Have you ever run out of gas? And did you know you were going to?

[darcane]

Precisely once.

Motorcycles typically don't have gas gauges and my old ZX6R Ninja was no exception. They just have a petcock valve with three positions: off on and reserve. Reserve just pulls from a lower point than on does so you switch to reserve when it sputters and head straight to a gas station.

I was riding in lots of heavy traffic so I used fuel faster than normal and it started sputtering. No problem, switched from reserve to on... and nothing. The seal in the valve let fuel leak past the valve so it always acted as if on reserve. It was bone dry!

And I was stuck in the middle of a major interchange. Couldn't walk anywhere and nobody would stop. Called a tow truck company who kindly delivered the worlds most expensive gallon of gasoline.

[cowmeat]

I ran out once in the Black Widow, in rush hour traffic in the middle of town, and had to coast into the nearest parking lot (Bail Bonds place) and walk to the nearest gas station to buy a gallon of gas and a twenty dollar gas can.

Yeah, the gas gauge read empty, but I had pushed it there before without actually running out. In the car's defense, it warned me, I just didn't speak its language at the time! I had begun hearing a buzzing noise (in retrospect, the starving fuel pump) about a mile before it died, so after that day, I knew if I heard that buzzing noise, the gauge was really empty.

[Cobb]

Ive had a few electric wheelchairs and scooters run out of power. When they do, they just go really slow at full throttle and you get a low battery indicator.

One chair I had the wires come unsoldered from the motor. I drove it in arcs by pushing the joystick forward, then jerking it in reverse quickly.

Another I had the charger socket come unsoldered. I cut the connector from the charger and hooked up 2 alligator clips. I then tested the batteries to find the 2 24 volt leads as it took 2 batteries and matched it up.

[Daox]

I've run out of gas once, and it was about 2-3 months ago. I was on the way home from a wedding in the Sunfire and just got off on the exit ramp and the engine died. My wife was behind me in the Prius. We just ran and got gas quick. Besides having to buy a ridiculously overpriced gas can, we were on our way again shortly and without much hassle.

[Xist]

I did not count the time on my Prelude that I coasted into a gas station after driving 600.2 miles.

That was beautiful and it is frustrating that I do not know what I need to do to hit 600.3 miles in my HX, although the Prelude reached 37.75 MPG and my average is 42.9 in the Civic.

So, due to popular demand (of the voices in my head).

There I was, in a rock-covered motor pool in Afghanistan! My Sergeant yelled at me to hurry up and bring a truck to the front gate. I asked which truck and he threatened physical, emotional, career, and psychic harm if I did not drive a truck to the gate impossibly quickly. I complied as quickly as I could and he yelled at me to take it back and bring another. We rolled out the gate and I realized that we were below half a tank. We drove further than we usually did, stopping at several small bases. I was not very familiar with each of them, trying to remember which ones had fuel points and where they were. At one, while some dog tried to dominate my leg, I asked our Soldier to start his fuel truck, and he said he was empty. At another we had just barely finished with our cargo when someone shouted that our escort was leaving, so we ran to our trucks and I donned my body armor as I drove out the gate.

I looked down and I watched our fuel gauge drop from 1/4 to empty. I looked back and forth from it to my Lieutenant and finally told him about it. He said that we would be fine. I asked if he thought it would hurt to stop at the next base and put in some fuel.

"We will be okay."

"Can we just borrow one can of fuel from a gun truck?"

"Xist! Lock it up!"

So, we passed the last base and were headed back, but still an hour out when my truck died. Our fuel cans do not have nozzles, I guess that we use so many that it makes sense to have the nozzles separate. Nobody calls them "nozzles," though, and I refuse to tell you what they do call them. We found the nozzle and they poured in one can, a second, and then a third, but the truck would not start. We kept trying to figure out what was wrong, but did not have any idea. Our Motor Sergeant was at the other end of the convoy, the head mechanic, responsible for all of the vehicles in our fleet.

He refused to get out of his truck or even talk to any of us.

So, we dropped the trailer, one gun truck towed that, and they connected our truck to the back of another gun truck. Gun trucks are equipped with tow bars, but someone thought that it was a good idea to have collapsible ones, which immediately broke, so we hooked up a chain or cable. I insisted that it was my responsibility, I needed to ride in the truck, but another Soldier refused, and LT told me to get out.

That hour drive multiplied as we crawled back at 7 MPH, while our truck repeatedly bounced off the back of the gun truck.

[basjoos]

The only time I ran out of gas was after I picked up my 68 bug from the repair shop. The tank went from 1/4 to empty in the course of driving 2 miles. The engine died in the middle of an intersection as I was trying to make it back to the repair shop (no gas stations in the area) after starting up from a red light. I used the starter motor in 2nd gear to move the car out of the intersection and off the side of the road. It turned out the metal fuel tank had rusted through and emptied itself onto the road. The repair shop's movements/vibrations on the car must have caused the leak to break loose.

[MetroMPG]

Xist - good story!

I forgot about the ForkenSwift! Believe it or not, in 6000+ km of ~15-25 km charge cycles I never ran it "empty". You tend to pay a bit more attention in a lead sled EV because the "performance" would drop waaay off as you ran the batteries down, and continuing to drive them down further would create an expensive situation (battricide).

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by basjoos

The only time I ran out of gas was after I picked up my 68 bug from the repair shop. The tank went from 1/4 to empty in the course of driving 2 miles.

HA! You just reminded me I had something very similar happen... also in a VW.

OK, so that makes it 3 times I've run out of fuel...

Car was an '81 Rabbit, and it popped a leak in a neoprene fuel line while I was driving it. The engine had enough juice to keep running fine, so I didn't know about it while I left I very lengthy trail of gas on the road. Fortunately nobody threw a match, because I don't think that car could have outrun the flame front.

[Goldenstate]

Bought a used 79 Ford half ton truck with almost no gas. The dealer was a cheapie and would not put any gas in it at all, just said to go to the nearest gas station. Headed in that direction but only made it a half mile, still a half mile from the station I was headed towards. Never went near that Ford dealer again.

Dad bought a new International1/2 ton truck in 1970. He was on vacation in 1971 and told me to drive it now and then to keep it from sitting too long. I drove it to work one afternoon and on the way home, the 1/4 tank on the gauge was not even fumes. It was dark and the nearest station was two miles away on a lonely road. I got there just as the guy was closing. he closed up and gave me a ride back to the truck with enough gas to get me to the nearest station 5 miles away. Never trusted that truck again.

[D.O.G.]

I ran out unexpectedly last year.

Driving on the motorway, Baa suddenly spluttered, then died.
I knew I was low on fuel, but should have still had 30 of 40 kilometres to go.

I pulled off to the side, restarted the car, it ran fine so I took off again.

Within seconds, it died a second time.

Pull over, restart, rev for a while, take off and die a third time.

That's when it dawned on me that the camber of the roadway was tilting the fuel in the tank away from the pump pickup.

I don't try for "big" tanks anymore.