Chickery's Travels

Chickery's Travels logo. A blue-green Earth globe with continents surrounded by dots with an arrow denoting movement or travel and "Chickery's Travels" as part of the dotted circle. Next to this is a photo of their blue and white Arctic Fox 5th Wheel with the awning out.

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Top 3 Lessons Learned & Biggest Regret: 3 Years Full-Time RV Living

Happy Nomadiversary to us! After three years of full-time RV living, we reflected on the top three lessons learned and our biggest regret of the full-time RV lifestyle.

Learn how to pay off debt, earn an income, and save money all while traveling full-time.

UPDATE: It’s been 3 years since we’ve written this article and we still agree with the lessons learned below. We’ve updated the video to include three more lessons…Watch our two part series: 6 Lessons Learned & our 2 Biggest Regrets after 6 Years Full-Time below.

Lesson #1: Take Your Time

We realized early on that we get travel fatigue when we move too often. We prefer to stay at least one week and often up to a month per location. This allows us to take time to see the sights in the local area, as well as save on fuel costs.

Lesson #2: Be Flexible

I’m a planner and have reservations several months in advance. However, I’ve learned to be a little more flexible and only make reservations at places that have a liberal cancellation policy. In fact, my rule is that I don’t make a reservation at any place that will charge me more than $15 to cancel or make a change.

Lesson #3: You Don’t Need as Much Room as you Think

We thought because we had a large 2400 square foot home, that we needed a large RV. As a result we purchased a 44′ Fifth Wheel toy hauler. Now after three years on the road, we realize that we do not need such a large RV. See the interior tour below.

Update: We recently downsized to 30′ Arctic Fox Fifth Wheel. We love it! Learn why we choose the Arctic Fox below:

Biggest Regret: Our RV Purchasing Mistakes

We were not very savvy when we purchased our first RV. We bought brand new, paid too much, and financed the RV. While we spent a lot of time researching the type of RV we wanted, we didn’t really research costs. Click here to read our article on how painful depreciation can be. 

If you’re struggling with debt or creating a full-time RV budget, check out our Full-Time RV Finance program where we share our process for turning things around and paying off $137,000 in just two years. The program also includes exercises to help you assess your current situation, design your dream life, and identify ways to make money & save money on full-time RV travel.

Learn how to pay off debt, earn an income, and save money all while traveling full-time.

Sharing is caring! Feel free to share the image below on Pinterest. 

Read our lessons learned and biggest regret from 3 years RV living in a 5th wheel. We share tips and ideas to enjoy your RV life as a family. #RVlife

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Important Tip on RV Generator Cables

The cables for the RV’s generator are weird. I was always taught that a black battery cable went to the negative battery post and the red cable went to the positive. After 45 years, I learned that is not always the case. It all started with a stupid mistake. I also failed to take a photo of how all the cables were connected to the batteries before replacing the batteries.

Connecting the Generator to the Batteries

After installing the new batteries, I connected all of the black cables to the negative posts and all of the red cables to the positive posts. I went to test the generator and it was dead. The pump wouldn’t prime either, and the light would not come on, not a peep for sound. I went through the troubleshooting manual, which included resetting the circuit breakers on the generator and checking the connections. All good, but still nothing. I pulled out my computer and searched the Heartland Cyclone Owner’s Forum and searched for generator posts. Very quickly, I found a post indicating a similar problem to mine. About three responses in was the explanation: the black cable from the generator to the battery is positive!

Now, why would they be so cruel as to do this to us?? I have no idea, but I learned two valuable lessons by this mistake.

Helpful Hints

  1. Always take a “before” picture, so assembly works the first time.
  2. Always check the connections to make sure positive goes to positive and negative goes to negative, regardless of the color of the cable.

After I switched the black cable to the positive battery post, everything worked perfectly!

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