Gas price increase affecting your travel plans

[glen1971]

Originally Posted by aircommuter

Doesn’t seem like a big deal, .50 per gallon increase at 10 mpg is only $200 for a 4000 mile trip.
That home heating oil price sounds like a price for Diesel with a road tax too.
We use propane for the heated floors and water heater. A full tank usually goes through the winter and we usually only turn on the master bathroom and the office. The rest we use wood. If the power goes out the generator eats it up. Winter price right now $2.85.

Gas here, at least has gone up about $0.21 a liter in 7 days, or about $0.80 a gallon. On a 135 liter gas tank, that is about a $28 a tank jump in a week. I know I didn't get a raise to match that. Just wait until the grocery stores, hardware stores and anything else that moves by truck passes along this kind of an increase.

[DougW]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

It won't affect my travel plans, but I'm hoping it affects other's travel so there is more room in more places Purely a selfish perspective......

Me too!

[KJ6MTJ - John]

I don't care to pay 4 bucks or more a gallon, travel trailer just sitting in the front yard - LOL - maybe ill get some plotter print outs of lake and tape them to windows as if I'm visiting them. I was really hoping to get out there and use it more this year...

[RussPastuch]

In Ottawa it's now $1.71/litre.

[5er_tom]

We are going to the UP (Sault Ste. Marie) and staying 30 days in the CG. Then a quick trip to Whittington, IL for 5 nights, and back to the Soo for another 30 days stay.
Sure won’t use much gas during those two 30 day stays.

Having said that, we would go anyway. Might have to mortgage the children, but we will go!

[dougc905]

I have planned three trips this summer totalling about 8,000 km. Should be about $3700 in fuel. We will be gone for about 7 weeks. Probably another $1000 in camping fees. Still doesn’t come close to a vacation of that length involving hotels. Who knows what will happen after that.

[Sharon455]

We were planning a 6-week round trip from SE Arizona to South Jersey. I've done the initial planning in the Good Sam app and as of last week it was predicting about $2600 in fuel costs, not to mention camp grounds along the way. Now the DH wants to calculate the cost for air travel, which at a glance seems less. I'm about to tell him to use the RV or sell it because it is worth nothing sitting in the back yard.

[NJKris]

Sharon, the RV is still useful for destinations closer by. I'm looking forward to wife retiring so I can one day go on these mega-trips y'all go on, but I still get enjoyment out of using it for destinations within a one to two day drive, for a week here, a week there.6 week trips are out of the question for working folks, we are lucky to get a few days here, a few days there, 2 weeks at once is like a summer vacation! We are still managing to use it least 30 days per year.

[HangDiver]

Gas prices go down. Gas prices go up. Doesn't change the way I use my trailer. Same for beverages.

[rvflyer57]

Since we did a cross-country trip last year bringing our new TT home, we had already decided to do more "local" trips in 2022. We won't change those plans. However, we may stay longer per trip to get more bang from our gas-bucks. I work from home, so home is where ever i get a good internet signal.

[TitanMike]

Gas prices around me are already around a dollar per gallon higher today than a month ago. I expect them to go up another dollar in the next month if not more.

My travel won't stop however the
distances traveled will decrease and time at destination will increase. At $110/ per fillup my wallet's pain threshold is rapidly approaching.

A 4,000 mile, cross country, trip may sound exciting but a gas bill of $3500+ kind of dampens the appeal.

Something else to consider is the role fuel costs play in inflation. Grocery bills on the trip will cost more as well as campground fees and activity costs. The more it costs the providers of goods and services, the more it will cost you and I.

Unless one is boondocking on public land for free throughout the trip, and cooking all meals at campsite with no restaurant meals, fuel will only be one part of the increased cost.

I don't think we really know how much the impact of current events will be yet. I do believe it will be significant, especially on fuel costs.


Update: local news just reported analysts are predicting $6/gal gas in our area SOON. That's $0.50/gal more than my prediction.

[RFSims]

Originally Posted by Campincarters

Hello fellow RVERS. Just wondering what is the price level that will cause you to rethink planning a 7 to 10 day trip for price and distance. Mine is $4.00 per gallon and 500 miles in distance each way max. At my 8.5 mpg it would cost me about $500 in gas and if I drove one of my cars it would cost much less but I would have to compare others costs such as hotel or house rental and how much I could cook at the location. But I do know it will not be as much fun. I have learned that in my 3011ds I do not necessarily travel light. May be staying in the northeast in 2022 for my travels again.

