Great explanination of the Jerry Can Glen. I was
stationed in Germany from 1977 to 1981 with the Public Affairs office at
the kaserne in Lahr. One of the many events that I covered while
there was the rollout of the first Canadian Leopard tank at the factory
in Munich.
Not sure where I got it but I have one of the baby plastic Jerry Cans
(hold about 4 liters) with a white plastic lid on it. Now I know
that I should have been using it for water instead of diesel fuel.
What can I say, I was a photographer not part of combat arms.
Anyhoooooo, it's a very well made can.
John Rodger
88 Westy
00 Jetta TDI
At 10:01 PM 6/21/01 -0600, Double-Cab Guy wrote:
Hi
Volks,
It's not often that I post to the list but this
"Jerry" Can thread is some thing I have an intimate knowledge
of.
I spent 15 yrs in the Canadian Army in a Main
Battle Tank Regiment.
I was the top Corporal in the P.O.L. (Petroleum
Oils & Lubricants) section for a few years.
The tanks that we use are the German Leopard
1A5.
As far as Tanks go they are very good on fuel
especially compared to the US Abrams.
they use one third of the amount the Abrams
uses.
The things that make our beloved VW's better
and different than other makes carries over to the German school of Tank
building.
Then again allot of there strengths were
learned the hard way, and a big one was running out of fuel!
But getting back to the fuel can thread.
We used a huge (60,000L/ day) amount of Diesel
fuel in any given day to keep our 60 Tanks rolling.
Unfortunately for my back a large portion was
in 20L (5 gal.) fuel cans.
Through my time in the section we saw the
change from the old U.S. style steel cans to the new plastic
ones.
I can tell you that that the steel cans are
more grief and frustration than there worth!!
Metal cans dent, rust, scratch ,leak and
condense water in to the fuel via temp. changes in the fuel.
Generally doing a damn fine job of
contaminating the fuel that they held!
Where as the Canadian N.A.T.O. standard cans
leak very little, don' rust , don't contaminate the fuel with
condensation, and are tougher than the old steel style cans.
In fact the plastic cans are air transportable
and droppable, the steel ones are not.
There is a reason that there is an abundance of
steel cans on the market.
There not worth a pinch of
"s...t".
Most militaries are changing over to plastic
cans as fast as they can.
Do your self a favour don't use a metal can for
diesel fuel.
If there is one thing that will stop a diesel
engine and ruin it in short order and that's contaminated
fuel.
Go price a set of TDI injectors or an injection
pump. Yikes!!
That is also the reason all NATO fuel cans have
a colour code on the handle or lid.
Yellow is for diesel ,red is for Gasoline,
green is for coolant, grey is for Kerosene, blue is for two stroke and
white is for water.
Even civilian gas cans are red because of this
rule.
So trust some one whose job was
"jerry" cans, choose NATO plastic cans not metal
ones.
Cheers
Glen