Eventually I’ll be driving my MGB through Oregon. I may eventually ride my motorcycle there as well. I was driving an MGB when the ‘boots’ started to appear on gas nozzles. Due to the placement of the filler tube on the car, I had to turn the nozzle upside-down in order to fill the tank without the nozzle clicking off as soon as the trigger was pulled. On a motorcycle I have to hold the boot up with one hand and hold the nozzle just inside of the filler hole, otherwise I’ll only get about half a tank of fuel. And I can get another quarter-gallon or more by slowly filling the tank at the end. (The fuel goes above the little grate thing, then sinks below it. Repeat until full.)
Will gas station attendants in Oregon and New Jersey stand there and hold the nozzle upside-down for the MG, or hold the nozzle and boot at the proper level for the motorcycle? Will they take care not to damage a newly restored classic car, and to avoid spilling gas on the bike? Or will they say, ‘Sorry, it’s too busy to give you special treatment.’? Are there exceptions for such vehicles that allow the owner to punp his own fuel?
In NJ, while the driver is not suppose to pump his own gas, very few station attendants get upset or enforce the rule if you wish to do it yourself and you are polite about it.
When they are very busy at smaller stations, I have pumped my own gas and they said thank you to me. I had a friend that pumped gas as a second job. He was annoyed at the regulars that would pump their gas on a good day and then stay in the car if the weather was bad. Even he did not mind people pumping their own gas if they were polite about and his manager said the same thing. Their rule was to be particularly forgiving to out-of-staters.
I just would not try to pump your own gas at one of the NJ Turnpike or Garden State Parkway Service Stations. They are huge, managed and may well of a state police vehicle pulling in at any moment and will not appreciate you possible getting them in trouble.
If a vehicle requires special attention they will stay and fill it, it might just take 3 times as long as they will ensure other customers with standard equipment get their fill-ups completed and on their way.
IIRC I have been told there is a exception in the Oregon law if the owner believes that the vehicle might be damaged by the attendant.
Not sure if it is true, but I was told that by a Portland based technician when I was bitching about having to wait for a attendant that moved at a glacial place.
Oregon is only about 300 miles or so from California to Vancouver Wa. Your B has what a 14 gallon tank? I used to get about 30mpg on mine cruising as long as I didn’t drive to fast. Buy gas in California and then again after you cross the Columbia.
It’s either 10 or 12 gallons. 12, I think. IIRC my first one got around 25 mpg; but it didn’t have overdrive. I think Weed is the last town before the border, and it’s a fuel-consuming drive up a steep road to get over the mountain. Besides, I tend to drive a little fast.
The motorcycle gets about 40 - 43 mpg, and hits the ‘reserve’ portion of the tank at 3.4 gallons.
It’s against the law in NJ to pump your own gas. Something I’ve heard attendents tell people that tried to pump their own. Not saying it’s not done, but don’t automatically assume that every station owner is OK with it because they all aren’t.
Like Jim said, maybe a smaller station wouldn’t mind if you asked them. We go to the same station all the time and if I ever took leave of my senses (hate to pump gas) and asked him if I could, he’d probably say yes.
You could hide your motorcycle in the bushes, pretend to be out of gas and take a really big gas can to the station.
As far as I can tell, the relevant statutes are O.R.S. §§ 480.320 through 480.340.
§ 480.320 states, in full:
§ 480.330 states, in full:
And § 480.340 states, in relevant part:
None of these statutes appear to make an exception for the prospect that a vehicle will be damaged by the attendant. Nor do I see anything in the caselaw that sets forth such an exception.
Most of your specialized filling techniques seem to have something to do with getting the tank topped off. If you resign yourself to not getting full tanks in Oregon, maybe a lot of the problem goes away. If you accept that, you could then also ask for ten or twenty bucks worth, rather than having them fill the tank. This will force the attendant to baby sit the nozzle, rather than latch it and move on to someone else, thereby making them more attentive. You might even get a few cents worth of free gas.
In the case of the car, and this is going by experience 20 years ago, you wouldn’t get any gas in the tank because the nozzle shuts off immediately unless it’s held upside-down. This was not a problem before the boots.
In the case of the bike, if left to its own devices the nozzle will shut off at half a tank. Far from ‘getting the tank topped off’.
When asking for a specific amount, does the attendant have to be there? Or can he enter the amount, put in the nozzle, and walk away?
For what it is worth, I doubt you’ll find vapor recovery boots on many pumps in Oregon. Those are only used in areas that the federal EPA considers to have really bad air, and are on management plans to reduce smog.
I think the OP was referring to the installation of “boots” – plastic sleeves that extend the length of the nozzle. They are put in place to detect fumes (or something) and shut the pump off if they detect a problem–it keeps the pump from overflowing or something like that. But, with a motorcycle (Yamaha Maxim was here) or evidently with an MG, the so-called boot can’t achieve a sufficient seal to allow gas to flow, irrespective of the amount of gas in the tank.
There are techniques, mentioned in the OP, to avoid having the damned boot shut the flow off every couple of seconds. Since the OP knows how to do this him/herself, the question is whether or not there will be problems doing so in the respective states. Again, pardon me for my assumptions.
That will help. I’ve noticed two types of boots: Ones that go all the way down and are like an accordion, and others that are basically just a seal at the top end of the nozzle. No problem with the latter. But the former has some sort of switch in it that requires the ‘accordion’ to be collapsed.
Not that I plan to do much driving in Driver’s Purgatory – I mean Oregon – but I will have to drive through it a couple of times.
There a was a law passed in Oregon in 1997 to allow motorcycle riders to insert their own nozzle. It did not apply to cars. I don’t have a cite at hand, but I was working for the legislature a the time, and I remembe it passing.
When I get gas in a can, for my mower, I just hold the boot back w/ my fingers. FWIW I don’t think the boot is causing the problem in your MG, more likely it’s a curve in the filler pipe. This causes the fuel to back up and the anti spill device in the nozzle dects it and shuts off. I have this problem on my P/U and just changing the angle of the nozzle will avoid it. With some nozzles I have to experiment two or three times to get it right. Sometimes I have to fill at less than full open (on the nozzle contol handle) to get it to work.
As to commercial trucks, I have fueled in 47, of the 48 contiguous, and none restrict the driver from pumping their own fuel. Some T/S have pump jockeys, but I always preferred to pump my own as they would often screw up, forget to replace the cap, not top up, overtighten the cap, spill fuel, etc.
