Avoid Fill Up When Tank Truck Unloading?

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In addition, there are moisture sensors, in at least some stations. Some of them will even shut down a pump automatically if moisture beyond a certain amount is detected for that grade.
 
Originally Posted By: JHZR2
Originally Posted By: opus1
I'll still pass if the truck is there, unless I have no choice. Old habits are hard to break.
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+1


Add me to the list.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
Add me to the list.

Me, too, even though it's probably okay. One of the service stations I use here had a fuel truck broken down in the lot. It was like that for a month (I don't know how they justified the cost of that one). If I was approaching for gas I always got freaked out and was ready to bolt, then realized the thing was still sitting there, dead.
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Another factor can be the Settling Time. For aviation gas it should be 15 minutes per foot of depth. So unless they are using floating suction the truck could have been gone for hours before things settled.
 
Back when I was a wee lad of 12 and 13, I worked at a Gulf Gas station. We had a really long stick that was marked with inches which we would lower into the tanks once a week to measure the amount of water in the tank. Before inserting the stick into the tank, we would smear this greasy stuff on the bottom of the stick. If the greasy stuff turned purple, it meant water was in the fuel. If there was water in the fuel, (which there always was), we would get a hand pump and pump it out till no water was left.

I can only imagine that when they came to fill the tanks, any water in the tanks would get mixed with the gasoline and it would then take time to settle back out again, hence the reason that like so many others, when I see the tanker truck at the service station, I pass.
 
This, plus the idea that even if you don't see the tanker, you have no idea how long ago it was the tank delivered fuel.

Not really a problem today.

Originally Posted By: blupupher
Lets see, fiberglass/plastic in ground tank, no debris issues like in old steel tanks. Fuel is filtered before it is put into the tanker, fuel is filtered at the pump itself and then a filter on my vehicle (2 on my truck, 1 in tank, 1 inline).

Nope, I have no problem filling while the tanker truck is there, although I can't remember the last time I did it.
 
most stations rarely change the filters unless there are problems.most that work there have no clue that there are filters and most station owners could care less as long as the gas is pumping.
 
Originally Posted By: y_p_w
Yeah - the fuel is filtered on the way to the nozzle - especially water filters.

However, I wonder what it means at Costco, where they meter the additive into their tanks before it's "splash blended" by the action of filling it. I've seen photos of the setup at a typical Costco, and it will be maybe 3 or 4 tanks. I figured that they can shut off their tanks individually, although I'm guessing it's something like two regular and one premium.


The fuel is not filtered for water at the pump. That filter you see is for particulate. It is not a coalesce filter (very uncommon at a gas station). Tanks are cleaned as per the state law. Around here it can be 2 to three years. There is a tank sump or lowpoint that collects water and contaminants. There is a monitoring system that detects and will tell the amount of water in the tank.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Here they have filters inside the pump plus they must replace the tanks every other year or so. I often fill up while the truck is unloading with no issues.


I think you mean clean the tank every couple years or so. There is no reason to replace a tank every year or two unless there is a problem. The only filters on the pump would possibly be a screen. No actual filter.
 
Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Back when I was a wee lad of 12 and 13, I worked at a Gulf Gas station. We had a really long stick that was marked with inches which we would lower into the tanks once a week to measure the amount of water in the tank. Before inserting the stick into the tank, we would smear this greasy stuff on the bottom of the stick. If the greasy stuff turned purple, it meant water was in the fuel. If there was water in the fuel, (which there always was), we would get a hand pump and pump it out till no water was left.

I can only imagine that when they came to fill the tanks, any water in the tanks would get mixed with the gasoline and it would then take time to settle back out again, hence the reason that like so many others, when I see the tanker truck at the service station, I pass.


Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a winner! When I was tanking fuel, one of the things a retailer needed to do before taking delivery was to stick the tanks like you stated. If water was above a certain level, either they (or usually the tank supplier) would pump out bottom and get the water out. what got pumped out was returned to the fuel terminal and fed into a separator. We didn't just dump fuel into tanks that had not been checked for both water and the tank level of fuel itself. Kind of a rough deal to start dropping 5000 gallons of fuel into a tank that only has 4000 gallons of available capacity. Environmental hassles are really nasty.

Of any water that may be left in the tanks, it is of such a low volume that it is virtually a non issue. you could have an inch or slightly more in the bottom and in the overall mix it wouldn't make a blip on the radar. we would be talking tenths of one percent kind of thing. For very high volume retailers like commercial truck stops and such, the sticking idea really is not an issue. They get several tank loads of fuel each day. Yes each day. Very little has time to accumulate in storage tanks to be an issue.
 
Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Back when I was a wee lad of 12 and 13, I worked at a Gulf Gas station. We had a really long stick that was marked with inches which we would lower into the tanks once a week to measure the amount of water in the tank. Before inserting the stick into the tank, we would smear this greasy stuff on the bottom of the stick. If the greasy stuff turned purple, it meant water was in the fuel. If there was water in the fuel, (which there always was), we would get a hand pump and pump it out till no water was left.

I can only imagine that when they came to fill the tanks, any water in the tanks would get mixed with the gasoline and it would then take time to settle back out again, hence the reason that like so many others, when I see the tanker truck at the service station, I pass.


I work on a military installation as a fuels system operator. We still use that same water finding paste when our electronic system is down.
 
Originally Posted By: opus1
I'll still pass if the truck is there, unless I have no choice. Old habits are hard to break.

I know what you mean...

However, I am more hesitant about using a low volume gas station in a rural area.

I always fill up at a busy station in the city where the gas is constantly being replenished.
 
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