55 gallons of Diesel in a Van

[GuglioLS]

I think I finally timed the market!!

With Fuel prices hitting a low and now starting an upward trend. I decided to fill all my diesel tanks with fuel for about a years supply for my Tractor and Dozer. About 12 miles away from me in a farm town I filled up two 55 gallon drums, and four 15 gallon containers. I got off road (no state or fed road taxes) red dyed diesel for 1.815 / gallon.

I have several trailers but didn't want to bother hooking them up or using the Tahoe to pull one. So I used my brand new company dodge caravan . It has the stow-n-go seats. I put the 55 gallon plastic gallon drums in the mid section and all the little ones in the back and filled them up.

The purpose of this post is to show how to deal with removing one of the 55 gallon drums out the side of the van. An ATV jack was placed along side the sliding side door and raised to the level of the floor. Plywood was placed over the jack and resting on the floor of the van. The drum was "chimed" over the plywood, then the ATV jack pulled away from the van and lowered. A drum lift was attached to the FEL with a chain, grabbing onto the top of the barrel and hauled into the barn.

I treated the diesel with a diesel fuel stabilizer manufactured by one of my customers that mixes "Snake Oil" for the phone company, railroad, military and hospital standby generator diesel fuel storage tanks. The company is called ILFC www.ilfcinc.com/ which is short for "International Lubrication and Fuel consultants. They also test fuel quality and lubricants for lubricity and wear metal analysis. They gave me some "stuff" www.ilfcinc.com/Product/1035.asp to treat the fuel and said diesel fuel stored and treated properly on an annual basis will last almost indefinitely. I will probably use it up before that though.



Now I finally feel like I "Stuck it to the man" buying my fuel in bulk and at the lowest price possible- LOL Knowing my luck prices will come down even further now that I've gone and done this

What do all yous guys use to store and dispense your fuel?


Larry

[3RRL]

Larry,
Good job getting all that fuel at a decent price.
More than likely, fuel will go up rather than down so I think you're smart about it. That fuel additive looks like it will keep the fuel good for a long time.
I personally use 2 five gallon jerry cans and a 33 gallon plastic barrel for my diesel. I use Power service in each container. During normal tractor use I go through that amount of fuel about every 3 months, give or take.
I don't have a long range fuel storage program. The 3 months deal seems to be working out, but I like the idea of having a years worth of fuel like you did.
Rob-

[jimmyt]

Around here we can't get off-road fuel, so there's little benefit in buying too much at any time. When I'm using the tractor I just fill up the plastic containers at the same time I fill the truck. The tractor has had the last 2 months off since weed season hasn't quite begun and I haven't decided if I'll go full-bore on a garden this year. Still trying to figure if it'll be worth my while or not here in the land of 115+ summer days...