Jerry Can usage / marking

[robin craig]

Just another tidbit from our daily life at work today.

 

Please bear in mind we are a working property with an owner and myself with an MV bent and an MV collection to boot, we are not a museum.

 

We use exclusively steel jerry cans for mobile fuel usage on the properties I manage / work at.

 

We detest the North American plastic civvy fuel containers as they do not stand up to handling and abuse and expose to sun etc etc.

 

Because we do not have enough cans to have dedicated gasoline (petrol) or diesel cans we drain and refill as required. We have about 20 Cans but when things are going full tilt and we are supporting equipment working away from the "home base" workshops where bulk fuel is we transport it in cans and fill up the dozer and excavator etc from these. It works very well for us.

 

We do not want a bulk tank in the back of the pickup as some do because that ties up space. Also we quite often pre locate a piece of kit for work and leave the machine fully fueled but with fuel for a days work in reserve.

 

Well, recently a minor mishap befell us and remarkably the first time in 8 years of doing this, someone plonked gasoline into a diesel vehicle. Thankfully the culprit thought something was wrong and stopped after only a few litres and the kit was bone dry so dilution was the easy way out with no adverse effect.

 

As a result we have been brain storming on how to mark cans and have come up with the criteria that the marker must be re useable, and stay with the cans, and not require any modification to the can.

 

This is the prototype made in UHMW which is cheap. Basicaly its a small coupon with a slot cut on the table saw and a forstener bit recess on either side for a paint pen colour mark.

 

We will secure it with a lanyard to the can. Right now it relies on friction fit but a MK2 version is in the works.

 

I know the MOD makes tin labels but we dont have them and this is our simple effective "farmer fix".

 

Any input gratefully received.

 

As a slight side bar we bought these 5 litre double jerry can sets with a cleaning kit in between a few years ago. We use them as a set, one per chainsaw when they go out. One can carries 5 litres of mixed fuel the other bar oil and chains and spares etc go in the clamshell. Best $20 we ever spent on those!

 

Regards

 

R

Edited March 7, 2011 by robin craig
doh! forgot a picture!

[gazzaw]

PM me your address and I can send you some red CIVGAs and Yellow DIESO jerrican plates as we use in the British Forces. As a transport Regiment we usually have a pile sitting around or as we sometimes do - paint the caps red and yellow

 

Gary

[schliesser92]

we just used to paint the filler caps, I think that the recognised colours are RED (petrol) , YELLOW (diesel) and GREY (Kerosine)

[David Ives]

gary pm sent if any spare after sorting robin out some

[gazzaw]

got it

[Rangie]

we just used to paint the filler caps, I think that the recognised colours are RED (petrol) , YELLOW (diesel) and GREY (Kerosine)

 

Was there a colour code used for water as well?

 

 

Ah, Wiki to the rescue again......... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerrycan

 

Alec

Edited April 17, 2011 by Rangie
found answer!

[Bazz]

Water was/is carried in black plastic "cans".

[ferretfixer]

Water was/is carried in black plastic "cans".

 

Or Identical in GREEN plastic. I Believe, Canadian? BOTH versions in British Service.

[Bazz]

Cheers FF, In 30 odd years service I've never seen the green water cans.

[gazzaw]

BTW I haven't forgotten about yellow tags, there are no red ones anymore, as we don't use leaded petrol, only unleaded green ones. Our lot are on Easter leave at moment will get back on it once back

[Marmite!!]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRITISH-jerry-can-metal-labels-x-10-new-petrol-/220769862944?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CommercialVehicleParts_SM&hash=item3366e8c520

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRITISH-jerry-can-metal-labels-x-10-new-diesel-/220770594091?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CommercialVehicleParts_SM&hash=item3366f3ed2b

[Bazz]

this one on e-bay.

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OCTANE-TAG-US-JERRY-CAN-Willys-Jeep-M151-GPW-MB-/290449668598?pt=UK_Collectables_Militaria_LE&hash=item43a02639f6

[paulob1]

still wont stop people making mistakes, now they will assume someone has marked the cans properly and filled them with the correct fuel. It will not happen...my motto is fill the can for a specific vehicle and make sure you put it in that vehicle as soon as possible,...the moment it hangs around it will get used somewhere else and maybe not in the right vehicle.

 

shame there isnt an automatic colour marker in them that changes to the right colour the moment you fill it with whichever fuel...if only...

[robin craig]

The human element is always the weak link in the process.

 

We had actually already bought 10 petrol and 10 diesel metal tags from the chap Lee linked to on ebay.

 

They will do the job quite nicely.

 

I do agree with Paul that rapid fueling once the cans are filled is desireable but we dont have that option as I think I have pointed out before we are on a large estate setting spread over two provinces and quite often away from easy bulk fuel acess. So we do load up cans for work quite often and nearly always have both diesel and petrol in cans at the same time.

 

One of my employees has a very poor ability to differentiate fuels by smell and touch so this is where the trouble started. He is an excellent chap in all other areas so I have to live with it and develop a protocol which is what we have done.

 

One "event" of gasoline in a diesel truck was enough fun to contend with for me.

 

 

 

R

[Bazz]

One episode re wrong fuel I remember is, whilst serving in NI we were stationed at a "Outstation" when after a night border patrol a veh driver filled his veh with Avtur, which we kept as a reserve store. Needless to say the fuel and engine did not go together well at all. first went the exchaust and then the engine literally disintigrated. By the way the veh was a ferret.