Petrol Pumps

[choogh]

Why are the trigger latch's on UK petrol pumps inoperative? Having stood squeezing (for seemingly hours while I fill the Merc with petrol in freezing rains and being buffeted by passing traffic), my arthritic ridden hands hurt...
The rest of the EU have latch triggers, why can't we?? Or, do the powers that be, think we will fill the forecourt with fuel!!
Charlie.
:'( :'(

[STEVE G]

Charlie
I am sorry but thats the truth.Many garages have suffered from dopy motorists miss using the auto fillers and flooding the forecourt.You would think it dont take much sense to use a petrol pump but you just have to look at the way many people drive to guess the I.Q. of them.
Regards Steve G.

[maxGD059]

Charlie
They used to work when I was a student & had a summer job of serving petrol - yes that was quite a long time ago (circa 1980). It must be the pits to stand filling up a truck with 100 gallons of diesel. We used to set the pump going & go inside for a cup of tea!

Cheers

Richard
(It'll only be a 5 minute job)

[Dutch Paul]

Maybe they think we might do something silly - like this :7 :7

[Zeb_1970]

Another reason:
I was filling my camper with diesel in Spain a few years ago, stood next to the filler, with the latch on, the hose was snagged by a passing person and the nozzle flew out spraying everywhere covering me in diesel, stings quite a bit in the eyes!!, I dived into the camper and into the shower with a bottle of fairy liquid, my eyes were stinging so much I didn't care about the fairy liquid! I lost it a bit with my girlfriend when she started to flap thinking I was on fire or something, all turned out ok, but I will never use a latch again. The garage attendant was not too happy, diesel rots concrete alarmingly quickly if it is not soaked up.

[russell_ram]

Of course theres nothing to stop you having a short length of appropriate diameter welding rod in the car with a nice loop on the end to pull it out again after. Not that I'd do that of course! :9

Russ

[SimonP]

An appropriately sized split pin can be carried on your key ring too.

A BMW fuel filler cap fits perfectly between the frame and trigger of the fuel pump nozzle.

I've found that garages that have separate HGV diesel pumps tend to have the latch pins fitted on those pumps.
I use those to fill the car (BMW 525tds-SE) because they're much quicker and don't froth anywhere near as much as the small ones.

What I tend to do is work out how much fuel I need, wedge the pump on full bore by one means or another, then stop about 5 litres short of that and fill the rest by squeezing the trigger.
However I always keep hold of the nozzle or hose. I think it may be illegal to leave the pump running unattended - fire regs or something.

Unfortunately the auto shut offs on the nozzles don't always work. It's a good idea to report a faulty one to the attendant/cashier.

Looking at that pic, it's a good job that they fit that special safety coupling near where the hose joins the pump!

But how did they pay for their fuel? Or did they? The pump would still be shown as running on the desk console!

Simon