Sold The RV

After about 18 months of living in a fifth wheel, we are now done with it.  We sold it yesterday to a local buyer and moved into a small, one bedroom apartment.  I think what got this idea going was buying the truck camper.  When you live in a fifth wheel, you are kinda stuck there, on pavement, with no way to escape humanity.  The truck camper allows us to do that.  Go to work for three days, then bail out into the desert in solitude, enjoying sunrises and sunsets we'd never see in an RV park.

Cons of living in an RV:

  1. Most of the RV's people live in are expensive.  If you planned to live in an RV for five years (60 months), then took the purchase of the RV and divided by 60, guarantee it's more expensive than an apartment any way you cut it.  Cash purchase, loan, whatever.
  2. Maintenance.  The day we bought our RV we had a blowout, having been there, done that, I immediately bought four new tires at the cost of over $800.  
  3. Bad in cold weather, this needs no explanation.  
  4. Not fun to tow, more wear and tear on the truck, more maintenance costs, higher fuel costs.
  5. Small.  Ours was about 320 square feet or so.  Fine, but let's face it, tiny.  Even the huge ones are smaller than any studio apartment.
  6. Poor construction.  I don't care how much you spent on your RV, it was poorly built.   Don't kid yourself.  
  7. Finding dry camping spots in a big fifth wheel, if you don't know the area, is kinda hard and not really realistic, so you pretty much always have to be in an RV park.
  8. Wifi is always a struggle.
  9. RV park laundromats are always crowded.
  10. Black tanks were destined to fail.  If you haven't had an epic yet, you will.  
  11. Many RV parks in the southwest are age restricted to 55+ years old.

Pros of living in an RV:
  1. Travel fluidity and flexibility.  For travel nursing, we are kinda committed for three months at a time, unless something goes sour.  So having no lease, and being able to move about without a lease contract is nice.
  2. Home is always home, no matter where you park it.
  3. Living in a tiny house has taught us valuable lessons in how much space you really need, and don't need.  We don't need a 2200sq/ft house, it's a waste.  Most Americans buy too big, it's our culture, and it's a big reason why so many people claim bankruptcy.
  4. It's a better story or theme for a nomadic blog.

Pros of living in an apartment:
  1. The obvious first reason is space.  We now have almost 700 sq/ft of it.  It feels HUGE!
  2. Better insulated for cold or hot weather.
  3. Don't have to level an apartment.
  4. Flush toilets, do I need to get graphic?
  5. Tall ceilings everywhere.
  6. Water pressure.
  7. Internet that works, when Cox gets around to activating it.
  8. No maintenance costs.
  9. Weight rooms on site.
  10. Can't here it raining.
  11. More options for housing than RV parks.
  12. You can't pack-rat too much stuff, like when you live in a bigger house.
Cons of living in an apartment:
  1. Three month leases are more expensive than 12 month leases.
  2. You have to load/unload all your stuff, and be efficient at it.  
  3. We are utilizing inflatable furniture for ease of movement, more on that later.
  4. You will never have a good view from an apartment, in an RV you are more likely too.
  5. Administration fees, background check fees, set up fees.
More on this subject later.  In the meantime, my commute to work involves a half mile walk.  If we lived on the second floor, I could see the hospital I'm working at.  That's nice!


2 comments:

  1. We too decided against the romantic notion of rv living. Hubby is a travel nurse and we take furnished housing, mostly apts. this way we can have grand adventures by day and sleep well at night!

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  2. It was fun while it lasted, and I don't regret it at all. We learned a lot about how much space you really need, which = not that much.

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