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> Your search for posts made by 'phil crouch' found 27 matches.

Subject	Author	Date Posted	Forum
RE: If Fulltiming wasnt for you, why? Our decision to fulltime was different than some.. We both grew tired of our old jobs and wanted a way to retire early.. WE DID just that.. We worked out a budget that would work for us.. Sold the big ole homestead on acreage.. Put that money in Investments just in case we wanted to return to S/B living.. We did use some of the dividends to help us meet out goals.. And started our fulltime adventure...... We fulltimed for just over 9 years before wife wanted another s/b.. I would have preferred to keep fulltiming but gave my word to stop if either of us wanted to quit.. We bought a home just over 3 years ago and started to be snowbirds.. It was not the same for me.. I kept thinking about that house back up north when we were down south... Hated that... bills never stop even when we were gone.. Took the total fun and freedom feeling out of our ole way of fulltiming.. Bye the way, the stick house HAS gone down in value, not up.. We could not just drop everything and start fulltiming again if we dicided too.. RVing wasn't the same feeling I got from the fulltiming lifestyle.. So we sold the motorhome.. We planned on buying a small RV but haven't done that yet, may never now.. It has been really hard adjusting to my new life and still hate the stick house, just feel trapped here, not the fun and freedom to move about when we got the itch.. I just hate the local politics, some of the neighbors we just cannot get away from.. I just get that bored feeling.. Even thou the house is smaller than our old homestead, still feel way too big for what we need... AND, especially the wintertime, that another adventure I really look forward too..NOT.... Guess I just turning into a bitter ole man.... But give someone a taste of paradise, then send him back to hell, and what do you expect..... That's my story, and it hasn't changed since leaving the fulltime lifestyle, but wife seems blissfully unaware of my rants or just puts me on ignore... so this site is an outlet for me but that too is starting to fade....	phil crouch	03/08/10 08:09am	Full-time RVing
RE: Making the leap to full timing When we first started fulltiming, we had a 5th wheel with three slides.. Within a year, decided a Motorhome was the way we wanted to go... Both the fiver and motorhome were approx the same length, 35 feet.. Motorhome only had one slide, so we gave up a little space.. Found out for our fulltiming needs, we didn't need the extra space.. Wife liked the motorhome better while traveling, set-up time took less of our time.. Just felt more comfortable going down the road and view was nicer for us.. We also felt better when drycamping, which we did from time to time.. She could use the bathroom while traveling, make a sandwich, or get something from the refer.. We were very careful when she did this, and I do not recommend it to those that fear the consequences... Too us, it was less scary than parking along the road, getting out of the P/u and going back to the 5th wheel.. Yep, we could not always pull into a rest area when the urge arises...in her case, at least... We also had more outside storage with the motorhome.. I do agree thou, that both fiver and motorhome make great fulltime RV's... As they say and I fully agree with, one's choice will not work for all of us and what works for us may not work for you.. We were lucky, in the fact that we had a buyer for the p/u and fiver when we decided to trade for the motorhome.. We already had a small p/u for a tow vehicle which worked great...	phil crouch	02/07/10 12:41pm	RV Lifestyle
RE: Preferred RV Resort, Pahrump, NV The entrance should be no problem, if you swing wide before entering the park.. I think some can have a problem by not swinging wide enough where they park, when checking in.. There is a place to park outside the park and check-in, just stay back far enough and you should have no problem.. Sites are long enough to handle almost any size RV, and you don't even have to unhook your tow vehicle.. All sites have full hookups and 50/amp service.. You can walk to casino's and grocery store.. One casino has a bowling alley.. I think both casino's nearby have poker rooms, and the terribles at lakeside does not..	phil crouch	02/07/10 07:52am	RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
RE: how long to prepare for going full time We started planning on fulltiming 5 years out since we were going to retire at 55.. We wanted to get all of our financial plans in order as well, before starting this new adventure.. We paid off everything and started saving like crazy.. About 6 months out, we listed our house and started moving/getting rid of things we no longer wanted.. House sold within two months and had to move in with our daughter for a month so we could buy the RV and outfit it the way we wanted too.. Looking back, I would do it over in a heartbeat... Loved the lifestyle and after over 9 years of fulltiming, we quit, almost 3 years ago.. I still miss it and would return if wife would.. She said she loved the lifestyle, but time to move on to something else...	phil crouch	01/08/10 09:50am	Full-time RVing
