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Taking Telecommuting To the Next Level - the RV

Posted by samzenpus on from the dear-indugu dept.

An anonymous reader writes "I have been telecommuting as a software architect for a major corporation since 2007. It has allowed me to live a quality rural lifestyle. Never content, am now considering living on the road for several years. Due to the proliferation of 4G and wireless hotspots, I see no reason I could not do this from a 5th-wheel trailer. Have any slashdotters truly cut the cord in this manner? Any advice or warnings?"

22 of 365 comments (clear)

  1. Service quality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    In Romania (and probably the EU), we have a law that forces all ISPs to publish service quality parameters (such as average complaint resolving time). Make sure you check them if there are any in the US, to help you decide which provider you pick.

  2. Showers by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 4, Informative

    Only stay at places with shower facilities. RV'ing can be fun, but without some comforts like the ability to take long/hot showers, it will always feel like a small step above camping.

    Not something you will want to do for several years. And find places with electrical outlets. Air conditioning is something to die for during the summer, and you wont have it if you are running a generator only.

    --
    while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    1. Re:Showers by O('_')O_Bush · · Score: 5, Informative

      And avoid states where fireants are prolific. Nothing will ruin your day faster than fireants in your bed. They come in through cracks around the wheel wells, and are notoriously bad in areas where campers tend to be.

      --
      while(1) attack(People.Sandy);
    2. Re:Showers by gatkinso · · Score: 5, Informative

      This usually only happens if you are parked directly over their nest, so scout the area before parking. If you see a nest, pour a few gallons of boiling water down it. Then liberally sprinkle borax over the area.

      When you park, place a small inflatable pool on the ground where the wheels will go. When the wheels are in the middle of the pool, inflate and fill with water.

      These are completely natural methods to mitigate the ants, cheap, and very very effective.

      --
      I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
    3. Re:Showers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I agree, people in RV's need to die.

    4. Re:Showers by Mathinker · · Score: 5, Informative

      I thought so too, but recently saw:

      @ URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borax#Toxicity

      Borax was added to the Substance of Very High Concern (SVHC) candidate list on 16 December 2010. The SVHC candidate list is part of the EU Regulations on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals 2006 (REACH), and the addition was based on the revised classification of Borax as toxic for reproduction category 1B under the CLP Regulations. Substances and mixtures imported into the EU which contain Borax are now required to be labelled with the warnings "May damage fertility" and "May damage the unborn child".

      Probably still less toxic than most pesticides, but not quite as innocuous as previously thought...

    5. Re:Showers by dr_dank · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When you park, place a small inflatable pool on the ground where the wheels will go. When the wheels are in the middle of the pool, inflate and fill with water.

      That might take care of the fire ants, but now you've got a prime mosquito breeding ground surrounding your camper.

      --
      Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
    6. Re:Showers by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      " I'm guessing he wants a "real" RV--the $100,000 40 foot ones"
      You dont know RV prices do you...

      The morons that bought that $100,000 RV are now desperate to sell them. I picked up a 48 foot 5th wheel with TWO bedrooms and a freaking garage in it (it also has a gas station with a 30 gallon gas tank and gas pump) plus has a sealed and heated undercarriage for 4 season camping. Got it looking like new but 4 years old for $25,900.

      Only a complete moron would buy a new one.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    7. Re:Showers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then we bring in some spiders to take care of the mosquito problem...

    8. Re:Showers by HangingChad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it will always feel like a small step above camping.

      Say what? I don't know where you've been staying, but none of what you said is true. RV parks, unless they're wilderness campgrounds, always have electric, water and sewer connections and many newer RVs have 10-12 gallon hot water tanks which a lot more hot water than my wife and I have ever used at one time.

      Not something you will want to do for several years.

      Says who? The longer you're on the road, the less inclination you'll be to ever go back to bricks and sticks and having your house nailed to the ground. We've been on the road for three years and found that many of our problems with traditional housing stem from a lack of convenient mobility.

      Most generators will run an A/C unit on an RV just fine. If your RV has two A/C units most likely your generator is already sized for the load. The only time we've ever run ours is when we stopped at a rest area and wanted to take a nap or make lunch.

