Looking forward to retirement and wondering what we were going to do - my wife and I decided to tackle the full timing RV lifestyle.Since then we have been reading as much as possible to understand all the aspects of RV'ing full time in addition to learning how to set up an RV, toad, driving the RV, set it up in a park, and figure out how to drain the gray / black tanks and not looking foolish to the spectators waiting in line.There is so much to learn!
Last October (2011) we purchased a 29 foot ACE by Thor, sold the Mustang (darn) and purchased a Ford Fiesta as a toad.I have already purchased the necessary equipment (Blue OZ) and plan to install the base plate and lighting package next month - it doesn't appear to be that hard.
We are now investigating a “home base” location and trying to understand discount camping.I think we have narrowed the search to South Dakota and a Coast to Coast membership.Before I commit, does anyone have an opinion or suggestions on these two areas?Thank you - papad
bjoyce said
06:47 PM Apr 5, 2012
I always recommend not getting a discount campground membership until you have been on the road a year, except for something like Passport America which is cheap and pays for itself quickly. There are multiple reasons for this: 1) These memberships cost real money and normally have dues. Are you going to save this money in camping? 2) Restrictions on where you stay and how long. A normal Coast to Coast (C2C) membership gives you one week twice a year at $10 plus surcharges a night, except at your home park. Is that enough? 3) You don't really know how you like to camp until you have done it a while. Many are surprised on what they like in campgrounds and how they really travel. 4) Getting out there you might find deals that are better for you, but you have to get out there to know. 5) Salespeople can be such slime and you need to find out the truth behind the membership you are buying. 6) You might have signed up for something that could be hard to sell or quit. You sign a contract, be careful what you sign and don't trust them. In five years you might have to hire a lawyer to get you out of it.
Coast to Coast is actually not a membership, it is a reciprocal program that adds to your membership. You first get a membership in a campground, like Breckenridge Lake Resort in Crossville, TN where we are members, with its own dues and stay limits, or a chain of campgrounds like Colorado River Adventures. Then you can add on a reciprocal program like Coast to Coast (C2C), RPI, AOR or Resorts of Disctinction (ROD), to get some access to other membership campgrounds. You rarely have the same access as a real member, often on a few sites are available for the C2C and they might not be the best, plus you can't reserve nearly as far ahead. Also these programs often have rules like "you can't be within 125 miles of your home park", no back to back stays in the same chain, etc.
Passport America is a good way to get started. For about $33 to $40 a year you get access to many campgrounds for 50% of their rates, including many C2C campgrounds. There are restrictions, but they are normally documented in the book or app that Passport America puts out. You don't have to renew.
Technomadia said
07:25 PM Apr 5, 2012
We totally concur on not purchasing into a club until you know how you like to travel. Give it some time and go explore the country regardless if it's close to a park you get a discount at.
Passport America is a good deal, will pay for itself in a stay or two and offers no such restrictions. We do carry that one.
- Cherie
Ivey said
10:58 PM Apr 5, 2012
We too use Passport America. It paid for itself in the first week. That is the only one we carry along with Good Sam Club. We use their roadside assistance and mail forwarding. Good luck in your researching and I hope we meet down the road someday.
Vicky and Ira
Neil and Connie said
12:02 AM Apr 6, 2012
I'll concur with the others; although we're not actually fulltimers yet. The house goes on the market this month and the New Horizons will be picked up in June.
I went through the same questions you have about memberships; we are getting Passport America and joining Escapees to start and will see how things go. Coast to Coast daily prices look nice; but you have to join a home park so the real cost per night includes the amortization of the home park membership fees. What it really comes down to (as others have said) is you don't know how you want to fulltime until you do it for awhile. Some like to settle down in the same place for 4 months every winter; some like different places, some end up getting a condo/townhouse for winter. The problem is that you just don't know…Connie and I think we know what we want to do but until we've actually done it we won't know for sure.
