# When do you fuel up? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2023, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577 "2023-07-25T19:53:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dead\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9fc29f/32.png) [@Dead\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Cat)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/41 "2023-07-26T10:53:41Z")
Sure, just a difference of opinion - worth it to you, not to me. I very rarely stop on a drive for a drink and a snack. But I should also have mentioned I’m in the UK, and therefore spend less time driving than an average American. Plus I doubt I’ve ever been more than (say) 20 miles from a service station. As a recent Costco convert, I also hate filling up somewhere more expensive, especially if I know I’ll be passing Costco the following day/week. Not infrequently I’ll just add a gallon somewhere, then fill up at Costco next time I’m passing. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/42 "2023-07-26T11:22:40Z")
Wow. No one does what I do. I thought it would be common. I fill up on Sunday. That way, I never have to stress about whether or when to stop, and I never need gas when I’m in a hurry to get somewhere. Generally I go through about half a tank a week. If I go through less than a quarter, I might skip the fill up because the next week should be fine. And sometimes I forget. But the goal is to fill up the tank on Sundays. I started this 10 years ago and I love it. Sunday is gas, laundry, grocery reset day. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/43 "2023-07-26T11:26:09Z")
> [@Dead\_Cat](#): > > Plus I doubt I’ve ever been more than (say) 20 miles from a service station. I’m not sure I could count how many stations are within 20 miles of my home, even here in a very rural county! Costco, on the other hand, is more than 25 miles from me… I do have another motivation - most of my driving involves transporting my grandkids. I certainly don’t want to risk running out with them in the car, nor do I want to have to fuel up while taking them thither and yon. And, yeah, I’m a bit obsessive about running out, even tho it’s never happened to me. Just one of my adorable quirks! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Librarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_librarian/32/402_2.png) [@The\_Librarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Librarian)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/44 "2023-07-26T11:39:44Z")
On a road trip somewhere I know there will be a fuel station every 50 km or so: when the light comes on. Normally I fuel the car when it is below 1/3 and I feel I’m not in a rush and it is quiet at the station. The light will come on every month or so. I see waiting in line to get fuel as a failure in planning. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/45 "2023-07-26T11:53:50Z")
Between a 1/4 and a 1/2. I live kinda far from town. I always try to keep it pretty full. Always glad that I do in case something comes up. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/46 "2023-07-26T12:05:45Z")
It really depends on circumstances. In the heart of winter, I refuel as soon as it drops below half a tank. Normally, however, I refuel when I get down to 3 bars. The fuel light comes on at 2 bars, which often happens before I make it home from work. I have to refuel every 7 or 8 days because my commute is a high speed 40 miles round trip. When I’m off, though, I can stretch that out to almost 2 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/47 "2023-07-26T12:22:49Z")
I’m more a just under a quarter tank guy, my wife is a just under a half tank girl. I drive a lot more than her, so if I went to the ~8 gallon fill-up rather than the ~12 gallon one I currently average, I’d be stopping for gas 16 times more per year. If she went the other way, she’d save 8 stops. So we are both happy where we are in the trade-off. She’ll sometimes top off even 5 gallons if she’s passing a BJ’s. The price difference is about 20 cents per gallon. Doesn’t seem worthwhile to me. The BJ’s stations are a mess. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/48 "2023-07-26T15:10:24Z")
Wintertime - half tank. Never want to be stranded in the cold. Summertime or other seasons - 1/4 tank. I have owned my car since 2012 and have never seen the “low fuel light”. I just don’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/49 "2023-07-26T15:12:16Z")
Didn’t vote, because I fill up on payday. Most months, that means somewhere around 3/4 of a tank left. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/50 "2023-07-26T15:19:59Z")
I’m a 1/4 tank person but I live in a large metro area. Gas stations are all over the place. If I were on a long trip through nowhere I would be much more careful. Although these days, I am not sure there is a long trip through nowhere in the US without gas stations at least every 50 miles. Unlike that road in Australia (500 miles in freedom units…most cars would need to carry gasoline in cans as well as a full tank to make it): [![](https://c8.alamy.com/zooms/9/d048c3196b9f434eb929b740739fb30b/agnt23.jpg) ](https://c8.alamy.com/zooms/9/d048c3196b9f434eb929b740739fb30b/agnt23.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/51 "2023-07-26T15:22:06Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Good thing no one with “fuel anxiety” was with me one day when I drove to an area of downtown where gas stations were few and far between, and by the time I got off the highway the fuel warning light had been on for quite some time. There was a gas station right there but the price pissed me off, so I rather foolishly decided to take the risk and go a few miles up the road where I was going anyway, and where I remembered there was another one, figuring I’d probably just barely make it and arrive on fumes. So I got there and the station had closed! So I had to double back, at this point now really seriously worried, to the point I was turning the engine off at stop lights. Somehow I made it. From the amount of gas I put in, the tank was indeed very nearly empty. Long before I had the mobile internet to tell me such things (in the ancient arcane days of the 1990’s), I had pulled off the interstate to take a shortcut somewhere in Ohio. Through Amish country. Before I bothered to notice I was on 1/8th of a tank. When the light came on I started to worry. Mile after mile, still no gas stations. [Plenty of Amish buggies tho] I finally spied a Shell, pulled in, filled up… My tank could hold 13 gallons. The pump when it clicked off read: 13 gallons. I couldn’t have gone more than another mile without conking out. [bit more on topic] > [@Cervaise](#): > > So if I’m leaving the country on a long drive, I will stop and fill the tank before I cross the border, even if it’s already mostly full, to minimize the fueling I need to do in other countries. The Gasbuddy blog this week has an entry on [checking prices before and after crossing a state border](https://www.gasbuddy.com/go/state-lines-gas-prices), something I do religiously now. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e47774/32.png) [@epbrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/52 "2023-07-26T16:14:36Z")