      For the OP I have sections on wifi, satellite and wireless internet coverage. Right now we get high speed to our 5th wheel from the cable company, just like we did at the last two parks we've stayed in.

      And as far as comfort goes, you have to learn to live in less space but the space you have is better organized. And there's someone else taking care of the yard work, cleaning the pool, grooming the golf course and stocking the bar.

      Full time RV living is more comfortable and way more convenient than you might imagine. It's not a great choice if you have kids, but my friend up the street is a Unix admin for a hospital chain and he's lived in RVs for the last 10 years. You couldn't get either one of us back in a house. Traditional housing sucks in comparison.

      --
      That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
  3. Limited Cell coverage by jfdavis668 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Many of the places you may want to travel to may have limited cell coverage. I have stayed in many campgrounds where 2G is the most I can hope for. Think about where you want to go before you dive into this plan.

    1. Re:Limited Cell coverage by vlm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Many of the places you may want to travel to may have limited cell coverage. I have stayed in many campgrounds where 2G is the most I can hope for. Think about where you want to go before you dive into this plan.

      My father made money with dialup while RVing over a decade ago. "I can't survive without the latest modern tech" is a great way to talk yourself out of it.

      Much as probably very few /.ers have Aeron chairs at home yet somehow compute none the less.

      There will be "issues" like GUI/VNC is not a good idea compared to CLI/SSH. Learn how to make your computer multitask. If you're the type who can only do one thing at a time, such as watch a download process bar while doing absolutely nothing else, you'll be in agony. On the other hand if you're using something like GIT for distributed VCS you really don't care how long it takes to sync the repos as long as it takes less time that your average successful connection, then OK...

      Also since roughly the dotcom boom almost all commercial/non-public campgrounds have wifi. So your 2G campground was almost certainly public, I'm guessing. I've never been to a commercial campground without wifi or a public campground with anything other than cell service. Luckily, being mobile, you don't have to stay at a park thats a telecommunications black hole. All campgrounds, commercial or public, seem surrounded by wifi equipped coffee shops. Even 10 years ago this was just not much of an issue. To some extent a coffee shop is more conducive to work than looking out the window at the ladies suntanning on the beach all day anyway.

      You get pretty good at batching too, or you get pretty frustrated. I just did a git push, now I need to immediately instantly sync up with everyone else. Well, no, probably not, not if you're managing it well. Sure you would if you were not communications limited, but if you have to drive 5 minutes to the coffee shop, then it turns out you don't.

      --
      "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  4. Non-Internet issues by John+Bresnahan · · Score: 5, Informative

    The technology-related issues are easy to solve these days. Unless you're in the middle of the desert, 3G/4G cell phones and personal WiFi hotspots should work. If you are determined to live way, way out in the boonies, then look in to satellite-based Internet. It's not very good, but sometimes it's your only option.

    The government and regulatory issues might be a bigger problem. Are you keeping your current home? If not, what will you use as an address? You will have problems with things like driver's licenses if you don't have a permanent address.

    There are several RV-related web sites with articles and forums on the subject of full-timing. Make sure to check them out.

    1. Re:Non-Internet issues by khallow · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A number of permanent RVers or "fulltimers" are residents of South Dakota. The state doesn't require a physical pressure except once every few years to get the driver's license renewed. They get around the permanent mailbox problem by setting up mail forwarding from a permanent address in that state.

  5. That's a big percentage by mattr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Wow. TFA says 8.9 million American households that have RVs, about a half-million live full-time on the road.
    And the National Multi Housing Council site I found says there are a total of 118M households in all.
    So 7.5% of all households own RVs? And 0.4% live on the road? I had no idea such a huge percentage was doing this.

  6. It's fun, but Internet access not there yet by Yoje · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's some good and bad sides to this. I actually tried this out about 3 years ago, wanted to travel while I'm still young and can do more. Me and the wife bought a 35' fifth wheel, moved out of the apartment, and put excess stuff in storage. After about 6 months, we moved out of the RV and back into another apartment. (Kept the RV though, still like to travel!)

