5 ton under water....has this happened to you??

[texas-5-ton]

Last night, we used our 5 ton for a high water rescue during a flash flood. We were called for a occupied vehicle stranded in high water. The guys drove the truck out to the car that was stranded, and began to load them into our truck. Due to the weight of our truck, the gravel shoulder began to collapse and wash away from under our truck, which immobilized our unit. The fuel tank on this M813 went completely under water for approximately an hour, until a neighboring department was able to pull it out with their 5 ton. Our truck remained running during the entire time but the VENT TUBE on top of the tank was open and under water. The tank was full of diesel but my question is.....

Do i need to discard of this entire tank of diesel and start over, or should i try to slowly drain the tank from the bottom to get any water out?? I did open the fuel/water seperator after we drove it back to the station, and have extracted more than a gallon of water from the seperator. We depend on this truck so i really dont want to take any shortcuts. But at the same time, i dont want to waste 70 gallons of diesel if i dont need to.

Let me know what you guys would do..

Thanks

 

[citizensoldier]

sorry guy words are just not doing it for me on this adventure. I would think the fuel in the tank could be saved like you said but I dont think I would have driven it back.. I bet the pigs are full of water.. Drain and flush everything! Then maybe throw some trans fluid in with fresh fuel or some other type of extra lube.. Is this a Cummins truck or multi?

 

[citizensoldier]

Oops .. I see your avatar now its a Cummins.. Oh.. and thanks for saving the people..

 

[texas-5-ton]

It was dark, and raining so hard that a camera wouldn't have stood a chance. Believe me, i would have taken pics if i could have. You are correct in that this is a Cummins and believe me..I am sick that this has happened. Not that i might have to spend $400 dollars for diesel, but for the fact that i dont want to send floodwater coarsing through the fuel system..

And to top it off, the idiots that were in the car were commode huggin" drunk!! And to ad insult to injury, the guy ask me if we would go back in and try to pull his car out of the water. All i could think to tell him at the time was " **** no !!! I hope your car washes away !!" I was really pi$$ed off !! I figure that i will be getting a call from the mayor later today

 

[halftrack]

My 5 ton was in 5 plus feet of water during Katrina. Tank totally underwater. That being said, a little water did manage to get in the tank (due to bad fuel tank cap gasket). Solution: do not dirve the truck or start it for a least a couple of days (give time for separation), then drain off bottom of tank as well as primary fuel filter (may want to change this out completely).

You shouldn't have any problems if you do this. If however when you drain the bottom of the fuel tank and a good solid stream of water continues to pour out after 5 seconds, then I would recommend discarding the entire contents of the fuel tank.

 

[papercu]

filter

I have a new fuel/water filter on ebay (complete unit) for your truck, if you need it. If you just want the filter I can ship without the housing. Wayne

ebay number 200217540707
or you can try the link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=200217540707&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=010

 

[bulldog_mack13]

RE: filter

Halftrack , do you havea M816 also? Did you happen to buy it from a guy name Gene?

 

[halftrack]

Re: RE: filter

Halftrack , do you havea M816 also? Did you happen to buy it from a guy name Gene?

I bought mine from GL over 5 years ago from Crane, ID at the Naval Weapons Depot.

 

[jwaller]

RE: Re: RE: filter

for the cost of a tank of fuel I think I'd drain it and start fresh. the fuel is way cheaper than the cost of a set of injectors and the labor to swap them.

 

[timntrucks]

RE: Re: RE: filter

yes dont waste to much time on that tank of diesel. you can use it on something less expensive like old tractors jason looks super cool up to his hips in new orleans water.

 

[tmbrwolf]

RE: Re: RE: filter

Also to add to this, check the tranny, transfer and diffs for water, also pull one of the steering knuckle bolts from the bottom of the steering knuckles on each side, if any water is found drain and refill the component, if water is found in the steering knuckle you'll have to disassemble the knuckle enough to repack the CV joint with grease, water in any of these is BAD! I try to tell the local fire departments I work with to try and keep them hub deep or less. On a different note when we had flooding last spring I had to replace a 5 ton multifuel engine that sucked water into the intake, the department had to rescue an idiot that drove his tractor into a flooded field and got stuck, while backing out the front end slid into the grader ditch and that's all she wrote!

 

[texas-5-ton]

RE: Re: RE: filter

Advise taken. I completely drained the tank yesterday and replaced the filter. I have not put it all back togather yet. How hard is it going to be getting started??