The honest math
Worth-It Meter
Pearl cost $6,500 to buy and outfit. A comparable rental runs $125/night. After 52 nights of camping, owning wins. Here's where I am.
The Worth-It Meter
50 nights to go.
2 of 52 nights camped
How I got here
The math
Where does $125/night come from?
I looked at comparable teardrop trailers on Outdoorsy across Utah and the Southwest. Listings range from $75 to $175/night depending on the trailer, season, and location. Peak summer near Zion or Arches pushes closer to $150. $125 is a conservative midpoint — fair to the math, not cherry-picked to make buying look good. If anything, the real number is higher, which means the break-even is closer than 52 nights.
Why I think this way
The case for owning
I bought Pearl because I think in long arcs. Paying $6,500 once beats paying $125 every night I want to camp — and after 52 nights, every trip after that costs me nothing extra. The break-even isn't a finish line, it's just the point where the math stops being a question.
But honestly, the math isn't even the main point. Renting means planning around someone else's calendar and availability. It means hoping the trailer is in good shape when you pick it up. Owning Pearl means leaving on a Thursday because the weather looks right. She's always stocked, always ready, always mine. That kind of flexibility doesn't show up in any calculator — but it's real, and I'd pay for it separately if I had to.
I'm not anti-renting. If you camp three nights a year, renting makes total sense. I plan to camp a lot more than that.
— Saurav, April 2026
Trip log
Every trip Pearl and I take, logged here. Running total updates automatically.