Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Years ago I saw a special type of lid that could be attached to a jerry can It had a nipple on the cap and a rubber fuel line that would connect to the gas cap of a 10KW generator. You could have a line of jerry cans daisy chained together and if things were setup correctly the generator would run until they were all empty. You could also replace any empty jerry cans with full ones without shutting down the generator

Has anyone seen or used anything to allow an increase to the existing gas tank on a two stage blower? I was thinking of a shelf that you can attach a 10L gas can to that connects to the existing tank

Is this a good idea or am I getting ready to do an impression of one of the Fantastic 4?

I gotta ask - how long is your driveway?

I can't for the life of me imagine needing more than a half-gallon of gas on a snow thrower, but since you are asking I guess you have special circumstances ;)

Why not just buy an aux tank and mount it permanently, using proper hose fittings and a shut-off valve?

IMHO mounting a jury rigged Jerry can over a hot engine is asking for disaster. A properly mounted aux tank will be safe and practical, for only a little more $$

John Davies
Spokane WA

Garandman wrote:
My driveway is relatively short however I do about 25 driveways whenever it snows and go through about 3 tanks of gas. This adds up to one tank ( full when I start) and just about all of a 10L minii jerry can. Carrying the jerry can around is a bit of a pain and I'm just lazy about filling up so I thought if I could attach it to the blower and have an automatic feed then life would be better.

JohnEDavies wrote:
I wasn't thinking of over the engine and haven't heard of these auzillary tanks you are referring to. Looks like I'm tryin to solve an already sovled problem I'll check with my OPE dealer about the auxilary tank.

I do 20-30 driveways each time it snows so I have to fill up about twice after starting with a full tank. The main problem is lugging the mini jerry can with me, I need a third hand.

Could you add another tank between handle bars, put tee fitting in fuel line to connect the second tank to the first. Shut off between the tee fitting and first tank.
Add shut off between tee fitting and second tank
When first tank gets low,close shut off from first tank and open second tank shut off and run from second tank.
Also get small fire extinguisher! JUST to be on safe side!!!!!!
Will have to experiment on tank placement, so blower will not be light in the front.
Might have to add front weight to bucket.
Don't know the amount a couple of gallons of gas will weigh.

Keep everyone up to date if you decide to do this!!!
T.J.

Nib,

Why not just a larger tank??

                                            Fred 

bmwe0692

Your idea sounds pretty good, I was just hoping to have the two tanks operating as one. with no special fiddling. If the second tank were high enough it could fill the first tank.

As far as how much does it weigh, thats why I like metric 10L of water weighs 10KG so 10L fo gas is about 10KG. An imperial  gallon of water weighs 10lb. If I remember correctly a US gallon weighs 80% of an imperial or 8lb.


jubol

I have a B&S Snow Intek, it chugs through the snow like gang busters but the gas tank is  under the snazy black cowling and doesn't appear to be replacable with a larger one. I'll get on the B&S website and see what I can find.

nibbler,

Running a higher mounted tank into the first tank could easily result in the first tank overflowing. Doing what bmwe0692 suggests would prevent this as long as you didn't leave both shut-off valves open.

The other thing to consider is whether the carb float will shut-off the fuel properly with the higher pressure of the fuel from a higher mounted tank.

Barcardi:
Very good point!
Didn't think of more pressure on float in carb.
Would have to redo the carb screws and float setting to get it to run
halfway decent.
T.J.

Sorry I wasn't too clear there.

When I was talking about filling the first gas tank if the second were "high enough" I was thinking of :

1. Taking gas cap off;
2. Turning on valve in the line connecting the two tanks;
3. Turning valve off once first tank is "full enough"
4. Replace gas cap.

The system that I originally described required all of the jerry cans to be set at a particular height in relation to the engine so that the syphoning would work but there would be no pressure feed problems to the carburetor.

Nibbler:
Second tank would have to be slightly above the first tank,to get good flow to
first tank. Yet would have to be out of way to get cap off and on,
plus a space to get hand in to turn the valve open and closed.
Also a good view of first tank-so as not to overfill.
NOT!!! a good thing to spill gas on a HOT motor,
with you looking into the tank (CAN YOU SAY- KA-BOOM!!)
Make sure that if you do this. All parts are rated for gas useage, safe and secure,braced good to eliminate movement.won't rub on wires,cables and
any HOT parts!!
Let us know what you decide to do. Most of all stay Safe!!!
T.J.

Or convert too natural gas.

buttlint wrote:
The problem there is that I would need a really long hose .

I talked with the local OPE dealer that I use and they didn't have any real solutions. It looks like the only solutions are to either:

1. Cache a few small jerry cans of gas along my route;
2. Carry a jerry can with me; or
3. Make up something myself.

For option 3 I figure I need:

1. Fuel line;
2. Small ( 10L ~ 5Gal ) plastic jerry can;
3. Spare gas cap for the regular gas tank;
4. Sintered filter for the line going into the spare gas tank;
5. 2 barbs for going through the gas caps.
6. Shut of valve; and
7. Some mounting hardware for the jerry can.

I'll check out the cost and see if its still "worth it".

The basic plan is to:

1. Put holes in the jerry can's gas cap and the spare gas cap;
2. Put barbs into the holes;
3. Attach fuel line to the barbs and the shutoff valve, thereby connecting the two caps
4. Attach the sintered filter to the fuel line that goes into the auxillary tank;
5. Try out the "fill" function with the engine off and cold;
.6. Decide from there.

I'll let everyone know how it turned out

Nibbler:

I can't imagine how you are going through all that gas?!

I have 47 driveways on the list this year, and I fill up the B&S intek at about the 2/3 point.  Easily, I am  doing 20-25 driveways before filling up...........FOR THE FIRST TIME.  Those engines are a lot more efficient than the TEC engines.  I use to have to fill up long before that.  To say that you are going through about 14L of fuel with 20-30 driveways is very confusing.  Could you elaborate a little on that one, please?

Ken

SnowPro wrote:
You are working in the Sault, where I assume everything is nice and fluffy.

I'm based close to Toronto where everything ( at least when we have it)  tends to be wet and slushy with icy chunks.

I check the belt tension reqularly, the blower seems to throw snow nicely so I don't think its due to bad power transfer.

I'd say its about 10-15L at the top end. There is a lot of variation depending on the snow load but I need at least one fill up and normaly 2-3.. All the driveways are close together so I also do the sidewalk as well.

Nibbler,

Check Northern Tool and  Equipment.

They have a Blitz, 15 gal tank with nozzel and mounting parts for $100.00 plus shipping!!

Looked to me as just the right tank for you!!

                                                         Fred 

Nibbler,

When you go to Northern tool, type in Blitz fuel tanks.

They have 2, a 15 and 10 gal system.

                                                Fred 

jubol wrote:

jubol

Thanks for the suggestion.

I had a look at the tanks and they all look like they're are designed for mounting in a trailer or pickup truck  and not for attaching to a snowblower.  I was thinking of something in the 10L ( 2 1/2 Gal ) range. Something that automatically keeps the main tank full would be ideal but just having something to carry the fuel container would be "good enough". If I mount it high enough then fuel could syphon into the main tank whenever I opened the valve. I'm not sure what would happen if the spare tank  were mounted at the same height as th main one and the valvel was left open. I have a hunch there would be a problem with gas sloshing out of the secondary tank during operation.