Pain at the pump!

[travelin texans]

Originally Posted by dutchmensport

Little off topic, I suppose. ... I heard that catch phrase the first time yesterday and just learned what that REALLY means! OK, I'm a late-bloomer!

I guess I'm yet to bloom! I saw a bumper sticker saying that today & still don't know what it means.

[notanlines]

Danny, I'm afraid it isn't as interesting, or as forbidding, as some might suspect: https://www.wtrf.com/local/what-does...-brandon-mean/

[wmyers]

As to being cut off at $75. That seems to be a function of using debit cards. You can get around that limit by processing the transaction as credit instead of debit. I'm not sure about the whole country but this seems to work in the mid atlantic.

Or you can just swipe your card again after you finish the $75. Basically, just do everything twice.

[Camp CA]

Originally Posted by wiredgeorge

Went to the Valero station early this morning and found that I couldn't fill my truck's tank. They cut you off at $75. I don't drive much and the last time I filled up, diesel was quite a bit less expensive. Diesel is now $3.05; more than a buck more than last year. No wonder inflation is getting out of hand. Shipping costs and airline fuel will necessitate the end user pay. Keep this in mind at the 2022 elections. God bless America!

Diesel prices prices historically follow crude oil prices, which are driven by world demand. Note current prices are not any higher than historical per the link below. Be lucky you are not in California where prices are ~$4.5/gallon and no pipeline from cheaper refinery sources in the US Gulf to reduce price.

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/...sel-prices.php

[adeakins]

Originally Posted by Canonman

Supply and Demand
During the "lockdown" demand was very low and so were prices. Back in May 2020 a barrel of oil was trading at under $10. So, the oil companies both foreign and domestic cut way back on production. Then in 2021 the lockdown ended, the vaccine was available and people started going back to work, traveling and getting back to normal lives. But the oil companies didn't ramp up production enough to cover the increased demand. Higher demand, limited supply resulted in higher prices.
The oil companies are making up for lost revenues and profits by limiting supply. "U.S. crude oil production is expected to fall by 160,000 barrels per day in 2021..."
Elected officials have very little influence over the price of any commodity especially oil and refined fuels. Today's higher prices are the result of the oil industries profit taking not any political legislation. "The oil giant (Chevron) announced a $3.3 billion adjusted profit in Q2, compared with a $2.9 billion loss in the second quarter of 2020.
Here's a short article from Reuters that may shed some light.
https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...0million%20bpd.
We all hate higher prices, but lets put the blame where it belongs.

Couldn’t agree more. The herd mentality that says one set of market providers jacks up prices blaming the pandemic’s past impact pushes other market providers to follow suit. But, that aside for a moment; there’s a trifecta happening peculiar to RV’ers. Fuel is rising (even though today, it was announced that prices dropped due to a glut in storage bunkers). RV prices are at a premium while build quality is poorer than usual, and park prices are through the roof and getting spots is way harder than usual. I work in various govt monuments and campgrounds and heard more than a few visitors say they have constrained their future plans to storing their rigs and see what happens later. We are retired and full time. We recently decided to keep our mobility regional which means we cancelled reservations we had out west and up north - save for one - to reduce our travel costs. We’ve increased our length of stay in the places we do park so as to reduce park cost. And, we are staying in moderate temperature climes to reduce propane and electric costs. That’s about all we can do. Groceries and pharmaceuticals are also high, but there’s only so much one can do to affect that.

[MN Roger]

If you used your card to pay at the pump, they cut you off at $75. They all do that. If you opt to fill and pay at the register, you can fill your tank to your heart’s content. Don’t care who you vote for, unfortunately, we’re in inflationary times.

[Ccrew]

Originally Posted by dutchmensport

So, pump up to $75, let the pump shut off, and then pump another $75. Keep repeating until the tank is full. Inconvenience yes (a little), but if you want the full tank, do it that way. Or ... hit your $75 max and finish filling up at another station.

Go inside and pre-auth the pump. I run a 100gal transfer tank, have to do it all the time as from bone empty I'm 136gal to fill.

The multi-swipe game usually works twice before the card issuer flags it as multi-use card fraud. And at $75 per swipe that's a bunch of stations.

