What You Need to Live Out of a Travel Trailer

"In school, you're taught a lesson and and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson."
Tom Bodett

Tom Bodett had information technology correct when he said those words. We've certainly found them to exist true while living in our RV. Since we made our tiny house on wheels, the Casita trailer, our home vii months ago, life has been full of adventure— and lessons.

In that location has definitely been a large learning bend to living in a tiny infinite for such long periods of time. Living on the road full-fourth dimension has many piffling challenges I never predictable before leaving. I get a lot of questions from people we meet about how we practice information technology, and idea I would use this post to share a few random practical lessons for living in a small RV full time.

Some lessons are simple, and others take a little more explaining. Just all are applicable to RVers, whether you're a full-timer or a weekend road-tripper. Here are fourteen things that I have learned living in an RV.

1. At that place is a trade-off between mobility and luxury.

When picking out an RV remember that everything is a trade-off betwixt luxury and mobility. The smaller and lighter you are, the easier it is to travel fast and far cheaply. The bigger and more than luxurious y'all camper is, the more gas it takes, and the harder information technology is to park it or find campsites.

2. In that location is more than one way to travel.

Before I left to travel, I read a lot of travel blogs. If y'all spend too much fourth dimension on the internet you go the impression that there are just a few travelers out there and they all blog. The reality is that in that location are lots of people out at that place traveling, and most of them don't blog.

What really surprised me was not but the number of people out there traveling, but the different ways people are doing it. We come across people living in huge Class A campers pulling trucks, and other people living out of tiny backpacks and sleeping on the side of the road. Y'all'll come across people living in giant overland campers who have spent over 15 years traveling beyond the globe, and bicyclists riding the entire continent from Alaska to Argentine republic. Nosotros met a guy riding around the entire perimeter of the continent, starting and catastrophe in Brazil. We take even seen people biking s to Argentina and and so rowing a tiny row-boat to Africa.

It is a big world, and there are lots of ways to see it. Still, I am surprised by how many people I accept met that are living their dreams and seeing the world in and then many unique means.

three. Don't skimp on the sewer hose.

Time for some practical advice. In that location are many places in life to relieve money. A sewer hose that is going to bear 30 gallons of your own excrement is not one of them. Practice non learn this lesson the difficult way. You don't need to get the all-time one out at that place; middle of the road is fine. We use a Rhinoceros Flex and it works well.

4. Expect things to break.

Our Casita is a very well congenital RV, and considered much more than durable than near. Still, when y'all tow it down a dirt road for 120 miles things volition break. Fifty-fifty if you stay on the pavement, things volition all the same break. I carry a 120 piece mechanic's tool kit, also as some basic tools like a pipage wrench, rubber mallet, and screw drivers. YouTube is a groovy resource for when y'all just can't figure it out, and when all else fails, zilch ties and duct tape are ever skillful things to have.

5. Walmart camping is a great option.

RVs tin can exist are expensive. Especially when you are just passing through, you are frequently paying for a lot for services you will not utilise. If there is national forest or BLM land nearby, you can usually boondock there for complimentary. For us, this is always the best choice. But often, that'south non a possibility.

Luckily, when this is the case, there's usually some other free campground option nearby— a Walmart parking lot. Sometimes, you lot'll see as many as xv rigs there. It's well-lit, safer than a lot of other options, and best of all, it'southward free. If y'all become the urge for a late nighttime snack, merely walk inside and go whatever you want!

Just recollect, always go the proper permission before setting up camp. While the general corporate policy is to let RVers to overnight, it is ultimately up to each individual shop to decide. For more information, check out our commodity on overnighting at Walmart.

half-dozen. Be mindful of towing, e'er.

There'south plenty towing tips and tricks out there to dedicate an unabridged postal service to the topic, only for at present I volition just practise the basics.

Towing rule #ane: Don't tow as well much. Approximately 60% of your truck's weight rating is good. Get a solid friction anti-sway weight distribution hitch and acquire how to set it up correctly. Brand sure your trailer is level, or slightly nose down, and accept it slow.

vii. There's more than just the United States to explore via RV.

We see a lot of people who have traveled all over us, but refuse to become to Canada and Mexico. Nosotros beloved British Columbia, and traveling into Mexico is a nail. Get yourself a passport and see what else this beautiful continent has to offer!

8. You'll have meaningful experiences with others.

It'due south only different meeting people on the road. A lot of the social barriers that exist in everyday life seem to melt away. You are both travelers in a strange land, and immediately you accept that in common. People likewise seem more open. Something about travel seems to make the mindless chit-chat that dominates every mean solar day conversation melt away.

