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How Much Fuel Can You Siphon from an RV-8 Tank?
Well, I’ll tell you!
I had the need to drain one fuel tank on the Val, and decided to see if I could make some of the process easier by not having to duck under the wing and shuffle four different gas cans around. I had succumbed to that carnival barker at SnF last year and bought one of those handy-dandy siphon hoses with the valve on the bottom (I use it to fuel the jet without hoisting cans high in the air), and it worked great! However, of course, it can only go as far into the tank as the first rib in from the tip. Seems like a long way out from the root, and taking dihedral into account, I figured I’d still have quite a bit to drain. Well the answer is that I managed to get 16 gallons of the 21 gallon capacity out through the full valve...way more than I thought I’d get. Didn’t leave much to drain, and I only had to duck under the wing with one can. Just a data point for the trivia experts (i.e., other engineers) out there..... Paul |
Good job.
I would have expected 1/2. I have always drained my -6 by removing the drain at the sump and swapping gas cans. Yes I purchased enough 5-gallon containers to hold all the fuel on one side. |
Safety margin
There's some benefit in not being able to easily siphon out all of the fuel!
Sadly, we lost two pilots who took off assuming they still had full tanks, without realizing that someone had apparently siphoned and stolen fuel while tied down overnight. https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications...aair199901340/ |
Was this what you used?
![]() We bought one at OSH for transferring water in our camper and it works amazingly well! |
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Turbo advised me on that sucking thingy. Works great. I am able to recover 10 gallons out of 18. RV9A.
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How Much Fuel Can You Siphon from an RV-8 Tank?
I got about 12 Gallons........ and then the owner showed up. |
:D
Bought one of those some 20 years ago @ OSH, and I?m sure it is stashed safely away somewhere in my garage... Assuming I find it, how does one get the device started? Thanks 🙏 |
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