Scenes from a gas station

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Harry, our Friend Of The Blog ™ over at Self Sufficient Mountain Living is still noting the effects of the regional gas shortage. The stations have gas, but only Premium. Fancy that…the only gas they have available is the most expensive. Whoda thunk it?

Speaking of gas, I’m rotating some fuel and saw this at the local gas station:

20160925_112219There is probably a lot of truth to this. When I go grocery shopping, I often look in other peoples carts and try to imagine what their lives are like based on the things they are buying. I think you might be able to do the same thing with the things people keep in their vehicle. I knew one person who had a really nice truck, big, spacious, hardcover on the bed….lotsa room. And you could not fit more than one person in that truck because it was full of gear. It was like a rolling showroom for US Cavalry or Brigade Quartermaster. I’m only a tad less subtle than that, but you could look at all the things in my vehicle and make some pretty solid guesses about where my interests lay.

Gas rotation continues….cycling through the 2-3 year old gas and making sure there are no empty cans. As we’ve discovered, there is no guarantee that the pumps will be running tomorrow, and fuel is right up there in terms of ‘things that are a good idea to stock up on’.

21 thoughts on “Scenes from a gas station”

  1. I am moving into an apartment from a house. How would I store gas? Is it safe to store in house? Does it give off fumes? Would you store on balcony? Any advice from anyone? I want to store 10 gallons, enough to get me to where I have more room and more stuff stored. Thanks

    • I store an unspecified amount of gas in my garage using the high quality NATO. (-not- NATO-type, orNATO-like) cans and have no issue.
      Of course my truck is parked I. There as well and that has a 27 gallon tank, so it’s not like those5 gallon cans aren’t in good company.

      If you wanted to have just two cans of spare fuel, they wouldn’t take up all that much room in your vehicle and really, the 5 or 10 gallons in your trunk is worth a lot more when you’re stuck on the side of the road than the 100 gallons you have at home!

      Whether you choose to store some spare gas in your vehicle or at home, don’t cheap out on the cans. Get metal, get get quality and DONT get them from Sportsmanship Guide or any other place that has “NATO-style” cans. Commander Zero has a good post about cans from Lexington Container. they are NOT cheap, but they are the best. I have NATO cans dated 1975 and they’re still good. You’re not going to get 40 years out of a plastic can that was built on this planet!

      Also, I saw a woman stuck on the side of the road the other day whose car had run out of gas. She had gone to a gas station, borrowed a gas can, walked back to her car and then was stymied because although she had gas, she didn’t have a funnel or nozzle to get it in the tank. Go get some cheap funnels and either store a couple (not just one) in your vehicle loose or dummy cord one to the can.

    • If you’re moving into an apartment, be very careful about storing fuel in your apartment. Most leases contain clauses prohibiting the storage of flammable substances or explosives. Don’t get your ass evicted from your apartment over 10 gallons of gasoline. It will be easier and more effective to just maintain good discipline about keeping your vehicle’s tank full.

    • If you do store it on the balcony, you will most likely have to disguise the containers. You don’t want the sun hitting them, and you don’t want them visible to anyone (from any angle). Don’t EVER mention that they are there, to ANYONE. You can be sure they won’t be there when you need them, if you are foolish enough to blab about it. If you can’t hold your tongue, don’t bother with storing any in/around the apartment.

      You can get fuel bladders to store fuel in your vehicle trunk. Also, consider adding additional fuel tank(s) to the vehicle. Trucks usually have enough room, but most cars no longer have room underneath for tanks, since they no longer have separate frames. That’s why I mention bladders. You may find room in odd places inside. The problem with adding any sort of fuel container is the side effects of collisions. Safest is normally underneath, followed by roof rack. Anywhere internal can add some hazard to the occupants, depending on lots of variables. The farther away from the body shell (sides), the better, normally.

    • Apartment dweller here.

      When I switched to living in apartments I also switched away from needing to use gas so much. I moved into an apartment partly because I saw transportation as the weakest link. $5 gas or no gas at the pump isn’t going to effect me as badly as it would most people. Not being so reliant on gas makes me feel a whole lot more comfortable. I moved into a place where work, my doctors office, groceries, and so on are within walking or easy biking distance, which for me is about a 3 mile radius of where I live. There’s also express buses with bike racks to get around. My car mostly sits parked and I fill up the tank after I use it.

      There’s no safe way to store 10 gallons of gas in an apartment and you might be violating your lease by doing so. If a fire happens and your gas goes up your renters insurance probably isn’t going to help you out and you’ll probably have a nice long conversation with the police. I wouldn’t do it.