RE: CraigsList Ads We have bought and sold on Craigslist without any problems, but we do use care just as the BIG BOLD PRINT says to do on Craigslist... Some of the ads can be a scam, but doubt that craigslist is....	phil crouch	01/02/10 08:48am	General RVing Issues
RE: Campground Membership? Since you posted in the fulltime forum, guess that is what you plan to do.. We fulltimed for 10 years and used our Campground Membership over 150/days each year.. Paid for itself several times over.. We re-cooped all of our annual costs within the first couple months.. Kept our daily fees under $10/day.. We bought a "resale" so our Membership was quite reasonable.. few hundred dollars, not thousands... Just like anything else, if you use it enough to recoop your costs, it is worth it, if not. pass it bye... We passed on Passport America because we usually dry-camped between our Membership stops, if needed... PA works well well for some however...	phil crouch	12/11/09 03:53pm	Full-time RVing
RE: CAMPGROUND MEMBERSHIPS You are correct in your assesment of their selling techniques. Not as high pressure as a time share sale but close. Full of "upsells", layered add-ons, extras, financing plans, etc. Not sure what it is you are talking about.. C2C does NOT sell campground memberships.. Only their affiliate parks do and each of them have different salespeople.. Not all are high pressure sales.. Full of upsales??? layered add-ons?? C2C only has two types of uses.. Classic and Deluxe.. With Deluxe, you must be a member of a park that belongs to Deluxe to upgrade to that, again, not a C2C choice, but your home park and most parks do not belong to this upgrade... By far, most affiliate parks are in the Classic system.. The other add-on C2C offers, is a discount for purchasing your annual dues three years ahead if one chooses to go that route.. C2C does have an online 24/hour reservation service, where you make the decision on the parks that are available at that time to use.. financing plans??? Again, C2C does NOT offer this, as they collect annual dues, and points to get into their affiliate parks.. The point system can be bought anytime you need them, and don't have to buy the ole way of getting tickets/cards sent to you first.. There are SOME Home Parks affiliated with C2C that uses the high pressure sales, and add-ons, upgrades, etc, but not all... Most of these parks are well known for their salespeople but why buy from them when you can get a "RESALE" much cheaper... If one can resist a sales pitch, sometimes you can glean enough information from them to decide later on if that is the route you want to take.. Been to several and never was accousted at any of them.. Better to let them be upset, than me, if that is what they choose to do... We got a free weekend, evening meal, and later on, decided to buy a "RESALE"... Been happy with MY decision ever since as I have used it enough several times over to receive back my cost of belonging to my Home Park and C2C.. I also realize that belonging to a Campground Membership is not for everyone, but for thousands of us, it works very well.....	phil crouch	10/02/09 08:57am	Full-time RVing
RE: CAMPGROUND MEMBERSHIPS We found that generally the membership parks are not located where we want to stay or travel and those we look at from time to time would not be our first choice of parks anyway. Many seem very 'tired.' We found the Campground Memberships to be located along the Pacicic coast in the Northwest just where we would want them to be.. Most were very nice especially for the price it cost us to visit them.. We also found plenty of membership parks along the Colorado River where we like to go in Arizona.. Most were better than any private parks nearby.. Been to several others in Arizona that were nice to.. Found some in Texas in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, canyon lake, several just above houston.. would go back to any of them, if fact, we have... There are plenty of Good Neighbor parks too.. If fact, more than enough to satisfy our RVing pleasures.. Nevada and California also had some very nice parks... State Parks up here in the Northwest are very nice too, but we pay twice as much to visit them over our membership parks.. Give me the outa the way membership parks anytime as long as they are in places we prefer to visit...	phil crouch	09/30/09 02:58pm	Full-time RVing
RE: Is buying into a membership Campgroud/RV Resort worth while a previous post reminded me that some folks have complained that some of these memberships limit them to non full hookup sites, etc. We belong to both C2C and RPI and have never run into this. While there have been C2C and/or RPI parks we've been to that have NO full hookup sites, if the park does have them, we've always been able to get a site with full hookups. We have owned a Campground Membership for over 10+ years and haven't run into this problem either.. My home park has full hookups at all sites and all sites have 50 amp service.. I would rather go to my park and pay $10/day, then the park down the street that charges $30/day... and our park includes a lot more, like year round heated swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, big clubhouse, etc, etc, etc.....	phil crouch	09/28/09 09:19pm	RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
