Diesel fueling made easy (easier, anyway)

[RonMar]

Mine doesn't have a true pressure relief valve, but I think my 55gal plastic drum will hold about 10psi before it splits

That is my biggest issue with moving fuel with air pressure. The drum probably won't split, it will most likley rupture/fracture. The compressed air stores a lot of force(air spring) that when released, tends to release violently. Why does a balloon pop? You only touched it with a pin, but the outer envelope of the balloon is usually torn/ripped from the rapidly escaping air.

If you miss a setup step such as turning down the regulator, or somebody else uses your setup or sees how you have done it and attempts to copy you not knowing that critical step of controlling the air pressure, they could have a bomb go off in their face, not from the fuel, but from the stored energy of the compressed air. Another classic example of this is the split rim wheel. Used to be widely used in the auto industry. Occasionally someone would not deal with them correctly and they would fail, blowing the outer half of the rim into the unfortunate individual adding the air. How many split rims do you see today?

An air operated pump as Defective suggests would do the same thing with out these potential hazards. I have used them a lot, they work great.

 

[Grizz]

I did not build this but it does work well 29 gal gas caddy sold at northern

 

[have_blue]

That is my biggest issue with moving fuel with air pressure. Why does a balloon pop? You only touched it with a pin, but the outer envelope of the balloon is usually torn/ripped from the rapidly escaping air.

I think it's time for a "Myth Buster" here.

Does someone have a jerry can and 55gal plastic drum to sacrifice?

 

[Egon]

There are more than one 55gal. drum and body to exhibit alre4ady. No Mythbuster is needed. It's been proven by empirical methods more than once.

Egon

 

[AlanB]

Well, in the FWIW column.

Here is a website that does a pretty thorough job of explaining UN spec steel drums. I am sure there are others / better / worse / whatever out there.

http://www.myerscontainer.com/UN Information/POP-MCC-Section 1.pdf

Some basic salient points I thought I would add in the short version.

Find the UN marking on the drum in question, it will have that funny little symbol at the front.

If you see an S in that string, then the drum is designed for solids, not liquids.

If you go find the "packing group" an X, Y or Z in that string (spelled out in the attachment, an X is the better of the 3, generally translating into thicker stronger safer.

If you go to page 24, it will explain show how to check test pressures, which they are mostly concerned with the vapor pressure of the products contained, but again, as a general statement, higher numbers stronger drum.

What I thought I would add.

When reconditioning steel drums (that are suitable) often times the final check is a pressure check, with air, and those pressure testers are usually operated between 2 and 7 PSI.

Is it safe to pressurize an old, used, non rated drum? Not in my opinion, it is not worth the risk.

Then again, I don't run PVC airlines in my shop either, and plenty of folks do and it works fine for them.

All the safety stuff really boils down to "are you willing to accept the risk"

Personally, I have had tanks and drums fail on me at different points, and different circumstances, and have had to deal with failures that others have induced. It has the potential to be catastrophic.

If I was going to do it, I would certainly insure that I had a pressure releif valve of some type in the system so that when things went wrong, I had a modicum of control there.

My personal stuff, I have an electric pump in a 55 gallon drum.

My work stuff, seems like we have about one of everything

As a side note, yesterday, had a fun one, watching a class being given, and the young student did not get a sampling coupler (much like an air or hydrualic coupler) properly latched on the back of the fuel truck. 100 GPM over all flow, neck down into a 3/8" tube makes a heck of a mess, and is inconvienent at best when the person on the deadman freezes up, and the guy who opened the valve jumps away...

Little bit of appropriate NCO type voice inflection went a long way to fixing the problem though.

 

[have_blue]

There are more than one 55gal. drum and body to exhibit alre4ady. No Mythbuster is needed. It's been proven by empirical methods more than once.

Egon

Well, for the folks that are not comfortable using an air compressor, there are alteratives. You can use the air from an old hand pump garden sprayer, which generates about 2-3psi. You could use one of those bellows-type foot pumps used for blowing up air mattresses. You can also blow into the drum, but I don't recommend it. That's guaranteed to make you dizzy.

I really like my air pressure fuel dispenser. It's very simple, reliable, clean, fast, and safer than any fueling method I can imagine. If you're visualizing a dangerous contraption, you're not visualizing it right.

 

[Defective]

Now that idea I like. Take a hand-operated bicycle pump, one of those tubular ones designed to be clipped onto the bike, & attach it to the container. Plumb it into the container & a quick pump or two should do the trick. Heck...I can picture it in my head...attach the pump and a nozzle together & run the air line along the fuel hose. Then you can control it right where you need to be...hhhmmm...

 

[pat32rf]

I have an old rebuilt hand operated piston pump on a 100gallon tank, but if I didn't I'd feel OK using the valve-less schrader valve and a filler nozzle that had no shut-off, especially if I was holding the airline to the schrader, even in a 5 gal plastic jerry can....Sure would be less spillage than I used to get balanced on the FEL arms.

 

[Farwell]

If all else fails let gravity do the work for you. Elevate your fuel supply, add a hose with a shut off valve and you are in business.

 

[sandman2234]

That tank Grizz is showing is also available at Brass Pro Shops. I saw one in Orlando this weekend and thought it would be nice if I needed to haul fuel. They are gravity flow but a hand pump is cheap.
David from jax