Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 13 14

Original poster

just stretch the hose over your sodding car

346 replies

PiperPublickOccurrences · 16/11/2018 14:55

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.

OP posts:

theycallmebabydriver · 16/11/2018 15:20

I snapped my flap doing this, so I don't recommend it

sorry, I know it's childish but snapped my flap 😂😂😂

FawnDrench · 16/11/2018 15:23

Nooooooo - I've even got a favourite pump!

I only go to the filling station at relatively quiet times to be sure of getting safely to my usual spot, unencumbered by other motorists hoiking hoses over their vehicles in a most insalubrious fashion.

Sirzy · 16/11/2018 15:25

I tend to use the same petrol station and happily wait for the pay at the pump which is also on the same side as my car fills.

I would only drag the hose over the car if I really had to, makes it much more of a faff than it needs to be

Laiste · 16/11/2018 15:26

I'm not particularly strong and hate faffing in public, but i manage this. The hose never touches my paintwork and the nozzle never drips on the car. Lots of times this is in a knackered little rural station with an age old pump.

You park the car as near to the petrol pump as you can, point the nozzle at the floor while you pull the hoze around the back and just bung the nozzle into the hole. The angle of the nozzle doesn't matter it will still work.

More embarrassing to be the one sitting waiting for the correct side causing a queue than to just get on with it and fart around a bit on the wrong side. Once you've done it once you get a technique going and it's fine.

Witchend · 16/11/2018 15:26

Surely if you're happy to stretch it over then that doesn't effect you as you can always go to the one that isn't queued. And if they're both queued why shouldn't people go to the one that makes it easier.

I can do either at most pumps but I'm a bit nervous after jarring my back badly trying to get it over once, so I'd prefer to wait (and I've never had to wait long at the time I go) and have it easier for me.

Mummyoflittledragon · 16/11/2018 15:27

Not all hoses reach. I have a similarly sized car to yours and when I tried to fill up like this a month or so ago the hose was about 6 inches short. Parked very close to the kerb. So annoying. In future I will only do this at the petrol stations I know have longer hoses.

Jenala · 16/11/2018 15:30

This drives me mad too. When I had a van I could reach every single hose round as long as I thought for a nanosecond about my positioning. The same now with my big estate. DH never used to due to fear of looking silly if they didn't reach but he does now. He had an interesting point when I moaned about it the other day (I'm not so boring as to talk about it all the time, it's just multiple cars were blocking anyone else from getting into the forecourt despite two free pumps), anyway DH wonders if people worry that other people will think they made a mistake about what side their fuel cap is on and hence avoid it. Who knows. We are all monkeys after all. But I'm with you OP. Yanbu.

ThursdayLastWeek · 16/11/2018 15:31

It’s only supermarket ones around me that have those high up hoses you can swing easily over a car. I don’t mind doing it there but TBH it’s never so busy it’s necessary.

Most of the smaller petrol station around here don’t have the type of hoses you can pull over - too low, and too short.

rosie39forever · 16/11/2018 15:31

I have arthritis in my hand and shoulders and can’t do this so I have to wait for a pump on the right side, bear in mind that some people have conditions and disabilities that prevents them from lifting the hose over the car not everyone does this just topics you off op.

Lovemusic33 · 16/11/2018 15:32

I would rather wait, I’m not in a ruse , I can’t see the pump from the other side and I don’t want to scratch my car or van.

rosie39forever · 16/11/2018 15:32

To piss you off

Leatherboundanddown · 16/11/2018 15:35

Wait, what? The hoses are that long? I have never heard of this or seen anyone even do it. I doubt I'd be able to as I am 5ft 1 and my car is tall!

TheOrigBrave · 16/11/2018 15:35

Wherever do you live that there are ALWAYS queues?

Do you have any flexibility as to when you can fill your car e.g. during the middle of the day?

Villanellesproudmum · 16/11/2018 15:36

I use to with my old car, the petrol cap was on the passenger side, with my new car it’s on the drivers side and usually there is no queue for that side. Don’t know if there is a more popular side for a petrol cap??

Original poster

PiperPublickOccurrences · 16/11/2018 15:39

The petrol station is always busy! There's only one supermarket petrol station within about 20 minutes' drive. it's quite a lot cheaper per litre than the other BP/Esso and so on, so is very busy.

It's also exclusively pay at pump which, to be fair, adds to the slowness as people seem unable to grasp the "put your card in, enter pin, draw fuel" principle.

OP posts:

howabout · 16/11/2018 15:41

It's more inefficient for all cars for everyone to be faffing around stretching hoses and champing at the bit to get to the free pump ASAP. It doesn't magic up more pumps and makes every transaction longer. Also more likely to cause accidents.

YABU and adding to the queue - bit like people overtaking on slip ramps rather than working with those timing traffic flow.

Miscible · 16/11/2018 15:42

More embarrassing to be the one sitting waiting for the correct side

I'm not in the least embarrassed by that.

Sexnotgender · 16/11/2018 15:45

No thank you.

I’ve done it once and it was a massive ball ache so I’ll just continue to do it on the appropriate side.

nicebitofquiche · 16/11/2018 15:46

I've never found one that doesn't stretch across. And I'm a very weak person and I mange to do it. Yanbu.

TheOrigBrave · 16/11/2018 15:46

I'm quite strong, but not very heavy, it is always my fear that I'll have a lapse in concentration and get retracted at speed into the pump, never to be seen again.

Anyway, after you've had to endure the humiliation of being 'the foreign driver' at toll booths on the continent, pissing off a few people at the local Jet garage doesn't bother me.

TheEmmaDilemma · 16/11/2018 15:48

Honestly this drives me crazy.

I will however concede that I did once find a garage where this wasn't possible due to the hose and I had to move.

But in 90% of garages with most cars this is more than possible.

DonDrapersOldFashioned · 16/11/2018 15:49

I park my 4x4 (again, tall, wide) a bit further forward of the pump so that the hose can be pulled around the back of the car, rather than over the top of it.

user8905 · 16/11/2018 15:49

My car's too tall and long to stretch it around.

If you're going to stretch it around a normal car you often have to park in the right position .. I can see why people don't try and go for the simplest option.

Banterlope · 16/11/2018 15:49

If you're driving a hire car (for example) and don't know which side your tank is on, look at the fuel gauge. Most modern cars, if not all, have an icon or arrow to indicate left or right, so you don't accidentally pull up on the wrong side

just stretch the hose over your sodding car

Fridaydreamer · 16/11/2018 15:49

You don’t even have to stretch it over. Just park up slightly further forward and the hose goes behind your car and around to the petrol cap. Easy and no drop or scratch risk.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 13 14