A tankful of diesel

[oldryder]

Thought I'd relate this story as it shows it's possible to deal with a tankful of diesel out on the road...

August 2008

1st, I'm not an idiot. The pump was labeled "premium"

Me and my 14 year old daughter on an '88 GL1500. 3 days out from Corvalis Oregon headed home to MN. Had a flat tire yesterday and lost most of a day.

central wyoming. "jeffery city". a dive no name bar with two gas pumps in front. unleaded was 85 octane so I decided to use "Premium".

filled up; got about 2 miles and she lost power and quit. knew immediately it was a fuel problem.

flagged a guy down , George, (in less than a minute) and got a ride back to the bar. The people there were idiots, accepted no responsibility for the mislabed pump, and basically told me tough sh!t and I could call the number on the pump. "Oh, wasn't there a little note on the pump that said diesel?" I was NOT happy.

good samaritan George emptied a can of camp stove fuel so we'd have something to put gas in. About this time a woman on a Harley rode up and asked if the Gold Wing down the road was ours and were we out of gas. We explained and she related a similar incident and then gave us a siphon hose out of her saddle bag, said "good Luck", and rode off. (I'm not sure but I think she might have been an angel)

George gave me a ride back to bike. started siphon (it takes about a day to get the taste of diesel out of your mouth) but also removed covers and battery box looking for place I might be able to remove fuel line on tank. never did find it.

siphoning took over an hour but we did get almost all of it out. got a lot of fuel out after the red fuel lite came on.

put in 1 gallon of gas, buttoned her up, and tried to start it. lots of battery cranking. no go. George PUSHED me several hundred yards. no go but an occasional fire.

George towed me with his car for about 1/8 mile. I left it in gear with ignition on. finally it fired up, blew some black smoke, and ran perfect from then on.

George the good samaritan refused any money (as I knew he would). I got his address and sent him a very special lazy susan in an exotic stone from my granite business. And some day I'll sped a couple hours helping some poor bastard out on the road.

thats it.

ps. now I carry one of the siphons from the Aerostitch catalog.

 

[Big Shasta]

Man that sucks.....glad you got it sorted out without any long term bike issues.

Yeah, they are responsible.....I'm pretty sure diesel is required to be in a pump with a larger nozzle so the mistake can't be made. Problem is in po-dunkville you're not going to win that battle. If this were the movies, once your bike was running right that pump would have met a zippo as you rode away....

 

[Crash Cash]

You might try complaining to whoever supplies their fuel, plus I know in Florida at least, there's a state agency that cracks down on such things as mislabeling regular as premium and meters that overcount, so I'm sure they'd be interested.

 

[dcarver]

Good people do still exist!

 

[GalaxyBlue]

I was waiting for the joke punchline...

Glad to hear that you got it going again, And that your Angel was able to find you!

And yes, Good people do still exist. It's just that most of them ride FJR's now.

 

[zenwhipper]

I think all diesel pump handles are green by convention.

Scott

 

[YukonG]

I'm seeing more and more gasoline pump handles in green...

 

[TCMike]

I'm seeing more and more gasoline pump handles in green...

Yep, I've seen several stations use green as the "regular" unleaded fuel.

Holy f'n sheet!!! I'd be pissed at that station. I would do what ever it took to get even, er..um.....I mean redemption.

 

[oldryder]

interesting option. I'm going back out that way in a couple weeks. It would be easy to stop by.

Given the brian damaged behavior of the employees at the bar I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was STILL incorrectly labeled. I'm tempted to pack along a can of bright orange spray paint and correct the labeling if it's still wrong.

 

[Khunajawdge]

Hmmm... saw a similar project underway once in Klamath Falls, Oregon at the 2001 Concours National Rally. One guy pulled up at a pump island and thought he had the red nozzle? He must have been color blind(?) because before he realized that he was holding the green nozzle he had pumped her full of diesel. Took half a day to get all the diesel out after she quit and got pushed back to the Rally HQ. Due to a gravity petcock and 4 atmospheric asperated carbs, there were lots of fuel lines and carb bowls to drain before gas was restored in the system. Ran fine after all of that and the rider rode it back home to Texas after the rally. Probably worse(?) to have your out board motor fall off into the lake, trying to get it to flush out after. Glad to hear your problem wasn't more dire.

Sh_t happens!