I've made this same post on the SKP forum, but assuming that a Venn diagram of the two forum populations would not be two equal sized, concentric circles, I'm posting here as well. Please forgive me (in advance) for such a long post, but I feel you need the background information to give meaningful advice... and things have evolved quite a bit since my first post back in May.

First, the basics: I am 61 (and will turn 62 this coming February). I am retired Army and will retire from my civilian job at the end of February. My wife is a little more than four years younger than I am. She is an "international" sort of gal (born and raised on the mission field in South and Central America) and then spent half of her adult life in Spain and Central America (again, missions) with her first husband. I'm originally from southern New Mexico where my mother and sisters still live. We currently live in Aiken County, SC (across the river from Augusta, GA). I am a (very happily) remarried widower and my two adopted children live in the Augusta area; my wife's two children and the rest of her family are scattered from coast to coast - but mainly in TN, VA, MD, and CA.

We have been discussing the "full-time thing" for about a year, now, but I was beginning to think the future was looking like keeping the house, moving up to a modest fiver (we currently have a TT with a 2500HD diesel truck) and spending as much time on the road as finances would permit. (My wife would also like to spend at least a month each year in Cuenca, Ecuador.)

Fast-forward to this past Monday evening when my wife asked me to close my Kindle and said, "Let's talk." I gave my heart rate a minute to come down, turned my chair toward her, and asked what she wanted to talk about. She had obviously been deep in thought about something over the weekend, but I didn't know what. She said, "I'm ready to downsize, sell the house, and go full-time."

With her missions and my missions/Army background, being mobile with minimal possessions is neither new to nor uncomfortable for either of us. An RV would also be much easier and less expensive to put in "storage mode" while we leave the country for a month or two than the house would be. We have been working on a pros/cons document and having conversations around that. We have also started thinking about what we would want to have with us on the road, what we would "absolutely" have to hang on to and store, and what could be given to kids, donated, or sold. We would move our domicile to Texas (I have been a Texas resident several times in the past and it's close to my family).

My primary questions today are these (but PLEASE insert any other wisdom or advice that comes to mind):

1) In addition to the truck/tow vehicle, we have a 2009 Toyota Corolla with less than 60K miles in excellent shape (paid for). I don't think storing it somewhere is a viable option due to the needs of a motor vehicle to be run/driven/maintained periodically. Would you sell the vehicle or drive it separately to places where you would be staying for more than just a few weeks? Fuels costs wouldn't be much (>30MPG highway) and we get a very good multi-vehicle discount on the insurance with USAA. The cost of keeping it registered in Texas would also be a fraction of the cost in South Carolina. My main concern on this point is that my wife can't drive the truck (she's "spatially impaired" in terms of knowing where the outer boundaries of a vehicle are) and I don't want her to feel stranded or trapped when her only independent transportation is a bicycle. I also see the car as an important part of my wife's exit plan should anything happen to me. Your thoughts?

2) Since we just bought the truck a little over a year ago (a new 2013 crew cab standard bed 2WD D/A still on a dealer's lot with only 10K miles on it at this point), we can't afford to replace or upgrade it. I am very aware of the payload limitations of a 3/4 ton truck - despite the pulling power of the Durmax/Allison combo. My leftover payload (occupants, fuel and junk in the truck) on the rear axle is 3,120#, but the remaining payload per GVWR is 2,480#. I will, therefore, consider only fifth wheels with pin weights (loaded) of 2,000# or less (keeping about a 20% safety margin). We have had the smaller Nu-Wa units recommended to us on other forums and my wife really (I mean REALLY) likes the new Grand Design units. We can't afford the Solitude, but the smaller Reflection series would be within both our weight and financial budgets. We've spent time inside both the Nu-Wa (a used unit) and the Grand Designs, as well as a number of others. Obviously, enclosed, heated underbelly and tanks would be a must-have. Personally, I think double-pane windows are important for full-timing, too. I will not own another RV that I can't put load range E tires on, either. Since we can't go DRV, Presidential or other VHE (very high-end) fifth wheels, what other brands/models/units would you recommend? What major design considerations would you feel are critical for full-timing? (We've already decided on what will/won't work for us in terms of floor plans.)

3) And finally, what we jokingly call "Clause 11 in the job description" here at work: "...and anything else deemed necessary." Assuming we are talking about the emotional and lifestyle aspects of full-timing - along with an exit plan - what other wisdom would you like to impart? What else should we be thinking about?

So - not very much to ask, is it?...

Thanks!

Rob (and Laura)

Also, read through the main site, http://www.rv-dreams.com/, Howard (and Linda) have put a lot of time and research into it.  

You are in a position where you can try the second vehicle for a while and see how that works out for you.   If you sold the car before getting started, you may always wonder what it would be like with having a second vehicle , and to later have it cost you extra (purchase/or rental) to find out for sure one way or the other.   

PIEERE wrote:

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Sounds great!!! Rob and Laura; and Lee and Trace!!! Soon everyone will have left their S&B's for the wide open road. Talk about Freedom.

Rob; Brother; Thanks for your Service from this Old Army has-been; Veteran! LOL!

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Don't ever see yourself as a "has-been," Pieere! As long as you're walking and talking, there is life in front of you. 

On a slightly different note, you're pretty chilly today, aren't you? My stepson in Knoxville is at 36 degrees right now - we have warmed up from 35 to 38 with wind and light rain. I'm trying to talk Laura into going over to Camperland to compare two models of the Grand Design Reflections... the weather isn't on my side right now, is it!

Rob

As others have noted…do what seems right to you.

Financially…as long as you're not paying a car note the expense comes out pretty even…at least based on our experience. We tow about 8000-11000 miles a year and the car gets that for when we move plus another 10K or so from being the daily driver. Insurance and maintenance would be pretty much a wash for us given our miles driven and gas mileage.

