Don't let it get in the white!
IndigoBlueWagon said:
I drove around for another few days and added 24.5 gallons at 1128 miles. It still wasn't in the white (below the red).
Hey IndigoBlue - enjoy the incredible range but don't go below the last red tick. You'll be sitting beside the road. There is no reserve once the needle is all the way down. You had very little reserve if you put 24.5 in.
I got my 96 B4V in August. Drove it home from NJ to northeast TN 700+ miles (from an unvented fillup). Needle was just under the last white tick before the red. Loaded up the family next day and headed out toward central TN to visit friends. Fuel prices approaching Knoxville were good and getting better. Diesel was actually cheaper than unleaded! Needle was just starting to touch the white "empty" mark and I saw a billboard with a good fuel price at an exit just 3 miles further and said "that's the place". 30 seconds later I felt a subtle power loss and in and another 30 seconds later we were sitting on the shoulder. A little cranking yielded no hope of one last spurt to get to the next exit.
AAA guy was great and got there in just a few minutes. Knowing the issues with getting diesels restarted, he suggested we just flatbed the car to the fuel pump and fill it all the way to get max fuel pressure. Took us to another place at the same exit (with even better fuel price). Took 19 gallons (no venting) to click the pump off. First crank attempt 20-30 seconds no dice. Let the starter cool. Second attempt it caught and ran a little and quit. Third time she ran and I finally exhaled.
If memory serves that was just shy of 900 miles from an unvented fill.
Relatively painless experience that cost a total of 45 minutes but taught an important lesson! Unlike many other cars, the gage in this one does NOT give you any reserve once it hits the peg. Running out in bad weather out in the boonies would have been much more painful, so choose when you want to take that kind of risk.
Since then have enjoyed several fully vented 1000 mile+ tanks and didn't have to get too far into the red to do it. May try 1200 or so sometime, but ONLY if I have a spare gallon on board! The kids sure enjoyed the ride in the truck though!