Best Jerry Cans?

[PH4]

NC Rover, how did you get your hands on a 2.5 Eurospec and can you tell a difference from the 2.25l?

[yorker]

I ordered two jerry cans off of the sportsman website. Shipped pretty quickly, however they came with a bit of Kerosene still in them. Whats the best way to flush/clean them in order to use gasoline?

Just put the gas in and use them- the diesel or kerosene won't bother anything. Fuel injector and carb cleaners like STP usually have some kerosene in them.

[yorker]

Today's useless bit of trivia.
Th e Germans produced the original design for the standard nato or Jerry can. The British, who had been using a rather useless design called a 4 gallon flimsy, rather liked the ones they captured. We went on to copy the design and actually produced more during WWII than the Germans.

[luckyjoe]

Jerry cans...

Wow, I just noticed NJ is now CARB-complant

Good thing I already have a few surplus and Wedco cans...

Regards,

[yorker]

Wow, I just noticed NJ is now CARB-complant

Good thing I already have a few surplus and Wedco cans...

Regards,

That is a lot of fun isn't it? I have to buy cans via Ebay because no one will sell the non CARB compliant ones to NY- I can't even get spouts sent here from most of them- luckily I don't need a spout but still it pisses me off.

Are you anywhere near Philly? I had a friend down there who couldn't even get non CARB compliant cans filled at gas stations in Jersey.

[LaneRover]

Though most troops loved the Jerry Cans they were not universally loved by the Long Range Desert Patrol folks. In the past they had used the original British Tins known as 'flimsies'. The nice thing about those was although they tended to leak the tin can was surrounded by a bit of wood and they then had wood for a fire and the flimsies were considered to be disposable, when they were empty they were thrown over the side/buried or made into other things like stoves. By doing this they had more room in the vehicles as the mission went on.

Since the Jerry cans were something that wasn't considered to be disposable they had to bring all of them back - thus no extra room during the mission. Also since the Jerry Cans were much sturdier they didn't need a wooden protective crate - so no fire wood!

While the British were using Flimsies a loss rate of 30% was considered normal!!

Brent

[yorker]

If you really want to talk Jerry Cans there is a forum dedicated to them here, they can be fun to collect- a lot of history is behind them!

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=37

[greenmeanie]

Though most troops loved the Jerry Cans they were not universally loved by the Long Range Desert Patrol folks. The nice thing about those was although they tended to leak the tin can was surrounded by a bit of wood and they then had wood for a fire

Brent

Now for a group of men who's job was to swan around behind enemy lines doing reconnaisance and road watches in a rather subtle and inconspicuous manner I really want to know why they would be lighting fires? The desert stove I can understand but a fire?

It is also interesting that the LRDG generally preferred their 2 wheel drive Chevy and Ford trucks to the 4X4 CMP 60's etc. It was felt that the extra weight ofthe 4X4 tended to make these trucks break through the crust and sink more often and they also consumed more fuel than a 2X4. They were an interesting bunch.

Cheers
Gregor

[yorker]

This is a pretty interesting article too:

http://www.qmfound.com/petroleum_containers_korea.htm

CONTAINER COST AND MORTALITY

The initial cost of the container per gallon of fuel is greater when using a 5-gallon can. Current container prices are $7.35 per 55-gallon drum and $2.20 per 5-gallon can. An investment of $24.20 in cans is thus required to equal the volume of an $7.35 drum. Statistics reveal that of the 4,674, 818 drums shipped to Korea, 27.2 per cent of the total have been lost. Of 941,645 5-gallon cans shipped to Korea, 53.6 per cent have been removed from the supply channels. This actual experience in substantiated by published Quartermaster monthly replacement factors of .093 for 55-gallon drums and .150 for 5-gallon cans. It is evident that in addition to requiring a larger initial investment, the 5-gallon container is more expensive as a result of the greater percentage lost.

This high rate of loss of 5-gallon cans appears to be in line with previous experience in Europe, during WW II, where the mortality was 70 per cent in the first 9 months on the Continent. During the period 6 June 1944 to 28 February 1945, a total of 32 million cans, exclusive of T/O & E (Table of Organization and Equipment) allowances, were shipped to the continent. However, not all of those cans were in the possession of the Army as the native population found them very useful, even for handling water. In an all out inventory on 28 February 1945, only 9 million cans could be accounted for.

[NC Rover]

NC Rover, how did you get your hands on a 2.5 Eurospec and can you tell a difference from the 2.25l?

The previous owner had a lot of items shipped overseas from England to California. According to him, that was one of the items he brought over.

[NC Rover]

Just put the gas in and use them- the diesel or kerosene won't bother anything. Fuel injector and carb cleaners like STP usually have some kerosene in them.

Thanks! I appreciate the info.

That article about the Jerry Cans was pretty cool!

[LaneRover]

Now for a group of men who's job was to swan around behind enemy lines doing reconnaisance and road watches in a rather subtle and inconspicuous manner I really want to know why they would be lighting fires? The desert stove I can understand but a fire?

It is also interesting that the LRDG generally preferred their 2 wheel drive Chevy and Ford trucks to the 4X4 CMP 60's etc. It was felt that the extra weight ofthe 4X4 tended to make these trucks break through the crust and sink more often and they also consumed more fuel than a 2X4. They were an interesting bunch.

Cheers
Gregor

Many times they would light a fire long before they were near the enemy. They would also light a fire when away from their vehicles because only the local Arabs did that. Because the Germans would then think that they were Arabs because no Combatant would be stupid enough to give away their position with a fire. The Germans tended to do things by the book and figured that everyone else did too!

They did prefer the 2 wheel drive trucks. More weight, more to go wrong and used more gas.