Thinking of buying a TT

[rubsal70]

Hello
I was wondering how expensive it is to own a TT. I'm wondering how much is spent on gas and is it worth it? Do y'all use the TT because yall dont want to use a hotel. Is it more expensive than just getting a hotel. Obviously everyone is different but I'm looking for ballpark number
Thanks

[oughtsix]

Speedogomer wrote:

Lodging costs are different at different destinations, different locations, different parts of the country. For example, to park your RV close to New York City might cost $80 (plus transit fare) but a midtown Manhattan hotel might cost $350-500.

To be fair,there are some beautiful midtown Manhattan hotels for less than half that. I've stayed for $140 a night less than 1/4 block from the center of times square.

I know that hotel, $140 a night or $25 an hour! 😉

[kgarrett9999]

I recently calculated that it costs me about $150 per night as a part time camper. We take one long (2 week) vacation per year plus about 8-10 weekend trips. Spread the cost of the travel trailer, insurance, etc over those nights. Add in the extra fuel costs (18 MPG vs. 10 MPG), campground fees, etc and I came up with roughly $150 per night.

Definitely not cheaper that a hotel, but you usually can't walk out the front door of a hotel and throw a fly line in the river and catch a cutthroat trout.

Every time we use the travel trailer instead of a hotel, it helps drive down the nightly cost of the travel trailer. My wife asked me if I was ever going to let her stay in a hotel again. The answer was probably not.

[scbwr]

Over the long haul, I doubt there is any savings if pulling a TT. There may be if you stick with a pop up trailer. After the purchase price, the major expense of having a TT is the cost of gas, so to a certain extent, you can control costs by taking shorter trips. When people ask if I save money by traveling with my truck and trailer, I reply that I highly doubt it. But it is for us a much better way to travel because we have our own house on wheels and we can cook our own meals. We love a good restaurant as much as anyone, but eating in restaurants for 3 meals a day for extended periods gets to be a real pain if you are trying to have a healthy diet.

It boils down to looking at fuel costs when you know you are only going to get around 10 mpg towing and if you stay in private campgrounds, your nightly cost will be in the $40 to $50 range (full hook-ups). You can save by staying in state or federal parks.

Is it a way to save on traveling costs? I don't think so. Is it a great way to camp, travel and explore? You bet!!

[joedekock]

I believe RVing and camping is a lifestyle choice. Just like those who "travel" are making a lifestyle choice. The debate about whether or not its cheaper has as so many others already pointed out... many variables. Can it be? Yes, it can.

For me and my family, we decided it is cheaper. To start, there is the tow vehicle which will get less gas mileage than a sedan or even a mini-van. For me however, I hunt, and use my pickup truck for all sorts of things and only drive 4 miles to work. A pickup truck fits into my lifestyle with or without a Travel Trailer. So I dont include this cost in our camping.

Secondly, we have room to keep the Trailer at our house. This is hard to do if your renting or just have a small drive way or lot.

I have 3 kids under the age of 8. Traveling to another state, or over seas for 4 weeks a year at different times a year will be way more expensive than our monthly Travel Trailer payment and campground fees for the year. In fact, I tallied up and was able to figure out that for one year, our entire camping budget would only get us one week of vacation if we flew to Florida for only one week. Thats savings!

I believe camping is healthier for a family. With camping we are not eating out, we are eating at the campsite. Not only is this cheaper because its just a regular grocery budget, its also healthier should we choose to make it so by eating healthier foods. Also, because we are camping for 4 weeks a year vs. 1 week of flying to Florida or elsewhere, we are getting more time together that is away from home together as a family!

More recreation is another benefit of camping. We always bring along our bikes, fishing poles, footballs etc... You can bring along canoes and other recreational items which is again.... healthier than just sitting around a pool at a resort for a week!

Lastly, getting the next generation in the outdoors is imperative to me. I believe we are losing this generation to the gadgets and gizmos that technology provides. I dont condone this at all, but getting kids in a campground where there is no internet, and limited cell phone service and away from other distractions (especially with the whole family) is refreshing for them. They may complain and never thank you, but in the end they do have a lot of fun and it will make memories that last a lifetime and almost always passes on to their kids when they start to take them camping!

So again... its a lifestyle choice and budget choice. If we had only one child or no children we probably would not have purchased the trailer and done resort and hotel vacations.

[tragusa3]

Like most anything, if it's your thing, and you use it, cost drops in importance.

For us, we had the trip of a lifetime this summer. Our TT was a big part of what made it special. Our ENTIRE investment in the TT was worth it for this one trip alone, not to mention the other 20-30 local trips in the last 2 years.

