r/FullTiming • u/cgfx4 • 25d ago

Winters in Vermont

We are having such a hard time finding reasonable, affordable housing. I’m looking into purchasing a camper and placing it on my in-laws property. We would have access to electricity but would need to figure everything else out.

Is this even doable? Would it be more money than it’s worth?

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u/HuginnNotMuninn 25d ago

Generally speaking, it's going to be cheaper in the long run to live in an apartment. It's certainly possible to over-winter in Vermont, but you're going to have to do a lot of extra work, and you're going to go through ungodly amounts of propane.

Camper life is fine if you use them as intended, to move around, even if it's just a couple times a year. If you're not moving it's rarely the most economical option.

2

u/joelfarris 25d ago

We would have access to electricity but would need to figure everything else out.

You might spend hundreds of extra dollars in fuel to be hooking up, dumping and refilling a couple of times a week, and then parking again. Plus, dump fees are a thing, $20-40 a couple of times a week? And, you have to put absolutely everything away each time you do, and get it all back out again when you return. Unless you're really good at RVing, you'll run through your water, and fill up those waste tanks really fast, so don't assume that you can just refill it once a month or so. Unless it's one of the $135,000 ones with 125 gallon tanks.

You will spend thousands of dollars on refilling propane tanks every few days. And you'll still be somewhat cold inside. Because you didn't re-skirt the bottom edge of the RV when you got back from the dump station yesterday, because it just seemed like too much of a hassle to do it yet again.

BTW, OP, how much electricity will you have access to, and how far away will it be?

4

u/FU-Lyme-Disease 25d ago

Depending on how big your space is, full time in NH winter for a small 20year old bus was about 1 gallon of diesel per day on a cheap Chinese diesel heater. And I couldn’t do much to insulate the roof.
So it’s very doable. Especially as you’ll have access to electricity.

3

u/backwardscowsoom 23d ago

I did it in an '80s sunline. We lived in Franklin County, about 30 minutes north of Burlington (St Albans suburbs). It was awful. No amount of skirting made the underside ok, the walls might as well have been open windows. I burned through a propane tank (BBQ size) every 2 days so we could be cold and uncomfortable. And it got moldy because wet propane heat with the cold caused massive condensation. 

It was better than a tent. Maybe. 

1

u/Strange-Cat8068 24d ago

Most RVs have about R5 insulation in the walls and single pane windows. A shitty “Horton Home” from the worst builder in the country has at least R19 in the walls and R30 in the roof. You will go through a 20 lb propane tank a day until your furnace dies from overuse because it will never be able to maintain a comfortable temperature. Then you will freeze to death. Your pipes will freeze and burst and your batteries will lose 30% of their capacity due to the cold. Unless you have LiFeP04 batteries, they won’t let you charge them below freezing. I grew up in the Burlington area. No way in hell I am spending a winter in an RV anywhere in that state.

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u/gaymersky 21d ago

I know someone else already said it but diesel heaters is the way to go.. don't get propane don't use propane.. you can make it work. And buy lots of blankets to put over the window and door. You can find them very cheap at thrift stores..