Using Truck Stops

brownmht wrote:
A nickles worth of my two cents. Maybe even a dime.

Many truck stops have RV pumps set aside for us. My understanding from talking to my brother is he's never known of a problem with RV's fueling up at truck stops. He's more upset about having to pass us on the road. Personally, my complaint is that I can't use my debit card at most truck stop pumps and have to pre-pay at the fuel desk.

Secondly, IMHO, more importantly, is fuel quality. Commerce lives and dies by diesel. I read a post on here posted by an RV'er who filled up his tank at a gas station. He got a mile or 2 down the road and got a "water in fuel" idiot light and his truck prompltly ceased operation. When he called roadside assistance, he found he was not the only stranded traveler with the same problem. Apparently, the gas station was serving up water instead of diesel. Now I can't say if they were doing this intentionally or not. And as I understand it since there were lawyers involved the post was removed. My point is that I'll bet on a more sure thing by getting my fuel the same place the big guys do. Can you imagine if a truck stop started watering down the fuel and stranded a few OTR trucks on the side of the road? Do you think a trucking company would tolerate a situation like that?

Besides, maneuvering in a gas station with my rig can be way more challenging than wheeling it around a truck stop.

So I'll gladly wait for a truck driver to top off his tanks rather than wait for the whole soccer team to go potty while they leave the minivan parked in front of the single diesel pump at Exxon.

Think the age of the fueling facilites (underground tanks and location of tank fill ports relative to surrounding grade) has more to do with water in fuel, gas or diesel than anything. In Florida for example, because ground water intrusion (and fuel leaking out) into old steel tanks was a problem, the legislature passed rules requiring installation of double wall fiberglass tanks, sensors, monitoring "wells" etc. The expense of updating storage and delivery put a lot of service stations/convenience stores out of the fuel sales business. More about environmental protection, but also helps protect fuel quality.

I don't have a lot of worry about fuel quality, but I might avoid a place that "looks" old. And on the road, never have had an access issue at a gas station/convenience store that sells fuel on an interstate interchange anywhere I've traveled. Not with my fifth wheel and not with my travel trailer. Just my personal preference to pass on the Love's, Petros, Flying J's & Pilots of the world because their prices do tend to be higher. My experience, yours may vary.