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frank5079

frank5079

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I left home this morning at 6:40am to go to work, about 28 miles away. I forgot to fill up last Saturday, and I had 105 miles on the clock. I figured that the gas station I normally hit is about 8 miles away so by then the low fuel light should come on. As I approach the exit, the low fuel light still hadn't come on and I decided to go on. Well I get to the next exit and my odometer is reading 126 when the low fuel light comes on, so I hit the reserve button and decide to go for broke, thinking I have about a half gallon left, good for another 15 miles. So I take the next exit, then the engine started to act like it was starting to miss. I turn right at the next intersection and hit the Speedway gas station, with 130 miles on the clock. So I fill up and the pump shuts at 3.8; I continue to pump a little more and the filler neck starts to overflow. Final reading, 4.1 gallons!!! I must've been running on fumes!!! :surprise:
 
Whenever I ride in areas that I am not familiar with I try to find out where the gas stations are first. I get worried right around the 100 mile mark.
 
Sentinel357 said:
Whenever I ride in areas that I am not familiar with I try to find out where the gas stations are first. I get worried right around the 100 mile mark.
Click to expand...

I have a mental fuel gauge that I use with the trip odometer, 0 miles is full tank, 30 miles is 3/4, 60 miles is 1/2, 90 miles is 3/4, low fuel light kicks in around 115, 120 is red zone, and 130 you're walking....
 
I'm not real easy on the throttle but even so, a mix of spirited and steady riding rarely sees me on the north side of 90 miles before the red light from hell kicks in.
Bugger it, if I wanted economy I would have bought a Honda 250 Rebel but that's not the point of a V-Max is it ?


Chris.
 
I get about 100 miles before my light comes on riding in town and on the freeway.
 
I get around 40 mpg and normally with my 4 gal tank I would go 120 miles between fillups. I now have a 5 gal tank installed and was able to squeeze 183 miles out of it, when I filled up it said 4.8 gallons! Bad thing was that my low fuel light did not light up. Until I get it fixed I'll keep my fillups to the 160 mile mark.
 
This morning my fuel light came on at 120 miles and I switched to reserve. AT 129.4 I ran out of gas. (Fortunately there was a truck/trailer with lawn mowers warming up across the street and I was able to purchase a gallon of gas to get me to the gas station.)
Well, at least I now know that I only get 9 miles on the reserve!
 
Has anyone thought of a more obvious alert device like a small strobe or a buzzer tied into the low fuel light?
Or modded a second one slightly higher in the tank so you have more advance warning?
 
*OR* modded the existing reserve light to trigger earlier?

I was in the middle of nowhere when my light came on. 9 miles was not enough to get me to the closest gas station. I need to remember to watch that trip odometer more closely!
 
Either a modded low fuel sensor so you get more range or a programmable display that calculates mileage and then gives you a warning, basically a speedo or GPS trip computer.
I will be thinking about this, I have a bunch of goldwing fuel tanks with fuel level senders, I may just fabricate a real fuel level gauge like I do use on my Ventures and Goldwings. It's possible to use a venture sending unit, the trick is matching it to a gauge, my older wings use a gauge, the Venture uses an led display.
I seem to recall some of the Chinese multi gauge units have a fuel level option.
 
I've never seen the sending unit from a VMax. Is it a float? If so, it should be a simple matter to adjust that to light up earlier.
 
HyperPete said:
This morning my fuel light came on at 120 miles and I switched to reserve. AT 129.4 I ran out of gas. (Fortunately there was a truck/trailer with lawn mowers warming up across the street and I was able to purchase a gallon of gas to get me to the gas station.)
Well, at least I now know that I only get 9 miles on the reserve!
Click to expand...

Something fishy about that, Pete.The light usually begins to flicker a few miles before the "On" circuit for the pump actually kicks out, and you have to switch to the "Res" circuit. I would suspect that the Res. circuit is not working.
Cheers!
 
Does anyone know IF the bulb for the fuel has to be a certain resistance? I would like to change it out for a high power LED.. That bulb is almost invisible during the day.
 
When I looked down and noticed the light it was lit fully. I switched over to reserve. I have had it sputter and cough on me as I ran out in the past, and switching to reserver gave me additional range. I think it's working properly Assuming it came on as I left my house and I did not notice it I did, that would be an additional 5 miles. That's possible...
 
Leaving Lake Tiorati at Harriman State Park (Bear Mountain) when my 91 started choking out on me. I was like, Oh Shit!! LOL. That's when I looked down and saw that Red Eyed Devil glaring back at me. Flipped on to reserve, but had to ride another 7+ miles to get to a station. That was truly an uneasy 7+ miles. Put back in 3.98 gallons. too close for comfort.

It would be nice if someone would construct a sender unit to replace the stock one, that allows connection a real gauge. I could dispense with the pump stalling as a warning "IF" I could keep an eye on my fuel level while I ride.
 
D-Max2012 said:
Does anyone know IF the bulb for the fuel has to be a certain resistance? I would like to change it out for a high power LED.. That bulb is almost invisible during the day.
Click to expand...

Yes, It does have to be a certain resistance to work properly. Others have tried to swap in a LED and then have issues because of this. There is a work around with resistors but, I've never seen a writeup on it.
 
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