Jerry can colours

There are no laws, just guidelines.
If red is for petrol, yellow for diesel, green for 2 stroke, what is drab olive for?
Drab olive would be the most common.

I certainly wouldn't want to drink water from my green cans, now that they've had diesel in 'em. Ditto my red one.

I bought Black Jerrys for diesel and I have also seen yellow for diesel, black for water???

Check the labels is all I can offer.

Cheers

I just use different coloured zipties on the handles to identify which is which .... saves hunting around looking for different coloured jerrycans.

i always thought it was red for petrol, black for diesel and olive for water.
that's how mine all are anyway.

http://www.proquip.com.au/ProductPages/JerryCans/AFACFuelIDTags.html

I was told it makes it easier for emergency services to deal with potential hazards if the correct fuel is in the correct colored can. Red for petrol, yellow for diesel, green for 2 stroke. If everyone is using them for whatever then it's of no real use as are the black and khaki ones. Mike

What a load of "Cods"....open the lid & smell the contents. Most ppl can tell the difference between petrol & diesel. If no smell it is water, unless of course you are in Adelaide. lol

Cheers Neil

I have black ones and use them for Diesel/unleaded/2stroke. I have them labelled and stick to the label religiously.

It works for me.

I had a mate who thought he could smell/tell the difference between 2stroke and unleaded. He couldnt, several thousand dollars worth of outboard damage and a bruised ego.
Cheers Wilko

First of all we must define what is a Gerry Can???? In my way of thinking a gerry can is made of STEEL not plastics and painted khaki colour.
The name Gerry Can was the name given by allied forces to describe a fuel container used by the German army in WW11 and copied by other nations. Hence the name Gerry Can. Plastic containers of whatever colour are not gerry cans.

Here is a quote from the regs in the USA, I'm pretty certain that these colours were adopted from a universal code from the United Nations.

2.1 Openings
A portable fuel container may incorporate a secondary opening or vent hole
(i.e. an opening other than the opening needed for the spout) provided the
secondary opening or vent hole is not easily tampered by a consumer, and it
does not emit hydrocarbon vapors in excess of the amounts specified in these
requirements during fueling, storage, transportation or handling events.
2.2 Color
Portable fuel containers shall be color coded for specific fuels:
a) Gasoline – red;
b) Diesel – yellow; and
c) Kerosene – blue.
Each portable fuel container must have identification markings on the
container and on the spill-proof spout.
a) Red containers shall be permanently identified with the embossed
language, or permanent durable label “GASOLINE” in minimum 34-point
Arial font or a font of equivalent proportions.
b) Yellow containers shall be permanently identified with the embossed
language, or permanent durable label “DIESEL” in minimum 34-point
Arial font or a font of equivalent proportions.
c) Blue containers shall be permanently identified with the embossed
language, or permanent durable label “KEROSENE” in minimum 34-point
Arial font or a font of equivalent proportions.

Bruce in San Diego

Ohhh ... For heavens sake

They're your jerrycans ... put whatever you want in them and label them somehow.

If you need to be told how to use and identify a jerrycan ... You probably dont need one.

If you damage one somehow ... in the middle of nowhere ... chances are you wont be able to get a replacement to match anyway .... unless you want to book a pub room and wait for one to be shipped in .....

That would make a good thread title

"A 4day trip delay over a bloody jerrycan" .... pftttttttt


I can just see the next election promise as a result of this thread ...

"We promise to make the world more safer from alien invasion with aust. nanny state rule # 1,958,723 ... Jerrycan Colours."

Yeah, colour doesn't personally worry me. Black, white, green, yellow or red. I'll know what goes in them all (diesel). What really prompted my query was that I was recently advised by a salesperson to be careful which coloured containers I bought, as some people were strict about which fuel went in which coloured container.

I gather from the range of responses that nobody has ever been knocked back when filling a jerry can. It'd be especially difficult now with all the self-serve pumps around (too late she cried).

G'day Russler,

Whatever colour you use mate, just make sure if they are made of plastic they are built to the Australian Standard for fuel usage.

Bill S.