We just sold our 11 year old civic that we bought new which had 166k miles on it and bought a prius which is an incredible car. Our problem now is we have pre-paid for our ferry ride in Alaska which was over $2400 and am wondering what the hell diesel will cost in late July?
Figure trip will encompass 9k plus miles. Wish that TC of ours would fit on prius. Am considering cancelling trip, hate getting ripped off by oil companies.
IMO, there is no cheaper way to live, provided you have a steady source of revenue to keep your items maintained, and you take advantage of boondocking (this excludes boondocking anywhere but in the Western US);
RVing less than 1000 miles from home-base:
If you don't have to finance your $30k+ RV with a brutally heavy 15~20 year RV loan (that could easily double or more the cost of your RV), and you take advantage of a truck loan at 1% therearound, your costs to underwrite this kind of vacation would be extremely competitive with any other form of travel (with the exception of backpacking with tent);
RVing 3000 miles a year +:
This is where things get tricky. If you are a full-timer, you could easily absorb the costs over 365-days by doing short hauls, and by seeking out boondocking opportunities, aspecially since you are not carrying an traditional urban/city lifestyle. If you are a one-time vacationer and dead-heading long distances, the cost of fuel today will really become a factor (with exceptions: you plan on sight-seeing along the way; or enjoy the long-haul driving experience). Additionally, there are myriad sizes and shapes of RVs and RV combos today. Each one would have to be analysed separately (i.e. a Volkswagen hauling a teardrop camper; a Kodiak 5500 hauling a 35-foot 5th wheel; a 40+ foot diesel-pusher towing a 2500HD Silverado).
Economics:
We must start to assign value to things like "beauty", "travel", "tranquility while boondocking", "sight-seeing", etc. The old genre of economics has long since been shelved in favor of a more inclusive economic system that assigns value to items once considered intangible. Like the cost of clean air, clean water, cleaning dirty air, cleaning up dirty source water, or carbon deficits.
RenoAl wrote: I have read several topics about high fuel prices and offer this analysis for folks to poke at and comment upon.
We recently spent a week on the nothern CA coast. Total distance 989 miles. Fuel cost $345 (11.6 mpg), campground fees $123, food we purchased while traveling $97, eating out $139. Total = $704.
If I had taken a 30 mpg vehicle with gas at $3.75/gal, 7 nights at $60/night in a B&B, 7 days eating out at $70/day the total cost would be $1034.
Given these parameters diesel fuel cost would have to increase by about $300 to make this trip a wash. That means the 85 gallons I used would have to be about $7.50/gallon.
Using the same parameters but using a tent would drop the cost to $483. However, I am too old to sleep in a tent.
Or another slant - if diesel was $3/gallon the cost would drop by $90.
My conclusion: Even with fuel at $4 plus per gallon TC's are still a cheap way to travel.
I agree with all you are saying, I even figure that I save $100 per day, due to the style of hotels I enjoy, so since new I have been deductng $100 a day from what I have in my camper, to help me rationalize it. Unfortunately for some, with the high price of fuel, food and everything, it is not a question of which is cheaper, but the fact that they can not afford either way.
2005xFord King Ranch F250SB Diesel
2006 Bigfoot 25C9.4SB
Firestone Airbags
KVH inmotion Satellite
Vision 81's and 19.5 Bridgestones
Stable Lift
RenoAl wrote: I have read several topics about high fuel prices and offer this analysis for folks to poke at and comment upon.
We recently spent a week on the nothern CA coast. Total distance 989 miles. Fuel cost $345 (11.6 mpg), campground fees $123, food we purchased while traveling $97, eating out $139. Total = $704.
If I had taken a 30 mpg vehicle with gas at $3.75/gal, 7 nights at $60/night in a B&B, 7 days eating out at $70/day the total cost would be $1034.
Given these parameters diesel fuel cost would have to increase by about $300 to make this trip a wash. That means the 85 gallons I used would have to be about $7.50/gallon.
Using the same parameters but using a tent would drop the cost to $483. However, I am too old to sleep in a tent.
