I was hoping to hit 500 miles

Hey Gang,

In an effort to help our son have less to think about in his upcoming relocation to Denver for a new job, yesterday my wife and I loaded up the Tacoma with his pets and his house plants and began a 1,100 mile trip back to our place. I decided to try and keep my speeds to 65 mph in a vain attempt to keep the taller plants from being shredded by the wind; epic fail on my part. I warned him of the likelihood of carnage, but he figured they'd have a better chance of survival in the back of my truck than they would surviving two weeks in a pod with no water.

As for the drive, the weather was in the high 90s and very humid, so the A/C was working full time, even still, for the first 350 miles of the first tank, the OBC was registering 26.0 mpg or higher, and maxed out at 26.2 mpg. Unfortunately after that traffic got heavy, a cold front rolled in complete with torrential rain and high winds, and the altitude started increasing, and finally there was a lot of local driving for the last 25 or so miles of the tank. Even still, I managed to hit 477.4 miles on a single tank before the DTE display went to zero; here are the final stats:

• Distance: 477.4
• Fuel (gal): 19.0136
• MPG (calc): 25.11
• MPG (OBC): 25.9

Clearly I could have driven another 22.6 miles to hit the magic 500 for the tank, but the spousal unit gets nervous when the DTE hits zero, and per the old adage, "Happy wife, happy life", I hit the next gas station after the OBC said, "Please Refuel".


If I happen to take another trip solo, I'll get a chance to hit the magic 500 miles on a single tank.

 

Damn, you’re braver than I eking 19 gallons out of one tank.

I’ve also gotten 26mpg on a few occasions. Unlike you, I wasn’t trying for economy. Just happened naturally. Maybe we just have unicorns…

 

Oh fuck no. Once we get to a quarter of a tank we stopping to get gas. Fucking gas light raised my heart rate.

Good shit on maxing your miles tho

 

I wasn't initially trying for economy, I was trying to limit the carnage in the bed of the truck; that effort turned out to be a failure, so after the first tank, I leaned heavier on the giddy-up pedal and only got about 22 mpg while averaging speeds in the mid- to high-70s.

Given my Tacoma is a 6MT, almost by definition, it is a unicorn. I know the automatic models do better on the EPA tests, but I'm pretty sure the manual models do as well in the real world.

I think I only drove fifteen or twenty miles after the low fuel light came on but the DTE was still registering some miles; when the DTE hit zero (i.e. "Please Refuel"), I stopped at the next station. Had I been in an area where stations were less plentiful, I wouldn't have gone so far on that tank, but I don't think one can drive more than twenty miles without finding a station anywhere on the entire length of I-95.

 

This is pretty crazy! I didn’t think that was possible haha, thanks for sharing.

 

There are too many bad things that can happen running that low on gas. Earlier this summer my daughter-in-law was taking my granddaughter to an event. She knew she was low on gas but was running late and there was a gas station near her destination. She decided to get gas on the way home.

She parked on a slight incline, nose down. When she came out her car wouldn't start. All the remaining gas had gone to the front of the tank and the fuel pump wouldn't pick up gas. A guy with a truck came along with a tow strap and pulled her onto level ground so her car would start. She had about 3 gallons still in the tank when she filled up.

I've driven through 45 of the lower 48 states. There are lots of places in the west where 50 miles between fuel stops isn't uncommon. Lots of places where there may be only 1-2 places in a 100+ mile stretch and those places are $1+ per gallon more than the ones over 100 miles apart. Around town where there is a gas station on every other corner, I may run the truck down below 1/4 tank. But on rural road trips I don't drive by a gas station if I'm anywhere near 1/4 tank and in some places closer to 1/2 tank.

 

You still had at least a gallon of gas left in there, you could've hit 500.
I've gone down to 20.5 gallons (I have jerry cans in my bed so I wasn't worried about running out of gas) before but that was trying to hit 320 miles of distance on one tank, 500 miles is impressive.
I know on my truck once I hit 0 miles of range I have 2 gallons of gas left.

 

Just gassed up today. DTE was zero for about 10-15 miles, truck took 19.6 Gallons. Told the wife I still had over 2 Gallons in reserve, and then told her you never know when knowing Exactly how many miles you can travel becomes life or death. I think she just shook her head.

 

Word of caution: driving with less than 1/4 tank of fuel is overheating your fuel pump. Over time, it will lead to premature failure of the fuel pump. The fuel in the tank surrounds the pump assembly and helps to cool it during operation.

I always have been told not to do that by mechanics and friends who are gearheads and know auto stuff. I have broken my rule a few times while driving in some remote roads in the West, like southern Utah or N. Arizona.

 

Fuel pumps are typically cooled by fuel running through them, not by sitting in a bath of fuel.

 

We were on I-95, I rather doubt there is a section of even 20 miles anywhere on the entire length of that interstate without a gas station.

Agreed, 500 would have been easily accomplished if I was riding solo.

It sounds like your DTE=0 event happens later than mine does; one time I drove something like 35 miles after DTE=0 and was still in the high 19-gallon range.

 

Not true. That might have been true of early in-tank pumps, but it is definitely not true these days.

 

I used to make the fuel pump controllers. Don’t run the tank very low. The pump does use the fuel to cool the pump. The over voltage tests used to make the voltage regulator glow… But don’t worry there’s not enough oxygen to cause an explosion.

 

Hahaha you and Kramer

 

I rarely go below half a tank on road trips, you’re braver than I

 

lol…you’re more accurate than my estimate. When I stopped to think about it, it was around 29 miles as my light came on 2 miles into my 13 mile commute, 13 miles home, then 5 miles to gas up.

 

I commend the effort. 1100 miles under 65 mph would drive me nuts.

 

Me as well; I did the 477.4 at 65, but when it became apparent plant carnage was going to happen anyway, I went with the traffic for the remaining 700+ miles.

 

Just took a long road trip. My displayed showed 6mi left. 253mi indicated. 35s and driving 80-90. Adding 10% to adjust for tire size 278miles and right at 15mpg. My pump was 18.66gal.

 

So is your truck 4-cyl or 6-cyl? 2WD or 4x4?

Mine is 3.5 4x4 auto. Best distance on one tank so far is 404 miles. Usually it’s around 350. Most fuel at DTE=0 has been 19.357 gallons.

Man - 477.4 miles!