Great explanination of the Jerry Can Glen.  I was stationed in Germany from
1977 to 1981 with the Public Affairs office at the kaserne in Lahr.  One of
the many events that I covered while there was the rollout of the first
Canadian Leopard tank at the factory in Munich.

Not sure where I got it but I have one of the baby plastic Jerry Cans (hold
about 4 liters) with a white plastic lid on it.  Now I know that I should
have been using it for water instead of diesel fuel.  What can I say, I was
a photographer not  part of combat arms.  Anyhoooooo, it's a very well made
can.

John Rodger
88 Westy
00 Jetta TDI

At 10:01 PM 6/21/01 -0600, Double-Cab Guy wrote:
>Hi Volks,
>
>It's not often that I post to the list but this "Jerry" Can thread is some
>thing I have an intimate knowledge of.
>I spent 15 yrs in the Canadian Army in a Main Battle Tank Regiment.
>I was the top Corporal in the P.O.L. (Petroleum Oils & Lubricants) section
>for a few years.
>The tanks that we use are the German Leopard 1A5.
>As far as Tanks go they are very good on fuel especially compared to the
>US Abrams.
>they use one third of the amount the Abrams uses.
>The things that make our beloved VW's better and different than other
>makes carries over to the German school of Tank building.
>Then again allot of there strengths were learned the hard way, and a big
>one was running out of fuel!
>
>But getting back to the fuel can thread.
>We used a huge (60,000L/ day) amount of Diesel fuel in any given day to
>keep our 60 Tanks rolling.
>Unfortunately for my back a large portion was in 20L (5 gal.) fuel cans.
>Through my time in the section we saw the change from the old U.S. style
>steel cans to the new plastic ones.
>I can tell you that that the steel cans are more grief and frustration
>than there worth!!
>Metal cans dent, rust, scratch ,leak and condense water in to the fuel via
>temp. changes in the fuel.
>Generally doing a damn fine job of contaminating the fuel that they held!
>Where as the Canadian N.A.T.O. standard cans leak very little, don' rust ,
>don't contaminate the fuel with condensation, and are tougher than the old
>steel style cans.
>In fact the plastic cans are air transportable and droppable, the steel
>ones are not.
>
>There is a reason that there is an abundance of steel cans on the market.
>There not worth a pinch of "s...t".
>Most militaries are changing over to plastic cans as fast as they can.
>Do your self a favour don't use a metal can for diesel fuel.
>If there is one thing that will stop a diesel engine and ruin it in short
>order and that's contaminated fuel.
>Go price a set of TDI injectors or an injection pump. Yikes!!
>That is also the reason all NATO fuel cans have a colour code on the
>handle or lid.
>Yellow is for diesel ,red is for Gasoline, green is for coolant, grey is
>for Kerosene, blue is for two stroke and white is for water.
>Even civilian gas cans are red because of this rule.
>So trust some one whose job was "jerry" cans, choose NATO plastic cans not
>metal ones.
>
>Cheers
>Glen

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