I realize this question has probably been asked dozens of times over the years but I can't find anything on it.  Also, pros & cons of diesel BOV vs gasoline.  I'm in the market for a new ride, and the hive's wisdom will definitely affect the choice I make on a new BOV.  Thanks in advance

You may have read my comment in the hurricane thread; Diesel appears to offer a distinct advantage in terms of availability.   9/10 gas stations were sold out of gas 4 days before landfall, but they all had diesel remaining.    

Plus, better range.

Plus, safer to store and carry.  

In, to learn about storage.

PRI fuel treatment works great. They have it for gasoline and diesel.
Only sold over the net as far as I know.

I store a lot of Diesel with PRI-D and rotate it about yearly. Burns fine in my vehicle. I am more worried about the DEF fluid the new vehicles require. I will eventually delete mine, but not under warranty.

In for some answers as well.

I worked in excavating for 30 years. In NW PA, which has high humidity, we razed a hospital.

Hospitals as a general rule have backup diesel generators with large enough storage tanks to run the generator for a while.

We won the bid to take down a 5 story hospital. As part of the deal we took possession of and disposed of everything there, including the generator. We could sell everything that we wanted to. That big generator sold for big money. Our company had a bunch of smaller generators, but we didn't need anything that big at that time. The fuel in the tank was ours, but we didn't know how much there was. We only knew that they had an underground tank and where the tank was. We could stick the tank and could see that it was full, but that was it, as far as knowledge went.

So we uncovered the tank to see how large it was. We needed to know to arrange for a fuel truck or trucks to come and pump the fuel out. We had to take the tank out as part of our restoration contract.

To our surprise, we uncovered a buried rail road tank car. The hospital had been abandoned for years. Nobody knew how long the fuel had been in the tank or if it was treated at all. While hospital generators are exercised periodically, they do not use much fuel compared to fuel tank capacity. That means that some of this fuel was pretty old.

My boss had the fuel pumped out of the rail road tank car and transferred to large tanks at our equipment yard. We simply put filter filters on the tank outlets and filled our equipment. Never had a problem from it. Of course, we drained off the moisture at the bottom of the storage tanks at our yard as a regular maintenance item. And, we didn't let the fuel pumpers pump all the way to the bottom of the tank car at the hospital. That avoided picking up the water at the bottom. When the fuel was pumped from the large tanks in our yard into smaller tanks to deliver to equipment on jobs, that fuel was filtered again.

Never a problem with that fuel.

We ran diesel fuel that was likely over a decade old and more without a problem.

That's my experience from one job. Make of it what you will.

Converted my parents house from fuel oil (diesel fuel with dye) to gas a few years ago. The oil tank had about 100 gallons in it that sat for two years with no treatment added. When we pulled the tank out of the basement the fuel was drained down to the bottom couple inches and pumped into some 55 gallon plastic drums. A GMC pickup used that fuel till it was gone. Never had a problem with that fuel.

A conservative guess would be four or five years for premium diesel with a preservative added.

Biodiesel is another animal though, it has a shelf life and even with preservatives added can and will go bad in under a year if left out side with temperature changes.

My truck sat outside for 8 years in Utah with 2 full tanks of diesel with just a regular amount of diesel-kleen in it. I ran it all while towing my car and all my stuff moving.  Seemed just fine.

There wasn't much room for condensation to happen in the tanks is why I figure it was still ok

The construction company that I work for sent a machine to a local auction that had not been started for 15 years.  As far as I know it has been sitting for that long on a full tank of untreated fuel.  We threw in a fresh battery, it started right up and ran like a top.

I've ran 20 year old untreated diesel in the "90's and "00's. Won't have the power of fresh stuff, but will burn fine as long as no algae is in it. Newer fuels, no clue...

during ww2 they were using diesel from ww1, the key is to keep it off the floor to prevent water building up in it.  this is caused by osmosis.  keep whatever you store it in as full as possible treat it with diesel stabil, I also use biobore to keep the fuel from creating algae and a cetane booster to keep it at full strength.  finally when you go to use it filter it as sometimes "wax crystals form" if the fuel is subject to temperature extremes.  I keep my fuel supply in rotation, as it is used it gets replaced then put at the end of the line until it rotates to the front, that ensures me fresh fuel.  hope this helps.  p.s. you can find all of this on ebay but I would shop around first.

I've been storing diesel for about the last 4 years. The first batch sat for a year. Ran it in my truck with no problem.

Second batch was the same.