The same goes for what you have in your rig; we don't know if we'll boondock enough to make solar worth the cost but we did get prewired for the panels and got a big inverter to start. Generator; again we are getting (actually got, it came in today) a 2000 Honda and will (depending on usage and needs later) pair it with an additional 2000 in parallel or upgrade to the large self-start propane genset if it seems like the right thing to do later; but to start the 2000 will let us be self sufficient with our residential fridge for a single night's stop without hookups.
A year from now; we'll know better and I'm sure some things will have changed.
bjoyce said
12:55 AM Apr 6, 2012
You were also asking about which state to domicile in, which is what picking a state as your official address is called. If you search around the forum you will find this has been discussed multiple times. The main idea is each person or couple needs to make this decision based on their own situation. For instance we are Washington State residents mostly to keep decent health insurance with existing conditions. Most full-timers choose Florida, South Dakota or Texas, and one of these normally works out best for most going full-time. Taxes, RV insurance, health insurance, gun laws, other laws, there are many factors. Look at your entire situation and decide.
papad said
04:43 PM Apr 6, 2012
Thank you so much for your recommendations. We were kinda sold on C2C untill reading your posts. I think we will take your advice, we will sign up for Passport and see what happens over the next year. Again thanks - papad
-- Edited by papad on Friday 6th of April 2012 04:44:57 PM
-- Edited by papad on Friday 6th of April 2012 04:46:17 PM
rvingft said
01:44 AM Apr 9, 2012
I would add to join www.escapees.com It's only $60 and they have LOTS of knowledge to share. Their bi-monthly magazine is informative and their chapters offer an opportunity to connect with other RVers in person and online. It's an inexpensive investment into the RVing lifestyle and will provide many resources that will be worth many times your annual $60 membership fee.
Once you are a SKP member (stands for Service, Knowledge, Parking) you will instant access to even more information online.
papad said
05:43 PM Apr 9, 2012
I find that some of the memberships such as Coast to Coast with a home base with very low annual fees - like $60 and Coast to Coast annual membership at $139.95. Initial fee of $995. Is this usual or a good deal? Papad
JimPeoria said
10:50 PM Apr 9, 2012
We have been full timing sense 2005 and love it. We have looked at Coast to Coast and turned it down simply because it was to much like a time share property which is nearly impossible to get rid of. We gave ours away just to get rid of the maintenance fees. We are life members of Good Sam and use their parks almost exclusivly as they give us a discount as does KOA parks if they are also Good Sam parks which a lot are. I think it really depends a lot on the kind of parks you like to stay in. We like to watch TV in the evenings and have a dish to do it with. Lots of the C2C parks are in the trees with very limited satitlite coverage available. At least the ones here in the Northwest have lots of trees. Our coach is 40 feet long and we tow a Kia Soul so our total length is close to 70 feet. There are a lot of parks that were never designed for this kind of rig and combination. We also have 3 slides which makes our width Nearly 14 feet wide when everything is out not counting the awning which is another 8 feet or so. We find most of the KOA and Good Sam parks can handle us without a problem. We do belong to a campground group but their eight or so parks are here in Oregon and Washington, but they do have connections all over the country, including cruise lines, if you buy the larger package. As most of our travels are within Oregon and Washington this works for us pretty well. Our travels are somewhat limited due to me being on hemo dialysis 3 days a week this spring so far but hope to get back on PD dialysis soon so we have more freedom to go further and stay longer. Yes it is possible to still RV while on dialysis I have been on it from the start of our RVing.
Hope you enjoy the full time lifestyle but I suspect you will want a larger rig in the not to distant future. We started with a gas 34 footer with 2 slides and just didn't have enough storage room. We traded up to the Vectra diesel pusher and haven't looked back. This Winnebago is so much easier to drive and has 3 times or more storage room that it is easy to see why people go full time it this size coach. We upgraded to all electric appliances including range top, dishwasher and fridge. The only gas appliances we still have is the furnace which we use only when the temps are below 40 degrees as the electric heat pump will do everything else, and the water heater which we leave on electric mode except when we shower.
