Do you go camping enough ?

[gronk]

This is not designed to highlight any one person, but do people go camping enough to justify buying a camper...or tent..or van ??

Say you own a camper and you use it once a year.....have you really wasted your money ?......would you be better off hiring one ?....or a cabin if van parks are your thing ?

How many times camping a year is worthwhile for your investment ?     Do people actually do some maths and work it out ?

I do it for enjoyment, and dollars don't come into it, but what about others ??

[Bird]

Personally I think once a year is a waste of a camper. I barely use mine to make it worth while.

I've now had several mates sell their campers and go back to tents and put the $ on the mortgage.
in reality with *some* setups, there isn't much difference in setup times of trailer/awning/kitchen/chairs etc than tent and setup..

YMMV

[baldheadedgit]

In a nutshell.... NO.!
But My CT did not cost me the earth, so if it sits there 10 months of the year i don't care to much.   

BHG

[GGV8Cruza]

I use ours as much as possible and it would equate to around 6 weeks in the year which I think is good. Life is to busy and any quality time spent with family and friends away from the general craziness of the world is great. Would O like more time, yes, is it possible, no. Its the good times living the dream that count. The kids call our camper the holiday house, we can go to the mountains or the beach and they are happy.

GG

[Footy Shorts Shane]

I do it for enjoyment, and dollars don't come into it, but what about others ??

We're the same.
If $$$ were the limiting factor, we wouldn't own one, or the boat, or V8 Hilux, the Missus would drive a Prius not a V8, I wouldn't go fishing, racing or drink beer either.  (life would really suck if I lived like that)
But I choose too, so I pay.

[oldmate]

We're the same.
If $$$ were the limiting factor, we wouldn't own one, or the boat, or V8 Hilux, the Missus would drive a Prius not a V8, I wouldn't go fishing, racing or drink beer either.  (life would really suck if I lived like that)
But I choose too, so I pay.

100%

[chester ver2.0]

We only average about 3 weeks a year but I lived in it for 6 months in 2010 and I am about to do the same thing again.

If I owed money on it then yes I would not be happy but it only costs me a service and some rego and insurance so that is OK

Where it gets me is that we have talked about upgrading and come to the decision on the amount of use we are doing we cannot justify and upgrade

[edz]

Not nearly as much as we would like, But Couldnt justify a $10 k + camper or  van sitting on the drive most of the year, so thats why its a home built / reliable and comfortable enough at a 1/ 3 of the cost basic camper for us ..

[Traveller]

I think a lot depends on your circumstances. We have had our camper for about 12 years and have never travelled with kids. We have a hard floor which takes about 2 minutes to set up, no way were we that slick with our tent even after years of practice. Now that the grey hairs are well and truly set in (for the hairs that are still left), I find it just so much easier (and comfortable) to camp with the trailer.

I hate hiring things as I always feel ripped off (I know it is my problem). If you buy well to start with and look after your gear you will get a good return on your trailer/tent/swag when you decide to move on, and I think this is something that is quite often forgotten.

So to answer your original question, NO. We camped for at least 4 months last year and we still wanted more.

[cetacean]

We usually get away for a couple of 10 day trips each year, as well as half a dozen 3 or 4 dayers fairly close to home. Truth is if I wasn't away fishing so much, we'd do a lot more camping 
Wouldn't and couldn't be without the camper though

[Rodt]

Nowhere near enough (5 x times in 2 years  ). Paid bugger all for it though (relatively speaking) and happy to do mods on it throughout the year (bloody MySwag) 

[GUEY]

Not really concerned about the dollars, but no it doesn't get used enough.
Took the young bloke out to Darlington Park a couple of weekends ago and didn't bother with the camper.
Was much easier and less hassle than the camper.

[Bird]

I don't really know anyone who feels they use their camper enough....

[Barry G]

I don't really know anyone who feels they use their camper enough....

X 2

[swanny]

In a word...NO....but when I do the family and I love it, so bugger it, im keeping it.....the look on my kids faces during our camping trip at times is worth it to me..

Swanny

[BaseCamp]

I don't really know anyone who feels they use their camper enough....

x3

If you look at a yacht/boat harbor on a beautiful sunny weekend - it will be 60% - 80% full of big toys just sitting there... 

Clearly something is wrong - and compared to campers and vans - those particular toys have $100K - $1M price tags...

So it boils down to whether you have the cash to sink on a camper / van...   and what part of life you are in....  (Grey nomad tourers; or say a young family of dedicated users through all the school holidays etc....)

Everyone else not in these 2 main groups may, in reality, be wasting money buying biggish bucks CT or vans?   With HP repayments; rego and insurance; etc - where you only use it (say) 4 times a year maybe the equivalent to spending over $3K on every one of those 4 trips a year - for the "joy" of owning something vs hiring something...

EG - Figures based on:
$45K Van on HP = $55K cost over 5 years = $11K per year (add) (guesstimated) $1.2Kpa for rego; ins; repairs ....  take her out on 4 trips a year = BINGO;  each trip is costing you $3k+...        (Ownership vs Hire)....

   

[vicandug]

No, we don't use it enough.
Yes, we would love to use it more.

One day we plan on travelling Australia...  (Dreaming constantly)

We own it, we love it and when we do get to use it we don't want to come home,

So, I would never ever sell it.  I don't for one minute regret buying it.  It's always there if we want to go away.

