I'm somewhat of a rookie and I have a question about how much fuel is used in trucks. Once when I was driving, I ran out of fuel, and at that time I actually thought I had a few more hours to go with the fuel in my tank, but it turns out I was wrong about that, so I wanted to use a some kind of a calcuation this time to avoid running out of fuel again. How can I figuer out how much I can drive with the fuel I have in my tanks? Also, if it's cold outside and I want to idle the truck, how much fuel does that roughly use?

thanks

usually most trucks get 5-8 mpg. just watch your fuel gauge and always fill up around half tank, then you never run out

i always figure at worst 5.5 mpg. as for idling i figure 1.25 gallons per hour. as for a fuel guage, it doesnt work, i got a stick with a series of 1" notches on it. i figure at 8" i got about 150 miles left.

When you make fuel stops, figure your fuel milage and note the conditions. When you have a full tank you know how many miles you can go on the fuel you have onboard. Remember about 10% or a little more in the tanks is non-usable. I get 6.2 with 37,000 or less on flat ground no wind. Same load in wind drops to 5.5 Real heavy wind about 4.7. With a heavy load I get 5.6 on Flat ground, With wind about 5 and real heavy wind sometimes as low as 3.8

Figure about a gallon of fuel burned per idle hour.

Thanks for the information guys.

I use 5 mpg as a basis for running. You can count on using from 100-125 gallons per day with normal running. I also count on about 1 gallon of fuel per hour for idling. You don't EVER want your fuel to get so low as to run out. I usually try to fill up at around 1/2 tank. I don't like to get as low as 1/4 tank. Gauges can be off.

When my gauge says "E", I have 80 gallons left. I freaked out in the desert on my first ever trip in my T600!

I've driven nothing but Freightliners and always noticed that there is always more fuel in the tanks than my gauges indicate. I usually fill up when my fuel gage indicates about 1/3 tank.