There’s no denying fuel prices are high. And we mean HIGH. And, unfortunately, they’re getting higher… and higher…
All of us RVers know that filling up the tank isn’t cheap (on the truck or RV!), so those drives are getting more expensive by the mile. If fuel prices stay the same or continue to rise, will it affect your RV travels this summer?
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I retired from the oilfield after 38 years. I don’t hunt, fish or play golf. We travel in our RV and enjoy it. If one is going to play one is going to pay. Safe travels to all.
👍 exactly. Some of these comments, they want to make the big bucks but pay next to nothing.
Fuel is one part of the RV equation. Prices are rising fast for everything including the coaches, the trailers, the tow vehicles, campground fees, repairs, state and local fees and taxes, supplies and parts. Frankly, if we’re beginning to ask how much it costs, we probably can’t afford it. And by this time next year, current fuel prices will seem like a bargain. Sanction and shortage effects haven’t yet been felt.
Everything is going up except wages fir most folks,good thing we have a great pension.
🇺🇸🇺🇸
When I wrote my dissertation, I had to write a lot of survey questions and there absolutely needs to be a follow-up question:
At what price (per gallon) will fuel prices have an effect on your travel plans?
$3-$4
$4-$6
$6-$8
$8-$10
I think this is a great idea to have a follow-up! For instance, $4/gallon would have minimal impact on our plans. $6/gallon is a different story!
$4 to $6.
A year and a half ago we were not experiencing many things we are now and the reason is obvious.
Us too. We were just fine. Now, we just don’t know.
Sad isn’t it..
Yep. Covid restrictions are relaxing as the # come down.
Travel in our Class C will be normal this year. Another $2.00 a Gallon more and we will reevaluate the situation.
While I would prefer to see the fuel prices I saw when I first bought my 19ft TT in 2021, it is nowhere near as hard on our pocketbook as the prices we saw when had our Class A in the 2000s. Do I like paying more? No, but I’ll just adjust where we spend money so we can continue enjoying our getaways. Goodbye to Fort Wilderness, KOAs, and dine-in restaurants; Hello to state parks, boondocking, and BBQ-ing again.
I’ll be driving slower to get the best mileage and shopping for the best prices along the route.
We have put off our big Alaska Trip for two years due to Covid. We’re going this summer no matter the cost of fuel. Will I drive the rolling breadbox a bit slower? Yep.
It’s gonna hurt the grandchildren college fund.
Current fuel prices won’t affect our travel plans but probably when diesel gets to $6+ a gallon, we will not be traveling as far from home.
We co manage a big Rv resort in Yuma Arizona. Almost all of the people here and those coming in to visit say that they are not going to travel this summer like they use to. We travel to different locations every season and are now looking for a place to call home. Time to get off the road
Has anyone else ever owned a boat? We’re talking about gallons per hour, not miles per gallon. Mine used at least forty gallons of gas a day to drag friends around on skis for a few hours. Then I found out who my real friends were when I had to head to the gas dock to pay twice the price as a filling station. Our little RV holds about 50 gallons and I’ve never had to fill it more than once in a day. If ya wanna play ya gotta pay.
Almost forgot. That extra dollar per gallon makes me not want to play in California even more.
That’s why I have a sailboat!
We are still going to Alaska. But our plans will change in that we will be driving slower and may not splurge on as many side trips on the way up or back.
So the extra we pay for fuel will be pulled from our activity budget. local businesses will not benefit from our time in their towns. Truly trickle down Economics.
Leave politics out of the conversation that is 100% political ?! The last straw, goodbye.
Politics is what created the problem, now don’t talk about it, because someone may be offended. Sounds like FB.
Leave? It’s not a mandatory site to visit! 🤷🏼♂️
Go back to being a keyboard warrior and your FB friends.
Nope, no change. In May we take our Super C Jayco 240 miles north to our seasonal site in Vermont where it stays until the end of October. Every couple of weeks we’ll go up from our home in CT using our Honda Fit that gets near 40 MPG on the highway so it really doesn’t matter what the fuel cost is. With an 80 gallon tank we won’t have to refill the Jayco until after we bring it home in October. And no having to worry about finding a site!
I settled our family for 12 years at one site. That 3k a year fee buys a lot of fuel and the kids get to see the country before it’s gone. Class A all the way. Still cheaper then hotels and restuarants.
Between fuel prices and the campground crowding, and availability issues, we think we have ours sold. That being the case, done RV’ing period. So, saying goodby to a part of my life encompassing 39 years of enjoyment, well up till the world went nuts with covid.
I may have to slow down from 62mph to 45mph. Lol
At 80 yr old we don’t know how many more years we can enjoy traveling in our motorhome so if it takes my last dime to buy fuel, so be it.
