Flutterby™! : Jerry Can 2014-06-09 18:01:00.459419+00

Jerry Can

2014-06-09 18:01:00.459419+00 by meuon 8 comments

Some things are worth over-doing. We are getting ready for a 3+ week trip to Burning Man and some parts in between, possibly being in Black Rock City for a 10+ days. I hope to be picking up a utility trailer this afternoon, which gives us some capacity for hauling some extra gear out for the camp as well as ourselves. I looked at my existing 5 gallon plastic spare gas cans and realized they were not something I wanted to haul/store gas in. We need to be able to run the generator and make it back out of the desert without running out of gas. I think I bought 2 of the last gas can's (and spouts) I'll ever need today at: JerryCan.com. What I realize is, I've spent more than that on the collection of swollen cheap plastic cans with missing, borken or non-sealing caps that I have now. It some ways, it's a perfect example of how "cheaper now" turns into "expensive".

I've got two really nice metal cans, the problem I have is that the spouts are external, and get filled with dust and dirt and grime.

But, yes: No more cheap tools. Inexpensive is fine, as long as I can really justify that it is inexpensive and not cheap, but that's getting harder and harder to do.

The good steel cans are okay, but I've found there's nothing better than the plastic military surplus cans.

TheShadow: The two "blitz" brand 5 gallon ones I have had for years are "bloated" and the spout/caps leak. They work for short usage cycles...You must have found good ones.

- is "Comet", the trailer behind "Star" = what the cans will be hauled around in, along with a bunch of other stuff.

Yeah, not Blitz. The military surplus cans are made of a heavy gray plastic, and if anything are tougher than the old steel cans.

I am totally blown away that you got those vehicles in that location. I'd like to assume, for the sake of my own ego, that you backed the trailer in using another vehicle that has rearward visibility...

Yes, I backed it up with the truck (an F150 Supercrew 4x4 in low gear), and then drove the RV to the top of the driveway and turned the RV around at the top of the driveway (an awesome feat) and then backed it into the spot I backhoe'd out a few years ago.

We current have 4 vehicles plus the little trailer. Am trying to figure out how to best condense the vehicle count. It's a "first world problem" we are discussing. I'd trade the Mini and my F150 in for a Diesel Ford Ranger if I could get one in the USA. A small 4/6cyl 4wd utility vehicle is probably going to be the winner, it needs a hitch and 4wd low. Or we need to move to flat ground.

Subaru makes a "low/high range" transmission, but again, not available in the USA.

I would be all over a diesel ¼ ton pickup with low range, and I'd even take it in 4WD if the mileage hit wasn't too bad...

And speaking of all this, I need to make sure our fuel cache gets refreshed. I feel kind of silly having extra fuel, and maybe we need to reconsider that, but we got in the habit in our Lagunitas rural living days...