Sorry, but no. I don't see any convenience in trucking home 5 gallon cans of gasoline, emptying it into a 55 gallon drum, pumping it out, etc.. That compared to just driving to a gas station like the rest of us. Sounds like an irrational obsession to me.
To each his own, but for the most part it seems infinitely easier to schlep down to the gas station than to fill up a bunch of 10 gallon gas cans, hoist them into the drum one at a time, and then put them back until the next time. YYM(obviously)V
Not even close unless you tap into the gas pipeline running under your house. Actually what you are doing seems to be REALLY close to going to the village.
Yes!!! Don't do it. Neighborhood fueds never turn out well. Find out who is doing it and charge him with harassment. You should lhave been documenting all that with dates, names, details from teh 2nd occurance.
Harry K
My only method of beating the system is to keep all tanks full as prices are rising and as near empty as practical when they are dropping = dollar cost averaging.
I could beat the system somewhat if I could haul a decent size tank across the state line. Big difference in fuel taxes over there.
Harry K
What convenience. I'll bet it takes you _longer_ to fill at home than it would at the station and you don't make special trips to gas up, just stop as you are going by anyhow. All that dicking aorund with cans, etc. is taking you a lot longer overall.
Harry K
I agree.
BTW, out here, they send the ENTIRE fire department on EVERY call! I'm amazed they have all this money - but it's in their contract. No matter what the call, EVERYONE must go, trucks and all!
Interestingly, there are legal pot farms out here.
The fence them in and put up identification at the entrance but you can see them easily if you want and get in at night if you so desire.
I'm surprised all the high school kids don't crash them but I guess there is enough legal pot around here that the kids don't need do that.
True as to the normal amount of vehicls and gas but we do it the sensible way and don't waste a bunch of time schlepping cans around.
Harry K
I do understand what you mean by cooling off.
In the beginning, you want to call the septic police on them (if such a thing exists); then you cool off.
It's like when the obnoxious cops give you a ticket, and then try to give you a lesson at the same time (meanwhile, they speed around like it's nobody's business all the time, breaking the law left and right - and they don't ever get called on the carpet until/unless they accidentally kill someone - and even then - they put the kitchen knife in their hands).
Not one can be trusted, unfortunately. But that's a whole nother story.
Or buying _industrial use_ fuel at less tax rate than regular gas. Farmers get a huge break that way but it is very expensive to be caught using it for non-farm purposes. That is why the diesel is dyed.
Harry K
No matter how you try to spin it, you are costing yourself a whole bunch of extra effort and lots of time just to avoid making a few stops at a gas station. Bottom line is your reasoning is way _out there_ and you arent saving yourself anything.
Your friends are correct, you are loony if what you posted is the whole story.
Harry K
Your login of 'smoky burns' is apropos! :)
I agree that the biggest danger is fire, either from the fueling itself or from wildlands catching on fire and then the gas can burning.
And, the biggest danger are the fumes catching fire. The story doesn't say it was a 'static spark' so we really don't know WHAT caused the vapors or fuel to ignite. I find it hard to believe there was enough static charge built up 'just' from siphoning - what? Maybe twenty gallons? (How much does a boat hold?).
But, the boat might not have been grounded. Maybe it was up on blocks? It doesn't say. So maybe without that grounding, enough static electricity built up from the fuel going down the rubber hose - but most of us would at least put the containers being filled on the ground if the boat wasn't grounded.
Let's hope he wasn't smoking cigarettes, or that he didn't turn on some other more likely ignition source.
How many incidents like these are there daily in the USA? I'd bet one a day is likely (just guessing). But still, I'm more likely to die from a flu or a car accident, each of which kills something like 30 thousand people a year so we should put it all into perspective.
Does anyone know the number of people killed a year in refueling accidents?
I wonder how to find out WHO called it in.
When I asked, they said it was anonymous.
I wonder if it really was. Maybe there is a public record?
Either way, I'll figure out something. He can't get too far from me without me seeing his dirty laundry (literally).
Nope, never.
But one of my ex-neighbors did. In fact, he was in a constant battle with the neighbor across the street. One day he comes home and finds a paper bag full of dog shit on his front stoop.
