i am a little confused by this. everything that i read says that my truck should have a 36 gallon tank as standard equipment. but i have never put more than 26 gallons into an empty tank. was there an option for a smaller tank? when the fuel light comes on surely there is not 10 gallons left? i am curious if my guage/sender is reading correctly.

  adamey1000 said:

i am a little confused by this. everything that i read says that my truck should have a 36 gallon tank as standard equipment. but i have never put more than 26 gallons into an empty tank. was there an option for a smaller tank? when the fuel light comes on surely there is not 10 gallons left? i am curious if my guage/sender is reading correctly.

If I remember right there are two tanks sizes for my 2000 but the difference is fairly small (maybe 2 gallons difference). I believe the tank on my 2000 with an auto short bed 4x4 is 34 gallons. My fuel light comes on between 25 -28 gallons. That gives me a reserve notice of somewhere between 6-9 gallons. One time when I was driving late at night and there were no open stations near me I had to drive farther than I had expected and I my tank took 32 gallons to fill.

  War Eagle said:

If I remember right there are two tanks sizes for my 2000 but the difference is fairly small (maybe 2 gallons difference). I believe the tank on my 2000 with an auto short bed 4x4 is 34 gallons. My fuel light comes on between 25 -28 gallons. That gives me a reserve notice of somewhere between 6-9 gallons. One time when I was driving late at night and there were no open stations near me I had to drive farther than I had expected and I my tank took 32 gallons to fill.

Well i suppose that i do have a 36 gallon then. i just had a hard time believing that the fuel light would come on with 200 miles of fuel left! i am a little paranoid about keeping fuel in my vehicles though so it is unusual for me to even let the light come on! but if that is the case maybe i can relax a little on the fill ups...

Short beds got 34 gallon tanks and long beds got 35. My truck is the same way, most I have ever got in it was 29 gallons and the gauges showed completely empty.

Well then I suppose mine is a 34 gallon. Any idea why the gauge reads that way?

I asked this excact same thing a year or so ago... Here's Michael's post on the matter: http://forum.mopar1973man.com/threads/3241-Fuel-tank-size(s)?p=25868#post25868

The senders in these trucks vary greatly when it comes to being accurate.As mentioned, short box trucks get the smaller tank or 34 gallons.My old girl takes on it's average fill 120 liters, it holds 127. Yes I run it down low. I run the same route, there and back everyday so I can push it when it comes to levels. When my low fuel light comes on, I know I have 160 kilometers (100 miles) left in the tank and still be at my 120 liter fill.I have never worried about my mpg, I only worry about how far I can go on a tank. Getting x number of mpg's means nothing when your 50 or 60 miles from your next tank of fuel. I want to know that I can make the next fuel stop or not.By monitoring your mileage per tank, you can also see issues happening if the numbers fall off.Every time I change a sender, my own or someone else's, I make sure it reads empty/full where it supposed to before I drop it into the tank. It irks me just as much as you guys are when it reads empty or full and isn't.Jeff

Also make sure you center the sender back up in the tank. I've seen when people try hooking up the factory line they will swing the sender to line up easy and typically stick the sender to the wall of the tank so it sticks on position or hang up when low on fuel.

Well as far as I know the sender has never been out of the truck. I suppose it is accurate enough to use. I probably will not mess with it if there is no problem. After having a couple of non-functioning fuel gauges, reading empty with fuel left is not such a bad thing!

Worse yet when the fuel gauge shows 1/2 tank and your running out.

I had a ford that was that way. If the gauge said 1/4 tank you were flat out! Lucky for me the day I found that out I was able to switch tanks and make it to the gas station.

When my truck was new and the low fuel light came on I had 10 or 11 gallons left. After dodge installed an in tank pump I only had 6 left when the light came on. Then when I installed my Air Dog it went 4 gallons. It has remained constant before and after each change, I just had to relearn it.