In a World, Where Stupidity Rules...

[wolfie]

She then complained that in HER town, you have to put a sign in front of EVERY space you can't park in. Don't know if that's true, but manager told her it doesn't matter either, you're on OUR turf here and house rules apply, 1 sign per 25 spaces is all that's needed

You say that you can't be out of hours on the 70/7 cycle because you took the 36 hour reset, and you're OK for the day because you've still got an hour and a half left out of your 13 driving hours? That would be OK back home in Canada, but here in the U.S. of A you weren't eligible to take a reset on Tuesday because your last reset was on the Thursday before - you're only allowed one per week. Also, the 36 hours started at 3 AM, and the 34 hours have to include 2 blocks of 1 AM to 6 AM. Even if you had taken a reset, you'd be out of hours on both the 60/7 and 70/8 cycles. Finally, you're half an hour OVER your allowed 11 driving hours.

Your car takes mid-grade gas, so you don't understand why you're getting billed for filling up the rental truck before returning it? There's a 6-letter word starting with "D" printed above the filler - that'll be $12,000 to clean out the fuel system.

You say that back home in Texas, EVERYBODY has a pistol in their car? Sorry, you can't bring it into Canada.

In YOUR town, there's nothing wrong with sitting on your front porch in a bikini and enjoying a cold beer? Welcome to Saudi Arabia!

In short, doesn't matter what the rules are back home - you have to play by the local rules when you're on someone else's turf.

[Shalom]

Your car takes mid-grade gas, so you don't understand why you're getting billed for filling up the rental truck before returning it? There's a 6-letter word starting with "D" printed above the filler - that'll be $12,000 to clean out the fuel system.

It really costs that much to flush everything?

I *had* been wondering what would happen if someone put gas in a diesel, so I headed on over to Diesel Truck Resource Forum to find out. I'd been under the impression that a compression-ignition engine would burn any flammable liquid at all, but it seems the newer engines rely on the fuel for lubricant, like the old 2-stroke gas engines did, and if you put gas in you can burn out your injector pump.

Then there was this exchange:

2010 41 passenger coach bus w/ 6.7 cummins. Driver filled up with gasoline then hit the road. Was told 30 miles down the road it died, towed to nearest cummins shop to get gas removed. The bus made it back ~500 miles.

I have will have a look at the repair bill tomorrow. What should be checked out when this happens?

The drivers head after you smack him/her really hard....

[PaperTiger]

Personally, I read Argabarga because he has the enviable ability to choose all the right words and put them together in just the right order. His stories come to life and we can all view SC stupidity and epic pwnage from a front row seat. With popcorn.

[wolfie]

It really costs that much to flush everything?

but it seems the newer engines rely on the fuel for lubricant, like the old 2-stroke gas engines did, and if you put gas in you can burn out your injector pump.

Different principle - the 2-stroke gas engines had oil mixed in with the fuel to lubricate the engine's bearings (which, on a 4-stroke, would be lubricated by the crankcase oil). With a diesel, it's surfaces within the pump and injectors which CAN'T be externally lubricated (attempting to do so would get lubricating oil into the fuel, and vice-versa) which are lubricated by the fuel itself (gasoline is a "dry" fuel which doesn't lubricate worth shit, diesel acts as a VERY light lubricating oil).

It's not just the flushing and the new parts (a set of injectors for a big rig runs into the 4 figures), but disposal of hazardous waste (the mixed gas and diesel). It's got too much gas in it to be used for anything that takes diesel (if nothing else, too volatile/explosive to be burned in an oil furnace), and too much diesel in it to be used for anything that takes gas.

It's a wise aircraft maintenance shop that has 2 disposal tanks for "sump fuel" (once fuel is drained from a plane's tanks for maintenance, it's not allowed to be put back into a plane). The Jet-A (kerosene)? If someone with a diesel car/pickup (or the airport's "yellow gear") wants cheap fuel (have to buy a lubricity additive), that's safe disposal of the stuff. The 100LL avgas? It's getting harder and harder to find non-ethanol automotive gas (to avoid wrecking small engines), and the local auto racing community (off-road use, older engines that need lead to avoid eroding the valve seats, and high compression so high octane fuel is needed) are also safe methods of disposing of it. Mixed? None of these can use it, so they have to pay for disposal.

[Seshat]

I think (don't quote me) that the wrong fuels can also damage the 'soft' (ie, non-metal) parts of a fuel line and engine: at least the ones it's in contact with.

Different plasticisers are used, depending on which fuel the plastic parts will be in contact with.

[Argabarga]

Your car takes mid-grade gas, so you don't understand why you're getting billed for filling up the rental truck before returning it? There's a 6-letter word starting with "D" printed above the filler - that'll be $12,000 to clean out the fuel system.

