Does anyone know how big the 1992 30ft Breakaway gas tank is??

My 93 tank is 60 gallons. The first 50 go in quickly and you have to work real hard to get the last 10 gallons in...10 gallons makes a big difference in how often you stop.

My 91 Breakaway has a 60 gal fuel tank.

I have a 92 30' Breakaway as well..when my fuel guage reads "Empty", I stop at the gas station and fill the coach until the pump "clicks". I've even topped it off a bit and can see the fuel in the filler tube. I look up at the pump and it always (on average) indicates "40 gal.s"....so is my guage 20 gal.s off? Or have you guys all traveled an additional 200 mi.s while on "Empty"? How could I prove the fuel capacity without running the coach out of fuel completely?

I just measured the tank under my 32 foot Regency diesel and is is 24" x 26" x 39". That converts to 105 gallons but while traveling I ran down almost to the empty line and was able only to get 64 gallons into the tank. I am wondering if I am missing something? Could there be a reserve switch or maybe two tanks in one? Any ideas or comments are appreciated.

Most tanks have rounded corners which reduces the volume calculated from raw measurements. Most tanks will have some air space left, even if fuel can be seen in the filler pipe, and fuel pickups are seldom placed to extract every drop of fuel from the tank. Fuel gauges are notoriously inaccurate, as well.

The sum total of these factors suggests conservatism while approaching the bottom of the tank. I get awfully nervous sweating out the last few miles so, assuming it's better to be safe than sorry, I time my fuel stops accordingly.

Perhaps someone has an easy way of accurately measuring the actual usable fuel capacity of a given tank, but short of filling it full & running it dry, I don't.

The measurement is pretty exact - no rounded corners or such, but is there a possibility that the wrong voltage is on the sensor? Seems strange that the gauge is reading just about 1/2 the tank. Is there any chance the sender could be 6 volt and the gauge is connected to 12 volts? This is a Gillig chassis and I think they would have installed the tank and the instrument cluster. Anybody have this issue before? Thanks

The tank on "Ugly Betty" measures the same as Tom K's. and the calculations do come out to 105 gallons. However, the Gillig manual that I have list three tank sizes for the chassis when equipped with the 3208. 150 gallon, 147 gallon, and 98 gallon. This is listed on page 1-8 in the Parts Section. I assume we have the 98 gallon tank and they are talking about usable capacity.

Somewhere in the documentation on "Ugly Betty", a previous owner had made a note of 135 gallon capacity but that is obviously wrong.

Like Tom K., I have ran the tank pretty low, Not on Empty, but the most I have ever had to put in it was about 65 to 70 gallons. As if that is not enough. Thats only about $350.00. Maybe I should be glad it won't hold 135 gallons.

Nick

The standard for the 28' and 30' Breakaways is nominally 60 gal, but mine is 40. That worked out just fine, as there was room to put in a 24 gal gaso tank for the Honda genset. Now I can run the generator for around 70 hours instead of 28, like I could with the LPG genset.

My tank calcs out to 63.2 (that number is after subtraction for the round corners)and as I have posted before, the first 30 gal go in and after it clicks off takes 20 minutes to fill to the point where there is standing fuel at the neck!

For some reason they (people at Spartan) thought that you can fill a diesel tank with the hose entry at the mid point of the tank!!! DUH!! Once the hose fills with fuel it will start to foam and takes forever to completely fill the tank.

I will be taking the tank out later this year and relocating the fill hose entry point to the top of the tank where it should have been all along. Hardest part will be planning the trip so that I have near empty tank upon returning home so I don't much fuel to deal with.

Those of you that have trouble matching your calculations against what you can fill, look at the hose entry point at the tank, if it is not at the top of the tank, you can probably put a whole bunch more fuel in after the first click if you slow the fuel delivery WAY down and keep working at it. I have put as much as 15 gallons in after first click-off.

I try to go to the truck stops for fuel because they have a much bigger nozzle and the flow is much higher. It will force much more fuel in before it clicks off, still have to dribble the remaining fuel in thou once it stops.

The fill location is on the top in the center of the tank. I am confidant the tank holds 105 gallons, I just am puzzled why the gauge is reading almost exactly 1/2 the capacity. Seems like the electrics could be to blame - I have located a load resistor in the relay compartment that was connected to the dash lights power. With that connected the dash lights were so dim they could not be read at night. Disconnecting it they came up as the voltage was raised to 12 volts. I am thinking this resistor might be necessary in the fuel gauge circuit to drop it to 6 volts. I am calling Gillig to see if anyone can help me.

Dropping to 6V isn't as outlandish as it might seem - my '87 Ford E350 diesel van has a regulator to drop instrument voltage to 6V...

OTOH, it may just be a bad sender.

Tom, any chance of running a flexible tape down the neck and measuring the level?
At a minimum this would let you assure yourself the tank is filled to some determined level.
Another option, if there is sufficient room would be to chill the side of the tank (ice cubes in a cloth, wet cloth from the freezer, ice bath with fountain pump squirting on tank)then using an IR temp gun find the warmer liquid level.

I spoke with Gillig and they did not ship the chassis with instruments. They did install the tanks. On mine it was 105 gallons. They suggested a bad sender but I am still leery of that. A gauge that shows full when full and slowly moves in a smooth fashion as I drive towards E does not sound like a bad sender. If it dropped out or was erratic I could think that. Also the coach owned by the sister to my coach has the same problem, that sounds like more than a sender. FYI Gillig has replacements for about $240 each but you must remove the tank to replace it. No small task and certainly not possible without a super lift or a pit. So the whole job would probably be $600 or more. I will try the stick gauge method to prove the depth of the tank but it looks to me that there is something more than a sender issues. Keep the ideas coming and I'll try them.