Why You Should Fuel Up EVERY DAY!

Now here's a little story I've got to tell, about three bad brothers you know so well... oh, sorry, I was listening to the Beastie Boys earlier. What I meant to say was, "about a stupid thing I did on the highway last week..."

So here's the setup: I was on a load going from Bettendorf, IA to Quincy, WA. I had stopped for the night in Rapid City, SD and was starting my day from there. This trip was going to take me right past our yard in Missoula, MT. Now, I was running low on hours and was going to have to take a restart before finishing the trip to Quincy, so my plan was to push it as hard as I could and park the truck in the yard for the night, then drive my POV home and spend my restart there with my family. It was about 670 miles from the truck stop in Rapid City to the yard in Missoula, so it was going to be a full day.

Being on paper logs gives you a little wiggle room, which allows you to max out your miles driven each day if you do it right. The problem is that certain things have to be logged at the exact time they happen, such as fueling. So if you fuel at a certain time in the morning, now you're basically restricting yourself by not giving yourself room to fudge your 14 hour clock later if you have to. Normally this would not be an issue, but if you need to get to a certain place by the end of the day, and if you run into any major delays along the way, then you're screwed. But, if you don't have any fixed moments on your logs from earlier in the day, then you can adjust your start time later to allow yourself more time to finish out the day. Make sense?

Yes I know, it's not exactly playing by the rules, but people do what they have to do in this industry, and the tweaking of paper logs is generally done by most drivers lucky enough to still be running them..

Anyway, I forgot to fuel up the night before because I was tired and just wanted to find a parking spot, and I didn't want to fuel up that morning for the above reason (I desperately wanted to make it to Missoula that night), so I figured I'd just roll out and fuel up when I got there. I was sitting right around 3/8 of a tank, close to 1/2, and I had never let it get down lower than that before. In my stupid rookie head, I thought I'd have enough to make it there, no problem.

Now you probably already think you know where this story is going, but don't get ahead of yourself!

So to get from Rapid City to Billings you can take I-90, but there's a much shorter bypass by taking US-212. That's the road I took. Well, for over 200 miles along that road there's basically nothing. It cuts through the northeast corner of Wyoming and then into southeast Montana, and it's mostly just empty land with an occasional tiny town. Nowhere for a semi to fuel up along the way. Oh, and there are 2 or 3 steep grades as well. Well lo and behold, about 50 miles into the highway, my fuel light comes on. I check my Trucker Path app and see that I'm nowhere near a service station. At this point I start to get a little remorseful and angry at myself for not just fueling up when I left. What was I thinking??? I got greedy, I tell myself. I'm gonna run out of fuel out here, there probably won't be cell reception wherever it happens, I'll have to either flag someone down or walk for miles, and I'll have to call my company and ask them to send someone out with fuel at $100/gallon or something. They're gonna tell me how stupid I am, I won't get my 3-month raise, and I'll ruin the tiny little bit of a reputation that I've been working to build so far.

Now this is the part of the story where my guardian angel comes into play. See, I firmly believe that I have a powerful guardian angel who has helped me get out of (or sometimes flat-out avoid) more jams than I know. Earlier that morning, I was passed by another truck in our company. As he was passing me, he said good morning on the CB, asked where I was headed, and we chatted for a minute. He was a really nice guy. A little later I passed him as he was stopped along the road in a small town near the border of South Dakota/Wyoming. So now, when my fuel light came on, he was somewhere behind me.

Continued below...

After driving for about 30 minutes with the light on, I noticed he was right behind me again. I asked him over the CB if he knew of anywhere to fuel up soon, and he confirmed what I already knew: the closest place was still over 100 miles away. Now I'm calculating in my head... "If I can get 7mpg, that means I'll need about 15 gallons to get there... at 6mpg, I'll need closer to 20... let's say 20 to be safe... that's 10 gallons in each tank... there's gotta be at least 10 gallons in each tank right now, right? 10 gallons ain't that much!"

So anyway, I sheepishly get back on the CB and tell the other driver my predicament. Well, to my great relief, he tells me not to worry, that he's going to follow me all the way there, and if I do run out, he has plenty of fuel and a hose and he'll give me enough to get there. Now my butt unclenches a little and the sweat on my brow starts to dry up. I've got a failsafe following right behind me! Still, my head begins to fill with images of sucking a mouthful of diesel fuel through the hose to get the siphon started. Eww. Even though I know I'm covered, I still really don't want to run out of fuel, since it will delay both of us and just be an extra hassle to deal with.

