fuel costs

[ckeysor]

Originally Posted by monocoque

How much was the price of gasoline 35 years ago? Sorry, but I wasn't driving yet in those days. But it seems like an interesting ratio: the price 35 years ago vis-a-vis $5 bucks per gallon. Comparing the ratio then to today's ratio (current price vis-a-vis quite 'streaming price) would be quite revealing regarding how much we're willing to go today to continue 'streaming. Any economists out there?

I have come to appreciate the way monocoque thinks. Just to put this in perspective. If you inflate $5 dollars a gallon for 35 years at just 3% you get $14 a gallon today. We kinda became spoiled over the 80s and 90s with the price of fuel and just need to be more thoughtful.

Personally, this year I will take more trips with the Airstream than ever. My kids are growing up and I really want to spend time with them. When you consider the cost of hotel and eating out every night taking the Airstream within 1,000 miles still makes sense. For instance, I am spending $64/night for a camp site in Fort Wilderness versus $200 for a hotel on property. Besides the savings, I get to take my dog and stay next to my parents and sister (sorry, in their SOBs).

[monocoque]

Originally Posted by Jaxon

Dang! 35 years ago, I was driving... Doesn't seem that long ago until you actually see it in writing... I can tell you though, $5 bought alot more then than it buys now...

Took a cross country road trip with a band I was in back then and remember paying $.24 a gallon in Salina, Kansas... gas war going on between 2 stations on opposite corners. Never paid more than 30 cents a gallon on the tour... matter of fact, I'm thinking our main concerns on that trip was the cost of beer... and other kinds of, uh... smokable products...

Okay this is my 400th post so it better be a good one. So in those days at roughly .25 cents a gallon folks were willing to pay up to $5 bucks or 20 times more in gas! They must have really loved their Airstreams. And as Jaxon mentioned money bought a lot more than today.

So if today we had the same degree of love for our Airstreams or perhaps the smokable products and beer is missing we should be willing to pay 20 times the current $5 prices of fuel which would be an incredible $100 bucks a gallon before we give up!

[ebair]

My first fill up was 24.9 at the Sunoco down the street, at the time I was making 1.35 an hour. So an hours work bought 5 gallons of gas.
Gas went up, but so did the paycheck. Now I can buy more than 5 gallons for an hours work.
Remember how much a hamburger, fries and a coke was in '68 ? .49 cents Now the same is 5 bucks
When I told my gson the ice cream cone that cost .25 then, 2.50 now, will cost him $25.00 when he buys one for his gson in 2048 he was a little wide eyed.

Fill it up and check the oil and tires sonny!

[TinShack]

If gas gets too expensive, I think I will park the AS in the driveway and paste photos of scenic camping places in the windows so that when I look out I can imagine I'm there. Yosemite one day and the Grand Tetons the next and never leave the driveway! I better start taking lots of photos now!

[Goin camping]

As long as I have the ability to pay for the fuel and tow the trailer. I'll be on the road.

[53flyingcloud]

Just read the other day that, in Turkey, the cost of fuel is almost $12 a gallon.
I'd say, for myself, at 15$ per gallon..
Still looking into veggie oil as a fuel alt. for the diesel.

[Garfield]

I don't know. But what's becoming apparent, and quite depressing, is the fact that from a financial point of view, RV'ing will no longer be possible for us after we retire. It isn't just the fuel costs, its everything else.

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by 53flyingcloud

Just read the other day that, in Turkey, the cost of fuel is almost $12 a gallon.
I'd say, for myself, at 15$ per gallon..
Still looking into veggie oil as a fuel alt. for the diesel.

Bio-diesel or veggie oil here. I am looking hard at the Canadian Smart Car as a daily driver... or maybe a small Honda or Toyota.

Paula

[JStanley]

Stop towing your Airstream? Quit Airstreaming? Guess everyone has a ‘breaking point’ or a costs vs. benefit point that come after using it less & less each year at a higher & higher costs. What can we do?

You could buy one of those real light-weight old trailers- -I seen pictures & cartoons of some guy towing it with a bicycle. Or go back further in time and tow it with a pair of oxen or mules. And there might be an added advantage of using their methane gas.
We’ll need a different WD hitch and Inland Andy will help us solve that problem.
Travel slower & get back with nature. Boondocking would work but courtesy parking would not.

Don’t intend to hijack this thread but we need some out-of-the-box brain storming ideas. Our Airstreaming way of life is threatened and I’m too old & soft to go back to tent camping.

[henw]

There's give an there's take. Even with the housing slump, our home value is worth a lot more than it was 5-6 yrs ago. If we sell some day and manage to come out ahead , we will appreciate that it evens out increased expenses in other areas of life.

For all the worry about fuel costs, I will tell you that not one single person in our community as joined me as a bicycle commuter or errand runner. I also bought a $350 Schwinn scooter with a seat. Goes 15 mph with a range of 12 miles per charge. Great for running to the local Quick Market. Don't see anyone else on any thing even remotely similar.
Tom

[CaddyGrn]

We will continue to camp in our sweet Bambi as long as we can! Clearly as retirees we have to pay our medical insurance first.... (hummmm) but camping reduces stress and makes us feel great! So, actually I wonder if I can deduct camping expenses on my taxes for medical care it is cheaper than some of our meds...? Sure seems reasonable to me!

We have curbed some of our other driving so we can have more $ to spend on going places we really want to go... we will continue as long as we can afford it! It is all in the priorities...

Mrs. NorCal Bambi traveling in S Tardis ~ from the Great State of Jefferson
My new blog: Yreka History

[richinny]

Originally Posted by henw

TI also bought a $350 Schwinn scooter with a seat. Goes 15 mph with a range of 12 miles per charge. Great for running to the local Quick Market. Don't see anyone else on any thing even remotely similar.
Tom

i have 2, one in NY & one in FL. wanna race?

[KeithC]

Hi Andy,

As you are a commercial vendor, I assume you are trying to guage the effect of the (current $4.79 per gallon diesel fuel in Georgia) cost on current and future customers.

The current owners of Vintage Airstream Travel Trailers I know already have the required tow vehicle and are planning trips closer to home, I.E. more in-state camping trips or trips within 6 hours or less Vs. longer out of state trips.

Those thinking of becoming RV owners are looking hard at what type of tow vehicle would be required for a prospective RV purchase, and the associated vehicle / fuel mileage/ operating costs involved.

If the RV purchase also required the purchase of a bigger TV, such as a F-250, to tow the new RV, it is a deal breaker.

[monocoque]

"Wherever we want to go, we go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and sails; that's what a ship needs. Not what a ship is. What the Black Pearl really is, is freedom." Cap'n Jack