Storing Gasoline

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BerettaNut92

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What's the safest way to store gasoline? Sounds dangerous :uhoh: or am I being unreasonably worried like my folks are with handloading ammo?

I just don't let it get below half a tank, but thinking about having a can or two in the garage and in my car for longer trips.
 
I keep mine in a detached garage. You live in an apartment correct? Check local fire codes especially if garage is in the structure. Store it there if permissible. No smoking or spark producing work of any kind in the garage. No you are not being over cautious. Reloading is way safer than messing with gasoline.

I agree with your premise. I know a guy of some relation to me who has a can or two. He didn't exactly see 9/11 coming and not sure how bad it would get had 10K cash out of the bank and about a dozen 55gal drums filled within 3 hours. Why do something halfway? To his credit the diesel was already on hand in a 1K gallon inground tank.

Like you I'm stuck in urban cess and if I want to get to where I can move freely about the country I need money and gas. ATMs and gas pumps don't work so good when the earthquake/governor/computer bug/terrorist/_____ shuts off the electric. Plan ahead. I keep 20 gallons in my garage. That gives me 150-200 surplus range with my truck, 500+ with my car. Family and civilization is only 180 miles away from me. My goal once I get my gunsafe is to have an envelope with at least 1K in twenties sitting there untouched. Cash is still your friend in many emergencies short of the world ending.

Keep the car windows cracked if you put it in the trunk, nothing like getting high on fumes. Cool accessory: Coleman 442 Multifuel stove, runs on unleaded or white gas. Oh nevermind, I forgot you don't eat. Me, while the S is Hing the F I will be sitting on a secluded roadside grilling a steak.
 
If you plan on storing it for more than a month, then add some fuel stabilizer like "stabil" . Gasoline will start turning to varnish rather quickly, which gums up engines, especially two stroke motors.
 
What about just dumping it in the car every month or so and then filling it back up?

What are the best containers to get?
 
Best to heed the warnings , advice and do some research Skunk. I've seen a gallon of gas "go up", seen a stick of dynamite "go up"...
never made a motalov cocktail huh?...and I don't mean the silly drinks with a umbrella either...;)

Safety extends past firearms...
Find a farmer and spend some time learning 'the old ways'... some of life's best lessons ain't in schools or the 'net...its with the best resource we have...our elders, farmers, ranchers...IMO
 
I seem to vaguely recall seeing a blurb a year or so ago about a new product someone had invented. Basically it was a can with two separate sections, each filled with a chemical that on its own doesn't degrade and isn't dangerous. When you dumped the two together they would react and bond to create a gasoline substitute.

Dunno if anything ever came of it. Just one of those things that struck me as kind of neat. Might be worth doing a web search.
 
Some of y'all know that my apartment building in Richmond (where I rented, not like I owned it) burned down.

Well here's how it happened.

Each unit had it's own water heater in the kitchen. This total idiot upstairs had dragged several large gas-powered devices upstairs...one was a rototiller I think, one was definately a large generator of about 4000ish watts based on the size. Both had integral metal gas tanks.

About 4:00pm on a hot day, the setting sun's rays came in the window, hit one or both tanks, expanded the gas. Being heavier than air, it flowed along the floor until it hit the pilot light in the kitchen.

:fire:

What a mess. I ended up running out with my laptop in hand and guns shoved in my pockets :eek:. (They were loaded wheelguns, and had the fire gotten to my unit, they could have cooked off.) As it was, I had to inform the fire department I had about 800 rounds on tap.

Basically, any proper metal can kept in a cool dark place with NO PILOT LIGHT AROUND, and you're fine.

:rolleyes:

Coulda been worse. At least I'm managed to drive out the METH LAB in the basement some months before.

:cuss:
 
The 5 gallon DOT approved metal can with spark arrestor and conductive fill hose made by several manufacturers is advised. The potential problems from damage to the container, poor bonding characteristics, and static forced us to ban the poly cans years ago.
http://www.northernsafety.com/cart/cart.cfm?UID=2003080716583687&ACTION=03&SKW=GP205DOAP02

You may stabilize fuel, but rotation helps with any stored resource be it ammo, peachs, or gasoline.
 
