GETTING GAS WHEN TOWING

Mostly good advice you've gotten so far, except that last post. No disrespect intended to Edd505, but I don't think any Motorhome owner wants to break camp and go out just to fuel up the rig after they get to their destination. That would work OK if you have a towable RV, but if you are towing a vehicle behind a Motorhome like what is being discussed here, that doesn't really work well.

I've been camping with a Class A towing various vehicles (flat tow) for 10 years. I don't recall ever once having to unhitch when fueling up. You just, like others said, take your time, use google earth or whatever to make sure you have a way in and back out, avoid fueling up in large cities or areas where gas stations are tiny and don't provide room to maneuver. Plan your entrance/exit carefully, and don't be afraid to wait for a bit for a pump to open up that gives you the space you need. Many a time, I will pull into a gas station, find a place to park alongside a curb or whatever close to the pumps, and wait there for a pump on the end with more room to come open, and take that when it comes open.

Truck stops like Loves, T/A, and Flying J already mentioned typically have a good bit of room to maneuver, even at the gas pumps. I look for those.

Whats the matter with fueling after you get parked unless it's just an over night stop. Stay a weekend or for a week get er done.

Just stop on the side of the road, before entering the gas station. Make sure of your entrance AND exit before entering. We always starting looking for gas at the 1/2 tank mark, stops were usually required for other reasons. Never have I had to unhook the car to get fuel.

Ken

A 50 foot rig has some down sides and this one of them. It will be little problematic if you stick to the gas side of truck stops. We towed a 35 foot gas mh and wrangler and a 35 foot 5th wheel with a diesel truck and never had a problem. We did pass on some stops due to bad uneven entrance/exit or restricted maneuvering room.

We've had a 33' and now a 34' Class a towing a toad since 2008 and have never had to unhook to get gas. The trick I learned years ago towing long box trailers was to always plan your exit before you enter the station. As said, Flying J usually has separate RV lanes that are almost always easy in and out. My preference for other stations is islands that are parallel to the road, but otherwise I look for end islands with plenty of room to swing out when done fueling. We have sometimes had to wait for an accessible island to open up, and occasionally for a vehicle that pulled in and blocked our exit to move, but that doesn't happen very often.

It gets better outside of the tri-state area. But you still need to be cognizant of whats around you. This is more so when your just getting off an exit and looking for stations. And fill up at a quarter tank so you dont run out if you get into trouble. Shoot for the truck stops. I just have a TT, and went to the truck side , thinking I could scope out the pumps and get over to the gas side or they would have a gas pump on the truck side, nope. The truck side had 0 gas, and no way to go other then back right back on the highway.

I have a 31ft A towing a 2dr Wrangler and have had a few times I’ve had to unhook to gas up. It’s a pain, but it happens. The Pilot/Flying J app can give you information about each of their stations. Not sure how current the keep the info though.

Start looking for a gas station long before it becomes critical.

Sometimes you have to unhook the toad. But get gas before that to have options. Plan ahead, access can be more important than price.

If in doubt about access, use Google Earth. You can see exactly what you are getting yourself into.

You are just a little shorter than my rig and I haven’t had many issues at Flying J. Slow and careful.