This last batch i have had stored for 2 years now and will probably cycle it out next year. I store it in 30 gal barrels which are easier to move around than the 50's and put Stabil for diesel in it when I fill them up. Then I put a Cetane booster in it when I fill the truck. The barrels are up off the floor to reduce condensation on the inside.

So far no problems!

HTH
The MULE

I don't know, but keeping the storage tank as full as possible to avoid condensation is probably the key.

I stored diesel in a 100 gallon tank and in 15 gallon drums. Used Pri-D. No issues. It will keep of treated. Maybe alagcide treatment.

I have to state the obvious here because some people don't know...

Off road diesel is dyed a red/pink color. It is a non taxable fuel and if found in your on road vehicle (truck, car, w/e), you will be loved tenderly by the government.

That being said, if I had to escape the hurricane and I didn't have a choice, absolutely off road diesel would go into my truck. It does take quite a few tanks to cycle the dye out I would imagine.

I drained my diesel tractor fuel tank the other day. The mechanic said don’t ever throw diesel away. Filter it and don’t use the last few inches. His words, not mine.

I started up my new-to-me Deuce and a half that I recently bought after it had been sitting for about 4 years on what was in the tank. Fired right up, nothing odd except a touch of light grey smoke, probably from old soot in the stack as it disappeared as the engine warmed/ loosened up.

Don't forget to swap out fuel filters discretely too. I bet dye sticks to fabric or paper filters long after the fuel returns to normal color.

filter filter  filter

some good picks of what happens when diesel sits for a while in this thread:
https://www.ar15.com/forums/Outdoors/About-Gas-Stations-56K-get-popcorn-upd-6-21-pg7/17-631251/?page=1

You are saying that if I sit my plastic or steel gas cans on the ground that moisture will contaminate it through the process of osmosis?

I have never heard of that. But I keep my jugs on shelves anyway.

______________________

This is a good idea.

The newer diesel is low sulfur, It tears up injection pumps on older Diesel engines.
Diesel fuel gels in colder temperatures
Additives help keep the fuel from gelling and helps lubricate, clean etc

I guess I choose LP.
diesel has the new diesel bug...
and is everywhere here in iowa now that they are blending our diesel with bio diesel..
yea you can treat it...
but it is a total pain to get out of a system!!
harsh chemicals..
think agent orange type of chems!!
the cool thing on liquid propane is as long as you can keep the tanks from floating or leaking.
it stores a super long time!

yea diesel has way more energy per gallon and per LB than most other fuels.
right now with the bug feeding on the fuel...
I rate diesel as a pass..

in some areas they have compressed natural gas too or CNG.
way more pressure on the tanks.. close to 3200 psi
but it also stores well.

if you do decide on diesel
power service brand ams oil brand howes brand are all good.
I prefer the power service brand in the white bottle for treatment..
and double dose for below 10 degf protection for anti gel.
and most box stores and oreilly auto parts stores carry the power service brand

That was my experience on the Mississippi Gulf Coast days after Katrina hit. There were long lines at the few open gas stations that had power and fuel, they were also rationing gas. If you were getting diesel you got to jump to the front of the line and no rationing.

Diesel shipments also seemed to get priority post storm because most of the heavy equipment used for storm cleanup and emergency vehicles are running diesel.

I have a 6.5 kw diesel generator in addition to my gas generators. It's noisy compared to the gas generators but it's nice to have if your looking at Katrina type situation.

How long exactly, I don't know, but a really long time. I've burned 10+ year old diesel personally. We rescued a tractor that had been sitting for over a decade. Tossed a hot battery in it, bled the injectors, aired up the tires and drove it home. It ran fine on the fuel that was already in it.

My base has had diesel in one of the generator tanks that I know has not been filled in over 15 yrs. Generator doesn't use very much at all and the only thing that was put into was stybil when we received it. Generator runs fine. Starts up on first try every time.

I guess I’m the odd man out, I’ve had diesel go bad.

Two years ago I didn’t use the old Massey Ferguson at all. When I checked it last spring, it had a half tank of pure varnish, very foul smelling. Fortunately it didn’t cause any problems, after draining the tank and filter it fired right up and ran perfectly. My fault for not having the tank full, but that fuel did go bad in less than 2 years.

lol.

It’s hard to believe that organisms can live in diesel, but they do. Biodiesel shelf life is much shorter than good old diesel fuel and should be treated with biocides and filtered as it is dispensed to avoid introducing contamination to other vehicles.

Old pure dinodiesel can remain useful for decades if stored right.

New biodiesel: Max 2 years says manufacturer.