Story of the Jerry can

From my experience, the change over to the new plastic cans was a great thing. The old cans, when dropped off the back of the 5 ton truck, would have their lining flake off. Believe it or not, the operators did not baby the jerry cans. They were tossed whether full or empty.
Those paint flakes would clog up the little screen on the horsecock, so the drivers would remove the screen and throw it away. Now the flakes made it into the fuel tanks of the vehicles. The M113 was particularly susceptible to problems from this, as the first fuel filter was at the engine. The fuel passes through a quick disconnect on the way to the fuel filter, and these would get clogged up with the paint chips. Between the new plastic gas can, and the fuel pod trucks, those problems diminished.

We still had problems from the gas cans though. In particular, the empty cans would be left with their lids off, and water or dirt would enter the can. The cans would get refilled, and the contaminants would find their way into the fuel systems again. Operators would not drain their tanks of the water, and in the winter it would cause frozen lines. Nothing like trying to fix that on a cold -25 morning here in Shilo.

The new plastic cans have the same internal threads on the neck so they will accept the older metal horsecocks along with gravity or suction feed attachments that the old metal cans did. There is also a new thread on the outer neck of the plastic cans, for which there are also matching flex spouts, along with gravity and suction feed attachments.
 
Kevin M. said:
Ignore the plastic military style cans from my experience, the swell and leak on hot days.
Click to expand...

I would not be concerned about the use of a high quality SCEPTER 5 gal military (three handle) plastic fuel can. I don't mean the cheap crap from Canadian Tire or Home Depot.

The SCEPTER plastic military style cans are approved for fuel and can stand the vapour pressure that fuel develops. They are thicker walled than the cheap versions.

From the internet......

Any fuel can will expand depending on the volatile liquids inside in accordance with their vapor pressure.

IMHO, it's better to let a good can retain the vapor because if you vent the can, part of the liquid that makes up the fuel will be lost. If you leave the can open, eventually, the first volatile fraction will be lost, followed by the rest.

Then folks will say "gas goes bad", when yep it did, because you let part of the ingredients evaporate.

As far as cans that can retain the pressure, Septre and metal cans and other 'military' ones will. The cheap HDepot cans -no chance.

Just last week I tried to open a Septre can that I closed tightly last winter when it was ~30F out. When I tried to open it, it was swelled and the cap was locked on from the vapor pressure at ~70F. So a strap/chain wrench made short work of loosening the cap.

Cans filled with kero or diesel won't swell much because of the lower vapor pressure of the fuel.

Cheers!
B
 
Good post. The losses of fuel calculated at 30% in North Africa due to poor containers is alarming especially when you consider how many lives were lost getting the fuel there in the first place. Allied ships in 1941 and 1942 had to run a gauntlet of Luftwaffe and Italian air attacks plus German and Italian submarines, E- boats and F-lighters. Convoy losses to North Africa were often in excess of 50%.
 
The interior paint flaking/rusting, which was caused mostly by cans getting badly dented in handling, was also a problem with the metal jerrycans used for water. These were lined with white enamel paint and quickly rusted after the interior paint was dislodged. Overall I think the heavy duty plastic fuel and water cans that were adopted by the military are a superior product.
 
purple said:
The interior paint flaking/rusting, which was caused mostly by cans getting badly dented in handling, was also a problem with the metal jerrycans used for water. These were lined with white enamel paint and quickly rusted after the interior paint was dislodged. Overall I think the heavy duty plastic fuel and water cans that were adopted by the military are a superior product.
Click to expand...

i agree!

Also, you can use the black water jugs to get warm water for a shower. toss one on the roof of an armored vehicle for a while lol
 
Agreed, we always THREW the plastic Scepter Mil cans when doing an R&R (Running Replenishment), generally as far as they guy on the back of the ML could toss them, typically down a hill and many times bouncing off your hood if he had good aim. Not as common these days as "god forbid" should you have a chance of a fuel spill.

Still tough as nails and the water ones are still tossed around like that, good fun.
 
The humble Jerry Can, something one can both love and hate at the same time. I was taking some courses at UNB and the subject was the war in the Falklands. The British forces upon landing soon ran into a problem of running out of jerry cans, they had VAST amounts of fuel on the ships but once the cans where delivered ashore the Brits had an issue of getting them back for refilling and reuse. The Brits also had a shortage of cargo lift nets as like the cans, once a bulk commodity has dropped off the nets stayed on the ground. Apparently the shortages got so dire of cans and nets they dispatched a valuable helicopter and its time to retrieve these stores, if we have any Brits that can add insight on that all the better.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom