Where get gas with trailer attached

For those promoting truck stops, I have a question about them. On my first real RV trip, I stopped at one in Green River Utah and I pulled to the pumps where the diesels were and not to the regular pumps for the cars.

I got out, swiped my card, and then the pump started asking me questions I had no clue about. I can't even remember what the questions were. I had to hit cancel, get into the truck and pull around to the pump area for cars and use that diesel fuel. It didn't ask the questions over there. This was not a truck stop chain like Flying J, Pilot, or Loves. It was independent.

Since then, I have avoided truck stops because I assume they all ask questions I don't know the answers to.

Filling up without the trailer is preferable but I don't plan a trip knowing where the next fuel stop is going to be.

If fuel is needed & a good price is spotted a real quick survey & decision needs to be made of where the diesel pump is & how to get too it & away from it. Access is not a problem. The gas trucks get in & out of gas stations don't they?

The cars can work around me. Too bad. I am buying as much as 4 or 5 of them so they can wait. The major annoyance is that the diesel pump is usually on an end island shared with a gas pump. It is the inconsiderate car drivers who will use this island instead of a gas only island who cause the problems.

Just a note for anybody traveling through PA with a camper. We are being taken over up here by convenience store gas stations i.e. Sheetz, Wawa, and Royal Farms. In most cases they jam these things in on corner lots that do not have proper space for them. And they get crazy with traffic in the parking lots. Avoid them if at all possible.
Also a lot of times you think you can go in one exit and out the other but the other will be a right turn only sending you off on a side road looking for a place to turn around.

pitch wrote:
Question for you guys that know your gas stops before you leave. How? Why? Is it that you always travel the same route? I just cannot imagine that level of planning. You never get stuck at an accident scene or in construction that messes your schedule up?
Never are distracted by an alternate unplanned attraction?

I don't know, I am out to relax and explore, tight logistics and planning would kind of take the fun out of it for me.

Don't know exactly what type of RV you are pulling, maybe a 22' TT or truck camper, maybe you could care less about height restrictions, don't know any of your details.

We are full time and tow anywhere between 5,000 and 15,000 miles a year. Fiver is 39'2" long and weighs right at 16,000. It takes me about 2 minutes to pull up my Pilot I-phone app and make a note of all the Flying-J or Pilot truck stops on the days route. I may make a note of 5 of them and not need any. On the other hand we may want to stop a couple of extra times and most of them are really good places to park (if you can handle backing into a semi parking space). I also consult a site on my computer which list every rest area in the U.S. on a map. I make a quick note of where those are and that may take me another minute or two. And lastly, since my height is 13'5" I consult my Trucker's Atlas to make sure there are no low clearance issues on my days route.

So my 10 minutes of "tight logistics and planning" does not take the fun out of it. For me it is just the opposite. I feel a certain responsibility to tow this large/heavy of a rig safely down the road. I never want to be caught in a situation where I have driven up to an overpass that is too low for me to get under, and then like some idiot I am wanting everyone else on the road to wait while I figure out how to back up and go another way. I also don't want to be that RVer that tries to squeeze into a busy gas station, which was designed for cars, with a 39' fiver and expects everyone else to wait because I am blocking 4 other pumps.

When you start traveling in larger RV's you really have to change your traveling habits a little. It is not the same as zipping across the country in your mini van on vacation, IMHO.

due to poor planning I unhooked on the street and then filled truck, lesson learned

pitch wrote:
Question for you guys that know your gas stops before you leave. How? Why? Is it that you always travel the same route? I just cannot imagine that level of planning. You never get stuck at an accident scene or in construction that messes your schedule up?
Never are distracted by an alternate unplanned attraction?

I don't know, I am out to relax and explore, tight logistics and planning would kind of take the fun out of it for me.

I can only speak for myself. I have a 26 gal tank so I'm buying gas every 150-200 miles. I know my final destination for the day and what road I will travel.

How? I go to google maps and determine what town is 150 miles away. I prefer Chevron, Exxon, Conoco in that order so I'll search Chevron Gas, city, state in google maps and it shows me where they are. I'll click on one on the road I'll be on, if available, and select street view. Then I see what I would see if I was sitting there in front of it. Can I get in and out? No, I'll look at the next one. Can I get in and out? yes, if come in this way I can get to that pump and have room to get out.

It only take about 10 minutes to find my two or three valid gas stops for the day.

Why? Because I don't want to be stressed out driving around looking for a pump I can get to. I don't want to pull off the interstate only to realize I can't get to that pump and then have to get back onto the interstate, burning more gas and wasting more time.

Furthermore, we will pull over at one of those stops for lunch. I will use the map to locate a large parking lot or somewhere we can park for an hour or so. How many times have you been blindly rolling through a town looking for someplace to stop for lunch? Have you ever passed though an intersection, looking left and right down the side street and say "Oh, there's a _______, we could have parked there"? Too late, you passed it up. I know where I'm going to stop for lunch before I hitch up for the day.

To me, I find this much less stressful.
Schedule doesn't matter because I will pass that point sometime in the day regardless and I'll have some reserve for the unexpected.

YMMV

Former trailer owner here.

If you're out driving around in your tow vehicle with the trailer at campground, fill up right before you hookup and leave.

If you're early riser, fill up before the crowds appear at stations.

These won't cover all contingencies. But they may make it easier once in a while.

I start looking when the tanks gets to 1/2. That gives me the option of passing by anyplace which looks questionable, too busy, etc.

I use the Flying J/ Pilot guide and look to see if there are stations along my route.

I also look for Love's Travel Stops, and Travel America/ Petro stops along interstates.

When traveling across country - I look for stations which pumps parallel to the highway. I'll stop early if I see a station which looks good.

Another location which isn't the best, but I'll use some of them are Sams Club and Walmarts.

I've found, at least in rural Texas, that stations near farming towns seem to have more room for trailers. Been in many with all sorts of farm equipment trailers. My TT is just one of the crowd.

(PS - I have a gasoline powered truck, not diesel)

When I get between 3/8 and 1/4 of a tank I start looking for signs at exits. When I see one I head for it. Never been a problem in 11 years with both a tt and current 5er. One year the DW let us get low enough that it took 30 gal's to fill a 35 gal. tank.OOOPPSS.

I have an extra problem. I drive a 'C' and pull a Jeep toad. Since the front wheels of the toad must be unlocked for towing, backing up more than a foot is impossible before they lock full left or right. So I always look for a station that I can pull through without backing up. For that reason, I start looking at a half tank. I have to find a station with pumps parallel to the building instead of perpendicular. I've only had to unhook the Jeep one time to move it out of the way in over 10 years.