Last Updated on March 15, 2023 by Jessica Lauren Vine
Are you wondering “Should you RV full time?”
I’ve met a lot of people at campgrounds that asked me whether it was worth going full time and living in our RV.
The truth is that everyone’s life is different, and you’ll come to different conclusions, but I, for one, believe that if you can RV full time at some point in your life, that you should.
RVing full time gives you a lot of challenges, and you have to become someone different to be able to not only survive but to thrive and have a good time. Continue reading this article to learn more about my open and honest thoughts about full time RV living.
Should You RV Full Time? – Reasons I Would Say Yes
Before I bring up too many cons of the full time RV lifestyle, I want to go through the reasons I would say yes to full time RV life.
1) You’ll Discover Places You’d Never See Otherwise
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when you only have one month out of the year to travel. You want to go back to your favorite place and that’s where you go back to year after year.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s really cool to see new places. When you’re traveling for extended periods, that makes it much easier for you to see things than when you’re tied to a traditional house.
A lot of times, we found things we didn’t even know were in places until after we got there. If there is anything that our time in an RV taught me, it’s that you can find pleasure and interest in some of the weirdest places.
2) Lack of Property Taxes
If you own a house, you know the pains of paying property taxes. It can be so frustrating to see your money fly out the window to pay for your traditional home. Some people are totally fine with it but others that love adventure over stability would rather not pay that and spend it on traveling for long periods.
When you live in an RV full time, you don’t own a house or land—or at least most full timers don’t. So, you’re able to avoid paying out all of this money.
In fact, I was just looking at our mortgage hike due to the increased property taxes and remembering how low our RV budget was, so there’s always that to think about.
3) You Bond with Your Travel Partners
Since you’re usually out and away from everyone else, you spend a lot of time with your travel partners. In my case, it was my husband, our four kids, and our dog and cat. We had some pretty amazing adventures together even though it did get a little tight in the tow vehicle sometimes.
It was challenging living in the small space but were always drove it home that we were a team. We always had a game plan and I think the kids really learned to love and depend on each other during our full time adventure lifestyle.
4) Make New Friends
When you live the full time RV life, you’ll be a lot of people that are also full time RVing. Some of these people may become your best friends because you’re all going in the same direction—figuratively—and possibly literally.
When you arrive at an RV park, you’ll likely have new neighbors that are often very friendly. Many full time RVers are more than happy to make friends with their new neighbors.
When living in an RV, it can be a little lonely on the social side of things if you don’t get out and do things in the RV parks or otherwise.
5) Experience the Feeling of Freedom
When you full time RV, you’ll feel a sense of freedom you can’t get anywhere else. Full time RV living allows you to make decisions quickly without having to worry about much.
You don’t have to pack up your personal belongings because they are already there with you. Being able to make anywhere your physical address is pretty cool.
Cons of Full Time RVing Live – In My Opinion
There are some things that I didn’t like about my time in an RV, but this might not be anyone else’s experience. Don’t let this put a negative spin on how you might feel about RV life. I just want you to know both sides about living in an RV.
1) Being Far from Family
A lot of people live on the other side of the country from their families, and that works for them. For me, I want to be as close to my family as I can be. It makes me feel good to know that I can be there for them if they need me. This is the biggest drawback when you ask, “Should you RV full time?”
You could easily remedy this by hopping on an airplane and helping them out, but it does require you to plan ahead in some way. At least buying the tickets to fly there.
2) Living in a Tiny Space
When I think that I worked out of an 18 foot RV with a slide while homeschooling four kids, I can’t believe we made it work. Most people would give RV life a big no when asking, “Should you RV full time?” just because of this. But not us.
It definitely wasn’t the right RV for us, but it worked, and our budget didn’t have the ability to withstand an RV that was any bigger. We also had an SUV as a towing vehicle and wouldn’t have been able to tow anything larger.
If you do get an RV that is larger, you still might feel it is a tiny space, but it probably wouldn’t be as tiny as what we did, so it might not be as big of a challenge for you as it was for us.
3) Getting Set Up and Packing Up
On travel days, it was pretty much a wash. When you’re asking, “Should you RV full time?” this might not be the day to ask me on. The entire day was gone because we were hitting the road and getting to the next place.
You can definitely enjoy life and the journey as you’re traveling, but in the real world—I had to get some work done.
By the time we went through packing up and unpacking the RV if I wanted to work that day, it was pretty rough, and I wasn’t really going to get much done.
4) Nasty Neighbors
It rarely happened to us, but you could get some rude or nasty neighbors that could make it challenging to live in an area for however long you were booked to stay.
If you do get wild neighbors, you can ask to change your spot, but that’s a whole mess, and you might not get the hook ups you originally had booked because of the last-minute change.
Should You RV Full Time? – Conclusion
Now you have some idea about how I feel about full time RV life when you’re asking, “Should you RV full time?” As I said before, it may be totally different for you, but I wanted to share my experience so you could take what you will from it.
Just because something is challenging doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. I’d recommend giving it a try to see how it feels, and if you don’t like it, you can always come back to wherever you were before and make RV living a part-time experience.
You’ll never really know how you like full time RVing until you give it a shot.
When Jessica was older and had a family, she took her crew on the road for 2.5 years. They lived in 2 different RVs during that time. One 18 foot long and one 28 foot long. Both pull-behind RVs.
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