KEEP ON KEEPING ON

[Chopper Scott]

I enjoy working on the bus and generally Sunday seems to be the big day for me. What's starting to mess things up lately is Don's posts that take me part of the morning to read and enjoy !!!!  Great stuff by the way!!! I gotta go "relax" and get some work done!!

[happycamperbrat]

Some people when they build their buses actually make space and set up equipment on the bus to process vegetable oil on the road. For some it is a financial issue and for others it is environmental, for some it is both. Some even swear their diesel engine runs better with oil then with diesel. To each his own for his own needs and purposes, that is my personal philosophy. The reason I brought it up about running bio diesel on the trip to Alaska is because for some people that may be the only way they can or would do the trip. Maybe their preventive maintenance cash out lay got in the way of spending $9000 for fuel but they would still like to make the trip. This is just another option, of course there are filling stations all along the way too for people who prefer to spend $9000.00 It is a personal issue where people choose to put their money, and not everyone makes or has the same amount of money. The fuel issue in this country is one of the great divides of the classes, especially when running a bus going on a very big trip. I would like a lot of people to go with a lot of buses, in order to do that accommodations for people should be made no matter what class they are in or what they choose to spend their hard earned money on.

[Van]

Let's compare to real estate
plenty of room 001

[buswarrior]

For a multi-vehicle caravan, there might be some savings by fueling them all on the same fuel account, as if you were a fleet.

Call a couple of your local national fuel retailer's fleet fuel account representatives and see what the volume thresholds might be.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[artvonne]

For a multi-vehicle caravan, there might be some savings by fueling them all on the same fuel account, as if you were a fleet.

  Do they fix the price per gallon on deals like that, so it wont matter where you buy?

[buswarrior]

Yes, that's how it works, with some caveats, depending on the volumes being purchased.

A big fleet like Schneider's is going to do better than us.

The fuel pumped at remote northern locations will be higher than southern ones.

Often times at a cardlock, there's no price on the pump at all.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[Flatspot]

BCO,
I know that you keep doing this to get me to post. Well you finally got your way! Not going anywhere isn't going to make the price of fuel go down.  Owning a bus doesn't make any sense...


if you don't use it. (Almost got you).
Besides it is all relative. I remember the oil embargo of the '70's. Gas went up 100% overnight and you had to wait in line for it. Plus there were circumstances that you couldn't get it. Was making $3.00/hr then also
You can still fuel where ever you want it and I'm not working for that wage any more, an upside of being in the good old USA.
Sorry to inform you that gasoline is at better than $10.00US/gallon. I just bought SEF 94 octane fuel for one of the old cars. 55 gallon drum=$715.00. Do the math. It's great stuff has a shelf life like the gas we used to get. Runs and smells like the old stuff. Not any of this designer pump gas.
The Stanley runs on kerosene. 5 gallons of kerosene (go in Wallyworld the next time you are camped in their parking lot) is $50.00. Do the math.
If you were to run the bus on Electricity with my rough calculations the equivalent electrical energy in a gallon of diesel (130,000 btu) would cost $4.19 at the $0.11/kWH that we pay at home. I might have to point out that this doesn't include the road tax that would have to be added into the electricity now that you are running your bus on it. Oh! I forgot the extension cord management system that has to be purchased for the operation of the bus now and I won't even go into the copper theft problems and the lost efficiency of a long cord that takes the actual cost of operation higher. It is cleaner burning... not the extension cord that is an EPA air quality violation thingy. You thought that the 6-71N smoked...

Up side to taking the bus;
The cook and dishwasher has a driver to do all her chauffeuring.
I have a cook and dishwasher that I get to drive for.
I can get a bathroom anywhere with out timing the pit stop with the fill up.
I wake up in my own bed every morning.
I don't have to pay property taxes on the Mountain View that I parked at.
I can start as late and stop as early as I want and know what 5 star hotel I am going to be staying that night (inn the bus)
The wife says that 'we travel like a tortoise, with our house on our back'
Don't have to stop at the scale house
Don't have to keep a log book
Don't have to pass a DOT physical
Get to expand my mechanical, electrical, carpentry, public relation skills under actual stressful conditions that would break the common man/woman
Tickles me when the 4 wheeler and even the 18 wheeler is trying to figure out what famous Musical performer is traveling in the bus. You should see me in the red Reba wig! That photo is copyrighted!
Get to meet a lot of other bus nuts that are really, well... nuts.

