Maybe you have considered full time RV living or just camping more often. However, you have several concerns and they’re holding you back from taking the leap. No worries, that’s natural! After all, you’re considering living in a way that you have never experienced. It’s a big decision, as you may be selling your home or not renewing your lease, making it very difficult or impossible to reverse the action.

In this article, we aim to make your decision easier. We will share some insights and products to make your journey more comfortable. The products featured in this article are as follows:

• Standard length 50 amp power cord
• 30-foot 50 amp power cord
• 25 foot water hose
• 50 foot hose
• Black holding tank rinser/wand
• holding tank rinser with a gate valve
• square allen wrench set
• Casper brand mattress
• Mattress topper by BedStory
• WaterPik shower head
• Fangor brand projector
• Elite projector screen

Hopefully you’ve stayed in an RV and are familiar with the basics. If not, we highly recommend doing so. Which leads to our first tip.

1. Do a Test Run

We stayed in our RV nearly once a month for two years before we started full timing. Now while you may not need to spend quite as much time as we did, it is certainly a great idea to camp in your RV enough to familiarize yourself with how things work.

We’ve met someone who never camped in their travel trailer until they sold their house and hit the road. To be expected, she needed a lot of help. Fortunately, most places have friendly neighbors that will be more than willing to help you. However, this cannot always be expected or at least not when you may need help. So, the more experience you have, the better you’ll be prepared before hitting the road full time.

You may have the experience under your belt, but are still wondering if it’s worth it. That is, will living in an RV save me money? Well, the answer is likely yes, but there are several variables.

2. Be Prepared to Pay Upfront

What does RV living cost? It’s a common question that really depends on how you approach it. For instance, not all parks are created equal. You may find several that offer cheaper monthly rates, typically anywhere from $400 to $700, and others that are well over that. Some may not even let you stay more than two weeks, like Florida State Parks. Others may let you stay a month or more, but with no monthly or weekly discount.

Whatever the case, you’ll likely have to be prepared to pay upfront, as payment is due at the time of booking. For us, we move around often, staying anywhere from four nights to a week or two at a time. This is due to many factors, but chief among them is preference in parks and availability. We typically stay in state parks, and Army Corps. of Engineers parks. Many parks stay booked, especially in the Destin, FL area, (what we consider our home base). Because of this, we have to book in advance, usually a few months out. If we do get a spot in that area, it’s likely due to someone else cancelling.

This is not to say that you cannot pay month to month, much like a typical house payment. You may be able to find a campground that typically doesn’t stay booked up and does not have any restrictions on how long you stay. Also, they may work with you to pay at the first of the month each month, much like renting an apartment or house. You may be able to rent from someone with a private spot on their property. Be aware that they may require a long-term lease. Another option is buying your own land to use for your RV living. However, there are many land restrictions, and these places are usually well outside of city limits.

So, how do we do it then? Credit cards are our friend (and sometimes foe). Of course, be careful not to rack them up too high, but they are very useful in paying for places in advance. With the proper budgeting, paying back your credit card bills over time, you can make it work. Once you figure out your budget and payment methods, it’s good to have the proper tools on hand. As with living anywhere else, having the proper tools and gadgets are a must.

3. Ensure You have the Proper Tools and Gadgets

There are many tools and gadgets out there that will make RV living a lot more comfortable. Some optional, some likely necessary, especially when it comes to hookups. Just like RV living cost, it really depends on where you stay. Some parks have water spigots and power hookups far in the back or front of their sites. Depending on where your RV receptacles are located, this can make for a far reach. Therefore, it’s best to have an extra water hose, a long enough power cord, and at least two sewer hoses.

Our power cord has always been long enough, (barely long enough at Noccalula Falls Park), but you could benefit from a longer RV power cord, just to be safe. Note: the previous links are for 50 amp RV power cords. Ensure whether you need a 30 amp or 50 amp power cord before purchasing.

More often, we run into a situation where our 25 foot RV water hose is not long enough. We recommend having a 50 foot hose in addition to your 25 footer. Also, we have two 10 foot RV sewer hoses that usually are long enough for any place. It’s always good to have a backup water hose, sewer hose and plenty of those rubber washers for the water hose. You never know when a water hose will fail or you lose those pesky washers.