Or another slant - if diesel was $3/gallon the cost would drop by $90.
My conclusion: Even with fuel at $4 plus per gallon TC's are still a cheap way to travel.
The only thing I see is I would not count the $97 for the grocery store (you have to buy groceries at home too) and at least half of your eating out money spent. That is groceries you did not have to buy. So I would have figured the same trip at $537.50. Plus, as mentioned many times before, having all your own stuff is priceless. Especially knowing who the person is that last slept in your bed.
05 Dodge Ram 3500 SLT SC DRW 4X4 CTD G56 373's CAI,Edge Juice/Attitude,Jake,Rancho9000x,Torklift tie downs,Superhitch,Stable Loads
04 S&S Avalanche 9' with slide 26th Marines RVN 69-70 Semper Fi M-14 was the only Woodstock I saw in 1969.
We are retired and if we go somewhere for a week and stay a month, it's
all about freedom if we have our TC. The cost going and returning stays
the same, if you have friends scattered around that have a driveway, then
it's nice to have a bed and breakfast with you or friendly "gravel pits"
etc. Life is too short to stay home and we are happy to be able to "hit the
road."
Arcy, look at this way. Your cost of the TC is sunk - you already bought it. You would have done all the amortization and lifecycle analysis at purchase.
Hi folks,
Been watching and enjoying the TC forum and the wealth of knowledge it contains for awhile. We're in the process of deciding on a truck and TC to take us on our ATV adventures.
RenoAl, I am a little confused by that statement though. If you have 30,000 invested into a TC, it's an expense, amortized or not. If I have only used the camper 10 days, to me, that would be $3000 a day. Now add a 30,000 truck, used mainly for the camper and your at $6000 a day. That has to be added into the total expense. For your trip, if that was the first one taken in your camper, you'd have to add $21,000 to the cost for a grand total of $21,704.00 for 7 days.
There certainly are a ton of variables, if you use your TC for work, full timing or more than the normal 2 or 3 week vacations for those still working.
For us, we like to think that we would use the truck/tc about 44 days a year. 4 days/month @ 7 months and a 2 week summer trip. I'm guessing about $55,000 out the door for truck/tc combo we're looking at.
Year 1: 55,000/44 = $1250/day
Year 2: 55,000/88 = $625/day
Year 3: 55,000/132 = $416/day
Year 4: 55,000/176 = $312/day
Year 5: 55,000/220 = $250/day
Now I hope in those 220 days we'll be having great times and building fantastic memories, they certainly won't be priceless, but great all the same.
If I am off base here with my numbers or analysis let me know....
Again, thanks to the folks here who make this a great community
Arcy, look at this way. Your cost of the TC is sunk - you already bought it. You would have done all the amortization and lifecycle analysis at purchase.
Hi folks,
Been watching and enjoying the TC forum and the wealth of knowledge it contains for awhile. We're in the process of deciding on a truck and TC to take us on our ATV adventures.
RenoAl, I am a little confused by that statement though. If you have 30,000 invested into a TC, it's an expense, amortized or not. If I have only used the camper 10 days, to me, that would be $3000 a day. Now add a 30,000 truck, used mainly for the camper and your at $6000 a day. That has to be added into the total expense. For your trip, if that was the first one taken in your camper, you'd have to add $21,000 to the cost for a grand total of $21,704.00 for 7 days.
There certainly are a ton of variables, if you use your TC for work, full timing or more than the normal 2 or 3 week vacations for those still working.
For us, we like to think that we would use the truck/tc about 44 days a year. 4 days/month @ 7 months and a 2 week summer trip. I'm guessing about $55,000 out the door for truck/tc combo we're looking at.
Year 1: 55,000/44 = $1250/day
Year 2: 55,000/88 = $625/day
Year 3: 55,000/132 = $416/day
Year 4: 55,000/176 = $312/day
Year 5: 55,000/220 = $250/day
Now I hope in those 220 days we'll be having great times and building fantastic memories, they certainly won't be priceless, but great all the same.
If I am off base here with my numbers or analysis let me know....
