Generator Gas Storage

[m35a2]

I have had no issues with stored, "modern" gas, summer or winter blends. All stored in a north facing enclosed space, dated, Sta-bil added and product rotated. Same with the propane...but no stabilizer, ha ha.....and Diesel. Have not rotated the diesel. I have been an off roader since I was a kid and have a mess of plastic cans as well as Jerry cans. I have had no issues with rust in the metal cans. I have had issues with caps and spouts, but I found a solution to that. A company called Gas Spouts,

https://gasspouts.com/

They sell kits that have a cap for almost any older plastic can and sell kits to add a vent and get rid of the "safety" spouts.

They do not sell the cap seals for the VP style plastic cans, but Amazon has them. The vents that Gas Spouts sells work on the early VP style jugs that have the flip up vent.

This reminds me, time to rotate some stock!

[OlderThanDirt]

Originally Posted by hermosabeach

VP racing fuel
Pure gas
Sealed so you get 5-7 year storage



Drawback is cost
$9-$12 per gallon

The pump price is rapidly approaching the old price for pure canned gas.

[elx144]

Originally Posted by OlderThanDirt

The pump price is rapidly approaching the old price for pure canned gas.

It was around $4.20 for 88 octane when I filled up the generator can this morning in Utah. I topped off my truck with the 85 octane but paid for the extra octane so the generator would run smooth. I don't think the carb knows what to do with a higher octane, most of them are tuned for 87, but maybe it will help burn off any crud built up in the engine.

[m35a2]

$5.59 yesterday for 87 octane at Arco. Rotated some gas so needed to replace it and we are still in summer blend here. Diesel, the only place around me that sells real diesel is Chevron, $6.75. $200 to fill the D-max. Stupid.

[OlderThanDirt]

Originally Posted by m35a2

$5.59 yesterday for 87 octane at Arco. Rotated some gas so needed to replace it and we are still in summer blend here. Diesel, the only place around me that sells real diesel is Chevron, $6.75. $200 to fill the D-max. Stupid.

Damn east coast people and their fuel oil heating systems put the squeeze on diesel supply every fall.

[Eat Dirt]

Bought a Dual - Fuel gen..

Have at last count 8 small tanks

Propane won't go bad

[NEPrepper]

get a dual fuel genny and store propane for the long term and gasoline for the short term. propane runs less efficiently but stores forever

[NorCalBusa]

I've mentioned before (perhaps elsewhere) its a fact; by merely buying a genset, your power stops having outages. Had mine about 3-4 years and not once have I lost power since getting it. I think it's some sort of backwards Murphy's-law deal, wiser guys will know.

[elx144]

I'm looking at a dual fuel that will run the AC in my trailer, looks like I need to drop about $1,000 at Harbor Freight. I need about 3,600 watts starting and a 30A circuit.

[tokuno]

Originally Posted by NorCalBusa

I've mentioned before (perhaps elsewhere) its a fact; by merely buying a genset, your power stops having outages. Had mine about 3-4 years and not once have I lost power since getting it. I think it's some sort of backwards Murphy's-law deal, wiser guys will know.

Funny how that works. Since the 48hr shut-off that sent me scurrying to buy mine, PG&E hasn't had another one.
We kids were mystified, because back in the day my Mom would say, "That's it, this toaster has been burning the bread long enough; it's going to Goodwill" and the toaster would start working properly again.

[madland]

Originally Posted by m35a2

$5.59 yesterday for 87 octane at Arco. Rotated some gas so needed to replace it and we are still in summer blend here. Diesel, the only place around me that sells real diesel is Chevron, $6.75. $200 to fill the D-max. Stupid.

Finding a Costco around here that carries diesel is nearly impossible. But Sam's Club carries diesel. The only Sam's that I know of that doesn't carry diesel is the one in Chino Hills.
That being said..I paid $6.04 for diesel at the Sam's Club in Glendora two days ago. My Ram 3500 has a 50g fuel tank. Once I hit 3/4 tank I hit the pumps again. Doesn't feel like such a huge squeeze on my wallet. Laying off the throttle and using cruise control on the fwy seems to be helping a bit too.

