After the derecho wind storm of 2012 that blew down the power grid for up to 4 weeks in my state, I decided I needed to store at least 50 gallons to be able to refill both my truck and car once, plus keep 10 gallons for mowing operations.

I have managed to realize that goal but instead of several gas cans, I think a gasoline caddy with a hand-cranked pump would be much more convenient.

I am considering welding up a propane tank for the task or using a 35 or 55 gallon drum either mounted to a hand truck or some variation of.

Anyone do this?  Pics?  How did you go about it?

Thanks!

Attached File

When I worked for the department of the interior we had several drums and hand pumps kinda like the above pic, but just hand pumps. We had to use a front loader to load and unload them from our truck. I remember we kept thinking people were stealing fuel from us, we were like "it's empty already, somebody's gotta be stealing fuel" then we'd do some math and figure that's about right.

Before I'd get into jury rigging a propane tank, I'd just go buy a barrel from a petroleum company. I think they have some kind of coating inside to prevent rust. Ask them with ones are good for gasoline. Around here they sell barrels for like $15. The barrel is actually made for this and the pump is made to screw into the barrel bung.

55 gallons is only about 10 5 or 6 gallon cans. Ask your self if you really need a big heavy barrel that you can't move easily. Ethanol (E10) only has a 30 day shelf life, unless you can get non ethanol in your AO?

Personally I choose to use cans. It allows me to fill up a few at a time as I use them and keep track of a rotation to keep it fresh. I buy non-ethanol and always put sta-bil storage in every can before filling them.

Whatever you go with, don't plan on storing it for long periods, plan on using it regularly to keep it fresh. Buy 2 barrels and use 1 and fill it, then use the other.(if you go the barrel route.)

ETA: you mention having a truck. Maybe you could buy one of those tanks that gos behind the cab and under the tool box like heavy equipment operators always have? I think they hold 100 gallons. I'm not sure if they are good to go for gasoline though, I've only seen diesel hauled in them. Gas is much more combustible than diesel.

Another thought, in a disaster where you may have to bug out, cans would be much easier to throw in your vehicle (probably concealed) and hit the road. Think about a situation where your entire region has been devastated and fuel supplies cut off and you need to go mobile to get to family some distance away. It's gonna be a bitch to get the barrel(s) in your vehicle and then drive around (possibly through riots) with that big bastard in the back of your truck.

Back in the day we hauled three 50 gallon barrels in the back of the truck from the farm and had them filled to bring back and hand pump them into our stationary tank.  That setup looked a lot like your picture.   With the DOT bullshit you could probably get busted for filling up or transporting an unapproved barrel.

At the start of COVID I added to my 5 gallon NATO can stash by purchasing a Flow and Go gas caddy which is DOT approved.  It holds 14 gallons which is just about the largest size that you can easily manhandle out of a trunk or truck bed by yourself.  It works fine but the wheels are garbage when the tank is full so I strap it to a furniture hand truck with bigger wheels to move it around.  It also only works by gravity flow which can be a pain if you are trying to gas up a car and don't have something tall to set it on.  

My wife wants to go see her mother tomorrow who lives about 120 miles away and we are not sure how the gas situation will work out so I am going to send her with a full tank in the truck and then another 14 gallons in the caddy just to be safe.    If it was just me I could perch the caddy on the lip of the truck bed to get enough height to fill the tank but she won't be able to do that so yesterday I bought one of the Tera battery pumps.  If she needs to tap into the stash all she needs to do is insert the nozzle and push a button.  The pump is supposed to run at 2.5 gallon/min on 4 AA batteries.  

Long story short, the caddy is about $100 and works well enough for what it is that I would probably buy another. If you wanted a barrel at home for greater bulk storage you could always take the caddy to the station and then fill your larger barrel from it.  It would take you a few trips to fill a 50 gallon barrel but the PoPo wouldn't be bothering you.

Filling up your barrels at the station.

Driving home...

I have enough plastic shopping bags, thank you very much.

I actually did a little research before I started hauling gas.  First of all, 55 gallon steel drums ARE approved containers.   But, you can only haul 100 gallons at a time without CDL/hasmat crap.

If anyone want's to educate themselves on hauling gas legally without a CDL, here's everything you need to know in one document.  It took me a while to find this.

Interagency Transportation Guide for Gasoline, Mixed Gas, Drip-Torch Fuel, and Diesel

https://www.nwcg.gov/sites/default/files/products/pms442.pdf

Great information, thanks for posting.

Thanks guys.  Last night, I decided to go the 55 gallon drum route like a few of you suggested.  I watched a video on a guy using a "Fill Rite" pump system....made to go right onto a drum.  That's clearly a better choice than trying to modify a propane tank.

Biggest problem will be getting the filled drum off my truck or trailer and back into the garage.  I am considering putting in a frame that I can suspend a winch from since hanging it from the ceiling joints would put too much strain on my 70 year old garage.

