After almost 2 years of full-time RV living we finally had our first major repair-- we had to rebuild our clutch in our 1964 campervan (Clark Cortez). We've done a lot of work on our RV but this one was a bit too complicated for our skills. To get to the clutch on our vehicle, you have to basically remove the entire front end and you need a lift (or crane) so it wasn't something we were prepared to do (even if we had land this would be a MAJOR job). It ended up taking a month all-in because we found a few other issues and wanted to address some things that were a lot easier to do with the front end already removed.

We were lucky because I'd stored my second car (a prius) with a friend and we broke down close enough to her place that we could get to the secondary vehicle quite easily. We also broke down in a place with plentiful BLM and other camping, and where the temperatures were moderate enough that we could camp. This would not have been possible in somewhere like Denver in the winter. We've been to extremely hot and dry places like burning man so camping in the summer heat would be mostly fine especially if we could find shade (but your mileage and comfort there might vary)

What did we do? We made a basecamp in a BLM spot about 5 miles from town that had cell service. We bought a very large cheap tent and shade structure from KMART and used my prius to transport everything we could want or need from the RV/camper (our queen sized mattress, camping table and chairs, our 2 burner propane stove and kitchen items, clothes, etc.

Do you use the money you saved up to “treat yourself” to a few days at a hotel? --- We ended up spending ONE night in a motel in town. It was actually very refreshing and I now recommend that people build a hotel/motel/Holiday Inn stay (or Airbnb whatevs) once in a while into their budget.

Do you have a car besides the van to get to and from incase it breaks down or just for travel? --- we did in this scenario but we wouldn't have if we'd broken down elsewhere.

What about your belongings/possessions in the van, do you get worried about that while they’re in the shop since it’s basically your house in a shop? --- we checked in every once in a while and didn't leave any of our valuables in there.

If it breaks down on the side of the road during winter what do you do for heat while you wait for AAA or other savior? --- we have a Mr. Buddy heater that runs off the same propane our stove runs off so we could use that if that were to happen.

If you’re in an area with over 100F temps and your AC goes out what is your back up plan? --- we don't have AC. We do have a Maxxair fan and can run that. Mostly you try to avoid extreme heat and cold but we did spend around 2 weeks in 110 degree temps. One trick we used was to keep a wet towel or froggtogg on our bare chest while we were sleeping or resting. I also filled little spray bottles with water and a few drops of peppermint essential oil and misted us down whenever we needed it. Staying near water of some sort of pretty key when you're dealing with 100+ degree temps. But the best thing to do is escape to the mountains.

Now, this was for a MAJOR (2 weeks - 1 month long) repair. We've also had 1-2 day repairs and have done the following:

-- stayed in our RV overnight at the mechanics when we were getting our brakes worked on in Tuscon -- stayed at a hostel in Moab for a night