Petrol

The safe limit is 'none'. IIRC the law states something about 10 litres, or at least that is about the amount you can fill into a can at a station. Those of us with quad bikes know that this is inadequate and frequently fill a couple of jerry cans. I hope no one stores this in their house or [attached] garage!

No doubt someone will know the actual letter of the law.

Huw

Official UK government advice here:

On or around Wed, 2 Jun 2004 23:19:47 +0100, "Huw" enlightened us thusly:

AFAIK, you're only allowed to dispense petrol into a properly marked container made for the purpose. So your jerry can should have "petroleum spirit highly inflammable" and suchlike on it. There's also the problem of capacity, as mentioned above, although I don't think anything stops you putting the petrol into a small can and then transferring it to a bigger one.

On or around Thu, 03 Jun 2004 05:35:43 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@dev.null (QrizB) enlightened us thusly:

hmmm.

You can store up to 275 litres in a storage area more than 6m from a dwelling, and in cans of no more than 10l capacity. If the storage area is less than 6m from a dwelling, then you're allowed a maximum of 2x10l cans, plus any in a vehicle tank.

the 275l includes that in a vehicle tank, if the vehicle is in the same storage area. so if you've got 80l in yer disco, you're only allowed 195l in cans.

While I've seen 10-litre jerrycans, my understanding is that petrol can only be stored in screw-top containers. Also, the UK rules set a 5- litre limit for approved plastic containers.

Diesel and kerosene don't have the same restrictions, being less easily set alight. Domestic heating with bulk oil tanks uses the same fuels (though maybe not road-legal for excise duty reasons).

Compared to the idiocy reported of a few people back in the last fuel protests (plastic dustbins?), a jerrycan is still pretty safe, but it is not legal for petrol in the UK. The law on such things does tend to assume the worst.

Whatever fuel storage you have, current law also has a bit to say on leaks. Bulk tanks shouldn't be able to leak into drains, for instance. It's work paying a little attention to that.

So I have to park the cars down the street then?

What about at work?

:-)

Lee D

So if the maximum can size is 10litres, why do the army still carry

Alex

Further to that I notice:

" At filling stations, there is no specific legal restriction on the type or number of containers that can be filled (although Petroleum Licensing Authorities often use licensing conditions to limit the containers sizes). The legal limits are on how and where they are subsequently kept."

So all this about not filling 25litre jerry cans is likely to be complete bollocks.

Alex

Twas Thu, 03 Jun 2004 18:23:39 +0100 when Alex put finger to keyboard producing:

for diesel?

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

On or around Thu, 03 Jun 2004 19:28:28 +0100, Mr.Nice. enlightened us thusly:

or water, or various other liquids which yer allowed to store in 20l units. I suspect the new cans are marked 20l, though they may indeed still hold 5 gallons. 20l is a bit under 4½ gall., so they might be.

On or around Thu, 03 Jun 2004 18:27:14 +0100, Alex enlightened us thusly:

on such occasions as I've done that, I tend to park so that the bods in the shop can't see me. They then assume I'm putting petrol in the vehicle...

'stored'

marked

Like I said, those of us who run a few large quads can't be pissing around with 5 or 10 litre containers. These things drink! And they drink many miles from nearest pump in many cases. Some of those big bastards only do about 10mpg in tough conditions in my experience. So jerry can or three it has to be. If they were good enough for the army to carry on and in their vehicles then they are good enough for the quad. The alternative is to have a licensed underground storage tank, but I do not use nearly enough to justify that. Be damned before I trailor my quads many miles to a service station twice a day when I'm busy.

Huw