Fuel Discounts - The Flying J Question

PawPaw_n_Gram wrote:
First - I think it foolish for any RVer to not take advantage of ALL the fuel discount options available.

For me - I drive a Dodge pickup with a 30 gallon tank - gasoline - and my normal fill-up while towing is between 16 and 20 gallons. I pull a 36 foot TT, and my total rig length to the end of the sewer tote carrier is 62 feet. I also must have four feet side clearance because if I have to make a sharp turn to leave a fuel pump spot - that is how far the opposite rear corner of the TT will swing out (There is a Flying J in Anna, Texas I pass up quite often, because I simply cannot make the turn away from the pumps without hitting something).

We've pulled the TT 25,000 miles in the past three years and 27 days. From Texas to Key West to Maine to Texas to Las Vegas.

My experience is Flying J/ Pilot is competitive with any other fuel chain along travel routes.

My towing fuel costs recently have been:

2013 - 35.120 cents per mile - 3,089.0 miles towing
2014 - 37.656 cents per mile - 6,586.7 miles towing
2015 - 26.327 cents per mile - 9,364.9 miles towing
2016 - 23.086 cents per mile - 8,615.2 miles towing so far

One important thing about Flying J and Pilot - you must learn the difference between company stores and franchisee/dealers.

I've found the franchisee/dealers more expensive, less trained, and less aware of company discount programs. That's the first thing I check about a P/FJ location, and if it is a dealer - I usually go somewhere else.

I travel at times with a friend with a 40 ft DP motorhome. He stops exclusively at the gas stations for a major US oil company. As a retiree from that company, he gets a 30% pre-tax rebate on all fuel purchases with the company card. That the absolute best fuel discount I've found. (That's 90 cents per gallon rebate on $3.442 cents per gallon diesel fuel in Texas). And

But to get that rebate, I would have had to choose a different career 30 years ago.

As an RVer I pay a lot of boonie tax for fuel - because I spend much of my time traveling in remote areas where fuel simply isn't cheap. And there are seldom more than three or four choices.

There are two separate fuel questions - am I towing, or not towing.

Like most folks towing a TT or 5er - I try to fill-up at the cheapest location in the area before a towing day. Gas Buddy is useful, though the farther into the boonies we go, the less Gas Buddy has good information about various stations. I've also been in several places where Gas Buddy won't work on either our Verizon or our ATT phone because of lack of data signal strength.

If I'm towing the biggest determination for me is how far off my route it takes to get to the cheapest price. Eight miles (round trip) off my route cost me one gallon of fuel. At $2.50 per gallon, and a 18 gallon fill-up - means the fuel must be 13.9 cents per gallon cheaper than the price at the truck stop for the total fuel bill to be cheaper.

If the location is eight miles each way off the route - I need 27.8 cents per gallon cheaper fuel to 'break even'.

We use Pilot/ Flying J a lot, we use Walmart for filling up the truck when not towing. Only a few Walmarts in Texas, and where we've been have pumps situated where we can use them. We have grocery store loyalty cards.

Grocery store cards are the best discount without a doubt. But we spend about $300 per month max at grocery stores - so at best we can get is two fill ups per month - one at 20 cents off and one at 10 cents off.

Good, so far as it goes.

Fuel burn is about spec'ng the combined rig from the get go for that purpose.

And then paying attention to the mechanical baseline to get the best from that rig. A 40% towing penalty is the rule of thumb. Same cruise control set speed over same terrain. If it's higher, correct it. It can also be lowered.

The average RVer travels about 5k miles annually. The average American travels about 15k annually. And, according to the DHS, 90% of Americans travel to 90% of the same places 90% of the time. That's low hanging fruit to pluck for,

The annual fuel budget.

Cut the number of cold starts, combine trips, and cut annual miles thereby. Then drive the remaining solo miles more efficiently.

I demonstrated I could underwrite the cost of fuel for 5000-miles "free" RV travel (same annual fuel budget) with no loss in convenience while solo. That was when diesel hit $4/gl.

Trying to save pennies per fill is short sighted. A time waster. Plan the next day fuel stop by choosing a station on the same side of the road. Ck satellite for ingress/egress. Combine it with mid day meal (the fewer acceleration and deceleration events during the day, the better for MPG. Plan all stops).

Cast a wide net, for thinking about this.

My towing fuel cost the last couple of years is 15-cpm with a one ton pulling a 35' TT.

I prefer Pilot/Flying J whether in the Kenworth or my little Dodge.

I sure as hell wouldn't drive 1-2 miles off the Interstate for fuel.