Wrong Fuel Sucker Upper Job is it a good business?

[pimping]

A buddy recently put petrol in his diesel car and paid £160 for the guy to turn up and drain his.......tank.

He and I are looking at starting a small business and got to thinking this could be a good bet.

But is it?

[greygoose]

Depends how many stupid people live near you.

[DJFish]

I was talking to the chap as he was sucking out my tank (as it were), seemed to make a reasonable living, plenty of franchise opportunities available.
Give 'em a tinkle: http://www.fuel-doctor.co.uk/franchise%20page.htm
Stupid people are everywhere....

[Ozzie Osmond]

What is the cost of disposing of the "sucked up" fuel? You can't,
a. Pour it down the drain
b. Take it to the council tip
c. etc

[E30M3SE]

Buy a petrol van to get around in.....

[DanielSan]

Ozzie Osmond said:

What is the cost of disposing of the "sucked up" fuel? You can't,
a. Pour it down the drain
b. Take it to the council tip
c. etc

Solution - have a big bonfire every weekend

[miniman]

Ozzie Osmond said:

What is the cost of disposing of the "sucked up" fuel? You can't,
a. Pour it down the drain
b. Take it to the council tip
c. etc

As mentioned above, buy a vehicle which will relatively happily run on "dual-fuel".

[richtea78]

pimping said:

A buddy recently put petrol in his diesel car and paid £160 for the guy to turn up and drain his.......tank.

He and I are looking at starting a small business and got to thinking this could be a good bet.

But is it?

If he is that stupid are you sure going into business with him is a good plan?

[crossy67]

Peasle or detrol isn't good for either petrol or diesel cars unless you're very lucky and the idiot ran their car almost empty and filled it up then your cross contamination will be minimal. Even if you're lucky like that would you want to run petrol contaminated diesel through a common rail fuel pump?

I put £20 of petrol in our cars empty tank, realised filled it with diesel and lived happily ever after. Lucky man!

[mc_blue]

It used to be yes and that's with firsthand experience - you're probably 5 years too late to make any serious money out of it though.

[Rtig]

If you paid £160 for someone to do it for you in the first place this suggests you do not have the knowledge/skill to do it as a business!

As to disposing of the fuel, I was in a hurry a few years ago and brimmed my tank with bp ultimate diesel because they had either petrol/diesel/ultimate petrol or petrol/diesel/ultimate diesel on each pump, after draining it and changing the filters etc. It wasn't difficult to find someone who wanted a tank of diesel at a cheaper than pump price.

[V8RX7]

Ozzie Osmond said:

What is the cost of disposing of the "sucked up" fuel? You can't,
a. Pour it down the drain
b. Take it to the council tip
c. etc

You stick it in an older car.

A couple of gallons per tank into a diesel or petrol depending which it's closer to.

A mates a mechanic and he's provided me with over 100l - my van's happily used it all.

[s p a c e m a n]

This,

richtea78 said:

If he is that stupid are you sure going into business with him is a good plan?

And this,

mc_blue said:

It used to be yes and that's with firsthand experience - you're probably 5 years too late to make any serious money out of it though.

There's bloody loads of them around here (London), would have been a good thing to get into a long time ago.

[pherlopolus]

Ozzie Osmond said:

What is the cost of disposing of the "sucked up" fuel? You can't,
a. Pour it down the drain
b. Take it to the council tip
c. etc

Buy something soviet and multi fuel. Zil 131 Decon truck would possibly make a good suction truck too

[Faxo]

Soon all manufacturers will have systems that stop wrong nozzles going in - I think Ford already does?

I'm unsure how they drain the tanks, as a lot of cars have anti syphoning filler necks so you can't just stick a pipe down and suck?!

[crossy67]

Un-clip a fuel line and suck

[richtea78]

Suck? Surely you up clip the fuel line then run the fuel pump? No chance of a mouthful that way

[crossy67]

I meant hypothetically.

If you were a professional outfit I would have thought you'd have the means to suck or blow mechanically. In reality if you have the patients and can get the end of the fuel line low enough gravity will do the job for you.

[graeme4130]

richtea78 said:

pimping said:

A buddy recently put petrol in his diesel car and paid £160 for the guy to turn up and drain his.......tank.

He and I are looking at starting a small business and got to thinking this could be a good bet.

But is it?

If he is that stupid are you sure going into business with him is a good plan?

Haha, took the words right out of my mouth

[graeme4130]

richtea78 said:

pimping said:

A buddy recently put petrol in his diesel car and paid £160 for the guy to turn up and drain his.......tank.

He and I are looking at starting a small business and got to thinking this could be a good bet.

But is it?

If he is that stupid are you sure going into business with him is a good plan?

Haha, took the words right out of my mouth