[NEPrepper]

thinking to supplement my generator with a solar system for long term grid down scenarios. panels and lifepo4 batteries. any solar experts got tips for a newb?

[smle-man]

I keep 5 gallons of non ethanol stabl treated gas stored in a German military can and rotate it out once a year. If we get a hurricane or ice storm warning I fill up my GI spectre cans
with regular ethanol gas and rotate them into vehicles once the danger passed. The cans are in a vented garden shed in the backyad mostly in the shade along with the 5kw generator.

[elx144]

The blue handle was kinda expensive yesterday but still under $5/gallon in Utah. We're boondocking in the desert so there's no need to stabilize, it's getting used up by tomorrow. Long term I think a 48volt rack mount LifePo4 system would be better if I had the space and could carry the weight.

[twinfin]

Originally Posted by smle-man

I keep 5 gallons of non ethanol stabl treated gas stored in a German military can and rotate it out once a year. If we get a hurricane or ice storm warning I fill up my GI spectre cans
with regular ethanol gas and rotate them into vehicles once the danger passed. The cans are in a vented garden shed in the backyad mostly in the shade along with the 5kw generator.

Ah, the luxury of living in a place where threats show up days in advance in the local weather reports! If we could predict earthquakes here on the left coast like ice storms and hurricanes on the right coast, we'd be set!

[elx144]

The generator is running rough today. I checked the spark arrestor and it's completely clogged. I cleaned it with some WD40 but I need to burn the rest of the crud off with fire or carb cleaner and don't have a good way to do either of those since I'm about 100 miles from a Walmart.

It's something to think about if you're worried about lighting a forest or desert on fire.

[hermosabeach]

Originally Posted by VolvoWrench

I run all my gennys on this and, this only...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/TruFuel-...7206/205913140

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yiV5Iqkn0

This\ s\mall Engine mechanic does not like the pink fake fuel.... many machines dont run right with this "gas"

[G-forceJunkie]

I have a $14k fuel tester at work, it will only tell me octane and ethanol content but I just bot a can of Trufuel at home depot, I'll see what the tester say but we probably need a much more indepth analysis to see what it really is.

Originally Posted by hermosabeach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0yiV5Iqkn0

This\ s\mall Engine mechanic does not like the pink fake fuel.... many machines dont run right with this "gas"

[elx144]

This random guy came up to me today while I was tuning up my 2000 watt (1,8000 running) generator to ask if it would run the AC in my trailer. He had the same brand of unit but a 3,500 dual fuel. I basically told him it wouldn't run it and showed him the button I had to push if the AC came on and overloaded the circuit. We live off it with a swamp cooler and opening a window. If this gets worse more people will have to open windows and turn on fans. Propane thanks are larger than my 1 gallon fuel tank but those will run out too.

The 2000 watt unit is purring now, but I had to do some work.

[user120312]

So far I'm finding the clear 93 our local station sells at the pump keeps well without any tricks. I 'store' it in the gas tanks of my two vintage cars and it's easily pumped or siphoned out if/when needed. I did this in the past to run the yard equipment but it works fine with a gas generator too.

Underscoring the flexibility of diesel, I had to get one of my old trucks running to trailer it to Oregon earlier this month and the last time it was registered and run was in 2015. I needed to bleed the injectors (old Roosamaster pump/injector setup) but it started and ran fine on the old diesel.

Regarding small gens and A/C, I ran into that problem on my old truck camper, not wanting to buy a bigger generator just to run a roof A/C (the camper didn't have one) so I bought a house window A/C that a small gen would run and used that instead the few times I needed it.

Sold the camper and the gen but kept the window A/C to use on rare hot days in Oregon. 4.5 amps running, 5k btu. Plenty big for a truck camper or bedroom. In the camper it sat on the sleeper area hamper and poked through a window with a sealing sleeve I made. Very quiet. It would also run on the inverter but drained the deep cycle battery pretty fast.