    The good:
    - Having a new backyard every day/week was great.
    - Met a lot of friendly people along the way. Many having dinner outside their RV would frequently ask if we wanted to sit and eat with them when we were walking around the park. In turn, we always tried to do the same when we had cooked something.
    - A lot of experienced RVers and full-timers are more than willing to help out with issues you might have, as long as you're open to it.
    - Seeing the country is great fun, especially the out of the way areas.
    - On some days it feels like a full-time vacation (even when working).

    The bad:
    - High speed Internet access was spotty/unreliable. Being in a rural area, you may be familiar with this already, but when traveling around in an RV to random campsites and rest areas, you find out rather quickly that anything above 3G is still iffy on the open road. Don't count on the coverage map saying 3G or 4G is available in the middle of nowhere, especially if you have time-sensitive work you need to submit.
    - Most campgrounds (i.e. RV-oriented campgrounds, not state parks and such) will offer wi-fi access, but it may be spotty, slow speed, or unreliable. And the campground office tends to either be empty when trying to find someone to tell there's a problem with the wi-fi, or if a person is there they usually aren't sure about the wi-fi setup or how to troubleshoot/reset it.
    - If you travel a lot (i.e. don't hook up in one place for more than a few days) you will spend a lot on gas. And if you do stay in one place for a period of time, don't forget to account for campground fees.
    - Most trailers aren't made for "permanent" living. You'll notice this most with the walls and lack of insulation, especially in peak summer and winter months. Quality counts here.

    You'll definitely want to budget things out though, as you can easily spend a lot more than you would in mortgage or rent. Joining Good Sam helps some, committing to a place for 2-4 weeks at a time can help out more with campground prices. Some campgrounds will even let you do odd jobs to help decrease the "rent", but you'll usually find that "regulars" that have been there for extended periods already are doing those jobs. If you do commit to full-time, let your insurance agent know - most major carriers can convert your homeowners/renters insurance into an equivalent "full-timer" RV policy so you'll have coverage on the stuff in the camper.

    In short, if you like to travel it's a good experience. If you don't like camping out, you won't have a good time (modern RVs are comfortable, but you still need to remember it's camping out, and you won't have all the amenities of a regular apartment/house). Also depending on how much you need an Internet connection, how fast you need it, and how often you need it, you may not want to commit to it full time. At least, just yet. As the infrastructure and reliability continues to improve, this will become less of an issue as time goes on (I'm sure it's improved some in the 2-3 years since we did it).

  7. Depends where you camp by slim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I assume if you're RVing, you want to be in reasonably rural areas -- not in city RV parks.

    I RV'd through British Columbia and Alaska 3 years ago. For much of the route, 3G wasn't available. State/County campsites don't have WiFi. Commercial campsites almost always have WiFi.

    However, the quality of the WiFi can vary wildly. You could easily find yourself camped on the edge of the coverage area of a consumer-grade 802.11b access point, sharing a basic DSL connection with everyone else on the site. Sometimes even basic web browsing is frustrating. I wouldn't want to be reliant on it for VOIP, screen sharing, email attachments of reasonable size, or largeish file transfers.

    So I think you'll find yourself hunting out sites with reliable WiFi, which means you won't be as free as you might have hoped.

  8. Been there, done that, still doing it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I work for a consulting firm so I'm either on-site with a client or sitting at home with my laptop writing reports and managing the rest of my team and I cut the cord last year.

    I spent last winter living off the back of my motorcycle in the southwestern US, usually spent my nights in a tent but I would retreat to the occasional hotel room when the weather threatened. If I can do it on a bike you can do it in an RV. I carried a small inverter to keep my laptop charged and powered everything else directly off the bike. Between 3G tethering through my iPhone and WiFi wherever I could find it (hint: due to Mormon sensibilities there are no Starbucks in southern Utah, look for a Subway) I was able to stay online. The "Coverage?" app for iPhone really helped when I needed to find a signal (I'm sure there's something similar available for Android) and I got online in some crazy places (try Googling "Muley Point" or "Dry Fork Coyote Gulch"). I got a small storage unit in Las Vegas for $30/mo where I would keep a suitcase full of "work clothes" for when I had to fly out to a client meeting (something you wouldn't have to worry about in an RV) and as a convenient/cheap/enclosed spot to park the bike while I was away.

