Did a few tests and made a new .tga file with just the gauge on it and had it go 254 pixels wide. changed out the animations to use that file and now it works perfect. thank you so much for all the help!!
BTW the default gauge does not seem to want to go over a unknown to me amount ATM. I have a 138 pixel gauge and wanted it 96 and 137 for the back fill and it just wouldn't do that, your gauge is 110 wide and 88 pixels of back fill must be right around that max. I could be wrong but I have tried MANY things to make it work and just stretching out the gauge on the .tga was the only thing that would work for me. wish was some way not to use the animations.xml to make my new tga gauge work but oh well i got it to work.
thanks again.