miles/reserve

[red bandit]

A while back someone was asking how far can you go on reserve. Maybe this has already been answered but I thought I'd find out how far mine will go. I went 54 miles on reserve, that wasn't babying it trying to see how far I could go, just my normal driving at 39 miles per gallon. I did crank on it 2 or 3 times. This is with a standard tank.

[boyat68]

red bandit:

Thanks for being the test ride, I get 39/gal on my standard tank but have never ran it down very far into the reserve. It is good to know that I can get 50+ on reserve.

[dbeardslee]

I watch my fuel gauge, and try never to use the reserve. Any little particles of rust, water, and anything else that's heavier than gas goes to the bottom of the tank. When you switch to reserve you draw from the bottom of the tank, and that stuff heads straight for the carbs. My dad used to call that 'sucking the dregs out of the tank'.

[Dennyz]

One of the reasons for going so far on reserve with the standard tank is the dual petcock setup. On the standard, there is no fuel balancing between the left and right side. So, when either side runs out (usually the right do to the side stand) we switch our petcocks and continue on. I put a "Tee" between the two petcock and found I went 25-30 miles farther before going to reserve. I still have 25-30 mile before I run out of reserve. It also makes it so only one petcock needs to be switched to get the motor back going. The down side is, when it runs out, both sides shut down. I found I liked the little extra range before reserve.

[fredintoon]

Hi Denny,
with the stock Special tank the red warning light comes on 10 miles before I need to switch to reserve and then it's ten more miles until totally empty. The bike was de-octopussed by a PO. so I had to remember to switch off the gas when I stopped. The fuel lines were Teed together so I could run on just one tap.
With the new Standard tank the red light comes on AS I need to switch to reserve and then there's one US gallon left and that'll get the rig another 25 miles. The Standard vacuum taps feed two carbs each, (the lines are NOT Teed together) but as the vacuum taps don't have an OFF position I'm running on both taps anyway.

[trbig]

My XJ is like Fred speaks of. Just about the time my warning light comes on, it starts sputtering. Then I have 20 miles at the MOST before being out.

Somewhere, it's stated that the XJ has a 5 gallon tank, but I guess the air pocket at the top kills a half gallon of that since it's never taken more than 4 1/2 gallons to fill when I sputtered into the station on reserve once. The reserve is @ 1/2 a gallon on mine with dual petcocks.. not teed though. It will generally start sputtering on two of the cylinders first.