Creating the World's Best Gas Caddy - Part 3
Author Jerry Hoffmann, Inventor of the Smart Ass FuelMule, and co-founder of Smart Ass Products, LLC shares how this idea came to life.
If you haven't yet-- you can check out Part 1 and 2 of this series here:
Putting this amazing Gas Caddy to work!!!
Part 2 of this series got into how the very first Smart Ass FuelMule prototype was designed and built. Now it was time to put it to use!!! And put it to use I did.
My family and I are pretty active on the waters of Lake Lanier here in Gainesville, GA. And we tend to fill up our 2021 Supra SA400 about twice a week during the Georgia boating season, which runs from around April through October, sometimes with an extra month on one side or the other of that range.
That's about 50 gallons, twice per week roughly. So about 100 gallons/week of gasoline. We run E10 89 Octane in our boat. We never leave it in the tank long enough for the small ethanol content to be a problem, and our Supra's Owners Manual recommends E10 89 so we're giving our boat everything it needs.
In the beginning, it was about cost savings (and not breaking my back)
Lugging jugs sucks!
Nobody can deny. Those 5 gallon jugs weigh in the range of 35 lbs each. And to fill 50 gallons. You need 10 of them. That's a lot of jugs to carry to the dock. Lugging them down the hill full. Then back up the hill empty. Even if you can use a golf cart or SxS to get them close to your dock, you're still lugging them out onto the dock. It's terrible. And a massive timesuck.
Then when you get them out there, you've got to actually fill the boat with them. That's holding them up in the air, carefully pouring the fuel into your boat. 10 jugs. About 2 minutes each assuming you're using straight nozzles without any of the government mandated restrictions that have all but made these kinds of gas cans useless. You're flat worn out when you're done. And the leaks, oh my gosh those gas nozzles ALWAYS are developing leaks. The very fact that you have to unscrew the nozzle to fill them up, then reinstall the nozzle to use them, again and again and again, wears them out in short order. The gaskets and seals around the nozzle and cap aren't made for heavy repetitive use, and they wear out fast. The best of them just drip a little bit. But most get far worse than that and dribble consistently, and some just let it flow....
You really don't want to be spilling fuel in the lake, or down the side of your boat, or tractor, or excavator, airplane, or whatever else you're filling! It's not safe, it's not clean, and it's not good for the environment. There is a better way.
Yes there are tools to help make using jugs easier (you still have to lug them though). Other gas caddies that don't carry as much, and still make you do all the work manually dragging them by hand and using a weaksauce pump solution. Funnel type devices, and siphon devices, that yes, are a bit faster than pouring by hand, but you're still breaking your back lugging jugs and lifting them either to pour them into the funnel device, or to raise them above the boat's filler neck level so that the siphon will work. You can't siphon sideways or up, only down.... You're still breaking your back. And dripping gas everywhere, it's unavoidable. And have you ever seen what happens when you're funneling fuel into a tank that gets full before the funnel is empty? You guessed it... it's all going into the lake like a gushing fountain. It's bad.
Every Smart Ass likes to save a few bucks...
The less the fuel costs, the more time I and my family can spend on the boat! And we can spend time together not just playing on the water, but going out for a nice meal at one of our favorites lake restaurants.
So just how much money can you save using a Smart Ass FuelMule Gas Caddy?
The local marina sells Rec90, which is an ethanol free fuel. For the most part, that's the only fuel available on the lake. They charge anywhere from about $2.00/gal to $3/gal more per gallon than our local Murphy's Express street gas station, which tends to have the best on-land prices nearby.
- Summer of 2021 was about a $2/gallon difference
- Summer of 2022 was about a $3/gallon difference (wow!)
- Summer of 2023 was about a $2/gallon difference
- Summer of 2024 it's about $2.40/gallon difference as of right now.
So quick math... Using the available street sourced E10 89 Octane fuel instead of Marina sourced Rec90. Assuming a 26 weeks long boating season here. Filling up twice a week (100 gallons/week). And using the most conservative $2/gal savings number.... that's still $5200 saved per year!!!
(26 x 100) x $2 = $5200 per year of savings!!!
That means that for the 2022 year, when gas prices were extra high at the marinas compared to land prices--- I actually saved around $7800!!!
