Originally Posted by Stray Dog

FYI, you'll probably find it's mainly Esso that's the problem
Most, if not all supermarket pumps will take a UK card.


Dog

Originally Posted by s445203

This is a review of the Touratech little plastic reserve fuel tanks, possibly the most utterly useless piece of kit I have ever come across. They came with the second hand small Strom I bought. At the time, I didn’t think too much about them (except of course a small part of me felt “Hmm. They look kinda long distance cool, don’t they?”). Oh how I have grown to hate them with a passion on my first week into my trip across South America. But I digress.

Basically, a reserve fuel tank needs to carry out three main duties:
1. Enable you to put fuel in it easily
2. Enable you to transport said fuel safely
3. Enable you to take fuel out when you need it

With this background, let’s begin our review. Here they are, mounted on their Touratech panniers (these also display elements of utterly idiotic design although not as bad as these reserve bottles, and I digress once again).



As you can see from this picture, they are well and truly mounted onto the panniers, and so 1/3 of the job they need to do is OK. This I’m afraid is the highlight of the review.

We now move on to filling them. It turns out that the idiot who designed this made the opening too small for a petrol station pump to fit in it. Yes. That’s right. A reserve fuel tank you can’t fill from a petrol pump. So what you have to do is scrounge a Coke bottle (see – Coke managed this, and they weren’t even trying Touratech!) which you fill up and then you slowly tip the Coke bottle into the fuel reservoir.

However, before you can get to pour your Coke bottle over the petrol station concourse (and your beloved, idiot-designed Touratech bottle), you need to get the little spouty thing out of the way. This is no mean feat, for it requites pulling it out at EXACTLY the right angle – it’s taken me a 30s of fiddling to get this right every time I’ve tried so far.

Here's a photo of me 25s into trying - I've nearly solved the puzzle!


And finally, having arduously filled your bottle, when it comes to unloading it, you’ll helpfully find that the stupid spouty thing which is so hard to get out of the bottle, doesn’t actually fit. That’s right. The spouty thing actually serves no purpose whatsoever, apart from being in the way when you try to fill your bottle.

Here's a picture of two things which ought to fit, but actually, do not:



Overall, I would give this product 0 starts out of 5. And I would dearly love to meet the man who designed it, to have a frank exchange of views.

Originally Posted by manray

The OP is using the wrong Touratech 2 Litre can for petrol. The one he has is for oil. The correct 2 Litre can can easily accommodate a fuel pump nozzle (Touratech Part Number: 070-0580)

Originally Posted by backofbeyond

I don't want to get all anal about this but the hole in my "utterly idiotic" TT bottle = 19mm and the 2L coke bottle next to my computer atm = 22mm. Anyone know how big a petrol nozzle is? Maybe Coke do different sizes, or maybe it's Pepsi bottles you need.

If things get really desperate you could always try using a condom. Shove most of it inside the TT bottle and put the open end over the petrol nozzle. Works best with the larger Euro size.

Originally Posted by chris

Just in case somebody doesn't know of this cheaper alternative to a TT fuel/oil containers



The hole on all cola bottles (probably of whatever) brand, but definitely those made by CC Inc, is big enough to take a fuel pump nozzle. To transport, put 2 in a plastic bag and knot it, then lash under a bungee.

Obviously a TT fuel/oil bottle is more impressive when visiting Starbucks (other coffee shops are available...), but when done with the cola bottle (like when you're in most parts of the world where they have lots of petrol stations...), you can recycle it, rather than carting it around for the rest of your trip.

Originally Posted by backofbeyond

If things get really desperate you could always try using a condom. Shove most of it inside the TT bottle and put the open end over the petrol nozzle. Works best with the larger Euro size.