"Do you/we have enough gas?"

[J N Winkler]

Why would one need to worry about condensation in the gas tank?

I've seen ghastly photos of fuel pumps badly corroded as a result of water in the tank.  I gather this is more of a problem in places like Louisiana that have consistently high humidity, but I still try to keep the tank full if the car is not going to be driven for several months.

[kalvado]

Why would one need to worry about condensation in the gas tank?

I've seen ghastly photos of fuel pumps badly corroded as a result of water in the tank.  I gather this is more of a problem in places like Louisiana that have consistently high humidity, but I still try to keep the tank full if the car is not going to be driven for several months.

If I remember correctly, gas tanks are kept fire-safe by using a gas with high enough vapor pressure so that there is not enough air in the tank for combustion. That also means water vapor pressure would be proportionally lower than outside of the tank, and dew point will be below dew point on the other side of the cap.
While it is certainly possible to break anything, I suspect it takes some effort to actually achieve condensation. Using ethanol-free gas would help to break things, though

[Bruce]

I also knew that if something went wrong and I couldn't make it to Yakima, I'd never be more than 5-10 miles away from a station so it wouldn't be a problem.

Not the case for parts of Washington. On I-90 between Moses Lake and Ritzville, there's a 40-mile stretch with no gas stations (with a warning sign) too).

[ZLoth]

Thwse are all cool stories... But can you check if we have enough gas?

[Scott5114]

I also knew that if something went wrong and I couldn't make it to Yakima, I'd never be more than 5-10 miles away from a station so it wouldn't be a problem.

Not the case for parts of Washington. On I-90 between Moses Lake and Ritzville, there's a 40-mile stretch with no gas stations (with a warning sign) too).

40 miles? That's cute. There are cars that can do that on one gallon...

[1995hoo]

One thing that sometimes causes me to wait to put gas in the tank is if we have grocery store points that will get us a discount. To maximize the discount, I let the tank get as low as reasonably possible before filling up unless some of the points will expire first. (There have been times where we've taken two cars to the gas station and filled them both from the same pump on the same transaction to stretch the discount even further, usually when we've had a big discount like $1 a gallon. But that's very rare and it's also a bit of a hassle in terms of positioning the cars.)

[kalvado]

One thing that sometimes causes me to wait to put gas in the tank is if we have grocery store points that will get us a discount. To maximize the discount, I let the tank get as low as reasonably possible before filling up unless some of the points will expire first. (There have been times where we've taken two cars to the gas station and filled them both from the same pump on the same transaction to stretch the discount even further, usually when we've had a big discount like $1 a gallon. But that's very rare and it's also a bit of a hassle in terms of positioning the cars.)

Local gas stations had posters saying such double fueling 8s illegal for fire safety reasons. Not sure I take that at face value though.

[SSOWorld]

Driving the Alaska highway end-to-end was the test for me.  I had the "half-tank" rule in mind, but one point, I left Fort Nelson without filling up but luckily realized it by the time I reached BC-77 (Liard Highway to NWT), 180'd and went back to Fort Nelson and filled it up (I had half a tank prior). It takes almost an entire tank to get from Fort Nelson to Watson Lake and there is neigh a gas station in between - especially in winter.

Every major stop on the highway had a sign after you pass through with "Check Your Fuel" on the road.  This is especially true for the Cassiar Highway which you only had one spot (Dease Lake) on the road between Watson Lake and Stewart and the Dalton Highway and the Tok Cut-off in Alaska. (Pretty much every road up there.)

[oscar]

Driving the Alaska highway end-to-end was the test for me.  I had the "half-tank" rule in mind, but one point, I left Fort Nelson without filling up but luckily realized it by the time I reached BC-77 (Liard Highway to NWT), 180'd and went back to Fort Nelson and filled it up (I had half a tank prior). It takes almost an entire tank to get from Fort Nelson to Watson Lake and there is neigh a gas station in between - especially in winter.

Every major stop on the highway had a sign after you pass through with "Check Your Fuel" on the road.  This is especially true for the Cassiar Highway which you only had one spot (Dease Lake) on the road between Watson Lake and Stewart and the Dalton Highway and the Tok Cut-off in Alaska. (Pretty much every road up there.)

That far north, I followed the "three-quarter tank" rule, and sometimes would top off a mostly-full fuel tank rather than drive by an open gas station. Then there are roads, like Yukon's unpaved mountain road Canol Road (YT 6) north of Ross River, where I carried extra fuel in my pickup bed, and would've run out of gas without the extra fuel.

[kkt]

Drive to Yellowknife, north of Peace River fill up at every gas station.  They do not post signs saying how far the next station is.  Our host at Yellowknife did provide us with a list.  Also of Tim Horton's locations.

[ZLoth]

Just as a followup...

On Tuesday afternoon, I took my mother's car in to have the front tire repaired along with a stop at Costco to fill up the gas tank as it was very low. Because of the weather experienced that morning that resulted in widespread power outages, the Costco in Plano along US-75 was closed-no power. Go to the nearby Sam's Club-no power. Go to the QT near Sam's Club-no power. Drove back home hoping to just get a gallon of gas, and every service station was closed-no power. I ended up at the RaceTrac near my home, and was able to get gas, but the pump was operating very slowly. I satisfied myself with a little under a gallon-and-a-half just to get out of the danger zone, and was able to fill up the next day.

[JayhawkCO]

On a road trip, 1/4 tank. Around town, just above gas light. Never failed me yet.

[SSOWorld]

Idiot light off? Enough gas.

[Bruce]

On a normal day, I try to leave my car with 100 miles of range overnight. Just enough to get across the metro area if needed (or to Canada).

[seicer]

Gas Buddy's value is questionable in my mind anyway because of the unreliability of people posting prices. A gas station near my house closed. People kept posting prices anyway, presumably to get points for posting them, until the station was removed about two months later.

GasBuddy was much better as well when established members could update the master gas station list, long ago when they had a functioning website and weren't just reduced to an app (that enjoys tracking the ever-loving crap out of you if you don't change the default settings). When that went away, erroneous station data could stay in there for months, and I used to see the same updates for closed stations because of their ridiculous point system.

Newer people to that app will never know how fully-functional their old website was.

The GasBuddy app has steadily declined in quality over the years, making its Premium tier no longer worth the cost. The app persistently pushes its GasBuddy Plus+ card, an additional paid feature that only benefits those who drive over 30,000 miles annually. Price reporting, once a core function, has become unreliable as fewer users contribute, and rewards for reporting are often given to questionable new accounts. The company also promotes misleading third-party "gift card" offers, which should be avoided.

Additionally, GasBuddy has introduced unrelated features like games for earning points, further bloating the app and compromising its stability. Many gas stations have been removed from the platform, and user-reported corrections rarely lead to updates. Debit card charges through the app are processed unpredictably, sometimes taking days to post in bulk. With fewer users reporting prices and ongoing usability issues, the app is no longer a reliable tool for finding affordable gas.