Say you’ve just left the campground and you’re getting ready for a long day of driving. You have a little more than a quarter tank left. Someone told you there’s cheap gas about 3 miles ahead, but your favorite brand of gas station (say, Shell) is just around the corner.
Will you fill up at the Shell because it’s your favorite brand, or will you risk spending less money and drive the 3 miles ahead?
Once you’ve voted in the poll below please leave a comment. Thanks!
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With a 40′ “gasser,” I buy my gas based on the ability to easily and safely maneuver to and from the pumps. Brand and price are a distant 2nd and 3rd place.
Neither, easy access is most important to me, especially when we are towing a car as well.
I have a small class C diesel. The fuel is more expensive than gasoline, and I am using it to get from point a to point b. Even the minimum grade must be acceptable or it wouldn’t be the minimum. And Gas Buddy is your friend on the road. Price makes my choice, unless I have a low fuel light. Then distance becomes VERY important!
2nd vote for Gas Buddy. If you don’t use it, you are missing out on pricing.
I started to sign up, but balked when it asked permission to track our driving. They’re was no option to skip past that. No thanks!
Location/convenience that when we buy. If we are getting low and there’s a station we buy.
When fueling the MH easy access as well as price is the determining factor
When unhitched price when hitched easy and safety are most important.
We use the diesel fuel program from TSD so for the most part we use TA, TA Petro, and Loves to fuel up. TA and TA Petro gives the best discount, Loves does not love us enough. Pilot and Flying J are not in the program so we drive by them. A quick look in our area and the price difference is about .80 cents a gallon cheaper than the advertised price and we don’t have to worry about squeezing into the pumps.
.80 cents is not much, I think you may have intended to write 80 cents or $0.80.
In 8th grade shop class, the teacher put on the board that leather stock was .01 cents per square inch. I could not convince him that he meant .01 dollars. Then I knew why he taught shop instead of math.
Always on price, availability and finally ease of access.
We have the open roads (TSD)fuel card and we do save a good amount.I have a 250 fuel tank in my class A so we plan ahead for the best price.At 60 feet total the truck lanes work well for us.
My top priority by far is access.. easy in and out. Brand and price are secondary. We use diesel so we stop at Loves a lot.
Price for sure especially in today’s volatile fuel market. When it comes to brand I learned something about that several years ago while living and working in St Louis, MO. I drove past a fuel storage/distribution depot everyday and I would see trucks from every brand going in and out. It seems that almost all of the fuel starts out exactly the same and each brand adds an additive or two to call it theirs.
True, I drove a gas truck for about 6 months delivering gas to a variety of names of gas stations. The only difference is the additives I added for the different brands. Most of the independent brands use the same formula, the only real difference is in the name brands which use various cleaning agents.
Price of course! Not enough difference brand to brand to sway me that way.
Access and ease of getting to and away from the pump is a priority, price is second.
I won’t get gas at sam’s club I have heard so many stories about their diesel fuel that it has lots of sludge in it. If there is only a 20 cents between circle k or chevron i will go to chevron.
When we are hooked up to the 5th wheel, we use Open Roads, TSD, for fuel, ease of access in truck lanes for diesel with best price. When unhooked, I will compare prices between TSD and Gas Buddy.
I have a Kroger affiliate credit card that gives me a fixed $0.25 off per gallon in addition to the fuel points discount. That usually beats anyone else’s price. So we almost always head for Fry’s, City Market, Smith’s, Fred Meyer etc. wherever we are traveling. And I get Gift cards at 4X points to maximize the fuel point discount (Home Depot, Amazon, Target etc) for almost all moderate purchases. The savings really add up.
Access is a priority. We use gasoline and pull a travel trailer. So many of the big brand, newer gas stations have pump islands perpendicular to the store entrance where people park for food etc. leaving no room to navigate our rig. We have found many small town stations with pump lanes parallel to the road better than the “cheaper” big brand stations. We even pulled in to one recently on a trip to the southwest where the attendant came out to pump the gas and wash our windows!
Price is more important than brand, but for us, it’s answer C.) Can we get in & out safely? Our filler is on the back wall, the RV is 32′ long, and we tow a Honda Fit. Many stations are set up so the traffic points to/from the convenience store/office and we can’t navigate those. We look for islands that parallel the front of the store and check how they line up with the entrances/exits. We’d like the good price, but can’t always navigate to it.
We use the Mudflap app whenever we can. The brand varies, but since we see pro truckers filling up, I figure it’s decent. We save at the pump, and it’s connected to my CC, so I also get mileage points. We look up where the stations are on our route based on where we will be at 1/2 tank. If there are no stations, then Gas Buddy is our pal.
All of the stations on Mudflap that I have used so far have truck pumps, so it’s easy in/out.
I still have not figured out the diff between #2 diesel and “premium” diesel except a .02 to .05 cent price increase.
