Fuel Prices

[lvmci]

Hi All, for some reason diesel in LA dropped 5 cents below regular gasoline recently, maybe the management of the big oil companies are lurkers on our bus boards, and are listening to what we say! HA! I personally think they are afraid Van will start a grass roots campaign against big oil. lvmci...

[luvrbus]

Look at the price of gasoline in LA almost 4 bucks a gal it went up 20 cents a gal here since Sunday around 3.55 a gal, diesel is 3.58 today but supposed to jump by Wed here

[belfert]

I looks like diesel prices have gone up about 10 cents a gallon along our route to Reno.  Locally, the gas stations near my house have not raised prices on diesel, but their prices were really high to start with.  One has been at $4.29 for some time even though five miles away diesel was $3.89.

[TomC]

Diesel was $3.97 yesterday here in L.A. Good Luck, TomC

[Lin]

It's gone up about 10 cents in the past week here with 3.99 being about the best you can get.  I think it must be the oil companies protesting the Zimmerman verdict.

[lvmci]

hi All, van nuys, ca, so cal, gas with cheaper diesel, west of the I405, 5 miles east of the 405 $.39 a gallon more expensive! Amazing, lvmci...

[zubzub]

Drove across from east to west coast and back between June 11 and july 12.  Diesel was pretty consistently .10 to .20 more per gallon than gas.  A few times .35 more. Average price was around 3.85 for diesel   For whatever reason found diesel cheaper than gas a few times, about  .10 to .15 under.  Almost no rhyme or reason  to the prices as I went across, remote areas sometimes cheaper than hubs.

[luvrbus]

The state of CA and Montana fined the oil companies last week for several million guess who is going to pay the fines and where the money for the fines will go lol it is a joke the oil companies just add fines to their operating costs and we pay

[Gordie Allen]

I think a great addition to the Technomads State Line app would be the tax per gallon on fuel for each state.  Drive from Michigan into Indiana and automatically save $0.10 a gal.  I'd hate to fill up in a state, then an hour down the road find out I could have saved $15.00-$30.00.  I don't watch gas prices when I fill up my daily drivers, but 140 gal. tank can make you shop a little.

Actually they can find all the data at http://www.michigangasprices.com/Tax_Info.aspx

[Jon]

I have yet to meet the first bus owner who does not assign a great deal of importance to the price of fuel. Me included.

What I have learned is 10 cents a gallon can save me the price of a Happy Meal. My fill ups have averaged somewhere around 130 gallons on my present coach, to a little over 200 gallons on the previous coach. But when I run the numbers I am better off spending 10 cents more at my local truck stop, than going 8 miles extra in each direction to save that 10 cents, but burn almost the entire savings getting to the cheap fuel.

In playing with fuel economy I have learned I can save the equivalent of about 30 cents per gallon by increasing my MPG by about 1/2 MPG. So I look at driving in an economical manner as getting a 30 cent per gallon discount. (For those who want to check my math I can get 6 MPG, or I can drive at a 6.5 MPG rate. Fuel in my area is about $3.75)

[luvrbus]

Owning a bus of any type one just sucks it up and pays the price not much else you can do,we left home in early 2007 for a 3 month trip fuel was $1.60 a gal by the time we return home we were paying $4.25 our last fuel stop was over $800.00 that year it blew the fuel budget to hell in hurry lol 

I am not one for driving miles to save a few cents a gal on fuel 95% of the time when fuel is cheaper it will be a bio blend and I don't care for the crap it will end up costing one the same as 100% fuel with the mileage drop anyway

[Boomer]

I remember that 2007 fuel spike well Clifford.  We were heading into Baja and it was 4.25 in El Centro so we fueled up at Pemex in Mexicali and it was 2.06!  That sure save a bunch. 
When we are traveling I rely on gasbuddy.com, then go to google maps to see if I can get into the station.  Fuel is always cheaper in a non truck stop but it's difficult to get a 45' and tow into a lot of them.  Takes some planning just to fuel up unfortunately.

[RickB]

Clifford,

Here's my conundrum and I bet it's alot of other folks as well. Drove 500 miles each way to the black hills and back and hit a headwind on the way out. Spent $800 on fuel to drive 1000 miles. It was completely unsafe as we were traveling 15-20 mph up hills where those around us were driving between 60 and 70 mph so I need more power and better gas mileage right? Unfortunately, the only motors that will fit in our 9's without extending the back end out are either another inefficient two stroke (8V92) which will give us more power and will probably hurt our gas mileage so that won't work or a series 50 which doesn't have the power we need to be a game changer in the hills and may gain us a whopping 2 mpg. Then there's the problem with both scenarios in which there is the added cost of the new motor and the retrofit which would be tanks and tanks and tanks of fuel.

Moral of the story??? Our antiquated hobby/passion for those among us where it matters in our pocketbook greatly that a $500 tank of fuel will one day get us less than 500 miles IS eventually going to go the way of the dinosaurs that fuel them. Extinction is coming. It's not a matter of if but when.

We are losing money everyday whether or not we're even driving them (Been to ebay lately and seen the prices these things are being offered for and passed on?) meanwhile, our buses are getting increasingly more expensive and difficult to maintain (how many competent 2 stroke mechanics do you know?) and we are losing the battle with the gas pump.

The end came for the buffalo, the home phone, a small and unobtrusive government and it is on our doorstep whether we like it or not. The only folks it doesn't apply to are the folks that are wealthy enough to overcome the loss of ownership.

We are readying our bus for sale as I type. It just doesn't make sense anymore and although I have loved the knowledge and family I have found here on this blog. I don't buy the delusional arguments anymore that have sufficed to keep me drinking the kool aid for the past few years. With campgrounds asking and getting $60 a night at most vacation destinations and the added expense of food, maintenance and fuel it simply doesn't make more sense than a hotel room and an airfare anymore. We reached a tipping point when ALL those that drill for, refine, trade the commodity of oil checked our resolve to their greed and we, as a nation, blinked. Checkmate.

Rick
 

[Sam 4106]

We saw fuel for $3.589 per gallon in Poplar Bluff, MO last week. Early Friday morning I got very sick, and since my nephew had said that the hospitals there have a poor reputation, I waited until Saturday to seek medical care at the University of Iowa Medical center. We got to the Emergency Room about 4:30 PM, was diagnosed as having an appendicitis, and was in surgery by 1:30 AM Sunday morning. How much do you think I worried about fuel economy? I was released this morning at 11:00 and continue my recovery in the bus at a county campground with 50 amp electric only for $10 per night. We may go home tomorrow or Wed., depending how I feel. I have had very positive results in the past, and again, now at The University of Iowa Medical Center. I am so thankful that my wife will drive the bus, even through St. Louis. She will drive the rest of the way home too. About 4.5 hrs with a stop every hour.

Thanks, Sam (69 years old)

[wg4t50]

I just returned from a 4700+ mile venture Va thru the Black Hills, Murdo and on to Mt, th south to the Big Horn Mts in Wy rode th 800 ATV up into th snow area.  Then on th Texas for some body refinishng and a few upgrades at th factory. By the time I got home, my MPG became 7.6 towing 4000 lb toad. About $2500 worth I guess for fuel and about $6,000 between body and upgrades. Fuel is about the cheapest part of my RV games since my down grade from the big engines and the MC7.
The more I spend, the less the USO & Salvation Army gets, so I enjoy