He storms across the street with the bag and starts yelling at the neighbor. After the argument escalates for a while he returns home threatening that he'll be back and there will be violence.
The neighbor follows him with a shovel and just as he reaches his house the neighbor hits him in the head with the shovel.
And that's how he became an ex-neighbor. A dead ex-neighbor.
I actually did the opposite recently when the prices were hovering around $4.30 a gallon.
At those prices, I stopped refilling the gas cans and just refilled the cars as the prices steadily dropped.
When they got down to about $3.90, I started filling the gas cans again.
With my 1,500 gallons of propane, I can easily fill up in August (typically the low of the year) which lasts me through most of the winter at least. So I know what you mean about buying in volume to take advantage of the cheaper prices.
If 'our' California special gasoline ever got anywhere near 3 bucks a gallon, I'd run out and buy a hundred five gallon cans! :)
I'm in California so the state lines are hundreds of miles away - but I could see this system working if you lived in, say, New York or Pennsylvania, and all you had to do was cross state lines to get cheap gas.
I suspect the toll bridges might have special regulations though but there are plenty of non-bridge crossings which could save you a ton.
When we were kids, we used to do that with liquor, taking advantages of the differences in state laws. (Uuugh, don't remind me of those days!) :)
A while back federal laws changed so that every gas station pump had to be redesigned so that they would capture gas fumes before they escape into the atmosphere while your tank was being filled.
Your clever scheme makes a shambles of that effort to clean up the environment.
Putting the pollution you create aside, your scheme sounds a bit nuts.
Turning to your neighbor, do you think it would hurt if you stored all those red cans out of sight?
I use up all the Chevron in the drum in about six weeks (give or take a few weeks either way).
This long-term-gas-storage Chevron web site says California reformulated mandated gasoline lasts as long as any other gas, even with the corn in it soaking up all that water.
They simply suggest you keep the fuel drum out of the direct sun (mine is in a loosely covered shed) and to keep the 55 gallon drum as full as you can to avoid moisture.
Two months is the absolute maximum my gas would stay unused, if that long, so shelf life just isn't all that big of a problem for me.
We had seawall repairs done at our condo..about $35k?..and shortly later the newer condo next door had a major pipe burst which flowed onto our property and eroded a lot of soil from behind the seawall. I enjoyed nagging the city from time to time because some of the city building dept. were real a--holes. I sent off an email to the bld. dept, asking whether the city had signed off on the grading of the neighbor's lot during construction. The neighbor had a huge paved lot and all of their downspouts emptied onto that...curb around their lot had a channel that let all that water go onto our property, which was a huge amount during summer t-storms. I'd paid attention to what was going on, and had researched a number of serious problems re: our condo. When the city got my email, and nice engineer and a student intern came out; engineer was impressed with what I knew and understood about the problems. Shortly later, the neighbor had some minor adjustments done, including a culvert that dumped their water into the channel, rather than onto our property. Didn't stop the neighbors in that condo from letting their dogs poop in our yard...I have been really impressed by the gall some people show by walking their dog into our property to poop; strangers with no axe to grind :o)
That was a fairly serious issue in FL, with all the foreclosures and whatever nasty disease the mosquitoes were spreading at the time.
In FL, rats are about like termites...don't wonder IF you'll have them, only WHEN. It is basic practice to keep trees away from structures. Rats chew up wiring, holes in structure, etc.. Elderly folks should not be forced to live with rats because they have rats for neighbors :o)
Now, to find out "which" neighbor is calling in, before you go make an innocent bystander miserable. Of course, it seems logical that the insect which is buzzing the loudest is the one that stung you.
Not sure I'd want to fight fire with fire (not funny) on this one.
I suspect it's a neighbor who thinks everyone should live the same as everyone else and is using the mechanisms of the government to harass the OP into conforming.
I doubt it. The OP would likely know exactly what he had done to anger a neighbor if he did anything that crossed over the (property) line.
If it's being used for a business... so what? If he's not making noise or emmitting noxious fumes/oders what difference does it make?
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