Give it up Robert,noble idea but not practical-now around here VDOT sponsers a mobile knight in shining armour that patrols the interstates and helps with minor emergencies(I noticed private tags on the truck with lightbars and safety equipment all over,so I dont know if its a private contractor or a direct state agency,but they help change tires and fuel emrgencies) so Robert please just lobby for something similar in your area-Kevin
"Give it up Robert,noble idea but not practical-now"These people often have been in the middle of nowhere where no such services would be available. They had cell phones and already had help on the way - which often had to drive long distances to get to them. My gas would turn those long drives around. As a firefighter I know how to constantly watch oncoming traffic. Many fire apparati get hit.
An example of what can go wrong. Many, many years ago me and a buddy took a road trip to see the rock band Steppenwolf. We went in his '67 Impala SS which he had just gotten back from the paint shop 2 days before with a beautiful emerald green paint job.
About 70 miles from the house he asked me if I smelled something burning and I also noticed the faint smell. A few minutes later it was much stronger and turning around to look behind us I noted a lot of white smoke rolling out from around the rear seat.
My friend slammed on the brakes and whipped into a country gas station. Raising the trunk lid a small fire was found that had by now burnt the new paint off of the left rear of the trunk lid and the rear quarter panel. Thankfully the gas station owner came running with a fire extinguisher.
The cause? A half-gallon plastic container full of kerosene that was wedged against the left rear taillamp sockets. It had been getting dusk, my friend turned the lights on, and bulb heat melted the bottle through. If that container had been full of gasoline it would have ended a lot worse.
Back to the paint shop the following week…
Wow…@ok4450 I can imagine quite a few smoke-filled cars at a '70s Steppenwolf concert…but not like that! Glad everyone was OK.
CVS Pharmacy has/had “Samaritan Vans” in some cities. Great advertising for them.
OK4450, if that story doesn’t cause people to have second thoughts about transporting spare gas in the trunk, nothing will.
On a follow-up note to the kerosene in the trunk story, my buddy decided to lay rubber outside of the downtown music hall after the show to impress everyone in sight.
The road was multi-lane, slick, and parallel parking on both sides.
Just as he pulled out of the space with tires smoking Steppenwolf’s lead guitarist and bassist stepped out from behind a van after exiting the rear stage doors to hit a hotel across the street…
They were about 10 feet away from getting center-punched. Both of them leaped backwards with eyes as big as saucers and maybe thoughts of a higher power crossing their minds.
How sad would it have been to wipe out 40% of the original band and tear up the new paint on the nose to boot… 
So how much would it co$t to install a Tee in a low pressure fuel line and a valve and to carry a flexible tube which would not be dissolved by gasoline?
I strongly, strongly, strongly recommend against trying this. I was unable to access the spec, but your Suburban fuel line pressure will be in excess of 40psi. All modern fuel injected systems run these pressures. And fuel line connections have to be absolutely leak proof, and secured against movement (inside corners are high stress areas and can fracture from relative movement or vibration). In addition, any fuel line above the level of the fuel would need to use the pump to feed the fuel, as the minute you opened any valve above the level of the fuel the fuel would simply run down into the tank… after the fuel sprayed everywhere being blown out of the valve at 40psi++, creating a mess of raw fuel everywhere just waiting to lead a spark or a flame into the gas tank… which would explode. And when it does, the insurance will deny your claim and cancel you and the fire marshal will probably issue you a summons in your hospital bed.
To transfer fuel safely, there needs to be pressure either from a pump or the weight of the fuel itself, there needs to be a system to create an absolute seal between the receiving vessel and the source vessel, the transfer needs to be vapor tight, and vapor tight integrity needs to be maintained as the connection is disconnected. And everything involved needs to be made of materials that are spark free and be properly grounded. For the record, siphoning uses the weight of the fuel itself.
Transferring fuel from a fuel tank via one of its lines is not like transferring water. You do not want to open a fuel line without depressurizing it first, and keeping the feeder valve safe requires the proper knowledge and tools.
I highly commend your desire to help stranded motorists. But the way to do so is to offer to call a tow truck for them.
Just buy the can of “emergency gas” and think no more about it-gas is,I repeat to volatile to monkey around with-Kevin
Reminds me of the time a vehicle caught fire and the driver continued just one block to a service station ahead to put the fire out.
He couldn’t know that a customer had just spilled several gallons of gasoline at the pumps.
The Salvation Army brought sandwiches and drink to the firefighters.
Do NOT mess with your fuel line. You could be the flaming car needing rescue.
^ What was it’s original cost at Family Dollar?
Can’t someone make a bladder type container which expands and contracts so no pressure venting?
They already do, in race cars and some airplanes. They’re contained by a protective outer structure in race cars and airplanes, but they’d be subject to puncture and extremely dangerous in a car. They could turn a fender-cruncher accident into a raging inferno where people burn to death.
The reason they’re safer in race cars is because they’re less likely to explode. Don’t test this, but a topped-off tank of gas if lit at the fill hole will burn like a torch, but a 1/4 full tank of gas subjected to a flame will explode in a raging ball of fire. The fuel-saturated airspace in a hard tank makes the fuel supply more dangerous should something happen.
If you want to help out-of-gas motorists, offer to call a tow truck. Don’t risk a disaster to help a simple out-of-gas stranded motorist.
I’ve owned plastic fuel containers that seal so tightly that when you open them, they depressurize, with gas fumes pushing out, but I hesitate to recommend them because (A) you never know when they will lose their ability to stay pressurized, and (B) even if you can find one of these, it’s a bad idea to carry gasoline inside your vehicle.
Is there room under the rear of the vehicle to install a hanger/cradle to hold a gas container?
I’d put it as far as possible from the exhaust system.
Ford did that with their Pinto. They exploded into flames when hit in the rear. I recommend against that.
In addition, it’d be easy for chafing to eat through plastic tanks unless the mounting system is properly designed, causing a leak and potential fire.
@ok4450, I guess your friend was born to be wild.
Could you make an adapter to screw onto the fuel pressure testing port, along with a switch to trigger the relay to energize the fuel pump, quick on and off and safer than a lot of other possibilities.