    The bike is currently stashed in the storage unit and I'm now living on a 41' sailboat (the RV of the seas). I've set it up with a 4G hotspot and some big cell/WiFi antennas so I can get service offshore. Currently located in Manhasset Bay at the western end of Long Island Sound, sailing down the East River later today to tie up in NYC for a month or so.

  9. Advice from a trucker by tech10171968 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm not an RV'er but, since the economy chased me out of my Unix sysadmin gig, I resorted to putting food on the table by becoming a freight jockey (it was also a nice change of pace). When you're on the road for 26 days out of the month (as well as single with no children) shelling out rent for an apartment is kind of a moot point, so I literally live in the truck. Wifi on the road is really no big deal anymore, especially since most major truck stops, hotels, and even quite a few interstate rest areas now have hotspots.

    That being said, there are a few things I do to make online life a little easier for a road warrior:

    (1) As I already mentioned, many of your typical diesel stops are going to have wifi but the network can get pretty crowded at times. Some of the best times to use wifi at these facilities is 9 am to 5 pm, when most of your competition is going to be on the road instead of hogging up the bandwidth.

    (2) The signal coverage in the places can also be a little spotty: one corner of the lot may have wonderful signal strength but another can absolutely suck. If you can, park so that you can have a clear line of sight to the building in which the antenna is located. Also, try not to put the fuel islands between you and the building if it can be helped; you can go from a really good connection to being knocked offline because somebody's Peterbilt pulled in to the fuel lane at the wrong time.

    (3) Many of the wifi hotspots in these stops are managed with OpenDNS and certain websites will be blocked (namely, anything having to do with torrents).

    (4) Wifi obviously won't be available everywhere you stop. If you often find yourself in the middle of nowhere (like me) then consider getting something like Verizon's MiFi or Fivespot devices. Verizon's plans seem to be better for heavy users but, if all you do is surf or check email, then there are probably cheaper plans around.

    (5) One of the best investments I've made was a wifi repeater with an externally-mounted antenna. A typical trailer is about 13'6" (4.5 meters) in height; when all the diesel jockeys park it for the night there's going to be a awful lot of metal for your signal to try to get through.

    (6) I often use my laptop for trip planning as well as keeping my DOT logs via an approved logbook application, so my machine is often running while I'm driving (but I do keep both hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road). Don't know about RV's but trucks bounce around a lot; as you can imagine, this repeated shock-testing can't be very good for the condition of your laptop. If you're going to be doing something similar then I highly suggest getting a laptop stand which bolts to the seat (the seats are usually equipped with "air-ride" shock absorbers and can greatly reduce the constant jarring experienced while driving).

    --
    This space for rent!
  10. Yes! You Can! We have since 2006... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Greetings! Yes, this sort of lifestyle is totally possible! Several words for it include: Technomad, Digital Nomad, Location Independent Professional, NuRVer, etc. We're currently in our late 30s, are both software developers and have been on the road working remotely full time in an RV since 2006.

    We started out first in a tiny 16' teardrop trailer, then a 17' fiberglass egg trailer and now a 35' vintage bus conversion. All of our homes on wheels have been geeked out with electronics, wireless internet options and solar panels. Our bus currently even has a lithium ion phosphate battery bank to power everything.

    4G is definitely making things easier and easier. When we hit the road, finding a solid 2G signal was a struggle,and 3G was just starting to roll out - and even that was workable. More and more RV parks are also installing reliable WiFi networks, and there is WiFi boosting equipment that makes it easier to pick a signal. For cellular, we like a combination of the Verizon & AT&T footprint for keeping online in most places. We purchase our Verizon through bulk reseller www.Millenicom.com - where we can buy 20GB/mo of 4G service for just $69.99 with no contract. For AT&T, we just tether off our smartphones when needed. We also have a cellular amplification system on our roof that helps us boost up a weak signal. We carry an internet satellite dish for when we're somewhere without other options.

