6 Challenges of Full-Time RV Living
RV life can be amazing, but it’s not always perfect. Beyond the picturesque views and the free-spirited living, you can come across some challenges. Our RV living experience has been nothing short of incredible. We got to spend over a year seeing the beauty of the United States, from breathtaking beaches to stunning national parks. However, our RV life came with a few issues.
These are 6 of the common issues we came across on our RVing adventures, and luckily for you, we also come bearing answers:
You’ll miss your family
We started missing our kids and grandkids while on our adventures. We had Kalin living with us in the RV, and the rest of our kids and grandchildren were miles away across the country. It’s great traveling, but we still wished the whole family was with us.
The Answer: There’s no cure for missing your family, except seeing them. So, visit them whenever you can. Leila traveled multiple times to spend some weekends with the kids and grandkids.
You need to set dates to visit your loved ones. You can take a flight or book a spot in nearby RV parks so you can spend more time with them. RV living shouldn’t mean disconnecting from those you love.
Your RV will have breakdowns
As you travel across the country in your RV, you’ll find that things break. We’ve had to fix our RV multiple times. Granted, we bought a vandalized RV, so we probably experienced more problems than the average RVer. But breakdowns happen, nonetheless.
You’re constantly travelling and putting miles on your RV, and things will fall apart at some point. So, what do you do?
The answer: You must learn to be handy. Invest in a good toolset. This comes from someone who didn’t even own a toolset and had never changed car oil until becoming a full-time RVer.
Thanks to RV living, I have favorite tools now. And that honor goes to the DeWalt drill. I used it pretty much every day. With the right tools, you can use the internet to figure out how to fix your RV.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. When people know that you’re living full time in an RV, they’ll do their best to help you. We’ve found some of the nicest people in the world during our breakdowns. You can get professional help from dealerships and RV repair shops or from kind strangers offering to help.
Finding places to stay can be a challenge
When we first started RV traveling, we made some rules. We weren’t going to drive for more than four hours a day or drive at night. That went out the door very fast! Finding places to stay was especially tough during Covid. Our worst experience was when our reservations got cancelled because of Covid-19 restrictions. We had to sleep at some parking lots and on the roadside.
Our rig at a random parking lot when our reservations got cancelled because of Covid restrictions.
The answer: Find other places to stay. We had to rely heavily on Harvest Hosts, which was a lifesaver. Harvest Hosts helps you find areas that can accommodate your RV wherever you are. You can check their website for places where you can park for a night or two.
The weather can ruin your travel plans
There are things you can’t control when traveling in an RV. Weather is one of those things. You can come across extreme weather conditions that are not conducive to RV living.
The answer: Ensure that you know the weather forecast of where you’re going so you can plan around it. And it’s not just snow or heavy rain that you need to plan around. The air conditioner in an RV only cools down to about 20 degrees below the temperature outside. When we were in Lake Mead, the temperature was 117ºF outside, and the RV air conditioner only cooled it down to 97ºF. So, we spent more time outside the RV, exploring, swimming, and doing other fun activities.
You’ll have no privacy
Our RV has one bathroom, whose door has space above and below. So, you can hear everything. There’s almost no privacy in the bathroom.
If you’re travelling with the kids, you might also not have the space or time for intimacy because there’s no privacy.
The answer: Schedule times that work best for you. You can do it when the kids are sleeping in or doing other activities.
You won’t have time to yourself
You are all living within 300 ft², and you are with each other 24 hours, literally arm-to-arm.
The answer: Go outside. We’re traveling the whole country. We’re near beaches, mountains, lakes, parks, and other beautiful places where we can spend time by ourselves.
Nothing beats some alone time at the beach to collect your thoughts.
Even if you’re a full-time RVer, the RV is only a container to get you around. Your adventures are not about the RV. They’re about getting out there and seeing things. Our best experiences have been outside the RV, meeting people, and seeing how different things are across the country. It’s amazing!
If you have a chance to travel in an RV, whether it’s full time or only once, you’ve got to take it. Life is too short to sit around and have the same day, every day à la Groundhog Day.
As always, we look forward to sharing more of our adventures with you!
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