Vicki

[Rogerthatv2]

No, we don't use it enough.
Yes, we would love to use it more.

One day we plan on travelling Australia...  (Dreaming constantly)

We own it, we love it and when we do get to use it we don't want to come home,

So, I would never ever sell it.  I don't for one minute regret buying it.  It's always there if we want to go away.

Vicki

Spot on for us as well, I also use it as therapy - I have a fairly constant, stressful job (like most of us these days) and just because we don't use it one weekend I know it's in the garage and can go and tinker on it, upgrade it etc - that in itself is worth it as I rarely drink these days, don't gamble, rarely go out so I put our money here.

We have a running joke at home of how much each night costs us when we go away with the Hawk we bought - my mates are in to it now as well, lol.

We are really trying to use it every 3 to 2 weekends and just booked a week touring down to Dubbo in August. No more overseas holidays - we have the car and camper and plan to use it.

Cheers Dan


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[Rumpig]

Can't say I've ever thought about the cost of our camper, it's what we wanted at the time so we bought it. That line of thought is why I'll still be working at 70 years of age though...lol. Do we use it often enough for what it cost to buy?...no idea, like I said it's not something I bother to think about. I go camping to get away from the every day rat race which is priceless in my book,  and I definately don't spend that time wondering if I'm getting value for money out of my camper.

[chisel]

No, don't use the camper enough.  A couple of times a year perhaps.  It costs money (depreciation, insurance, rego) just to sit there.  I'd sell it and go back to tenting but the wife likes the camper when we use it.  The trailer certainly doesn't save us any significant time versus tenting.
I have toyed with giving up camping altogether as it probably would be cheaper to spend 10 nights a year in resorts, and the kids love that, but I think camping gives the kids some worthwhile experience of the outdoors ... and I personally enjoy it (apart from the all the effort of a family camping setup) so I'm going to persist with it for now.

[oldmate]

Can't say I've ever thought about the cost of our camper, it's what we wanted at the time so we bought it. That line of thought is why I'll still be working at 70 years of age though...lol. Do we use it often enough for what it cost to buy?...no idea, like I said it's not something I bother to think about. I go camping to get away from the every day rat race which is priceless in my book,  and I definately don't spend that time wondering if I'm getting value for money out of my camper.

Lol.  Myself and Lyndall will never be rich either mate, I'll be working for ever also. If we want something we just buy it.

[briann532]

We spend more weekends camping than we do in our house, so I guess my answer would be yes. 

We live in the camper for a month every christmas and go away all through the year.
To us its a lifestyle so I don't hesitate to spend money on a glamper.
(Hence the upgrade to the dark side recently)

Not trying to be morbid, but we look at it with the view that in 10 years our kids wont want to know us, so we get out and about with them while we can enjoy it.
Then we have an asset that we can use to enjoy our lives when they are doing their own thing.

Hopefully it will then go full circle and we can enjoy corrupting helping our grandkids. 

Go on, get out and use it........ that's what they're for.

[rockrat]

x3

If you look at a yacht/boat harbor on a beautiful sunny weekend - it will be 60% - 80% full of big toys just sitting there... 

Clearly something is wrong - and compared to campers and vans - those particular toys have $100K - $1M price tags...

So it boils down to whether you have the cash to sink on a camper / van...   and what part of life you are in....  (Grey nomad tourers; or say a young family of dedicated users through all the school holidays etc....)

Everyone else not in these 2 main groups may, in reality, be wasting money buying biggish bucks CT or vans?   With HP repayments; rego and insurance; etc - where you only use it (say) 4 times a year maybe the equivalent to spending over $3K on every one of those 4 trips a year - for the "joy" of owning something vs hiring something...

EG - Figures based on:
$45K Van on HP = $55K cost over 5 years = $11K per year (add) (guesstimated) $1.2Kpa for rego; ins; repairs ....  take her out on 4 trips a year = BINGO;  each trip is costing you $3k+...        (Ownership vs Hire)....

   

Depending on what you buy though, you need to factor in resale value as well. So let's say you get 60% back after 5 years (not unrealistic for a Jayco), each trip is only costing $1200.

Before we had the CT we would stay in cabins at a CP or a resort/unit (my wife isn't that interested in tents) so I reckon we'd be ahead anyway.

I wouldn't necessarily borrow money to by a CT but luckily I didn't have to.

[slydar]

a lot of good arguments/comments there. in our first year we camped every third weekend but since then the weather hasn't been on our side plus they put my work group on call so one weekend in five I sit around home unable to go too far from the phone or partake in certain liquid refreshments.

in our case we only bought a fairly cost-effective camper, miminal bells and whistles. I often think a pop-up would be better, smaller of course but at least if it rains we drop it down and put it away without worrying about the canvas rotting as opposed to having to put it all back up when we get home to dry it out but the purchase cost and weight are a factor when one spends a month on soft sand that most vans get stuck on

[dales133]

One of the main reasons I've gone with building a teardrop is its always got a made up bed and fully equipped galley and absolutely no set up what so ever and even better no canvas to dry out.
If you want to stay in one place for days you can set up as much of a camp based around it as you like but you can pull over, cook a feed and go to bed anywhere any time and just take off in the morning
Plus it's fully insulated, because of these reasons I hope I'll get plenty of use out of it