Fuel prices slow but don’t stop RVs
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2008
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — In the heart of the park on a recent warm day, all 358 spaces at the Fishing Bridge Recreational Vehicle Park were jammed with RVs and camping equipment.
Despite high fuel prices and a sputtering economy that have hurt RV sales and caused many people to put the brakes on vacation plans, plenty of the lumbering, gas-guzzling rigs have taken to the road this summer.
“If you want to stay out here and do this, you just suck it up and go,” said Leyman Williams, who was lounging on a folding chair outside his 39-foot RV at Fishing Bridge.
The Williamses live yearround in their motor home, which has all the comforts: running water, refrigerator, kitchen, private bathroom and bed space for as many as six people.
But the RV gets only about 10. 5 miles to the gallon. With diesel prices above $ 4 a gallon much of the summer, filling the 90-gallon tank means shelling out around $ 400.
“I learned to drive a little slower,” Williams said, noting highway mileage is better at around 60 mph.
More than 1. 1 million RVs visited National Park Service campgrounds through the first seven months of this year, according to preliminary figures.
The numbers are down about 6 percent from the same period last year, said Jeffrey Olson, Park Service spokesman. But July and August are the busiest months for RV camping in national parks and many campers are out during the fall, he said.
RV and campground trade associations say 2008 appears to be as busy as previous years, though with some variations that could be attributed to fuel prices.
A survey earlier this year by the Virginia-based Recreation Vehicle Industry Association found that high fuel prices weren’t stopping RV travelers, but in some cases were prompting shorter trips, said Kevin Broom, spokesman for the 550-member association.
Perhaps more important, the association expects a 14-percent decline in this year’s RV sales. That comes on top of a 9. 5-percent drop last year.
The same economic forces plaguing the housing market affect RV sales, Broom said. Manufacturers have responded with new designs over the past several years to emphasize fuel efficiency. The large, luxurious RVs get as few as 6 miles to the gallon, while the smaller ones can get up to 18, he said.
While fewer people are buying RVs, more are renting them, Broom said. On average, RV rentals cost about $ 1, 500 a week, he said.
Even with the higher fuel prices, Broom said, RVs remain an economical way to vacation because RV users save money on the motel and restaurant bills.
“The savings overwhelm any fuel cost increases,” Broom said, especially if an RVer takes a 100-mile trip instead of a 1, 000 mile trip.
Some RV enthusiasts compromise on their vacations by parking their RVs for the summer at a close-to-home campground and staying there on weekends, said Linda Profaizer, president of the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds.
“People are somehow adjusting their lives, not that it’s not a hardship for a lot of people to have to pay more for gas and everything,” she said. “But it’s still important for them to get away and enjoy themselves.” For the Williamses, that means driving their RV a little slower, bypassing engine-straining mountains and staying longer at the places they visit. They also tow their small sport utility vehicle, which gets close to 30 mph.
While towing the SUV reduces the RV’s fuel efficiency, Williams said, the saving comes in because they drive the SUV short distances to the grocery store and to see the sights.
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