I have never had a gelling problem in my tractors down here in FL but haven't had as much fuel on hand in the past as I keep now. I already put biocide and lubricity formula in my fuel so I figured and anti gelling additive wouldn't hurt. I got a bottle of the Power Service anti gel and cetane booster and put in all my tanks today. In the 55 gallon drums I just stuck the pump nozzle in the vent hole and ran the pump to circulate and mix. I fired off the generator and both tractors and worked them all up to operating temperature for a while to mix the additive in those. Also topped up all the tanks. I am down to a 1/2 drum of spare fuel so I need to get a delivery and start over pretty soon.
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Winter Storm Preps
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LanceRobson
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As a 1970s and 80s infantry mortarman we used M561 Gamma Goats for years as mortar carriers. In really cold places like Alaska or when training in northern Canada it was common to park with evergreen foliage under the tires at night so that the tread wouldn't peel off the tire carcass the next morning. And you learned fast to use chocks when parking and not to use the parking brake unless you wanted to have to take a torch to it to unstick it later.
When really cold the fuel fired cab heaters in the Goats threw so much heat on the defrost setting that the windshields when first lit off that it would regularly shatter if you didn't keep the ducts on the floor heat setting until things warmed up for a while. Blowing the screaming hot air onto just one strip of a cold window caused the hot part of the window to expand a lot faster than the cold part and shatter as if you'd smacked it with a pick handle......
As a Fire Direction Computer myself and another guy were the only two NCOs in the company who didn't have subordinate troops. No matter where in the world you were stationed it was a good bet that one of you was going to be the company motor sergeant as light infantry companies only have vehicles in the weapons platoon and the company HQ. I was the motor sergeant when stationed in West Berlin (1978-80) and we had one of our M151s with an angle iron frame on the hood to hold a 4.2kW 28 volt generator with a 50 foot slave cable and had a Herman Nelson diesel fired space heater with duct hoses we towed around as needed. Between the 4.2 kW set and the heater we could start anything but the usual practice was to start everything in our vehicle line for ten minutes every hour or half hour around the clock when it got cold. And we had canvas covers for the radiator so they would actually heat up in that time.....
Lance
When really cold the fuel fired cab heaters in the Goats threw so much heat on the defrost setting that the windshields when first lit off that it would regularly shatter if you didn't keep the ducts on the floor heat setting until things warmed up for a while. Blowing the screaming hot air onto just one strip of a cold window caused the hot part of the window to expand a lot faster than the cold part and shatter as if you'd smacked it with a pick handle......
As a Fire Direction Computer myself and another guy were the only two NCOs in the company who didn't have subordinate troops. No matter where in the world you were stationed it was a good bet that one of you was going to be the company motor sergeant as light infantry companies only have vehicles in the weapons platoon and the company HQ. I was the motor sergeant when stationed in West Berlin (1978-80) and we had one of our M151s with an angle iron frame on the hood to hold a 4.2kW 28 volt generator with a 50 foot slave cable and had a Herman Nelson diesel fired space heater with duct hoses we towed around as needed. Between the 4.2 kW set and the heater we could start anything but the usual practice was to start everything in our vehicle line for ten minutes every hour or half hour around the clock when it got cold. And we had canvas covers for the radiator so they would actually heat up in that time.....
Lance
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Lance,
Hermon Nelson heater. Oh boy. I will never forget the time I blew up the Hi-Power Radar section chief and myself on the radar berm. They worked on the heater for hours, nothing. It would not work. So they called me up. I pulled some maintenance on the fuel system, poured ethanol into the fuel tank and lit it. Nothing. I stuck a wire up the fuel line and broke some crap out. I turned around, took a hit off a beer and cleaned up my tools. Then fired up a lighter, and lit the burner starter. Stuck it into the burner chamber and wished I had sun glasses on at 01:00. The flames shot out three feet past my head. The radar section chief and I instantly had new hair styles. Bowl style hair cuts. All the hair not covered by our pile caps, was gone. Mustache, side burns, and eyebrows. Gone. We landed on our backs, about 4 feet from the heater. People from far and wide on the missile site can to see what had happened. We were more or less blind. The section chief was a bit upset. I was glad we hadn't managed to destroy anything. But blind. So after being chewed out by everyone and the cleaning lady, I went to bed. The following week, I had to go get certified on Herman Nelson heaters, and give classes on them. Still, this was not the last time I got blown up. I was one of a legion of folks that was forever happy, when the herman nelson went away.
