Diesel fill rate - not good

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
E

Ellis_Hou

Active member
Joined
Feb 15, 2010
Posts
36
Location
Houston, Texas
I filled up the the fuel tank the second time today.  Both times I have had a lot of problems with getting fuel into the tank at a decent rate.  I was fueling at a Love's with trucks waiting to fuel which made this time bother me more.  I read on another post that some Winnebagos have had thas problem.  I had assumed that I was doing something wrong.  I have tried both sides but it doesn't seem to make any difference.  My 1999 UA is on a Freightliner chassie and obviously has been around for 11 years.  I am surprised the previous owners didn't find a solution to this problem.  I haven't tried a smaller nozzle like is used on the auto lines.  Maybe they actually work better.  I am not sure that would help anyway because I couldn't  use those lines without backing out.  I don't want to get involved with anything major in the way of adjustments at this time.  We have used up what I thought was a generous budget for service and repairs in the last 2 months since we purchased the MH.  We need to try to just use it for a couple of months.  However, if someone has a relatively simple suggestion I will certainly give it a try.
 
I have the same problem with my 1998 Chieftain.  I only have one fill entrance.  I understand if you have two open both and it supposedly helps.

When I first got the MH I checked out the fill tube and it doesn't have much of a slant.  Thus, the slow fill.  I just put up with it, I have not seen anyway to improve the fill tube.

I have not helped with a solution, however, you are not alone with the inconvenience.


Russ - WB3FQI
 
Most motorhomes have a slow fill problem to some extent, especially diesels who are trying to use the high volume pumps on the truck islands. My UA is on a Spartan chassis. I can normally get the high volume pumps to work if I ease up on the lowest setting. Maybe one in 30 or so I have to do it by hand.  It is not a good idea to open both fills on a diesel as the fuel foams on filling and can flow out the other side w/o your knowledge ...if you do that, you need someone on the other side watching, and with instant communication ability back to you.

My coach is 40' with a toad on a towbar. We have used the "RV island" at Flying J's all over the nation, and have NEVER had to back out.  I check it out on approach, and if the RV island is crowded or looks like a problem, I just go on to the truck islands. It is rare that a Flying J RV island looks like it will be a problem.  Only once, in one of our very early trips towing on a dolly, did we have to back out of a station ...it said "Diesel" out on the interstate but when we pulled in there was no swing-around an dno place to turn around ...had to unload the car and I backed the dolly out of the pump area.
 
I didn't understand how common this problem is.  I have managed 2 times so I know I can work around it.  I will try Flying J when I get a chance.  I don't think there is one on my side of Houston (but I am going to check and make sure) and I can handle time in a fueling line better that a drive even part of the way through Houston.  I was able to get the fill to hold on the first setting after several tries.  At least I didn't have to manually fill the entire time.  I did have both sides open but I am going to be more carefull with doing that in the future.  This Love's doesn't have a separate RV line.  I wish they did.
 
Freightliner had a fuel tank venting problem (the vents were on the side of the tank near the top) for the 2004, 2005 (2006?) Vectra/Horizon chassis and some of us have had new fuel tanks installed.  This is the first I have heard about a slow fill problem on a UA.

You either have a venting problem (vent line kinked or plugged up), or inadequate venting.  Recommend you have Freightliner check the vent lines.  If they are okay, then you could investigate having the tank dropped and having larger vents installed at the top of the tank (instead of the side if your tank was like ours.)

We can now fill at any truck pump with the nozzle on full and when it clicks off, we are maybe 4-5 gallons shy of a full tank.  With the old tank, the pump would click off and we would be about 20 gallons from full, even on a slow fill rate.
 
don't think there is one on my side of Houston
Click to expand...
There are 4 I am aware of on 3 sides of Houston!! ...Flying J locations I am aware of are West I-10 at Brookshire exit 732, North I-45 at Richey Rd, North US-59 at state hwy 242, and East I-10 at Baytown a bit East of state hwy 330  ... way more choices than more areas.
 
I have dual fill doors on my Itasca.  I can't use the big truck nozzles on full, but I can on lowest click.  To do this though, I slant the fill nozzle towards the rear of the MH so the fuel nozzle is almost flat.  The fill tubes on my Freightliner chassis both slope down and to the rear.  By turning the fill nozzle to point towards the rear of the MH cuts down on the foaming of the fuel entering the tube.  I still slow fill the last 3 or 4 gallons.  I do the same technique on the auto size fuel fill nozzles as well.  Once it gets flowing, it usually fills until I hear the fuel starting to gurgle towards the top of the filler tube. 

Sarge
 
I have to do the same thing as SargeW to get a decent fill rate on my 2000 Itasca Horizon.  Heck,  in the "gravity" position, handle down, I can't even get it to fill period...just continually clicks off.  If I elevate the handle to level or slightly above level and pointed towards the rear, then I can usually get it to stay in the first or second detent on the pump handle.
 
I had the same problem on my 2000 Dutch Star (I no longer own) on the Freightliner. I fixed it myself. Take a look at these photos. If your fill tubes look like these I think my solution will work.

To start follow this; Look in the front wheel-well there are 2 rubber hoses. The large one is the fuel the small one is the vent hose. Open up the fuel cap then lift up the small hose if any fuel comes out of it the vent hose is too long and it is hanging too low.

Freightliner Fuel Fill Up

Hope it works for you.

LesR
Nashville, TN
 
I appreciate your reply.  I will definetly take a look in the wheel well.  The only thing is that I had the same problem with both fill caps off.  I guess it was lucky for me that it didn't work any better that way or I would probably have spilled some fuel; maybe a lot.  However, I can't remember for sure now if I replaced the cap when I tried the other side;  I don't think I did but I was primarily thinking about the waiting trucks and how long it was taking me to fill.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,141 (members: 29, guests: 1,112)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,974
Posts
1,388,493
Members
137,723
Latest member
CarlSpackler
Back
Top Bottom