Community Forums

GuidoDoc · 10-28-2012, 11:43 AM

Premptive appology as a newbie. I am awaiting my first MH and it has a fuel tank on either side of the cab. The salesman said that they have to be filled separately but will level out over time if I only fill from one side. I guess that is by way of some T along the fuel supply lines. So will I really need to fill one side and drive around to position the other side near the pump if I want a full tank? That seems absurd. I bet few stations have hoses long enough to reach both sides in me shot.

Dutch Star David · 10-28-2012, 12:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuidoDoc

Premptive appology as a newbie. I am awaiting my first MH and it has a fuel tank on either side of the cab. The salesman said that they have to be filled separately but will level out over time if I only fill from one side. I guess that is by way of some T along the fuel supply lines. So will I really need to fill one side and drive around to position the other side near the pump if I want a full tank? That seems absurd. I bet few stations have hoses long enough to reach both sides in me shot.

Make sure that you don't have ONE tank with dual fills. If you do and you fill from both at the same time, you WILL have fuel spilling from one or the other. Don't ask me how I know; I just do

BTW, don't need to apologize for being a newbie; at one time or another, we all were. Also, don't always believe what the salesman says. I once had a salesman tell me a used truck I was buying did not have cruise control. Lo and behold, it did. Sometimes I think vehicle salesmen will lie to you just to see if you'll buy their line.

Arch Hoagland · 10-28-2012, 12:43 PM

What brand and model. With that info others who have the same rig can help you.

RickO · 10-28-2012, 12:47 PM

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the new rig.

Ditto on the theory that you have one tank which can be filled from either side. I'll bet your manual is on line and should have that info.

BTW, you might want to go into your forum profile and add the year, make, and model of your rig to your signature line. It really helps others help you when there are questions.

Best of luck.

Rick

GuidoDoc · 10-29-2012, 04:52 AM

2012 Seneca on Freightliner M2 chassis. From the outside there are two visible tanks but they must connect somewhere. I guess the big question is how quickly will the two sides equilibrate? During a fill or 30 minutes down the road.

I looked at the Seneca and the Frieghtliner manuals and couldn't find anything about fueling or the tanks.

clyon51 · 10-29-2012, 06:41 AM

It it were me, I would get under there and inspect the crossover line, it should be very obvious. If it is the size of a fuel line, it's going to take awhile. Hopefully it will be closer to the size of the filler hose, which should be a no brainer if the designer finished the 3rd grade.

Otherwise, fill the tank until the pump kicks off, then take 5 min to clean the windsheild or something. Then see how many more gals it takes to kick the pump off again. That should give you a good idea what kind of flow rate there is.

jdoc · 10-29-2012, 07:03 AM

If you buy diesel at truck stops on one side is the main pump on the other side is a satellite pump. You can use both pumps to fill your rig at the same time. Some places that have diesel pumps on the side of or behind the business have the same setup. This allows filling up to be faster and that way people don't have to wait in line as long. When you get through filling up your rig pull up so the next rig in line can start filling up.

Jerry

vsheetz · 10-29-2012, 07:32 AM

Likely dual fillers to one tank - not dual tanks.

Luckiest Dreamer · 10-29-2012, 09:14 AM

I suspect that if the picture on your avatar is your MH you do have two seperate tanks rather than one tank with two spouts as many Class A's do. The best thing would be to fill at the truck aisle as they offer a main pump with a slave on the other side. It will use the one pump to register your amount that you pump from both hoses. Other than that most of the pumps at the car islands are not long enuf to reach around and you would need to turn around.

Murf2u · 10-29-2012, 12:07 PM

If it's a truck chassis there will be a crossover line under the cab connecting the two tanks together, albeit with a fairly small diameter line.

Unlike pickups, 'big rigs' don't have separate tanks and gauges that can be switched back and forth.

Some folks do indeed separate them though, I did on both of our trucks. The main reason though was so that I could run two different fuels at the same time, at my discretion.

In measured runs in as equal as possible conditions I ran the same hill, with the same load, using both 'local' diesel fuel and stuff in the tank from fill ups in Canada. The Cannuck fuel made a difference of 8mph going over the top of the "Fancy Gap" on I-77 in Virginia.

It also allows me to have 'winterized' diesel in the tank when I'm northbound in the winter. Since the truck will run easily run 1,000 miles on a fill up getting to the frozen north with Georgia fuel in the tank is like pushing a wet rope up hill.

Dutch Star David · 10-29-2012, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuidoDoc

Premptive appology as a newbie. I am awaiting my first MH and it has a fuel tank on either side of the cab. The salesman said that they have to be filled separately but will level out over time if I only fill from one side. I guess that is by way of some T along the fuel supply lines. So will I really need to fill one side and drive around to position the other side near the pump if I want a full tank? That seems absurd. I bet few stations have hoses long enough to reach both sides in me shot.

All Jayco literature that I can find refers to fuel tank-not tanks. I'd call factory tech support to be sure.

blackf3504dr · 10-30-2012, 05:47 AM

It's a truck chassis, one tank mounted on each side.... The OP clearly stated there is a tank visible on each side. As said earlier the cross over line is a small diameter and only allows the tanks to balance out. The fuel gauge registers fuel in only one of the tanks and the engine draws fuel from that tank (hence the cross over line).
It seems many replying are not familiar with truck based motor homes and are assuming they are built like the diesel pushers. You will either need to fuel where they have a satellite pump or fill one side, then turn around and fill the other. Some diesel pumps have a hose long enough to slide under the rig to fuel the other side.

slickest1 · 11-01-2012, 10:32 PM

What I used to do with big trucks was not to pull up beside the pump. I would stop with the front of the truck even with the pump, and the hose was usually long enough to reach both tanks.