Many people live full-time in a travel trailer, including us. Our home is a 32-foot, triple-slide travel trailer that provides enough room for our family of four.
Living full-time in a travel trailer is completely doable. While large fifth-wheels and big Class A motorhomes or large fifth-wheel are often seen as the best choice for full-time living, many people can and do live in their travel trailers. You won’t find as many models equipped with extended-stay features like laundry hookups, dishwashers, and other luxuries, but a quality travel trailer can provide a solid and reliable home for years.
There are compromises to be made if your full-time camper of choice is a travel trailer. Space is at more of a premium. Travel trailers often don’t have the same enclosed volume as a comparable length fifth-wheel. You might need to downsize your belongings if you plan to move around a lot with your camper. If you’re parking it in one spot to live in, then most of your stuff can be stored in a shed or other outbuilding.
If you’re living life on the road, or even moving around a couple of times per year, you’ll need to be prepared.
Choosing the Right Floorplan for You
We find our Avenger 32BIT to be spacious and comfortable for our family of four. A lot of your comfort will come from the floorplan you select. We chose this model for a few specific reasons.
First, the rear bunks are in their own room, separated from the main living area with a solid door. The bunks are in a slide-out, so this space provides plenty of room for the kids to have their own space for sleeping and playing.
Second, the opposing slides in the main salon of the trailer really open up the space. There’s a kitchen island with a sink that adds considerable functionality to the area. Counter space is still at a premium, but that’s a fact of RV living that you’ll need to accept.
Finding the right travel trailer floorplan will be an essential part of making full-time living possible.
The other standout feature of this floorplan is the full-size closet next to the entry door. Storage space like this is common in almost every house, but it’s super-rare in the RV world. Even large fifth-wheels and Class A models lack a proper coat closet by the door. This is the feature that sealed the deal for us. It seems like such a small and insignificant thing, but I’m telling you, it makes all the difference in the world.
You’ll need to spend some time analyzing your living habits:
- What do you need to be comfortable?
- How many different spaces will you need?
- How many of you will there be?
Think of the daily activity for each member of your entourage and figure out what they each need. Then start looking at floorplans. There are many to choose from and you’ll be able to find the one that best suits your need. But even then, you’ll still have to compromise.
Getting Clever with Storage and Organization
If there’s anything at more of a premium in a travel trailer than counter space, it’s storage. There are not that many places to put stuff. If a travel trailer is going to be your full-time home, you’ll need to get rid of some stuff. Our Avenger has above-average storage space, and even though we don’t have a lot of things, we still need to be careful.
It’s more than just the volume of stuff, it’s also the weight. We find ourselves monitoring the weight of the things we carry much more than the volume of space they take up. A travel trailer generally won’t have the same cargo carrying capacity as a comparable fifth wheel. Of course, this varies with the model, but it’s something that you’ll need to keep in mind. Our trailer has a cargo capacity of about 1,300 pounds. We use every ounce of it.
Again, this is a consideration only if you plan to travel with your camper. If you’re parking it at a year-round campground or on some lane, go ahead and pack it full. The volume will be your concern, not the weight. However, not all full-timers stay in one place.
What would be the point of living full-time in an RV if you don’t take advantage of the fact you can move it anywhere?
At the very least, those of us that live in colder climates are going to move to warmer temperatures for the winter. While it’s certainly possible to stay in an RV during the winter, wouldn’t we all rather spend that time somewhere warmer? That means we have to consider the weight and volume of our possessions.
Compromising and Adapting to a Small Space.
Slimming down your possessions to live full-time in a travel trailer may seem daunting, but wait until you try to get all your people living peacefully in 300 square feet. That’s truly daunting. Our family made it even more complicated, as both Jennifer and I work from home. It adds another level of complexity to our full-time adventure.
As I’m wiring this article, the rest of our clan is right beside me studying math and reading. Our need to travel south in the winter means we homeschool our children. Every morning during my writing time, they sit at the dinette and do schoolwork. They’re still young and any activity can become a raucous affair, but we learned to adapt.
In about an hour, their schooling will be over and recreation will begin. Movement and volume will increase. Again, we have to understand and adapt. Every irritating habit each member of your family has (including yours) is magnified in the reduced space of an RV. A fifth wheel may give us a little more space to spread out, but not enough to make a noticeable difference.
Our travel trailer functions as our home, our office, and our schoolhouse. Fortunately, there is plenty of space outside to allow us to spread out, weather permitting. But there will be more than a few days where everyone is inside the camper. These days can be challenging, but the adventure is worth the price.
You Don’t Need a Fifth-Wheel to Live Full-Time
A travel trailer is a great option for full-time RV living. We’re quite happy with ours. I’m not saying that we’ll never upgrade to an extended-stay fifth-wheel at some point, but we would have to have several years of enjoyable full-time living in our travel trailer before we could even begin to justify the extra costs.
Whether a travel trailer is a suitable RV for you comes down to a couple of points. Can you find a travel trailer with a floorplan that suits your lifestyle? Can you come up with a plan for all your belongings? Can you adapt and live harmoniously with all your people in a small space? If you can sort out these three basics, then you can make a comfortable home in any RV.
Even a travel trailer.
