Essex Low fuel light

[Iron Man]

In case you were wondering about the fuel remaining when the low fuel light comes on, well wonder no more. The light came on about 2 miles from Flying J. I fueled up putting in 127 gallons of diesel. With a 150 gallon tank I had roughly 23 gallons remaining. I stopped the generator when I fueled up. I don't normally cut it that close, lets chalked this up to a comedy of errors.

["007"]

Been there with a gasser down in the red 10 gal left in the woods on #58 heading to EMPORIA,VA.

[69RoadRunner]

The generator should have cut off on its own sooner than that. I'm hoping that it was VERY close to cutting off.

[Iron Man]

That why I included it in the post. Generator was running fine. It is one of those "file it away for future reference" when we dry camp.

[Lug_Nut]

I too have been there on a couple of occasions with about the same results. If I remember correctly mine took 129 gallon once. The one grey area is the non-burnable. I would assume it to be about 12 gallons on level roads. Hopefully I never find out.

Peter

[Iron Man]

For a brief moment though about the Seinfeld episode when kramer test drove the car until it ran out a gas. Then I reliized it was 100 degrees outside and my teenage son would get hot pushing the coach to a diesel station. I told him it would be in the "name of science" then he mumbled something about child abuse so we stopped.

[racer0624]

I drove about 30 miles with the low fuel light on coming back from Texas before getting to the Flying J in Gulfport and I took 130ish gal. as best as I remember.(Don't laugh Pam).

[Romeo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iron Man In case you were wondering about the fuel remaining when the low fuel light comes on...23 gallons remaining.

Where were you yesterday when I needed you...

We left Sammamish heading for Spokane... oooh Factory Stores, I need some tennie-runners... we stopped, fogetting everthing I was remembering to do like fuel up. Ok, after two hours of factory-storing we needed to get going. Now I'm not remembering to remember... just needed to get going. Jumped in and headed up Snoqualmie pass. Near the summit, I noticed that I seemed to be losing power... glanced at the VmsPc, nothing unusual. Glanced over the gauges, nothing amiss, however there is a red light I had never seen before.., eeeek , it's a low fuel warning light. Crap, I'm going to have to say something to the DW... better to hear it now then once we slowly roll to a stop in weekend rush-home traffic. I down played it..... Ok now we are arriving at the summit, hummm Snoqualmie Pass... lots of ski businesses, maybe, maybe diesel (didnt really think they would). Pulled in... no diesel, maybe gasoline will work, thats crazy, of course it wont... maybe for just for a few miles... no of course not... ok do I stay at the top of the mountain or coast down the other side...I guess staying wont solve anything... I have learned that a diesel doesnt use fuel with throttle up, and we are on the top of a mountain, I should be able to coast for 50 miles... let's go for it! We did. It was interesting watching VmsPc show the instant miles per gallon... 56, 256, 24, 8, 9.... However, the decent from Snoqualmie Pass really isnt steep as I found out. There are many places where one needs throttle so I watch the fuel gauge slowly drop from 1/4 to 1/8.... Marion what's is 100 divided by 8.... 12 1/2. 12 1/2 divided by 8.5, ahhh, make it 8 for a safety margin... Ok it's 100 miles, no way the needle is sinking faster than that. The math got too complicated under so much stress so I gave up and thought about how I would get the chance to try our roadside service. OK... sign... 30 miles to Cle Elum... we can just make it... maybe.

Well we got to Cle Elum and I never so happy to see $3.29 a gallon for diesel ($2.09-$3.09 in Spokane). I put in 40 gals, figuring that would be sufficient to get to Spokane, and found that the fuel guage now read 3/4 which should be 75 gals... looks to me that I had enough fuel at 1/8 tank to go 100-160 miles . What a waste of stress...

At this point I still dont really know how much fuel is in the tank when the red light comes on, or how much is left when the gauge registers 1/8, but it would appear to be 20-30 gals.

["007"]

Darn you had me on the edge of my seat glad you made it and darling wife didn't even know HOW CLOSE.

[soricobob]

Great story, and I was in Spokane yesterday (with all the expensive fuel). Next trip in for service you might want to have someone check your fuel gauge.