MOTORHOMING IN AMERICA Part 2

[Stanski]

06 Feb to 27Mar 2023 - Adventure 2
We have just completed our 2nd trip, comprising 50 days.

General Route Plan
The plan was to go from Dallas (where we had stored the motorhome) up to Amarillo to revisit Route66 museums then tour across Texas, to New Mexico, Arizona into California and up the coast road to Seattle

Weather
The weather was considerably colder along the lower states than previous history which caused a lot of rescheduling as freezing conditions caused accidents and so detours to unwanted destinations.
Snow levels are usually above 1500ft but this year it dropped to 300ft on the west coast.
This exacerbated already wet ground from Christmas causing mudslides, and excessive flooding severe enough to close National Parks and voastal roads.

ACTUAL ROUTE
Southern states was an alternate option below Pheonix, Las Vegas and Los Angelos, to keep away from very cold and potential harsh snow conditions.
The Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), was taken from San Diego through LA, San Fran, Santa Barbara upto San Sebastian (Hearst Castle), then we had to cross the mountain ranges to bypass most of Big Sur to Monterey, because of mudslides.
We got to just below Seattle, at Eugene, then the winter took hold again and forced us back to Death Valley and Las Vegas area.
Significant sights of Crater Lake, Lassen Park, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Kings Canyon and Seqouia Parks were closed.

COSTS
Fuel costs had reduced slightly in Texas and New Mexico, with California significantly higher (between $1.25 and 1.75 more)
General purchases also higher by 15 to 30%.

Postage also jumped from $1.20 to 1.46.

FOOD - increased by 5 to 10% since Christmas was surprising.

A fuller analysis will be given when time allows.

OVERALL EXPERIENCE
Was good, then got better, even with challenges of weather.
There is so much to see, every day a new scene or experience.
The final week we spent touring the mountain Canyon national parks and these were superb.

RV STORAGE
DALLAS - Lewisville RV and Boat Store.
LAS VEGAS - Henderson area with TowneStorage, part of UHaul company.

 

[Stanski]

Trip 2 - COSTING ANALYSIS ( Feb - Apr 23)
Shown in dollars to allow you to do conversion as exchange rates differ over time.

Average Weekly costs (7 Weeks) were:
FOOD - $240, 5 days self, 2 days eating out.
FUEL - $325, avge 1000 miles per week.
PARK/CAMP - $30, car parks used.
ENTRY - $120, For museums, shows, sites.
MOTORHOME - $25, wipers, rad seal, tyres.

Additional Travel costs:
(NOTE currency types)
Flights each person, one way, approx £450 per person each UK to USA journey.

UK to Dublin = £60, inc 10kg case.
DUB to WASHINGTON DC = €240, inc 10kg case.
WASH DC to DALLAS = $150. inc 10kg case.

LAS VEGAS to WASH DC = $135, inc 23kg case.
WASH DC to DUB = €215, inc 23kg case.
DUB to UK = €55, Inc 23kg case.

Coach tickets to airports = £20 per person each way.
UBER taxi - $50, per person for 2 trips.

Hotel, 1 night at WASH DC, = $145, inc breakfast.

COST SAVINGS of Trips
These are based on the following costing knowledge from our travels and enquiries.

ACCOMMODATION
A typical room could range between $75 to $150.
Thus over 100 days, avge $100/day a saving of $10k can be realistic.
If we include the 3rd trip of planned 85 days, using same valuations, the savings would equal $18500.

FOOD
If we had to purchase food from typical outlets, the expected daily cost per person would be between $40 and $50, with some days more expense when eating in restaurants.
NOTE: To better these valuations would require very selective choices with limited options, realistically not feasible.
Thus a week could equal $280 to $350 per person.
After removing our actual food costs of $240 we experienced, the weekly saving = $140 to $210, creates a massive saving over the whole trip (26 wks) of $3640 to $5460.

