Thank you all! I am off to investigate. I will post my eventual findings and results, as others may benefit here.

I'm not laughing, I'm designing. (Yes, I have too much free time on my hands.) Running water is one of the most powerful things known to man.

Heck, if it can be run off water, the basic design could be modified so that it uses high pressure air. Like you'd get on an air bottle refill station.

Update: Found some air powered ones.
http://www.barnant.com/products.php?product=18
http://www.techsavvy.com/industry/file/n...p;base_region=* (scroll to the end)

And Northern Tool has everthing under the sun. Electical and air, and I didn't look far enough, but I wouldn't be suprised if they had hand pumped.
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/s...matchallpartial

How about fixing up your vehicle with a built in pump, 12v wired with switch & suction hose? You could stop at any source of gas, put in the hose & suck up all that your tank will hold!

My original idea was something portable, since we would need to keep a fleet of about a dozen vehicles running in an emergency (which might just be a long-term power failure). We might also be providing fuel for our local ambulances, generators, chain saws, etc. But you all have given me lots of information to research. Thank you. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Blast most convenience store/gas station tanks in SC are somewhere in the neighbor hood of 10 feet in diameter. They are usually designed to hold between 10,000 and 15,000 depending on available space.

Then add in that most tanks are buried at least 6 to 10 feet underground in SC due to environmental regulation.

If you add this up you may need a hose or pipe in the range of 20 to 30 feet long. Plus you will need a pump that can pull the fuel, don't know of anyone that could mouth-siphon from that deep. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

So you need both gas and deisel? Or are your trucks on unleaded?

When I went looking, as you've probaby already seen, there are a lot of options for deisel that aren't there for gas. Like the 70 gallon bladders that go in a false bottom of a pickup bed. Now that is enough to get out of dodge a few times.