Keep Your Gas Tanks Full (another article that I wrote back in 2011)

http://voices.yahoo.com/keep-gas-tanks-full-7997246.html?cat=27




Keep Your Gas Tanks Full




Souring gasoline prices are creating havoc in the lives of many people, particularly within the lives of people who do not live near town. Or who happen to live in areas where most anywhere that is needful to go is scattered far and wide.



For example, we live about 12 miles from our church, we live about 7 miles from the nearest gas station, about 10 miles from the nearest grocery store, and about 15 miles from the nearest dump, and about 16 miles to the nearest Wal-Mart or auto-parts store. The doctor's office we go to is about 25 miles away from our home.



If you will notice none of these places are next to each other, by the way I forgot to mention that we also use a post-office box; this is about 15 miles away from our home, in the opposite direction from the post-office.



It's not going to take a super genius to figure out round trip these totals up to more than a few miles, and we've not even left the county. Now let's figure in gas mileage, we happen to drive a van. A van does not get good mileage, especially an older model van. A smaller vehicle with less people needing to ride in within the seating space provided by the van may get better gas mileage. However, ours does not and there are practically no sidewalks anywhere.



It is extremely dangerous to walk alongside the roads in any rural area, because you never know who may be speeding, using a cellphone, or drunk, or doing anything they should not be doing.



If you happen to be a driver, then you do need to take care to pay attention to your driving. If you wish to drink, comb your hair, eat lunch, read, text and so on, it can all wait until you get home or you can pull over, and take care of all that off the road.



Gas mileage, is something everyone is talking about these days, especially as every day the price seems to have some reason for going up. At the moment it is 3.29 a gallon, the price increased by ten cents overnight.



So what are some things that may help you to get better gas mileage? Well for starters, clean out your car, top to bottom inside and out. Next get a tune-up done on your car, have all fluids, hoses, filters everything checked, cleaned or replaced. Also have all belts checked for wear and tear.



Get your oil changed, have your tires checked, if needed add air or replace tires, and keep all tires at the proper air-pressure. Don't race your engine by stepping on the gas pedal.




Last and most important of all, keep your gas tank on or near full at all times. When your gas tank stays near empty any trash or water will be sucked into the fuel system first, which will clog up your fuel filter, and also cause your engine to have to work harder. The harder your engine works the more likely it is to need a major repair sooner than later.




So as hard as it is these days to do so, do all you can to keep your gas tanks full and if you will do this your benefit will outweigh the inconvenience of doing so with today's prices. It is less expensive to keep your gas tanks full, and your engine tuned up, oil changed regularly, and all fluids checked, and filters cleaned or changed, than it is to not do these things and have a fuel pump wear out when you least expect it, and when it is most inconvenient.