How many hours/miles can you go on full tanks

Smart thing to do.

Back in the winter of 2011, a snowstorm went through that stretched from San Antonio to Canada. A friend of mine, lease driver got caught in Nebraska. I got caught in Joplin at 100k lbs with a haul truck on my wagon. Within 4 hours of the roads getting shut down, fuel gets scarce. My buddy was one of those guys that gets just enough fuel to get by. They ran out of fuel and he had to sleep in the drivers lounge. The temps dropped to -16. I was stuck in Joplin for 3 days.

Another friend of mine was in San Antonio when they shut the interstates down. He topped his tanks off and took the back roads to Laredo.

When the weather hits, and people start crashing, and detours are set up, or the roads get shut down, fueling gets more crucial. About a year or so ago, when they had that ice hit the South, the roads get blocked quickly. I heard on the CB about the road being blocked in Meridian due to a multi truck crash. I jump off at that TA on 59/20 east of Meridian. Hit the top of the ramp, looked left then right, ran the stop sign, and pulled into the lot, topped the tanks off again and parked. The next truck behind me stopped at the top of the ramp for the stop sign and spun out. Same thing happened on the eastbound side. No one else could get to the truckstop to get fuel. Everyone had to pull off and park on the shoulder and walk up to the truck stop. Restaurant was packed full that night.

Hate that restaurant. Food is awful. Would have much rather stopped at the Queen's City Truck Stop, but if the road is blocked, you have to take what you can get.

I was running from Chattanooga to Houston that trip. The ice started when I left Chattanooga. Had to stop in Meridian. Next morning, Meridian was clear. I got on the radio and asked if anyone had come up 59 from Slidell. No one. Everyone who answered came from Jackson. So I stayed on 20, ran out of the ice around Monroe, went to Shreveport and cut down US 70 to US 59 to Houston.

If you are in the South, and you hear something about "winter weather", expect bad things to happen. Everyone becomes mentally crippled. We got buried in Joplin. I didn't have a problem in the ice from Chattanooga to Meridian , but for some reason, every car and every truck on the road do this little thing where they try to creep up the hill at 5 mph. And then they spin out. Mindblowingly stupid.

 

Fuel Ive run out of before. Several times. It's usually with a local like Hahn in Maryland when your Mack only has a 60 gallon tank and not only you have to run 5 loads into Arlington Pentagon from Lime Kiln but sit and blow a hour and half at max 2300 rpm your exhaust turbo each load. When they ask you for the 6th, there is a fuel spot in Frederick that takes an hour you don't have to get and return to lime kiln. So you gamble. You go down to the Pentagon silos and blow. You will run dry on 270 during the afternoon rush (Stay in right lane... or you are going to totally screw it up...) possibly leading to hours wait into the evening as they throw 10 gallons into a truck and tote it to you with fresh filters. Having to be back to new market by 3 am to roll cuts into your 8 hour sleep time at home which for me was a hour both ways in all weather, ice most common that first winter. Had a ford 70 that did very well on ice on the country roads.

Running out of fuel in a big truck on the big road is a risk. Ive been short in a company who had only a hundred gallon tank constantly fueling. I finally quit them for much larger 340 gals in the next rig. fueling several times a day and night it's crazy. Fueling three times across the USA is much much better.

As a single full tanks gives me about 3 days in the bullpen 24/7 waiting for the meat load in winter keeping warm at high idle then up to a 1000 miles before having to fuel then push for the coast. Tactically out of Garden City it's either Liberal, Limon, Armarillo or KC west grab full tanks and go. You are already ready to fuel at 1/3 tanks or a little less.

Regarding fueling, it goes onto your logs. Once I was out of fuel in Madison prior to midnight with about 3 gallons by stick measuring the tanks. The logs say I am in sleeper therefore cannot fuel until 1 am. I shut engine off to save that 3 gallons and heat through the wabco burner or go in and drink coffee and watch movies until 1. Again that was the hundred gallon truck I had. Never again.

The most challenge is when dispatch says don't fuel in california this week. IFTA miles/fuel starts to pile up for the fleet so there I am leaving Oregon with a yet to be decided fuel in Arizona. Probably Tuscon if possible. 1650-1700 miles that trip with the engine fuel light on checking the last two or three possible 40's era fuel stops to see if there was any desiel at all until Phoenix. It worked out. But it was too close, she started gulping air the last two turns because the fuel moved away from the engine feed hose at the tanks.

 

Yeps, that is my M.O. , ability to take extended time off is the reason I got into trucking. I am off again mid November

 

It may be a company requirement to log a minimum of 15 minutes, but you can log less than 15 minutes. On e-logs it's easy, once I finish fueling I switch to Off Duty when I pull up before using the comfort station. 7-8 minutes to fuel is about right.

On paper logs you can flag it and note the actual time. It just makes the math more difficult for summarizing your hours.