Topping off the tank for a Kubota L3400

[Elliott Wave]

Hi,

I am a little confused here and was hoping to get some advice. I am in Massachusetts.

Just came back from picking up Diesel at a Mobile Station and after pumping the diesel I noticed it indicated 10% ethanol. Up until today, I have picked up my diesel at a Hess Station and their pump does not indicate any ethanol is added. Do some diesels sold at service stations have diesel with alcohol while others do not? I thought alcohol was not good to use? The additve market always notes that they do not use alcohols? Should I use this diesel with 10% alcohol or should I stick with Hess?


I started adding Aronol diesel fuel additive in October / November each time I add diesel to the tank.

 

[dirtworksequip]

If your tractor is still under warranty, I would check with a couple different dealers to see if it would have any affect on your warranty. I'd also do some online research to see what info is out there. I am going to do this now myself as I wasn't even aware that they were adding ethrnol to diesel fuel. E-Diesel is what they are calling it. As an owner of two diesel vehicles I need to do some homework.

I posted over on the tdiclub.com forum to see what the diesel fanatics over there have to say.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[Elliott Wave]

I have posed this question to Kubota through their website. They indicate that I should receive a respose within 7 days.

Kubota has a document on their website indicating B5 Biodiesel is approved. Biodiesel Fuel (BDF) must not exceed 5% by volume.

It seems like the Mobile Diesel with 10% ethanol would not be considered acceptable based on the info at the Kubota website. I will wait and see...

I may need to properly dispose of the Mobile diesel...

 

[eddy622611]

Don't waste that fuel. If you are concerned just add a couple of gallons at a time to a full tank of the fuel you normally use. good luck, eddy622611

 

[LBrown59]

just add a couple of gallons at a time to a full tank of the fuel you normally use.

How effective this is depends on the Gallonage of the tank.

 

[ccsial]

My fuel supllier offers 5% bio (has ethanol) or no bio. I get the no bio. They told me 5% was the highest suitable for ag equipment.

If you dilute it as mentioned by eddy you'll be fine. I would not use the 10% straight.

 

[sandman2234]

How effective this is depends on the Gallonage of the tank.

If you were really concerned, you would have taken 3 or 4 seconds to check to see what the fuel capacity of a L3400 is, rather than just spending that time to drop a post that means nothing, except to try to correct somebody, who happens to be right.
Capacity of a Kubota L3400 fuel tank is 9 gallons, which makes his(eddy622611) statement completely correct. Adding a couple gallons per tank will be the best way to dispose of it.
David from jax

 

[LBrown59]

Hi,

I am a little confused here and was hoping to get some advice. I am in Massachusetts.

Just came back from picking up Diesel at a Mobile Station and after pumping the diesel I noticed it indicated 10% ethanol. Up until today, I have picked up my diesel at a Hess Station and their pump does not indicate any ethanol is added. Do some diesels sold at service stations have diesel with alcohol while others do not? I thought alcohol was not good to use? The additve market always notes that they do not use alcohols? 1*Should I use this diesel with 10% alcohol or should I stick with Hess?


I started adding Aronol diesel fuel additive in October / November each time I add diesel to the tank.

Why not use off road ?
It's cheaper!

 

[wushaw]

Why not use off road ?
It's cheaper!

It depends upon what part of the country you reside in.
If I were to purchase offroad/farm diesel I would have to purchase a minumum amt. @250-300gallons which would have to be delivered.

In my area there are no fuel stations that carry offroad diesel like there are in say Kansas or Oklahoma for example.....so if I were to use 300 gallons in a year then yea it would be cheaper, so for my 30-60gal I may use in a year it is not practical.
Oh yea I would also need a tank to store it also so there is a cost for that also.

So the moral to this story is.....no it is not cheaper for everybody.

 

[steverichmond]

Interesting, I've never heard of E-Diesel before reading this thread. I'll have do some research and watch for it. Wushaw is correct, we have the same senerio around here and my usage would not justify purchaing bulk of off-road fuel.

 

[number two]

My first thought is that station personnel put 10% ethanol labels on all the dispensers,and the diesel pump shouldn't have the sticker.

 

[ccsial]

My first thought is that station personnel put 10% ethanol labels on all the dispensers,and the diesel pump shouldn't have the sticker.

That may well be true. I have read that ethanol is added to diesel to make biodiesel, so Ediesel may also be another reference to bio diesel. Or maybe they didn't have any bio diesel stickers so they used an ethanol. It would be interesting to ask them. I'd stick with Hess myself.

 

[LBrown59]

1* It depends upon what part of the country you reside in.
If I were to purchase off road / farm diesel I would have to purchase a minimum amt. @250-300 gallons which would have to be delivered.
2*In my area there are no fuel stations that carry off road diesel like there are in say Kansas or Oklahoma for example.....so if I were to use 300 gallons in a year then yea it would be cheaper,
3*but for my 30- 60 gal I may use in a year it is not practical.
4**Oh yea I would also need a tank to store it so there is a cost for that too.
~~~~~~~~~~~
*So the moral to this story is.....no it is not cheaper for everybody.

