Verona Fuel Gauge Accuracy

[DockmasterAK]

Anyone else having fuel gauge accuracy issues? I find the gauge in my new Verona is off by quite a bit. The fuel capacity is supposed to be 100 gal. If I fuel when the gauge reaches right at 1/2 it will only take about 30-35 gallons when it should take closer to 50. I fueled at 1/3 tank on the gauge yesterday and it barely took 40 gal. I'm not opposed to a gauge being on the conservative side but this seems off by to much. I'll ask Freightliner about it when I take it in for the air leak but curious what others are finding?

[trailerbal]

Originally Posted by DockmasterAK

Anyone else having fuel gauge accuracy issues? I find the gauge in my new Verona is off by quite a bit. The fuel capacity is supposed to be 100 gal. If I fuel when the gauge reaches right at 1/2 it will only take about 30-35 gallons when it should take closer to 50. I fueled at 1/3 tank on the gauge yesterday and it barely took 40 gal. I'm not opposed to a gauge being on the conservative side but this seems off by to much. I'll ask Freightliner about it when I take it in for the air leak but curious what others are finding?

Until I got used to it, our fuel gauge was miss leading. The good news is, it has more range at the lower end than you think. At lease on our unit. This came in handy once coming across West Texas. In the middle of no where I ran the last 40 minutes with the fuel light on. No plans to ever cut it that close again.

My issue in the beginning was getting the tank full. When filling, I have to really take it slow near the top. This is to the point of pulling the nozzle nearly out of the fill tube and nursing in the last 5 gallons. Otherwise, it would always read just below full.

For what it is worth,
Wayne
2021 Verona VRB

[JoeRider677]

I had all the same issues. When fueling hope for the fuel island be going downhill, then you can really pack the tanks. I just finished my first long trip, I cut a tiny piece of blue masking tape and put it on the gauge with a mark that's about half tank.
I believe that the fuel gauge is thinking that total fuel capacity is 50 Gallons (single tank). The transfer tube equalizes the tanks but not that quickly. There's usually 50% more fuel than the gauge is reading

[DockmasterAK]

My tanks are equalizing fine so that doesn’t appear to be the issue. I fuel at truck stops filling both sides and they always take the same amount of fuel in each tank. I am topping the tanks off right to the brim. The gauge appears to read incorrectly on a sliding scale. The farther down the fuel level the more inaccurate it is. Seems to be off from about 20%-40%. These tanks are not odd shapes are anything that should cause difficulty getting a reasonably accurate fuel level reading. Has anyone asked Freightliner about this? I need to take mine in to them for an air leak so I’ll see if they offer any correction options for the fuel gauge.

[outlawten5]

I believe all M2's have had issues with inaccurate fuel gauges for years. In a search there are numerous threads about this.

[emdoc]

I roughly see 20 gallons per 1/4 tank. My Bluefire setup is two 45 gallons tanks (90 max in “100” gallon tanks given the tank geometry). I usually fill around a half a tank or slightly below based on TSD locations en route. I fill from both sides.

Last few fills (to the top of the filler tube, gauge reads full)

BlueFire reading (remaining gals):Actual Gallons in:Total gals “full”
55:29:84
22:60:82
37:43:80
39:46:85
39:44:83

We are getting about 8.4 mpg @ 64 mph towing 2500 Silverado.

I usually count on about 160 miles per 1/4 tank given the above.

[DockmasterAK]

Has anyone attempted to get Freightliner to correct the inaccuracy of these fuel gauges under warranty? I don’t expect them to read spot on but they are way off. And I can’t figure out why they can’t get an acceptable accuracy. I mean the tanks are uniform cylinders. It’s not they are complex shapes are anything difficult to gauge.

[DeetsMaggie]

Dockmaster,

This will come across as unsympathetic and it is not intended so.

The answer to the question in the first line of your initial post is Yes, Everyone in the world who owns a freight liner MS has experienced it.

The M2 hasn't been modernized in any way since the current version came out about 20 years ago. I've heard they will come out with a modernized version in next few years. The fuel tank issue has been beaten to death in a thousand posts on this and many other forums. It's not by any means the only annoying issue with the M2. The M2 is what it is. Which I think is a short haul local delivery truck and in such application nobody cares about the accuracy of the fuel gauge. The ergonomics of the cab instrumentation, the seat issues, lack of sound insulation, lack of cruise control buttons on the steering wheel, etc don't rise above the level of who cares for folks who use it to deliver pallets of concrete sacks across town. Adding faux wood grain to the dashboard by the RV manufactures don't fix any of this. Given its intended application, and the small percentage of its factory output sold to the RV industry, it seems doubtful Freightliner will address these issues on the next rendition. But we can hope.

On the flip side, without the M2 a lot of us would be driving around in severely overloaded F450's and the like.

A long way of saying that you aren't likely to get any traction by pursuing this.

DeetsMaggie

[jklingel]

As a related side note, I just read on another forum that two people found the usable fuel capacity of the Veronas is about 80 gallons. Apparently the lower 20 gallons is not easily accessible, or flat inaccessible. What are people here reporting?

[col-renegade]

I have followed the fuel gauge issue since getting our new to us Verona in October. I did some math this morning and I think the answer is we have 50 gallon fuel tanks but only about 40 gallons is available due to the side fill of the tank. The following table shows the fuel fill level and resulting gallons in the tank. The math may not be perfect but it should keep you from walking to the next fuel stop.




Keny

[DockmasterAK]

It doesn't require a complete vehicle re-design to get an accurate fuel reading. I understand the M2 as a whole is outdated but fuel readings is a pretty basic concept.

I think the idea that there really isn't 100 gallons useable is spot on. As mentioned, with the filler neck on the side there is no way to fill the tank completely. So if 100 gallons (50 per side) is the volumetric total of the cylinders then there is a big portion of the discrepancy right there. Then, of course, there is how much residual is unavailable toward the bottom of the tank.
I just installed my Scangauge along with my Build5 center console this past weekend. I plan to use the Scangauge to hep me track actual trip fuel consumed and hopefully that will help some.