right ho the basics first, new cans or old, when you first get them just make sure the seal is there in the can cap and or in good condition, new cans do have a habbit of coming with or without rubber seals, if they are missing i suggest a thick rubber sheet , say a burst tractor inertube to cut new ones out of.
next part filling them up, if you do as i do and fill the car right up and then get the tanks out , you might not realise that most petrol pumps stop working at £100 and you have reseat the handle and start again, just thought i would mention it
next up storing, i will will deal with petrol and diesel together but without any oil mixtures like two stroke, as it is much better to store the petrol oil mix seperately, together they have a stored life of a few months max, i will explain the above message later as it contradicts the above posters messages,
right, so we have a jerry can of fuel, there are two points to think of here, when it says 20 litres on the side, only stick in 20 litres, not the 22 it will hold, the reason is, in the summer time she will increase with a little vapour preasure when its hot, over fill and she has no area to expand into and she will leak or burst, no i have never seen one explode even fuel cans in saudi dont, always store up right when full to also keep the seals happy and we are good to go for around 3 months with petrol and realy not much more than 6 with diesel.
you dont have to vent the cans either, fill em and leave em alone, when you do vent petrol you are actualy loosing what you want to keep as its the fuel vapours that drive the engines.
to increase this we look on flea bay/halfords for " winter, fuel storeage stabilizer, additives", these are designed to be added to boats and lawn mowers and tractors etc to help preserve the fuel in tip top condition and will do so for many many years, the best way i can explain it is that petrol loses its volatility as it were and diesel becomes more oil than oompff in the same way.
we use a small amount in each litre or so much per gallon to keep things sweet.
heres a few other points if your looking to "prep" as it were and go larger or longer. i would suggest that you get a PLASTIC 50 gallon 200 litre drum and mass store in that not metal . a friend of mine used to have a fuel card and a one gallon can, ever time he filled up , he filled up, and kept it at home, the tank its self was sat in a hole in the ground to keep the sun off it but a shed or some where else would have done,
petrol can go the same way. be very very descret when it comes to fuel storeage as a busy body at the council will quite happily come and remove the lot for you for free!! we have low levels of allowable fuel storage in domestic propertys normaly set by the council but roughly 200 litres is your lot
right now lets look at the " i found a 40 yearold barrel of petrol/diesel and it was perfectly ok and i saved a fourtune" postings
firstly someone always does and some one always will.
depends on what vehical as well, stick dirty petrol into my 2 litre VW engine and i would blow the injector pump to pieces the same story is heard a million times in garages each year when people who have been "clever" and running on red diesel. get told they have blown there injector fuel pump to pieces because of the fuel they were using, some people can get away with it many many others cant, i have know someone drive a car on some of the worst fuel ever and not had a problem and i have seen people pay £500 to sorto ut transit van fuel problems because of red deisel. I would not waste the £23 it costs me to fill my jerry cans and then say another £300 on car carage bills just because i did not use 20 pence worth of winter fuel stabilizer additives.
may i also suggest that as well as saving on petrol you might also consider a set of oils too, it all goes one way price wise!!
this is what i was thinking of , there are other people and other firms but the ideas the same and proberly alot cheaper but it was the first one i saw on fleabay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/QUICKSILV...tEquipment_Accessories_SM&hash=item53e96265fe
now and lastly, there are many here that will rave on about 20 year old fuel etc being ok, I personaly am not intrested, its not for me,
lastly a couple of pointers , if you can afford it store MAX fuel as it is a better grade , ie max petrol rather than bog standard petrol the same with diesel. and welcome to the secret world of the prepper.
