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How many people live full-time in an RV?


Michelle K

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3 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

Can you provide links to the lawsuits

At one time I did have links to several related stories and case files but with that now almost 15 years in history, I didn't find much in my searching other than what you found. To the best of my memory, the appeal to the TX Supreme Court was rejected by the court, upholding the lower court's ruling, but I can't document that and my memory isn't guaranteed accurate. If it is important, you can probably get more information by contacting the office directly. Having gone fulltime in 2000 during that court fight, it was something that we followed it very closely. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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That is if all 25,000 folks voted. We only vote in the US Rep and US Senatorand the Presidential election. Polk County sure doesn't seem to have problem with it. I'm sure they like the fees they collect and really don't have to provide services for all the folks that are on the road.

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Michelle, as you can gather, we really don't know how many of us there are but we can tell you that there are a lot of us and that the number is increasing. Judging from the photo in your avatar, I'd guess that you are one of our younger folks and not yet retired. While the majority of our group have been retired folks for some years the number who travel while still working is growing and the same is true of families. Escapees club began as a group of construction workers on the road and slowly became mostly retired folks but the share of members who work on the road is now increasing. We have watched the number of children at our annual Escapades increase each year over the past 5 years from fewer than a dozen to currently nearing 100 children in attendance. Escapades now have a children's area each year and a co-op group to lead activities for them so that parents can do adult things while the kids enjoy their time also. We also make provision for younger folks to park together if they wish for more campground social activities. I expect that we will see this trend to continue into the future and I hope to see you at the next Escapade in MO next spring! 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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This is our third year living in our RV full time...we didn't exactly plan it that way but everything fell just right for us to start our "full time" experience a little earlier than expected.

We knew we were going to go full time when we retired but the more we thought about it and added up the pluses and minus of the lifestyle versus the sticks and bricks version it was a no brainer for us...we both still love our jobs so we want to work a couple more years and now we can use the three months off(and holidays) to travel.

We found a very affordable, small (10 spots) RV park that is very quiet and very safe that is about 5 miles from school that we call our home base. It is cheap enough that we keep it even when we are gone for extended periods of time so we don't have to worry about finding another place when we return...all in all, it works for us!!  




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On 8/25/2017 at 5:58 PM, chirakawa said:

I don't see what's so complicated.  If you stay in an rv sometimes, you're an rv'er.  If your rv is your primary abode, you're a full time rv'er.  That doesn't mean you're a traveling rv'er, a recreational rv'er, a retired rv'er, or a "living the dream" rv'er, it just means you're an rv'er.

I would say "only" abode, otherwise I agree.

 

2000 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom USQ40JD, ISC 8.3 Cummins 350, Spartan MM Chassis. USA IN 1SG retired;Good Sam Life member,FMCA ." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.  John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961

 

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8 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

I would say "only" abode, otherwise I agree.

I'm not sure if it was on this RV forum, but I once saw a thread on the subject of what defines a "fulltimer" and who qualifies to claim to be one, and one participant stated that they are "part-time fulltimers." Since the term isn't in any dictionary that I have ever found, it seems that anyone who believes that they are fulltimers, probably are. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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My take is if when you say "home" you always mean your RV, then you're a fulltimer. Owning a house, or as in our case, a small cottage, doesn't change that. When we're visiting someone and say we're "going home", it means we're going back to our RV, even if it happens to be parked next to the cottage at the time. I know others may not agree with that, and that's ok too...

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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On 9/1/2017 at 7:25 AM, Kirk Wood said:

I'm not sure if it was on this RV forum, but I once saw a thread on the subject of what defines a "fulltimer" and who qualifies to claim to be one, and one participant stated that they are "part-time fulltimers." Since the term isn't in any dictionary that I have ever found, it seems that anyone who believes that they are fulltimers, probably are. 

That's like saying sorta pregnant. :unsure:   :lol:

 

2000 Winnebago Ultimate Freedom USQ40JD, ISC 8.3 Cummins 350, Spartan MM Chassis. USA IN 1SG retired;Good Sam Life member,FMCA ." And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.  John F. Kennedy 20 Jan 1961

 

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I started a post kind of about this, and my take is that if you have a house to go home to, and do so regularly, then you aren't a full timer. Once I sell here, I will have no place to go but the RV.  With that logic, I also consider people who live in an RV that stays in an RV park full time are also full timers. The basis of this thread though asks a question that I don't think anybody can really answer. You can get into technicalities as far as "do you have a permanent address" and then you get into people who have a bogus address somewhere for mail. I will have an address in Columbus Ohio that I will never see that is just to keep my feet in Ohio. So you could make the case that I am NOT a full timer because I have a permanent address. (And I have not yet started using my RV, so right now I am a NO time RVer...) It's really kind of moot anyway, isn't it? I think the OP was asking to try and gauge the issue competing for space. When RV parks have 4-6 year waiting lists, there needs to be more RV parks to accommodate the popularity of RVing.

