Do some of the short bed diesels have the bigger "36 gallon" tank? My light comes on around 480 miles, and I have never been able to get more than 28 gallons in there. Ideas??

 

I get more fuel in the tank by parking the truck with the front lower but you gotta find a station with a bit of a hill.

 

Do the vent mod. When my low fuel light comes on I can put 34 gallons in my 34 gallon tank.

 

Actually both long and short bed truck fuel tanks are larger absolute capacity than what the owner's manual tells you. If you look at the top of the tank, you see a large bump on the rear. That bump stays full of air when you fill up unless you just trickle in fuel over, like 30 minutes. Who can do that? A guy named Dave Kelley sells a vent kit that moves the vent to the top of that bump. Allows you to use the full capacity of the tank. I once went 835 miles on a fillup with my '04 shortbed. Columbia, Mo to Rapid City, SD. Put almost 38 gallons in my 34 gallon tank. And it was still running when I pulled into the Flying J.

http://www.innertruck.com/store-cate...s_2429930.html

 

Yup. I also did the vent mod and can now put 38 gallons into the 34 gallon tank.

 

When you say, "I have never been able to get more than 28 gallons in there," do you mean you've filled until it clicks or do you actually fill it until the top of the neck?

I do agree with everyone else though, fuel tank vent mod is THE BEST mod you can do. But, keep in mind, there is a reason Dodge puts the "reserve" bubble in there.

 

I have filled it up to where you can see fuel in the filler neck. It only showed 28.xx gallons, but I could have easily had many gallons left in the tank. Is it normal for the low fuel light to come on that early? The gauge needle is near the empty line when it happens, so thats why Im apprehensive to believe there is another 6-8 gallons in the tank. Running out of fuel would be a real hassle.
Maybe I should just do the vent mod and be done with it..

 

The owner's manual has exact specs on how much is left in your tank when low fuel comes and and when MTE = 0. When I did my 835 mile haul on one tank, I went 100 miles with low fuel on and 50 with MTE showing 0. No, it doesn't go into negative numbers when it hits 0. Just continues to show 0. The vent mod is worth doing regardless. But, it really doesn't give you any more on the bottom end. Just takes longer for the fuel needle to start moving. On the highway running 60 to 65, it can take my truck up to 150 miles BEFORE the fuel guage needle move off F.

 

On my truck the light comes on way early. Then the DTE hits 0 about 40 miles later and then I go about another 40 miles. I think my owners manual says there is 8% tank capacity left when you hit 0 miles DTE.

 

Thanks for the info everyone! I will put the vent mod on my to do list.

 

Yes...they have it setup so when you hit "E" you still have a considerable amount of fuel in the tank. It's to prevent you from running it completely out of fuel, as we all know is not good for any injection pump...