Filling fuel cans on vehicle

[ancientlake]

Thanks for all the opinions as well as expert analysis. My conclusion is that I am going to fill my plastic gas cans in the bed of my pickup but be wary of static build-ups. The only metal cans I use are for diesel and will do same with them. I will be careful not to use cans for both gas and diesel. I drive motorcycles, eat crappy food and fly cheap airplanes so I already am in deep trouble.

 

[LBrown59]

Diesel might be safely filled in the bed, but I won't do it with gasoline. The tires sort of insulate the vehicle from the ground.
*All fuel containers should be placed on the ground in case of a static spark.

*That would be hard to do with 30 and 55 gallon drums wouldn't it?

 

[Inspector507]

*That would be hard to do with 30 and 55 gallon drums wouldn't it?

Nope, it's easy to place them on the ground. Getting them back up in the bed loaded is the challenging part.


Sorry couldn't resist

 

[LBrown59]

Several years ago an attendant would not let me fill my plastic cans in my pick up with a bed liner.
I drive across the street to another station and filled the cans in the bed and no body said a word.
== L B ==

 

[LBrown59]

Nope, it's easy to place them on the ground. Getting them back up in the bed loaded is the challenging part.
*Sorry couldn't resist

*That's O K can't blame you.

Now on a more serious note do you (or anyone else for that matter) see any potential static electric hazard or risk when using this diesel transfer and storage set up?

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk286/lb59/100_2303.jpgsel

 

[gemini5362]

I posted this question on the mythbusters forum. Maybe they will do a show about it.

 

[tallyho8]

I see a lot of people smoking cigarettes while filling their gas tanks even though no smoking signs are clearly posted. Even though I can smell heavy gas fumes while filling my tank, someone will usually pull up to me and light up a cig while filling their tank. I have yelled at people to stop them from lighting up at times though I am sure that someday this will get me knocked on my a@@.

I must admit that I never saw anyone get blown up yet by smoking while refueling but I sure get nervous when I see someone around me doing it. What do you do in this situation? (if anything)

 

[RollTideRam]

I have always heard that smoking around gas is not dangerous, it's the lighting up that is. I don't know if it is true, but my Father always said you could throw a lit cig in a puddle of gas and it would not light.
Static is a dangerous thing for sure. My brother was burned badly from a static spark that lit a dust cloud. Look what it has done to grain elevators. They don't put the signs up for a joke. People have been burned filling up gas cans. I have seen a training film where a fireman was spraying water in a tanker. Static buildup from the spraying water ignited the vapors in the tank, Boom. JC

 

[YanmarFever]

One solution would be to do as they do when refueling aitcraft.

We always connected a ground or bonding from the fuel truck or from the pump.

The ground is simply a conductive line (copper) with an aligator clip that we attached to a 'bonding' location on the aircraft.
Generally that is a bare metal ring or otherwise designated spot.
Aviation fuel pumps all have a retractable grounding or bonding line terminated in an aligator clip.

If you wish to be 'safer than sorry' rig yourself about a 10-12 ft wire with aligator clips at both ends.
For a plastic container simply dip the bare wire (and clip) into the plastic container to be filled and clip other end to the fuel/gas pump.

On a metal fuel can clip to bare metal.

All that being said I am sure that the fuel/gas hoses used commercially have wire braiding incorporated in the fuel line and simply touching the nozzle to the filler neck completes the ground circuit, and that (probably) being so a simple 12" length of bare copper wire with aligator clips at both ends would be all the assurance I would need.

In aviation fueling operations the ground is always clipped prior to bringing the nozzle to the filler neck.

Hope this helps.

Piloon, this is the best, and most simple advice given so far. (hats off to you)

I have painted tractors with an electrostatic machine 300 x + in our licenced spray tunnel.

So while im not an expert I do have some hands on experience in the field.

The machine I use will paint a tractor with a little over a quart of paint without any waste or overspray in about 8 minutes flat, after 4 hours of cleaning & masking first

If you aim the gun at your head, your hair will stand on end, if you have keys in your pocket they will try to ground on your leg OUCH.

22 years and no accidents with it

Dont kid yourself, static electricity can spark a can if its not grounded,
I have done it many times, just not with gasoline.

 

[MossRoad]

I must admit that I never saw anyone get blown up yet by smoking while refueling but I sure get nervous when I see someone around me doing it. What do you do in this situation? (if anything)

I've several stories that I could tell you about flames and gasoline.... I may have told this one before, but am forgetful, so bear with me.

In the early to mid 80s I was the line chief for a fixed base operation at the airport. As I was driving in to work I noticed the night shift guy driving out about an hour before he was supposed to. I went in the office and asked the secretary why he was leaving early. She told me the mechanic fired him for starting the little 100 ( a small 100 octane fuel truck) on fire by checking the level in the tank with a lighter. I laughed hard and went back to my desk in the hanger. When I opened the door, there was the mechanic scrubbing ashes off the top of the tank! I was dumbfounded.

The truck was an old Ford pickup with a 350 gallon tank that top loaded through a 12" hatch lid on top. Standard procedure was to take it to the fuel farm at night and top fill it with a 4" pipe spewing about 50-60 gallons of gas a minute like a fire hose. You kept your hand in the tank until your fingers got wet, then stopped. Well, night shift guy said he didn't want to stick his hand in the tank, so he lit his lighter about 3' away and S-L-O-W-L-Y moved the flame towards the tank to see if it was full. Guess what? It was full and burst into flames. If it had been anything but full, there probably would have been a massive explosion instead of just flames at the top of the tank. He got off the truck, found a fire extinguisher, climbed back up on the truck and put it out.

So, yes, there are actual, real people out there that find nothing wrong with driving a truck into a fenced area above several 20,000 gallon tanks of jet fuel and gasoline and using an open flame to check the level of a tank. Those kind of people really do exist. When the secretary told me that, I had that image of the coyote flicking his lighter several times inside the dynamite shed. It was like a cartoon at first, but not funny at all.