Again, thanks to the folks here who make this a great community
I think some people are over complicating this a bit. I think the OP is assuming that we all already own a truck and camper- this is the truck camper forum, right? So payments don't really factor in to this, we were going to be making them to begin with. Also consider that most use their truck as a daily driver when not hauling the camper.
Truck $41,000
TC $34,000
Fuel $4.19 /gal
up grade the truck/TC $3,000
Taxes/tags $$$$$$
tolls $$$$$
food/beverage $$$$$
beer $$$$$
more beer $$$$$
all the other expenses $$$$$$
planning trips, anticipating going on the trips, getting to your destination, have an awesome time with family and friends even if the weather doesn't cooperate PRICELESS
I even enjoy sleeping in the TC in my garage. I have the coolest club house in the neighbor-hood (girls allowed).
Have fun
I think that this comes down to this. We are all here because we own TC's or some type of RV already. So if the fuel cost were not so high we wouldn't be having this conversation. Therefore, lets leave the cost of the vehicle and TC out of it. If your intention was to get a TC to begin with just to save money you probably wouldn't have spent thousands of dollars of your hard earned money anyway.
This then leaves us with the original discussion of the cost of operating the TC. As for the savings, it depends on the length of stay, the distance traveled, where you are geographically and the amenities that you would require while on your trip.
As to whether I will continue to go on trips. Looking back, I swore that I would quite smoking cigarettes if the price exceeded $1.00 per pack, yet I continued to smoke well past $4.00 per pack (I did quite in 2001). I can remember pumping gas in high school and charging less than $0.65 per gallon. Thought I would quite driving my 4x4 and muscle car when it reached over a $1.00 because who could afford that and yet I still did.
Now that fuel prices have risen to this level will I continue to use my TC, YES. Will I make less trips, maybe. But when I look at the amount of money that my DW and I spend on just stuff over a month. That could be the difference of the fuel cost over 6 to 12 months ago.
Once the shock of everything passes, I would bet that most of us will probably continue doing exactly what we enjoy so much and have been doing prior to the fuel price gouging, GO RVing.
Arcy, look at this way. Your cost of the TC is sunk - you already bought it. You would have done all the amortization and lifecycle analysis at purchase.
Hi folks,
Been watching and enjoying the TC forum and the wealth of knowledge it contains for awhile. We're in the process of deciding on a truck and TC to take us on our ATV adventures.
RenoAl, I am a little confused by that statement though. If you have 30,000 invested into a TC, it's an expense, amortized or not. If I have only used the camper 10 days, to me, that would be $3000 a day. Now add a 30,000 truck, used mainly for the camper and your at $6000 a day. That has to be added into the total expense. For your trip, if that was the first one taken in your camper, you'd have to add $21,000 to the cost for a grand total of $21,704.00 for 7 days.
There certainly are a ton of variables, if you use your TC for work, full timing or more than the normal 2 or 3 week vacations for those still working.
For us, we like to think that we would use the truck/tc about 44 days a year. 4 days/month @ 7 months and a 2 week summer trip. I'm guessing about $55,000 out the door for truck/tc combo we're looking at.
Year 1: 55,000/44 = $1250/day
Year 2: 55,000/88 = $625/day
Year 3: 55,000/132 = $416/day
Year 4: 55,000/176 = $312/day
Year 5: 55,000/220 = $250/day
Now I hope in those 220 days we'll be having great times and building fantastic memories, they certainly won't be priceless, but great all the same.
If I am off base here with my numbers or analysis let me know....
Again, thanks to the folks here who make this a great community
Hatu, unless you walk or ride a bike everywhere you need to deduct some of that $55K for some type of vehicle you would need in the first place.
I am also in agreement that "since we all ready own our campers for fun", it may very well worth it to take it vs small car/motel on a business or visiting family trip. The cost of motel and eating out will quickly pass the cost of the extra fuel in just a couple days. JMHO
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Plus, as mentioned many times before, having all your own stuff is priceless. Especially knowing who the person is that last slept in your bed. 
