Lesson Learned…NEVER Fill a Diesel Tank With Regular Gasoline!

Oops! OK bad move! But to be fair, EVERY gas station across the U.S. has a GREEN handle on the diesel fuel nozzle….EXCEPT BP gas stations…all of their regular gas nozzles are green. Thank God Cary realized (after filling 17 gallons) what he. had done and did not start the RV! Starting the engine could have destroyed the engine, fuel injection system, and more. So there we were at the BP gas station, alongside the fuel pump, and could not move the RV for four and a half hours! 🙁 Bummer!

First dilema…actually finding a mechanic, service station, mobile mechanic, fuel removal company, or Mercedes Benz dealership with a service department that services Sprinter vans, (most don’t), who could actually drain the fuel out of the tank. Great luck! There was a Mercedes Benz dealership only 6 miles from where we were! BUT, even if we could tow the van to the dealership, it might take a few days before they could get to our RV. 🙁 Bummer!

Second dilema…towing an RV. Not easy. Finding a towing company that could tow the van was our first obstacle. It took 2 hours to locate a flatbed truck. But NO! The RV is too tall for the tow truck to legally drive on the road. 🙁 Bummer!

Third dilema…finding a heavy lift hook truck. After another 2 hours, a heavy lift hook truck showed up. Yeah! This ordeal is going to end! We can be towed! Uh oh! We can’t take the van out of “P” Park, and put it into “N” Neutral without starting up the engine. Oh no! Additionally, the van can’t be towed from the back because of the propane tank, etc. So much to our dismay, even if somehow we could shift the gears from “P” to “N” it would have to be towed from the front. The tow truck driver, Dan, said he could release the drive shaft, but it’s under pressure and when it releases it could fly out and he could be seriously hurt and so he said to Jamie, “You’ll have to find someone else to tow the RV.” Jamie quickly moved into super sad, helpless woman mode and played on his sympathies. She told him he was our last hope and we are supposed to meet our family, including grandkids, (Dan was in his 70’s) in S. Dakota in a few days. Dan acquiesced and climbed under the van and with the help from Cary putting the jacks down to raise the van, he was able to release the driveshaft. But…we still had to get it into “N” neutral. After many back and forth phone calls to the mechanic at the Mercedes dealership, Cary was able to move the gears from “P” park to “N” neutral. And we were off!!!!! 🙂 Yeah!

After spending the night across the street from the dealership at a Quality Inn, about 9:30 am the next morning we saw the mechanic open the hood on the van and start working. 🙂 Yeah!

1:30 pm back on the road! 😁 Clean tank. New fuel filter. A stop at a gas station for a full tank of gas! haha! Just kidding! 😜 Diesel of course!