Finding gas stops - any tricks?

ben31rv wrote:
Allstays Truck and Travel. It lists all fuel stations with truck lanes. It lists how many truck lanes, how much parking, other services available, review of the station, etc. It also provides an overhead view of the stop to see how it is laid out, before you get there. I use it to plan where I will stop and enter the location in my GPS as a planned stop/waypoint. I love that app!

X2 on the All Stays Camp and RV App. Google Earth is very helpful.

cbshoestring wrote:

Be careful using pilot/flying J APP.
Especially on the "pilot" side of that corporation.

some miserable little places that are anything BUT a truck stop.

This is very true around Knoxville TN. Wife wanted to stop, saw sign for Pilot and pulled in. Not anything close to a truck stop. They did have diesel and I made it work.

Allstays Truck and Travel. It lists all fuel stations with truck lanes. It lists how many truck lanes, how much parking, other services available, review of the station, etc. It also provides an overhead view of the stop to see how it is laid out, before you get there. I use it to plan where I will stop and enter the location in my GPS as a planned stop/waypoint. I love that app!

rk911 wrote:
We're close to 60' long (gas RV) and usually stop for gas at Flying J and use their RV islands.

Be careful using pilot/flying J APP.

They have become the "convenient store" fuel stop. Especially on the "pilot" side of that corporation.

I think it has become their business model to take over every mom and pop store that might fit one or two trucks and call it a fuel stop.

They offer fuel discounts to fleets and have had to aquire some pretty run-down, hole-in-the-wall gas stations and throw the pilot name on them.

Trust me, my company prefers I fuel there (for the discount) and they have some miserable little places that are anything BUT a truck stop.

I never meant my "truckers deliver there" comment to be disparaging. I would hope that is was encouragement. Are some stations more challenging then others...yes. However, mostly you will fit.

Maybe I am just an oddball. Driving a semi to make a living, means hooking to the travel trailer is child's play. Pickup fuel gauge hits 1/4, I whip into next available gas station...planning fuel stops never occurred to me.

Now at work. ..different story...locate preferred stops with Garmin DELZ570. I can't just whip this thing into anyplace, so I guess I should be a bit more apathetic of those with apprehension towards venturing off the highway.

tinner12002 wrote:
Gas Buddy, use it all the time, shows prices and shows map of where they are.

If you have a newer cellphone, if it's an Android OS or an Apple os you can download Gas Buddy. Works great.

Gas Buddy, use it all the time, shows prices and shows map of where they are.

The National Truck Directory includes RV information.

Matt_Colie wrote:
Ready Mickey?

You need gasoline not diesel, so many truck stops will be of no use as they think only passcars use gasoline.

It goes like this. (It is what I do regularly.)
You need:
A smartphone that can be a hotspot or the single device that does.
A laptop
An old (there are no new) copy of Street Atlas or Streets and Trips. It will be useless for actual navigation because the charts are so old. But, hang on here.

Get the program running on the laptop and use it to do you base plan. Be sure to fill in the fuel data. Now, it will tell you where you should be looking for fuel (they build in some reserve).

On the laptop, fire the browser to GasBuddy. Use that to locate the good price about that location. Also look just across state lines (i.e. Don't buy fuel in Michigan, Illinois etc). Sometimes you may want to fuel 50~100 miles sooner to save the money.

When you have a fuel stop target, then fire up Google Earth and look at the possible fuel stops from over head. If one is interesting, but problematic, go to Street View and see what you think.

Now that you have bought fuel, put the stop in your plan on the laptop so it can effective guess your next stop.

If you have a dedicated navigator onboard, this can take a lot of load off the driver and make travel more relaxing. If you do, you will also want a 150watt inverter to run the laptop from the vehicle 12V.

This is what we have been doing for 20+ years right along with the technology upgrades. Now with there being no replacement for SA and S&T, it is more difficult, but it is still not too tough.

There is a free website called Furkot that can do a lot of this, but it is web-based and not much use on the red roads out west or anyplace else without good data coverage.

Matt

If I had to go to that much trouble, I would just fly.
bumpy

Ready Mickey?

You need gasoline not diesel, so many truck stops will be of no use as they think only passcars use gasoline.

It goes like this. (It is what I do regularly.)
You need:
A smartphone that can be a hotspot or the single device that does.
A laptop
An old (there are no new) copy of Street Atlas or Streets and Trips. It will be useless for actual navigation because the charts are so old. But, hang on here.

Get the program running on the laptop and use it to do you base plan. Be sure to fill in the fuel data. Now, it will tell you where you should be looking for fuel (they build in some reserve).

On the laptop, fire the browser to GasBuddy. Use that to locate the good price about that location. Also look just across state lines (i.e. Don't buy fuel in Michigan, Illinois etc). Sometimes you may want to fuel 50~100 miles sooner to save the money.

When you have a fuel stop target, then fire up Google Earth and look at the possible fuel stops from over head. If one is interesting, but problematic, go to Street View and see what you think.

Now that you have bought fuel, put the stop in your plan on the laptop so it can effective guess your next stop.

If you have a dedicated navigator onboard, this can take a lot of load off the driver and make travel more relaxing. If you do, you will also want a 150watt inverter to run the laptop from the vehicle 12V.

This is what we have been doing for 20+ years right along with the technology upgrades. Now with there being no replacement for SA and S&T, it is more difficult, but it is still not too tough.

There is a free website called Furkot that can do a lot of this, but it is web-based and not much use on the red roads out west or anyplace else without good data coverage.

Matt