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Wal Mart Fuel - Save Fuel Expense

This is the place to tell about all the cool places your Eagle takes you. Hopefully there will be lots of great pictures that will help us all plan future trips.
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beltguy
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Wal Mart Fuel - Save Fuel Expense

Post by beltguy »

At the Branson rally, several folks had commented about saving fuel costs at the Murphy Oil stations. We do not have them in our part of the country. We fueled at one of the stations several years ago and found it very hard to get the bus in and out of the station (designed for cars and light trucks). After all of the talk at the rally, we decided to try again. Here is the story from our blog:
Now for another amazing story. We are parked at the Wal Mart in Nevada MO. In the mid west, Wal Mart has gasoline stations. Indeed, there is one about 100 feet from our bus. At the rally, several folks mentioned that Wal Mart fuel prices were lower than any other stations and if you buy a gift card you get an additional 10 cents off. The stations are generally intended for “normal” vehicles and vehicles our size are very difficult to maneuver into and out of the station. In the early evening I scoped out the situation and developed a plan to get the bus in and out pretty easily. We waited for the traffic to slow down, unhooked the dolly and made a run for it. Now for the amazing part, the posted price was $3.89 where every other station we saw was at least $4.19. So we got over 90 gallons at $3.79 and that was a savings of at least $.40 per gallon! But wait, the story gets better! We looked out the windshield the next morning and noticed that Wal Mart had raised the diesel price to $4.09 over night! We never get in on that kind of bargain!!!
Note, that we did unhitch - would not have been able to get in or out. Also note that we waited for a slow time to fuel.

Unfortunately, like of the rest of you, we had to pay over $4 for our next fuel stop ($4.22).

I see that they are predicting lower fuel costs in the next few weeks. We made sure our tank was down about 60 gallons so that we could periodically add 20 or so gallons (fuel cans) as funds and prices permit.

Jim
Jim Shepherd
Evergreen, CO
'85 Eagle 10 with Series 60 & Eaton AutoShift 10 speed transmission SOLD
2005 Dodge 2500 with 5.9 Cummins and 6 speed manual 2022 Sunset 28 foot trailer
Bus Project pages: http://beltguy.com/Bus_Project/busproject.htm
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Email: eaglesinternational.email at gmail.com   NOTE this email box is only for general correspondence related to the forum and not technical advice.  Technical questions will not receive a response.
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sunlovers
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Re: Wal Mart Fuel

Post by sunlovers »

Good story Jim. We have Murphy Oil at Walmarts all over the place here in the southeast. In the last two weeks here gas has gone from $3.89 down to $3.32 but diesel is hanging in there from $4.05 (Pilot) down to $3.66 (Kangroo Conv. Stores), but most are around $3.90.
Mike & Kathy Mingus
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Sierraman
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Re: Wal Mart Fuel

Post by Sierraman »

On our way back to CA from Branson we had fuel prices hanging in around $4.00-$4.10 until we got to CA when we paid $4.30 in Palm Springs, but that was with the Pilot/Flying J Discount card from FMCA. The posted price was $4.49.

Richard and Sherri Fosse
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Re: Wal Mart Fuel

Post by beltguy »

I am going to reply to my own thread with two posts. This is the first post and the next one will be in a week or two :?: :?: :?:

After I made the original post, a person made reference to it on BNO and questioned my thought process. Here, in part, was my reply:
I did not think I needed to justify my "jerry can" approach to spreading out the cost of fueling the bus. Now that you have brought it up, for the benefit of others, here are my reasons:

1) To clarify, my fuel level is down about 60 gallons with 90 gallons left. That said, I have been down quite a bit more the last few times upon our return.

2) Generally, at the end of a trip (this one the past month was ~~ 2000 miles) we are pretty tapped out and do not feel like spending any more money. On this trip, I fueled when I knew we would end up using 50-70 gallons to get home.

3) It does not make a lot of sense to me to drive the rather steep drive from Denver to our house (over 2000 foot gain in about 10 miles) with a full tank

4) I am not concerned about having condensation problems, as we have very little humidity. If I do "take on water", I have a Fuel Pro 382 with a water separator and I would be able to see if I need to add biocide.

5) Somehow, it seems reasonable to me to amortize the fuel costs over the next few months as funds allow.