Similar in concept to a specific place in Cleveland where I can be stopped at a light and see two McDonald's franchises. One was so busy, they opened a second 1.4 miles away. I believe, just from reading, that if 20 more big parks opened in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, they would be full up all winter. That's roughly 4000 more spaces, and they'd fill up quickly. There are THAT many full timers out there.

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In some areas, it can take a couple of years or more to build a new RV park of any size with attractive amenities. Jumping the regulatory hurdles to even get started can take a year or so, before any ground is even broken. And of course there's the initial costs and on going investment expenses/financing to be managed. One park I'm familiar with opened a couple of years ago, and the initial construction budget of $40,000 per site ended up closer to $50,000. Multiply that by their 180 sites to get a feel for the money involved...

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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The trend isn't the same everywhere. A big concern in South Texas is the downward trend in the number of "Winter Texans". In 2009 - 2010 the number was estimated at 144,000. In 2013 - 2014 the estimate was 100,000.

http://riograndeguardian.com/report-big-drop-in-number-of-winter-texans-visiting-rio-grande-valley/

The article cited above discusses this in some detail, including several possible reasons for the decline.

During the same period of time there was a significant increase in the number of parks going in up the coast in the Rockport-Fulton area. But that area just got hammered by Hurricane Harvey so who knows what the impact will be there. 

The RV park business is like most others. Supply and demand ebbs and flows. Desirable areas and amenities change. Putting in an RV park is a significant investment, and regulations in some areas can make it difficult or impossibly expensive to do so. As we've traveled down from Washington's Olympic Peninsula back toward Texas we've stayed in a wide variety of parks, Some are full and doing well, but many were near empty and struggling. Tough business in my eyes...

Mark & Teri

2021 Grand Designs Imagine 2500RL, 2019 Ford F-350

Mark & Teri's Travels

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4 hours ago, mptjelgin said:

Some are full and doing well, but many were near empty and struggling. Tough business in my eyes...

That is at the core of the full time vs part time debate (if it is really a debate). The camps are full in summer when kids are out of school, parents are off work for a week or three, and families go on vacation. Then they go back home and the next wave of vacationers comes in. Until September when the kids go back to school.

I am not out there yet to see it, but I find it hard to believe that parks are struggling with all the full timers out there, unless those full timers boondock and use the Walmarts of the country for stopping points more than parks. At that point they need to reconsider their rates so they are more attractive. I will probably be working on a ratio of 4 weeks in a park followed by 4-6 weeks out on the road and then back. I will probably initially spend 6 months just roaming wherever the wind takes me to see if the new wears off and I want to settle down again, though the idea here is to NOT be tied down to a house. After 66+ years plus of being a homebody I may or may not take to the vagabond thing very well. We'll see.The more I read, it looks like a co-op scenario may fit me best, as I can rent out my space when I am not there if there are takers. I would probably want to be in higher elevations in the hot months anyway. (I think I read that putting your spot into a rental pool for 120 days a year lowers the monthly maintenance fee. I'd probably be more in the 150 range anyway.) One of the SKP places web page said the current waiting list is about 8 years to buy a deeded lot. Well, that takes me close to 75, so maybe that's not the one for me.... :D

Finding a bank to give me a loan to buy it is another post, as I don't foresee making money when I sell my house. Not in this neighborhood and not in this market.

As far as the reference to Texas, after this last catastrophic event, I think maybe I'll look more toward central and west Texas.... I can't imagine the agony those people experienced. I am not usually a donating kind of person on my fixed income, but the animal rescue that was helping with the horses and dogs got a little bit of my money. 

I remember when Charlie went through western Florida. I ALMOST moved to Clearwater just before that happened, and the damage path would have hit the very apartment complex I was going to rent. I remember imagining a scenario where I would be sitting on a roof with my dog, and the helicopter telling me I couldn't bring my dog. I would tell them "Just go on to the next roof then. She wouldn't leave me here to die alone. I'm not going to do that to her. We'll get through this, thank you." And then I started hitting up all my friends to match the $50 I donated to the rescue cause down there. Raised $3000!!

So here's to the RV park industry. May they flourish so we can all find a place to buy into!!

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5 hours ago, eddie1261 said:

That is at the core of the full time vs part time debate

I highly suspect that the snowbird customer base is at least half of it part-time RV folks. The Snowbird park customers that I know are a bit more than 2/3 of them part time.  

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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