I am not sure you ever get so you look like you really know what you are doing at the dump stations, I know I sure don't. But as we are parked on our own pad most of the time we spend little time at a dump station in some strange park. So after 7 years I still feel a bit akward when I have to use a dump station.
Good luck with your step into our world hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Jim Morton
bjoyce said
12:05 AM Apr 10, 2012
papad wrote:
I find that some of the memberships such as Coast to Coast with a home base with very low annual fees - like $60 and Coast to Coast annual membership at $139.95. Initial fee of $995. Is this usual or a good deal? Papad
Thanks Bill, were not hooked on C2C - actually we are taking your advice and became Passport America members. As this experience is very new to us and we are concerned about our budget and monthly camp site expenses as we will now be on a fixed income. papad
bjoyce said
05:48 PM Apr 10, 2012
Ways to save money on camping: 1) Passport America and/or memberships if they make sense. But it takes knowing your travel habits and locations to know what memberships will work. We have them and use Thousand Trails the most, but it has high yearly dues so if we didn't use it a lot it would not be worthwhile. 2) Join the Elks or Moose or both since many lodges have hookups of some sort or dry camping for reasonable nightly rates. 3) Be prepared to boondock or dry camp, which both mean to camp without hookups. This requires carrying your own water, using your waste tanks and having your own way to create electricity. Lots of free or cheap places to dry camp exist, especially for overnights. If you want to do it long term you need to be in the West since the East is more established and has much less choice in that way. 4) Don't travel between campsites that often, stay weeks or months. This also saves on traveling fuel.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 10th of April 2012 05:49:26 PM
Looking forward to retirement and wondering what we were going to do - my wife and I decided to tackle the full timing RV lifestyle. Since then we have been reading as much as possible to understand all the aspects of RV'ing full time in addition to learning how to set up an RV, toad, driving the RV, set it up in a park, and figure out how to drain the gray / black tanks and not looking foolish to the spectators waiting in line. There is so much to learn!
Last October (2011) we purchased a 29 foot ACE by Thor, sold the Mustang (darn) and purchased a Ford Fiesta as a toad. I have already purchased the necessary equipment (Blue OZ) and plan to install the base plate and lighting package next month - it doesn't appear to be that hard.
We are now investigating a “home base” location and trying to understand discount camping. I think we have narrowed the search to South Dakota and a Coast to Coast membership. Before I commit, does anyone have an opinion or suggestions on these two areas? Thank you - papad
1) These memberships cost real money and normally have dues. Are you going to save this money in camping?
2) Restrictions on where you stay and how long. A normal Coast to Coast (C2C) membership gives you one week twice a year at $10 plus surcharges a night, except at your home park. Is that enough?
3) You don't really know how you like to camp until you have done it a while. Many are surprised on what they like in campgrounds and how they really travel.
4) Getting out there you might find deals that are better for you, but you have to get out there to know.
5) Salespeople can be such slime and you need to find out the truth behind the membership you are buying.
6) You might have signed up for something that could be hard to sell or quit. You sign a contract, be careful what you sign and don't trust them. In five years you might have to hire a lawyer to get you out of it.
Coast to Coast is actually not a membership, it is a reciprocal program that adds to your membership. You first get a membership in a campground, like Breckenridge Lake Resort in Crossville, TN where we are members, with its own dues and stay limits, or a chain of campgrounds like Colorado River Adventures. Then you can add on a reciprocal program like Coast to Coast (C2C), RPI, AOR or Resorts of Disctinction (ROD), to get some access to other membership campgrounds. You rarely have the same access as a real member, often on a few sites are available for the C2C and they might not be the best, plus you can't reserve nearly as far ahead. Also these programs often have rules like "you can't be within 125 miles of your home park", no back to back stays in the same chain, etc.