And I agree, those that think this is a political subject simply don't understand supply economics. You're welcome to stay home and let the price drop for the rest of us. In COVID times when no one was traveling we were, and at this time last year I paid $1.72gal for diesel in a Sams Club in Colorado Springs.

[Ccrew]

Originally Posted by MN Roger

If you used your card to pay at the pump, they cut you off at $75. They all do that. If you opt to fill and pay at the register, you can fill your tank to your heart’s content. Don’t care who you vote for, unfortunately, we’re in inflationary times.

Different stations have different maxes based on their card processor. We're traveling therefore burning fuel, seeing $75, $100, $125, to a tops of $150. See my post above about getting some exercise and pre-authing or pre-paying inside.

[MN Roger]

Couldn’t agree more.

[G Giroux]

I picked some high octane (91) for
my lawn equipment this week.
It came put to $7.996 per imperial gallon.
This was in Burlington, Ontario Canada
Time to get a goat to trim our lawn!!

[gearhead]

Originally Posted by notanlines

Bad girl! Bad girl!

LOL
I did see one somewhere here in Missouri. I'm sure Betty saw it too, but I didn't say a word about it.

[PetersonPower]

Yep, kind bad right now. I remember over $5 10yrs ago. I took a trip across country and $1000 in fuel.
Looks like we’re in for a similar ride.

[PetersonPower]

A lawn mowing sheep. Hahaha That’s it!

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by PetersonPower

A lawn mowing sheep. Hahaha That’s it!

Sheep produce methane gas... That's a "no-no" as it depletes the upper atmosphere capability to protect us from increased UV rays which are responsible for increasing the global temperature.... Maybe "smaller versions of today's sheep" They wouldn't eat as much, and if we learn to convert grass to ethanol..... Nah, that would put the farmers out of work if we replace corn with grass.... Maybe we should just keep smoking grass ???? Nah, that puts the sheep out of business.... What to do ??? What to do ???

[gearhead]

For those that want to dive a bit deeper into oil issues than network news headlines, I would recommend looking at the daily blog at rbnenergy.com. The blog on October 26 is very interesting concerning the future of crude price.
It may not be widely understood but refineries cannot process just any crude oil. As domestic crude production decreased over the years refineries were modified to run heavier crude. As the lighter fracked oil became more available some refineries were modified again and some weren't. If they were set up for heavy crude and could still buy it they continued to use that. Otherwise some of that light crude was exported.
Very similar to the nat gas market. The ethane, propane, rejection scenario is dependent on several factors. If Japan is willing to pay premium price for LNG, the amount of propane and butane separated from ethane will decrease thus tightening the domestic propane market. It's Economics 101.

[jwehree]

We were between Barstow and Needles California about 3 weeks ago and pulled off into a truck stop out in the middle of nowhere for a bathroom break. Thank goodness we didn't need fuel. Their diesel price was $6.17 a gallon!!!! We winter in Yuma and I guarantee you we will not be driving anywhere in California unless we can make the round trip without needing fuel.

[crowbar]

I think George should win some kind of award for starting the longest post with the most opinions that I've ever waded through!

[PRF]

We may have to carry cash; travelers checks (are these still produced?) or multiple credit cards until the fuel stations increase their limits or fuel costs drop. Perhaps this is not an issue at fuel stations that serve big rig trucks? Keep us posted as to what works for you.

[wiredgeorge]

Originally Posted by dutchmensport

Little off topic, I suppose. ... I heard that catch phrase the first time yesterday and just learned what that REALLY means! OK, I'm a late-bloomer!

Check out youtube; "Let's Go Brandon" song has hit #1 on the iTunes rankings! Suspect I had best not put the direct link on this forum as it is likely a violation of good taste.

Unfortunately Gordo, you agreed to abide by forum rules when you signed up 24 posts ago in 2018. It is pretty clear political and religion is not a topic that we can get into. I think the reason is demonstrated when you have a Thanksgiving dinner with family from all over the country and religion or politics comes into discussion and the next step is mashed potatoes flying and the fists. Best not get into these things in certain places like the dining table or HERE. If you like politics, try texasguntalk.org.

[dutchmensport]

Wow! I just came back to follow up on this thread. What a bunch of interesting comments. With that said, maybe we should just start a new thread on drinking beer! However, sometimes drinking beer does "give" you "free" gas!