How are rising fuel prices affecting your 2011 plans?

Just saw diesel at $3.79. DW saw it @ $3.89. Paid $3.12 and under last year. How will higher fuel prices affect your plans in 2011?

We're planning to stay closer to home after doing 16,000 miles last year, but that has been our plan since we got home in Dec.

Longer trips & shorter distance.

Up until now, our trips have been mostly road trips where we spend a single night and then move on the next day.  I just got a toad rigged up, so we plan to stay at specific locations for several days and saturate ourselves with the local lure before moving on.  Chances are we'll cover shorter distances, but our trips will last about as long as before.

We'll be going slower and staying longer.

Staying closer to home. I have a Florida trip planed to St Augustine for June and just hope I can afford the gas

Maybe we all oughta buy some oil company stock. The way it's a goin up, it'd more than pay for any raise in fuel prices. As fer us, it won't change our plans, got two many things to sea and not enough time to see em.

First; there go resale values again. Second; we Workamp, so we HAVE to go where we are hired. This season that means $100.00 plus added to our fuel costs. We had the motor gone over and ensured that everything was up to specs-including tire inflation-to eke out whtever mileage we can get. We always drive in the right lane and never exceed 65 mph-our Cummins seems to like that speed and RPM.

High fuel costs are going to kill the RV industry again, just as it was beginning to recover from the credit crunch.

Yes, short Winnebago, Thor. RV industry will be hurt, as will anyone who's trying to sell a used RV. Glad to own energy stocks. People will stay in one place longer, travel shorter distances, have less to spend on just stuff and eating out, and many will drive slower. Tuned engines consume less fuel. Pressure to end ethanol subsidies will mount as people realize 10% ethanol cuts mileage by 20% to 25%. Glad I don't own an RV park. There seem to be a lot of parks for sale.

I'm trying to sell more books to cover the gas,  which keeps increasing!  ;D  I can't increase the price of the books, actually I put them on sale to encourage more buyers.

Recently when a friend joined me on a budget trip, I convinced them it was more fun to spend a few days at each beautiful campground we chose, then move on a few  miles to the next. I found it exhausting (during one trip with a friend) to move every day, so unless the campground isn't desirable, I try to stay put longer.  So on our last trip together, we did less than 200 miles in 10 days, but we had a wonderful time, putting lots of miles on our feet.

Since I don't tow a car, I just make my shopping and sightseeing trips while I am traversing between camp spots.  I try to be efficient.

While camping, we turned to hiking with our two legs as a great option for sightseeing, choosing large county owned parks that offered lots of natural beauty to hike around and sight see natural beauty.

I prefer to sightsee plain old nature over tourist traps anyhow.

But, yeah, this gas disaster, is a mess, as food costs are sure to spiral, and we all have to eat, whether we travel or not. 

I just hope I find a way to travel in 2011, at least to ports of call where I can enjoy my windows wide open, I don't much care for air conditioning, if I can possibly avoid it. That being said, I know that many RV-ers are energy hogs, preferring to use just as much electricity as they possibly can, when parked and the electricity is included in their rent, so I expect the campgrounds and RV parks,  will start jacking up their rates too.

I feel sorry for folks on a fixed income, they are hit the hardest when fuel costs go up, so does everything else while their income is often way behind on cost of living increases, if they get any at all.

If we all just bought tiny bits of fuel at a time, then the fuel stations would start having a backlog of fuel, when the trucks showed up with deliveries, there wouldn't be room for them, fuel would back up everywhere, and then they would lower the prices, to get it moving again.

I think it's the conspiracy theory. Too much traffic, so the fuel prices are jacked up to help clear the roads...  :

folks who already have RVs will still use them, tho not as much imo.....but those who were THINKING about buying for the 1st time may reconsider!...$5.00 a gallon gas will put many manufacturers into BK...again imo

Oldedit said:

How will higher fuel prices affect your plans in 2011?

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It won't change mine....  I feel if we can afford the "toy", then we can afford to use it.  Otherwise we may as well get rid of it. ;D
Diesel is already over $4 here in AK   But that being said its been above $3.50 all winter and was well over $4 last summer.  Cost more, but not an entirely new cost, so I just suck it up...

We cut about $20 per week out of our other spending - if we do that for the whole year, it saves $1040, which is enough - hopefully - to cover the increase in fuel prices for this year.  If it keeps going up, we'll cut some more out of our other spending. 

My computations have $5.00 diesel in them, and that will increase our cost $200 per month, compared to $3.00 diesel, the way we drive and the distance we travel.

Our house will probably sell and close in April/May to the current renters, the extra car will be sold, and there's a big income tax refund enroute. Even without all of that, we can modify our "eating out" habits and probably get close to $200 a month, if we did nothing else.

"Adapt, improvise, and overcome" my drill sergeant used to say.

My theory . . . if you think about the cost, you won't enjoy yourself.  Modify your plans accordingly and have a wonderful time doing what we love to do 

We were on the road quite a bit the last two years and this is not a big travel year for us.  I've got a tractor I'm rebuilding torn into 2,365,819 pieces(that's a guess ) at the moment and it may take most of the year to get it put back together!!!  Seriously,  we'll stay a little closer to home and stay longer when we go.

On the road now, probaly will not go as far but will still go.

We are with most posters, we will not give up the pleasure of rv'ing. We will likely take shorter trips and stay longer at each destination. DW is due to have a cancerous kidney removed so long hauls won't be an option.

We travel to BBQ competitions in the DP, I fueled up before the start of the winter, and I've been looking at starting the bio-diesel making route to supplement fuel usage, I do love the smell of French Fry's coming out of the RV in front.

Mileage wise last year we put just under 4,000 miles in 5 months, this year there are more competitions closer to home, so I can actually compete more and do a lot less mileage, last year we got to 7 competitions in 5 States, this year I can do 6 or 7 within 200 miles round trip, that will put less than 1,400 miles on the bus, there are 3 that will put another 2,000 total on the clock, then there's the mileage my DW will want to add for family trips, I'll bet they will add another 5 or 6,000 miles.

I'll be running at more efficient speeds to try and get the most mpg, and watching the weather warnings to avoid the wind where possible.

Working for myself, an extra day here and there will matter less to me, than efficient running of the motor and avoiding the worst headwinds. 

Diesel hit about 3.60 here today.  We were planning a long trip to the south east and back through the mid west.  That has just about disappeared but not due to the fuel prices.  MRI on Monday and maybe we will find out why my back has kept me home for most of the last 10 months.  We would go if the fuel, diesel, stayed under $5 but I don't think we will know the test results in time to head out before it is too warm down south.  We should have already left!  We may have difficulty even attending the local rallies.  We missed them all last year due to my problems.