Big fuel tank?

Supplies & Equipment
1

Hi all-

I’m kind of tired of constantly waiting in line at the gas station to gas up my individual machines, each their own fuel tank, so I’m looking at just mounting a 50- or 100-gallon fuel tank to my flatbed to feed all the machines from. Less trips to the station, and no more filling each machine individually.

I know that bigger machines like the Honda690 will draw fuel up to the carb from a lower-mounted fuel tank, but all my smaller machines have a top-mounted tank feeding gas into a lower-mounted carb. Does anyone here know from experience whether the smaller Hondas (270, 390…) will have any trouble sucking up fuel from a slightly lower-mounted tank?

I can rig an experiement but thought I’d first ask here… thanks in advance.

2

The single cylinder Hondas are gravity fed so the tank has to be higher than the carb. The V-twins have a mechanical pump.

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3

I looked into this just this past week… can it be done, yes… should it be done, debatable.

Another option, if you don’t feel like drilling into your engine, may be to get one of those little 12V gas transfer pumps and not plumb any of the machines, but just “refill” them with that out of the 100 gallon tank.

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4

Gravity fed, unless you get a fuel pump…….on those smaller machines. Great idea though, hope it works out.

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5

One example of a carb spacer with a fitting to run a pulse pump:

An explanation of the pulse pump:

I’d set it all up with a marine tank with a priming bulb inline.

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6

What about just carrying a 1 or 5 gallon gas can that you fill up from for 50 or 100 gallon tank? It’s an option

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7

I bought a used generator and turned it into a skid with a 4.5 gallon gravity fed fuel tank. I sold the engine that came with it & actually turned a profit.

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8

GX270 user here, and I’m running just the “standard” OEM tank that came on the washer. So it’s just being gravity fed from the tank down into the carburetor. I can tell you that I get a solid 3.5 hours on a full tank when running at full RPM’s, but, unless I’m doing real bad flat work, I typically get closer to 4 hours by running it about 2/3’s throttle for soft washing.

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9

Thanks for this info!

10

It is… and I might end up doing that.

11

Thanks!

12

@OutsideCleaner hey man, what did you end up doing here? Just curious

13

No changes… my wife had a stroke and then we learned of her having cancer, so any non-necessary changed to the cleaning rig have been put on hold.

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14

Oh my goodness. Stay strong, more important things at play than pressure washing. Best to you and your family.

Erik

15

Don’t know what to say other than I feel for you and wish you both the best.

Bruce lee said something to the effect of don’t pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to deal with a difficult one. Your family now has a much more difficult life.

16

Thanks. It’ll be the thing our lives revolve around for a long time.
For the possible benefit of others here on PWR, I will say that I’m very thankful for something that is making life somewhat easier: AFLAC cancer insurance. My wife is an on-the-books employee of my very small company, and I signed all my employees up for this a few years ago. At her first diagnosis, she got a big check. At her scan… another. Another after her first surgery. Etc etc. Aflac cancer and disability insurance is something I would recommend to anyone like us, out on a limb in the world of self employment or small business. For many, I think this type of insurance can make the difference between being “financially OK” and being the local family featured in a GoFundMe campaign.

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