campfire anthems

what do you do?

with gas and petroleum prices sky rocketing these days, its getting hard fill up your car for a decent price. Just this morning, i saw that the majority of the gas stations were charging $3.30 for 87 octane. insane i say. well anywho, i ran across some helpful tips here on the interweb and thought it might be nice to share them with you. hopefully by implementing these things into you daily, weekly, whatever gas routine you can save a little cash and even maybe make your tank go farther.

#1 only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. the colder the ground the more dense the gasoline. when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening….your gallon is not exactly a gallon. in the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. a 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business, but the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

#2 when you’re filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. if you look you will see that the trigger has three (3)stages: low, middle, and high. in slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. all hoses at the pump have a vapor return. if you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you’re getting less worth for your money.

#3 one of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is “half full” or “half empty”. the reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. this roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation.

#4 another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, do not fill up–most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

so there you have it. try it out. who knows, as crazy as some of this stuff sounds it just might work.