Full Timer's Roll Call

[RJTimmer]

My husband and I have been full-timers for three years now. Started out with a TH and just purchased a Solitude 369RL.
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StrayCats, you didn't by chance have a Work & Play TH prior to the solitude did you?

[RJTimmer]

Good Morning GDOF

Randall & Kristen Timmer neubie bull time workampers here, a little bit about how we started. My wife and I decided to give the full time thing a try early this year. My career took me to the finger lakes region of NY, KeuKa Lake to be more exact. We knew we would be here for at least 6-7 months, and i didn't want to travel back and forth every other weekend to MI to see my wife, nor did i want to stay in a hotel, so workamping seemed to be the way to go.
Well, we love the life style, and plan to continue when this assignment is complete.
We used our Forest River Work & Play 40RLS. while a great trailer for what we had originally bought it for, it is not suited for long term living. so we are upgrading to a Momentum 388M. More head room, living room, less payload and garage. We pick up our new rig around Thanksgiving, form our hometown dealer in MI, then we are off to So Cal in Janurary for the KOH race, then up to Reno for a spell. after that, who knows, we will go were ever my job takes me.


Im sure that we will have FT questions along the way, but for now, have a great day.

[NachoFirme]

Ben and Jerica here from San Diego, CA. we are young kids trying something different to deal with the crazy real estate prices of living in america's finest city. We financed a 2016 313RLTS from our local dealer and were fortunate since my intentions were to buy a different make and model. our salesman was showing me the models i asked for but when my wife showed no interest in them, he asked her what she wanted. well the reflection came pretty damn close. We wanted a double slide in the rear to give it a roomy feeling, i wanted a porcelain toilet since the smaller ones looked so uncomfortable, and we wanted a big closet with storage for my tools. the only thing i couldnt get was the outside kitchen. we pulled her home a week later with my 2010 Tundra Rock Warrior. we were holding our breath for 2 days since the the dealers service department literally caught fire. the dealer was able to tow our rig over to its sister lot a couple cities over. when we took delivery we were given the run down of the damage the dealer had and we asked if our rig took any damage. we were told it wasnt so we hooked her up and brought her home. from the first day we had some minor issues, nothing a screwdriver couldnt fix, and we moved our stuff in little by little. our fan controller was shot so they ordered me a new one, it was supposed to be this amazing fan that when on can move alot of air. well i couldnt wait for the new wall controller to come in so i grabbed an old phone modem and tried to see if it would fit the same plug as the maxxfan plug. it did, and it had four wires, so i used a process of elimination and figured out which wires do what and was able to use our extractor fan. i ended up installing my own 50 amp service plug for my rig at my familys lot in otay mesa. we stay here near brownfield airport and enjoy not having neighbors.

we had our first big rain this past week and when i woke up the morning after, i discovered a puddle in the kitchen. i was trying to see how it got in and saw that it was leaking through the skylight. when the rain calmed i went up on the roof to check it out, now im no light weight and didnt want to climb the latter during the pdi, so when i saw the roof for the first time i was surprised. i found scorch marks burned into the roof liner and the skylight. i guess when the dealers fire happened the embers fell onto the roof and made some holes! well i duct taped the holes up and called my dealer. they sent a guy out with dexcore? and patched the holes up. he took pictures to send to the insurance company. so now im waiting for a quote from GD to see how much a roof replacement is so i can give the insurance company a number to work with. anyways we still love our TT and come thanksgiving we will post some photos of our first camping trip!!

[Doug & Connie]

We also are full timers, its our 3rd year now. We bought our 379 FL last October. Before
that we had an open range 424 rl, but after we saw the Solitude at an RV show, it was ours!
We live in BC, Canada, but travel south for the winter, where its warm and 75 or more!!

Doug and Connie

[Muddypaws]

How do people get mail while away from home for long periods and to different campgrounds?

[arhayes]

We full time and use Escapees mail service. When we know it'll be convenient, we send them our upcoming campground address and they ship our mail to us there.


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[eagles1]

How much is escapees mail service? Have you switched state of residence? Does anyone know which state is best in regards to price of license, RV license, etc.? We were looking at both South Dakota and Texas..


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[Charlesandkate]

There's many different places for mail service and I'm sure they're all great. We use St Brendan's isle. They're in FL and yes we use that address for residency. There's paper work to fill out and hoops to jump thru, but such will be the case with all places. Hands down the best states that are RV friendly are TX, FL, and SD. IMHO, FL and SD are he only ones to really consider. TX requires physical presence for registration of vehicles as well as a special license requirement for certain RVs. As a FT-er you can imagine how difficult that might be logistically. (Least this was the case year before last - any TX people want to weigh in on this?) SD requires one night stay in a hotel for "residency" and FL requires you to have an RV/boat registered in FL.
There are other things to consider, of course, and everyone is different. Health insurance, luxury tax, sales tax, and other benefits or detriments.
As for price they vary as much as the opinion on this topic, but we pay about $30/mth for our service. That includes the service, the scanning, the mailing and everything else.
We don't have any experience with escapees mail service, but have heard good things about it. Do a search for mail service and you'll find the one that fits you the best.

[kregli]

Mail service is about 180-250 for the first year depending on what you want. Call them, they can probably help with the domicile questions as well.

[arhayes]

We already lived in Texas, so kept that as our domicile though we sold our house. Our Escapees address is what is on our DL's, etc. I'm not sure about the hoops you jump through to establish initial residency, but TX is easy once you are a Texan. Tag renewals, etc are by mail. Even though the state has vehicle inspections, when it is time to renew I just cal and let the Tax Assessor know we're out of stars and they handle renewal without the inspection.
The one thing that may make Texas less attractive in he short term is healthcare. We're not 65 yet and because they opted out of the federal exchange, for 2016 coverage is pretty limited. Our income s above the threshold for rate reduction, so it's pretty expensive to use the exchange. We'll probably go outside to get insurance which will
Be even more expensive, but BCBS of Tx does not have out of state network coverage. Something to consider depending on your situation.
As for the mail service, I think we pay $85 a year plus the cost to ship our mail to us each time we request it. Our snail mail consists primarily of magazines, prescriptions and some junk mail. They offer a scan service for more per year and also have a level that eliminates junk mail, but we're still deciding which way to go for the future. So far this has worked well for us.


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