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The RVing tips and tricks: How to choose an RV? What’s it like to travel in an RV? Watch this video interview with full-time RV travelers, @TheAdventuresofFoxMiles. Learn how RV traveling can change your life and how to plan your camping trip wisely.
00:00 - Introduction
00:31 - About the idea to start traveling in an RV
01:50 - About Rving during a pandemic
02:40 - Did RVing make your life less expensive?
04:57 - How has RVing changed your consumers’ needs?
07:36 - About shopping experience when RVing
10:10 - How do you cook in an RV?
10:24 - About solar panels
10:40 - About heating in an RV
13:27 - About pros and cons of RVing
16:10 - About dealerships, used and new RVs, and how to choose an RV
20:40 - About future plans for full-time RV travelers
22:09 - RVing tips to future travelers
24:31 - Conclusion
More RV tips from Fox & Miles: https://www.foxandmiles.com/
#RVtravel #RVlife #PissedConsumerExperts #PissedConsumer
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0:00
It's definitely a cool way to be able to see the country, see the world and be able to travel and have like a nice experience
0:07
So I would encourage anybody to do it. If you're a maximalist, this is probably not for you
0:14
I definitely feel like I had to embrace a more minimalist part of life for a period of time, just because, again, we talk about limited space, limited weight
0:22
But what I love about RVing is that it shows you what you can live without, what you don't need
0:30
Before we started RVing full-time, before we made the transition, we were living in Washington
0:37
D.C. And then Fox actually came up with an idea for us to transition into living full-time in an
0:43
RV to save money. And so that we could be able to travel, save money, and also pay down debt
0:49
Because where we were, the rent was increasing and it was getting a little bit more difficult
0:53
to actually maintain everything. So we were trying to figure out a way to cut costs and lower it
1:00
the cost of living and be able to travel and also pursue some of our dreams and stuff like that. So
1:05
that was the initial plan. I think we had a great experience because once we made the transition
1:12
we had to make a lot of adjustments, a lot of adjustments to being on the road, working on the
1:17
road. And also, like you mentioned earlier about, you know, adjusting to everything that's going on
1:23
with the pandemic and we weren't able to go to them. And it also started impacting our finances
1:29
So to put ourselves in a better position, we had to stop and stay with family for a period of time
1:36
And recently we actually got a place that we can stay at part time while we save up some money and try to ride out this wave of the pandemic
1:48
So what you're saying, if I can summarize it, is that RVing during the pandemic is not that much fun because RV parks are closed
1:56
and you simply can't get in, right? Because the state lines are closed
2:02
quarantining is not as much fun as it used to be before
2:08
It's definitely like some places are starting to open back up. Yeah, it depends on what state you're in
2:12
Yeah, it depends on the state that you're in and how you feel about traveling
2:17
and wanting to be around with people at Disney. If you're very low risk
2:23
then you probably won't travel that much. But if you don't mind, you're really just winging it and going out there and don't really care about, you know, the pandemic
2:31
then I'm sure there's plenty of opportunity if you want to go boondocking or just stand on the road
2:38
More remote areas. Did it make your life less expensive to go RVing? What is the result
2:48
I think in some ways, yes, in some ways, no. So one thing that I don't think we really considered was travel, I guess
2:55
like simple things like gas and um and stay like park stay and things like that and things breaking
3:00
down um i think we didn't have to pay say if rent was like if your rent is like 1500 a month
3:08
we didn't we didn't have to pay that a month um but we are paying for groceries we are paying for
3:12
gas and i also think we were traveling too often when we first started and so that was eating up a
3:17
lot of our money. Yeah, definitely that. We probably overestimated how much it would be
3:26
to travel as much as we did initially because we were visiting people. We were underestimated
3:32
Yeah, we were underestimated. So we were visiting family, visiting friends. We were doing a lot
3:38
We were trying to do as much as we could, which wasn't a good idea because it was just
3:42
overwhelming, really, financially, mentally, and even emotionally. Because while we were on the road
3:51
it was very easy for us to get homesick. But if we took the time to
3:55
really slow down and pace ourselves, I think we would have done a lot
3:59
better on saving money. Because another part was we were getting grocery stuff. We were also eating
4:05
out a lot. But we figured that out later. Like, okay, we need
4:09
to readjust how we're actually traveling so that we could be better financially. Yeah. And I also think finances, like emotions play a huge part in
4:19
finances because I think we were so homesick and I was honestly struggling with depression
4:23
just starting out RVing. There were a lot of things I was trying to feed myself happiness
