Why only diesel spills?

Do only diesel tanks spill or does petrol spill too but evaporates quicker?

You can always smell a diesel spill, there's never a smell of petrol.

But would a petrol spill dissolve the tar & look like a diesel spill?

If petrol never spills why don't the manufacturers copy the petrol cap design for diesel tanks & stop the b#stards spilling?

These are just a few of my recent rambling thoughts about f##ing diesel spills, anybody interested enough to comment?

I reckon it's because it's commercial vehicles / lorries etc doing the spilling, and they're all diesel. Petrol spills do discolour the tarmac, though i don't think they dissolve it as such.

Petrol doesn't really spill cos only cars use it and they have long filler necks, and good sealing caps to stop it evaporating away. Poor people like us can't often afford to brim it either lol

Lorry tanks have almost no filler neck so the fuel sloshes against the cap, I haven't looked at many lorry caps but they're probably not as well sealing as petrol ones, sometimes they're crappy push in ones.

Petrol evaporates super quick like you said, the smell is gone in minutes usually.

Vans and lorry drivers are statistically more likely to be a **** too.

Originally Posted by arenalife

Petrol doesn't really spill cos only cars use it and they have long filler necks, and good sealing caps to stop it evaporating away. Poor people like us can't often afford to brim it either lol

Lorry tanks have almost no filler neck so the fuel sloshes against the cap, I haven't looked at many lorry caps but they're probably not as well sealing as petrol ones, sometimes they're crappy push in ones.

Petrol evaporates super quick like you said, the smell is gone in minutes usually.

Vans and lorry drivers are statistically more likely to be a **** too.

Lorry tanks have a short neck and so with commercial fuel pumps its quite east to overfill the tank without realising it if you arent paying attention, saying that a good proportion of truckers ride bikes and I havent seen many yards that dont have a MAG Sticker on the fuel pump warning of overspills. Maybe its just were all just statistically likely to be ****s eh ?

What they said ^^^

Plus, diesel pumps have the "fast flow" option for HGV use etc. Even easier to overfill because the stuff is coming out the pump quicker.

This high flow capability is part of the reason they don't want to put an anti-flow back neck on the tanks. That would sort out spillage, but would "inconvience" the driver/owner of the vehicle by putting diesel in it slower.

Side note there - never try using the HGV pump to fill a transit van - diesel does indeed go everywhere Although it takes long enough to fill 60 litre tanks, I'd hate to have to wait at normal pump speeds to fill the 600 litre (or whatever they are) tanks the lorries use.

Side note 2 - don't know if it's just the local residents being a bit more dimwitted of late, but I've noticed a resurgence in cars travelling down the road with filler cap / door wide open. Suspect we had a brief lull when locking caps came in to stop siphoning and now cars tend to include the tank flap in the central locking they've done away with individual locks on the filler caps and so you can once again start the car without realising your keys are still attached to the filler cap?

[timwilky]

ok, Diesel spills.

I used to work at a truck & bus manufacturers R&D centre. We had to do some pretty silly testing. One of the regular stuff was on fuel tanks.

Some of the testing was related to high speed fill capabilities. Could the breathers cope. and would we get foaming back etc. Imagine filling tanks from a high speed pump with the expectancy that it could foam back all over you. yuck, always a job for the new boy.

But now you got a fuel tank full of diesel, what you going to do with it before you pour the fuel back into the storage tanks. Roll over tests.

It might sound silly in a post about spills. But the tests performed for type approval to show compliance with C&U rules do say how much fuel can leak out of an over turned fuel tank. A lot of my testing was as a result of the introduction of sintered breathers in order to pass these overturn tests I never witnessed a fail in about 50 tests I personally must have conducted.



The breathers work. So do the filler caps. They seal well enough that a full tank can be overturned and less than an egg cup of fuel leaks out. So why do we experience fuel spills on the road from upright tanks.

I can only put it down to either a failure to fit the cap correctly or more likely damaged seals. Maybe the condition of the cap seals should be part of the MOT.

[Biker Biggles]

That's interesting.Are some vehicles exempt from those tests?The worst culprits around here are the busses,and you can clearly see where they dump fuel on sharp left hand bends.Two examples for those local to Barnet would be Flower lane in Mill Hill and the junction of Barnet High St and Meadway.So much Diesel you could scoop it up and sell it to BP.

[timwilky]

Section 39 of the Construction and Use Regulations 1986 relates to fuel tanks

Originally Posted by ammendment 5 of the regs

• Amendments to regulation 39

• 3. For the cross heading to regulation 39 there shall be substituted "Fuel tanks".

• 4. For regulation 39(1) there shall be substituted—
  • " (1) This regulation applies to every fuel tank which is fitted to a wheeled vehicle for the purpose of supplying fuel to the propulsion unit or to an ancillary engine or to any other equipment forming part of the vehicle.
    
    (2) Subject to paragraphs (3) and (4), every fuel tank to which this regulation applies—
    • (a) shall be constructed and maintained so that the leakage of any liquid from the tank is adequately prevented;
    • (b) shall be constructed and maintained so that the leakage of vapour from the tank is adequately prevented; and
    • (c) if it contains petroleum spirit (as defined in section 23 of the Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 192[4] and is fitted to a vehicle first used on or after 1st July 1973, shall be—
      • (i) made only of metal; and
      • (ii) fixed in such a position and so maintained as to be reasonably secure from damage.
    (3) Notwithstanding the requirement of paragraph (2)(b), the fuel tank may be fitted with a device which, by the intake of air or the emission of vapour, relieves changes of pressure in the tank." .

• 5. Regulation 39(2) shall be renumbered as regulation 39(4) and in that paragraph for "paragraph (1)" there shall be substituted "paragraphs (2) and (3)".

Signed by authority of the Secretary of State for Transport

Christopher Chope

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Department of Transport

6th November 1990






EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

• These Regulations amend the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986.

• The requirement that petrol tanks fitted to vehicles and used for the propulsion of the vehicles must be so constructed and maintained that the leakage of any liquid or vapour is adequately prevented is amended to apply to all fuel tanks.

• Drafting amendments have also been made.

But fortuanetly for thos of you with plastic tanks

Originally Posted by Ammendment 8

Amendments to regulation 39 (fuel tanks)
3. In regulation 39—

• (a) in paragraph (2), after "paragraphs (3)" there shall be inserted ", (3A)"; and

(b) after paragraph (3) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—" (3A) Sub-paragraph (i) of paragraph 2(c) shall not have effect in relation to a two-wheeled motor cycle (with or without a side-car) first used on or after 1st February 1993."

So yes BB, this also applies to buses. and where observed dumping fuel, they are in breach of the C&U regs and can be fined and a defect notice issued.

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

That's interesting.Are some vehicles exempt from those tests?The worst culprits around here are the busses,and you can clearly see where they dump fuel on sharp left hand bends.Two examples for those local to Barnet would be Flower lane in Mill Hill and the junction of Barnet High St and Meadway.So much Diesel you could scoop it up and sell it to BP.

here's one in the local press 45 Miles this **** went http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/vi...aspx?id=519283 a major busy route for many people from the northeast to the northwest.

bet they don't pin it on anyone (council supposedly "Gritted the road" well what friggin use is that :blink: