Got Gas?

How much gas is in your vehicle's gas tank right now?

How low does it get before you typically refill?

In cold weather climates, it is recommended that you never get below half a tank of gas because condensation can form in the tank and chilly temperatures can result in ice crystals and frozen water lines. There is also a higher likelihood of traffic slowdowns due to accidents and poor road conditions.

In old movies cars almost always ran out of gas at the most opportune times (when courting a girl) or the most inopportune times (think horror films!). Now it is advised that you never run an engine out of gas because if the fuel pump sucks in air it can lead to a costly repair.

So how far do you push it?

I'm not always the best at keeping my tank topped up. One trip was particularly memorable because of this. I make the trip between Calgary and Vancouver Island quite often, and I usually stop for gas in Kamloops before hitting the mountainous Coquihalla highway. my baby had just cried herself to sleep, so I didn't want to stop - which would wake her up - and a check of my remaining distance calculated by my Jeep said it wouldn't be a problem to make it the 90 kilometres to Merritt and the next gas station. Immediately west of Kamloops there is a big climb, and then another and another (see below, where Merritt is the left hand side of the graph and Kamloops is the right terminus):

I watched my gas gauge move towards E. The Low Fuel light came on. Then it flashed. It started to pour rain, the temperature dropped. I was still 30k out of town when the Jeep told me I had 0km remaining. I wondered what I was going to do with a one-year old and two large dogs - by myself I could walk to town and get more fuel but in these circumstances what could I do?

In the short term I kept driving and hoping for the best. And, you know what? I made it to the next gas station.

Despite that lesson I still let my tank get close to E on occasion. But I usually have a can of gas with me, and more at home.

Which brings me to the point of this little story - how much gas do you have in addition to what is in your tank? How much gas should you have?

Should conditions arise that mean I need to leave town I have a couple of locations I could head to. One of those is a 13 hour drive, almost 1,200km (745 miles) away, and over some pretty spectacular mountains. In these conditions, I can drive about 1,000 kilometers on one 132L tank of gas, so even with a full tank I couldn't get there without some additional fuel. And there is the Murphy's Law of any emergency situation - the one time you need it you won't have it - so I assume that I am going to have an empty tank when I need to make that long drive.

So how much gas do I store?

My mileage is 132L/1,000km or 13.2L/100km. The distance is 1,200km, so I need 12*13.2 = 158.4L. Gas cans like the one pictured, right, hold 20L, so I need 8 gas cans full.

For your own purposes, how much do you need?

		Metric	Imperial
A	How far do you need to go?	_____ km	_____ miles
B	What is your vehicle mileage?	____ L/100km	_____ miles/gallon
C	​Total Fuel Required	A*B/100 = litres	A/B = gallons
D	Fuel in Vehicle (average)	____ L	____ gallons
E	Amount to store	C-D	C-D
F	# containers	E/20	E/5.3

When I need to go places I want that fuel to work!! It is important, when storing fuel, that you rotate it regularly. I do this by filling my tank from my storage and refilling my containers - not every time I fill up, but at least every 4-6 months. Fuel stabilizers can be added to extend the life of stored fuel as well, but I haven't found that necessary.

I prefer the "military style" jerry can shown, because they don't flex as much as other styles so they are easier to control when pouring and they make more efficient use of storage space. Lined up across the bed of my truck I can run a strap or locked chain through the aligned handles to secure them. If you have an SUV consider an external carrier.

Do you have enough fuel? Do you have questions about how to determine how much fuel you need? Drop me a comment, below.