😀
$5 a gallon will change distances travelled. Going to FMCA Tucson, 3200 miles round trip at 8.5 miles per gallon. Do the math.
Already adjusted plans on two trips (left the 8mpg hog in storage) and cancelled our annual cross country trip.
If we get to $6 I will become a homeless RVer and I will park permanently in front of government offices in DC.
Good idea. More of us should.
we don’t now and never have traveled in summer. we prefer spring and fall
My typical Spring travel is north from AZ to visit family in WA Apr-May and then home to AK for the summer. Looks like this year I may just leave the motorhome in WA and fly home. Have always been cognizant of price of fuel for the trip (return south in Sep-) but this year feels like a major unnecessary expense. If I fly, that leaves my budget for rv travel next Fall intact!
Yes gas prices will effect our plans! We have been planning a three month trip for several months. A gas motor home getting 7 mph can be expensive travel.
When fuel goes high we travel within our state or to neighboring states. We do long-distance trips when it is lower. We will probably spend more days in our motorhome, due to my retirement, but not travel as far.
On the Open Roads app for our fuel discount card, I saw prices for diesel ranging from $3.56 to over $4 per gallon (discounted price) in SE MN this morning. Going pump price is $3.899.
Not going to affect us what so ever. It’s not even a consideration when planning our trips!
Decided to cancel my trip to Ft. Wilderness from NY as a precaution. We just thought that added to the rising cost of Disney it was too much.
We have a week or so trip planned after Labor Day, but probably won’t go, not because of fuel. It’s a 6 hr trip from our home. We are currently in the Keys and will be on way home to CA in 8 days. Just have to close our eyes when we fill up. Planning on attending Indy 500, so that would be from beginning of May to Middle of June. As of now still going.
It won’t effect our destinations, but the effect it has on our budget will probably effect what we do when we are in each place.
We just paid $4.21 a gallon for diesel ( 3 days ago ) driving up I 57 coming home from Texas (1350 miles one way ). Besides the higher of cost fuel, increases at camp grounds and the increased cost every day needs it hard to say it will not effect our travels, even with our fuel discounts. For those looking for their unit, we did see a lot of new trailers being delivered south at least 100 plus units that day.
No plans to change our summer RV trip. Once we leave CA, we save $1.00/gallon on the average.
We are doing our return home trip in the next few weeks (retirement has its advantages) and that will be our big trip this year. Gas prices are high, but we’ve travelled through worse prices. You just have to do your research, use your discounts (Costco, Sams, GasBuddy, etc…) and time your stops to benefit you. Not carrying any extra weight helps out as well!
Fuel prices are a factor, but food and commodities are just as big as prices continue to rise for just about every thing. We plan on trying to save on camping by staying longer for the rate discount, choosing less expensive campgrounds, and limiting our ‘rambling’ in each area. We fulltime so less camping is not an option.
The price will not influence on where we are going, but will cause us not to leave the campground as often. In other words we won’t visit as many tourist attractions.
Last year we took my husband’s sister to the Grand Canyon (from Montana). Now, we have promised my sister to do the same for her. It’s we’re going come Hell or High Water situation. It may be one of only 2 trips this year, but GC and Disneyland (with my sister) in the fall are locked in. The rest will depend. And we use the RV when we go to dog sport trials, so we don’t have to get a motel. So, no, gas prices will affect our pocketbook, but not our plans.
June, July, and August are the only months we don’t camp using our Micro Minnie, so fuel prices are not an issue. Might take out a tent to a secluded shady spot for fishing or kayaking, but the trailer stays home and, mostly, so do we.
Planning extended trip from TN to grand canyon and elsewhere this fall. Covid canceled our plans last year. Finally retired and neither one of us were able to take much of a vacation over the years because of work. Right now $5 gallon will be threshold of pain. But may suck it up and go anyway won’t know how to act with more than a week on the road. Life is too short.
The price of gas and some of the remaining effects of the pandemic have forced us to keep it mostly to boondocking locally. One good thing is we’re going camping a lot more often than we did pre-pandemic.
Hard to answer without various fuel price levels. $4.00 per gallon gas I expect by summer. $5.00 would make me unhappy. $6.00 per gallon would make me very angry. $10.00 per gallon would cause me to cancel my trip to Alaska planned for this year.
Of course it will affect us. Along with fuel prices, groceries are going up, minimum wages are going up…in fact the only thing NOT going up is how much I get paid! I really feel bad for those on fixed incomes or Social Security. Its getting too expensive (again). Will we see more stories of seniors living on cat food because the money only goes so far? (but the politicians don’t seem to be starving, or travelling less. Must be nice.
We are aging out of the RV scene, so this may be our last trip. We have an 8K loop planned for late spring, but if diesel prices are above an average of $4.50 I will have to look at it again.