Down side to taking the bus;
Don't get to do it as much as I want to.

I hope that we all get to do it more and that we are creative in the ways that we can fund our addiction. Maybe it isn't an addiction, it's a way of life.
BCO thanks for stirring it up in such an eloquent manner and helping us 'to keep it in perspective'
By the way 'What does it cost to fill it up?'......'well let's see... the holding tank has a capacity of.... Well I've never thought of it that way...I know what it costs to dump it at the KOA.... Fill it up? Can I get back to you on that?

LJ

[luvrbus]

 say what Jones

[luvrbus]

Jones, where in the hell did you come up with the name flatspot you cannot fool me buddy I know that cook and dishwasher his name is Larry lol.
I will let Sonja forward  Judy your post that she is the cook and dishwasher just trying my best to help you out here buddy, you and Judy goings with us and the Smiths this summer 
Back to the fuel I can lock a fuel price in for 30 days at a time with my commercial Chevron/Texaco if I guarantee purchase of over a 1000 a month last time I did that fuel went down and it cost me  


good luck

[JohnEd]

BCO,

Thank you for the many many laughs.  Others also.

John

[Van]

Good Coffee! Great Posts! Busnuts, and a great morning! PRICELESS! Some body pinch me! lol!

[Flatspot]

Clifford,
Flatspot=place on head from calling Judy cook and dishwasher
Flatspot=place that is a good place to park bus and sleep
Flatspot=place on bogy tires from sliding them on asphalt they go thump, thump thump
Flatspot=no place on 40 acres property (rock pile) like that

Where do you want to go this summer. I know you know a few good flatspot to park and play cards or better yet bring along the fishing pole. Now were talking.
Got the upper bushing on the a-frame changed out in Q. It was a bugger. The broken off end stuck in the a-frame. Had to drill and tap it then jacked it out with a bolt. I love it when a plan comes together.
LJ

[boxcarOkie]

LuvRbus:  We just had some friends from Germany leave headed for Vegas and I let him read this about the price of fuel his comments were what's is the big deal we paid more than that before fuel went up love those Germans lol when they left home it 7 bucks a gal 2 weeks ago

good luck

I was in Germany briefly during my stint in the service, it is a beautiful country.  Did you give them the address of my website?  It is read all over the world.

BCO

Chopper Scott:  So the price of fuel is really nothing more than an inconvenience and has little to do with keeping food on the table. If such an expense is crippling your food budget then such a purchase may not have been a wise move indeed. If you want to rattle my cage lets start talking health care and insurance premiums instead. I can control how much fuel I want to use.

Well said and to the point.  The biggest outlay of funds we have goes towards insurance, and the amount of power they have over us, is unbelievable.  Thanks for your reply.

BCO

Rick59-4104 I passed 2 Sonic's in 2 different small towns between 8:00 and 9:00 and one had 2 cars and one had 1 car in the bays. Most working people in these small towns commute 30 miles or more to work, and their wages have been stagnant for about the last 25 years.

On our last two trips we were kind of stunned by the absence of automobiles and motor homes on the highways, in some cases, after 5PM on the two-lanes, we had them all to ourselves.  Most of the time during the week, work trucks and that was mainly it.  They keep talking recovery and higher wages but I don't personally see it.

Thanks for your reply

BCO

Buswarrior:  Thanks BoxcarOkie. 

Travel is travel. The coach and the grocery store will be cheaper to run than the car with hotels and restaurants. Pretty steady over the years, for a multi-day trip, you save someplace the equivalent of the fuel for a pick-up truck for the same journey by using the coach.

You are welcome, glad you enjoyed it.  We used to figure a cost of about $125 per day on the road, this would be meals, room, fuel, but that is way off now.  A room in Amarillo, Texas is $103 per night, so you can see where it doesn't doesn't wash now.  I agree with you, it is best to stick with the coach, I have stayed in motels, did not care for it.  It costs a little more to go "first class" and you don't go as often ... but it is usually worth the trip.

BCO

Chopper Scott:  I enjoy working on the bus and generally Sunday seems to be the big day for me. What's starting to mess things up lately is Don's posts that take me part of the morning to read and enjoy !!!!    Great stuff by the way!!! I gotta go "relax" and get some work done!!

