PILOT / Flying J ....YES!

[richfaa]

We have never overnighted  at a pilot /FJ or any truck stop or Rest area or wall mart. We prefer a CG just our choice. We do lunch at Pilot/FJ and have never had a problem in over 11 years. We use the truck pumps when we have to and follow the rules of pulling up when finished and again never a problem.Since we are never in a hurry we may travel 250/300 miles a day or less and be off the road in a CG Pull through, Full hook ups 50 Amps  by 4 or 5PM.

 

[richfaa]

5 hours ago, Biker56 said:

Good Sam membership card Fuel discount

Get INSTANT DISCOUNTS on gas, diesel, propane, dump station fees and more at select Pilot or Flying J locations with your Good Sam Club membership card.

• Gas (U.S.)–SAVE 5¢ per gallon
• Diesel (U.S.)–SAVE 8¢ per gallon
• Gas & Diesel (Canada)–SAVE 1¢ per liter
• Dump Station Fees–SAVE $2.50
• Propane–SAVE 5¢ per gallon
• Special pricing & deals in Pilot and Flying J retail stores & restaurants

Thanks for the heads up.I don''t think it was always like that. I can now use the Good Sams card and my  credit card for more  discounts.Fuel is a big cost and every discount helps.

[whj469]

One tank of diesel is all that I drive per day. When I drop the fiver in the afternoon, could be evening, then I look to Gas Buddy for the low price diesel near by. Pilot/Flying J diesel $3.05 credit and $2.99 for cash. Less then a mile down the road at Walmart diesel $2.60. Even with the 8 cent discount it is 30 cents more.

[RV_]

Sam's Club here last week was 20 cents under their Walmart stores and the same under the local stations. Pilot here is 40 cents higher than Sam's Club, and 20cents higher than the better fuel stations like Circle K and the Brookshire's station which then gives Brookshire supermarket shoppers another 10 cents per gallon discount, than my credit cards offer another cash back reward that combined with military discount and proof I voted makes gas free here every February 29th between leap years and blue moons.

 

[Barbaraok]

I notice that most of the naysayers are talking about 5ers, so they can go fill their truck anytime during your stay.  With a motor home towing a car we don’t have that luxury.  We use Gas Buddy but ease in and out is extremely important for us.  

[Five Wood]

7 hours ago, RV_ said:

 Then we made notes if we wanted to stop back, or stayed a couple of weeks if we were exploring an Area like we did out of Albuquerque for a month as base in Kirtland AF FamCamp.

Kirtland AFB was my first duty assignment, in 1974.  I haven't been back since I left in 76.  Where was the Fam Camp located.  I've often thought of going back to look around. 

Jim

 

[trailertraveler]

If you travel the Blue Highways instead of the interstates, you will not encounter many Flying J's. In 13 years of travelling since retiring, I can only recall one Flying J that is not near an interstate. It is located in Dodge City, KS. There may be others, but I do not think there are many.

There are a number of fuel reward cards that will also let you use the cashback feature of a credit card such as Penn Federal (which gives 5% on fuel purchases). Shell has one that gives 3-5 cents/gallon depending on how much you buy. In the mid-Atlantic Region, Sheetz has one. My favorite is the Kroger Corporation program that at times gives a minimum of 3 cents per gallon and lets you earn higher discounts based on your purchases at any of their several grocery and convenience store brand outlets. The discounts are good at any of their grocery or convenience store fuel stations and some Shell stations. Wynne Dixie has a program that gives you discounts at Shell stations based on your amount of monthly purchases. Safeway gives a discount to loyalty card holders at their fuel stations. I'm sure there must be others at the national, regional and local level.

[Kirk W]

11 hours ago, trailertraveler said:

If you travel the Blue Highways instead of the interstates, you will not encounter many Flying J's.

That has been our experience as well. We tend to travel the US routes and we do see one occasionally but not often. When we traveled with the motorhome I usually filled each day just before we stopped and almost never drove more than 1 tank of fuel in a day. Now that we are downsized to a small travel trailer we do spend a little more time on interstates but seldom stop at any truck stop. 

[Barbaraok]

You’ll see a lot more Pilot stations on US highways than Flying J, but discount is the same.  Big one at US 395 and CA 58 East of Tehachapi Pass.  Often see them at points where US highway crosses interstate (US 97 and I-84).

[Dutch_12078]

If the ratio at the time of the 2010 merger still stands, there are almost 2 Pilot locations for every Flying J location. The ratio is difficult to track though, with deals like the recent joint venture with Speedway in the southeast that's adding 41 former Wilco Hess locations that will become a mixture of Pilot and Flying J locations along with 79 existing Pilot and Flying J's that will operate under the newly formed PFJ Southeast LLC. I wonder how the mix might change when Berkshire Hathaway takes over from the Haslam family as majority owner in a few years and FJ Management is out.

