title: "From RV Beginners to RV Experts, The Advice Every RVer Needs to Hear with Marc and Julie Bennett"
author: "Allison Smith"
You may already know RV power couple Marc and Julie Bennett from their wildly successful blog RV Love, their RV training courses called RV Success School, or their books Living the RV Life: Your Ultimate Guide to Life on the Road and RV Hacks: 400+ Ways to Make Life on the Road Easier Safer, and More Fun. We had the chance to sit down with them to learn their RVing origin story and their rise to success as RV educators, plus get a few nuggets of RV wisdom.
The Initial Spark
Long before Marc and Julie began RVing, they each found their passion and interest in travel, which ultimately led them to each other. Way back in the early 2000s, Marc managed a health and fitness contest for Body-for-LIFE, which allowed him to travel the country on a luxury Prevost tour bus. This was Marc’s first long-term RV road trip and he was pleasantly surprised by how much he loved traveling in a Class A motorcoach compared to other ways of travel.
Julie fell in love with the Rocky Mountains when visiting Boulder, Colorado in 2008 for a work conference. When the economy crashed, she decided to shut down her business and sell everything she owned, leaving her home in Sydney, Australia to restart her life in Boulder. Shortly after that, Marc and Julie met each other and fell in love.
One night in 2011, they were out at a restaurant eating pizza and by chance, met a full-time RVer couple. After a detailed conversation with them, Marc and Julie became seriously interested in trying the RV lifestyle for themselves.
They already loved spending every second together and they thought it would be a great way to bring their dog along on their adventures. Especially with such limited vacation time offered by most companies in America, RVing is one way to travel more when you have limited time off.
The idea of RV life sat in the back of their heads until they revisited the idea two years later and decided to give it a shot! As Marc and Julie describe it, “We were just feeling ready to level up our life, you know change up our life and to start making some actual steps toward making that dream a reality.” And in June 2014, they sold their house, bought an RV, and began the adventure of a lifetime.
From Newbies to RV Influencers and Educators
To become comfortable when they first started, they did a lot of intensive research to help them find their footing. Julie and Marc started documenting their experiences even before they got on the road. They quickly learned that you don’t have to be an expert to have stories and lessons that people resonate with. As Julie and Marc always say, “There’s no one right way to RV.” Everyone sharing their stories and experiences is the best way for RVers to get the hang of things and find what works best for them.
If you’re thinking of documenting your experiences on the road, you don’t need to wait until you have a flashy rig or a ton of experience under your belt. Where you’re at right now is still important to document.
“You don’t need to know everything to be an expert. You just need to know more than the person coming up behind you.” – Julie Bennett
Their skill sets and work experiences also lent a hand in their success as they both had careers helping people transform their lives in positive ways. Julie was a life coach focused on personal and spiritual growth, and Marc used to work as a health and wellness coach. Plus, Julie owned her own marketing and events business back in Australia, promoting international authors.
All of these factors helped them create content that resonated with people. It also helped them realize what educational content was missing from the online RVer community—an online course and detailed resources for beginners—which inspired them to create their RV Success School.
For the first two or three years, their blog and YouTube channel were just a side project. But as their following grew and as they had more lived experience in the RV, they decided to expand RV Love, and by 2017, both were working on it full-time.
Nine Years of Adventures Later…
In their first three and a half years of RVing, they lived and worked full-time in their RV and traveled in it to 48 states. RV travel always stayed fresh and exciting, and they also did a few non-RV trips to give them short breaks from the RV. They flew to Hawaii and cruised to Alaska so they could check all 50 states off their travel bucket list!
Their key takeaway from traveling in an RV for so long is that some of the favorite and best places they’ve been weren’t bucket list destinations—they were places they just so happened to stop at on the road. In the next six years, they changed RVs a few times, went on a few international trips and other cruises without their RV, and had countless adventures. Even after 9 years in an RV, they still have plenty of places left on their bucket list to explore—mainly visiting Canadian national parks, a few more national parks in the US, and they’d love to motorhome through the UK and Europe!
Even Experts Make Mistakes
After years on the road and years of running RV Love, they’ve heard every mistake under the sun and learned so much about RVing through trial and error—theirs and others. One of the key lessons they’ve learned is that no matter how confident you feel, never ignore proper safety procedures or push yourself past your limits.
Recently, Marc and Julie have seen a few experienced RVer friends have significant RV accidents due to rookie mistakes. Remember to always have someone spot your turns when towing a long trailer like a fifth wheel to avoid tail swing accidents. And when you’re tired, stop driving! Driving an RV can be dangerous when you’re not 100% alert—and it’s easier to make mistakes when you’re fatigued after a long drive day.
Marc and Julie even underwent a recent snafu themselves. They had planned to switch from motorhome travel to a truck and trailer. They found a 5th wheel trailer they loved from a seller in Northern California and made plans to meet halfway in Reno, NV to complete the sale.
They always encourage others to do their due diligence before buying an RV, but no matter how much research you do, things can still go wrong. Right before the sale, the landing gear and a part of the awning had broken. This pushed the sale back a few days, and it was a good thing it did—it led to them all to avoid driving through Tropical Storm Hilary.
With the repairs and tropical storm Hilary behind them, they proceeded with the sale and drove the truck to Reno, figuring nothing else bad could happen. And boy, were they wrong.
Marc and Julie wanted to meet at an RV campground for an easy exchange, but the seller preferred they meet at his hotel. They checked the satellite view of the parking lot and all seemed well, but Marc and Julie had a sense that this was a bad plan. Instead of causing any drama, they agreed to the seller’s plan and ignored their instincts.
In the morning, they woke up to the news that the seller had driven the 12-ft high trailer under a 9-foot tall clearance to get closer to the hotel entrance—and completely totaled the RV. The sale was canceled, their deposit refunded, and Marc and Julie pledged to always trust their instincts from then on out. For more details on their RV purchase gone wrong, check out their story on their blog.
For Aspiring RV Experts
Don’t let these horror stories scare you away from trying out the RV lifestyle. RVing isn’t all doom and gloom, and by being prepared and following proper safety protocol, you can avoid most major accidents and RV issues. There are so many great resources out there to help you plan your route based on your RV’s clearance height, like RV Trip Wizard, which will help you avoid making the seller’s mistake.
But Julie and Marc’s biggest advice?
“Get the smallest RV you could comfortably fit in. The smaller the RV, the greater travel flexibility you have, the more route options you have, and the more choices you have of places to stay. The backroads are cheaper (no tolls) and you can often find cool out-of-the-box places there! With a smaller rig, you also have more options of places you can stay through Harvest Hosts.”
About Marc and Julie
Marc and Julie Bennett of RVLove are authors and adventurers who have lived, worked, and traveled in almost every kind of RV since 2014. They have visited all 50 USA states, plus Canada and Mexico, and share their experience at http://www.RVLove.com.
They co-authored two bestselling books: Living the RV Life: Your Ultimate Guide to Life on the Road and RV Hacks: 400+ Ways to Make Life on the Road Easier, Safer, and More Fun! (published by Simon and Schuster, with over 1,000 reviews). Plus they run online courses at RVSuccessSchool.com teaching others how to buy an RV, save money, and avoid costly mistakes while preparing for life on the road.
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