You wouldn’t know it by the title, but we love living in an RV. But just like a house, there are a few things about living in an RV that make us crazy. That being said, the things we don’t like about living in an RV are nowhere near enough annoying to make us quit this lifestyle. The benefit outweighs the negatives…by far.
If you’ve been reading our blog for awhile and thought, “I wouldn’t mind living in an RV,” here are a few things you may want to prepare yourself for. These are six reasons why living in an RV sucks.
Counter/Kitchen Space
Counter space in the kitchen is limited. Like extremely limited. When we first bought the RV, Adam had indicated he would want to buy a little table to set up in the kitchen for when he made something big like perogies. We never did buy that table. Adam also sadly has not made perogies since we started living in the RV. What you see below is how it looks when we do dishes, and how much room you have when you are using the stovetop.
This is our tiny kitchen and counter space. It doesn’t look like a lot but we make it work.
Thankfully, we do have sink covers that give you a little more room but it’s still not much. The cupboards that you see are also the only cupboards in the kitchen. You learn to deal with it and be creative. Plus, we do have the kitchen table to prepare food as well. There is a small pantry we use for dry food and we turned the area that used to be used for DVD storage into our pots and pans area.
The best way to overcome the lack of counter/kitchen space is to just eat out, which we do plenty of here in Tofino. Tacofino has taken over our lives.
RV’s Are Cheaply Made
RV’s can be pricey but sometimes you wonder why. The materials in an RV are built with weight in mind meaning the materials are often light and very fragile. It doesn’t take much time of living in an RV to notice how the construction is sort of poor. Certain things in an RV break easily. We have learned to be very gentle in our RV, even when it comes to closing the RV door.
When we were travelling across Canada and the slides were in, I tried to shimmy between the wall and our kitchen table and my butt literally broke the table stands. That cost us $20 to replace. The outdoor kitchen plastic range cover also broke. The heat vents in the floor are plastic & Adam stood on one and broke it. The blinds, which are kind of neat because there is daytime and nighttime blinds, well… they break easily, too. Fixing those blinds is like trying to figure out how to open a Chinese puzzle box. You start sweating and swearing and want to cry. Ok, maybe not cry, but they are frustrating to fix.
Condensation
When we first moved to Tofino, it was raining non-stop. Adam went mad trying to figure out how to stop the condensation in the RV. This is a major problem in RV’s even when you don’t live in a temperate rainforest. Mold grows easily and quickly. That mold can easily destroy your RV and your health.
Thankfully, like that pesky neighbour who comes over and eats all of your food, we figured out how to kick condensation out of our RV.
Condensation aka the devil for RVs
Storage Bay Locks
If you have an RV, do me a quick favour and go get your trailer keys. Now, look at the keys for your storage bays. Let me guess, the key is engraved with CH751. Guess what? Our keys are as well. Over 60% of trailers have the same storage bay locks. Crazy, right? What a concept, “Let’s make all the keys the same so that no one has secure storage.”
Because of this, we keep toilet paper, paper towels, some tennis balls, and a lounge chair in our basement. Basically, nothing of value goes in our storage bays, which sucks because we have limited storage space to begin with while living in an RV.
You can buy different locks and install them but it’s surprisingly pricey. We will probably do this in the near future but in the meantime, if you are desperate enough to steal our toilet paper – you likely need it more than us anyways.
CH751 Keys = come steal all my stuff
Adam bumps his head
Adam is 6’2. He’s actually only 6’1 ¾ according to a doctor but he gets sensitive about not being 6’2 so for this story, we’ll stick to that.
Because of his height, I have witnessed Adam bump his head about 32 times weekly since we started living in an RV. The slide out rooms are only 5’8. Fortunately, I am 5’7, so I have no worries at all but Adam is always banging his head on the wooden frame. Our bedroom is over the hitch area of the 5th wheel and when Adam uses the sink by our bed, his head just clears the ceiling at 6’3. If he takes a step up to the bed, it’s back to 5’8. I see a lot of similarities to Adam in the RV and Gandalf walking through the homes of the Shire.
A lot of the newer models of 5th wheels are built taller with more head room throughout them, even in the bedroom areas. Whenever we purchase our next 5th wheel we’ll be looking for one that should reduce the risk of concussions for Adam.
If the trailer is a-rockin’…
Adam will kill me for writing this, but it is TRUE. The trailer rocks and shakes a lot and not just during the night when we are doing Irish jigs.
The RV also wiggles or rocks when Adam is working as he shakes his legs or rocks back and forth. At times I wonder if I’m experiencing an earthquake or whether it is just Adam working. There are also times when Paris jumps off the bunk room couch and you can feel the trailer shake and she only weighs 7lbs.
The stabilizers and jacks that come with the trailer don’t do much to stabilize the trailer. There are stabilizers you can buy and install to help the issue. We’ve started to get used to the trailer shaking and barely notice it anymore. We’ll still likely look into installing extra stabilizers down the line which should help with the Irish jigging.
Whether you live in an apartment, a house or you’re living in an RV, there is always going to be good and bad things about each. Everything we’ve listed above is not even close to annoying enough to have us ditch this amazing lifestyle. It’s just little things we gripe about now and then. There are so many positives to living in a 5th wheel and we’ll go over that with you next week.
What do you dislike most about living in an RV, house, or apartment?
17 comments
Love reading your stuff. We too are full-timers although we travel constantly, moving every few days. We still haven’t got our blog up and running…maybe tomorrow. 😉
Hi Kate. Loved your post, as usual. Have you posted anything about how you conquered the condensation problem? If so, could you let me know where to find it please?
