Which Fuel

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Sawz

Sawz

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Do the Marinas sell non ethanol fuels at all?
Looking at the website it shows 87 octane with 91 at halls is the 91 the rec fuel?
 
BZeg said:
Antelope Marina fuel is non ethanol and priced accordingly.
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FYI. Antelope non-ethanol is actually $0.34 per gallon less expensive than Wahweap's that has ethanol if the pricing on their respective websites is accurate. For 87 octane, APM is $5.03 and Wahweap is $5.37 per gallon.

A little extra information you may find interesting. During the 1990s into the early 2000s, it was common for fuel at South end LP marinas (only Wahweap at that time) to be about $1.00 per gallon higher than fuel available in town. From the early 2000s to the 2010s, the marina fuel price increased to about $1.50 per gallon at the marinas vs "in town" price. In the last 5-8 years, marina fuel is regularly +$2.00 per gallon higher than fuel available in town - right now, for example, it's closer to $2.50 per gallon more expensive than "in town" pricing, and nearly a 100% increase vs out of the water. Ridiculous in my opinion, but what options do houseboats and large cruisers have!

A few years ago, 2015 I think, in my own self-protest of the ridiculous on the water fuel pricing, I pulled my boat over to the APM public ramp and used 14 five-gallon cans to fill my boat up running back and forth into Page five trips - 350 gallons of ethanol-free gasoline. I did this by myself and it took me a day and a half. I needed to do 3 more trips to actually fill my boat but I personally ran out of gas. I saved nearly $900! But it was really a PITA and I have not done that "protest" again. I'm willing to pay a premium for non-ethanol gas, but the "marina" vs. "in town" price difference of greater than $2.00 seems excessive, even to a red-blooded capitalist.
 
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Pegasus said:
FYI. Antelope non-ethanol is actually $0.34 per gallon less expensive than Wahweap's that has ethanol if the pricing on their respective websites is accurate. For 87 octane, APM is $5.03 and Wahweap is $5.37 per gallon.

A little extra information you may find interesting. During the 1990s into the early 2000s, it was common for fuel at South end LP marinas (only Wahweap at that time) to be about $1.00 per gallon higher than fuel available in town. From the early 2000s to the 2010s, the marina fuel price increased to about $1.50 per gallon at the marinas vs "in town" price. In the last 5-8 years, marina fuel is regularly +$2.00 per gallon higher than fuel available in town - right now, for example, it's closer to $2.50 per gallon more expensive than "in town" pricing, and nearly a 100% increase vs out of the water. Ridiculous in my opinion, but what options do houseboats and large cruisers have!

A few years ago, 2015 I think, during early spring in my own self-protest of the ridiculous on the water fuel pricing, I pulled my boat over to the APM public ramp and used 14 five-gallon cans to fill my boat up running back and forth into Page five trips - 350 gallons of ethanol-free gasoline. I did this by myself and it took me a day and a half. I needed to do 3 more trips to actually fill my boat but I personally ran out of gas. I figure I saved nearly $900! But it was really a PITA and I have not done that "protest" again. I'm willing to pay a premium for non-ethanol gas, but the "marina" vs. "in town" price difference of greater than $2.00 seems excessive, even to a red-blooded capitalist.
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Wow, that's incredible! So, if you saved $900 how much did you spend? I have never been to LP but planning a trip this summer, I have read the average budget for fuel should be $200/day. is this an old budget number? What should we be figuring? Our plan is to park the HB and use smaller boats for exploring.
 
Tiihunter said:
Wow, that's incredible! So, if you saved $900 how much did you spend? I have never been to LP but planning a trip this summer, I have read the average budget for fuel should be $200/day. is this an old budget number? What should we be figuring? Our plan is to park the HB and use smaller boats for exploring.
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I happen to me on the lake right now and looked at my fuel log so I can quote actual real savings from my log.

Date was 1/6/15. Fuel at the time was $5.17 per gallon at APM and it had ethanol in it at the time. Fuel at Sunshine in Page was non-ethanol and was $2.68 per gallon. I filled 350 gallons and saved $2.49 per gallon ($5.17-$2.68=$2.49 savings per gallon) Multiplied by 350 gallons = $871.50 saving vs buying at the marina. I spent $938 ($2.68 per gallon x 350). At the marina, this would have cost me $1,809.50.

