If you didn’t already know, there was a time in my life where I lived in a 30-foot box. For two years, I lived in a fifth wheel in South Carolina and Florida with my ex. We, unfortunately, didn’t get to travel too much because of work, but we bounced between different campgrounds from Tampa to Orlando and spent a few months in a little town called Yemassee, South Carolina. When the choice was made to try out this lifestyle I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it. Now, after experiencing it, I would totally do it again. In case you are curious about what fifth wheel living is like, just read on.
The Positives of Living in a Fifth Wheel:
The ability to move:
Obviously, the fact that you live in a fifth wheel allows you to travel if that’s a lifestyle option for you. Living in a camper gives you the opportunity to move, but not just long-distance traveling. Don’t like your neighbor? Move to another spot. Don’t like this campground? Try out another one. At any point in time, you can just pack up and go, move on to the next place. That’s the really cool thing about living in a camper, the fact that you pick where you stay for the most part. Now obviously if you immediately sign up for an annual spot it’s not as simple to move spots, and moving campgrounds is a whole different story. I would suggest trying out a few campgrounds before you make any more permanent choices if you plan on staying longer than a week or two.
Small spaces:
Living in a fifth wheel is a pretty small space and can be both a positive and a negative in my opinion. The positive part… LESS STUFF! Living in a small space means fewer floors to scrub, fewer windows to wash, less everything. Typically everyday cleaning and redding up takes less than half the time as usual. Also, the fact that you have less space, means there is less room to put stuff, which may sound like a bad thing, but not for me. Less space means less shopping, and less spending money on things you do not need. I honestly didn’t think living in such a small space was going to be easy for me, but it really was and now I miss it sometimes. Another nice thing about living in a smaller place is that there are not near as many distractions. It is super easy to lock yourself in the camper and focus on getting something done when there isn’t a lot around to distract you.
Social life opportunities:
If you plan on staying in a campground most of the time (which is what we did) there are so many social opportunities. You either have the option to be left alone and go about your business or you can bounce around and end up making so many friends. That’s the really cool thing about camper living. Sometimes you can spend your evening with the neighbors by a fire drinking a beer and sometimes you can be completely left alone. Most times though in a campground you are going to see people all the time. You will see people at the pool, riding their bikes, taking walks, especially if it is warm outside.
More time outside:
I think one of my favorite things about living in a camper was the fact that I was always outside. Now mind you I was in Florida the majority of the time, so it was usually nice and warm. Being in a smaller space I feel like just forces you to go outside and do something.
This is what the inside of the camper looked like when we first started living in it.
The Negatives Living in a Fifth Wheel:
Wifi/Cable:
Wireless Internet and cable are a little more complicated when living remote. Finding the right internet for you requires extensive research. You are going to want to really think about much you use the internet. Are you going to be working from home? Is a good internet connection required at all times? We went for a while with no internet at all, then we moved to a Verizon Jetpack MiFi. The MiFi was good to scroll the internet on my laptop, and check emails, all the basic things. We couldn’t watch movies, and if we could get enough internet to watch a movie, after one movie we would be almost over our data. In the end, we ended up with a NetGear Nighthawk that worked really well for us. Now, mind you neither of us worked from home so it was used more for fun than anything else.
Small Spaces:
Living in a small space can be hard sometimes. At-home workouts are especially hard when the weather isn’t nice and you can’t go outside. Hosting gatherings is hard. Having a family visit is hard. When it’s just you, or even two or three of you it’s really not bad at all, but the more people you try to add into the mix the harder it can get. Also living in a camper means a small kitchen, and sometimes that means you don’t have the space to carry all the gadgets and fun appliances you want to have. It also means significantly less counter space.
Campgrounds and Parking Spots:
Sometimes there aren’t many options. Depending on where you are going and when there may not be many campgrounds available in the area you are going. Preplanning is really important if you plan on extensive traveling. You may end up wanting to stay in an area that doesn’t have any short-term camping options. Also depending on what time of year you are camping some campgrounds don’t have availability. For instance, wintertime in Florida can be hard because of how many people go south for the winter.
Fixing New Things:
If you haven’t spent long periods of time in a fifth wheel, you may also want to get to know the ins and outs of different things to keep an eye on. You may want to learn about things like cleaning out tanks, weight limits, awning repairs, and many other things. We had to learn so many things while on the road. One time I didn’t realize a storm was coming in and the wind took out the entire camper awning. We also had to learn about flushing and cleaning tanks, which can be a little gross. Campers aren’t made to last forever so I feel like there is a lot more fixing and repairing that goes on in a camper.
Additional Things to Know:
- If you are thinking about trying to really travel and stay in different campgrounds and different locations look into camping passes. There are many different types of camping passes out there that can save you a ton of money. Thousand Trails is the camping pass we used.
- This information is just what I experienced in my time RV living. Everyones experience is different depending on how they decide to live.
- Do you research, there is alot of information out there about living this way.
Well, that’s the majority of my positives and negatives of living in a camper, let me know if you have any other things that you love or don’t love about fifth wheel living. Unfortunately, I don’t have many photos of the particular living space I was in, at the time I didn’t take many photos or think that I would be writing this post. Hopefully, the information helps though. Thanks for reading!!
