Is there a safe way to pump gasoline into a plastic tank in the bed of a truck?

[bdhsfz6]

I had never experienced static sparks from fueling, until last month. I had (2) 55 gallon drums of #2 heating oil setting on the bed mat in back of my truck, pumping them into an oil tank. Every time that I touched the steel pickup line I got zapped.

Good thing it wasn't gasoline!

 

[Jstpssng]

Good thing it wasn't gasoline!

Funny, I thought the same thing at the time.

 

[bdhsfz6]

In my younger years, I always took the containers out of the truck and filled them on the ground. At some point, those 5 gal jugs got too heavy to comfortably hoist back into the truck, so I began filling them in the bed. There are signs at several gas pumps in the area that say not to do this, but I see people doing it all the time. I'm sure there have been accidents, but I've never seen or heard of one in this area.

Eventually, I got smart and switched from 5 gal jugs to much lighter 2.5 gal containers, which I fill on the ground. The way my back feels, I may be using 1 gal containers before long.

 

[LouNY]

An older thread with much ado about nothing. Almost all service station fill hose and nozzles are grounded, if the tank dispensing nozzle is held in contact with the tank fill there will be nothing to spark regardless of the static build up, as it will be continually dissipated through the hose grounding. If the filling nozzle is held in a manner which which does not contact the tank there could be a minute possibility of a static buildup. However seeing as how the gasoline it's self is conductive the static should be dissipated through the fluid.

 

[dougtrr2]

I always ponder the fact that people worry about static electricity, but yet gas stations allow you to refuel in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Yes, I know static sparks are real and an issue in some refueling scenarios, such as aircraft.

Doug in SW IA

 

[Richard]

The way my back feels, I may be using 1 gal containers before long.

I stole my wife's kitchen measuring cups..... though I do admit it takes a lot of trips to fill a 30 gallon machine at 1/2 cup per transfer...

 

[FullMetalBucket]

Many years ago when I was a kid we drove down to Florida and were looking for directions to a fair. It was in the middle of nowhere where so we pulled up to a gas station and asked a guy pumping gas into an old truck. His head was sorta facing down and then when he looked up he was smoking a big old stogie. First and only time I’ve ever seen that. Nothing like an open flame around gas fumes.

 

[Jstpssng]

Many years ago when I was a kid we drove down to Florida and were looking for directions to a fair. It was in the middle of nowhere where so we pulled up to a gas station and asked a guy pumping gas into an old truck. His head was sorta facing down and then when he looked up he was smoking a big old stogie. First and only time I’ve ever seen that. Nothing like an open flame around gas fumes.

Back in my gas pumping days a woman tossed her cigarette out onto the ground while I was filling her tank. When I called her out on it, she made it clear that she didn't want to hear about it.

 

[FullMetalBucket]

Back in my 20s I knew a guy who got 3rd degree burns on his arm and a bit of his side from what he thought was an empty gas can. I wasn’t there but the story he told was that he flicked a lit cigarette at the can for what ever reason and it went boom.

 

[RayIN]

Many years ago when I was a kid we drove down to Florida and were looking for directions to a fair. It was in the middle of nowhere where so we pulled up to a gas station and asked a guy pumping gas into an old truck. His head was sorta facing down and then when he looked up he was smoking a big old stogie. First and only time I’ve ever seen that. Nothing like an open flame around gas fumes.

Ignorance is bliss!
Empty/partially full gas containers can explode because the vapors are within the flammable limits. A full container will not explode because the vapors are too rich/above the flammable limit.
Flammable limits is the reason Acetylene is so_er flammable.