The cost of gas

[marvall26]

This is one habit that I do not plan on giving up, but I have limited myself. Since I am from a small town, all the ones here I have found. All others will be found when there is a trip towards a certain area. For Memorial Day weekend, we visited some family in Beaumont, Tx. Well, before we left...you already know....I looked for caches that were accessable along the way. I told my husband he might need to get a second job to support "MY" habit.

[+Earl of Spencer]

I'm looking for a used VW Jetta diesel to cache in, if that tells you anything!

 

My brother just bought a honda civic that runs on natural gas (LPG) the car cost about $3000 more but he is only paying $0.62 a gallon and gets about 35mpg.

[+gof1]

I found this car. Low horse power, but what a gas saver!

 

[+TheAlabamaRambler]

Has anyone tried converting a gasoline car to Propane or LPG?

 

I see the conversion kits advertised but don't know anyone who has done it.

 

I would convert my cachemobile in a heartbeat if these things work!

 

15% or better fuel cost savings with as many miles as I cache would be huge.

[+WRASTRO]

Has anyone tried converting a gasoline car to Propane or LPG?

 

I see the conversion kits advertised but don't know anyone who has done it.

 

I would convert my cachemobile in a heartbeat if these things work!

 

15% or better fuel cost savings with as many miles as I cache would be huge.

My parents purchased an F-350 years ago (they still have it) that can run on regular gasoline or on Propane. It worked great until the Propane tank decided to start leaking. Now they just use regular gasoline. The Propane tank is kind of big, but it fir ok in the bed of the truck.

[+anakerose]

We in British Columbia (Okanagan Valley) pay $1.39 a Litre. There's 3.785 Litres to a US gallon so we're paying 3.785 x $1.35 = $5.26 <--- we pay that equivalent to the US gallon. It's going to hit $1.50 by the summer I can see it ($5.67 for a US Gallon).

Edited May 30, 2008 by anakerose

[+LUCKYSTRIKE1]

Check out my newest cache in Albuquerque New Mexico, "High Gasoline Prices" (GC1BZPC). http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_detai...5d-0065fc2f243d

[+Kriskook]

I only give caches one shot now... if it is hidden in a bad area, bad coords or high muggle traffic it goes directly to the "bookmark" so I don't have to look at it anymore. Bad enough I had to drive out to it in the first place.

[+sTeamTraen]

Has anyone tried converting a gasoline car to Propane or LPG?

 

I see the conversion kits advertised but don't know anyone who has done it.

 

I would convert my cachemobile in a heartbeat if these things work!

 

15% or better fuel cost savings with as many miles as I cache would be huge.

 

Most gasoline-powered cars can be converted to LPG. You lose some trunk space and it costs a couple of thousand bucks; it's up to your mileage how fast you save that back. In some European countries a third or more of gasoline cars run on LPG.

[+hikerT]

I drive 1000km per week just to go to work and back...(read: $600/month in gas) so instead of caching my way home(usually out of the way) I am going to plan 1 or 2 days a week to do a run of caches to save on gas and mileage.

 

I cache in a group some weekends, so that helps.

 

If the gas goes up much more... it's $1.28 right now, I will probably get a part time job,... I don't want to cut back on caching. Eventually I will need to find a job closer to home. Maybe I'll sell one of my kidneys too...

[+MarshMonsters]

We just started caching so I can't say what the outlook will be. We cache with a few others and take turns driving or give some gas money to the person driving. I figure it costs the same as going to a park to hike. Only more stops on the way. We email and pre-plan routes and go from there. We also bring snacks and water so we don't have to make stops.

[+team lagonda]

you could also include a siphon hose,bucket,black ski mask and flashlight to your caching kit.

[+gof1]

you could also include a siphon hose,bucket,black ski mask and flashlight to your caching kit.

 

At first I started to laugh at this. Then I started to think about it. At the cost for a tank of gas you could get shot siphoning someones gas tank!

[+Tschakko]

Wow, that is some cheap gas prices most of you have.

