Tremcar, Boston Steel show off custom-spec’d tankwagons following EEE

DURING this year’s Eastern Energy Expo in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Boston Steel and Tremcar representatives and distributors were on site with two special fuel tankwagons—one dedicated to Fannon Petroleum Services and the other built for Eastway Tank.

The Fannon Petroleum Services Inc tank truck is a Boston Steel unit assembled in Haverhill, Massachusetts. Fannon Petroleum Services is located in Gainesville, Virginia, and is a wholesale distributor of multiple refined fuel products for commercial and government customers.

The company provides fuel oil, gasoline, diesel fuel, and heating oil to customers in the Washington DC metropolitan area, which includes Northern Virginia and the Washington-Baltimore, Maryland, corridor. Their new bulk plant has three bays of gasoline and diesel dispensers for cars and trucks and can accommodate all sizes of fuel oil trucks--from 500 to 10,000 gallons.

What is their best Boston Steel feature?

According to Marty Hanscome, operations manager at Fannon Petroleum Services, one of the best features on the Boston Steel unit is the gravity drop meter installed in a cabinet under the tank. Because some receiving bays have outside storage tanks that necessitate pumping of the fuel, and in other cases where customers have in ground tanks, the drop meter was the solution to facilitate deliveries. While maintaining the traditional pump meter located over the chassis’ frame rails, Boston Steel technicians added an extra meter and pump located under the tank to accommodate gravity drop.

The versatile unit offers delivery flexibility and time savings. Dropping the fuel is much less time consuming. It takes about 30 minutes to unload whereas pumping the fuel out may take up to 50 minutes. Furthermore, while dropping refined fuel into in-ground tanks is typical for many customers in the region, customers were asking for tickets for gravity drops. The Boston Steel/Fannon tank truck was built specifically to accommodate this request. Fuel receiving reservoirs are not all built the same. Fannon Petroleum wanted to provide flexible delivery, save time and offer an ergonomic environment for their drivers.

“Boston Steel listens to our needs and is willing to go that extra mile to find solutions,” Hanscome said. “Nowadays personalized service and quality products are hard to come by, and we are very satisfied with Boston Steel/Tremcar.”

Eastway Tank Truck chose a Tremcar “Hutch” model assembled by Eastway Tank. Eastway Tank is a Tremcar distributor located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The company is a “one stop shop” able to customize fuel tankers, multi-compartment fuel trucks or trailers to meet customer needs.

Like Tremcar, Eastway Tank has a long history serving the specialized needs of the aircraft refueling sector. They also carry a wide variety of used tankers and can also equip Tremcar aircraft refuelers to meet specific customer needs.

The Eastway tankwagon on display at the show is an on-site fleet refueling unit (also known as “OSR” or “wheel to wheel” fueling). The special thing about this truck is that it has two different sized pumps to increase the unit’s flexibility/capability: one pump is a 2.5” and the other is a high volume 3” pump married up to a 2” and a standard 13/8” hose via a diverter valve. The PTO operates via a hydraulic drive system. The tank capacity is slightly greater than standard: 21,000 liters (approximately 5,550 US gallons).

Art Slaughter, president of Eastway Tank appreciates the build spec flexibility of the old “Hutch” model, as well as features that make the tank easy to work on and the quality of the workmanship.

“Tremcar tanks are durable and their resale value is high,” Slaughter said. “We know our customers made a good investment when they choose to buy Tremcar.”