What is left in its place is the ability to talk about more meaningful things, like your passions and desires. There is too no temptation to hide in a beat out, considering if the conversation does not piece of work out, it'southward not as if you have to run across the person on the way to work everyday. Both of you can just motion along to the adjacent adventure.

nine. The cyberspace is helpful, but y'all don't e'er need to rely on it.

It's both your best friend and worst enemy. Information technology's an astonishing time nosotros live in, and the internet allows us to do many of the things nosotros do. Without e-mail and online banking full time travel would exist a heck of a lot harder. It is also amazing to have access to all of the collective knowledge of flesh available to you lot night and twenty-four hour period.

But withal… sometimes it'southward okay to bulldoze around looking for a restaurant. You don't always need to Yelp it. Sometimes it'south fine to simply look for a camp and promise you lot observe a overnice one without reading every review of every RV park within a fifty mile radius. There is a fine line between using the astonishing tool of the internet and losing the power to go with the menstruum and merely see what yous tin can find.

Nosotros really felt this many times this past summer. I am equally guilty of obsessing over things on the cyberspace equally anyone, if not more so. Just in Canada and most of Alaska, nosotros had no data coverage. We were forced to just go for it and run across what we found, merely like the skillful new days, and frankly it was great! Of course, we still use the cyberspace a lot of the time, but I have been trying not to over-do it.

10. Go with the flow.

Be fix for change. Things will break, wildfires volition block your path, campgrounds will be full, places y'all thought would exist awesome will be terrible, and places yous never heard of will be astonishing. If you can be flexible, your adventures will exist much more than enjoyable. But even more than than flexibility, embrace the changes, don't be married to the plans, and be ready to go with the menstruum when y'all feel it.

11. Decision fatigue is real.

I can still remember our showtime week on the road. We were wearied all the fourth dimension. I don't snore at night, but that first week I snored like a freight train going down the tracks. One of the bug was decision fatigue. We would drive through a campground ten times before deciding on a site, we would agonize over which road to take for hours.

These kinds of decisions become exhausting. In our new life we made a lot of decisions, just many of them had few consequences. We made decisions on where to eat, or what to get at the supermarket, but now we are constantly bombarded with lots of decisions. Where are we going? Where are we sleeping? This route is closed, where do we go now? If you agonize over every decision this gets exhausting and leads to burn-out. I observe it's best to but pick the all-time options, commit, and don't look dorsum.

12. Don't bring too much crap.

This may exist my most import slice of communication in this mail. You need one-half the stuff you think y'all need, perhaps simply a quarter of it. The more than crap you bring the more than you volition need to deal with, the more than you lot need to bargain with the less time y'all have to explore, and the more chaotic your mental infinite becomes. Get out it all behind.

13. Avoid the "stuffel shuffle".

So you lot're going to need to bring some stuff, and how you pack that stuff is important. Nosotros follow the old "a place for everything and everything in it place" advice. When living in a tiny space, it's super of import to be neat and tidy, only this is more than that. The "stuffel shuffle" is what nosotros call it when you lot take to motion i affair… or two things… or 10 things to go to what yous need.

This gets old actually fast. Organize and pack in such a style that you can access the items you lot need without having to motion a bunch of stuff. If this is not possible see the previous paragraph.

14. Most importantly, do it your own fashion.

Seriously, do what makes sense for you. Do what calls to yous, and attempt as best you can not to model it on something you think it should be. Like I said before, in that location are a lot of people living on the route in a lot of different ways, and finding what works all-time for you is what matters.

If this is a lifestyle yous are thinking virtually remember that there are a lot of unlike ways to make it work, and a lot of opportunities waiting. The start step is to become out the door. Long term travel is a lot like sky diving. It is the first step that'south hard.

We are withal novices at this, and we are learning a lot as we go along. Information technology takes time for us to try things out. Sometimes nosotros observe nosotros are moving too fast and starting to fire out. Other times we have found we over committed to a identify and are ready to move on way before we had planned to go out. Still, we are finding a fashion to alive and come across the earth, and it's fun to find what works for usa as we go along.

Hitting the Road

In that location are lots of means to get out and larn about living on the road for yourself, and one of the best ways out there is to hire a rig from Outdoorsy.

There is actually no other mode to rent a different type of camper every time you lot get out, and discover out what works for y'all. It also gives you the opportunity to learn all almost the camper when y'all pick it upward from the owner.

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