Gas cans and fun findings.

sc00ter

Well-Known Member
Region
USA
City
Norfolk, VA
I have a Honda Generator and keep a few gas cans on standby when a hurricane is coming our way. I'll try and get pictures up of the offending cans (actually one just went in the trash can) so you can avoid them. Anyways, back to the cans. One is a 2 gallon with a weird switch lever to open/close it. I used it today to top my moped up and the switch broke, no longer allowing it to close. The other can is a 5 gallon can and no matter what I do it spills half the fuel under the nozzle while pouring it. Both of these tanks are plastic and Made in the USA. I think the manufacturers forgot about the 10% ethanol content in gasoline, as I highly suspect both faults were caused by ethanol. Heck, I'll fish the other can out of the trash can for science so I can get a picture of it.

I also hate all these new safety caps they put on gas cans. I have a 1 gallon plastic gas can that's been thru everything and it still works great. No spills from warping of brittle plastic. Has anyone found a gas can that's worth buying? My work recently purchased a new 1 gallon gas can for our department and I swear I've seen people spill half the fuel every time they use it. It's hard to pour and even harder to refill. Stupid people purchased a stupid gas can at my job. I'll try and get a picture of that can as well. I know everything has gotten safety overkill but these new safety systems are just cumbersome and fragile.
 
go to yard sales and try to round up some old eagle fuel cans,even their newer plastic round ones were good,the current crop of crap is rubbish,and you can get re[placement nozzles and caps from temu and sites like that,the crap they sale at tractor supply is overpriced garbage,I have old metal cans that are heirloom quality and have some of the round eagle poly cans that are at least 20 yrs old,back in the day I would even use old tide bottles as consumable fuel cans.
 
You can buy replacement old style spouts for gas cans.
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The 2.5 gallon can is so many decades old that I don't remember if it was a purchase or a gift. For a few years, it tended to leak around the base of the spout. A new gasket fixed that.

The 4 gallon can came from the widow next door about 10 years ago. It was old, and she didn't have the cap to store it with the spout inverted. That's fine because the yellow snap-on cap holds pressure, reducing the hazard of fire and of contamination by moist air. That spout is nice on mower tanks where I can't see the level because the flow stops when the level reaches the spout.

With a full can, fuel can flow before the spout is tipped into the tank. I can fix that by loosening the cap to rotate the spout 90 or 180 degrees, allowing me to tip the can farther before the fuel starts to flow.

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When they made the nozzle dribble the gas into the tank at 1 gal per 3 minutes, I bought my last official can. Threw them away. I now buy diesel in 1 gal punch bottles, oil jugs, or 2 gallon weed killer jugs. Labeled with a magic marker, of course. Carry a funnel, they are not patented to be stupid. Buy fuel in the country, no-one is looking. My nearest station is in a town of pop. 400.
I quit buying gas when the B&S/troybilt mower was stolen. My 21" mower now uses liIon batteries. I tried to buy an electric pickup in June, but Lightning production was over for the year. No electric pickups with 8' bed either. Teslas pickups are such a joke. How are you going to reach over to get your groceries in the cooler? Open the tailgate? Carry them in your lap? My brother who runs a fleet of 6 4WD p/u says Chevy/GMC gets repeatedly occurring computer problems at 9 years. So Ford it was. 3.5 L engine gets 18 mpg.
 
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With a full can, fuel can flow before the spout is tipped into the tank. I can fix that by loosening the cap to rotate the spout 90 or 180 degrees, allowing me to tip the can farther before the fuel starts to flow.
Unless the power is out and I'm filling the generator, I only do 2 gallons at a time in my 5 gal jug. But I only use 4 or 5 gallons a year between mower, edger and snow blower.
 
When they made the nozzle dribble the gas into the tank at 1 gal per 3 minutes, I bought my last official can. Threw them away. I now buy diesel in 1 gal punch bottles, oil jugs, or 2 gallon weed killer jugs. Labeled with a magic marker, of course. Carry a funnel, they are not patented to be stupid. Buy fuel in the country, no-one is looking. My nearest station is in a town of pop. 400.
I quit buying gas when the B&S/troybilt mower was stolen. My 21" mower now uses liIon batteries. I tried to buy an electric pickup in June, but Lightning production was over for the year. No electric pickups with 8' bed either. Teslas pickups are such a joke. How are you going to reach over to get your groceries in the cooler? Open the tailgate? Carry them in your lap? My brother who runs a fleet of 6 4WD p/u says Chevy/GMC gets repeatedly occurring computer problems at 9 years. So Ford it was. 3.5 L engine gets 18 mpg.
the Chevys may have "volatile" memories on the chips( its a thing with some-guaranteed obsolescence,that being said I would love to have an EV Silverado,Ford is supposedly revamping their EV lineup( probably be like the "Maverick"10-12K markup over the MSRP and of course the dealers and fleets will snap them up-I paid $4 k over MSRP for a used Maverick with 20 some K miles on it,the real advantage over the Frontier I had was 10 more mpg on a turbo awd 4 cyl.the thing is really peppy
 
I also bought a set of those Amazon nozzles and vents. My biggest problem is my tractor, it’s diesel and the filler is about waist or higher. It’s hard to get a can up there and in the filler without spilling. I bought a low dollar fuel pump and get a gallon or two out of the can and can then pour it in. $10 at Walmart.
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One of the offending cans. The black pour spout broke causing it to no longer seal.
 

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I thought it was just me totally piss'd with "modern" gas cans. The spring loaded nozzles make it frustratingly long to fill anything and always with spills. I gutted them so that it's basically a nozzle but the rest of the cap and gaskets leak if not painstakingly aligned and the design is flimsy at best.
I have gone back to just using a funnel with a legnth of 3/4" gas line attached.

This is the garbage I'm talking about.
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One of the offending cans. The black pour spout broke causing it to no longer seal.
Amazon has lots of "gas can replacement spouts" if you can get one with the right threads. Maybe they're standard.

I see this one has a flame arrester. In 1957, an older friend stunned me by fetching a tin 1-gallon gas can to pour gas on a trash fire. The spout caught fire and wouldn't go out. The arrester saved us. Around 2010, the fireman next door sometimes appalled me by using a 2.5 gallon can to pour gas on a fire. More recently, I discovered that another neighbor, a war veteran in his 30s, likes to burn wood in his back yard. The part he loves most is pouring gas on a fire.
 
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