Gas prices, weather and wildfires...

[myredracer]

Every year forces beyond our control seem to be getting worse and worse. What's this season gonna be like?

In BC, we have had record high gas prices this month at $1.639 a liter (almost $5 US a gal.)!! Can't wait to see what the summer will bring. 😞

BC has had several small wildfires this year already. We haven't even had our annual snow melt and flood threats. 2018 was pretty bad for wildfires all over and it looks like they are to be expected every summer now. Seems like planned trips need to take into account what wildfires can do to your routes and reservations. We're going to do our annual long trip (3 weeks) earlier in June this time and stay nearer to the coast instead of our usual late Aug./early Sept. and have to dodge fires.

We've always started our camping season on the Easter long weekend. We've had CG reservations for weeks and I took the cover off our TT a few weeks ago in preparation. After a lot of snow & cold in Feb., we had a few really nice days in late Feb./early March. I even unearthed the lawn tractor and mowed our lawn in a T-shirt. But the last few weeks has been miserably cold and wet. :M We cancelled our Easter camping trip yesterday. What's the point of sitting inside and watching TV when we can do the same at home? Not sure when the weather will turn around and stay with us, pffft. Can't count on Mother Nature playing nice anymore.

On the bright side, I can't get outside to wash 'n wax the TV or TT and that doesn't bother me at all. :B

[ppine]

Yesterday in Douglas Co, NV diesel was 30 cents cheaper than reg gas. It was 55 cents cheaper than premium gas.

Log trucks are rolling all over CA and the PNW. That is the answer to our recent megafires.

[Airdaile]

aftermath wrote:
We are producing more oil than ever and yet our prices continue a slow growth upward. Who really benefits from the oil pipeline?

Gee, I dunno. All the workers eeking out a living building the thing?

Truckers getting paid a few cents a mile moving it from the oil field to the pipeline.

Have you been to Williston ND? They aren't looking the oil gift horse in the mouth.

Once you look outside your particularly weird part of the country, things look a lot different. There is no price for specifically American consumers. There is a price per barrel on the open market and the overhead of refining it into something we can use. $13 an hour minimum wage dictates that the cost of refining is higher here. That's a distinctly west coast idea.

Thanks a lot.

[rk911]

CavemanCharlie wrote:
...But, stopping to get gas at a half a tank sounds silly to me. Stopping at a quaver of tank is OK....

just last week we stopped for fuel at a FJ. tank was half empty and we usually plan our fuel stops at that point. pulled in and was greeted with 'out of service' covers on all of the pumps on the left side of the RV lanes. we were able to maneuver around the lot and pulled in the 'wrong way' to use the pumps that are normally on the right. thank goodness they weren't 'slave pumps'. we almost certainly could've refueled elsewhere but it could've been a lot more stressful if the tank had been near empty. why tempt fate?

[aftermath]

My daughter said to me that we have lost our August. It is now a month of smoke from the fires. I think she is right. Until we can agree on what to do with the forests we will not see any real changes.

Gas prices on the west coast remain higher than average. We have huge demand and few refineries and we are a long way from the oil producing fields. On top of that, our oil companies continue to push for an oil pipeline that will end at the Gulf. Why the Gulf? So they can export oil and make better profits. We are producing more oil than ever and yet our prices continue a slow growth upward. Who really benefits from the oil pipeline?

[CavemanCharlie]

down home wrote:
We use Gas Buddy and look at prices along the route. We generally never let it get below 1/2. If we see a good price not found on Gas Buddy we stop and fill, if it is convenient to do so.
It gets below 1/2 then we may stop just for convenience not price. But saving .50 per gallon, not uncommon, a mile down the road from Interstates, that's a 50.00 savings on our small 100 gallon tank. Many times we cannot take advantage of the prices though, such as some Wal Marts and Coscos. Just too tight to get in unless it is very early or late.
Our Flying J/Pilot card get us five cents off a gallon. I don't want another credit card or I would Get Penn Fed and save 5%. Between the two. on 300.00 roughly for 100 gallons of fuel that's 50.00. $50.00 x 8 tanks round trip across country etc that's 400.00.
So I suppose I ought to get it.
Yeh I know. The Pilot/Flying J card is only good at their stations but occasionally we have found hem the price leader, but rarely.

Your big RV and traveling in different areas I understand is not the same as me traveling around local in my pickup and Travel Trailer.

But, stopping to get gas at a half a tank sounds silly to me. Stopping at a quarter of tank is OK though.

Again, if you don't know how far to the next station that's different but, in my area they are never that far apart.

