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>Trabis had no fuel gauge, air conditioning, turn signals, or brake lights, and could only reach a maximum speed of 62 miles per hour. how can they have no fue

>Trabis had no fuel gauge, air conditioning, turn signals, or brake lights, and could only reach a maximum speed of 62 miles per hour. how can they have no fuel gauge? I can sort of understand how it is still operational with the rest, but does it just stop and run out of gas at some random time? does it start sputtering long enough for you to realize you need to make it into another gas station? this one has me stumped.

pvg 7y ago
There's a dipstick, like for oil.
ptaipale 7y ago
Most of the time you know your routine, and how much you've driven since filling up, and that tells you how much fuel you have left.
jfk13 7y ago
According to a comment above, there's a dipstick in the tank. Just need to remember to check it...
GoToRO 7y ago
You fill the tank, you know you can run for 500 kilometers. You know that your destination is 200km away. You can go and return on one tank. Also, the trips took much longer than today so people would stop to eat and relax at some point,and then you could also check the fuel. The main difference is that you knew what the range of the car is on one tank and the distance between cities. So you were more present and definitely not bored.
- bigiain 7y ago
  Then one day, there's a 50kmh headwind on your way home... (Assuming a perfectly spherical cow of uniform density, if you drop the assumed 100kmh cruising speed down to 75kmh, giving an airspeed of 125kmh and a trip time of 2hr 40m at your ground speed of 75kmh, you'll run out of fuel precisely between the two most inconveniently placed gas stations at the bottom of a hill in both directions...)
  - GoToRO 7y ago
    Then what you would do, you would wait on the side of the road with the hood up and wait for somebody to stop and ask for gas. All drivers had empty recipients and a hose to pull gas out. You would make new friends. Drivers were much more understanding and helpful in those times. I don't say it was easy. I was just the way it was.
ollie87 7y ago
I believe the early ones had a dip-stick-type deal to measure the tank, check it before you set off etc. I think the later ones did have a fuel guage though.
blkhawk 7y ago
like a motorcycle it has a reserve setting on the fuel line vent. That means if main runs empty you just need to change over to reserve and find a gas station.
bigiain 7y ago
Most motorcycles don't have fuel gauges. Most riders reset the trip meter when they fill up, and know pretty accurately how far the get out of a tank. My ~20 year old Ducati has a low fuel light, which used to come on at about 1/4 of a tank (you'd safely get 40-50km after it first came on), but that stopped working in about 2001 or so. One of my Hondas has a fuel tap with "main" and "reserve". It's splutter a bit for around a km or so - and eventually stop if you don't switch from main to reserve in time. (And then one day it'll start spluttering and you'll go to turn it to reserve, and it'll already be there because you got distracted when you filled it up and forgot to put it back on main - that's one of the reasons why I always reset the trip meter every tie I fill any of my bikes...)
the-dude 7y ago
Motorcycles often have/had no gauge. The tank has a 3-way valve : 'closed'(when parked or stored), 'regular':90% of the tank contents and the 'reserve':about 10% of content to get to a gas-station.
runxel 7y ago
As the others already said: You had a dipstick. You knew how much you've driven since the last time you refueled. And even if you just forgot everything else there is a lever on the passenger side called "Reserve". Pull that and you have about 5 liters more. That should get you to the next gas station.
esotericn 7y ago
I've ridden motorcycles with no fuel gauge. You ride it until it sputters, yes, then use the reserve (which gives you at least another 40 miles or so) and fill up. Or just use the odometer to guess. I'd just top up every 200mi or so. If you leave it on reserve you're SOL. :) Remember the old Game Boy? You wait until the power light goes a bit dim and change the batteries.
lukaszkups 7y ago
I'm amazed that no one answered the question - there's also a "R" switch ("Reserve") which you can turn on when you're low on fuel (or try to launch in the Winter) - so it was something like low fuel light nowadays, but manual (it was placed lower in tank than regular fuel drain) And yes, to know exact fuel status you had to lift up the hood and check ;) I am / was (still have Trabi at my parent's place, but haven't ride it for ~5 years) proud Trabi owner, AMA :)
Merrill 7y ago
Early VW Beetles had no fuel gauge either. They had a reserve fuel tank, and a lever to switch over to the reserve. Can't recall whether they had a dipstick or not. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Beetle.html?page=7#manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Bee... https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Beetle.html?page=12#manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Bee...

pvg 7y ago

There's a dipstick, like for oil.

ptaipale 7y ago

Most of the time you know your routine, and how much you've driven since filling up, and that tells you how much fuel you have left.

jfk13 7y ago

According to a comment above, there's a dipstick in the tank. Just need to remember to check it...