6) There were some strong predictions that fuel prices would drop in the next few months. We have seen signs of that happening. I thought it was a reasonable bet. However, that was before Sandy and the storm's impact on several refineries. :( :(

7) Through our local grocery, we can easily get a $.40/gal. fuel discount ($400 of total grocery purchases - can be several purchases).

8) Yes, filling the tank with jerry cans is not a lot of fun. However, I now have an auxiliary tank that I can easily take to the station (too small to get the bus in) and then transfer the fuel with an electric pump. May even be able to do it via gravity.
The next post, in the Paul Harvey vernacular, will be "the rest of the story".

Jim
Jim Shepherd
Evergreen, CO
'85 Eagle 10 with Series 60 & Eaton AutoShift 10 speed transmission SOLD
2005 Dodge 2500 with 5.9 Cummins and 6 speed manual 2022 Sunset 28 foot trailer
Bus Project pages: http://beltguy.com/Bus_Project/busproject.htm
Blog: https://beltguy.com/Travelogue/
Email: eaglesinternational.email at gmail.com   NOTE this email box is only for general correspondence related to the forum and not technical advice.  Technical questions will not receive a response.
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beltguy
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Re: Wal Mart Fuel - Save Fuel Expense

Post by beltguy »

First, let me update the quote in the previous post. That quote addressed my thesis of coming home about 60 gallons low in the tank so that I could fill the tank during the winter with lower cost fuel as the funds permitted. In item 6) I noted that fuel cost was predicted to decrease from the $4.2X rates that prevailed on our trip home from the Eagle Rally. That cost seemed to be consistent in MO, IA, NE and CO as we traveled home. I also noted that Sandy, the terrible storm that hit the east coast, would probably affect the cost of fuel since 3 refineries were directly in her path. Turns out that the impact on the refineries did not have much impact and diesel did go down in cost. Today the price in the Denver Area is roughly $.40 per gallon less than October travels.

OK, now for the rest of the story.

In item 7) of the quoted text, I noted that we can save on the per gallon fuel cost with points from King Soopers (our local grocery chain). What I did not mention was a special offer of up to $2 off per gallon for 2000 points. That is a lot of groceries. But wait, the same chain offers four times points for gift cards for the pre-Christmas period. Pat loves to give gift cards to the kids. So, between our normal groceries (extra for the Thanksgiving meal) and the gift cards, we got enough points to get $2 off per gallon :D :D :D They limit the amount of fuel to 35 gallons, but that is a $70 savings :!: ;)

Here is a picture that shows that I paid $1.859 per gallon!!

Image

Here is the pump reading at the end of the fill:

Image

When I mentioned this scheme to save money, I mentioned multiple gas cans - what a pain. It turns out that I had two "saddle" tanks that I had taken off my '59 IHC. I almost took them in for scrap. But, I just had that feeling that I would use them for some project. So, I used a heavy strap and put them in my former service truck:

Image

Just so you don't think I take myself too seriously :lol: , I have been "obsessed" :shock: with fuel costs since I was very young. I once drove all over Denver in order to be among the very last person to pay $.99 per gallon for gas! It cost me quite a bit of extra fuel, but I could claim victory :roll: In the scheme of things this savings is pretty small, but it was still fun to see that cost on the pump!

Jim
Jim Shepherd
Evergreen, CO
'85 Eagle 10 with Series 60 & Eaton AutoShift 10 speed transmission SOLD
2005 Dodge 2500 with 5.9 Cummins and 6 speed manual 2022 Sunset 28 foot trailer
Bus Project pages: http://beltguy.com/Bus_Project/busproject.htm
Blog: https://beltguy.com/Travelogue/
Email: eaglesinternational.email at gmail.com   NOTE this email box is only for general correspondence related to the forum and not technical advice.  Technical questions will not receive a response.
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rusty
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Re: Wal Mart Fuel - Save Fuel Expense

Post by rusty »

Funny you should mention this. Just last evening Lin told me she had some point at K S that needed to be used. I just finished a bunch of maintance stuff on the bus and as a test drive I took it to Cheyenne.
While there I filled it up. I think I paid 3.67. Any way I guess Lin will get to use the points in her car.

Wayne
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