I make a habit to keep my 3, 5 gallon gas cans and vehicles topped off at all times. In Summer the turnaround on the gas with all the various lawn equipment is pretty quick. At fillup time I put whats left in the car and go fill up the cans.

Winter time, I use fuel stabilizer and rotate when I do car maintenance. I am lucky I have a pretty decent garage and 3 vehicles to maintain so its easy to rotate the fuel and keep the spare gas fresh.

I do use the plastic gas cans and have had no problems. One of them is over 10 years old. I have replaced broken nozzles but the can integrity is still fine. Main rule with anything plastic, Keep it out of the sun!
 
I'd only like to add, don't forget that using cell phones around gasoline is a no-no, too. Just brought it up because I see folks at gas stations fairly often who have no clue about this...
 
"metal can..."

Tell you the truth I MUCH prefer the red plastic cans over those flimsy tin cans that they're now making. No offense, but I'm not going to pay $120 to $200 for a frigging gasoline can.

At one time metal gasoline cans actually had some bulk to them and were hard to dent or puncture.

I was fueling the lawn mower at my parent's a couple of years ago, set the can down against the fence, and ripped the side out of it on a nail that was sticking out.

That wouldn't have happened with one of the plastic cans.
 
Mike,

Check the link I posted. The metal safety fuel cans aren't the flimsy little tin can you're thinking about. Gasoline is one of the most dangerous fire hazards you can store or use. Highly volatile, it's fumes are ignited over a surprisingly large range of concentrations in air. The metal cans I recommend include flashback suppression screens, spring loaded pour spouts, metal "hoses" to allow bonding with the equipment being fueled to prevent spark ignition of the fuel, as well as heavy enough guage steel to withstand abuse. A plastic gas can sliding around in the bed of a pickup truck will create a nice static charge. If you don't set the thing down on the ground and give that static charge time to disipate it can be the source of ignition for a nasty fire.
 
The whole time I was a kid, my dad had small boats with outboard motors. Fueled by 6gal metal cans specially made for outboards and available at any marine supply house. These things were just great - tough as nails, airtight, really cool.

They also had 6ft or more hoses that plug in at each end, tank and engine. About a foot away from the plug at the tank end was a squeezeball with one-way valves that allowed "squeezegrip priming".

Well we rapidly realized that you could take off the end connector that plugs into the engine and use the squeezeball to slowly but safely fill go-cart gas tanks, law mowers, chain saws and similar. The process was utterly clean, low-fumes, really slick. For faster pouring into another tank of some size, spouts were a hard-to-find accessory. That was the only downside: they weren't built for pouring, although with a funnel they're not terrible as long as it's not REALLY full...but expect some spillage that way.

For filling small tanks of half gallon or so, I cannot recommend these enough. Try and find a "marine supply house" versus a "boat dealer" (the latter will rape you pricewise).
 
How 'bout NATO surplus "jerry" cans? About $15-20 from any number of places i.e.-Sportmans Guide- + the spout. They seal tight, stack on each other, don't spill if they fall over, and are pretty easy to dump in the tank. Two gives you an extra 10 gallons which is probably better then half again what the car tak holds. I put two in the back my Rodeo and can do ~ 500miles of highway driving with a full tank.
 
HSO,

I checked the link you posted. I know what the cans are, how they're made, etc.

Which is why I posted this...

"but I'm not going to pay $120 to $200 for a frigging gasoline can."

If anyone is STUPID enough to carry any type of flammable material in a container that isn't secured into the back of the vehicle, then they pretty much deserve their Darwin award.

Also, according to NIOSH (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hid2.html), it's not just plastic cans that have been involved in fires. Metal cans, if they're not filled by setting them on the ground, have also ignited from static discharge. In fact, NIOSH says that ungrounded metal cans are more dangerous in this sense than the red plastic polypropylene cans (which also have flame arresting screens if you haven't take them out).

Finally, it's apparently not the can that causes the problem in this situation. It's the gasoline flowing through the equipment and into the can. (http://www.cdc.gov/nasd/docs/d001501-d001600/d001589/d001589.html)


Oh, by the way.