[RV_]

Jim,

Kirtland was the HQ for the USAF Security Police agency. So they conducted the Worldwide Security Police matches there in the Sandia ranges annually until the agency moved to Lackland AFB TX in 1997 when they were renamed the USAF Security Forces. The matches involved running through the brush and firing all the weapons with different Major Command teams running dropping and firing machine guns, grenade launchers, rifles, pistoIs, the pistols on measured ranges. I was tasked to fly in to help conduct the matches twice from Spangdahlem Germany, once from Barksdale AFB Louisiana, and the last time I hosted them as Superintendent of the Lackland Ranges on Medina annex the first year they were there, which were during my final year active duty.

Here's a map. I believe this is a new Famcamp. The old one was on concrete demolished building slabs. Likely because of existing sewer connectivity, and electric lines. On edit, it has an aerial view with zoom but no street level view.

https://www.bing.com/maps?&ty=18&q=Military Park Kirtland AFB FamCamp&satid=id.sid%3a3e8dee38-587d-4470-b9fe-5954daa86f8e&mb=35.06830713635141~-106.58829116821292~35.04259171801837~-106.49250411987308&ppois=35.0554504394531_-106.540397644043_Military Park Kirtland AFB FamCamp_~&cp=35.0554504394531~-106.540397644043&v=2&sV=1&style=r&trfc=&lvl=13

If any other Famcamp users have been there lately maybe you can chime in for Jim if the Famcamp is newer than 1999/2000, the last time I was there.

[RV_]

On 2/13/2018 at 7:35 PM, Barbaraok said:

I notice that most of the naysayers are talking about 5ers, so they can go fill their truck anytime during your stay.  With a motor home towing a car we don’t have that luxury.  We use Gas Buddy but ease in and out is extremely important for us.  

Barb,

Fiver drivers have taller rigs than many motorhomes when over 30'. Mine were just at the 13.5 feet including A/C shroud. The max legal height is 13 feet six inches in western states. http://www.heavyhaul.net/trucking-legal-height-limits-map/

My rigs were both ~ 35 feet long, and my truck was 24 feet long. Subtracting the four feet over the bed made us 55 feet long. But unlike a MH with a toad, we can back up without unhitching anything. To minimize the problem on the road I bought an in bed 64 gallon TransferFlow auxiliary diesel tank. The truck's stock tank was 35 gallons on my 1 ton Dodge/Cummins and loaded minus water when the diesel tank was filled, which maxed out my GCCW if the water and diesel were filled at the same time. But we rarely filled it because we got 300-350 miles range depending on headwinds or tailwinds. When I wanted the extra range like in Alaska, or when we went in to do boat rescues in New Orleans on day two through five, post Katrina. We had to siphon mine to get both trucks back to Shreveport as all south of it were out in that week as everyone made runs on fuel.

So on the road otherwise, I dumped before leaving and used our fresh tank with little more than 1/5 tank. Just enough to use the sink and toilet on the road during lunch breaks at rest stops or on wide roadsides. We used the aux tank primarily when we went into California each year to visit my mom with Alzheimer's. Coming in from I-10 to 8. We filled up just before crossing into California in Yuma where we managed to get a space both times we wanted to park at the SKP Kofa Coop there in Yuma.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=yuma+map&pc=MOZI&form=MOZLBR

Then we could get to the Coronado strand and park at Fiddler's cove military RV park. Fill up on base, then get out of California to Sutherlin Oregon and the Timber Valley SKP Coop in Sutherlin, filling up just past the state line without paying California's outrageous diesel prices back in 1998/9/2000. We got 11 mpg with that truck trailer combo. But on the road we would fill up too, not just with the truck solo. Alaska was a good example of no choice but on the road, as were most of our trips in the lower 48. We can always pull into WalMart, drop the trailer in five minutes and leave the wife and dog in it while I could take the truck solo to fuel, but that was never necessary.

We looked for easy in and out too. Even made it into and out of some almost scary pumps once or twice. It's really the same for any big rig.

 

[Barbaraok]

RV, I was actually referring to being able to fill your fuel tanks after you have dropped the 5er at an RV park, thereby greatly reducing your length and increasing maneuverability.  

[masterdrago]

On 2/13/2018 at 7:55 PM, trailertraveler said:

If you travel the Blue Highways instead of the interstates, you will not encounter many Flying J's. In 13 years of travelling since retiring, I can only recall one Flying J that is not near an interstate. It is located in Dodge City, KS. There may be others, but I do not think there are many.