I drive a Diesel over here in Germany, the Diesel prices are the same as the gas ones right now, it´s

1,529 €/litre

1 € = $ 1,54

3.785 L /gallon

, 1.529€ x 3.785 x 1,54= $ 8,91 per gallon if my math is correct

[+StarBrand]

Yikes!!! - The upped it to an even $4 a gallon here in my hometown this morning.

[+Miragee]

Gas went up $.15 cents in the past week. Even at the cheap station I go to, which is a gallon of gas away because of the distance I live from "town," gas is $4.16 a gallon.

 

My friend drives a diesel truck and diesel has been more than $5.00 a gallon for a few weeks now . . .

[+TotemLake]

Cost of gas doesn't bother me as much when I consider the average cost in Turkey or Germany is over $11 per gallon.

 

What's killing me are the car repairs on the wear and tear.

[+TotemLake]

just because I can.

Edited June 1, 2008 by TotemLake

[+SimbaJamey]

The last of the cheap stations near here broke the $4 barier this week. (Actually, most are already over $4.10).

Diesel (which used to be cheaper than gas) is over $5 everywhere now.

[+thehillshaveeyes]

Gas prices certainly effected the way we cached today, but in a good way. Normally we would hop in the car and go even if it the distance was close. Today we walked (even with the 11 and 6 year old) roundtrip about 4miles. It was great! Well, except for the homeless guy under the tree where our last cache was supposed to be.

[+numbknuckle]

Has the soaring gas prices caused any of you to go caching less or about the same?

Yeah, totally feeling the pressure.

personally, I'd drive all over anyway and consider it the price of entertainment but the budget nazi won't let me. Now I look for a few in a row, park and walk to as many as I can. I've hopped on the bike for the local ones.

[+StClairC]

Living in a very cache dense area (I run three pocket queries and still do not get all the caches in the 10 mile radius between my two jobs and where I live) and given that I only have about 50 finds it as not affected the frequency of my caching. It is going to take me years to get those and that's not factoring in the dozens of new ones that pop up every week in the same area.

 

I still don't mind driving an hour or two out to a cache because I would probably be doing something that cost more than that if I weren't. it costs me $40 to fill up - for a whole day of entertainment that isn't bad at all.

Edited June 3, 2008 by StClairC

[+Buckton Cachers]

Gas where we live is about 3.77 a gallon right now, and expected to go up to 4 or more real soon. Right now the gas prices haven't slowed us down to much. We have pretty much found all the caches in a 3o mile radius from us and have to travel past that now to find them. So we go on weekends and choose our route carefully so to not have to backtrack and we take a picnic lunch with, as the kids enjoy picnics. We also cache on the way to family visits and other gatherings. If prices keep going up, we'll probably cut some weekend cache trips out.

[+eagsc7]

I'll be getting a Moped in a couple weeks, but I just got done converting our car into a more efficent Geo-mobile

[+softball29]

It has and it hasn't. I still do some weekend trips. But I wasn't one of these people who went hundreds of miles every week. We'll go on a good hunt every couple of weeks and sprinkle in some closer ones here and there.

 

Tomorrow is one of the drives.

[+GPS_Runner]

I got this to save money driving to and from work, but now I can't think of any other way I'd rather cache!

 

[+Morning Dew]

The one thing I'm excited about (and this thread is just exellent PROOF) is that people have FINALLY hit a breaking point. I've been waiting since it was $2.50 a gallon.

 

When it was in the mid $2 range in our area and rising (It's amazing how recent this was) my wife insisted that when gas hit $3 per gallon at the national average we would see large numbers of consumers making changes and the laws of supply and deman would kick in. I wasn't so sure if $3 was the crying point or not.

 

It turns out I was right . I bet if this thread had been posted when the national average was $3 you would get the bulk of the replies saying "whatcha ya gonna do", "I haven't changed a bit", etc.

