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Comment by ar15saveslives | Hacker News Reader

I'll save you a click:

> So the truth is, nobody really has any idea. Once the cheapest, most convenient solution, the middle, was made illegal, everything became a nightmare of relativism and equally rational justifications. Both sides have their advantages and disadvantages, and we’re left, wandering, alone, confused.

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I actually enjoyed the research bits, and the partial justifications from various manufacturers. Their rationale was interesting even if inconsistent.

I'm also against these sort of "click saving" summaries. What's next? Two star-crossed lovers commit suicide, someone climbs mountain and makes it down ok ... Sometimes the journey or narrative is interesting even if the outcome is not extraordinary.

> Two star-crossed lovers commit suicide, someone climbs mountain and makes it down ok ... Sometimes the journey or narrative is interesting even if the outcome is not extraordinary.

I like to think double suicides are extraordinary no matter how they occurred. And frankly, I think it's pretty unlikely that anyone would bother to tell the "someone climbs a mountain and makes it down ok" story unless the odds of not making it down were good enough to make the story interesting. There are plenty of stories consisting mostly or entirely of dialogue in banal surroundings, but those are usually set "at home" or similar.

And sometimes -- nay, always -- I want to know whether I'm wasting my time before I start that journey.

I heard that German manufacturers but the gas inlet on the right side whereas manufacturers from the east put it on the left side. For the many types of cars I drove that was right.

Don't know about the habits of US cars.

For US cars, I used to see mostly left side gas caps but now see them all over the place due to global sales. I'd rather have the gas cap on the driver's side. It makes pulling into gas pumps easier and is just a little closer to the door. It's just convenient. My 2006 Nissan has it on the right, I hate it. My 2000 Ford had it on the left. My 1991 Ford had it on the left too.

More specifically

Drivers side is more convenient, but passengers side is safer if you every have to fill a car up by hand on the side of the road

Is there a specific reason why drivers side is more convenient? Only because it doesn't make you walk around the car? Mine is on the passengers side and it never even occurred to me that having it on the drivers side would be more convenient.

don't have to walk around the car and also so you can line it up better

And there's a simple solution that seems to elude everyone - have filler caps on both sides. There are cars like this already(although only the most extreme ones, I think the Veyron has two, I guess it would be too peasantly too run the hose over a million dollar car). I guess it makes the production slightly more complicated, but it solves the problem entirely.

A teenage friend of mine had a pickup truck that had two tanks connected to the two filler caps, which was interesting, almost aircraft like.

We're talking about a 70s beater pickup truck modified as only a 80s/90s teenager has spare time to modify, so I have no idea if this was normal for construction grade trucks or not.

The theory is he could operate his gas powered generator/welder or gas powered air compressor off one tank at a job site, and even if he ran it dry he could drive home on the other tank. There was also some manner of fuel transfer pump(s).

It was pretty common in trucks of that era. My father who -owns a construction company - has owned several of these. Never had any external devices, just used it as a "range extender".

And then you forget to fill both and you are stranded... :-D

You can still get that on anything 3/4-ton or larger. It's useful for towing long distances too, because hauling heavy loads tanks your fuel economy.

My family once had a '92 F250 that had dual gas tanks. They appeared factory installed. I remember plenty of larger pickups had them.

A friend of mine in college had an ancient VW bug that had no fuel gauge, by design.

When it ran out of gas, you had to switch a foot pedal to the emergency tank, then you had maybe 10km to get to a Petrol Station before you were stranded.

Huh, interesting that having an emergency tank with some mechanism to switch between tanks was a cheaper/easier solution than just having a fuel gauge.

That's exactly what I thought. Seemed bizarre to me. Also stressful for the driver, I'd imagine. She didn't seem too concerned about it though.

My first car, we couldn't keep the gas gauge working reliably, so I had to reckon the mileage from the odometer to keep track of whether it needed to be filled. At least it did have dual gas tanks, so in the worst case, you'd notice the engine was chugging and trying to die, and have to flip the switch to the other tank in time.

Filling up both tanks kind of sucked, back when gas was $3.50-4.00/gallon.

I would hate having to replace a rusty fuel filler neck that runs across the wrong side of the car and over the exhaust.

We should just go back to the 70s-era centre-mounted fillers behind the license plate holder. Those were great, until you got rear ended or it was frozen solid.

These were depopularized after the arrival of self-service gas stations due to modesty issues regarding drivers refueling themselves while wearing skirts or dresses.

I think there is some kind of standard or arrangement, if not we could end up with a disproportionate number of cars with the filler in the same side of the vehicle. Which could make gas stations inefficient.

Or not as the pipe always reaches to the other side of a car.

I'd never ever run the hose over my car as it can easily scratch the paint. If there are no pumps available with the hose on the right side, I'll reverse so that the cap is next to the pump.

I've never used a hose that wasn't rubberised - that's in the UK and a few other western European countries. What material are the hoses you use made of (and in what country)?

The hose may have a collar on it to help it retract back which is often plastic. Stretching the hose to its limit can also potentially damage the hose and/or the nozzle depending on how rough you are with it so back in my gas-jockey days it was policy that you don't do it at all.

Interesting. Perhaps I should clarify that I meant the hoses have a rubberised sheath; not that the hose was necessarily just rubber. I'm not aware that hoses do stretch particularly.

I imagine this is mainly a difference in locale.

In some gas stations you can't do that, at least in parts of South America. Apparently is for safety concerns.

We don't have self service here neither.

Well, you should read the article then, because it explains that there isn't a such.

The "arrangement" there is, exists entirely by chance.

The article doesn't have that many sources

No, between US law, Volkswagen, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and Nissan, they are a bit thin on sources.

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