Gas Buddy RV friendly stations

Hi Everyone,

I work for GasBuddy, and I would love to enhance the experience for RV'ers using our app and website. We're considering adding amenities to help RVers find what they are looking for. I think kdbgoat nailed it on the head when he said we need a definition of what RV friendly means. It seems that everyone has their own definition as well as their own requirements.

kdbgoat said:

I think think Gas Buddy needs a tab under their amenities tab like they they have for truck stops, etc. I would think for this to work for RV'ers, we would all need to provide good input to Gas Buddy to maybe help them develop some good criteria to define "RV friendly"

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What I'm asking for is a conversation where we try to build a consensus on what would be most helpful for RVer's in the app, specifically regarding Amenities. I think the important one to nail down is what "RV Friendly" means, regarding canopy size and turning radius. Secondary would be other amenities that you would find helpful, Overnight Parking, Waste Dumps, etc.

If you have any other requests or suggestions for features that you would like to see in the app, feel free to post it here or email me at [email protected].

Thanks,
Andrew!

Feel free to delete this post if it's against forum rules. I read through them and I didn't think it broke any of them.  I'm just looking to help develop a feature that helps the RV community!

What would get me to use Gas Buddy a lot more in the RV?
Notes about:
1) straight drive through vs tight turns
2) propane, potable water, or dump available
3) dips in the drive (I've scraped the hitch getting in/out of a few places)
4) low canopies or other obstructions

Position of the pumps is something to consider. With the gas cap so far back on the RV I often have to have the nose out into the drive lane to get the nozzle close enough. Just knowing if the lanes are parallel to the storefront or perpendicular would help decide between stations at a crossroads.

I would pay a nickel more per gallon for easier drive through.

RV Friendly would be Canopy high enough to get under without worry, wide lanes and large enough lot to enter and exit both diesel and Gas pump lanes easily with a 40 foot rig, and Toad or trailer, extra RV Parking area (Like Cracker Barrel parking lots) for shopping after fueling.

Addition RV friendly features would be, Waste dumping station with easy access, Potable water for refilling tanks, Pet walking area, high pressure air supply for RV tires, High speed Wi-Fi or even just 4G cell repeater.
Overnight parking would be a big plus, as well.

Our MH is 43 feet long - 63 feet when towing, and I've never had much luck with the Gas Buddy app helping me find a fueling location in which I can easily maneuver. I've played with the settings and have concluded that the app's filters weren't designed for that.

Instead, I bought an app called Truck & Travel, that maps truck stops, and truck stop related businesses. It has data for all the different truck stops you always see while traveling. Since I much prefer to refuel at truck stops, it's proven to be a much more useful app for our needs.

Kev

Thanks for the early feedback.

Stephen S, point 1 and point 3 raise good points, however, I think they would be too challenging to communicate as an amenity. I think it would be great information to leave in a review though. Perhaps we could somehow highlight or identify which reviews are relating to RV's so that you could easily reference the specific details of the station. Thoughts? Is this information you reference somewhere already?
Regarding 2 and 4, see below.

LarsMac, I'm trying to define an amenity from your comments. I'm still a little fuzzy on the size because we have to communicate a bunch of variable information in a single category. Would something like this work?


"Size" - Amenity
RV 30 (Medium) - good for 30 foot rigs w/ toad
RV 40(Large) - good for 40 foot rigs w/ toad

Any suggestions on how we could communicate the height, width, and pumps better?

Additional Amenities:
Potable Water
Waste Dumping
Overnight Parking
Pet Walking Area
High-Pressure Air Supply
Wifi



Thanks Kev. I'll take a look!

I would find it particularly helpful  to know the orientation of the pumps relative to the store. Stations with the pump islands parallel to the store are much easier for RVs than those that are perpendicular to the store.  The worst are the statiions with the islands arranged in a fan pattern like many Sheetz and Circle K/Kangaroo here in the southeast.

I also use Next Exit book.

mrb05 said:

Hi Everyone,

I work for GasBuddy, and I would love to enhance the experience for RV'ers using our app and website. We're considering adding amenities to help RVers find what they are looking for. I think kdbgoat nailed it on the head when he said we need a definition of what RV friendly means. It seems that everyone has their own definition as well as their own requirements.

What I'm asking for is a conversation where we try to build a consensus on what would be most helpful for RVer's in the app, specifically regarding Amenities. I think the important one to nail down is what "RV Friendly" means, regarding canopy size and turning radius. Secondary would be other amenities that you would find helpful, Overnight Parking, Waste Dumps, etc.

If you have any other requests or suggestions for features that you would like to see in the app, feel free to post it here or email me at [email protected].

Thanks,
Andrew!

Feel free to delete this post if it's against forum rules. I read through them and I didn't think it broke any of them.  I'm just looking to help develop a feature that helps the RV community!