GoToRO 7y ago

You fill the tank, you know you can run for 500 kilometers. You know that your destination is 200km away. You can go and return on one tank. Also, the trips took much longer than today so people would stop to eat and relax at some point,and then you could also check the fuel. The main difference is that you knew what the range of the car is on one tank and the distance between cities. So you were more present and definitely not bored.

bigiain 7y ago
Then one day, there's a 50kmh headwind on your way home... (Assuming a perfectly spherical cow of uniform density, if you drop the assumed 100kmh cruising speed down to 75kmh, giving an airspeed of 125kmh and a trip time of 2hr 40m at your ground speed of 75kmh, you'll run out of fuel precisely between the two most inconveniently placed gas stations at the bottom of a hill in both directions...)
- GoToRO 7y ago
  Then what you would do, you would wait on the side of the road with the hood up and wait for somebody to stop and ask for gas. All drivers had empty recipients and a hose to pull gas out. You would make new friends. Drivers were much more understanding and helpful in those times. I don't say it was easy. I was just the way it was.

ollie87 7y ago

I believe the early ones had a dip-stick-type deal to measure the tank, check it before you set off etc. I think the later ones did have a fuel guage though.

blkhawk 7y ago

like a motorcycle it has a reserve setting on the fuel line vent. That means if main runs empty you just need to change over to reserve and find a gas station.

bigiain 7y ago

Most motorcycles don't have fuel gauges. Most riders reset the trip meter when they fill up, and know pretty accurately how far the get out of a tank. My ~20 year old Ducati has a low fuel light, which used to come on at about 1/4 of a tank (you'd safely get 40-50km after it first came on), but that stopped working in about 2001 or so. One of my Hondas has a fuel tap with "main" and "reserve". It's splutter a bit for around a km or so - and eventually stop if you don't switch from main to reserve in time. (And then one day it'll start spluttering and you'll go to turn it to reserve, and it'll already be there because you got distracted when you filled it up and forgot to put it back on main - that's one of the reasons why I always reset the trip meter every tie I fill any of my bikes...)

the-dude 7y ago

Motorcycles often have/had no gauge. The tank has a 3-way valve : 'closed'(when parked or stored), 'regular':90% of the tank contents and the 'reserve':about 10% of content to get to a gas-station.

runxel 7y ago

As the others already said: You had a dipstick. You knew how much you've driven since the last time you refueled. And even if you just forgot everything else there is a lever on the passenger side called "Reserve". Pull that and you have about 5 liters more. That should get you to the next gas station.

esotericn 7y ago

I've ridden motorcycles with no fuel gauge. You ride it until it sputters, yes, then use the reserve (which gives you at least another 40 miles or so) and fill up. Or just use the odometer to guess. I'd just top up every 200mi or so. If you leave it on reserve you're SOL. :) Remember the old Game Boy? You wait until the power light goes a bit dim and change the batteries.

lukaszkups 7y ago

I'm amazed that no one answered the question - there's also a "R" switch ("Reserve") which you can turn on when you're low on fuel (or try to launch in the Winter) - so it was something like low fuel light nowadays, but manual (it was placed lower in tank than regular fuel drain) And yes, to know exact fuel status you had to lift up the hood and check ;) I am / was (still have Trabi at my parent's place, but haven't ride it for ~5 years) proud Trabi owner, AMA :)

Merrill 7y ago

Early VW Beetles had no fuel gauge either. They had a reserve fuel tank, and a lever to switch over to the reserve. Can't recall whether they had a dipstick or not. https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Beetle.html?page=7#manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Bee... https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Beetle.html?page=12#manual https://www.manualslib.com/manual/940047/Volkswagen-1958-Bee...