RVer sorts out confusion at the pump

You meet the most wonderful and interesting people along the RV road. A few weeks ago we found ourselves boondocking at the Prairie Village Museum in Rugby, ND. Parked next to us was Tom and Lesley Hesom from Winkler, Manitoba where according to Tom, "It is so flat there you can watch your dog run away for three days."
They immigrated from South Africa to Canada but have been avid RVers for many years. While living in South Africa they began RVing with a "caravan" (travel trailer) then went to a truck camper on a 4 x 4 for some rugged out-back adventures. They've RV'd in the heart of Africa where there weren't even roads.

Since immigrating to Canada they are enjoying their retired years with their kids and grandkids (who immigrated earlier) and they are also RVing whenever they get the chance. Tom told me this story about his experience with ethanol which could help some of our readers with older RVs. Here is his story in his own words:

"Bearing in mind that we emigrated from South Africa five years ago where there is no ethanol fuel; that to the best of my knowledge there are no ethanol blends in Canada yet: that our motorhome is of 1984 vintage with an old 350 cu in Chevy carburetor V8 engine that had never tasted ethanol before, we were completely ignorant about the confusing choices of fuel at US gas stations. "Regular" at 84 octane, and "Premium" at 91 octane, and sometimes a "mid-grade" at 87 octane, are available throughout Canada and both our RV and our 2004 SUV, and my various classic motorcycles, run quite happily on "Regular"Confusion reigned at our first gas filling in North Dakota where I was faced with the choice of no less than five choices of fuel! Obviously diesel was not an option so I plumbed for the cheapest option marked "E65, not realizing that "E" stood for ethanol, with disastrous results. On long hills and in the heat of the afternoons, it started to cut out and run intermittently; obvious symptoms of fuel starvation. I had changed the fuel filter in the carburetor body very recently and reasoned that it couldn't be that. After three tries at Auto Repair shops who were all too busy or "don't work on RV's", we found one who was prepared to take a look. On hearing the E65 ethanol story they changed the fuel filter again and fitted a new fuel pump. He had had the same problem many times before with older units where the ethanol has a scouring affect on fuel lines and pumps, loosening dirt etc and blocking passages previously unaffected by pure gasoline. He also explained that ethanol tended to vaporise more easily than gas in hot conditions thus causing fuel starvation. His advice was to use only Premium as that does not contain any ethanol. We took his advice and had no more trouble apart from a leaking front gas tank, presumably caused also by the cleansing/loosening affect of ethanol. Fortunately it has two tanks so we used only the good tank thereafter.

Moral of the story is to enquire about conditions properly before embarking on trips to other countries. Our circumstances were probably different from most Canadians who travel to the US frequently, but to us it turned out to be a real problem."

Promoting positive international RV relations - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing