We live in an apartment currently and do not have an RV. That means no camping on weekends even, no camping at all. Our apartment is roughly 1,000 square feet, we have loud neighbors that fight, smoke marijuana in their bathrooms, and in general make our lives miserable. For that reason, we want to go somewhere else, but just don’t know where quite yet.
While I’d like to go back to my old job at the campground we lived at, I would kind of like something new as well. I had a good relationship with the manager and owner, as well as the other workampers, and most of the long term residents. It was a nice campground, but maybe some place different would be in order, just for a change.
If we could swing it, I’d like to buy a fifth wheel with either a rear bunk, a toy hauler, or a mid-bunk. By the time we get to the point of moving, our baby will be three or four and starting to need his own bedroom. Can’t just keep him in a crib in our bedroom forever, especially not in an RV. There simply just isn’t enough space.
If we were to go back to the same RV campground, I could get my job back, which included lot rent, so we’d only be paying for partial electric and our camper payment. That alone would be far less than our rent, electric, and water payments now.
We also have more income now than we did when we lived in the RV, so we could easily afford an RV and still have more money available to save for the next stage in our lives. While many people have a towing vehicle, we wouldn’t need one since we’d never be moving, and in the emergency that we did need we, there are other people we could ask for a move for us.
Other things we’d need
There are other things I sold that we would need to replace though.
For starters, we’d need an RV. I’ve looked at a lot online and still narrowing down what we need exactly, but as I said before, a mid-bunk would be ideal for our son to have his own room. We could take out the sofa and put in a desk so he’d have somewhere to do homework and play, and have his own place to just be alone when he needs it.
There are plenty in the 30k-40k range that are only a few years old, but we’d still need a loan to buy one since we can’t save up that much cash in a year or two. If we can get a downpayment saved and get a loan, then we can get one hopefully around the time we move out of our apartment, and move into the RV in one fell swoop.
Add-ons
There are some things I’d like to get to replace what we sold with our RV or when we were moving out though.
Entertainment
First, we need internet again. At the campground we were living at, AT&T DSL was the only internet hardlined available. It was about 25Mbps, which is pretty slow for high speed internet, and it was $60 a month. Not exactly cheap for slow internet. We had T-Mobile briefly before we moved out though, and it was around 250Mbps if I recall correctly and only $50 a month. That’s an easy win, and since we won’t be moving, we won’t be breaking their Terms of Service.
To get wifi throughout the RV, we have Eero wifi routers. We have three of them in the apartment, and would take all three to the RV. We can put one near the T-mobile hotspot, one near the back, and one in the basement unit up front so the whole RV is covered as well as some nice wifi outside. That way we can work outside on our laptops and still have good speed while relaxing.
Depending on what the RV already has, we can either bring out TVs, sell them, or swap out what is in there with what we have. It may be our TVs are better or larger or work better, but we won’t know that for awhile.
We have Roku Streaming Sticks on all our TVs and will most likely bring those along or upgrade to newer models since they are getting pretty old.
Eventually, I’d like a new MacBook Air or newer model iPad Pro.
On the roof, I’d like to upgrade the antenna. Our old RV didn’t have a working antenna, so I removed it and installed a Winegard Rayzar Automatic Antenna. It had the ability to spin around on its own and zero in on the best direction for the most channels. If we moved a lot and were constantly setting up the TV, it would be more useful, but as is, it was a good antenna that brought in a lot of channels.
Power
We had a Hughes Autoformer and Watchdog, and while we will need the Watchdog, we probably don’t need the Autoformer. The Watchdog was really helpful to monitor our power and keep us protected, especially when combined with the RV Whisper.
If all is properly setup, the T-Mobile base station will be on battery backup, the main Eero will be on an inverter running off the batteries, and the RV Whisper will be connected to the 12v power so it is always running. Then when something does happen, we’ll get notified that power is out and can do something about it.
Water
While even a used RV probably comes with hoses, we’ll still need new ones since we won’t know how old or dirty the previous ones are. I like the Camco EvoFlex. With a blue hose for fresh water, it is easy to keep it separate from the hose used to flush the waste tanks or just a regular hose used for washing the RV.
That connects to the ClearSource Ultra water filter system. And from there, as short a hose as possible to connect to the RV. We did a blind taste test of the water from the ClearSource and other filters and it was by far the best tasting water we had.
All that means…
Bringing that all together means a lot of work and a lot of money. We will likely have to do it a little at a time. Shopping for all of it is easy enough, its all available on Amazon, so we can order it and have it delivered, but probably not at once. Add it to the list of things to take care of eventually.