~~~~~~~~~~~
1*Here the Min. is 150 gallons but it does not apply if they are all ready making deliveries in my area or are going right by me on their way to or from making other deliveries.
(I just have the supplier / distributor fill my empty 55 gal. drum when they are already in my neighborhood.Have you asked anybody there to do this for you?)
2* Here we have 1 regular Gas station that has the red off road fuel at the pump or I can take my 30 or 55 gallon drum to 1 of the 3 supplier / distributor dealers and get as little as 20 to 30 gallons.
3*That's about what I probably use in 6 to 12 months.
4*I don't count this expense when comparing the cost of off road VS on road because either fuel requires handling and storage.
You can't put it in your pocket.

*But a $1.50 is less than $2.00.

 

[Oldchuck]

That may well be true. I have read that ethanol is added to diesel to make biodiesel, so Ediesel may also be another reference to bio diesel.

Ethanol and biodiesel are not even vaguely the same thing. Ethanol is ethel alcohol, same as booze. Biodiesel starts with veggie oil which is subjected to a simple chemical reaction with methanol and lye. I never heard of diesel being mixed with ethanol but I can't see how it would hurt anything.

 

[LBrown59]

I use this for fueling my tractors.

I can take the 55 gallon drum to town and get it filled with on road for 2.59 a gal or off road for 2.19 per gal.
It just makes sense to me to fill it with off road and save 40 cents a gallon .

Wushaw is correct, we have the same senerio around here and
*my usage would not justify purchaing bulk of off-road fuel.

~~~~~~~~
*I don't justify having the set up based on the amount of fuel I use.
I base it on the systems superiority over other methods & how it performs for me .
Any savings on the price per gallon of fuel is just icing on the cake.

If I could not get off road fuel here I would still use the set up with on road fuel as it is a 1000 percent better than 5 gallon cans and manual handling.

 

[dirtworksequip]

Elliott, the general concensus over on the tdiclub forum is that adding ethanol to diesel isn't a good idea and may have adverse effects on the seals of injector pumps. From what I have read it burns cleaner with less soot and the ethanol lowers the gell point. The diesel and ethanol do not naturally mix and so they use additives to keep it from seperating out. I myself think its not a good thing and will try and make sure I don't fuel up any of my vehicles at a station that sells the E-Diesel. I'm not sure what the motive is to mix the ethanol with D2 other than maybe getting rid of a surplus of ethanol.

Deere did a ethanol-diesel study, but I would think it might be biased towards E-Diesel. More corn demand equals more green iron sold for crop production.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[ccsial]

Ethanol and biodiesel are not even vaguely the same thing. Ethanol is ethel alcohol, same as booze. Biodiesel starts with veggie oil which is subjected to a simple chemical reaction with methanol and lye. I never heard of diesel being mixed with ethanol but I can't see how it would hurt anything.

It seems they are making E diesel. Your right though, this is not biodiesel.

EthanolFacts.com: Ediesel

 

[Elliott Wave]

My first thought is that station personnel put 10% ethanol labels on all the dispensers,and the diesel pump shouldn't have the sticker.

I just came home from work. During break, I spoke to an individual at Exxon / Mobil and they told me that Ethanol is not added to the diesel.

I stopped by the station on the way home from work as I wanted to look at the pump signage again. The diesel handle was bright yellow and right next to it was a bright yellow sign regarding ethanol content and then adjacent to that were the gasoline pumps. While I know ethanol is added to gasoline, I thought the sign was refering to the diesel since the pump was yellow and the adjacent sticker is also yellow. The sticker did not specify it was referring to gasoline or diesel and was just as close to the diesel pump as the gasoline pump.

So I will use the diesel I purchased....

I apologize if I confused anyone and thanks for the comments.

 

[thavil]

I stopped at a local station today to fill my 5 gallon diesel jug (I'm not as fortunate as LB) and was studying the pump up and down before I put my credit card in the slot. The wife rolled down the window and asked what the heck I was doing. I informed her of this thread and told her I was looking for an ethanol sticker. She said I looked crazy looking all around the pump. I didn't see the sticker and filled my container.

Thanks Elliott for posting your follow-up or I would be looking for the ethanol sticker everytime I fill up.

 

[Elliott Wave]

I stopped at a local station today to fill my 5 gallon diesel jug (I'm not as fortunate as LB) and was studying the pump up and down before I put my credit card in the slot. The wife rolled down the window and asked what the heck I was doing. I informed her of this thread and told her I was looking for an ethanol sticker. She said I looked crazy looking all around the pump. I didn't see the sticker and filled my container.

Thanks Elliott for posting your follow-up or I would be looking for the ethanol sticker everytime I fill up.

Yeah, I posted right when I got home as I would have done the same thing if I had read this thread. I told the fellow from Exxon / Mobile (corporate) that I would give him a call back on Monday after I took a look at the signage again. My father worked for Exxon his entire career and his job paid for my college education so I always buy my fuel from Exxon / Mobile. This station had just re-opened and it is the only Exxon / Mobile in my area that sells diesel.