The end of Airstreaming as we know it? - Page 11

Isadora · 05-19-2008, 10:42 PM

We plan to do some camping, gas prices or no. Just have to cut other ways. We are just doing a touchup on our Argosy instead of the paint job we were considering; it is either get her painted and have a nice yard ornament, because we won't be able to afford to take her out, or do it ourselves so she looks passable for now, and have the money to use for gas so we can have fun with her. We can afford a few cans of paint and gas too. But most of our trips will be fairly local, within a couple hundred miles, at least until this gas price thing resolves itself.

pyanke · 05-20-2008, 08:45 AM

We just got back from a rally on Monday afternoon. We were in Orange City, IA for the Tulip Festival. We had 20+ units from the MN & SD units of the WBCCI. We spent almost a week in the trailer. Our total miles travelled was about 500. It cost right around $200 for fuel. We will make a couple of more trips this summer. One will be to Thunder Bay, ON. I expect the fuel to be about $350 for that trip. We do use the trailer almost every weekend. We keep it at the Airstream Park in Clear Lake, MN.

ROBERT CROSS · 05-20-2008, 03:29 PM

Adirondack St. Park

Not keeping us away from our favorite places

Road Ruler · 05-20-2008, 04:41 PM

We just got back from the "long weekend" camping trip to the Pinery Provincial Park on the east shore of Lake Huron.

It was a very cold weekend with lots of showers. The park has 1,200 sites and was 95% full. Gas here for regular is $1.25 a Litre. About $6.00 a gal.

Lots of dual axle TT's towed by pickups, SUV's, mini vans, and cars. There were very few diesel or HD pickups. There were quite a few 30' TT's around us and they were being towed with 1/2 tons and SUV's like the newer Durango's.

The guy in the site across from us had a 30 Trailite and was towing it with a Dodge quad cab Dakota. He said he was an automotive engineer for one of the big three and he was thinking of buying a Hensley to improve stability.

Ours was the only Airstream that we saw in the park.

There were many tenters who were using 4 cyl small cars. One cool set up was a Lincoln LS that was towing an A liner Expedition.

Folks are still camping here but we are seeing fewer and fewer HD TV's.

Silvertwinkie · 05-20-2008, 04:43 PM

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating doing something now, but one has to consider the overall use of their unit individually. I am happy to have my Airstream, but I will be honest, if I have to limit my travel and use it only 3 weeks total out of the year for weekend type trips here and there, though nice, that isn't really why I got this thing, to limit myself. Add the storage, insurance, maint and of course cost of the unit, it does add up and if I have to add $2k a season for fuel...... I am going to at some point have to make a decision.

When I got into RVing, I was thinking of trips all over the country. Clearly, I'm not in significant pain right now, but I am looking at the 1000' view, rather than at ground level. There are considerable ancillary costs to owning an RV in general, let alone an Airstream that costs 4x more than a POS SOB, all that on top of fuel. I just got tires about a month ago. I am sure those cost a lot more than they did in early 2004. I am not about to put my unit up for sale just yet, matter of fact, I just picked up a 3 stage charging unit from Randy from bestconverter, and who knows what may come down the road in a year or so. But when it becomes clear to me that this is not going to change, then yes, we may use our timeshare (which is paid for) more often since that as of today, it costs us far less than the overall and total cost of RV ownership right now, which includes tow vehicle, RV, fuel, maint for both, insurance for both, etc.

I'm not looking for .99/gal (though it'd be nice!), but I really and honestly feel that $4.25 and eventually $5 is just unreasonable. I don't care what Europe is doing or paying. I'm having a hard time digesting what is going on here to all of in the States!

Minnie's Mate · 05-21-2008, 03:57 PM

This is evidence of the ridiculousness of the fuel situation:
Thieves swipe used cooking oil to brew biodiesel | ajc.com

It's pretty bad when folks are stealing what was given away a couple of years ago and now considered valuable. At the prices quoted in the article it proves out what I have said about bio-diesel: At some point there won't be enough used french fry oil to go around and the veggie oil will be as costly as petro-oil so bio-diesel will not be the answer to high diesel prices in the long run. If you strip the taxes and refinery cost away from the price of a gallon of diesel, is it really much more expensive than $1.25/gallon?

richinny · 05-21-2008, 05:55 PM

this is Fleet Week in NYC. on an interview, the fuel consumption was quoted as 40 gallons per hour. ground our fleet for a week and the fuel crisis is over! LOL.

firedog · 05-24-2008, 08:58 PM

Unless you have deep pockets, yes I agree, a end of a era of long drives to rallies.Sad state of affairs.

Silvertwinkie · 05-25-2008, 10:46 AM

Ironically, I guess there is a word for the issues we are talking about.

The word is called Staycations (instead of vacations). This is where you stay home for vacation or go very close to home.

'Staycation' all you've ever wanted?: News & Videos about 'Staycation' all you've ever wanted? - iReport.com

Garfield · 05-26-2008, 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Road Ruler

We just got back from the "long weekend" camping trip to the Pinery Provincial Park on the east shore of Lake Huron.

