Harold Lathom wrote:
On Fri, 22 Oct 2010 22:32:30 -0400, aemeijers wrote:
OP said he may use 2-3 barrels ( 165 gallons) a year.

I don't remember saying that but maybe I intimated it by accident
somehow; but I'm sure it will be (way) more than that.

The family has three cars, each of which has about an 18-gallon tank
which gets filled about once every two weeks on average. So, that's 54
gallons twice a month (or so).

In a year, that would be about 20 times 50 gallons (roughing it out) or
about 1,000 gallons a year.

I think the biggest hurdle is filling the drum as the rest looks pretty
straightforward. The only questions seem to be whether the hand pump is
worth the effort for the cost and safety savings, and whether or not to
have a filter and meter (both of which seem to be optional but good
ideas).

Unless you have a way to carry a bulk amount, you're doing the
proverbial relief action up a rope imo. For the volume you're talking
about, you'll have no luck getting home delivery and so you could fill
up each vehicle one time (roughly) w/o having to go thru the exercise of
filling the barrel again. Just makes no sense nor would it in the end
save any effort.

_IF_ you had a pickup you could buy a transfer tank but certainly it
wouldn't pay to purchase a vehicle for the purpose.

The only way I'd consider something like what you're proposing for such
a small volume would be to use a trailer that could tow to a station for
fillup and dispense from it. That, of course, would legally require a
DOT-compliant transfer tank which isn't cheap, particularly for gasoline
owing to its volatility lower flashpoint as compared to diesel.

W/ the farm, I keep a 150-gal diesel and a 40-gal gas transfer tank in
the pickup for field delivery but we get farm delivery on diesel but its
in 1000 gal delivery quantities minimum (a large tractor/combine fuel
tank may hold 200-gal itself these days).

You just don't have sufficient volume to make this worthwhile venture--I
would predict it would get to be enough pita to deal with as you're
talking that after a while you would decide not to keep doing so as
opposed to simply filling up when needed.

As for the car, get her one w/ automatic driver customization and you'll
have the problem solved...

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