Listen to Your Country Coach Woman

[dale farley]

Notice the picture where we were all pushing. It was because this bus wouldn't go any farther under its own power.

Notice Roger getting into his car that is still attached to the bus.

Notice how unhappy Roger is when the service guy is adding diesel to Roger's bus.

There is a story behind the pictures:

After Tom had bailed out on us because we were going too slow, Roger, Micki, Paulette and I had been having a fun time traveling and talking on the CB Radios. Roger and I had discussed how much fuel we had left in our tanks since the last fill up. When the CC monitoring system came on and told Roger that he was dangerously low on fuel, we discounted her input, knowing he still had at least 100 gallons left based on miles traveled since last fill up.

I was so sure, that I even promised I would blow some diesel in the lines if Roger ran out before we reached Kansas City, MO. I said this knowing we didn't have a bug sprayer like Jon uses. All four of us had a good time making fun of the talking woman on the monitoring system.

Since things were going so well, we decided to pull into a rest stop and eat some lunch. As we pulled in, Roger notified us that he was "Dead in the Water". At this time we had the main entrance blocked. We were stopped right in front of the walkway to the information desk and restrooms. We were also blocking all the other trucks that were coming into the rest area. The truckers were not happy as they were having to run over the curb in order to pass us.

As noted by one of the pictures, Eric and several others were unable to move the bus, but Roger came up with a plan that did work. I guided his bus to the side of the parking lot as he pushed it with the Mini Cooper. This is not a joke; he pushed it with the Mini.

The 3rd picture shows how happy Roger was about this whole situation. He was telling me to cease making pictures of this unfortunate situation.

As it turned out, he contacted a service station about a mile down the road, they brought some diesel and had the bus started in just a few minutes. We went to the station and filled the busses. Roger put 211 gallons in his 208 gal tank. That sounds a little fishy, but I was there, and I saw it. I filled my tank also and it took 104 gallons. We had traveled 750 miles since the last fill up.

Roger and I learned two important lessons from this incident. First of all, listen to the voice in the CC, especially when she says you are out of diesel.

Number two thing is, "Lock your diesel filler door". We have determined that while we were parked in a Flying J lot in Gillette, WY, someone stole over 100 gallons of Roger's diesel that he had just paid about $400 for. We each filled our tanks then went to eat dinner. He was parked on the end where a thief could be well concealed. Evidently someone was watching us and took advantage of the situation. I have left my door unlocked several times in the past, but I won't do it again.

[lewpopp]

Roger,

If you had a car with "BALLS", you could have pushed it out of the way, but you have to have the "SISSY" car. You'll have a tough time surviving this ordeal. We've all done it but don't have photos proving it.

[Coloradobus]

We had some diesel syphoned out of our Chevy Duarmax we were towing 2 years ago. It either happened at Port Angeles Wa. Wal mart overnight or on the ferry to Victoria BC. Driving around Vancouver Island we discovered the truck was almost empty after 35 miles. Chevy doesn't have a locking fuel cap, the excuse is emissions.
I checked with Prevost, and the only locking mechanism on our coach is the fiberglass doors covering our fill necks. Prevost has no locking fuel neck cap.
Our fuel doors lock as soon as you close them. But with our last 2 coaches, the XL and XLII, we were guilty of not locking them.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I don't know about that Lew. Sounds like the Mini came through.

Did you guys prime the filters or did you just turn it over till it fired?

The no parking sign in the first picture is a nice touch.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Just before this trip we put a locking cover on the Hummer gas tank and put new locks on all the doors of the Prevost. I used the locks that require those round keys, mostly because I did not want to fall victim to a POG prank.

Now I am going to absolutely insure everything is locked. One thing I notice that owners may want to consider is removing the decals that say DIESEL FUEL. I doubt if that will stop a determined crook, but to me that is almost like having a big red arrow pointing to where your fuel fillers are located.

[dalej]

So this explains how Roger was able to come in under the legal weights at the bus weighing.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

What I want to know is how someone got away with 100 gallons. That's about 670 pounds worth of fuel.

If it was siphoned out it would take about 20 gas cans, and a whole lot of mouthwash to get the taste of ultra low sulfur out of your mouth. I doubt if that was how it happened. If it was transferred into a truck's tank via a pump it was clearly someone who makes a practice of stealing fuel. It seems to take forever to fill our buses, even with two side fill and big nozzles. How would someone have the balls to try to transfer 100 gallons without someone seeing it? This did not occur as quickly as a grab and run.

My guess is this was done by more than one person, and it is probable they had a truck, or a truck and trailer set up so that they would park along side the target vehicle, extend a hose that would unlikely be noticed by other truckers and just start pumping fuel out of the tank.

In Knoxville there has been an arrest in which a pickup with a gooseneck enclosed trailer parks over the gas station fuel tank caps. Through a hole in the floor they open the tank caps, drop in a hose, suck about 400 gallons or more into a tank in the trailer, close the tank caps and drive away. What got them caught was when the gas station noticed the shortage they reviewed all the security tapes and eventually figured out that it was done by the truck with the gooseneck trailer. The bad guys should have covered their license plates. The tape was shown on TV and you could make out something going on beneath the trailer.

My guess is a similar rig is used to steal fuel directly from the trucks parked at a Flying J. All they need is an empty space next to the victim, and they need to see the driver walk away from the rig so they know they have a little time to do their dirty deed.

This wasn't the work of someone that took advantage of an opportunity. This was the work of someone all set up specifically to steal fuel and they created their own opportunities by watching the parking lot for victims. My guess is if the Flying J has video security and it showed the coaches, it will also show who did it.

[dale farley]

Joe, Since I had promised Roger I would blow fuel through the line if he ran out, I drained some out of my primary and filled Roger's primary. The service tech bled the secondary with the bleed valve on the side until fuel flowed out of it. It would have been a little easier if Jon would have been there with his custom made pump. It was clear to Roger and me that the easiest thing would have been to "not run out of fuel".

[truk4u]

Lew - What are you talking about, the Mini DID push the bus!

Dale J - Nice catch on the weight.

Roadfeather - Shorter travel distance = less fuel.

King - Did you check Dales bus for a hose.

POG question - How many times did the King and Roadrunner pass Eric?

[dalej]

That's a good idea Jon, I think Roger should contact them and have the video sent to him, or have the police do it.