The Fuel Factor

friz · 10-21-2019, 09:10 PM

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.

Notanlines · 10-22-2019, 08:28 AM

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!

fjr vfr · 10-22-2019, 07:41 PM

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.

**wingnut60** · 10-23-2019, 11:55 PM

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.

friz · 10-24-2019, 11:37 AM

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

friz · 10-26-2019, 11:59 AM

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!

friz · 10-28-2019, 12:03 PM

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".

fjr vfr · 10-28-2019, 09:10 PM

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....