The Cost of Travel
Before you cancel that trip put the cost in prospective. Before we left for this trip many people asked, “How can you afford to go with the price of fuel being so high?†The price of gas did not go up $4.00 a gallon, it when up to $4.00 a gallon. That is a big difference. No, I don’t like paying that price for fuel, but before you cancel that trip you need to put things in prospective.
I estimate that on this trip we will travel about 6,500, and about 750 of that will be in our tow vehicle. So that leaves 5,750 in our motorhome. At an nominal 7 MPG we will use about 822 gallons of gas. The national average of gas has risen about $0.70 in the last year, which means that the trip this year will cost about $575 more that last year. I know that you are going to say that I did not include the cost of fuel for our tow. Well, when we are at home we average around 1,000 miles a month, so only driving about 750 in 4 months is saving even more.
There are some things you can do to keep your fuel costs down. Keep you tires properly inflated. Keep the weight that you carry to a minimum, just because you have empty space, you don’t have to fill it. If you are driving from park to park, you don’t need a full water tank. That extra 50 gal of water add about 350 lbs. Use you cruise control when ever possible. And probably the biggest fuel save of all, slow down! 5 mph makes a big difference.
The way things are going the cost will probably keep going up each year, so take that trip now.
Lorrin
I estimate that on this trip we will travel about 6,500, and about 750 of that will be in our tow vehicle. So that leaves 5,750 in our motorhome. At an nominal 7 MPG we will use about 822 gallons of gas. The national average of gas has risen about $0.70 in the last year, which means that the trip this year will cost about $575 more that last year. I know that you are going to say that I did not include the cost of fuel for our tow. Well, when we are at home we average around 1,000 miles a month, so only driving about 750 in 4 months is saving even more.
There are some things you can do to keep your fuel costs down. Keep you tires properly inflated. Keep the weight that you carry to a minimum, just because you have empty space, you don’t have to fill it. If you are driving from park to park, you don’t need a full water tank. That extra 50 gal of water add about 350 lbs. Use you cruise control when ever possible. And probably the biggest fuel save of all, slow down! 5 mph makes a big difference.
The way things are going the cost will probably keep going up each year, so take that trip now.
Lorrin