Midwest E85 Road trip planned

[Turbo6inKY]

Something happened a couple weeks ago. E85 dropped in price. Hugely. It's $2.99 a gallon here in Louisville. Pump 93 is $3.90. That's a 24% discount, and makes E85 effectively equal in cost-per-mile as pump gas for my car. Normally, the E85 is about the same price as pump 87.

So, next week I'm gong to attempt a medium distance trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Jefferson City, Missouri, with a stopover in St. Louis. It's the kids' spring break next week, you see, and we're going to hit up the St. Louis Zoo before heading on to visit Family.

I've found filling stations in Mount Vernon, Illinois that have E-85, as well as several along I-70 in Missouri and in Jefferson City proper. Oddly, there are no stations between the Louisville metro area and Mount Vernon (175 miles), so that's going to be the only real challenge of the trip.

I regularly get more than 200 gallons per tank in-city, though, so this should be cake to pull off.

 

[Rafs-T-Type]

Something happened a couple weeks ago. E85 dropped in price. Hugely. It's $2.99 a gallon here in Louisville. Pump 93 is $3.90. That's a 24% discount, and makes E85 effectively equal in cost-per-mile as pump gas for my car. Normally, the E85 is about the same price as pump 87.

So, next week I'm gong to attempt a medium distance trip from Louisville, Kentucky, to Jefferson City, Missouri, with a stopover in St. Louis. It's the kids' spring break next week, you see, and we're going to hit up the St. Louis Zoo before heading on to visit Family.

I've found filling stations in Mount Vernon, Illinois that have E-85, as well as several along I-70 in Missouri and in Jefferson City proper. Oddly, there are no stations between the Louisville metro area and Mount Vernon (175 miles), so that's going to be the only real challenge of the trip.

I regularly get more than 200 gallons per tank in-city, though, so this should be cake to pull off.

Fill up a couple gas cans just in case. Also if you have a smart phone there are apps that can help you find a station. Also don't always trust sites to tell you where stations are. I have found them to be quite outdated. Just about all the Gas Citys lost E-85 when they closed/changed ownership so beware of that too.

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Fill up a couple gas cans just in case. Also if you have a smart phone there are apps that can help you find a station. Also don't always trust sites to tell you where stations are. I have found them to be quite outdated. Just about all the Gas Citys lost E-85 when they closed/changed ownership so beware of that too.

I'm taking the pump gas chip with me. If I get stuck, it'll take me all of five minutes to swap the chip out and fill it with regular gasoline.

 

[jpratt]

I have seen E85 around here at a lot of the Mobile stations.

 

[TT/Ameasap]

This is why I left my alky kit on. If I decide to take a long trip in my car, I can run it on E85 and switch to 93 pump and alky with a chip swap. Reguardless, alky is always going to be on.

 

[BEATAV8]

I have one of those thumbwheels. I wanted to set it up with E85 on one setting and gas on another. Just never did it yet.... haven't had to.

 

[dvernst]

E85 dropped here by Chicago too? Anyone know why?

 

[Rafs-T-Type]

I thought i read something about demand dropping.

 

[John Larkin]

The great 2013 corn embargo.

 

[Turbo6inKY]

Made the trip with zero complications, and averaged 16mpg to boot. The EPA's station locator proved accurate as well.