Click to expand...

those of us who drive gas powered RVs are always at a disadvantage as truckstops have diesel pumps available for diesel RVs but most have gas pumps only suitable to cars. Throw in a gas powered RV with TOAD...so any delineation would be helpful

A couple more suggestion. When viewing the map, it would be good if we could turn on Satellite View to see the layout of stations. Also it would be helpful to know if a station has truck lanes. I travel mostly old u.s. highways and like using stations the have truck lanes.

Thanks again for the feedback.

ChasA, I love the idea of a satellite option on the map. I think it would help RVers immensely.

decaturbob, a great point as well. We'll keep Gasoline in mind when trying to enhance the functionality. My previous suggestion to identify the parameters of the fuelling lane was RV 40(Large) - good for 40 foot rigs w/ toad. Would appending a "G" onto the amenity help convey that the fuelling lane has Gasoline? So RV 40 + G - good for 40 foot rigs w/ toad ?

I'm just throwing out ideas. Let me know if you have something more clever.

RVRAC, I will take a look at that app as well. Any specific functionality that you find valuable?

If Gas Buddy can put an RV Friendly tab in, that would be great.  Use it all the time for my autos.  I also have the Pilot and Flying J ap, and find that Flying J is the best for filling my gasser with toad - total 54 feet.  Some have the ability to pump gas from either side of the coach.  So, mrb05, suggest you visit a Flying J.  If you want to see what doesn't work, visit a Pilot.  For the most part, am able to drive in, but the way they allow cars to park in front of the store in front of the pumps, there is no way to get out unless no one is parked in front of you.  Even then, it is tight to make the turn.  My observation is that if you drive a pusher, go to a truck stop.  No trouble getting through the diesel islands.  Just don't dawdle and annoy the truckers.

Andrew... first, I think it's very neat that you're contacting us and soliciting our input. Here are my thoughts on what would be helpful to us. We're usually towing our Jeep and we have an overall length of 63 feet. When we need fuel (in our case diesel) my primary concerns are:

1. Is there a fueling station that's "reasonably" close to the freeway (Perhaps within a few blocks) so I wouldn't have to drive through narrow, twisty streets to get there, only to find that I can't fit.

2. Once I get there, can I get in and out of the pumps without having to do a multi-point turn, or back up. We can't back up more than a couple feet when we're towing the Jeep. Its front wheels fully deflect to one side or the other when we do (I've tried.) The only option is to disconnect, but that's not very practical. It takes a few minutes, and would cause a LOT of congestion and pissed off drivers.

3. We're 13 feet high when aired up and going down the road. I'd like a canopy to be no lower than say, 15 feet. But I'll bet there are others who would like them even higher.

For me, things like dump stations, stores, bathrooms etc, fall under the "nice to know" category. (Others may feel differently.) Getting fuel without doing damage to my coach, and with as few headaches as possible is far more important to me than knowing whether or not the station has any of those other things. Once I get fuel, I'll find a way to get those other things, if I need them. JMO

Kev

A lot of you guys with pushers are making good suggestions, but there are a lot of places that sell diesel that can handle big rigs. I understand part of the trucker thing, but those fuel lanes don't say commercial trucks only. Yes, give the courtesy you would expect to receive, but you don't have to kiss their butts either. From my experiences, finding gasoline pumps that are accessable to larger motorhomes, and pickups pulling large trailers is more of a challenge.

Check iexit.  Great app for your phone telling you what is at the exit.

I unfortunately just deleted my Gas Buddy app. I recently tried to use it and it would only show me 3 stations, and I couldn't search out places a long distance away. Unless my app was just out of date, I didn't find it useful.

If one needs an app or web page to determine if the station is RV friendly or not you shouldn't be operating an RV. If you do need it don't leave the country. Alaska is a long way to go on one tank of gas.

Butch54 said:

If one needs an app or web page to determine if the station is RV friendly or not you shouldn't be operating an RV. If you do need it don't leave the country. Alaska is a long way to go on one tank of gas.

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Obviously you've never attempted to determine whether you should "get off at this exit to use a station I can't see from here," a station that might be 2-3 miles away. Should I waste the time, trouble and miles?

Butch54 said:

If one needs an app or web page to determine if the station is RV friendly or not you shouldn't be operating an RV. If you do need it don't leave the country. Alaska is a long way to go on one tank of gas.

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The more information you have while planning your trip, the less trouble you may find yourself in down the road. 
I've watched more than one RV'r have to unhitch a toad to get out of a gas station after filling

Larry N. said:

Obviously you've never attempted to determine whether you should "get off at this exit to use a station I can't see from here," a station that might be 2-3 miles away. Should I waste the time, trouble and miles?

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Yup! Do I get off at this exit, or the next? Left or right at the top of the ramp?

Around here there are a lot of trees in the way. And the stations can be a quarter mile off the highway.

Disappointed in the negative comment from Butch.  First one I've seen on this forum.