Actual Fuel Capacity?

reconsider----reconsider----reconsider the C.......MPG

 

Something useful I ran across:

http://dps.sd.gov/licensing/weights_and_measures/images/Fuel%20Tank%20Capacity.pdf

 

I got about the same on my last fillup. Around 460 miles and 8.3 gal.
What bothered me was that the fuel guage went from two bars to one blinking bar. I interpreted the one blinking bar to mean empty and stopped at the nearest (expensive) gas station.
Maybe its the tiny gas tank or an overly conservative estimate... Somehow it just doesn't seem right that it would start warning me about gas when the car can go at least another 50-60 miles.

 

Life just isn't fair, LOL.

Seriously, I don't see the point of stretching tanks. My 2 cents: it's below halfway, you're near your favourite station, just fill it.

 

Some places it's more than 50 miles between gas stations. Fortunately people that live in those places are usually aware of how much gas they have left in their tank and how far it will take them.

 

I don't have photos of the triple digit signs, so this will have to do:


While there was once gas at the junction just a quarter mile behind, it closed long long ago. The nearest gas still available by backtracking was 22 or 23 miles, depending on which fork of the junction from which one arrived.

 

I pulled into Wagontire Oregon (population 2) on my motorcycle once expecting to buy gas. Wagontire consists of not much more than a 2 hole outhouse and small gas station (slight exaggeration). The gas station was closed so I headed up US 395 to the next gas station, just over 50 miles in Burns Oregon at 50 mph economy cruise speed. My bike took 5.05 gallons in a 5 gallon tank when I got to Burns. The last gas station before Wagontire was 85 miles south in Lakeview Oregon so I had 135 miles between gas stations on US 395.

 

You found it! This sign is on that very road, northbound, 61 miles south of Wagontire, as we explored the south end of Lake Abert this spring. Since it says 90 miles, I presume Wagontire is now closed, with the next gas expected at Riley. But if Riley still lacks gas -- apparently you didn't find it as you passed through -- then Burns is 116 miles from this sign. Lakeview is 23 miles behind, though we came from Paisley, 22 miles on a different branch of the fork.

But this long no-service distance is not unique. I've seen at least three other sections of somewhat similar distance this year, the longest being a 100+ mile warning out of Snowville UT towards Nevada. When I was young, a section between Idaho and Montana had an even longer distance warning.

 

I rode that road on my motorcycle about 1998 so things may have changed a bit. My personal record for a section of a road with no gas stations was over 250 mile on the Campbell Highway from Carmacks YK (sp) to Watson Lake BC in the 1970s. My truck had a 600+ mile range so no problem.

 

Could you be remembering wrong? My atlas is showing that as 383 miles. But the road goes through Whitehorse, a mere 272 miles from Watson Lakes.

Or was it the other road, Hiway 4, covering 362 miles?

 

I think you are right, the road I took didn't go through Whitehorse. I just looked the route up and remember the side trip to Faro so it must have been Hwy 4. There wasn't a full 362 miles without gas. There was a gas stop along the way that made the longest dry stretch something like 260 miles. I also had the wrong Watson Lake, it was Watson Lake YT, not BC, just a few miles north of BC.

 

I usually wait till I have about two gallons left to fill it up. Its usually a little over 400 miles.

 

South eastern Oregon is truly a desolate place, but beautiful all the same.....