4:28
I was trying to spend money to be happy. And I think sometimes that we really don't take into
4:33
consideration like how our emotions play in our spending. Because if I was more stable
4:37
if I was, you know, more calm and better adjusted to our new lifestyle
4:41
then I probably wouldn't have a problem with saving money and just eating in the RV. But because I long so much for home and for friends and for familiar things
4:48
I wanted to eat at familiar places, which is like carry out or, you know, pizza hut or burger
4:54
Exactly. When RVing, how does it change your behavior as a consumer as compared to other consumers, right
5:04
So, for example, online ordering would become, which is a convenience for everyone else
5:10
may become a hassle for you. You actually want to know where you're going to be
5:15
in two weeks when the stuff arrives. What do you do? How do you send your stuff
5:21
to yourself when you're constantly on the move? One benefit, like for places like Amazon
5:26
like they have Amazon lockers. So if you know where you're going to be in two weeks
5:30
in two days, then you can order things and they'll be sent there and you can pick it up from there
5:35
But like you said, for the specialty thing, sometimes we just have to wait. We have to postpone our moves
5:39
We can't go anywhere. one because things are broken but then also because we have to wait for the for the part
5:44
to come in and i think as a consumer it just i think we're so used to getting things like right
5:49
now like right here right now and while we're rving for a lot of areas of our lives it helped
5:55
us to slow down and be more patient like that that was really just the only option we had was
5:59
to be patient um and yeah you don get everything you want right away yeah and another change would be you very mindful on the stuff that you do buy because you don have a lot of storage space So even while we traveling if we wanted to pick up knickknacks or like souvenirs we have to be very very specific on what we trying to get because we don have a lot of space
6:23
And so that becomes very critical. But, you know, if you're in there, you know, what we call a sticks and bricks location
6:29
if you're going on travel you can get as much as you can put in your car bring it back
6:33
you know but that's that's not the case so you have to be very strategic and
6:39
very mindful on what you're trying to buy and also you don't want that much clutter yeah in your space because an rv is
6:46
already a small space like even the larger ones which are some of them are very nice but it's still
6:53
not a full-blown house you know so you have to be very
6:57
mindful so that you're not super cluttered in your space. And also you have to be mindful about the weight too
7:04
Like even if you only have a few items, RVs can only carry a certain amount of weight
7:09
of load before like your tires pop or like it burns the engine out
7:13
And so for a lot of things, we couldn't get a lot of the heavy things. So a lot of the stuff that we did buy had to be multifunctional
7:19
Like it couldn't just do one thing. It has to be able to do a bunch of things and save us time
7:24
So like with our appliances for cooking, like, okay, so we're not going to have a whole
7:27
bunch of pots and pans, but we can use an Instapot so that we can cook multiple things in one thing
7:33
So, and it's not going to like weigh down the RV or take up some. So what can you say about
7:39
RVing and consumers, right? Shopping in the stores, isn't the same thing? Shopping online
7:45
when you RV. So you said about size of the items that you're buying, weight of the items that is
7:54
important what else is important for you when doing shopping are you doing weekly shopping or
7:59
you're doing a couple of days worth of shopping it's usually a week at a time yeah typically yeah
8:05
which is i would say another thing to be mindful of um in regards to space like our refrigerator
8:12
isn't necessarily the same size as our normal you know normal refrigerator so we're very very
8:19
strategic on like okay what are we going to have to eat this week and stuff like that we can't just
8:23
have things just sitting in there no so we just have to use all of that space um strategically so
8:32
yes definitely a week at a time i mean certain stuff like say toilet paper we might have you
8:37
know packs of toilet paper stored away but that you know that's not like that'll last a while
8:43
it won't degrade it won't go bad yeah um but definitely for food definitely a week at a time
8:49
meals are planned like we said like uh it's it's it's we have snacks but it's not really
8:55
we don't really have a lot of space for snacks so it's like you know and and it really changes
9:00
what you can cook right um because of the space so our kitchen some some people's rvs kitchens are
9:05
huge our kitchen was very small so we couldn't make you know we couldn't have three things going
9:11
at the same time it was not enough space so we have to make like one pot meals like spaghetti
9:14
or burgers or something, something simple that's not going to take up a lot of space
9:20
and a lot of energy from the RV. So taking into consideration our resources
9:25
So say we were boondocking. That means we have limited access to water, limited access to propane, limited access to..
