Raspy

How do you know this? Have you actually run out of fuel? Just asking because the fuel gauge seems the best way to tell the fuel level. When my gauge needle is sitting on the pin next to E, I have about 50 miles left and the fill up takes over 39 gallons.

RickG

With mine it seemed the gauge readings were based on the average mpg on the last tank full . If I hooked to a load after running empty my distance to empty would be way high . For example , if it said 200 miles to empty and I hit it 150 miles later it would say 20 miles to empty . It didn't take many times for me to learn not to rely on it .
One thing that threw me was when I quit using Flying J fuel . All that talk about "hot fuel" was right . My mpg improved considerably when using any other brnd fuel .
Now that Pilot bought the Flying J fuel stops I don't know if that will change . Pilot just bought the fuel stops . Flying J still owns the refineries .

MH3

So I've put some miles on the truck and found with average driving which is about 1/2 and 1/2 I am getting 19mpg. This is pretty consistent with the overhead too. That is if you look at the overhead and take the average of it's readings. Pretty good for 4dr 4x4 LWB. I like knowing what is possible and getting a good guestimation so I can have a good expectation for performance.

steelblitzkrieg

I didn't see it mentioned clearly, but not any old 2 stroke (TC3W only).

03 ant a hemi

Yup when my DTE says empty it will give me another 50-60km (31-37miles)before it dies.
When my fuel gauge says empty I will get another 50-80km (31-50 miles) depending on city of highway driving.

My friends and his father 05 are similar, their friends 03 and 04 were similar, and the 09 they have is similar. I have been in all these trucks sucking fumes. I know a few other peopel in the oilfield also with same results.

the DTE will change as the conditions change, yup Flying J fuel sucks.

1-2-3

The longer you go without resetting the overhead, the more accurate it will be. Mine is dead on. You can always just look at the fuel gauge to see when you need fuel.

Shovelhead

Reset it while coasting downhill..........

I've seen 60+ mpg on mine.... (for a few seconds)

DBLR

MH3,

I use Lucas and like it a lot better then 2 cycle oil route as when i use 2 cycle I can lose 1.25-2 mpg.

Shovelhead

I have heard rumors that high doses of Lucas Top End and Injector Lube can lead to early fuel gauge sending unit failures............

Thundercraft

yep... at the end of the day the device that's been used for close to 100 years still does the job.

Ace

Assuming your tire size is correctly calibrated to the ABS system, the overhead is a very good realtime estimate of fuel consumption. Key word here being "realtime." It takes into account throttle setting, engine speed, and registered mph as estimated and continuously calculated by the ECM for a stock-fueld engine running in an otherwise stock truck. Tire weight, lift, transmission, driving style, even wind speed and direction and other factors all affect the accuracy (or not) of this estimate.

I have found that my overall hand calc'd numbers are usually within a few tenths of the overhead estimate, even with a Smarty Jr, 35" tires and 2" lift. I just figure the Smarty and conservative driving is offsetting the tires and lift.

YMMV.

Rednax

Yes, once you know "how" it is off it is an excellent tool for determining a present average on a long trip, or just a lot of miles around town. I can look at mine and know exactly where I am in terms of actual (calculated) mileage.

I tend to reset mine often, not just at every fill. It tells me a bit about winds (3/4 crosswind is the worst it seems), and how one roadway compares to another, parallel highway (sometimes a bit longer in distance on the big road beats the cross-country shortcut). Mine reads "7/10ths high", so 24.4 going down the highway is really mid-23.

The info above about the DTE versus the fuel gauge "low fuel light" is consistent with my experience. The actual distance will vary with where and how I am driving, but I know I have to add fuel within 30 miles (though can go farther am not willing to run tank empty).

DBLR

So far after 4 years and 4 months of using it I have not had any problems.