LIVE FREE RV · TALK TO TY · $79
Thinking About Van Life or RV Life? Let's Talk.
“Should I buy a van, a Super C, or a fifth wheel?” “Can I actually work from the road?” “Do I need Thousand Trails, or do I just boondock?”
Fifty minutes on the phone with someone who has been doing this full time for over a year and a half, has already made most of the mistakes, and has absolutely nothing to sell you.
$79 · 50-minute phone call · booked a couple of days out so I can actually prep
I can't tell you what to do. But I can tell you what not to do.
Learn from my mistakes before they cost you money, time, and a whole lot of frustration.
— Ty
The questions people actually ask me
None of these have one right answer. All of them have a pile of wrong ones, and I’ve personally tried several.
"Van, Super C, or fifth wheel?"
I’ve owned two of the three. I’ll tell you what each one actually costs you: in money, in the places it can and can’t take you, and in what it’s like to be stuck inside one at 4pm on a rainy Tuesday.
"Can I really work from the road?"
Starlink, boosters, backup plans — and the part nobody mentions: where you physically put your body for eight hours a day without wrecking your back or your relationship.
"Where do I sleep when there's no campground?"
Boondocking on public land, Harvest Hosts, Passport America, national forests, the parking-lot rules nobody writes down — and how to avoid circling a strange town at 11pm looking for anywhere flat.
"What does this actually cost per month?"
I have spreadsheets. An unreasonable number of spreadsheets. I’ll walk you through the categories people forget, because that is always where the budget breaks.
"Which apps can I actually trust?"
Some of them will genuinely hurt you. A friend built an RV trip planner — I host it now — and buried in the routing was a flaw: when the good router got busy, it quietly fell back to a plain car router. No height, no clearance, and it never said a word. I will tell you the two I actually run, what I cross-check before the rig moves an inch, and why Google Maps is not your friend out here.
"What do I have to worry about out here that I did not at home?"
In a house you never once wonder what county you are in. On a forest road, a watch issued for the county next door is the difference between moving and staying put — and that is one of maybe six things that quietly become your job out here. Reading an unfamiliar parking lot in sixty seconds. Which app actually carries real safety notes. What you never leave outside overnight. None of it is hard once somebody tells you.
What we'll actually cover
It’s your fifty minutes, so we go wherever you want. Most calls land somewhere in here.
The Rig
- Van vs. Super C vs. fifth wheel vs. travel trailer, honestly compared
- New or used, and what used actually costs you in year one
- Length, height and weight: where your rig will fit, where it'll be a struggle, and the real trade-offs
- What four-season really means, and what it does not
- The walkthrough questions dealers would rather you didn't ask
Where You Sleep
- Boondocking on BLM and national forest land — how to find it and how to do it well
- Harvest Hosts, Passport America and the other memberships worth carrying
- Whether Thousand Trails fits your route — or quietly hijacks it
- State parks, county parks and the overnight spots that are actually fine
- How to string it all together into a route that doesn't wear you out
The Money
- The real monthly categories, including the ones people forget
- Fuel math that matches how you'll actually drive
- Memberships and apps worth paying for, and the ones that are not
- What breaks, roughly what it costs, and what to keep in reserve
- Insurance, roadside, extended warranties: what's worth it for your setup
The Life
- Working from the road: internet, power, and where your desk actually goes
- Mail, domicile, doctors, gyms, showers and laundry — the boring load-bearing stuff
- Dogs, partners and kids in a very small space
- Bringing your hobbies with you — bikes, boards, boats, cameras
- The month-three wall, why it happens, and how to get past it
Six things I wish someone had told me
Every one of these cost me something. You can have them for $79 and fifty minutes.
1. I bought the wrong rig first.
I started in a van because the van was the romantic answer. I am in a Super C now. Both were the right call at the time, and switching was not free. You may well make the same trade — just make it on purpose instead of by accident.
2. I moved too fast.
Two nights here, three nights there. It is exhausting, it is expensive, and the strange part is you see less, not more. Almost everyone overestimates how much driving they want to do.
