Cost of full timing

[docque]

Well, not sure if there is an answer for this. Answers will probably be all over.

What I am trying to do is figure out how much I need monthly if I go full time. Here is what we decided for a a setup. F-250 with gas engine and a fifth wheel in the low 30s length.

I think the big thing we are looking at is cost per month for a RV park. I believe where I am now is very expensive vs other states.

Thanks in advance.

 

[traveldawg]

Depending on the 5th wheel you select you are going to get a ton of feedback about your 3/4 ton tow vehicle choice. Not the gas part, the payload part for a 30+ foot trailer.

As far as costs there must be a ton of reference materials about this; although asking here is good as full timers will chime in soon.

Seems to me the big cost is for RV park fees followed up by what you choose to spend on touring activities. I suppose you won't go out to eat any more often. Maybe the costs you save for not paying for utilities at a house can go into RV maintenance, upkeep and depreciation. Then there is the matter of internet and/or TV; that'll probably be at least a $150+ bill.

 

[docque]

Depending on the 5th wheel you select you are going to get a ton of feedback about your 3/4 ton tow vehicle choice. Not the gas part, the payload part for a 30+ foot trailer.

As far as costs there must be a ton of reference materials about this; although asking here is good as full timers will chime in soon.

Seems to me the big cost is for RV park fees followed up by what you choose to spend on touring activities. I suppose you won't go out to eat any more often. Maybe the costs you save for not paying for utilities at a house can go into RV maintenance, upkeep and depreciation. Then there is the matter of internet and/or TV; that'll probably be at least a $150+ bill.

Well in order to keep it on track of the question. I am going to have an f350 pulling a tent camper. It will require a 50amp hookup and at the spot needs to be able to handle the trailer and the tents (about 30+ feet).

 

[Tony_in_AZ]

Yeah , RV park costs can vary a large amount. If the word "resort" is in the park name , its higher priced. Some less expensive parks are dirt-dust bowels and moderately maintained.

 

[Always Learning]

Well in order to keep it on track of the question. I am going to have an f350 pulling a tent camper. It will require a 50amp hookup and at the spot needs to be able to handle the trailer and the tents (about 30+ feet).

RV campgrounds are not cheap. Yes you can find some inexpensive parks but you may not want to stay there. In general parks charge nightly rates, weekly rates and monthly rates. Weekly rates are usually pay for six nights at daily rate and stay seven nights. Monthly rates are usually substantially cheaper but this all depends are where you are and if you are in or out of tourist season. Research areas where you want to travel using the web. Most RV parks will give rates.

 

[kb0zke]

As has been mentioned, the correct answer is "it depends." If you are looking at the resort places, you can spend a LOT. On the other end, though, we have stayed at several city or county parks for free - with FHU. True, those are basically parking lots with a few sites. One, though, is at the city park, where there is a swimming pool, a pond with a paved walking trail around it, and other activities close by.

If you are 65 or older, check into the Golden Age pass, aka geezer pass. Cost is $80 and generally gets you 50% off at COE campgrounds and other Federal parks. Also good for free or reduced admission at places like Carlsbad Caverns.

Many State parks have campgrounds, but you are usually limited to no more than two weeks at a time. Again, there are often discounts for seniors, military, or disabled.

Passport America is a common discount program. Generally, you get 1-3 nights at 50% of the regular rate, but there are restrictions that vary from park to park. Also, parks come and go from the program, so you always need to ask.

We recently stayed at the Fairgrounds in Sioux Falls, SD. The cost for 50 A FHU was $40/night or $200 for a week. Since we were on a bit of a schedule, we were there only for the five nights, but we could have stayed two more nights for the same price. Many commercial parks have a weekly rate that is a bit less than the daily rate, and a monthly rate that is less than the weekly rate. A few even have annual rates. Those free parks I mentioned above limit you to only a couple of nights for free, then you have to pay.

 

[orbiker]

It depends on where you want to go and when. We use a membership system that gets us into RPI and ROD parks, some time for free ( we bought the membership in 2016 ). We also use military bases sometimes and they can be $20 to $30 a night. Fairgrounds and city parks too. Passport America can help ith cost too.
Last year we did 3 short workamp jobs in prime locations. We want to find more of these prime jobs in prime locations. For us; it's the location and a free site, with limited hours ( like 20 to 24 ).

We try to stay off the freeways and travel the smaller highways. We might only move a 100 miles, if that and stay 3,4 or more days (depending on what's to see in the area).

