Six months and counting - Montana Owners Club

pkbridges77 · 01-17-2016, 08:13 AM

Lord willing, we are six months away from the full-time experience. I need the advice of those who have walked this path before us. Briefly, our plan is to sell the house and bank the proceeds in case we need S&B for any reason. We have the America the Beautiful Pass and have found very inexpensive stays through Recreation.gov. We have joined Thousand Trails hoping that provides some good, inexpensive options (if not then it was a $595 mistake). We will plan on doing some workkamping. Here are some things I would welcome input on:
1. Mail. We don't get hardly anything of value any longer through mail, but sometimes it will be necessary to have a home address. What are the best options?
2. Registration/insurance. Arkansas issues permanent tags for all trailers, so should I even consider changing? And should I look at any insurance changes since we will be living in the Monty?
3. Health insurance. We will buy COBRA for the first year, but is it true that Obama plans are reasonably affordable when your income is greatly reduced?
4. How do you all travel with the frog, the Dish, the lawn chairs, the outdoor fireplace, etc with the limited storage in your Monty's?
5. What other surprises am I in for that I haven't thought about but could be preparing for?
Thanks in advance!

halfwright · 01-17-2016, 09:56 AM

We have our mail delivered to our son and he forwards the important stuff when we stay in a spot long enough.

Join the Elks Moose VFW and Eagles. Many have spots with hookups and almost all will let you overnight in the lot. It is a good way to learn of the local attractions, have a cool beer and a good meal.

Passport America is a good discount camping club. There are some rules that vary from park to
park about number of days--weekends and holidays.

We have the geezers health care and supplemental insurance.

The antenna goes on the couch, the chairs go on a rack on the trailer hitch on the back of the trailer, our frog died a long slow death, and we don't have an outdoor fireplace.

Take half the stuff and twice the money as you think you need.

Do NOT stop and smell the roses. Stop and watch them grow.

REMEMER-- It is not a vacation or a trip. It is a life style.

We have found that volunteering at state or federal parks is much better than working for site at a commercial park. Less pressure and more appreciation. When you are workamping Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff.

We have only been fulltime for 4 years, so there is much we are still learning. I have learned my wife knows everything and she has learned what a calm even tempered person I am.

**DQDick** · 01-17-2016, 10:23 AM

For work camping jobs we use volunteer.gov. You can pull down the state and the organization and see what they are offering and what they want from you. We have worked for COE, Arizona State parks and US Fish and Wildlife. For the last few years it's been Fish and Wildlife exclusively because if you are certified on a piece of equipment with one organization it doesn't transfer to another. We have never taken a job that required us to work more than three days a week and we have never taken a job where our four days off weren't together. We also have never had an issue finding a job and usually have three or four that want us to come or come back.

davidaf · 01-17-2016, 10:36 AM

Buy a low profile tool box for the back of the truck. Best thing I ever did. All my tools and heavy stuff go in there including the campfire in a can. Emptied more than half the basement with that one purchase and it's still half empty.

jcurtis934 · 01-17-2016, 11:14 AM

We use a mail forwarding service so this establishes our state of residence (no state income tax,etc). If you decide to buy a new rv, the only place that does full-time loans is essex credit...which is who good sam uses for its loans. None other that I am aware of that will touch a full-timer. Unless you have a stash of cash, full-timing and staying in lots of different places will get costly. Right now we do florida for 6 months in a park so that we get the break in site leasing. As florida gets oppressing, we head out to spend six months in another part of the country. This was new mexico for four months, then arizona for a month with a slow waltz back to florida after being out of state for six months. 2016 is the pacific northwest for 6 months. 2017 will be maine. john

PackerFan · 01-17-2016, 12:28 PM

We use a UPS Store mail box as our permanent address. They will forward the mail to us anywhere we are by request. Also works as our address for drivers license, residence, etc.

A few suggestions/tips:

You will learn that you don't need all of the crap you have needed in your previous life. We have pared down our necessities a lot and now life is much simpler and less cluttered.

You don't have to carry chairs for all of your visitors, they will bring their own with them.

