just stretch the hose over your sodding car

[PiperPublickOccurrences]

I don't fill the car with fuel that often as it's mainly just used for around time.

Every time I go to the petrol station the access is blocked by people queuing for a pump on the "correct" side of their car.

If I can stretch the hose over my mum-bus people carrier, you can stretch it over your ford fiesta.

Petrol station etiquette should definitely be on the driving test.

I’m always interested at threads like this where people cannot imagine anything outside their own personal experience

^ This!

I will go either side in my big 4x4 but it's easier to be the right side for me to see the screen. I am only 5ft and yes - there are some cars I actually can't reach the pedals in!

Our pickup truck however we cannot reach even a long hose to the other side. A station attendant and the manager at one with extra long hoses came out to try too and couldn't get it to reach either. You'd need to climb up the car to get it over and it's too long (even pulled forward) to get it round.

Some people have different capabilities. Some stations are different. It's not impossible to understand that.

Either way though, just trying to be considerate while queueing would help, be aware of you're blocking the way, move if you can and keep an eye out for the pumps in front coming free and go to them if possible rather than waiting for two cars to have moved to keep things moving. People who are unnecessarily inconsiderable and or completely oblivious to others (either way round) are the issue. I do get the rage if people are queuing badly and could just move forward slightly to allow several others to get in other queues, to the air pump, shop etc

I know that this is unusual, A long time ago a garage I was at had to shutdown for (what I recall as being) several hours as someone had the hose over the car and had trapped the gun in their car.

Unless you live in London and it's borough not every petrol station offers this option to extend the hose

In fact I think it's nonsense because the elderly and very weak cannot pull across a stiff petrol hose when it's an ancient pump and not designed as such to enter either side

Only certain pumps are designed and are raised to reach both sides, having researched this

Unless you live in London and it's borough not every petrol station offers this option to extend the hose

Well I am a good 500 miles away from London

I often put petrol in on the wrong side and have no difficulty doing it,. The ones who really piss me off are the ones who use the pay at the pump lane then fuck off into the shop to spend the next 30 minutes shopping thus blocking the lane.

Not only do I wait for the pump on my side I also use high octaine fuel which is only usually on the front pump
OP you would hate me 🤷‍♀️

Pay at pump doesn't work half the time. When it does work we all appreciate it working but it is prone to errors and won't scan clubcard and payment card for example then you have to go into the shop

I parked with the pump on the "wrong" side once and the hose did not reach. Then I realised that only some of the pumps were labelled "extra long hose" and only those would reach the other side of the car. So I had to drive out and in again. Most pumps locally are just normal hoses that do not reach the other side of the car.

4 pages of this stuff - has the OP got it yet?

Anyone else with arthritis who finds squeezing the trigger thingy difficult I have one of these

BishopBrennansArse That gadget looks perfect for me, but don't you get told off over the tannoy for using it? I shove the filler cap into the gap to get the same effect and get shouted at by the tannoy woman quite often.

Queuing at a petrol station is a great British pastime, it’s a tradition, surpassed only by queuing and tutting at the bank/post office and as those two are dying out, this is all we’ll have left! Although having read the driverless car thread earlier, this one’s days are numbered too!

Personally, I long for petrol stations with an attendant who fills up for you whilst you stay dry and warm and fume free in the car

In my small car I just pull a little forward and can stretch it behind the car to reach.
I can't do this for dh's big car when I have that. I'm not tall enough and don't have the strength to pull it so far round - arthritis and restricted strength in hands wrists and arms.

I do wish we had locking pumps though as, especially with a flare up, squeezing the nozzle trigger can be painful for me as it is.

Also with dh's big car I can't pull forward to do it behind as it then would block the way for cars leaving the pumps. It's not a big space

seriously you expect someone to pull out the hose and then swing it over their car hoping its long enough? sometimes I struggle to fit the hose in my car on the right side especially at shell or newer garages. Its hard to hold when the pipe is stretched as well.

I always stretch it. If you park further forward just past the pump then the rubber hose just goes across the back of your car. No need for it to go OVER your car 😂

You could make a Mr Bean of footaeg of me trying to stretch the hose over the car to the other side on various cars over the last 49 years I have been driving. So many of them won't stretch and then you are in a right old mess. They seem to be getting shorter and shorter these days. I try not to stretch over now as there seems to be a 50% chance they won't reach. Last time I tried I was able using brute force to get it in but then it just trickled in and took about 5x as long to fill up and I was worried i had broken the whole machine.

@thenightsky I'm always right there with the nozzle and have a hand on it even though I'm not squeezing and never had an issue.

(....39... I am not quite that old. I passed at 17 and thought of this thread this morning when crouched down with the pump nozzle over my small lawn mower can. Thankfully it was not quite my usual Mr Bean Sketch experience and it all went into the right place)....

Had to do a double take last night in between laughing at the Mr Bean visual Xenia as I know the ages of your DTs (thought I was the oldest Mum on the planet)

Struggling with a full leg brace atm so Mr Bean doesn't even begin to cover most of my antics. This thread has fare cheered me up though even if it will be a while before I am fit for either side of the petrol pumps.

It's hard enough to hold the lever down when the hose is on the correct side. Sometimes I have to use both hands. I go to the gym and lift weights so I don't think there is anything wrong with my grip, they are just another not very user friendly object.

The hose might go round the back of my car, but if I'm at the front pump I'd be blocking the way out and if I were at the back pump then the front car would be in the way! Other people may have more spacious petrol stations but mine has only space for 4 cars at pumps, maybe two behind and two at the far side getting air or using the shop. I'm not risking blocking another driver in!