It was a very cold weekend with lots of showers. The park has 1,200 sites and was 95% full. Gas here for regular is $1.25 a Litre. About $6.00 a gal.

Lots of dual axle TT's towed by pickups, SUV's, mini vans, and cars. There were very few diesel or HD pickups. There were quite a few 30' TT's around us and they were being towed with 1/2 tons and SUV's like the newer Durango's.

The guy in the site across from us had a 30 Trailite and was towing it with a Dodge quad cab Dakota. He said he was an automotive engineer for one of the big three and he was thinking of buying a Hensley to improve stability.

Ours was the only Airstream that we saw in the park.

There were many tenters who were using 4 cyl small cars. One cool set up was a Lincoln LS that was towing an A liner Expedition.

Folks are still camping here but we are seeing fewer and fewer HD TV's.

Hi Road Ruler!

We just returned from the same park (Pinery) over the Memorial Day weekend. (At least we got the nice weather!

) The park was probably 75% full, with 80% of those being Americans -- mostly from Michigan. We did see a handful of HD pickups but mostly 1/2's and SUVs towing TT's and popups. We also saw for the very first time some incredibly large and sophisiticated tents that I've never seen before. Maybe a new trend?

Like you, we were the only A/S in the park. Hmmmm... But at least we had great time -- only the second time out with our new-to-us airstream and I have to say we LOVE IT so much more than our previous SOB, as good as it was.

On a more hopeful note, at least one knowledable financial adviser I read indicates we're in the middle of a speculative oil price bubble that will burst, and even has the potential for crashing. But make no mistake about it, over the long term the cost of fuel is going up.

Gary

Minnie's Mate · 05-27-2008, 09:30 AM

We just returned from a trip down I-75 from Atlanta to central Florida and I figured I saw maybe 20% fewer motorhomes and travel trailers on the interstate than I normally would. We stayed at Ft. Wilderness Campground at Disney World and it was packed. So I don't think camping is on its way out. But I do think that there will be a decline in visitors to our national parks like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. I think people will stay closer to home and visit their local/simi-local state parks and destinations closer to their homes.

We decided that all of our trips this year would be in central Florida. My mom lives in central Florida in a retirement community where there are a ton of retirees that have RV's and boats. Nearly all of the communities in the area will not allow you to store your boat or RV at your home, so there are a ton of storage facilities in the area. My mom arranged a safe place for us to store our Airstream so now we drive down to central Florida solo and pick up the Airstream about an hour or so from our destinations and return it to its storage facility at the end of each camping trip.

This weekend (Memorial Day Weekend) for example, we towed the Airstream approximately 70 miles each way from the storage facility to Ft. Wilderness as opposed to the nearly 450 miles from our home in the Atlanta suburbs to Ft. Wilderness. Towing uses approximately twice the fuel as driving solo. In the middle of June, we will do the same to stay at another resort in central Florida and for the week of the 4th, we will make the same trip to Ft. Wilderness for the entire week. We will do the same for August and again in October and December.

When we return in October, we will bring the Airstream back with us so we can attend a rally in early November and will keep it at home after our week long trip in December so we will have it for a rally in January, but then it will be back to Florida for storage for the rest of the winter or spring depending when we camp the next time in Florida.

So yes, the price of fuel has changed camping, for us, but it hasn't made a tremendous impact on our camping frequency.

Over59 · 05-27-2008, 10:11 AM

Short term the price will effect us. I get 20% mpg increase by going 55 (16mpg). Still going to the VAC East Coast, 500 miles one way, but that will be the long trip for the year. No regional rally. New England Unit rallys are mostly 4-6 hours or less. May still take a two week road trip but it will be fewer miles and staying put more. Come the time to hit the road we will hit the road. Just fewer travel days and more stopped days. Save money on sites to spend it on fuel.
Don't think we will see $3 again. I do think diesel will correct if just by reducing the extra taxes.

**jcanavera** · 05-27-2008, 01:50 PM

I would consider trips down to Ft. Wilderness special and not the normal camping trip you do annually. That doesn't surprise me that it was full. I do believe that many of the more ordinary distant destinations will see the effect. For example I might have considered heading up to Door County Wisconsin, or Mackinac City Mi., this summer. Those locales probably will not be traveled to until prices stabilize.

I would guess that you would draw a 200 mile circle around most major metropolitan areas and figure that if you own a campground in the circle, you might have a pretty good year. Outside of that things might get a little rough.

Jack

Minnie's Mate · 05-27-2008, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcanavera

I would consider trips down to Ft. Wilderness special and not the normal camping trip you do annually. ...
Jack

I realize my family is "special" when it comes to Disney. But you would be surprised how many regulars there are at Ft. Wilderness. This was our second trip this year (8th to Ft. Wilderness since we got our Airstream in 2006) and we have three more trips planned before the year is out (plus one at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in August).

We have met many folks, plenty that don't even have kids with them, that camp at Ft. Wilderness each year. We know one couple from Massachusetts that have been going to Ft. Wilderness every year since 1984 and spend from November to March in the same campsite in their Prevost; they are in their 50's. There is another couple from Tampa that leave their motorhome in the campsite across the street and visit on weekends. We aren't there yet, but who knows, once we retire we might get that "bad".