ARE THERE ANY RVers WHO ARE PREPPERS ?

[cyn cyn]

Hi to Everyone !

My husband and I are brand new to RVing and hope to take our first trip when he retires in 2 weeks.

HOT DOG !!!

I consider myself to be a PREPPER and feel somewhat insecure leaving behind all of my preps.

Are there any other preppers out there and please share your advice about how to be prepared for

emergencies while on the road.

I hope there is a special forum for us PREPPERS. There is so much to learn and share.

Thanks,

Cyn Cyn (Cynthia )

[DuneElliot]

I'm in a similar boat but when I move into my RV next year I will have to sacrifice a lot of space. I travel for weeks at a time in my truck and don't feel insecure about leaving behind all my "stuff" because I always have a plan in the back of my head. Most events aren't going to be the kind of thing that is national or global and anything local, with and RV means you can pack up and leave quickly.

 

Just have a plan in your mind. Keep a couple of extra cans of fuel on hand, install a solar system, keep your water tanks topped up and as always, keep enough food in the RV to get you home or to last a week or two.

 

I'd like to find a safe place with friends I can store my supplies but not sure how feasible it is.

 

Head over to survivalistboards.com There are a couple of guys over there that prep and live or have lived in an RV full-time that could offer some advice.

[sandsys]

I considered my RV to be my evacuation vehicle but still kept a bug out bag near the door of it in case I had to leave the RV. I didn't have extra cans of fuel but did have solar panels and I did keep my fuel tank topped up and my fresh water tank nearly full.

 

Here's one of the posts about prepping done by my favorite van dweller Bob Wells: http://www.cheaprvliving.com/blog/poverty-prepping-vandwellers-introduction-food-storage/

 

Now that we are living in an apartment I still have two bug out bags packed and ready to go. The one that carries food has three days worth of jerky, granola bars, fruit/nut bars, and Pringles--all foods that are ready to eat. I don't yet have enough water in that bag but I do have a LifeStraw so I can safely drink whatever water I find. And I have buckets of freeze dried food in the apartment in case we can hunker down here.

 

You may not be able to store a year's worth of food/water/other in your RV but you can get in more than you might think. Like my backpack-style suitcase so I could quickly stuff it full of clothes and toiletries I was otherwise using regularly.

 

Linda Sand

[2gypsies]

We never felt the need to plan in such detail such as extra fuel or a lot of extra food. We usually carried one gallon of water but never had to use it as in an emergency.

 

For emergencies I would recommend you have a good roadside assistance policy for your vehicles and carrying any special medical papers, prescriptions and go over your medical policy if you aren't on Medicare as of yet. Some policies will not cover you as you travel although probably will for real emergencies.

 

We also kept in the glove compartment of the car a paper that we continuously updated with our travel plans - roughly, if you don't know exactly where you're staying - just a general route. On it we also listed who to call in an emergency. If we knew where we'd be staying we'd add that with a statement like "our motorhome is parked at........". In 16 years of full-timing we never had any kind of emergency we couldn't deal with easily. Don't get all bent out of shape trying to cover everything. Enjoy the trip!!!

[Kirk W]

First of all, welcome to the Escapee forums! We are happy to have you join us and we will do our best to assist you and offer support or whatever you need. I gather that you have just purchased your first RV so feel free to ask for help or advice anytime and about amything With the wide range of experienced RV folks here, there will nearly always be someone who had dealt with most problems.

I consider myself to be a PREPPER and feel somewhat insecure leaving behind all of my preps.

Are there any other preppers out there and please share your advice about how to be prepared for

emergencies while on the road.

I'm not familiar with the term PREPPER but I gather that you mean being prepared for most anything? I just did a Google search on the term and I find that there is a pretty lengthy list of sites related to this. I'm not sure of the extent to which you take this effort but living in an RV does limit the amount of equipment and supplies that can be carried with you, but it also means that you can very easily move your entire home to different locations in the event of some disaster or threat. I would assume that you are not to the extent of the survivalist movement, but if so the moving about with firearms can create some additional issues.

 

Much of the limitation of such preparations is based upon the safe weight carrying capacity of the RV you travel in. But the mobility of RV living also makes some things much more feasible.

