Hi Steak Eater,

You have a lot of questions here, let me try to answer a few of them.

(1) Campground quality varies all over the place and will vary with geographical area. Land value in the Northeast is very high and that may be why you are seeing run down CG's at very high prices. Rest assured that that is not typical of the country as a whole. It is not difficult, nor expensive to find satisfactory accommodations just about anywhere.
Some state parks are old and tight, but generally they have great atmosphere, and most are more than spacious enough.  Weekly rates are normally - pay for 6 and the 7th is free.  Monthly rates are substantially lower, but you often have to pay electricity separately.

(2) You'll have no problem with running out of campgrounds to stay in, there are more than 10,000 listed in the Trailer Life Directory and there are many more not listed. We've been fulltiming almost 4 years now, and like you say you desire, we move on average every 5 days for this whole time.  We are only now in our 236th campground. We most often do not make reservation ahead of time unless we are coming into a holiday weekend or in  very desirable areas in vacation season.

(3) Original equipment furniture is often not too comfortable in the best of rigs and many people replace the furniture with normal residential pieces over time. It's not a bad idea to see if you can get a credit and take a bare unit to outfit it the way you want from the start.  We took the standard unit, but now 3.5 years later the only original piece is one end table.

(4) We have a Cameo like you are favoring. We cannot access the fridge without deploying the slide, but that only takes about 30 seconds of holding a button.  Why would you want to stay overnight and not deploy your slides?  We have no problem deploying a slide even if we stop in a rest area for lunch.  I believe the bathroom in all Cameo models is accessible without the slides being opened.

It's a fantastic lifestyle, and most full timers we've met only regret that they didn't start it earlier.

Good luck,


-- Edited by Luvglass on Sunday 13th of September 2009 09:48:41 PM

The quality/amenities of a campground is based on your desires and a cost level you are comfortable with. If you want absolute quality, the "resort style" campground will most often fill your bill. However, be wary of the "resort" name. Sometimes it is a name only. Access to a fridge is most often not required for a short stop (potty stop) and should not be an issue. If it is a lunch stop, deploying the slide for access is simply a matter of having space on that side. Reservations are a matter of choice. If it is VERY popular place and is around a holiday, maybe so. If it is for long term as in the winter grounds, a reservation is definitly needed. Most often, the resorts do not like a one week stay, but frequently do have a one week opening. Just do the research (as you are doing now) and go with the flow. State parks in the south and west normally have a 14 day limit, then at least 7 days out. Most state parks in the south and west are roomy with older but acceptable amenities. Most are subject to parsimonous legislatures that take the money from parks and use on their pet projects. Negotiation with a dealer will give you room for different furnishings. If ordered to your spec, there would be no issue. YOU are in charge of your money, not the dealer. If one won't deal, go somewhere else. I notice Hitchhiker is going to a one price business model, dealer or factory. Might take a look. Jump in and have fun. Remember, don't sweat the small stuff, (and it is all small stuff).

Trying to hit on a couple of questions. Having traveled quite a bit in the last couple of years, I do think the northeast is a bit more pricey. That said, I also think many of them have more "seasonal" rigs as well (and this can sometimes add to a more degraded look).

We also use http://rvparkreviews.com before booking nights in any campground. Some reviews you have to take with a grain of salt, but it does help weed out some of the worst ones. Also, in the warmer states you will often run into working folks (construction especially) staying longer term. Many are great folks, just have limited space and tend to add things outdoors....LOL!

Our fifth wheel has a double-recliner loveseat sofa that Stu took out of his old home. Works wonderfully and MUCH more comfortable than stock sofas. Many folks replace stock sofas, chairs and more. If you plan to buy new and don't want stock furniture, be sure you ask for a discount.

We have a 40' 5th wheel with 3 slides. TONS of room when open, not so much when closed (we have a 10' garage for our motorcycles). We often stop in rest areas, truck stops and even empty parking lots for lunch. We just put out the slides as much as we can....no problem.

Hello Fellow Western Marylander.  We are from the Cumberland area and have been full timing two years now. Everyone has given you some good answers to your questions, books can and have been written on this lifestyle. I'm currently in Williamsport, Maryland about five miles from Hagerstown and if you would like to come and visit we would be glad to tell you all about our experiences. You can go to our travel blog and read about us and contact us through the guess book. I will respond to you and we can set up a meeting. Welcome to the forum and hope to hear from you. Gummy

Steak Eater wrote:

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How much headache is it not to have full hook-ups for a week? Do you have to pull your trailer out mid-week to fill with water / empty tanks? That sounds like a bit of a headache to me. Just trying to understand the logistics of it.

