Now here's a good idea reckons Biglorryblog. It's the nightmare scenario, you pull into a filling station with your brain in neutral, "Hello clouds...hello sky"--- and promptly pump £50 quid's worth of unleaded into your diesel car. DOH!!! What do you do now? Well, you can hardly suck it out with a bit of hosepipe...and even if you could, where would you put it all? Questions, questions, always questions with you lot.
Well BLB is pleased to report that those clever chaps at Whale Tankers have teamed up with the AA to help tackle the growing problem of dimwits (sorry motorists) who inadvertently fill their vehicles with the wrong fuel. It's just provided 'the clever bit that goes in the back' for a fleet of 20 vehicles that will allow AA Fuel Assist service to meet the challenge of '....ooops silly me, can a petrol car run on diesel...?"
And to find out all about it click through here...
Donald MacSporran, technical performance manager at the AA tells BLB: “Every year around 150,000 motorists in the UK fill their cars with the wrong fuel – that’s equivalent to something in the order of 150 petrol tankers worth of fuel. In fact, each year we have more than 60,000 call outs from AA members experiencing this problem. We became so concerned that we set up our own AA Fuel Assist service for draining the wrong fuel from members’ vehicles at the roadside, and then refuelling with the correct fuel.”
And naturally they contacted Whale to develop an intrinsically-safe, fuel retrieval system that could be carried in the back of a van. And hey presto there it is above in all its glory. The van based vehicles are capable of recovering the misfuelled ‘contaminated’ fuel from the vehicle’s tank, then storing it safely in an IBC (Intermediate Bulk Container) with the recovery of the vapour in a separate carbon tank. Then they can refuel the vehicle with the correct go-juice. And to top it all off the system also complies with ATEX and ADR requirements.
To which BLB says, heaven forbid it shoud happen to any of my readers...but if it does, don't panic, just call for AA Fuel Assist and you'll have a 'Whale' of a time.
OK, I'll be the first dimwit to put my neck on the block and admit to the aforesaid fuelling foolhardiness. It happened immediately after a two week holiday with a petrol car in the USA and I even mentioned to my better half that "I was just going to fill up with gas." Neither of us cottoned to fact that actually the V70 runs on diesel! Anyway I only put a gallon or so in before I noticed the error of my ways and had enough sense to push the car off the pumps before calling the emergenecy services. Just draining the tank and not having to bleed the system was a bit easier than having to undergo the full (and costly) Monty. So who's next? C'mon, admit it!
"Hello clouds, hello sky"? Do I spot shades of a young Fotherington-Thomas hereabouts?