How much is enough?!

[BIG KAHUNA]

For all those who have been full timing it for some time what would good general travel day in terms of mileage? As background we will be pulling a 38' 5th wheel and it will be our first rodeo as far as full timing it goes.

[rhagfo]

For all those who have been full timing it for some time what would good general travel day in terms of mileage? As background we will be pulling a 38' 5th wheel and it will be our first rodeo as far as full timing it goes.

Full timing and retired? If so what is the rush? I would consider about 250 to 300 miles at 50 mph as a long day. Better yet stay off the interstates, and really smell the roses.
I recall a work trip back in 1999, and I needed to travel from Myrtle Beach to Gaffney, SC no GPS just used a paper map to travel secondary roads and really enjoyed the trip.

[notanlines]

Brenda (DW) and I made our "small town America tour" two years ago when we made our last Sturgis trip. Not a four-lane to speak of our entire trip. We were towing our 18' "toy hauler." We normally ran about 250 - 300 miles a day, some days not travelling at all. We found a nice RV park in Kansas and stayed there three days. There was a nice diner nearby and a great pizza shop in town. Nice people and pool at the RV park so why leave? Even now we seldom go more than 350 or so unless someone is offering free beer at the intended destination. :D

[Canonman]

X2 what Russ said. There are those who brag (sorry couldn't find a better word) about how far they "made it" in a day. We are more inclined to brag about where we stopped, what we saw or what we experienced.
Rule of thumb for us is 2 fill ups. We can get around 300 miles on a tankful. Usually try to schedule a fuel stop at around 200 to 250 miles. Second fill up is where we plan to overnight so i can unhook and take the truck for fuel and any errands.
So short answer to your question is somewhere around 400 to 500 miles.
Photos are from an unplanned lunch stop we had enroute to Grand Junction, CO. where we had "Lunch with the Aliens"

[PARAPTOR]

Showing my age by saying 4 hours of defensive driving with the many idiots on the roads is my upper limit. Even at my age, I am sure if there was something interesting down the road I could make an exception :D

[TheGriz]

Generally not in any hurry to get somewhere. The joy is seeing the country with tons to see along the way! But others make great points about exceptions and beer!!! DW and I like 200-250 per day...can usually find places of interest within those distances. Not about how many breaths but the quality of each breath.:marshmallow::fishing::smitten::party:



Regards,
Mike

[sourdough]

Obviously the topic is subjective. It also depends on the tow rig, how it handles and the driver. I try to keep my driving at 7 hrs max (not preferable) and generally in the 5 hour range. For us, the time to fill up the 2nd time is about time to shut down as well. I try to drive at 65 mph max.

I will say that I have always been a person that got on the road to get from A to B...period. In my work I was always pressed to be somewhere for something (at least that's the way I felt) and I was an intense road warrior. That carried over into retirement and has been pretty much that way since. I use the interstates etc. On this trip to FL I told my wife we were missing too much by zipping through places that looked interesting but I wouldn't stop because I was on my quest to get to the next place. As one poster said above, we're retired, what's the rush? We made the decision to take 2 lanes all the way back to TX in the spring to places we've never been, or heard of. No timelines - just lolly gagging about. I think it will be a fun experience.....if I can just get my motor to slow down a bit :)

[Barbell]

On our several cross-country trips (AZ to SC, etc), we usually do between 2 and 300 miles per day. On the road by 8:30 to 9:00 am; maybe one or two rest stops and we are at our next stop by around 3:00 pm. Much easier to find space at 3:00 than at 5-6:00. Max speed is 65; usually 62-64 except when we have to pass something in a hurry. Most stops are for at least two nites. We can carry about 70 gallons of fuel so refueling is when unhooked at cheapest place (well off the main highway usually). We have taken as long as 30 days to make the roughly 2000+ mile trip and have done quite a bit of sight-seeing along the way. We have been on I-90; I-80; I-70; I-40; I-20 and I-10 plus a number of other interstate as well as non-interstate roads. Being retired means that there is no place we absolutely have to be at a certain time.

[JRTJH]

For us, it really depends on the objective at the end of the day. As an example, when we leave northern Michigan in January, our objective is to get as far south (less ice/snow) on the departure day. We always leave on a clear day with no snow predicted and with (hopefully) clear, dry roads. We may wake up, and depending on changing weather, delay departure for a day or two rather than risk getting caught in a potential problem snowstorm.

So, there are times when we will "push hard" and might drive 8, 10 hours, maybe even more.

That said, typically, when we travel, we don't set any specific goals for daily travel. We might get up, break camp, have a relaxed breakfast, depart the campground around 10AM, see an interesting site advertised on a sign less than 20 miles down the road and change our plans so we can stop at that site. We may, depending on what that is, find a campground "right there, 20 miles from last night" and set up camp at 11AM. Then again, we might not see any signs advertising something of interest, and continue driving for 100 miles, stop for lunch and, depending on how we feel, push on for another 150 miles or so with only an occasional "pit stop" or we may see something interesting and stop earlier.

We seldom make "firm plans" or "reservations" as we've found that they tend to force us to "push to or beyond our limits", or force us to not stop for something we "wish we had time to see"....

