I recently
read a post on Facebook giving what they said were the 10 essential steps to a
happy retirement RV adventure:-
1.
Choosing the right vehicle is the
first step to the perfect RV lifestyle for a Retiree.
2.
Research Insurance for the RV and
your own health!
3.
Discuss all the emergency services
and medications you might need with your doctor beforehand.
4.
Take a print document your medical
history in your RV
5.
Get a Locksmith to manually inspect
the locks of your RV
6.
Chart all the RV dumps in your
proposed routes beforehand.
7.
Have an itinerary, rough or fair,
always at hand!
8.
Have a thorough estimate of your
finances on the road.
10. Test it!
Facebook is
a great thing, and yet Facebook is a terrible thing!
Why?
Well you can
learn all kinds of neat stuff from links in Facebook – a great thing!
You can also
get all kinds of misinformation from links on Facebook- a terrible thing.
The list of
10 things above was said to be the 10 essential things to do before setting out
on your retirement RV adventure. REALLY??
Here’s my
thoughts on the list:
1.
Choosing the
right vehicle is the first step to the perfect RV lifestyle for a Retiree.
I disagree that this is the first
step. The first step should be to decide if you and your partner are going to
be able to actually go on such an adventure in the first place! Can you afford
to buy an RV, are you willing to either sell your home or rent it out while
you’re away? Are you going to be happy storing or selling all you furniture,
keepsakes, hobby supplies etc? Can you be away from your friends, neighbors, kids,
grandkids etc., for a year or more? Can you live on your retirement income? Are
you healthy enough to be away for months at a time?
Many people CAN’T let go of their
homes and “Things”, most people can’t tear themselves away from the kids and
especially the grandkids. We’ve met several couples that while one would love
to try full time RV’ing the other has said “Absolutely Not!”. And if you can’t
afford to live on your retirement income then there isn’t likely to be a sudden
answer to that! Likewise if you need regular health care then you aren’t going
to be able to get around that very easily.
2.
Research
Insurance for the RV and your own health
This one
surely is part of deciding if you are able to go in the first place? RV
insurance isn’t a show stopper but health insurance could be. The thing to look
into is whether you will be eligible for Medicare or not when you are ready to
leave? If so then you will need to select a Medicare Supplement provider that
covers you all over the country. If you will need “Obama Care” insurance then
where you live will be the most important thing in establishing the cost of
that insurance.
On the other
hand if you intend to keep your house and contents then you may not have any
choice in your domicile so you can then explore your choices for Medical
insurance.
Your choice
of domicile will likely also involve a mail forwarding service which is an
important thing to consider when you hit the road. Escapees.com can help you with all of this and lots more.
3 Discuss
all the emergency services and medications you might need with your doctor
beforehand
All this
should have been part of deciding if you can go on the trip in the first place
and the medication availability should be taken care of in your choice of
Medicare Supplement provider. Our medication needs are taken care of through
Walmart so we can go anywhere in the country for refills.
4 Take
a print document of your medical history in your RV
I wouldn’t
personally say this is essential and a paper copy might not be ideal anyway.
Keeping an electronic copy on a cloud based server might be easier. Talking to
you doctor and arranging that they will forward your records when asked is a
common sense step. Personally we don’t get stressed about this but we don’t
have any severe medical conditions. If we did have any we probably wouldn’t
have gone full timing.
5 Get a Locksmith to manually
inspect the locks of your RV
Huh?
I can’t imagine why this would be on
the list. Would you get the locks on your car inspected before you drove it?
Sure take a spare set of keys and
have one set each so if you lose one set the other person can use theirs to get
into the rig, but that’s not vital.
6 Chart all the RV dumps in your
proposed routes beforehand.
Another
HUH??
There are a
couple of ways to go RV Camping. One is using regular campgrounds, the other is
camping away from regular campgrounds (Popularly called “Boondocking”).
If you are
camping in regular campgrounds, either commercial campgrounds or state/national
parks then you can select the park based on the amenities at that park. You can
have “Full Hookups” or “Partial Hookups”. The difference usually is whether the
site has sewer or it has a dump station for sewer that you usually have to
drive the rig to, to empty the tanks.
Boondocking
is usually on BLM land or in a Walmart parking lot, neither of which will have
ANY hookups. No need to panic though because the RV has batteries for
electricity and storage tanks for fresh water and waste water so that you can
live for several days without having to empty the tanks. When it comes time to
empty the tanks then Cabellas Stores, Camping World Stores, some Truck Stops,
commercial campgrounds and some state parks have dump stations you can use for
a fee. There’s a smart phone app called “Sani Dumps” that will find free or pay
dump stations so there is no need to plan a trip around dump stations.
If you want
to try boondocking then you need to learn how long you can last without
plugging into power or running the generator, and how many days you can go
before the grey or black water tanks fill up. There are ways to stretch the
time it takes to fill the tanks, we can make 7 days if we need to.
7. Have
an itinerary, rough or fair, always at hand
I have to
strongly disagree with this one!!
We’ve seen
the best places, met the nicest people and enjoyed our RV experience most after
throwing away the itinerary and only planning our next stop the evening before
we are due to leave. That way you can stop longer if you like a place, and
leave early if you don’t. If somebody tells you about a neat place to visit in
the opposite direction from where you were planning to go to, then go
to the new place instead! National Holidays and winter stopovers in high demand
areas may require advanced planning but for the rest of the time DO WHAT FEELS
GOOD!
8 Have a thorough estimate your
finances on the road.
That’s all part of deciding if you
can go in the first place. If you can’t afford it don’t go!