The pleasant surprise I wasn't counting on -- I saved tons of TIME!!
On average using the Smart Ass FuelMule Gas Caddy to fill my boat, about 10-30 minutes per fillup is saved. I live right near a marina too. But to put the boat in the water, go to the marina (less than 2miles by water), fill up (assuming the pump is open and there is no wait), and get back to the dock would take more than 35 minutes.
And that was best case scenario. That assuming that nobody is using the pump when I get there so I don't have to wait. It's not uncommon to have to wait 10 minutes or more in line for a pump to open up. And the pumps at the marina near me, sometimes get SLOW. At least a couple times per year they have problems and flow as slow as 1gal/minute. That's 50 minutes just at the pump!!! (they always blame the filters, or the water level, and say to stop the pump and start it again and it'll fix it -- it does not).
I can load my Smart Ass FuelMule in my truck, drive the 1 mile or so to the gas station, fill the gas caddy up and get back to the house, unload it and fill the boat ... in about 25 minutes.
If we go with the moderate/average case scenario at the marina-- and say I save 20 minutes per fillup in comparison.... with 52 fillups per year on average... That's almost 18 hours I save! (And the reality is usually better than that-- you know how often you have to wait for a pump at a marina.... it is NOT always a best case scenario- it's more likely I save closer to 25 or more hours per year!)
Testing, Taking Notes, and refinements! For 3+ years....
So... it's spring of 2021 and this amazing fuel caddy creation is amazing. It's saving me time. It's saving me money. It's saving my back. And if you pay the slightest bit of attention to what you're doing, it completely eliminates so much as a drop of gasoline being spilled. No more gas in the lake!
I used it. I took notes. I kept a document saved on my phone names something along the lines of FUELMULE GAS CADDY TWEAKS, and anything I thought of anything I thought could improve the prototype, I wrote it down! A bit more power/torque. Brass oil-embedded flange bearings in the steering mechanism to make it steer smoother/easier. A three-way switch that would only pump up either the drive motor, or the pump, but never both at the same time. Easy to reset circuit breakers. A sealed battery/electronics box. And several other notes. I was about to create the best gas caddy ever.
I tested what angles it could climb, empty and full. How much traction it got. How well it could track STRAIGHT up or down ramps, to ensure for safe loading and unloading into and out of a truck or trailer. I found with my original prototype and it's 500watt brushed motor, I could do most anything I'd ever want the unit to do, except one thing. I could not reliably motor up ramps if my tank was full of fuel. It was just too much weight. It would do it with half a tank, and even 3/4 of a tank. And if I pulled on it, it would do it with a full tank. But I wanted it to be EASY. Noted. We'd be going with a stronger motor in the final product, and tweaking the gearing a bit. The end product would climb ramps with a full tank like they weren't even there.
I tested how long the batteries would last, how many trips I could get out of a single charge (about 6-7).
I left it outside, without much of any protection, to see how it handled the elements. Without paint, or powdercoat, or galvanized coatings on the mechanicals.. well... it all rusted. Good news? It still works great! Great news? Well, we're coating everything in the drivetrain with a galvanized/zinc coating to prevent rust, powdercoating the frame, and using an aluminum tank which makes rust a non-issue there. And to commemorate, we named that first prototype 'Rusty'.
I tested a differential rear end, with the goal being an even tighter turning radius. What this meant though, was that on steep inclines, only one wheel/tire would turn at times. Essentially giving me one-wheel drive. This worked ok on flat ground, but was not going to be safe on hills (motoring up or braking down) or on ramps. If only one wheel is getting traction, it won't climb or descend straight, and that could lead you right off the ramps! I couldn't have that....
So I went back to a solid axle, which always gives the Smart Ass FuelMule 2 wheels holding traction, and makes climbing and descending reasonably steep inclines/ramps a breeze!! It just wants to climb nice and straight!
At the same time, in tight spaces, it navigated well but there was some room for improvement in steering geometry... noted. We would make a change in the second prototype.
Ground Clearance -- On that first prototype 'Rusty', I had my brake disc and sprocket close to the middle of the axle. It never hurt anything, but yes, they created a low spot and hit rocks and roots sometimes. I made a note to move those out to the outside, right next to the wheels, to maximize ground clearance.
