The cost of budget tornado chasing with a partner?

[Ben Holcomb]

Here's a good example of how things just don't work out the way you want them to. I punctured 2 tires after the Rowlett Tornado on Saturday. I ended up having to stay in Dallas (10,000 hilton points) saturday night. I tried to get the tires fixed Sunday, but they weren't fixable. I had road hazard so Discount Tire would fix them for free, but not open on Sundays. I opted to stay in Dallas another night (another 10,000 hilton points) and have them replaced for free on Monday.

Unexpected expense, at least I had hotel points otherwise it could have been expensive either way. New tires from the place open on Sunday were $350.

 

[James Wilson]

I had the same type thing happen on the Kansas turnpike after the El Reno tornado Ben. Driving through OKC and the flooding something got in the front passenger side tire and did not make it go flat until almost to Emporia KS. I was driving my girlfriends VW that has a special lug nut wheel lock required to take the tire off of course she doesn't have it with her. Luckily we were able to get a ride from chase buddies heading back to KC.

We went back and had to tow it to Emporia where they worked on it and got us a new tire. The total ordeal costs something like $800 (I pounded on the lug thus ruining it) ... Unforseen expenses will kill you OP. I would bring as much money or cards as you can.

Good luck!

 

[Stephen Levine]

My wife and I went on a limited storm chase vacation in early June. Due to lack of vacation time from work, I kept it to 5 days max. We didn't have time to drive and chase in Colorado, but did chase NW Kansas. Our five days, including gas and motel, driving a Camry totaled around $700. We stayed at chain motels; average cost was $125/night. Were we gone for a month, at that rate it would have cost at least $3000.

 

[Michael Gavan]

A quick idea for hot food when you are out in the middle of nowhere that can save money also. You can wrap hot dogs, burritos or many other items in tin foil and heat it up or keep it warm by lifting your hood and finding a nice cozy spot to set it on top of your engine. The engine heats up your food for you. Something like a pack of hot dogs with a bag of buns can go a long way.

This gave me a good laugh. Have you actually tried this? I think I want to do this just for fun.

A good money saver, and even time saver sometimes, is to have a way to cook food on the road for sure. This might work for OP if his chase partner plans ahead. I pack a Coleman stove and a pot/pan/utensils. My Brother and I will sometimes cook up some brats or ramen noodles. Sometimes you are sitting in the middle of nowhere watching Cu towers for hours with timelapse cameras going and you've just got to offset the boredom or the missed lunches. Sometimes you get a blue sky bust and end up back at a hotel reasonably early and getting some fresh chicken and veggies from the local grocery makes a lot of sense. Certainly cheaper than a sit down restaurant and better for you than $6 fast food dinners.

One problem I'd love to solve chasing is the darn bags of ice. I don't think anymore mentioned that, but keeping just a handful of drinks or food cool on hot strings of days gets expensive. That's $2-5 a day right there. You can save money by buying water or whatever in bulk packs but that savings is easily wrecked by nearly daily ice purchases. I'd love to outfit my RAV with a fridge!

Speaking of the RAV that has been a major cost cutting addition. Having the right vehicle for your particular chasing style makes all the difference. Much better MPG than my Colorado or my brother's Grand Cherokee but still enough room to sleep in when things get sideways or even if you just plain need to camp out somewhere to end the monotony. At some point you WILL end up sleeping in a car, it is almost unavoidable, whether the logistics of driving between two chase targets (Dodge City to Des Moines overnight like this year) or just getting stuck in Western Oklahoma when every engineer in the entire oil industry is using every single room on a 300 mile stretch of I40. It's those nights when you regret having a Civic to chase in. Saving a few dollars on gas could end up killing your enthusiasm really fast.

 

[Todd Lemery]

Have you actually tried this? I think I want to do this just for fun.

I actually learned this one from reading readers digest back in the 1980's. It works really well. Of course, in the old days things would need to be double wrapped because every car we drove always had something smoking on top of the engine and we sure didn't want to eat that. For the hot dogs, which are always my favorite, putting them on the engine about an hour before you feel like eating works perfect. It's nice to have something hot to eat in the middle of nowhere.
You can always keep packets of ketchup and mustard from restaurants or keep some small containers in a little cooler along with the beverages. The little coolers don't require a lot of ice. I keep a plastic cup with and whenever I fuel up I ask the attendant if I can fill my cup up with ice from the soda machine before leaving. I've never been refused the ice and it sure beats buying a big bag of ice that otherwise would mostly gets wasted too.

 

[Quincy Vagell]

Speaking of ice, I always try to freeze a few bottles of water the night before a chase. They'll usually take a few hours to thaw and stay cool at least into the early afternoon. If you're a chaser who spends a lot of time on the road, note that most hotels have ice machines, just don't expect to be able to fill an entire cooler though!

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

An alternative to ice that I plan to try this year is cold plates. Essentially a thick piece of steel that you freeze overnight and drop in the cooler. Supplement with some ice and should last quite a while.

Probably best to keep said steel plate in a large zip lock bag to avoid rust. Apparently this is a method used by ice cream trucks to avoid needing active refrigeration during a business day.

I figure it's worth a shot.

Also, consider adding some salt to your ice...drops the freezing point significantly and thus colder lasts longer. Just don't drop that ice in a drink at the end of the day...and it may actually freeze your beverages. Again...ice cream tricks.

 

[Dan Robinson]

If you can find dry ice, a combo of regular/dry ice will stay cold for days. You have to be careful that it doesn't freeze your drinks, though.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

If you can find dry ice, a combo of regular/dry ice will stay cold for days. You have to be careful that it doesn't freeze your drinks, though.

Or your fingers as you root around in the cooler.

 

[Steve Burrows]

Good discussion this as I head over from New Zealand with a group and we try to keep costs as low as possible.

2015 we spent about $1600 each (All chasing costs but excluding food) for 17 days chasing, did about 7500 miles. So the 500 miles per day would be about right. We had a rental SUV (Toyota 4Runner) but if you had a smaller car it would be cheaper, both the rental cost and gas. Although you mention splitting a month with someone. This included a few extras that could have been cut, MLB game, National Park entry etc. Room rates we paid between $39 - $120 a night twin share, so halve per person. To keep food cheap every so often we visited a wall-mart to stock up on fruit, snacks and 12 packs of water, we also visited them for the novelty factor... Other wise we ate alot of gas station food, subway and every different fast food joint we could find. I didnt keep a track of food cost but be around $20-$40 a day, depending if it was steak for dinner!

I think our total this year should be about the same maybe a little less as I picked up a few money saving tricks along the way esp in regards to accommodation esp. Other costs not included above include the Verizon wifi device and antenna from ebay, about $100.