Updated Top Tier Fuel list, to include now diesel

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Found this and thought it was interesting. Glad to see they are now including diesel. Just wish it was more readily available. Kind of surprised Propel isn't on here. They are supposed to have a very good high quality fuel.

Top Tier Fuel list
 
I'm still getting garbage fuel from supposed top tier fuel suppliers - Xom seems most vunerable for some unknown reason. Was doing good at the local EXxon for a couple months then - BAM! garbage - car barely ran.
The point is with E10 and water infiltration there are NO guarantees you'll get acceptable fuel.
 
I find this funny as I see the same truck that fills the supposed top tier Shell station, go a few miles down the road and fill the non-top tier Circle K or other mom and pop station...

All this is is marketing, allowing these "Branded" stations to mark up the price of fuel.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I'm still getting garbage fuel from supposed top tier fuel suppliers - Xom seems most vunerable for some unknown reason. Was doing good at the local EXxon for a couple months then - BAM! garbage - car barely ran.
The point is with E10 and water infiltration there are NO guarantees you'll get acceptable fuel.



The best bet is to find a station that has a high turnover. At least you know the fuel is fresh.
 
Originally Posted By: Rat407
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I'm still getting garbage fuel from supposed top tier fuel suppliers - Xom seems most vunerable for some unknown reason. Was doing good at the local EXxon for a couple months then - BAM! garbage - car barely ran.
The point is with E10 and water infiltration there are NO guarantees you'll get acceptable fuel.



The best bet is to find a station that has a high turnover. At least you know the fuel is fresh.

This is what I do. I don't look for Top Tier Fuel or anything like that, I just look for the cheapest price at a high turnover station and run Techron fuel system cleaner once every 7.5k miles. I figure I probably pay about the same, but I don't have to deal with finding a "top tier" gas station.
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I find this funny as I see the same truck that fills the supposed top tier Shell station, go a few miles down the road and fill the non-top tier Circle K or other mom and pop station...

All this is is marketing, allowing these "Branded" stations to mark up the price of fuel.


Additives are added after tank fill as far as I know.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOgraphite
I'm still getting garbage fuel from supposed top tier fuel suppliers - Xom seems most vunerable for some unknown reason. Was doing good at the local EXxon for a couple months then - BAM! garbage - car barely ran.
The point is with E10 and water infiltration there are NO guarantees you'll get acceptable fuel.



Been using Exxon-Mobil since 1970 and over a million miles. Runs awesome on it all the time. I did try Chevron a couple of times cause they have Techron but got tons of pinging. It stopped when I went back to Mobil-Exxon. All that on plain old regular 87 octane. I never use anything higher then 87.
 
Originally Posted By: Rat407
Found this and thought it was interesting. Glad to see they are now including diesel. Just wish it was more readily available. Kind of surprised Propel isn't on here. They are supposed to have a very good high quality fuel.

Top Tier Fuel list


I would figure large retailers like Gulf would be on the list. Missing from the diesel list is every major retailer like ExxonMobil.
 
I was glad to see Irving go Top Tier as one of their stations is now by far the most convenient place for me to stop for gas between home and work. Used to have one Shell right near work and another literally next door to my gym, now I work about 1000 feet from a downtown highway ramp and rarely do any surface driving in the city and can also walk to my new gym.
Interesting that it states that member stations must sell all Top Tier gas but that drivers need to check the diesel pumps themselves to make sure that fuel is TT...
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
All this is is marketing, allowing these "Branded" stations to mark up the price of fuel.


I find that list quite questionable myself. Many of the brands/stations listed are ones I avoid based on their locations, how poorly maintained the stations look (inside and outside), and so on.
 
Originally Posted By: wemay
Additives are added after tank fill as far as I know.


Curious how that process may work. I've seen a fuel delivery guy fill the underground tanks, remove his fuel hose, cap the tank, and move on. That station uses no additives ?

Do they manually pour in additives from a small container that is carried on the truck ?
 
Originally Posted By: hallstevenson
Originally Posted By: wemay
Additives are added after tank fill as far as I know.


Curious how that process may work. I've seen a fuel delivery guy fill the underground tanks, remove his fuel hose, cap the tank, and move on. That station uses no additives ?

Do they manually pour in additives from a small container that is carried on the truck ?


A delivery driver unloading at a Shell station told me that the additives were put in at the place where he loaded his truck at Greensboro, NC tank farm.
 
I was always under the assumption that the detergents were added and then the tanks were filled, like what we do with our cars. Tankers fill with no name and add it at every name brand stop. Does this mean that the Joe Blows gas station up the block could get lucky on a "Shell" tanker, and sell the top tier as no name? Id love to see the tanker routes to see what their station list is like. I also thought that the no names only can sell gas older than 60 days, so maybe they have good tank days and old tank days.
Im also glad that theyre starting to include diesel on the list. I always run additive in both mine, but Id love to find a place that sells higher cetane diesel in my area.
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I find this funny as I see the same truck that fills the supposed top tier Shell station, go a few miles down the road and fill the non-top tier Circle K or other mom and pop station...

All this is is marketing, allowing these "Branded" stations to mark up the price of fuel.


The Top Tier additive package is usually mixed in by the tanker operator during storage tank fill. It's not much volume-wise, a quart or two will treat an entire tanker load. It's true that one refinery will usually service everyone in the area, but the additive packages do differ.

It's pretty much what you are paying for versus discount resellers. All fuel will have a basic additive package from the refinery, so discount fuel is not junk anymore than Top Tier is gold but there is a difference.

VW has a lot of data showing the value of the additive packages in engines that were dyno-run for many hours (equivalent to miles) if you're interested in seeking out some test results that are accessible from the internet without having to pony up for an SAE membership or don't want to pay hundreds of $ for research papers.

Somewhat back on topic, I'd be curious to learn what would make a Diesel fuel "Top Tier" as it's a very different animal in a very different environment than gasoline. Thanks for the heads-up, I might check it out when I have more time.
 
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I find this funny as I see the same truck that fills the supposed top tier Shell station, go a few miles down the road and fill the non-top tier Circle K or other mom and pop station...

All this is is marketing, allowing these "Branded" stations to mark up the price of fuel.


Most fuel truck have at least 4 different compartments. Next time you see a truck filling tanks look to see how many outlets it has.

Some tank trucks are able to carry multiple products at once due to compartmentalization of the tank into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or in some rare cases more tank compartments. This allows for an increased number of delivery options. These trucks are commonly used to carry different grades of gasoline to service stations to carry all products needed in one trip.
 
Originally Posted By: shanneba
Originally Posted By: racin4ds
I find this funny as I see the same truck that fills the supposed top tier Shell station, go a few miles down the road and fill the non-top tier Circle K or other mom and pop station...
All this is is marketing, allowing these "Branded" stations to mark up the price of fuel.

Most fuel truck have at least 4 different compartments. Next time you see a truck filling tanks look to see how many outlets it has.
Some tank trucks are able to carry multiple products at once due to compartmentalization of the tank into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or in some rare cases more tank compartments. This allows for an increased number of delivery options. These trucks are commonly used to carry different grades of gasoline to service stations to carry all products needed in one trip.


Great info, thanks!
 
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