12 States and 5800 Miles Worth of Diesel

[hbillsmith]

We just completed camping in 49 of the 50 states (1 left, Nevada). This last 7 week started with the FROG rally in Goshen and took us North to the Michigan UP then East to Maine and lastly we worked our way back thru New England and the Southeast. I use Gas Buddy to try to get the lowest price if location practical and I keep all my Diesel receipts and thought it might be interesting to post the log (attached here as a JPG). The log shows all fill ups with city and price at each.

In summary it came out like this:

Start Date: August 5, 2018
End Date: September 21, 2018
Gallons Bought: 448.5
Number Fill Ups: 22
States Traveled: 12
Miles Driven: 5,812
Lowest Price Per Gal: $2.59 (Aug.5, Plano TX)
Highest Price Per Gal: $3.50 (Sep.15, Hershey PA)
Diesel Avg. Price: $3.00
Avg. Fuel Cost Per Mile: 23.2 cents

[benf]

Very cool to see. Thanks for sharing!

[5er_tom]

Is that almost 13 mpg?

[hbillsmith]

Originally Posted by 5er_tom

Is that almost 13 mpg?

It is but keep in mind that average includes the truck miles when we weren't towing. While towing the avg runs about 11.2 to 12. Not towing its 14 to 16. Combined for this trip it averaged out at 13. Trailer loaded weights about 12000 and on the dry flat smooth interstates I do sometimes drive 70 for awhile.

[SQROOT]

Similar trip west and kept a log of the camp grounds. Here is the fuel list.


location state price per gallon total cost millage if there gallons missouri valley ia $3.319 $56.96
17.163 onawa ia $3.099 $16.90
5.454 wallace id $3.599 $39.18
10.887 jerome id $3.439 $70.43 3410 20.48 marion il $3.049 $31.86 5056 10.448 saint joesph mo $2.999 $42.39 4629 14.134 warrenton mo $3.059 $39.31
12.849 higginsville mo $2.999 $45.13
15.049 boonville mo $2.999 $47.26 4790 15.757 saint joseph mo $3.089 $31.69
10.259 perrville mo $2.899 $60.91
21.01 three forks mt $3.249 $55.99 2370 17.234 billings mt $3.249 $60.41 2195 18.594 missoula mt $3.249 $59.88 2558 18.431 kearney ne $3.149 $52.43 4362 16.649 lincoln ne $3.199 $49.97 4498 15.621 ogallala ne $3.089 $57.51 4213 18.617 heriston or $3.549 $64.51 3039 18.176 ontario or $3.699 $81.31 3234 21.982 brookings sd $3.199 $63.52
19.855 summit sd $3.109 $44.10
14.184 rapid city sd $3.329 $58.14 1777 17.464 murdo sd $3.159 $68.94 1635 21.823 spearfish sd $3.479 $34.61 1863 9.948 spenser sd $3.059 $56.49
18.466 jackson tn $2.499 $64.01
21.704 plesentview tn $2.849 $53.44 5226 18.757 tremonton ut $3.269 $55.17 3562 16.877 spokane wa $3.619 $53.77 2848 14.859 buffalo wy $3.439 $72.70 2035 20.778 little amarica wy $3.639 $65.99 3740 18.135 rowlins wy $3.459 $48.56 3894 14.038 cheyene wy $3.259 $49.82 4050 15.287

$3.223 $1,753.29
540.969

[SQROOT]

Sorry about the mess, excel did not paste well.

[hbillsmith]

Originally Posted by gabanelson

Sorry about the mess, excel did not paste well.

I used the windows clipping tool and copied the sheet as a jpg. Also, you can just attach the .xls file.
Here's your West trip data reformatted for you.

[Chazman]

Very cool, thanks for posting. We're planning on a trip around the country and I will be selling (or trading in) my Sierra 1500 for a diesel 2500 (Sierra) I'm big on GMC, but if the right Silverado came along at the right price I'd probably jump on it.

