California City CNG Pump Public or Private

[cal_mag]

Hi All,

I will be in Inyo/Kern next week for work and want to drive my 2004 Civic Gx, I plan to refuel in Victorville or Barstow and then refuel again in Calif City before going to work for 6 days in Inyo/Kern. My driving during work will be very limited and I can carpool with someone else as needed.

I called the Calif City number that I found on a forum here and they said it's open 24 hours and takes visa and I would have no problems re-fueling there. But in another post it said that's wrong and they only take CFN cards which I don't have. I'd like to believe the forum here and the person I talked to there. Who is right or is the post outdated?

As an alternative Tehapachi is a few more miles out of my way but appears to take Visa according to the map.

Any feedback on either station?

Thanks,

Jim

[cal_mag]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

FYI,

well, I got there and it was broke ay 1 am, talk about screwed! Went to Tecahapi and it was broke too, screwed again. Beware of either station. I called them both before I left and they both told me they were working and took visa. They were wrong,

I had to drive to Lancaster which is the opposite direction and got fuel in Lancaster and had to spend the night,

Jim

[freedml]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

As a pilot, the planning is always have enough fuel to get to your destination, your alternate, and then 30 minutes after that. Driving a CNG car, we add AAA Plus and have used it to get to a CNG station after a string of 'non ops' or 'closed up and blown away' stations.

[cal_mag]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

I agree, this is the 2nd time I have had to go to my 3rd or 4th backup station... I wish the operators of these stations were more considerate and helpfull when they get calls from people needing gas.

That is why I have a Phill at home, but when I travel for work I am risk of bad stations.

[freedml]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

Have you marked them as non-operational on cngprices.com? I just looked and they still have red markers (but updates sometimes take a while, unfortunately).

[cal_mag]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

I did mark them both, it says it sent my message to the admin,

I also left comments for both of them and don't see them yet either,

One of them shows red but has comments from someone else that it is down.

I called and left a message for the Calif City operator that I found on here in another post and asked him to call me Monday. The problem is that I am in Inyokern flight testing and working 12 hour days and won't be able to get to that station until late Monday or Tue evening and if it doesn't work I won't make it to Victorville, I will have to go back to Lancaster which is another 50 miles in the wrong direction again.

[freedml]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

Todd must be busy. Todd, can you work out a way for some other people either to approve such changes or post them unmoderated? It's really not good for 'inoperative' stations to be shown as working for any significant length of time.

[cngprices]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

I am working on ways to make that possible, but it's all a matter of finding the time, right? I do this on the side, so I don't always have the time to do the things I want!

However, in my defense, in this case the station was left un-updated for only 10 hours, during most people's sleeping time (the flag was put in at 11:45 pm and I updated it at 10 AM). I would hardly call that a significant amount of time. But I agree that sometimes updates do take longer than they need to.

Cheers,
Todd

[freedml]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

It's not just a matter of a time delay. cngprices.com is now a nationally known and important resource for CNG users. Is there at least one other person who can keep the site running if you are suddenly unavailable for any reason?

[cal_mag]

Re: California City CNG Pump Public or Private

I am not as worried about the website reporting the info as soon as I report it. I am glad to see that you are on top of it. What I am really disappointed about it when I called the phone numbers on the guide that I keep in my car and they both tell me they are working and take visa and then I find them both broke, that is shocking.

If I would have read the Tecahapi comments I would have relized it was broke eventhough it showed it as working. Now I know and have learned something.

I plan to go straigt from Ridgecrest to Victorville for Fuel Wed Afternoon, I will call and check online before I leave, if somethign isn't working there I could go back to Lancaster.