speaking of gas tank sizes...

the standard vanagon gas tank is 15.9 gal...is this true for all years?
in the owner's manual, it notes that when the needle reaches red line
there is a reserve of about 2.6 gal. left in tank. i've run my van to
what seemed to be nothing but fumes in the tank (way past red line),
and still it only took ~12 gallons to fill up.

does this have something to do with the reserve tanks? (how do these
tanks operate anyway?)

or could it be my fuel gauge is just inaccurate?

walking hours for gas is a painful reminder that it's a great idea to
keep a full gas can attached to your van in case of emergency!

dylan k.
'85 westy (going bra-less for winter)

On Feb 4, 2005, at 2:07 PM, Robert Fisher wrote:

> After Pearl Harbor, one of the problems the Navy decided had
> contributed to
> the disaster (!?) was that was that most of the ships were docked with
> little or no fuel- the point being that even had they known several
> hours
> (9-12, iirc) in advance of the attack, they would still not have been
> able
> to avoid it by getting underway because it would've taken several
> hours to
> fuel up in addition to bringing the old boiler systems up to speed
> (even
> with emergency startup procedures). This led to a policy (that was
> still in
> effect when I was in 15 years ago) that no ship would be allowed to go
> below
> half fuel capacity without specific approval, under certain
> conditions, etc.
> It was kind of a PITA because you had to refuel so often, BOTOH you
> never
> got caught with your pants down.
> After I came back to civilian life I sort of adopted the same idea to
> my
> vehicles, and it has served me well- even 'tho it's a particular pain
> in a
> Vanagon, which makes me lust after the ridiculously expensive larger
> gas
> tank. No high voltage wire to remind you, just make sure you pull over
> and
> top off when the needle hits the middle. More often than not, when
> I've let
> it slide I've regretted it later- say at about the point where I'm
> running
> on fumes and hunting for a gas station in unfamiliar territory.
>
> Cya,
> Robert
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "No Name Available" <Trvlr2001@AOL.COM>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 12:27 PM
> Subject: What I'd like to see in a Vanagon...
>
>
>> Well folks,
>> I just spent the last hour walking to a gas station.
>> Not much fun,
>> Especially when I had a substantial amount of cash in my pockets !
>> Is there any way we can hook up a couple
>> of high voltage wire to the drivers seat,
>> that would shock the s*** out of me,
>> so I would pull over & get some gas???? :o)
>> seriously, how about a light first, then a buzzer???
>> How could we fix this up?
>> thanks all,
>> John C.
>> SLC, UT..
>> 85 Westy
>> 90 bad bus !@!1$%$^@$#%^&
>
>
Dylan Kahler
Art Director,
The Internationalist

dylan.kahler@internationalistmag.com
253.820.3342

www.internationalistmag.com