Date:         Sun, 4 Dec 2005 19:31:24 -0800
Reply-To:     John Lavery <systems007@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         John Lavery <systems007@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Transporting extra gasoline on/in a Westy Vanagon
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Hello,

I'm interested in bringing along a 5-gal gasoline can on an upcoming
road trip in which gas may not be readily available.  Most "official"
sources say put the can in the bed of your pickup or in the trunk of
your car (and only for limited periods).  Of course, the vanagon has
neither a pickup bed nor a trunk.  So, I'm tyring to come up with a
safe and easy-to-implement solution.

The easiest thing would be to bring the can inside the van and strap it
somehow so that it doesn't slide around or tip.  I understand that the
can would need to be of high-quality, with a cap that does not allow
fumes to escape.  As long as the can is secured and no fumes are
leaking, this SEEMS like it should be safe, provided that I pratice
common sense (and I don't smoke, so that takes care of one obvious
hazard).  Am I crazy to think that this would be safe?

Alternatively, I could mount the can outside somehow, or maybe strap it
into the luggage rack.  Is there an easy way to mount the can?  I've
already seen:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2a/rack/gascan/gascan.htm

This is a clever solution, but I don't want to deal with the whole
ladder assembly.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.