NOT TRUE.. I ran my '95s Gas tank to 20-21 gallons on
a weekly basis (and sometime biweekly!)... One time,
at band camp.. no seriously, one I did manage to
squeeze in 22.1 gallons (I was WAY past due for gas).
I plan it so that I get fuel about 30-40 miles after
the yellow gas light comes on... In my RT and in my
wife's 4x4RT that works out to about 250-270 miles.
If I get to 270 miles without the light coming on,
I'll easily make 300 with gas to spare.
Between the 6 dakotas... I've got a combine mileage of
roughly 250K (102k of that was on my '95), and none of
them have had any fuel pump/filter problems. So
people think that you'll pick up more dirt/debris in
the fuel tank if you run it down to the end... Not
so. The fuel pickup doesn't move, so it gets fuel
from the same place in the damge. Sloshing the fuel
around might cause for dirt to be ingested, but again,
with 1/4 million miles on the Dakota's I've had, it's
never been an issue.
To figure out how far you can go.. try this. Next
time you get the fuel light to come on, note the
mileage on your trip meter. Take that mileage (say,
225 miles), divide by 18 (gallons)...which is .5-1
gallon more than you've actually used... which equals
12.5 gallons. Take 12.5 gallons x 21.5 gallons
(figuring 1/2 gallon to spare)... your truck could go
easily 268 on that particular tank of gas, based on
similar driving conditions for the remaining
268-225=43.5 miles. The 1/2 gallon, plus the fact
you figured on 18 gallons (rather than 17), you'll
still have about 1.5-2.5 gallons left in after 268
miles. I've used this formula on my motorcycle while
dual-sport riding, and have never run out of gas, plus
was able to extend my driving distances between fuel
stops.
Sam '00 RT
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:50:13 EDT