fuel gelling

[Dale Reed]

Assuming my truck is working as designed, I am using local winter fuel, and I pulled off into a Rest Stop to take an eight-hour nap. Wind blowing 20 mile/hour max. I am thinking of driving from Seattle, Washington to Boulder, Colorado and back again before Christmas.



What is the maximum temperature that I *might* have trouble starting my truck and what is the minimum temperature that I can *expect* that my truck will not start? What I want is a range of temperatures where gelling could be an issue.



I frooze a little diesel LUV once and don't want to do it again.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Assuming that your temperatures do not get that cold for safeties sake I would just put in a fuel additive for gelling when you go on the trip. If I'm down south and fuel up I will make sure to add some before heading back north again.

 

[mberry]

Assuming that your temperatures do not get that cold for safeties sake I would just put in a fuel additive for gelling when you go on the trip...

Ditto! Use a good winter fuel additive and don't worry. Happy Holidays.

 

[Dale Reed]

I regularly use Stanadyne Performance Formula All Season Diesel Fuel Conditioner and for emergencies I have a couple-three different kinds of de/anti-icers. I use the Conditioner to counteract the negative effects on my injectors of using lower sulfur fuel than I have been told the truck was designed for.



I guess another way of asking my question is what is the difference between our trucks and the over-the-road semi trucks that do not use additives? Or do they and if they do why isn't something already added to the fuel sold by Flying J or whatever?



Where are the locations in our fuel systems that are more exposed to the cold weather than Real Trucks are? If I do freeze up should I look for ice in the fuel filter first? Or our fuel tanks built differently so there may be more water in our tanks, or the fuel in the tanks are smaller so will tend to freezer quicker, or what? If it was going to be 20 below as it often is in Montana in the winter would it be a good idea to put a little propane heater under an exposed fuel line? Where?



I am mainly interested in what all of you do, and why, when driving through Montana, and Wyoming, and possibly even Alaska(40 below!) in the winter and park where you cannot plug it into the 60Hz power. What are your actual experiences both good and bad? Thanks for the info. Dale

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Fuel is winterized to different levels in different parts of the country. The fuel you buy in Michigan in January is not the same fuel you buy in Michigan in July. Where you run into a problem is if you buy fuel in a warm climate state and then drive to a cold climate state during the cold part of the year - because the fuel is not winterized. If you buy fuel locally where it's cold you should never have a fuel gelling problem. I've parked my truck for a couple days when hunting in -30 temps where I couldn't plug in and had no problems - but I was using local fuel.

 

[Dale Reed]

Where you run into a problem is if you buy fuel in a warm climate state and then drive to a cold climate state during the cold part of the year - because the fuel is not winterized.

That is what must of happened with my diesel LUV. Filled up in warm wet Seattle, 30mpg to dry cold Eastern Washington. Went hiking in the Quincy Lakes area, slept overnight where it got below zero. Started the next morning but ran rougher and rougher until I pulled over in the Vantage filling station on the west side of the Columbia River. Decided to try the long hill west out of the river gorge. Ran better and better until by the time I got to the top it was running OK.



Learned from experience about fuel gelling or maybe there was water in the fuel that froze. Most of the time that little Isusu diesel was a mighty fine truck for short trips inside Washington State.



So, if I decide to drive to Colorado via Montana I will start here in Seattle with the fuel tank half empty then fill up in Post Falls, Idaho http://www.flyingj.com/fuel/diesel_CF.cfm?state=ID P



Fuel is always less expensive in Idaho anyway.

 

[LightmanE300]

Dale as long as you use your stanadyne or other antigel additive you will be fine. I wouldn't worry about gelling till the temp gets -20F.

 

[Dale Reed]

1) We design Boeings to Requirements Documents. Design lifetimes, seatmiles/gallon, environmental...



2) At the next Paccar stockholders meeting I will ask around and see if I can get a copy of the Requirements Documents they are using to design their next truck.



3) So where do I read the Requirements Documents for our TDRams?

 

[BBarry]

Just a thought on the winterized fuel. I think you pretty much get winterized fuel in most of the country during the winter. When I was driving truck otr you would often fill up in a warm state and drive up north someplace and I never had a problem with fuel gelling. I have also noticed going down to Florida in the winter the fuel mileage on my truck always seems to stay around the same mileage it gets at home on winter fuel. I'm talking about FT. Lauderdale and south and they have no reason for winter fuel down there. It's about a 2. 5 mpg difference between summer and winter fuel in my truck.