Has anyone done work camping ? Good or bad experience ? Might want to try it after I retire next year to get on teh road more but still make a little money too. ;D ;D
75 reads, and all we hear are crickets. I would like to hear some great ideas too. The only thing I have seen done was the opportunity to be a host in state or federal campgrounds in return for free camping. Not a great deal, but for some people it is a chance to use their social skills, and save a tiny amount.
I came across a work camper channel on You Tube. Some of the videos are interesting, as they interview different work campers at different campgrounds and national sites.
Hi,
I work in a state park in Vermont we call it host camping. If you pass the background check and sign on the offer is hookups free propane, entry into 52 state parks discounts on admissions to recreational opportunities at particapating place's. You volunteer 20 hour's a week using what skills you may have,
Customer service, riding mower paint splitting wood, cleaning bathrooms Yuk! 😃 or offer any talent you may have. Abusing the public ect. No paycheck but its fun.
Don
Paul and Becky Lawry wrote an excellent article about Work Camping in the November 2012 issue of Bus Conversion Magazine. If you were a subscriber you would have seen this article. If you subscribe now you will see another Work Camping article by Paul and Becky coming up within the next couple of months which has even more informaton. To read their previous article click here and you will see another example of the types of article we run in BCM: https://dreamscapetravels.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/nov-2012-bcm-paul-lawry-work-camping.pdf
You build the rig to travel and for freedom,I really don't see the point unless you plan on being in the area for 3 or 4 months anyway.It wouldn't work for us after no more than 2 or 3 weeks in a area we move on JMO.It's not for everyone but try it you may like it
It is a good way to build a "pause" into your travels, especially for full-timers.
We have spent time on cattle stations (ranches to you) in Australia sometimes helping out with whatever is going, or tutoring school kids where they are home schooled because of isolation, or sometimes there just to provide a bit of company for husband and wife who might be 100 miles from the nearest town. Get food and fuel and a new experience or maybe a small wage. Whatever.
Main thing is not to get or feel ripped off by the deal. Some places value your time at $2 an hour while valuing their part of the deal as if it is a five star RV resort. Especially if you have marketable skills (mechanic, welding, building), then your time needs to be valued at something close to market rates. Volunteering positions are especially liable to inequity because the hours just keep increasing until you put your foot down.
Think laterally in your search for a position and it will bring new experiences to your travels.
We did it for 2 years and had a lot of fun but found out later that the other 2 couples got everything for free. We worked and had to pay for our spot electric and our own gas. The management was afraid of being replaced so if you asked about any management jobs you were gone. I fixed a lot of the machines that were in need from time to time and the guy that also used and abused most of them would tell me not to fix them otherwise they won't buy us new ones??? On average we worked 35 to 40 hours a week and got $7.00 an hour. The money didn't matter to us it was just that they told us it would only be 20 hours a week and then it keep going up.
The other two couples were stabbing us in the back afraid we would replace them because they told us we were working to hard.
We finally got laid off for the season when I went to the owner and told her about some of the things that were going on around there. I told her I had had a business and would have wanted to know about slackers doing nothing all day and the comments they made about customers. After we left the manager called us and wanted us back and had checked out everything they had been told and are making some changes. They kept the other couples who we caught in the file cabinet looking through every ones records to include our personal info which is in direct violation of all HIPPA laws.
We declined to go back and said we had had enough of that bull. We fixed equipment, Mowed lawn, cleaned cabins and 3 full houses on the property for big groups, remodeled kitchens and baths, Fixed watering systems. I was a certified First responder for the Marina they had there also. Worked the Boat dock fill station. Cooked meals for the thanks giving and Christmas party. And after all this no one else was paying for their stuff.
Check the contract before you sign. Ask to meet the people working there and ask if you have to pay for your stuff or does it come with the deal.
Dave5Cs
Not all those jobs are working in campgrounds,there was a recruiter at Quartszite that had plenty of 2 and 3 week jobs outside of working in campgrounds that paid decent money. I couldn't deal with the public working in a campground no way
Best paying are gate guard jobs. We normally used three couples a season in the RV parks, 20 hours a week for spot and electric. Rdw
We have friends that do grocery and other stores resetting they been doing for about 7 years and like it, they get paid decent,work is not hard and both do it.They just pick out a area they would like to travel too and the company tell them if any resets are in that area. Each job last about a week he says then they fire the bus up and move on when they choose too. Right now they are here doing a reset in Safeway at Ft.Mohave then they going to head Northwest.They stay as busy as they want to sometimes they choose not to work for a couple of months
Interesting topic. Just an idea but newbies like me could use eyes on the ground to check out buses across the country for us before we fly out. Would be cheaper than a plane ticket and sounds like it could pay better then working at a campground. For that matter for those who build / convert the bus themselves could most likely use your expertise as well from just reviewing the plans, suggestions as to where systems should be located, showing how to do _______, etc....
