kill them all! - the new gas can?

[Danny D.]

Bob F wrote, on Wed, 10 Sep 2014 12:48:40 -0700:

You must live on a different planet.

[Danny D.]

gfretwell wrote, on Wed, 10 Sep 2014 18:37:02 -0400:

You can't throw the spout away ... yet.

What I propose, which seems to be the *perfect* solution, is that we find a replacement cap for the gas cans.

With a replacement cap, we solve all the problems.

1. The gas stays inside the can (so CARB/EPA is happy).
2. The cap is easy to remove (even easier than the ungainly spout).
3. The gas pours fine (even without a vent) into a funnel.

I personally spoke to the CARB guys, who said the specification says

*nothing* about how the gasoline is supposed to come *out* of the can.

The specification is only to keep the gasoline *inside* the can (during storage).

So, it's NOT like the pumps at the gas station, which have to seal when you're filling your car. It's nothing like that.

Given that the cap would keep the gasoline inside the can just as well (probably even better) than the spout, and, given that the spout is, by all (but one) accounts, useless .... then I propose we find a CAP that fits the gas can.

Once we find a cap, our problems are all solved! But, how to find that cap, is the problem.

[Danny D.]

Stormin Mormon wrote, on Wed, 10 Sep 2014 16:52:18 -0400:

I know the solution to all our problems!

While *this* solution (modifying the can) will work:

A *better* solution would be to replace the spout with a gas cap.

That would solve all the problems.

1. The gas would still stay inside during storage (which is the *only* thing the EPA/CARB cares about!)
2. The gas would come out when we need it (which is the main thing *we* care about!)

What we need to do is pool our resources to find a replacement gas cap for the gas can that fits the threads.

[Unquestionably Confused]

ow the solution to all our problems!

+1

I modified several 5 gallon cans using this method. Works well.

You can crack the valve cap just a bit to keep the vapors from "ballooning" out your gas container if it sits in the sun.

As for the filler tube/cap... If some enterprising manufacturer off shore wanted to smuggle in the old style, he'd make a fortune

[Stormin Mormon]

Some where in the not too distant past, I remember seeing an ad for spouts for "water containers" which mysteriously fit on gascans. Though, not sold as such, you realize.

[bob haller]

I love those compliant gas cans that say not for motor vehicle use......

I mean isnt that what a gas can is for......

[hrhofmann]

Googling "water container spouts" brought up many responses.

[gfretwell]

You just use the threaded ring with a suitably sized disk where the spout goes and a gasket from the plumbing department at Ace

[J Burns]

I suppose they mean not to keep it in your trunk. When I fetch gas in the car, I like to keep it up front, where I can see or smell any problem.

I once had a 2.5 gallon can marked USMC. If I had to keep gas in the trunk, I'd use one like that. I see NATO cans are available in 5, 10, and 20 liters. Several states say they aren't legal for storing gas. I wonder why not.

[BobMCT]

Last year I purchased four new 5 gal cans and I HATE all of them. What I did was throw away the filler spouts and epoxied plexiglas over the top of the caps. Then I purchased a battery operated siphon pump from eBay for $15 and it pumps 5 gals in about 3 mins and there are zero spills. I wish one could buy simple caps for these, though.

[Dan Espen]

Hey, cut that out.

Only mindless rants about how things have changed are acceptable here.

I sort of like the new cans too. Sure, I had to learn a new way to operate the thing, but I didn't break anything in the process.

So, I've got 2 gas cans from before the new laws, and one after. I don't have many problems operating any of them.

[Pico Rico]

your CARB can must be relatively new. It will become harder to use over time, as the mechanism binds.

[Unquestionably Confused]

I suppose that the smaller containers are manageable and even the larger ones would probably be okay IF the idiots that designed them actually used them in the real world. One size fits all doesn't

I don't have any difficulty with a 5 gallon container, but my wife does. The nozzles on the 2½ gal and 5 gal containers are identical. The little hook on the spout (that holds the nozzle depressed) doesn't work for shit with our equipment. The Bobcat has 2 ~ 5 gal saddle tanks and the fuel opening is about 3½" in diameter. Trying to engage the flow and keep the can at the proper angle of attack is all but impossible. Those nozzle do work pretty well for the two pint fuel tanks on a push mower or rototiller.

I bought some NATO gas cans and if the EPA police want to come and get me, they can stand right behind the clowns from the mattress label police

[Doug Miller]

[e-mail] wrote in news:9abc9edb-55f9-4027-a1b4- [e-mail]:

gas can I just purchased was committee designed.

rubber gasket with a grove that rolls over and self destructs if you twist the nozzle - leak leak leak.

No, but you *can* find this:

[Doug Miller]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Ummmmm....no, that's 3 gallons per minute, not 3 minutes per gallon.

At 3 gallons per minute, it would take one minute and forty seconds to dispense 5 gallons.

[Dan Espen]

Of course, there must be a problem. If only I knew what a CARB was. Okay, I see, "CARB compliant".

Nope, the new style gas can I have has been around at least

4 years, maybe 5. No change in the way it operates.

Yeah, I know, no matter what, if they changed something, it must be worse. I just can't seem to get with the program.

[gfretwell]

Still a long time. With a funnel it is more like 20 seconds

[Danny D.]

gfretwell wrote, on Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:18:44 -0400:

By way of comparison ...

It takes me about a four minutes and twenty seconds to empty a five-gallon gas jug which is placed on the roof of the car (with a towel underneath to protect the paint) and a 10-foot half-inch hose for the siphon.

[Danny D.]

Dan Espen wrote, on Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:05:02 -0400:

It used to be that the California Air Resource Board set the standards for keeping the gasoline *inside* the can; but now the EPA has the *same* standards, so, being CARB-compliant isn't what it used to be.

The key point I've learned from talking personally with the CARB people is that the standards only dictate how the gas has to stay inside the can during storage.

They promulgated no standards for how the gas gets *out* of the can.

So, IMHO, the solution is for us to find a gas cap that fits the can. With a gas cap, the gas stays inside the can (which keeps CARB/EPA happy); and yet, we can easily remove the cap when we need to pour the gas out (using a separate funnel).

[Danny D.]

Unquestionably Confused wrote, on Wed, 10 Sep 2014 22:19:20 -0500:

Have you ever tried pouring five gallons of gas into an automobile?

I have the Blitz cans, which don't even have multiple handles.

Your arms practically fall off before the gas finishes coming out of the glug glug spout. And I'm not a little guy.

Nope. What I do is dispense with the spout altogether and just siphon as needed. It takes just over 4 minutes with a ten foot 1/2 inch ID vinyle hose to empty a 5-gallon can, with the can on top of a towel on the roof of the car.

Then, it takes another 30 seconds to get all the last drops out into a funnel into the vehicle's gas tank, because whatever you leave in will expand to 22psi (IIRC) which, since the cans definitely do not leak, will bloat the thing like a beach ball in the hot California sun.

So, I leave the nozzles loose for empty storage, so all that gas vapor won't bloat the admittedly otherwise airtight gas can, trying to get as much liquid out into the car as I can.