3. I thought I'd boondock far more than I did.
Nearly everyone does. Boondocking is wonderful and I love it, but if you buy a rig for the life in the photos instead of the life you will actually live, you will pay for capability you never use.
4. I treated a membership like a strategy.
A membership is a tool, not a plan. It pays off when your route already goes where its parks are. Buying one and then bending your travel around it is exactly how people lose money and end up somewhere they did not want to be.
5. I underestimated how much of this is logistics.
Mail, propane, laundry, water, dumping, tire pressure, vet appointments, finding a dentist in a town you are leaving on Thursday. Nobody makes a video about it, and it is a real part of the job.
6. I planned month one to death and months two through six barely at all.
That is backwards. In month one you are too overwhelmed to appreciate a plan. Months two through six are when a plan saves your budget, your route, and occasionally your sanity.
Who this call is for — and who it isn't
Book it if…
- You're seriously considering going full time, or long-term, and want an honest gut check
- You're about to spend real money on a rig and want a second opinion from someone with no commission
- You've watched forty YouTube videos and they all contradict each other
- You're already out here and something isn't working the way you pictured
- You want to talk to a person, not read another article
Don't book it if…
- You've already decided and you just want someone to agree with you. Save your $79.
- You need it all to be fine. It usually is. Sometimes I'll tell you it isn't.
- You need a repair diagnosis. That's a mobile RV tech, not me.
- You want legal or financial advice. I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer.
- Your question is specifically about buying, selling or reviewing a Thousand Trails contract — that's a different call.
How it works
1
Book and pay
$79 holds your spot. You go straight to my calendar and pick a time that works for you.
2
Tell me where you are
Four short questions when you book: when you’re starting, where you’re headed, and what you want to cover. I read them before we talk.
3
We talk
Fifty minutes on the phone. Your questions, straight answers, no pitch. I don’t sell rigs and nobody pays me to recommend one.
Why me?
A couple of years ago I was standing exactly where you are: a former trial lawyer and CEO with a serious spreadsheet habit and a very specific fear of making an expensive mistake in public.
Since then I’ve lived on the road full time for over a year and a half — first in a van, now in a Super C — with a golden retriever named Odie riding shotgun. I’ve stayed in dozens of Thousand Trails parks across a dozen states, boondocked in national forests, parked at Harvest Hosts, ridden a mountain bike in most of it, and written down what I learned at every step right here on LiveFreeRV.
I don’t sell RVs. I’m not a dealer. Nobody pays me to point you at a brand. What I have is a year and a half of expensive, specific, occasionally hilarious experience — and the spreadsheets to prove it.
When I started, I would have paid in a heartbeat to spend an hour with someone who was actually doing this. Nobody offered. So now I do.
Common questions
I don't have a rig yet. Is it too early to talk?
It’s the best possible time. The most expensive mistakes in this life get made before you buy anything.
I'm not going full time — just a few months a year. Still useful?
Yes. Different math, same conversation — and part-timers usually have more freedom to get the rig choice right, because you’re not solving for living in it 365 days a year.
Can my partner be on the call?
Please. These calls go better when both people are on, because the two of you almost never want exactly the same things out of this, and that gap is worth finding now rather than in month four.
Is this the same as your Thousand Trails consultation?
No. Thousand Trails will absolutely come up here if it’s relevant to your route. But if your question is specifically about buying, selling or reviewing a Thousand Trails membership contract, that’s a longer call with real homework attached — book the Thousand Trails consultation instead.
Is this legal or financial advice?
No. I’m a lawyer, but I’m not your lawyer, and this call doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship. It’s one person’s hard-won experience, not professional advice.
What if I run out of questions in twenty minutes?
You won’t. Nobody has yet. Somewhere around minute fifteen people stop asking about tank sizes and start asking the real questions.
Let's talk before you spend the money.
Fifty minutes. Seventy-nine dollars. One person who has already paid for these lessons the hard way.
Educational information only — not legal, financial or mechanical advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Every rig, route and budget is different: verify anything that matters before money changes hands.