RE: Campground Memberships Hi Rick... Each of the Campground Memberships have their own websites.. Thousand Trails has about 60 member parks in their system, but they also have Leasure Time Resorts in the Northwest with about 7 sister parks.. Members can also join ROD which is a different membership that has about 100 affiliate parks.. I DON'T know about the rest of the systems that are affiliated with TT, but others can fill you in.. To join TT, it can cost as little as a few hundred dollars to several thousands of dollars.. Too many contracts to list them all.. ON top of that they have different systems offering different amenities and have several upgrades.. To Join Coast to Coast, Resort Parks International, AOR, or ROD, First you must belong to a HOME PARK in their system of parks.. You can find out where the parks are on their websites.. After joining a home park, you can join one or several of the other systems, depending on what your home park is affiliated with.. You can join a HOME PARK for as little as a hundred dollars to several thousands... Be very careful here as each have their own rules of use and yearly fees.. Some of the home parks have sister parks that you can use like you use your home park.. Joining C2C, RPI, AOR, ROD involve a yearly fee, and gives you the right to use the affiliate parks in their system.. ROD can cost $0 to around $2/3 to use and can stay from a week or two.. C2C and RPI have two diffenent grades in their systems.. With the lowest cost, you can stay up to a week in each park within their system, twice each year.. Their upgrade with each system will give you up to two week each visit.. The cost of the nightly visits in each affiliate park will run around $10/day..Some parks charge a couple dollars more for utility fees or cable.. Each will be spelled out in their booklet.. C2C and RPI have around the same number of campground and about half belong to both systems.. Example, C2C has around 300 parks and around 200 Good Neighbor parks.. They also have a couple other parks systems that give discounts when you visit those parks.. The good Neighbor parks run around $13 to visit them.. If one decides to quit C2C or RPI, just stop paying the annual dues and they will drop you.. no long term contract there... I don't know about the cost, rules and number of parks in the AOR system.. The above information is just ment for general info and I know that you can get better info when you want to investagate each system more close.. Before joining any Campground Membership, READ/UNDERSTAND the contract before signing.. If you don't like the rules, don't join unless they are willing to make changes in writing only... The only other info in the contract to really look for is an exit policy.. Some will make it difficult to leave.. All will require that you fullfull the contract that you signed.. My contract says that I can sell it, give it away, or just turn it back when we are done with it, but must be current with annual dues... Their is NO simple answer that will give you all the info that you need to know before joining any Membership.. There is all kinds of info on this forum and other sites.. If you go to a Sales Presentation, be sure and learn as much as you can from them, but DO NOT buy into any at the first sales meeting.. In Fact, if you decide to join any of them, best way to go, is buy a "RESALE"... You can always upgrade later if/when you feel like it... It can save you money in Park fees, but only if you understand and use the parks to your advantage.. I have owned a Membership for over 10 years and it has been very useful to me, and more than paid for itself over the years.. With others, it can be a costly mistake if you don't understand what you are buying into or fail to use it to their advantage.. I wish you well on your research, and you are the one that needs to figure out if it will work for you or not... The way we worked on it was to take the total cost to belong, along with yearly fees and divide into the number of days each year we plan to use the parks in our system to reach a daily cost.. Our pay back for the original cost to join my home park as well as the annual cost were recovered in less than two years.. We bought a "resale", so cost recover time was short.. When we first joined, we kept our daily cost to around $4/day to visit our system, but cost have gone up as well as cost to parks outside the system.. With our current cost, we still use our system for around $10.50/day and that includes all of our fees.. But to use regular parks not in our system, the costs have increased there too, and currently paying around $25/$35/day to visit them.. I will sell or give away my membership when we NO longer use it, or when the cost to own it does not pay to belong any more.. Sorry for such a long post...	phil crouch	09/27/09 11:06am	RV Lifestyle
