Filling gas cans

I thought I would pass this along about filling gas cans in the bed of the truck since the Tacoma has a composite bed. Better safe than sorry.
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/98-111/

 

I guess I always thought that filling a portable gas container on the flat ground was common sense, since there are stickers all over almost every pump I've seen. Good info nonetheless.

 

You'd be surprised how many morons I see filling tanks in all sorts of moronic situations while working at 7/11!

We also have a few scumbag regulars that smoke, yes- SMOKE, at the pumps. Tards just never learn. I've kicked them out so many times

 

Another good reason to get a bed mat.

 

How do you ground your bed mat? The issue is the bed mat AND composite bed are insulators and static is created by gasoline droplets falling through the air...

Now a unpainted, clean, METAL bed with a static chain to the ground works pretty good...

The most dangerous thing in a powder plant is a lady wearing silk stockings...

Howard

 

so, the cellphone thing was myth"busted" but the static is a REAL problem. It has been caught on security cams...

 

Yes. Cellphones do NOT create static. YOU create the static usually while exiting the vehicle. It's a good habit to touch the vehicle AFTER you exit and BEFORE you touch the pump. This will discharge any static that may have accumulated on you while exiting. Also, it's the gas FUMES not the liquid which is combustable which is why it's dangerous while refueling as a lot of fumes are created during the transfer from the nozzle into the tank.

My first Toyota pickup, an 88', used to give me a shock EVERY time I exited. Enough that it was somewhat painful. Likely an poor ground in the system somewhere.

 

Not "fumes", but "vapor". Fumes are condensed metals, from airborne liquid form, vapors is the evaporate from a substance that is normally a liquid at the temp in question.

 

taping the nozzle on the tank does NOTHING, but can CREATE a metal on metal spark. The fuel HOSE is conductive and will drain off the static in the hose and nozzle. It does nothing for the static created on the plastic gas can.

Howard

 

Is the bed an insulator? Should be interesting to take a multimeter to it. Not sure what mix of chopped glass and carbon fibers Toyota uses in the SMC material.

 

yes, composite beds and bed liners are considered insulators...it is the RESIN and the CHOPPED GLASS which are the insulating elements, and if you don't have exposed carbon fibers, and the fibers aren't continuous, you have a fine insulator. Do the beds transmit and radiate heat easily?

 

A bed matt adds to the problem, it does not fix it. The only fix is to fill the can on the ground.

 

This is not exactly incorrect. Touching the can prior to opening it will drain off some static, but the main problem is in the pumping. As the gas is forced through the hose while pumping the friction from the gas rubbing against the inside of the hose and nozzle causes friction which causes static and as it fills the tank at that fast rate that also causes static in the tank. If the can is not grounded in some way the static can cause a spark and explosion. Plastic cans will also discharge static if setting on the ground which they cannot do if setting in a composite bed or bed mat.

 

I was more thinking of the gas can sliding around on the composite
bed...the mat does help with that of course.

I'd think this problem (if you can call it that) would be much more prevalent with really low humidity.

Right now in NC it would not be a problem...but good idea to be safe
and fill on the ground.

 

About 50 seconds into this video the guy switches to filling the cans in the bed of his truck. Doesn't take long after that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgAaj3DkA-w