How low do you let your tank get before stopping?

[LanceRKeys]

I just got back from my longest trip with my travel trailer yet. I get nervous when the tank drops below half, which makes us stop every two hours or so. This was mainly on the interstate, so no lack of fuel stations. Stopping this often made the trip take much longer than it should have. So when going on a long drive, how low do you let your tank get before you stop?

I plan to add a small (36 gallon) auxiliary tank to help with this situation, but until that time, I need to work on my fear of running out and stretch my stops out a little more.

[Lessmore]

Maybe from my first car which had no gas gauge. It was a '61 VW Beetle and I only had a lever under the dash, which when I ran out of fuel would provide a reserve which gave a few more miles.

One late Saturday night in '67 I was driving to Minnesota from Canada. A few miles outside of a small French Canadian town, my VW ran out of fuel. The only gas station in the town, was just about to close, but I was able to fill my tank up. After that I was more careful about my fuel.

I had a variety of motorcycles before my first car. They were a mix of European (Czechoslovakian) and Japanese...none had a fuel gauge, just a reserve capacity.

So here I am, 50 + years later and I still don't let my tank go below half full. :B

[MitchF150]

When I had my old 97 F150, it only had a 26 gallon tank... I stopped for gas on a 4 hr trip at around the 2 hr mark..

With the new 13 F150 that has a 36 gallon tank, I do that same 4 hr trip with gas to spare and get some gas the next day just to do it while we are "out and about"..

But, in general, I will go down to 1/4 tank at most and then start looking.

Good luck!

Mitch

[time2roll]

I go 200 miles max with 26 gallon tank and 8 mpg. I try to go 170 miles if I can. When the low fuel light is on at the fill-up makes a perfect run. I tend to look for fuel at about half tank or lower to max out the run. Some adjustment for conditions if needed. No fear.

[Bobbo]

When driving cross country, at half a tank I gas up if I have to stop anyway for another reason. At a quarter tank, I start actively looking for a station. At an eighth of a tank, I pull out the gps or smart phone and find a station. (Of course, now that I have a 36 gallon tank, I may adjust those some.)

Driving out west where there are sometimes long distances between towns can also affect this.

[Home_Skillet]

LanceRKeys wrote:
Stopping this often made the trip take much longer than it should have.

You know you want to stop for that Allsups burrito. 😉

[donn0128]

Depends. How far before I paln to stop? And the possible availability of fuel when I stop.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

My truck can go 350 miles before it's empty. So 300 miles is good for me.