Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

While fuel prices here are 3.35$ right now 1/8/11....word is that it will be considerably higher this coming camping season, talk is nearly 4$ by Memorial Day...whether or not it's BS remains to be seen. What's up with the rest of you? How much are you willing to pay in fuel to go camping? I'm pretty fortunate as I've got some incredible places like only 40 miles from home...so it's going to be more local for me this coming year, with an exception. Just asking. Doug

Too bad we can't punch a couple of those. I plan on going to the LCG this year and that is only about half the distance that we usually do every other year. We'll just have to take the Pilot instead of the wagon (better gas mileage). Don't have a house payment so I'll just have to cut back on what I spend on my toys. Wonder if I change my name I could get welfare to pay for my gas.

One of the threads on the IRV2 forum is the, what happens when gas hits $5 a gallon. The vast majority of these folks have class 'what ever' motor homes and or large travel trailers. My response was that one reason I bought a teardrop is that it only costs me a couple of miles per gallon. Yes gas prices will have an effect, but not a big one.

I traded in my Jeep wrangler unlimited tow vehicle for a smaller fuel efficient car. However, I still have the Jeep commander that I now tow with. I guess the fuel savings of the smaller car will offset the increase fuel cost when I tow with the commander. I'll just cut back on something else.

It'll hurt but I'll still go.

I've got a 20+MPG tow vehicle and that helps.

I'll use Gages solution and cut out some "Toy Spending"

Happy Trails

Len

In one way I'm doing great by having a vehicle that is never out of style, can get me to any remote location for venture, and has been paid for for years now. BUT, the damn thing gets 13mpg . . . and only 10mpg while towing the beloved teardrop.


Yeah, it hurts like hell and it was senseless to spend the kind of money I just did on gas to go to California and back. Fortunately I enjoy cycling and am committed to a lifestyle of doing it. Cycling is obviously great for my health but it also allows me to be "car light" by commuting. Without it, the Jeep would be gone. With it, I can let the Jeep sit and just barely justify the cost of gas to tow the teardrop getting 10mph.

Even still, I am reducing my trips with the teardrop and perhaps supplement it with some bike touring. I've never done overnight bike touring before and it's something I think I would enjoy. High gas prices along with the entire state of the economy are pushing me to look at everything differently now, including "traditional" housing, which we've discussed on other threads.

Nothing wrong with living a new paradigm, even if it's forced out of necessity.

Scott

Unless I'm playing with the kayaks, the camper usually stays home in the summer, and I load up the Eureka on the motorcycle instead.
The GF sometimes has other plans, but she usually helps with gas so it's not a big deal.
I'm not happy with the prices though. My little S-10 loaded down with tools only gets around 15mpg.

Didn't vote, as I didn't see a category that quite fit. Have a couple of trips planned in Florida that we will still do. Nothing much changed, but not really "go anywhere" either. I have local friends that have changed plans, they wanted to do the big trip out west to the National Parks and have decided not to go.

Really don't see it as much of a problem. I did the math and if I travel 6000 miles towing the teardrop it MAY cost an extra $300 for gas spread over the entire season. At 20mpg while towing I would have to buy 300 gallons of gas. If prices went from $3.00 to $4.00 there is an extra $300.

It might be even less because we currently have the highest gas prices in the lower 48 states at $3.50 in Eureka CA. Everywhere we go from here the gas prices are lower.

I would not change my travel plans to avoid spending an average of $50 extra per month over a 6 month period.

It might even be more pleasant traveling if some of the huge motorhomes stay off the road.

Jerome

It's hard to say at this point, what will really happen. The guy who's predicting the 5 dollar gasoline this summer is a former oil executive with a political agenda. So, we will just have to see.

As for travel, I am already on a mostly close to home budget, so things can't get much worse, for me.

I plan to do Crystal Beach, which is about six hours from home, and LCG6, which is four hours away. Those will probably be my long trips. I usually do Beavers Bend, too. That's about three hours away.

Everything else I normally do is within an hour from home.

I took my allroad in for service, and the service advisor says he has a customer who wants and allroad, and mine is one of the nicest around. They are hard to find in the US, especially in the south. So, if I get a good offer, I may sell it, and get a more fuel efficient TV that doesn't require 91-octane gas.

CD

Thanks to our states tax program, we usually do quite a few short trips and one big one. The big one might have to be reserved for an out of state excursion since the cost of gas is usually lower than our home state.

Dear All,

Here is a link to the first time this question was asked on the board, in 2005. Makes for a funny trip down memory lane. Note that the outrageous expected gas price was $2.00/gallon, up from 1.77.

http://mikenchell.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1802&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=gas

Most of my trips are planned close to home anyway. I usually take Thurs and Friday's off work, to get a 4 day weekend. That way I can take more trips. My one big trip will be to Crossroads of America. That one will be a 13 hour drive, and the gas will be more than half the total cost of the trip.

I have a very nice State Park about 15 miles from my home, and I am perfectly content to get away for a few days there.

Our hope to go to Montana this summer will get the same kind of calculation that Jerome made above. We did the same in 2008 when we took our teardrop from California to Cape Hatteras and back - and we did think the highways and byways seemed a bit more open, and attributed that to relatively higher gas prices then.

Part of our decision is also based on asking ourselves, If not now, when?

Linda

Guy wrote:Dear All,

Here is a link to the first time this question was asked on the board, in 2005. Makes for a funny trip down memory lane. Note that the outrageous expected gas price was $2.00/gallon, up from 1.77.

http://mikenchell.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1802&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=gas

That link is sickening. I have seen the price of gas with a timeline graph many times, but to capture a conversation just 7 years ago is haunting. How long do we allow ourselves to get smacked upside the head with a "new normal" in high gas prices before we change this course?

Scott