|
|
Post by Beerwiser on Dec 5, 2022 23:40:29 GMT -6
Been meaning to ask this in fall yet, but since I am going to need fuel soon I better ask. What fuel supplier have you had good luck with in terms of the actual fuel quality? I have been running Federated Coop for a long time now, also used UFA(Shell) and Petro Can. I never really had any problems with Coop, but it seems the prices are always a touch higher and lately it seems equipment is not running the best on it. I am was never a fan of UFA as I found their fuel burnt a lot quicker, but now they got some diesel plus of something like that. The agent said it is just regular diesel with additives they throw in since they don't have a dedicated pump for it. 4 cents/l more but he claims guys are getting more out of a tank of fuel. I am really curious about it, might just get a tidy tank and see.
Which begs the other question, what is so special about the additives to make it worth 4 cents more? I have been using stanadyne and seafoam lately and they help smooth everything out, but never really noticed a decrease in fuel consumption. I also don't use them all the time either which might be half the problem. Anyway you look at it, gonna have to sell another kidney to fill everything.
|
|
|
|
Post by bob123 on Dec 6, 2022 7:30:04 GMT -6
I've noticed a big difference in fuel consumption when it isnt straight summer fuel on my combine. They only deliver straight summer fuel for a few months and the rest of the year has varying blends of winter fuel mixed in.
|
|
|
|
Post by garyfunk on Dec 6, 2022 8:22:41 GMT -6
Our Co-op only delivers winter or summer, no blends. They only blend at the pumps and the cardlock. Can't say that the fuel has gotten worse lately, my Dodge was burning 18l/100km hauling cattle (15mpg).
|
|
|
|
Post by OptimallyDismal on Dec 6, 2022 9:00:40 GMT -6
Our Co-op won't even deliver summer diesel this time of year.
I put additives in the diesel tank, years ago I was at a conference and a fuel presenter said the one thing you want to see on that additive is lubricity, makes sense to me, especially for my old equipment, hopefully it does more good than bad.
|
|
|
|
Post by shmiffy on Dec 6, 2022 12:40:53 GMT -6
I use coop and premium4+ I get the fuel conditioner from Napa in 10 liter jugs, then fill the smaller .95liter jugs. From what I figure out the increase in mileage more than covers the cost of fuel conditioner. Never had any fuel filter problems. My oil hauling semi gets the fuel filters changed once a year and the filters still have life left in them. 3500 hours give or take.
|
|
|
|
Post by SWMan on Dec 7, 2022 20:06:57 GMT -6
I've heard many problems over the years with co-op fuel, only problems we had was probably 25 years ago they bought filters for some issue I can't remember the details of.
Was back and forth between Petro-can and co-op in recent years but when communist co-op started snitching on it's customers for not wearing masks in 2020 I went all Petro-canada. Probably the best fuel you can get here as it comes out of a pipeline and hauled right away to farm instead of sitting in a tank farm for who knows how long.
Would be nice if a guy could test for quality but any test I have seen costs a fortune. I think there is a specific gravity tester that can maybe measure the density of the fuel and thus tell you how much bang you are getting for your buck.
|
|
|
|
Post by shmiffy on Dec 9, 2022 9:25:32 GMT -6
specific gravity Tester can picked up most oilfield supply stores
|
|
|
|
Post by Beerwiser on Dec 9, 2022 14:03:27 GMT -6
Interesting that petro can has good fuel. I have not had good luck with them.
|
|
|
|
Post by northernfarmer on Dec 9, 2022 14:36:20 GMT -6
Interesting that petro can has good fuel. I have not had good luck with them. What type of problems, dirty fuel or water, or some issue with poor performance ? |
|
|
|
Post by Beerwiser on Dec 10, 2022 0:31:34 GMT -6
Water and performance, but those sort of go hand in hand. I am not the only one who had problems with that agent.
