Am I correct or not?

IIRC I once calculated that if I averaged 300 miles per day on vacation it would break even with non RV travel. that did not include cost of the RV however.
bumpy

I believe you see the error of you thinking by now. There is not much more that can be said without repeating the same.

However, I don't think you can beat RVing for pure recreation and enjoyment whether it be a motor home, 5er, TT, etc. ;)

One "cost" that I keep seeing come up, is food, I don't figure in food, as I'm going to buy food at the S&B or for the RV, & since we eat the same whether at home or out in the RV, that's a wash.
The rest, I'm not going to contest, just suffice it to say, it's NOT an investment,except in entertainment & relaxation.

BOAT, a hole in the water to which one pours money. and a RV is the same. both are toys .

I agree that folks are trying to compare apples to oranges.

Full-timing is different than traveling for vacations.

European travel and cruises cannot be done with a motorhome/5er/TT/popup/TC/class B/hybrid. If you want to go to Europe, you're going to go the same way everybody else does and leave the RV at home. And while you might take a cruise on you houseboat, this is about land RVs so that doesn't hold water.

I do a lot of local (within 4 hour drive) camping. Without the RV, I would drive my SUV and camp in a tent (no cabins available). I'd save the $20K i've spent on the clipper. I'd have many more miles on the SUV. Food, gear, campground fees, etc, would be a wash. So the RV is NOT a money saving expense.

Sure, depending on how you travel, you might save some money - eating in every night... but for some, part of the joy of travel is to try local foods, so that's not always a savings.

How much you spent on your RV will have a big impact on "cost effectiveness". The less put towards the RV, the better your numbers will be. And if you upgrade every 5 years, you're looking at an even bigger loss.

As others say, you buy an RV because you want to experience the lifestyle (whether camping, full-timing, snowbirding, or traveling), not because it's an investment opportunity.

And i'll add that many people bought houses in the recent past as "investments" and look where that got them. My personal feeling is you buy a house to have a place to live that you love - the rest is just icing.

Traveling by car and staying in a motel for me is almost always cheaper than taking my class C and camping. My car gets 38+ mpg on the highway (it's a Honda Fit), and motels probably average around $50 a night, somewhat more around large cities. My motorhome gets 7.5-8 mpg, and campsites average around $40 a night I guess, maybe a bit less. The gas money is the killer.

If staying in one place for several days, or not going too far from home, the costs may be more competitive. Likewise, there are not always motels or hotels in places where one would camp (and vice-versa).

Note that travel by car doesn't automatically mean one must eat in restaurants; I've cooked many a tasty meal at a rest area or picnic area using a camp stove, and making sandwiches or whatever is even simpler.

A motorhome is not an investment in terms of money because you have no realistic expectation of getting more money out than you put in. It's an expense, which may or may not be justifiable in a strictly business sense, but usually probably is not. It is a fine way to travel, just not generally the most economical way.

JAC1982 wrote:

Effy wrote:

JAC1982 wrote:
In thinking more about this, I guess if you compare the cost of an RV to traditional travel, you'll probably come out ahead with the RV.

We have a toyhauler that we make payments on. We have $350/mo budgeted to pay every month, so $4200/year. We only really take it on weekend trips, with the occasional longer trip. So let's say we average $25/night for camp spots (we don't do the fancier RV parks, usually just state parks or boondocking), and we go an average of 36 nights/year (3 nights/month). So that's $900/year. So we're at $5100/year. Then there's gas and food, let's add another $1000/year for that (which is probably too much since the farthest we drive is 4-5 hours). So we're at $6100/year for our travel budget.

We're in our 30s with no kids, and don't take a lot of other vacations, and when we do they are to places to visit family, and cost us in the $300-500 range (Hubs travels for work so when it comes time for pleasure travel, we fly free due to his points). But, compared to some of our friends who take trips to Europe, or friends with kids who do Disney trips or Disney cruises, we're coming out ahead. So I guess if you spin it that way you could argue that an RV is economical. But it's still not an investment. It's all a "throwaway" expense, financially.

You had me for a while, but really you are comparing apples to oranges. The only way to make the comparison is to calculate the cost of each trip in an RV, vs the SAME trip conventionally. Usually the trip itself is a save in an RV. But when you factor in motorhome travel - specifically the cost, maintenance and gas in a motorhome (which is what the OP asked about) the costs get more. European trips and Disney cruises are notoriously really expensive. I can get a flight or a cruise to the Bahamas for less than $400 for almost a week. If I went to Fla for the weekend in my MH and stayed in my cousins driveway eating my own food, I would still spend that in fuel getting there. Add the monthly payment and insurance on the motorhome - not even including maintenance and I could have taken my whole family to the Bahamas. I could take some really cool trips with $6100 a year for a family of 3. Also to note, you are paying for your RV when you aren't using it and will take a loss when you sell it. So by your amortized rate of payment, technically you will be paying for your RV long after you have it. (not really, but if you amortized it you would)

I guess my argument comes from things we hear from friends "how do you afford to have something like that". It's like, well, we afford it because we don't do other vacations.

Trust me, I'm totally aware our trailer is a complete waste of money, financially speaking. That's not why we got it though :)

:)

I know what you mean. I get asked quite a bit at gas stations when filling up "what sort of mileage you get? Bet that costs a lot of money to fill up." I always answer "My apartment gets better mileage than your house"

Effy wrote:

JAC1982 wrote:
In thinking more about this, I guess if you compare the cost of an RV to traditional travel, you'll probably come out ahead with the RV.