No plans on getting rid of my vintage gas can stash.....took me some 8 years to buy up all the vintage cans I wanted.

(The old cans are just better:  metal construction, vented, pours easily, plus they have large openings for filling.  Plastic cans suck!)

Everything you said is spot on except this. Airtight vessels (steel drums are airtight) are the key to getting any gas to last. I've stored E10 in steel drums for as long as 5 years without rotating it, without snake oils (stabil etc), and never had a problem. AIRTIGHT is the key!



Don't transport the barrel (or get a smaller one or learn how to handle full drums). Use your gas cans to get the gas home, then dump in the barrel and refill the cans next trip to the station. As pointed out, it doesn't take that many cans of gas to fill up a drum.

Alternatively you can learn how to handle drums. My dad buys his oil in bulk. The guy that delivers it shows up with 55-gal drums in a normal pickup truck. He drops 3 old tires on the ground, rolls the drum out in a special way, the drum bounces off the tires and stands right up. Then he rolls them to the desired location, not a single bit of mechanized equipment is used except the truck he drove there.

FYI, gasoline weighs 6 pounds per gallon.  I have a hoist I use to get the drums out of my truck.  I use one of these to pick them up.

https://www.amazon.com/Vestil-VDC-1000-Vertical-Clamp-Capacity/dp/B0052PVXW2/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Vestil+VDC-1000+Vertical+Drum+Clamp%2C+1000+lbs+Capacity&qid=1620964729&sr=8-2

If you want to be responsible about it you really should get these. https://www.uline.com/BL_8211/Spill-Containment-Pallets
True story: I knew a guy who let some bums live on his land in a school bus. They used a generator for electricity. It had a small fuel leak. He ended up having to pay a hazardous waste company to excavate 32 yards of contaminated dirt. It was very expensive!

Why no go with something like this?  On sale I've seen these as inexpensive as $35.00.  Could also always pick up a marine fuel tank and hook up a hand pump.

I keep about 12-15 Jerry cans under a shelter on those metal shelves I had laying around.

Have you actually used one of those?

I have one, it's garbage. The hose, valve, and squeeze pump handle are "leaky" and the design/placement of the port in the bottom leaves about a gallon of gas in there, inaccessible unless you can fish a siphon hose in the fill port around the baffle and into the corner. I quit using it years ago.

I have and completely agree hose kit is usually garbage.  But from a storage stand point you can have 12-15 gal that is movable.  Plus I always spill some anyway and a little leaky hose is no big deal.

Understood...to each his own...

3 NATO cans hold more than that, cost about the same if you catch a sale, seal 100% airtight, are just a portable, and I rarely ever spill a drop with them...

Where are you buying NATO cans?

Wherever I see them the cheapest. My best deal was 4 Swiss cans (the Cadillac of NATO cans) for $7.50 ea on CL.

My best deal that didn't come from CL/marketplace/etc was a few years ago from Major's Surplus, I bought several milsurp cans that were all Valpro & Bellino late-90's & early-2000's in nearly new condition for $22 shipped.

You can still get surplus cans at that price from Major's but they're FFA cans (stay away from FFA).

What about the "Waiverly" cans or whatever those are called?

I have one "Jerry" can, right now filled with non-ethanol gasoline per my fuel run last week.

I really want to build a shed (should have done it last year when wood was cheaper) to store my fuel cans to keep those out of my garage.

I am also thinking about welding up a metal storage cabinet for my cans to give those an added layer of protection from my welder.

Wavian are good cans, just not cheap (those are usually only available new so they can be pricey).

ETA, if you have steel cans that seal 100% airtight like a NATO can there is no need to enclose them in a steel cabinet for protection. Sparks from a welder/grinder won't hurt them.

I have a large roof covering connected to my shop. Later this year I’m going to get the largest steel job box I can (approx 60”x24”) and use it to store NATO cans of fuel. I like the idea because I can get the cans out of the shop which both frees up space and gets the bulk fuel storage outside but also conceals and secures the fuel storage.

Way back in the early '90s I got a bunch of USGI Jerry cans at a farm estate sale. The farm was next door to a military base and the story was that the guy used to go over there and dig through their scraps. All of those bastards had rust in them. I've gotten rid of all of them now. I use plastic. I've only seen one can in the last 20 years get so bad that it cracked. The rust issue combined with the cost, I'd rather buy plastic every 10 or 15 years than to buy steel.

I have a 500 gallon tank a commercial fuel company comes and fills up for me .  

Maybe you can find a tank that would be 300 gallons and just have it topped off once or twice a year?

Not enough room for something like that but I wish I could!

So you got cans that were scrapped, picked out of the junk by a farmer, and possibly abused for years and you judge all metal cans by that 1 experience?

I don't have any issues with my steel cans, but they're all in good condition...