RV Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!

[Dick_A]

All other fuel threads will be automatically deleted. 🙂

[eltejano1]

Hello, Bob from Wales:

Alas, all is indeed lost as far as rv'ing is concerned here - at least for the overwhelming majority of rv enthusiasts on this side of the pond. Some have exited gracefully and parked their rig in a permanent campsite while others have chosen to fight history to the bitter end. It's all over, Bob. Even those fortunate few who have the money will not be driving their rigs because public opinion will be so negative and hostile toward them - not to mention their own feelings of guilt in wasting a precious commodity in short supply.

There is much weeping and gnashing of teeth, and some have vowed to fight on, but it's all over. The Age of Petroleum is drawing to a close, my friend.

Jack

[Sea_Dog]

Hi Bob.
I will point out that your gallon, like our Canadian gallon is twenty percent larger than the American gallon.

How many miles would an average RVer drive in a year?
I realize this is a hard question to answer.
I ask because the American people feel that they drive much further so use more gas in comparison to Britain and Europe.

Hope you stick around a while.

[bobhar41]

Hi its Bob from Wales UK my 1st post gas is 12$ gal Diesel 14$ gal we have RVs here and folks are still useing them and still paying 30$ a night in camping grounds if you can get on them so cheer up allis not lost bob

[eltejano1]

HI SD - Glad to see you again! I've wondered where you were.

Jack

[Sea_Dog]

Jack.
You are of course correct!

I cannot understand the number of posters who laugh off the ongoing crisis seemingly unaware that unless we see a sudden reversal, our lifestyle and standard of living will change forever.

It is fine for some retired fat cat to brag about rving no matter the cost, such statements are of small consolation, to the millions of families who are having the rug pulled from other them.

Even if domestic drilling were to double to-morrow, the results would simply be a stop gap measure, barely effecting the price of fuel.
New refinery's and the vaunted ANWAR are up to twenty years away if at all, little solace to the young families struggling today.

[eltejano1]

Nobody will be rv'ing with $10 gas. It will be illegal. Every vehicle will be issued a ration sticker with even or odd numbers, and will only be able to fuel at designated locations on even or odd days according to the last digit of the vin or registration number - no private vehicle will be able to buy more than 5 gals every other day --- or etc.

The social ramifications of $10 gas are beyond my comprehension. In my rural area, there simply are no jobs. People have to drive 100 miles a day in order to work, and they are already barely able to survive with gas bills of $600/month +. They will either have to move closer to their work or languish here in the kind of appalling rural poverty I remember as a child. And moving closer to work is nearly impossible for most because housing prices down in the Beaumont area are way beyond their means. These are modestly paid people with family incomes under 50K - in many cases, way under! The nearest full service medical facility is 60 miles from here and older people living on SS alone cannot buy gas to keep doctor appointments.

The whole country, which was built on the automobile and cheap gas, will have to be restructured along European lines - and that will take time. What worries me is the social chaos that will inevitably ensue while this restructuring is taking place.

It wouldn't be so bad if it had developed slowly, over a period of years, to allow people time to adapt. But this sudden, dramatic increase is more than
millions of Americans can cope with.

The TV pundits are saying this will be the #1 issue in the fall campaign. Congress will be addressing it next session, and they will have to come-up with some plan to provide basic gas to lower income, working people - maybe issue some sort of "gas stamps" that allow the worker a few gallons a week of govt subsidized gasoline.

That's probably what we should be discussing here - How congress can deal with this evolving crisis in America. It's a complicated issue that will not be resolved without firm government action - the people will demand that "something be done" after the election. Congressional inaction could well mean the end of the America we have known. If Congress is indecisive and does nothing, the people will take the matter into their own hands and the result would likely be a completely socialized economy and the death of the American free enterprise system. The capitalists hated FDR - but he was the best friend they ever had. If he hadn't taken action at that terrible time, capitalism in America would probably be an historical footnote today.

Jack

[deanowe]

stevenicoldeactivate wrote:
...I don't know, maybe it's because I'm a Mathematics geek to a minor degree, or maybe it's because I used to play to stock market "trading" game, or maybe it's just like the oil companies, the politicians, and the so-called experts, I don't know anything except how to speculate.

Using Fibonacci's Golden Mean to forecast price movement, the price per barrel will have it's ups-and-downs; however, it will always trend upward so long as there is demand. This means that sooner-or-later, the price at the pump will grow beyond $10 a gallon; some people think this is coming sooner rather than later; if so, so what!

It's been a life-long dream of mine to have a truck camper that I can go anywhere in. Sure, the old one I have isn't a deluxe RV, but it has heat, a fridge, and a toilet; enough stuff where we can survive in adequate style.

We average between 13.5-15.0 MPG. Say we only got 12 MPG, even if fuel cost $10/gallon, we can travel to a lot of nice places 100 miles or closer to home, round trip for less than $200; expensive, but still doable for a middle class couple; that is, about the same price as a good dinner and a live performance.

Keep on the road, we are! It's worth every penny!

you bet! think of all the used trucks for sale? good buys @ 10 bucks a gallon!this is not russia they will not bankrupt us.

