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For those times when you let the fuel gauge go to far past E, you need E-mergency Gas or E-gas. E-gas is a separate one gallon compartment in your gas tank. After your engine sputters and dies and the car coasts to a stop, you simply walk around to the gas fill door, reach in and flip the lever and
release a gallon of gas. Then you drive directly to a gas station.
The lever is in the fill door to reduce the temptation to use the E-gas on a regular basis. Also, each time you fill up your tank the E-gas lever is tripped so the gas is released and replaced with fresh fuel.
You never need to think about E-gas - until you need it!
Pennzoil Roadside Rescue
http://www.canadian...roadside_rescue.htm
01 Nov 02 | "'Rescue is a safe fuel additive that contains some of the properties inherent in gasoline, minus the more volatile elements.' In other words, it'll make your car go, but it won't smell or blow up in your car . . . If you run out of gas, you dump the contents into the tank, and get about 16 kilometers out of it. Hopefully that's enough to get you to a gas station." [bristolz, Oct 04 2004]
Volkswagen Beetle Reserve Tank
http://www4.tpgi.co...strong/bhistory.htm
01 Nov 02 | In 1962 Volkswagen got rid of their reserve tank in the Beetle. Prior to this "...if the car ran out of fuel a switch inside the car could be flipped to start using a special reserve supply of petrol." [bristolz, Oct 04 2004]
[link]
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don't some (older?) pick up's have 2 tanks for gas already. I do like the idea of the emergency switch being located in a difficult place and the auto refill. +1 |
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Some vehicles had (have, perhaps, in some places) no gas gauge but instead have a "reserve" tank much like you describe, though it's accessible to the driver. Drive along until the engine quits, flip the lever, restart the vehicle, and gas up. |
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BTW, it might be useful to have a special "gas can area" of the trunk/boot (probably not worth writing up a separate anno) but storing a filled gas can there is not a good idea. Gas cans are designed to vent fumes to prevent explosive concentrations of vapor from accumulating inside them, but most vehicles' trunks have no such feature. On a hot day, a small spark could have rather nasty consequences. |
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That's a good idea, just like motorcycles. I know I've run out of gas a few times, and have felt the anxiety from riding on fumes more often than I ever should have. Instead of a separate tank, why not just use a small divider placed between two separate fuel pickup lines in the regular gas tank? A valve would select either pickup. It wouldn't really matter which way the valve was set on, because a small reserve would remain on the other side of the divider. |
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A good idea! All cars should have a fuel reserve, battery reserve, built-in inverter, air compressor, and a laptop docking station with printer mounted in trunk!! :-D |
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many cars have a little digital display telling you how many miles to empty, including my dad's SUV. Around 20 miles it becomes unreliable, but it's another recipie(spelling?) for an idea that's mostly baked. |
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On my tercel I used to just hit the trip meter whenever I filled up. Then, I'd keep a running tally in my head of my driving styles and how much was in the tank, and I'd know when to get more. |
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Oddly enough, the E light was the only part of fuel gauge that worked. Somewhat reversed from what you'd normally expect. Of course, by "worked" I mean "I was able to judge how much was left in the tank by seeing how often the light flashed on and off." |
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I was going to post this same idea. I ran out of gas in my wife's scooter this morning, and just had to reach down and flip it to "reserve" to keep going. I've always appreciated this feature on motorcycles - why on earth don't they have them in cars? |
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This will not help a diesel engine! |
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Well, it is an idea about gasoline. |
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My late-model car does this automatically; once my gas tank runs out, it starts smoking the reserve. (But it doesn't inhale.) |
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Knowing human nature, you would need to have some kind of device that would prevent people from being lazy and just switching to the emergency tank on such a regular basis that they would end up running out of gas anyway. Maybe a flag that pops up and says "I ran out of gas and am running on my emergency tank! Look at me and feel free to throw things!" Or maybe an embarrasing picture pops up showing the driver sitting on the toilet or picking their nose. Or have the car start playing recorded banjo music real loud to mimic chase scenes in comedic movies. This would also provide a soundtrack to the driver's exciting race to get to a gas station before running out again. |
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All these post-wipe annos, and no votes. |
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Good idea - and glad you added the part that forces you to run out of gas before using it. Nip temptation in the bud, and all that. |
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