In a small town and retired, even my SUV will last a couple of months on a full tank, so I fill up a couple of weeks after I hit a quarter tank. On my motorcycles, I fill up pretty much whenever I see a gas station, while muttering tp myself that there’s no damned reason why a modern bike with fuel injection shouldn’t have a fuel gauge. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/53 "2023-07-26T16:35:15Z")
I go down to a quarter tank. I probably could save some money by keeping an eye out for better prices, but as it is, I only fill up 3 or 4 times a year, so the price doesn’t matter much. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/54 "2023-07-26T21:30:40Z")
Of course it varies with circumstance. But as a usual matter I’ll fill when the low fuel alarm activates at about 60 miles to sudden stoppage. That’s how I voted. It’s about 45 miles each way to/from work. So I can’t complete a round trip after the light comes on. Other than that run nearly all my driving is in local suburbia, mostly 1 to 5 miles each way and occasionally 10 miles. There are stations scattered everywhere. If I’m coming home from work _and_ I’m pessimistic about being forced to go to work tomorrow _and_ I have less than about 100 miles of indicated range then I’ll usually stop off and fill up near home. Lest I get called to work in a hurry tomorrow at 4am without enough gas to both go and return. I can buy gas near work at a reasonable price if necessary, but it’s a PITA dealing with the local roads, traffic, getting back on the freeway afterwards, and it being not my usual brand. Easier to avoid that scenario, especially right after work when I’m brain-dead and especially unhappy with any avoidable frustration. Once I quit working here soon, I expect I’ll always be filling at the low-fuel alarm since from that point it might take me a week to drive the 60 miles until I’d be fully out. Except for when a hurricane is a distinct possibility and then I have and will fully fuel a few days before the last minute mass panic buying kicks in. That’s bad. ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/55 "2023-07-26T21:38:41Z")
When there are only fumes left usually, which equates to the end of the month, most months. I hardly use the car, only 103 miles this month so far and it won’t change much. My son uses it more than I do, he works nights, 23:00~07:00 and there is no public transport to where he works at those times. Only eight miles a day but he does bugger off to Scotland, Yorkshire and Wales fairly frequently. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/56 "2023-07-26T22:16:39Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > If I’m coming home from work _and_ I’m pessimistic about being forced to go to work tomorrow _and_ I have less than about 100 miles of indicated range then I’ll usually stop off and fill up near home. Lest I get called to work in a hurry tomorrow at 4am without enough gas to both go and return. That’s why I am a 1/4 tank person (not always but usually). I never want to start a trip needing to stop for gas. I want to get where I am going. I work my schedule to know if I leave at a certain time I will arrive when I am supposed to. That does not include a fill-up. I get gas when going home almost always so the car is as ready as can be when I need it next. Of course, YMMV 😉 ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2023, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/57 "2023-07-26T22:30:45Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Good thing no one with “fuel anxiety” was with me one day when I drove to an area of downtown where gas stations were few and far between… A few summers ago my parents came out to visit, and one day I took them on a day trip up to Lake Tahoe. We basically made a loop up to South Lake Tahoe via US 50, then up to Truckee on CA 89, and back down to Sacramento on I-80, stopping at various attractions along the way. After stopping for ice cream in Camp Richardson, I mentioned offhand that we’ll need to fuel up at some point. Not that it was _that_ low, just that there wasn’t enough left to make it all the way back home. But that statement triggered major range anxiety in my parents (not to mention they’re terrible backseat drivers anyway). Every tiny community we passed through, they were like “Is there a gas station here? Look for a gas station!” And I kept telling them “We have 80 miles (or whatever it was) of fuel left. That’s way more than enough to make it to Truckee.” Dad: “But I don’t trust that display. And how do you know there will be gas in Truckee?” Me: “Truckee’s a major town, and it’s on the Interstate. Of course there’s gas in Truckee.” (I suppose I could have fueled up a little sooner by making a slight detour up Hwy 28 to Tahoe City, but we really did make it to Truckee with plenty of fuel left in the tank). ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/58 "2023-07-27T00:19:37Z")
Not to be sarcastic, but my answer is “Thursdays”. :). My routine on Thursdays is Leave Work, Go Grocery Shopping, Get Gas, Get Cash From Bank, go home. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2023, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/59 "2023-07-27T00:23:58Z")
We drive about 3,000 miles a year total, so not very often. If it’s 1/4 tank or lower and I’m at Costco, I’ll usually fill up. Otherwise I wait until I am getting the Low Tank warning. Of course I live in a major metropolis and gas stations are everywhere. If I’m on a road trip, usually some combo of 1/4 tank left and whenever we are going to stop anyway (for food or whatever). ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2023, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577/60 "2023-07-27T01:14:40Z")
It works out to 1/4 tank most of the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-do-you-fuel-up/987577.md?page=4)