Is there an app that shows the BEST locations to fuel up with a larger rig?

New England Weekender

Advanced Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2024
Messages
71
Location
New England region
I've found YouTube videos ranking the best apps for various things. Many of them will let you book stays for example straight through their app. I've found a whole bunch of apps have similar or identical features. What I haven't found yet is if a certain app exists where you could fuel up and it either recommends or allows users to rank accessibility in and out of the station.

I'm new to TT towing. My truck is also gas, not diesel, so I doubt I can use the extra spacious truck stop pumps. I even have a truck stop right where I live off the highway. There are about 10 pumps for 18 wheelers with computer style pads/keyboards. No spot for a credit card to be inserted. These obviously aren't meant for me, especially where they're exclusively diesel. But they're a straight shot in, about 100 yards off the road, tons of room and then a few hundred yards after for maneuvering in and out, pulling a 180 to get back on the highway. On the other side of the curb divider is where the gas station building and gas pumps are. 8 pumps, perpendicular to the road and their exit is a very tight hard 90 to exit. Because it's 2 columns of 2 pumps on each side, if you're in one of the middle 4 pumps, there is a very good chance you could clip a neighbor making that hard cut back to the road with your tail swing. I have 9' from center of back axel to edge of rear bumper so I'm conscious of what my tail swing will be like and where I could get into trouble.

I say all this to say this gas station, despite being a "truck stop", absolutely sucks for gasser truck/camper trailer combos to enter/exit on our side. I can't even recall ever seeing a single one fueling up. Is there an app that people could rate 1-10 or thumbs up/down when a station is great for accessing pumps with a 45-50'+ foot long rig or if not, what do you all do when fueling up? Do you always unhook at your destination and then fuel the truck? And if on longer mileage trips, start looking for areas off highway that are accessible and just pass by if it doesn't look practical? Or maybe some of you carry secondary gas cans/tanks w/pump that allow you to bypass this issue? Thank you.
 
I have not seen any site or app that rates fuel stops based on big rig friendly.

What I do is use RV Trip Wizard and put in my fuel usage so the map will show about where I need to look for a fill up. I then use google maps in satellite mode to look at them, and can usually use street view if I am not sure if there will be enough room to get around.

As a general rule I have found Pilot to be the most likely to have dedicated RV lanes, and Loves usually has plenty of space between the pump and the building so making the swing is more reasonable.
 
I have not seen any site or app that rates fuel stops based on big rig friendly.

What I do is use RV Trip Wizard and put in my fuel usage so the map will show about where I need to look for a fill up. I then use google maps in satellite mode to look at them, and can usually use street view if I am not sure if there will be enough room to get around.

As a general rule I have found Pilot to be the most likely to have dedicated RV lanes, and Loves usually has plenty of space between the pump and the building so making the swing is more reasonable.

Dedicated RV lanes sounds incredible, lol. Just checked both. There are only a couple of each in all of New England/New York area. I guess they're everywhere in other parts of the country. Your Google Maps trick is very smart to do the morning of or night before. If I find a great easy in/easy out, I can plan to stop there whether I'm at half tank or whatever. Appreciate it.
 
[MENTION=60544]New England Weekender[/MENTION], I haven't seen or heard about an app like you're describing. And yes all the truck stops truck lanes will be Diesel. Like another reply sometimes Pilot/Flying J have RV lanes that have Diesel and Gas pumps.

Casey's is another fuel station you might look for, a few of their stations have enough room to swing around, but not always.

I think your best bet is to use google sat view to look over a fuel stop to see if there is enough room for you like the other poster said. A lot of times the far outside gas pump lanes at fuel stations have the most room to swing but not always. And sometimes you can read the reviews of fuel stations other travelers have posted about a specific station.

If traveling through Texas try to find the Buc-ee's, they always have lots of room. They also have a few stations in Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and a new one being built in Ohio. May not help you much where you are from or where you're going.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but the google sat view is probably your best bet.
 
Last edited:
I've found YouTube videos ranking the best apps for various things. Many of them will let you book stays for example straight through their app. I've found a whole bunch of apps have similar or identical features. What I haven't found yet is if a certain app exists where you could fuel up and it either recommends or allows users to rank accessibility in and out of the station.

I'm new to TT towing. My truck is also gas, not diesel, so I doubt I can use the extra spacious truck stop pumps. I even have a truck stop right where I live off the highway. There are about 10 pumps for 18 wheelers with computer style pads/keyboards. No spot for a credit card to be inserted. These obviously aren't meant for me, especially where they're exclusively diesel. But they're a straight shot in, about 100 yards off the road, tons of room and then a few hundred yards after for maneuvering in and out, pulling a 180 to get back on the highway. On the other side of the curb divider is where the gas station building and gas pumps are. 8 pumps, perpendicular to the road and their exit is a very tight hard 90 to exit. Because it's 2 columns of 2 pumps on each side, if you're in one of the middle 4 pumps, there is a very good chance you could clip a neighbor making that hard cut back to the road with your tail swing. I have 9' from center of back axel to edge of rear bumper so I'm conscious of what my tail swing will be like and where I could get into trouble.

