How much extra fuel do you take?

[ducktapeguy]

Some of my vehicles have mileage ranges from 120-450 miles. Personally, my comfort zone is ~300+ miles, I'd prefer 350 or more. Maybe because most stock vehicles sold have a range of about a 300 miles, so maybe that's what I'm used to or maybe the infrastructure is planned around vehicles having that range. When it starts dropping to <250 miles, it's slightly annoying and less fun because it means more fuel stops and planning around gas stations. At around 150-180 mile range I'm basically planning my trips by connecting the dots on the gas stations in the area, and it's quite a bit more troublesome and stressful that I would start carrying extra fuel.

I take up to 40L for a big trip but after being stuck in a city for days in Mexico because of a fuel shortage once I now carry at least 20L all the time everywhere. That situation just absolutely sucked. I have also been caught out by hurricanes and other storm related power outages where extra gas would have been nice.
View attachment 618318

Waited in line for 4 hours and they ran out of gas anyways vid.

I am amazed how handy that extra fuel is even when freeway driving though. Pushing range and the gas station is closed? No biggee. Get to your fuel stop exit and the food sucks? Skip it and push on to the next town. Everybody's card readers are down? Same just move on. I have a dinky tank so on a big driving day it's nothing to fuel up 4 times and it's nice to be able to push things for efficiency or convenience. I have only dumped the fuel in a few times freeway driving but not worrying about pushing range I have done dozens and dozens of times.

I get seriously annoyed at the people that claim it's so hard to get out there enough to need extra gas. Most of these people often live in the urban centers where they start their journey and are not necessarily moving from one remote area to another semi randomly exploring. They are also much more likely to be going to very specific places and routes where they are confident of fuel. But what urks me the most about the mind set about how easy it is to get fuel is that if pretty much ANYTHING changes or goes wrong with your plans fuel instantly becomes what you have to base all your actions around. I can't count how many times something was washed out or blocked or the weather at altitude sucked or was snowed in or I just plain did not like an area and changed where I wanted to go. So many of those times would have just been "Well I now need to go directly here to buy fuel and backtrack XX miles and then retrace XX miles" without extra gas. To me that's the biggest reason by far is the piece of mind and flexibility it gives me.

Plus there is just such a range difference in stock vehicles due to tank size and MPG. I think people forget to convert to an apples to apples comparison when they have a pickup that might have 500+ miles stock vs something that can barely make 250-300 miles a tank.

Couldn't have said it better. Having run out of gas a few times and come dangerously close to running out on many occasions, I have some slight range anxiety when it comes to fuel. It's one of the reasons behind starting this thread on the longest distance between fill ups. There are multiple reasons why I've been in those situations, some of it could have been prevented by better planning, and some of them are just because life happens to throw a curve, but it happens. Having even a few extra gallons means the difference between a stressful trip and an enjoyable one, and there were many times I was glad to be carrying extra fuel. There are those people with the attitude of "if I've never needed it, then nobody else needs it either", but that just means they've never been in the same situations. There are millions of people who will go their whole lives without ever needing a 4wd or a winch either.

 

[JackW]

Just filled the Defender 90 up for the first time since September - mostly running errands around town - and put 19 gallons in my now 23+ gallon capacity tank.
I had 363 miles on the odometer since the last fill up which confirms my range estimate of around 400 miles on a full tank. With an extra reserve via a 5 gallon jerry can of diesel on the roof rack I should get another 100 miles of range with that.
You just gotta love a 4 cylinder diesel when the V-8 powered D90's are getting about 150 miles on the stock 14 gallon fuel tank.

 

[Bravo30]

I carry a 5g can that gets me about 80 miles. I used to not carry any extra fuel until I spent some time in Utah and almost ran out of diesel thinking 1/2 a tank was plenty. It almost wasn’t. I’ve never been to north Dakato but I heard it’s worse

 

[axlesandantennas]

Here in the East, we don't have a shortage of gas stations. But whenever I go out on the weekends, I hit one last gas station a few miles before the entrance just to make sure I have a full tank. A few years ago, I went out west and made sure I never got below 1/4 tank and tried to stay no lower than 1/2 tank. At 16 mpg, a 20 gallon tank goes fast. I don't normally carry extra fuel, but if I were going west again, I would take an extra 5 gal.