On my pickup I sometimes run until the low gas light pops on. Then I have to find gas within 50 miles or so. Though I did see a guy on You Tube that tried to see how far he could go with a pickup like mine when the gauge said 0 and he went another 40 miles before he got tired of trying and put gas in. He was still running though.

I would never go to that extreme but, stopping at half a tank sound a like the other extreme.

Some places out west and in the desert are probably different I suppose.

[down_home]

We use Gas Buddy and look at prices along the route. We generally never let it get below 1/2. If we see a good price not found on Gas Buddy we stop and fill, if it is convenient to do so.
It gets below 1/2 then we may stop just for convenience not price. But saving .50 per gallon, not uncommon, a mile down the road from Interstates, that's a 50.00 savings on our small 100 gallon tank. Many times we cannot take advantage of the prices though, such as some Wal Marts and Coscos. Just too tight to get in unless it is very early or late.
Our Flying J/Pilot card get us five cents off a gallon. I don't want another credit card or I would Get Penn Fed and save 5%. Between the two. on 300.00 roughly for 100 gallons of fuel that's 50.00. $50.00 x 8 tanks round trip across country etc that's 400.00.
So I suppose I ought to get it.
Yeh I know. The Pilot/Flying J card is only good at their stations but occasionally we have found hem the price leader, but rarely.

[Grit_dog]

This thread is getting funnier by the page!
Like wanderlost said, you can find better fuel prices by searching, but it's a balance between how far out of the way you drive and how much you save.

[Wanderlost]

For our Alaska trip last year, I found out the highest price for diesel in each state/province we'd be traveling through. Then I estimated how much fuel we'd likely use in each state/province and created a budget with those costs embedded in it.

Thankfully, I was high in my estimates, so the trip was cheaper than budgeted for. That's now a standard part of any RV trip, and keeps my financial sense calmer.

[down_home]

Well we got bargains then. I remember it because our first fill up of 87+ gallons was a few cents short of 87.00. I think it was at exit 2 Flyin J in Ky.

[rk911]

according to https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=EMD_EPD2D_PTE_NUS_DPG&f=M the average price of a gallon of #2 diesel fuel in January 2006 was $2.46 per gallon. the last time #2 diesel was below $1 p/g was January 1999.

[down_home]

In 2006 when we bought our Motor Home Diesel was less than a dollar, US a gallon here. Saw it for 93 cents once.
As long as Politicians bow to the Oil Cabal and their own designs for our money we will be paying through the nose.
Remember the early seventies in a 440 ci V8 Plymouth Fry complaining about spending 25.00 to go to Michigan around and then back. 1971 Duster 340 with 390 gears was a bit less on gas. Wife drove we spent about 20.00. The high prices we are forced to pay is Socialism by Greenies, EPA, Ethanol Farmers, Developers/Politicians. e need a tax on taxes to complete the deal for them.

[BillyBob_Jim]

4x4van wrote:
Nope, never happens. California ONLY sells gas refined IN California; it is a different blend. That is one of the reasons that CA gas is always 40-60 cents per gallon higher than the rest of the US; If supplies run low, we CAN'T import it from other states.

Not accurate at all........"Refineries Outside of California That Can Produce California Gasoline.
Domestic sources include refineries located in Washington State and the US Gulf Coast. Foreign sources include Eastern Canada, Finland, Germany, US Virgin Islands, Middle East, and Asia."

That info is right from***Link Removed***

I would bet CA does not have anywhere close to enough refinery capacity to support itself.

[rk911]

4x4van wrote:

rk911 wrote:

PartyOf Five wrote:
Meanwhile no one in America and to have noticed that gas prices ticked up $1.50 since our last election. Oil lobby? We don't have anything to do with special interests.

please cite your source. while local prices may vary AAA reports that the average price of a gallon of gas in June 2016 was $2.38 and the average price today is $2.83. a $.45 difference.

https://gasprices.aaa.com/average-u-s-gas-prices-climb-2016-high/o

Average right now in CA is over $4.

i'm tempted to say, "that's CA for you" but i won't. some sort of refinery outage in the PNW?

according to AAA the national avg today is $2.87.
AAA Gas Averages

[4x4van]

rk911 wrote:

PartyOf Five wrote:
Meanwhile no one in America and to have noticed that gas prices ticked up $1.50 since our last election. Oil lobby? We don't have anything to do with special interests.

please cite your source. while local prices may vary AAA reports that the average price of a gallon of gas in June 2016 was $2.38 and the average price today is $2.83. a $.45 difference.

https://gasprices.aaa.com/average-u-s-gas-prices-climb-2016-high/o

Average right now in CA is over $4.