Admiting to your blunders........

[Thunderman]

I almost did the same thing. In my case I was paying too much attention to the green colored handle. You know, green = deisel...I was lucky as I caught it at the last minute. Still made me shudder.

[Jeff Heiser]

Green doesnt always equal deisel. We were in GA this past weekend (up I-75 to Atlanta). We needed fuel and stopped at several service stations looking for deisel which we thought no one was carrying UNTIL.....we stopped at a BP station that advertised deisel. The pump handle was black and my wife said "Oh yeah all the stations we stopped at had them". So, if in GA watch out for the black handel pumps. The station we stopped at had black handles for deisel and green/black handles for super unleaded. I checked and double checked that I was using the right pump.

God Bless American
Jeff Heiser
Merritt Island Florida

[Glenn and Lorraine]

Just to clarify a couple points....
#1- She was OLD and not at all good looking. The lady driver was studying the self-serve pump very intently like she never used one before. She inserted and removed her credit card very intently and pushed each button the same way. She removed the nozzle from the pump almost like a robot. I guess it was her intent NOT to make a mistake. Maybe I should have paid the same attention to what I was doing.

#2-The gasoline nozzle was red and the diesel was green. I have pumped diesel thru red, green, black and even blue handles. They should require all nozzles be a standard color such as red for gasoline and black for diesel. The larger size of the discharge tube only applies at the actual truck pumps. The larger tube allows for a much faster fill for those 18 wheelers with 100 gallon straight neck tanks. Because of our smaller TV tanks and the twisting necks the tube is typically smaller at the car/RV pumps to allow for a much slower flow rate.

#3-I rarely use the truck islands as these are always the busiest with the big rigs filling those dual 100 gallon tanks. They are also the dirtiest with spilled diesel just waiting to be tracked into your nice clean TV. Yes, I have run into this at the car/RV island but not nearly as often as the truck islands. Not too mention that the guys in the big rigs are not crazy about us RVers to begin with I am not about to aggravate them by using their pumps. As you pull into most all truck stops car and RV fueling areas are clearly marked as such leaving the other pumps for the big rigs.

[Glenn and Lorraine]

quote:Originally posted by CountryGuy

Glenn,
Correct me if I am wrong, seeing that you did not drive it, you saved yourself additional damage and more expense??

Had I pulled out onto the interstate I would have done some very serious damage. Gasoline will burn in a diesel but it burns significantly hotter and would start melting some of the inner workings. The 404 bucks I spent would have been a drop in the bucket had I continued driving.

quote:Originally posted by sreigle
Glenn, did you have an emergency road service to tow the rig? In other words, was the $404 just for the pumping and cleaning or did that include the tow?

I do have Good Sam Club road service but it was just a couple 100 yards to the garage so I thought "how much can that cost?" so I didn't call Sam. Well the cost was 75 bucks, next time I call Sam.

One last thing...Lorraine now gets out of the TV everytime I stop for fuel. She never ever wants to have to baby sit the Monty in the middle of a Flying J parking lot while I travel with the TV to the nearest garage.

One more thing... When you see an RV setting in the truck stop without a tow vehicle never again assume the owners have set up camp and went off for the day. It could be their TOW vehicle had to be TOWED.

[sreigle]

I just looked at the ERS site to see if maybe they pay for pump out and thus might reimburse you. It does not appear they cover the parts/labor for this sort of thing but would dispatch a service if needed. I happened to notice they cover us whether in the U.S. or Canada, which is nice to know.

[Native Tex]

Glenn I just got around to reading this post. I can sympathize with you in making those costly mistakes.....I too have made very similar ones. It takes a great man who is not ashamed to admit he makes mistakes. We all do and as my old Grandpa told me one time....."the day we stop make mistakes is the day they close the lid on the coffin". Thanks for sharing.