Do track your spending as you go
however based on a planned budget. We have a spreadsheet that we update monthly
to track our spending. If we find that we’re spending too much on gas we can
stay places longer between “Hops”. If we are spending too much on camping we can
stay at Walmart for a couple of nights or at cheaper parks. Our target cost for
camping is an average of $25
a night. So far we’re doing that even when some campgrounds in high demand
places have been $70 a night (Moab in peak season). Our biggest expenditure is
“Entertainment” which covers admissions to tourist spots, movies, dinners out,
drinks, cabs and all the things we can stop doing if we get out of hand. We
also budget for the cost of maintenance and the replacement of tires (which are
REALLY expensive).
If the budget is unrealistic in
practice then change it! Some people stretch their money by “Work Camping”.
Campgrounds both commercial and state/national parks use volunteers to keep the
parks running. In return they will give you a campsite with hookups and
possibly pay for your propane too.
I have no idea what a “Proper” RV toolbox is!
If you don’t do any maintenance on your house
or car then you probably won’t be doing any on your RV. If you do your own
maintenance then you already have the tools.
RV’s are more maintenance intensive in my
opinion. One saying I heard and agree with is – “RV’s are like houses except
that they go through the equivalent of a major earthquake every time you drive
them down the road”.
Things shake loose, so every now and then I go
round and make sure nothing is going to fall off. Otherwise oil changes can be
done at Walmart, truck repair shops can do larger maintenance.
More important is GET AN RV BREAKDOWN SERVICE.
Either thru your insurance company, Good Sam or Coast to Coast. Towing an RV
even a short distance can cost over $1000.
10 Test it!
Test your
plan? Maybe test the tool kit? Test your medical insurance?
It should be
INSPECT IT!
Unless you
are a very experienced RV’er don’t buy an RV without getting an independent RV
inspector to go over it thoroughly. EVEN
IF IT HAS A WARRANTY.
RV systems
are quite complex with 12 volt, 110 volt systems that parallel each other and
have interlocks to prevent damage. There are generators that might run on gas,
diesel or propane. There are propane systems for heating, cooking and even the
refrigerator! Refrigerators can run on 12 volts, 110 volts or propane and are
nothing like your home refrigerator. They can easily cost $1500 to replace. RV
tires should be replaced about every 5 years regardless of how few miles they
have on them and they cost $500 OR MORE EACH. http://banbrv.blogspot.com/2015/08/tires-what-rotten-trick.html
A trained RV
inspector can find problems that could cost many thousands of dollars to fix.
They are worth every penny they charge.
So here are MY top
10 things to consider before you set off on your retirement RV adventure:
2 Are you and your partner able to go
on an extended trip?
Can you
afford it?
Are you
healthy enough?
Are you both
committed to leaving everything including family behind?
Can you
organize health insurance, mail, banking, taxes, vehicle registrations, drivers
licenses, vehicle insurance, internet connections and phone service on the
road?
I would
recommend anyone determined to do this to join Escapees RV Club (www.escapees.com) and to attend their RV Boot Camp
BEFORE buying their RV.
3 Visit every RV show and RV dealer you can find and sit in
every type of RV you can. Look at the layout and consider how you would watch
TV, cook, eat, sleep in it. Decide if you can move around in it with the slides closed. Can you
store all your things in it? You are going to have camping chairs, maybe a
table, a grille, mats, a cooler for the outside. Clothes, crockery, cooking
gear, computers, sports equipment, DVD’s, CD’s and more inside. Are you going
to tow it? What will it take to tow it safely? What will the tow vehicle cost?
Do you want to tow a car with a motorhome? Take along a motorcycle? Bicycles?
What do they weigh? Can the RV safely tow that much? Here's how we did it http://banbrv.blogspot.com/2014/11/you-can-get-there-from-here.html
When we
looked for our RV we took pictures of each one and made notes of what we liked
and didn’t like in each. Eventually we found all of our likes and only 1
dislike (That we could live with) in the RV we bought.
Remember
most people buy 3 RV’s before they get the one they really wanted! The better
you research what you want in a rig the less you’re going to lose when you sell
the first 2!!
Get a
professional RV inspector to go over ANY rig before you buy it, even if it
comes with a warranty.
4. Camp in the RV before you leave on the big trip so you can find all the stuff you forgot
to get. Like hoses, coffee pots, tire pressure gauges, air compressors.
Camp with and without hookups so you can tell how long the tanks take to fill and how long
the battery will power the lights etc.
Get to know how to empty the black and grey tanks, fill the fresh water tank, fill the propane tank, maintain the batteries (If needed), light the oven.
5. Join “Camping Clubs” like Passport America, Good Sam and Escapees.
Their camping discounts will pay for themselves, especially Passport America. Join an Elks Lodge - they have lots of lodges around the country where only Elk members can camp and there is always a welcome for you when you visit a lodge in a new town or city. elks.com
6. Make a bucket list, places to see,things to do. You’ll be
somewhere and forget that you should have seen a major Bucket List item otherwise.
7. Use RV Parky, and RV Campground Reviews before you stop
for the night to find not only commercial campgrounds but also state and
national parks or even Walmarts where you can camp and get unbiased reviews of
those paces.
8 Get a National Parks Senior Pass if you’re 62 or older. A
one-time $10 fee gets you and anyone in the vehicle with you free entrance to
National Parks for the rest of your life! Plus 50% off camping fees in National
Parks and Corps of Engineers campgrounds nationwide.
9. Watch your budget. You can manage your budget in many ways
and still have a wonderful time but don’t spend all your retirement savings.
10. Don’t skip the maintenance, good maintenance done as scheduled
by the manufacturer is the key to avoiding costly breakdowns. A $50 oil change
beats a $1500 towing fee.
Where’s the number 1??
I believe the biggest
secret to a successful retirement RV adventure is to be DEBT FREE when you set
off on it.
