Sometimes the campgrounds have no hook ups and maybe not even a dump station, other times extended boondocking in the desert leads to the tanks filling and the RVer has to go in search of a place to "relieve" the RV.
One place that many RV owners use to dump their tanks is Flying J Travel Centers.
Flying J caters to RVs with many of their Travel Centers having separate lanes for RVs. The lanes are equipped with fuel pumps that provide both gasoline and diesel, as well as water faucets and dump stations.
Recently something new has appeared at the Flying J dump stations.
A fee of $10 is now being charged, but if you have a Flying J RV Real Value card and purchase some fuel at the pump, you only have to pay $5.
Flying J has had to put the charge on the dump stations due to rising costs of maintaining them. People have put all kinds of things in the dump station holes or pull up and let the tanks fly without using a sewer hose. I've seen that personally. Someone has to clean up the mess and that costs money.
I have no heartburn with the dump fee, I still get a nice place to fuel up that is easy to get into with my 40 foot Journey pulling my toad. I can park overnight for free in the RV section of the Flying J parking lot. Plus the Flying J store has the odds and ends I might need, be it a soda or a giant hot dog.
So if I need the dump station, the $5 is a small price to pay. Reading some of the RV forums, some RV owners have gotten their shorts in a bunch over it and in a huff state they'll never visit the Flying J again.
That's fine, that leaves more room in the parking lot for me. ;c)
Thanks for visiting and please feel free to comment.
I'm with you although we have never stayed at a Flying "J" I have always bought my fuel there and used their dumps when they were free. Well the price is going up I have no intention of going elsewhere. It is a sign of the times, businesses need to ensure they make a profit or they soon they are just another abandoned building.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The dump station is a service provided by them. Why shouldn't we pay? Even if it is never abused, it certainly is a cost factor for the business to even provide it to us.
ReplyDeleteSyl
I guess we don't mind paying for a dump station, as sometimes we do pay for dumping at our local city campground on our way home, because we stay in a national forest campground with no hookups. That is no biggie really.
ReplyDeleteBut... think of it this way:
If I am fueling up at $4 a gallon with my 110 gallon tank, I am spending $440 dollars.
If the average car is fueling up, they are spending about $40. If each car has 2 occupants who use their flushing toilets inside, that might use about 8 gallons of water for each flush.
So their 22 customers can wayyyy easily surpass the same amount of sewage as my 50 gallon tank.
They don't charge those customers to use the bathroom. But dollar for dollar, I should be able to get 22 flushes worth of sewer disposal from them too?
Not trying to argue, just showing the other side of the coin. It's not that we are being cheap, it's that we don't like paying for something that other customers get for *free*.
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Karen and Steve
(Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/
They wanted to charge us $10 at the campground next to where we were boondocking. The camp host said he was embarrassed to even tell us the price ;) He gave us a tip on where we could go to only pay $5. Since we're both tightwads, we chose option 2.
ReplyDeleteBoy! It's great to have internet again!!
Nellie
http://midlifecruiser.blogspot.com