9:36
We have solar panels on our RV. But again, if it's cloudy, where we are right now, it's cloudy
9:43
so we wouldn't get a full charge. So we have to be very mindful of what are we cooking
9:48
What time are we cooking? Because if we cook at night and we run out of power, we're just going to have uncooked food
9:53
It's not going to work out. So being mindful of all of that comes into play
9:58
So you definitely try to get things that are easy to clean up
10:03
things that are easy to prepare and don't take a long time because you don't want to be stuck with half-cooked food
10:10
do you cook on electrical stove i know our stove is propane but what we try to do typically is is
10:18
use the instapot yeah with the solar panels and generator and stuff how does the solar panel work
10:24
with rv so our rv didn't come with our rv didn't come with panels we had to purchase them um off
10:32
we purchased them off amazon we did a lot of research a lot of research um because we wanted
10:38
to get the most bang for our buck and so um we actually miles had to feed in the we had to install
10:45
it on top and then miles had to feed in the solar panels into the rv to the battery to the inverter
10:51
so that we can actually um get some energy out of it but yeah i think it lasted it lasted pretty
10:58
good we instant pot for example takes a lot of energy out of your out of your um power system
11:04
because I mean just because of what it does it cooks so fast and so um we would still have enough
11:09
to charge our batteries to watch tv yeah yeah so like again we would try to time things as much as
11:18
possible and also um we didn't have that many appliances like that our heavy duty appliances
11:23
were always for cooking so we would have laptops to work with and things like that but once they
11:29
were charged we just unplug it so that the laptop is running off the battery so a good full day
11:35
charge would be able to do everything you know we're able to do lunch dinner charge our laptops
11:42
and then later we were you know sometimes watching dvds and stuff on our tv or whatever and that
11:49
would be fine like we wouldn't completely drain wouldn't completely drain the breath the batteries
11:54
which was also helpful um the other thing that was helpful about that is that while we were
12:00
traveling we were usually places where it wasn't too hot or where it wasn't too cold um because
12:06
one of the first times i stayed in the rv overnight was around winter time and it was pretty cold so
12:12
i was trying to use the heater but no like the heater heater is definitely a heavy draining uh you know I don yeah So I think I had the heater in for maybe 45 minutes and it wiped it out
12:27
And so I was like, okay, well, I guess I'll just be cold. That's definitely something you got to think about when you're RVing because RVs are not well insulated
12:36
So if it's hot outside, it's going to be hot in there. If it's cold outside, it's going to be cold. So mild temperature is the best
12:43
You turn on the engine on the cold night to heat it up, to warm it up
12:48
You do it through the engine? Or how do you keep warm when it's cold outside
12:53
Sometimes there is an onboard heater for the RV and it uses propane
12:59
And so we would do that as long as the propane tank was full
13:03
But most nights we just had a down blanket and just wrapped ourselves up
13:07
Yeah. Yeah. And then I think we had some smaller heaters that we would let run for a little bit and just turn it off
13:16
But yeah, sometimes we would definitely be running the engine and just let the heat from the cab come into where we're sitting
13:24
The same thing with the air conditioner, too. What is your best and worst time during the RV
13:30
What is your best moments and what are the worst moments that you can highlight for us
13:36
One of the best moments for me was when we got to boondock in Colorado. So boondocking is just like RVing without any hookups
13:42
So you don't have any water. You don't have any sewage. It's really just you just kind of hanging out wherever you are
13:48
So people do it in parking lots. People do it in remote areas and like where we were in the woods, in a national forest
13:55
And so it was really nice because it's very peaceful. There wasn't a lot of noise
13:59
It was just us in the land. And I think for me, just getting away from like all the noise, all the hustle and bustle was just very like therapeutic
14:08
And also we weren't that far from, I guess, civilization, so to speak
14:13
But it was far enough where we couldn't hear cars driving down the highway
14:17
We couldn't, you know, hear, I guess, just people like it was really just people like spaced out really far apart
14:23
And for me, that was like the best experience. There was no light pollution so that we can go outside and see like the Milky Way
14:30
Like, that's crazy. I've never seen it before with my own eyes. And I think being in that remote area allowed us to be able to see like the magical stuff like that
14:40
Yeah, I was just going to agree and say I think our time in Colorado was probably the best because just the sights like from where we are on the East Coast
14:48
We don't see a lot of the mountains or a lot of the forest the way that it is out that way. So it was really, really great