FUEL
Again depends on mileage travelled, but we deliberately ventured to see and experience as much as we could, hence our miles covered could be construed as high.
Thus over the 26wks, expected miles = 26000, so we will work on 22500miles.
A typical USA RV vehicle can range from 15 to 25 mpg, our vehicle consistently does 29mpg.
Thus fuel savings can be from 12 to 25%, so each week could realise a $35 to $75 saving, so the whole annual trip saving could be said to be $910 to $1950.
Beware,
USA gallon = 3.78L, while UK gallon is 4.55L

OTHER SAVINGS
Purchase of Annual National Park Pass = $80.
Entry into National Parks typically saved $25 to 35.
Todate we have visited 12, with at least 8 more to visit, so a $420 minimum saving achieved.
In addition, discounts for camping sites is given.

CONCLUSION (Considered as achievable)
Savings adjudged to be:
ACCOM = $18500
FOOD = $4500
FUEL = $1500
OTHER = $500
TOTAL = $25000

The travelling to and fro, plus shipping adds up to $11000 approx, thus final savings = $14k +/- $1k.
Avge $500 / week saving generally.

 

[Rodders1234]

Sounds a very interesting experience. Did you ship your MH to the USA? Why not hire one there? In general did you have to use sites and were they out of town?

 

[Moonraker 2]

Wow that's impressive. Are you an accountant.
Many years ago I looked into hiring a motorhome for a USA trip, but when the noughts started increasing I gave up.
ie:
10
100
1000 +

 

[Stanski]

Sounds a very interesting experience. Did you ship your MH to the USA? Why not hire one there? In general did you have to use sites and were they out of town?

Costs of RV hire vary from $120 to 200 per day with many having restrictions of 200 miles per day.
Vehicles for hire range from 2 bed caravelle vans, to 2 bed Mercedes 4WD, to 4 bed Big RV with slideouts.
On top of the general costs insurance premiums are added, and waiver insurance.
Analysis suggested we were better off using our own vehicle, even with shipping costs and flights added.
Also we had freedom of doing what we wanted, stopping where we wanted, also the comfort of knowing our own vehicle and its functions as well as relaxed driving in case we bumped something.
Hard to value these benefits, but certainly a positive to add to the costings.

 

[Stanski]

Wow that's impressive. Are you an accountant.
Many years ago I looked into hiring a motorhome for a USA trip, but when the noughts started increasing I gave up.
ie:
10
100
1000 +

Not an accountant, although did consider it when younger but i am a mere telecommunication, electronics and computer engineer who enjoys analysing scenarios for the betterment of the wallet.
I had a few trepidations myself about the costs but from various reviews of costings and research with experience of previous RV hire in Canada, concluded the way forward for USA was to ship ours over.

WARNING - SHIPPING COSTS are determined by the external volume of the vehicle, thus any larger vehicles would cost much more.
Typically the charge is approx £55-60 per cubic metre.
Our vehicle is 6.5 x 2.4 x 2.7 metres = 43 cubic metres. (£2365)
Then you have to add port charges and customs admin, (approx £350)
Then add fuel surcharges if required (Possibly £500).
Then payment to freight forwarding agents at each port. (approx £200 each)

NOTE: I have provided details of shipping in a previous message, the above values are from memory, near enough to be used as guidance.

 

[TechnicalTony]

We've been looking over posts on the subject of RV use in the States and Stanski's posts especially.
As mentioned in our introduction in new members, we have owned a fifth wheel and pick up in the US since the start of 2019 (sorry it's not a motorhome!)
We have just returned home after 3 months in the US, and we did 6 months last year.
If anyone is interested, I will start a thread on how we went about it, the process of buying in the US, insurance, where we have travelled etc.
For now, as this forum is about wild camping, I thought members would like to compare our actual camping costs in the US with theirs in the UK.
Last year we spent a total of 175 nights in the US with a mixture of full hook up, partial hook up, site only and what is called boondocking, ie, free camping.
Our total costs for all camp fees, propane, generator fuel and oil for oil changes was $1869. This works out at around $10.68 per night or £8.28 at the exchange rates at the time.
We managed 20 consecutive nights in June, 25 nights in July and another 24 in August free camping around Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah.
For this year to date, we only managed a total of 15 nights free camping in a total of 86 nights in Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Again total costs for camp fees, propane, generator fuel and oil was $922, $10.72 per night or £8.44 at the exchange rates at the time.
Hope this is helpful to someone.