i think a person does a camper or RV more for the experience than as an actual cost saving method for travel. Really they only “pay for themselves” if you can find a $15 a night site and stay there for a month rather than a $100 a night hotel room.
My parents used to own a very nice Bluebird and worked at various church sites where they would leave it parked for 3-4 months (the had free hookups because of the work) sometimes while they worked so they got alot of use out of it.
Private RV resorts with full time residents are more of a “community” than most realize. Lots of people out and about, an abundance of bored oldsters, and lots of yappy dogs. Add at least some minimal vetting at the entrance (if not a gate) and it becomes less desirable for criminals. Additionally, there’s just not much to steal from a trailer. On the rare occasions I leave mine for repair work, I don’t unload much except except keys (I keep truck keys in trailer, trailer keys in truck, etc.)
Criminals who want the entire trailer will grab it from the storage lot some night, when you’re not using it. These are the only whole-trailer thefts I’ve ever heard of. Roaming through sparsely populated national parks for the odd trailer to steal isn’t really profitable. There are a variety of fairly strong hitch locks to dissuade opportunists while you’re out hiking.
I may have made a big error in my recommendations to you, and I need to point this out. Both trailers I linked to have canvas sides/roofs, at least in part. Many National Forest and some State parks prohibit soft-sided campers – usually due to bear activity. If you selected one of the types I recommended, you would limit your selection of parks considerably. Allow me to suggest the A-Liner variety instead. These are popups which have hard sides like traditional travel trailers. They add most of the advantages of the popups (weight, trailerable by small vehicles) to the advantages of the larger ones (insulation, odor isolation to avoid animal attraction).
One final warning that I have not seen in the thread, regarding RV age. Many of the private parks have age limits on the RVs which are allowed to stay. Typically they draw the line at 10 years. You won’t find this problem at state or national parks, but it’s something to consider if you decide to hit the beachfront resorts or fancy parks in the mountains.
Best of luck!
WRT communities, when we see them they look like parking lots—everybody’s packed in like sardines. I guess the park owners don’t want to pave too many roads, lay too many sewer lines, etc. We don’t mind some neighbors but we’d want more privacy. OTOH just as the water buffalo close ranks, there’s safety in density. Or something.
I assume the residents buy into it for economy’s sake as well. No frills design savings are passed along to consumer. And there’s the (lower) monthly rate, for which you’re getting electric, water, sewer, trash, plus many have cable and wifi. Mrs. L has remarked that some of the people are possibly dropping off the grid/radar that way: you have utilities, yet no utility bills to leave a trail. Pay the park cash and you’re invisible?
Urbanredneck was saying if you could rent space for $15/night…I don’t think we’ve ever done better than $25 or $30 and that would be only in state parks. KOA/Good Sam are more expensive but may also have swimming pools etc. Chefguy said you might get 15 mpg—we have a small RV and we get 10 mpg. Period.
So if you do the math…
420 mile trip, take the car, 30 mpg means 14 gal. Pre quarantine let’s estimate $2.50 gal, $35. Stay two nights @ $100 per in hotel, $200. Total $235
Same trip, RV. 420 @ 10 mpg =42 gal. That’s $105 for gas. Say $30 x 2 for park, $60. That’s $165.
I’m probably low on guessing the park rate…what I’ve noticed is that it usually correlates pretty well with hotel prices so an area charging $100/night hotel might be $45/night for the RV space. Maybe that’s because land costs drive prices or it reflects the local cost of living/wages or maybe “whatever the market will bear” applies.
But mostly, I think you lose the “savings” as a cost per mile thing. You know how companies will pay like 19 cents per mile to reimburse you? As Chefguy says, just getting your tires rotated can be a challenge and you’re not just maintaining engine transmission suspension…it’s the water heater, the coach batteries, the outdoor shower head :smack: The one that I gather gets huge complaints from a lot of RVers: the roof, which tends to leak as time goes by.
When we were shopping used RVs we found something unusual: older models with really low miles on the odometer. You may find a 10 year old RV with only 25,000 miles. My hunch: some coddle the RV, others don’t make time to take them out, some have an expensive repair and lose their taste for it…but part is trying to keep the miles low for if/when they sell it.
So there’s your another hidden cost—depreciation. Cars depreciate too of course. I suspect some vehicles are more sensitive to how they’re valued than others. For instance as I understand it, used Corvettes lose a lot of their luster (in the eyes of those who would buy) when the odo reads 100K. People intuit that RVs will take special husbandry and avoid adding the standard concerns of the high mileage engine.
Before you splurge just make sure you really like camping and being on the road. So get a decent tent and sleeping pad/air mattress. See how you like spending your days puttering around the campsite and park. Once it gets dark it kind of slows you down, besides tending the fire and getting recreationally buzzed, not mych to do besides watching the stars and listening to people shuffle by in the dark with flashlights on their way to the loo. I’m an occassional tent camper, with a super comfy air mattress. But it’s on the ground and it’s comical rolling out of it some mornings so I want to get a blow up bed on legs. midnight jaunts to the rest rooms are okay and kind of beautiful by yourself in the dark outside.