  2. Interesting. I’m in North Carolina. Today I topped off 2 vehicles at 2 different stations. Both were out of mid and high grades, but all the pumps had regular. My normal station was actually priced lower today than it was last Sunday at 2.15 (vs 2.19 last Sunday). The other station was pretty high (2.39) but I was off my normal path and needed to top off.

  4. Up here in Maine, our gas comes from a long, long way away. I don’t need to drive far generally, but gas is critical, just the same. Storing it well is essential.

  5. It stands to reason that premium is the only thing available. It’s probably the type of fuel least in demand elsewhere. Supply and demand and all that. Look at the bright side: any gasoline that would be available in the market at this point in time would almost certainly be sold at a premium, but at least you’re getting some extra octane for it.

  6. Traveling from north of the pipeline break to south of it… world of difference. Ten to twenty cents cheaper /gal and regular gas is the norm whereas near the compound you are lucky to find regular.

    As to the question of keeping gas in your car, I personally wouldn’t do that. I do however have 10 gallons in cans in the bed of my pickup. Those pesky vapors leaking out in the summer heat would really bother me. Eventually all the upholstery in your car is saturated with it.

    Also with what CZ said above about your vehicle showing your mindset, I purposely bought the road construction/contractor grade pickup (cheap factory wheels and all) this time. I leave the chain box and some construction materials in the back all the time with the locked bed tool box, absolutely NO NRA/Glock/Bass Pro Shop/Zombie Elimination Squad etc stickers on it and darkly tinted side windows. If I put a ladder rack on it you wouldn’t give it a second glance and any building or construction job.

    And that is the point. 😉

    I drew inspiration from the old “Running Scared” movie…
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxHA7NL3yJY

  7. If you have a friend with reasonably close property – rural is great, a large lot is OK – buy him a “trash can storage shed” if his development rules allow and he agrees – to store a half dozen NATO cans in at the back corner of the yard. For a plus, put screened 4″ round air vents from the home center in – top and bottom – to limit temperature buildup in the shed. REAL NATO cans, not cheap chinese imitations. The extra expense is worth it. See Commander Zero archives for links. Use no ethanol gasoline and PRI-G stabilizer and rotate the can contents at least every 18 months.

    RE: spouts. Spouts for NATO cans are unique – they’re NATO standard, but nothing else will fit. Get extras. Then get more extras. Without the right spouts you’re FUBAR. Always carry a spout in the vehicle tool kit in case someone with a NATO can offers you gas.

    Lowe’s home centers sell 1/2″ steel ribbed nipples in the plumbing section along with 5/8″ ID/3/4″ OD clear pastic tubing that’s a perfect fit for no-lead gasoline fillers. Build 16″ long extensions for the NATO spouts and there’s not a vehicle you won’t be able to put fuel in. Pro tip: use safety wire (stainless is best) to secure the nipple to the spout and the clear tubing to the nipple; having the assembly disappear into the filler neck is a bummer, and puts you out of business from then on.

    1/2″ EMT also fits in no-lead filler necks. Make a funnel version using some 1/2″ schedule 40 PVC pipe, and a series of adapters to get to a 2″-to-4″ adapter and you’ve now got a 4″ diameter funnel. Bend the EMT to fit your vehicle to allow easier fillups from a can with no spouts. Glue everything together. Tip: a 1.5′ band of 1/2″ schedule 40 PVC will barely (with some force) fit over 1/2″ EMT and can be used as a stop sleeve to prevent the EMT from falling down the no lead filler neck into the tank.

  8. People seem to think I’m not “prepared” or whatever because I ride around on a bicycle. But, the reality is that I can get home while people that are stuck in cars are, well, stuck in cars. I’m not sweating gas price hikes or availability. It’s also really common to find out that your fellow bike commuters are some form of pepper, peak oiler, DIY urban homesteader, or the like. Finally, when a bike commuter sees another bike commuter we’re, generally, seeing another member of our tribe, which is nice.

      • Bicycling is truly a game changer and should be essential for any able-bodied prepper. Deep, deep snow and the need to move small children leave me still needing to store fuel, but a good bike can easily be priceless in shtf.

  9. Holy crap, no more private sales in Missoula? That will put the kabash on our big July gun show. Wonder if any lawsuits will be upcoming? Zero do you have any insights on this?

    • I believe Montana has a preemption law about this sort of thing, in which case it’ll get shot down in court. There are a few spots in city limits that are considered not part of the city (“doughnuts”). I suspect those doughnuts will become popular places for intown trading.

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