 

But now that it's at $4 almost every single post is admitting to make some changes to reduce the amount of oil they are using. Once the entire country starts doing this (and we may well be there now) I think the steep rise will begin to level and it just might even reverse it some (at least I have my fingers crossed).

 

A very interest thing is the company offering gas for $2.99 gallon if you buy one of their cars. Those guys/gals might not be as dumb as you think. Time will tell.

[+GOT GPS?]

I have been keeping track of mileage, and gas useage on my 2004 Chevy Malibu with 3.5 liter engine:

Click >

 

I live 5.5 miles from my workplace, and that is 11 miles a day. I have been riding my bicycle as much as possible, but on Tuesdays I drive a co-worker to work, and get groceries on the way back home, so it works out.

 

The car is somewhat a hog, and may downsize sometime, but it gets me through the snow in the winter.

 

Edited in: The chart above shows the $/Gallon for each fillup, but the first 2 or 3 lines at the top are slightly fudged due to lack of a mileage for those fillups, but the camera shows 34,195 and Sept 14th on one of my pictures, when the car was purchased that day.

Edited June 9, 2008 by GOT GPS?

[+JABs]

We are paying about $1.65 per liter unleaded

and about $1.85 per liter Diesel

 

i think our unleaded is not less then 92% octane.

 

Ok 1 lt = 0.26 gallons

1 gallon = 3.78 lts

4lt = 1 gallon

 

Therefore we pay about $6.80 per gallon plus or minus currency converter.

 

6.80 AUD = 6.5572 1 AUD = 0.9643

 

So we only pay $6.50 per gallon unleaded

and about $7.40 diesel.

 

You guys get it cheap.

 

Can anyone put some in the mail for me?

[+Flatouts]

If only we could could get everyone in the country to agree to not buy gas on one specific day during the calendar month and perhaps due this every month for a few short months, I can almost bet that the gas prices would drop significantly and stay that way for quite a while. So long as we continue to pay the rising costs of fuel, they will continue to raise them, but if we begin to withhold on purchasing at the higher prices it would force their hands to reverse them rather quickly.

 

Has the increased prices effected the way and how often we go caching...to a degree. <no pun intended...

[+GOT GPS?]

Last fillup May 18th at $4.059 per Gallon.

The tank is close to the E, so I will be shocked next time I fill up.

 

Overall MPG for the 2004 Chevy Malibu: 21.69 MPG

[+gof1]

If only we could could get everyone in the country to agree to not buy gas on one specific day during the calendar month and perhaps due this every month for a few short months, I can almost bet that the gas prices would drop significantly and stay that way for quite a while. So long as we continue to pay the rising costs of fuel, they will continue to raise them, but if we begin to withhold on purchasing at the higher prices it would force their hands to reverse them rather quickly.

 

Has the increased prices effected the way and how often we go caching...to a degree. <no pun intended...

 

I hear this one quite often. Well meaning but futile. The only people that will feel the pain of such a thing is the guy who runs the corner gas station. He only makes a few cents a gallon. The oil companies won't hardly notice. Everyone who holds off for a day will need to fill up again shortly after. By the end of the week the tanks at the station will still need to be filled.

 

Look at it like this. A 10,000 gallon tank takes a week to sell out. That's a bit over 1400 gal/day. The tank is filled on Monday. Wednesday we all boycott the pumps. Thursday they'll sell 2100 gallons. Friday and Saturday they'll sell 1600 gallons. Sunday is always a busy day at the gas station with people filling tanks after the weekend in preparation for the work week. They'll sell that last 300 gallons without a problem. Monday they get another 10,000 gallons.

 

The only way to affect the demand side is to stop using gas. I'm not ready to get a horse yet. Are you? The best you can do at this point is to conserve as best you can.