I could not vote because “both” is my answer. I use Gas Buddy to locate nearby low cost stations, from those I chose the lowest price of brand name diesel, a quick look at the satelite view tells whether I can get in & out with our 40′ Class A & toad, and I now am on my way for low cost brand name non-bio-diesel fuel.
I never use truck stop fuel because it is bio-diesel and requires more frequent changes of filters and there goes any savings down the drain.
And speaking of Shell brand, be aware that some Shell stations sell non-Shell brand diesel. So if you see an unusually low Shell diesel price on Gas Buddy you may want to pass it by if you really want brand name diesel. (Does not apply to their gasoline).
Lastly, I always pay for our fuel with the Costco VISA credit card which earns 4% cash back on fuel purchases, plus some Costco fuel stations now sell diesel at a good price.
Safe low cost travels for everyone.
I use both for diesel and use the TSD Open Roads app to plan fuel stops at the truck lanes. Since TA truck stops typically give the best discounts that’s where I try to stop for fuel, regardless of fuel brand at that particular TA facility. We saved hundreds of dollars on our 7,400 mile Spring western trip earlier this year by doing this.
I agree with other comments that access/egress is a critical factor. With so many stations now designed with the pump isles perpendicular to the store front and parking making egress difficult to impossible, neither price or brand matter.
I choose lowest cost with easy in/out.
Access is most important.
Should have “availability and convenience” listed also. At 44′ plus a toad, I get diesel where I can get in and out easily and located where I don’t have to worry about traffic, narrow streets or other things that I would have to being concerned with while driving city streets.
Almost everything I have read says all vehicle fuel has to meet minimum requirements. I have been driving for over 55 years and always filled my vehicle with the cheapest gas or diesel and never had a problem. No brand loyalty. That said, I now will pay a few pennies more for easy access for my F350 and 40 foot 5th wheel
I try to use Top Tier gas as much as possible in my 32′ gas class A. So I look for easy access Top Tier stations as a priority and work down from there.
Need both. Lowest price from the best brand for autos. Use TA/Love’s with TSD card, primarily for motorhome.
I use Flying J when I can due to ease of access and $.06 cent per gallon discount with their card. Located at convenient off-ramps and spaced about right across the country. Their stores are also well stocked and generally well organized. We don’t eat there but food is available too. AND clean rest rooms!
While on the road, I use the place that I can get in and out of with the least difficulty. Brand and price are secondary concerns.
+1
Exactly
Yes
I look at both price and brand but mostly brand as I get a rebate of $0.31 per gallon and get more than a thousand dollars a year in free groceries. Yeah, I use a lot of fuel.
They usually are the same for us. Our TSD Logistics fuel card almost always gives us the best price (biggest discount) at TA or Petro truck stops.
the 3rd option…convenience.
I usually stick with Chevron as I’ve had great luck with them. But, while traveling and the fuel gauge gets under half, the next fuel stop is any station that sells fuel. A man I used to know was a crew chief with a BMW race car team. He told me that the only fuel they could use straight from pump to race track was Chevron premium. If that was not available he said they would have to buy racing fuel. Well, I took his word for this and have never been disappointed in the fuel I’ve gotten.
i have a 6.8L V10 in my 31″ Class C motorhome. I get the same fuel millage with any brand gas. i choose the cheapest price fuel as said, i get the same fuel mileage. As with all vehicles, if you have a lot of hills, you will have lower fuel millage.
Usually based on price, but not if we have to go off our route.
Usually stay with Flying J as most of them have RV lanes. Wish Love’s had more RV lanes. 35′ Class A with tow so need the length to maneuver.
That’s our choice also easy in easy out. Know where they’re located along I-75.
Our Ford E-450 with the 6.8L V-10 runs good on any 87 octane or better grade gas. Mileage stays about the same depending on the terrain. My main interest is ease of getting in and out of the station. 2017 Winnebago Cambria 31J, plus Ford Focus toad
Price is important, but when towing, ease of access outweighs price.
True…I’m thinking of getting a diesel truck so I can use the truck lanes and not have to worry about squeezing around cars.
Do yourself a favor and get a discount card from TSD Logistics. This allows you to pay right at the truck lane pump and gives you a discount. A friend of mine uses one called Mud Flap but I have no direct experience with it. He likes Mud Flap because it allows you to attach a credit card and get the points from purchasing fuel and TSD doesn’t. I believe TSD has a better pool of available discounted stations to choose from.
I am with you. I have gotten in trouble trying to get into small gas stations, never try anymore. I use Loves most of the time now with my EFS discount card.
Since most fuel is obtained by fuel trucks at the same terminal for delivery, the only difference is possibly additives that the worker puts in while filling the stations tanks.
I go by the price. Most name brand have additives but since I’ll be burning it up before they have a chance to clean things, I’d rather save the money.