Posted: 9/20/2008 6:49:59 AM EDT
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So here in middle TN over the last 2 days we've a small little SHTF of our own making. Ever since Ike hit, the pipeline serving our area has been at 0-25% capacity. So, now a week or more since Ike hit the coast, we are running out of fuel. Not just one or two stations either, I'm talking EVERYWHERE! The few places that have it are rationing and increasing prices. I must admit to not watching the news the last couple of days and knew nothing about what was taking place, as I've been on vacation and out of town doing some training at Tactical Response. So imagine my surprise when I'm trying to get fuel in the Nashville area with an 1/8th of a tank remaining so that I could go back to Camden, TN (2.5 hrs away) to take some more training, and there are lines from the 2 stations with fuel stretched onto I65N (almost a mile). I had to cancel my trip to train and made it close enough to the house that I could push my car into the drive way. This was all caused by, primarily, panic buying, nothing more. The sheep starting "baaaa-ing," and that's all it took. Now, my wife and I keep 10 or so gallons of fuel for emergencies like this and the lawn mower, but that's all we keep. I have just put in an order to Cheaperthandirt for 5 mil-surp fuel cans. I hope I get 3 that are usable. What is the best way to stabilize the gasoline when/if I get it. Anything else you all would suggest I do to the cans or the fuel itself? I'll be 27 next month and have never seen anything like this. I've several friends that remember the 70's and those lines, but this was eye-opening. I'm on the road a lot, 80 miles each day, and I wasn't filling up at a half tank like I should. This would have allowed me to get out of Nashville and into the more rural areas that still have fuel. I'd be training right now and not typing. Lessons learned: Fill up at half or more, period, no excuses. Keep more fuel on hand besides just the lawn mower fuel. Sheep suck. Try to avoid major centers like this when fuel shortages abound. ETA: just one of the many stories about it: www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=9040483 ETA2: Thanks to _Matt_, I've placed an order with a vendor here, and will be canceling the order with CTD. If you need cans, go through the below link. Thanks _Matt_! |
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Buy these instead, he says no rust, and many people here have ordered from him www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=7&f=126&t=568380 |
| Stabil is a fuel additive that you put a few ounces worth of into each 5 gallon can to stabilize the fuel for long term storage. I rotate though my 7 cans every year or so and the fuel has burned just fine in my truck. I put a tiny bit in my generator's fuel tank as I only run that thing about 5 minutes a month so the fuel lasts a long time. |
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Not to flame you buuuuutt. you have a join date of 2005 and you obviously know about the survival forum and you still got caught with your tank at less than half full? and your a shooter that trains at places like TR? what do you think all this information is on here, entertainment? glad you got the wake up call through personal experience and things didn't turn out tradgic for you and your family (this time). but cheese and rice man, if you are not a sheep (and you don't sound like one), don't act like one and get prepped. shit or get off the pot, emergencies don't happen when it's convieniennt with plenty of warning (well hurricans do but you had better be preped looong before those roll into town). Good luck in your quest for fuel cans, (you should have had a couple years ago.) please take your training at TR and other places a bit more seriously than you took the info presented here on the Survival forums. 
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yeah I hear ya, sorry guys. I just know how I would have felt having all of the information available to me and for just a little money and planning, I could have been in a better situation, sort of like the "don't touch that hot stove" you really only learn AFTER you touch the hot stove. 
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Hey, that didn't bother me a bit, as I've been saying to myself (I'm brutally honest myself. Can't train at TR or be a railroader and not have a thick skin or take critism). I've been prepping for about a year now, and fuel was one of the last things on my list to get, but it just got moved to the front. It's all a mindset thing, very true. Better to learn the lessons now and learn them well. I just hope others take my situation to heart for their own good as well. Luckily, the wife has pretty much had her eyes opened as well. She started running this out to how bad it could be, and she's all for the added preps I've run past her, to the point of discussing generators and wiring the house to work off one, etc. |
| Just remember to rotate through the fuel and it should never go bad. If you think it's been in storage for a while just dump it into your car or truck and refill the empty cans. Currently, I have to 5 gallon Eagle metal cans that I keep. Once one is empty I rotate to the other and refill. I also try to refuel my truck when it's at half full. |
Am Im missing somthing here? ....Why is it called "sheep panic buying" when regular people top thier tanks off ....and when us "survivalists" do it we call it being prepared and prepping?...Was this gas shortage really caused by people doing what we say they should and doing what the above poster is trying to do now , buying to fill up his car tank and getting a few gas cans to fill?.........Todd |
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I was quoting what the oil man said. I believe it's in the article I linked. If not, I'll try to find the quote and post it. I understand your reasoning though. There's not much difference. Truth be told, I was probably in the sheep catagory on this one. I just know better. ETA: heres an article with it in the headline: www.wkrn.com/global/story.asp?s=9040483 |
It doesn't make him a bad person, hell I've been on here longer and just in the last month became "enlightened". Many don't know what this forum offers, hell I really didn't know it existed because I never went into the outdoor forum. I would just see a cryptic post or two from the crazies in here "two is one. one is none" and thats the only contact I had.I would throw myself in the group that "thought" they were prepared, but after reading the archives and other forums I just became serious about it. I know I'm behind in some areas but anyone that wakes up to their current situation, without being dead is a good thing. At least he has identified the problem, and now maybe he can do something about it. OP there is a ton of info on this, I would recommend get to reading, make a list, plan and execute. |