Posted on 03/15/2022 8:52:32 AM PDT by nascarnation
Chances are your local news affiliate has already reported on it happening in your neighborhood: criminals drilling into and draining gas tanks to steal the sweet, expensive nectar inside, leaving their victims with not only no fuel but also a hefty repair bill. It happened to one Pennsylvania woman, who said the thief stole the gas right out of her Nissan Rogue as it sat parked outside her home. There are similar stories coming out of California, too, and Missouri, and Wisconsin.
(Excerpt) Read more at jalopnik.com ...
Likely more metal than plastic tanks then.
Sparks are not a Good Thing around leaking gasoline.
most states you can just grab one and walk out of the store and no one will stop you.
tanks have roll over valves.. you can’t get your hose down to the gas anymore.
You have to get past the anti-siphon screen and the anti-siphon valve.
the houses might have enough “service” to all charge an electric car, but a block might have a total of 1400 amps of service panels. But the power company may only be able to supply 700 amps to the block (knowing none of the houses will be using their full capacity at one time)
Most modern tanks are plastic.
tanks are for the most part plastic now.
ethanol is nasty stuff and will eat a metal tank.
takes less than 30 seconds to drill a tank
(we recycle cars and part of the process is draining the tank)
Everything old is new again. I’m waiting on the vans parking over the service station fill ports pumping fuel from the underground tanks.
Wait until the rustling of those $5000 cows begin.
I don't think a locking gas cap has anything to do with fuel system failures. The gas cap was unlikely to be compatible with the car. I just had an engine check light come on a week or so ago. I checked the car's manual and the top reason for the alarm was the gas cap. I inspected the gas cap on my 13 year old car and sure enough the O ring was high degraded. I went to an after market parts store and paid $15 for a a gas cap that was compatible with my car. Problem solved.
When I was on vacation at the beach last year (Florida panhandle), we saw a tent or two. It was a short walk to the public access where there are bathrooms and showers. After two days of seeing the tents pop up and stay overnight, someone must have called the cops, because they came and spoke to the people who took down their tent and left without a scene. Then it was back a few days later. So I guess they move once the cops show up to a different “home” near a different public access. I’m grateful that at least in that part of Florida, they are trying to keep them from being vagrants. If more show up, though, it will soon be too many to handle, and will go the way of your old home. Very sad.
Fuel tank drilling wait for flash.
My pickup truck’s gas tank had a hole punched in it in the 80s and what gas wasn’t stollen was on the ground in front of my house. It stank for a long time. I was able to patch it with JB Weld after sanding down to bare metal around the hole. I was nervous about it for the first couple of years. But the repair never failed and still hadn’t when I sold the pickup 35 years later. I pointed it out to the person I sold it to. We cleaned the dirt and grime off the patch, and it still looked good.
The problem these days is that most gas tanks are made out of a type of plastic which is typically more difficult to get glue to bond with. But fear, not there are now products being sold specifically for repairing holes in plastic gas tanks. I would still not fill my tank completely and keep a close eye on it for at least a couple of months, which is why many will just opt for a new tank.
Is there really nothing we can do with sub 85 IQ primates? Maybe we could use them as bio batteries on green energy farms far out in the deserts?
They might be better used as compost.🤔
An electric fuel pump works much better. Rig it to plug in a cigarette lighter and then put one end in the victims’ car and the other in yours...
These newer rigs have a lot of claptrap in the filler tube. It’s not easy to get in there. Vapor capture and roll-over valve. Of course on my 67 Chevy it’s just a round tube with a hose connector to the tank.
Friction isn’t going to cause a fire or explosion on its own. It might generate some heat, but it’s not likely going to be hot enough to cause a spontaneous ignition.
Gas needs a very specific air-fuel mixture in order to explode, so it is actually pretty rare for that to happen. Plus, there’s no fumes where you’re drilling, you drill on the outside, into the part where the fuel is liquid. Gas’s explosive limits are around 1.4% to 7.6%, which means light fumes won’t explode, and heavy fumes won’t either. EPA rules put most gasoline blends at a max vapor pressure of 7.5psi, which means most gas will hit an air mixture of about 25-30%, so that means most gas just sitting won’t have immediately explosive fumes.
And, drilling metal might cause some sparks, but even if it does, those sparks are on the outside, where the gas isn’t. By the time the gas starts leaking out, you aren’t drilling anymore and so there’s no more spark risk.
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