Rv Living [Full time rv'ing with 4 dogs]

Our dogs are basically our fur children so you could imagine prior to going full time in our rv I had LOTS of thoughts and questions going through my mind. Most Rv parks allow 1-2 dogs, so you could imagine my concern when I have 4! There is no way that we would get rid of them or anything of that nature they are our kiddos and bring us so many smiles and happiness. I looked around on the internet about this myself because I had so many thoughts and questions regarding the whole issue. So I have accumulated my own thoughts and want to share it with others and hope in some way it will help you or answer some of your questions.

Lets see here for starters I would hope you have a somewhat well behaved and sociable dog. We have always taken our dogs on road trips with us and they love going for car rides. They are dog friendly and are constantly trying to get the attention from other pets and people we pass. If they are a little rowdy and not as well behaved as you would like them to be it will just be a longer transition. If you want to make the swith to full time rving then you will more than likely be willing to work with your animals if they mean that much to you.

My biggest fear when I thought about full timing is how would i even sneak 4 dogs into the rv park. I thought for sure I would be thrown out, but that wasn't the case at all. At this time we have been full time rving for 6 months and I have yet to have anyone confront me about the number of dogs I have. There are certain steps we take to avoid this from happening. Majority of parks allow 1-2 dogs, which means we only ever take 2 dogs out at a time. Three of our four dogs are black and somewhat resemble each other so I don't think that anyone notices the different dogs. So in a nutshell we are rebels, we are rule breakers and take the chance. 

A very important part of living with 4 dogs in a small space is daily walks and exercise. They need to get outdoors and burn off some of that energy. We try very hard to walk them or take them to the park everyday. We are not perfect some days we are just to darn busy, but they deserve it so we try our hardest. 

We created a video on this topic where we go into more details about rving with dogs. Feel free to check it out! 

5th Wheel Shopping

The purchase of our 5th wheel was quite an ordeal. Unlike the purchase of our Ford diesel, where we pulled into the dealer and was already turned on and ready for my husband to test drive it. Ok, maybe I'm over exaggerating a bit to much. The purchase itself was not an "ordeal" let me correct myself it was more of a longer process if you will. One of the reasons why I think my husband went along with the "master plan" was due to the fact that it meant he got a truck. He use to have one and we ended up having to sell it (I will talk more about that later).
We purchased the truck first, which my husband Beto was all about. Constantly looking trucks up, sending me links, wanting to go take a look at them. Needless to say he was in control of the truck purchase. After we purchased our truck I was gung ho about finding a 5th wheel. I'm not going to lie it became a bit of an obsession. If anyone knows me I become easily obsessed with something I'm "into", my mother and sister also suffer from this syndrome. I feel like it needs a name, "the fixated frenzy". We become extremely fixated on that one ideal, we research it and then research it again. We want to learn everything there is to know about it, and become an expert. Granted at times this can be a down fall, and you will never fully know all that there is to know about it. Eventually you have to just dive head in and figure out as you go. One of my teachers called it analysis paralysis. I though that was a fitting term as well. With the help of google just a click away it is just to easy. I know we can't be the only ones out there with this "syndrome", someone else must be able to relate.
I looked into all different trailers, but I was drawn to the 5th wheel for multiple reasons which I will go into in a future post. I was torn weather to purchase a new or older model 5th wheel. We had already established the "must haves" for our rig, which was a rear kitchen setup, separate bathroom quarters, and a washer dryer preferred. We came across a dealer that would buy up the trade in trailers from the big dealers. These trailers were priced very well compared to other prices we had looked at. However due to our financial past the bank simply would not approve a loan amount that large. At the time we were pretty bummed about it, but thinking back to that moment I'm now relieved that we ended up purchasing a rig a bit older and for less money. One sure can get carried away in the glam of it all, but at the end of the day I wanted a rig that was structurally sound and functioned well. Our goal is to be debt free and have that sense of freedom. By having purchased a newer 5th wheel would have just put us into more debt, which is the total opposite of our goals at the moment. Instead we opted to purchase an older model that is in great condition and vamp it up.

I searched high and low, again let's be real it consumed me. I tease my husband, Beto that he had no part in the trailer searching due to the fact that he already got his truck and was happy as a clam with it and was just thoroughly enjoying it. You got to give them a hard time sometimes :) After the excitement of our truck purchase settled we set out to find "the one", and boy let me tell you it is hard to find a well taken camper in our area that isn't gonna cost you.  For myself it was a roller coaster of emotions I would get super excited and then be let down by different rigs that we looked at, but I remained positive because I knew eventually the right one would pop up. Having the patience paid off, and we stumbled across our little gem.