I've had my Ranger for a month now, so I'm still getting used to it. It's taken me this whole time to burn through the first full tank and to my surprise, only 14.35 gallons went in when I filled up this supposedly empty 16.5 gallon tank. The gauge still showed about 1/8 of a tank, but it was acting like it was empty. I could feel it sputtering and losing power as I went around corners, when the remaining fuel gets forced to the sides. I had doubts that I would even make it to the gas station. So this thing was empty.

But do I really need to keep 2.5 gallons in the tank to keep it from dying on me? It wasn't even low enough to turn on the low fuel light.

 

I run mine passed the fuel light all the time. Ex cabs have 19.5 gal and the most ive put in at once is 18.2 gal. Never had a problem with the sputtering or losing power though.