True cost to operate a DP

Mondooker wrote:
A recommendation was made to me, since this is my first foray into Motorhome life. That I'd be wise to stay under $100,000.00 to get a feel for things. I took that as very good council and is why I'm looking at that direction.

Maybe I should ask another question, should I look at a gasser where I can get something newer for that amount of money?

What do you think?

I am not sure of what led you to conclude that a 40-45 ft DP MH would be a right choice for a first MH. But if that is the size you want I would stick with an older DP. If after some more research and thought you would want to start with a shorter MH 30-35 ft then I would look at a newer gas MH especially if you are not planning to full time in it. I don't no how old or how much you want to travel vs camp in one spot but my experience is I did a lot of travel in the beginning at less as I got older after 11 years and 80,000 miles of travel I still want to go back to Alaska but my wife would not. Grand kids, family issues like aging parents or your own heath issues also restrct travel. As far as cost go I average between $69/day to $100/day for gas, CGs, food, propane, entertainment and gifts. Insurance is $400/year, depreciation about 6%/year, and maintenance, repairs, mods etc is about 15 cents/mile. This includes all the known maintenance like oil changes every 5000 miles transmission and rear end chgs every 30k miles, tires,and mods like headers new muffler etc, and unknown things like front end repairs, refer,WH,stove,autopark(3 times) and generator repairs, all cleaning supplies etc. Total cost of $12,000 over 11 years of ownership. I do most of the work myself with a lot of help from folks on this forum. If you ask the question what have you actually spent for maintenance and repairs over the entire time of ownership and see what type and what age MH they have it would give you a good answer to your question. Actual costs would include all of the unknown problems that you are looking for. I would assume that older MH's would require more $/mile to maintain but that is just an assumption.