Passport America is a good way to get started. For about $33 to $40 a year you get access to many campgrounds for 50% of their rates, including many C2C campgrounds. There are restrictions, but they are normally documented in the book or app that Passport America puts out. You don't have to renew.
Passport America is a good deal, will pay for itself in a stay or two and offers no such restrictions. We do carry that one.
- Cherie
Vicky and Ira
I'll concur with the others; although we're not actually fulltimers yet. The house goes on the market this month and the New Horizons will be picked up in June.
I went through the same questions you have about memberships; we are getting Passport America and joining Escapees to start and will see how things go. Coast to Coast daily prices look nice; but you have to join a home park so the real cost per night includes the amortization of the home park membership fees. What it really comes down to (as others have said) is you don't know how you want to fulltime until you do it for awhile. Some like to settle down in the same place for 4 months every winter; some like different places, some end up getting a condo/townhouse for winter. The problem is that you just don't know…Connie and I think we know what we want to do but until we've actually done it we won't know for sure.
The same goes for what you have in your rig; we don't know if we'll boondock enough to make solar worth the cost but we did get prewired for the panels and got a big inverter to start. Generator; again we are getting (actually got, it came in today) a 2000 Honda and will (depending on usage and needs later) pair it with an additional 2000 in parallel or upgrade to the large self-start propane genset if it seems like the right thing to do later; but to start the 2000 will let us be self sufficient with our residential fridge for a single night's stop without hookups.
A year from now; we'll know better and I'm sure some things will have changed.
Thank you so much for your recommendations. We were kinda sold on C2C untill reading your posts. I think we will take your advice, we will sign up for Passport and see what happens over the next year. Again thanks - papad
-- Edited by papad on Friday 6th of April 2012 04:44:57 PM
-- Edited by papad on Friday 6th of April 2012 04:46:17 PM
Once you are a SKP member (stands for Service, Knowledge, Parking) you will instant access to even more information online.
Hope you enjoy the full time lifestyle but I suspect you will want a larger rig in the not to distant future. We started with a gas 34 footer with 2 slides and just didn't have enough storage room. We traded up to the Vectra diesel pusher and haven't looked back. This Winnebago is so much easier to drive and has 3 times or more storage room that it is easy to see why people go full time it this size coach. We upgraded to all electric appliances including range top, dishwasher and fridge. The only gas appliances we still have is the furnace which we use only when the temps are below 40 degrees as the electric heat pump will do everything else, and the water heater which we leave on electric mode except when we shower.
I am not sure you ever get so you look like you really know what you are doing at the dump stations, I know I sure don't. But as we are parked on our own pad most of the time we spend little time at a dump station in some strange park. So after 7 years I still feel a bit akward when I have to use a dump station.
Good luck with your step into our world hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Jim Morton
You seem to be really hooked on C2C. Contact http://www.redriverranchrvresort.com/Home_Page.html or http://www.timesharelink.com/B/Breckenridge-Lake-Resort-598.asp or http://www.lewisclarkresort.com/ and see what they want for a membership.
Ways to save money on camping:
1) Passport America and/or memberships if they make sense. But it takes knowing your travel habits and locations to know what memberships will work. We have them and use Thousand Trails the most, but it has high yearly dues so if we didn't use it a lot it would not be worthwhile.
2) Join the Elks or Moose or both since many lodges have hookups of some sort or dry camping for reasonable nightly rates.
3) Be prepared to boondock or dry camp, which both mean to camp without hookups. This requires carrying your own water, using your waste tanks and having your own way to create electricity. Lots of free or cheap places to dry camp exist, especially for overnights. If you want to do it long term you need to be in the West since the East is more established and has much less choice in that way.
4) Don't travel between campsites that often, stay weeks or months. This also saves on traveling fuel.
-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 10th of April 2012 05:49:26 PM