14:55
Yeah. The worst time. The worst time is stuff breaking. Whether it's flat tires or our toilet broke, it takes some time to replace that
15:08
So anytime anything breaks. Or pops. Or deflate. Yeah, exactly. Because it's not as super convenient
15:17
Because there's some stuff that we were able to pick up from like Home Depot or like Lowe's
15:21
But other things were kind of special. Like there were very specialty things that we had to order online
15:27
And that's, again, waiting. Like you had to wait to get this. like i'll have to get this piece or like for example when we first got um our rv and we went
15:37
on a short trip to assateague island um during that time we found out that there was a piece
15:42
in our water system that broke and so it wouldn't pump water so it would just be making lots and lots
15:49
of noise but to get that piece we had to order it offline and then had to wait a couple weeks
15:54
until we got it. So that put a damper again on our travels
15:58
So stuff like me is always the worst. What kind of RV do you have
16:05
We have a 2014 Thor Majestic. It's a Class C RV. What did you experience with dealership services
16:15
with quality of the RV as a whole? And did you buy it new or used when you started this
16:21
just starting out we went to like the regular dealership so that would be like camping world
16:27
or rv world um and we didn't really enjoy that experience uh it was the the rvs were pretty
16:33
expensive they're pretty new um they tell you not to buy new because it still has kinks in it like
16:38
they're the way rvs are made sometimes they're really cheap just being honest yeah and um when
16:43
they're new they're more liable to be broken when they're used people are more liable to break when
16:49
they're used, people have already worked out its kinks. People have gotten stuff fixed and like
16:53
broken it in. And so usually you have a better quality RV with used RVs. And also one thing to
17:00
note is that new RVs, they depreciate as soon as you drive them off a lot, they depreciate so much
17:05
and used usually are a lot, a lot more cheaper. But yeah, so that was our first experience for
17:11
just going to RV world and we did not like it. People were kind of cold that they didn't feel
17:16
like you were going to get a sale. They were kind of like not very helpful. It was just kind of like
17:21
We bought our RV used from Cruise America, which is actually, you know, a company that
17:27
allows people to rent RVs. And so for us, since we were going to be living in an RV full time
17:32
and this was going to be our first RV that we're purchasing, we wanted something that was going to
17:36
be as simple as possible, as reliable as possible. We went used. Instead of purchasing an RV new
17:43
we decided to go use because a lot of experiences that people from what we found from other reviews
17:48
and things like that, buying new is not really the way to go because you're going to spend a lot of
17:53
money on something that will probably break down a lot. And we didn't want that since we were going
17:59
to be living in our RV full time. We purchased our RV from Cruise America, which is a service
18:04
or a company that rents RVs and gives you that option. And they also sell used RVs. And so for us
18:11
because we were looking for something that we can be stable in and live in full time
18:16
We wanted to make sure, OK, what we're getting is going to be able to take whatever we put at it
18:21
And it also that it very simple The RV that we have doesn have slides or anything like that It just really just a truck with a space to live on and uh so it pretty simplistic and um it works great for us like a lot of the issues that we had
18:36
um while we're on the road was really learning curve issues um so like issues with the tires
18:42
and learning that you know because you're driving this vehicle you probably shouldn't be driving as
18:47
fast as everybody else you might need to be in the slow way yeah so adjusting to that and being
18:51
also being mindful on the type of roads that you're on for a while we were trying to avoid
18:56
paying tolls in certain places so we were going a lot of back roads and things like that
19:01
good idea probably not the best idea um so that you know did some wear and tear on our vehicle
19:06
but like Fox we were mentioning about the different dealerships like we went oh yeah so
19:11
so first we went to RV world and camping world and so we just thought you know we did where to
19:15
start we'll just go there um but one thing about them is that they take commission and so if you're
19:21
They're not really like going to purchase something right in there. They're less apt to help you
19:25
Generally, I'm sure they're really kind people, but I also understand they're trying to make some money
19:29
So if they don't think they're going to make any money, then they're not going to give as much attention to detail
19:33
And with with Cruise America, they don't work on commission. So they're more apt to help you
19:38
They're more they're more they're more willing to offer you advice. Even if you don't go with them, they're still saying, hey, you know, this is what it's for
19:44
