Fueling or refueling? Which word would you use?

I would choose fueling; but technically speaking you were refueling. If you had no fuel in it, you wouldn’t have made it to the station to buy more

Either way it’s a fuels errand.

Maybe it’s a per-expedition context, depending on however you think of expeditions. You might fuel up at the start of a period, and then refuel during the expedition to replace fuel used during the expedition.

I expect perhaps this makes clearer natural sense in the context of a ship than a car.

In particular, many ships might tend to fuel up and stand ready in port before sailing out, perhaps refueling several times before returning to home port.

Not many of us have a fuel supply at home to top up with before heading out, though some might consider their usual gas station their base of operations.

Or maybe it’s just me thinking that.

I’d say fueling, but technically refueling seems correct too. I think of refueling as a term used mid flight for an airplane. Aerial refueling.

Fueling if it’s a casual when needed thing and refueling if you have to get more fuel when you’re on a trip. (But both are acceptable.)

I think refueling is anything after the first tank of fuel as the vehicle comes off the assembly line. This would hold true for other vehicles as well, e. g., aircraft, ships, spacecraft, coal-fired steam engines…

Works for satellites too – we fuel when there had not been fuel in the tanks before. Refuel when there HAD been fuel in the tanks before. [re = again]