Diesel fuel - RV-Dreams Community Forum

ejhall · RV-Dreams Community Member

Diesel fuel

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Truck stops seem to be higher to me.

JackKim · RV-Dreams Family Member

I agree. I do not seem to find truck stops to necessarly lower. Just more convenient when traveling. With that said, every once in a while I will see one that is quite a bit lower than the last one on a given hwy.

Personally, I just wish everyone would charge the same so I would not have to be on the hunt all the time. Mostly we just pay whatever it is when we need it. And every once in awhile we stumble upon the one that is quite a bit lower and we fill.

We are in Georgia and Diesel is about 60 cents a gallon lower than what we were paying all summer in PA. My understanding is that each state has its taxes and some are much higher than others. But 60 cents a gallon is like $25 a tank less now than before. I would just love some consistancy.

Kim

Ps I have always thought that about airfare also. I dislike very mush having to shop around. Just set an industy rate. (I know that is not the capitalist way, but it would save me some stress).

dianneandsteve · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'll only use truck stops while towing on major travel days as they always seem more expensive. I use http://www.findfuelstops.com for truck stops. Normally we use gasbuddy.com and fuel up before hooking up.

Safe travels!

ejhall · RV-Dreams Community Member

Our problem with convenience stores for fuel is when they limit you to $75 in one fueling. We haven't been able to fill our duelly in one pumping in years! Sheesh! Then, we fueled up yesterday at a Flying J and that pump stopped at $75! They used to go up to $100, what's with that?

dianneandsteve · RV-Dreams Family Member

ejhall wrote:
Our problem with convenience stores for fuel is when they limit you to $75 in one fueling. We haven't been able to fill our duelly in one pumping in years! Sheesh! Then, we fueled up yesterday at a Flying J and that pump stopped at $75! They used to go up to $100, what's with that?

Dianne goes in and gets our charge card pre approved for a larger amount then what we think we need for a fill. It's a pain but works smile

el Rojo and Pam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ditto on what Steve said.

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

Use gas buddy and your spidey sense to ferret out the good deals. The big five will almost always be more expensive and charge even more for card purchases. Small local truck stops seem to offer the better deals. Also shop states. Some states are way more than others. If you are static for a longer period, look around for that gem that is cheaper. Most places have that one stop that aggressively goes after the truck business. That's usually the one with the best prices. Sometimes the difference can be as much as .30 a gallon. The savings can quickly add up to a top shelf scotch.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Something we learned in our move from Oklahoma City to Colorado. We made a few stops along the way, taking 9 days to travel 750 miles, because we had some work done on our coach in one place, did some picture taking in another place, went out of our way to see a friend and "former" co-worker we liked, and then headed on to Colorado.

In leaving the Oklahoma Panhandle one morning on our way to spend the next night at the summit of Raton Pass, we stopped first in Stratford, Texas to buy diesel. Then, we topped off at another Texas station just before leaving Texas because we heard that New Mexico's fuel was higher. When we then stopped at Raton to buy fuel before going on, my card was declined because of the frequent fueling in different states. I had to use another card to buy fuel on that stop. A call to our credit card company got the declined card back into action.

Now, if we are planning on traveling in such a way that we will be crossing more than one state line, we notify our bank that we are doing so. We have two different accounts with USAA, and both have debit cards that are used as credit cards for normal purchases.

This isn't any answer to your fuel question, but it could be something that one could run into if one is crossing different states. Also, I might still lean towards regular truck stops in the winter. Things might have changed since my earlier experiences with fuel, but it used to be that small places didn't always have winterized diesel. By "winterized diesel," I mean Diesel #2 that has had Diesel #1 (Kerosene) added to it to keep it from gelling. I guess I should say that my earlier experiences with winterized diesel dates back to the '70's and '80's, and some of that was with regards to farm fuel instead of OTR truck fuel. Formulations might be different now.

Terry

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

A few warnings.

In Oregon, Indiana and Arizona commercial trucks pay a different price than RVs, so you can't trust the truck stop prices you see. In Oregon and Indiana they pay much less, the state gets its taxes another way from trucks. In Arizona trucks pay 8c more per gallon. In Indiana you cannot fuel with the trucks due to an archaic state law. In Oregon some places will not let you fuel with the trucks, since they are not ready to handle the price difference.

