs, fuel, etc. Some friends of ours did it and abandoned it after a year or so because it was costing them too much money. They're quite well off, so it was surprising when they told us.

Their other point, and we concur after living in a camper for eleven months that never even moved, is that they're not built for full time living. They're held together with staples and hot glue, and living in them wears them out pretty quickly. You'll have things breaking pretty regularly.

We love the RV life. While it can be done cost effectively it is easy to spend money doing it too.

We bought higher end RV's knowing that light weight trailers and RV's would not hold up to full time living and traveling.

We spend 5-6 months on the road, and the same parked in our "home" state.

It's just the two of us so our situation is quite different than yours OP.

If you want to hit me up and pick my brain don't hesitate to IM me.

Obligatory RV porn...