BCM Community

We are in our 9th year so far.

we are in out fifth year, with two little girls and an ankle biter.

In our 4th bus since 86..gg04

One year in, family of 4. Love it.
Craig

Just celebrated 1 year a few weeks ago.  Fulltiming has been the best thing that's happened to us!! 😃


Sent from iPhone via Tapatalk

I assume I meet the criteria for a full timer. I have been spending 8 to 10 months a year in my bus conversions (on my second one now) since 2006. The other 2 to 4 months a year I am stay with one of my kids or in timeshare condos.

We started last year January 2011 and lived in our Bus February 2012. Then the Wife broke her ankle and can't make it up the stairs and was in a wheel chair for 7 months. She is getting better and can almost walk again. So I am taking the time to fix things (Air system etc.) on the bus plus working on the ranch we live at for now. We expect to go back on the road within the next year sometime. We really miss living in our Bus.

Dave5Cs ;D :) :D

Just over 6 years for us... and just over 1 year as full timing in a bus!  Loving it more and more every day.  We work remotely doing software development and technical consulting.

- Cherie

We are in our 12th year this time around. Can't imagine any other lifestyle, Will and Wife :)

3 1/2 years and counting!  8)

It's been great so far but Becky would sure like a bathtub! ::)

We have been full time nomads since July of '06 using many different forms of transport. Foot, bike, van and now bus. Our 4106 has been with us since '09, considered selling it, glad we kept it. We just got back from a 6 week walking trip and it feels like a palace!

Cheers

TM

We've been fulltime nomads since 2007 and long termers for a long time before that.  Now we alternate between the bus and the boat but still spend more time in the bus than we do on the boat.  Over time that will likely shift in favour of the boat but for now we're still more land based than sea based.  We've found that there's a great deal of crossover between the 2 lifestyles.  A lot of the systems are actually identical - inverter/chargers, water pressure systems, Webasto/Proheat diesel furnaces.  There's campgrounds in the boat world - they call them marinas and they come in all conditions and price ranges, just like on land.  There's also boondocking which they call anchoring out.  The big difference is that if you break down you can't roll to the side of the road and call Coachnet.  You can call Seatow but my the time they arrive you may be bashed to bits on some inconvenient bit of rock sticking out of the ocean so service and maintenance are even more important than they are in the bus world.  On the plus side there's room on a boat to carry some serious tools and spare parts.  And because of the bashing to bits on the rocks thing you can easily convince your wife that those tools and spare parts are actually a safety feature.

Full timing is not for every one for sure we tried it for year not enough room for the sewing machines , the quilting stuff,kitting machine takes one bay just for her supplies lol and really I didn't like it either best advantage I could find it beats the hell out paying all the property taxes

My thinking is if you sell everything you own and know you have no other place to fall back on it works 

I wanted to do the boat thing after Matt drove off in the Eagle but not tied to a dock then Mexico turned to a slaughter house so I sold the boat a while back now I have no boat or helicopter lol just good friends life is good

good luck

As much as we enjoy time in the bus, we like coming home too.

JC

Quote from: lostagain on August 26, 2012, 07:34:38 AM
As much as we enjoy time in the bus, we like coming home too.

JC

On occasion we have the opportunity to park at a friend or relatives house for a few weeks. It is nice to be able to stretch out, use a full size kitchen, lets the kids play on the living room floor. However, a month is about as long as I can stand to be somewhere before I start getting white line fever. Then I just want to get in and go, even if it's only 50 miles down the road. Time for a change of scenery.

We have owned 14 houses, moved at lease 21 times and got tired of all the accumulated stuff you get from all that. As a contractor I would build a house and move into it and finish it then wait for the sell, move again and build another one. It got old especially now with the down housing economy. so while living in the bus discovered it is our new adventure. we love parks that are by the water to go fishing and the people that come by wanting to know about the coach, how people on the road help each other out when needed. Some people in life seem to get stuck in their houses and don't even talk to their neighbors. They just go to work and come home. Interesting life styles out there as fulltimers.

Dave5Cs ;D 8)

Fran and I are going on 5 years, 3 years without a house.  We do computer consulting on the side, camphosts, sell advertising, do RV shows, and mooch off our friends as well as offering our own private campsite to those we've mooched from, if they get North.

I agree with what Dave said, people get in a rut of going to work and back without talking to neighbors.  i could look down the line of backyards and never see another person most evenings.  Now we have a lot of very good friends, a lot of friends, and we've met a lot of great acquaintances and story tellers.

I had to convince Fran it was the right thing.  now i think she'd look for a new bus driver if i suggested stopping.

I lived in 4 different state no telling how many different houses,I find it hard to believe someone would not know his neighbors no matter where we live x neighbors are in touch or stop by from time to time

Some i have lived in we would try to get to know neighbors and we did. Sometimes it was good generally in rural areas. But i have lived in areas where homes are closer together and people talk but don't really know each other. They have garage openers and you see them drive in and out but you never seem to see them outside very much. You invite them to a gathering BBQ etc. friends show up but the neighbors come only for a little while and go home. We are kick back people, we don't go to the mall and shop, we worked on our homes and took care of our yards. If we walked we would stop and talk with anyone in the neighborhood that was out. More neighborhoods are becoming walled in areas with HOA's and have gardeners that show up once a week. I used to mow my own lawn as well as tune my vehicles up etc.

Life is different now. Don't know if that is bad or good. Fulltiming is different and people talk and interact, they will help ya out if you get in a bind because they know it may be them someday. If your gas runs out and they have a full one they will say here use mine and I will take your when you get it filled. ;D 8)

Dave5Cs

HOA that is a nasty word Dave that group needs to go it started out ok but when a group can tell you what color to paint your house you paid for that is just too much for me so I am going to paint ours pink just for the hell of it

Sometimes Heather and I wonder if we can ever go back to living in a house. The 9-5 lifestyle is nice and predictable and honestly there's nothing wrong with it, but even after parking in a place for 6 months, we get itchy feet and want to move. Crazy. Almost like we have traveling A.D.D. I sure hope if we ever have to settle down someday that we actually can do it because after just a year of full timing we can't imagine any other lifestyle.


Sent from iPhone via Tapatalk

Clifford I agree on the HOA, and will add some of them need to be audited. They are making long dollars on other peoples money that is supposed to be used for fixing community problems not their own investments and desires.

Full-timing is always an adventure for us. We realize now that "workamping" is BS and that hosting is the way to go from what we have heard. Or being able to work on the net, or producing something you can sell on the road, or service you could provide. Or being retired which we are not yet at 59. Money can be a struggle at times but seems to work out. Have to watch fuel and repairs, but you would have repairs and property taxes with a house as well as higher insurance.

Dave5Cs :D

Yep Dave our HOA is 4600 a year we get nothing but a guard and a gate opener plus a nasty letter sometimes lol

Never lived in one with an hOA but have built in a few areas that have them. I talked to one of the people whp lived there. I asked them why they like it. He said it keeps property values up if everyone keeps their property up etc. by the laws set by the group that runs it. I said to him that in our area if someone helped drop the property values we just threw them out, LOL
clifford I do like your pink idea though maybe with orange strips!... ;D 8) :D

Dave5Cs

We normally have 4 workamper couples through the winter season....they keep coming back...Still haven't found one that wants to stay through the summer...little warm maybe ;D...rdw