Fuel line shrinkage

[captain Byrne]

Picked the van up last week after been in storage for six months. Drove 50 meters & it stopped. I saw a trail of petrol behind the van so had a look underneath. The hard fuel line had detached itself from the flexible line on the return side of the petrol tank. Strangely there was no way of reconnecting the line as is was about 5cm too short. I extended the flexible hose & made a good repair but I’m totally at a loss as to why this has happened. My only conclusion being the hard line has shrunk and pulled itself from tme flexible line.
Anyone had this problem before?

[Mocki]

where has it been stored?
has someone tried to help themselves to your liquid gold?

[itchyfeet]

Don't believe it has shrunk.

either as said it's been tampered with or maybe it was pulled out of alignment somehow and the extra bends in the route have taken the length, you don't say which line but I assume from fuel filter by tank to engine bay.

[captain Byrne]

I am utterly perplexed about this. We moved to Glasgow 6 months ago & have kept it in an old barn but at a bona fide caravan storage site. (it's a working farm but uses spare land to store caravans).
Because of the move I've only just been able to get to the van so haven't really checked in on it until now.
The fuel line had come away on the return line which is weird because the way the van is positioned it would have been really difficult for anyone to get to. The feed side with the filter is on the side adjacent to a door so is easily accessible. If someone wanted to drain the tank on the return side they'd pretty much have to crawl underneath the van to get to the other side.
Anyway, the narrower hard line had come out of the flexible hose at the connection near the tank. When I tried to re-connect it there was no excess and it was impossible to connect without extending the flexible hose a further 2 inches so it would reach. On the other end, the line is connected to a flexible hose just inside the engine bay which juts up right against the bulkhead and will not go through. There was no way the lines would connect - believe me I tried & there was no way it would reach.
What is also strange is that the hard line still had the brass anti-crush insert in it, so it couldn't have been cut or tampered with. I'm totally confused!

[itchyfeet]

. kept it in an old barn .... would have been really difficult for anyone to get to.

You are making the mistake of thinking only humans would ever crawl under your van.

How about animals, if the pipe was moved by an animal investigating under your van the excess may now be pushed somewhere else into a gentle curve, the distance is probably up to 2 meters so it would not take much to loose 50mm