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Old 04-05-2005, 08:31 AM   #1
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Elgin , Texas
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Who's driving and who is parking?

With the ever-increasing crunch of fuel prices bearing down on us, I made the decision to park the Duramax, which, in addition to being the tow vehicle is also my daily driver. My wife and I now carpool in her VW Jetta TDI, which routinely averages around 45-50 mpg. I expect this to be the norm for at least the foreseeable future, since prices have started to affect other aspects of our lives, such as our health care costs, and the grocery bills.

Anyone else looking at having to at least temporarily give up conveniences to save money?
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Old 04-05-2005, 08:59 AM   #2
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I drove my K2500 diesel 24,000 miles its first year. I expect to drive it not over 12,000 this year. In three more weeks it will be parked as a daily driver and I will take over my wife's '87 Mercedes 190 diesel (32 mpg in mixed city/highway driving).

I will still use the trailer as much as ever. I just will not be driving the truck for daily transportation.

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Old 04-05-2005, 10:59 AM   #3
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Our tow vehicle is also our work van. Nothing can replace it's usefullness in that area (hauling pallets full of boxes - we pack it full from end to end, floor to ceiling sometimes). We do however have a Miata that we use whenever we can. It gets almost 30 mpg, and makes up a little bit for the van's 14 mpg.

We're still travelling this summer. Even with gas prices as they are, the cost of a hotel is far more than the cost of gas and staying in a $25 RV park.

You only live once, and who says it's going to get any cheaper. By next year you might be saying, gosh, I wish I'd travelled more in '05 when gas was only $3 a gallon!
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Old 04-05-2005, 11:10 AM   #4
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During the fuel crisis of the 1970's my mom and dad still towed their Airstreams everywhere that they had planned. We still did our big trips like every prior year.
He did park the two vehicle back then and bought a Volvo.
I already drive a Pontiac Vibe for my commuter vehicle. The wife is a stay-at-home mom and she drives the tow vehicle. It might average 4,000-5,000 miles a year and that is with the big trips.
The nice thing about my job is that I get to go out of town a bit. In the summer I will load up the trailer, the wife, the kids and the dogs and take them with me. The company pays for my mileage, camping fees and a hefty per-diem to eat on, (which pays for almost everything when I am camping).
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Old 04-05-2005, 11:24 AM   #5
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no drop in Airstream trips planned

This definitely figured into it as well. We typically use it at least once a month while camping with our little group of folks, so keeping the beast in the barn otherwise makes it that much easier to keep on enjoying those trips uninterrupted.
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Old 04-05-2005, 11:37 AM   #6
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Positive outlook?

Look on the bright side - maybe the campgrounds will have more space available and fewer pushers with generators running until the wee small hours...
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Old 04-05-2005, 11:42 AM   #7
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Our trips will actually be more frequent next year, but closer to home. This year will only be a few trips, since the Overlander restoration is taking much of my time. We are fortunate that there's quite a bit of beach and mountains nearby, which we can explore without using much more than a tank of gas. It's worth it to me, even at $ 3.00 or more per gallon.
This year we'll do 2 longer trips, one to Grand Canyon and Sedona in May, ( in the Tradewind) and one to the VAC Rally in Colorado Spprings this summer.( hopefully in the 63 Overlander) The Tradewind will be sold after our May excursion.
I recently bought a used motorcycle for commuting. My ride to work is about 25mls one way. It's a hoot, riding to and from the office. Fortunately, my wife works close to our home, only about 5 miles or so. She only fill sup her car's tank twice a month. The Suburban is parked now for the most part, and only gets used when we need the extra space it offers, or for towing. I opt to drive my vintage Mercedes in inclement weather, it gets good mileage.
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Old 04-05-2005, 12:02 PM   #8
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I'm not looking forward to all those fill-ups of my F250 PSD when we drive across the US this summer, but I'm not going to let it stop us from going. Last summer I put about 15,000 miles on the truck and I expect to do about the same this summer, if not more. The thing about our summer stays in MT and other states in the Northwest US is that the gas prices there are not only typically higher than many other states, but it seems we drive a couple hundred or more miles many days after we get there because it's so far between places compared to here in the east.

I bought 10 Norway Spruce trees yesterday from a local nursery to plant in our backyard. The price had increased $25 per tree compared to what I had been quoted last fall and the owner of the nursery said it was due to fuel cost increases -the trees come from VA. He said many of his items come all the way from OR and he pays $5,000 per truckload to get them here. Maybe I ought to fill up the Airstream with plants and shubbery on our return to PA at the end of the summer to help pay for our trip????

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Old 04-05-2005, 02:51 PM   #9
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Our van is escentially our tow vehicle or the transport for large items. It gets driven about 6,500 miles a year. At 10 mpg., we don't use it as a daily transport vehicle. Our main vehicle is a '97 Honda Accord with almost 130,000 miles on it. It has gotten 30 mpg., since the day I bought it.

We will still do our standard towing fare this year, although that 35 gallon tank on the van will make me wince at fill up time. We are $2.14 here in STL.