There are a number of fuel reward cards that will also let you use the cashback feature of a credit card  My favorite is the Kroger Corporation program that at times gives a minimum of 3 cents per gallon and lets you earn higher discounts based on your purchases at any of their several grocery and convenience store brand outlets. The discounts are good at any of their grocery or convenience store fuel stations and some Shell stations.

I do the Kroger thing when off hook. Can be big savings. I would never try getting in with the 5r attached. Always too busy and just a little tight. All the Pilot/Flying J and Loves we have seen are 20-30 cents higher than everywhere. So far we have not spent many miles on interstates but have found a large number of truck stop style majors like Exxon and Chevron on state and U.S. roads.

 

[masterdrago]

1 hour ago, Barbaraok said:

RV, I was actually referring to being able to fill your fuel tanks after you have dropped the 5er at an RV park, thereby greatly reducing your length and increasing maneuverability.  

So far, we have found this to work. Just recently extended our range a bit with 10 gallons of spare fuel. Cannot afford to add $1,200 extra tank to our factory 32 gallon. We currently get 8-10mpg pulling the 5r.

[Markati]

I just got our truck (FL M2) back from an up-fitter.  I took it in to get some flatbed work done and he stated that we could remove the 50gal saddle tanks and replace them with 100gal tanks.  This never crossed my mind that it could be done, let alone him having tanks.  It turns out that his shop has a back yard full of truck pieces and parts.   So the moral of this story is new tanks are not the only way to go when larger used tanks are available.  The entire repair, flatbed repair and adding larger tanks cost me just about 1100.00.  

[Darryl&Rita]

Court case involving former Pilot/J employees.

[richfaa]

Yes that is very true and involved  trucking companies and Pilot/FJ. I do not believe RV's were involved in the rebate scam.

[FL-JOE]

11 hours ago, Markati said:

I just got our truck (FL M2) back from an up-fitter.  I took it in to get some flatbed work done and he stated that we could remove the 50gal saddle tanks and replace them with 100gal tanks.  This never crossed my mind that it could be done, let alone him having tanks.  It turns out that his shop has a back yard full of truck pieces and parts.   So the moral of this story is new tanks are not the only way to go when larger used tanks are available.  The entire repair, flatbed repair and adding larger tanks cost me just about 1100.00.  

I guess my old boating days habits always prevented me from adding another mounted fuel tank, or replacing the existing tank on my previously owned F350.  My boat took 300 gallons of diesel but I only kept the tanks at the level I knew I needed, why haul around an extra 600 to 700 pounds of weight.

When we were previously full time pulling our Montana fiver there were times I needed the extra fuel range.  I spent under $50.00 and had four 5-gallon diesel cans.  The extra 20 gallons was just right and when not needed they could be stored any place.  Now with 100 gallon capacity on a DP I probably will not need extra fuel range, but if I find I do then I will be purchasing some fuel cans again.

[Dutch_12078]

2 hours ago, richfaa said:

Yes that is very true and involved  trucking companies and Pilot/FJ. I do not believe RV's were involved in the rebate scam.

Correct... The scam only involved certain large truck fleet operators with PFJ bulk purchase discount contracts.

[Darryl&Rita]

But, do you want to do business with such a corporation? One that has higher prices for convenience? I don't.

[accumack]

I have found them to be the same price as others on our travels. I'm not willing to drive miles off the beaten path to save a few cents per gallon. Time is important.

[OldMan]

When we hit the road, we'll avoid blocking out the truckers...I just want to be in range of the CBs in the parking lot because the radio is hilarious. Lot lizards and such. Yes, I  find that stuff funny. Sue me.

If I can watch them in action, R rated, and from a distance...not XXX...that's even better.

[TXiceman]

Pilot and FJ are rip offs for the RVers.  On the average, 35 to 45 cents per gallon more than area stations.  I added an additional 40 gallon tank so that we can run two days of average driving, park the trailer and then get fuel.  Picking up 60 gallons of fuel at 40 cents per gallon less saves a lot of money.

The highest we have seen was a FJ in north Texas that was 80 cents per gallon more the the Walmart that was within site of the station.  For this savings, I will drop the trailer in the lot if necessary and fuel the truck.

I will not overnight in a parking lot unless it is the last resort.

Ken

[Dutch_12078]

I don't check diesel prices, but gas prices at every PFJ we've been to have been competitive with other nearby stations. Can I drive further off the Interstate and find lower prices? Sure I can... Do I want to take the time and risk of an unknown possibly inaccessible station to possibly save a few dollars? No... At $2.50/gallon, our GS $0.05 cent discount and PenFed 5% rebate knocks the posted price down by about 17 cents anyway.