On the road observations

valhalla360 wrote:

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

jdc1 wrote:
I was telling my wife that everyone would get use to paying $5/gallon for fuel in a few weeks. Even at $5/gallon, we still pay less than most other developed nations.

...but most of us won't be RVing in those other developed nations, so who cares? :p

It's a mixed bag:
- In Europe, they tend to drive shorter distances in smaller more fuel efficient cars. Or they ride scooters or take mass transit around town. Net effect is they buy much less gas. If gas goes up by $2/gal, not a big deal if you average 3 gal per week. Much different if it's 30gal per week.
- RV'ing is quite popular in Europe and yes, we have rented over there. It's a great experience though different from N. American.

Of course, in the big picture, fuel costs are not a big driving force. If you've already bought an RV:
- You still have the $500/month payments (assuming typical people who get loans).
- You still have $100/month insurance.
- You still have $500-1000/yr in maintenance costs.
- You still pay $25-60/night for a site.
- We are looking at a Michigan to Yellowstone trip later this fall and over the 2 months, we have it calculated as maybe around $300 extra for fuel.

While annoying, fuel costs hardly move the needle in terms of the overall RVing costs.

I don’t know about you, but $300 moves my needle. That’s about 3 months worth of school lunches for the kids.

I tow at 55-70. If I am a hazard get your own road.

nickthehunter wrote:
I don’t know about you, but $300 moves my needle. That’s about 3 months worth of school lunches for the kids.

So rather than spend $30k on an RV, you fund 300 months of school lunches and sit at home?

How is this even relevant?

nickthehunter wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

RetiredRealtorRick wrote:

jdc1 wrote:
I was telling my wife that everyone would get use to paying $5/gallon for fuel in a few weeks. Even at $5/gallon, we still pay less than most other developed nations.

...but most of us won't be RVing in those other developed nations, so who cares? :p

It's a mixed bag:
- In Europe, they tend to drive shorter distances in smaller more fuel efficient cars. Or they ride scooters or take mass transit around town. Net effect is they buy much less gas. If gas goes up by $2/gal, not a big deal if you average 3 gal per week. Much different if it's 30gal per week.
- RV'ing is quite popular in Europe and yes, we have rented over there. It's a great experience though different from N. American.

Of course, in the big picture, fuel costs are not a big driving force. If you've already bought an RV:
- You still have the $500/month payments (assuming typical people who get loans).
- You still have $100/month insurance.
- You still have $500-1000/yr in maintenance costs.
- You still pay $25-60/night for a site.
- We are looking at a Michigan to Yellowstone trip later this fall and over the 2 months, we have it calculated as maybe around $300 extra for fuel.

While annoying, fuel costs hardly move the needle in terms of the overall RVing costs.

I don’t know about you, but $300 moves my needle. That’s about 3 months worth of school lunches for the kids.

If a $300 hit in vacation costs means you don’t feed lunch to your kids for thee months you need to reassess your priorities. Taking a second job instead of that vacation would be the first step.

valhalla360 wrote:

nickthehunter wrote:
I don’t know about you, but $300 moves my needle. That’s about 3 months worth of school lunches for the kids.

So rather than spend $30k on an RV, you fund 300 months of school lunches and sit at home?

How is this even relevant?

I don’t have a $30k RV either. To some of us $300 is not spare change. I live within my means but a sudden unexpected $300 increase in the costs for a trip is meaningful for me. Just because it’s nickels for you doesn’t make it nickels for the rest of the folks out there.

valhalla360 wrote:


Of course, in the big picture, fuel costs are not a big driving force. If you've already bought an RV:
- You still have the $500/month payments (assuming typical people who get loans).
- You still have $100/month insurance.
- You still have $500-1000/yr in maintenance costs.
- You still pay $25-60/night for a site.
- We are looking at a Michigan to Yellowstone trip later this fall and over the 2 months, we have it calculated as maybe around $300 extra for fuel.

While annoying, fuel costs hardly move the needle in terms of the overall RVing costs.

I sure hope you didn't straddle yourself with a $500 monthly payment, a $1200 per year insurance bill, and $1000 maintenance budget on a 2021 Cherokee Gary Wolf? That's ridiculous.

Back to the topic of this thread, the owner of the local mom and pop owned RV dealer here tells me his sales right now are down a bunch from April 2019, and down even more compared to April 2020 and 2021. He expects sales to drop even further as long as high fuel prices and inflation continue, just as they have every time the same scenario presented itself in the past. He says almost every day someone calls who purchased during the Pandemic boom asking if he's interested in buying back units he sold them.

bgum wrote:

bucky wrote:
Please share with us the gasser that gets 15mpg towing and what it was towing.

2018 Toyota Tacoma towing a 2018 Airstream Bambi Sport 16rb. At 60 mph.

I like your Tacoma/Airstream combo also. I towed for 15 yrs a 20' TT with my Tacoma, probably about 1K heavier. Though I never bothered to figure my mileage I'm sure it was less than 15mpg :)

Mike

Wade44 wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:


Of course, in the big picture, fuel costs are not a big driving force. If you've already bought an RV:
- You still have the $500/month payments (assuming typical people who get loans).
- You still have $100/month insurance.
- You still have $500-1000/yr in maintenance costs.
- You still pay $25-60/night for a site.
- We are looking at a Michigan to Yellowstone trip later this fall and over the 2 months, we have it calculated as maybe around $300 extra for fuel.

While annoying, fuel costs hardly move the needle in terms of the overall RVing costs.

I sure hope you didn't straddle yourself with a $500 monthly payment, a $1200 per year insurance bill, and $1000 maintenance budget on a 2021 Cherokee Gary Wolf? That's ridiculous.

Since we were talking about the larger industry, I was listing some fairly typical numbers. I would consider them ridiculous but I see people doing it all the time. We are well below those numbers but I wouldn't consider us typical.

Even if you cut the numbers I list in half, $300 doesn't move the needle enough to make your average RVer not take the RV out. It's certainly not going to leave our kids (not that we have any) going hungry at lunch time for 3 months.

Wade44 wrote:

valhalla360 wrote:

I sure hope you didn't straddle yourself with a $500 monthly payment, a $1200 per year insurance bill, and $1000 maintenance budget on a 2021 Cherokee Gary Wolf? That's ridiculous.

Lucky for us Judgey McJudgerson showed up.

Wade44 wrote:
He says almost every day someone calls who purchased during the Pandemic boom asking if he's interested in buying back units he sold them.

I wonder how long it’ll be before the repo man starts showing up. I remember well back in 2008 when cranky ape dot Com was loaded with repo rigs from over extended people.