driving from nashville to seattle w/22 foot penske towing a car...

[Midwest Michael]

Congrats on making it to your destination safely and for providing the excellent report.

Diesel pumps for truckers are a little different. I was driving a Diesel UHaul pulling a trailer once, and I didn't want to deal with the relatively small, crowded car fueling area, so I went back with the truckers. After years and years of putting a fill nossle right into the tank, its a little odd dealing with ones that sort of clip to the outside.

[nishira]

the tank for my truck was on the right hand side, but the main pump is on the left hand side. i had to have someone show me how to take the pump off on the left hand side - before you can go over to the pump on the right hand side - to then actually pump the gas.

also, unless you're using the diesel that's located in the car area, most truck-stops don't accept credit cards at the pump - so you have to go inside and have the attendant turn on the pump.

lots of different little things that i learned about for the first time.

[nishira]

i think this should be in the "road trip field reports" forum, no?

[Mark Sedenquist]

i think this should be in the "road trip field reports" forum, no?

I moved it here -- since the information is much more in keeping with the purpose of the Gear-up Forum!

Mark

[Foy]

I just looked at US 30 to Idaho as an alt for I-80. While I've never driven US 30, I transited I-80 from US 191 imm W of Rock Springs all the way back to I-84 in Utah in early August of this year, and that's good road. Wide open, probably as windy as your route was, and yes, some long descents (but at least two of the three are long nearly perfectly straight descents).

I'd take the straight multilane descents over 2 lane highways any day. That's just me, perhaps.

Sounds like, excepting a bit of unwanted frozen stuff, you had a worry-free trip.

Yep, my "pay at the pump" days pretty much ended when I got the F350 diesel pickup. Even when "pay at the pump" is available, it's often at primarily automotive stations which probably don't do much diesel business, and that's generally to be avoided with one's diesel truck. Higher fuel volumes such as sold at truckstops generally means cleaner diesel fuel with less chance of water or other impurities. And you learn early on to send the navigator inside to advise the pump operator you're a "private vehicle" at Pump 7. You also learn to pull forward far enough for the next customer to pull into place at the pump while you go inside to settle up. Not doing so is a BIG no-no at the truckstops. Many Western US travel plazas have a private truck/RV diesel pump island at one end of the auto islands, keeping those customers out of the way of the working truckers, and there you'll often find pay at the pump diesel, and less spilled diesel fuel on the tarmac, which means less of the smelly stuff to track into your vehicle.

Enjoy Seattle!

Foy