Slow down and relax!! You don't have to drive 500 miles each day to get somewhere by a certain time. You have all the time you want now so see the sites and enjoy it!

Get to know each other again and have some nice conversations!!

1retired06 · 01-17-2016, 03:38 PM

Talk with your insurance company as coverage is different if living full time in the unit.

**DQDick** · 01-18-2016, 02:02 AM

That's right, you will need full timers insurance and now is the time to look into the insurance thing. Farm Bureau who had my stick house for years would only insure the camper if we had a stick house. The reason you need "full timers" insurance is that your blanket liability insurance was a part of your homeowners insurance so you will need to replace that and full timers insurance should include that. We use these folks :http://www.millerrvinsurance.com/ who started out as an RV insurance only company and now does it all. Before that we used Blue Sky, both were good, but Miller helped us solve some problems we had, not the least of which was getting our rig appraised (we have many expensive mods) so that we could have an agreed on value insured instead of a depreciated value. Our problem was that all the insurance companies we were dealing with wanted to treat the rig like a car and depreciate it. It's our home now and we wanted it replaced if we suffered a complete loss, Miller did that for us so we're happy. What state you license in will also affect the cost of your policy.

JandC · 01-18-2016, 02:37 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by pkbridges77

1. Mail. We don't get hardly anything of value any longer through mail, but sometimes it will be necessary to have a home address. What are the best options?
2. Registration/insurance. Arkansas issues permanent tags for all trailers, so should I even consider changing? And should I look at any insurance changes since we will be living in the Monty?
3. Health insurance. We will buy COBRA for the first year, but is it true that Obama plans are reasonably affordable when your income is greatly reduced?
4. How do you all travel with the frog, the Dish, the lawn chairs, the outdoor fireplace, etc with the limited storage in your Monty's?
5. What other surprises am I in for that I haven't thought about but could be preparing for?
Thanks in advance!

We only stayed full time for 3 years after selling the house, but I will throw in our ideas anyway. Others, like Packerfan who have continued to full time are the real experts.
1) As far as mail service, we were lucky that one of our sons allowed us to use his address as our mailing address. We left him large envelopes and he would forward our stuff every month, which wasn't very much. But you still need a regular physical address for DL's, registrations, health insurance, filing taxes, etc.
2) By keeping son's address, which was same state as our old address, all of our registrations and vehicle insurance stayed about the same.
3) Health Insurance, medicare, ObamaCare, or whatever you are on what state you have as your mailing address can effect certain things reference your health coverage/cost.
4) Storage? This was kind of a "learn as you go" for us. Some stuff we found that we didn't need which made room for other stuff that we decided that we needed more. For us, towing with a SRW F350 is was a constant battle keeping our total combination weight down. In the end I was wishing I had started with a DRW.
5) There were really no surprises for us. We were kind of surprised at the end of the first year how cheaply we had gotten by, but other adjustments were about what we expected.

Full timing was an experience we wouldn't trade for anything. We don't think we would "sell out" again and go on the road full time but we haven't ruled it out either. Good luck with your upcoming adventure!!!!!

pkbridges77 · 01-18-2016, 04:07 AM

This is all great information. Please keep it coming as you all have the experience and we just have the "what-ifs" and "we-thinks". What about Fed-ex/UPS deliveries? Any problems delivering to COE or State Parks? And any trouble with mail forwarding to remote addresses?

halfwright · 01-18-2016, 04:36 AM

We have always had our mail and packages sent to the nearest post office general delivery. UPS and FedEx want the address for the post office included. I have never seen a UPS or FedEx truck in a state park except to deliver to the office. You may be able to make arrangements with them.
But, since the office personnel are not in the business of handling packages and the post office is, we use the post office.

It is so easy to handle almost everything by e-mail. You need to set it up before you start out.

pkbridges77 · 01-18-2016, 07:49 AM

...and Christmas decorations, family pictures and heirlooms, permanent records like income tax documents. I believe we will end up with some kind of storage facility, so that makes some of this a little easier. Interested to know of your experiences. Did you sell out and just replace if you came off the road, find a way to store it, or give it away? Paring down 35 years of living together is easier to talk about than actually doing it.