RE: Campground Memberships If you like going to the same parks ever year they are probably fine. We like to explore. Nuff said Doug I don't understand your post... In an earlier post, you mentioned that you spend 6 months at one time in the same park.. My Campground Membership has over 500 parks to choose from, not just a few as you seem to think.. Over the years, we have visited quite a few, but no where near all of them... That said, YEP, we do spend quite a few days in our home park each year, in fact, been going there since 1997 with no plans to quit at this time... Can't seem to get Nuff time there I guess.. Just as many other RVers up here in the Northwest like to visit the state parks each year, go to the same parks year after year... I also met a lot of snowbirds in my travels that visit the same parks each year, year after year.. That still gives many of us time to explore other areas too, although we have our favorite places to visit..	phil crouch	09/17/09 08:58am	RV Lifestyle
RE: What's the deal with these campground memberships? Just curious........snip.. by campground memberships are you referring to the $5,000 with annual fees jobbies or the discount outfits like Passport America? How come it costs $5000 to join a Campground Membership???? I know many that did not pay that much to join one.. In fact, to join our home park costs around $1100 for a NEW membership.. Yes, there are some that paid that and more, but it does not have to be the only way to join one.. I picked up a "Resale" for much less.. Paid for itself several times over throughout the years.. I did fulltime thou so it was easy to recoup my money.. Usually took about a month each year visiting the home park and affiliate parks to recoup all of our annual dues and original investment.. In fact, even after we stopped fulltiming, we still use it enough to recoup our annual dues.. When we stop using it, we can sell it, give it away, or just turn it back in.. That will happen sometime in the future, but for now, we still have a great time using ours.. I realize joining a Campground Membership is not for everyone, but for thousands of us, it works great...	phil crouch	09/12/09 10:16am	Beginning RVing
RE: 5-10 year plan We had a 5 year plan before fulltiming.. At that time, we maxxed out our 401/IRA investments.. We also saved as much as possible after paying off all our debts... We read as many articles/books as we could get our hands on about fulltiming, and RVing... One year out.. We started to downsized our snail-mail.. Downsized our possessions.. wish we had started earlier.. Went to RV shows, Dealers, etc. looking for our right RV, but did not buy one until we sold the home.. 6 months out, we put our stik-house on the market, sold tooo early, but had a plan if that happened.. The money from the house went into a savings account for future use if/when we decided to settle down.. We had already decided to downsize if/when we bought another house.. We purchased a cell-phone.. Let friends/family know our new phone number and email so we could stay in touch.. Our bank was already set-up for what we wanted, so didn't make any changes there.. We already decided on our RV, just bought it a little earlier than we thought.. Stayed in RV park until we retired/start our full time adventure.. As soon as we could, we converted our monthly accounts to electronic statements/payed bill online.. We also got a debit card when we were offered one.. Already had a bank credit card.. Our main goal for fulltiming, was to go south in the winter, and back north in the summer.. follow the sun... It was fantastic... We fulltimed for over 9 great years, then wife wanted another stik-house, so we left the full-time lifestyle.. Much too early for me... Even three years later, I still miss it... Good luck on your planning and full time lifestyle..	phil crouch	09/12/09 09:48am	Full-time RVing
RE: campground memberships We bought a Campground Membership over a dozen years ago... Has served us very well, more than paid for itself several times over.. We too, bought a "resale" thru campground outlet in Clermont Fl... Most of the Home Parks belong to several affiliate memberships, like coast to coast, RPI, ROD, AOR and others.. You can check out each of their websites to see if any will fit your traveling plans... Just do your homework before buying into any of them... Read/understand the Contract before signing.. Our contract has a clause that says, I can sell it, give it away, or just turn it back when done using it... Each home park has their own contract... This usually spells out how often you can use your home park, annual dues, etc... The affiliate membership contracts are usually setup on an annual basis, and when you want to opt out, just quit paying the annual dues..	phil crouch	08/15/09 10:50am	RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
