I was wondering how often most casual campers actually use the RV.

[novastorm]

We average about 9K to 10K miles a year on our motorhome. These days, as others have mentioned, we consider it our safe home away from home.

[NBRiverRat]

We are not full timers, but usually hit the road for 2-3 weeks, store the coach and jeep, then fly home for 6-8 weeks, then do it all over again. Flying home allows us to avoid a long drive back and forth and start from where we left off. Works great with Southwest miles.

[ferrisjc]

Even in southern Arizona our Isata 3 takes a break (normally) in December. We don't winterize but that doesn't mean we don't get down below freezing on a number of nights and so have to keep pretty close checks to ensure all is good with the pad heaters, etc. Point being like you it is nice to exercise and use the RV on a monthly or more often basis. During the rest of the year we go on short trips of 3-4 days using the long holiday weekends (still working). Summer time longer trips. Exercise the generator monthly and keep up on maintenance. As nice as our motorhome is we would not consider full-time as we purchased it as an explorer, nature loving and vacation motor home to visit the kids and grandkids. For us we purchased our motor home because we could and have enjoyed it immensely and realized some things in life may not pay back on the price point but definitely do on quality of life. Wouldn't change our decision to purchase.

[Cook]

We manage four trips a year that are at least four weeks long, with several shorter trips throughout the year. COVID did slow us down a bit, but we are back on track for 2021.

[lewisedge]

We live in a coastal region of southern South Carolina, but by early June my wife and I were getting a terrible case of cabin fever isolating ourselves from the pandemic.


Then we decided to take our coach into the North Georgia mountains and enjoyed a wonderful outing with lots of hiking and boating on a large lake there.


When my wife's son was having a wedding in mid July in Mill Valley, California, rather than taking commercial flights that could expose us to Covid-19, we drove our coach across the country, taking scenic routes and enjoyed lots of outdoor sightseeing. After the wedding we visited Mount Shasta and Crater Lake before the fires hit that region. Making advanced reservations for campgrounds we had no problems being accommodated during our travels. Many of those campgrounds had check-ins without any touch-points.



As members of a couple of motorhome owner's groups we attend their "socially-distanced" outings and have not experienced any adverse situations.


The only thing that constrains our travels is my wife's employment. Otherwise we would take longer and more frequent trips in our motorhome. Enjoy your RV. Neither you or it are getting any younger.

[RevnRef]

Just curious. If you aren't using it much and feel it is a waste of money... did you not have a plan? Or did things change dramatically? Dreams are dreams. There is also reality to deal with. Sorry you aren't getting use.

[Johnynorthla]

Everyone has different situations. We have 4 kids and 3 grand kids. We had our last one late in life!. We were camping once a month then one evening every other month for 5 years. Then our last chicken went off to college!, we sold the house and are part time full timers till we move in to our new house next year. But we expect to camp a heck of a lot more now that we are empty nesters! (If they don’t keep calling us to babysit!)

[Kountry_star]

We average about 12 trips a year. Mostly "weekends" with one long trip a year. The long trip can be from 1000 miles to 5000. Our year is from late May to October. Goes in it's barn at first sign of salt (we live in the UP of Michigan) and doesn't hit the road again until Nature has washed the roads a few times. Our use does not "justify" a DPMH but we like it and enjoy each and every trip with it. Have thought of leaving it down south so we could use it in the winter. Problem with that is we are some of the few that actually love winter and all that comes with it. That's why we retired in the U.P. of Michigan.

[ArtJoyce]

The OP RVstorm, have they been back to the post since they originally posted?

[Maik]

We usually (non Virus days) use our coach about 6-7 times in a year minimum. One trip is 3+ weeks in Florida. usually 2-3 short weekend trips, and 2 long weekend trips. We also try to make a destination trip of 5-6 days to points of interest in the USA.
In the past two years I have had the opportunity to work/camp at our construction projects. In 2019 I spent a total of 3 1/2 months in my coach and 2 1/2 months in 2020.

[RossWilliams]

There is nothing special about owning an RV, its the things it allows you to do. If your goal was to see the state parks in Tennessee then get a list of parks and start scheduling weekends to go to them.



One of the advantages of owning an RV is that going somewhere isn't a big production. So make sure you have most of what you need for a weekend already stored in the RV, including food staples. Then you can pull together a few things to take with and just go.



Like anything it takes some practice. But once you have done it a few times you will be able to leave without much effort or planning. But you may have to make yourself practice the first few times.

[Ktaylorr1]

My wife and I both work full time and still find away to camp in our class A 15 times a year. We use every three day weekend and go on longer trips in the summer, when the wife’s not teaching. Spring break we will go from Vegas to Texas for 9 days to pig hunt. If you wait until you have time, you will never have the time, plan it and do it.

[GOG52]

Camping year 2020 has had its challenges. We were lucky enough to camp 93 days last summer. It allowed us leave (in accordance to all regulations) a Covid ho tspot and summer in cottage country. Hope we are as lucky again for 2021 season. GPG52

[rebfan]

Didn’t go anywhere in 2020 due to stroke but normally we take one two to six weeks vacation every year and maybe one or two weekends. Extravagant perhaps but as others have stated, the memories are priceless and we have made some lifelong friends on some of our trips. We have been to all 50 states including a 6 week trip along the Alaska hwy.Just do it!