21 replies to this topic

[Connie B.]

The question asks your mean average for miles traveled per year on your RV: not the tow vehicle or the towed vehicle. So if you have a fifth wheel or a trailer, please give the miles on that unit as opposed to the tow vehicle.

Also as you use a number of years for your average, I realize that some of you have had an unusual year where you may have been off the road for a year or traveled unusually high mileage that year. Please, try to use years in your average which are representative of the type of travel you normally (whatever that is) do.

The purpose is to get an idea of miles traveled per year rather than money spent on fuel per year. In future calculations, it would be useful for others to multiply the cost of fuel by the mileage to get yearly totals for cost.

Also a post on the thread of your "STYLE" of travel would be informative. For example do you like to travel only monthly, only weekly, every few days. etc?

I am curious as to how our personal style of travel compares to others.

Thank you for your vote. Connie B.

[richfaa]

Well we do not keep a log on miles traveled however we have a 5th wheel and have put 70K miles on two Tv,s . The truck is in front of the 5th wheel at least 85/90% of the time so I listed 10 to 12K miles a year average over the last 6 years. The first 3 years was more the last 3 years less.

We usually plan one or two long trips a year.This summer the N.E states.We winter in a warm place Florida as of late. In the last 4 years we have had two home basses one in Florida for the winter and the S&B in Northern Ohio in the summer.

[Kirk]

Great thread idea!

We travel slowly, seldom driving for longer than four hours and usually between 150 & 200 miles per travel day. We also have spent at least half and usually more of our time as resident volunteers at our longer stops for generally about 6 to 8 months of each year. The period involved is roughly ten years as I excluded one year with lower than average mileage due to health issues and one year that was much higher due to a trip up through Canada.

We typically park the motorhome for one to three months and they use our CR-V to see everything withing 100 to 150 miles radius. As a result we typically put another 20K per year on the CR-V. In most cases, once we have spent a volunteer tour at a location, we don't return to that area, with the exception of the three locations where we have grandchildren.

[Rif]

I'll be glad to supply the information, but I'm not sure it will be of use to anyone. As we have have discussed many times, it depends on your style of travel and on what your plans are for any specific year. For example, the year we went to Alaska we put over 17,000 miles on the rig (your choices may not offer a broad enough range, since I suspect many people travel more than 15,000 on a regular basis), and we put on over 14,000 the year we went to a wedding in Boston, but other years when we camp hosted for several months we only put on about 9,000 miles. Then there is last year when we spent most of the summer doing major remodeling of the rig, and only put on 5,600 miles. So, for what its worth, our average over the past 7 years of fulltiming is 11,717. The high is 17,555 and the low is 5,694.

Please keep in mind that these miles are on the tow vehicle. We have a 5th wheel. There is no possible way to break out the miles towing from the miles solo, and that may be appropriate. Our Volvo is also a motorhome and is used as such often. We have made several long trips without the trailer in tow, living in the Volvo. However, there are undoubtedly miles included in the total are just running around miles. The miles reported do not include the miles we have put on the motorcycle or the car.

[Big Greg]

We winter in Gulf Shores, AL (we have a daughter in Biloxi so we can see her too) for 2 to 5 months for the past 5 years. We spend about 6 weeks at our sons place in MI each summer. Otherwise we move about and have spent nights in all the lower 48 states & 3 provinces. We usually travel 200 to 250 miles a day when we move, no hurry. Our RV has averaged 9K miles a year & we enjoy attending HitchHiker rallies scattered around the country which often when & where we travel sometimes. Greg

[docj]

Last year was our first as full-timers and we logged just under 15,000 miles from the beginning of February (when we bought it) to the beginning of December of 2011. I'm pretty sure our total this year will be closer to 10,000 but I expect our style will probably remain the same.

We typically drive for 5-6 hours and that usually translates to 300-350 mi. We will often drive ~2-3 days to get "somewhere" where we will stay 1-2 weeks while we do sightseeing. We didn't stay at any one location more than 2 weeks until we got to our winter destination. I would characterize us as "experience-oriented" full-timers; our underlying objective is to see and experience as many places and things as we can. So I expect we will continue to be "the move" for as many years as we are able. Despite having been physically in 31 states this year, I know we have barely scratched the surface with respect to the places we want to go and the things we want to do.

