Owning an TT

[marshvegasmike]

For us, it was cheaper to camp than to do hotel rooms, seeing as we have 4 children.(No more than 5 to a room please!!). We started with tent camping. It gave our kids plenty of room to play. We moved up to a popup and traveled every summer around here in the Northeast. Now that the kids are grown, the wife and I decided to treat ourselves to a TT. We like the outdoors, the freedom and reliability that comes with trailering. We don't let the cost interfere with our enjoyment.

[BCx213]

I bought our TT for the convenience, insurance is about $360 a year, I do my own winterizing, get about 9-10 mpg. Unit is paid for so no payments All said and done, I am into it for about $27,000 new. Didn't want the headaches of buying used. Will I recover it? Heck no....but I don't have to worry about bed bugs and ahem...clean bedding. I budget $500 yr for maintenance and that goes into a separate account.

[cariboocreek]

Its expensive.....

$65k for truck...
$65k for fiver...
$50 per night for spot...
8 mpg - with the wind....

Look on mothers face when the oven lit with her head inside.....priceless...

[Nighthawk 96]

In a 4 year period we have spent about $33,000 on camping to include trailers, stuff we have bought for them, gas, taxes, site fees. Have camped 65 nights. So lets see that is about a little over $500 a night. Of course the more nights we spend that will go down.

You can get a lot of hotel rooms for that amount of money. This does not include any expense for the ownership of the truck, which is our only vehicle.

So when we back it up to the side of the lake and experience a great sunset or the joy our grandkids get out of it, how can you measure that in dollar terms?

We also like to go on cruises, which are pretty expensive, but will take you places you can't go in your RV.

As to your 264, we had a 26BH, which is similar. We bought ours very slightly used for $11,500 to determine if we would like to go camping. We did a lot of tent camping when our kids were in the house, and finally got tired of getting eaten by the bugs. Price was right, though, and was what we could afford at the time.

Decided we liked trailer camping (we are now both over 70 and fully retired) and the26BH was a great starter camper. Our current camper is much better for space and privacy. The bedroom is separated from the living area by the bath. Slide out provides much more useable space. Kitchen area can be bigger with much more counter space. The 26BH had very little counter space and the bedroom is not isolated from the main living area

Good luck with your camping adventure!

[cariboocreek]

Just re-read my previous post and my joke about the oven came out way wrong...lol. My lovely wife was having trouble lighting the oven one evening in the camper and when she went in with a flashlight and a match, it lit at an inopportune time. She was fine but when her head came out of the oven I heard words and combinations of words that would have made a Gunnery Sargeant blush.

......and that's camping.....

[Kellys]

They are a money PIT, but we love to camp

[KiltDog]

When we started camping it was $250 for a Reese hitch and trailer wiring for the minivan, a couple bottles of wine to borrow my FIL's popup, and $40 for a propane camp grill. $20 a night at the NYS park we like to camp at.

If you are not a camping family now, but would like to try it out before making a large investment, it can be done.

[lightcs1776]

That's still really funny, Carabocreek.

We've never really considered the total cost of camping. I know the cost of not camping would be huge, just not in dollars and cents. We just spent the past three day weekend with two of the boys in the southern Adirondacks. The laughter was fantastic. My 12 year old thanks God for going camping every night.

I recently picked up a 26BH. It is our first new trailer. You might want to see what you can find used until you are certain you want to invest the funds.