Hermon Nelson heater. Oh boy. I will never forget the time I blew up the Hi-Power Radar section chief and myself on the radar berm. They worked on the heater for hours, nothing. It would not work. So they called me up. I pulled some maintenance on the fuel system, poured ethanol into the fuel tank and lit it. Nothing. I stuck a wire up the fuel line and broke some crap out. I turned around, took a hit off a beer and cleaned up my tools. Then fired up a lighter, and lit the burner starter. Stuck it into the burner chamber and wished I had sun glasses on at 01:00. The flames shot out three feet past my head. The radar section chief and I instantly had new hair styles. Bowl style hair cuts. All the hair not covered by our pile caps, was gone. Mustache, side burns, and eyebrows. Gone. We landed on our backs, about 4 feet from the heater. People from far and wide on the missile site can to see what had happened. We were more or less blind. The section chief was a bit upset. I was glad we hadn't managed to destroy anything. But blind. So after being chewed out by everyone and the cleaning lady, I went to bed. The following week, I had to go get certified on Herman Nelson heaters, and give classes on them. Still, this was not the last time I got blown up. I was one of a legion of folks that was forever happy, when the herman nelson went away.
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oh boy, i have laughed myself silly.
I searched the net and found there is no federal perameter for #1 diesel for certain ratios of diesel to kero. I also read that the military has approx 4-5 classes of winter blend diesel, the first of which i read was 70/30 diesel kero. So technically, if it were #2, i’d add very roughly 1.5 gal of kero to 3.5 of diesel to make 70/30. The ratios go up after that, i assume depending on the region the mil is using the fuel in.
I bought a gal of kero at my hardware store last night for $10.50! I did the math and saw that i use 2 oz of Power Service white bottle to every 5 gal of diesel to treat it properly. The bottle also said it has lubricants added to help injectors stay lubed. After adding the Additive, i only had room in the tank for a pint or so of kero. I wasn’t paying attention, overfilled and spilled another half a pint on the ground accidently!!
However, if i had the room, not remembering if the diesel in the tank was winter blend when i filled it this fall, i would have added half a gallon. For now the powerservice and a pint of kero should do.
I’ll add the rest of the kero to my diesel caddy when i fill it this weekend. I’ll also add 10 oz of powerservice white to treat it for the winter.
I should add, right before applying these changes, at 21°F the other night, the didsel was crystal clear. I dunno how it would look untreated at 0° or below like its forcasted to be thru monday when this cold spell snaps.
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We used to pour in 5 gallons of denatured alcohol per 600 gallon pod of diesel, to get rid of the water in the fuel. We had bad problems with water, and winter always played Hel* with our gen sets.
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At the Munich October fest in 1974, I met one of the first Lady Generator Mechanics. Her, and 3-4 girl friends were drinking serious beer. I wanted to get to know the one young lady, in the biblical sense, so I plied her with Sekt, (champagne) and vodka. Along with beer. While chatting her up, I noticed that her hands were shaking like a leaf. And consuming spirits like a river. When she went to the girls room, I asked her girl friends what was her problem. They all laughed, and said, "She works on Hermon Nelsons." Then it was clear, what her problem was, and why her hair was so short.
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rustystud
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That was a funny story Guy ! It reminded me of the time I was cleaning out the intake heater grid on a CAT C-9 engine. I was using brake clean and totally lost my mind and tried to start up the engine ! Luckily there was a fire extinguisher nearby ! All it did was burn up a few wires and the hair on my arms.
uniquify
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If plain old kerosene is too expensive, you might consider jet fuel, which is essentially kerosene with a few additives. Keep in mind, kerosene and jet fuel don't have quite as much energy as diesel, but they're good to much lower temperatures. Jet A is good to -40F. Jet A1 (which is close to JP8 ) is good until roughly -50F. In a bind, it might be worth calling your local airport to check prices. Around here jet A goes for between $3 - $5 a gallon. It varies quite a bit from one place to the next. It tends to be much cheaper at the small airports where they're trying to draw in customers.
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justacitizen
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most high quality diesel purchased from a regular high volume truckstop will probably not need any additives for gelling. you can ask the dealer for the MSDS or spec sheet on the fuel and that should have it's winter specs. also remember all you have to do is warm the fuel before you try to start the engine and after that the return flow f into the tank will keep the diesel warm. i have used a propane torch to carefully warm the filters a few times to prevent problems. remember warm not hot. even cold is warm enough.