For us it comes down to whether we want to drive the 450 dualley everywhere and how often we actually need 2 vehicles at the same time. The latter isn't that often and the former is just a pain for us…it's harder to park and maneuver. Some parking lots have large enough spaces so that I can park completely in a single space but that doesn't happen very often. More typically BAT (big a$$ truck) need to take up 2 spaces and if they're short then sometimes 4. This forces you to park way out in the nether regions of the lot…especially if you need the 4 spaces.

We had a battery failure in BAT this fall up in OH…and if we hadn't had the car to jump it in the morning I woulda had to go up and snivel to the park management to see if they would send somebody around to help. It was the second morning of a 4 day travel session and we had to jump it every day until we got to our destination near DC for a week and I could get it into the Ford place to have them fix it.

We're off to Alaska next summer in a caravan with Bill and Linda Napier and RVadventure Treks…and we're not taking the car with us. So we'll be single vehicle from about the end of May through September…guess we'll find out whether or not the above determination was accurate or not.

One thing we have to come on an agreement on is back seat driving…on our recent trip up to northern FL for our solar panel installation we left the car in Fort Myers and just took BAT and the rig…by the time we got back I was telling Connie that either she needed to stop or else when we got back from Alaska and the kids asked us where mom was I would have to say "Who?" She couldn't understand that after the GPS told me to exit here that I really didn't need her to remind me 5 seconds later. I told her I've only missed one exit that I was supposed to take in 3 years (actually it was a rest stop) but then we had talked about it 35 miles back and I got to paying too close attention to a technical podcast. Figured it out at the last second and I could have still made the exit but decided that it wasn't worth that severe of a braking effort…so just pulled off at the next exit so she could recycle the morning coffee.

I'd have to agree with with Snow Gypsy that you seem to have already made your mind up on keeping the car.  It's certainly an enhancement to the lifestyle in terms of flexibility but from a financial point the more you drive it, the better the value.  If you are only going to put, say, a 1000 miles a month on it during your runaround travels, the total expenses make it harder, but not impossible, to justify speaking strictly from a money POV.  Now, if you drive it 3000 miles a month like Junkman, then you can more easily make the case it's a good move to have it. Putting 3000 miles per month on the TV just running around, will really eat up your fuel budget, not to mention depreciation and your eventual maintenance budget. If money is no object.... never mind

-- Edited by biggaRView on Saturday 29th of November 2014 12:27:43 PM

Second Chance wrote:

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Thanks for the continued input, everyone. I'll post a bit of an update and a twist to the car as a second vehicle.

First, the update. My wife is now fully committed to making the transition ("graduating") by the end of 2015. We have started clearing out years worth of Spanish teaching materials from the basement and will progress to the attic, garage, etc., with time. She has already made significant progress on the kitchen and closets. She is starting to describe it as a "freeing" experience. We have also registered for the spring educational rally and will probably head out for a 3 - 4 week trip from there in our travel trailer before we sell it to start getting ready for the fiver. The plan at this point is to have the house ready to put on the market and show while we're in Ecuador for a month this coming August.

The car... we are insured with USAA and just learned a couple of weeks ago that USAA has "insurance storage" for vehicles. I'm sure this was designed for active duty personnel deploying, but anyone with USAA can take advantage of it. When you put the car in storage, you can go on-line, sign in to your account, and put the car in "storage" for insurance purposes. This drops the rates significantly for the stored vehicle because all they're covering you for is anything that might happen to the car while stored - it won't be exposed to the hazards of driving during that time. When you need to use it again, reversing the process is very simple. Since the car is paid for, I'm wondering if it doesn't make sense to put it in storage while we transition, move domicile, make our first few long trips, and see what pans out. If we decide we want to hang on to it, we can pull it out of storage and use it. If not, we can sell it. On the other hand, since it's in great shape and has low miles on it, we would be hard-pressed to justify selling it and buying another car when we have to come off the road. Perhaps I can run the numbers on the insurance during storage, annual tag fees, and the minimal maintenance that would be required and see what it would cost to keep it for 5/7/or 10 years. It might just be economical enough to justify keeping it. In response to comments above, we only put about 1,000 miles a month on car now, but would not run around much in the TV when full-timing, either (certainly not 3,000 miles a month). Thoughts?...

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 Check the rates.. it's only like $300 / year for our car.. full coverage..

Run the numbers -- all ways.

We are not the norm.. I want to go and do stuff.. either leisure activities.. or trying to make money.. I try and stay busy. 

I see retired , snow birds here that hardly ever leave the RV park. If I was one of them, I would not have a car.

Gas engines do not take kindly to being stored, not to mention other mechanical parts for extended periods without regular "exercise".  Sounds like the decision to take it or store it will based more on the value of the added flexibility it could provide you.

FWIW.

biggaRView wrote:

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Gas engines do not take kindly to being stored, not to mention other mechanical parts for extended periods without regular "exercise".  Sounds like the decision to take it or store it will based more on the value of the added flexibility it could provide you.

FWIW.

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 agreed.

biggaRView wrote:

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Gas engines do not take kindly to being stored, not to mention other mechanical parts for extended periods without regular "exercise".  Sounds like the decision to take it or store it will based more on the value of the added flexibility it could provide you.

FWIW.

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I would not consider storing for more than a couple of months at a time (I'm an old "shade tree" mechanic and have rebuilt numerous vehicles and motors - and built two vehicles from the ground up). My late wife and I had very good results storing our Volvo sedan while we were in Somalia in the early '80s. We had my dad drive it once a month to charge the battery, "keep the tires round," and lubricate the seals (especially in the A/C system). Oil, of course, was changed based on time rather than miles.

Rob