[2112]

The Texas State Park system offers a park pass for $75/yr.
This covers your entry fee's, 5 or 6 half price credits for the second night and 10% off at the camp stores. It will pay for itself in 3 trips with a family of 4.

We used to use ours mostly for fishing up and down the gulf coast. Now we use it mostly in lieu of hotels. I'll have it at Livingston KOA this weekend to go to a funeral and Lake Waco next weekend for a wedding. I don't care if I pay more or less than a hotel, I get to sleep in my own bed that didn't have dogs or who knows what in it the night before.

You ONLY get $$ out of it if you use it. Otherwise it's $$ sitting in storage.

[Bumpyroad]

Speedogomer wrote:


To be fair,there are some beautiful midtown Manhattan hotels for less than half that. I've stayed for $140 a night less than 1/4 block from the center of times square.

but nobody wants to be "fair" when they are trying to prove their point. I didn't pay much attention to the cost of the hotel when the client was paying for it. now that I am, I generally go to the most reasonable decent motel available. I have been disappointed in about as many hotels/motels as I have been in campgrounds.
bumpy

[oughtsix]

I paid $10K cash for the 26' trailer in my signature. I didn't insure it since insurance wasn't required and liability was covered by my car insurance. I have my own storage so I didn't need to pay for storage. Loan interest = $0!

If I kept to 55mgh I could get around 12mpg with my diesel. (RV drivers don't drive slow because they are Nervous Nellies... they drive slow because they are cheap! MPG plummets quickly as speed increases!)

For weekend trips to a close lake it was great! We had all our gear there and were right on the lake with friends gathered around the camp fire!

For a 700 mile (one way) 8 day trip to Yellowstone the trailer was great and we probably broke even on fuel costs vs a hotel.

For a 200 mile (one way) 2 day trip to the beach... we go for a hotel to save money.

After 9 months I sold my trailer for $10K. I definitely got my moneys worth.

My GF decided she wanted a Class C instead of the trailer so her and the kids could move around the cabin so she bought a 91 vintage Class C. It gets 5-8mpg and the distance to destination vs number of days stayed has changed significantly. I would never drive the Class C to Yellowstone because of fuel costs and it isn't nearly as comfortable as my Duramax pickup. My back wouldn't survive the trip to Yellowstone... and I don't have back issues!

She paid cash for the RV, no storage costs but has to pay for insurance. Fuel cost have doubled greatly limiting how far we will take it. Repair costs have also greatly increased.

My point being costs will vary widely based on your circumstances!

[Speedogomer]

Lodging costs are different at different destinations, different locations, different parts of the country. For example, to park your RV close to New York City might cost $80 (plus transit fare) but a midtown Manhattan hotel might cost $350-500.

To be fair,there are some beautiful midtown Manhattan hotels for less than half that. I've stayed for $140 a night less than 1/4 block from the center of times square.

[Speedogomer]

If you're getting an RV to save money, you'll be disappointed.

No matter how you do the math, it usually does not add up.

Sure you may save some $ over a hotel compared to a campground. But that $15k you spent on the RV would sure buy a whole bunch of hotel rooms. There's the extra gas to get there, maintinence, and extra wear on the vehicle. Add in at least a few hundred $ for a hitch. Add in the cost of everything you need to stock the camper, I have thousands in just stuff for camping not including the camper.

You won't save money. Ever.

RVing however, at least for me, is more satisfying and rewarding than any hotel room. It's an experience that, while not for everybody, is absolutely fantastic.

[rfryer]

An almost impossible question to answer, as other posters repeatedly pointed out there’s simply too many variables. If we all got together compared notes we’d be all over the map. If you’re talking a big RV or MH and stay in commercial parks with HU’s I’d say no way could you beat the motel route. Depreciation is the big hit, meals out can be next depending on family size.

Now if you have a small TT like mine, dry camp in national forests for free or less than $10.00 a night, get decent mileage, keep it for 25 years to spread the depreciation out, and so on, you can beat the hotel costs. I once spent 4 days in San Diego and calculated I could have made a 3 week trip to Yellowstone for the same money. The longer you’re out the more the RV pays off, too. Most buy RVs for the lifestyle, not to try to save move over hotels and restaurants.

[tatest]

Biggest expense of owning most RVs, TT or otherwise, is often the cost of the money it took to buy it: interest on loans, lost income on savings, and depreciation of value. You can reduce those costs by buying cheaply, used and fairly old, so there is not so much money tied up and depreciating.