In Oregon, it is up to each station if you put your own diesel in, but all gas is put in by an attendant. I think in New Jersey an attendant does all fills.

We just drove through Kentucky and Tennessee and saw unleaded prices under $3.00, the lowest was $2.949, and diesel prices down to $3.459.

JackKim · RV-Dreams Family Member

I run into the debit limit too. We just run it again because my husband wants it full for MPG checking. That is why I also like the pump to have a card reader. For the times it does not I just go in and wait till hubby is finished filling then pay, or ypu can leave your DL or card till you come into pay.

I also talked with my bank before we left and told them of our plans and have had no problems. Once when calling them to check on something they even asked where was my last debut done so they could have another check that it was me asking.

Hoping to get a few more tanks of diesel for cheaper before we hit the west in a couple weeks where it is always higher.

Kim

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have a Pilot/Flying J RV card and after a couple uses it enabled "Pump Start". We insert the card, the pump starts, we fuel, and when done we go in to pay with no limit. It also gives us 3c off the cash price for credit.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:
We have a Pilot/Flying J RV card and after a couple uses it enabled "Pump Start". We insert the card, the pump starts, we fuel, and when done we go in to pay with no limit. It also gives us 3c off the cash price for credit.

Bill,

It's giving you three cents off the cash price? Most of the places I see, the credit card price (as listed on the marques) is higher than the cash price.

Too bad we don't have any Pilot/Flying J locations anywhere near the Colorado Springs area.

Terry

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

"It's giving you three cents off the cash price?" Yes. We filled at a Kentucky Pilot a few days ago advertising $3.599 cash price for diesel and we paid $3.569.

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Paid $3.14 in Missouri today for diesel.

ejhall · RV-Dreams Community Member

bjoyce wrote:
We have a Pilot/Flying J RV card and after a couple uses it enabled "Pump Start". We insert the card, the pump starts, we fuel, and when done we go in to pay with no limit. It also gives us 3c off the cash price for credit.

Wow! Didn't know they offered that, we will look into that for sure. There's a Flying J about a mile from m&t house that we rarely use.

Thanks for posting that!

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

Not sure if this belongs on a separate thread, if so, Terry feel free to do that... but just found this in the news today and did a bit more digging...

Engineers and technically minded among us feel free to comment... Is diesel fuel and gas about to go the way ot the dodo bird?.....

http://www.intelligentliving.co/salt-water-powered-car-gets-european-approval/

920HP, 2139ft lbs torque, 375 miles range(granted it's not a 20k lbs and up towed set-up). Running on salt water Flow cells that can be be refilled just like a car... seems incredible. Tesla and the oil companies look out!!!

Brian

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

biggaRView wrote:
Not sure if this belongs on a separate thread, if so, Terry feel free to do that... but just found this in the news today and did a bit more digging...
Engineers and technically minded among us feel free to comment... Is diesel fuel and gas about to go the way ot the dodo bird?.....
http://www.intelligentliving.co/salt-water-powered-car-gets-european-approval/
920HP, 2139ft lbs torque, 375 miles range(granted it's not a 20k lbs and up towed set-up). Running on salt water Flow cells that can be be refilled just like a car... seems incredible. Tesla and the oil companies look out!!!
Brian

Well, with "super-capacitors" as part of the drive system, emergency response people also will "need to look out" when responding to an accident with one of these. Next question I would have is what formulation of salt water is used. Is it sea water, or water mixed with sodium of some kind? If it's a custom mixture, what would be the source for "filling stations" and what would be the expense for shipping? If tankers were used, what adaptations would need to be made to combat corrosion from a sodium mixture?

I have absolutely NO NEED for a vehicle that fast.

Terry

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

I don't need a rocket like that either. but surely the HP and torque numbers could be adapted along with gearing (if needed) to make it function in a RV or tow vehicle. The article suggests that ordinary salt water is the flow-cell source. Not enough info to verify that claim. Still, it's years away from a useable application in this country... but the technology is interesting.