[Chuckinca]

Drove 2008 Ram 3500 Diesel with Camper Shell enclosed bed from Central Fla to Norcal and back in June and July this summer.


Westbound against wind and mostly uphill bed empty 16.17 MPG


Eastbound with wind and mostly downhill bed full of household items 14.77 MPG


Avg speed around 70


Diesel price/gal avg $3.10 Westbound (I-75, I-10, US 49, I-20, US 287, I-40, CA-58, I-5) and $3.17 Eastbound (I-80, I-25, I-70, I-24, I-65, US 231, I-10, I-75)

[spock123]

I just keep the tank full. I usually let the Silverado keep up with how much diesel I use. I do try to buy the cheapest diesel. Once I find really cheap diesel I then leave with a full load of diesel, about 135 gallons

[RadRik]

Originally Posted by hbillsmith

We just completed camping in 49 of the 50 states (1 left, Nevada). This last 7 week started with the FROG rally in Goshen and took us North to the Michigan UP then East to Maine and lastly we worked our way back thru New England and the Southeast. I use Gas Buddy to try to get the lowest price if location practical and I keep all my Diesel receipts and thought it might be interesting to post the log (attached here as a JPG). The log shows all fill ups with city and price at each.

In summary it came out like this:

Start Date: August 5, 2018
End Date: September 21, 2018
Gallons Bought: 448.5
Number Fill Ups: 22
States Traveled: 12
Miles Driven: 5,812
Lowest Price Per Gal: $2.59 (Aug.5, Plano TX)
Highest Price Per Gal: $3.50 (Sep.15, Hershey PA)
Diesel Avg. Price: $3.00
Avg. Fuel Cost Per Mile: 23.2 cents

I'm not surprised that PA had the highest price. Thanks to our Governor that likes taxes I believe we are now the state with the highest gasoline tax.

[billy bob]

Thanks for all the info on fuel & cost on your trip, Bet the trip was fun lots of miles in just over a month. Do you take pictures I would love to see some of them

[hbillsmith]

Originally Posted by billy bob

Thanks for all the info on fuel & cost on your trip, Bet the trip was fun lots of miles in just over a month. Do you take pictures I would love to see some of them

We blog all of our trips. This N.E. trip is the current one. Here are the clickable links, if the first one doesn't work, try the second one.

Road Tripper

WordPress RV Roadtripper Blog

[KyDan]

Awesome blog! Please tell me how you created the road map of your route!!

[hbillsmith]

Originally Posted by KyDan

Awesome blog! Please tell me how you created the road map of your route!!

I've done them a couple of different ways, some easier than others. In every case I use the Microsoft Snip tool that's part of Windows. When you have the map displayed as you want it, just bring up the clip tool and grab it from the screen. Snip can save as a JPG file.

OPTION 1: Create the map using Google Maps. This option is somewhat limiting for trips that have more than 10 stops (Google's limit). To get past the 10 limit, I'll create more than one map, bring them into Photoshop and layer them so that the two pieces line up and it looks like one map. This way is a pain but works if you have a photo editing tool and patience.

OPTION 2: The one below was done using the GoodSam trip planning tool because it doesn't have the 10 limit. You just need to turn off Point of Interest, gas stations etc. and have it display your route to the sites you want on the map. GS lets you zoom in and out so you can play with it until you see the detail you want. You can use the Snip tool to grab and make a jpg. Alternately, if you press ALT+PrtScn it puts the entire screen in your clipboard buffer. From there you want to go into a photoeditor and do some cropping. I just made the table list in Excel.

[Chazman]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[CZNEDY]

Very nice. You were 35 miles from us when you were at Peter's Pond

[aceinspp]

Cool stuff but way over my head Later RJD

[Chazman]

Originally Posted by CZNEDY

Very nice. You were 35 miles from us when you were at Peter's Pond

We're 62 miles from Peter's Pond.

[CZNEDY]

Originally Posted by Chazman

We're 62 miles from Peter's Pond.

We are closer, we win[emoji106]