Fuel mileage

vaughn · 11-10-2004, 01:52 PM

A fellow I know bought a new truck. It was his first diesel and he was excited about the great fuel mileage he was going to get. He's the sort of guy who gets more than a little carried away about most things and he was really talking up his truck and expected fuel economy around the crew he worked with.
He is also known to be without a clue when it comes to mechanical as well as most practical things.

Seeing a once in a lifetime opportunity, the guys he worked with started adding a few gallons of diesel to his truck every few days. The new truck owner went on and on about how the fuel gauge was hardly moving. The guys backed off on the fuel they were adding till the fellow finally had to fill his tank. He was really happy; as we all would be when a carefull check showed he got over 50 miles per gallon. He could not stop telling the crew about it.
The co-workers went back to adding diesel. Eventually the guy had to fill his tank again and he got even better mileage!!
He was getting insufferable, so the co-workers reversed things.
They started siphoning off a few gallons every couple days. The victim soon had to fill his tank and was distraught to find he had gotten only 3 miles per gallon.
He was all over the dealer where he bought his new truck and after several 3 ot 5 MPG tanks was driving the dealer, who could find nothing wrong with his truck, crazy and was threatening to sue.
His co-workers stopped their activities and the new truck owner finally accepted the 19-20 MPG reality, but still puzzles over his trucks strange fuel consumption. I talked to a crew member last week and after several years, the truck owners still seems mistified by the experience.

Vaughn

vaughn · 11-10-2004, 01:52 PM

A fellow I know bought a new truck. It was his first diesel and he was excited about the great fuel mileage he was going to get. He's the sort of guy who gets more than a little carried away about most things and he was really talking up his truck and expected fuel economy around the crew he worked with.
He is also known to be without a clue when it comes to mechanical as well as most practical things.

Seeing a once in a lifetime opportunity, the guys he worked with started adding a few gallons of diesel to his truck every few days. The new truck owner went on and on about how the fuel gauge was hardly moving. The guys backed off on the fuel they were adding till the fellow finally had to fill his tank. He was really happy; as we all would be when a carefull check showed he got over 50 miles per gallon. He could not stop telling the crew about it.
The co-workers went back to adding diesel. Eventually the guy had to fill his tank again and he got even better mileage!!
He was getting insufferable, so the co-workers reversed things.
They started siphoning off a few gallons every couple days. The victim soon had to fill his tank and was distraught to find he had gotten only 3 miles per gallon.
He was all over the dealer where he bought his new truck and after several 3 ot 5 MPG tanks was driving the dealer, who could find nothing wrong with his truck, crazy and was threatening to sue.
His co-workers stopped their activities and the new truck owner finally accepted the 19-20 MPG reality, but still puzzles over his trucks strange fuel consumption. I talked to a crew member last week and after several years, the truck owners still seems mistified by the experience.

Vaughn

Jumbo Jet · 11-11-2004, 09:30 AM

I heard a story similar to that when I worked for Fina in Port Arthur. Lab people that did the knock test would pour the excess sample fuel in a co-workers new car.

TXiceman · 11-11-2004, 02:56 PM

When I was in high school, a neighbor got a VW Bug and was really excited about the new fuel economy....don't realy know why, because gasoline was about $0.20/gallon. Any way he did the add fuel awhile and then the remove fuel. His friend was really excited about the 60 or 70 mpg and was telling everyone. He never told a sole when it suddenly dropped to about 10 MPG.

My Dad an another neighbor had the biggest kick out of pulling this stunt. He never told our neighbor to his dieing day and I have kept quite as well.

Ken

Fxrscotty · 12-01-2004, 05:03 PM

That reminds me of what I did to one of the guys we used to work with. Many of us rode motorcycles and many had Harley's. We listened to how superior the Yamaha's were and how they didn't leak etc. from this one moto cross riding fellow. Well one day he shows up with the latest and greatest yamaha has to offer so I went out at break and bought a box of rice and dumped it on the ground under his new bike then had some one he wouldn't suspect go tell him that his new bike was leaking all over the parking lot. He ran outside looked under his bike then up at the plant where 50 people all said you got a reak? and started applauding. He started to laugh, bowed and never said another word about bikes leaking. Scotty.

"Is" · 01-29-2005, 11:31 AM

This backfired when I was in the Army.

A sergeant was boasting about the wonderful mileage he was getting with his new station wagon, and it was decided to play this trick on him.

When the Sergeant started to getting bad mileage he traded the new station wagon. No one had the guts to tell him what had happened.

100ton · 09-29-2008, 05:10 PM

Along the lines of those radical fuel mileage figures.....

I have heard of people buying four or five identical hats of different sizes. Same trick, every couple of days switch your friends hat.

It can be quite entertaining watching you friend try to figure out why his head is a different size form one day to the next.

Another one; A guy at my workplace installed a water purifying system under the kitchen sink. When he the job was completed, there was a very slight leak. Knowing what a pain it is to work under the sink (removing everything under the sink, crawling around and working on you back, etc.) you can imagine how happy he was that it was finally repaired.

Of course those of us that were just watching the installation, got quite a laugh out of the three times he repeated the same job........ it might have had something to do with the fact that each time he would repair the leak and leave the room, we would just take a class of water and pour just enough on the hose fittings to make a nice little "leak trail!"

A little mixture (trail) of anti freeze and oil under you buddy's new car can be entertaining. Don't forget to splash a little on the oil pan..... much more convincing!

hondo122 · 09-30-2008, 01:13 PM

Back in the 90s I bought a new Taurus wagon. Since I was the super I was able to park on the job site. We had a daily poker game at lunch, about the third day one of the guys came in and said he walked past my car and there was a pool of oil under it. I went out and crawled around under it checked the oil and trans levels. As I stood there perplexed a smile broke out on the job joker. It was 2 quarts, would be an expensive joke at todays oil prices.