KEN

 

[MoonShadow_1911]

Well, not sure if there is an answer for this. Answers will probably be all over.

What I am trying to do is figure out how much I need monthly if I go full time. Here is what we decided for a a setup. F-250 with gas engine and a fifth wheel in the low 30s length.

I think the big thing we are looking at is cost per month for a RV park. I believe where I am now is very expensive vs other states.

Thanks in advance.

We full time, so I'll give you our experiences and strategy.

1. We use RV Trip Wizard to plan out routes and stays. It really helps to try to locate an inexpensive RV Park in the area we are interested in.
2. Unless we are trying to get to a destination that is greater than 800 miles away, we plan around monthly stays. It's usually cheaper doing monthly rather than daily or weekly.
3. When overnighting, try to find the cheapest place. A few have not been good, but for the most part, they are fine for an overnight.
4. If the destination is farther than 800 miles, we stay 6-7 nights at a location due to me working during the weekdays; then move on to the destination.
5. Keep the monthly, including electric and propane less than $1,000.00/month; we budget $1,200.00 just in case and bank the leftover.
6. Keep overnight stops less than $50.00. That comes out of our monthly budget.
7. Diesel: we budget $500.00 per trip, that's one fill up per day for traveling and one full up at the destination (again, taking into account the 800 miles traveled). We budget $500.00/month for fuel (banking what we don't spend in fuel).
8. Our budget for "entertainment" (sight seeing, entry fees, etc.) is $500.00/month, such includes diesel for the stay.
9. Groceries is budgeted at $500.00/month.
10. RV "stuff" is budgeted at $250.00/month. (Tank treatments; Wash, Wax All; oh that's a cute decoration for the camper stuff... Essentially, incidentals.)
11. Truck "stuff" is budgeted at $250.00/month. (Maintenance and things.)
12. Uh, oh, fund is budgeted at $250.00/month. (This is fixing trailer things.)

So, we are right at about $3,500.00/month.

It depends on where we are and how far we have to drive for leisure, we have done pretty well with keeping to those costs. In Florida, since we went to Disneyland with our daughter's family, we over spent, but that was banked entertainment funds.

Hope this gives you an idea. Others will be more, some will be less.

 

[Steven@147]

Oh Yeah, "it depends". The cost for fulltiming can be all over the place depending on where you stay, groceries, eating out, site seeing, fuel cost if you travel across country, etc etc etc.
Right now we are at a private owned campground, FHUs and cable TV, $500 / month. We are here for 8 nights so it works out to be $32.50 / night. They also have a laundry at the campground $1.50 to wash or dry. The only discounts we get are Good Sam and KOA.

We track our expenses pretty close and so far for this year we are averaging around $20-25 per night / month, except when we were in the Grand Canyon South Rim area and then our site cost per night went up to $57 / night.
Work camping, State, City, County, National, COE Parks are all cheaper / night but like was said limited to 2 week stays and sometimes can be hard to get reservations, and sometimes are not kept up to date. Military Base campgrounds if you are retired are very good as well as harvest hosts for over nights. Then there is BLM and boondocking.

Our dining out gets the better of us and we splurge too much, but boy is it GOOD! Like when we went to Crackin Crab and spent $120 for dinner, shrimp, snow crab, dungeness crab, corn, potatoes, andouille sausage boils. The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo $80 for dinner. Otherwise we eat at places like McCalisters Deli for cheaper. Our grocery bill is usually high as we use our smoker for thick pork chops and steaks. As you can see we eat very well. Rarely ever eating hamburger helper.

Our diesel fuel costs have been really high as we have traveled across country, $1,229 for the month of May.

We are really glampers - LOL's

 

[docque]

It depends on where you want to go and when. We use a membership system that gets us into RPI and ROD parks, some time for free ( we bought the membership in 2016 ). We also use military bases sometimes and they can be $20 to $30 a night. Fairgrounds and city parks too. Passport America can help ith cost too.
Last year we did 3 short workamp jobs in prime locations. We want to find more of these prime jobs in prime locations. For us; it's the location and a free site, with limited hours ( like 20 to 24 ).

We try to stay off the freeways and travel the smaller highways. We might only move a 100 miles, if that and stay 3,4 or more days (depending on what's to see in the area).

KEN

This sounds like how we would be doing full time. My assumption is the first year or two it will be more costly due to learning curve.

Now on to trying to get my Vet Id. The form they sent me looks like a picture of a screenshot of a scanned microfiche that the light bulb blew out in it.

