Life on the Road and What I Learned So Far

My wife and I bought our first RV in November 2016. She's a 38 ft beauty, admittedly, 3 foot longer than we wanted, but it was what we could afford, and we love the floor-plan.

She's a gasser, and we really wanted a diesel. The main drawbacks of gas is less power, especially going uphill, and the brakes going downhill - we drive really slow, sometimes 20mph in 3rd or 2nd gear, and try to use the brake pedal as least as possible. We've seen some pretty steep grades, and haven't had any problems so we're probably being overzealous, but given that our entire life, including pets, resides in that RV, I don't mind at all.

Another problem with 38ft is that there are a lot of places that cannot accommodate you. Literally, when my wife tries to book us a place, it'll go from 300 spots down to 10 as soon as she clicks our size. That means you need to book further ahead if you really want a particular place, or, as she recently learned, a lot of people just call around and see what's available and go there.

Although events like the recent, rather suspicious weekend clash between leftist organizations (KKK, BLM and Antifa) at a supposed right-wing rally, have certainly contributed, our main reasons for this lifestyle were threefold: less stress, fewer bills, and the ability to see parts of the US we hadn't been able to.

The fact that we're normally off the crossroads of the world (so long as there's internet) has been a fantastic bonus, and should things get hairy, I'm sure we'll continue to appreciate that choice.

One of the biggest challenges, of course, is how we make money. At present, I'm the sole wage earner, which does cause me a bit of stress (but less than before -- it helps to wake up in nature most days).

We've still not gotten set up for boondocking or dry camping, but we did double our original battery bank, got some solar panels (although they're not set up yet) and a composting toilet (also not installed).

It turns out you need tools for this life, and you need to be able to fix things, or think on your feet. RV repairs are not cheap. We've had one of our slides stop working, so I had to repair the steel cable. I literally had to pull some panels apart to reveal the cable, figure out what the problem was, what caused it, and how to repair it without having the same problem again.

We've replaced most of the incandescent bulbs with LED to have longer battery life, but also to get more light (those old ones don't do much for lighting).

I installed a clothesline in the bathroom for my wife, which has been quite useful, especially on rainy days.

We had a sewer hose develop some holes (and I've had to repair it with super glue - don't laugh, it worked).

I've had to buy hose attachments when the old ones broke on the fresh water hose.

I've had to debug why we had no water pressure only to find either:
a) hose needed plummer's tape or more tightening
b) clean the little mesh filter that sits on the RV side (so as to prevent debris from coming in) which gets clogged with moss(?)
c) make sure there are no kinks on the hose
d) the park water pressure is so low I needed to turn our water pump on so we could shower
e) In really low water pressure, I toyed with the idea of simply filling the fresh water tank and using the water from there with our water pump -- haven't tried that yet

We learned that some water systems can sometimes carry sediment -- like, actual stones, that get caught in our water filter (that sits on the faucet outside).

We've had to buy/use a converter from our 50amp plug to 30amp or even 20amp (regular household plug).

I learned that I needed work gloves to set up or pack up the RV, otherwise my hands get real dirty. I also bought a head lamp for working at night.

We had to buy our own air compressor because our tires require 100-120 psi, and all the air pumps we found at gas stations and rest stops don't do more than 60 psi.

We also found that said compressor has a hard time in the higher altitudes (above 6000 ft for Summer - otherwise it's too hot). It's supposed to go up to 135 psi, but here (in New Mexico, for instance) I can't get it above 102 psi. So, may have to get a more powerful one. Definitely never thought that would happen.

We tow our Jetta on a 2-wheel dolly, and we've learned that:
a) when on an include, don't drop the ramps until you put the e-brake on in the car
b) if you don't tie the excess strap, it'll drag on the floor and tear it to shreds (applying a lighter helped a lot to melt the frayed ends).
c) Be sure you don't hit the wheel wells on the dolly, otherwise the little metal arms that hold the plastic covers will hit your time and cause it to smoke... thank goodness for a good Samaritan who pulled us over, by Panguitch, UT.
d) Make sure you have a lockable pin on the ramps, otherwise the car can move, and bend the platform. Had to pound it back into place with a large adjustable wrench because my hammer was too small.
e) make sure you have a large enough wrench (up to 1,5" in my case) to tighten the big pivoting bolt
f) make sure you check tire pressures on the RV, car AND the dolly, especially when changing altitudes -- never thought that would make a difference, but it sure does.

I had to learn how to apply self-leveling sealant on our rubber roof, to cover the old ones to prevent leaks. It was pretty easy, but time consuming.

