Fuel Per Person Per Day Calculator
Estimate group fuel demand for driving, generator runtime, cooking, heating, side trips, reserve buffer, and fuel weight in one camping-focused plan.
For mixed trips, enter generator, cooking, heat, and side-use fuels in the same liquid-volume equivalent used by your primary planning container.
| Vehicle or travel style | Typical efficiency | Metric equivalent | Planning note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small camper van | 16 to 22 mpg | 14.7 to 10.7 L/100 km | Use the lower end with roof boxes or high wind. |
| Truck with lightweight trailer | 10 to 15 mpg | 23.5 to 15.7 L/100 km | Grades and headwinds can add 10% to 20%. |
| Class C motorhome | 8 to 12 mpg | 29.4 to 19.6 L/100 km | Generator use is usually separate from drive fuel. |
| Heavy overland rig | 7 to 13 mpg | 33.6 to 18.1 L/100 km | Low-speed trails raise burn per mile. |
| Group shuttle loop | 12 to 18 mpg | 19.6 to 13.1 L/100 km | Divide shared driving fuel by people and days. |
| Camp fuel use | Typical burn rate | Metric equivalent | Use in calculator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,000 watt inverter generator | 0.10 to 0.20 gal/hr | 0.38 to 0.76 L/hr | Use actual load-adjusted burn if known. |
| 3,500 watt open-frame generator | 0.25 to 0.50 gal/hr | 0.95 to 1.89 L/hr | Enter hours per day and burn rate. |
| Two-burner camp stove | 0.02 to 0.06 gal/person/day | 0.08 to 0.23 L/person/day | Use cooking fuel per person per day. |
| Portable propane heater | 0.20 to 0.60 gal/day | 0.76 to 2.27 L/day | Enter as camp fuel per day. |
| Lantern or small appliance | 0.01 to 0.05 gal/day | 0.04 to 0.19 L/day | Add into appliance fuel if meaningful. |
| Fuel container | Liquid volume | Approx gasoline weight | Planning use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 gallon stove bottle equivalent | 1.0 gal / 3.8 L | 6 lb / 2.8 kg | Small cooking or reserve unit. |
| 5 gallon jerry can | 5.0 gal / 18.9 L | 31 lb / 13.8 kg | Common vehicle reserve block. |
| 20 pound propane cylinder | 4.7 gal / 17.8 L | 20 lb / 9.1 kg propane | Cooking, heater, and RV appliances. |
| Auxiliary vehicle tank | 10 to 30 gal | 61 to 183 lb gas | Long range and remote detours. |
| Example trip | Assumption | Total fuel | Per person per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Two-person van weekend | 180 mi, 18 mpg, light cooking | 13 to 16 gal | 2.2 to 2.7 gal |
| Family RV dry camp | 420 mi, 9 mpg, generator daily | 65 to 80 gal | 3.3 to 4.0 gal |
| Winter tent and heater camp | 260 mi, heater fuel each day | 40 to 55 gal | 3.3 to 4.6 gal |
| Eight-person group basecamp | 360 mi shuttle, shared kitchen | 55 to 70 gal | 2.3 to 2.9 gal |
It’s not enough just to fill your tanks until they appear completely full when managing fuel on a camping trip. There is factor of what it takes to drive, heat, cook and operate your generator(s). Being without power can happen if you relies on guesswork. Enter the variables into calculator above and it will run the numbers for you. No need to worry about it on your packing list.
Camp fuel is different than travel fuel. They has different uses and scale to different sizes. The distance traveled and efficiency of vehicle determine driving fuel. Wind, load, or terrain can penalize it too. An empty car isn’t going to get same fuel economy as a full-loaded truck towing a trailer. Heavier equipment hauled up and down mountain passes will cost you in fuel mileage. Forget that one and you’ll underestimate your requirements by 10-20%. That’s the gap between showing up relaxed or stressed out.
How to Calculate Your Camp Fuel Needs
The other tricky element is fuel for camp. Because it’s invisible, it dissapears. Here’s where generator running time comes into play. At 1/10th of a gallon an hour, that’s a silent inverter. That’s an open frame generator going full bore, burning half a gallon or more an hour. So how many hours will the generator be on? That’s why the calculator specifically asks this question. It then divides up fuel between heating and cooking. If you’re doing winter camping, that shifts equation because heaters is using continuous energy. Don’t forget about heat load. Your overall volume guess could get dangerously low if you do.
Most folks overlook other restriction: weight. A full gas tank is around 6-pounds a gallon. Diesel is even heavier, more like 7-pounds-plus. And propane; while lighter, arrives in cylinder form, adding tare weight. Depending on what fuel you select as your main source, the calculator will estimate how much fuel your rig will carry. That way it won’t overload your vehicle’s payload capacity. Nor will it kill your back when you’re hoisting the cans. When strength and storage area are limited, every ounce matter.
Remote trips require a reserve buffer. There’s no way you want to show up with nothing in tank. Terrain can get gnarly and unexpected diversions can drain your supply rapidy. After accounting for everything else, the tool adds a reserve percentage. That guarantees that whole trip profile is covered by your safety net. For remote camps (where help is distant), 15% is the norm.
Typical use cases are shown in the reference tables. For example: A 20 mpg mileage will be about right on level terrain for a small camper van. Subtract mpg when driving into the wind or carrying extra cargo on the roof. Or a five-day off-the-grid trip by a family in their RV would of use more than seventy gallons of gas. Those numbers allow you to sanity check your assumptions. Is it unusual that your result isn’t comparable to other similar trips? Maybe you’ve underestimated how much the generator burn, or overlooked side trips in a boat or UTV. By breaking things down by day or even by person, you get clarity about what you’re planning. And that translates to a solid number when you feel like you’re running low.
You’re no longer guessing; you’re getting control of your resources. Now all you do is input your run time and distance into the calculator and let it handle the math for you. No more messing around with complicated conversions. Instead you get to pack confidently rather than fearfully. You know exactly how much energy you’ve packed and that peace of mind is totaly worth the couple minutes it takes you to fill out the form.