 

[Second Chance]

This has been a frequent topic of discussion on this and other forums for a long time and there is no one answer. The cost to live on the road often turns out to be very much the same as one would spend living in a stix 'n brix and is dependent on the lifestyle and expectations of the individual. Everything from food to clothing to health care are going to be about the same. Mortgage, utilities, lawn care, etc., are going to be replaced by their RV world equivalent. All this depends on the socioeconomic level at which you choose, and can afford, to live.

Focusing on just the RV park and camping costs as you originally requested, here's our experience: $24.26/night over the past 7 years, 11 months (thank you Quicken). This includes:

One-, two- and three-nighters
Monthly rates
Military FamCamps and campgrounds
Escapees co-op parks (for a month at a time or a few nights)
Private campgrounds
County and city RV parks
Only a few state parks and no National Parks

There has been a steady increase in these costs over these almost eight years - but not as rapidly as the increases in food costs over the past two years!

The one thing you don't want to do is to set sail on a ship and realize, halfway across the ocean, that you can't afford the fuel to get to the other side. Manage your expectations on everything.

Rob

 

[Steven@147]

snip

The one thing you don't want to do is to set sail on a ship and realize, halfway across the ocean, that you can't afford the fuel to get to the other side. Manage your expectations on everything.

Rob[/QUOTE] Absolutely! but Rob I thought you were Army! LOL's
A side note, we got passes to enter Fort Sill to visit the museums and base.

 

[Second Chance]

snip

The one thing you don't want to do is to set sail on a ship and realize, halfway across the ocean, that you can't afford the fuel to get to the other side. Manage your expectations on everything.

Rob

Absolutely! but Rob I thought you were Army! LOL's
A side note, we got passes to enter Fort Sill to visit the museums and base.[/QUOTE]

You're right. I was born and raised a desert rat, retired from the Army... but was a recreational sailor for 30+ years.

Rob

 

[wkelly5688]

I had similar questions when we went FT 7 years ago. The thing I found with FT is, you have options. Long term stays cost less. You can Camphost in and get your site free for a couple days work each week. You can workkamp and get you site and/or pay for a 40 hour week. Go to southwest in the winter and park it on BLM land for $180 for 6 months. You want full hook ups or a resort experience, it’s gonna cost you. Everyone’s situation is different. Go to www.escapees.com a group for full timers and a wealth of information. Good luck!

 

[Grandcindy]

We too keep a close eye on costs and can say that our monthly average for campsite costs for 2022 was just under $700, with a combo of commercial ($55 and less per night), boondocking and NFS and similar campgrounds. (We like boondocking.) Two of those months were at a monthly rate of approx. $700 each, including electricity; and three months were at a commercial park for $1500 each.
I hope that is helpful. We are rolling into our 10th year on wheels fulltime.

 

[DCRYOR]

My costs for full-timing (abbreviated)

I pulled a 30' 5er with a F-250 gas 2WD.
I was full timing for 18 months and my average camping cost was $56-58/night. That was the gamut of state parks ($25/night) to Yellowstone ($100/night). But my guidelines were full hookups (50 amp elec, water, sewer at the site, not a dump station), staying about a week at each campsite. Some private, some commercial, some KOA, some fairgrounds, a real mix. But I was pretty consistent across the months. $1600-1700/month.
Gas will be dependent on how far you go per month, mpg while towing and gas prices (duh). I figured 4-6 travels per month, 250 miles per travel and $5/gal = $750/month.
I ate dinner out every other night, cooked in the other nights along with breakfast and lunch, about $450/month. Everything else is variable to your life style. My total monthly budget for EVERYTHING (healthcare, insurances, travel costs, maintenance, etc.) was between $5-6000/month. My rig and truck were paid for (no financing).
Obviously, lots of lifestyle variables, but that should give you a good start. Good luck and I will say that it was worth every minute!

 

[RiversToRidgesRV]

Well, not sure if there is an answer for this. Answers will probably be all over.

What I am trying to do is figure out how much I need monthly if I go full time. Here is what we decided for a a setup. F-250 with gas engine and a fifth wheel in the low 30s length.

I think the big thing we are looking at is cost per month for a RV park. I believe where I am now is very expensive vs other states.

Thanks in advance.

You are correct, everyone travels and lives differently so expenses will depend on your lifestyle. However, we did a YouTube video on this subject that might help you out and give you some approximate budgeting numbers.

WOW - Time To Adjust Our RV Budget!!
https://youtu.be/fn9EkGUYGz4

Rivers To Ridges RV