$57 to fill the tank on my 98 Dodge Ram...that'll last about a week..
I hate to see how much my ford is gonna use

 

Same here, I topped my tank off and it cost me $50. I'm from Lemoore,CA as well. Nice to see someone from my area here!

 

Hey 57_Ford guy! I somewhat recall seeing your truck around. Is that old red 57 still on the road out there? I used to live in Hanford, CA and worked on a farm in Huron as a farm manager. Now I am in Iowa, which is more homelike to me. My 55 Ford is my sovenier from my 5 years of living in CA.


I sure miss the F-18's overhead. I got some great video when the first round came back from Iraq.

 

The pricing is uncomfortable...especially in very highly taxed states such as California. We have to remember though what prices are in other parts of the world. We're still in pretty good shape compared to Europe and Ivory Coast prices.

 

Lemoore guys, do you know if the owner of that really nice 53-56 with the camper on it is a memeber of this site?


I loved seeing that truck at the Hanford and Lemoore shows.

 

I haven't seen it, sorry. I just moved back the this area last year. I grew up in hanford, went to L.A. for school, then moved back after graduation. Now that the weather is warming up (everyone from outside CA probably thinks I'm a wuss), there should be more shows so I'll keep an eye out for it.

 

You cannot compare our prices here to prices in Europe.
They elect their Govt sponges!! (just like we do!)

Their GOVTs TAX them at a much higher rate. The real (wholesale) price of gasoline and diesel is about the same.

So what you're saying then is, we are not taxed the same and are not taxed as much when we drive our cars. As an industrial nation our productivity is FAR higher and our tax structure is much better. No wonder a LOT of people from "over there" want to come over here!


There's something else going on here. There is a new refinery construction project that is going to start in Yuma, AZ this year.

http://www.intertanko.com/tankernews/artikkel.asp?id=8847


There has NOT been a new refinery built in this country since 1970. Demand for refined petro products has been steadily climbing since then and it's been taken up by just increasing output of refining capacity. (which until recently has been about enough...except when there's an accident or problem requiring shutdown)



The refiners are spending a LOT of money on reducing sulfer and other EPA req.

States like Calif for example have a CARB (Ca Air Resources Board)

This Environ-Wacko organization has come up with "secret-sauce" gasoline that is different from any where in the country. The refiners must make all the gasoline in CA to meet this req. Several major cities and population centers around the country have a "Special Sauce" requirment that the refiners must meet to sell gasoline in that area. Gasoline made for eastern WA cannot be sold in Los Angeles etc.

Does anybody REALLY think the refiners just absorb these costs? (and not pass them on?...to us?)


Also, world demand for unrefined and refined products is climbing faster than those countries that are buying and building cars, can produce it so they have to import it just like us.

Think about it....China and India have a combined total of a bit short of 2.5 billion people.

In the not so distant past a big percentage of thse people rode bikes and walked (or took the socialist bus!)

Now these people are buying cars at an unprecedented rate.
(mainly because they are selling us and other countries huge amounts of consumer products and they have money to spend on cars, cell phones and TV's etc.......has anyone looked at the tags on the stuff you buy at Walmart...and everywhere else for that matter?.....where are they made?

The oil that they use has greatly increased demand. China for example does not have a huge oil production capability. So they are buying oil on the world market. The old rule still applies. if you increase demand....the price goes up. It's that simple.

It's going to keep going up.


Sorry people....it's a little off subject......It all means that I may have to limit driving my 55 Ford F-600 a little!!



cheers,

Rick

 

Good info Rick...maybe we'll be looking at hybrid conversions for our Effies soon? or maybe hydrogen?

:-)

 

Well,

I hope so! That would be cool I think!

In a fit of smoke and mirrors...I was planning to put a Dodge(cummins) 6cyl diesel+ 5 speed in my F-600.

Now I'm not so sure. I may do a Ford 300cu-in I-6. You can buy a lot of gasoline for the price difference! A 300 is a great engine to be sure.

This wide difference in diesel prices is, I believe going to be short lived. I think diesel will be on average a little cheaper or maybe about the same as (reg) gasoline in the long run.......It's tied to the price of heating oil nation wide and as people switch to natural gas the demand for diesel will drop or level out I would think. Diesel always go's up during a really cold winter when heating oil supplies drop and the price rises..

 

A while ago I was thinking the same thing. You can by conversion kits to take a truck fram gasoline to propane or natural gas. I read somewhere on the web that you can use those kits or something similar and make any combustion engine run on hydrogen gas.

Now its just a matter of getting hydrogen.

 

Yeah....It takes more energy to make hydrogen tan you get out it so it's a net loss if you use electrolysis.....

Maybe there's a better more efficient way to make it. I don't know.....solar maybe...

We have few nuclear power plants so when you use electricity to do it you use a lot of energy from oil, gas and coal to get it..


We're probably better off making bio-diesel out of soybean oil and other veg-oils as an possible alternative.

we could all be running "Power-Smokes" in our Effies!


Natural gas is a possible but the current storeage tanks are not very big. You almost have to fill it avery 100 miles or so!. Propane is a little better.

You can fill at home though with NG...

http://www.fuelmaker.com/Products/NaturalGasRefueling/Applications/Residential.htm

 

CA55F100, I dunno, my truck has been dust brown for about 10 years, except for the last 3 years we have been restoring it, its a beautiful electric blue right now, gonna add ghost flames here a in a few weeks, as soon as I get some money comming in im gonna buy the tires and about $600 worth of misc parts( new guages, steering wheel, seat belts, etc) so, about $1200 later it should be crusin through town again, with me grinnin the whole time

 

I just paid $2.659 for regular at Union 76 (UNOCAL). A personal record.

 

Yeah that's a lot!

and there's not gonna be a Unocal any more either.....Chevron Texaco just bought them a couple days ago... How much was Arco regular by the way?


R

 

No more Unocal? Hey maybe I can buy that big orange ball from the station owner then. It'd look pretty cool hanging from my living room ceiling fan! I haven't seen what Arco is charging. They're located out of my normal paths to work, fast food, the hardware stores and auto parts shops.