For us, it was a transition that we had to make. Prior to retirement, we tended to "maximize vacation time" by leaving on a Friday after work to get a "head start" and the "OBJECTIVE" was the destination.

Now that we're retired, we can leave when we want, not when it's scheduled and the journey is as much a part of the vacation as is the destination.

Different mindset, much more enjoyable times "coming and going" and we still get to enjoy the destination, only it's "when we get there" rather than "arrival in 21 hours"......

[Javi]

Not really full timing yet but we do travel a good bit.. I like secondary roads as much as possible and usually avoid Interstate highways like the plague.. We both like to get somewhere, set up and relax... so I generally drive straight through if possible.. But at 68, it seems my limit is roughly 8 hours... we just did 7 hours from Caprock Canyon SP to Waco and I went to work the next morning..

Just can't do the long drive anymore without being wore out.. used to drive from Waco, to Grand Teton National Park stopping only for fuel... pickup had 126 gallons of tanks so even that wasn't all that often..

[bobbecky]

We sat down to dinner with friends who had been full time for quite a few years before we finally committed to full time, and they said do the 9AM to 3PM thing, and avoid rush hours like the plague. We have rarely pushed over 400 miles in a day, and mostly it's 200 to 250 miles a day, and sometimes we've also done less than 100 miles when we've spied an interesting location to visit. That's the adventure, not having cast in stone plans, and getting to enjoy the journey.

[Desert185]

Not full-timers.

I don’t like to drive more than one tank (10 MPG with 35 gallons). This also gets us us to a park with hookups early enough that we can find a park with a vacancy. We’ve done Walmart, but we like full hookups when traveling to a destination more than a few days travel. After two days of freeway droning, we like to spend an extra day parked to relax if that day is somewhere worth staying. Freeways wear me out. Much rather drive a two-lane off the beaten path. I recall one 38 mile day. Just seemed like a great place to stop.

Just drive what is comfortable for you.

[talk2cpu]

Being retired, and loving it, we go from attraction to attraction. Rarely more than 250 miles. Once we did 400 and hated the truck by the end of the day.:lol: There have been many days we did not even go 100 miles. And we still feel like we have driven by too many "neat" places.:facepalm:
First year we did 14000 miles in 5 months and that was passing up too much.

[Alpine]

As "they" say with most polls, you throw out the highs and the lows... so you probably have to throw ours out! We are on the low side! Fulltimers going on five years and a rough estimate is around 150 miles. Our longest day was 250 & shortest was 18 miles. However we are retired and are just puttering around the United States enjoying the small towns and National Parks.

[travelin texans]

As "they" say with most polls, you throw out the highs and the lows... so you probably have to throw ours out! We are on the low side! Fulltimers going on five years and a rough estimate is around 150 miles. Our longest day was 250 & shortest was 18 miles. However we are retired and are just puttering around the United States enjoying the small towns and National Parks.

We fall into this same category. An older fulltimer told us when we first became fulltimers that the best way was 2×2×2, travel 200 miles-stop by 2pm-stay 2 days, so that's what we tried for a while. 200 miles traveling is fine, stopping somewhere around 2pm was fine, but most places 2 days weren't enough so most times we stay a week & sightsee in every direction from that location & then move between 200-300 miles down the road & do the same. Been at now for 10 years & wouldn't change a thing.

[Desert185]

We fall into this same category. An older fulltimer told us when we first became fulltimers that the best way was 2×2×2, travel 200 miles-stop by 2pm-stay 2 days, so that's what we tried for a while. 200 miles traveling is fine, stopping somewhere around 2pm was fine, but most places 2 days weren't enough so most times we stay a week & sightsee in every direction from that location & then move between 200-300 miles down the road & do the same. Been at now for 10 years & wouldn't change a thing.

Sounds like a program I could adopt if I were a fulltimer.

[flybouy]

In my opinion it comes down to safety first, comfort second. In my youth I have driven 1000 + miles (NOT towing) at a clip. Towing is different, as is age, ability, and health. I don't care how well you are set up, what your rig is like, etc. if you tow then it will tire you quicker and you can get into trouble easier. Waking up after drifting over the rumble strips will result in jerking the wheel to return to the travel lane which will cause a handling issue while towing.
There is a reason that the DOT mandates that professional drivers spend x amount of time off of the road for every x amount of time driving.

[theeyres]

I can't figure out what the average would be from all the past posts but for us, when we were full-timing, it was 200 miles a day. Never in hurry to get anywhere; stop to see whatever was interesting; stay off the freeways; the journey was the goal.

[Tinner12002]

Heading that direction ourselves so this was a very interesting read!!

[ctbruce]

For us, 300 miles is very comfortable, 400 is doable and 500 is only when going a long way and trying to cover a lot of ground. We have only done 500 a few times and is certainly not our norm. For sure, the longer you go, the less enjoyable the trip becomes.

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[DMK]

We are working FT'ers and it depends if we have to be somewhere or not. If your going from RV park to RV park it's nice to be able to get settled in the daytime, but if I need to drive into the darkness and need to get somewhere and get tired and need to stop that's when we utilize Walmart. I usually have a plan A, B & C, before leaving so we can adjust on the fly due to weather, traffic, or just how we feel. Just enjoy it! Many days we plan day to day! Wouldn't trade this lifestyle for anything!:D