When we first hit the road back in September of 2020, we thought we had it figured out for the most part: the apps, the gear, and a plan to just go where the wind blew us. We wanted to see the world while searching for a new place to call home. But we quickly realized that full-time RVing was much more than that.
There really should be a guidebook of things to do and not to do while living on the road full-time. There’s etiquette to follow, rules to live by, and lessons that no YouTube video or blog could teach you, unfortunately. After four years of full-time RVing, it’s safe to say we’ve learned a thing or two.
Whether you’re a seasoned road warrior or just starting to explore the exciting and adventurous lifestyle of full-time RVing, our goal here is to share the five key lessons we try to share with everyone looking into or living this lifestyle. From packing light and planning to remaining flexible, we want to share our main snippets of advice in hopes of making your full-time adventure a bit smoother and more enjoyable.
Don’t Overpack, but Be Prepared for All Seasons
On our maiden voyage, we left South Florida with a large 5th wheel and more items than we actually needed. Overpacking is a common mistake we hear about, and one we made ourselves. Downsizing from a traditional American lifestyle to a home on wheels was a challenge. We packed too many material things that we thought we needed in order to still live comfortably on the road. We brought along the fancy coffee machine, the ice maker, and anything we felt we couldn’t live without, and the weight added up fast.
Not only did we overpack on appliances, but we stuffed our bedroom cabinets and closet with almost all of the same clothes we originally owned. Of course, we couldn’t bring every single item, but with the variety of clothing, colors, and footwear we brought, anyone could’ve easily assumed we did. Truth be told, we had a ton of clothing for Florida weather, i.e. 85 and sunny almost all year round. We were definitely ready for the single season of summer and maybe late spring. Over the years, as we downsized to a truck camper, our mindset on packing light has changed tremendously, and it’s safe to say that it was a necessary change.
Traveling in a truck camper has taught us many new things about this lifestyle that we didn’t recognize at first. The appliances we once thought brought us comfort ended up just cluttering our space. The massive amount of clothing we initially packed took up too much space. It created confusion about what was appropriate to wear for the weather or event—such a first-world problem, of course, but we found a solution to this.
Less is truly more when it comes to clothing. We decided to purge our wardrobe and invest in quality, multi-purpose clothing that can be layered, keeping us ready for the hottest summers, the coldest winters, and everything in between. Being comfortable is important, but packing light while staying prepared for all seasons and weather conditions is essential.
Master the Art of Flexibility
Route planning and life flexibility is an interesting topic. We were some of the most flexible RVers when we drove headfirst into this lifestyle. We had no plan for today, tomorrow, or the foreseeable future. But this changed tremendously once we realized that our one-year venture to find a new place to call home had turned into a lifestyle with no set end date. We became some of the fastest-moving, strictest planners.
We all have those friends who plan every second of every minute of every hour of every day, and we almost become that. We got hardcore into budgeting to make our now dream lifestyle of full-time RVing last with the jobs we had at the time. We wanted to travel and not miss anything along the path to avoid wasting fuel backtracking. We would sit and plan where we were going and figure out what we were doing along the way. While this was fun, and we did see a lot, it became a very tiring cycle. We find so much value in route planning and budgeting, but it isn’t the end all be all.
Life happens, weather happens, and plans are allowed to change. That’s what makes this lifestyle all that more enjoyable — being in places and scenarios you didn’t plan for. It’s where the beautiful memories and stories are born. We’ve come to realize that we can plan a detailed travel route, but having the ability to stay longer, move faster, or change our route tremendously makes this lifestyle of full-time RVing that much more exciting. Doing this has created space for us to slow down and take in the freedom of this lifestyle and the beauty of the world we’re so grateful to explore. The go-go-go travel plans do work for some, but it’s okay to take your time and get flexible with your plans.
Build a Community on the Road
Full-time RVing has a huge draw due to a rootless lifestyle with the ability to travel more affordably, but being rootless doesn’t always mean you have to lack community or friends on that road. When we first hit the road, we left our community back home. As very social people, we missed that community for a bit until we met other full-timers who shared our love for adventure and this rootless lifestyle. The best piece of advice we have would be to seek community because it makes all of the difference.
Life on the road is that much more fun when you have a community you’re invested in and people to share it with. This doesn’t mean you have to travel with others 24/7, but finding people with similar interests isn’t as hard as it might seem on the road. Full-time RVing or living on the road is a lot more common these days, and there are others just like you — or even us — looking to connect with people. We always like to say, if we made all of the priceless memories together but didn’t form any relationships on the road, then our time on the road would have been useless. This lifestyle allows us to experience nature and culture in the different places we travel. One of the best things about living this untraditional way is the many stories you hear and the things you learn from the people along the way.