 

Here is an interesting question. Anyone know how the price of gas is divvied up? Who makes what on a gallon. Oil company gets how many pennies profit? So much is spent to bring it to the local station, drilling, shipping, refining, trucking, etc. How much the local dealer makes? And the big question. How much of the price of gas is taxes? All the taxes. Everyone who can taxes a gallon of gas. Federal excise taxes. State "road" taxes. State and/or local sales taxes. I don't know what it is now but by the eighties it was about seventy cents a gallon just in assorted taxes. Some of those taxes are based on the price for a gallon of gas. The higher the price the more the government takes in. No reason for our elected officials to rock the boat. All they are going to do is talk, talk, and talk.

 

The truth is that it is almost time for an alternative. We as a country need to invest in some infrastructure. We need to build refining capacity. We need to drill more of our own oil. (greenpeace is probably going to come after me now) Most important we need to pick a sustainable fuel alternative and go with it. Invest in it and build an infrastructure to support it. We have gas stations on every corner. Where do you go to fill a hydrogen tank? Or even a natural gas tank?

 

finally. If you think the cost of driving this summer is bad? Wait until heating season. I wonder how many people are going to go bankrupt trying to heat the house that they can't afford the mortgage on already.

[+GOT GPS?]

Crude Oil: 1 BBL (barrel) = 42 gallons (US) LINK

Crude oil gets changed into petroleum gas, gasoline, oils, tar, and asphalt.A barrel of oil is 42 gallons.

The amount of gasoline that can be distilled from crude depends on where the

crude is obtained. Venezuelan crude yields little gasoline (about 5%),

whereas Texas or Arabian crude yields about 30% gasoline. This is called

"straight run" gasoline.

However, the distilled components of the crude oil can be further processed

into gasoline by various other methods (catalytic and thermal cracking,

hydrocracking, catalytic reforming, alkylation, and polymerization) to

yield even more gasoline.

I did a bit of research, and the numbers vary a great amount. Different efficiencies in the refining process, and the crude oils all over the Earth are of different qualities.

 

The big problem with Oil, is the Supply side versus the Retail side of the Bussiness.

The Supply side makes a killing, and the Retail Gas stations, make only a few cents on a dollar of gasoline. The Gas stations like to sell other services than just Gasoline, just to make money, to stay in bussiness.

 

Google Link> Who profits on Gasoline

 

Google Image Search

 

[+carleenp]

Unfortunately, the price of gas is going to keep me from traveling to an event I had planned to go to. That, and the fact that my car is about to die (but will be replaced with something much more fuel efficient).

[Bougher]

My human drives a Geo Prizm POS. It gets 40 MPG.

 

He says it ain't as much of a POS now that fuel prices have risen so much, but I noticed he still depends on me to meet chicks.

[+gof1]

Crude Oil: 1 BBL (barrel) = 42 gallons (US) LINK

Crude oil gets changed into petroleum gas, gasoline, oils, tar, and asphalt.A barrel of oil is 42 gallons.

The amount of gasoline that can be distilled from crude depends on where the

crude is obtained. Venezuelan crude yields little gasoline (about 5%),

whereas Texas or Arabian crude yields about 30% gasoline. This is called

"straight run" gasoline.

However, the distilled components of the crude oil can be further processed

into gasoline by various other methods (catalytic and thermal cracking,

hydrocracking, catalytic reforming, alkylation, and polymerization) to

yield even more gasoline.

I did a bit of research, and the numbers vary a great amount. Different efficiencies in the refining process, and the crude oils all over the Earth are of different qualities.

 

The big problem with Oil, is the Supply side versus the Retail side of the Bussiness.

The Supply side makes a killing, and the Retail Gas stations, make only a few cents on a dollar of gasoline. The Gas stations like to sell other services than just Gasoline, just to make money, to stay in bussiness.

 

Google Link> Who profits on Gasoline

 

Google Image Search

 

 

Thanks for doing the research. I was on the way out the door going to work when I posted this morning.

 

I see that, by the graphic you posted, the tax leach is around a fifth of the cost of a gallon of gas. And yet it iis the evil oil companies that are bleeding us dry.

[+mousekakat]

American in Sweden here.

 

I'll take the prices you guys are paying back on that side of the pond any day over what I'm paying here!!

