RV Rent vs Buy Calculator

How the rent versus buy math works

Renting an RV costs you a price per night and a few extras. Owning costs you a large yearly bill that barely changes whether you camp 10 nights or 100. That difference is the whole question. This calculator adds up the yearly cost of each path and then divides the ownership bill by your effective rental price per night. The result is the break-even point: the number of nights a year where the two paths cost the same.

Ownership cost here has five parts. Depreciation is the biggest and is easy to forget because no bill arrives for it. A $90,000 rig losing 10 percent a year gives up $9,000 in value. Interest on the loan, insurance, storage and maintenance come next, with registration last. The calculator uses first-year interest on the financed amount, which is the highest year. Later years cost less, so the break-even number is a little high for long owners.

Here is the default example. You take four trips of seven nights, so 28 nights. At $175 a night plus $150 of extras per trip, renting runs $5,500 a year. Owning the $90,000 rig costs about $20,480 a year. Dividing $20,480 by the effective rental rate of about $196 a night gives roughly 104 nights. At 28 nights a year you are far below that, so renting wins by about $15,000 a year in this example.

Change the inputs to match your real plan. A cheaper used trailer, no loan and a driveway instead of storage can cut the break-even to 40 or 50 nights. A fuel and campsite budget is separate, so pair this with the RV trip cost calculator, and try the RV rental finder to choose a rental type. Rental rates, insurance and depreciation are editable examples, so replace them with real quotes.

Where these numbers come from

The formulas and default values in this calculator are based on:

• Adventure Calcs ownership-cost worksheet using standard depreciation and loan-interest arithmetic on the figures you enter. Note: rental rate, insurance, storage and depreciation defaults are editable examples, not quotes

This is a planning estimate, not medical, legal or immigration advice. Fees, allowances, limits and entry rules change, so confirm the figures with your airline, cruise line, customs agency or the official government source before you book or travel, and follow their rules if they differ from this page.