RV living

When, And it will break down, you'll be without a home, transportation, personal belongings etc. Water lines will freeze unless you plan on buying a top of the line RV with the skirting, heated compartments, etc. But the unit has to be running or plugged in to be protected. BAD IDEA
 
When, And it will break down, you'll be without a home, transportation, personal belongings etc. Water lines will freeze unless you plan on buying a top of the line RV with the skirting, heated compartments, etc. But the unit has to be running or plugged in to be protected. BAD IDEA
 
Agree with others about winters. And it breaking down, which if it is your primary transportation mode, is going to be a problem. RVs to me are just boats that go faster and don't rock on the waves. They do need to be winterized as they don't really have the proper insulation, and if you do insulate (there are people who live in marinas year round who put up board insulation on the insides of the boats, etc), you usually get condensation issues. For water, RVs have tanks, or if you are at a campground, you bypass the tank from the running water hookup. So even if you don't use the tanks, there is water in the lines. If it freezes, then it breaks, and floods your RV. So during < 32 deg times, you either need bottled water, or really winterize the RV. Same with waste, which is stored in a holding tank. If it is a big unit, then driving it around as your primary vehicle is not practical. If you want to run out for anything, food, movies, meet people, this becomes a hassle. As others have said, having truck to pull it, and then leaving it is a better idea. If you are up for modified living in your RV, find a Planet Fitness, so for $10 a month you have use of any planet fitness's showers and gym. In the winter, don't fill your tanks, use bottled water or just drink beer. Use paper plates.

Your idea is great if you lived in FL, CA, TX, etc. Which always has me wondering, if you are homeless, why the eff would you ever live in a cold clime?
 
Lots of people doing this out in San Francisco. You find RVs parked in odd places - under freeway overpasses in industrial areas, etc.

The temperature around here would seem to be a pretty big barrier to entry though.
 
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Hat tip: Instapundit reader Kam Fong as Chin Ho
 
🤣 Trailer camp tramp. Are those an actual thing? Lol

Forgot I started this thread. As someone posted, enough holes were poked in the idea that I figured rv living isn't for me. Seemed doable until you looked at all the little details.

Appreciate all the replies
 
🤣 Trailer camp tramp. Are those an actual thing? Lol

Forgot I started this thread. As someone posted, enough holes were poked in the idea that I figured rv living isn't for me. Seemed doable until you looked at all the little details.

Appreciate all the replies
It's completely doable depending on what you want to do and can afford. We are going mobile next year but 100% off grid so we don't have to pay fees to park.
 
🤣 Trailer camp tramp. Are those an actual thing? Lol

Forgot I started this thread. As someone posted, enough holes were poked in the idea that I figured rv living isn't for me. Seemed doable until you looked at all the little details.

Appreciate all the replies

I'm just coming across this now. I actually think it's not a bad idea... except that I wouldn't want my boss to also be my landlord.

Some friends of mine bought a chunk of land about midway up VT and lived in an RV there for a few years while they built their house. It was very convenient.
 
I'm just coming across this now. I actually think it's not a bad idea... except that I wouldn't want my boss to also be my landlord.

Some friends of mine bought a chunk of land about midway up VT and lived in an RV there for a few years while they built their house. It was very convenient.
if i were to do it as a dyi, i would set up a two car garage, insulated, electricity, with a bathroom, running water and a wood stove. I would live in that while i built the real house at a leisurely pace.
 
If proximity to Boston needs to be part of the deal, why not get your big piece of land in NH with whatever you need, and get a crash pad studio apartment in Boston?
 
It might be fine in a warmer climate but northern NH, I'd build a three room cabin before living in an RV.
Anything preventing you from moving south?
It's very cramped quarters, especially the bathrooms.
Some people around here do it on a temporary basis while building a house but on a permanent basis it might not be too comfortable.
Little to no storage
Not very secure

That's why the are called Recreational Vehicles.
 
A travel trailer may be more pleasant than an RV. You can buy old ones cheap, should be good enough to leave stationary and live in assuming the equipment still works and it hasn't rotted out.
 
if i were to do it as a dyi, i would set up a two car garage, insulated, electricity, with a bathroom, running water and a wood stove. I would live in that while i built the real house at a leisurely pace.
If you are building a two car garage. Might as well make it a little bigger and just build one big open space house. You can slowly build walls inside for the bedrooms.

You would spend less money building it that way. It would be easier to heat. You can eventually tear down walls and re-arange the indoor living area, or cut a door and add rooms outside. You would have a lot more open space. A 1200 sqft open place will look bigger than a 2 floor 3K sqft home.

I just like open space. Like a loft apartment, but bigger and with walls for the room.
 
If you are building a two car garage. Might as well make it a little bigger and just build one big open space house. You can slowly build walls inside for the bedrooms.

You would spend less money building it that way. It would be easier to heat. You can eventually tear down walls and re-arange the indoor living area, or cut a door and add rooms outside. You would have a lot more open space. A 1200 sqft open place will look bigger than a 2 floor 3K sqft home.

I just like open space. Like a loft apartment, but bigger and with walls for the room.
i was thinking of just throwing up something fast, not too big so it is not a heating nightmare, and enough to limp along in for two or three years.
Once you have electricity, water, and a septic tank, you can hunker down for quite some time.

