New guy: going FT next year...so much to learn...

Thanks Larry, FastEagle,
Appreciate the feed back and links. Yep; definitely going to go for a good used MH. Will have to research and weigh the pros and cons of diesel vs gas. Can't believe how much diesel has gone up. Hurting a lot of good people out there.
Wife is doing a lot of research herself now so it will be interesting to see what she finds as well. Beautiful day here in Lemont, IL....and I'm stuck in a cubicle behind a keyboard. Will be nice to get out on the road and enjoy the view (and the company). I'm sure my brothers and sisters will all think I went over the deep end! LOL.
Thanks again. Will keep you informed as to our progress and start keeping a journal for other wanna bees to help them along as well. Mikey D

Mike,
Go for a the used DP, Diesel fuel may cost a bit more, but you will get almost twice the mileage. I have a '96 National, with a Cummings diesel and get about 12 mpg while towing. My old (but newer, as in 1999) Class C would only get about 7 mpg without a tow vehicle and about 6 mpg towing.
Plus you will want the extra room for the pets and storage. Diesels usually have more ammenities built into them that the gassers don't.
Your jeep should be fine flat towing, check the owners book it will tell you how to do it as far as putting it into or out of 2 & 4WD, and neutral, etc. Most all 4WD's can be flat towed.
When we went full time we sold or gave away a lot of stuff, but we did keep about 30 or 40 large plastic tubs of our keepables. We catagorized the contents and labled the tubs and keep the info on a spreadsheet on the PC for when we want something.
Our stick house is in the country in southside VA and we have rented it out, and the renters have been excellent. They pay us to maintain the house and property. I keep the rent low, so they have good incentive to keep the place up.
We opted to keep the house and property so we would have something to fall back on when we could not travel any more.
Hope this helps. You are about to make a major lifestyle change, and if you both are NOT happy doing it, then there could be problems, but as you mentioned that you both are looking forward to it, you should be in for a great experience.
Your finances should be adequate if what you said was left over dollars, after your basic needs are met.
Hope to see you around.
Frank

Hi all! FANTASTIC site! I must have read every single post over the last 2 weeks. Planning on taking the plunge in the fall of 09. Kind of scarydiff?)

Mike> Daunting task. Overwhelming amount of pre-planning and research. When I say that it could all fill up a book, I’m not kidding. There are books out there on the subject.

I can pass along some tips, but it would be too long to post here. Click on my website name and get the email address. Send me an email and I'll reply to it.

Rich

Just noticed something I said in my first post. "I'm a retired SeaBee E8". I only did that out of habit when writing on a site with mixed branches of service. BUCS would have some scratching their heads. But, just so there's never any questions or doubt about it going forward, I'm a proud and honored Senior Chief Petty Officer....tried, tested and initiated. (In the Navy, you can refuse initiation, but forever on end you will be addressed not as Chief, but as E7...at least it was in my days.) LOL Thanks all for your input and support. We really appreciate it. Mikey D

Take with a grain of salt what you may hear about all the different coaches and what kind of mileage you'll be getting. We are on our third Class A coach since 1997. We started with a used 34ft Georgia Boy on a Chevy frame. It got 4mpg. In '01 we traded for a new 34ft Monaco LaPalma, two slides, with a Ford V10. It got around 7.5mpg. In Oct '06 we traded for a new 36ft Monaco Cayman, four slides, with a 325HP Cummins pusher. We are currently getting 9.5 to 10.0mpg, with or without the Chevy HHR toad. After going diesel I'd never go back to gas.

Right now it is a buyers market. There are a hugh number of 2 to 4 year old coaches for sale out there at unbelievable prices. The price of fuel has scared a bunch of folks off. That, coupled with the number of RV manufacturers that are going under, now is the time to buy. (Just recently National, Travel Supreme and Alfa, just to name a few, have closed there doors.) That is also another thing to look at. If the coach you are wanting to buy is a brand that is no longer being made can you get repair parts for it? Most stuff in the coach, reffer, microwave, etc, are pretty gereric to all brands.

We are not full-timers but are "mostly timers". We still have a stick house here in Oklahoma but spend about nine months on the road most years.

Go Navy!

If I may add, a women's point of view, about fulltiming. We have been fulltiming for 6 years. We have had to come off the road twice. We stayed at Ft Meade, when my mother became ill. We also had to stay at Ft Meade, when my husband had to come off the road for the Army Reserves.

Now, I would never travel without my washer and dryer. Told my DH, I had to use laundry mats when we were first married, so after 34, now 40, years of marriage, I would travel the ends of the earth with him, but with a W/D. Please keep in mind what your wife likes, and what she may need room for. Does she have hobbies, does she like to cook? I do watercolor painting and my husband has given me the under the bed space for anything I want to put there. Once it filled up, he would remind me, something in, something out. I can't begin to tell you how many times I have heard that. We have a 37 ft, used motorhome, which is perfect for us and our "stuff"

We gave most of out things to our children, but there were the things I could not give up. My daughter is storing them for us. Storage units are sometimes not worth The money, compared to the worth of what they are storing.

We have had some wonderful times, and I would not trade them for all the money in the world. We have meant some wonderful people, and we even keep in touch with some of them.

Now for the gas prices. Yes, I am concerned. I just hope we can continue our lifestyle, that we have grown to love.

Wishing you the best in all your decisions. You will love the pace, of life on the road. We look at each day as an adventure.