Time to call in some backup....
So in early 2023, I had a list of refinement ideas together and knew I wanted to build another prototype in an effort to refine this into a product that I could build a business out of, in an effort to solve this problem for thousands of people, and not just for me.
My buddy Dylon DaSilva and I were sitting on my dock one evening enjoying a cigar and talking about life. Dylon used to work with me at my at my past company DIYAutoTune. He is a degreed engineer, a detail oriented critical thinker, and a natural entrepreneur. We discussed another business opportunity that had come up for him, and he just wasn't feeling it it seemed. Then somehow we got to talking about the FuelMule Fuel Caddy concept and prototype I had come up with. I demonstrated it for him and told him about how much time and money it had saved me, and how much more pleasant it made the task of fueling up my boat. He lit up. He didn't come here looking for a business opportunity, but this was suddenly exciting. And our conversation quickly turned to how we might be able to work together to bring this thing to life.
Over the following weeks, we came to a verbal arrangement, and we started to work at it. First step-- we implement the changes I had dreamt up, and we brainstorm and come up with others and implement those as well.
I got the CAD files over to Dylon, and he went at it. We made the most of the list of changes above on our second prototype, though we still used the same 500w brushed motor. We also made a few other tweaks we had brainstormed up, including shortening the wheelbase a bit in an effort to make the already compact design, even moreso.
And we built it. And began to test it. And found it to be even more amazing. Rusty got the job done, but what came to be known later as 'Tippy' was designed to be more refined. Tighter steering that didn't rattle around with loose fit components, which never hurt Rusty's function, but it was time to refine the form here. Better ground clearance with the motor and brakes swapped from left to right, allowing the sprocket to be put right up against one wheel/tire, and the brake disc to be put up against the other. Hydraulic disc brakes for even more powerful braking. Three-way switched power using a key to select OFF/PUMP/DRIVE. And several other tweaks, many of which are outlined above and a few that were not.
Tippy worked great. But there was one tweak we decided we did not like, which, well, is what earned prototype 2 the nickname Tippy in the first place. She didn't dump over easily, not at all. In fact, you would have had to have tried to dump her, or done something exceptionally dumb to do so. But with the shorter wheelbase, sometimes when coming down the ramps out of the truck and rapidly hitting the brakes, she would pop a little 'endo' raising the wheels at the upper end off the ground a couple of inches. Similarly, if you punched the trottle going up a steep enough hill/ramp, you might pop a 2" wheelie. It wasn't going to tip over, but it didn't exactly exude confidence in that fact. And we wanted our mule to be fully surefooted and confidence inspiring. So that would be a change we would reverse in the next round of design. Even going so far as to extend the wheelbase slightly as compared to the original design for Rusty. Surefooted and confidence inspiring means safety when you're designing the best gas caddy ever made. So surefooted and confidence inspiring it would be, that was paramount.
We made a few notes on tweaks we wanted to make, and we once again got out the CAD software. And we made a few changes.
The final prototype FUELMULE Gas Caddy for boats (and we didn't know this yet, but for all kinds of other equipment, even airplanes!) was coming soon. We didn't know that for sure yet, as we had to build it and test it first in order to know whether or not we would need another round. But.... we nailed it.
Stay Tuned: In Part 4 of this series, I'll discuss more of that testing and refinement. Make sure to join our newsletter list so we can let you know when we release it! (enter your email in the pop up email signup box when prompted)
But what happened before we got here?
From concept, to creation and refinement to mass market, we're documenting the process in this blog series. Which we hope to not only tell our story for the fun of it, but also to inspire others with ideas to bring them to life! Entrepreneurs and Wantreprenuers... follow along and we hope to inspire you!
Here's the full list of articles in this series:
Creating the World's Best Gas Caddy - Part 1 The initial idea, and what we tried that DIDN'T work:
Creating the World's Best Gas Caddy - Part 2 We discuss our first real Smart Ass FuelMule prototype with four wheels, a motor, brakes, and more! The creation story of 'Rusty'.
Creating the World's Best Gas Caddy - Part 3 We examine the years of testing, refinement that led to the building of prototype 2, which later became known as 'Tippy'