[Billieg]

Mean average miles...... Well, I hate people who can't drive and there are plenty of them out there so I guess almost every mile I drive is a mean average mile....

[Barbaraok]

Over the years we have changed from moving every 2 weeks or so, to now spending the winter in one place (Mesa, AZ) for 3-4 months and then moving the remainder of the year. Because my mom will be 90 this summer, our route has become sort of defined by needing to go north to Western Washington to visit her each summer, and the need to be back in Texas for physician visits late October/Nov.

Barb

[Jack Mayer]

We travel around 7000 miles a year. That is towing miles. We tend to move to a location and stay there awhile - almost always a couple of weeks. When travelling longer distances we typically drive about 6 hours a day....sometimes less. With lunch thrown in that is "around" 300 miles. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. My "ideal" day is 250 miles. Often when travelling cross country for a specific purpose we will drive 2 days, then stop for 2 days.
In the summer we are in one location for around 5 months. That will change in the future as we stop workamping as much as we do.

[Clay L]

We are full timers with kids and relatives on both East and West coasts.
We stay put for at least a month (often 4 or 5 months) except when in transit.

[RV]

Barb,
know that feeling. While my Mom was still alive we routed to San Diego when leaving here from winter quarters for 3 to 4 months only. Our first year we were just retired from the AF and felt like we were just on leave and would have to go back to work in a few weeks, We didn't slow down for almost the whole first year of seven years of fulltiming. Our fellow travelers were older than us and kept saying that we needed to learn to slow down and be "retired!" Average would be tough because we generally made a circle from the Shreveport area to S.D. CA. and then up to Oregon/Washington, or over and out to Utah etc. and around and through the middle of that circle for the places like Yellowstone and the Grand canyon etc. After we did 6 mos in Silicon Valley on a start up, did Yosemite and stayed the longest ever at Park Sierra, checked out JoJba CoOp and a few other places like SF and Fairfield CA at Travis, and the wine country, we pretty much avoided California except for a quick stop in S.D. and then back out and North. Too expensive and jammed in most areas. Then the year we did Alaska it was way up with lots of touring with the rig in Alberta and BC as we worked our way as each area melted, and we didn't track that. Spent the most in fuel that year by at least 5 times the usual. Since we built a nice full hookup pad on my FIL's property here near them and our kids in fairly warm Louisiana in winter we never really did the long seasonal stays. And we spent almost 7 months of the last year looking for the perfect property for us which we live on now. We just followed our noses. and had email by dial up in a few places at first and more as we went on until the first tethers became popular with cell phones and later the VSATs came out. Now it is the norm to connect. We used a toll free service to call home and get messages back then.

Edited by RV, 14 February 2012 - 01:51 PM.

[wayward]

we have been on the 2-2-2 travel plan for the past three years.....

200 miles or so on a day's travel

arrive around 2PM

stay at each destination around 2 days....

then off again

but usually do not say more than 5 days in one location

as a result we travel around 3500 miles per month.....

[Connie B.]

Thank you everyone for voting. I just added my vote.

Hubby and I are travelers. We like to travel a maximum of about 300 miles a day although 250 miles is better. We rarely stay anywhere more than a week. We have stayed a month or more in Salt Lake City to do genealogy research. But usually we are on the move with stays of between 1 day to a week in any one place.

We rally with our clubs, we go to FMCA conventions and Escapades, we stay a week in one place to research on our genealogy, we visit relatives, we enjoy sight seeing, we get hitch itch to see what's over the next hill.

We do winter in Florida at our S&B which may be why we like to travel when we are RVing as we are full time part time RVers (6 to 9 mos a year).

As I said I am interested in not only the number of miles on the RV but the "STYLE" of RVing you do. I think there is a definite correlation between miles traveled on the RV and the style of travel. And so newbees may want to ask themselves what is their style of travel which I think will influence the number of miles they travel.