We have a toyhauler that we make payments on. We have $350/mo budgeted to pay every month, so $4200/year. We only really take it on weekend trips, with the occasional longer trip. So let's say we average $25/night for camp spots (we don't do the fancier RV parks, usually just state parks or boondocking), and we go an average of 36 nights/year (3 nights/month). So that's $900/year. So we're at $5100/year. Then there's gas and food, let's add another $1000/year for that (which is probably too much since the farthest we drive is 4-5 hours). So we're at $6100/year for our travel budget.

We're in our 30s with no kids, and don't take a lot of other vacations, and when we do they are to places to visit family, and cost us in the $300-500 range (Hubs travels for work so when it comes time for pleasure travel, we fly free due to his points). But, compared to some of our friends who take trips to Europe, or friends with kids who do Disney trips or Disney cruises, we're coming out ahead. So I guess if you spin it that way you could argue that an RV is economical. But it's still not an investment. It's all a "throwaway" expense, financially.

You had me for a while, but really you are comparing apples to oranges. The only way to make the comparison is to calculate the cost of each trip in an RV, vs the SAME trip conventionally. Usually the trip itself is a save in an RV. But when you factor in motorhome travel - specifically the cost, maintenance and gas in a motorhome (which is what the OP asked about) the costs get more. European trips and Disney cruises are notoriously really expensive. I can get a flight or a cruise to the Bahamas for less than $400 for almost a week. If I went to Fla for the weekend in my MH and stayed in my cousins driveway eating my own food, I would still spend that in fuel getting there. Add the monthly payment and insurance on the motorhome - not even including maintenance and I could have taken my whole family to the Bahamas. I could take some really cool trips with $6100 a year for a family of 3. Also to note, you are paying for your RV when you aren't using it and will take a loss when you sell it. So by your amortized rate of payment, technically you will be paying for your RV long after you have it. (not really, but if you amortized it you would)

I guess my argument comes from things we hear from friends "how do you afford to have something like that". It's like, well, we afford it because we don't do other vacations.

There isn't a great comparison for our trips with our RV, to a similar trip without it. We don't go places like Florida, we go to the mountains. So I guess you could compare it to the cost of a lodge or cabin, which run from $75+/night in the places we go. So in that regard, we are still coming out ahead!

Trust me, I'm totally aware our trailer is a complete waste of money, financially speaking. That's not why we got it though :)

JAC1982 wrote:
In thinking more about this, I guess if you compare the cost of an RV to traditional travel, you'll probably come out ahead with the RV.

We have a toyhauler that we make payments on. We have $350/mo budgeted to pay every month, so $4200/year. We only really take it on weekend trips, with the occasional longer trip. So let's say we average $25/night for camp spots (we don't do the fancier RV parks, usually just state parks or boondocking), and we go an average of 36 nights/year (3 nights/month). So that's $900/year. So we're at $5100/year. Then there's gas and food, let's add another $1000/year for that (which is probably too much since the farthest we drive is 4-5 hours). So we're at $6100/year for our travel budget.

We're in our 30s with no kids, and don't take a lot of other vacations, and when we do they are to places to visit family, and cost us in the $300-500 range (Hubs travels for work so when it comes time for pleasure travel, we fly free due to his points). But, compared to some of our friends who take trips to Europe, or friends with kids who do Disney trips or Disney cruises, we're coming out ahead. So I guess if you spin it that way you could argue that an RV is economical. But it's still not an investment. It's all a "throwaway" expense, financially.

You had me for a while, but really you are comparing apples to oranges. The only way to make the comparison is to calculate the cost of each trip in an RV, vs the SAME trip conventionally. Usually the trip itself is a save in an RV. But when you factor in motorhome travel - specifically the cost, maintenance and gas in a motorhome (which is what the OP asked about) the costs get more. European trips and Disney cruises are notoriously really expensive. I can get a flight or a cruise to the Bahamas for less than $400 for almost a week. If I went to Fla for the weekend in my MH and stayed in my cousins driveway eating my own food, I would still spend that in fuel getting there. Add the monthly payment and insurance on the motorhome - not even including maintenance and I could have taken my whole family to the Bahamas. I could take some really cool trips with $6100 a year for a family of 3. Also to note, you are paying for your RV when you aren't using it and will take a loss when you sell it. So by your amortized rate of payment, technically you will be paying for your RV long after you have it. (not really, but if you amortized it you would)

In thinking more about this, I guess if you compare the cost of an RV to traditional travel, you'll probably come out ahead with the RV.

We have a toyhauler that we make payments on. We have $350/mo budgeted to pay every month, so $4200/year. We only really take it on weekend trips, with the occasional longer trip. So let's say we average $25/night for camp spots (we don't do the fancier RV parks, usually just state parks or boondocking), and we go an average of 36 nights/year (3 nights/month). So that's $900/year. So we're at $5100/year. Then there's gas and food, let's add another $1000/year for that (which is probably too much since the farthest we drive is 4-5 hours). So we're at $6100/year for our travel budget.

We're in our 30s with no kids, and don't take a lot of other vacations, and when we do they are to places to visit family, and cost us in the $300-500 range (Hubs travels for work so when it comes time for pleasure travel, we fly free due to his points). But, compared to some of our friends who take trips to Europe, or friends with kids who do Disney trips or Disney cruises, we're coming out ahead. So I guess if you spin it that way you could argue that an RV is economical. But it's still not an investment. It's all a "throwaway" expense, financially.