I have a 2007 RT 170 on a Chevy Express chassis. I have a very difficult time filling it with gas. Unless you can find the one "sweet spot" (usually with nozzle over to the side and lifted up IF it's going to work), it continually kicks off, stops pumping (after a couple of dollars worth of gas). Every now and again, no problem at all. I have the best luck with the old-fashioned skinny nozzles without all the rubber around them. Some people have said it might be the vapor recovery system. I've taken it to the Chevy dealer and they unkinked a hose but no change. Does anyone else have this problem? Any solutions? Thanks!
MMCKELL,
No solution, but yes mine will do it every once and a while. Sometimes it happens when the front is lower than the back, but most of the time I think it's the nozzle from the pump. I tend to not put the nozzle all of the way in if it has the rubber protector on it, I leave about an inch for it to breath a little. We still love the RT, for us it makes a read nice daily driver, I am getting around 14-14.5 MPG on my daily use which is a little around town use and highway.
When you put gas in he tank the air it displaces has to have somewhere to go. Yours is obviously blocked somewhere. When you use the old type of nozzle it lets some of the air out the filler tube. If you can get to your tank see if there is a vent tube that exits the tank and hooks into the filler tube near the top. Sometimes these are rubber and can be kinked. I am not familiar with the Chevy setup but since this does not seem to be a common Chevy problem I would guess that it is something like I described.
Good luck.
Wayne, the old curmudgeon
My 2002 C190P has a similar problem, although not quite a severe as what you are describing. I find that if I don't lock the gas nozzle on full blast but lock the nozzle on it's lowest notch and feed the gas in slower I have less problems. That is until I get to the last 4 or 5 gallons. Then, I have to hand feed it very slowly in spurts and let the gas settle down into the tank with pauses of 10 seconds or so between spurts. Also, having the nose of the RT down slightly seems to help mine to get the gas to run down into the tank. On mine, it doesn't seem to make much difference where or how I put the nozzle into the filler port.
I have heard/read some information to the effect that when RoadTrek relocated the gas tank they used too small of a filler tube making it difficult to impossible to completly fill the tank. Maybe someone else can confirm or deny this.
I just went through a "gas leak" situation that throws some light on this problem. I have a 2004 RT 190 P. I was smelling lots of gas after filling, upon hard braking, sitting front down, all at relatively full tank situations. I had a hell of a time finding a shop to work on it. RT shops don't do chassis work and Chevy dealers don't do RTs.
When RT makes the conversion, they take the tank out of the van to gain access to the underside of the truck. The normal fill point for the tank is about half way back on the driver side, but they need that for the fridg access panel so they move the fill point back to the rear and run a long hose from that point to near the front of the tank. Where this hose enters the tank (the original pipe connection) they put a metal part in place that has the side arm to feed the generator. Now the gas must run through a long, shallow slope of hose rather than the original short almost straight down hose. The gas runs down this shallow slope very slowly and causes the poor filling characteristics we all know and love. Having the van level helps as does a slight cant to the right (the hose connection is on the left side of the tank.)
By the way, the problem that caused my gas leaking problem was caused by the way the tank was re-installed by RT. Instead of being installed level from left to right, it was hung in place in its straps with a little cant or roll to the left. This brought the "spout" that the gas fill hose connects to near the left main frame member. When the tank was full it actually rested on the frame and vibration and shock caused a crack to develop around the lower circumference where the spout joined the tank body. It cost me over $2000 to get the problem diagnosed and a new tank installed (correctly!) Of course both RT and Chevy said, "Sorry, out of warranty."
So if you get gas smell symptoms, that is a place to look. (The part from Chevy is $1200.)
(Sorry for the verbosity)
Tor2ga
Roadtrek 190 Popular (2004)
Belle, the yellow Lab assistant
We occasionally have trouble filling our 2000 Dodge. It happens when filling up on trips at ?????? gas stations.
I just asked Joe what brand it is and he suffers from the same disease that I do---CRS (Can't Remember Stuff)
It might be Citgo but we're not sure.
Marilyn w/ Joe, 2000 Xplorer Class B van, usually pulling a Ranger bass boat.
Smudge, (in photo) a Shih Tzu/Yorkie Mix and Gizmo is waiting at the Rainbow Bridge
Tor2ga,
Thanks for the all the good info! It gives me a lot of troubleshooting ideas. I am not one to get under the van and check connections, vents, etc. I had to have the gas tank dropped this week to get the connection from sink to grey tank repaired, but it was still hard to fill afterwards.
I never saw this issue addressed before. Now I am really glad I got the Pleasure Way. I never liked the idea of removing the gas tank and cutting out the floor for a shower basin. When you consider that most B users never use the vehicle shower because it is just too tight anyway, I can see why Pleasure Way takes the easy way out to installing their nonfunctional shower. Incidently my local Chevy dealer never refused to work on my Pleasure Way but I suspect the problem with that dealer was more that the gas tank was altered by the converter. He didn't want to touch that problem. Frankly Roadtrek should have handled this factory defect even if it was out of warranty.
I could't usually get my '02 C190P to take fuel at full flow, but could almost always get it to take the first or second notch on the auto-fill nozzle. I'd rock the van a bit to be sure it was full, but that was mostly habit (not sure where it came from ).
FWIW, the older Tiger CX's have a reputation for having fuel fill problems, since they relocate the filler 'way to the rear without moving the tank. Mine has consistently taken fuel with only a few stoppages, but usually at no more than the first or second notch. I have experienced the stoppage problem occasionally and very irregularily. One trip it happened three consecutive times at the same brand of station (Kangaroo). From this, I think it may be partly a problem with the sensitivity of the nozzle as much as anything to do with the vehicle.
Jim, "I tried to microwave instant coffee, and went back in time."
'06 Tiger CX 'C Minus' on a Silverado 2500HD 4x4, 8.1 & Allison ('Loafer's Glory'); '07 Forester 2.5 ( the 'HANDBSKT'); '95 Toyota SR5 V-6 4x4 pickup, ARB locker, Bilsteins, Warn hubs & M8000, etc;
'94 968, M030 swaybars ('DOPPLER')
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