How much fuel do you really have left when that fuel light comes on

2013 cascadia with 100 gallon tanks ..got about 50 gallon left when lite comes on .
Of course I would never admit this knowledge to my girlfriend who thinks the low fuel lite is normal .

 

Haha back in high school i knew exactly how much gas i had left and found the needle would go below the empty line. Or another trick going up a hill in my sonata if the needle moved i still had some lol

 

I had an over gross load that prevented me from filling up. Shipper refused to fix it cause I scaled barely legal with 3/8ths of a tank.

Dispatch wouldn’t let me fill up to have an over 80k scale ticket and once shipper knew that, they told me to beat it.

Company eventually said to just run and let me only fuel enough after scales to get past the next one. Was still limited by our fuel stop choices (loves, ta, Petro). Was a super nervous trip for me.

 

Only Cosmo Kramer and that other guy were brave enough to take it down below the last hash on the gauge

 

Just as a side, if I remember my physics correctly, the temperature of the diesel can affect it's density and volume somewhat. I remember a while back some court cases charging truck stop operators saying they heat up the diesel way too much. I wonder if this might also change when this light goes on too!

 

I like to fuel before loading.

always told them I ain't playing the minimum fuel game.

 

When I got a dispatch that said go in with no more than 1/2 tanks I got angry. I had a bottled water facility to refuse to load me because I had "too much fuel". Stopping every 300 or so miles to fuel is a royal PITA.