We have been interested in the https://www.sylvansport.com/shop/go/, hard top soft sides doubles as a trailer too.
I’m not sure a folder is worth it vs a tab or rpod or other light trailer. Better drag coefficient but having to set up and take down. But I have zero experience so what do I know.
Brian
9pm is camping midnight. Other than putzing with the fire reading in my sleeping bag is one of my favorite camping activities (of course hiking/exploring the park)
Brian
Much like your home, regular routine maintenance is critical for any RV. You have to check things like roof seals and check for water stains every year, and make sure things are not generally just falling apart. Why people don’t do this is a mystery to me, and it’s why you really have to be careful if you’re buying a used RV. I’ve had the toilet replaced and the windows resealed, neither of which was cheap. I fixed the kitchen faucet myself, and managed to fix a problem with the sound in the rear of the rig
Most used RVs have low mileage. I think mine probably only has 25K on it at 10 years old. It’s different if you’re constantly driving around the country, but few people do that. At 25K, the engine is still nearly new.
Yes, but think about a family of four who must eat out every meal in the hotel version, and on a 2 week vacation. That should change the math quite a bit. When traveling, we eat out at the same rate we do at home (seldom). This means we don’t even factor meals into vacation costs, since there’s no change.
I don’t RV to save money on lodging, any more than fishermen choose their sport to save on groceries. The park/fire/woods/etc. are the reasons themselves. But the savings can add up if you travel frequently. I have pretty good records for our last trailer (a small 5th wheel). In the 10 years we owned it, we spent 344 nights aboard. The difference between original purchase and eventual selling price was $9000. I could claim we were close to breaking even, although the real numbers would be complex, figuring in all the extra costs from storage to tow vehicle wear.
Thanks all.
I think a decent vehicle to tow one of those small trailers would work quite well for me. The A-lines looked quite nice. This all came from a single conversation w/ one ranger who said he lived in a trailer at various postings. You guys raised a number of issues that would be relevant.
The biggest issue is whether or not this is something we wish to try to afford. I’m currently a federal employee, eligible for retirement and pension. So I was thinking I could retire, draw my pension, and supplement w/ a low park ranger income for a couple of years until I was eligible for higher SS bens. But it turns out that switching to another federal job, there would be a 100% set off of income against my pension.
Another option would be to look into state park or similar positions - but those seem somewhat scarcer, and harder to find.
As an alternative, I could imagine a sort of “Travels w/ Charlie” situation - but not sure that is in my wife’s and my plans.
So this likely wouldn’t be an economically practical option. Hell, if I really WANTED to, I could probably afford just about any option. But, yeah - the idea of spending $20k or so for a couple - maybe 5 - years, sounded like a neat option.
A couple of months ago, there were a ton of ranger positions posted. Now (likely w/ COVID19), there are far fewer. Not sure what the future may bring.
Agreed, the accounting is complicated. On a few occasions we were able to stay the night for $0. We discovered that most Wal Marts don’t mind you parking there overnight, for instance, and you can stay at rest stops. Neither of those are true camping experiences but they were useful stops en route…and free.
But whatever entertainment a person chooses, it’ll probably cost money. I told Mrs. L that if we got the camper, we were going to use it and we have. We put about 30K miles on in 5 years. Some people wear designer labels or have a high tech home theater setup or join country clubs or shell out to see the Super Bowl. We value travel so that’s what we budget instead.
And not only RV travel. Sometimes we fly because the destination is too far; sometimes you wouldn’t want to drive an RV while you’re there. When we stay at hotels, we like the ones where you have a mini fridge and microwave. You can find the local market, pick up snacks, sodas, microwaveable stuff to save money. And if they give you breakfast, that helps.
Trying to post for the third time! Hopefully they don’t ALL show up!!
If you’re interested in working at a campground - try googling “workamp” or “workamping” - there are a lot of opportunities at private campgrounds where you can either stay for free in exchange for oversight of the campground (or a section of it if it’s a bigger campground) and some do pay on top of letting you stay. You should be able to find something that meets your needs and interests.
We have camped for years, starting out in a tent and now have a 25’ tow-behind camper. He tows the camper with the pick up and for the last few years, I drive behind in our smaller car. We tend to go a week at a time and like the freedom of just parking and setting up and then being able to utilize the smaller car for driving around sightseeing or getting supplies. I also like the added security of having a back up vehicle in case something happened.
Came across this website – the 14’ is pretty light 14′ Codester – Taylor Coach
Brian
(again I am YEARS away, if ever, of getting a camping trailer, but it is fun to think about)