|
|
|
|
Post by northernfarmer on Dec 10, 2022 9:41:12 GMT -6
I wonder if it was a seasonal fuel situation where you ended up with winter fuel when it was supposed to have been summer, having said that and I don't know how much to go by this but my UFA retailer claims that there is not as much of a spread power wise between winter and summer as there once was, its not like I have proof of that one way or the other. But as to the water issue assuming you don't seem to have water building up in filters going with a different fuel company, I wonder if it was the tanks at that Petro Canada that had water in the bottom and they were not performing maintenance to remove that water. Have you ever dipped your own storage tanks with the special paste on a stick or rod to see if you have any water sitting in the bottom, that would not be a bad plan just to know if you have issues related to the fuel you got in the past and the fact is tanks breath and so condensation can accumulate from the air. I have a water separating type filter on my diesel tanks to hopefully capture crap that is in the tanks and not pass it along to the equipment.
|
|
|
|
Post by Beerwiser on Dec 10, 2022 11:15:48 GMT -6
No I have never dipped into the overhead tanks, but when it is bone dry I usually try to lift one end and dump what I can into jeŕry cans. One of these days I am going to put a valve on the drain plug along with the filter that has been sitting for years. It maybe worthwhile to grab a tidy tank from UFA and petro and see as the have all had new agents running it since I last bought. Where does a guy get that paste for dipping in the tanks, it would be a good idea.
|
|
|
|
Post by northernfarmer on Dec 10, 2022 11:55:47 GMT -6
By doing what you are with tipping a tank, I would guess your doing better then 99.9 percent of farmers with tanks by emptying them out like that. Having an actual drain valve on the bottom of a tank vs the factory plug would be a great idea also as no one is going to want to pull that plug plus it probably is rusted in place. The dipping paste, I have a feeling I got it from the fuel retailer but that is some years ago now. However I see a place like Greggs sells it and it comes in more then one formulation from what I see as to water sensing, one is more geared to figuring out if one has phase separation in gasoline but will work with diesel and then the more basic gas and diesel water sensing paste. There is also a paste that can sense gasoline in diesel which could come in handy sometime. I'd first start with your fuel retailer as they would be using the paste themselves every so often.
I don't have a fancy ground fuel tank with electric pump system ( would be nice ) but instead the traditional stand/gravity tanks and in fact due to the location of two 1000 gal tanks I have them tied together in that one tank is the master tank with the fuel hoses and filter on it while the other tank feeds over to the the nozzle/filter manifold of the main tank and each tank has its own shutoff valve. Not an ideal setup but the main tank has both a 1 inch and a 1-1/2 inch hose and its a large filter I have fitted that has a good size thread inlet/outlet of the filter head so it works well with low pressure gravity feed as I find other filters such as the typical golden rod plastic bowl filter are way too restrictive for best flow but do use them on my lesser used fuel tanks. The filter is what a commercial fuel pump at the diesel service station would use and they are supposed to severely restrict the flow of fuel through it once the medium gets saturated with water. Years back we never used to have filters on either the gas or diesel tanks and sure had a lot more issues with filters plugging on equipment which stands to reason.
|
|
|
|
Post by OptimallyDismal on Dec 10, 2022 13:43:06 GMT -6
Just to mention that big transformers in substations have an expansion tank for the oil, they have a drain valve on the bottom of the tank, we have had them freeze if there was enough water in them so they would crack and then we would have a leak when they thawed out. Most of the time there is enough heat in the oil that they won't freeze, but sometimes they do, this won't be the case with a diesel tank.
Thought I would mention this so checking for leaks saves you losing a tank of fuel.
|
|
|
|
Post by northernfarmer on Dec 10, 2022 15:37:28 GMT -6
That is a very valid point, it would be pure enough water that it could freeze and with a valve body it would crack it. Perhaps if there was such a thing as more of a poppet style valve on a small scale to some of the shutoff valves that are used on fuel tanks so there would be no water able to trap inside of a valve. By the way Beerwiser I ended up using ball valves on my larger gravity fuel tanks as those aforementioned valves that I have seen anyway are too small and restrict flow for a large hose. I can't easily lock the tanks because of that unfortunately although I think there are ball valves that have a lockable setup.
|
|
