NATO / 5gal Gas Cans - Where is the best place to buy?

[John W]

Where is the best place to purchase usable (ie in good/decent condition) gas cans for a reasonable price?

For those of you buying surplus cans, what is the average price you are paying?

The surplus cans I have seen had sludge in the bottom of them. What method do you utilize to clean this out? Or is it not even worth the effort?

Thanks!

[John W]

Bueller?... Bueller?... Bueller?

[johnnychimpo]

I look for cans on Craiglist. To clean them I put a section of chain in them add some gas, replace the top. The shake them till its broken loose. The chain will loosen any rust also. I use Red Kote to seal the inside of metal cans.

[Tangotag]

Copes Distributing had 5 Gallon GI Plastic (Scepter) fuel cans for a short period of time back in the spring. About the only other place for these is Ebay.

I bought a couple and paid around $45ea. They were used, OD in color, had some spray paint and stickers on them. They cleaned up nice and the gaskets and caps sealed up good.
They compliment my GI Water (Scepter) 5 Gallon cans.

I have a Super Siphon to in theory transfer the fuel from the cans mounted in a exterior rack to the fuel tank.
This way the cans will be fueled in place and not need to be lifted for a re-fueling operation.

I still need to design and build the fuel & spare tire carrier for my Jeep.

[John W]

This is all great info. To think that I walked away from half a pallet of these things at $15 a pop thinking they were too dirty and sludge filled.

As they say, knowing is half the battle. Thanks for the heads up guys! I'll stay posted on craigslist and the local surplus stores to see what I can dig up.

[lowprone]

Deutsche Optic has them brand new, lots of other interesting items also.