    We blog about life on the road, particularly the tech aspect of it at: http://www.technomadia.com

    Of particular interest, you might enjoy:

    Our series going over a lot of the logistics: http://www.technomadia.com/excuses
    Our mobile internet setup: http://www.technomadia.com/excuses

    And if you're considering this lifestyle, recommend joining a bunch of us doing it at: http://www.nurvers.com (the couple profiled in the article you linked to are members there as well). Many of us rendezvous on the road and co-work & socialize from amazing places.

    Best wishes.. and if there are any questions you have, please feel free to be in touch!
      - Cherie & Chris / technomadia.com

  11. Re:Mail forwarding by vlm · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Many Walmarts and Sam's Clubs will let you park overnight. Some require you to ask. Highway est stops are usually safe places so take advantage of them. In either case, be discreet and safe.

    My father's life as an RVer results in the advice that if you buy a pop-up or a slide-out camper there is no way to argue with the cops or rentacops or just jerks in general that you're camping/sleeping. The slideout / pop up is kind of a give away that you're doing something "not allowed". However if you buy a completely fixed RV with no moving parts, there is no way for "the man" to know you're sleeping in the back of the RV vs maybe inside the store shopping.

    In an urban environment if you take a pop-up/slide out RV to the mall and obviously camp, you can expect to be very severely hassled. On the other hand, unless you offend them somehow, there's no way for a mall rentacop to figure out if you are shopping or sleeping in a fixed configuration RV. If they start chalking and towing then "regular customers" are going to scream bloody murder when their car is towed away while they're shopping, so thats a non-starter if the TV and newspapers could ever hear about it.

    So no slideout / popup is a HUGE logistical advantage. Also what you don't have, can't break. So you'll never be "stuck" unable to leave a campground because your slideout is stuck open or the pop-up is jammed.

    This leads to a vampiric lifestyle. Wake up around mall closing time, lets say 9pm, drive until the next big city mall opening time, lets say 9am (with stops for meals along the way, etc) then sleep or sightsee or shop or whatever until 9pm again. It sucks being exhausted at 8:30 am but can't park until the mall opens. Also being on the road shortly after bar closing time is often far too exciting... thats a good time to park somewhere for your "lunch".

    The cheapest daily urban camping rate I've ever heard of is sports stadiums, assuming you can sleep thru the sporting event. Sometimes as low as $3 per sleep period, which is amazingly cheap in a heavily urban environment. I've heard some places demand to see your event tickets before you get to park, but almost all do not. In urban environments there are also airports and convention centers and strangely enough, hotels, all of which are often pretty good places to park for cheap/free. Hotels will often hassle you if you park there overnight, but rarely if ever during the day.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  12. Some Tips.... by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Informative

    #1 - strip your RV of ALL fancy vinyl graphics and paint it stark white. You need urban camouflage. Bonus to add AT&T or VERIZON logo graphics on it to further make it look like a Company work trailer.

    #2 - All Walmarts let you boondock in their parking lots for 2 nights without hassle. more if you go to the edge and look unobtrusive. The camouflage works here too.

    #3 - Buy and install Limo Tint on all the RV windows. also install black curtains on all windows so at night nobody outside can see that you are inside. A cop will investigate your Rig, but if it looks like a corporate work RV and nobody is in it, he will go away after checking that it is secure. Putting lettering by the door that says "Fiberoptic Splicing TRAILER" help convince a cop you belong there.

    #4 - learn where fill and dump stations are, but try to not use your toilet in the RV unless you have to. It is a lot easier to find where to fill up fresh water at, and you can dump the grey water on the ground. but finding a dump station to get rid of all your turds is not a fun part of doing this. Leave your duces at restaurants and stores.

    #5 - if you dont own the RV, get a "toy hauler" that has a garage. that way you can bring a scooter, Motorcycle or Smartcar and not burn 3mpg gas driving around.

    #6 - unless you get an insane deal. do NOT buy a motor-home. Motor-homes are crap compared to a pickup truck and 5th wheel. Why? if you have any breakdown on your truck, you can park and get the truck fixed. If the Motor-home breaks down, you are in a hotel for a week while the RV repair center rapes you and your wallet over and over again. Having your 5th wheel towed to a local KOA campground for a week is a lot cheaper and you still have your home.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.