Full-time RV living comes down to five systems: safety, power, water and waste, internet, and storage. Get those right and the rest is preference. Most people overbuy in month one and still miss something basic, so this guide puts the purchases in the order they actually matter, with the arithmetic to size the two expensive ones. If you're looking for somewhere to land while you sort it out, we host monthly RV stays in Wimberley, TX on full hookups.
What Do You Actually Need for Full-Time RV Living?
Five systems carry the whole lifestyle. Everything else on a gear list is a preference dressed up as a requirement.
Nothing on that list is glamorous, and that's the point. If you're still deciding where to base yourself for a season, what to look for in a long-term RV resort covers the site-side of the same question.
What Should You Buy in the First 30 Days?
Buy in the order that protects the rig first and your comfort last. The gear that prevents damage is cheap relative to what it prevents.
Two companions worth reading alongside this: the RV camping checklist for the trip-level packing version, and the 3-3-3 rule for RV travel for how far to drive once you're moving regularly.
How Do You Size Power for Full-Time RV Living?
Work out your daily watt-hours first, then convert. Watt-hours = watts × hours, summed across everything you run in a day. Then: amp-hours at 12V = daily watt-hours ÷ (12 × usable fraction).
Usable fraction depends on chemistry — roughly 80% for LiFePO4, roughly 50% for lead-acid. A rig using 2,000 Wh a day on lithium needs 2,000 ÷ (12 × 0.8) = 208 Ah, so you'd buy 250 Ah and have a margin for cloudy days. For solar, divide daily watt-hours by about three. That assumes four peak sun hours and roughly 75% system efficiency, and it's deliberately conservative.
Figures assume LiFePO4 at roughly 80% usable capacity, rounded up. Sustained A/C on batteries is impractical for most rigs — plan on shore power for that row.
Inverters get sized on continuous load plus 20–30% headroom, and you check surge watts separately: motors and compressors can pull three to seven times their running watts for a moment at startup. Pure sine wave, always, if you own anything with a circuit board in it. The RV Industry Association publishes the electrical and safety standards worth reading before any permanent wiring work.
One honest note. On a full-hookup site with a working pedestal, most of this is optional. Batteries and solar buy you independence from hookups — if you're not planning to leave them, that money is better spent on the things you use every day.
What Internet Setup Do Full-Time RVers Need?
Match the connection to the work, not to the marketing. Email and messaging need 5–10 Mbps. Video calls need 10–25 Mbps. Heavy uploads — video files, large datasets, screen sharing at high quality — want 50+ Mbps and a backup.
Whatever you choose, build failover before you need it. A multi-SIM router that switches carriers on its own, or a satellite terminal with a cellular backup, is the difference between a bad morning and a missed deadline. Test on the route before you commit: run a speed test at the sites you're planning to stay at, not just at home.
At the resort we run fiber Wi-Fi and hardwired pedestals, which is the setup most remote workers end up preferring for long stays. Speeds vary by site.
How Do You Manage Water, Tanks, and Waste?
Four items and one routine, and the plumbing side of full-timing stops being interesting — which is what you want from plumbing.
The weekly routine: check fresh, gray and black levels daily on the monitor panel; leave the black valve closed until the tank is at least half full so solids actually carry; dump black first, then gray to rinse the hose; add an enzyme treatment weekly; and walk the underside once a week looking for wet spots. The CDC's guidance on drinking water is the reference for disinfecting a potable system after storage.
Propane is the other consumable that catches new full-timers out. Ours is a valet propane service — motorhomes and Class C's drive to the on-site station, and removable 30 lb cylinders on travel trailers and 5th wheels get picked up at the site, filled, and brought back. Refills only, no exchanges, Monday to Saturday 10 AM–5 PM and Sunday 10 AM–2 PM, billed per gallon at the current market rate with a $10 minimum. If you're in a travel trailer, the travel trailer checklist covers the rest of the hookup routine.
What Changes When You Live at an RV Resort?
Living on a site is a different set of constraints than living on public land, and the rules are worth knowing before you buy gear you can't use. At Horseshoe Ridge:
Full detail lives on our rules and policies page. For a monthly stay the deposit is $500, and cancelling outside 14 days carries a $35 fee while inside 14 days it's $250 — one or the other, never both.
Because our booking engine handles stays up to 28 days, anything longer is arranged by phone. Call 737-307-2288 and we'll walk the site tiers with you. If you want to test the rig and your routines before committing to a season, a short stay under 28 days can be booked online.
Full-Time RV Living FAQs
What do you need most for full-time RV living?
How much battery and solar do you need to live in an RV full time?
What internet speed do you need to work from an RV?
Can you stay at an RV resort long term?
Do you need skirting for winter in the Texas Hill Country?
Can you run a generator at an RV resort?
How do you get propane when you live in an RV full time?
How do you book a monthly RV site at Horseshoe Ridge?
