Every fuel dispensing container and system I’ve ever seen is in the back of a pickup. I can walk accross the street and take picture of one right now. He has the fuel tank forward in the bed and then the tool box . the tank goes all the way accross the width of the bed holding about 50 gallons and has a hand crank pump sticking up out of it. This is common on work trucks and wreckers that dispense fuel daily but I’ve never seen anyone attempt to adapt this to an Expedition interior application.
– Your idea of a fuel line feed sounds doable as you are probably inventing something new requiring some additional R & D. Take our cautions to your drawing board and you’ll probably be able to manufacture your idea. I can envision a hose like the ones that attach the injector flush but longer to get away from the engine area.
Or put on an old Jeep jerry can mount on the rear of the Expedition ?
These are standard for supplying fuel to off road (primarily construction) vehicles. But in the bed is not in the passenger compartment. And they’re secured and well protected from impact damage. Robert isn’t driving a pickup.
The 50 gallon drums with crank pumps are primarily diesel. This is a much safer fuel to handle. I would be very surprised if gasoline was carried this way very often except in unusual circumstances. Gasoline powered vehicles are almost always road licensed and can easily go to local station. A free standing 50 gallon drum of gas or any gas container tank just hung on the outside of a truck or car is an unprotected bomb. I would not be surprised to find out that carrying this much gasoline around in an open pickup bed might be restricted in most states.
It’s one thing to ferry a small container of gasoline home for use in the mower and quite another to lug it around daily in the back end of any vehicle. One impact front or rear could turn that vehicle, and who knows how many others, into a fireball.
I’m reminded of the head-on collision I came upon one night and tried to help out before the EMTs and law enforcement arrived.
One of the vehicles was a pickup carrying several cans of cold tar in the bed. The impact caused those cans to literally explode. There was nothing inside the cab but blood, tar, and 2 barely alive people. Consider the viscosity of cold tar and then imagine gasoline instead of tar.
If being a Good Samaritan is that important then carry an empty jug and ferry someone to the next station along with a return trip.
If Robert wants to help people and it makes him happy he should do it. There has to be a way to add a fuel cell or something similar that’s relatively safe. Im thinking fuel cell…
I mean for crying out loud, old chevy pickups had the fuel tank right behind you IN THE CAB, it wasnt until GM moved them outside the cab to the frame rails they had troubles. I believe old jeeps had the fuel tank under the seat, in the cab…
I don’t know if the word safely is the correct one to use on the Cannonball guy. Lucky might be more appropriate and they were one whack away from disaster with 44 gallons of gas in the trunk.
The incident with the Fed Ex truck could have ended very badly.
The story also says they were fortunate after being stopped by the police that the officer did not notice or ignored the gas fumes coming from the trunk vents.
An individual can perform any modification they desire (for the most part) but finding a shop willing to do it and accept liability might be very, very difficult.
"If Robert wants to help people and it makes him happy he should do it."
My happiness is unimportant.
Th.is to get the stranded motorist on his/her way:
- removes the hazard of their vehicle stopped along a highway
- saves them possibly much time
- saves much co$t of a tow truck
As a registered tree-hugger, I want to save a tow truck or friend making a long distance round trip.
Is there now no way to insert a stiff plastic siphon tube down a filler neck into a gas tank?
That would make all of this easy. Then I could carry a cheap, no weight, EMPTY gas container.
Robert I will give it a try and see what happens, I will try siphoning on a 2013 prius, a 2000 silverado, a 1990 caprice, and a 2002 caravan. I will post my results.
The reason I want to try this is when I buy mower fuel, I fill 2 6 gallon cans and they ride in the car with me. If I can just siphon it out of my tank it would be a safer way to get fuel home.
Even if it could be removed, I would not. I think its main propose is to prevent fuel from spilling out in the case of a crash, the anti siphon protection is just a bonus I would guess.
@Robert_Gift: “Is there now no way to insert a stiff plastic siphon tube down a filler neck into a gas tank?”
My recent efforts to siphon stale gas from a vehicle didn’t go well. For one thing, I needed a siphon pump because I wasn’t going to suck on the hose and get fuel in my mouth. That’s a problem because the hose on the siphon pumps I could buy weren’t long enough. I tried modifying my siphon pump with a longer hose, but it didn’t work.
I’m not sure if the reason I couldn’t siphon stale gas was related to a long fuel tank neck or interference from some equipment, like a debris screen or evaporative emissions equipment.
Carrying an empty fuel container and a siphon pump might be your best option though, if you can make it work. For all I know, you might be willing to suck on a garden hose to get the fuel flowing for a complete stranger. If that’s the case, you’re a better man than I am. In any case, you’ll have to deal with gasoline fumes when you put the equipment back in your vehicle.
Maybe you should go to a couple local auto parts stores, tell them what you have in mind, and they might be able to recommend or special order something that would do what you need it to do.
In the gas shortage of the early '70s, where there were long lines at the gas stations, stations running totally OUT of gas, and fistfights and even an occasional shooting when someone tried to cut into the hours-long lines, siphoning became an epidemic. People would get up hours early just to get in a line to get gas. It was that period when antisiphoning devices began to be installed in cars. Prior to that period we didn’t even have remote-release gas doors either, and everyone bought locking gas caps. I remember those days very clearly. They even sold conically spiraled devices you could insert in an existing fill pipe to prevent siphoning.
The antispill devices, the “trap doors” and the balls, are something entirely different.
Hate to see somebody suffer because of someone elses poor planning and stupidity,I’d say carry a tow chain or just give it up.Be a shame if you got mugged because you wanted to help-Kevin
^ I called the State Patrol when suspicious of a driver at a vehicle stopped along the Interstate.
Could not stop, anyway, because I was transporting blood STAT to a hospital.