there's a big shift coming for RV living in 2021  and if you don't prepare or understand what that  

shift is now you may just find yourself wanting to  give up on RV life in the coming year in 2021 so  

stay tuned because in this video we're going to  talk about what that shift is and what you need to  

be doing right now to prepare for rv life in the  coming year we are Charity Ben Dakota and Trinity  

we decided we didn't want to wait for a life of  adventure so in 2017 we bought our first rv and  

set off to live a life of travel in the USA we've  visited over 38 states in three years and have  

many more to go follow along to learn all the best  places to see rv and travel tips and much more  

so there is a shift that is going to take place in  the coming year for RVer and what that is  

is it's going to get really really busy out  there in the coming year with things like travel  

restrictions on international travel less people  feeling comfortable taking flights you're going to  

see a huge uptick in RVing and in RV living in the  year 2021. so in this video we are going to give  

you six tips on what you need to be doing right  now to prepare yourself for RV living in 2021

so tip number one is advanced planning now we  also want to talk about contingency planning  

so more on that in just a minute but if RVing has been a fly by the seat of your pants just  

go wherever the wind blows a sort of lifestyle  for you you're probably gonna find that in 2021  

that doesn't work as well as it used to  campgrounds are going to be filling up more  

than they ever have before there's going to be so  many more RVs that are going to be out on the road  

than ever before and so it's going to require  a little bit of advanced planning this year  

to be able to enjoy RVing so to speak and so one  of the things that we have found when it comes  

to planning in advance is to think about anchor  points so say for instance maybe you want to see  

southern California so pick an anchor point in  that area and then make some reservations in that  

area and then use that as your anchor point or  maybe your home base if you will for the time you  

plan on being there to be able to branch out into  the different areas that you want to go check out  

so tip number two you're going to want to have a  backup or a contingency plan in place just in case  

plan a doesn't quite work out and one of the great  things that you can put in your contingency plan  

is you know is there an alternate place to stay  so this is where some resources like hip camp  

or boondockers welcome harvest hosts may come in  handy in 2021 because it's an alternative place  

to stay if those boondocking sites are full or if  those campgrounds end up being full you're going  

to want to find a resource or a place that isn't  going to be as populated also another thing to  

think about is if you're planning on going from  say point a to point b and point c think about  

something that could be an alternative plan if  for some reason a particular state or a particular  

area goes under some sort of restriction or some  sort of lock down so this actually happened to us  

twice in 2020 where we had made reservations to  stay at the grand canyon and those reservations  

got cancelled on us because the grand canyon was  closed so we alternatively stayed in page Arizona  

because we still were going from point  a to point c point b being grand canyon  

so we just were able to adjust that but still  stay on our trip route that we wanted to take  

and then another contingency plan that we put in  place this year was we had reservations in Canada  

and those of course got canceled too with the  border seeing closed and so we ended up visiting  

Idaho which was not on our original list but it  was a contingency plan and we had a really great  

time there and saw some really great country  and we're able to finish the rest of our trip  

and see the other places that we had so having  that contingency plan having kind of maybe that  

plan b or that plan c this year is going to be  critical to being able to just enjoy RV life  

tip number three so you're going to want to  become a little more handy this year in 2021  

because RV mobile techs are gonna be a little bit  harder to come by there's gonna be a higher demand  

for mobile techs and the availability just won't  be there like it was before so learn to become a  

little more handy just like I have this last year  learn how to fix things yourself look on youtube  

find tutorials on how to fix certain things  find out what certain trouble codes are and  

and how to actually resolve the problem the reason  that you want to do this is just because you need  

to be able to be a little bit more self-reliant  in a way if you do have an issue and after three  

years of RV living we can tell you something's  going to come up especially if you have a drivable  

even a towable really every time that you're  moving that down the highway it's like your home's  

experiencing an earthquake every time that you  move like what seven or eight on the richter scale  

but something's going to come loose something's  going to break some sort of wire is going to come  

unseated at some point a quick little tip we've  had two instances where we found out that the end  

result was a fuse issue so what I will always  say because we didn't learn the first time is  

always check your fuses know where your fuses  are and check those first another great resource  

is at RVIA where they actually have an online tech  school so if that is something that is up your  

alley or something that you're willing to do it's  a great education to get and you're just setting  

yourself up to be a little bit more self-reliant  if and when something happens with your rig  

so tip number four you're going to want  to have a cost or budget projection  

in place and we'll talk about this more in a  future video but we just know that with supply  

and demand that is always what has driven pricing  and so with the increased demand and maybe not a  

plentiful supply with things like campgrounds  we're definitely expecting that some of those  

campgrounds are going to start costing more  as well as fuel prices are always kind of iffy  

but before you set out on the road you always want  to make sure that you've got just something laid  

out to where you're not out on the road and  then putting yourself in a bind financially  

because you didn't do some advanced planning  or budgeting when it came to cost projection

tip number five if you are planning on purchasing  an RV they're going to be a little harder to come  

by these days so you want to be ready to make  that decision fairly quickly which means that you  

might not want to take too much time to sleep on  it or any of those types of things in delaying a  

purchasing decision with a potential seller just  because chances are you're not going to be the  

only one in line to purchase that so that also  means that it would really be best to have cash  

on hand to be able to make that type of purchase  now this is just a side note that we personally  

don't feel like that it is wisdom to  finance recreational vehicles that  

are a second home or a toy or yeah anything that  depreciates in value fast right so a depreciating  

asset such as a car a motorhome a boat anything  with wheels if it has wheels or if it has a motor  

it's going to go down in value so personally we  just don't feel like that it's wisdom to finance  

those types of purchases we prefer to save  and pay outright for those types of purchases  

but that also sets you up to be able to make  a very quick purchasing decision it also  

puts you in a great position with a potential  seller to be able to close that deal quickly  

because you don't have to wait on any sort of  financing decision from a financial institution  

so if you're planning on purchasing  an RV in 2021 be ready to do it quick  

number six if you plan on renting an RV book it  now yeah there's lots of great places to check for  

RV rentals too so options like RVecy

Outdoorsy  RV share rvamerica.com there's the RV America  

there is the El monte we'll put links below  for some of these resources for you if you're  

considering renting an RV in 2021  but with the demand and short supply  

it's something that you want to do now like this  week so if you plan on renting make sure that you  

start looking for what you want to rent and get  that deposit and reservation in now and that's  

it those are our predictions for 2021 and also  several tips to help you make the most out of  

RV life in the coming year as well thank you so  much for watching if you found this video helpful  

please hit that subscribe button down below also  let us know in the comments have you started trip  

planning yet for 2021 do you have those plans  in place do you have any reservations made yet  

or are you still trying to do the research  we would love to hear from you below  

and make sure that you tune in next week where  we're going to go over tips on how we trip plan  

how we cost project and we're going to be bringing  you some helpful resources to be able to help you  

in your trip planning and in your cost projections  as well so hit that subscribe button make sure  

that you stay tuned for next week's video as  well tip number four you're going to want to well

there's the elmante um I call it elante yeah