Obviously, not quite "no problem." But do you have to let fuel prices completely change your RV vacation or event? NO!

We see fuel costing about what it did a year or eighteen months ago, and thank goodness for the recent price decreases! Renting an RV is now an even more economical decision! Industry studies prove rental RVs can provide a 43% or more savings over vacations with car rentals, restaurant meals and motels…not even counting your savings on air travel and all the other expenses.

It is important to realize that you’ve already taken the first and most important step in responding to the rising price of fuel: You’re renting an RV instead of buying one! Your decision to rent has left all the depreciation, maintenance, insurance, storage, taxes, upgrades, and most everything else associated with the cost of RV ownership right squarely on the owner’s shoulders…not yours! That’s a terrific savings. Industry studies show that unless you enjoy a motor home more than eight weeks a year, you save money by renting! You’re paying only for the “amount” of RV you need…when and where you need it! Perfect!

Let’s not stop there, because there are so many more perspectives on saving money by traveling in our coaches. Let’s look at the price of meals. Consider a half gallon of fresh squeezed orange juice costing about $3.50 at the grocery. You know that four glasses for mom, dad and a couple kids will set you back about $12 at a restaurant! If the four of you want hot cereal, we’re looking at about $2 for your entire crew to enjoy Quaker oatmeal in your rented RV…but four bowls at a Denny’s or similar place will cost you another $16! Meal after meal, snack after snack, your savings add up by the hundreds as you enjoy America’s highways and byways. Coffee…at least $1 a cup anyplace but it only takes 45 cents worth of fresh beans ground right in your rented RV to prepare eight great cups of coffee.  You get the idea…saving money on your meals covers the recent increases in fuel costs….and more! And you don’t tip when you’re enjoying meals in your rental motor home, saving another 15-20% over restaurant prices!

Now, let’s put the price of fuel into perspective. It has gone up, but consider that the average motor coach owner drives only 5000 miles per year. Even when gas reached $4.20  and more per gallon, compared to last year’s fuel price (about what we see at the pump today) the RV owner’s monthly fuel bill only went up by $40 or so...something over a dollar a day, and that's for a full-time RV'er...not a renter using the coach for a week or two. And with 900-1000 mile range, many RV vacationers simply traveled locally and hardly felt the increase, filling up more recently as prices decreased.

Consider, please, that we're RV drivers, not full-time commercial truckers, and while we don't like the cost of fuel, it is actually one of the smaller costs associated with a vacation! Although the price seems high when we see it on gas station signs, if we consider just how much gas the average RV rental customer uses…if the cost has gone up an average of a mere $20-45 for your vacation…you can handle that! Do the math for the miles you expect to drive, and even a coast-to-coast trip means an RV is less expensive than air travel for a family. RV travel has always been less expensive than air travel, and it still is! It doesn’t save as much as it did last year, but airline prices have gone up also (around 12-20 price increases in a year!), and RV travel is still your best bargain. And unlike the recent reductions in the cost of gas, the airlines continue to raise their prices and they haven't backed off the "extra" charges they've invented.

And you can use your fuel conservatively when you're on the road in our motor home. Here are many ways to save fuel when you’re driving the coach or even your own car. All the experts say simply having proper air pressure in your tires means not wasting about 4-10% of your fuel. Another great way to save money is to use an affinity credit card. We use an AMEX card (others offer similar benefits) which gives us a 5% savings with every gallon at any station…that’s 16 cents per gallon as of November '08! We get our diesel at a service giving repeat customers another penny off per gallon (I know...big deal!) Perhaps the greatest savings can be made by driving less, and enjoying more of what's in the region rather than spending days on the freeway. Finally, just slow down. Driving 55 gives about a 15-20% improvement in fuel economy. (My bet: there'll be a Federal mandate on a 55 MPH limit as the next president enters office.) I also recommend stores like Safeway, because some of their locations have gas and diesel available and offer a sizable discount if you've purchased food. Those discounts add up!

And now your other serious savings. No expensive airplane tickets! Our own family of six found this the biggest single saving of our RV travel adventures as we saved thousands with every trip! Six plane tickets today means thousands wasted…money better put into your RV vacation! Get everyone into the motor home and hit the road, saving by avoiding commercial air travel. And its not just the price of air tickets you avoid. Imagine the joy of not having to get to the airport hours early for a flight. Oh, the joy of avoiding miserable long lines at check in. Avoid the $2 per bag curbside check. Avoid the long lines at security, just to show everybody the holes in your socks! Imagine skipping the lengthy wait at the baggage carousel hoping your luggage arrives someday. Imagine bringing as many bags as you need on your trip and not paying the airlines’ gouging $15 to $25 per bag charge. And no $20 charge for the window seat on our motor home! The president of the Air Transport Association was on television recently, describing the sad state of his industry. He actually said “Expect less.” Well, expect more when you travel by motor home! Much more!