Ref: the slides, I guess I was just considering worst case in that we may need to spend a night or two on occasion at a WalMart or rest areas. I understood it to be less than desirable to open slides in a Walmart lot thus I was curious how much access I would have in the trailer on those nights.

---

We put the large slides over the curb (to the outside) at Wal-Mart. Our kitchen slide goes out no further than our steps but we still put out orange cones for nights (they collapse to flat for easy storage). We've never had a problem there or at Sam's Club - we just get permission and park in the areas they designate. The big thing is to NOT camp, just overnight. Park as level as possible and be as unobtrusive as you can be. No lawn chairs, grills, awnings, etc.

As to lack of full hook-ups, that depends on the size of your tanks and your usage. As a solo in a small class c, I could go two weeks without needing water or dumping (I carried drinking/cooking water separate). Now in our 5th wheel, we can maybe go 5-7days if careful but more normally 3-5 days.

We are fulltimers staying in New England for the summer. We wanted to see this area and especially stay to see the fall foliage. We checked the price of campgrounds ahead of time and found them to be very expensive. We decided to apply as volunteers to a state park in Vermont and were accepted. We have thoroughly enjoyed our summer and have explored the surrounding area on our days off. We generally work 3 days a wk. so have much time to ourselves.
We generally stay at campgrounds as we travel but shop for them on the internet for price, size, elect. and water. We use Passport America often to keep the price down. We used Howard and Lindas' budget sample of $750 /month in our budget for campgrounds and we always are under that amount. We have been over budget for food while in the north east but we stay under on everything else so we come out allright on the total budget.
In other parts of the country we have found the campsites to be generally larger and offer 50 amp. Because of the cooler summers in the NE we have been comfortable with 30 amp.

Some people do break camp if needed to dump others buy what is called a blue boy.It is a portable tank made to empty your tank into then just take it to the dump station. They come in various sizes.

Concerning emptying tanks while at state parks. Most RV's sold for full timing have tanks that should allow you to go at least a week without having to dump. If your careful with flushing the toilet you can generally go 2 or more weeks before having to empty the black tank and if you use paper plates to minimize dish washing and take "military" showers, or use the CG shower house you can go a week or more on the gray tank. Most full timers we know have no problem staying a week without sewer before needing to dump.

We like to stay at Corps of Engineer parks, state parks and national forests; many of which do not have sewer hookups, and national forest campgrounds may not have a dump station.  COE and state parks usually have water & electric at each site, but only 30amp electric.  However, we have found some with 50amp. 

As far as rates/night, we have paid over $30 for a campsite only 4 or 5 times in the past year.  We do have the America the Beautiful senior citizen pass, so COE and national parks and national forest campground rates are discounted 50%.  Most COE parks are $16-18 regular rate, so that is quite a savings for us.  We've even been given the senior rate at some state parks. (Probably due to the color of our gray hair)  We also belong to Passport America and primarily use those 50% parks when traveling from one place to another.  We are currently volunteering at a Washington state park and haven't paid camping fees for 3 months.

Since we tend to "follow the weather", we rarely use our air conditioners, so don't have to have 50amp.  We are careful to not turn on the coffeemaker, toaster, microwave and hair dryer all at the same time; sure to flip a breaker. 

We also use the park restrooms during the day to keep the black tank from filling too fast.    We use more paper plates and bowls to reduce dish washing, and do more grilling to reduce the number of pots and pans which need to be washed. 

We've stayed several times in a national forest campground in Colorado (elev 7800 ft) for 10 days and had no problems with the waste tanks.  And we got some exercise walking to the restroom which had flush toilets and solar heated showers.

We've actually found it to be a bit of a game to monitor our electric usage.   Our power monitor is over the door in our motor home and I frequently check the "amps being used" before I turn on an appliance.

You'll find that experience is the best teacher as you learn how things work in your rig and you adapt and adjust to the system limitations.   But don't let those limitations keep you from enjoying this wonderful lifestyle.  The power system in your rig is quite different than the electricity entering your "sticks and bricks" home, but about the worst you can do is blow a fuse or flip a breaker.  Just be sure you have a supply of fuses and know where the fuses and breaker panels are located.

And keep asking questions on this forum.  We have a GREAT group of people here who probably have an answer for you and will not judge you for asking "not too dumb" questions.

Hope you can make it to Texas for the rally.  You'll learn a lot.

Gail





-- Edited by Dan and Gail on Monday 14th of September 2009 11:09:52 PM