I had to fix a squeak on our rear A/C in the middle of a heat wave in Camp Verde, Arizona - I had NEVER opened up an A/C unit before, but I had some silicone oil, and I found some holes in the motor to dump it into. That solved it. Still working. I did get a massive tan (errr, sunburn) while doing it.

Thanks to quick thinking I was able to fix all these problems. I would say, if I can fix them, anybody could as I'm not particularly trained/skilled in this field. I've never owned a power drill, and not nearly enough tools (as evidenced by the outstanding toilet, solar panels, and other incomplete projects.

I learned from a German traveler that going to Mexico is not dangerous at all, but you have to watch out for the roads. And diesel is a bigger problem because of the fuel quality. Obviously, wireless internet is not as ubiquitous out there, but you can boondock on a lovely beach for a few bucks, or even free... without cops coming to bust your balls. That was awesome news.

From a personal perspective, obviously you have to be able to be with your partner 24x7 and find a balance between work life, family life and personal time. That's been a big challenge for me, where I feel I sometimes don't have time for myself, between day job, pets and wife.

I learned that it really doesn't pay to get upset. Stuff will happen. That's life. If you live in a house, you just have different problems, and generally speaking, you're probably closer than 45 minutes to the nearest home improvement store.

Not every town has all the amenities you're used to. We were used to Lick Ice Cream in Austin, and Rhea's in San Marcos... not a lot of competition out here for that.

We've had wonderful food everywhere and met wonderful people everywhere. RVers are generally helpful and you can always learn things from them. That German traveler I mentioned (who has his own blog at http://myrv.de) even helped me with my tire... incidentally, you NEED the tools to change tires, and if you can make room for a spare... highly recommended.

Driving an RV was definitely something to get used to. The most unexpected thing was that the tail on the opposite side to which you're turning can hit things as you pass by. In other words, on a gas RV, because the rear wheels are not at the end of the chassis, but more towards the middle, that whole "overhang" swings left when you're turning right a lot more than you expect.

On a diesel RV, the back wheels are more towards the back, and so when you turn, the rear doesn't swing, but then you have to pay attention to the middle of the RV, make sure it doesn't hit.

Overall, it's not that hard once you get used to it. The worst part was dealing with such a WIDE vehicle on narrow roads, and you have to be careful not to hit the trees on the side of the road, and be careful of overpasses. Since we're 12' 4" I keep an eye on the height and am leery of anything less than 13 ft.

Definitely slow down when the wind picks up. I've been cast aside some 4 or 5 feet once. Pretty scary, especially if you're on a clif side.

Also, when trucks go by you on the freeway, they can push you aside. And on our RV it bounces around a lot. There's something you can get for the steering wheel, and sway bars (front and back) and better suspension... but all that takes money and we're still paying off credit cards on just my income.

Backing up with a car dolly is a challenge. Definitely don't have that. Normally my wife goes back there and guides me, but we don't know what we're doing so we try to avoid backing up... especially when the car is on there. She got us walkie talkies and we use that to set up and break down the RV. We have that down to a science and are getting faster and faster at it. But it took a lot of times to bring the stress level down.

Certainly I believe that the bigger the RV the greater the stress. A small 20 footer is probably a lot less stress, but if you're living in it and working out of it full time like I am, then that's something to think about. Also, having pets presents another challenge.

Gas mileage is laughable, but this last trip, we had our tires all properly inflated at 110psi, and then I added Seafoam (additive you can get at Wal-mart) and we got about 10mpg. Generally we've been around 6 or 7mpg. Highly recommend Seafoam. And this was with going uphill from Durango, CO to Taos, NM which is higher up.

Internet -- VERY IMPORTANT if you work from home. We found, so far, that T-Mobile and AT&T are MUUUUCH better than Verizon. Verizon's been pretty crummy in NM, AZ, UT and CO. Also, having a newer phone means you can sometimes get faster internet, because of newer cell towers in some areas. Upgraded from a Note III to a LG V20 and it did make a difference out in Camp Verde, AZ with the most spotty internet.

Don't count on park Wi-Fi. We only had decent Wi-Fi in 2 camps, so far. The benefit of using a park's Wi-Fi is that it is not your ID on the internet. So anything you browse, won't be linked to you. You can also change your MAC address as well, to further obfuscate your presence. Using Tor is another good option to get some anonymity, if needed.

Wow, that's a big brain-dump. I really hope you find it useful. If you have any other questions, let me know. And as always, thank you for sharing your Light with me!

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