Try this link for metal cans that are a LOT cheaper, but which appear to have the same features...

http://www.omarksafety.com/category.cfm?acatid=190
 
IIRC from another board Cal. has passed some tough laws in the last year or so regarding gas cans I would check it out before buying any cans.

Bob
 
Oh, and Skunky? One other thing:

Kudos for being able to ASK about proper procedures when you weren't sure, and apparantly wasn't raised around this stuff by an older relative who knew.
 
My wife's cousin's husband could have used some good advice on storing gas in late 1999. In prep for Y2K, over a period of several months he bought and stored some 250 gal of gas in his attached garage, along with abt 100 gal of kerosene. He used some big plastic bbls of some sort for most of it. He disconnected all the electricty to the garage and thought that would be sufficient as far as safety precautions go. The family all stopped going to his place for fear of being blasted to smithereens. The man is a huge imbecile in general, but this was his worst transgression to date.
 
Thanks for the cheaper can link. Sorry I gave everyone the impression you'd have to take a loan out on you vehicle to store extra fuel safely. These guys have the 5 gal cans for $27 http://www.interstateproducts.com/safety/ui20_50s.html


I can't agree that the people who fill gas cans in the bedliner or carpeted area warrant the Darwin Award. Very few people know about the possibilitly of static charge building up on cans either from air flowing around them (pilots are familiar with this), sliding around on the synthetic (your little brother skuffing socks on carpet zap you), or the flow of the fuel passing through the line. It does mean that the warning should be posted at fuel points so that they have a chance to learn without getting burned.


http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/hid2.html
http://www.pei.org/FRD/gascan.htm
http://www.pei.org/faq/static.htm#9 lots of good info

Spark may jump between either plastic or metal. The problem with plastic is that that there is less effective bonding between the metal service station hose and the plastic storage can. Metal safety cans more readily dissipate static charge and bonds better with the metal fill hose. Metal safety cans have self closing outlets, pressure vents that allow expanding vapors to escape and then re-seal as pressures drop, and they won't melt when subjected to anything but the highest heat. These are the reasons that I can't find any fuel storage safety cans made of plastic yet on the net. edit: Interstateproducts.com now has a poly "safety" can that has incorporated the features (spring closure, reseting vent, flashback arrester) in the steel safety cans. Unfortunately their 5 gal. poly safety can is twice the price of the steel model.

The thing to remember is that contact with a grounding surface is important to prevent static discharge between the fuel hose and the container and that maintianing the contact between the hose and container is important in dissipating the charge that may build up when filling to or from 5 gal. cans. Storage in an occupied building is never a good idea regardless of container makeup or size.
 
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If your car has a spare tire on the back, how do you attach a gas can. Also do they make locking gas cans to ward off gasoline siphoners?

Cash is king ... but during most really severe disasters hyperinflation is experienced rendering greenbacks worthless. Keep some of your assets in commodity money, gold for large stuff, silver for small stuff. Just my two pieces of zinc coated with copper (in ancient empires when the government added base metals to coinage it was called debasement and the people were furious).

atek3
 
>(in ancient empires when the government added base metals to coinage it was called debasement and the people were furious)

They didn't have TV to adjust their IQ.

BHT will stabilize gasoline in a jerrican for about five years according to the army... unless you live in CA and have to buy that strange partially preburned ("oxygenated") stuff. I don't know how well it lasts, but I would guess it's more reactive and crosslinks faster.
 
I thought BHT was a food preservative...?
Sta-Bil : http://www.goldeagle.com/sta-bil/faqs.htm is what I grew up with.

Jim got me to thinking when he mentioned the fuel lines with the priming bulbs...have one around here somewhere...but...

I recall a time when the gas pumps had manual cranks, then later manual cranks if electric pump went out as a back up system. Hmm with the thought of power gone ,one would be wise to have a hand pump like used on the farm. OR learn how to syphon gas ( we called this using an "Oklahoma Credit Card" (sorry OK members).

Yep -105 octane Amoco gold tasted better than Esso 'standard grade' ;)
 
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