Running out of gas on hill decents
Thread Starter
JK Junkie
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 2,008
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From: Fort St John B.C.
Running out of gas on hill decents
So this weekend I decided to go for a drive at 4am as i couldn't sleep. After driving around for about an hour I decided to go try out a trail that my neighbor said I couldnt get down with my Jeep. it is a long hill decent down to a river.
The decent is fairly steep and long I got about 3/4 of the way down when I hit a deep washout about 2-3ft deep as I started to cross and dropped my front tires down into the washout my jeep died and would not start and could not roll anywhere... I knew right away that my fuel pickup obviously was out of the gas and I needed to either move or get some gas.
Anyhow I started to walk back home as I was not too far away (so I thought) it took me 3 hours to walk home with 1 leg
Afterwards I got my nieghbor to run me down to my jeep with some gas and it fired right up and finished the trail.
Anyone else have the problem with running out of gas but really being out of gas?... I had 1/4 tank when I started down the hill, a 1/4 tank will usually last me roughly 100kms and this trail is maybe 5
The decent is fairly steep and long I got about 3/4 of the way down when I hit a deep washout about 2-3ft deep as I started to cross and dropped my front tires down into the washout my jeep died and would not start and could not roll anywhere... I knew right away that my fuel pickup obviously was out of the gas and I needed to either move or get some gas.
Anyhow I started to walk back home as I was not too far away (so I thought) it took me 3 hours to walk home with 1 leg
Afterwards I got my nieghbor to run me down to my jeep with some gas and it fired right up and finished the trail.Anyone else have the problem with running out of gas but really being out of gas?... I had 1/4 tank when I started down the hill, a 1/4 tank will usually last me roughly 100kms and this trail is maybe 5
JK Newbie
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 29
Likes: 0
From: Edmonton, Alberta
I've had a similar experience:
There's a hill beside my apartment block, and one night in the middle of winter I parked nose-downhill with about 1/16 of a tank left.
When I came down to it the next morning, it wouldn't start. It would turn over and crank, no prob, but it just wouldn't catch.
I had boosted a couple of people earlier the previous day (-35C Canadian winter ), and figured that my Jeep had run long enough to recharge the battery after it was drained during the boost attempts (a run-down battery freezes at a much warmer temp than a full one). Everyone I ran the situation by said "oh, yup, you ran the battery down and froze it. Don't boost people!" I unstrapped the battery and left it on the kitchen counter to warm up for a few hours, but it behaved the same when I put it back in.
Maybe it was bad gas, and there was water in it, and it froze in the lines... I tried dumping a couple of gasline-antifreeze bottles in, left it for a few hours, no good.
Tnen I thought that maybe the gasline antifreeze wasn't being mixed in and making it to wherever the frozen section of the fuel line would be, so I ran out for a Jerry Can of gas, dumped in eight more antifreeze bottles (they were $0.59; why not!!), and followed them up with 20L of gas.
Vroom.
Then it hit me that the gas was probably below the intake; same thing that happened to you.
Now I never park on the hill with less than a quarter tank of gas. And I never go wheeling without an emergency Jerry Can. Just in case...
There's a hill beside my apartment block, and one night in the middle of winter I parked nose-downhill with about 1/16 of a tank left.
When I came down to it the next morning, it wouldn't start. It would turn over and crank, no prob, but it just wouldn't catch.
I had boosted a couple of people earlier the previous day (-35C Canadian winter ), and figured that my Jeep had run long enough to recharge the battery after it was drained during the boost attempts (a run-down battery freezes at a much warmer temp than a full one). Everyone I ran the situation by said "oh, yup, you ran the battery down and froze it. Don't boost people!" I unstrapped the battery and left it on the kitchen counter to warm up for a few hours, but it behaved the same when I put it back in.
Maybe it was bad gas, and there was water in it, and it froze in the lines... I tried dumping a couple of gasline-antifreeze bottles in, left it for a few hours, no good.
Tnen I thought that maybe the gasline antifreeze wasn't being mixed in and making it to wherever the frozen section of the fuel line would be, so I ran out for a Jerry Can of gas, dumped in eight more antifreeze bottles (they were $0.59; why not!!), and followed them up with 20L of gas.
Vroom.
Then it hit me that the gas was probably below the intake; same thing that happened to you.Now I never park on the hill with less than a quarter tank of gas. And I never go wheeling without an emergency Jerry Can. Just in case...
Last edited by kompressor; Jul 12, 2010 at 10:01 PM. Reason: Oh look; you're all Canadian, I don't need to explain the battery bit :-D
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 327
Likes: 0
From: Park City, UT
My Driveway is pretty steep, and when I park nose-down I've noticed the MUCH lower reading on the fuel gauge. I tend to run my tanks kind of low at times (lazy more than anything) but this is a good warning not to go too far! I have wondered what would happen off-road if it did decide there wasn't enough fuel. Thanks for the heads up!
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 496
Likes: 1
From: Opelika, AL
My Driveway is pretty steep, and when I park nose-down I've noticed the MUCH lower reading on the fuel gauge. I tend to run my tanks kind of low at times (lazy more than anything) but this is a good warning not to go too far! I have wondered what would happen off-road if it did decide there wasn't enough fuel. Thanks for the heads up!