A black tank flush out tool is always good to have too. Even if you have a built in flush. With many rigs, the built in flush is only for the black tank. A wand that rinses out your black tank from the toilet side is handy, but again, that’s only helpful for the black tank. A better option is a holding tank rinser with a gate valve. This tool is great as it works for both gray and black tanks! Additionally, it works from the outside by hooking to your holding tank receptacle. This avoids the necessity of routing a water hose through your door or window to wash out the black tank from the toilet, as is the case with a wand.

When using the rinser with gate valve, just ensure that you leave either the gray or black tank valve open on your RV. Trust me, if you don’t, the mechanism will bust apart. We were able to get ours snapped back together, but it was not easy. They make a version without the gate valve and it’s a bit cheaper. However, the gate valve is handy as you can close it and let your tanks fill up to help wash debris off of the sensors.

One final bonus tip is that it will be necessary to have a square allen wrench set,. Of course, ensure the wrench set you purchase has the size you need for your RV. Many of the small screws in an RV have square heads. So, all of these things make RV living quite comfortable, but what else can be done to make it feel like home?

4. Make it Comfortable

Sleep is very important to your health and comfort, no matter where you live. Many mattresses that come with RVs are very uncomfortable. We highly suggest replacing them, as you usually do not need an RV mattress. What you have may work. For us, we already had a Casper brand mattress that we loved. As it turns out, it fits in our RV! Of course, if you’re planning on using a regular residential mattress, ensure you take measurements first. While many will fit, some RV bed platforms are much shorter than others.

On the other hand, you don’t even have to buy a new mattress necessarily. Before we went full time, we used a higher quality mattress topper similar to this one by “BedStory.” Our mattress topper worked wonders! While not as good as a quality mattress, it can be a great alterative to save a few bucks.

Showering is another important comfort. Many of the factory installed shower heads are of little quality. True, you’re not going to get the same pressure that you would from a house, but a new shower head can make a world of difference! We replaced ours with a WaterPik brand. It came with several settings, like massage, that our old shower head did not have. The best part, is it actually increased our shower water pressure. Home entertainment is another area in which you just don’t have to settle.

We bought a Fangor brand projector from Amazon. It’s not the highest end projector, but it has great features and a clear picture for the price. This gives us the chance to have movie nights outside by the campfire or even catch a big game on a big screen!

Additionally, we worked out a way to use it in our living area inside. I built a removable projector shelf that fits over one slide out trim. On the other slide out, we use just a small hanging hook to hang our screen from. We can roll up the screen with the included velcro straps when not in use and still watch our television.

We bought an Elite brand screen. What we love about this screen is that it has one center point to hang the screen from. This was important due to the limited space we had to hang the screen. Also, it’s more narrow, supporting a traditional 4:3 ratio, which was great, as again we had limited space between the pantry door and rear of trailer. We still are able to have well over 50 inches of big screen entertainment!

Of course, family entertainment is great, but sometimes after being on the road together all the time, on just needs some privacy.

5. Give Each Other Space

Whether its while you work or just in general, privacy in an RV can be difficult to achieve. My wife usually works at the desk, but it’s near the door, subject to the in and out traffic. Our dogs acting up, needing to go out or just me with my many questions all contribute to her distractions. With this in mind, we try our best to give each other space.

Many times, I am the runner. I often make grocery runs, get gas, or other errands. This provides my wife with less distractions while I’m gone, increasing productivity. If the weather is nice, one of us may work outside, while the other inside.

As you’ve gathered by now, we both work from home and we work together. We own and operate a marketing and web design business. So, living in an RV and working together, we do not spend much time apart. Which is great, but sometimes it’s natural to annoy each other. While your RV may be a bit small, the world around you is not.

Whether you’re at a state park or private land, you likely have room to take a walk outside. Take a walk, take your dogs on a walk, go for a drive, offer to pick up dinner or run errands. These are just some ideas to give you a little privacy and space.

Final Thoughts

By familiarizing yourself with your RV, building a budget, ensuring you have the right tools, making it comfortable and providing each other space as needed, you’ll have success as a full time RVer! Trust us, we know it can be scary. There’ll be times where something happens that you did not expect. But that’s life, right? The great news is that by being prepared, you can avoid many pitfalls and mistakes. Life on the road can be very rewarding, regardless of what comes your way. We wish you the best on your journey!