[eltejano1]

Hi Slowlane (How 'bout a name - Bob, George - anything but Sue) 🙂

No, I won't be leaving; now that the conversation seems to have found a new life. It looked like we were all through over the weekend - maybe because everyone is doing this at work on company time. 🙂

I'll try to get my thoughts together and post something coherent on this govt/private question. I see merit in what you are saying, but I am admittedly ambivalent on the issue. Maybe it's not an either/or deal. Maybe some R&D from both govt and industry is the way to go. I think you are too cynical regarding govt. Without FDR's economic revolution, and subsequent Democrat administrations who built upon it, I could not have lived the happy, prosperous life I have. After WWII, this country achieved the greatest prosperity for the greatest number in the history of the world - and that could not have happened without the active role of govt. The union-busting and deregulation of the eighties was a setback for American workers, but the economy was strong enough for us to survive it intact. I see a situation developing now, however, with gasoline and heating oil that will require the govt step-in agressively and take charge of the whole mess.

It is government's responsibilty to assure that the people have access to basic needs - a roof over their head, medical care, electricity, food, schooling for their children. FDR eastablished that concept as a fundamental part of American democracy. Whether gasoline fits that category is arguable, but I suspect that it does. In which case govt must make sure that working people have sufficient fuel, at affordable prices, to heat their homes, cook ther meals, go to work, the doctor and the store. I expect the Feds, at the very least, to meet that responsibility with whatever action it takes - rationing, price controls - even flat-out nationalization of the industry if that's the only way.

I do not consider my elected representatives to be motivated by greed or empire-building. I believe they have my interest at heart. They have not let me down in the past. When the chips are down, they have always come through for us and I believe they will again.

Jack

[Kendas]

YC 1 wrote:
Since we have nuclear ships why are we not building hundreds of them and placing them around the nation in remote areas ? I realize they need cooling water etc., but having many small plants would spread out our power system and the shut down of one or two would not be a major outage. When was the last time we had a nuclear ship issue. Placing one of those reactors deep under the ground would provide a great deal of protection.

Mostly because civilian workers won't stand for the training, security, control, and low pay mandated by Admiral Hyman J Rickover's ''Nuclear Navy'' to maintain the reactors and power generation systems.

[slowlane]

eltejano1 wrote:
Dick - Looks like it's all over here. We've said everything we have to say. Thanks again for all your extra work in monitoring a very difficult thread. It helped all of us deal with this terrible blow to our rv'ing pastime.

Jack

Wait, Jack, you're not quitting, are you?! This argument is too much fun.
Take many grains of salt with what you see on TV or read in the big media. There is a whole lot of propaganda hogwash being put forth, from the global warming "crisis" to disappearing oil. The common denominator is that these people think petroleum products are deadly to the environment and want them to become even more scarce and costly.

Common sense says that the era of cheaply extracted oil using primitive technology may be about over, but the situation has no resemblance to a fuel tank suddenly running dry. There is enough potential petroleum out there to keep the world going a long time. It will just gradually become more expensive to get at, but the expense will be mitigated by improved technology--developed by private industry.

Think of all the technologies hyped over the last 80 years that were supposed to make the gasoline-powered piston engine obsolete, many of which landed government funded R&D support. Well, as we all know, the piston engine just got better and better and stayed well ahead of all these wonderful alternatives, and did so without government help.

The difference between private industry R&D and government R&D is that the first is aimed at practical economic results benefiting consumers, while the second is aimed at keeping politicians in office and growing bureaucratic empires.

And I will hoist a Sam Adams in your honor.

[slowlane]

DanHouck wrote:

Government has to do some things - like basic research and development on new technologies.

WRONG! Government "research" is largely a waste of money, they haven't a clue what is useful and what is not. Again, look at ethanol, what a boondoggle.

Government needs to get OUT OF THE WAY, the private sector will go to the technologies that are the most promising because of the PROFIT MOTIVE, the time tested road to succes.

The place where government has a role to play, and is FAILING at that role, is maintaining the competitive marketplace. Clinton allowed a bunch of major mergers that has resulted in the oil industry as being largely cartelized. Government needs to break up these companies so that competition returns. They'll take care of the rest.

Did the same person who wrote the first two paragraphs on R&D also write the last paragraph about "cartelized" oil industry? Amazing contradiction. How is the government which is so incompetent, corrupt, and wasteful when it comes to R&D (about which I happen to agree) able to usefully decide how to organize oil companies? That's about as useful and sensible as a windfall profits tax. What "cartel"???

[sirdrakejr]

Diesel fuel price dropped at my local Smith's station from $4.869 to $4.759 today. That is the last one around here to do it but they all have now.
Frank

[eltejano1]

Dick - Looks like it's all over here. We've said everything we have to say. Thanks again for all your extra work in monitoring a very difficult thread. It helped all of us deal with this terrible blow to our rv'ing pastime.

Jack

[Rubiranch]

Yesterday where I buy my gas.


It's a joke to fill the tank.:R

[DanHouck]

Government has to do some things - like basic research and development on new technologies.

WRONG! Government "research" is largely a waste of money, they haven't a clue what is useful and what is not. Again, look at ethanol, what a boondoggle.

Government needs to get OUT OF THE WAY, the private sector will go to the technologies that are the most promising because of the PROFIT MOTIVE, the time tested road to succes.

The place where government has a role to play, and is FAILING at that role, is maintaining the competitive marketplace. Clinton allowed a bunch of major mergers that has resulted in the oil industry as being largely cartelized. Government needs to break up these companies so that competition returns. They'll take care of the rest.