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Old 04-05-2005, 03:33 PM   #10
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Looks like I'm in line right behind Jack. The tow vehicle/van is only used for towing or hauling. Don't think it's been off the driveway more than 5 times this year. Once was a trip to the hardwood dealer for stock to finish the front table and ledge. I'm counting that as an Airstream related use.
With a 60 mile round trip commute I'll drive the VWs at 30 MPG.
Like many others we will only be taking short trips as well this year. The better half has had to move from the corporate to private sector. There goes the 3 weeks of vacation. Planning a lot of 3 and 4 day trips to my ancestoral home of "Cheeseland".
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Old 04-05-2005, 03:35 PM   #11
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Our tow vehicle ('97 Ford F-150 4x4) stays parked most of the year and I'm lucky to put 3000 miles on it now. It used to be my commuter vehicle until 2002. Now I use a Saturn SL-2 to put 20K a year on going to work. The wife drives a 2003 Orange Beetle. It's what the four of us use to take non-camping trips with, such as visiting relatives. We've learned to pack light. This has helped when we pack the other "Pod".

This summer, we'll be hitting the mountains and beaches here in Virginia. Maybe a trip to Dollywood or Bush Gardens. A Bluegrass Festival at Graves Mountain Lodge in June is about 40 miles away and the Galax Special Event Rally is in August. There's alot of places to camp here in the Old Dominion and alot of fun activities for all. So the gas issue won't stop us this summer, but I hope it comes down in the future when we want to take farther trips.
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Old 04-05-2005, 04:42 PM   #12
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Price of fuel will not slow us down! Too much fun to let that put a damper on Traveling...... Have a 2003 GMC 5.3 Quad steer. It gets about 13 towing 25 Trade Wind.
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Old 04-05-2005, 04:51 PM   #13
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and to think.... i'm trying as hard as I can to buy a Yukon XL 6.0 as my daily driver... just having trouble funding the buy... I have averaged 13.5 mpg through the winter with my 4.0l Jeep Cherokee, so i don't see a difference in the gas price, but it'll sure boost my towing ability. But geezzzz how high do we expect the prices to go?
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Old 04-05-2005, 07:27 PM   #14
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Our tow vehicle is a 454 Suburban WITHOUT OD. 10 mpg is all it gets. in the last 12 months we put 3k on it. 1k of that was in one week. I need to make a trip to Knoxville in the next few weeks. I need to pull a cargo trailer to pick up a M100 trailer that has dry rotted tires. Not sure my tired 4 cyl in my 86 4Runner is up to the trip and pulling about 1500lb back. Not sure I want to drive the burb up there. It will be about $80 in fuel.


Started a new job Friday and my commute went from 44 miles round trip to 7.
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Old 04-05-2005, 07:39 PM   #15
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We use our Avalanche primarily as a tow vehicle, about 10,000 miles/year and for times when we need 4x4 to get in & out of our mountain home. Other than that we mostly drive a Honda Civic Hybrid. We even take it to our place in the mountains packing our two dogs and a cat. Our two year average mileage for city/highway mix, and winter/summer mix is 42.5 mpg. The little car is comfortable and easy to drive. It also makes us feel just fine about spending for gas on our long trips.
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Old 04-05-2005, 08:16 PM   #16
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It cost's over $ 100.00 for a tank of diesel now, that gives us about 375 mile range while towing. When it gets to $ 300.00 a tank, that will slow us down. Burn it while ya got it.
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Old 04-05-2005, 08:55 PM   #17
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I'm not pushing quite as hard to get Icky completed. Will probably extend that into a summer project and look to camp in the fall. We are parking our vehicles every chance we get and riding our motorcycles to and from work.
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Old 04-06-2005, 07:44 AM   #18
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I read a number of articles that state that most RV and boat owners are notcurbing thier appetite for travel and recreation due to the rising gas prices. I know for our family we will cut back on the distance but not the frequency of use. Gas is now 2.19 a gallon here in GA, and I figure that it equates to about 20 or so dollars more per trip..depending on the miles of course. .70 cents a gallon more for fuel, 8 miles per gallon, etc.
Had a great trip to lake Chickamaugua...Harrison Bay SP in Tenn last weekend.
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Old 04-06-2005, 11:27 AM   #19
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I currently get 17 mpg with my 5.0L F-150 extended cab as my daily 50 mile round trip commuter. To fill both tanks currently takes about $60-$65 and they last two weeks.

I plan to buy an F-250 powerstroke supercrew when the summer incentives come out. By then the fuel prices should be $2.50+ and the incentives will probably be pretty good. My guess is the F-250 will get about 1-2 mpg more without a tow so the cost shouldn't be too much more to operate on a daily basis. My F-150 isn't quite strong enough to pull the coach we plan to buy this fall and my kids have outgrown the back seat, so the F-250 will be my next daily commuter. It will be about $10K less than an Excursion/Suburban and get as good or maybe better fuel mileage and my wife has an Expedition, so a truck makes more sense.

Since work is the only place I drive my truck now, the price of fuel won't be affecting my driving habits anytime soon.
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Old 04-06-2005, 08:23 PM   #20
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Question whatca gone a do?

Well for starters --the wife has but 7 more days to retirement That'll drop off 50 miles per day commuting, but at, well lets say 60+ years,she's refusing to be a stay at home mom , so we have no other recourse but to travel. Gosh I hate that idea!!! We've come this far in life and we're not about to cancel our travel plans. Probably will stay in one area longer, but that can also be a positive. So far we have the summer just about full & looking towards putting together our Fall schedule.
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