Any full timers in a GMC?

Going full time in the GMC probably isn’t the smartest or easiest choice when it comes to mobile living, but it sure is an adventure. And this thing is actually quite a pleasure to drive. I’ve never had or driven any other RVs, but I’ve driven my share of moving trucks and those monsters in the RV parks look like they‘d be about as fun to drive as that. Why would I want to spend my life driving/living in something that I don’t even want to look at? The GMC looks cool and feels cool. It’s often times that the comfortable path isn’t the one you should take.

My wife and I went through about a year of planning and downsizing and selling and moving before we finally moved in. We left a small storage unit worth of things (mostly my record collection) we’re not ready to part with yet. And now that we’re in here stepping over and moving around all the stuff we did decide too bring we are already making boxes of stuff to offload when we can. It feels really nice to realize that you don’t actually need at that stuff. We get a little lighter every few days. We’re also finding that there a quite a lot of folks out here living full time in their rigs. And most people are super friendly and happy to chat and share stories.

Another huge perk is that I’m really getting to know the coach much better by driving it every couple days for a few hundred miles at a time. Fixing things, lubricating things, fixing more things. I’m a tinkerer and love to wrench on things so it’s the perfect fixer upper house for me. Overall it’s all been a blast so far and an adventure that our family will not soon forget.
 
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brianjosephgrover said:
We’re about 20 miles south of Bend Oregon. We’ll be here for a few days then heading to Portland.
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Thats ironic. I lived in La Pine OR 2015-2021. You must be in Sun River area. Tons of boondocking all around there and to the east.

I'd skip Portland unless you miss LA. To each their own... The drive over the pass is pretty, I hear they're getting a bit of snow. If you take 97 north to Biggs and then 84 West to Portland you miss any snow. Not sure if the snow is low enough to affect traffic yet. Most people do not know how to drive in snow in OR so a 2 hour drive turns into gridlock. Plan accordingly.
 
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Even before Chaumière, Mary had collected a pair of measures, one spoon and one cup and both are adjustable to provide a range. That and the new silver ware holder that fits nicely in a GMC kitchen drawer are just a few of the things that make life easier in a small space. We have other stuff too. In simpler terms, "This ain't our first Rodeo".
Keep looking and when you find something good, tell us here.
Matt
 
Wife and I and our 9 year old daughter moved onto a 40' ocean going sailboat when I retired in 1993 and lived full time very successfully on it for 7.5 years and only the last year and a half was moored at a marina (in Puerto Vallarta, MX). The interior living space was smaller than our 26' GMC. Home schooled the 9 year old. In our later years we lived full time in a 40' Motorhome with 4 slide outs very successfully for six months each winter (Summers in Montana home/Winters in CA&AZ in the RV). We downsized to the GMC a couple years ago planning to resume the same plan. We had owned a GMC Kingsley for 11 years back in the 80's. The RV resort we were a permanent member of would not allow our new to us 1975 GMC to reside in the Park even though it had had a complete restoration and looked "as new". So we dropped the membership but kept the GMC!.

However, my contribution to this thread is that we have seen the full gambit of those who can and cannot live full time on a boat or an RV. The ability to do it successfully and with enjoyment (and we have enjoyed it all) is purely individualized. What I mean is it is purely your attitude and willingness to adjust, accommodate to your situation, accommodate to you companions, DOWNSIZE, and maintain a positive attitude regarding a new style of life. We have two daughters. The eldest was in college and then later an Officer in the Navy while we were on the sailboat. The youngest was the 9 year old who was with us. She is currently a very successful premier Winemaker for Gallo industries, 39 years old, speaks fluent Spanish, Mexican High School Graduate, Cal Poly Graduate. The eldest daughter and our parents thought we were CRAZY. The youngest daughter thinks she had the greatest experiences of her life! The wife and I still think it was a very romantic and enjoyable dream. But, success is truly, truly up to you and your attitude and ability to accommodate. Never during those years have we felt that we had a "horrible" experience. Encountered difficulties at times but never horrible!

By the way... this whole "boat/RV experience" was my wife's idea, not mine.... bless her heart!!!

Just my opinion.... Rod
 
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Hey Rod,
in the past couple of years, several friends have traded boats for RVs or vice-versa. They often come to me at the beginning of the consideration to discuss this and the first thing I tell them is that the difference between an RV and a boat is that water will leak out of an RV. Other wise pretty much the same things but for the specific vocabulary. I bet you knew that.
Matt
 
brianjosephgrover said:
We’re about 20 miles south of Bend Oregon. We’ll be here for a few days then heading to Portland.
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You're close to Sisters, then? There's a beautiful Eleganza in Sisters that I see every time I'm there. Sometimes at Rays, sometimes near an RV park on the east end, and last time it was parked at a house. I can't pass through Sisters without spotting it, but it seems to move around a lot.