Scott I try to do the best I can, some seem to want to take it somewhere else and read junk into it that isn't there, but the majority of folks seemed to like it.  Over 400 hits in one day, and that is good traffic in anyone's' book.  I try to do the house on Monday-Wednesday-Friday and the bus I leave to Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday ... Sunday is open.  I get a lot done because I am retired and I try to stay focused on what it is that I need to do.

Works for me.
Thanks again for your reply

BCO

Happycamperbrat: Some people when they build their buses actually make space and set up equipment on the bus to process vegetable oil on the road. For some it is a financial issue and for others it is environmental, for some it is both. Some even swear their diesel engine runs better with oil then with diesel. To each his own for his own needs and purposes, that is my personal philosophy. The reason I brought it up about running bio diesel on the trip to Alaska is because for some people that may be the only way they can or would do the trip. Maybe their preventive maintenance cash out lay got in the way of spending $9000 for fuel but they would still like to make the trip. This is just another option, of course there are filling stations all along the way too for people who prefer to spend $9000.00 It is a personal issue where people choose to put their money, and not everyone makes or has the same amount of money. The fuel issue in this country is one of the great divides of the classes, especially when running a bus going on a very big trip. I would like a lot of people to go with a lot of buses, in order to do that accommodations for people should be made no matter what class they are in or what they choose to spend their hard earned money on.

Well put, just because it doesn't row my boat doesn't mean it is wrong or not possible.  This summer I am pulling OKC to Seattle and back, that is close to 4,000 miles in one swoop.  I am doing it because I want to do it and if I could not afford it, I would not go, that is my economic reality.   I would not mind doing Alaska with one or two other coaches, but a caravan?  What do you do when one breaks down, everyone sit around and wait for #23 to get it back in running order.  Just isn't my can of worms.  Traveling with a large group of people is a lot of problems, if you have never experienced this, and you do this trip in a large group, you soon will see what it is that I am talking about.

Hiring a tanker and all that, well, jeeze, look at it for what it is. 

Buswarrior had a better idea, he said: "For a multi-vehicle caravan, there might be some savings by fueling them all on the same fuel account, as if you were a fleet.  Call a couple of your local national fuel retailer's fleet fuel account representatives and see what the volume thresholds might be."

Thanks for your reply

BCO

And as usual, I save the best for last:

Flatspot:  Are you kidding me?   Hahahahahahahahahahaha. 
(Hey Van, I need to borrow some smiley faces.)

Van I didn't get any sound out of the Jay Leno video, is the problem on my end?

As for all the other non-related nonsense, well, you can't hit a home-run every time you come to bat, but the important thing is you suit up for the game.  Been a good day for me, I hope yours was the same.

Watch those right-handers.

BCO

[JackConrad]

I have a aux 125 gal tank from a MCI if you guys need one with todays prices it will only cost 600 bucks to fill lol.
Reading todays local paper I see where they busted a group posing as mobile wash guys using their OK credit card (electric pump and hose) they would watch truckers at Pilot go into eat and shower then pull up to the trucks and pump fuel into a 500 gal tank on a trailer not only do we have high prices now we also have the thief to contend with
good luck

That is why we put a lock bar on our fuel cap. At the least, it will, hopefully, make the crook look for an easier target, and if my wife hears them, I think they will change their mind when I stick my head out our bedroom window with my .45 Ruger Blackhawk.  Jack

[boxcarOkie]

I have a aux 125 gal tank from a MCI if you guys need one with todays prices it will only cost 600 bucks to fill lol.
Reading todays local paper I see where they busted a group posing as mobile wash guys using their OK credit card (electric pump and hose) they would watch truckers at Pilot go into eat and shower then pull up to the trucks and pump fuel into a 500 gal tank on a trailer not only do we have high prices now we also have the thief to contend with
good luck

That is why we put a lock bar on our fuel cap. At the least, it will, hopefully, make the crook look for an easier target, and if my wife hears them, I think they will change their mind when I stick my head out our bedroom window with my .45 Ruger Blackhawk.  Jack

Damn!  I sure hope we are not parked next to you!  We have a lock on both of our fill ports, on the door, and on the caps, none on the aux. tank.  But you know what they say ... "Locks are just to keep honest people honest."  If a thief wants it Jack, he is going to get it.  Look at the resourcefulness of pumping it out of a semi into a 500 gallon portable tank as Clifford recently commented on.  They are going to come up with even more resourceful means to obtain what is an expensive commodity.

Lock N Load .....

BCO