Fill er up please

[Stinger]

Fueling our trucks and equipment is something we all face throughout the week. I find allot of time is lost jockeying for position at the pumps and then worrying how to manuver your way out of the convience store lot with a crew cab truck and 16' trailer just to find someone has blocked you in and then you get to play (reverse) the backing up game. So what do you guys do to gas up? Keep a fuel cell at the shop? Fill up all the little 1,2, and 5 gallon cans every Monday am while your looked at like a terrorist by the person at the pump next to you? I know there is a better way so let's here from you.

[HOOLIE]

At my old job we ran 6 or 7 crews daily, what we ended up doing was, we bought a lot of extra 5-gallon gas cans, and someone would fill the empties during the day and when the crews got back they would switch their empties for full cans. Also they would top off all the mowers at night.

Each crew would fill their own trucks when on the road, preferably NOT first thing in the morning when it was a zoo at the pumps. Typically they would pass many gas stations during the week, they were told to fill up when it was convenient.

It didn't always run smoothly, but that seemed to work the best over anything else we had tried.

[1grnlwn]

I always try to make sure that I am pointed out and away from the store. That way I can't be blocked by these lazy a$$ people that need cigs and soda, that park right in front of the door in areas that are suppose to be driving lanes. I always park so there is no space in front of the truck so someone can't back in front of me. I don't care if my trailer blocks a pump behind me. There are usually open pumps and the people that will block you off certainly don't care. I pay at the pump so I don't have to stand in line behind the beer,cig and lotto addicts. And I have no problem using a gas station bathroom and making absolutely no purchase. Sorry for the rant but people who have never pulled a trailer just don't understand and will park right in front of you. At lunch I always park across about 8 spaces and angle the truck pointing out towards the center drive. No matter how far out you are there is almost always a car parked in the very next spot in front of you when you come out.

[Woody82986]

I am a solo operator, so I gas up my truck at night most of the time, after I get done working. There is one gas station around here that doesn't get much business at all during the day so I use them when I need to fill up my mowers and gas cans. They are fairly convenient to pull in and out of.

[ElitePM]

We have been looking at fuel transfer tanks as an alternative to having to make multiple trips to the station durring the week. We are just trying to determine if we will get a sufficent return on investment from the price/saved time. I don't know how many there are out there but a quick google search brought me to this site.

http://www.transferflow.com/html/refueling_tanks.html

Of course you still have to fill the trucks unless you get the 100 gallon tank

[mtdman]

Don't usually have a problem. I've taken to bringing home the 5 gallon cans and filling up at night, so I don't have to take the trailer to a gas station to fill up.

[MImowerkid]

does anyone use a extra gas tank in a pickup bed that is tied into the truck's fuel system to prolong the time in - between stopping?

[Mark McC]

I've been thinking about this a lot the past few days and am seriously considering buying a sh*tload of five-gallon cans and filling them up on Sundays. Not sure how many I'd have to have to refill both the truck and the equipment for the week, but it'd cut down on time monkeying around at filling stations. I'm thinking maybe 80 gallons total per week.

To do this, I'd have to purchase some sort of container for the fuel. I will not keep that much gasoline in the garage, no way.

[LawnsByJon]

How about your local Ag-Way or other similar commercial truck gas station. Most of the ones around here have diesel and regular gas, and they're generally set up to accomodate larger trucks.

Not always convenient based on where you're going, but it can be alot better than going to a normal gas station.

[JB1]

We have 500 gallon tanks at the shop which makes it nice.