Regarding your comment on budgeting fuel for your trip, $200 per day is a reasonable estimate depending on your cruiser boat engine, and is controllable by you (i.e. how often your ski/wakeboard/fish, etc.). If you decide on a trip to Rainbow Bridge, for example, you can count on using a couple of days allotment of your budget. Welcome to Lake Powell and I hope you have a great trip!!
 
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The second most unreasonable expense to plan for is ice. $6.00 for a 10lb bag of crushed or block. It's even more if you are buying from the "wonderful" self serve stations they set up. The self serve machines charge a premium (for what I don't know) and only sell crushed ice. As a "bonus" the self-serve units are generally 100% exposed to the sun, preventing a hard freeze and then the ice is dispensed via a metal tray that is usually blistering hot from being exposed to the sun in 100'+ temps. i get more riled about the cost of frozen water than I do gas, and I'm willing to pay a premium for the convenience of gas on the water, and even understand the cost to transport the fuel to the north end, but the markup that is allowed for a monopoly service is hard to justify
 
Unless the pump says "Ethanol Free" it's going to have the corn mixture in it. I have heard the story that premium (91 octane) doesn't contain it and that is just simply false.

Ethanol free is available at many places on your way to the Northern end of the lake but not actually on the lake, so if it is for your houseboat you'll have to stage your own little protest like Pegasus did and save yourself a bunch of money.

But if it's for your pleasure boat or toys, Ethanol free can be found at the Silver Eagle in Hanksville, Ticaboo (Not offshore), and the land based gas station at Bullfrog. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe Hall's has it at either station.
 
If you have a Maverik Convenience Store near you their blue handles dispense what they call Clear Gas and it's ethanol free. I run it strictly in all my small engines and carburetor rebuilds which were a CONSTANT problem are now a thing of the past. Dirt bikes, lawnmowers, 4 wheelers, chainsaw, leaf blowers. It's been a life changer!
 
My understanding was that the impetus behind APM going with all "ethanol-free" fuel was that several of the big houseboats with thousand gallon plus fuel tanks experienced phase separation of the ethanol fuel in their tanks after they sat unused for too long, requiring the tanks to be drained and the bad fuel disposed at a significant cost (if I recall the cost to remove and dispose of bad fuel was $12 per gallon, but don't quote me on that).

Ethanol-free fuel does still go bad, but it takes much longer to do so, and fuel stabilizers work better in it, and most importantly phase separation NEVER occurs, which is non-reversible and catastrophic once it happens.
 
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Gem Morris said:
If you have a Maverik Convenience Store near you their blue handles dispense what they call Clear Gas and it's ethanol free. I run it strictly in all my small engines and carburetor rebuilds which were a CONSTANT problem are now a thing of the past. Dirt bikes, lawnmowers, 4 wheelers, chainsaw, leaf blowers. It's been a life changer!
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X2 on this- Makes such a difference on so many small engines! It is about 20 cents higher at my location but I don't mind at all
 
This is for a new boat for me, I wanted to try and keep it ethanol free, we have stations near here that carry it. I was just hearing lots of bad things about eating the inside of fuel hoses and doing nasty things the longer it sits. I can understand the stabilizers, but the sea foam from my usage in the past is for cleaning injectors and engine. Does it really help retain the values of the fuel?
 
I wouldn’t use Sea Foam for ethanol fuels. Think you are better with Marine Stabil - which is formulated for ethanol.

And the effect of ethanol I think varies with how old your boat is.

I’ve been on two houseboats that hates the fuel. They were both pre 1995. Current boat is a 2004 and it doesn’t seem to mind ethanol.

My last boat used ethanol basically 100% of the time and I never had problems with it in nearly 700 hours.

Current boat is mostly used with ethanol, I’ve only had fuel problems one time - when I fueled up at Bullfrog. Boat requires 91 octane and Bullfrog doesn’t have it. Ever since then I have used octane booster at Bullfrog and the boat is happy with over 600 hours on it.
 
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I have owned 24 boats I/O, two cycle, two stroke, and now have two boats with 4 stroke. I have been using Stabil in all of them since they started manufacturing Stabil. I now use the Marine Stabil. I have never had any problems with any fuel since I started using it. Including ethanol fuel and buying dirty fuel on the Sea Of Cortes for the past 15 years. What is important is to keep an extra fuel filter handy for dirty fuel tanks. Especially on rental boats
 
The real problem comes from mixing ethanol with non ethanol fuel. Your will end up with fuel that looks like Italian dressing and your engines will not run well at all. Eventually this led to us driving the houseboat over to Antelope marina and having all the fuel tanks pumped out. I never mix the two now.
 
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