 

Gas is currently running 8.52usd a gallon here, diesel is around 9.60usd a gallon.

 

I filled up a copule of days ago. It cost me 116usd to do it. I'll fill up again in about 10 days. My car gets .8 liters to 10 km. I'm not going to try to conver that for you guys, if I'm not mistaken, I get somewhere around 30mpg.

 

I drive a 1.8l, 7 seater, Opel Zafira. Just call me a soccer mom, lol!

 

I HATE hubby's car.... well, not really, I'm just jealous, lol! He drives a little bitty sardine can, otherwise known as a Renault Twingo and it gets about 43mpg.

 

My mom, still in the US, just bought herself a little bumble bee... that's what she calls it, it's otherwise known as a Smart Car. She LOVES it! She isn't complaining about it's gas mileage, either!

 

Anyway, when you guys hit 8 bucks a gallon we should be paying close to 15 for it here....

 

*mumbling something political under her breath and calling it a night*

 

Naomi

[+JABs]

I wont tell you that work pays for half of my fuel.

 

I wont tell you I also get at lest one trip away a month with time to cache.

[+gof1]

Kodac pays for all my mothers fuel. I'm trying to get her to go caching with me more often.

Of course she gonna have to do all the driving.

[+Ming]

For the warmer months I'm using my geobike, also looking to buy a Yaris, Corolla or Civic for the cooler weather, for the winter I have my Explorer. Right now if I'm using 4-wheels I'm not going out of my way, if I do I try and get as may caches in the area that I can.

 

[+oseos]

Has the soaring gas prices caused any of you to go caching less or about the same?

[+oseos]

Has the soaring gas prices caused any of you to go caching less or about the same?

I am a little more conservative now. That is why I thought it would be a good idea to put in parking coord's where conventient instead of driving around and around trying to find the right place to park to find the cache.

[+jahoadi and john]

John has to drive at least 70 miles just to find a cache, but he hasn't slowed down so I have. I try to ride my bike whenever I can. and just stay local.

 

 

For the local cachers I have been placing Trolley cache series. For $5.00 you can ride the trolley all around town all day long and get a cache at each stop and you should be able to walk to the cache and back before the next train. Many people have chosen to drive to the caches, but some have ridden the trolley and so far so good. I have placed about 20 (+) and have at least that many more to go. No LPCs, but I will admit to a guard rail. Some spots just don't lend themselves to cool containers.

[+GOT GPS?]

When traveling it is important to know where the better Gas prices are, and Mapquest is a good place to search.

 

http://gasprices.mapquest.com/

 

when you click on that enter in the Zip Codes or City and State of where you are geocaching, to find the Gas stations with the lower prices.

 

Neat place for all the Energy Prices data> Energy Information - Department Of Energy

Edited June 10, 2008 by GOT GPS?

[Tito_DBM]

With gas the way it is right now, i can still cache often...not as often as I like, but often enough for me. I just hope that this trend ends soon.

[Cache Whisperer]

I just hope that this trend ends soon.

 

Lemme know how that works out for ya. I don't see gasoline prices going down. Ever.

 

It may be time to break out the still and fire off a run of shine...I mean fuel.

[+perky2000]

My thought is that you can either pick harder caches which take longer to locate or select areas where several caches can be hiked to without driving. Of course it's always smart to cache anytime your already out anyway. We're in Las Vegas attending attending a conference. Yes, we have driven to find caches, but it's still cheaper than gambling!!

[+Y2KOTA]

I'm doing the best of both worlds.......

 

 

Found 4 the 1st day out on the bike in years due to health reasons. Great 20 mile ride

Edited June 11, 2008 by Y2KOTA

[+mousekakat]

Diesel has hit more than 10 bucks a gallon here in Sweden!!

[+fam.bergum]

Diesel has hit more than 10 bucks a gallon here in Sweden!!

 

Same here in Norway.....

Edited June 11, 2008 by fam.bergum