 

Even if you do not find a lot of knowledge of that particular subject, there is still a large amount of information on these forums that will apply to your future travels and new ideas and viewpoints are always welcomed and encouraged.

[Shadow Catcher]

I have long felt that other than natural disasters it is kind of pointless, with out the heart meds etc. I am dead. And if it is really bad I don't know that I would want to survive.

Having said that our teardrop is set up for very serious boondocking, solar, water pump and water filters so that I can pull water from a lake of stream and make it potable.

[Yarome]

I don't know that I would refer to myself as a prepper, but some have called me that before. For me it's more about not having limitations in my day-to-day. I won't go into much detail, but just with regard to storage, I do have a few storage closets around different parts of the county. Getting in to some of the smaller communities it's quite economical to negotiate a year prepaid that won't hurt your wallet too much. In the "prepper" sense... I generally look for storage closets that are outdoor accessible as opposed to those inside an enclosed building that requires an additional access code or such to enter. In an emergency the only thing standing between me and my "stuffs" is my own lock.

 

I do also use some natural caches on public lands. That's probably not a normal practice much any more, but being continuously mobile you have to be adaptable. It also has an element of risk of loss and an even greater personal responsibility to not impact the environment.

 

I'm not really aware of any online resources dedicated to mobile preppers, but then again.. most folks I know of that are "more self-reliant RV'rs" tend to be fairly tight lipped and don't share much in public forums. This particular site is a wealth of information though that would still apply to a "prepper" when it comes to solar, water purification/collection/storage, resource conservation, DIY projects/mods/repairs, etc.

 

You might take a look at the "boondocking" section as a lot of the same issues for boondocking can be applicable to preppers.. or feel free to just post a new question to the forum for specific responses to your concerns/interests.

[Jack Mayer]

I'm definitely not a prepper, but I do have some items that most would not.....the goal being to be somewhat self sufficient for a month.

 

So, for example, I have an extra month of meds, food for a month for both of us, We can make our own water (we have lifestraws and a water system that can process almost any water source). And we have means to defend ourselves.

[coachmac9]

I think full timers are, to a certain extent, "preppers" even if they don't know the term exists!! Most, like Jack and Yarome have stated have provisions to exist when conditions are bad...solar systems, water purification systems and means of self defense are the backbone of most "preppers" first lines of surviving a major catastrophe. I used to be a prepper but have since moved to a more moderate position in that if something terrible happens, yes, I want to be able to survive for a couple of months on what we have on hand and what I can harvest and cook but if it is a major catastrophe (man made or natural happening) I'm not sure I want to survive very long anyway!!!

[richfaa]

1. We have things like a severe weather kit in case we have to leave the RV. The Rv itself is mobile and can escape disasters.. maybe. In Armageddon type event how can one survive the end of times. To be honest we do not worry about it. I guess we are not" preppers" but are pretty much like Jack Mayer.

[SeekingMySerenity]

My partner and I would be akin to prudent squirrels making certain there are sufficient supplies of the right things to keep things comfortable during tight times. We are not yet mobile squirrels, but we do prep for tight budgets, take advantage of food sales, and being more knowledgeable about how to do things without technology.

 

We would be more a stay put to weather the storm kind of people at this time. That being said, it is a recognized challenge to travel light and mobile versus staying put.

[ronmon]

To my way of thinking bring an RV'er basically means that you are a prepper. While you can't

anticipate all things that will come up, you have to be prepared or at least react to just about anything and ready to deal with whatever it is. Don't obsess over what might come up, just know that you'll have challenges to overcome & you'l do a great job dealing with em.

 

In our 11 years of f/t ing I was hospitalized 7 times, rolled our first fiver, blew the engine in our truck - my wife was in the ER 3 times. We also visited 35 states including Alaska.

 

Looking back, the memories are basically all of the camaraderie, places we saw and things we did. The bad stuff fades away. Like Forrest Gump said, "Sh--Happens"

 

Ron

[Zulu]

I'm not familiar with the term PREPPER but I gather that you mean being prepared for most anything?

 

Much of the limitation of such preparations is based upon the safe weight carrying capacity of the RV you travel in. But the mobility of RV living also makes some things much more feasible.

 

An RV served these folks pretty well . . .

 

[ronmon]

Oops - my mistake!