As we continue along, the needle drops further and further until it's actually below the E. It's so low, the fuel light is going in and out now. I think the sensor doesn't know how to handle such a low fuel level and is freaking out. Then come the grades. I had heard a story during training of a driver who ran out of fuel going up a grade because he was already low and all the fuel he had left went to the back of the tanks and couldn't get sucked into the engine! Well, during every second going up those grades, that story is all I can think about. At first I try to keep from pressing the throttle down all the way, thinking this will help conserve fuel, but I quickly realize how stupid this is because I'm spending like 3 times as long going up the grades. So I just mash it and get over as fast as I can, then let it coast down in neutral on the other side. Yes I know this is a terrible thing to do (you should always be under power) but they're relatively straight, shallow downgrades and there's literally no other vehicles around.

So long story short, I finally get to Hardin, MT. The driver sent by my guardian angel tells me he's going to follow me in and make sure I make it to the pump. I put in about $30 of fuel and pay for it on my own credit card. This will get me to Billings and I will fuel up there. I do this because I don't want the company to know that I let my fuel get so low, and I'm willing to take the hit to account for my own foolish mistake. Plus, this will act as a direct self-inflicted punishment which will discourage me from getting into this predicament again. So I thank the other driver, head out to Billings, and fuel up there. Logs be damned.

After filling up in Billings and accounting for the $30 I added, I realize that I wasn't actually as low as I had thought. I think this is because the fuel gauge is a little off in my truck. I've noticed that even when I fill both tanks right to the brim, it still only shows about 7/8 full. So I think it was showing my lower than it actually was the entire time. Still, the stress I went through that day was very real. And in no way, shape or form was it worth it.

The moral of the story? Just fill up every single day. Never go more than about 700 miles without fueling, and when you do fuel, cram in as much as you can into those tanks. Never let the gauge drop down below 1/4. Actually, never let it drop down below 1/2 if possible. It's just not worth the stress and the risk. You never know where you might run into a desolate stretch of highway with nowhere to fuel. You'll feel much more confident and relaxed cruising down the road with a full tank. That's the primary lesson I learned from this episode. The other lesson? Don't get greedy. Don't try to push yourself into risky situations for personal benefit. Being a professional means doing what's best from a business perspective, not necessarily from a personal one. Your primary responsibility out there is to get your load safely from point A to point B. Everything you do should be with that goal in mind. The minute you start letting personal desires interfere with that, you're on a dangerous path. I was lucky enough this time to not have to deal with the consequences of my selfish decision, but it was enough to deter me from ever making a similar decision again.

Great lesson learned! I actually ran out of fuel one time to a point where my engine wouldn't start.

The fuel island was full and I was tired. I parked with slightly less than 1/4 tank of fuel on the side of the road at the truck stop. The terrain under me wasn't straight, it leaned to the passenger side hard.

My bunk heater was on full blast all night on this cold WY night and I woke up to no fuel in my tanks. The engine couldn't even start.

So I asked the truck stop for their small 5 gallon portable tank and I made about 6 fuel transactions (which I'm sure the company didn't like). I had to fill up 15 gallons to each tank because of the terrain, the fuel wasn't getting sucked.

That was my lesson learned. It's been awhile but that also taught me to never park with such low fuel level.

Yes out of fuel sucks! I road my cycle out here to see my mom for Mothers Day as a surprise. Took my time cruising out, she didn't like I road my cycle but dang that's why I had it!.....So, I head home Sunday, fill up my bike (3.5 gallons) Cruising I-40 west, there's harsh cross winds ,with gusts about 50 mph+, AND all the Semi's, cross winds, I had to deal with haha. Well, I was 5 miles from Ludlow, my bike starts sputters n spits, I stall, coast to the next call box. Cell has no coverage, so i call AAA, they say I've got a 3 hour wait! Now I can see the Ludlow gas stations, and am in no mood to push this cruiser 5 miles. Luckily, this cross country biker (bmw loaded for bear) Stops, to help. We get 1 quart of fuel out of his oversized tanks...I say thats enough, he follows me to fuel pumps whewww all good. I offered to pay him for his time/gas, he said just pay it forward...Now I deal with the winds, and now it's getting dark and nasty. Now got rain to deal with closer I get to Barstow. I end up pulling up to my gate in Hesperia at exactly the 3 hour mark! (6pm)