Tony Reeves
You’re somewhere on I-80, it’s 9 p.m., you’ve been driving since noon, and your only options within 30 miles are a Walmart lot, a dark rest area with a broken bathroom, or the Love’s you just passed. You’ve probably made this call before. What’s changing is that Love’s is actively betting you’ll make it more often, and they’re spending $700 million to make sure you can.
Love’s Travel Stops announced their “Road Ahead Plan” for 2026 earlier this year, and the RV piece of it is real and moving fast. Twenty-three new RV locations are rolling out this summer, which will push their network past 140 locations and over 2,000 hookups nationwide. For context: they hit their 100th RV Stop milestone in Carlin, Nevada in summer 2025. They’re going from 100 to 140-plus in about a year. That’s not incremental. That’s a company that’s decided the full-timer and road-tripper market is worth chasing hard.
And starting spring 2026, Love’s quietly added something that full-timers will actually notice: RV tires and batteries, sold on-site at 79 locations that already combine truck care with RV hookups. That changes the math on Love’s as a pit stop category.
What the Tire and Battery News Actually Means
I’ve spent enough time on the side of highways to know that a blown RV tire is a different kind of bad day than a car tire. The rigs are heavier, the tire sizes are less common, and the mobile tire services that show up for you can run $400 to $600 before you’ve bought anything. The fact that Love’s is now stocking RV-specific tires and batteries at 79 locations, according to NACS’s June 2026 coverage, is genuinely useful news, not just a press release.
What most people don’t realize is how thin the roadside options have historically been. Flying-C, Pilot, and TA have truck care, but RV-specific inventory has always been spotty. If your Group 27 deep cycle dies at 6 a.m. in rural Nevada, you’re calling around. Now there’s at least a shot that the Love’s you’re already stopped at has what you need. Will the prices be competitive with ordering from Amazon or hitting a Walmart? Almost certainly not. But when you need it, you need it, and “available” beats “cheaper by Tuesday” every time.
The Community Is Split, and Both Sides Have a Point
I read through the active thread on Keystone Forums from February 2026 where RVers are going back and forth on whether Love’s truck stop RV sites are worth it. The debate is real and the criticisms aren’t wrong.
The noise complaint is legitimate. Love’s built its business around trucks, and trucks idle at night. If you’re parked 80 feet from a fuel island and a refrigerated semi runs its reefer unit all night, you’re not sleeping without earplugs. The sites themselves can be cramped, and depending on the location, you’re pulling a slideout into a situation that’s technically enough space but doesn’t feel like it. These aren’t campground experiences. Nobody’s pretending they are.
But the people defending Love’s in that thread are making valid points too. The hookups are 30-amp and 50-amp with water and sometimes sewer. The locations are right off major interstates. They’re open 24 hours. You can get a shower, food, and fuel in the same stop. For someone doing serious miles across the country, that bundle matters. If you’re moving the rig rather than settling in, the “campground vibe” argument doesn’t apply to you.
The honest answer is that Love’s RV stops are a tool, not a destination. Using them as one or the other is where people go wrong.
The Location Strategy Is Deliberate
The two new locations that opened in April 2026, in Laurel, Montana and Albuquerque, New Mexico, give you a sense of what Love’s is targeting. These aren’t tourist corridors. Laurel sits on I-90 between Billings and the Wyoming border, a stretch where you can go a long time without good options. Albuquerque is a major junction on I-40 and I-25. Love’s is filling gaps on routes that full-timers and cross-country travelers actually drive, not building amenity-rich stops near resort areas.
That’s a smart approach for the market they’re after. The RVer who needs Love’s most isn’t the one parked for a week at a state park. It’s the one doing 350 miles a day for six days, who needs a reliable hookup, a functional shower, and the ability to get back on the road by 7 a.m.
How to Actually Use These Stops Well
| Feature | Love’s RV Stops | KOA/Full-Service RV Resort |
|---|---|---|
| Hookup Types | 30-amp and 50-amp with water, sometimes sewer | Typically full hookups with amenities |
| Price Per Night | $25-$40 | $60-$90 |
| Hours | 24 hours | Varies |
| Primary Use Case | Cross-country travel, pit stops | Extended stays, destination camping |
| On-Site Services | Fuel, showers, food, tire/battery (79 locations) | Varies by property |
| Atmosphere | Functional, truck-stop environment | Campground experience |
If you’re going to use Love’s as part of a serious travel strategy, a few things I’ve learned through trial and error. The app matters. Love’s has their own app, and booking hookup sites in advance is worth doing on busy summer weekends, especially with 23 new locations still coming online and demand figuring itself out. Showing up and hoping is fine in October. In July it’s a gamble.
Pay attention to which locations have the combined truck care and RV hookups, because that’s where the tire and battery inventory lives. Not every Love’s RV stop has the full service setup. Their website lets you filter by amenity, and it’s worth spending two minutes doing that before you commit to a route that puts you at a hookup-only location when you actually need service.
The showers are underrated. Love’s shower facilities were designed for truck drivers who care about cleanliness, and they’re cleaned frequently because that customer base demands it. After four days of campground showers that may or may not have hot water, the Love’s shower situation is genuinely good.
On pricing: expect to pay $25 to $40 per night for hookups depending on location and amperage. That’s not cheap for what is essentially a parking spot with power. But it’s not outrageous either, especially if you’re comparing it to a KOA or a full-service RV resort where you’d pay $60 to $90 and may not need the extras.
What This Means for the Road in 2026 and Beyond
Love’s hitting 140-plus locations and 2,000 hookups reshapes the map in a real way. A year ago, planning a long route required more careful thought about where the hookup gaps were. That’s getting easier. It doesn’t mean Love’s replaces state parks, private campgrounds, or the kind of spots that make full-timing worth it. It means the infrastructure layer underneath those experiences is getting more reliable.
I’ve never loved truck stops as overnight destinations. But I’ve also never regretted having one available when I needed it. Love’s is making that availability more consistent across more of the country, and the addition of tires and batteries shows they’re thinking about full-timers as a real customer, not just an afterthought. Whether the community warms up to them or keeps griping about the noise is almost beside the point. When your house is on wheels, options are assets.
Sources
- Love’s Travel Stops Expansion Includes 23 New RV Locations, Camper Report (February 10, 2026)
- Love’s Travel Stops Focuses on Growth & Reinvestment in 2026, RV PRO (February 5, 2026)
- Love’s Travel Stops Expands RV Services, NACS (June 2026)
- Love’s Opens Locations in Montana and New Mexico, Love’s Newsroom (April 2, 2026)
- Are Love’s Truck Stop RV Sites Worth the Price and Convenience?, Keystone Forums (February 2026)
Photo: Kampus Production via Pexels
