Hey PapaaJ,
I ran mine like yours until last week. I think it finally cooked the gauge because it quit suddenly and went to empty. I was running several miles from nowhere with a fully loaded truck and trailer (probably about three tons) and no clue how much gas I had.
SCAREY!
I had an old NOS International gas gauge in a box, so I gutted an old Sunpro volt gauge and created my new fuel gauge to mount under the dash. Now I know how much gas I have and it is much less stress when I'm out in the boondocks.