i'm obviously the only member here who has ever overfilled a fuel tank when pouring from a can (or more likely i'm the only one willing to admit it). i can say for certain that i've spilled no more than several drops of diesel when filling my tractor over the past several years. prior to that i am certain that i've spilled a lot. five years ago, give or take, i bought one of the new style diesel cans with the safety spout and no vent. that spout and the lack of a vent is why i don't spill any fuel. it's pretty much idiot proof. before that i poured from conventional vented cans and there have been plenty of times when the level came up faster than i anticipated, or maybe i was just distracted. either way, i spilled plenty.
i can now stand on the ground and drop my 5 gallon can on the tractor's fuel fill and just balance it there until it stops gurgling. then i pick up the can and i'm done. if there's fuel left in the can it doesn't spill out even when the can is upside down because the spout shuts it off. i can't even see the fuel fill, so i have no clue how close to full the tank is until it stops filling, and i don't need to know. the can does the work for me. not every can and fuel filler pipe is in an advantageous location, but if you have a top fill tractor, then these cans are no-brainers.
