The Fuel Factor

friz-5TH

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 24, 2018
Messages
182
Location
Florida
This is not a question, more of an observation. Please feel free to comment. After maybe a 12 year hiatus from camping we bought a 5th wheel last fall. Prepping and planning we took off on a 2 month trip this June. We were headed from north central Florida to northern Michigan. The first 1400 miles were a straight shot, no sightseeing. I had not anticipated how much the cost of fuel would be. How naive. At maybe 10 mpg It would cost us about $70 to drive 250 miles. This was a daily expense when traveling. We extensively used Boondockers Welcome. If not available, campgrounds could be readily found for $30 - $40. As it was, in two months we put about 8K miles on the truck an close to $6K on the credit card. I have not actually crunched the numbers but guessing at least $2500 was the cost of fuel. Is this a fact of life? Do you people live with it? Thanks for listening.
 
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Friz, I believe that is the real world numbers. Most gas rigs hover around the 9 mark and most diesel rigs in the 12 mark. Yes, I know there are those of you with the Ford 2.7 turbo towing 38' Holiday Ramblers getting 26 MPG and members with the new 1000 lb/ft Ram getting 38 MPG towing 44' DRV Elites, but the real numbers have already been mentioned.
With nationwide diesel in the $3.25 mark and gas about $2.75, fourth grade math gives about 27 cents per mile for diesel and 30 cents per mile for gas. These numbers I pulled out of my nether regions still put your fuel at $2400 for your trip. Yep, you are on the money. $45 per night RV parks and high fuel consumption are becoming a fact of life for travelers.
When we travel sans the Suites, DW budgets our motel stays at $100 per night and we work hard to keep it at $80.00 per night. Do you realize how bad accommodations have gotten on the road for $80? Stick with the bad mileage and your own bed at night!
 
I would agree as to paying for fuel verses hotels. I like sleeping in my own bed.

Our diesel truck gets about 10 mpg towing, but our previous gas truck got 6 mpg towing. Not good!

Some pre-emissions diesel and deleted diesel will do much better.

Be wary of the 26 mpg, etc. claims. True or not...you won't get that.
 
The cost of fuel and CGs are what have driven us to try camphosting at a state park. Been 58 days with no CG cost and little fuel cost. Will continue this type of economy until we run into a bad CG or some such glitch.
 
Thank you for the excellent feedback. Good idea to stay more than I night in a place. Cost of living has certainly gone up. Still was wondering why the price of fuel is such a large part of daily expenses. Went to a gov't website and looked at a graph of historical diesel prices. As I said I stopped camping 12 years ago. It is more like 13. When I stopped camping, the price of diesel was less than $1.50/gallon! Often near $1. No wonder fuel costs were not a burden. Also recall having a fat book called "Camping or Campgrounds on $10/day" which we used extensively. I suppose it is the cost of living. I am from another century.

Thanks again, Friz
 
As pointed out on another site were I posted the same question, length of stay decreases the cost of fuel as a percentage. Another site had a post "Camping Totals" polling several factors. From 8 respondents I was able to glean an average stay of 4.5 days! So, if I was spending $75/day in our mad dash north, had I stayed 4.5 days in each location my daily fuel cost would be reduced to $16.67/day!
 
As pointed out on another site, were I posted the same question, length of stay decreases the cost of fuel as a percentage. Another site had a post "Camping Totals" for the season, polling several factors. From 8 respondents I was able to glean an average stay of 4.5 days! So, if I was spending $75/day in our mad dash north, had I stayed 4.5 days in each location my daily fuel cost would be reduced to $16.67/day! . By staying only one night in a location the percentage cost of fuel is highest. Without question, the cost of everything has gone up over time. As I may have said before, "I am from another century".
 
As I may have said before, "I am from another century".[/QUOTE]


Yes, but in this century everything changes from day to day! Sometimes things slow down and it's week to week....:LOL:
 

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