In Western North Carolina diesel in one day jumped over a $1.00 a gallon. Now it is up to $4.60 a gallon. Many of our trip plans are being studied very carefully. We may have to cancel some of our distance and just stay closer. One year ago it cost $160.00 to fill up the truck for long hauls. Now it is closing in on close to $350.00, probably before we go it may cost $400.00 or more to fill up.
We have no travel plans between April 2nd and October 19th. We are awaiting the arrival of our ordered DP from Newmar. Currently, an arrival date of early-June is expected with an update expected late this week. So, it is uncertainty regarding the arrival of our next RV, not fuel costs, that is affecting our summer travel plans.
We are still planning on traveling from Wisconsin to Arizona this spring. Gas is a concern but we do not want to put life on hold and we will be doing whatever we can to make it work.
At this point, fuel prices won’t change our plans. That could change depending on just how expensive diesel gets. We traveled when fuel prices were well north of $4/gallon so we’ll do that again this time around. North of $5/gallon might have me rethinking.
We don’t travel during the summer, only travel during the fall, winter, and spring.
My wife and I have talked extensively about our camping plans this coming season. What we decided is “we’re not getting any younger” and time doesn’t stop for anyone. Covid-19 killed our prior cross-country trip plans, so this year are going to embark on a long two-month excursion that will be longer with more stops than our prior plans. Are we not aware of the rising fuel costs, of course? However, sooner or later a choice has to be made to do what you enjoy and let the things out of your control not stop you.
My thoughts exactly. We have more years behind us than we have in front of us.
Fuel costs over the life of any vehicle, especially an RV, is one of the most important and significant costs.
This is why I purchased a Class B motorhome that gets 18 MPG on the road.
Motorhomes that get 5 or 6 MPG are paying three times more and this really adds up quickly.
So, when people ask me if it’s too expensive, my answer is don’t get more motorhome than you actually need. Our motorhome is just comfortable enough to have privacy and a small indoor safe place, but, it’s not designed to be like taking our entire home with us. We don’t live in our motorhome, it’s great traveling to destinations and exploring nature or just road tripping.
Like most, we will look at prices at the time we plan to travel and adjust accordingly, we travel less in summer anyway.
At $3.50+ a gallon I will NOT be going camping this year. I can’t afford to get to the campground!
Supposed to be representative to FMCA in Nebraska this summer but we’ll see….!
These prices will definitely have an effect on our rving this year. 450.00vs 225.00 to fill our motorhome, for sure. Along with everything else going up because of rising fuel prices!
So abiding by the rules , I’ll leave politics and corporations out of it, although those two combined are the reasons for the price we are paying.
So your prices is bad in the US, for sure,ours in Canada just topped 2.00/litre, which translates to 9.00/ gal.
From roughly 4.50 /gal earlier last year.
So other excuses given are high demand? Really, in March?
Low production?Who sets production rates?
Excuse after excuse to raise gas prices and other than stop driving, nothing can be done about it.
Life’s to short! Gas prices will not stop us! We will cut down on going out to eat. I like my cooking better anyway!
Diesel fuel is now close to $7.00 a gallon here in Ca. fill up my 100 gallon tank $700.00
avg 7-8 miles a gallon pulling toad. I’m not driving my RV anywhere. can stay in some nice hotels for that kind of money. Really concerned about RV depreciation due to handling of Russian oil
Russian Oil? I guess you drank the Kool-Aid!
To the RV travel staff; I cant say enough about how you put topics relevant to RVing in front of your readers for discussion and comment. As Americans (some canadians as well), there has been vigorous discussion in he comments of this blog, and i salute your format.
Now to this survey. I believe the initial reaction, and subsequent votes, which currently indicate “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” I’m going anyway mentality, is a premature hopeful belief. It will be very interesting to see the number of cancellations that arise, as fuel becomes more expensive, and more importantly, remains high, draining the monthly budgets of those with marginal discretionary income. This will begin to hit soon, as the sustained fuel, food, clothing, heck, EVERYTHING goes through the roof.
As i said it many times, buckle up, as we have now entered uncharted economic territory.
It’s not the cost it’s the destination
The destination and fighting with bad roads and trucks
Spare us from the boring sayings from the internet.
Between the gas, traffic, rude people, and danger, it is almost not worth it anymore.
Well said. We’re a veteran Motorhome couple. 20 plus years. And it’s definitely not fun any longer. The previous post nailed it. Lucky we have a farm and a beautiful big bus port with 50 amp water and sewer. So we now use our bus for mini vacations right here at home. Peaceful quiet and gated. We refuse to travel at this time. I keep liability and comprehensive insurance and that’s it.