**DQDick** · 01-18-2016, 10:03 AM

If your working for COE or Fish and Wildlife no problem getting mail there. If your just camping there then you need to use general delivery.

PackerFan · 01-18-2016, 11:46 AM

At first we put all of our furniture and things in a storage shed. Had to have a 10x30 shed but the high rental fees were really starting to add up. We decided to get rid of all of our furniture because we felt it may not be the style we would want if we ever got off the road and into a house again or it may not survive the long term storage.

We have also started to slowly go through everything else in there and get rid of as much as we can so we can reduce to a smaller storage shed that is more affordable. We have found that we really don't need all of the decorations for each holiday as you can only display so much in the Montana.

There are things that we feel we have to keep and can not bare to loose of course, so they will be kept in a smaller shed.

Insurance as stated earlier is a big thing! Do your research well and ask a lot of questions. We went with Blue Sky RV insurance. It covers our vehicles and the Montana. We thought they had good prices. We also picked up the Good Sam Roadside Assistance in case we have an issue along the road. We have used it once so far when our truck broke down on a trip. They were quick to respond and very helpful.

Currently, we are using Obama Care for our health insurance until we qualify for Medicare. We found a very good BC/BS policy for us and it is very reasonable. When wife needed a knee replacement last year it covered just about all of it.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask or PM me!

Sundogette · 01-21-2016, 04:28 AM

Thanks for the great advice...We are in escrow and have moved into our rig. Already sorting thru stuff to offload at the storage before we leave town.Why diff I think I needed that? So happy to be getting back out on the road. Currently enjoying Arizona State and County parks while we wait for COE. Have established a mailbox at a UPS store with mail forwarding services. Still own land in AZ, so this will work fine for now. Pete really ready to hit the road and enjoy some traveling. It's been a long 2 years and too many surgeries. Yahoo!

pkbridges77 · 01-24-2016, 08:04 AM

This is all very helpful. Another question came to mind - for those who use a PO box for your residence, does that also work for voter registration? Have you ever had a need for a physical address?

PackerFan · 01-24-2016, 09:21 AM

In Tennessee a PO Box is acceptable for voter registration. Not sure about other states.

pkbridges77 · 01-24-2016, 11:44 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by halfwright

Do NOT stop and smell the roses. Stop and watch them grow.

Jim, I love this statement and have quoted you many times since you posted it!

mazboy · 01-25-2016, 03:27 AM

i'll first speak on your mail needs, if you will be going around the country, you will still need a 'real' address at some point for your drivers license so if you can't use someones address i'd suggest you go to the mail services, i.e. 'http://www.mydakotaaddress.com/' they will help you in everyway and you only have to go to SD every 5 years. I would look at the various options out their in different states, permanent plates is only one factor. others are medical and rv insurance and sales tax and voting.
another part is, just remember that when you go full time you will NOT be on vacation, watch your money habits. if you move around a lot it will be more expensive than you thought it would be.

and as for medical, remember that some states now offer medicaid to their residences, you may want to consider one of those states. you need to learn about whats out there. 'https://www.healthcare.gov/'

and then there is always work camping experiences out there....good luck

pkbridges77 · 01-25-2016, 02:16 PM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by mazboy

i'll first speak on your mail needs, if you will be going around the country, you will still need a 'real' address at some point for your drivers license so if you can't use someones address i'd suggest you go to the mail services, i.e. 'http://www.mydakotaaddress.com/' they will help you in everyway and you only have to go to SD every 5 years. I would look at the various options out their in different states, permanent plates is only one factor. others are medical and rv insurance and sales tax and voting.
another part is, just remember that when you go full time you will NOT be on vacation, watch your money habits. if you move around a lot it will be more expensive than you thought it would be.

and as for medical, remember that some states now offer medicaid to their residences, you may want to consider one of those states. you need to learn about whats out there. 'https://www.healthcare.gov/'

and then there is always work camping experiences out there....good luck

Eddie, this is really helpful. Thank you!

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