We're near the Mill City area, if you were to head west towards Salem on Hwy 22. The Hwy 22 drive is gorgeous, BTW.
 
rodknu said:
Wife and I and our 9 year old daughter moved onto a 40' ocean going sailboat when I retired in 1993 and lived full time very successfully on it for 7.5 years and only the last year and a half was moored at a marina (in Puerto Vallarta, MX). The interior living space was smaller than our 26' GMC. Home schooled the 9 year old. In our later years we lived full time in a 40' Motorhome with 4 slide outs very successfully for six months each winter (Summers in Montana home/Winters in CA&AZ in the RV). We downsized to the GMC a couple years ago planning to resume the same plan. We had owned a GMC Kingsley for 11 years back in the 80's. The RV resort we were a permanent member of would not allow our new to us 1975 GMC to reside in the Park even though it had had a complete restoration and looked "as new". So we dropped the membership but kept the GMC!.

However, my contribution to this thread is that we have seen the full gambit of those who can and cannot live full time on a boat or an RV. The ability to do it successfully and with enjoyment (and we have enjoyed it all) is purely individualized. What I mean is it is purely your attitude and willingness to adjust, accommodate to your situation, accommodate to you companions, DOWNSIZE, and maintain a positive attitude regarding a new style of life. We have two daughters. The eldest was in college and then later an Officer in the Navy while we were on the sailboat. The youngest was the 9 year old who was with us. She is currently a very successful premier Winemaker for Gallo industries, 39 years old, speaks fluent Spanish, Mexican High School Graduate, Cal Poly Graduate. The eldest daughter and our parents thought we were CRAZY. The youngest daughter thinks she had the greatest experiences of her life! The wife and I still think it was a very romantic and enjoyable dream. But, success is truly, truly up to you and your attitude and ability to accommodate. Never during those years have we felt that we had a "horrible" experience. Encountered difficulties at times but never horrible!

By the way... this whole "boat/RV experience" was my wife's idea, not mine.... bless her heart!!!

Just my opinion.... Rod
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I loved reading this Rod. Thanks. It’s good to hear positive experiences of going this route. We’re also planning to homeschool the kids while we are traveling, but that’s a ways off so it’s not an urgent concern. I’d love to make the switch to a sailboat one day. Although I’ve never sailed I’m always drawn to it.
 
pvfjr said:
You're close to Sisters, then? There's a beautiful Eleganza in Sisters that I see every time I'm there. Sometimes at Rays, sometimes near an RV park on the east end, and last time it was parked at a house. I can't pass through Sisters without spotting it, but it seems to move around a lot.

We're near the Mill City area, if you were to head west towards Salem on Hwy 22. The Hwy 22 drive is gorgeous, BTW.
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We’ve been at the Thousand Trails near Bend-Sunriver. We’re heading out today, but we’re not going west. We’re going north. I’ll have to spot that Eleganza on another trip.
 
brianjosephgrover said:
We’ve been at the Thousand Trails near Bend-Sunriver. We’re heading out today, but we’re not going west. We’re going north. I’ll have to spot that Eleganza on another trip.
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If you stay on 97 to Biggs then take I84 west to Portland you'll skip the pass. Not sure if theres snow on the road yet, but if there is traffic is terrible. Most people in Oregon cant drive in the snow and they freak out and/or wreck, then the road gets closed for hours.
All the passes are very scenic, but the Columbia Gorge (I84) is nice as well.
 
Brian,
Continue with the plans and dreams. As one of three kids largely home schooled, there are some issues you should know about. Children that are home schooled do not end up absorbing a lot of the socialization that public or even private school students do. This means that a lot of the pettiness and such will be foreign to them. While this worked poorly for my brother both my sister and I got on just fine. (Well, there were some rough edges for me because being a life-long waterman, I had no concept of someone wanting to hate me just because I was me. It didn't help that I was much stronger than most of my classmates and far ahead of the age/grade thing.)
As you can possibly guess, I could go on about this at great length but that is not for now as I have a coach that needs the cooling system refilled today while it is warm enough to work outside.
Matt
 
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Scotty said:
I don't see myself ever being a full time RV'er. Especially in a GMC given it's size - I need more room. But I do admire those who can pull it off. HOWEVER - I am hoping to be able to take long and sometimes unscheduled trips to destinations unknown once I retire.

For those of you who have or are full timing, what recommendations do you have for your fellow GMC'rs should we decide to jump into that adventure.
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I lived in a 1975 Kingsley for a little over 2 years. If you want to do it full time, you've gotta update the interior with storage you can access from inside and outside the coach, go with some sort of hydronic heating, recirculating shower (using sand filter, tiered micron filtration and UV filter) and some version of dry flush toliet (my new purchase will have an incinerating toliet). The space would have been plenty and if we had not had to deal with interior systems failing all the time and I would have been ready for the mechanical issues, I probably would still be living in the first one.
 
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Wheelock said:
I lived in a 1975 Kingsley for a little over 2 years. If you want to do it full time, you've gotta update the interior with storage you can access from inside and outside the coach, go with some sort of hydronic heating, recirculating shower (using sand filter, tiered micron filtration and UV filter) and some version of dry flush toliet (my new purchase will have an incinerating toliet). The space would have been plenty and if we had not had to deal with interior systems failing all the time and I would have been ready for the mechanical issues, I probably would still be living in the first one.
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I'm very interested to hear more of your full timing in GMC experience.

From what I've seen on the CheapRVLiving youtube channel, many full timers (on a budget) use a simple handheld sprayer to take daily showers. Uses hardly any water, weighs nothing, costs close to nothing. Works.

Water conservation seems to be key to extended boondocking
 
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