You were sarcastic. It wasn’t nice. I gave plenty of other reasons why it is a good idea to keep 1/4 tank. No one lied to me. When you are stuck on a busy interstate with your big gas-guzzling truck, quickly burning up your 1/8 tank of gas, I will waive to you as I pass by with my safe 1/4 tank, sorry buddy. I hope the tow truck arrives soon.
Maybe that’s because AAA doesn’t want those carrying their insurance to need expensive roadside assistance on their nickel.
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Discussion closed for me.
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I think geezerpk may have a point glasspilot… your method just indicates if you’re being gaslighted by your gas light. Your’s is a comparatively questionable query to guesstimate a gas light’s gaslighting capability in calculating combustible cache quantities …… 
It’s also the reason pilots use dipsticks… 
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Good point!
Why should you. You never know when a situation can come up, when you have to be somewhere and you have no time to get gas. Or get caught in a area - an urban area - that is not safe to fill up.
I have had water condense in the bottom of my fuel tank, so I try to fill up before the light comes on. I once thought that I would put a filled spare gascan in the truck and see how long I can drive after the light comes on. But knowing that mileage doesn’t help if the light comes on and I am stuck in traffic or having to re-route because fo an accident. In many places here, stations are few and far between.
I also have a tractor which used diesel. Diesel contains and seems to attract lots of water and I can empty more than 6 oz of water out of the bottom of the tank before I get diesel emptying. I would hate for any of that water to get into an engine. I don’t know how diesel trucks or vehicles handle the water but my tractor has an easy port to empty it out.
One good thing about having ethanol in your gasoline is that it helps prevent water from accumulating in your gas tank. The ethanol absorbs the water and mixes it into the fuel and vaporizes it during combustion.
It’s also the reason you get an accumulation of water in a diesel fuel tank. The water condenses on the inside of the tank and drains to the bottom of the tank. Water and diesel fuel do not mix and the water is heavier than the diesel fuel. The closer you come to filling the tank, the less air you will have in the tank and the less accumulation of water you will have in it.
H200h, that’s a very good explanation on that situation.
In the “old days” before ethanol in gas I would buy “Heet” iso-propal alcohol additive to help remove any water I might have in my tank. I read years ago that with our E10 gas that is not needed anymore.
Not only will water collect in a diesel tank the same is true in jet planes. They use “jet fuel” that is just a highly refined kerosene, which is similar to diesel.
Believe it or not a bacteria can grow in that water/kerosene tank and clog up fuel lines. Obviously you can’t let that happen in jets, so there is a product called “Prist” that you add when fueling to prevent that. It also prevents any water in the tank from freezing. The truck drivers here might have something similar for their vehicles.
(I am a retired pilot. I also worked at airports fueling planes. A small plane like a Lear Jet would give me the fuel load: “Top it off and a can of Prist in each wing”.)
This is why pilots should keep their airplane tanks full if the plane is going to sit for a while.
I think most small plane owners keep their tanks full for this reason. But you have to be careful. What if you give a short local ride and fill up every seat? With full tanks you might be overweight.
It’s routine practice for a pilot to adjust the fuel load to the passenger/cargo weight. I would think that ANY airplane would have drainable sump for every fuel tank. I’m sure the regs would require that on any general category airplane approved for carrying passengers. Every airplane I’ve done a preflight check on had at least one fuel sump drain.
That’s why I never fueled up until I was aware of what my anticipated gross weight was for the next flight. And that is why most pilots don’t keep their fuel tanks topped off between flights. Draining fuel from small craft is a major PITA and a safety hazard most pilots try to avoid. Draining the sumps before every flight is simple and easy and has been on the preflight checklist of any airplane I’ve ever flown.
The exception was for long-term storage of seaplanes/floatplanes in Alaska when most pilots top off the fuel tanks for the winter storage to minimize condensation in them. And on a warm winter day, if I thought about it, I would check the sumps during the storage season because the sump drains can be damaged by a hard freeze with lots of water in the sump.
Marine use is different, most watercraft have enough fuel/cargo/passenger capacity to keep tanks topped off between use. And there, it is a common practice to do so, especially with diesel fuel.Most watercraft with diesel tanks also have sump drains in them.
I keep my tanks full, but have a syphon tube and empty gas cans in my hangar if someone more than 130 lbs wants to go flying with me.
Do you use a static line with your siphon setup? If not I’d definitely recommend you do so.
That’s a good point. I use auto gas in my plane and have to bring it in cans to my hangar to fill up. Several years ago I put a ground rod through the floor so I could ground the plane when I add/remove fuel. A few times I forgot to do that so now I just ground it as soon as I put it away so I don’t forget if I show up and have to mess with fuel.
With gas prices doing what they are currently, anytime I see a “deal” on gas, I fill up regardless of how much is in the tank.