Painting Gas Caps!

[Tony S]

I'm sure I'm not the only one to have an employee mistakenly grab the wrong gas can and pour straight gas into a trimmer or other 2 stroke piece of equipment. Well, I just got done spray painting all the 2 stroke equipment gas caps florescent orange, as well as the 2 stroke gas cans. All the 4 stroke equipment gas caps are now blue and the gas can caps with straight gas are now also blue. I'm hoping this will cut down of the confusion about which gas can to grab when fueling equipment. Just thought I would pass this tip on.

[AndrewLawn]

thanks tony,although I don't have any employees,I've made that mistake before,and I'll keep that in mind for myself :)

[Administrator]

I locked up a trimmer running gas with no oil one time. As soon as it locked up the engine died. I took it back to the truck and poured the right mixture in. I messed with it a little, worked the oil back in the engine, then it fired back up.

Guess I got lucky.

[little green guy]

:) Thats a realy good idea, I'm gonna go that. I've had a couple dopes run straight in 2 cycle stuff :mad:

[lawnboykb]

We have done that for years and it works....also we use paint markers to write stuff down like bolt sizes and such just to speed things up.

[KirbysLawn]

I use different size gas cans, the small ones are for mixed fuel, the larger ones are for gas.

[eslawns]

What about your vehicles? One of my customers is and equipment and generator sales & repair outfit. They sell and service Cummins diesels, including the ones in Dodge pickups. A week or so ago, they were working on a Dodge 3500 Cummins. The guy who owned it let his kid use it and they filled up from E with straight gas. The service manager said the bill would be over $5k. :eek: And, no, it isn't covered under warranty. I asked.

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I also use 2.5 gal for mix and 5 gal for reg. But I also believe painting is a great idea.

[CLARKE]

I got two size cans and i keep the mix on the right
side of the truck and the REG on the left side of the
truck right next to the gas tank on the truck.:cool:

[Charles]

I saw to vietanmese women the other day at a garage telling the manager they had put diesel fuel in a gas auto and needed a tow. Took him few minutes to understand what they were trying to tell him. Dont know what kinda damage this would do.
Why dont you just write on the cans with a marker? If they still make the mistake put their noses in it lol. If they dont care or not paying attention it doesnt really matter what you do.

[dan deutekom]

putting diesel in a gas engine won't hurt the engine but it just won't run. Drain the fuel system and refill with gas and away you go. Put gas in a diesel engine and it runs like crazy for about 5 seconds and then it is an expensive rebuild. Mixed gas in a 4 stroke engine does no harm other than maybe foul the plugs after a while. Straight gas in a 2 stroke and it is expensive repairs even if you get it started again with mixed gas the cylinder is usually scored up pretty bad

[MikeLT1Z28]

i don't see how they even got the nozzle in since the fitting sizes are different.

[cantoo]

Tony I do the same thing but my colours are different.. I spray paint all two stroke jugs and machines blue (that is the colour of my oil mixture) and leave the straight ones plain. The chain saw is a different mix so the jug gets silver paint to match the saw.

[gusbuster]

Why not buy different brand containers of the same size? The tops are already a different color plastic, so no need to ever paint and paint and paint.
John

[TGCummings]

All very good ideas, and ones I'll implement as I'm in the market to replace my old, worn cans. Previously, I just wrapped black electrical tape around the handle of my 2-stroke gas can. ;)

-TGC

[Avery]

All of our cans are clearly marked. Nonetheless I pulled up on a job the other day to check progress. One guy was running a BR400. All I could see was the top of his head.....Smoke all over the place. Come to find out he had put diesel in the blower. Not only that but he MIXED it as well! And the Stihl was still running...not well, but running. At least he didn't put in straight gas.

[Fine Lines Lawn]

I use the blue Kerosene fuel cans for my mixed fuel, and regular red for regular:)

[Tony S]

Thanks for the repliys. So far the new set up is working great. I have allways used 2.5 gal. cans for premix, and 5 gal. cans for reg. gas. But now that there paited, the emploies seem to have no problem grabing the write can for the write peice of equipment.