This is what it's not for. I'm the gentleman that really helped us out with our RV was amazing when it comes to maintaining your RV or getting it fixed
19:51
fixed camping world and RV world tend to have RVs backed up there. Some people will come in for a
19:58
simple fix for say like a faucet or something and their RV will be kept there for months at a time
20:03
And so if we are full-time RVers, you know, then that's not going to work. We don't have anywhere
20:08
to stay for three months to get a faucet fixed. But also for our RV, because it's so simple
20:14
a lot of the fixes we did ourselves besides changing the tire because the tires are huge
20:19
We basically fixed everything ourselves. And it's nothing that you can't look up on YouTube
20:23
We would definitely recommend trying to get something used in regards to price
20:29
And then also, at the point that you're getting something used, a lot of the kinks and things are worked out in that vehicle that you're getting
20:38
Yes, because RVs are made pretty cheaply. What are your plans? Are you going to come back to full-time RVing when the life becomes normal again
20:46
We would like to do that, but I think our initial step will probably be to go like part time
20:52
So instead of traveling completely full time, we might plan trips out so that we could travel for maybe two to three months at a time
21:01
Just until we can re, I guess, re-situate ourselves. Yeah, because who knows
21:07
Yeah, exactly. Definitely with regards to the pandemic, but also financially and things like that
21:13
because we don't, one of the things that we, I guess at low point of our full-time RVing experience
21:21
is like there were moments where we like ran out of money. And I think for a lot of people who full-time now
21:27
either one, they're retired. So they had their living off of, I guess their pension or retirement money
21:33
things like that, which is fine. But also I think some other people who full-time
21:37
also have businesses back home or like online businesses. And so for us, like we still have to get that
21:42
like passive income, if we want to have passive income, I'm started up and running. And that
21:47
takes time. That takes effort. And so I think the wise thing for us to do right now is like
21:52
Miles said, is just to be stationary for a minute, figure out like, what is our plan while we can
21:56
travel, like save up money and then go, like you said, wait for three months at a time to actually
22:01
go out somewhere and enjoy it as opposed to going out there and be stressed about like
22:05
trying to make money to support the lifestyle. Definitely. I think it's something everybody
22:10
should try at least once. Like even if you are, one of the first things that we did before we
22:16
really ventured into full-time RVing is that we got an Airbnb stay in a fifth wheel. I think it
22:24
was in South Carolina or something like that. Yeah, it was in Charleston. Yeah. And so I would
22:28
suggest doing that, whether it's renting an RV or doing an Airbnb, just so you can understand and
22:34
have that feeling of it. Because I think it's a really cool experience. Like before we went
22:38
full-time. I had never RV'd. I had no experience with it. Fox did, though. Her and her family would
22:46
RV when she was a child and stuff like that. But it definitely was me jumping into the deep end
22:52
once we moved into full-time. So I would encourage anybody to do it and definitely
22:57
realize that it's an experience. So you're not going to know everything when you do it
23:03
even if you want to watch all the YouTube videos and listen to all the podcasts and stuff like
23:08
but you're not going to know everything, but it's definitely a cool way to be able to see the country
23:13
see the world and be able to travel and have like a nice experience
23:17
So I would encourage anybody to do it. I would also say if you're a maximalist, this is probably not for you
23:27
I definitely feel like I had to embrace a more minimalist part of life for a
23:32
period of time, just because again, we talk about limited space, limited weight. But what I love about RVing is that it shows you what you can live without, what you don't need
23:40
Like all the stuff that we get as consumers that we think, oh, I can't live without this
23:45
There are a lot of things and we're packing up that RV that we're just like, well, throw it away and we don't need it
23:50
And I really feel like it helps you to buy quality products over like a lot of products over quantity
23:57
So that's one thing I feel like RVing doesn't also helps you to slow down. Just like we said, we kept getting breakdowns. Our tires kept popping
24:05
And at first it was very frustrating because we felt like we had to go somewhere
24:09
But I think the more that we started to RV, the more that we just kind of took life as it came
24:14
It's like, okay, well, just like this pandemic, who knows where we're going to be next month? I have no idea
24:18
But, you know, all I can do is enjoy today and what today brings
24:22
And every day is an adventure, honestly. And it's up to you to decide whether that adventure is going to piss you off or it's going to be like, okay, this was the time for us to slow down
24:31
Thank you, guys. It's been a pleasure. Nice. Thank you
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