Should I purposely run out of gas to determine the real bottom of the tank?

[mmandley]

Yea tricky guy sandm

I will so the same thing as i go to the local Chevron here and fill the truck and boat up before we head out. Double whammy effect of fuel for the boat and truck. Course now my new truck i have to go to another Chevron and its to tight for the boat. Ohh well LOL

[WaterBullDawg1980]

I play it safe and fill up prior to every outing. nothing worse than ruining everyone's day running out of gas.

best part is it gives those that may just jump on the boat and not pay the opportunity to see how much it really costs to play. I usually meet at an albertsons parking lot at the base of the hill to the lake. meet at the pumps and load up there. kind of a mind trick to get them to remember to pay for fuel, and if they didn't bring beer/food, hey, it's right there and the last stop

NICE IDEA!

[Sled491]

So what are you supposed to do when you live on an island all summer with no bridge and the boat is on the lift all summer? Every one just keeps showing up ready to hang out, no one ever shows up ready to pay. Oh yeah and a pack of hot dogs and buns ain't gonna cut it!

[moombadaze]

Sled, simple really-hand them a 5 gallon gas can and tell them next time when they show up, bring it filled up , oh and if there family, hand them 2 6gallon cans . Put there name on "there" can so you know who is helping out and who is empty handed

[zabooda]

When I go camping with the boat which usually a week at a time, I tell people who come up to bring gas since money won't do much when you're in the middle of nowhere. If we don't use it all then you can take it home. I tell them to bring firewood too since extra wood in the desert is hard to find. I actually have more necessities such as fuel, food and booze coming in than what we can use so it works really well. I rotate through the gas cans so everyone donates.

[Sled491]

See I think the problem is my wife's family. Not being brought up around boats and such activities they really have no idea how it works. This is particularly disturbing as it is going on 12 yrs of this

Although I like Dazes idea about handing them each there own gas jug with there names on, that's pretty good

[Laz]

Our gas gauge is also a wild guess. Better than running it dry, use the hour-meter and see how many hours you get between fill-ups.

We go through about 20 litres per hour of engine time. So a full tank on our Outback will give us 5 hours...well 4.5 to be safe.

Laz

[Sled491]

Like we say when riding sleds in the UP, as long as the needle is bouncing your OK

[graybmg]

I was figuring if it was still fluctuating then it is not empty. I'm a slalom skier so I don't want a full 25 gallons weighing down the back end of my boat. So I'd rather run 10 gallons down to about 2. Thus the whole reason for trying to figure the real amount in the tank. Plus my boat seems hard to balance so I figure with less gas in the tank to lean to one side my weight distribution problem won't be so bad.

[Sled491]

We are skiers as well, when it's my turn to drive (every 3rd day) I drop in a fiver and have never had a problem yet.