There is no price level that would make me re-think/cancell a trip. I figure that the rate I am breaking down, I don't have that many years to RV travel left. I'm not running out of money, I'm running out of time.

Another thing I don't get is paying $30K/$40K/$60 or more for a RV and gripping about gas prices going up a dollar a gallon

[NJKris]

I want to be an oligarch when I grow up.

[Sharon455]

Originally Posted by NJKris

Sharon, the RV is still useful for destinations closer by. I'm looking forward to wife retiring so I can one day go on these mega-trips y'all go on, but I still get enjoyment out of using it for destinations within a one to two day drive, for a week here, a week there.6 week trips are out of the question for working folks, we are lucky to get a few days here, a few days there, 2 weeks at once is like a summer vacation! We are still managing to use it least 30 days per year.

NJKris, I wish I could get him to go on shorter trips. For the next month snowbirds own the camping sites in Arizona, he hates driving to California, and talks about NM but won't make plans. Part of this is all due to how uncomfortable driving a 2010 Class- C is. I get nowhere trying to get this thing aligned and a new Safe -T-Plus installed.

He insists he knows "a place" to get the alignment done, but drags his feet to make arrangements. I was hoping this pending trip would get him moving, but I guess I was wrong.

[NMWildcat]

Originally Posted by RFSims

There is no price level that would make me re-think/cancell a trip. I figure that the rate I am breaking down, I don't have that many years to RV travel left. I'm not running out of money, I'm running out of time.

Another thing I don't get is paying $30K/$40K/$60 or more for a RV and gripping about gas prices going up a dollar a gallon

X2. Exactly. We already told our kids there will be no major inheritance as we are trying our best to spend it all
We are going and doing while we still can. Higher costs might affect some detail of our plans, but not in the foreseeable future.
I'm not ready to say the sky is falling just yet.

[rk06382]

From Gas Buddy charts:
Attachment 269616

3 month gas prices.

[rk06382]

From Gas Buddy charts:



3 month gas prices.

Larger chart.

[Nick Danger]

Originally Posted by NMWildcat

We already told our kids there will be no major inheritance as we are trying our best to spend it all
We are going and doing while we still can. Higher costs might affect some detail of our plans, but not in the foreseeable future.
I'm not ready to say the sky is falling just yet.

We've already had to reserve all our trips/locations for the entirety of 2022.
Also have 2 trips for 2023 booked. On March 20 we have to book the remainder for 2023 just to make sure we have a spot to go to. It will cost more in cancellation fees than gas can go up if we cancel. I'm going camping!

[D W]

Originally Posted by aircommuter

Doesn’t seem like a big deal, .50 per gallon increase at 10 mpg is only $200 for a 4000 mile trip.
That home heating oil price sounds like a price for Diesel with a road tax too.
We use propane for the heated floors and water heater. A full tank usually goes through the winter and we usually only turn on the master bathroom and the office. The rest we use wood. If the power goes out the generator eats it up. Winter price right now $2.85.

If it was only 50¢/GL it wouldn't be a big deal, but both gas and diesel here have gone up $1.75/GL since this time last year. Couple that with the other commodities that have increased in price and you start to get into some serious money. Last May we bought propane at $1.99/GL. Today it's $2.99/GL.

[sherman12]

Sharon, get that alignment, you won't believe the difference in your Ford F450 chassis! I had it done on my first motorhome, 2000 Allegro Ford F53 chassis. It cost me $500, the shop changed out all the U-bolts and tightened everything up, but the difference was bigger than night and day! Add a True Steer, or a Roadmaster steering stabilizer at half the cost and your 2010 will drive like a 2022!

Boy have prices changed from when this thread was started back in "the good 'ole days of Nov. 2021"!

We started planning our estimated 7-8000 mile cross-country trip last fall, from Buffalo, NY to Yellowstone, Napa, Yosemite, and a bunch of other places last fall. This is pretty much the same trip we had planned for 2020 that got canceled because of Covid. We were still willing to go but our reservations started to drop like flies. So we are not back out this year. I am figuring in diesel costs at $6 a gallon and 8000 miles, or around 1000 gals (8 mpg) for a fuel cost of $6000. Yep, that's a lot and it'll put a good dent in our savings.

Like RFSims posted and we agree 100% we aren't getting any younger and we can't keep putting off what we were determined to do since we bought our first RV in 2007.

An interesting side note, in the Fall of 2008 we took our first good size trip through Vermont and Maine. We paid $3.97 a gal. for 87 Reg back during that trip.