I say all this to say this gas station, despite being a "truck stop", absolutely sucks for gasser truck/camper trailer combos to enter/exit on our side. I can't even recall ever seeing a single one fueling up. Is there an app that people could rate 1-10 or thumbs up/down when a station is great for accessing pumps with a 45-50'+ foot long rig or if not, what do you all do when fueling up? Do you always unhook at your destination and then fuel the truck? And if on longer mileage trips, start looking for areas off highway that are accessible and just pass by if it doesn't look practical? Or maybe some of you carry secondary gas cans/tanks w/pump that allow you to bypass this issue? Thank you.

I use the app on my iphone called "Trucker Path". it is free, and it shows truck stops, which is what I need/want for my trailer being 44 feet long. It gives you distances, GPS, etc. Has worked well for me for many years now, and would suggest taking a look.

Hope that helps.
 
[MENTION=60544]New England Weekender[/MENTION], yes New England is pretty devoid of good fuel stops if you are pulling a trailer. if you travel a lot, Pilot/Flying J and Good Sams have a card that will save you about .05-.08 cents a gallon in the truck lanes. I use primarily Loves, TA, or Petro when I can find them together with the Open Roads TSD Logistics card. To give you an idea of the savings, along I-90 in NY state the pump price at Loves in Waterloo, NY was $4.49/gal. With the Open Roads card (they have an app which shows locations and prices), I paid $3.70/gal in the truck lanes - big difference. From NH to IN, I saved about $0.33/gal on average totaling about $60. Not all Loves give any discount for the card (Perrysville, OH was one but their price was pretty low anyway). Sometimes you can find lower costs at local Mobil/Exxon/Sinclairs but it is not easy to get a larger rig in. I almost was stuck in a Casey's in the Dakotas - needed fuel, barely fit under the overhead and then had cars parked perpendicular to me in the quik mart that couldn't back up while I was fueling and a car in front of me blocking my exit. Also, to start this trip, I fueled up at BJs - they had a .50/gal price off if you same day bought $150 of goods which we needed at home. $3.39/gal to start the trip.

I also use RV Trip Wizard to locate fuel stops when connected since I always use the truck lanes. But there are Shell/Exxon truck fuel stops and I google sat them to make sure before I pull in.
 
Last edited:
I find Buc-eees too crazy to try and fuel up while towing. It is a circus with people leaving their cars at the pump while they go shop in the store and generally speaking the distance between the pump lanes is to narrow to pass between with cars at the adjacent pumps.

Watch the pilot billboards they will generally tell you they have RV lanes. Other than that we just wing it, the wife has spotted the blind spots while I have backed up or verified tail swing. No biggy just need to plan your exit a bit.
 
As others have suggested, we map out our route the day before and use Google Maps to check stations near our planned fuel stops to be sure we can get in. Once in a pinch, I pulled into a pump and backed out because I didn't have enough room to pull through. For really dire situations, one could always unhitch, fill, and rehitch. A five-gallon gas tank might be helpful too.
 
My first choice is Flying J and the second is Love's. But some Love's are easy in easy out and some are not. I map them out using RVTW and then google them. If there are none of these I look for independent stations. Down here the Citgo stations are usually laid out for easy in and easy out. But again they are not all the same.
 
I, also, use Google Maps satellite view and street view to check out possible fuel stops. If using the non trucker side of a station, I’ll go to the pumps on the end. They generally give me a better chance of getting back out. I have backed up to get back out. Either because going forward isn’t possible because of no clear path forward or the canopy height is too low.
 
Dedicated RV lanes sounds incredible, lol. Just checked both. There are only a couple of each in all of New England/New York area. I guess they're everywhere in other parts of the country. Your Google Maps trick is very smart to do the morning of or night before. If I find a great easy in/easy out, I can plan to stop there whether I'm at half tank or whatever. Appreciate it.
I'm in the same boat as you ... pulling our 36' 5th wheel with a 2006 GMC Sierra 3500 extended cab and 8' bed...that 8.1L V8 gets mighty thirsty. Any trip that I'm not sure of gas stops I carry a full 5 gallon gas tank in the truck bed for unforseen situations, of which I've had 3. Once I had to use it because I couldn't get into the only station around so I emptied it into my truck on the side of the road then walked back over to the station 3X and filled up that damn gas can. Next time I got smart and dropped the RV in a home Depot parking lot and the Mrs stayed in it while I ran for gas. The 3rd time I said the hell with it and parked adjacent to the entire row of pumps and filled up.... a few people weren't happy because they had to back out from the pumps.
As others have said Flying J & some Loves are usually doable. Some Flying Js have dedicated RV gas pumps off to the side. Google maps with Earth & Street views works well for me. I aso always take the pumps at either end of the island... they're the easiest to maneuver around.
 

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top Bottom