[richfaa]

Style of Rv,ing.Not exactly sure what that means.. We both drive the rig so we may drive 200 miles one time and 500 miles the next. The driving time is 50/50 for us. We stay in Full hooks when we lay over or stay for a few days. We do not boondock or parking lot camp.We are on the road for @ 9 months of the year but are slowing down. During the summer months we will pick a part of the country we have not been to yet and head in that direction.No schedule and little planning.In the winter we are where it is warm.

[Connie B.]

Style of RVing to me means how many miles do you travel in a day and how long do you stay in one place. Also included is full time or par time, etc.

So our style of RVing is to travel 250-300 miles on a travel day and we stay 1 night to a week in each place.

If we are 900 miles from our destination, we travel 3 driving days to get there. Once there we usually stay 4 to 7 nights.

We travel about 6 to 9 months of the year and then winter at our S&B in Florida for normally 4 months.

Hope this explains what I meant by "STYLE" of RVing. Connie B.

Edited by Connie B., 15 February 2012 - 08:04 AM.

[richfaa]

These polls are very interesting and we like them. The problem is in wording them so you get the results expected. I can remember the problem in developing multiple choice answers for a test question in that we had to make sure 3 were absolutly wrong and only one was absolutly correct. Not as easy as it sounds.

[David & Lorna Schinske]

Posted less than 1K as what the bus was moved in 2011 (from Socorro to Roswell... less than 200 miles). Did not include previous years since I hadn't kept track. Last year we stayed in one place and worked on the bus. Previous years ranged from 1200 to 2500. We move our "house" as work dictates. This year, unless things change, the mileage will be 0.

I think it would be fair to say we are not your typical fulltime Rvers and do not fit into the expected niche that folks assume fulltimers should fit into. So my vote would not really apply to folks who plan to live like "typical" fulltime RVers who move very so often several times a year. Perhaps we are not really "Rvers" since we consider our bus to be a mobile apartment that we park in campgrounds and mobile home parks. When we are ready to move onto another place, we take our "apartment" with us. We still work too, another thing that goes against the stereotypical "fulltime RVer".

Edited by David & Lorna Schinske, 15 February 2012 - 12:16 PM.

[Motorcycle Jack]

We've only been at this since July but think we have already set our style. We travel 250 - 300 miles each move. Stays are 1 - 5 days depending on what there is to see but stay the winter in the south. Last year we had around 10,000 miles I hope this year will be about 15 - 20,000. Excellent thread! Enjoy what everyone else is doing.

[sandsys]

I think it would be fair to say we are not your typical fulltime Rvers

Thank Heavens for that! I like your points of view on so many things; you have much to teach us.

Linda Sand

[Connie B.]

Looks like we have about exhausted this topic. Just want to do a summary from my point of view at 36 votes.

We had pretty much of a bell curve with a high of 10 votes for 7,500 up to 10,000 miles a year. A close second was 9 votes for 5,000 up to 10,000 miles a year. So about 53% of the people voting were between 5,000 and 10,000 miles a year. Other choices followed with lower votes. 3 out of the 36 votes or about 8% traveled over 15,000 miles a year.

One way this poll helps, I think, is for the newbee. If a person were just getting into RVing, it might be hard for them to predict how many miles they might travel in a year and budget money for same. Looking at this poll, if I were a newbee, I would be interested to see what experience RVers are traveling per year. If I looked at these numbers and judged what my goals were, I would probably budget for 10,000 miles in my first year. I would assume as a newbee I might just push things a little and travel more than I would once I got the hang of my style of RVing. After each month or two on the road I would revisit my numbers and see how I was comparing to my guesstimate.

Another interesting feature of this poll to me is that my hubby and I travel more than what a lot of you are traveling. We are in the above 10,000 miles a year group. I think this is because we are very active in our BAC club which has rallies all over the country. Also we are active in other clubs and organizations. When we travel all the way out west we just don't travel for sightseeing we also travel to see some of our western friends, many of whom never go east of the Mississippi River. Since we home base in Florida, going to Alaska or Washington state is a LONG way for us. Even going to see my husband's relatives in Maine is quite a way to travel.

Thanks all for participating. Connie B.

Edited by Connie B., 18 February 2012 - 08:58 AM.