runninl out of reefer fuel

That should work and a pretty good idea. A friend of mine put one of those 12v inline fuel pumps on his reefer years ago and he said it worked great when it would lose its prime, I've meant to do the same to mine but never have.

 

On most units you need to crack the banjo bolt loose on the fuel line at the lift pump.
Then pump the primer until only fuel squirts out to get the air out of the system.
This takes many less pumps,tighten the bolt then it should fire right up.

This is in the owners manual and printed inside the door of most units.

Blowing more air into the the fuel lines will probably not help anything.

 

Probably a bad idea, as those fuel feed lines were never designed to hold pressure. Might have worked for the dude at the t/s counter, but I wouldn't want to be the one blowing fittings apart or damaging the tank. Much better to not let the tank run out. They put those tiny hand pumps on them to teach you a lesson, otherwise they'd all come with electric lift pumps LOL

 

Open the nut and use the air. I had one but never used it on mine after running out of fuel the first time! Lesson learned.

The best way is to NEVER fuel and not fuel the unit unless you pick up the trailer from the meat patch after they have used it to keep 1 box of meat cold! Or the moron who pulled it all over BFE dropped it running and almost MT on fuel! Those are the drivers I'd rather see working the drive through at the Clowns place!

The best thing to have is one of those siphon hoses with the ball #### in it and an MT milk jug or bottle and siphon a few gallons out of the truck and then get to a fuel stop and top off!

If nothing else never pull in to fill up and not fill the unit! It's a lot cheaper to fill the unit or at least keep enough in it to make the delivery over paying for a load of whatever because the recorder in the box shows that it got over the limit and you get stuck with a large bill and a product not worth the money you just lost!

Yes the cap with the tire valve or the tennis ball with the valve stem is great but if you don't back off the relief nut on the unit that's going to be a large repair bill to replace those injectors! Use that "system" with caution and if you are habitually running out of fuel then Reefer is not where you need to be! Try dry or flat because how hard is it to look at a fuel gauge or look in the tank?

 

Many shops have a pressurized fuel priming set-up that does what you want to do. We had one 39 years ago and i actually made a redneck deal from an old inner tube and a hose clamp that i could clamp over the fuel filler neck.

A couple months ago my fuel pump primer quit on US 41 in Wisconsin in a construction zone. I had a shop come out to try to get me running and he used an old fire extinguisher filled with diesel fuel and pressurized with air... he hooked the line to my engines fuel pump thru the stock CAT quick coupler on the fuel pump but it wouldn't keep enough pressure to run.

 

Blowing air into the system will do nothing unless the bleed screw on the lift pump is open.
Still not worth the risk on these newer units being they have plastic lines on them.
A wrench and a screwdriver and under 5 minutes you can bleed it the right way and have it running.
Also when you remove the banjo bolt at the fuel line it is a great time to clean any crud out that always seems to end up there.

I had to show all of our other drivers how to do this so they would not have to pump the primer for 30 minutes trying to get it to start.

 

Mental note to self.

"Don't trust anything perishable that comes out of Cali....."

I would be reluctant to latch onto any reefer load that is sitting there with a dead unit and temperatures well out of the safety range. Thank God for HAACP.

I'm just baffled at the fact that it is a bad enough problem to warrant building a device that makes the priming process easier. You're technically not blowing air through the lines, it would be fuel, but I would recommend some form of pressure regulator at the cap (<10 psi) to avoid damaging the lines.

 

It'll work and will save the pumping. But you do have to open the system up near the fuel rail. There are more than one location. You need to do that to let what air is in the line escape because it can't get by the injectors.

It could get messy if you are back there by the tank not watching it.

What you could do is maybe use a quick connect on the cap. Pressurize and then go bleed.

On the other hand, you need to be topping your tank off more. I ran out only once. Usually you don't do it again. That's the best fix!

I very rarely let my tank drop below a 1/2. A few times a 1/4, but never push it. There's too much $$$ back there.