I laughed out loud about your rockin’ trailer. We used to camp in a tent trailer. One day we pulled into a campground and decided to take an afternoon “nap”. My husband had set the jacks but disconnected the trailer from the truck. Tent trailers being light as they are, they’re not built for 2 adults on one wing with no counter balance on the other, so as we “napped” the trailer flipped up on it’s end! We immediately scrambled towards the middle and it righted itself but I often wonder how many other campers witnessed our little trailer ‘ acrobatics!
Hi Anne! That story is so funny! bwaahahahahahaha! Adam has written a blog all about condensation. We have pretty much conquered it! http://fulltimecanada.ca/ultimate-guide-to-dealing-with-rv-condensation/
Thanks so much for following our adventure!
Kate
Here’s my two cents worth. Yes, there’s not much room/counter space in the kitchen but it hasn’t stopped me from cooking just like I did at home. We mostly boondock so we removed the microwave and built a shelf in there for our pots and pans.
We bought an older motorhome and it seems to be built much better than a lot of the new stuff coming out these day. Ours is a 1996 and we luckily have had very little go wrong with it. My husband is a real DIY kind of guy so if something does go wrong he will source it out and fix it or if need be replace it.
We have never ever had a problem with someone trying to take anything from our basement compartments and wouldn’t hesitate to continue using them the same way as we have been. In fact once we were very glad that the compartment locks can match up with others because once our keys went flying down a sewer hole (don’t ask!) and luckily our friends had a key that matched so we were still able to access our basement compartments.
My husband is tall as well and yes, he has bumped his head many, many times! Actually removed the TV from the front of the RV because of that and we never used it anyways.
Wouldn’t trade this life for anything we love it!! 🙂
How did you fix the condensation problem?
Ruth
Thanks for reading and your great comment Ruth. Here’s how we fixed the condensation issue. It’s great to hear that you’ve had a great experience full-time RVing as well. The story about the storage key flying down the sewer hole sounds hilarious.
So, how did you get rid of the condensation?
A dehumidifier does the trick. We did a big post about condensation. Click here.
Anything I had that was leather, (shoes, bags etc.) ended up mildewed and wrecked. The condensation of 4 people living in a trailer, cooking spaghetti and bathing (not at the same time, haha) was just too much for our 30′ trailer. We only lived in it for 1 year, while we built the house – luckily the kids were still small!! The people we know who have spent longer living in them tacked on a wooden front room, complete with wood stove. Oh, and, when the autumn storms came… ugh being terrified that a tree would collapse the trailer while we were sleeping.
We absolutely know the feeling of a worrying about a tree collapsing on the trailer. It’s one of our worst fears. We’ve seen it happen to other full-time RVers. Hopefully it never happens to us.
I’ve often wondered what it would be like to live in an RV. Your complaints about them sound legitimate, although I still think it would be a lot of fun to drive around and see the countryside without ever technically leaving your home.
The only thing I don’t like about living in an apartment is when the people who live nearby decide to cook very different dishes and the scents of all of their different foods mingle in the hallway. Spaghetti, sushi, cabbage soup, bacon, and brownies are individually delicious….but they don’t smell so good when you’re smelling them all at once. 🙂
Lydia, you’ve definitely brought back unfond memories for us of our past neighbours and their stinky dishes that would create. We do not miss that at all. Living our full-time RV lifestyle is wonderful and while there are some unpleasant things, we really can’t complain.
Hahahha! The Irish Jig!
Just found your blog! Love it! Will follow you as we are in Manitoba and going to be doing the Summer Time RV living to save some money.
Hi Amie, 100% you can save money living in an RV. Try and search for an RV park that will allow you to work in exchange for rent. 🙂 Kate
Hey, Kate and Adam, I’m so glad I found this blog! We live in PEI and soon we will be moving to BC for my husband’s new job in Pitt Meadows. We have 3 kiddos ages 5, 6 and 8 which I homeschool and we’ve been crazily considering full-time RVing. Is it doable? What is your experience in BC during the Winter? We will so appreciate any input! While we wait we will devour your blog posts. 😉
HI ANA!
It is 100% doable! The winter in BC was actually quite good. The temperature stayed around 0 for the most part during the coldest times. For a lot of people that rainy season takes getting used to. It rains a lot in October/November. I mean a lot! Tofino and Ucluelet get the least amount of snow on Vancouver Island. Lots of other places got a lot of snow (record breaking snow this year). If you have more questions you can email us directly at [email protected]
Hi Kate and Ana. We just spent the winter in Parksville and then 1 month in Victoria. 35′ Carriage Cameo fifth wheel. We had a EZ Snap skirting around the base of the rig to cut wind – not under the hitch area. A lot of people did not use skirting. We put a portable heater under that which had an auto thermostat to come on at zero – we left it unplugged except when we knew nights were going to be really cold. Also kept a 20 watt bulb going in our cubby next to the water lines and wrapped the hose outside of course. Biggest thing was humidity which we conquered with a dehumidifier but we also opened cupboard doors and pulled the contents away from the walls so that air could circulate. Also, pull the mattress away from the wall in the morning and let air circulate there as well. No problems. Oh yes, – I put plastic on the window inside – mistake. We did see mildew or mould start to form so pulled that off. Would try to do it outside next time. Perfectly do-able. 🙂
RVing is a myth; a very expensive one. Yes they all fall apart, eventually leak, and all that plastic turns yellow, while soon after it starts crumbling in your hands. We have only been out 53 times, but the bug is deep. These days the cost of parking, the RV, repairs and fuel have busted the bubble. Not to mention the danger from others, the road and the fact that many RVers are of advanced age when the senses have retreated. It is like trying to run away from the noisy, dangerous neighborhood in the RV and finding that you have just paid a premium to move to another one. much like it.