How many miles do you put on your bus annually?

[Dave5Cs]

We put on only about 1400 miles this year but are not done yet. Wish it was more. 2000 most years.

[Frank @ TX]

Hi,
We do about 14,000 a year.
Yes we have a lot of folks to see.
Frank

[DKO]

Passed my seven year mark owning the bus the end of March as I was turning 100,000 miles. That is an average of 14,285 per year. The bus is our home on the road while we work and we usually move every Saturday.

Davy

[usbusin]

We purchased USBUSIN our 1960 GMC PD4104 in 1985 and sold her in 2001.               150,000 miles

Transport Designs built USTRUCKIN our 2001 Freighliner conversion and since 2001       135,000 miles

285,000 miles in about 30 years = ~ 9,500 miles/year

Keep on busin and truckin,

GaryD

[Scott & Heather]

Wow. Some of you rack on the miles. Craig Holland and Frankie you guys put on almost the national average for cars. That relatively a lot compared to some of us. Your maintenance costs must be high. 


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[gumpy]

Bought my bus in 2000. Just passed the 80K mark on it.  

We used to do 8-10K when diesel was affordable and the kids were still home. Last couple years we didn't use the bus except for a couple weekends locally.
We've started using it again now that diesel prices have dropped. We'll probably be at about 5K per year.

[gg04]

Only 92000 since 2000.rdw

[chuckdrum]

We've had our MCI 5C for a little over 3 years and have put on 20K total- about 6K per year.  That will likely go up on the coming years as we are planning a couple cross-country adventures and an Alaska trip.

It's interesting to see all these relatively low mileages posted considering our vehicles were designed for about 10-20 times the annual mileages we're actually putting on them.  That puts a very different light on maintenance, it seems to me.  There will be many items that we will only have to deal with once in our buses' life, if at all (like a major engine rebuild).  And others that we have to deal with because of years, not mileage (like tires or anything involving a gasket/seal!).

And that's why it's particularly helpful to have a resource like this BB!  Thanks all, and I anticipate many questions in the coming years.

Chuck

[mc6er]

Wow. Some of you rack on the miles. Craig Holland and Frankie you guys put on almost the national average for cars. That relatively a lot compared to some of us. Your maintenance costs must be high. 

Makes me curious, I wonder what maintenance costs would be per mile to those who drive say 0-4k miles a year vs someone who drives around 7-10k miles. From what I've gathered these buses are in need of constant upkeep regardless of being driven. (This is coming from someone still relatively new and who has driven 0 miles in their bus so far though..)

[DKO]

The maintenance cost per mile should go down with every mile driven, at least to a point. Things like tires, air bags, brake chambers, Norgren valves and other items have a life span measured mostly in time rather than miles. I may do oil change and other fluid changes more often because of more miles than others but the costs of items changed on a time basis will be relatively the same.

If fixed costs are the near the same no matter how many miles then more miles brings down the per mile cost.

Davy

[TheHollands!]

I would also say the more miles I do the more I learn, usually the hard way. Regardless of wether it's a few miles or a lot of miles, the main thing is we enjoy those miles. Right?

[Scott & Heather]

True. So true. I guess I always tighten my sphincter a bit when I start the bus and drive it anywhere. So, I'm impressed by you guys that drive so
Much. Awesome stuff


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[Melbo]

We put on about 4 to 5000 miles a year.  Sometimes a little more. The cost to own the bus at that low an annual mileage is the same year to year except the fuel and rv parks.

Melbo

[DKO]

A one dollar swing in diesel prices although painful is not enough close up shop and shut the bus down for me. At $3.50 a gallon 14,000 miles per year will cost me about $6125 per year in diesel. That is a huge and painful part of my budget. $4.50 a gallon will cost an additional me $1750. Again, that is a lot of money but not a whole lot in the grand scheme of what it takes in money to maintain these things.

I traveled in a fifth wheel pulled by a diesel truck for years and my diesel consumption was similar. I do drive less miles now than I did then plus when I stop I am driving a toad that gets 32 mile per gallon. I am actually using way less fuel now than I did for years. I am almost green environmentally speaking. (grin)

Davy

[Ed Hackenbruch]

The fuel for our 11 month 10,000 mile trip in late 2013 & 2014 was the cheapest part of the trip.....$5380, so it cost us 53.8 cents a mile.