Pluggers by Rick McKee for July 24, 2022

depends, ma’am, on how far the gas station is and how steep the downhill is

Downhill, coasting, AND a tailwind!

Is it in neutral gear?

Best I ever did was with my 1967 Rambler Rebel. Drover from Youngstown, Ohio to New Castle, PA with the needle on “E”. The car ran outta gas as I pulled into the gas station, and I coasted to the pump.

When prices goes uphill, better drive empty downhill.

But will you have enough when you get to the gas station?

And you are a plugger if you can’t walk UP a mountain to get to a gas station.

I knew with my ’67 Mini Cooper. (It looked like a shoebox on a skateboard, but handled like a very high performance go cart.) If the needle showed empty, it was.

i fill my truck up twice a month….whether it needs it or not……

It’s one of the reasons to keep that old truck.

My Brother 50 years ago in High School ;-)

My daughter had just said to me, “Mom fills up at 1/4 tank. When do you fill?” Then there was a sudden silence; so I replied, “When the engine stops.” Like today’s strip, there was a long downhill, and my 1970 Pontiac had lots of “road-hugging weight”. When we reached the pumps, I didn’t even need to touch the brakes.

Pluggers burn out their fuel pumps by driving around in near empty on gas vehicles.

Can he tell you how many times he’s had to walk or get a ride to a gas station?

We had a 1965 AMC Hornet that drove for a week on fumes. Best car we ever owned. It had belonged to my Mum, and she gave it to me in 1972. When Eldest Daughter got her license, we gave it to her in 1980. She sold it, and we’d see it on the road from time to time.

Maybe this Plugger was a roadie for Jackson Browne…

Just remember to gas up before your wallet or Debit Card is ‘Empty" or your credit card is ’Full’.

In my nearly 60 years of driving, I’ve run out of gas only once — my first car. The gas gauge stuck when it was cold. Ever since, I automatically check the gas gauge when I stop the car and I fill up when it hits around 1/4 tank — at the grocery store (using my bonus points). My spouse, on the other hand, doesn’t bother filling up until the gauge is on E (or when the red light pops on). This means that every time we start a trip out of town, we have to get gas en route — at an expensive interstate gas station. In the last 18 months, he has been embarrassed twice running out of gas in town — he drives a hybrid [and doesn’t like to plug it in until it’s on E as well].

My personal record for driving on Empty was during the 1973-4 oil embargo. About 57 miles and a 3000 ft decrease in altitude. I had a two gallon can of gas in the trunk, so I was just doing it for fun. Never could have done it with an automatic.

Hill between here & town tilts the gas-tank away from the intake. Hope you’ve enough to go around.

I haven’t run out of gas on the road, but I did have my car die from no fuel just as I pulled up to the pump. Does that count? I was in my early 20s and it was my first car. I never let it get that low again.

A smart plugger would keep a 5 gallon Jerry can of gasoline in the back of the truck. But “Smart Plugger” is an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp or military intelligence.

Hope she has her ‘truck pushing’ shoes on…

Likes the ‘PLGGR’ vanity license plate, too.

IIRC, William Least Heat Moon claimed in Blue Highways that it’s possible to drive up to 200 miles on empty if you squeeze your butt cheeks together hard enough…

Keeping an eye on gas prices and how much each credit card gets me off per gallon.

Lately with gas prices as they are – we refill the car tank on Thursday nights – no matter how full it is though generally it is down about the same week to week.

Why then? We go out to dinner now on Thursday night instead of our normal Friday as there are a lot more people eating in it on Fridays. There is a BJs gas on the way home and they have about the best price on gas right now – without any tricks* so we stop on the way home as we don’t want to have to make a special trip there to buy gas – as that would raise the cost of the gas by the cost of the extra trip there (it is several communities away).

*In addition to the higher price for credit cards (which technically is illegal to do here – one can discount for cash, but cannot charge more for credit so all their signs with “cash” written small are illegal signs – should give full price and say how much off for cash) one station gives their discount not for cash, but one needs to have special account with them and they take the money directly out of one’s bank account!

I never did that with my other half with the family vehicle so that she didn’t get the idea that because I could do it, she could too. Never got stranded once she figured it out.