IF you try to make it bigger, with some actual living space at the start, you will run afoul of the building codes, that require firewalls and doors between a garage and living space.
 
I'm trying to picture repeatedly digging out an RV during a winter where we get about 100" of snow like we did in 2010 and 2015.
Egads, after a big dump the big problem could be getting outside, period.

In the Winter filling you water tanks with vodka is a good idea too.
To prevent freezing.
That is thinking outside the box.
BLACK BOX VODKA 1.75.jpg

More serious note, what differentiates a "mobile home" from an RV such as AHM depicts (apart from the lady of the.... home...)?

Thicker walls? Better insulation?
What you are getting at is probably implied by the following factoids:

Mobile homes are intended to be transported 1.epsilon times
from factory to the home site by a giant tractor trailer hauler thingy.
I get the impression that it's much more likely for people to sell them on-site
to new owners and move out,
than it is for people to move them to a new site,
and it's not just because some mobile home parks own the units
and rent them units to tenants,
as opposed to just renting the land to owner-occupied homes.

I don't know if any mobile homes exist which are small enough
to be transported over normal roads with no escorts, etc,
even if they happen to be owned by some dude who drives Truckasaurus.

I have to wonder whether all mobile home parks are laid out
such that there's road clearance to remove (or add) a random mobile home.
Some are so cheek'n'jowl that even if you replaced the rotted tires
(after you bolted the axles back on?) and fixed the corroded running lights,
you might not have the clearance to yank it out.
(Imagine the fun of towing a dead car out of a full parking garage.
@Zappa must know how to do it, but it must be harder than roadside).

RVs are designed to move as frequently as daily
from campground to campground when on vacation.
(Or as often as you need to drive to amusement or shopping,
if it's a motorhome or minihome
or truck camper that you haven't undocked).
The larger they get,
the more likely that someone is living in them full-time
either during retirement, or because of expediency or poverty.

I don't know about nowadays, but Back In The Day
it was quite common (the norm?) for an RV to not have protective
insulation on the bottom which enabled the plumbing
to be used in below-freezing weather.
So one couldn't use the average RV for a ski weekend,
even if the interior was snug as a bug in a rug.
Some RV models are four-season, and even were then.
But they used to be the exception.

A travel trailer may be more pleasant than an RV.
Your distinction escapes me - all (travel) trailers are recreational vehicles.
But can't say there isn't a domain where "RV" means something else.
 
I don't want to hear one word about this.
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Creative!

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More serious note, what differentiates a "mobile home" from an RV such as AHM depicts (apart from the lady of the.... home...)?

Thicker walls? Better insulation?
A "mobile home" like you see in a "mobile home park?" Those can be financed with a mortgage. Higher rate than a house but still a mortgage. Also, they aren't truly mobile as they need a vehicle to move them and they don't have their own wheels from what I have seen. No axle. An RV usually has an engine. Then there are travel trailers (which you tow) or 5th wheels - also tow. RV's come in different "classes." Class A is like the RV in the movie RV with Robin Williams. Or what used to be used by music groups on tour. (do they still use them???) Class B is basically a conversion van and Class C look like a classier version of a moving truck. And yeah, there are some really nice ones in all those. Also, the electrical systems are different. RVs have either a 30amp or 50 amp service. Mobile homes have "regular electrical" and need to be connected to public/private utilities (electric, water, sewer/septic). Rvs are not designed to be lived in full time, especially while "on the move." They are very cheaply made. 2x2 construction, 24" on center, and a thin layer of veneer GLUED on for interior and exterior walls (and then lamination on the outside).
 
if i were to do it as a dyi, i would set up a two car garage, insulated, electricity, with a bathroom, running water and a wood stove. I would live in that while i built the real house at a leisurely pace.

Also known as a carriage house. If you wish to avoid massive insurance ipcharges and issues with local special masters.

Carriage. House.
Two words.

Special.
 
if i were to do it as a dyi, i would set up a two car garage, insulated, electricity, with a bathroom, running water and a wood stove. I would live in that while i built the real house at a leisurely pace.

Also known as a carriage house. If you wish to avoid massive insurance ipcharges and issues with local special masters.

Carriage. House.
Two words.

Special.

Solid fuel burning appliances (wood stoves / pellet stoves) are generally prohibited in garages. That might/might not apply to legal living spaces above the garage.
 
Solid fuel burning appliances (wood stoves / pellet stoves) are generally prohibited in garages. That might/might not apply to legal living spaces above the garage.
indeed they are.
that is because gas vapors hug the floor, and if there is gas leaking out of a car's fuel line onto the floor, and there is also a wood burning stove on the floor....boom.

but you will not be parking the car in that garage when temporarily living there.
not sure of the modern codes, but you used to be able to build a concrete berm around the combustion device to protect it.
 
indeed they are.
that is because gas vapors hug the floor, and if there is gas leaking out of a car's fuel line onto the floor, and there is also a wood burning stove on the floor....boom.

but you will not be parking the car in that garage when temporarily living there.
not sure of the modern codes, but you used to be able to build a concrete berm around the combustion device to protect it.

There probably are ways to manage it "by the book" or just do what everybody does and do it anyway [laugh]

Still, while you're living "in" the garage, you'll probably keep the car outside for the extra living space.
 
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