Second biggest expense for me, owning, has been cost of insurance and storage. Like the cost of money, these are expenses paid whether using it or not.

The biggest expense of using it (as opposed to owning it) has been the fuel cost of moving it around. It costs about 50% to 100% more per mile, towing most medium size TTs, compared to driving the tow vehicle without towing. Could be a whole lot more than an economy car.

Thinking of it as alternative to hotels, you need to work the numbers. When traveling to get somewhere, I like to cover 450-500 miles a day. RV traveling tends to cut that to about 300-400, I like to set up camp in time to fix dinner, break camp after breakfast, it limits my driving hours.

Consider my trip to Michigan to visit family (900 miles each way, several times a year), or visiting my brother in Florida (1200 miles each way)

My RV: 900 miles @ 7.5 mpg, 120 gallons at $3.00, $360 for gas; two nights RV park at $40, $440 total.

Subcompact car: 900 miles @ 36 mpg, 25 gallons at $3.00, $75 for gas; one night Hampton Inn or HI Express, $100, $175 total.

My van: 900 miles at 15 mpg, 60 gallons at $3.00, $180 for gas; one night hotel, $100, $280 total.

My van pulling TT: 900 miles at 10 mpg, 90 gallons at $3.00, $270 for gas; two nights RV park at $40, $350 total.

But consider an extended vacation, no relatives to stay with for free and eat their food. Dallas to Yellowstone NP, and back, for a week at destination.

My RV: 3000 miles round trip, 400 gallons at $3.00, $1200 for gas. Four nights each way enroute at $40, $320. Seven nights at destination RV park $350, $1870 total.

My subcompact: 3000 miles, 83 1/3 gallons at $3, $250 for gas. Three nights each way enroute at $100, $600. Seven nights in the lodge at $300, $2100, for $2950 total.

Lodging costs are different at different destinations, different locations, different parts of the country. For example, to park your RV close to New York City might cost $80 (plus transit fare) but a midtown Manhattan hotel might cost $350-500. Difference is less at Walt Disney World, where Fort Wilderness can cost as much per night as an off-property hotel room.

But the principle applies. The more you move the RV, the more expensive it becomes relative to staying in hotels. The longer you stay in the RV without moving it, the more you save on lodging, to make up for the cost of using it.

But if you own the thing, there is also that cost of ownership, whether you use it or not. First couple years on mine, early in the depreciation, it was costing me more than $500 a month to own it, so I was inclined to use it constantly. At almost 10 years old, cost of ownership is about $120 a month, I am more inclined to let it sit, drive my car to visit family, or fly off to Europe for 2-3 weeks at a time rather than make a RV road trip.

The way I mostly use the RV now is I haul it to a campground on a lake, where I park it for $8 a night, and the location is 15 miles from my house, so a $15 round trip. There is no hotel option, but I could throw my tent in the back of the car, still paying $8 a night for the campsite.

I don't RV to save money on travel, because most of the time it doesn't work that way. I RV for the outdoor lifestyle, but even then, you might find that a cabin in a state park or in a RV campground is close enough in price to a campsite that you might save enough to pay for the extra gas if the stay is less than a week or two and the drive is a couple hundred miles.

One last thing. We bought a TT in 1961 to save money on a single trip. We needed to take 10 people out to a relative's homestead in rural Montana, where the nearest lodging was a 140 mile round trip and we would have needed at least three rooms for two weeks. We dry camped on the property for free (ranch didn't have electricity or running water). What we saved on lodging at destination paid for the TT and the extra cost of hauling it 4000 miles. The big difference was gas was about 28 cents a gallon, and motel rooms were $15-25, campsites $2-3. A much bigger difference than today.

[BubbaChris]

One difference for us is on most TT trips we bring the dogs, saving us $50 per night in pet sitting fees.

This is our first year with our TT and we averaged nearly 2 trips per month. No way I would have gotten away from home that much without the TT.

I'm lucky in that we have a very wide range of options within 100 miles of home, so hoping this hobby lasts for a decade or more.

[Bumpyroad]

rubsal70 wrote:
Actually bumpy here in Texas our state parks are mostly nice and ran around 20-26 a night.

I don't do state parks. my campgrounds cost more like 45-55. FHU.
bumpy

[Terryallan]

Bumpyroad wrote:
I think that the main cost savings would be in eating meals in instead of paying restaurant prices. a decent campground is not much less than a low cost decent motel.
bumpy

Depends on where those CGs, and motels are. On the oceanfront. there is a HUGE difference in price. In the Blue Ridge Mountains. There is also a HUGE difference in price.