RE: RV Resort Memberships The Campground Membership we bought is different from others in our length of stay at our home park.. We can stay a day, a week, a month, or a year at our home park... The daily rate is the same no matter which we choose, currently $10.50/day.. The annual dues we pay is $260, and that includes the first 35/days use of our home park.. The reason for bringing this up, is to let you know that there is many different memberships available to those willing to look.. We also used the resale market for buying into our home park.. Cost was $800 and included the first years dues along with the free 35 days use, and the cost of transfer fee.. Some even paid less then we did to join.. Our park is affiliated with Coast to Coast, RPI, and ROD that gives us many affiliate parks to use if one decides to join one of them.. All we pay is the annual dues and get into the affiliate parks from zero to $10/day, depending on which system you join.. We fulltimed for over 9 years and the cost of the membership paid for itself several times over using the system about 1/2 the year.. Other half was spent outside our system... Like others have mentioned, if you find one for a good price, use it often enough to pay for itself, you will be ahead.. Of course, if you volunteer/workcamp for your campsites, then it may not pay to belong, like some that said they had no use for Campground Memberships...	phil crouch	08/01/09 12:29pm	Full-time RVing
RE: How to handle mail while full-time RVing? One other thing to consider, is reducing your snail mail as much as possible.. That really helped us.. Make as much of your bill statements online.. Use the bill paying bank service.. Also use the computer for email as much as possible over snail mail.. We were lucky, our daughter kept track of our snail mail and if something important came that needed our attention.. She was more than happy to do that because we eliminated most of our mail..	phil crouch	07/11/09 11:33am	Full-time RVing
RE: Part Time Employment When we retired and went fulltime, wife and I decided we would need part-time jobs in the Summer to keep our savings intact.. Wife worked for a temp agency, and I was lucky enough to find jobs diving shuttle busses during the summer to help keep the busses running during their busy season.. We had NO problem finding part-time work and met others that did the same in construction, cooks, grocery workers, even wall-mart was looking for workers.. We looked for jobs we outside the RV parks because they paid better.. That said, don't know what the work force is today and how hard it would be..	phil crouch	07/11/09 11:19am	Full-time RVing
RE: Hard time selling rv I agree that the price is at the top, for selling a RV, but keeping it clean and presentable is VERY important too.. I looked at a RV a while back, didn't go any futher then looking at the outside which was very dirty and decided we didn't want to look any futher.. If someone is selling one, and it does not clean it before putting it on the market, then I wonder if the maintenance was kept up... bye the way, it seemed priced right before looking at it..	phil crouch	06/24/09 11:00am	General RVing Issues
RE: Coast to Coast membership Campground availability Hi Granny.. the deluxe system does not mean a nicer park, but a change in the number of days you can stay, reservation upgrade, and wave the milage rule along with a few other perks.. Our experience with the Coast to Coast parks are very different from yours... We have found that the parks, in general, have been well worth the money we spend there.. I do NOT consider them to be a top rated mega-resort, but some have impressed me for what I pay to visit them.. Example, my home park has a year-round swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, full hookups at all sites, includes 50 amp service, concrete patio with picnic bench, free wifi, a place to air your tires, propane, 24 hour gate attendent, about half of the sites are pull thru that can handle almost any size RV.. there is a separate playground fenced off for the kids, big clubhouse with many activites, mail room, excersise room.. there are separate rooms for stained glass, woodworking shop.. My home park is fully fenced, has storage place for RV's, three dog runs, three comfort stations with separate mens/womens showers, and laundrymat in each one.. To me, that's not bad for around $10/night to stay there.. Our home park is NOT the nicest one in the C2C system by far, but works for me..	phil crouch	06/24/09 10:38am	RV Parks, National Parks, State Campgrounds & More
RE: Rubber or Vinyl Roof? Everyone has their reasons on where to spend their money when it comes to RV's and where their priority are... Personally, I would rather put my money in other places on/in the RV, then on the roof where appearance may count for others.. Well over 50% of RV's on the road today have rubber roofs, and if installed corectly, do what their intended for.. Most of the problems arise from how the mfg installs them or the owner does not inspect them.. And all types WILL leak if you don't do preventive mantenance or if the mfg installs them wrong.. I have seen fiberglass roofs with cracks, so almost any type can be damaged... And yes, they can be repaired too.. I personally, have NO experience with the TPO/vinyl roofs.. but do know that they cost more than the rubber roofs and harder to install.. they may last longer, but I've seen rubber roofs on RV's that are over 30 years old... Like I mentioned earlier, the type of roofing material is low on my list of options, if I have one, but realize it is a higher priority for other folks..	phil crouch	06/16/09 10:08am	General RVing Issues

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