Let’s continue with your savings. Obviously, no need to rent a rental car….your rental motor home takes care of all your transportation needs. And by the way, as you consider the price of RV fuel, please remember that you’d be paying for rental car’s fuel anyway, so the “delta” of extra RV fuel price is so very modest. Some RVs get 17-19 MPG, perhaps only five to ten less than rental car so really, not much to worry about! And then, try finding the bathroom in a rental car. Try finding the kitchen in a rental car to brew up some fresh coffee. Try watching the sunset at Monument Valley or Arches National Park in a rental car! Try enjoying a family campfire next to the rental car at Yellowstone National Park.

Want some more savings? No hotel expenses! You have your bedroom right behind you as you cruise America’s highways. While you’re enjoying the Blue Ridge Parkway or whatever path you’ve chosen, drive right past the $90-200 per night hotels because your rental motor home sleeps between four and six in wonderful comfort. And no “bag drag” of everything from the car into a hotel room and back again…once your belongings are spread out the way you want them in your rental coach, you’re set for the duration of your trip. And you should know that there are no hotels in so many places you’d like to visit…no hotels in Monument Valley. No hotels at Arches National Park. No hotels right at the NASCAR track. No hotels right at music festivals like Bonnaroo and Burning Man.

And remember: Most of us worked all year to earn a few weeks' vacation with the family. Use those precious vacation days wisely, not sitting at home bemoaning fuel prices. Get your family into affordable transportation and show them America. Show them the America of Yellowstone National Park. The Pacific coastline. The plains of Nebraska. The Civil War battlefields you’ve always wanted to visit. Show them the excitement of NASCAR, or enjoy a music festival like Bonnaroo with your rental RV right there with you (don't forget the blue granny glasses and your best tie-died t-shirt!) There are so many places you’ll love camping…places like Monument Valley where there simply aren’t any hotels or motels.

As responsible RV owners ourselves, we’re not advocating wasting gas or diesel, but pointing out that travel in a rental motor home brings great savings which more than balance out the increased price in fuel you’ll use.

Wow! No airline tickets. No rental car. No restaurant meals. No tipping. No extra baggage charges. Why haven’t you been enjoying RV travel more all along?

And now, a quick review on how you'll save money on the fuel for your next RV rental vacation:

<!-1.    Select a rental coach with good mileage. We own three, two large ones getting twice the national average for large bus-sized coaches, and the other getting a spectacular 17-19 MPG! Remember that most of the commercial chain rental Class C RVs only get about the same MPG as our very efficient Discovery, so you might as well enjoy more RV for the same fuel!

<!-2.Make sure you keep your tires inflated properly. As much as 4 to 10% of your fuel is wasted if they are too low.

<!-3. This is huge…keep your speed down. Wind resistance is what consumes most of our RV fuel, so dropping your speed to 60 means terrific savings. 55 is even better, saving about 15% of your fuel vs. 65 MPH..

<!-4.  Use one of those affinity cards for fuel purchases. Our AMEX gives us 5% back…that’s over 16 cents off per gallon

<!-5.Check for lowest prices on the Internet. Stations right at freeway exits are often the highest, so check around. In our own little town, stations varied by as much as fourteen cents per gallon when I checked yesterday!

-6  .  RV’s have terrific range. Our larger coach can get up to 900 miles between fill-ups, so look around for lower prices and tank up as you find them

Fin     Finally, and this may sound too obvious…drive less. We usually don’t need to dash coast-to-coast to have a terrific vacation. Certainly we want to hit the spots of interest to us, but consider our Oregon home. Oregon has glacier-topped mountains, green alpine meadows, ocean coast lines, raging white water rivers, high plains desert…pretty much every kind of travel adventure one might want. Build your vacation or other travel plans putting more emphasis on being somewhere, as opposed to getting around so much. Fewer miles on the road means more time with the family, enjoying the event you’ve traveled to. We have learned that while we still enjoy adventures far, far from home, most of our RV adventures can be (and should be) under one tank of fuel away!