Refilling Your Gas Tank

Jules said:
What is the main reason you decide to refill your vehicle gas tank?
Click to expand...
To go places, silly...
Jules said:
Price, level, convenience.
Click to expand...
...so I guess, convenience?

Meesh pulls into a station whenever the car gets down to about half a tank.
Prices stay pretty consistent here; up and down by just a few pennies per gallon, and I haven't seen a "price war" for about a decade, so it doesn't matter what station you pull into, you're gonna pay $3.and change per gal.
 
We refill once it hits half. This was a habit we adopted when travelling in the RV and never knew where the next gas station might be.

Now it’s because of the possible need to evacuate in the summer wildfires. Especially in winter but. even on good weather, when we travelled on the mountain passes, we always topped up at a midpoint. You never knew if the road ahead might be closed; it‘s not uncommon.

If I know we’ll be near Costco, we wait for that. Guess what I meant by convenience, just being close to a gas station you like. Our prices fluctuate a lot so we follow Gas Buddy.
 
Usually, I fill up when the fuel gauge shows 1/4 tank. The nearest station to me ("Circle K") has the lowest price, but they ended their affiliation with Valero, who my gas card was with, and they offer no credit card of their own. This means I have to pay in cash, which I do not like. They will accept MasterCard, which I used once, but I am very protective of that card, and do not want to risk gas station card skimming.

So, I have to go inside first and pay with cash. Since I don't know ahead of time what my total will be, I generally buy less at a time to be on the safe side, making me have to buy gas more often.
 
I am not used to putting gas in my car. I should be by now, but usually my husband or kids did it for me. So I've had a few experiences lately of driving on fumes at top speed to get to a gas station in time.

Now I look at the gauge the first time I pass a gas station on a trip to somewhere. If it is 3/4 of a tank or below, I fill it while I'm out.
 
It was drummed in to me to always operate off the top half of the tank.

That served me well more than once when caught in a highway backup, blizzard, or when I was simply out of money a few days before payday.

I only drive about 1,000 miles per year and my computerized car tells me to the mile how much fuel I have left based on my driving.

These days, I fill up every couple of months.
 
Since its winter and the weather is unpredictable, I try filling it up on warmer days. I hate putting gas in the car when it's freezing out. I don't go out of my way to save a few cents on gas. I usually pick a place that's the cheapest on the route I'm on. I try not to let it go under a half tank, especially in the winter.
 
Lawrence00 said:
I read once that at some low level there is a risk of freezing in winter.
Click to expand...

The reason for that is because the fuel pump is in the gas tank. Therefore it is not a good idea to let the fuel get too low, possibly allowing moisture to crystallize on a fuel pump. I had that happen to me when I bought an 87 Ford tempo brand new, so that was how I learned that.

That was a hard lesson learned. I rarely let my car get below a half a tank, especially when it’s cold out.
 
Main reason - level. How much do I have? We don’t let gas go below a 1/4 tank
Preparedness - is there a storm coming ?
A full tank makes a heavier vehicle
A heavier vehicle creates a safer vehicle
We also keep 20 Litres in the garage mainly for our generator in case our power goes
Convenience comes in last
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top