Driving past fuel remaining

henzilla · Mar 6, 2018

daboo said:
I had a 66 VW Beetle. It had a gauge. That was a recent innovation for them. Before that, you just had a lever to rotate to get the reserve tank fuel.

And I learned to make sure it's in the off position when refueling...10 gallons did not go far during gas embargo in my '59 bus :banghead

v8chevyman · Mar 7, 2018

beemerphile said:
With a 2004 oilhead I once ran out of gas. I laid the bike on its left side, picked it up, and rode six more miles. Carrying a 1 gallon Rotopax is easier.

On a tour on my '14 R1200RT I rode 10km with the "remaining km" indicator on 0. I managed to get 540km before reaching a gas station. After topping up, I reckon there had still been about 1 litre left in the tank. (My wife was not too pleased with my antics - we were riding over in Nova Scotia and weren't exactly tripping over gas stations...)
This broke my "frugality" record of any vehicle I've ever owned. We averaged over 64mpg(imperial) = (53mpg US). I was riding to take in the views - YM_Will definately_V!!

jdubick · Mar 7, 2018

I have a 2010RT and was coming home down I59 from Chattanooga and was 11 miles from my exit and the readout said I had 49 miles remaining. As I turned off of the Interstate at my exit the low fuel light came on and the engine quit. I coasted into the BP station and put in 6.1 gallons. Had just over 300 miles on the odometer. I just don't push it anymore past 250 since.

riderr1150gsadv · Mar 7, 2018

I have never pushed it to the point of running out of gas but came close a few times. On one trip in particular the MSR fuel bottles for my stove, made me make it to the next town for gas.
Like others said before, fuel does cool the fuel pump and frequently running low can shorten its life.
The summer months in particular could overheat and burn out the pump.

rapiddog · Mar 20, 2018

I ran my '17 GS dry for the first time the other day.
235 miles total and then kaput...
42 mpg average.

powwow · Mar 20, 2018

lkraus said:
I think much of the cooling comes from fuel passing through the pump, so it still cools until you are completely out of fuel.

It just seems wrong to think that we have to always carry the weight and volume of an extra gallon or so just to keep the pump alive. What kind of engineer would think that was a good idea?

The only bad pump I've ever had was on my company truck that I know never ran dry.

I've no doubt companies do that to avoid the inevitable law suit when someone runs out of gas and the gauge still shows remaining fuel.

98lee · Mar 20, 2018

I'm not famliar with the exact configuration of the inside of the wethead fuel tank, but it is not uncommon on a fuel injected bike with low fuel in the tank to have the fuel run away from the pickup under hard acceleration causeing the engine to stumble until fuel runs back to the pickup. Carburated engines retain fuel in the fuel bowl, so they don't have this problem.

This can be extremely dangerous when trying to cross mutilane roads with oncoming traffic. BTDT

This is one very real reason not to push the envelope on running low on fuel. You really don't want to reduce the bikes capability where it might get you in trouble.

:dance

bullet · Apr 6, 2018

Lee said:
The tank volume of a new GSA, including reserve, is 30 liters.

So sorry. I was thinking RT.
Happy riding!

bernie · Apr 15, 2018

daboo said:
No. They survived. This was at Grand Forks AFB, I believe. They had some technicians troubleshooting a problem on a B-52G model. The circuit breaker kept blowing and they kept pushing it in to continue finding the issue. The entire wing went up in the explosion. All four technicians died. Time frame was about 1984-85, just before I got off Active Duty in 86. We had one of the last remaining G model wings available on a ECM test plane sitting out on a remote hillside. Our people took the G model wing off, shipped it to Grand Forks and replaced it with a D model wing from the bone yard.

My only point in bringing it up, is if the cooling is from having fuel in the tank, maybe it isn't so smart to blow off the idea of running the tank dry as no big deal. There may be unintended consequences.

Added: This sounds sort of like the same incident, but there are a few differences. https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=48377 The largest difference being that the airplane was not scrapped. We took our wing off the test airplane to put on the damaged airplane. You wouldn't have done that for a plane that was totally gone.

I worked with a friend that was there that day. He said there were some nukes on board.

daboo · Apr 15, 2018

bernie said:
I worked with a friend that was there that day. He said there were some nukes on board.

I don't think so, but I could be wrong. My understanding was it was on the general parking area, not the alert pad.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

exgman · Apr 15, 2018

This is no attempt to hijack the thread. This kind of thing is a reminder to all that when you sign up and put on the uniform of any military service it could end in the ultimate sacrifice. On a rainy afternoon in North Carolina, I'm just thinking of those wives and family members of the crew on B-52 57-6507.

OK. Back to fuel issues...

Driving past fuel remaining

henzilla

not so retired

v8chevyman

New member

jdubick

jdubeemer

riderr1150gsadv

Well-known member

rapiddog

Barback King

powwow

Member

98lee

3 Red Bricks

bullet

aka Johnny Hammerlane

bernie

Active member

daboo

New member

exgman

Active member

Similar threads

Forum statistics

Share this page