On the flip side, I'm amazed how many people put diesel in their regular gas-powered cars, because the diesel pumps are usually separate, clearly marked and usually green-colored to get your attention, the button to start the pumps up says DIESEL on it and they've tried their darndest to make the dispensing nozzles not fit in the filler necks of smaller cars as a final "heads up, you're doin' it wrong!" and the stuff smells different coming out the end.

And yet, once every 4 to 6 months, we tow in someone who did it so we can drain/flush the fuel system out. They usually have the good grace to look embarrassed

We had a driver once put gas in his wrecker

Note, we "Had" a guy like that

[NecessaryCatharsis]

On the flip side, I'm amazed how many people put diesel in their regular gas-powered cars because.....

Not to mention that the gas cap area (at the minimum) tells you exactly what type of fuel to put in.

I'm sure people have thought I was an idiot many times I've pulled up at the gas station, gotten out, checked the gas cap for instructions then pulled into a pump, but we have multiple trucks and on board generators of both types and I'm always paranoid about putting in the wrong type. Some of the gas ones are rough enough that they are loud enough to be diesel and one of the diesel is new enough that it sounds pretty smooth, so even the sound isn't quite enough to convince me that I've got it right. I guess it's better to look like an idiot, over getting it wrong and actually being one.

[Chromatix]

One of the major British motoring shows covered this a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5xhPAundL4

[wolfie]

we have multiple trucks and on board generators of both types and I'm always paranoid about putting in the wrong type.

Are any of your trucks "cross-fueled" (truck takes one fuel, generator takes the other)? Those would be an incident looking for a place to happen.

[FenigDurak]

Just wanna say I had to call one of Arga's comrades today for my husband's truck. I had a bottle of water and hot coffee ready for him since it's been so cold. I just kept thinking how many of the stories I read here are part of that guy's day to day. Least I could do is keep him toasty and caffeinated.

[mhkohne]

On the flip side, I'm amazed how many people put diesel in their regular gas-powered cars, because the diesel pumps are usually separate, clearly marked and usually green-colored to get your attention, the button to start the pumps up says DIESEL on it and they've tried their darndest to make the dispensing nozzles not fit in the filler necks of smaller cars as a final "heads up, you're doin' it wrong!" and the stuff smells different coming out the end.

And yet, once every 4 to 6 months, we tow in someone who did it so we can drain/flush the fuel system out. They usually have the good grace to look embarrassed

We had a driver once put gas in his wrecker

Note, we "Had" a guy like that

That's part ofnthe reason that fleet cards sometimes have fuel limit features - depending on the system, the fleet card won't let you buy gas if you are only supposed to be in diesel vehicles. Helps cut down on 'accidentally' filling up the employee's car with the fleet card too.

As to the diesel in the gas tank crowd - come on guys, pay at least a little attention! If it's work to get the fuel into the tank, then you are doing it wrong!

[freespirit114]

Nice try Quint, but you're going to need a bigger boat

My sons have been on a Jaws kick lately so yeah, that's what I picked up on And I love argabargas posts too. You have their car, trump card! They want it back they play by the rules.

[Argabarga]

Are any of your trucks "cross-fueled" (truck takes one fuel, generator takes the other)? Those would be an incident looking for a place to happen.

Fortunately the fleet is 100% diesel at this point. Back when I started, we still had an old soldier of a gas wrecker (93' F350) that we only kept because it was 4x4, and ultimately was so old and high in mileage that it was "expendable" in situations where you didn't want a newer truck to get damaged/stuck, so it spent a lot of times on calls back in the woods on icy, unpaved and non-maintained roads and the like

I DID NOT shed a tear when it snapped it's crankshaft. Near the end, it was the designated "punishment" truck, get assigned to it and you knew you either had messed up bad or were on your way out of the industry.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

Are any of your trucks "cross-fueled" (truck takes one fuel, generator takes the other)? Those would be an incident looking for a place to happen.

3 of them. Two have the filler area on opposite sides of the truck, but one has them conveniently a foot apart. Quicker to fill, can park once and use one pump, but +50 points on the paranoid 'I'm going to screw this up' scale. That one is really only used by one guy, so I've only had to deal with it a couple times.

Anything new we've bought and kitted out ourselves take one type of fuel for both, so these should be phased out in the next 4 years or so. I hope.

[BearLeeBadenaugh]

Lol Arga, the punishment truck reminds me of a buddy's "Blue Moon" winch truck. F-450 with a barge winch on the flatbed(30k pull and 1500' of cable on the spool). None of his drivers liked being told they were taking that out for a run. Almost always meant a long muddy walk dragging cable.