The people we meet on the road might have very similar or totally different views on life. Regardless, the ability to bond on the similarities of our lifestyle creates a strong connection — and at a relatively fast pace, actually. These friendships we’ve made on the road have allowed us to connect and create friendships that will last a lifetime, wherever the road takes us. Not only that, but it’s advice like this that we hope you can also learn from and take in from those you meet. Community is important on the road; it can get lonely fast if you let it, but we cherish the times we get to camp and rekindle our friendships with those we’ve met through our travels.
Know Your Rig + Learn DIY Skills
While this is a little bit further down in this blog, this has to be our personal #1 piece of advice we try to share with every single van, truck camper, 5th wheel, and RV owner. This can make or break your experience on the road. We didn’t grow up handy. We didn’t hit the road with a bunch of DIY skills. What we’ve learned about our solar capacities, trucks, and more all came from putting myself out there — hopping on YouTube and different forums approaching each scenario teachable and willing to learn. Since hitting the road, we’ve renovated two campers, converted our 2017 nuCamp Cirrus 820 to a completely electric/solar camper, and replaced many truck parts along the way. This has allowed us to travel more without waiting for dealers to work on our stuff, and it has saved us 10s of thousands of dollars. It’s also taught us that ALMOST anything is possible with patience and a few hours of research, at a minimum.
Will you fail at this lifestyle if you don’t know your rig or you’re not handy? No, not at all, but the experience you have on the road might be a little different than ours. You don’t need to install a solar system or be able to swap out your vehicle’s motor and transmission, but being able to perform routine maintenance on your camper and vehicle is almost essential. This might seem daunting at first, but we promise that in 2024, there will 100% be a video or forum thread with users who can help tremendously. If not, this is another reason why having a community on the road is important — if you can’t do it, most likely someone you meet along the way can and is more than willing to help out.
To make the little DIY projects or maintenance a bit easier, we recommend carrying around spares for things that you think might need fixing along the way. We always carry spare fuses, a tire plug kit, a tire inflator, extra motor oil, and a basic tool kit. We can’t recommend this more to RVers. While we, of course, have a bit more than this to deal with almost anything on the road, these are the items we’d recommend as a minimum.
Embrace Minimalism for a Simpler Life
As mentioned above, having less is really having more. This lifestyle of living with less has lifted the weight of keeping up with everyone else off our shoulders. It really allows you to slow down and focus on the smallest details of each day. You’ll suddenly start to realize the little things that, in a traditional lifestyle, are taken for granted. The shift in worries and stressors goes from ever-lingering thoughts to a mindset of gratefulness and appreciation.
It sounds cliche, but minimalism is a simple life that can bring so much joy. We can’t even imagine what living a “normal” life would look like for us now. We strongly urge anyone looking into or living the full-time RV lifestyle to let go of consuming and really appreciate the few things you have. When you start living this way, you exchange wanting things that bring little to no joy for experiences and moments that you can only capture by being at the right place at the right time. This might be hard to understand until you experience a few of those “unicorn” moments, but once you do, you’ll crave them naturally over anything money can buy.
A good thing we’ve heard many, many times is that you can buy all the things and still feel empty. You can own all of the material items you once wished for and have all of the money in the world, but when your time is finished here, you don’t get to bring them with you. When you live with this mindset, you realize many of the things you don’t bring along on this minimalist journey don’t actually matter as much as you once thought. We truly find ourselves the most joyful when we’re outdoors with a camera, just taking in our environment.
The Key Takeaway
While we can do our best to explain the Top Five Things we’ve learned from life on the road, it may not directly correlate to your experience with your own full-time RVing adventure. Each RVer has their own sacrifices they’re willing to make and lessons they need or want to learn. We can say with confidence that while we have these five key pieces of advice, there are more that follow — and even some we probably have yet to learn.
We are seasoned RVers and find that these are our main takeaways from living on the road full-time. Even with these, within our style of RVing, which is primarily off-grid boondocking, there are five main takeaways that differentiate these. We hope that through our experience, we have been able to guide or help you in your current or upcoming journey. If you have any further questions or are seeking advice, you can find us on all social platforms @OurFulltimeAdventure, and we’d be glad to do our best to help! Until next time, HAPPY TRAVELS!
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