Method and apparatus for refueling multiple vehicles
AssigneeRyan Incorporated Central
InventorJoe Fell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refueling dock for refueling multiple vehicles at one time is disclosed. The dock has a manifold that has an inlet that can be connected to a fuel tanker truck and a plurality of outlet openings. Each outlet opening has a valve that controls the flow of fuel through the hose. A nozzle is fitted to the hose and is located at the end of the hose distant from the outlet opening. Two or more hoses can be simultaneously connected to different equipment in need of refueling. A valved fuel tank inlet line enables fuel to flow from the manifold to a fuel tank on the dock. When needed, fuel from the tank can then be pumped to the manifold through a fuel tank outlet line,.which can be connected to the same inlet on the manifold that is used to receive fuel from the tanker trick.
Claims13
A refueling dock that can be used to simultaneously refuel multiple pieces of equipment and has:
- a wheeled base;
- a manifold;
- a plurality of refueling hoses that each extend from the manifold to a refueling nozzle;
- a valve associated with each refueling hose;
- an inlet on the manifold that accepts a fuel nozzle from a tanker truck;
- a fuel tank;
- a pump that is fluidly connected to the tank and enables a user to selectively draw fuel from the tank;
- a fuel tank outlet line through which fuel from the tank flows on the way to the manifold when the pump is operated;
- and
- a valved fuel tank inlet line through which fuel from the manifold flows to the fuel tank when the valve is open.
A method for refueling multiple pieces of equipment at a worksite comprising
- positioning a refueling dock with multiple refueling hoses in a staging area;
- aligning multiple pieces of equipment in need of fuel in front of and. behind the refueling dock;
- connecting one of the refueling hoses to each of the pieces of equipment;
- connecting a fuel tanker truck to the refueling dock;
- and
- simultaneously pumping fuel through the refueling dock to the, pieces of equipment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.