Now with that said there is a bus in Phoenix I would like checked out a GMC 4905a another in Mohave that Luvrbus installed the engine/transmission (really just need additional pictures and if there was an easy way/area to add three bunk beds, then I have a MCI 102a3 outside Roanoke that needs to be looked at.
All the best everyone
The couple we bought our bus from (Terry and Connie Simpson) did quite a bit of work camping. Terry goes by redbus on this board. He told me they had worked for Amazon one year and I think they provided a free camping spot while employed. His wife is a retired nurse so she has worked as a nurse and Terry worked at a marina- not sure where. They also had worked as gate guards out west somewhere. The gate guard job sounded the toughest because they had to dry camp and man the gate 24-7, so that wouldnt allow any time to go places with wife. Someday when I retire, I really wouldnt mind working a marina or campground if I can utilize the skills I have.
Quote from: luvrbus on April 30, 2016, 04:33:29 PM
We have friends that do grocery and other stores resetting they been doing for about 7 years and like it, they get paid decent,work is not hard and both do it.
Clifford, I'm not familiar with the term "store resetting". Exactly what does that mean and what's the work like? Thanks.
Bruce, they go in and arrange the food in order when the suppliers pay for a different spot on the shelves, you ever notice in stores the goods have been moved around that happens because another supplier paid more for the spot.Very seldom will see a house brand in a prime spot ;D there is no money in for a store as the suppliers bid on shelving spots once a year so then they hire a resetting contractor .I learn this from my friend that was CEO of Albertson's when we were playing golf and I was ragging on him about changes in our local store
In our C stores, the suppliers usually rearrange the shelves when they pay for the space.
The real work for us was when my wife would decide that this or that would look better over here rather than there...
JC
We have done workamping in a few RV Parks and have really enjoyed the experiences. When looking for workamping and find an area that you would like to explore, that is a great way to be able to do that. Besides you get to make new friends along the way.
Make sure to ask lots of questions, how much time is required by each couple/person per week. Is the compensation for a FHU (full hookup) site. Are you required to work weekends or have every other one off. Get detailed work requirements such as landscape maintenance, taking reservations, etc.. Every park is different and the expectations vary.
We are now at Crane Prairie Resort just out of Bend, OR. We'll be here until September and enjoying the area. We have family close by so that's a bonus.
We have workcamped at Crater Lake RV Park, Seal Rock RV Park, Buck Creek RV Park, a small horse ranch in SoCal and now in Oregon.
It's not for everyone, but you might enjoy it.
My wife and I full time. I have a mobile service in Wyoming and some of my customers there have ranches and we stay on the ranches in Arizona and Texas. I fix things for them and when the job is done I say if they owe me anything. They pay me and then I fix the next thing. We get free rent and electricity for our efforts. My wife cleans around the ranches and they figure that in when I go to collect. Seems to work well for us. If I have to stay at an RV park I have them pay for it and figure it in on the bill. We also do prepurchase inspections and vehicle deliveries. When in Wyoming my wife mostly works at a store and does house cleaning for a regular group of customers. Her employers are flexible and don't mind giving her time if I need her to go with me on a more distant job or spontaneous whims. Never liked being inside even as a kid I would getup and go outside and I didn't come home sometimes for weeks. I wasn't running away just wanted to do things besides stay at home. I still managed to have a 3.6 gpa even though I was truant a lot. Before cell phones, I just drove around the country a lot just by helping people broke down on the side of the road. I did the truck driver around Europe thing for 4 years and got to see most of Western Europe that way. My first mobile house was a 72 4 door cutlass. I've always just said sure I'll help you with that. I never really had any money, but I've afforded a rich life just by volunteering my help. I did a stint in the air force and most of the people in my units never even met me because I would raise my hand as soon as the phrase We need someone.... Would come up. Ive never gone to bed hungry and always had coffee in the morning accept the times I spent in the hospital. So with that said it is what you make it and a little Gypsy goes a long way. My mom when someone asks her about me, tells them I'm just a Gypsy and have been since I was little.
Quote from: luvrbus on May 01, 2016, 06:40:12 AM
Bruce, they go in and arrange the food in order when the suppliers pay for a different spot on the shelves, you ever notice in stores the goods have been moved around that happens because another supplier paid more for the spot.Very seldom will see a house brand in a prime spot ;D there is no money in for a store as the suppliers bid on shelving spots once a year so then they hire a resetting contractor .I learn this from my friend that was CEO of Albertson's when we were playing golf and I was ragging on him about changes in our local store
Thanks for that info - makes perfect sense, and I guess somebody's got to do it. Now I'll know the next time I hear the term.