At gas stations in the Midwest (and maybe elsewhere) gas pumps are have a little clicky thing on the handle that allows you to walk away for a minute. Somewhere around Ohio gas stations stop having them. I’ve looked and the clicky thing has been removed from these models.
This leaves me with one main question. Why don’t gas station owners on the East want us to clean our windshields while the gas pumps? Is the clicky thing dangerous? Can people east of Indiana simply not be trusted with this responsibility? What gives?
There’s regional and national differences on this - there’s been thread before. They’re disable in Britain, but enabled in parts of Europe. Basically, some areas have regulations which place a higher significance on the potential safety risks involved in the automatic cut-out not working and fuel spurting out. Or with them being misused on vehicles that don’t have a standard size aperture.
I thought the clicky thing was for truck drivers who have giant tanks to fill, not for car drivers with puny little tanks that only take three minutes to fill.
I’m pretty sure we’ve got them in the Baltimore area, if I remember properly from those glorious, car-having days of this summer. And I can’t imagine living without them in Wisconsin, since keeping your hand on metal for three minutes in January is just not very fun.
Here it’s hit or miss; some have them, some don’t. I think some of the stations locally removed them in response to the fears (however remote; I’ve read the Snopes article) of people getting back into their cars to wait while the gas is pumping, which is claimed to increase the possibility of a static shock igniting the fumes. But as was said, they’re handy when it’s cold and you don’t have gloves, or if you want to wash your window.
This is one of the first things I asked about when I joined the SDMB. It turns out, these are called “latch open devices”. They are illegal in some states because of perceived risk of an overflow accident/explosion. In Massachusetts, where I live, they are illegal except at gas stations that have full-service attendants.
Yeah, these things are great for when you’re filling the tank. Now if they would come up with something reliable for when a guy wants to, erm, empty his tank. A hands-free contraption would be really, well, handy. Going hands-free au naturel is sometimes not as predictable as a guy might like.
Have I somehow caused offense? I mean Lorries if that’s the problem not Texas style “trucks” like this
Commercial trucks/lorries have gigantic fuel tanks (hundreds of gallons maybe?) that take ages to fill. I tried a Google for examples but the only not very relevant result was the link above. Some lorry (sorry truck) tanks would fill a modest car.
So is what term for a forty tonner if not ‘truck’? ‘Rig’?
Well I was scratching my head a little over the “puny tank sizes” comment too, but mainly because, especially in my area, SUVs run rampant, and those things do not have puny tanks. Believe me, it sucks to have to wait for one to finish at the pump when you’re running late for work anyway.
In the US they’re called trucks, rigs, tractors, and semi’s. The first three have alternate meanings as well. To be most clear, I would suggest saying semi.
Usually the fuel tank holds 35 - 50 gallons, and there are usually 2 of them.